3 Lessons about Life in Light of Death | Luke 12:13-34

Life is about more than stuff and survival. It’s about seeking the Kingdom of God.

Discussion Starters

Since a new small group is starting this week, I wrote more questions than usual. This is to give more options. Choose which questions you think will help develop the most fruitful scriptural conversation.

1. Take some time to catch up with one another, and pray for God to open your eyes, ears and heart to his word.
2. If the only information you had about your Facebook friends came from their Facebook posts, what would you think their lives are about?
3. If the only information your Facebook friends had about you came from your Facebook posts, what would they think your life is about?
4. Read the “Clean Text” version of Luke 12:13-34 together. (You can find this at the bottom of this post. Leaders will need to print copies beforehand.) With the headings and verse numbers removed, you might get a different perspective of what could be a familiar passage.
5. What is your initial impression? What seem to be the major themes?
6. If you were to break the passage into subdivisions, how would you do it?
7. If you were to summarize the teaching in this passage into one or two sentences, how would you do it?
8. In your Bibles, read Luke 12:13-21 together. What is the fundamental idea Jesus is trying to convey to the crowd in response to the man in verse 13?
9. In the parable, what exactly did the “rich man” do wrong?
10. Read Luke 12:22-31 together. What point is Jesus trying to get across to his disciples?
11. Work together to pull out all the reasons disciples should not be anxious about their lives.
12. Read Luke 12:32-34 together. What is the big idea Jesus is trying to convey here?
13. Is verse 33 a command for us to obey? Why or why not? What other scriptures can shed light on this question?
14. Based on this passage as a whole, what does it mean to “seek his kingdom”?
15. How does Jesus’ teaching in this passage challenge you?
16. Which ‘character’ in the passage do you most relate to: the man in the crowd, a member of the crowd, the rich man in the parable or one of the disciples? Why?
17. What are some practical steps we can take in obedience to what we’ve studied here? As individuals? As families? As a small group? As a church?
18. Pray together in response to this passage.

“Clean Text” of Luke 12:13-34

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.