This Week's Study Guide

Week 1 Study Guide

Main Passage: Luke 10:25-37

Opening

• Begin with a brief welcome and prayer to set the tone for the group time.
• Introduce the theme: Today, we’re wrestling with one of Jesus’ most famous stories—the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Most of us have heard it before, but Jesus wasn’t telling a nice story about helping strangers. He was exposing something much deeper: the limits we place on compassion and the people we quietly decide are not our responsibility.

Discussion Questions

CONNECT

• Who is someone you admire for the way they model compassion and kindness?

DISCOVER

Read Together: Luke 10:25-37

• What part of the passage or the sermon stood out to you most? Why?
• The lawyer asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” Why do you think he has asked those questions? What was he really trying to find out? (What does it mean that he was seeking to “justify” himself?)
• The priest and the Levite both saw the wounded man but kept walking. Why do you think people who know the right thing sometimes still avoid doing it?

APPLY

• What kinds of labels do we tend to mentally attach to people before deciding whether or not to help them?
• What are some subtle ways many Christians today might behave like the priest or the Levite? Why do we often become aware of pain, yet choose distance?
• The Samaritan didn’t just feel compassion; he interrupted his life to help. What would it look like for compassion to inconvenience you?

RESPOND

• If anyone is willing to share, are there any stories where God healed your heart to love someone you once considered an enemy?

GOSPEL REFLECTION

• The point of this story isn’t just that we should be better people. In many ways, we are the man on the side of the road. Broken by sin and unable to save ourselves, and Jesus is the One who crossed every boundary to rescue us.

Read Romans 5:7-8 together:

• How does remembering the way Jesus loved us reshape the way we view the people we don’t like?

DISCIPLESHIP OPPORTUNITY

• Jesus ends the story with a command, “Go and do likewise.” This week, ask God to help you notice someone you might normally overlook, avoid, or dismiss. When that moment comes, don’t walk past it. Move toward it. Be the neighbor.

GROUP PRAYER

• Thank God for the compassion He first showed to us.
• Ask God to soften any areas of hardness in your heart
• Pray for the ability to see people the way Jesus sees them.
• Ask for courage to cross boundaries and love others the way Christ has loved us.

CLOSING

• Next week, we’ll be discussing Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well. If you want to prepare for the sermon and next week’s discussion, take some time to read John 4:1-42.