Week 6: The Ways of the World
May 16, 2021
Primary Text: John 17:6-19
Big Idea of the Message: We are called to live “in the world,” but not to be “of the world.”
The Gospel of Jesus has always been one of tension. Jesus calls us to live by a different set of standards than the rest of the world. The kingdom of God, as Jesus calls it, isn’t a singular city that exists somewhere in the universe, but the gradual transformation of this world into the more beautiful world that god desires.
While Jesus calls us to reject the thinking and ways of “belonging to the world,” he at the same time prays that we would be sent “into the world,” clearly an indication that, in general, we’re not meant to separate ourselves and form alternative societies and subcultures but, rather, to live according to the rhythm of the kingdom in the midst of “the world” and, in so doing, to entice others to live according to this new way of seeing and being in the world.
Discussion Questions:
Primary Text: John 17:6-19
Big Idea of the Message: We are called to live “in the world,” but not to be “of the world.”
The Gospel of Jesus has always been one of tension. Jesus calls us to live by a different set of standards than the rest of the world. The kingdom of God, as Jesus calls it, isn’t a singular city that exists somewhere in the universe, but the gradual transformation of this world into the more beautiful world that god desires.
While Jesus calls us to reject the thinking and ways of “belonging to the world,” he at the same time prays that we would be sent “into the world,” clearly an indication that, in general, we’re not meant to separate ourselves and form alternative societies and subcultures but, rather, to live according to the rhythm of the kingdom in the midst of “the world” and, in so doing, to entice others to live according to this new way of seeing and being in the world.
Discussion Questions:
- What do you imagine when you read scripture about the kingdom of God? A distant utopia or a more tangible existence here on earth?
- Think of a parable where Jesus was describing the kingdom of God? How did he illustrate the “otherness” of the kingdom in contrast to this world?
- How do we buy into and live in-sync with the systems and thought patterns of “the world” that directly contradict the path that Jesus embodies?
- How can we intentionally seek to dismantle them in our own lives?
- How can we gradually adapt and adopt the way of Jesus to fit our own culture & context?
- Have you ever glimpsed the kingdom on earth? What made that moment stand out to you?
- Close your time together in prayer.