Discussion Questions

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From Here to Eternity Mission is a Response Text: John 3:16-17 ILI's International Director of South Asia Peter Pereira 1. Read John 3:16-17. These are verses that many of us are so familiar with that we neglect how truly beautiful and powerful they are. John 3:16 is one of the most well-known verses in our culture. It is ironic then, that so many people have an idea of God as a condemning judge ready to smite them, since the verse that comes right after John 3:16 states that He did not send His Son to condemn the world, but to save it. a. How did God show his love for the world? b. Why do you think there is such a disconnect between these two verses in our society? c. What implications do these truths have in regards to missions? 2. Engaging in mission is a response to the incredible life and hope we have in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Read John 13:17, James 1:23-25, James 2:19. a. b. c. d.

Describe the 2 types of “believing” that is spoken of in the Bible. What are the implications of truly believing something? How do you demonstrate that you truly believe something? What is the difference between believing something in your head and truly believing something in your heart?

3. Truly believing something causes you to live your life differently in light of that belief. It causes you to change your behaviors/actions when your life doesn’t line up with your beliefs. Does your heart and actions demonstrate a response to truly believing the Gospel? Share with the group how your life has transformed since believing the Good News. 4. Read John 4:1-42. a. How does Jesus describe himself throughout this encounter? What are we offering the world when we share the gospel?

b. We see the Samaritan woman transformed through her encounter with Jesus from a shame-filled, sinful woman to a bold witness for Christ. How was she transformed? c. The woman did not memorize a certain evangelistic technique or pick up a tract from a local Christian bookstore. (Though those are not bad things to do.) What did the woman use to share Christ with the people of the town, and what does that mean for us? 5.

“Every heart without Christ is a mission field. Every heart with Christ is a missionary.” a. Do you truly view yourself as a missionary? What does God’s word have to say about that? See Matthew 28:18-20, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. b. Certainly not all Christians are called to leave their home to become a missionary somewhere else, but we should never rule that out! Have you ever prayed to ask God if He is calling you elsewhere? Do you feel a particular burden for a city, nation, or people group?

Challenge: Right here and now, who is your mission field? Identify one person in your life, in one of your spheres of influence, who you would like to begin to pursue having spiritual conversations with, to share the good news about Jesus that you have received. Share who that person is with your group and how you intend to pursue them. Prayer: See Study Deeper or Visit Operation World for prayer focus



STUDY DEEPER May I encourage you to build a global dimension into your daily prayers? “Grant that your name be hallowed. Grant that your kingdom would come. Grant that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.” These are global prayers—with personal implications. Both kinds of prayer are good: specific, local, personal prayers, and general, global, sweeping prayers for the church and the nations. Here is the way I keep the world in my prayers. I use the Online Operation World. I keep it in my bookmark bar on the browser and click it every day. If you go there, click in the left hand column “Pray Today.” Each day there is a different global focus. 1. Maintaining a clear witness to the uniqueness of Christ in the midst of a growing religious pluralism, non-Christian religious revival, urbanization, modernity and relativism. Christians will be increasingly criticized for being "intolerant". 2. Sustaining the centrality of the Scriptures in today's world at a time when many Evangelicals in the West are becoming less firm in their convictions. Too often believers' thoughts, prejudices and fears are molded more by the prevailing culture, philosophies, superstitions and religions of the society around them than by the Bible. Humanism in the West, Hinduism in India, etc., are examples. All such can rob Christians of their assurance, power and joy in the face of a hostile world, and side-track believers into focusing on secondary or irrelevant issues. 3. The effective functioning of local congregations. Each should be an organism, a body. Each member has gifts to contribute to the up-building of the whole, yet rarely do congregations function in this way. This emphasis on "body life" has come into prominence in the past three decades. New, innovative models of 'church' and its ministry are emerging. May every congregation be an effective body through which the Holy Spirit can work! 4. Leadership — the key. Pastors, ministers and elders need constant upholding in prayer. There is a worldwide lack of men and women truly called of God and deeply taught in the Scriptures to lead the churches — people willing to suffer scorn, poverty and the shame of the Cross for the sake of the Savior who redeemed them. Those who accurately and effectively expound the Scriptures are few, especially in areas where the churches are growing rapidly. May all leaders be an example to their flocks in holy living, evangelism and missionary concern for a lost world! 5. Spiritual depth. This is rare in many congregations. Superficiality, an inadequate devotional life and worldliness are common. This highlights the need for effective teaching, in the mother tongue, of the Bible's content, doctrines, and applicability to life and witness. 6. Victorious optimism is rare where evangelical believers are a small and despised minority or in countries where there is widespread decline in commitment to the Lord. These believers are often introspective and timid, and hardly a mighty force for the pulling down



of the fortifications of the devil. Believers need prayer that they may witness boldly and effectively. 7. Young people. In this modern age they are often lost to the Church and become worldly, even after a Christian upbringing, because of a growing generation gap and the pressures of the world around them. Every new generation needs to be evangelized afresh, or the churches soon become nominal. Young people need prayer as never before. 8. Revival has occurred in various parts of the world this century (see Regions), but not on the scale, nor with the effect, for which believers long in this critical and momentous time of history. 9. Missionary vision. An Acts 1:8, strategy is needed for every church and denomination. Amazing results have been achieved by a dedicated few. How speedily the world would be evangelized if all believers and every congregation obeyed the commands of Jesus in Acts 1, and believed His promises for enablement through the Holy Spirit! Pray for the awakening and growth of missionary concern. Pray for effective and practical missionary involvement in praying, giving and going for the following. a. The speediest possible completion of the goals given in the Great Commission by the Lord Jesus to His Church. b. All churches to make obedience to the Great Commission their primary ministry objective. Only through this will the resources be available to bring the task to conclusion, or closure in our generation. c. All leadership training institutions and programs to ensure that missions be a fundamental and essential core component of every course. It is failure to do this that has caused the centuries of neglect and marginalization of world evangelization in churches and agencies. d. Mission agency prayer, planning and deployment to emphasize reaching unreached areas, peoples and cities. The Adopt-a-People Clearinghouse and the AD2000 and Beyond Movement have compiled a list of over 6,000 unreached and adoptable peoples submitted by agencies as targeted for entry. Many are those included in our World A totals, others are World B and C peoples. (See Appendix 2 for addresses of these organizations and agencies who can provide further information.) 10. The adoption of unreached peoples by churches, Christian groups, prayer circles and individuals. The task can be completed only as Christians take responsibility in earnest intercession until believers are won and churches planted in each people. http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/pray-global-prayers--2