THE LONGEST JOURNEY FOR THOSE WANTING TO EXPLORE THE DIFFERENCE GOD CAN MAKE TO OUR LIVES This course can be done one-on-one with a mentor or in a small group.
THE LONGEST JOURNEY ALL ABOUT THE JOURNEY OF YOUR LIFE Welcome to the course! I hope you find it to be the most exciting get-away you ve taken so far in your life! Greg Pearce Session 1: THE JOURNEY TO A FAR COUNTRY Put on your seat belt. To get to know each other, share with one another the most interesting journey you ve made. The aim of this course In 6 sessions we hope to see: How people search spiritually How far God has journeyed to find us How we can get to know God personally How we can begin to follow where God leads us It s an exciting journey once we start to follow Jesus. Please be sure to ask all your questions. Ideas about God Bruce Wilson was a chaplain at a university. He met a neighbour who was a senior academic. When Bruce said he was a parson, his neighbour began to tell him that he didn t believe in God himself. Bruce said, I asked him which god he didn t believe in, saying that if I didn t believe in him either we had a lot in common. He described a god who was like Superman living up above the clouds. Feeling a little put out that he believed I had come to his suburb to teach such infantile rubbish, I assured him that, on the basis of such a description, we were both atheists. Well, where do we get our ideas about God from?
The Christian God Read John 1:18. Where do Christians get their ideas about God from? I don t know what you think of this, but many people say Jesus is like God. Doesn t this reading say it something like the other way around: God is like Jesus? What would you be able to say about God if that were true? We ll look at one chapter of Jesus teaching, Luke 15, and ask: What s God like? How does he feel about us? Read Luke 15:1-2. What s going on here? Read Luke 15:3-7. Can you get a picture about where God s heart is? How does God feel about people? Read Luke 15:8-10. How do you think God feels about you? Read Luke 15:11-32. Where would you put yourself in this story? How does God feel about you? How does it make you feel about God? Maybe Jesus did more than come to tell us about God. Maybe he came to introduce us to God. Can you see the difference? To finish One way to finish this session: Say a quiet prayer to God thanking God for what you have come to know about him.
Session 2: WHY JESUS CAME Put on your seat belt. THE LONGEST JOURNEY Can you remember when you were sent somewhere to do something? OR Can you remember when you felt as though I was sent? OUR JOURNEY SO FAR Last session we shared: Our own journey Where we get our ideas of God Jesus as the Christian s answer Jesus telling us that God seeks us! THE ONE GOD SENT Jesus spoke of being on a journey with a purpose. He loved to find people who were lost from a relationship with God. In these sentences Jesus speaks about why he came. Can you get some idea of why he was sent? John 10: 7-11 and Luke 4: 18-19 HOW JESUS INTRODUCES US TO GOD Last time we said that Jesus did not come just to tell us about God, but to bring us to actually know God. Have you thought about what it was like before the universe existed? Can you put it into words? Of course it would be difficult to have words for what was not there! Read John 1:1-5. Many people struggle to believe that life, the universe and everything have any meaning or purpose at all. What would you say is the basic claim made in these verses in John? Think about the extraordinary phrase The word was with God, and the word was God What are the main things that a word does? To take this idea further: YOUR WORDS REVEAL YOU. THEY COMMUNICATE YOU TO OTHERS. GOD S WORD COMMUNICATES HIMSELF. List some of the things said about God s word in John 1:1-5,9-14. If God makes himself known in Jesus, what can we say about God?
THE AIM OF JESUS JOURNEY A Christian teacher said, God has chosen not to be God without us. Jesus came not to give us a message (like Mohammed) Nor a philosophy or a method (like the Buddah) Nor a moral code (like some preachers) Instead he came so that God could give us himself in relationship (so says John 1:12). OUR RESPONSE Receive Him. Try Him out. When you feel ready, pray this prayer: Lord Jesus, come into my life. I receive you and the light you brought into the world. I will seek to know you and to follow you as you show God to me and as I learn more about you. I suggest you read one of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John). Jesus was sent so that you could take part in God s life. When you learn something about God and your life, thank him and put it into practice. It s how we learn.
