Community Group Discussion Guide
The Cost of Discipleship Icebreakers: 1. What are some of the greatest temptations you are facing today in your life from this world? 2. What do your daily devotional times with the Lord look like? Do they help you face the day and to resist temptations of this world? Scripture: 34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 35 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? 37 For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8:34-38 NASB Red Verses 34 & 35: 34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 35 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 1. Why doesn't Jesus teach a different message to His disciples since they were already following Jesus? Does this message apply to followers and non-followers of Jesus? (Reference Luke 9:23) 2. This initial message is for those who wish to follow Jesus because not everyone does. What are some of the ways that we can help people obtain a desire to follow Jesus? What was it in your life that gave you the desire to follow Him? 3. What does it look like to deny ourselves? What does it look like to "take up our cross"? 4. The word for "life" in verse 35 is the same Greek word that we get the word soul from. What is the soul of man? Is it good? Is it bad? What does it consist of? 5. Jesus is describing followers of His that have crucified their fleshly desires and their desires for this world. Single-minded followers of His. Do you struggle with staying single-minded on the things of God? Why or why not? Read Verses 36 & 37: 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? 37 For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 1. Jesus switches His audience to those who might be thinking that it is worth it to just reject Christ and live for this world. What are some ways that we forfeit our life or intimacy with Christ for things of this world? 2. In a world of materialism, how can we as followers of Christ combat the temptations of the devil and this world? Read Verse 38: 38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” 1. What does it look like in your life to be ashamed of Jesus and His words? Do you struggle with sharing your faith openly? 2. What are some ways that we can stand unashamed for Christ today? Read: A.W. Tozer, The Radical Cross: Living the Passion of ChristThe man who is crucified is facing only one direction… He [cannot] look back. The crucified man on the cross is looking only one direction and that is the direction of God, and Christ and the Holy Ghost… The man on the cross… has no further plans of his own… Somebody else made his plans for him, and when they nailed him up there all his plans disappeared… When you go out to die on the cross you bid good-bye–you are not going back! “If we would preach more of this and stop trying to make the Christian life so easy it’s contemptible–we would have more converts that would last. Get a man converted who knows that if he joins Jesus Christ he’s finished, and that while he’s going to come up and live anew, as far as this world is concerned he is not going back–then you have a real Christian indeed.” 1. How can we receive encouragement from this AW Tozer quote to live dead to this world and alive to Christ? 2. Do you believe Tozer is accurate in his critique of people not proclaiming the message of the cross to their hearers? 3. Read Romans 6:1-7 . Remind each other of what happened when we started following Christ and went through water baptism. We died and are now alive in Christ; let's live like it!
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