HOW TO USE THIS DISCUSSION GUIDEAs you lead the discussion, we follow a discipleship framework that helps move us from learning to transformation: Head → Heart → Hands → Share → Check-In
Leader Reminder: There are multiple questions in each section. Leaders should prepare ahead of time and use discernment to choose the questions that best serve their group. The goal of this discussion is not just conversation but transformation. Encourage participation, honesty, and practical obedience.
ICE BREAKER
- What is the farthest you have ever traveled from home? What do you remember most about the experience?
- If you could spend a week anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
- Have you ever tried to communicate with someone when you did not share the same language? How did it go?
SERMON RECAP
In Acts 1:8, Jesus reveals how He intends to advance His kingdom: through His people. He takes ordinary people, fills them with the power of the Holy Spirit, and sends them as His witnesses. The Spirit does more than equip us for a task—He transforms us as we encounter the living Jesus. As the gospel changes us from the inside out, our lives begin to turn outward. What we have received begins to overflow as we tell others what Jesus has done, and His kingdom spreads from where He has placed us to the ends of the earth.
The gospel that comes to us is meant to flow through us. Jesus sends His people to our neighbors and communities, across cultural barriers, and to people around the world who have not yet heard His name. He has entrusted His mission to His church, so the question is not whether we participate, but how. The invitation is to lift our eyes, ask God to enlarge our hearts for the nations, and prayerfully consider our part—through praying, giving, going, and living as witnesses wherever He sends us.
SCRIPTURE
READ: Acts 1:8
HEAD
What does the scripture show?
- What words or phrases stand out to you in Acts 1:8? What questions does this verse raise for you?
- What does Jesus’ promise and commission in this verse teach us about Him and His purposes?
- What role does Jesus give His disciples? What does this reveal about how He sees us?
- What do Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth show us about the scope of Jesus’ mission?
HEART
What do we believe?
- What does it mean to you that Jesus chooses ordinary people like us to participate in advancing His kingdom?
- Where have you experienced the Holy Spirit changing you as you have encountered Jesus? Where do you need His transforming power now?
- As Jesus changes us, He turns our lives outward. Where do you see that happening in you? Where do you sense Him wanting to enlarge your heart for others?
HANDS
Practice Together in Community
- What is one thing God is inviting you to believe, do, or change because of this passage?
- Where is God inviting you to participate more intentionally in His mission right now? What could one step of obedience look like?
- The sermon invited us to ask, “Lord, what would You have me do?” Take a few quiet moments to ask Him that question. How might He be inviting you to pray, give, go, or share?
Complete this sentence: "This week, I will live out this sermon by ____________________."
SHARE: MISSION
Living Out the Message This Week
Who will you share this takeaway with this week?
Who will you intentionally pray for this week?
NEXT WEEK CHECK-IN
Encourage the group to return next week ready to share how they practiced the HANDS step and how they lived out the SHARE: MISSION step.
PRAYER
- Thank Jesus for saving us, transforming us, filling us with His Spirit, and sending us as His witnesses.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to enlarge our hearts for people.
- Pray for people around the world with little or no access to the gospel, asking God to raise up and send witnesses to them.
- Ask God to show each person—and your group together—how to participate joyfully and sacrificially in His mission, from where He has placed you to the ends of the earth.
OTHER SCRIPTURE
Matthew 28:18–20, 1 Thessalonians 1:5–8, Mark 15:6–15; John 19:30