Life Groups // Winter 2025 // Week 3

Posted January 24, 2025 — Lincoln Berean

Community Modeled After the Master // John 13:1-17, 34-35

Introduction

This week Pastor Ryan took us to yet another passage to ReThink Community. In our individualistic American society, it can be a challenge to really live in community where we are with and for and serving one another. In our passage this week, Jesus provides us with a great example of what this looks like and encouragement and challenge to move in this direction. 

We invite you to look over all the questions on the following pages and write your thoughts down before you meet with your group. Some people even use these questions to take notes during the sermon. The questions are meant to stir your thinking and prompt open discussion, and we do not expect you will cover every question each week.  

Warm Up (Suggested time: 30 min)

1) What do you enjoy most about the winter months?  

2) What was a time in your life where you felt seen and known? 

Getting Started

Transition into group discussion.  

1. Open group discussion with prayer. Here are a few potential prayer items: 

a. For the Spirit of God to lead you in truth 

b. For the fruit of the Spirit to be cultivated in your lives 

c. For grace to hear and apply what the Spirit says to you  

2. Choose someone to read the passage aloud for the group.  

Study Questions (Suggested time: 40 min)

1) What challenged or encouraged you from the message this weekend? 

2) In John 13:1-5, what are we told that Jesus knows? (verse 3) 

How does knowing what Jesus knows, change the way we see and understand what he is about to do for the disciples?

What is the significance of Jesus taking off his outer garments? 

3) What does this passage reveal to you about God/Jesus? (Hint: Compare Jesus actions in this passage to Philippians 2:5-8.) 

How is what you learned about God in this passage reflected (or not reflected) in how you think about and interact with God? (Consider specifically the love Jesus shows in this passage, including Judas.) 

4) Why does Jesus wash His disciple’s feet? (see John 13:1 & 12-17) 

In John 13:14-15, Jesus says, “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you a example that you also should do as I did to you.” What does obedience to Jesus’ words look like today? How can you wash the feet of those around you? 

5) Considering what has happened in this passage, what is the significance of Jesus words in John 13:34-35? 

How does this passage change the way you think about interacting with one another in the community of your Life Group? (Consider looking at Acts 4:32-37 as an example.) 

Personal Spiritual Exercises

Just like physical exercises help strengthen and stretch our bodies for healthy living, these spiritual exercises are meant to move us spiritually in ways that may be new so we might experience inner growth. Since God longs for us to experience Him with our whole selves—mind, body, spirit—we invite you along each week to strengthen your souls with suggestions and prompts.  

 Scripture Focus: Read Acts 4:32-37. Ponder how Jesus words and actions in John 13 were lived out by the early church. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you about how you can live out Jesus words of “washing one another’s feet” of those in your Life Group.

Prayer Focus: Several times this week take time to prayerfully read through Philippians 2:5-8. Allow it to guide your prayer for the day. Consider returning to it several times throughout the day as a reminder of the posture Jesus invites us to have towards others. 

Prayer (Suggested time: 20 min)

A significant part of “coming together” is being open and honest with our lives. Sitting in a group of people for prayer may be new or it may be familiar to you. If you would rather not pray aloud when it is your turn, feel free to pray silently and then say “Amen” aloud signaling the next person in the group to pray. Whether or not you choose to verbalize your prayer, everyone is a participant in sharing this time before God together. 

Take a few moments to prepare a prayer request. What did the message, working through the above questions or the discussion cause you to notice about your own relationship with Jesus? Would you be willing to share your prayer request with the group?