Christ at the CentreStudy Guide

Study 1: Christ at the Centre 1. What do you think is the point of everything?

Read Genesis 1:1-4 and John 1:1-4 2. Who is Jesus?

3. What does he do?

Read Daniel 7:13-14 and Mark 8:31 and Matthew 26:63-64 4. Who is worshipped? Who should be worshipped (Exodus

34:14)?

5. Who is Jesus?

6. How does he demonstrate his divinity?

Read Colossians 1:15-20 7. Who is Jesus?

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8. What does it mean for him be the firstborn over all creation?

9. What does it mean that he is head of the church?

10. What does it mean he is the firstborn from the dead?

11. What is accomplished through Jesus?

12. In what does Jesus have the supremacy? What does this mean?

Prayer 1. Praise God for Jesus.

2.Pray for our link missionary organisation Love for Kids Russia in their efforts and desire to help out at School Holiday Camps in Russia. Contact Glenda Carter for updated news on the local representatives for this organisation.

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Study 2: Christ at the Centre for Us 1. What would you say is the most important thing for you?

2. Discuss the following quote.

In his book Confessions, the church father Augustine famously wrote:

“You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

Read Ephesians 1:3-14 3. Why praise God?

4. What is the goal of everything?

5. What is the goal of all those in Christ?

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Read Colossians 1:21-23 and 2:6-7 6. How are we reconciled to God?

7. What might this look like for us day by day?

8. 1 Timothy 1:11 reads “… the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.” (ESV) What is the gospel? (noting here ‘blessed’ = ‘happy’)

9. Where do we see God’s glory? (2 Cor 4:6)

10. What do you think God is primarily happy about? (Matt 3:17, 17:5)

11. How is this good for us? (John 17:26)

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12. What might this make us want to do? (1 Cor 10:31)

Share of something you know that someone has done for the glory of God (without necessarily mentioning their name).

Prayer

1. Read and pray Psalm 63:1-8 in the light of Christ

2.Pray for our link missionaries Rick and Tracey Rempel with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). (Contact Jo Oakley for updated news on the Rempels)

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Study 3: Christ at the Centre of Mission 1. What do you think your closest friend or child would say is

your mission in life?

Read 1 Timothy 2:1-6 2. What pleases God?

3. How is it that anyone can be saved?

Read 2 Corinthians 4:6-17 4. What is the treasure? What are the jars of clay and what does

that mean?

5. By what means does Paul both believe and speak the gospel? How might we know that we have the same means? (vss13-14)

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6. Why might Paul have been tempted to lose heart in sharing the gospel?

7. Why should we not lose heart? (vs15&17)

Read Matthew 28:16-20 8. What does Jesus want his people to do?

9. What goes into making a disciple?

10. What does it mean to baptise someone in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

11. How might people be taught to obey everything Jesus commanded?

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12. How might we be involved in making disciples as a church? As an individual?

Read Matthew 6:9-13 13. Where does mission feature in how Jesus thinks we should

be praying?

Prayer 1. Pray for someone you know who doesn’t know Jesus that the

would hear the gospel, believer and be saved.

2.Pray for our link missionaries Rick and Kayleen Manton serving at Mount Druitt Indigenous Church and the wider Indigenous Christian Community. (Contact Ruth Myors for updated news on the Mantons).

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Study 4: Christ at the Centre of Church 1. In your own words, what is the church?

Read Colossians 1:15-20, Ephesians 1:22-23 2. What two things is Jesus the firstborn of? (v15, v18)

3. Who is the head of the church?

4. What does it mean for Jesus to be firstborn from among the dead, and to be head of the church? How are these ideas related?

Read 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 5. What does Paul want when he appeals to the Corinthians to

be of one mind and to have no division among them? Does he want them all to think the same thing all the time? Or is something particular they have to be agreed upon?

Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, Romans 12:4-8 and Galatians 3:26-29 6. What are all believers united by?

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7. Who is the body of Christ?

8. What does it mean for body’s parts to be many, but be one body? (1 Cor 12:12,14) How are we the same in Christ while remaining different?

