Life Group Questions for November 4th

All Saints Sunday:

John 11: 32-44

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

Prayer: “Almighty God, you have knit your people together in one communion in the mystical body of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Grant us grace to follow your blessed saints in lives of faith and commitment, and to know the inexpressible joys you have prepared for those who love you, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.”

The scriptures do not shy away from issues of death, dying, our mortality and the afterlife. The old nursery rhyme “Ring-a-round a rosie, a pocket full of posies, ashes! ashes! We all fall down” holds an important lesson for us all—and that lesson is, we all fall down. Death and mortality are an inescapable part of our human existence. We are all woven in its web; and someday when our time here is done, we will journey that path like all who came before us. The Psalmist writes in the 90th Psalm that we are sojourners on earth, here today, gone tomorrow. Christian theology is a mix of the “here and the hereafter”, “the now and the soon to be”. But if this were the end of the story, it would be a pretty sad ending. We don't just fall down, we rise up. Because Jesus rose, we will also be raised to eternal life through Jesus Christ. 

I hope you will take time today to discuss issues of life, death and the afterlife--in light of our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 

I.  Discuss your views of life and mortality. How often to you think of your own mortality? 
 
II. Jesus offers assurances to Mary and Martha in the text above that their brother will rise again. How do you hear Jesus words, and what does it mean to you in your present reality?
 
III. As we celebrate the lives of saints who have gone before, what memories do you cherish of those who now rest from their earthly labors?

IV. How do you talk about the afterlife in light of your faith in Jesus Christ? Are you hopeful? Are you fearful?

V. Revelation 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labours, for their deeds follow them.’ We are living testaments of those who have gone before us. We are their legacy. What kind of legacy would you like to leave?

May God bless His saints above and His saints below.