NOTES:
1] LK sets the Jesus scene for both non-Jewish & Jewish readers; for the world, as well as the locals. Both Jesus & JB have already been introduced in Chs.1 & 2. 2] Many scholars think JB spent time in an Essene community (a strict sect who lived apart from the rest of society). Look them up on the web or in a library if you can. Some think Jesus also probably spent time in such a community. 3] Try to read all of IS 40, but at least vv.3-5, for context.

WARMING UP: Do we have a strong sense of, interest in, history, or is that not our scene?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Afterthoughts from, follow-up to last week's Group, or since?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

1-2        If we were to set down our story, would it be for family only, or for a wider audience? Who would we name to 'anchor' it: on the world scene? the regional scene? the local scene? the religious scene? Do any of these matter enough to us to get into the story? Who would 'anchor' our story?
             Given that none of those named by LK are treated kindly by history, have things changed much in our experience, or are most leaders still 'a bad lot'?
             What kind of 'footprints' are we ourselves leaving behind for others to 'read'? Are there some we might like to obliterate before they're 'set in concrete'?
             At what point do the secular & religious worlds clash / intersect / defer or give way to one another in our experience? If LK were writing his story today, could he / would he be so confident as to write something like 'The word of God came to So-&-So' as he did of JB back then?

3           What makes JB such an important 'anchor' for the story of Jesus? Is he more than a kind of 'club mascot' who runs onto the field before the team? Is he the last of the Hebrew Prophets & the first of the Christian ones - or doesn't he get that far?

4-6        Given the shift in emphasis here from history to faith, is it your experience that teaching has led to faith, or the other way round? Do our churches operate too much on an assumption that teaching / study, etc. lead to faith when the experience of many is that they don't? Have we sorted out the difference between 'knowledge' & 'faith' in our own life? What changes is it reasonable to expect knowledge to bring about? Are they the same as the changes faith can bring about? At the personal level, what can we learn from our own life about the differences in the way knowledge & faith operate?
              How relevant is what a Hebrew Prophet said several hundred years before Christ to the way we believe in Jesus & follow him? Does the fact that IS speaks poetically make any difference one way or the other to a) the truth of what he says? &, b) its relevance to us today?
              What wilderness(es) do we see ourselves facing; what crooked paths, valleys, mountains & hills are we seeing as obstacles to us personally & to us seeing the 'salvation of God'? What does 'the salvation of God' mean for us? Does it offer us much that's practical, or is it more airy-fairy stuff? How important, if at all, is it to us that IS says the whole human race shall see God's salvation? Is our interest, if any, more at the receiving end or the delivering end?