Life Groups // Fall 2020 // Week 6
Posted October 17, 2020 — Lincoln Berean
What is Truth? // John 18:28-40
Introduction
In this week’s passage Jesus is taken before Pilate, the Roman Governor of the province of Judea and they discuss truth and the kingship of Jesus.
We don’t provide a lot of space for your answers to these questions, so we suggest having a journal handy to write down your thoughts. You’re not expected to have time for all these questions during your online meeting, but we encourage you to reflect on them and jot down thoughts on your own.
Getting to Know Each Other (Suggested time: 30 min)
Begin your group time by learning more about each other. Open up and have some fun! Here are some suggestions to get your conversation started:
- What’s one fashion trend you hope never comes back? Which ones have come back that you wish hadn’t?
- Who has made the biggest impact on your life (besides Jesus)?
Getting Started
Begin to transition into group discussion.
1) Open group discussion with prayer. Here are a few potential prayer items:
- For the Spirit of God to lead you in truth
- For openness to what you’re learning together
- For friendships to deepen and grow
2) Invite someone (or a couple of people) to read John 18:28-40 to the group.
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Study Questions (Suggested time: 40 min)
Please complete these questions prior to your group’s meeting time.
1) What was impactful for you from the weekend’s message? Was there anything you had a question about?
2) In last week’s passage, we saw how the Jewish leaders wanted so badly to have Jesus crucified that they were willing to break Jewish law, meet in the middle of the night and not follow the correct protocol for a Jewish trial. In verses 28-32, we see their hypocrisy continue. Jesus is taken from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, which would have been Pilate’s residence. The Jewish leaders will not enter Pilate’s residence because they did not want to be defiled for entering a Gentile’s home as it would have prevented them from eating the Passover meal.
At times each of us struggles with hypocrisy, representing ourselves as better than we are, desiring more to follow the rules than actually love Jesus.
- What are these areas in your life?
- Read James 5:16. How do you think the practice of confession would help heal some of the areas of hypocrisy in your life?
3) In verses 33-37 Pilate and Jesus have a conversation about Jesus’ kingship. In our democratic society we struggle to understand Jesus as a king. We sing songs about Jesus as King, songs like Crown Him with Many Crowns, or King of My Heart.
- What does it really mean for Jesus to be King over your life?
- Is there an area of your life that you struggle to submit to Jesus as King? Would you be willing to share that with the group?
- What would it look like to submit that area to Jesus as King?
4) In verses 37-38 Jesus and Pilate talk about truth. Jesus states that he has come to testify to the truth and that everyone who is of the truth hears His voice.
- When did you first hear and understand the truth of who Jesus is?
- How has knowing and understanding the truth changed your life?
If you would like to learn more about opportunities to witness or participate in God’s kingdom in Lincoln and around the world, contact outreach@lincolnberean.org or checkout this Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/lincolnbereanlocal
Group Prayer (Suggested time: 10 min)
A significant part of creating unity with God and one another is being open and honest with our lives. Praying with a group of people may be a new experience for you, or it may be familiar. Whether or not you choose to verbalize your prayer, everyone participates in sharing this time before God together. Here are a couple of suggestions of how you can pray together as a group.
- Think of a characteristic of Jesus’ life and example that is praiseworthy. As these characteristics come to your minds, take turns speaking them in simple sentence prayers, “Jesus, thank you for being ________.” or “Lord, we praise you for ___________.”
- This is a group prayer time where each person in the group will pray. Before you start, tell everyone, that if someone is not comfortable praying out loud in the group setting, they can pray privately and say “Amen” when they are finished. That will let the next person know it is their turn to pray. The group leader will start the prayer time.