The Upper Room: A Seat at the Table – John 13-17
Knowing the time was fast approaching for Jesus to depart this world He spent His final hours with His closest friends gathered around a table in the upper room. This was more than a meal. It was a teaching moment of great importance to them…and to us.
As the disciples sat with Jesus, unaware of what would soon take place, Jesus served them, taught them, and prayed for them. We are going to pull up a seat at that table and let Jesus teach and disciple us as well.
Week 1: Intro to the Upper Room
As we kick of this new series, Doug gave us 1) an introduction to the Upper Room teachings of Jesus, 2) an overview of the Gospel of John, and 3) a challenge to pull up a seat at the table to engage the Scriptures on your own and let Jesus disciple us.
LIVE OAK CONNECTION POINT:
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DISCUSSION/REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
- What was the best meal you ever had? What made it so good?
- If you could arrange a dinner gathering and could have any 3 people from history join you, (other than Jesus) who would you invite?
- Have you ever made reading through the Bible a New Year’s resolution of goal? Or tried consistently doing a Bible reading plan? How did it go? What was challenging about it? What went well?
- As we kicked off a new series this week that will take us through Easter, we looked at one verse that starts what is known as the Upper Room Discourse between Jesus and His disciples, right before Jesus would be arrested and crucified. That teaching and time runs from John 13-17. We looked at one verse this week that sets it up.
READ: John 13:1
Spend some time SOAPing this VERY BRIEF passage. You can either spend time SOAPing individually and documenting for a several minutes and then spend time sharing with each -OR- SOAP in real time with each other. Either way make as many observations as you can.
- OBSERVATIONS: What are the things that stand out to you about this verse?
- READ: the Prologue verses and epilogue verses Doug shared that book end the Gospel of John giving insight to the purpose of the Gospel of John. What do these verses tell us about John’s purpose of his Gospel:
Prologue: John 1:1 and John 1:18
Epilogue: John 20:30-31 and John 21:25
READ these verses and talk how they inform us about who Jesus is and what He wants for us and from us:
Follow Me: John 1:43
Believe in Me: John 3:16; John 6:29
Choose Me: John 6:67-69
Obey Me: John 14:15
Abide in Me: John 15:4
Doug challenged us to READ and REFLECT on the Gospel of John and the Upper Room Sunday series by doing the following:
-Put yourself in the shoes/sandals of the disciples as you read the Gospel of John and the Upper Room encounter between Jesus and His disciples
.-Read the Gospels as if you were one of Jesus’ disciples…because you are a disciple of Jesus. Let Jesus Disciple you through this series, reading plan and as you connect to discipleship opportunities.
-Engage in this series on Sundays and daily throughout the week.
-Read and Reflect on the Gospel of John via the Live Oak reading plan, another reading plan, or slowly reading it through at your own pace.
-Let Jesus Disciple you and use you to disciple others.
- How will you specifically accept that challenge this week?
- What else stood out from this week’s sermon?
- What is your big takeaway from this week’s sermon?
NEXT STEPS:
Everyone has a next step to apply what we have learned. What is your next step?Be specific.
MEMORY VERSE: *Challenge yourself or your group to commit this verse to memory:
John 20:30-31 “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
PRAYER:
Spend some time praying for each other.
Scripture References:
John 13:1; John 1:1,18; John 20:30-31; John 21:25; John 1:43; John 3:16; John 6:29; John 6:67-69; John 14:15; John 15:4; Matthew 28:18-20