Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group Leader podcast. This weekly conversation is designed to equip and resource youth to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practices spiritual rhythms, and changes the world together. Welcome to the Life Group Leader podcast. We are closing out our teaching series called From the Cross where we have been looking at the words of Jesus that he shared from the cross.
It's been a powerful and profound series, and we are gonna wrap it up this week as it is now Palm Sunday and into Holy Week, of course as we approach Easter. And so while it's a six week series, we've been looking at seven sayings, and this week we're gonna cover two sayings. So Jeremy, why don't you give us just a quick overview on the two sayings, and then let's spend a minute talking about this lean in question today. Sure, so this week we look at both the saying from the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Luke.
So in John's Gospel, the text we have today, 1930, kind of references back to last week in the sour wine, and after taking the sour wine, Jesus says, it is finished, bouse his head and gives up his spirit. And Luke describes this scene where before breathing his last breath, Jesus says, father, into your hands, I untrust my spirit. So it is finished and giving his spirit back to the Father. So we have this really powerful, very final moments before his death and kind of a willingly laying down his life for his friends as he mentioned in John as well.
So it's a powerful way to lean into Holy Week. Well, yes, and it does lean us into this first question here because there's no way of getting around the reality that this is a heavier topic, it is the literal death of Jesus. And so when we talk about in that first question, have you ever been with someone as they died? And if so, what thoughts or feelings did you experience?
Jeremy, just what are you hoping to kind of get us to in this opening kind of, this leaning question? This is a question that given the context of where we are, both in this passage and in the church calendar, this is obviously a heavy question. And the leader note clarifies reminds leaders be sensitive, be discerning of kind of where people are in your group. But the point here is twofold one, just to remind us that before we can celebrate the very real and literal resurrection of Easter, that Jesus had to die a very real and literal death.
And so this is, it's easy for this to kind of become an abstract theological point of Jesus died from my sins. He resurrected, therefore I can experience new life. But that not only is that reality, that's theologically true, but it is very literally and historically true. And so to put us in this place of empathizing with those who were theirs, Jesus literally died.
And while being with someone in their final moments is certainly difficult and painful for many of us who have been with a loved one or someone in their final moments, there's also something very profound and often very moving and meaningful that we keep with us for the rest of our lives. And so often that they can be traumatic, it's certainly always difficult to lose somebody, but there's often something very deep in moving in those final moments that if someone would like to share something like that, it could really open us up and put us in a position to really look at this text within that very human context. That's right. There's a very high potential here that this opening question is gonna usher in some vulnerability and probably a somberness to the opening discussion.
And so I think as a leader, it's just important for us to approach this conversation with that being a possibility. Jeremy, are there any other ways that our leaders could be prepared as they are getting ready for, particularly this discussion as we close up the series? It's always a good idea to come prepared with your own answers to any questions. So if you as a leader maybe have experienced something like this leaning question, if you have kind of an experience of your own that you could share that either conserve and setting the table for discussion, so to speak, or setting the mood for others to follow, I would point out that this lean in question and this kind of reflective attitude for this final week is we always want in a final week of a series to think back over the series.
So as a leader, it's good to go back and look at the previous five weeks, look at the things we've discussed, maybe things your group members have shared if you've been keeping notes on your leader guide or somewhere, maybe a journal or in your Bible. Look back over the past week, think about what God has shown you and be prepared to lead people in a discussion that looks back not only at this week, but at this whole series as a way to reflect and prepare for Easter specifically. I couldn't agree more, I think every series end gives us a chance to just lift our head up, think back to where we were at the beginning of the series, in this case six weeks ago, God does a lot in six weeks, and it's worth identifying those things and celebrating where appropriate, giving Him glory and praise for what He has done. But it's also a good way for us as a group to track through the places where we are continuously having an opportunity to walk alongside each other in the reality of life.
And so it doesn't necessarily mean that God's gonna heal, restore all things in six weeks, but we can pause and we can go, yeah, I'm still waiting on that, I'm still praying for that. Occasionally as life groups, we can lose the invitation for some depth because we just sort of assume, yeah, everybody knows I'm still going through that. Well, we might forget occasionally. And so this is a good opportunity to go, hey, I remember a few weeks ago, you had mentioned that thing that you're going through.
How's that going? And this just allows us to continue to be involved in each other's lives. So Jeremy, as we then look at these two passages, how would you recommend we kind of navigate walking through the two different phrases in our discussion this week? How they linked, is there anything unique that we need to get pulled from each?
Both the sayings of Jesus and the final description of his action are significant. That's kind of what ties them together. As we mentioned, these are both the final words recorded before he gives up his life. And so you see in both of these passages, there's some questions related to the fact that one Jesus has finished the work that he's come to do.
He's come to the end of his physical life here before his death. We know that resurrection is coming, but he's finished the redemptive work that he has come to accomplish through this death on the cross. And then we see after the it is finished and after into your hands, I commit my spirit. So there's an awareness that what he's doing is significant.
This is not an unexpected traumatic event that's been forced upon him. He's willingly come into this situation as painful and as real as it is. But then you see not only this declaration, this announcement that he has finished the work and he is returning as the perfectly obedient son of God. He's returning his spirit, trusting his spirit to the Father.
