Discovery Group Passages – the “I AM” statements of Why study the “I Am” statements? It allows us to study Jesus’ audacious claims directly It invites us to discover the wonderful promises that these claims offer to all of us as followers of It shows us the drama of the mounting hatred the religious authorities had for Jesus; a hatred that would eventually result in their murder of Him on the cross. It was a hatred growing out of his blasphemous claims to be the Jehovah God of the Hebrew scriptures

Week Lesson Theme Passage to Read Focus Verses 1: 1/27 “I AM the bread of life” :1-71 John 6:35-40 2: 2/4 “I AM the ” :1-32 John 8:12-14; 31-32 “Before Abraham was born, I AM” Exodus 3:10-15; John 8:56-58 The Lord’s name, ‘Jehovah’, was derived from the Hebrew John 8:33-59 The Jews understood exactly 3: 2/11 word HAYAH, which is the verb, “to Be!” Thus God what Jesus was claiming here revealed Himself to be the ever-existent One! His name and tried to stone Him for his was so sacred, that the Jews would never say it aloud. blasphemy 4: 2/18 “I AM the door” :13-10:10 :7-10 5: 2/25 “I AM the ” John 10:11-39 John 10:11-16 6: 3/4 “I AM the resurrection and the life” :1-53 John 11:21-27 7: 3/11 “I AM the way, and the truth and the life” :31-14:31 :4-7 8: 3/18 “I AM the ” :1-27 John 15:1-5

Discovery Format: Home Preparation for Weekly Group Discussions Step One: PRAY FIRST!! Ask God to meet you as you read the Bible passage. Invite the Holy Spirit to “open the eyes of your heart” to the truth of God's Word. Step Two:Using the chart above, read the passage indicated. Step Three: Write out the passage just as it is written in the version of the Bible that you are using. Depending on time, you may choose to write out the shorter “focus passage”. Step Four: Write out the passage in your own words. This can be a paraphrase or a summary. You may want to think of explaining it to someone who has not read the Bible before. There is no right or wrong way to do this. You simply write out your impression of what the Scripture says. Once again, if you prefer you may use the shorter focus passage for this exercise. *Step Five: Formulate an “I will” statement that reflects an application of something you learned or something that challenged you from the Scripture. (Galatians 2:20...not I, but Christ) “I will” statements should be simple and very specific. You may want to use the following prompts to get you started. “On the basis of what we have studied, I will ü Thank God for ______ü Ask Him to ______ü Trust His promise to ______ü Obey His command to/by ______Step Six: Ask the Holy Spirit to give you someone to share the with this week.(spouse, family, friends, neighbors, colleagues…) *Step 5 may change after you meet with your group for discussion, challenge, and prayer! You will notice that there are eight weeks worth of content. If your group will only be meeting six or seven times you will need to adjust the readings. Here is a suggestion for finishing the content in six meetings: Combine weeks 2 & 3, Combine weeks 4 & 5.