Small Group Discussion Guide November 19, 201

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Small Group Discussion Guide What Moves the Heart of Jesus – Forgiveness (Luke 5:17-26) Getting Started

November 19, 201

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This new sermon series is called “What Moves the Heart of Jesus”. Based on His life, teaching and miracles, what would you say are some to the things that were most important to Jesus, what moved His heart?

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Which of the 4 stories from Luke 5 do you most connect with and why? Peter? The leper? The paralyzed man? Levi/Matthew?

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Discuss this statement by John MacArthur about something that surely moved the heart of Jesus and is central to the gospel message. “This is a great, great and important word that Jesus gives. “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” Beyond all argument, the greatest preacher ever was Jesus Christ and beyond all argument, the greatest message ever preached was the message of forgiveness. It still is the greatest message ever preached. The message that God will forgive all your sins if you repent and ask Him is the good news, that's the gospel. Jesus came to preach that message and He came to make the sacrifice to make that forgiveness which He preached possible by His death on the cross. Forgiveness is the single most important and blessed benefit that God can provide. Forgiveness is the door to all blessing. Forgiveness is the door to blessing in this life. Forgiveness is the door to eternal life in heaven. And so the matter of forgiveness is the heart of the Christian gospel. You cannot preach the Christian gospel about forgiveness unless you understand sin and its consequences. To understand that all men are sinners, that all men are alienated from God, all humanity is headed toward eternal hell where they will forever be punished for their sins and then to understand that God by grace has devised a means by which He can forgive sinners all their sins so that they can escape judgment and enter into eternal bliss in the glory of His heaven, that is the message of the gospel, that is the good news.” -- John MacArthur

Discussion •

How would you summarize the response of Jesus and of the people in each story in Luke 5:1-32? o Calling of the Disciples and the Miraculous Catch of Fish (5:1-11) o The Man with Leprosy (5:12-16) o Jesus Heals a Paralytic (5:17-26) o The Calling of Levi (5:27-32)

Let’s focus on the story of the paralyzed man. If you want to know what is distinctive about Christianity, forgiveness is it! “God will forgive all your sins, which changes forever your relationship to Him. Instead of being your judge, He becomes your friend. In fact, He becomes your Father. Instead of sending you to hell in an act of just retribution, He takes you to heaven in an act of gracious blessing, and all because your sins have been forgiven. That is the message that Christ came to preach. And to provide that forgiveness He had to die on the cross and take the judgment of God for sinners. Their judgment having been rendered on Christ, God could then forgive those who repent and come to Him.” – John MacArtur What to you learn from these NT passages … Matt 18:21-35; Acts 10:43, 13:38; Eph 1:7, 4:32; Col 1:14, 3:13; Heb 9:22 What about the Old Testament? How did God show mercy and forgiveness toward Adam and Eve (Genesis 3)? Exodus 34:6-7, 2 Chronicles 7:14; Nehemiah 9:17, Psalm 32:5, 103:12, 130:4; Isaiah 13:25, 38:17, 55:7, Micah 7:18

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So often when this story is told, people emphasize that the man and his four friends were coming to Jesus to get healing and they may have been put off when Jesus states that the man’s sins were forgiven. People in this condition were generally left out of society. They were not cast out like a leper but they were severely stigmatized. Many in that day believed that his condition would have been due to sin (See John 9 and the man born blind). • How might this story make even more sense if this man came for forgiveness first and foremost? Along with the forgiveness would come healing. He had faith that Jesus could do both. • So, in verse 20 when it says … When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” Whose faith did Jesus see? What did the man and his friends believe about Jesus? Jesus did heal people with no faith and sometimes he healed people with little faith. And sometimes he healed people with great faith. But this was not a healing, first of all. There was no “healing” here. This is salvation! If your sins are forgiven you are saved. No one is ever forgiven apart from faith, and none is ever forgiven apart from repentance. So, if Jesus forgave his sins, this man must have believed that God would forgive and he had a repentance heart. •

Explain what Jesus meant when he asked, “which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or get up and walk.”

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If all sin is ultimately against God, who is the only one who can truly forgive sin? When Jesus claims that He has the authority to forgive sin, who is He claiming to be?

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Compare the responses of the three main groups of people in this story … only one walks away forgiven. o Pharisees and teachers of the Law: o The paralyzed man: o The crowd:

In 5:26 the word “remarkable” in the Greek is “paradoxa” (where we get the word paradox). They have seen things this day that have no human explanation. Jesus could not forgive sin if he was not God and a paralyzed man can’t just stand up and walk. In the crowd, there were people with various responses. Some went home glorifying God because their sins were forgiven. There were others who hated Jesus and wanted to kill Him. And there were those in the middle who were “amazed” and wondered about Jesus but were not ready to believe. •

Discuss people in your life who fit into these groups today. What helped you move from responding like the Pharisees or the crowd to the point of saving faith in Jesus?

Extra reading: If you have read this far in Luke (1-5), you would already know who Jesus is based on the testimony of angels, Zacharias and Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary, Anna and Simeon, the shepherds, John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit, the Father. There is also the testimony of His triumph over Satan in temptation, and the testimony of His power over disease, demons, and nature. Take time to review these various testimonies of Jesus and summarize what Luke desires all readers to know and believe about Jesus Christ. Prayer