29/03/2026 - Matthew Destry

Big idea: Jesus is Lord, but not the kind of Lord the crowd wants. Following Him means moving from crowd enthusiasm to costly allegiance.

John 12:12–19 (ESV)

The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”

And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion;

behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign.

So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

Exegesis: the hinge of John 12

This moment does three things at once:

1. it reveals Jesus as King
2. it exposes the misunderstanding of the crowd
3. it sets in motion the events of the cross

1: the kind of king they wanted

• What kind of Jesus have I constructed in my imagination?
• Where have I subtly asked Jesus to serve my agenda rather than submit to His?

2: the instability of the crowd

For new believers:

• It’s normal to feel the excitement. But don’t build your faith on feelings alone.

For mature saints:

• Where have I allowed disappointment to quietly distance me from Jesus?
• Have I drifted into a faith that is present… but no longer surrendered?

3: discipleship beyond the crowd

• Am I following Jesus… or using Him?
• Am I loyal to Christ… or to what I hoped He would do for me?
• If He doesn’t meet my expectations… will I still follow?

Admiration is easy. Obedience is costly.

“Look, the world has gone after him.”

They say it in frustration… but it becomes the mission of the Church.

22/03/2026 - Zeke Murley

Read John 8:1–11 together.

Take time to slowly read the passage aloud as a group. Encourage everyone to notice details in the text before jumping to interpretation.

1. Where does this story take place and what is Jesus doing before the interruption?
2. Who are the main groups or individuals present in the story?
3. What accusation do the scribes and Pharisees bring?
4. What law are they referencing from the Law of Moses?
5. (See Deuteronomy 22:22 and Leviticus 20:10)
6. What is unusual about the way the woman is brought before Jesus?
7. What does Jesus do before He speaks?
8. What does Jesus say to the crowd?
9. What happens to the accusers after Jesus speaks?
10. What question does Jesus ask the woman?
11. What command does Jesus give her at the end?

Read these passages and discuss how they connect to the scene:

Deuteronomy 17:6–7

Witnesses must throw the first stones.

Exodus 31:18

The Law written with the finger of God.

Deuteronomy 9:10

The tablets written by God’s finger.

Discussion question:

What might be significant about Jesus writing with His finger in the dust while the Law is being quoted?

Key Insight

At this moment Jesus does not dismiss the Law. He applies it correctly. The Law was never meant to be a weapon for selective judgment. It was meant to reveal the truth about every person standing there.

This moment exposes something deeper than one woman’s sin. It exposes how humans misuse righteousness.

Discuss together:

1. Why were the Pharisees actually bringing this woman to Jesus?
2. What does the absence of the man in the story reveal about their motives?
3. Why do people often apply moral standards to others more quickly than to themselves?
4. Where do we see public condemnation culture today?
5. Examples might include:

• Social media outrage
• Public shaming
• Moral hypocrisy
• Selective justice

1. Why do you think the older men leave first?
2. What does this story reveal about the danger of knowing Scripture but missing the heart of God?

The quickest way to misuse the Law is to apply it to others first.

The Law is not a weapon.

It is a mirror.

Before it exposes someone else, it exposes us.

At the end of the story something remarkable happens. The crowd disappears. Only two people remain. The sinner and the Savior.

This is the moment every human being eventually faces.

1. Which person in the story do you most naturally identify with?
2. The accusers
3. The silent crowd
4. The woman
5. Or Jesus confronting injustice
6. When are you most tempted to hold a “stone” in your hand?
7. What is the difference between condemnation and conviction?
8. Why does Jesus say “Go and sin no more” after saying “Neither do I condemn you”?
9. What does this reveal about the relationship between grace and transformation?

We never learn the woman’s name. We never learn what happens next. The text leaves the ending unwritten. Because the story is asking every reader the same question.

Not: Who was she?

But: What did she do with Jesus?

One day every person will stand before Christ. Not in a crowd. Not in a courtroom. Just you and Him.

Read together:

2 Corinthians 5:10

Discuss:

What does it mean to live a life defined not by what we did, but by what we do after encountering Jesus?

End by praying together:

• Thank Jesus for His mercy.
• Ask Him to expose hidden hypocrisy in our hearts.
• Ask for the grace to live the life He commands when He says:

“Go, and from now on sin no more.”

15/03/2026 - Matthew Destry

Text: John 4:1-18, 25-30

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.[a]

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.[b] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” …

25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Geography: Jesus goes where everyone else avoids

time and place-  the awkwardness of grace

conversation –  a deeper thirst

Jesus names the real story

the well that never runs dry

the first evidence of transformation

Application: where are we drinking from?

Application 1: identify the well you keep returning to

Application 2: allow Jesus to name the real story

Application 3: let living water flow outward

08/03/2026 - Kyle Hanna

Series: Jesus is Lord

Scripture: John 3:1–15

The Setting

Nicodemus, a Pharisee and respected teacher of the law, comes to Jesus at night. Though he is moral, religious, and knowledgeable, Jesus tells him something surprising:

“Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

Nicodemus assumes Jesus means a physical rebirth, but Jesus is speaking about spiritual rebirth.

