Colossians: The Secret’s Out

Written By Mark Avery

Colossians 1:24-29

Connect:

  • Share how you have seen God in the Highs and Lows of your week.

Prayer:

Pray that God would lead your discussion time and bring fresh insight, conviction, and hope through your time together.

Review:

In a world constantly telling us we need more—more success, more knowledge, more spirituality, more control—the book of Colossians points us back to one unshakable truth: Jesus is enough. Paul writes to followers of Jesus who were being tempted to add other things to Jesus, but he reminds them that everything they truly need is already found in him. From our identity and transformation to our relationships, purpose, and mission, Jesus is not merely part of life—he is the center of it all. This series will explore how a bigger vision of Jesus changes everything. This week we looked at God’s Self-revelation in Jesus…

The Grand Tour of the message: Thinking back on what you heard this Sunday…

o What did you learn about God?

o What did you learn about people?

o What did you learn about yourself?

o What do you want to commit to putting into practice?

Reflection:

Personal Experience & Discussion:

  • Discuss: Why do we find it so hard to keep a secret? [After the group has discussed this, Ask} Does anything that we just discussed give us a better understanding of why we hesitate to share our faith? Why or why not?

  • Reflective Discussion (Remember to look at the context of the verses as you are reading! Look for key terms and help the group unpack and define them):

    • Read Col 1:24-29 together

    • This passage makes it clear that Jesus is the pivot point of human history. Discuss: How do the following passages challenge us to hare our faith? (Ps 96:2-3, Col 1:26-27, Rom 1:16, Acts 4:19-20, 2 Cor 5:18-20, 1 Pet 3:5)

    • Paul talks about “Christ in you, the hope of glory”! DISCUSS: How do the following passages help us to understand and unpack what that means? (John 14:16-20, Jn 15:3-5, Rom 8:9-11, Gal 2:20, 1 Cor 6:19-20, 2 Cor 4:6-7, Eph 3:16-19)

    • Sometimes the church which should point people to Jesus instead becomes a buffer between Jesus and the people He came to save (e.g. confess to a priest, not to Jesus, baptized into the church, not identification with Christ, excluding people of different caste/ ethnicity/ social class or mental capacity, etc). DISCUSS: How do the following passages help us to discern the truth about our access to God directly through Jesus? (Matt 27:50-51, Luke 15:1-7, Eph 2:8,9, Heb 4:14-16, Jam 2:1-9, Gal 3:26-29).

    • Paul talks in this passage about his ‘laboring hard’ but that the energy to do so was “Christ’s power”! Discuss: How do the following passages help us to understand how our effort and God’s power move together as we live by faith? (Jn 15:5, Col 1:29, Phil 2:12-13, 1 Cor 15:10, 2 Cor 12:9-10, 1 Pet 4:10-11)

Application:

Who is your “someone” this week? Commit to pray that the Lord would open a door for you to share the hope you have in Jesus with that person this week, and commit to step out in faithful obedience to do so.

Prayer:

Spend some time closing in prayer together for the Lord to open those doors to share about the hope we have with another person in our sh=phere of influence.

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Get more resources to go deeper through Commentaries and Bible Study helps HERE

Mark Avery
Next

Colossians: Sinners Turned Saints