Easter Sermon--Exiled Behind a Veil-Now What? --Various Passages

Discussion Questions:

1.  How have you felt times of exile (that there was a veil between you and God) in your life?  What brought about those feelings of exile?  How have you seen God working to remove the veil between you and Him?

2.  How does the story of what God allowed to happen in Joseph’s life discourage you and encourage you?  Are there any areas in your own life that you could see Him doing the same thing with you and your situation?

3.  Why is it important to know that God had a plan prior to creation to choose us in Jesus and make us holy and blameless?  How did that plan twist and turn through the history of the Israelites?  What helps you keep your focus upon His plan rather than your circumstances?

4.  Gideon lamented about God’s presence being missing among his people.  Have you had times of feeling the same way?  How might God call you to go in your strength and change things because He is with you?

5.  Do you think it is a coincidence that Gideon trusted in the presence of the LORD and then they experienced 40 years of peace?  How have you seen God bring peace to your situations that seem impossible and/or overwhelming?

6.  Discuss the statement Scott made about needing acts of God and a mediator in order to take what is unholy and restore it, or take what is dead and bring it back to life.  What do the two great acts of God that happened when Jesus died upon the cross (Veil tore and dead rose from the grave) teach you about God’s plan for you? 

7.  Considering what God did through His great acts and the mediation of Jesus, what is there between you and God?  How does this provide you hope?  How will that hope make a difference in the way you live this next week?

Next Steps--Lesson 11--Would You Like to Be Free? Various Passages

Discussion Questions:

1.  What kinds of things would be in your backpack of rocks?  What kinds of burdens do you wish you could drop and not pick up again?

2.  Are there times you have lived so God would love you rather than because He loves you?  What difference does this make in your spiritual vitality?  Why do we fall into this kind of thinking?

3.  Why is knowing your true identity in God important?  How have you been lied to by the evil taskmaster to hinder you from being set free and experiencing a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light?

4.  How do you see people in our time and culture saying, “Let’s go back to Egypt?”  As God tries to lead us to the Promised Land, how are we similar to the Israelites and the way they dealt with the various trials they encountered?  How are we different?

5.  Do you fear having separation from God?  What kinds of things cause separation between you and God?  How do you respond to the statement, “The only thing between us and God is Jesus.” (If we are a believer)?

6.  Why is independence so appealing?   How have you seen independence get in the way of being set free?

7.  How does the Sabbath demonstrate God’s desire to set us free?  What makes keeping a sabbath time a burden?  Is it fair to say that giving into a schedule of busyness is like the Israelites wanting to return to Pharaoh as an evil taskmaster?  Why, or why not?

Next Steps--Lesson 10--Caught in Sin-Now What?--John 8 & 21

Discussion Questions:

1.  Jesus started His ministry proclaiming from Isaiah why He came (See Luke 4:17-21).  What do you see in these verses?  What was Jesus laying as a foundation for His reason to come to the earth?  How does this play out in your life?

2.  Why did Jesus not continue with Isaiah’s words and mention “the day of vengeance of our God”?  What does this tell you about His mission and/or ministry?  Why is this important?

3.  Why do humans find it so easy to judge and condemn?  What kinds of things cause us to do this?  How is this outside of what Jesus proclaimed to start His ministry?

4.  Was it difficult for you to “drop your rock” in the sermon time?  Elaborate on this.  Why do we worry so much about what others think of us?  How has fear of condemnation or judgment caused you to hide things?

5.  Do you think Peter went fishing because he feared his apprenticeship was over?  Are there areas from your past that you find it easy to return to when you have failed?  What comfort do you get seeing that Jesus had no intention of ending Peter’s apprenticeship?

6.  Jesus was able to turn the rooster crow from a bad reminder to something positive.  How have you seen Jesus do the same thing in your life?  How does this help you to live with a mindset of victory rather than defeat?

7.  How have you seen Jesus take your failures (or the failures of others) and turn them into an altar for worship?  In what ways have you seen that God wastes nothing, including people’s failures?

8.  Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him.  In what ways is this question the foundation of worship?  How can we better remind ourselves of this when we come together for our corporate worship?

9.  What did you learn about the Next Step in healing and forgiveness from the message of the sermon?  In what ways did this message help you to take another step forward?