9. Is it possible to be a believer and not be a part of Christ’s church?

10. In what ways is Christ at the centre of our church life? How can we keep Christ at the centre of our church practices?

Prayer 1. Pray for the church.

2.Pray for our link missionary organisation Langham Partnership. Go to https://au.langham.org/category/enews/ for updated news and prayer points.

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Study 5: Christ at the Centre of Family

1. Why is family so important to so many of us?

Read Luke 14:25-27 and Matthew 10:32-39 2. According to these passages, is family the most important

thing?

3. Are we literally to hate our own family if we come to Christ? (Luke 14:26) What is Jesus’ point in these passages?

4. Is it possible to get things back to front and see Christ and faith as a means to getting the family you want? What would this look like? What’s the remedy?

Read Matthew 22:23-32 5. What will the status of marriages (and therefore families?) be

in heaven? Should this picture of marriage and family affect how important we see families being?

Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9 6. What is the responsibility of parents (as well as the broader

community) have with regards to children in this passage?

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7. What are some of the best ways for parents to teach their kids about the Lord and have Christ at the centre of their family? (How can singles, grandparents extended family members work with parents to do this?)

Read Ephesians 5:21-33 and Colossians 3:18-21 8. How does the teaching of these passages encourage us to

keep Christ at the centre of family? What does/did this look like in your family situation?

9. If a family member walks away from the Lord, or if a child stops identifying as a Christian, what are the most helpful things fellow family members can do? What about the church community around them?

Prayer 1. Pray that Christ would be at the centre of the families in our

church.

2.Pray for Rob and El Falls looking to serve on staff at the Talua Theological Training Institute equipping the next generation of pastors, evangelists, and Church workers. Go to https://www.fallsvanuatu.info/ for updated news.

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Study 6: Christ at the Centre of Money 1. Would you say that money is a ‘necessary evil’? Why or why

not?

Read Matthew 6:19-21, 24 2. What do you think it means to ‘serve Money’?

3. What potentially negative influence does money (or treasure) have on us?

Read 1 Timothy 6:6-10, 17-19 4. What is the root of all kinds of evil? What is not?

5. Can you think of some examples of the love of money plunging people into ruin and destruction? Wandering from the faith?

6. As those who are rich in this present world, what are we to do?

7. Why are we to do this?

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Read 1 Timothy 5:3&8, 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12, 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, 1 Corinthians 9:11-14, and Romans 13:6-7. 8. List the responsibilities we have with regard to money.

Read Philippians 4:10-20 9. How did the Philippian Christian’s partner with Paul in the

gospel?

10. What is God’s reaction to their giving?

Read 2 Corinthians 8:1-15; 9:6-15. (Note: Paul is talking to the Corinthians about the collection that is to be taken to Jerusalem to help God’s people there)

11. What motivations are there for giving?

12. How is our attitude towards giving related to our understanding of the gospel?

13. How is the amount to be determined?

14. What is God’s attitude towards giving?

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15. How does God bless those who give, and why?

16. In what ways can we keep Christ at the centre of how we use our Money?

Prayer 1. Thank God for the money he has given us and ask him to help

us be generous and wise in the way that we use it for Christ’s sake.

2.Pray for Granville and Ibolya Pillar serving with Global Scholars in Hungry and Ukraine. See https://global-scholars.org/about/ for more on Global Scholars. (Contact Ruth Myors for updated news about the Pillars).

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Study 7: Christ at the Centre of Work 1. Would you say that work is a necessary evil? Why or why not?

Read Genesis 2:2 2. Who was the first worker?

3. How would you characterise his work?

Read Genesis 2:15 4. What was it that God intended for man to do in paradise?

5. What is different about the man’s work to God’s work?

6. What would you say is the point of work?

Read Genesis 3:17-19 7. Since the Fall, what should we expect work to be like?

8. Is the point to work any different than before the Fall?

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Read Exodus 20:4-5 and Ezekiel 14:1-7 9. How might work be an idol?

Read 1 Corinthians 10:31 and 1 Peter 2:11-25 and 3:14-16 10. What might it mean in our work to do it for the glory of God?

Read Matthew 22:35-40 11. What might this mean for how and where we spend time ‘at

the office’?

