Week 2 - Fall Focus 2023
Reminder: At the start of each meeting, set the time when you will suspend the Bible study discussion (you do not have to discuss every question) so that you have sufficient time to share requests and pray for one another.
OPENING
Other than immediate family members—who are some of the most important people in the world to you right now?
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The Goal of this study is to help you grasp your Identity in Christ. However, in order to really do this, you need to know the identity of Christ.
The modern quest to discover ourselves beckons us to look inside to figure out who we are, but at the same time, our identity is shaped and molded by the people closest to us, like our family, friends, coworkers and roommates.
When we are able to sustain close committed relationships, we soon discover surprising things about the other person that we find difficult, uncomfortable, or challenging. However, to continue a relationship, we need to recognize, receive and respect the individual identity of the other people we are connected to.
So it is with Jesus. Many people claim they know him and believe in him, but do you know who he is?
The Gospel calls us to be redefined as we come to grips with who Jesus is.
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READ COLOSSIANS 1:15-23
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.
21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What do you think it means that Jesus is the “Image of the Invisible God”?
How might this be related to what John 1:14 and 18 says:
“14 The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us… 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known.”
What do you think it means that Jesus is “The Firstborn Over all Creation”?
Note: This is a concept repeated in several places in the New Testament. It is summarized in the Nicene Creed as follows:
“I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made,
consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made.”
(The Nicene Creed is an ancient summary of the Christian Faith which was first adopted in 325 AD, and had been widely accepted by Christians across denominations, nations and generations)
What strikes you about this statement? What difference will seeing Jesus this way make in our lives?
Look again at Colossians 1:
What does this passage tell you about Jesus' connection to creation? (Verses 16-17)
What does this tell you about Jesus’ relationship to the Church? (Verse 18)
What does it mean to be Holy in His sight? (Verse 22) According to the surrounding verses, what makes this possible?
CONCLUSION
CS Lewis famously said:
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
4. If Jesus is who 1 Colossians says He is—what difference will that make in our lives?