5.23.21 Huddle
SUMMER GROUP/HUDDLE INFO: Beginning this week and continuing through August, the huddle resource will begin to look a little different. Rather than provide a full lesson, the summer huddle will simply provide a few questions for discussion. If your group continues to meet during the summer, use the extra time to recharge and refresh as a group.
INTRO QUESTIONS
- What are you most looking forward to this summer?
- How do you think the general culture views Jesus? What makes you say that?
BIBLE ENGAGMENT- LUKE 9:57-62
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”
62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
BIBLE ENGAGMENT QUESTIONS
- What stands out to you about this verse?
- How does it make you feel? What is your emotional response?
- What does it teach you about Jesus (His personality, priorities, etc.)?
- How is the picture of Jesus in this text different from how the general culture usually views Jesus?
THREE EXAMPLES
Intro: In this text, Luke records pieces of three conversations Jesus has with potential followers. It is interesting to remember that this text immediately follows the turning point of Luke’s book and Jesus’s ministry where Luke says that Jesus “stiffened his face to go to Jerusalem” (verse 51).
FIRST PERSON- Luke 9:57-58
On Sunday, Pastor Bret pointed out that by the time of this story, Jesus was likely the most popular people in the country. Many people had followed Jesus around and seen the “highlight reel” over the last few years but did not know what lied ahead.
- What point is Jesus trying to make in this first interaction? What does it have to with “counting the cost?”
SECOND PERSON – Luke 9:59-60
- What is your reaction to the way Jesus answers this man? Was he being unloving? What point was he trying to make?
- Respond to the following quote from Theologian and Bible Scholar Craig Keener. “One of the eldest son’s most basic responsibilities was his father’s burial. The initial burial took place shortly after a person’s death and family members would not be outside talking with rabbi’s during this reclusive mourning period [which the man in the story was doing]. It has recently been shown that what is in view here is the secondary burial: a year after the first burial, after the flesh had rotted off the bones, the son would return and rebury the bones in a special box in the tomb’s wall. The son in this narrative could be asking for as much as a year’s delay.”
- While the statement from Craig Keener may be true, at the best, this only softens the harshness of Jesus’s words a little bit. Jesus never makes apologies for telling people to make Him priority #1. When it comes to putting our faith in Jesus, there are plenty of distractions (including good and necessary distractions) that can cause us to procrastinate our decision and convince ourselves that it is something we will “get to later.” What are some of the “bury my father” moments you’ve either heard from others or had to overcome yourself?
THIRD PERSON: Luke 9:61-62
- What do you think Jesus is addressing in his response to this man? What is the point?
- Perhaps the man in this interaction was trying to have it both ways . . . he wanted Jesus as an “advisor” but not a “king.” Writer Elisabeth Elliot said, “The will of God is not something you add to your life. It’s a course you choose. You either line yourself up with the Son of God . . . or you capitulate to the principle which governs the rest of the world.”
How does this quote from Elisabeth Elliot speak to the interaction between Jesus and the third person?
APPLICATION
- What can we take from this text and apply to our own lives or thinking patterns? How should we respond?
CLOSE IN PRAYER