Opening:

1. Before this sermon, how much had you thought about the Jewish identity of Jesus as it relates to your faith? Was this a topic you had considered in depth before?
2. Have you personally encountered the idea that Jesus was Palestinian, whether on social media, in conversation, or on a college campus? How did you respond, or how do you wish you had responded?

God Works Through Real History

3. Pastor Tom walked through Luke chapter 2 and pointed out details like Bethlehem, the lineage of David, and the city of Judea as historically loaded details. Read Luke chapter 2, verses 1 through 11 together. What details stand out to your group as significant, and why do you think they matter beyond the familiar Christmas story?
4. Pastor Tom explained that the name Palestine was invented by the Roman emperor Hadrian in 135 AD as an act of deliberate erasure, renaming the land after the Philistines to humiliate the Jewish people. How does understanding that historical context change the way you think about modern debates over the land and the identity of Jesus?
5. Hadrian built pagan shrines over the sites of the crucifixion, resurrection, and nativity in an effort to bury the memory of a Jewish God and a Jewish Savior. What does it tell us about the nature of spiritual opposition that these attacks have been happening since the earliest centuries of the church?

Attacking Jesus' Identity Is an Attack on God's Redemptive Plan

6. Pastor Tom stated, "If Jesus is not Jewish, we do not have a Savior." Discuss what he meant by that. Why does the ethnic and tribal identity of Jesus matter to the validity of his messianic claim?
7. The sermon mentioned that the New Testament contains two genealogies of Jesus, both of which are Jewish. Why do you think the gospel writers felt it was important to establish that lineage so carefully? What would be lost if those genealogies were removed or dismissed?
8. In Luke chapter 24, verse 44, Jesus said that all things written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms concerning him must be fulfilled. What does it mean for your personal faith that Jesus himself grounded his identity and mission in the Hebrew Scriptures?
9. Pastor Tom drew a parallel between the Nazi theft of Jewish property and lives and the modern effort to take Jesus away from his Jewish roots. Does that comparison help clarify the spiritual stakes of this issue for you? Why or why not?

God's Promises Endure

10. Mark Twain described the land of Israel in the 1800s as utterly desolate, which the speaker connected to Jesus' words in Matthew chapter 23 about the land being left desolate. How does seeing the fulfillment of that prophecy, and then seeing Israel's agricultural restoration as described in Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 8, strengthen your confidence in the reliability of Scripture?
11. Pastor Tom described witnessing Arabs and Jews worshiping Jesus together in the old city of Jerusalem. How does that image challenge any assumptions your group may hold about who the gospel is for and how God is working in the world today?
12. Pastor Tom said, "God's purpose does not come from the Jews, but it comes through the Jews." What does that distinction mean to you, and how does it shape the way Christians should think about and speak about the Jewish people?

Closing Reflection
Pastor Tom closed with these words: "What began in a manger continued through to the cross and was sealed by the empty tomb. That same Jesus still offers redemption, identity, and hope to all who come to him."
Take a few minutes as a group to sit with that statement. Then close in prayer, thanking God for a salvation that is rooted in real history, fulfilled through a real Jewish Savior, and extended by grace to every person on earth.