SCRIPTURE REFERENCE
- John 12:20-43
ICE BREAKER
- A common plot in stories involves a hero who is killed and comes back to life. What typically happens next is that a new power is unleashed.
Share with the group a movie or book that contains this theme.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- We are faced daily with the choice to receive glory from God or glory from man.
So, what are you hanging on to in order to squeeze life out of it?
If someone blocks something from me, what comes out of me is an indicator of what I need to die to.
A crucial area to search is in our relationships.
How do we relate when we are hurt?
Use the categories in the notes below to reflect on what specifically you have to die to in your life(ambition, notoriety, comfort, pleasure, popularity, revenge, last word, cut etc). Share your thoughts with the group.
- Why don’t we let go and die? Share your thoughts.
- Jesus said that whatever we cling to apart from Him leads us to loneliness.
If you cling to things outside of Christ that you think make you come alive it will lead you to loneliness.
Share with the group a story from your own life where you clung to someone or something outside of Christ.
Then describe the loneliness you faced.
Next share a story from your life when you died to self and clung to Christ.
Share what you tasted in this story.
- Share with the group if you have become aware of a relationship where you need to repent.
NOTES AND QUOTES
Jesus predicts his death. The hour has come.
He uses the metaphor of seeds to illustrate this.
A seed has to die and if it does, it bears much fruit.
He connects His death to our own when He says that whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Christ is inviting us to love and to trust God so deeply that whatever blocks me from Christ I will get rid of.
This is the key to life.
Of course we all have a tendency to do the opposite–we look for life apart from Christ.
At times we try to love Jesus and love all the other stuff.
Are we sure we have subordinated our loves to our first love of Jesus?
If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me. We must follow the same path Jesus walks.
His path is leading Him to the cross.
So, we must follow His pattern: die to self.
The fruit of our willingness to die will be our rich relationship with God.
So, picture a grain of wheat. Each of us is a grain.
The seed must die to bear fruit.
Three ideas: alone, death, and fruit.
Unless it dies it will be alone. Why does Christ say alone?
This is powerful. Ever feel lonely, forgotten, and alienated?
Ever feel like no one understands or cares about you?
If you don’t die you will be alone.
You may have lots of stuff or lots of relationships but as you age those things that seemed to satisfy you no longer do.
A profound loneliness is in everyone of us and at its core it is due to our separation from God.
When we come to Him in faith the loneliness does not disappear but if we follow Jesus’ path we will one day have a family and there will be no loneliness–we will be in His presence.
Death is coming for us all. Yet we try to keep it at bay. But, death wins.
God tells us to focus on our own death because it makes us wise.
We are called to die to self. So, let’s examine our lives. What do I need to die to?
Here are some examples of what we need to die to: ambition, notoriety, comfort, pleasure, and popularity.
What is the evidence in my daily life that this is happening to me?
The fruit will be in my relationships.
Here are some categories that reveal that we are not dying to ourselves.
- Revenge–if someone hurts me will I get them back…it could be even as subtle as diminishing them in my mind.
- The last word–do you have to have the last word? Make sure the person knows it was not your fault?
- The next word–when someone says something you need to come back “in kind”. A smart remark is one example.
- Resentment–so much of how we relate in our marriages and our work relationships is resentment
- Cut–even when you say something nice you add a sarcastic comment.
Christ is asking us to endure the pain of not retaliating.
What is the fruit of the kingdom? Love and compassion.
We must duplicate Christs’ pattern: rejected, slain, resurrected.
Only if the fruit of Christ is delicious to us will we be willing to die to the worldly fruit.
The moment you wound me and I forgive and offer compassion I offer life.
When Christ is lifted up on the cross He will draw all people to Himself. His body is broken and He will die and this path leads to life.
Out of fear of the Pharisees those who believed in Christ did not confess their belief in Christ publicly.
They loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
The glory that comes from God fills our souls–it never ends.
