Week 7

QUESTIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT AND SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION

What Believers Believe, Week Seven: The Church

This week’s study questions were put together with the help of Bobby Simon.

Before jumping into this week’s questions, please take some time to read slowly and carefully through Acts 2:42-47, Matthew 16:17-19, and Ephesians 4:11-16.

As you begin your discussion time with your group, please take a moment to read or recite together the following words of the Apostles’ Creed:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,

and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the dead. On the third day, He rose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven, where He sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

From there He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Read Acts 2:42-47 out loud in your group.

What are your initial reactions to this passage? What words or phrases stand out to you, or what questions do you have from this reading? In what ways is the typical American church today reflecting a congregational life similar to that of the earliest church? In what areas do we need to improve? What are some practical things we can do at Resurrection Church to grow in that regard?

Both in Acts 2:42-47 and in Acts 4:32-37, Luke paints a beautiful picture of the life and communion of those very first followers of Christ.

What aspects of these depictions of early church life do you personally find most appealing, and why? Which do you find more appealing: (1) someone selling their home, downsizing to a small apartment, and sharing some of the proceeds of the sale with you, or (2) you selling your home, downsizing to a small apartment, and you sharing some of the proceeds with other families in the church? Are there lifestyle changes you might consider in order to be able to give more freely to the work and people of God?

Acts 4:44 says, “All the believers were together and had everything in common.”

The situation described in these two passages from Acts sounds a bit like socialism in our own day. Were the early Christians socialists? Why or why not?

The fundamental difference between the communality of the early church and the communism of the socialists is in the completely voluntary nature of the church’s communality. Their commitment to love God and others moved them to give freely to meet the needs of their brothers and sisters. They actually delighted in providing such help and blessing. Socialist systems, however, are secular in nature – born more of an unbiblical pursuit of an equality of outcome. Socialists imagine the poor have a right to the resources of the wealthy, while Christians believe the blessed have a calling to bless. The first is about taking while the second is about giving. Additionally, in socialist thought, the government is sovereign, not God. Therefore, socialism results in the confiscation of goods by force (either the coercive force of excessive and unequal taxation or the force of arms via arrest and the seizure of property).

Clearly, the modern, left-wing, socialist model is fundamentally incompatible with the biblical model. Are there ways in which the modern, right-wing, highly individualistic capitalist model are also incompatible with the biblical model? If so, what are they?

Read the following Scripture passages out loud in your group: Leviticus 25:23; Deuteronomy 10:14; Psalm 89:11; and Psalm 24:1.

What fundamental biblical truth do these passages all communicate? How might understanding this truth have moved those early Christ followers to such liberality? Do these verses mean God is opposed to the individual ownership of property?

A careful reading of the Torah reveals that God is actually the author of the concept of property ownership and property rights, although not in the absolutist manner many conservative Americans view them today. In fact, Leviticus 25:23 leads off a passage devoted to protecting property rights while also making provision for the protection of the poor.

Read Matthew 16:17-19 out loud in your group.

According to these verses, the Lord Jesus is committed to building His church. How does He do that? What are some practical ways for you to cooperate with Christ in that church-building process?

In Matthew 16:18, the Lord promises that “the gates of Hades will not overcome (or prevail against)” His church. Over the years, most Christians have tended to view that as a defensive promise that, when the enemy attacks the people of God, he will not prevail against them. But gates are defensive, not offensive, weapons. No one attacks someone with a gate. That means this promise is better understood as an offensive promise, that, when the people of God assail the gates of hell, those gates will not hold up against them.

How does this offensive understanding of Jesus’ words impact your view of the role of the church in the world? What sorts of things are you doing to assail the gates of hell in our city?

In taking up the church’s offensive mandate to advance God’s kingdom in this world, it’s important to remember that our battle is not against flesh and blood (see Ephesians 6:12) and that our weapons are not the weapons of this world (see II Corinthians 10:4).

What does it mean to say our battle is not against flesh and blood? How, then, are you to fight against an immaterial enemy? What are some of the weapons the Lord has entrusted to His church? In reviewing the armor of God in Ephesians 6:14-18, what weapons listed there are for the purpose of offense?

When considering the Word of God as an offensive weapon (ie, the sword of the Spirit), it’s important to recognize it’s the Spirit’s sword, not yours. To wield that sword carelessly, recklessly, inaccurately, or selfishly is to do harm rather than good.

Finally, read Ephesians 4:11-15 out loud in your group.

According to vv. 13 and 15, what is the Lord’s ultimate goal for His church?

Because the church is the people and not the building, these verses mean that God is right now working diligently – through His Spirit and His Word – to bring you to maturity, to bring you to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, and to grow you up in all ways into Christ.

In what areas of Christlikeness have you seen the most personal growth in the last year? In what areas would like to see significant growth in the coming year?

Speaking of growing in Christlikeness, Ephesians 4:13, Galatians 6:1-5, Matthew 18:15-17, and I Corinthians 5:1-5 all deal with the need to deal with sin in the church directly but also graciously and redemptively. It is the Christian belief in an objective morality established by God Himself – the belief that there is true right and true wrong – that makes the matter of sin more than just a matter of opinion, preference, or personality.

According to Galatians 6:1, how are believers to approach a brother or sister who is caught up in sin? In your experience, how has the church been at restoring members gently? What should that look like?

When it comes to sin within the church, Christians often meander to the extremes of either judging harshly or of doing nothing. Neither response is OK.

As you close your small group gathering this week, take some time to pray and ask the Holy Spirit: (1) to increase your love for and commitment to the church, and (2) to grow and deepen our church into the expression of the body of Christ it’s called to be. Then place an empty chair in the middle of the room and pray for the lost, asking the Lord in His mercy to fill the empty chair with the people He’s calling to Himself.