CELL NOTES 23/6/08

ICE BREAKER

What has been the best, and the most difficult moment for you, over the last month?

THEME

Cry freedom

Readings Luke 10 : 17 – 24

                2 Thes 3 : 1 – 5

SERMON OUTLINE

There was no sermon as such on Sunday – as we had a shortened service, to enable people to take part in the Totley Festival. However, the theme for the day ( and preached on in the evening) revolved around the “Deliver us from evil” phrase (or more exactly in translation, “from the evil one”) in the Lord’s Prayer.

Both the readings refer to Satan, or the evil one, as a distinct entity. Jesus, of course, did battle with Satan immediately after His baptism, and in a whole host of ways took the devil seriously as an opponent, not just as a vague absence of goodness.

The Bible does so throughout – starting with the serpent at the beginning of Genesis, and finishing with colossal conflict in Revelation.

When Jesus cried, “it is finished” from the cross, most commentators believe this had to do with the victorious end to a battle with Satan.

QUESTIONS OF APPLICATION

1) Read the passages and the notes above. Any reactions or comments?

2) When have you felt like a lamb among wolves ( Luke 10 : 3)? What did you learn from the experience?

3) C S Lewis commented that in relation to the devil we are likely to fall into one of two errors: either to take an unhealthy interest in him, or dismiss him as being an irrelevant medieval idea?  Are you liable to fall into either of these? What is a healthy, Biblical, view of the devil?

4) How would you respond to an invitation to a séance, to hear a spiritualist speak, have your palm read or something similar? What is the relation of those things to this topic? ( See Deut. 18 ; 9 – 13)