Lakeside Church

Luke 5:17-26

These questions are connected to the message, “Making Room for Others to Meet Jesus,” from July 11, 2021. You can watch it here.
Dive In: This is a remarkable story on so many levels! Read or listen to this passage (Luke 5:17-28) in an unfamiliar translation of the Bible (e.g. New Living Translation or The Message). What did this passage teach you about who God is?
Reflect:
  1. What piqued your curiosity, challenged you, encouraged you, motivated you from the sermon?
  2. Jeff quoted Eugene Peterson, “… religion has a long history of … reducing the huge mysteries of God to the respectability of club rules (OUCH), of shrinking the vast human community to a “membership.” But with God there are no outsiders. Jesus said, ‘the Son of man came to find and restore the lost.‘” It forces us to ask the question: Are our traditions, our practices, our service formats, our language, our music, our policies, our preaching, our programming, our beliefs, our rules obstacles to people getting to Jesus? Were any of these obstacles for you to discover Jesus? Discuss
  3. “Life change isn’t taught, it’s caught.” How might this quote impact your own spiritual journey and how you try to influence others?
  4. Jeff: “Jesus favours the ordinary — the untitled — not the elites. I don’t know if you know this, but Jesus specializes in working with average people, with some people, with ordinary people, with good-enough people, and doesn’t that just encourage you?” How does this encourage or motivate you? Share where have you witnessed this up close and personal?
Act on it:
Jeff emphasized the way the religious leaders and teachers just sat there, scrutinizing, criticizing, and not doing a thing to help this man get to Jesus. I wonder if this week we could reflect and pray on this and ask the Holy Spirit where this might be true in our own lives?
Geek Out:
Jesus’ declaration, “Man, your sins are forgiven” would have read in the Aramaic language he spoke, “Adam your sins are forgiven.” (Adam is the Hebrew/Aramaic word for “man”)