Next ‘09 | Small Groups

“Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways.  In these last days, He has spoken to us through His Son, whom He has appointed her of all things and through whom He made the universe.”  –Hebrews 1:1-2

Rarely will you pour your heart out to a stranger.  When I was assigned to my Next ‘09 small group, I was in a circle of strangers.  There were a few groups with other members of my church, but in my group, I was probably the only person there outside the Virginia/Maryland area.  And yet, when we began discussing Christ–His preeminence, His humility and His sufficiency–I found it rather easy to speak up in the group.  When you have Christ in common, geography and familiarity do not matter.  God showed me in those sessions the truth of those two verses above.  In these last days, He has spoken to us through His Son.  We all know the same Jesus.

Small groups benefit Christians where the messages cannot.  Preachers can teach the principle of Scripture and offer some application from the pulpit.  But daily application of the gospel is personal.  Not everyone is in the same season of life as the minister on stage.  Some may hear his words for the first time while others think about his words with a new perspective.  And some, who know the Scriptures and have sat under sound teaching for many years, may have wisdom even the speaker needs to learn.  To keep the application personal but true to the words, you need fellowship.  You need small groups.

So over the four days I spent in Baltimore, I heard all kinds of stories from people I didn’t know.  I ate with a man who attended a university I never heard of and can no longer recall the name of.  I even found a couple of people who were like twins of people at my church, in both appearance and in personality.  From those small groups, I learned three chief points:

1) Christ is preeminent and your existence depends on Him - Don Carson had a great suggestion in his session about the Lord’s incarnation.  Whenever you have those conversations where non-Christians want you to “back off,” simply say, “I don’t mean to be rude and I don’t mean to be pushy, but He made you and you owe Him.”  When we spoke about Colossians 1 in small group and the verse that says, “all things have been created through Him and for Him,” we all explored the depths of this truth.  The worship song says, “It’s all because of Jesus I’m alive.”  Spiritually and physically, this is true.  It is through Christ that the Lord made and upholds the universe.  You are not your own and your life needs to be one of worship.

2) Jesus is like a black hole – We normally don’t use this comparison because normally black holes, or anything associated with “darkness,” are considered bad.  But a black hole isn’t an evil anomaly in space.  It is matter compressed into so small a space that it bends time and space.  Nothing can escape its gravity.  For Jesus to become man, it was like compressing the universe into the size of a proton.  A black hole isn’t that big in diameter or size.  But it has power.  And this is our Jesus.  He had no appearance that we should look upon Him, but His life , death, resurrection and ascension testify to His power.

3) Blessed are the poor in spirit - Sometimes, our temptation is to doubt God.  Our last small group discussed Hebrews 9, which says, “But now He has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”  Whereas the priests of old needed constant sacrifice, Jesus Christ has died once for our sins.  Our transgressions are many but the atonement is once. If He needed to die only once for millions of believers, His pricelessness, His worth, His mercy, His glory can cover anything.  As it is written, “I greatly rejoice in the Lord, I exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom wears a turban and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10).

Tags'09, 2009, application, David, Next, Preeminence, small groups, Wells