This Week's Study Guide
Week 2 – Salt and Light
Opening: Begin with a brief welcome and prayer to set the tone for the group time. Ask Jesus to teach and form the group through His words.
Overview: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes a life shaped by His Kingdom. Last week, the Beatitudes showed us the kind of people Jesus is forming. This week, Jesus makes it clear that His work in us was never intended to stop with us.
Discussion Questions
CONNECT
- Have you ever had someone make a meaningful impact on your life simply because of the way they consistently lived or treated you? What made them stand out?
DISCOVER
Read Together: Matthew 5:13-16
Initial observations + Interpreting Scripture:
- Initial Thoughts: What stood out to you from this passage or from the sermon?
You Are:
Jesus doesn’t tell His disciples that they might someday become salt and light. He tells them, “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.”
- What changes when we begin to see being “salt and light” as a part of our identity as followers of Jesus rather than an extra responsibility for especially committed Christians?
Salt – Close Enough to Matter
Salt can only affect something when it comes into contact with it.
- What do you think it looks like for Christians to be “close enough to love, but different enough to matter”?
- There are two extremes:
- Withdraw from people who don’t believe what we believe or
- To live so similarly that there is nothing distinctive about our lives as Christ followers
- Which of these two traps are you most likely to fall into?
Light – Make Jesus Visible
Jesus says people should see our good works and “give glory to Your Father who is in heaven.”
- How can we make Jesus visible through our lives without making relationships or conversations feel forced?
- How do we avoid “just being nice” and instead become intentional “light”?
APPLY
Jason asked us to consider the places where God has already placed us as places where we have been SENT by God.
- What is your community? Where has God already placed you where you consistently interact with the same people?
- Is there a relationship where you need to be more intentional in sharing Jesus with someone? Who is your one? What excuses stand in the way? How can we help keep you accountable?
RESPOND
Take a moment privately and complete these statements:
My community is: ______________________________
My one is: ____________________________________
This week, I will: ______________________________
GROUP PRAYER
Spend time praying specifically for the communities and people your group identified.
Formation: Ask Jesus to continue forming His character in you so that the people around you experience something different because you follow Him.
Community: Pray for the neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, teams, and other spaces represented in your group. Ask God to use your presence there for the good of the people around you.
Your One: Ask God to give each person opportunities, courage, wisdom, and genuine love as they move toward the person they identified.
CLOSE
Jesus doesn’t call us to manufacture a spiritual moment. Sometimes being salt and light starts with something very ordinary: learning someone’s name, listening, inviting them over, serving them, buying lunch, praying for them, or sharing what Jesus has done in your life.
APEX
What is Baptism?
Opening: Begin with a brief welcome and prayer to set the tone for the group time.
Overview: Baptism is a timeless practice that marks the movement from spectator to participant. It is a public declaration that we trust and follow Jesus, a response of obedience that follows His example, and a visible picture of the gospel: buried with Christ and raised to new life.
Discussion Questions
CONNECT
- Think of a meaningful rite of passage or public milestone in your life. What made it significant?
- When have you moved from watching something from the sideline to fully participating? What helped you take that step?
DISCOVER
Read Together: Matthew 28:18-20; Matthew 3:13-17; and Romans 6:3-4 together
Initial observations + Interpreting Scripture:
- Initial Thoughts: What stood out to you from this passage or from the sermon?
- Instruction – Jesus Tells Us To: In Matthew 28, baptism is included in Jesus’ mission to make disciples.
- What does that tell us about the role and importance of baptism in following Him?
- The sermon describes baptism as drawing a line in the sand. Why is a public declaration valuable/necessary when faith is deeply personal?
- How does the call to baptize remind us that disciple-making belongs to every follower of Jesus, not only pastors?
- Imitation – Jesus Shows Us How: Jesus did not need cleansing from sin, yet He chose baptism in humility and obedience.
- What do you learn about following Jesus from His example?
- At Jesus’ baptism, the Father calls Him beloved before His public ministry begins. How might receiving your identity from God change the way you serve, achieve, or handle failure?
- Immersion – The Gospel Made Visible: Romans 6 connects baptism with Jesus’ death and resurrection.
- What does going under the water and rising again proclaim?
- Why is it important to be clear that the water is not magic and does not earn God’s acceptance?
- How can baptism become a memory that anchors a believer during seasons of doubt, guilt, or suffering?
APPLY – Live from Your Baptism
Baptism does not promise an easy life; it’s a step toward a surrendered life rooted in grace.
- Remember Your Identity: If you have been baptized, what truth about belonging to Jesus do you need to remember today?
- Take the Plunge: If you trust Jesus but have not chosen baptism for yourself, what question or fear is keeping you from the next conversation?
