Part IV · The Spirit’s Role·Week 26 of 30
Repentance
Before you gather
- Read Day 26, Repentance, in The Visual Gospel. Do not reteach the essay.
- Read Luke 19:1–10 in your Bible. The excerpt below is only a backup.
- Your people should already have answered the day’s reflection questions. Do not ask those again.
1 · Icebreaker · 7 min
Open the room
When did a wrong turn cost you real time, and how long did you argue with the map before you turned around?
Leader. Delay and pride. Do not ask them to inventory godly sorrow or to attack “easy believism.” Both are the book’s questions. Say that passing is allowed, especially the first few weeks.
2 · The word · 8 min
See it, then say it
If you need the words
Say: Jesus’ first sermon puts two words together: repent and believe. A change of direction and a trust in the news. Tears can be real. The sign in the drawing is about the road, not only the feeling.
- Definition, from the book
- Repentance is the turning of a sinner away from sin and toward God, involving a change of mind, heart, and direction of life.
- In the original language
- Greek metanoia — a change of mind that turns the whole person.
- Memory verse · Mark 1:15
- The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.
Together, open the flashcard for Repentance. Say the word, the definition, and the verse once. Then put the phone away.
3 · Open the Bible · 15 min
Luke 19:1–10
Zacchaeus turns in public, in his money, the same day he is welcomed. You can see the U-turn. You are not asking the group to confess a secret sin out loud.
He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and rich. … And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” … And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house… For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Have two readers if you can. Bibles open. The excerpt is only here so a forgotten Bible does not stop the night.
From the passage
1.Who moves first — Zacchaeus climbing, or Jesus calling? What does Zacchaeus do after Jesus comes to the house?Core
Leader. Jesus seeks and calls. Zacchaeus responds with joy and with a costly turn: generosity and restitution. Repentance is response to a Seeker, not a self-improvement project that earns the visit.
2.Jesus calls this “salvation,” and He calls Zacchaeus “lost” a moment later, even as a son of Abraham. What was he lost from, if he was already religiously nearby?
Leader. Lost is not only “far from church.” A wealthy insider can be lost. Salvation reaches his house, not only his mood.
4 · Around the room · 20 min
A conversation this chapter did not assign
3.Mark 1:15 refuses to split repent from believe. What does a so-called faith look like with no U-turn, and what does a turn look like with no gospel to turn toward?Core
Leader. Faith without turning is a claim. Turning without the gospel is moralism or despair. Jesus holds them together.
4.Acts 3:19: repent and turn again, that sins may be blotted out. Acts 26:20: repent and turn, performing deeds in keeping with repentance. Why is restitution, when it is possible, part of a turn and not a way of paying Jesus back?
Leader. Zacchaeus does not purchase salvation. The welcome came first. The money shows the turn is real. Where payback is impossible, the turn still shows up in confession and a new direction.
5.You do not have to name a sin in this circle. What is the shape of a turn — what would have to change direction, not just be regretted — that you already know about?
Leader. Shape, not spectacle: a habit stopped, a person repaid, a lie corrected, a relationship approached differently. Offer silence. Do not go around the circle demanding answers.
5 · Say it · 5 min
In one sentence
Repentance is a real turn — mind, heart, and direction — away from sin and toward God, joined to faith in the gospel.
Ask for two volunteers, not the whole circle. They may look at the sentence, then try it without looking. Clumsy and true is the goal.
6 · Pray · 8 min
Leave silence between these
- Thank Jesus for seeking the lost instead of waiting to be found.
- Ask for a turn, not only a feeling, where you have been delaying.
- Pray for a house, like Zacchaeus’s, that needs salvation to arrive.
Before you stumble
Do not turn the group into a confession booth. Do not embarrass anyone. If someone wants to confess something serious, receive it briefly, thank them, and move the rest offline with care. Repentance is not penance: you are not assigning spiritual punishments. It is also not nothing: “easy” agreement with no direction is not Mark 1:15. Hold both without the book’s debate-club tone.
With students
Ask what a U-turn looks like on a phone: who they stop texting, what they stop watching, who they tell the truth to. Specific beats emotional.
If you still have time
2 Corinthians 7:8–10, only if someone asks whether sorrow counts. Godly grief produces a turn. Worldly grief produces regret with no road change. They may have read this in the book. Use it as a clarification, not as the main study.