Community Group Discussion Guide

John 15:12-25 - Weekend of June 9 and 10

I. Starter Question:

Abiding in the vine leads to bearing fruit that will last, how have you seen God at work in shaping your spiritual walk to where it bears fruit? Compare growing farming seasons (winter, spring, summer harvest and fall) with seasons in your spiritual life of bearing fruit, pruning, winter dormant seasons, etc.?

II. Discussion of Scripture:

1. John 15:12-17 (ESV) - The Command to Love12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Brief Explanation: Jesus commands His disciples to love one another as He loved them. He proved His love for them in four ways: 1) He laid His life down for them, and for us. 2) He called them His friends, instead of just His servants. 3) He chose them and appointed them for a specific mission. And 4) He gave them the communication conduit of praying to align themselves to His Fathers’ will. He reemphasized that loving one another is a command, not a suggestion. See I Cor. 13; I John 4:10-21

2. John 15:18-25 (ESV) - The Hatred of the World18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the

world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.

Brief Explanation: If love and abiding is the Kingdom of God, then hatred is the kingdom of the devil. Psalm 83:5 The favourites and heirs of heaven have never been the darlings of this world, since the old enmity was put between the seed of the woman and of the serpent. Why did Cain hate Abel, but because his works were righteous? Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing; Joseph’s brethren hated him because his father loved him; Saul hated David because the Lord was with him; Ahab hated Micaiah because of his prophecies; such are the causeless causes of the world’s hatred. Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 2020). Peabody: Hendrickson.

Antagonism develops because light shows up darkness, and grace morality reveals the perversion of sin. Jesus went on to remind His followers that men had seen Him do “what no one else did.” They had been forced to recognize their own works as sin and, consequently, “They have hated both Me and My Father.” See James 4:4; I Peter 4:12-13; Col. 1:13;

For Discussion:

1. When Jesus says, “I have called you friends,” what is he claiming there? How did He express that to Abraham? Read 2 Chron. 20:7 and Isaiah 18:17.

2. As to “laying down your life for your friends”, how would you rate yourself?

3. Do you feel more like Jesus’ servant or His friend? Discuss the linking of loving to obedience with friendship, “You are my friends if you do what I command you”.

4. Discuss the concept that God chose us; we did not choose Him. Ephesians 1; Rom. 8:29-30; Rom. 9:11 and 17-18; Rom. 11:5-7; Acts 13:48; 2 Tim. 1:9; 1 Pet. 2:8-9; 2 Pet. 1:10; 2 Thes. 2:13;

5. Have you ever undergone the pruning process so that you can produce more fruit? Was that process painful? Was the result worth undergoing the pruning process?

6. Who do you have the hardest time loving as Christ loved? This is such a difficult command, yet if we abide in Christ, we can obediently follow Christ’s example.

7. Friendship with God results in enduring the world’s hatred. Conversely, being friends with the world is to be God’s enemy (James 4:4). Jesus alerted His disciples to the fact of the world’s hatred. Do you find it difficult to share in Christ’s sufferings?

8. From John 15:24-25, the hatred of Jesus was without any rational cause which also fits the pattern of hatred for righteous people, as seen in those who hated David (Ps. 35:19; 69:4; 109:3). How can we encourage each other when we face rejection, isolation, persecution and hatred from the world?

III. Responding in Prayer:

1. Spend some time praying and considering how we can abide more deeply in our daily walk with Christ, allowing us to fulfill His command to love one another with the love of Christ, and endure the hatred from the world.

2. Pray for our church, as we rejoice with the unifying 99.6% affirming vote of John Wohlgemuth; pray for VBS, that the Lord would save souls and encourage our volunteers as the Gospel goes forward; pray for the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Dallas, TX this coming week; and pray for our upcoming Acts Camp trip, that the Lord would go before these students and leaders.