- Cheer Someone On: Who is one person you can encourage as they explore faith, baptism, or a next step with Jesus?
RESPOND
These prompts can be used for prayer and introspection. Discuss them together or invite everyone to reflect on them throughout the week.
- Self-Reflect: Am I living as someone who is all in with Jesus, or am I still staying safely on the sidelines in one area of life?
- Challenge: Share your next step with someone in the group and ask them to pray for you this week.
GROUP PRAYER
Pray Together as a Group
Pray:
- Death and Resurrection: Thank Jesus for His death and resurrection.
- New Identity: Thank God for the new identity we have in Christ
- Baptisms: Pray for anyone who’s considering getting baptized, and that you and the members of your group would live a life on mission, hoping to baptize others and live out the Great Commission.
- Humility: Ask the Holy Spirit to help every person live with humble obedience and joyful dependence on Christ.
CLOSING
If you want to explore baptism, tell your group leader or connect with a pastor so you can share your story and talk through what Scripture teaches. If you have already been baptized, revisit Romans 6 this week and thank God that your life is joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus.
RALEIGH
What is Communion?
Opening: Begin with a brief welcome and prayer to set the tone for the group time.
Overview: Communion is more than a repeated church routine. In the bread and cup, followers of Jesus participate in a story that reaches back to Passover, meets us now with the grace of Christ’s finished work, and looks ahead to His promised return.
Leader Note: This is a great opportunity to invite your group to take communion together. You may consider taking it while you walk through the “Apply” section of this week’s discussion.
Discussion Questions
CONNECT
- Is there a meal or a celebration from your past that still carries meaning for you? What people, place, or moment does it help you remember?
- Why do shared meals have such power to shape belonging and identity?
DISCOVER
Read Together: Exodus 12:1-14; Luke 22:14-20; and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 together
Initial observations + Interpreting Scripture:
- Initial Thoughts: What stood out to you from these passages or from the sermon?
- Communion Looks Back: Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper during Passover and gives the meal its fullest meaning in His own sacrifice.
- How does the rescue in Exodus 12 help us understand Jesus as the true and better Passover Lamb?
- The first Passover families were rescued because an innocent substitute died in their place. How does that truth humble us and deepen our gratitude for the cross?
- Communion Speaks Now: Jesus calls the cup the new covenant in His blood, assuring believers of grace secured by Him rather than earned by us.
- What present realities does Communion declare over a person who trusts Christ?
- What is the difference between coming to the table because we had a good week and coming because Jesus is a perfect Savior?
- Communion Redirects Our Memory: Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of me,” inviting us to let His finished work interpret our failures and fears.
- What memories of failure, regret, or shame most often compete for your attention?
- How can confession be honest without allowing shame to have the final word?
- Communion Looks Forward: Paul says that at the table we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
- How does the promised return of Jesus turn Communion into an act of hope?
APPLY – Come to the Table Honestly and Hopefully
Communion is reverent and sobering, but it is not hopeless; it centers us on Christ’s finished work.
- Look Back with Gratitude: Name one aspect of Jesus’ sacrifice for which you want to thank Him today.
- Receive Grace in the Present: Is there sin to confess or guilt you need to release by trusting in what Jesus has done?
- Look Forward with Hope: Where does the promise that Jesus will return bring courage to your life right now?
RESPOND
These prompts can be used for prayer and introspection. Discuss them together or invite everyone to reflect on them throughout the week.
- Self-Reflect: When I approach Communion, am I hiding, performing, pretending, or honestly looking to Jesus?
- Challenge: Before the next celebration of Communion, reread Luke 22:14-20 and prepare your heart through gratitude, confession, and hope.
GROUP PRAYER
Pray Together as a Group
Pray:
- Our Passover Lamb: Thank Jesus for His body given and His blood poured out for us.
- Honest Confession: Confess where you have trusted your own goodness or rehearsed your shame more than Christ’s grace.
- Present Grace: Ask the Spirit to help the group receive Christ’s forgiveness and extend grace to one another.
- Future Hope: Praise Jesus for the promise that He will return and make all things new.
CLOSING
Close by repeating this good news together: Christ died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Encourage anyone who is unsure what it means to trust Jesus to speak with the group leader or a pastor.
Jesus, the True and Better Adam
Series Overview: As we close the book of James, we see one final picture of mature faith. When real life In this series, we are looking at people, patterns, and stories throughout Scripture that point us to Jesus. The heroes and stories of the Bible are shadows that prepare us to see Christ as the true fulfillment of our hope and the better hero we desperately need. This week begins at the beginning with Adam. Adam was created as the blueprint for humanity, but his sin brought brokenness and death into the world. Jesus is the true and better Adam who trusted and obeyed the Father, bringing righteousness, forgiveness, and life where sin had brought death.
