ENCOUNTERS: Nicodemus (Small Group Study)
Small Group Study, week commencing 29th June
Click here for a PDF version of these questions.
Read John 3:1-21.
1. Anxieties and fears comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes and are different for each one of us. What are some of your common anxieties and fears, and how do they affect your everyday living?
2. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night (verse 2), suggesting that he was afraid of being seen publicly with Jesus (see also verses 19-21). To what extent does your association with Jesus, and what others might think, make you anxious? How does it affect your behaviour?
3. The phrase ‘born again Christian’ is not generally used in a very flattering way nowadays in Western culture, and yet its roots are here in John 3. The Greek phrase translated ‘born again’ in verses 3 and 7 can equally mean ‘born from above’. What does Jesus mean by the phrase (take a look at Ezekiel 36:27; John 1:13; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:1, 4:18; 1 Peter 1:23)?
4. Jesus exposes Nicodemus’ motives for coming to him (verse 3) and his lack of understanding (verses 10-15). John later comments that our actions are also exposed by God’s light (verses 19-21). What are some of responses we might have to the idea that God knows everything about us?
5. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18). Does this verse make us feel uncomfortable? Why (not)?
Turn some of your thoughts into prayer.
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