1. What We Think the New Birth Is

Many people assume the new birth means moral improvement:

• Trying harder to live well
• Following rules more carefully
• Becoming a better person

But Nicodemus already lived this way. If the new birth were about effort, he would already qualify.

Trying to change ourselves through effort alone is like driving in thick fog with high beams on—it feels helpful but actually makes it harder to see.

What we need isn’t brighter headlights.

We need the fog to lift.

1. What the New Birth Actually Is

Jesus explains the new birth is a work of God.

Drawing from Ezekiel 36, God promises:

• “I will sprinkle clean water on you.”
• “I will give you a new heart.”
• “I will put my Spirit within you.”

The new birth is God renewing us from the inside.

Think of a garden:

• Reformation is mowing weeds (managing behaviour).
• Transformation is pulling weeds out and planting new life.

God doesn’t just manage sin—He plants new life within us.

Jesus also says the Spirit is like wind (John 3:8).

You can’t see wind, but you see its effects:

• Pride becomes humility
• Anxiety becomes trust
• Resentment becomes forgiveness

You don’t control the wind—you witness its effects.

1. The Cross Makes New Birth Possible

Jesus points to Numbers 21, where Moses lifted a bronze serpent in the wilderness. Those who looked at it in faith were healed.

Jesus says:

“So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14–15)

Just as the Israelites looked and lived, we look to Christ on the cross and receive life.

The new birth comes through:

• The Spirit giving new life
• Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross
• Faith in Him

The Invitation

Being born again is more than seeing Jesus as a teacher or trying to live well.

It is receiving Him as Lord and Saviour.

A new birth means:

• A new heart
• A new life
• God dwelling within us

Like the fog lifting, when we receive Christ, we begin to see clearly:

Jesus is Lord — in all that we see, do, and are.

Three ways to apply this to our lives:

Here are three clear application questions, one for each group you mentioned:

1. Curious about faith:
2. Where in your life does it feel like you’re navigating fog, and what would it look like to consider that clarity might come from Jesus rather than from your own effort?
3. New to faith:
4. Where have you begun to notice small changes in your heart, attitudes, or desires that might be the Spirit of God at work in you?
5. Seasoned in faith:
6. In this season of life, what might it look like for you to lift your eyes to Jesus again and rely on Him rather than just the habits or structures of faith?

Matt Destry

Come and see: how Jesus builds the church

Big idea

This is the raw, first call of Jesus: come and see. They come. They stay. They bring others.

Lordship here is relational before it is institutional. Before Jesus gives them tasks, He gives them: friendship, proximity, shared life. The Church is born not as an organisation, but as a shared orbit around a person.

Text John 1:35-51

35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said

"Look, the Lamb of God!" 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed

Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said,

"Rabbi" (which means "Teacher'), "where are you staying?" 39 "Come," he replied, "and you will" see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. 40 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him

"We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter[a]). 43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me." 44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida.

45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote — Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." 46 "Nazareth!

Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip. 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit." 48 "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you." 49 Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel." 50 Jesus said, "You believe[b] because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that." 51 He then added, "Very truly I tell Son of Man.) will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on' (e) the

Exegesis: the first words of Jesus, The first community forms The pattern of discipleship, The ladder to heaven Movement 1: a church in the radical middle Word people. Spirit people. Justice people. Contemplative people.

Movement 2: from admiration to following

Movement 3: why community matters

1. Follow: bring yourself
2. Come and see: bring someone else
3. Remain: bring your place

The One you were seeking...has been seeking you all along.

PASSOVER — EXODUS / MANNA / THE LAMB / BLOOD / DELIVERANCE

1ST MIRACLE : FEEDING OF 5000 — BREAD / PROPHET LIKE MOSES / MAKE HIM KING

15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

John 6:15 ESV

2ND MIRACLE : WALKING ON WATER — SELF REVELATION / IT IS I (I AM — EGO EIMI)

20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”

John 6:20 ESV

CROWD CHASES JESUS — HUNGER / CHASING HIM FOR MORE BREAD

26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

John 6:26–27 ESV

WORK OF GOD VS WORK OF MAN — BELIEF IN JESUS IS THE WORK OF MAN / SALVATION MOVES FROM LAW TO HIMSELF

29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

John 6:29 ESV

MOSES VS JESUS — MOSES FED US FOR 40 YEARS / IT WASN’T MOSES WHO FED YOU / IT WAS NOT TRUE BREAD / DIDN’T GIVE LIFE / SOMETHING GREATER THAN EXODUS IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW

Some of you are still testifying about what God did ten years ago because you haven’t recognised what He’s doing today. You cannot build the future by living emotionally in the past.

ESCALATION — BREAD TO FLESH

53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

The Words of Eternal Life

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

John 6:53–69 ESV

15/02/2026 - Matthew Destry

Big idea

The best people in the Kingdom are those who know when to step forward and when to step aside, without losing their joy, their identity, or their faithfulness.

