GROUP GUIDE
Leading a group through these questions? Here’s a simple guide for 1.5-2 hour GROUP meeting.
Welcome and Opening Prayer. (5 minutes)
Read the passage aloud. (5 minutes)
Guide the group through the questions. (30-60 minutes)
Take time to share prayer requests and pray for each other. (15-30 minutes)
TEACHING RECAP
Summary: The Christmas manger is one of the first places we encounter God’s gift of love—a love that finds its ultimate fulfillment at the cross, where God’s Son, Jesus, gives Himself for the world. Today, we are invited to view the manger and the cross together, seeing them as one unfolding story of God stepping into our world and making room for us through Christ’s life and death. As we reflect on this, may we remember that the greatest gift of Christmas is the life-giving, costly love of Christ.
Main Points:
1.. Christmas INITIATES God's Sacrifice
2. God’s sacrifice is SHAPED BY LOVE
3. God invites us to SHARE IN HIS SACRIFICE
4. God’s Sacrifice BRINGS LIFE
On-Ramps:
Receive the invitation that Jesus extends to you. Accept that his sacrifice was so that you could have life.
Ask God to reveal who you can lay your life down for, and for the courage to do so.
Reflect this week on John 3:16. Read it alongside the Christmas story.
Discussion
What stands out to you from this passage? How does this passage most challenge or encourage you?
What does greater love look like according to Jesus in John 15:13?
Who might God have put in our lives that are friends beyond our regular social circle?
How might we “lay down our lives” for such friends?
How do you want to respond to this passage in your daily life?
PRAYER
How can we pray for you as a group?
Next week: Luke 24:1–8; 1 Peter 1:3–5
