Roadmap for Life - Promise - 1 Peter 1: 3-9 (Small Group Study)

Small Group Study, week commencing 26th July.

Click here for a PDF version of these questions.

Opener

1. If you were a guest on Desert Island Discs, what music would you choose? And why?

Read 1 Peter 1:3-9.

Study

2. In verse 3, Peter writes about two turning points: the historical turning point of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and the personal turning point of new birth. What do these turning points have in common? Does God’s Roadmap for Life make much sense without accepting them?

3. Most of the Roadmap for Life series has been about the actual journey we are on now, not so much the destination. What, according to Peter, should be our experience of life now? What should we do if our actual experience doesn’t match Peter’s description of the Christian life (e.g. if you are not experiencing “inexpressible and glorious joy”)? See verse 6 and Psalm 30:5 for one suggestion.

4. What images come to your mind when you think about heaven?

5. C. S. Lewis wrote, “There is no need to be worried by facetious people who try to make the Christian hope of ‘Heaven’ ridiculous by saying they do not want to “spend eternity playing harps.” The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them.” What is the purpose of the images we read in the Bible about the future life (e.g. crowns and harps)? What picture do they paint?

6. What are you looking forward to about heaven?

Prayer

Spend some time giving thanks to God for the “inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”