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 Questions
What’s a meal you still remember years later—and what made it memorable?
Prayer
Lord God, thank you for this chance to study your word.
Thank you that you promise to meet us here as you met the crowds on the hillside.
Reveal yourself to us as you revealed yourself to them.
Help us to hear your voice today. Amen.
Reading & Questions
Read John 6:1-59
- Where do you see Jesus’ compassion and abundance in the feeding of the five thousand? What does this reveal about God's concern for our physical/material needs?
- The crowd concludes Jesus must be 'the prophet' and tries to make him king by force (John 6:14-15). What are some of the ways we try to fit Jesus into our own agendas today, rather than letting him define what kind of king he is?
- Jesus says the crowd is looking for him because they ate and were satisfied (John 6:26). When are you most tempted to seek Jesus mainly for what he can do for you—and what might it look like to seek him instead?
- The crowd struggles with Jesus’ claim to have come from heaven (John 6:41-42). What parts of Jesus’ identity or teaching feel hardest to trust or understand today—and what helps you engage those questions?
- Jesus says that he is the 'Bread of life' - the one who comes to satisfy not only our material needs but also our deeper spiritual hunger for the eternal life and relationship with God for which we were created (John 6:51). Do you feel that hunger in your life at the moment? What might it look like to come to him to receive the 'bread from heaven'?
- In John 6:54 Jesus says 'Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.' What does he mean by this? How is Jesus made present to us when we share in the bread and wine of communion?
- The invitation to come and 'feed on Jesus' through the Lord's Supper includes the words 'Come, not because any goodness of your own gives you a right to come, but because you need mercy and help.' How does that challenge or encourage the way you think about grace, forgiveness, and belonging at God’s table?
Closing Prayer
Conclude this time together by praying for the world, our church, for those you love and for each other.
Pray especially for people's material and spiritual needs, and that the whole world would come to know and feed on Jesus as the bread of life.