Each week we’re publishing some questions to think about based on the Sunday messages & Bible readings.
These can be used in home groups, with others or on your own, and are designed to help you engage in the passage and themes in more depth and reflect on how God might be speaking to you through them.
Icebreaker Question
Do you have any stories about amazing growth of a plant or fruit tree?
Have you ever had a tree/bush that yielded exceptional fruit – either in the size of the fruit or the amount of it?
What difference has pruning made in your experience?
Opening Prayer
Loving God – we come to you the source of all goodness and peace.
Thank you that you love to meet with us.
We pray that as we seek you together and as we gather around your word, you would reassure us of your presence,
inspire us by your grace and move us on in our relationship with you. Amen.
Reading & Questions
Read John 15:1-11
- What can you remember about the metaphor of vines and the vineyards in the Old Testament? Check out Psalm 80 and Isaiah 5 to jog your memory!
- What does it mean for Jesus to describe himself as the ‘true’ vine?
- In a literal sense a vine passes water and nutrients to the peripheral branches and gives it physical support. What in this metaphor does Jesus, the vine give us as the branches?
- What are you doing to cultivate that ‘abiding’/ ‘remaining’ in Jesus and how can you encourage one another in this regard?
- There are warnings in this passage about what happens to branches which don’t bear fruit. See v 2 and 6. What is the fruit that Jesus wants us to grow and how can we encourage each other by pointing it out when we see it?
Closing Prayer
Pray for one another by name – that we would bear much fruit for the Kingdom of God both as individuals and as a church together.