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Week of 6/28/26

Introduction

Jesus closes everything — the call of Matthew, the commissioning of the Twelve, the cost of discipleship, the sparrows and the hairs on our heads — with a cup of cold water given to a little one. This is where the kingdom lands. The neighbor who needs something small and immediate is the one Jesus is talking about. To serve them is to serve him. You are not anonymous to God. Your life is not a footnote.

Romans 6:12-23

12Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

 20When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew 10:40-42

[Jesus said to the twelve:] 40“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Questions

Discover Questions

1. How did your parents or grandparents show hospitality when guests showed up? What did they do?

2. When have you been the recipient of extravagant hospitality? When someone or someplace went out of their way for you? 

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3. What do you think Jesus means when we says “whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and the one who sent me”? How is Jesus with or present?

4. Matthew 25 offers a parable where “when you gave a cup of water to the least, you did it also to me.” How does that add to the significance of offering water or welcome to a stranger, or someone? 

5. Does a cup seem enough? Why did Jesus use that example? 

6. If you were to expand on this image of a cup of water, what other small acts of hospitality could you name? 

7. This passage is not simply how the disciples will be received, but also an invitation for the disciples to be welcoming of others, that welcome, hospitality, offering “a cup of water” is core to the church. How do you see that? 

8. What do you think of the idea that when you welcome a stranger that you are welcoming God? That it matters what you do? 

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9. When is a time that you expected or looked forward to a welcome and you did not receive it? When you were ignored or snubbed for worse? Was it intentional or just an oversight? 

10. How can a church or any organization be selective in its welcome? Warm to some, indifferent to others? How can a church overcome that selectivity? 

11. How could FLC welcome? What do you see are the challenges or opportunities?

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Week of 6-21-26

Introduction

Freedom is not found in self-preservation but in self-giving. The cross-shaped life Jesus describes here is not an addition to the Gospel — it is the Gospel taking its natural shape in a human life. The one who calls us to this path walked it first and came out the other side of death alive. That is what changes what we are willing to risk.

Matthew 10:24-39

[Jesus said to the twelve:] 24“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; 25it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

 26“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. 27What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

 32“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

 34“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35For 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; 36and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

     37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

Discovery Questions:

1. Tell a story of a time when a coach, military officer, or teacher told you that the way to success was going to be challenging, hard. On reflection, why did that do this?

2. What would be hardest to lose? 

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3. What do you think Jesus is trying to accomplish in this speech? What is he trying to prevent in how the disciples might respond?

4. Why does Jesus say “Do not be afraid” three times? Is it about being prepared? About how God will provide in a tough time? About working through fear? 

5. Which warning or description is the hardest to receive? Which is the more acceptable? 

6. How many of these warnings of Jesus actually came to pass for the disciples? 

7. How might the truth of Christ divide a family? What then? 

8. How does God provide in the face of challenge? 

9. What do you make of Jesus talking about the cost of discipleship, and today we want to make the faith as uncostly as possible?

10. In Romans, Paul describes the inner motivation of the baptized. Baptism, changes my motivation. I follow Jesus, I do good, not because I have to (to get brownie points), but because I have to (because this is who I am). How does this motivation by grace speak to Jesus’ words in Matthew? 

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11. What motivates you as a follower of Jesus? Why follow Jesus? Why do good? Why take up your cross and follow? 

12. What does verse 39 mean to you? How does one lose one’s life for Christ? OR How could you lose yourself for Christ this week? Is this about effort? About perspective? About priority?