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Every Church Counts from the National Churches Trust

Resources used by the Lent Group 2024

20th February: Jesus the boy 

Lent Group: Session 1

Tuesday 20th February 2024

Heathfield Student Community Home

 

JESUS THE BOY

Luke 2:41-52

The Boy Jesus in the Temple

41 Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. 43 When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. 44 Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” 49 He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he said to them. 51 Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.

Discussion Points: exploring

1.   Have you ever been lost as a child or actually lost a child? What did it feel like?

2.   Do you feel sorry for Mary and Joseph or do you feel something else? It was three days!

3.   What was the effect of Jesus on those he was talking with in the temple?

4.   What are twelve-year-olds like in your experience? Is Jesus a typical twelve-year-old? What led him to stay so long in the temple?

5.   What impression did Jesus make when Mary found him and what was Jesus’ response in return. How could you explain these differences?

6.   What effect did this experience have on them both afterwards?

 

Discussion Points: digging deeper

1.   What would you have wanted to ask Jesus had you been around during those three days in the temple?

2.   Were Joseph and Mary good role models for Jesus about their faith? How can we help parents to do this well today?

3.   Was there any tension for Jesus between obeying God his Father and his earthly parents? Do we experience similar tension in any relationships?

4.   “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour”: which one of these needs most work in our lives?

5.   How can we sit in our Father’s house this Lent?

27th February: Jesus and the family

Lent Group: Session 2

Tuesday 27th February 2024

Heathfield Student Community Home

 

JESUS AND THE FAMILY 

Section 1 

Genesis 1:28 

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." 


Exodus 20:12 

12 Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 

Link to last week: John Rogers Herbert (1810-1890), Our Saviour Subject to his Parents at Nazareth (1860)

John 19:26-27 

26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, "Woman, here is your son," 27 and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. 

Questions on Section 1: Exploring 

Section 2 

Matthew 10:34-36 

34 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the eafth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and one's foes will be members of one's own household. 

Matt. 4: 18-22 

18As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea-for they were fishermen. leAnd he said to them, "Follow me, and lwill make you fish for people." 20lmmediately they left their nets and followed him. 21As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22lmmediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. 

Mark 3:31-35 

31 Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." 33 And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" 34 And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." 

Questions on Section 2: Digging Deeper 

5th March: Jesus the man

Lent Group: Session 3 

Tuesday 20th February 2024 

Heathfield Student Community Home 


JESUS THE MAN 

Luke 10:38-42 

Jesus Visits Martha and Mary 

38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. 40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." 41 But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42 there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her." 


John 12:1-8 

Mary Anoints Jesus 

1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him, Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3  Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4  But Judas lscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" 6  (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7  Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me." 

Discussion Points: Exploring 

The Mission of the Seventy 

Woes to Unrepentant Cities 

The Return of the Seventy 

Jesus Rejoices 

The Parable of the Good Samaritan 

             

           How do they contrast to the conversation with Mary and Martha? 

            What does this tell us about Jesus? 


Discussion Points: Digging Deeper 

12th March: Jesus the teacher

Lent Group: Session 4

Tuesday 12th March 2024

Heathfield Student Community Home

 

Jesus the Teacher

John 3: 1-21

Nicodemus Visits Jesus


3 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

11 “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

 

Discussion Points: exploring

 

Discussion Points: digging deeper

1.   Verse 8: can we make our own choice about God or is it up to him whether we are born again or not? Are there any other places in the bible that would help us with this?

2.   Who is the Son of Man in verses 13 and 14? What does this title mean?

3.   Explain about Moses lifting up a servant in the wilderness (verse 14). What are the similarities between this and Jesus being lifted up on the cross?

4.   What does verse 16 tell us about love?

5.   What does darkness represent? Why do some people love it?

6.   Are you living in the light or in the dark?

Some interesting reading:

It may interest you to know that Jesus was a teacher. Other words come more quickly to mind—Lord, Saviour, Master, and Redeemer. But here’s an amazing fact. Of the 90 times Jesus was addressed directly in the gospels, 60 times he was called Teacher. This was the word the multitudes used. This was how the disciples referred to him. Jesus himself used the term when he said, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am” (John 13:13). When Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, he said, “We know that you are a teacher who has come from God” (John 3:2).

History has echoed the truth of that verdict. Scottish theologian James Stuart said, “The teaching of Jesus has had a power and an effect with which the influence of no other teacher can even for a moment be compared.” When Jesus had finished giving the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew tells us the crowds were so amazed at his teaching because “he taught as one having authority, not as the teachers of the law” (Matthew 7:29). The rabbis quoted each other, but Jesus spoke the true and authoritative words of God.

Was Jesus a teacher and did he teach well? Consider his final words, his last instructions, his ultimate command as given to us in the King James Version: “Go ye into all the world and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19 KJV). His final command was a teaching command.

How well did it work? Two thousand years have passed and today across the world over two billion people bear his name. Christianity has spread from Jerusalem to every corner of the globe.

Taken from “Teacher” by Keep Believing Ministries (used by permission).

19th March: Jesus and the miraculous

Lent Group: Session 5

Tuesday 19th March 2024

Heathfield Student Community Home

 

Jesus and the Miraculous

 

Luke 7:11-17

Jesus Raises the Widow’s Son at Nain

11 Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. 12 As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. 13 When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” 15 The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favourably on his people!” 17 This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

 

Discussion Points: exploring

Teaching Point:

 

In verse 14, Jesus touches the bier and the bearers stood still. What Jesus did was shocking because of the Law about purification.  Many of the witnesses to this encounter would have been shocked as Jesus touched the coffin. The Law stated, ““Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days. He must purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean…Whoever touches the dead body of anyone and fails to purify himself defiles the LORD’s tabernacle. That person must be cut off from Israel” (Numbers 19:11-13).

 

We know that Jesus didn’t ignore the Law. Jesus said, “17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17). Jesus here demonstrates his authority over the Law, in determining when people’s needs come first.

 

Discussion Points: digging deeper