Prayer
Because the primary goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for or anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together?
Opening Question
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
– John 3:1-16
If you had been alive during Jesus’s lifetime on earth, given the chance, what question would you have asked him?
The Why (Because God Loves)
In the sermon, we heard about how Christian mission originates in the heart of God.
How was a God who is motivated by his love revolutionary in Jesus’s time? How is it revolutionary in our time?
How should this idea that love moved God into action shape how we love and serve others?
What are some ways that you have participated in God’s mission in the past?
The Who (The World)
Pharisees like Nicodemus expected God’s love to include Jewish people almost exclusively. How would the idea that God loved the world shock them?
People often feel unworthy of God’s love. How does John 3:16 refute that idea?
What practices can help us expand our love so that we, too are willing to love the world as God does?
The How (By Sending His Son)
This is the real stumbling block in Christianity. It is here [Incarnation] that Jews, Muslims, Unitarians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many of those who feel the difficulties concerning the virgin birth, the miracles, the atonement, and the resurrection have come to grief. It is from misbelief, or at least inadequate belief, about the Incarnation that difficulties at other points in the gospel story usually spring. But once the Incarnation is grasped as reality, these other difficulties dissolve.
– JI Packer
What do you find most amazing about God’s willingness to be born as a human?
Did you encounter Jesus’s birth in a new or different way during Advent?
How can the inherent humility and vulnerability of the incarnation help shape our participation in God’s mission in the world?
The Goal (eternal life)
We heard in the sermon that the gospel makes it clear: eternal life cannot be earned.
Why do we so often try to earn God’s grace and favor?
How does the unmerited favor and grace of God inspire us to participate in God’s mission?
Is God calling you to love and serve others in a new or more meaningful way in 2026?
Closing Thought
In your final time together, pray for God’s mission to flourish in the world. Ask him to send more workers, to help Mosaic be effective and wise in all our missional efforts, and to provide the finances and energy necessary to accomplish his will.