THE LONGEST JOURNEY Session 3: JESUS JOURNEY TO THE CROSS Put on your seat belt. Can you think of a time when things seemed bad for you, but turned out for the best? Background God seeks us (session 1) and wants to come into our lives (session 2) We ve been invited to receive Jesus and let him be fully central in our lives. BUT HOW MUCH DO WE REALLY LET GOD INTO OUR LIVES? Well, what s your answer to this question: Do we see human beings really wanting a relationship with God? You get a really profound picture of human life and our purpose from the Bible. What can you make of God s plans for human life from these verses? Ask how humans feel about God, especially in the last reading. Genesis 1:27-28 Genesis 2:15-17 Genesis 3:1-7 You don t have to see this as historical, about one man and woman at one time, to get the point: it could be about you and God! Could it, in any way? Now check Romans 3:23. Does it connect with what we ve been saying? You ll notice from the following verse (verse 24) why Paul bothered to write it: he was not writing us off as hopeless where God is concerned! WHY MAKE SO MUCH OF THE CROSS? Cicero, the Roman politician of Biblical times, called the cross: The most cruel and hideous form of punishment Far be the very name of a cross, not only from the body, but even the thought, the eyes, the ears of Roman citizens. It was not a pretty piece of jewellery! It was the fate of a rejected criminal, hung up as a public example. It was scandalous to Jews too: see what you make of Galatians 3:13. THE JOURNEY How do you feel as you read about Jesus going to the cross? Read Mark 15:16-37 and share your feelings as you read it. Do this by saying aloud what you feel as soon as you feel it. If Jesus came from God and came to share our life so that we could share God s life: Why do you think Jesus took this journey to the cross?
THE SIGNIFICANCE The meaning of Jesus cross is far beyond our understanding, but here is a start! Jesus came to share more than our lives: he came to share our deaths. Roy Thompson was an old man from Pt. Adelaide when I knew him. He gave me a wooden cross he had made. It meant so much to him because he was a soldier in France in World War 1. With so much suffering around them, other soldiers said (and so did he), Where s God? He doesn t understand our suffering. He can t let this happen. Roy wondered if he could believe anymore. Then he was told of a soldier who was hit by a bullet and fell under a stone cross built into the stone fences. The dying soldier looked up in his fear and pain, saw the cross, recognised the suffering of the young man Jesus, who had come from God, and said, You, too, Lord Jesus. IN OUR PLACE The cross was a terrible rejection. It happened to Jesus, but it has completely changed things for us. From the moment we realise Jesus took our place on the cross, and then trust him, we are at peace with God. Put the idea of 2 Corinthians 5:21 into your own words. Think of everything that separates you from God. It is a heavy burden. It is now placed upon Jesus. He has borne it all, and removed it from you. He has suffered your death, your lostness from God. He made that his own. Now you are free for God! COMING TO GOD When you fail or remember past failures, you may have trouble accepting yourself. Declare: God loves me as his child right now. I do not have to fix myself. God is not rejecting me. Jesus has been rejected instead of me. I can freely run to God without any fear and tell him of all my past failures. If I feel guilty or ashamed, if I do something wrong, I can tell him all. Prayer: Dear Lord, I think, do and say wrong things. I m sorry. Jesus, you have taken away all my wrongs and so I let go of them now. Thank you for taking my failure and giving me your life. I accept your forgiveness and freedom now. Amen. (It is helpful if you can tell God about your specific wrongs, fear, and failures.) Declare: Because Jesus has died to take away all the wrongs of the world, that includes all of mine! Anything that is not agreeing with God accepting, loving and including me, be silent now in the name of Jesus.
THE LONGEST JOURNEY Session 4: THE JOURNEY TO LIFE! Put on your seat belt. Tell about some time when you said, I ve been given a new lease of life. WHEN DEATH MET ITS MATCH We ve looked at how Jesus died: how awful it was, yet how wonderful, even beautiful it is for Christians. George Herbert wrote: Love is that liquor, sweet and most divine, Which my God tastes as blood and I as wine. Now we see God differently Jesus makes God known God was in Christ ( 2 Corinthians 5:19; see also verse 17) reconciling the world to himself So God was suffering for us Not when we were at our best, but at our worst God was setting us free! Or did something have to happen yet for all this to be really true? MEETING JESUS, RISEN FROM THE DEAD Read John 20:1-2. What moods would Mary be feeling? What would she and the disciples expect the journey of their lives to be about now? Read John 20: 3-10. Ask the same questions of this section: The moods of the disciples Their expectations about the future Read John 20:11-18. Ask the same questions of Mary here; then imagine what she would begin to plan as the most important thing in her life. Read John 20: 19-23. What do you imagine the disciples will be wanting to do and say into the future? What s so special about the forgiveness of sin?