Discussion Questions
CONNECT
- The message used Mad Libs to illustrate that Scripture tells a unified story centered on Jesus. When you think about the Bible as one big story, what feels exciting, confusing, or new to you?
- Where do you most often feel the tension between knowing the right thing to do and actually doing it?
DISCOVER
Read Together: Genesis 2:15-17 and Genesis 3:1-12
Initial observations + Interpreting Scripture:
- Initial Thoughts: What stood out to you from this passage or from the sermon?
- In Genesis 2, what do you notice about the kind of world Adam and Eve were living in before sin entered the story?
- Genesis 2:25 says Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed. The message described them as “fully exposed, yet completely secure.” What does that show us about life with God before sin?
- How does the serpent attack Adam and Eve’s trust in God? Where do you see the same strategy at work today?
- After Adam and Eve sin, what changes in their relationship with God, with each other, and with themselves?
Read Together: Romans 5:12-19
- The bottom line of this passage is: Christ is the true and better Adam who brings life, where sin brought death. How would you explain that in your own words?
APPLY – Trusting God Enough to Obey Him
At the core of our sin problem is a trust problem. Adam and Eve questioned God’s goodness and chose their own way. Jesus trusted the Father and obeyed, even when obedience was costly.
- Where are you most tempted to believe, “God is holding out on me” or “I know better than God”?
- What is one area where obedience to God feels costly right now?
- In the Garden of Eden, Adam effectively chose, “My will be done.” In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “Not as I will, but as you will.” What would it look like for you to pray that honestly this week?
- The message named patterns of sin, bad habits, and bad relationships. Is there a pattern God is inviting you to bring into the light instead of hiding like Adam and Eve?
- How does knowing that Jesus brings forgiveness and new life change the way you respond when you sin?
RESPOND
These questions can be used for prayer and introspection. You can either discuss them as a group or invite everyone to reflect on them throughout the week.
- Self-Reflect: Where am I currently standing at the fork in the road between my will and God’s will?
- Confess: What sin, habit, or mistrust do I need to bring honestly before God?
- Trust and Obey: What is one concrete step of obedience I can take this week?
- Receive: Where do I need to stop hiding and receive the grace, forgiveness, and life Jesus offers?
GROUP PRAYER
Pray Together as a Group
Pray:
- Trust: Ask God to strengthen your trust in His goodness, wisdom, and authority.
- Obedience: Ask God for the courage to obey even when obedience feels costly.
- Freedom: Pray for anyone who feels stuck in patterns of sin, bad habits, or hidden shame.
- Salvation: Pray that people would choose the way of Jesus, receive His grace, and experience new life in Him.
CLOSING
Encourage group members to continue reflecting throughout the week on this question from the message: Will you trust God enough to obey Him?
APEX
What is Baptism?
Opening: Begin with a brief welcome and prayer to set the tone for the group time.
Overview: Baptism is a timeless practice that marks the movement from spectator to participant. It is a public declaration that we trust and follow Jesus, a response of obedience that follows His example, and a visible picture of the gospel: buried with Christ and raised to new life.
Discussion Questions
CONNECT
- Think of a meaningful rite of passage or public milestone in your life. What made it significant?
- When have you moved from watching something from the sideline to fully participating? What helped you take that step?
DISCOVER
Read Together: Matthew 28:18-20; Matthew 3:13-17; and Romans 6:3-4 together
Initial observations + Interpreting Scripture:
- Initial Thoughts: What stood out to you from this passage or from the sermon?
- Instruction – Jesus Tells Us To: In Matthew 28, baptism is included in Jesus’ mission to make disciples.
- What does that tell us about the role and importance of baptism in following Him?
- The sermon describes baptism as drawing a line in the sand. Why is a public declaration valuable/necessary when faith is deeply personal?
- How does the call to baptize remind us that disciple-making belongs to every follower of Jesus, not only pastors?
- Imitation – Jesus Shows Us How: Jesus did not need cleansing from sin, yet He chose baptism in humility and obedience.
- What do you learn about following Jesus from His example?
- At Jesus’ baptism, the Father calls Him beloved before His public ministry begins. How might receiving your identity from God change the way you serve, achieve, or handle failure?
- Immersion – The Gospel Made Visible: Romans 6 connects baptism with Jesus’ death and resurrection.
- What does going under the water and rising again proclaim?
- Why is it important to be clear that the water is not magic and does not earn God’s acceptance?
- How can baptism become a memory that anchors a believer during seasons of doubt, guilt, or suffering?
