Week 3 Updated Questions

Some questions and notes for thought and discussion...

whenever you can, use Scripture to support your answer.

1. What do you think Jesus meant by His answer to the first man? Where did Jesus finally lay His head? John 19:30…

2. Matthew Henry says, "If we mean to follow Christ, we must lay aside the thoughts of great things in the world." How are my thoughts involved?

3. What does it mean if I do have a place to lay my head?

4. How does your perspective change regarding the first "prospect" in light of Mark 4:16-19 and John 6:26-27? Do you think he may have been seeking to follow Jesus for the benefits only and was not aware of the costs?

5. What does, "wherever you go" mean to us? For us? From us?

6. What does it mean to go and bury one's father? Is Jesus anti-funeral?

7. What is Jesus' perspective on family? Mark 3:35; Mathew 19:29; Matthew 10:34-36

8. What are some ways that family can come between a person and following Jesus?

9. Why was it different for Elisha? I Kings 19:19-21

10. What would happen if you started plowing and looked back?

10. How do priorities and procrastination relate to these encounters?

11. Can I be in the kingdom of God and just not be fit for it? What does it mean to be fit for the kingdom? Why is the NIV the only major translation to add the word "service" to this verse? Why do you think they would do that?

12. What other Bible examples can you think of in which a person or people, "looked back" and what was the consequence?

13. What do we see Jesus do in His ministry? Does He set the example and obey His own teaching?

14. What's the least I can do?

Week 3: May 25, 2011

This Wednesday we will be searching Luke 9:57-62

Some questions for thought and discussion... whenever you can, try to use Scripture to support your answer.
1. What do you think Jesus meant by His answer to the first man?
2. What does it mean if I do have a place to lay my head?
3. What does it mean to go and bury one's father? Is Jesus anti-funeral?
4. What would happen if you started plowing and looked back?
5. Can I be in the kingdom of God and just not be fit for service?
6. Whats the least I can do?

Week Two

This week, May 18, 2011, we will revisit the rich young ruler from Matthew 19:16-30 and our answers regarding the least we can do.
We will extract two things from our conclusions: core values and everyday practices.

Giving credit where credit is due: the idea for this exercise came from a book called The Forgotten Ways Handbook: A Practical Guide for Developing Missional Churches by Alan Hirsch with Darryn Altclass.
http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Ways-Handbook-Practical-Developing/dp/1587432498/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1305745677&sr=1-1

Questions for thought and discussion 2011.05.11

For Matthew 19:16-30.

Try to find other Scriptures to back up your answers as much as possible. It is important to avoid "I think."

1. This man said that he kept all the commands that Jesus listed. Why did he ask, "What do I still lack?"
2. What was the least that the rich young ruler could have done to get eternal life?
3. Was Jesus' request specifically for the rich young ruler (vs 21)? Was it just for the rich people (vs 23-24)? Does it apply to all of us?
4. Are you rich? How does one measure riches? What determines if someone is rich or not? How do average or even poor Americans measure up to most of the rest of the world?
5. What if you were to sell all of your possessions and give the money to the poor but not follow the commands Jesus listed?
6. The original question that is asked is about getting eternal life and found in verse 16. Jesus does not mention eternal life again until the end of verse 29. Why does Jesus answer with terms like "perfect" or "complete" or having "treasures in heaven"? The disciples use the term "saved" and "follow you". How do these terms relate?
7. Are we expected to do as much as the 12? Are they the standard or are they exceptional? Did they go above and beyond the call?
8. What is the least we can do to get eternal life?
9. What consequences do we face if we do not do the least we can?

***General answers and answers to the big question are welcome, if you want to add your opinion to anything from 1-7, please begin your post indicating which questions you'll be addressing, thanks ***

Week One

On week one we studied Matthew 19:16-30: the account of the rich young ruler.
Again, the objective is to learn from Jesus' interactions with the young man and Jesus' conversation with His disciples that ensued to find out the least we have to do to "get eternal life"

Matthew 19:16-30 (New International Version)

The Rich and the Kingdom of God

 ¹⁶ Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”   ¹⁷ “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
 ¹⁸ “Which ones?” he inquired.
   Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, ¹⁹ honor your father and mother,’^[a] and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’^[b]”
 ²⁰ “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
 ²¹ Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
 ²² When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
 ²³ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴ Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
 ²⁵ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
 ²⁶ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
 ²⁷ Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”
 ²⁸ Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹ And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. ³⁰ But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

Blog Description

At the church of Christ in Utica, NY, we are starting a Bible class that will meet on Wednesday nights at 6:30PM that will ask the question, "What is the least I can do to follow Christ?"

What is the least I can do ... to honor God? to get to heaven? to have eternal life? etc. etc.

We will examine some familiar Scriptures on discipleship and work together to determine what the bare minimum is that we can do to escape the fire of hell.

We will then look at the answers and results we agree upon and come up with some practical, everyday practices that can (and will be) adopted by us.

This blog will track the progress of the class and serve as a connecting point for those who wish to participate but cannot make it to our Wednesday night meetings.

Rough Start

I started this blog on Wednesday, May 11, 2011 which just happened to be the same day that blogger.com had some technical issues which resulted in the blog being completely wiped out and lost. Thankfully I had only 3 posts and not to much work lost.

I will try to re-create the original posts and move on