Announcements
- The Well Training School- If you’re a college student and here for the summer!! We will have a class about studying scripture: What is it? How do we read it? How does it inform the way we interact with culture? Starting June 10th at 7 pm here at The Well. You can sign up on the app or through the events page on our website!
- Who has a key?- If you have a key to our building, would you please email us at paden@thewellabilene.com and let us know. We’re updating our list and need to make sure we have everyone marked down.
- Volunteer for Kids Ministry- Going to be in Abilene for any of this summer? Consider discipling our little ones by volunteering for the kids ministry on Sunday mornings! You can submit a volunteer application on the app!
Objectives
1. Identify Jesus’ authority to heal all brokenness: both physical and spiritual brokenness
2. Discuss the importance of community in presenting each other’s wounds for Jesus to heal
Key Passages
Matthew 9:1-8
Summary
The Sermon on The Mount in chapters 5-7 was a holistic summary of Jesus’ teaching ministry in which he described the nature of His Kingdom of Heaven and its citizen’s righteousness. Now in chapters 8-9, he reveals by word and deed his authority over the consequences of sin and all things. Not just through preaching and teaching, but now through signs and wonders, he is showing his fulfillment as the prophesied Jewish Messiah.
In Matthew 9:1-8, Jesus reveals his authority not only over physical paralysis but also over sin itself! Jesus does this by healing a paralytic and forgiving his sins, to which the scribes accused as a statement of blasphemy.
Sample Questions
Feel free to use or reword the questions below that you think will be most helpful to meet the objectives above. Remember, these questions should ultimately cultivate discussion of ways to respond to or apply what the Holy Spirit has revealed to us through Scripture.
– What do you think the author of this passage is primarily trying to point out to his original audience?
– How does the author’s primary focus apply to us today?
– How have you traditionally thought about the role of faith in your prayers of healing (either healing for yourself or others)?
– What are the roles of all of the characters in this passage, and which character do you most often identify with?
– How do we know that Jesus was not blasphemous in claiming to forgive the paralytic’s sins?
Sample Responses
Either in smaller groups or as a whole GC:
-Take some time to discuss how your group can continually walk with each other in places of needed healing, whether this healing is spiritual or physical. This might look like discussing long term avenues of communication to share prayer requests (group messaging, prayer apps, etc) or set up a system of accountability to pray for one another.
-Spend time in prayer for these areas of healing.