Covenant Group Questions (4/9-4/15)

During our current sermon series focused on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, we will publish weekly a set of small group questions for your Covenant to make use of should you desire to use them.  Here are the questions for this week:

1. Read Matthew 21:1-11.
   
2. If you were part of the advance team for Jesus, what visibility would you want to arrange?  Maximum exposure or a quiet entrance?  Explain you choice.  What does it mean that Jesus went for the maximum exposure?
   
3.  Why is there such a large crowd?  What is their shouting about?  Do we hail Jesus in our worship songs with similar words and thoughts?  What is different or the same?
   
4. To what extent do you think the people realize who Jesus is?  List out what they are getting right about Jesus.  And what are they getting wrong?  All of us see Jesus imperfectly.  How do we avoid the danger of the crowd that is for him one day and dead set against him days later?
   
5. What kind of king are the people expecting?  What kind of king does Jesus offer himself as?  What kind of king do we want Jesus to be for us?  How is our hope the same or different from those in the crowd?
   
6. Zechariah 9:9 made a statement about the King of the Jews.  Do you think Jesus knew this passage?  Do you think he made arrangements for his entry into Jerusalem with deliberate attention to the prophecy of Zechariah?  What does that tell you about Jesus?