Experience S2 - End of Week 5

INTRODUCTION
The following is a guide to help facilitate discussion between you and the person you’re studying with or with your Connect Group. Feel free to add, subtract, or change questions to fit the conversation, and pray for the Spirit to lead in all things.

OPEN QUESTIONS
Share about a risk that you took in your life and what that risk was like?  It might have been skydiving or bungee-jumping, or getting married, having kids, or sharing Jesus with a friend.

HEAD

1. Read Acts 17: 16-34, and share any wisdom, insight, thoughts or impressions that come to you through the reading of the Word.
2. What lessons can you learn from the time Paul spent wandering through the town of Athens and observing their culture?
3. Again, Paul went first to the Jews in this area to reason with them.  Why do you think he did this before going into the marketplace?
4. Notice that in Acts 17:18, Paul has a debate with some of the Epicureans and Stoics, but they wanted to hear more from him.  How do you think Paul debated in such a way that he didn’t get shut down or forced to leave, but instead, they wanted to hear more?
5. Paul first speaks to them about how religious they are, and talks to them about their authors, even offering them praise.  Why might this be an important first step in sharing the gospel with others?
6. Do you think Paul’s time was wasted because he only reached some?  Discuss your thoughts on this idea.

HEART

1. Paul saw things in Athens that deeply troubled him and motivated him to want to share the good news of Jesus Christ.  What kinds of things do you observe in our world, our culture, that make you want to share that same good news?
2. Where are some of the places we can go, or some of the conversations we can have, to learn more about the world around us in hopes to connect those things with the gospel?
3. How do you think we could change our approach to evangelism within our faith tradition and churches, in light of Paul’s approach in Acts 17?
4. When people reject you or laugh at you for what you believe in, how do you cope?  What can you do to remind yourself why you’re sharing in the first place?

HANDS
This week, be on the lookout to find the gospel store in the world around you; be it through a movie, a television show, the news, nature, a conversation with a friend, a song on the radio, etc…. When you hear or see that connection, think of sharing it with a friend who might be curious about what your insight, or someone you think whose heart might be open, even if just a crack, to know more about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

LIVING WORDS FOR YOUR WEEK
“7 He replied, ‘The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’”
Acts of the Apostles 1:7-8 NLT