APPLY – Live from Your Baptism
Baptism does not promise an easy life; it’s a step toward a surrendered life rooted in grace.
- Remember Your Identity: If you have been baptized, what truth about belonging to Jesus do you need to remember today?
- Take the Plunge: If you trust Jesus but have not chosen baptism for yourself, what question or fear is keeping you from the next conversation?
- Cheer Someone On: Who is one person you can encourage as they explore faith, baptism, or a next step with Jesus?
RESPOND
These prompts can be used for prayer and introspection. Discuss them together or invite everyone to reflect on them throughout the week.
- Self-Reflect: Am I living as someone who is all in with Jesus, or am I still staying safely on the sidelines in one area of life?
- Challenge: Share your next step with someone in the group and ask them to pray for you this week.
GROUP PRAYER
Pray Together as a Group
Pray:
- Death and Resurrection: Thank Jesus for His death and resurrection.
- New Identity: Thank God for the new identity we have in Christ
- Baptisms: Pray for anyone who’s considering getting baptized, and that you and the members of your group would live a life on mission, hoping to baptize others and live out the Great Commission.
- Humility: Ask the Holy Spirit to help every person live with humble obedience and joyful dependence on Christ.
CLOSING
If you want to explore baptism, tell your group leader or connect with a pastor so you can share your story and talk through what Scripture teaches. If you have already been baptized, revisit Romans 6 this week and thank God that your life is joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus.
RALEIGH
What is Communion?
Opening: Begin with a brief welcome and prayer to set the tone for the group time.
Overview: Communion is more than a repeated church routine. In the bread and cup, followers of Jesus participate in a story that reaches back to Passover, meets us now with the grace of Christ’s finished work, and looks ahead to His promised return.
Leader Note: This is a great opportunity to invite your group to take communion together. You may consider taking it while you walk through the “Apply” section of this week’s discussion.
Discussion Questions
CONNECT
- Is there a meal or a celebration from your past that still carries meaning for you? What people, place, or moment does it help you remember?
- Why do shared meals have such power to shape belonging and identity?
DISCOVER
Read Together: Exodus 12:1-14; Luke 22:14-20; and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 together
Initial observations + Interpreting Scripture:
- Initial Thoughts: What stood out to you from these passages or from the sermon?
- Communion Looks Back: Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper during Passover and gives the meal its fullest meaning in His own sacrifice.
- How does the rescue in Exodus 12 help us understand Jesus as the true and better Passover Lamb?
- The first Passover families were rescued because an innocent substitute died in their place. How does that truth humble us and deepen our gratitude for the cross?
- Communion Speaks Now: Jesus calls the cup the new covenant in His blood, assuring believers of grace secured by Him rather than earned by us.
- What present realities does Communion declare over a person who trusts Christ?
- What is the difference between coming to the table because we had a good week and coming because Jesus is a perfect Savior?
- Communion Redirects Our Memory: Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of me,” inviting us to let His finished work interpret our failures and fears.
- What memories of failure, regret, or shame most often compete for your attention?
- How can confession be honest without allowing shame to have the final word?
- Communion Looks Forward: Paul says that at the table we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
- How does the promised return of Jesus turn Communion into an act of hope?
APPLY – Come to the Table Honestly and Hopefully
Communion is reverent and sobering, but it is not hopeless; it centers us on Christ’s finished work.
- Look Back with Gratitude: Name one aspect of Jesus’ sacrifice for which you want to thank Him today.
- Receive Grace in the Present: Is there sin to confess or guilt you need to release by trusting in what Jesus has done?
- Look Forward with Hope: Where does the promise that Jesus will return bring courage to your life right now?
RESPOND
These prompts can be used for prayer and introspection. Discuss them together or invite everyone to reflect on them throughout the week.
- Self-Reflect: When I approach Communion, am I hiding, performing, pretending, or honestly looking to Jesus?
- Challenge: Before the next celebration of Communion, reread Luke 22:14-20 and prepare your heart through gratitude, confession, and hope.
GROUP PRAYER
Pray Together as a Group
Pray:
- Our Passover Lamb: Thank Jesus for His body given and His blood poured out for us.
- Honest Confession: Confess where you have trusted your own goodness or rehearsed your shame more than Christ’s grace.
- Present Grace: Ask the Spirit to help the group receive Christ’s forgiveness and extend grace to one another.
- Future Hope: Praise Jesus for the promise that He will return and make all things new.
CLOSING
Close by repeating this good news together: Christ died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Encourage anyone who is unsure what it means to trust Jesus to speak with the group leader or a pastor.
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Looking for a message-based study guide from a previous week? Find that here.