Read Ephesians 6:5-9 While much can and has been said about the subject of slavery in the Bible, for our purposes Tim Keller helpfully suggests: …think of this passage as a rhetorical amplifier and consider this: If slave owners are told they must not manage workers in pride and through fear, how much more should this be true of employers today? And if slaves are told it is possible to find satisfaction and meaning in their work, how much more should this be true of workers today?

12. Why will Christian workers give their all to doing the best job possible at work? (see also Col 3:23-24)

13. Why will Christian bosses treat their workers with the greatest respect for their needs?

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Prayer 1. Thank God for the work he has given us and to do it for his

glory. Pray for those who do not have work or who are unable to work at the moment.

2.Pray for our link missionaries Igal and Milana Vender with International Mission to Jewish People working in Israel. See https://www.imjp.org/ for more on International Mission to Jewish People (IMPJ). (Contact Matt Ham for updated news about the Venders).

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Study 8: Christ at the Centre of Sex 1. Is sex highly valued, undervalued, or properly valued in the

world around us?

Read Gen 1:27-28, 2:22-25 and Song on Solomon 4:1-15 2. Who created sex? Where has God designed for people to be

united in and enjoy sexual intimacy and to multiply? How would the bible define this institution?

Read 1 Corinthians 7:1-7 3. Are all people sexual beings? Are single people sexual

beings? What are good and healthy ways for people to be sexual beings regardless of whether they are married or not? At 20 years old? At 70 years old?

Read 1 Corinthians 6:13-20 4. Why are Christians often particular concerned about sexual

sin?

5. What is unique about sexual sin? Is God’s grace any less effective against sexual sin? (cf. Rom 5:20-21) Should we look at believers in Christ who have committed sexual sin differently to those who commit other sins. If so, in what way? If not, why not?

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6. What is the best way to love and welcome people into our church community who think of themselves as ‘queer’, ‘transexual’ or ‘same-sex attracted’? How can we be Christ centred in our relationships with people in these categories that we know, and in the community around us?

Read Matthew 5:27-30 7. How is sexual sin a matter of the heart and the body? Is Jesus’

language here about eye gouging and hand cutting meant to apply to all sin, or just sexual sin? Why is this important to think about? Who is responsible for their sin in this passage? Is it the observer or the observed? Why is this important?

8. What does keeping Christ at the centre of your sexuality look like?

Prayer 1. Thank God for the gift of sex. Pray that Christ would be at the

centre of our lives as sexual creatures.

2.Pray for our link missionaries James and Christine Thomas serving with Global Recordings Network. See https://globalrecordings.net/en/au for more on Global Recordings Network. (Contact Jo Oakley for updated news about the Thomas’).

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Study 9: Christ at the Centre of Rest 1. Do you find it easy or hard to rest? Why/why not?

Read Gen 2:1-3 and Exodus 20:8 and Mark 2:27 2. What did God do on the seventh day? What was the result for

the seventh day under the Mosaic law? Who was the sabbath made for?

3. What is the pattern for human work and rest that we see in creation and in the Mosaic law?

Read 1 Exodus 31:12-17 and Ezekiel 20:10-12 4. What was the Sabbath a sign of under the Mosaic law? What

were the people meant to understand and remember from this sign?

Read Hebrews 4:1-11 5. What is the rest that all who believe in Jesus now enjoy? How

is this better than the rest of the seventh day sabbath?

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Read Mark 2:23-27 6. What does Jesus teach the Pharisees about the Sabbath?

Consider again Gen 2:1-3, Exodus 20:8, Hebrews 4:1-11 & Mark 2:23-27 7. How do you think Christians should approach the idea of ‘a

day of rest’ and rest in general in this age? Should we have a weekly day of rest? How do these verses apply to us today? What things in our modern world can make rest hard and what strategies can we use to rest in our current culture?

Prayer 1. Pray that we would rest as Jesus wants us to.

2.Pray for our Liz Moore serving with Africa Inland Mission (AIM). See https://aimint.org/ap/ for more on AIM. (Contact Liz Moore for updated news about the work of AIM).

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