Download discussion questions: John 6_27-42 bread of heaven
Jesus has fed the crowd. He followed His disciples across the lake (they had a boat; He didn’t), and the crowd has followed Him. They were impressed by the provision of food (like the manna for the Israelites in the wilderness) and possibly by His miraculous crossing of the sea (another reminder of Moses?). Jesus knows that their motives are essentially materialistic: more bread. Continue reading
Download discussion questions: John 6_14-33 bread of heaven
To avoid the political desires of the crowd (to make Him king) Jesus went further up the mountain where the feeding of 5,000 took place (vs. 3) to be alone. One member of our discussion commented on the model Jesus provided here (and in other Gospel accounts, how we often need to get away from others whose influence on our lives is not God’s plan for us. Continue reading
Download discussion questions: John 5_46-6_15 feeding 5000
Sometimes reading a familiar story in Scripture can be a challenge. The story of Jesus feeding a huge crowd is so well known that we may be tempted to skim over it too quickly. Familiar stories require our special attention so we don’t rely on our “hearsay impressions” of what the Bible says. We risk missing something the Holy Spirit wants to show us. Continue reading
Download discussion questions: John 5_30-47 greater testimony
The Jews accused Jesus of “making Himself equal to God” (John 5:18). He doesn’t deny the accusation or explain that they had misunderstood Him. He continues His response (that began in last week’s passage) to show them that they are exactly right. Continue reading
Download discussion questions: John 5_15-30 whatever the Father does
Until now, much of what John has written has been narrative accounts with some dialog (Jesus and Nathanael, Jesus at Cana, Jesus cleansing the temple, Jesus and Nicodemus, John the Baptizer and his followers, Jesus and the Samaritan woman, Jesus and the royal official, Jesus healing the sick man).
There has been some direct teaching as Jesus interacted with different persons in different circumstances, but this passage and several more to follow are extended, detailed discourses by Jesus. This passage (John 5:15-30) is His response to the accusation of the Jews, that He was “making Himself equal with God.” Continue reading
Download discussion questions: John 5_1-18 by a pool on the Sabbath
Samaria, Galilee, now back to Jerusalem. The first place John records Jesus going is overwhelming in misery and human tragedy. As one member of the group pointed out, our usual response would be to avoid such places, to go around, to find another gate into the city – anything to avoid being confronted with so much suffering. Jesus starts there as He enters the city, and he focuses His attention on one particular man. Jesus did not let an overwhelming situation dissuade Him or distract Him from ministering to an individual, a clear model for us in overwhelming circumstances. Continue reading
Download discussion questions: John 4_39-54 Official’s son
Jesus had two very fruitful days in Samaria – “Many more believed,” (John 4:41). Then he went on into Galilee. One thing that puzzled me in the passage was the logic of verse 44. Jesus knew that “a prophet has not honor in his own country.” How did that result in His departure for Galilee? That seeming non-sequiter disappeared in our group discussion (oh, the value of group Bible study!). Continue reading
Download discussion questions: John 4_28-43 My food
At the end of John’s lengthy narrative about Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria he reports that the woman’s report stirred up considerable interest in the town. Then John seems to interrupt the story, injecting a more private exchange between Jesus and His disciples, beginning with the word, “Meanwhile” in verse 31. John picks up the story about the local residents and their interest in Jesus a little later in verse 39. Most of the discussion in our group focused on the portion of the discussion between Jesus and the disciples. Continue reading
Download discussion questions: John 4_1-30 Woman at the well
Once again, this week I was not present for the group discussion. I encouraged the members of the group each to prepare to lead the discussion out of their individual study of the passage: Continue reading
Download discussion questions: John 3_27-4_4 John’s Testimony
Because I was out of town for two weeks, I do not have comments on the group discussion for those passages. Since one of the goals of the group is to gain skills and confidence in digging into Scripture, this was an opportunity for the other members of the group to use those skills to help each other learn from the passages. There had been requests for me to email ahead of time the passage to be studied on Sunday. I encouraged each person in the group to approach the passage as if he or she was leading the discussion that week: Continue reading