Tag: Easter

John 11:1-44 // Journey to Easter

Good Friday Services
March 25th at 12p, 3p, 4:30p, 6p, & 7:30p
Before there is the resurrection and new life, there is darkness and death.  We want to encourage you and your life group to attend a Good Friday service to feel the heaviness and weight of the cross so that you can also experience the joy, celebration, and new life of Easter in a deeper and more profound way!

Lean In // 5 minutes

What are things that seem to always remain the same in life?

Sample answers:

  • Sunrise and sunsets
  • Waves at the ocean and the tides
  • Monday mornings
  • The smell of homemade cookies
  • Communication problems
  • Getting old
  • Anticipation of change of seasons
  • World systems (government, economic, etc.)
  • Teaching old dogs new tricks
  • UCLA fans and USC fans not getting along

Leader Note: Transition your group into the Look Down by highlighting how this week’s passage challenges the idea that things don’t change in life.

Look Down // 10 minutes

Read John 11:1-44

Leader Note: Before reading the passage, ask the question and encourage group members to take notes and write down observations. This week’s passage is written in story form and is longer than usual. As you read, it may be helpful to break it up into sections (IE- 11:1-16; 17-37; 38-44).

What do the disciples, Mary and Martha learn about preparing for Easter from this passage?

Sample answers:

  • Jesus promises that death is not the end (v. 4)
  • God uses even death for His glory (v. 4)
  • Jesus holds the power over death (v. 11)
  • Jesus speaks of death in ways we don’t understand (v. 12)
  • Death causes confusion and questions about God (vv. 20, 32, 37)
  • Jesus is the resurrection and the life (v. 25)
  • Where there is death, there is opportunity for resurrection and new life
  • Jesus promises life to those who believe in Him (vv. 25-26)
  • God turned a sad and hopeless event into a time of belief and celebration
  • Jesus’ words have the power of life (vv. 43-44)
  • Jesus allows us to participate in bringing life to others (vv. 39, 44)
  • New life points to God’s glory (v. 40)

Look Out // 10 minutes

What does Jesus ask people to do with things that are dead and buried?

Leader Note: This question is designed to get your group thinking about where they have seen the principles of this passage in the world today. Where have they ever seen God show and bring dead things to life in relationships or in areas of people’s lives that have seemed hopeless? What changed and what was the response of those who encountered the change?

Look In // 20 minutes

Where have you given up hope in your life and no longer believe God can show up and bring resurrection power?

Sample answers:

  • I’ll never get out of debt
  • I’ll never hear God’s voice
  • I’ll never get out of this place
  • My family will never come to know the Lord
  • My relationship will never be reconciled
  • I’ll always have this stronghold
  • I’ll always have this addiction

What would it look like to “roll away the stone” and trust Jesus?

Leader note: In the passage, Jesus’ desire was to bring Lazarus from death to life but he asked others to trust him and roll away the stone. In a similar way, Jesus’ desire is to bring life to our places of death. But, there is a part we play in trusting Jesus and His power and opening up those places that are dead and decaying.

Live It Out // 5 minutes

How do these truths prepare us for Easter?

What if we were ready for Easter, how would we be different and what conversations might we be having with others around us?

Easter Services: March 26th – 3:30p & 5:30p // March27th – 8:15a, 9:45a, & 11:30a Easter Egg Scramble – March 26th 2p

 

Learn More About Flow Questions: Check out Kenton Beshore’s book Ask in the Irvine Campus Bookstore for more on the Flow Question model.

 

 

John 20:1-31 // We are EASTER

Lean In // 5 minutes

What’s something incredible you’ve experienced and couldn’t wait to share it?

Sample answers may include:

  • Engagement story
  • Natural wonder
  • Birth of a child
  • Hole-in-one
  • Celebrity sighting

Look Down // 10 minutes

Read John 20:1-31

Leader Note: It may be helpful to break this passage into sections (vv. 1-18; 19-23; 24-31).  After each section, ask the Look Down question. 

What do you observe about Mary, The Disciples and Thomas?

Sample answers for Mary (vv. 11-18):

  • Mary was looking for Jesus in the tomb (v. 11)
  • She was overcome with grief because she couldn’t find Jesus (v. 13)
  • She expected the worse and was blinded by expectations
  • She’s confused
  • Jesus appears and Mary doesn’t recognize Him (v. 14)
  • Mary believes at the sound of Jesus’ voice (v. 16)
  • Upon hearing Jesus’ voice and seeing him, she obeys (vv. 17-18)

Sample answers for The Disciples (vv. 19-23):

  • They were gathering in fear (v. 19)
  • Even though there was tragedy, they still gathered together
  • Jesus speaks peace to their fear
  • Upon seeing the Lord, they are filled with joy (v. 20)
  • Jesus gives them a mission accompanied with the Holy Spirit (vv. 21-22)

Sample answers for Thomas (vv. 24-29):

