Scripture
As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. – Luke 19:41-42
In the final two weeks of the Life of Christ, we will focus on the events of Jesus’ last week: His death and resurrection. We hope that this series has helped you engage with Jesus in new ways in your life, family, and community. We also hope that this series has challenged you to become more passionate about and better readers of Scripture.
We begin by examining Jesus’ final week as He travels to Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival of Passover, as was His custom. Marc reframes our understanding of this well-known story, as we view it within the context of the Jewish culture of the day.
Question: What do you believe Jesus meant by, “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes”? (See Luke 19:42, NLT). What are the things that peacemakers need to know, in order to bring peace in our world today?
Prayer Starter: Jesus, Make Me (Adaptation of The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, by Rachael Bernardi)
Jesus, I invite You to make me a peacemaker.
Where there is hatred,
Empower me to show love in that space.
Where others have brought condemnation and judgment,
Make me a vessel to bring forgiveness and restoration.
In places where others have sown seeds of doubt,
Use me to bring encouragement to stand firm in faith.
In places full of despair and hopelessness,
Fill me with Your Presence to fill the room with hope.
In our dark world,
Jesus, shine Your light through me.
Show me where there is sadness,
And use me to bring overwhelming joy.
Lord, empower me to look beyond myself
So I don’t focus on my own needs,
But I become one who helps others,
giving selflessly out of the abundance You have given me.
Lord, remind me, when I’ve fallen into self-pity,
That others also need reminding that You are always there.
Use me to share Your love with them.
Help me to notice when I need to stop talking,
And start listening.
Because it is in giving that we receive,
It is in forgiving that we are forgiven,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Family Chat: Talk with your family about what it means to be a peacemaker.
Take Action: Meet with your life group and talk through both the questions you’ve answered this week and the challenges you have faced (or are still facing!) as you follow Jesus. Be honest about what’s worked for you, as well as areas where you may have missed the mark.
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Scripture
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
– Matthew 5:9
Today, Marc compares the chaos and pressing for peace in our world to Jesus’ world, which was on the brink of descending into mayhem, as evidenced by the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of its temple within 40 years of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
As He rides into Jerusalem for His final time, Jesus weeps over the city because its people do not know the things that make for peace. In Matthew 5:43, Jesus challenges us—commands us even—to “love [our] enemies and pray for those who persecute [us], so that [we] may be children of [our] Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:44-45).
Let us be broken over what we see in our world, yet also moved to go make peace between people and God by loving them, caring for them, and giving charity to the poor.
How we do what we do is just as important as what we do.
Question: Are you broken for our world? What are you doing about it?
Family Chat: What can we do as a family to show love to others in our neighborhood and our community? (Make a plan to carry out what you agreed to and go for it!)
Take Action: Choose one action you can take this week and every week that spreads the love, joy, care, and charity of our heavenly Father in your community.
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Scripture
Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’” – Matthew 21:12-13
In today’s teaching, Jesus enters the Temple to find it defiled and misused. He was looking for true worship from a pure and obedient heart. Instead, He sees a scene that perhaps resembles a football game concession stand serving way overpriced snacks! But the stakes are much higher here.
Sometimes we also drift into doing religion instead of engaging in true relationship. We get caught up in the actions without having the right hearts. But we can choose to ensure that our actions are borne out of our relationship with God.
Pastor Darren reminds us to examine ourselves for anything that might hinder our witness to God’s grace and love. Pray about and seek others out to help you identify sin and callousness that might have crept into your life. If we are to be the light of the world and point others to God, we must first be worshipers with true, obedient hearts.
Question: Take a moment to take the temperature of your heart for God. Are you cooling off due to repetition or warming up from a heart acting out of love for God?
Prayer Starter: Jesus, Show me if there is a reason, a past hurt, or a lie I’ve believed that has allowed this place in my heart to drift. I repent from ________, and I receive Your forgiveness, I renounce the lie that ______, and I receive Your truth that I am Your adopted son/daughter, forgiven and restored, an heir to Your Kingdom. I receive Your healing from ________, and I choose today to _______. Thank You for strengthening my understanding of who I am in Your eyes.
Family Chat: On a scale of 1-10, how close do you feel to God?
Take Action: When you identify those cooler places, give those back to God. Repent and ask God to draw you close to Him so that you can experience fresh truth, freedom, and the grace of God, and subsequently, that others will also, through you. Then phone a friend and talk to them about it.
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Scripture
He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.
“Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’
“But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!”
Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written:
“‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people. – Luke 20:9-19
Today, Pastor Calvin Barnes guides us through the Parable of the Tenant Farmers in Luke 20:9-19. With this allegory, Jesus addresses the high priests and scribes who are twisting God’s Word for their own purposes.
Pastor Calvin challenges us that we can do the same thing today. When God asks us to do something that feels scary and we choose partial obedience, that’s really not obedience!
We may not be the best at something or the most well-known person, but there is something you and I can always do. We can choose to be simply, reverently responsive to what God asks of us!
Question: What are you holding back from God? Where are you not being fully obedient to Jesus, to God’s Word, to who He’s called you to be?
Family Chat: Discuss with your family what partial obedience looks like. Should we obey our parents the first time they ask us to do something?
Take Action: Choose today, right now, to hold your hands out to your kind Father, picturing yourself handing over whatever you have held back from Him. Choose today to phone a friend and let them know what you believe the Lord is telling you is your next step. Don’t delay!
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Scripture
Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
He saw through their duplicity and said to them, “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent. – Luke 20:20-26
During Jesus’ final week, we find the chief priests conspiring to publicly embarrass Him, trip Him up, and back Him into a corner, but they can’t do that! Instead of falling into their trap, He publicly exposes their corruption.
Jesus is the Son of God, continuously calling them, and us, to repentance and to acknowledge God’s lordship. Even in the midst of a world that sometimes frustrates, overwhelms, and confuses us, Jesus still challenges us to continue to submit to God’s rule and reign, and to give to God that which is God’s: our love and our obedience.
Question: Could there be a situation in your life where you are holding someone else to a standard that you yourself are breaking? What areas in your life could you be tempted to give your primary allegiance to something else other than to God?
Family Chat: What does this statement mean: “Give to God that which is God’s: our love and our obedience”? Discuss as family what this practically looks like.
Take Action: Write down each time this week you sense God prompting you to obey Him. Journal about your experiences and talk to your accountability partner about the outcomes—when you got it right, and maybe when you missed the mark.
Additional Resources:
Scripture
Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed to give him money. He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present. – Luke 22:1-6
As we carefully read through the Gospels about Jesus’s last week, Marc helps us come to a deeper appreciation of the nuances found within. As followers of Jesus, we need to read the text well; we need to understand what God’s Word is really saying to us.
Sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing when we’re in a situation where we’re offered things that we want but would cause us to do things that we shouldn’t. Judas is put into one of those situations.
Take care to not fall prey to betraying others for things that seem expedient and necessary for us, as in the way that Judas does.
Question: Is there something in life that you really want, (it may even be a good thing!), but you’re tempted to get it or achieve it in a not-so-good way? Or, does it feel like there’s a plot against your life in this season?
Family Chat: Today’s Question and Take Action are great to walk through together as a family.
Take Action: As the Lord helps you unravel those things in your life that are not of Him—whether it’s of your own making or a plot of the enemy against you—take a risk and tell a friend today.
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