There Must Be A Difference

1 Peter 3:15-16

February 26-27, 2011

Getting Started

1.   The people Peter was writing to came to follow Jesus out of a culture that worshipped many gods and was very different from the Christian life.  In what ways do you share experiences today with those 1^st century Christians?

2.   Peter expected followers of Jesus to be different from those around them who did not know God.  In what ways are you different than those who don’t know God around you?  In what ways are you the same?  Where you are the same, should you be different?

3.   It isn’t likely we’ll get asked why we have so much hope (v15).  What kinds of questions have you been asked because of your relationship with Jesus?  How did you answer?

4.   Has there ever been a time when you were falsely accused of something you did not do?  Describe it.  How did you respond?  Rate your response in light of Peter’s instruction to “do this with gentleness and respect”. (v. 16)

Going Deeper

5.   A.W. Tozer described God as a person who “thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may.”  What is your initial response to this picture of God?  In what ways does this picture conflict with your own understanding or experience of God?  Why?

6.   In what ways can we seek to know God?  Be specific and describe ways to nurture relationship with God.  Why do you think these ways can sometimes grow “stale”?

7.   What words do you think of when you think of God?  Take a moment and turn all of your words into pictures that show what God is like instead of just abstractly describing his nature.  What do these “pictures” look like?