  • Thomas was not gathered with the other disciples
  • Thomas does not believe unless he experiences it for himself (vv. 24-25)
  • Jesus brings peace to the believers
  • Jesus invites Thomas to touch his hands and side
  • Upon experiencing Jesus’ resurrection, he believes (v. 28)
  • Jesus shows Thomas but blesses those who believe without seeing

Commentary: At the cross, there were no believers.  Rather, there was pain, confusion, hurt, disappointment, and fear at the apparent loss of Jesus.  It wasn’t until the tomb was empty and Jesus appears that His disciples believed.  John 20:9 is key to understanding the passage as the disciples did not understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

For each section, Jesus showed up uniquely.  Mary needed to hear Jesus’ voice, the disciples were afraid until they saw the Lord, and Thomas required evidence and experience so he could believe it was Jesus. 

Take some time to draw out the different observations, as your group will enter back into the characters in the Look In question.

Look Out // 10 minutes

What are things that keep people trapped in doubt?

Sample answers:

  • Fear
  • Grief
  • Ignorance
  • Lack of experience
  • Believing that things will never change
  • Preconceived ideas
  • Disappointment

What moves people toward belief?  Where have you seen it?

Leader note: This is a great storytelling question.  So, allow group members to share stories and capture their insights.  Help your group move past simply listing the reasons “why” people doubt or believe and where they’ve seen the effects of doubt or belief in our world.

Sample answers:

  • The endorsement of someone respected
  • Undeniable proof—Sight, taste, touch, sound, smell, etc.
  • Popular opinion
  • Events—September 11, act of compassion/love, loss of a loved one, etc.

Look In // 20 minutes

Who do you identify with from the passage and why?

What can you grab onto from Jesus’ words/actions to Mary, The Disciples, and Thomas?

Commentary: In the passage, Jesus responded in different ways to the different needs.  As your group identifies with one or two of the characters, help them grab onto a word or phrase that speaks to them.

  • Mary – “Why are you crying?  Who is it you are looking for?”; Jesus’ compassion/love; Calls her by name; “I have seen the Lord!”
  • The Disciples – I am present among you; “Peace be with you!”; Joy at seeing the Lord; “I am sending you”; Receive the Holy Spirit”
  • Thomas – “Peace be with you!”; See & Touch; “Stop doubting and believe”; Your doubts are ok, I can handle your doubt, they don’t separate you from me; You’re not left out

Live It Out // 5 minutes

How could you bring the hope of the resurrection to those around you?

Key Verse: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

Key Thought: Easter: the best news ever!

Click here for Life Group Serve Opportunities

Learn More About Flow Questions: Check out Kenton Beshore’s book Ask in the Irvine Campus Bookstore for more on the Flow Question model.

Romans 8:11-17 // Easter

Lean In // 5 minutes

If you could have one superpower what would it be and why? 

Leader Note: Do your best to get everyone to answer this amusing question. Remember the more people talk in the beginning the more likely they are to stay engaged throughout the discussion.

 

Look Down // 10 minutes

Read Romans 8:11-17

What do you learn about God’s Spirit?

Sample answers may include

  • God’s Spirit raised Christ from the dead (v.11)
  • God’s Spirit is alive in us (v.11)
  • God’s Spirit gives us life and power now (v.11)
  • We can choose to live by God’s Spirit or our sinful nature (v.12-13)
  • Living by God’s spirit puts to death the ways of our flesh (v.13)
  • It is God’s Spirit leading us that identifies us as God’s children (v.14,16)
  • God’s Spirit does not make us fearful or slaves (v.15)
  • God gives us His Spirit, we don’t earn it (v.15)
  • God’s Spirit causes us to be heirs together with Christ, we share in His glory and we also share in His suffering (v.17)

 

Look Out // 10 minutes

Where have you seen people hold on to dead things?

Where have you seen people experience new life?

Leader Note: This can work its self out in a number of ways. Unforgiveness, regret, fear pain and shame can often be seen as our “just deserved” outcome for our actions that we come to accept death as the only reality. Easter tells us that new life is possible, that death is not final through the power of God’s Spirit.

 

Look In // 20 minutes

Where are you in need of God’s Spirit to bring a dead thing to life?

Commentary: The power of the cross signals to us that new life is possible! Be it a broken relationship, an addiction or a general sense of needing to control our lives we can trust in God’s Spirit to give us power and strength to overcome the remains of death in our lives.

 

Live It Out // 5 minutes

Who could you impact by living in the power of God’s Sprit?

Leader Note: Read the first half of verse 11 again to your group. God’s spirit brings us life, freedom and healing. Our call as Christ followers is to then live out those things for the sake of others. Challenge your group to think about where God is calling them to live out new life… what could that look like, what could the impact be?

Pray: Father we thank you for the ultimate sacrifice you paid in your son that has restored us in relationship with you. We thank you that through the death and resurrection of Jesus we now experience life in place of death. We ask for the boldness and conviction to live in that new life so that others can experience freedom, salvation and healing. Amen.