1. Which of the three things Jesus promises for his disciples in this passage (his Victory, his Intimacy, his Jubilee) are the most difficult for you to believe and experience? With which of them are you most familiar? Why?
2. Can you explain the “already/not-yet” dynamic of the Christian experience? Do you think you tend to live your day-to-day life more conscious of the “already,” or of the “not-yet”? Why?
3 Why is it so important to understand that “the Father himself loves you”? What’s wrong with saying “God loves you because Christ died for you”?
4. Do you have difficulty with the idea of experiencing intimacy with an invisible God? What do you think of Pastor Andy’s claim that our intimacy problem is not so much God’s invisibility as our iniquity? How does Jesus solve that problem and offer us his own intimacy with the Father?
5. Thinking back to the already/not-yet dynamic: Do you think your Christian life has a healthy combination of honest sorrows resulting from our broken world, and unspeakable joy in the knowledge that Jesus has won the victory and given us the Father’s intimacy?
6. What is God saying to you? What are you going to do about it? Who do you need to help you?