Hope Going Forwards

Ice Breaker:

How have your hopes/fears changed over the last few months?  What may have caused any change?

What are your hopes and fears for the future at this moment in time?

Share with each other as you feel comfortable.

Study:

This is the concluding study of our teaching series ‘Faith in a time of Crisis: Embracing Hope’.  Over the last 8 weeks, we have been considering how as Christians we can live as people of hope in these challenging times. As the apostle Paul emphasised, Christians are “in Christ” and Jesus Christ is “our living hope”.  We began our teaching series by considering what this means and how this enables to ‘live well’ at all times.

We have considered some of the major challenges to hope that we may face in our lives, as well as aspects that can build hope.

As we draw this series to a close, it might be helpful to start by considering:

·         Has your understanding of what ‘hope’ is as a Christian developed?

·         As a result of what you have heard, studied and understood in our teaching series, has this changed how you are feeling and living in these times?  If so, how?

Today we are looking at ‘Hope Going Forwards’. 

Read John 14: 15-27

This chapter in John is part of Jesus’ ‘farewell’ discourses, when he was speaking to his disciples before his death, preparing them for life without Him physically present.  These chapters in John tell us a lot about the world and how to live in it as a follower of Christ.

Discussion Questions:

1.      What are we promised in this passage?  How might this help us to have hope?

2.      The word used for the Holy Spirit in the NIV translation is ‘advocate’.  Other translations may use the words ‘helper’ or ‘comforter’.  What do these words tell us about the nature of the Holy Spirit and how it can help us?

3.      Much of this passage is about how Jesus promises to be with us even if we cannot see him in body.  How is this explained here?

4.      What does God ask of us in this passage?  Why is this important?

5.      This passage makes a clear distinction between ‘the world’ and followers of Jesus (v. 17, 23-24, 27).  How is this explained?  What do you think it means for us as Christians?

6.      Verse 27 is a well-known and comforting verse.  How might we realise this peace, especially in difficult times?  What does the passage tell us about this?

7.      How do you think Jesus’ words made his disciples feel?  How do they make you feel?

8.      What lessons from this passage might help us in practice to have hope going forward?  How might we demonstrate this in our lives?

If you have time you might like to read Jeremiah 29: 4-14.

Context:          

Jeremiah was a priest from a small town three miles outside Jerusalem.  His prophetic ministry began in 626BC and continued beyond the destruction of the nation of Judah and Jerusalem in 587BC.

This passage dates from one of the darkest times in the life of the people of God.  Their nation had been conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and Jerusalem (the city of God) captured. What more the King of Judah, his household, the leaders, priests, prophets, skilled workers and craftsmen of the nation of Judah (3,023 people in total as per Jeremiah 52:28) had been carried captive to Babylon. 

Word reached godly Jeremiah in Jerusalem that some of the exiled false prophets were predicting a speedy collapse of the superpower Babylon and the return of the exiles to their homeland.  Jeremiah was inspired by the Lord to warn his exiled compatriots against any further self-delusion and to trust and wait upon the Lord. God was sovereign, present, faithful, active and was working out His good purposes in His time and ways.

What can we learn about having hope from this passage?

Conclusion:

Share and pray for each other, especially around situations where it is difficult to have hope.