Share Life
This term, let’s keep chatting about our evangelism as a church, so that we can pray for each other. A 10-minute Share Life segment is included at the start of each study.
What are our networks?
Over the next couple of weeks, let’s build our names lists—see Share Life Go journal, p. 32.
Let’s begin by talking about it together.
Consider our family, work and other networks.
In the coming week
Finish building your names list.
Share your list with your growth group next time you meet.
Opening Up
According to John 20:30–31, why did John write this gospel account?
This gospel is openly evangelistic. John writes to give the reader grounds for belief in Jesus—a belief that leads to life!
As the opening passage will show, it is God who must reveal his Son to us, and make us his own. But he does it through servants like John and what they write.
As we step into the first three chapters, we will see a portrait of Jesus that is both epic and intimate. He has been long promised and, when he arrives, he proves to be a compelling but unsettling presence.
Read
John 1:1–18
The Word Became Flesh
1 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 it.
6 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.
9 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 recognize 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.
14 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.
15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
2. What stood out to you or surprised you? What questions arise from the passage?
Digging In
John sets about giving us a portrait of Jesus from the first verse and lays down a pattern that he will follow throughout the gospel.
Split the group into three and construct a portrait of Jesus, from John 1:1-18:
v.1–5
v.6–13
v.14–18
3. Why does John begin by referring to Jesus as “the Word” (v.1)?
4. What gives the opening verses such a note of hope (v.1-5)?
5. What is revealed about the state of the world and its relationship with God (v.9-11)?
6. On what grounds does someone become a child of God (v.11-13)? Given what is revealed in verse 11, why is the distinction in verse 13 so important?
7. What is so startling about the fact that “the Word became flesh” (v.14)?
In John 1:14, the phrase “made his dwelling among us” comes from the term ‘tabernacled’. From Exodus 25 onwards, the tabernacle was central to the life of God’s people. It was the tent where all sacrifices were offered and it was core to their identity as a saved people belonging to God.
Read Exodus 24:12–25:9 and John 1:14–18.
8. What is common and what is different about these two striking moments in God’s unfolding story of salvation?
Taking it with you
Name two things revealed about Jesus in this passage that have challenged and/or encouraged you to deepen your faith in him.
Pray for opportunities to share what you have heard with someone who doesn’t know Jesus yet.