Breaking The Law

In one paragraph

Brian walked through two back-to-back stories from Matthew 12, the disciples picking grain on the Sabbath and the healing of the man with the withered hand, using them as a window into what happens when people spend real time with Jesus rather than just keeping religious rules. The throughline was the image of new wine and a new wineskin, a theme Tribe has been sitting with through the end of the...

Read together

1. Matthew 12:1-14 primary passage read aloud and discussed throughout the sermon
2. Revelation 12:10-11 read by a congregation member to connect Satan's role as accuser to the Pharisees accusing the disciples

Talk about it

1. Brian described the Pharisees as people whose wineskin had no flexibility to contain the freedom Jesus was modeling. Where in your own life have you noticed a religious rule or expectation that seemed more important to someone than the actual person in front of them?
2. One person in the room said that spending time with Jesus led the disciples to walk freely through that wheat field in a way their old religious training never would have allowed. Can you think of a moment when being close to Jesus changed how you saw a situation, not because you studied harder but because something shifted in you?
3. Brian drew a connection between the accuser in Revelation 12 and the voice that tells us we are not worthy to walk in freedom. What does that voice tend to say to you personally, and how do you respond to it?
4. Brian shared that he is less moved by how much someone knows about Jesus and more moved by evidence that someone has actually spent time with Jesus. What does a transformed life look like to you in someone you know, and what do you think produced that transformation?
5. Brian offered a list of books, podcasts and films that have stretched his wineskin over the last couple of years. Has anything you have read, watched or heard recently challenged something you thought you already had figured out about faith? What happened when it did?