Signs & Stories of the Kingdom. Who's the Greatest?

Read Matthew 18:1-14

• What do you notice?
• What is challenging for you?
• What parts do you have observations or questions about?

Discuss

These verses sit among a series of teachings from Jesus around how we engage with the expectations of others, how we minimise distractions and gather in lost people, and how we confront sin within the Christian community. All of these assume that our faith is lived and worked out in community, rather than as an individual pursuit.

• What do you see as your obligations or responsibilities towards other people within RCC?
• What is your role in representing Jesus well in the rest of your life?
• How do we encourage one another in these spaces?

Jesus is not encouraging us to be childish, but child-like.

• What characteristics of children do you think Jesus is encouraging us to emulate?
• How does that press against our defaults of independence and autonomy?
• How can we support each other in remaining child-like towards God?

In the rest of this passage, Jesus uses vivid language to illustrate the kind of dedication he wants us to have towards holiness and seeking the lost.

• Short of self-mutilation, what might be some actions we might take to ‘cut off’ sources of temptation in our lives?
• What does this cost us?
• How does it benefit us?
• While we don’t just abandon the ninety-nine, what might be some expressions of seeking the ones wandering that we can take?
• How do you decide how much is OK for this to cost our “99”, whoever they might be? (ie what level of sacrifice of family time to enable outreach is appropriate?)

Pray: Pray for wisdom and courage to play our part within our Christian community, and as a Christian in the rest of our lives. Pray for courage to ‘cut off’ sources of temptation, and for the ability to notice and engage with the wandering ‘ones’.