NOTES: 1] NOTES: 1) Jesus has been baptised & tested to ready him for ministry. JB's arrest triggers his move into the public arena. 2) To move further into Galilee is to move to the front line of unrest & resistance to centralised power, civil & religious. 3] Compare Simon & Andrew's call here with JN 1: 35+. 4] God's kingdom (Rule) is a matter of earthly experience rather than heavenly geography.

WARMING UP: Do you enjoy walking by the sea, watching boats, fishing, getting your feet wet, that kind of thing?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything this week?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

12-17    What kinds of things lead us to change direction in life? How much is it a matter of God's will, & how much a matter of personal advantage? Has a change of direction ever thrown light on the way we see things? Have we for any reason felt we were living in the shadow of death? Did either of the above have anything to do with repentance? What is repentance? Does someone's definition of it as 'turning your life around in God's direction' make any sense? Is there more to repentance than that? If we're going to repent from something, what kind of thing do we need to turn our life around towards?

              Is God's Rule (Kingdom) something we're genuinely conscious of on a day to day basis? How would we describe living under God's Rule? Has something that's happened to us ever 'triggered' a new stage in our personal growth? Has it helped us settle down in some new situation, or made us unsettled? Is what MT reports about Jesus' move being the fulfilment of prophecy likely to be Jesus' own understanding, or that of his followers looking back & seeing it fit what Isaiah said long before [IS 9:1-2]. Is this the way prophecy is normally fulfilled? How did Jesus become 'light' a) to the people of the region; & b) to us today?
              Do we experience a change when God's Rule is near, or does God's Rule come near when we change our attitude about someone / something? (Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?)

18-25   Do we ever feel put on the spot by this story? Does it ever make us feel guilty, or has anyone ever tried to use it to make us feel guilty, that we haven't given up family, a job, career, etc., & gone off on 'missionary' work? What does it mean to become: a) a follower of Jesus? b) a 'fisher of people' today? Does Simon & Andrew's call translate readily into life today? Is James & John's situation any different? As Simon, Andrew, James & John are called to follow Jesus, are there still people like Zebedee who are called to free others to go? What might this mean in today's society? Or is getting up, leaving our boat & our family & actually physically going somewhere for Jesus not an issue for us today? How do we know when it's the right & even necessary time to take some step for God?
 
 

NOTES: 1] In v.19, 'an angel of the Lord' isn't necessarily a supernatural being. 2] In v.31 'leader' means 'ruler'.

WARMING UP: Should religion be a controversial issue?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything that's happened this week?

EXPLORING ACTS:

17-23    Are there times when we wish church leaders would take action against someone, or something that's happening, & other times when we don't want them to? What about issues that grab the headlines? Is jealousy ever a factor in the way we view whether something's acceptable or not? Do we actually do anything these days that might provoke church (or civil) authorities to take action against us? How do we feel towards fellow Christians being persecuted in parts of the world simply because they are Christians? Do we have any responsibility towards them? Has 'an angel of God' ever come to our rescue & 'freed us' from somebody / some situation? Have we ever been called to become 'an angel of God' for someone else? Were we able to be & do what we were called to be & do? Did we feel angelic?
              Have we ever been called & sent by God to have a second go at something we didn't manage a first time? Was there any danger attached, for us or for someone else?

24-32    Do we ever 'perplex' people today because of what we teach or do? What shape does their being perplexed take? Are we just as perplexed about how to handle them? Is 'obeying God rather than any human authority' ever an issue for us? Or have the lines become too blurred for us to handle that one? Is 'leader' a softer option than 'ruler'? ( v.31) Which do we think of Jesus as being? If we were asked to explain both 'Ruler' & 'Saviour' to an enquirer, could we do it without relying on 'in-house' language? Given the apostles teach about 'repentance to Israel & forgiveness of sins', have we fallen into the habit of thinking of both repentance & forgiveness for individuals rather than as a corporate necessity? Does this make any practical difference? Are we, in any sense, still 'witnesses to these things' or has that dropped out of our agenda? Assuming Holy Spirit is still a witness, where does that leave us?

33-39   Do we take seriously enough the (spiritual) gift of wisdom that people among us like Gamaliel can have, or are we too easily seduced by other gifts or imagined gifts? Are we as conscious as we need to be that stories are still happening / history still being told / written, or do we still look back into some time warp where it all happened 'back then'? Do we as a matter of course, check out whether proposals / schemes / plans are of God, & not merely of human origin before we race to implement them? If we really believed God's proposals couldn't be overthrown, what difference would that make to the way we operate as individuals, congregations, denominations? Do we ever 'fight against God'? No? Honestly?

40-42   Is there any sense in which we suffer, or have suffered 'dishonour for the sake of the name' (i.e. Jesus)? If so, do we / did we feel worthy of it? Is 'proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah' something we pursue actively in public & private, or has that gone off the boil?