Discussion Questions: Luke 6:12-19

For the message, Turning the World Upside Down given by Pastor John at New City Church on June 23, 2013

These discussion questions are designed to help you reflect upon and apply the message from the Scriptures. You can use these by yourself for reflection, or you could use these with your family or small group for discussion.

Introduction: The introduction of the message surfaced the question, What are you living for? Describe the first time you began to think about your life in this way. Questions: 1. The speaker referenced Lesslie Newbigins statement, The way we understand human life depends on what conception we have of the human story. What is the real story of which my life story is a part? What do you think Newbigin is trying to say? Do you agree? Why or why not? 2. The text opens by spotlighting the all night prayer session of Jesus before he selected from among his followers twelve to especially invest in and to entrust his message to. What is remarkable about this (besides the fact that he prayed all night)? 3. The speaker pointed out the saying, Prayerlessness is our declaration of independence before God. How is this the case? What does your prayer life (or lack of it) reveal about your approach to life? 4. Jesus picked 12 unremarkable, ordinary men. What does this tell us about the way God operates? Compare 1 Corinthians 1:26-29. 5. The speaker surfaced a major objection that people have when they read the accounts of the life of Jesus: I cant believe in miracles. Where are you in your thinking about miracles? How about people that you know? How did the speaker challenge modern skepticism about miracles? IOW, how does the evidence of the transformation of the disciples from scared cowards running and hiding for their lives so that they wouldnt end up crucified changed when they claimed to have seen the resurrected Jesus? If they were lying about Jesus & his miracles, how would that have flown in the face of everything he taught them? 6. If Jesus can use 12 ordinary, sinful, scared men, and transform them with the extraordinary life he lived, what implications are there for people like us?

7. How would your life change if you began to see yourself as a disciple of Jesus? What are the implications of this?

Conclusion: What is the one thing you want to take away from this study to remember or to make a change in your life? How does this text challenge you to follow Jesus?

Renewing your mind: 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the worldso that no human being might boast in the presence of God.