AS YOU MEET WITH EACH OTHER THIS WEEK, CONSIDER THESE QUESTIONS:
In this week's palm sunday message we considered some ways that Jesus challenged and corrected the expectations of the crowd regarding the coming messiah King.
1. In the beginning of Luke 19 Jesus encounters Zaccheus, who was a well known and despised tax collector. To the surprise and frustration of many, Jesus does not condemn Zaccheus, but instead invites him into fellowship with Him. In the sermon Pastor Charlie asked everyone to imagine someone who they consider to be a supporter of evil or oppression, as to identify what the crowd was feeling. If you are comfortable doing so, share who you imagined "in the tree," and how do you feel about Jesus calling them out and personally expressing his desire to give them mercy and friendship? Do you find yourself wishing for them to get payback more then then mercy? Discuss
2. Jesus summarized his mission by saying he came to seek and save the lost. And then he told a parable that expressed our duty to share in this mission while he is away. Why is it so important for us to love and desire mercy for "tax collectors" (the people we imagined in the tree)?
3. Jesus then tells them a parable that explains that judgement is reserved for those who refuse his mission of mercy and salvation. Discuss how you see passages like this regarding the judgement of God in light of what we know about Jesus's heart? Why is the weeping of Jesus over Jerusalem, which happens later in this passage, so relevant to the conversation of the judgement of God? How does God's judgement fit in with the larger message of his mercy? Discuss