But then we see that it says he then he breathes his last where he bows his head so that even entering death, there's both the very, very real physicality of it. Then there's also this awareness that what he's doing matters and that up until this final moment, no one is taking his life from him, as he said earlier to Pilate, no one can take my life, but I freely give it up and lay it down. So there's that sense of as fully God and fully man that up until his final moments, he's aware of his ministry and that he is willingly laying his life down. Yeah, I've always loved in this passage that it really being a powerful point of conversation, like what is it that is actually finished?
And there's a whole lot of places that you can go with that. There's a ton of depth to it. But I tend to find the most comfort in it being the power and principalities of darkness, the evil that entered into our world in Genesis chapter three, that's what's finished. Now that does not mean that all pain and suffering goes away immediately, but it does mean that for eternity, for those of us who believe that pain and suffering is now in fact temporary.
And so there's such comfort in that even if, we pray like we just had extended prayer this past weekend where we're praying for people that they would be healed, restored, relieved of whatever the circumstance is, but then the other side of it, even if he doesn't, the courage and the faith to hold onto its temporary and it is actually finished. And it was finished 2000 years ago, but it will be felt for all eternity on the other side of this life. It's a paradox, it's complicated to hang onto and yet I find such a great comfort in that. And that's really what I'm praying for in our discussions this week.
Yeah, that's exactly where the look in leads the conversation is after looking at the text is to identify with how do Jesus words, it is finished, applied to our own lives. And so like you mentioned, the powers, we mentioned, do you feel any relief, guilt, or gentle rebuke, what ways are you living in fear on certainty, pride? So both the negative, both what we could see as negative and positive to where on the negative side, sin, suffering, all those effects, those are ultimately finished and are temporary and will one day be ultimately dealt with and set aside on the other side, which is still a sign of brokenness, the positive things that we try to do to earn God's favor, to try to feel like, okay, if I do this, then God will be pleased with me. If I can do this, then I will, kind of the self-righteousness, even in our best intentions, the things that we try to do to strive to earn both God's favor and live for other people's favor and approval, that ultimately all of that is taken care of in the work of Christ on the cross in His coming resurrection.
So there is that time for us to reflect on, what does it mean for it to be finished? How does that apply to our own lives right now? So I love that you brought that up. Well, as we close up this series, there is a point of hope and that hope is that Easter is coming.
So yes, the cross is, it's a beautiful thing for us to reflect on and to make part of our Easter preparation. That's partly what Good Friday is as well. Good Friday is a dedicated service for us to meditate on the pain and suffering that was endured for us. And when we do that, when we take time on Good Friday, or as we will do in this week's discussion, it will make the victory and the beauty of Easter all the sweeter, all the greater.
And so, even as we approach Easter, I'm very hopeful that people will consider those in their life that need hope now more than ever. And Easter being the truth, the story, the account of our living Jesus, the greatest hope of all time. I would encourage all of us to just consider who needs Easter in your life and what would it look like for you to invite them? At all of our congregations, we have so many service opportunities for people to come and really experience the beauty of Easter together.
So I'd encourage you to do that. And then Jeremy, as we approach Easter, this brand new series, do you wanna give us just a brief like, where are we heading with the Galatian series as a quick teaser in this podcast? Well, where we're headed is a perfect time to what we just discussed as far as the aid is finished and what that means, that in the study of Galatians, that we're gonna kick off in Easter, that people, all of us, we tend to drift towards self-sufficiency, self-righteousness, striving to prove our own worth even spiritually, trying to be a good Christian, a good church member, whatever, and this is nothing new. So this is not a 21st century problem, that this was a great struggle for the Christians in Galatia and they were tempted to doubt that it is finished.
There's still more that I need to do. And so we were gonna see the Apostle Paul reminding the church in Galatia, the Christians in Galatia, and therefore us as well, that the work of Christ is sufficient and what it looks like to live out now, this new life as followers of Jesus and those who have his spirit within us, what does that day to day life look like? I'm really looking forward to it, this invitation to rest, the name of the series is going to be, I believe in antidote to so many people this year who are just trying to achieve and earn and run harder at trying to make themselves better. It's like, actually, there's this beautiful invitation to rest that comes from knowing Jesus.
And so next week, we'll be back with a new episode as we kick off a new series, and we're gonna have a new host. We have a new friend coming on in here, her name is Kirby Wood, you know her, you love her, she's our group's pastor at Mariner's Irvine, and really oversees all of Rooted and Life Groups. And I'm so excited to see what Kirby does with this leader podcast, I know that myself, and Jeremy and some others are gonna come through this thing as well, we'll still be a part of it. But we're looking forward to seeing the kind of the stamp that she puts on this thing.
And so next week, new podcast, we also have Eric Geiger joining us to give us an overview of that series. But for this one, leaders, we are grateful for you. We're praying for you. I hope that this final discussion of the series from the cross goes well.
We are really praying for another week of breakthrough as we close out the series and head towards Easter. So have a great week, and we will see you next time.