The Story of the Kingdom

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The Story of the Kingdom Rich Nathan Genesis 1-3 The Story of the Kingdom Series September 6-7, 2014

Attention Leaders! Be prepared for God to speak to your group. The Holy Spirit is with you as you prepare, as you open Scripture, and as you lead discussion. Prayerfully consider the needs of your group; who will be there; and what God has done recently in your group. Remember, aim for balancing discussion and teaching; more sharing than answering; and more listening than telling.

Sermon Summary (Time Suggestion: 5 mins) These notes are to help you give your group a quick recap of the weekend sermon in your own words. If God spoke to you personally through the message, do share that too. This weekend’s message was about the importance of stories, and primarily the story of the Kingdom of God on earth. Skilled storytellers weave together stories in a way that greatly influence our thinking and behavior. And great stories captivate, motivate, and awake us. Many classic stories are composed of a few fundamental elements. Among them are the innocent or good person, who eventually finds some sort of conflict or challenge (often introduced by an antagonist), and the hero who intervenes and rescues the innocent and good person from the clutches of evil and danger. They live happily ever after. Rich outlines how the story of God’s Kingdom is a very real and truly amazing story of our rescue that will result in our happily ever after. Genesis 1:1 begins the words “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The first subject of the Bible is God, the good King. His first action in the Bible is the creation of the earth. That God created the heavens and the earth reminds us of the basic truth that everything in the universe is ultimately related to God – our singleness, our sexuality, our marriage, our children, our trial, our suffering, our losses, our success, our joys, our sorrows, our money, our politics, our job, our leisure, everything finds its meaning as it is related to God the Creator and kind Ruler of all things. We come from God. One of the most fundamental questions we can ask or answer is “who am I?” For many of us, that is a hard question to answer. For some of us, if we were to answer this honestly we might not be particularly proud of our answer. But Genesis 1:26 – 28 tells us who we are in God’s eyes:

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” That is, we are meant to be His image bearers, markers of His reign across the entire planet. The great struggle we face, our conflict, is that we tend towards living under our own rules. The suffering and sadness present in the world at present – the poverty, ignorance, wars – they are all symptoms of the deeper problem. We humans have rejected the rule of God and instead have gone our own way. We see this in Genesis 3:5 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Due to our rejection of God’s rulership, we experience spiritual alienation. But we have a King who loves us enough to save us from our spiritual alienation. Jesus was sent into the world to be Messiah, or Mashiach (Anointed One). He is the King, the image of God par excellence. Jesus brings healing and resurrection in his wake. Everywhere He goes He defeats the enemy that is too strong for us. He is our rescuing King.

I. II. III. IV.

Where do we come from? Who are we? What’s wrong? How will we be rescued?

Link to the Sermon (Time Suggestion: 5 minutes) 

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Rich poses that when Scripture identifies us as being “made in the image of God,” the author is suggesting that we are to be God’s image bearers. What does that mean? Honestly and humbly consider how well you are doing as God’s image bearer. Where are you doing that well and where do you stand improve? The sermon poses that our desire to control our lives causes our great conflicts and struggles. Name some things in our lives that we tend to hold onto so tightly that they

actually cause conflict and disconnect from God. How can we practically begin to release the reins on those things?

This Week’s Bible Study Text: Luke 15 Background and Context In this gospel telling by Luke, Jesus is surrounding himself with men and women regarded as traitors and evil. The religious leaders, those who were entrusted with presenting God’s Scripture to the world, those who devoted their life to rigorously studying and obeying God’s law and seeing that others did also, seeing Jesus among these sinners and tax collectors were infuriated. These religious leaders were beside themselves that Jesus, a man clearly wise in the Scripture, full of the Holy Spirit, and speaking with heavenly authority was choosing not to keep company with them. Rather, He was spending His time and energy on those who were blatantly disobeying the laws of Moses, handed down by God. But Jesus, in His wisdom, lays out a different narrative for them.

Study & Discuss One way to increase participation in small group is to ask people to do something as simple as reading part of the passage. This is a great passage to break into four reading sections. Maybe ask someone who doesn’t participate as much to read a short section. Read Luke 15: 1-7 1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees

and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. 3

1. Who is the shepherd in this parable? Who are the sheep? God/Jesus is the shepherd. We/you are the sheep. 2. Thinking back to the sermon this weekend, and the cause of our great conflict, how is the image of a lost sheep applicable? The sheep wanders away. It chooses its own path and, disregarding the way of the shepherd, loses its way, leading it potential peril. 3. How does the shepherd locate and then return the sheep? How does this apply to Jesus? Jesus, like the shepherd, goes “into the country” in search for His sheep. Jesus came to us, coming into a world of danger and pain, in order to come to our rescue. He then rescues us by lifting us up, over His shoulders and returning us home. He bears the weight of us, and our disobedience, if only we allow Him to do so. Read Luke 15: 8-10 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins[a] and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” 8

4. In a word, how would you describe the woman’s pursuit of her lost coin? Tireless, relentless, furious, devoted, obsessive… 5. How do these words apply to the way in which God, through Jesus pursues us? God is willing to sacrifice much, His only Son, in order to find us and rescue us. Jesus was willing to suffer and to die for our sake, because we were lost. Read Luke 15: 11-32 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. 11

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“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and

there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: 17

Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 21

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and 22

celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 25

“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my 28

friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” 31

6. C.S. Lewis, in The Great Divorce posits this: “There are only two kinds of people in the en; those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done”. Initially, what is the will of lost son and how does that apply to our lives? His will was that he have his inheritance immediately and that he use it on things that brought him immediate and earthly pleasure. When we deny God rule and reign in our lives, we affectively waste our inheritance and find ourselves disconnected from Him. 7. When the lost son reached the end of his rope, what was his response? He returned humbly to his father, to live with him again, under his father’s roof.

8. What was the father’s response? What does this tell us about the attitude of God, our Rescuer and King towards us? The father rejoiced at the return of his son, and through a party to celebrate his return. God loves us so deeply that not only has He come to our rescue, but He leads the celebration of our salvation. God rejoices in His victory in our lives.

Ministry Time Allow time at the end to welcome the Holy Spirit and wait on Him for direction. We really want people to experience the presence of God personally and small group is the perfect context for this to happen. Model for your group risk taking and a willingness to be dependent on God. Remember that God often comes in power when we are weak! 

We spoke earlier about things that we might have a strong grip on in our lives at present. Have group members share something they are currently holding on to with a death grip. Pray for them -- that they may be able to begin to loosen their grip and hand that over to God their King.

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The thought of coming under the rule and reign of God can feel difficult, intimidating, guilt laden, or confusing. Pray for each other that the Holy Spirit will remind us of how relentless and devoted God’s pursuit for us is, and how greatly He rejoices in His victories in our lives.