Peeps | Week 1
Week One: Peeps Discussion Guide
Series Overview:
In this series, we see different people encounter Jesus at their lowest point. All of them had chosen to follow Jesus and saw him killed. All that would change. Their greatest defeat would become their and our greatest victory. Their story is our story. Many people, one sweet Story.
Sermon Overview:
Two Pharisees reluctantly followed Jesus at a distance. They knew he was from God and knew his teachings were different and better. Eventually, they would have to make a stand and because they did, Nick and Joe saved Easter.
Getting Started:
There are two sides to this debate, with no grey area in between.
Do you love or loath peeps marshmallow treats?
When it comes to the resurrection, the debate is just as polarizing.
Why is the resurrection so important to believers?
Read: 1 Corinthians 15:13-14
For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.
Digging Deeper:
For the Peeps in this week’s part of the resurrection story, everything they had believed was being challenged.
Read John 3:1-2
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Nicodemus and Joseph were both Pharisees that had heard Jesus' teaching and seen him doing miracles.
They didn’t just discard him but became curious about him, so Nicodemus, representing the few who did not discard Jesus, went to talk to Jesus to gain more understanding.
Of course, Nick went at night, so the other Pharisees did not see him talking to Jesus.
Read John 3:3-6
“Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely, they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
2. How did Jesus’ answer challenge Nick’s life?
The Pharisees believed that the way to go to heaven was by keeping the rules and doing what was right. If you did more good than bad, then you got to go to heaven.
The Pharisees actually believed they were perfect at being good.
3. Does this false idea of how to get to heaven still exist in the church and/or the worldview today?
4. Has there ever been a time when what you believed was challenged, and you had to change the way you think?
Read Luke 23:50-51
Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. He had not consented to their decision and deed. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God.
5. The decision and deed Joseph did not agree to was the crucifixion of Jesus.
Less is known about why and how Joseph came to follow Jesus secretly.
He is recorded in all 4 gospels…
He is mentioned in 34 verses in the Bible.
He and Nicodemus shared their passion for Jesus.
Read John 19:38-39
Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.
6. From the message, what do you remember was the usual practice for discarding the bodies of those crucified?
7. Why was it so unusual that Joseph went straight to Pilate to ask for the body, and how did this move Nick and Joe from secret followers to public followers of Jesus?
8. What did Joseph, Nicodemus, and the rest of the world believe would happen now that Jesus was dead?
Read John 19:39-40
Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.
9. Why was this Jewish burial custom important to the truth of the resurrection?
10. How did Nick and Joe, by their faith, save Easter?
NEXTSTEP:
Read John 3:13-16
No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
What are you counting on to get you to heaven? Does it match up with the truth that Jesus gave Nicodemus about going to heaven?