CONNECT: What one thing can you do this advent to help grow your confidence in Jesus?

WARM-UP  Question

1. What is the best ‘we’re expecting a child’ announcement that you’ve ever heard?

READ Luke 1:26-33 (IDENTITY)

1. Can you identify all of the various ways in which this announcement parallels that of John the Baptist?
2. Why do you think Luke wants us to see the similarities? What are the key ways in which they differ?
3. What are the various descriptors or titles that are assigned to Jesus? What do they each mean?
4. If someone ‘Facebook announced’ that the child they were expecting was “great and will be called Son of the Most High and that the Lord will give him the throne of his father David to reign forever” how would you respond? Just how big of a deal are these claims?
5. How is the news that Jesus is our forever king of a forever kingdom such good news for us today? How does the meaning of Jesus’ name point to how we get to be part of this permanent good news?

READ Luke 1:34-37 (ORIGIN)

1. Have you ever had difficulty in accepting the account of Jesus’ origin? Why do you think that is the case? What gives you confidence that it might actually be true?
2. Why do you think people have so much difficulty accepting the virgin birth even above other miracles?
3. The claim of the virgin birth was a part of the earliest claims of Christianity. What can give us confidence that Luke got his facts straight? Why is it unlikely that Mary would ever want to lie about this?
4. How does Jesus being conceived by the Holy Spirit differ to Greco-Roman myths of the time?
5. Why was it necessary for Jesus to be conceived in this way? Why new line does this open up for us?
6. Does this therefore mean that Mary must have been a perpetual virgin or sinless?

READ Luke 1:38 (RESPONSE)

1. How does Mary’s response compare to Zechariah's? How hard would this news have been for her?
2. Can you think of a time in which you had to obey God even when it was hard or when you didn’t understand or when others might ridicule you? What helps you to submit in obedience to God’s will?

APPLY: What is one aspect this week that you can grow in humble obedience to God?

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On Your Frontline This Week: As you make plans for Christmas, what opportunities in your parties and celebrations is there to point to Jesus?

Listen:

• “The Deity of Jesus” by Tim Keller
• “Virgin Birth” by Dick Lucas
• “First Noel” with John Dickson
• “The Reach is Eternal” by William Taylor

Read

• “Is the Virgin Birth Essential” by Keven deYoung
• “The Virgin Birth (Again)”
• “Truth in the Story of Christmas” by John Dickson:
  

Other Helpful Resources (For Series):

• “Hidden Christmas” by Tim Keller
• The Bible Project on Luke

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