Jesus has not come to orbit around us. He has come to be the centre. Not to make us famous, but faithful. Not to draw attention to our name, but to His.

The mark of maturity is not how many people are following you. It’s whether you are still pointing to Jesus when fewer people are.

Text: John 3:22–30

After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptising. 23 John also was baptising at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptised 24 (for John had not yet been put in prison).

25 Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptising, and all are going to him.” 27 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’

29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”[a]

Context: water everywhere, meaning everywhere

a: when purification becomes popularity

b: heaven decides, not the crowd

‘Play the great parts without pride and the small parts without shame.’ CS Lewis

c: the friend of the groom

1. For leaders and builders
2. For ageing saints and quiet servants
3. For those navigating identity and season shifts

Questions for small groups

When attention shifts away from you, what happens inside you?

Where might you be striving to protect something that was only ever meant to be received from God?

What role, title, or expectation might God be asking you to loosen your grip on in this season?

If joy is found in Jesus ‘increasing’, not in us being needed, what would need to change for your joy to become complete?

08/02/2026 - Matthew Destry

While the world still stands: Serving a Lord who stoops to serve

Reading – John 13:1–14 (ESV)

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet,[a] but is completely clean. And you[b] are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

Movement 1 – The setup: love that goes all the way to the bottom (v.1)

“He loved them to the end.”

Movement 2 – The action: the Lord takes the lowest place (v.2–5)

Movement 3 – The protest: when pride dresses up as reverence (v.6–11)

“You will never wash my feet. Not as long as the world stands.”

Movement 4 – The explanation: clean, but still dusty (v.12–14)

Application – three movements of response

1. Cleansing: where have your feet been this week?

Questions:

• What has clung to your soul lately?
• Where have your reactions been sharper than your character?
• What attitudes have become normal that should be confessed?

1. Example: if Jesus is Lord, pride cannot be my posture

Questions:

• What task do you secretly hope someone else will do?
• Where do you avoid inconvenience because it feels beneath you?
• Has following Jesus made you more interruptible, or more important?

1. Commissioning: washed people become sent people

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news… who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” Isaiah 52:7

01/02/2026 - Matthew Destry

John 1:1-14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John presses play on the beginning:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…”

Who is John?

Immediate resistance

Jesus is not the intern: “All things were made through him, and without him not anything was made that was made.”

Why the church fought for this

Light and humanity: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

1. a move from solution to sovereign
2. a move from advisor to Lord.
3. a move from gratitude to formation.

Have we reduced Jesus to a solution rather than surrendered to Him as sovereign?

Do we consult Him as an advisor, or follow Him as Lord?

Are we merely grateful for rescue, or being formed for a Kingdom?

25/01/2026 - Vincent Gulay

Solomon was the King, but he was under another authority – the God of Israel.

He starts his Wisdom literature with Proverbs 1:7 – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of

knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

“Fear” or reverence, and submitting to the Lord is key to living wisely, and righteously.

With relationships – we look to Jesus as the example. Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

Yes Jesus died for his Bride (the church), but he also lived righteously for his bride. We are to do the same.

When it comes to romantic relationships, Song of Solomon shows us imagery using gardens as a metaphor, and we are to cultivate a romantic relationship to full bloom.

The Bible gives us some guidance on how we can see our gardens in bloom.

– Prepare the Soil –

Ecclesiastes 3:1 – “There is a time and season for everything…”

Song of Solomon 2:7 – “Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.”

Song of Solomon 2:11–12 – “For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The

flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is

heard in our land.”

Song of Solomon 7:12 – “Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vine has budded, if

the blossom has opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom.”

Each of us, regardless of relationship status, are in a specific season of our lives. We are

called to steward our current season. Let’s ask, “Where do I need healing, where do I need

to learn, what do I need to build?”

Prepare the soil today, for the garden of tomorrow.

Build romance.

– Enjoy the Fruit –

Ecclesiastes 9:9 – Enjoy life with your wife whom you love – Ecc 9:9

Proverbs 5:18–19 – May your fountain be blessed and may you rejoice with the wife of your

youth.

Song of Solomon 7:12 – “Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if

their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom—there I will give you my

love.”

Enjoy the fruit in your garden, and continue to cultivate it.

Build intimacy for romance’s sake!

Intimacy > Vulnerability > Romance in bloom

– Guarding the Garden –

Song of Solomon 2:15 – Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our

vineyards that are in bloom.

(External) Proverbs 7:21

(Internal) Song of Solomon Chapter 5

 Caution, ‘foxes’ in the Modern Era:

Language – ‘work wife/work husband’

‘Best friends’ of the opposite gender

Any relationship/friendship that, if you really go deep, is serving a need that only your

spouse should

Comfort and convenience – don’t get lazy, don’t make excuses

Practical Tips:

Commit to high transparency

Commit to accountability

Commit to healthy coping (stress awareness)

Commit to wise stewardship

Commit to wise counsel

Commit to Christ-like formation

Song of Solomon 8 - Commit to a relationship in bloom.