Announcements

  1. Summer Extravaganza Sunday, July 21st come join us for a wildly fun evening of family-friendly competition!!! We will buddy up to see which color team has what it takes to win a little game we like to call Organized Mass Chaos! Mark your calendars now!
  2. Volunteer for Kids MinistryUnfortunately, we haven’t gotten as many new volunteers as we had hoped and our number of children on any given Sunday continues to grow. Parents, we might have to begin asking you to take your kids to service with you if our classes reach max capacity. The good news is that this problem has an easy solution! We need more volunteers. If you would be willing to serve both our children and families on Sunday mornings, would you please apply on our app?

Objectives

  1. Acknowledge the reviving and reversing effects that Jesus’ authority has over the power of death.
  2. Compare and contrast our modern definition of “life” and “death” with Jesus’ definitions.
  3. Identify implications for our new life that has been raised from the dead by the power of the gospel.

Key Passages

Matthew 9:19-26

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 all things (especially over the consequences of sin). Not just through preaching and teaching, but now through signs and wonders, he is showing his fulfillment as the prophesied Jewish Messiah.

In Matthew 9:18-26 we see Jesus heal two different women in miracles that the author seems to connect in a way that causes readers to interpret them together. Both of these women would have been considered ritually impure according to the Jewish law but when Jesus touched them, instead of him becoming unclean, they became restored.

Helpful Resources for Leaders

Cross References:

Mark 5:21-43
Luke 8:40-56

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.

  • How does Jesus reveal the heart of the Father towards the brokenness of the world (sickness and death)?
  • What does it mean for Jesus to save us from death to give us life?
  • Have you experienced a circumstance in which you felt as if you were brought to the very end of yourself? What did you view as the thing that would remove you from that circumstance?
  • What might it look like for our church to be united by a sense of desperation for Jesus as our only hope?
  • What are some specific results or fruits that you saw in your life after the moment of your conversion? What does struggling with the results of sin look like before and after this conversion?

Sample Responses

Either in smaller groups or as a whole GC:

  • The suffering woman trusted in Jesus prior to him proving himself to her. In what ways do we lack a faith like this in our Lord- a faith that trusts in Jesus not after he proves himself to us but before? Is there an area of your life you still hold in reservation to this kind of trust? Discuss and pray for a fuller dependence in Jesus to wrap up your GC gathering.