THREE THINGS TO KNOW
DON’T MISS THIS. EASTER is just around the corner, and we’d love for you to join us as we celebrate the resurrection. Our Good Friday service will provide space to contemplate the depth of Jesus’s sacrifice, while our Easter celebration service will focus on the joy and hope found in our risen Savior. These services are also a great opportunity to invite family, friends or neighbors to attend—anyone who could use a reminder of God’s love and grace. For information on service times, click HERE.
GROUP VALUES. This month, we are focusing on OUR STORIES. Knowing and sharing our stories is an essential part of building community in small groups. This is because God made us to be people that inhabit a story. Hearing other’s stories is also a key way that God reveals the gospel at work in people’s lives. One great method for sharing the gospel within your story is the 15-second story. With this method, a person shares life before God, when they met Jesus, and life since then—all within a few seconds! See a helpful teaching on the 15-second story HERE. (This teaching is on Right Now Media, which you can join for free HERE.)
GROW AS A LEADER. Do you wonder how to help your group members grow? Check out the book Making Small Groups Work. Authors Henry Cloud and John Townsend provide small group leaders with valuable guidance and information about how to help groups grow spiritually, emotionally and relationally.
DISCUSSION GUIDE
Welcome to the fifth and final week of our sermon series, THE FINAL HOURS. This week, we take an extended look at Jesus’s journey to the cross and the profound significance of his sacrifice.
ICEBREAKER
What Easter traditions did you celebrate growing up?
THIS WEEK’S TEXT
Have someone read Mark 15:21-41 aloud.
What details about Jesus’s crucifixion stand out to you in this passage?
Which groups of people are present at the crucifixion, and how do they respond to Jesus?
What emotions or feelings does this passage stir up?
THIS WEEK’S SERMON
Pastor Jeff Manion continued our sermon series, THE FINAL HOURS, by examining Jesus’s crucifixion and what it reveals about true kingship. As a group, recall some of the sermon’s big ideas and main points.
In our culture today, what do people typically think about the idea of a king or ultimate authority?
Simon of Cyrene was compelled to carry Jesus’s cross, echoing Jesus’s earlier words about disciples taking up their cross to follow him. What does it look like for us today to “take up our cross”?
Pastor Jeff said that when we have experienced forgiveness, love, generosity and sacrifice, it is intended to transform us into people who are forgiving, loving, generous and sacrificial. How have you seen this to be true in your life?
This transformation is intended to affect all areas of life, including family, work, finances and church. In which of these areas is God calling you to follow his way more closely?
What is one step you can take this week to live a cross-shaped life in that area?
Have someone read Psalm 22:1-8 aloud. Mark’s narrative of Jesus’s crucifixion echoes multiple parts of this psalm. Jesus quotes it directly when he says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” What similarities do you see between this psalm and Jesus’s suffering described in Mark 15?
While religious leaders said they would believe if Jesus came down from the cross, the centurion believed because of how Jesus died. How has understanding Jesus’s sacrifice shaped your belief in Jesus?
God exalts Jesus to the highest place not in spite of his humiliation on the cross but because of and through it. Jesus is worthy of all our worship and devotion. As we head into Easter, what does it look like for you to worship Jesus as completely worthy, not just at church but every day?
WRAP UP
This week, we concluded our sermon series, THE FINAL HOURS, by examining Jesus’s crucifixion and how his way is to be our way. What is one big takeaway from this conversation or sermon series that you need to remember?