Life Groups // Spring 2023 // Week 6
Posted May 19, 2023 — Lincoln Berean
The Resurrected Jesus Meets Us // Acts 2:1-4
Introduction
Welcome to the final week of the Spring Life Group Session. After this week, we will take a break for the summer. Even though groups will not be officially meeting, your Life Group will probably gather several times over the summer socially.
One more thing for this final week:
The Life Groups Team has a very short survey that we’d love for you to fill out. Please take about 5 minutes during your group meeting to tell us how participating in a Life Group has influenced your walk with Jesus. Here is a link to the survey:
In the last week of the Here and Now series, we come to realize the truth expressed in the Great Commission that Jesus is with us always, to the end of the age. Through the indwelling Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, we can live with the practical reality that Jesus is right by our side every moment of every day. He is with us in sorrow, confusion, doubt, failure, and in our mission. It is how the Resurrected Jesus meets us, always and forever.
To think through the main ideas in the sermon and prepare for your discussion together, we invite you to look over all the questions on the following pages and write your thoughts down before you meet with your group. Due to preferences over a wide range of groups, we do not expect you will cover every question each week.
There are questions related to the passage and sermon from this past weekend below. Prior to that discussion consider a few reflection questions as we finish out another year of journeying in Life Groups together.
1) What drew you to joining this group?
2) Is there an aspect of your life that looks different than when you first joined this group?
3) What do you remember from one of the sermon series this past year that made an impact in your life? (Colossians, 1st & 2nd Thessalonians, How the Resurrected Jesus meets us in the Here and Now)
4) How has this group made a difference in your life this past year?
Study Questions (Suggested time: 40 min)
1) There are moments in the ministry of Jesus when He preludes to the coming of the Holy Spirit. In His baptism (Matthew 3:16-17, John 1:32-34) and in the upper room teachings (John 14:16-27, John 15:26-27, John 16:5-12). If necessary, read these passages as a group. What do you learn about the way of the Holy Spirit in these moments?
How can these moments help you realize the way of the Holy Spirit in your own life?
2) Just ten days prior to Pentecost, the disciples begin to see the plan of what Jesus revealed in the upper room continue to unfold. In the unfolding, the disciples were also waiting on God for the fulfillment of the promise of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:1-11). What has been your experience with waiting on God?
Share of a time when waiting was transformative for you in your relationship with God. What questions did you have of God during that time? How was waiting an active experience? What were some spiritual disciplines that guided you as you waited?
3) The miraculous event of Pentecost and the fulfillment of the Holy Spirit indicate that as the Church—those who place their hope and trust in Jesus Christ—we have this reality of living as if Jesus were right there by our side every moment of every day. Do you live in constant awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life? What enhances or detracts from your awareness of His presence?
What is a practical step you can take to become more aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit as you go about each day? How can your life group community encourage you in this next step?
Personal Spiritual Exercises
Just like physical exercises help strengthen and stretch our bodies for healthy living, these spiritual exercises are meant to move us spiritually in ways that may be new so we might experience inner growth. Since God longs for us to experience Him with our whole selves—mind, body, spirit—we invite you along each week to strengthen your souls with suggestions and prompts.
Prayer Focus: With this being the last life group meeting for a while, be intentional about praying for the people in your group. Each day, choose a friend in your life group to lift up in prayer. Pray for them to become more aware of the Holy Spirit, and to live as though He is with them in every moment. After praying for them, find a way to reach out to the individual to connect or offer encouragement.
Scripture Focus: Galatians 5:16-26 is a passage that helps us identify characteristics of people who are filled with the Holy Spirit. Engage with this passage throughout your week to help identify practical ways you can keep in step with the Spirit.
Prayer (Suggested time: 20 min)
A significant part of “coming together” is being open and honest with our lives. Sitting in a group of people for prayer may be new or it may be familiar to you. If you would rather not pray aloud when it is your turn, feel free to pray silently and then say “Amen” aloud signaling the next person in the group to pray. Whether or not you choose to verbalize your prayer, everyone is a participant in sharing this time before God together.
Take a few moments to prepare a prayer request. What did the message, working through the above questions or the discussion cause you to notice about your own relationship with Jesus? Would you be willing to share your prayer request with the group?