John 15:9-17 

Verses 9-11: 
Looking carefully at verses 9-10: who loves whom? 
How do these loves relate? 
What is involved in remaining in Jesus’ love? 
How has Jesus loved us? – look up John 10:17-18 
Looking at verse 11 – Why did Jesus tell the apostles this? 
When do we lose our joy in serving Jesus? 
How does this reshape our service? 

Verses 12-17: 
What is the pattern for our love for other Christians? 
How does this reshape the motivation for our service? 
What is the difference between being a ‘servant’ and a ‘friend’? 
How does this reshape how we serve? 
What does it mean to bear fruit in this context? 
Think about an area of service you are involved in. How would your attitude be transformed by remembering that you are serving as Jesus’ friends? 

‘When Jesus says that His disciples are not merely servants, but friends, it’s no throwaway line to make us feel nice. It means something; and it helps reshape our motives for serving Jesus. Take the idea of serving to impress others. If I have a view of Jesus as being my fairly distant boss, then I may well serve to impress Him or to impress the middle-management in His company (my pastor, Bible-study leader and so on). 

Jesus declaring me to be His friend cuts this away… If I remember that Jesus is my Friend, and that my Bible-study leader is my friend [because I also lay down my life for them], then I won’t keep trying to impress them. I don’t need to. I’ll be free to get on with enjoying knowing them.’ – Serving without Sinking

Ephesians 5:25-33 

When do you feel stained, wrinkled, blemished, unsanctified, or guilty before God? 
Looking at the whole passage, verses 25-33, how does Paul relate Christ/Church to Husband/Wife? 
Why do they mirror each other? Look up Genesis 2:24 in context. 
How does Christ love his bride the Church? 

See Ephesians 2:1-6 and 5:2 

What do you think the end of verse 26 mean? See 1:13 
What does it mean for Christ to ‘feed and care’ for his own body? 
What does this teach us about how Jesus views us? 
How does this change how we view ourselves, and our service of Jesus? 
Think about an area of service you are involved in. How would your attitude be transformed by remembering that you are serving as Jesus’ bride? 

‘We are a long way from living out what it means to be the bride of Christ. So Jesus goes on transforming us; He goes on cleaning us. He marries us as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way. They say that men get married hoping their spouse will never change, and women get married desperately hoping theirs will! In this marriage, it’s the opposite. We don’t need our Husband to be anything more than He already is. He wants to make us into the beautiful bride we are not… 

Jesus will clean us up and get us ready for the day He comes back for us. It is not that He needs to clean us so He can love us. It is because He loves us so much that He will not leave us dirty. Our status is that of the holy and blameless bride of Christ. Our lives will match up to that one day.’ – Serving without Sinking

1 Corinthians 12  

What gifts do we celebrate at St Nicholas? Why? 
Paul begins by introducing an issue the Corinthian church have raised. What is the issue? 
What is the mark that someone has the Spirit? 
What repeated ideas can you spot in verses 4-11? 
How do we see unity and diversity in 4-6? 
Why does the Spirit give gifts in vs 7? 
Why does Paul list the ‘manifestations of the Spirit’ in verses 8-10? 
Why has God given us as individuals gifts? 
What is Paul’s big metaphor in vs 12-27? 
In what ways does Paul compare the Church to a human body? 

What does Paul say to us if we think: 

• ‘I don’t belong to the body’? 
• ‘God got my gifts wrong’?
• ‘I don’t need you’ (to another member of St Nics)? 

How has our thinking been challenged by this passage? In what ways might our values need to change? 
Think about an area of service you are involved in. How would your attitude be transformed by remembering that you are serving as Jesus’ body? 

Luke 15:11-32  

When do we forget that we are sons of the Father? 

Verses 11-24 
How do we see the compassion of the Father for his younger Son? 
How did he initially relate to his father? 
What did he want? What did he reject? 
What did he do when he came to his senses? 
What did his father want for him? 
How does this address the ‘sinners’ of verses 1-2 

Verses 25-32 
How do we see the compassion of the Father for his elder Son? 
How does he relate to his father? 
What did he want? What did he reject? 
What did his father want for him? 
How does this address the ‘Pharisees’ of verses 1-2 
How do we see the last becoming first and the last first here? 
How can we remember that we are sons of the father? 
Think about an area of service you are involved in. How would your attitude be transformed by remembering that you are serving as sons of the Father? 

‘We need to remember that the [younger] son is right [at the end of verse 21]! He doesn’t deserve to be called this man’s son. But the son doesn’t decide if he gets to be a son, a servant, or nothing at all. That’s the father’s call. And he says: You are my son… 

… So what difference does all this make day by day? It becomes more natural to depend on Him; and it becomes more natural to work for Him, and to enjoy it. Surely that younger son would have whistled with glee as he walked into the fields the next day with his dad. The day before he’d woken up in a pigsty, hoping he might end it in a servants’ dorm. Instead, he was a son! He would have swung his scythe into the corn with a smile of amazement that he could work alongside his dad as a son in the family business, not as a mere servant.’ – Serving without Sinking