Read John 20:24-29. Some people think: When you re dead, you re dead. Others think you re reincarnated. Others think your body dies and your soul lives on somewhere (like heaven). What do you think Thomas thought before he saw Jesus again? What did he think about Jesus now? Now what did he most likely think will happen when we die? SO WHAT S THAT GOT TO DO WITH ME? Robin Mann wrote a song which includes the words: Our death is gone, Our death is gone, There s only life still to come, But I hope to meet you all in heaven, I m going there. He s saying that Jesus death has been for us, so our death is in the past. Jesus resurrection has been for us, so we can look forward to on-going life with him. Whatever heaven is, it will get better and better. In fact you could think of it as our life renewed by participating in Jesus resurrection. Check out Galatians 2:19-20. Try to put in your own words what this says about the Christian. Read Revelation 3:20. It s said to a wayward church. Can you see Jesus saying anything like this to you? PRAYER Finish by saying to Jesus exactly what you want to say. Then quietly listen to what you think he is saying to you.
THE LONGEST JOURNEY Session 5: THE JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE Put on your seat belt. If someone said, How do you become a Christian?, what would you say? SO FAR In the course this far we have seen that Jesus: Came from the Father To participate in our life To make himself responsible for us, to the point of his death So that we could participate with him in his relationship with the Father. They used to say: The Son of God became a man that men may become the sons of God. Now we d say: that we may become the sons and daughters of God. ONE ATTEMPT TO DEFINE A CHRISTIAN Here s one way I would put it: A Christian is one who participates with Jesus in his relationship with the Father, and in his relationship with the world. I see that it s about restored relationship: With God With others With ourselves With the very environment in which we live BUT HOW? The New Testament is clear: we participate with Jesus through the Holy Spirit God at work in our lives. The Spirit is sent by Jesus to make Jesus and all he has done real and present to us. He s as real to us today as he was with his first followers. Read Romans 8:12-17. What does the Holy Spirit do here? Can you list what we are promised if we are led by the Spirit? In your own words what would you say the Holy Spirit is like (drawing your information from this passage)?
Read Romans 8:18-25. Would you say the Christian life is plain sailing once you invite the Holy Spirit into your life? How much do you know about the sufferings Christians face today? Why do you think Paul wrote this section? Read Romans 8:26-27. Do you think you know what experience Paul is talking about? Have you tried that hard to pray? Read Romans 8:28-39. You won t understand everything at a first reading, but a lot of it brings together things we have read in previous studies and shows how what the Father did for us through Jesus is now made real for us by the Holy Spirit. That s God in God s fullness Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a rich relationship, in full-on commitment to us! There s a list of really distressing challenges and experiences here. If you answer the following questions, you ll see how the Christian gets through: What has God done for us? What is God doing for us? What is God promising us? PUTTING IT INTO OUR LIVES As you think about what you ve learned, focus on the statement below that comes closest to what you would want to say. Share why that is: Or Or Or Or I ve got a new outlook on life as a Christian: it s life in the Spirit. Trusting God in difficult situations means that his Spirit helps me get through the same sorts of things Jesus went through. Calling God Father has never meant so much to me it s what Jesus did, and I can do it through my relationship with Jesus. I feel I know God more completely now that we ve considered Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I think I ve learned an important lesson about finding strength for life s journey. PRAYER Jesus promised that if we ask, God will give us His Spirit, Luke 11:13. In previous prayers you have learned to pray to follow Jesus, to trust Jesus as your saviour and to thank him. Now quietly pray for his Spirit to fill you. When you have spent as long as you need, thank him, and trust the Father to keep his promise.
THE LONGEST JOURNEY Session 6: TRAVELLING IN COMPANY Put on your seat belt. Have you learned to ride a bike? What was the most important thing to do? RELATIONSHIP IS THE HEART OF IT ALL It s worth realising that when we talk about a relationship with God, Christians have been blown away to discover that God already lives in a rich, full relationship just by being God! What can you learn about the relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit from even these few verses: Matthew 11:27 Mark 1:9-11 John 16:12-16 (Notice that the same verses that tell us who God is as the Triune God also tell us that God is utterly committed to us eg., Jesus was even baptised among common sinners as though he was making our sins his own.) A LIVING RELATIONSHIP All we talk about in this session is about living in relationship with God. These are not simply religious exercises, or rules. They are ways God nourishes his children. Reading the Bible, for example, helps us keep in touch with God s very character by steeping ourselves in what he has done. Praying is simply speaking and listening to God. The following exercise (on the next page) is a way you can do this daily. To do this at home, you would find a quiet place that suits you and a time when you are alert and can be fairly sure you won t be interrupted.
