GUIDING QUESTIONS:

• What happened, Why Here, What does John want us to know feel do?

(Go to 31-36 for the know feel do part in particular because that the the takeaway John has for us from the brief exchange between JB, his disciples, and the Jews.)

• How were John’s disciples measuring success?  How was John measuring success?  
• Why is John happy that Jesus is gaining a greater following?
• In John the Baptist's analogy there are three characters, the bride, the groom and the friend of the groom who stands with him.  Which one is John?  Which one is Jesus?  Whose is the bride? 
• Trace the logic and flow of 31-36. What is the author saying about Jesus? How is this similar to 3:16-21? What does John want us to know about Jesus in 31-36? How does this contribute to your understanding of belief so far in John?

BIG IDEA:
Jesus is better than any human system of success especially in the context of eternal (the “good”) life.

APPLICATION:

• At the end of your life, what would need to have happened for you to be able to say, "I lived the 'good' life"?
• Humans struggle to get off the throne of their heart in part due to their own inflated Ego, how do you think you might be better than you actually are?  What strengths of your own may actually get in the way of putting Jesus on the throne and distort your view of “the good life?

Summary Statement: The paradox ‘less is more’ is clearly seen in John the Baptist.  He understood and experienced the reality that we find MORE joy in thinking LESS of ourselves and seeing Jesus.  Like John the Baptist we must:

• Resist the temptation to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. (#Humility)
• Understand our position. (#Humility)
• Celebrate our role. (#JOY!)

Michael and Ryan walk through John 3:16-21 to help you lead meaningful discussions about the text

References to God's Plan for the World:
Gen 12:2 Gen 17:4-6; Gen 22:18; Gen 26:4; 1Chron 16:31; Psalm 2:8; Psalm 22:27

Standard Narrative Questions:
What happened?
Why here?
What does John want us to know/feel/do?

Guiding Questions:
What's surprising about the idea that God loves the whole world?
Would Nicodemus agree or disagree with Jesus's statement?
Israel, who was called God's son, is being contrasted with Jesus, God's only son. Why did God  send his son Jesus?
How is this message to John's readers?

Big Idea:
Jesus is the only son of God sent for all people.
Belief in him means life.

Application Questions:
What does this text demand of us this week? (God loved the dumpster fire...)

Michael and Ryan walk through John 3:1-15 to help you lead meaningful discussions about the text

Guiding Questions:

• What barriers does Nicodemus have to belief?
• Jews like Nicodemus believed they were saved by their heritage, how is what Jesus said about being born again different from that?
• What is John trying to say about Jesus by recording him referencing Daniel 7:13-14?
• Read Numbers 21:4-9 as a group. John records Jesus allegorizing this narrative in 3:1-15, what do the following elements represent; snakes, stick, bronze serpent? What was Jesus trying to get Nicodemus to understand about his mission?
• What is essential to belief in Jesus?

Big Idea:

• Believe in Jesus and have life.

Application Questions:

•  What barriers are in the way of you seeing Jesus as the “good” life?
•  Where do you look for the “good” life?
•  What’s something you used to look to for the “good” life but now you look to Jesus?
• What’s something right now that you’re willing to admit you’ve been looking to for the good life that is not Jesus? 

David and Michael walk through John 2:12-25 to help you lead meaningful discussions about the text.

Questions from the Conversation:

• Why was Jesus mad about the individuals selling goods and exchanging money in the Temple?
• How does John connect Jesus’s actions to Old Testament Prophecy? Why is that an important aspect of Jesus’s character?
• How does Jesus’s cleansing of the temple foreshadow the way he will cleanse us?
• What’s the significance of Jesus’s comment about tearing down the temple and raising it back up?

Big Idea:

Jesus purifies our access to God. → both the things we put between us and God AND the things innately within us between us and God.

Application:

What is something in your life that has been getting in the way of time with Jesus? How can we help keep each other accountable as a group to seek the unhindered presence of God in our lives?

David and Michael walk through John 2:1-11 to help you lead meaningful discussions about the text.

Questions from the Conversation

Narrative Questions:

In narrative, we’re always asking these 3 simple questions to get to the big idea.

• What happened? (summary & key points)
• Why here? (how it fits in John’s Gospel)
• What does the author want us to know/feel/do? 

Supplemental Questions:

• What did Jesus mean when he said, “My hour has not yet come”?
• What is significant about the wedding metaphor?
• In what way does this sign glorify Jesus? What are we supposed to know about Jesus as a result of this sign?

Big Idea:

Jesus is all we need → Links to messianic provision of wine and implication of the sign. 

Application:

• How do we know if we’re living in a way that we really believe Jesus is all we need? (Desperate/Dependent)
• When was a time in the last month that you were desperate and dependent on Jesus?
• What would it look like to be desperate and dependent on Jesus every day? What rhythms do you need in your life to consistently return to a posture of desperate dependence?