FIRST WEEK BACK - 2023
GET TO KNOW YOU/ GET PEOPLE TALKING
If you are having new people enter your group you might want to start with a bit of a get to know you question. (First album you bought, If you could meet any person from history living or dead who would it be? Etc )
For returning groups, spend some time checking in over dinner, sharing summer highlights, that kind of thing.
INTRO:
Over the last four weeks we have been looking at Jesus preparing his disciples and their followers for a life of discipleship in his absence. Jesus is preparing them to form a community that is countercultural committed to love, and this is what we are seeking to be. Tonight we are looking at two sections from the upper room discourse where Jesus is setting a vision for the type of community he longs to see.
PRAY
Pray that God would be speaking to you and forming you through his word.
READ JOHN 13:34-35
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
READ JOHN 17:20-23
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
1. What stands out to you from these passages?
2. Why is it significant that Jesus first loved us before he calls us to love others?
3. Do you tend to think of Jesus as praying for you? Why/ why not?
4. Why do you think that Unity is the main thing that Jesus prays for the future church in these verses?
5. What is it about the gospel message that should lead to one-ness?
6. What is it about unity /oneness that would cause the world to believe that Jesus was sent by God?
Read aloud the following quote by Francis Schaeffer about this passage:
Here Jesus is stating something else which is cutting… we cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus’ claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians. Now that is frightening… If the world does not see this down-to-earth practical love, it will not believe that Christ was sent by the Father…
7. What do you think about this statement?
8. Can you think of times in which the unity & love of the church has given credibility to the claims of Christianity? Can you think of times when a lack of unity & love has discredited it?
APPLY
This year we have an opportunity to be the answer to Jesus prayer, and the start of a year is a great chance to think through how we can be doing this:
9. What are some ways that we could be counter-culturally displaying a practical love and unity in our context?
10. What do you think is most likely to prevent you personally from living out a practical servant-hearted love towards this community over the duration of this year?
11. What would be some behaviours/ actions /habits that if they were part of this community’s culture would actually hinder us in our desire to be one?
12. What would be some behaviours/ actions /habits that if they were part of this community’s culture would make this group a joy to be a part of?
PRAY
Spend some time praying as a group for your year ahead, that you would be growing deeper in your knowledge of Jesus’ love, and your ability to love one another.