Unstoppable Promise
Pray
Pray together for the group meeting, and any pressing needs within the group.
Review
Each week you’ll spend some time reviewing the previous week’s lesson. Did anything happen last week that brought the lesson to mind, and what did you learn from it?
Watch
Watch the following discussion-starter video. It’ll set the topic of discussion for the group.
Read: Acts 1:3-14.
- One person will first read the scripture selection in the King James Version.
- Next, another person will read the same passages in a modern language or amplified version for more clarity such as the New Living Translation (NLT), Message Bible (MSG), New English Translation (NET), Amplified Bible (AMP), etc. We recommend using the YouVersion Bible app.
Retell
- One person will begin retelling the scripture passage in their own words (a new person to start each week is great!) Then…
- As a group, work together to fill in gaps and build the story. This will help us internalize and own it. Be sure everyone participates.
Discuss
Together, share around the group how the topic and scripture setting applies to your life personally. Here are some thoughts to consider for discussion… don’t let the discussion stop here, though… what questions can you ask that will help uncover God’s message?
The Promise of the Spirit (Acts 1:3-8)
- Who is gathered together in this setting of scripture?
- What did Jesus tell his disciples to wait for?
- What did the disciples expect Jesus to do according to Acts 1:6?
- Were the disciples thinking in the spiritual or in the natural?
- Why would the disciples think an earthly kingdom was Jesus goal?
- What was Jesus end goal?
- Why do you think Jesus chose to commission and empower his disciples rather than establish and/or restore earthly kingdoms?
- Explain a time in your life when you expected Jesus to follow a certain plan but then he revealed or executed a different plan.
- How did you feel during the process?
- How did his perfect plan impact your life after its completion?
The ascension of Jesus (Acts 1:9-11)
- How do you think the disciples felt watching Jesus physically leave them?
- What thoughts may have gone through their heads?
- Where did Jesus go?
- How would the relationship the disciples had with Jesus change now that Jesus was not physically on earth with them?
- Explain a time when you felt Jesus calling you to have a different type of relationship with him. How did you feel? What thoughts went through your mind?
The waiting for the Spirit (Acts 1:12-14)
- How did the disciples demonstrate that they were beginning to shift from depending on the natural to depending on the spiritual according to Acts 1:14?
- How did receiving the Holy Ghost change your relationship with Jesus?
- How do we fulfill the commission of Acts 1:8 in our world today?
- What needs to shift in the way you think in order to become more spirit led?
Next Week…
Unstoppable Empowerment: Acts 2:1-8;13