THE SOAP METHOD For this example we will use a reading from Acts 2:37-47. You will normally need a notebook to jot down your thoughts. S = scripture As you read the passage, ask God to show you what he wants you to take note of. Jot down the verse that stands out to you, that seems to have a special message from God for you. It may challenge, encourage, enlighten, intrigue but it will arrest you in some way. O = observation Write a brief note on what you observe as you look at this verse. What do you think the writer was wanting to say to the readers when it was written? Notice how it relates to the whole context. A = application Now think about your own life. How does this apply to you? What do you think God may be saying to you and your daily concerns? Make a brief note. P = prayer In this process above you have been seeking to listen to God. Come before God in the light of what you have heard God say to you and write a sentence prayer. Seek to pray it and to let it lead you into further prayer, listening to God, speaking to God.
To help you find a balanced diet of readings, look for daily reading guides at a Christian book shop. Scripture Union provide a great choice. IN IT TOGETHER You may have chosen verses picking up a number of themes from that passage. It shows us an exciting picture of the early Christian movement. We ve touched already on the value of: PRAYER BIBLE READING The message about Jesus, the preaching of the apostles -- what we have recorded for us in the Bible. Three other aspects of the Christian life from this passage are also worth exploring: COMMUNITY You may have noticed the great sense of community these early Christians demonstrated. Would you describe what you see here as more like a club or a movement? What would you look for in a church you would like to be part of? (Later, check out Mark 10:29-30.) CHANGED LIFE-STYLE What do you notice about the life-style of this community? As far as you can see, what does this have to do with their faith in Jesus? From your knowledge of Jesus, how do you think he wants to affect your life-style? (Later, check out Romans 12.) ATTRACTING OTHERS There was a real attractiveness about this community. Others joined in droves. Why would that be? Do you have ideas about how you would attract others to what you have found through your relationship with Jesus? KEEP MOVING! The most exciting journey is the one you are on when you follow Jesus. All these areas are part of the deal. It s all about living this wonderful life we have been given in a renewed relationship with God through Jesus, in restored relationship with others through Jesus, in a new relationship even with ourselves through Jesus.
THE LONGEST JOURNEY Session 7: SACRAMENTS: ON OUR WAY TO THE FINAL INHERITANCE OF THE KINGDOM There are two sacraments that celebrate and strengthen our faith: baptism, that marks our joining in all that Christ has done for us; Holy Communion, or the Lord s Supper, that Christ feeds us on our way. Each of them puts the Gospel into an action, so that if you understand the sacrament, you have understood the Gospel. BAPTISM (washing/dipping/submerging) Read Mark 1:4-5. Why was John baptising people? Read Mark 1:7-8. What do you think this is about? Read Mark 1:9-11. Why should Jesus have been baptised if he was not a sinner? A Christian is called in Christ in a number of passages (it occurs often in Ephesians 1 -- check it out later). This means, at least, that what Jesus did for us can be applied to us, since we are joined to him. Our baptism is a sign of this. See if you can explain how Galatians 2:20 would show that you are in Christ. Now follow on by doing the same with Romans 6:3-4. Thirdly, read Acts 2:37-39. How does this add to the picture of what it means to be in Christ? So, what about baptism? Martin Luther used to say, Remember your baptism. Most people couldn t they were baptised as babies. But he meant remember all it means, all that Christ has done for you. If you have been baptised (say as a baby, or earlier in your life) and you now wish to confirm or celebrate your faith, ask your minister for the opportunity to do that. It could be that you are ready for confirmation, or that you wish to re-affirm your baptism, give thanks to God, and have your friends and church celebrate with you. If you have never been baptised and you now believe in Jesus, ask your minister about baptism. It s one of the great days of your life.
HOLY COMMUNION If you want to keep growing as a Christian, don t neglect joining in the communion service. Seek to join in as often as you can. You will normally be asked to reflect and confess your sins, not because you can confess them all, but because God wants to remind us that he has set us free. Martin Luther said: The best preparation is a soul troubled by sins, death, and temptation and hungering for healing and strength. How do you react to this? Read Matthew 26:26-29. If our statement is true that the sacrament puts the Gospel into an action, take this phrase by phrase, and say how this action expresses the Gospel. Now what do you see as the benefit that comes to us by doing what Jesus told us to and joining in the communion? So: the Gospel in an action? If you have time to let your mind go free (you will need more time than you get in this session), try the question below: it will really put you on your way to being a theologian! Skip back over Sessions 1 6, and see how many of the themes we looked at are summed up in the two sacraments.