MANOR PARK CHRISTIAN CENTRE

CARE CELL GROUP BIBLE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

“The Call & The Cost Of Following Christ”
SCRIPTURE: Philippians 1:27-30
When we accept Christ’s free offer of salvation, there is a price to pay and a cost that is involved. We
don’t have to do anything to earn our salvation. That is a free gift. But there is a price to pay and a cost
involved in being a follower of Jesus. The cost is not in fine print! In fact, Jesus spoke about it openly
with His disciples and warned them that they would suffer and face persecution as a result of their faith in
Him (see Matthew 5:11-12; 10:17-20). In Philippians 1:27-30 we are reminded as believers of the call
and the cost of following Christ.

1. As believers we are called to “stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith
of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). What is “the faith of the gospel”?

Notes: See John 3:16

“stand firm” = to refuse to retreat from the call of Christ
“in one spirit, contending as one man” = in striving together there is strength
when we are united around Christ’s call; One person can put 1,000 to flight but
two people can put 10,000 to flight!

2. Jesus said that the most important of God’s commandments is this: “Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your
strength” (NIV, Mark 12:30). Loving Him in this way means loving the things that He
loves. So what is it that Jesus loves the most? In regards to Jesus’ call to us as believers,
what implications does “what Jesus loves the most” have for us, knowing that Jesus lives
within us by His Spirit?

Notes: See Luke 19:10; 2 Peter 3:9; 1 John 4:10

See Matthew 4:19; 28:19, 20
The evidence that Jesus is our first love and that we have a passion for Him is that
we will love those for whom Jesus gave His life. The reason that those first
believers and followers of Jesus Christ suffered and were persecuted, and the
reason that many believers and followers of Jesus Christ are suffering and are
being persecuted today, is because they were, or are, fulfilling Jesus’ call and
loving the lost.

3. The Apostle Paul had paid the price for loving as Christ loves and for sharing the
Good News with those who were lost. Now the believers in Philippi were starting to pay
the price for their commitment to the things of Christ (see Philippians 1:30). So why is
there suffering and persecution for the things that Christ loves and for having a passion for
sharing the Good News with others?

Notes: See Ephesians 6:12; 2 Corinthians 4:4

The god of this age—Satan, or the devil, has blinded people to the fact that the
purpose in Jesus Christ’s coming was not to condemn them, but to save them
from condemnation (see John 3:17-20).

4. From whom, and in what ways, can we as believers have opposition and persecution?
 Notes: See Matthew 10:34-38; Acts 9:1, 2; 16:19-24
God’s Word says that persistent opposition to Christ and to believers who are
committed to doing the things that Christ did is a sure sign of eventual destruction,
since it involves the rejection of the only way of salvation. But by the same token,
when Christian believers are persecuted for their faith, this is also a sign of the
genuineness of their salvation (see Philippians 1:28).

5. How, or in what ways, can God turn opposition and persecution around for His own glory?

Notes: See Genesis 50:20

For example, as a result of the persecution of believers in China during the 30
years of the Cultural Revolution, church buildings, along with every ministry and
programme and way of doing things which was associated with what was traditionally
thought of as making up a church, were stripped away! Many missionaries who were
forced to leave, thought that it might spell the end of the growth of the church in China.
But God used the suffering and persecution to start a new beginning—a church more
patterned after the New Testament church, which grew by “underground” cell groups by
leaps and bounds!
For example, a Hindu father and mother disowned their son after He became a believer
and follower of Jesus Christ. But when the young man got a job, he felt led to go back
home and give his first paycheque to his parents. This broke through the hardness of their
hearts, and as a result, they too became believers in Christ.
For example, there is a story of a whole family of believers who were rounded up and put
in a hole in the ground which had been dug as their grave. As the soldiers began to shoot
and kill them, they sang hymns to the Lord. As a result, many of those same soldiers gave
their lives to Jesus Christ and later told the story about this family.

6. What might be the personal implications of the price—the cost for us as believers in being
followers of Jesus Christ in regards to:
a) making Jesus Christ the first love of our lives—not allowing anything else to take His
place?
b) persecution and suffering from others—government, family, people in the workplace, in
the neighbourhood?
c) the cost of unconditionally loving others, even loving our enemies, and “turning the
other cheek” for the sake of loving those who are lost?
d) the cost of personal sacrifice as well as sacrificing together with others—such as in our
CARE cell groups—getting involved in the lives of hurting and sometimes “difficult to
love” people?

7. Why is it worth paying the price—the cost of commitment to following Jesus Christ?
Why is it worth it now? Why is it worth it in regards to the future in eternity?

Notes: See Luke 15:3-5; 8-9

See Matthew 5:11-12