Matthew 16:21-27
Lead in #1: In Matthew 16, Jesus levels with his disciples. He tells them flat out, “What lays ahead for me in Jerusalem will not end well.” Peter will hear none of it, “God forbid that anything like that should happen to you.” Jesus then rebukes Peter, “Get behind me Satan. You are an obstacle to me.”
Prompt #1: Reflect on a time when, in your effort to control how you thought things should be, you were in fact an obstacle in the way of what God wanted them to be.
Lead in #2: In Matthew 16, after speaking of his pending fate in Jerusalem, Jesus does not sugarcoat it with his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
Prompt #2: Consider your life the way it is now. What is the cross that you are being called to carry?
Lead in #3: In Matthew 16, Jesus also names a paradox that is hard to accept, “Whoever saves his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Prompt #3: Does your experience of life tell you that this is true? Can you think of a time when you tried to save your life, but you lost it?
Prompt #4: Can you think of a time when you were willing to lose your life for the sake of another, and in the process found something way bigger than what you sacrificed?
Lead in #4: I’ve heard discipleship described this way, that it means we are not in the driver’s seat, Jesus is.
Prompt #5: If there were any place in your life where it is hard to let Jesus be in the driver’s seat, where would that be?
Lead in #5: In Romans 12, Paul appeals to us, “Do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your minds.”
Prompt #6: What do you think it means to not conform yourself to this age, but to be transformed by the renewal of your minds?
Lead in #6: After Jesus called out Peter, “Get behind me Satan”, he went to work on the disciples. The Message Translation puts it this way, “Anyone who intends to come with me must let me take the lead. Follow me and I’ll show you how.”
Prompt #7: Give an example in your life where you need to let Jesus take the lead.