Where do we find hope?

Thanks for coming back for session 4!

Previously, in LifeStory…

• What do you remember from what we looked at in session 3?
• Have you had any thoughts or questions since we last met?

Introduction

How do you find talking about suffering and death?

Things to ponder

Take a moment to think and reflect. Jot down anything you’d like to talk about.

• Is there anything from the video you’d like to talk about or question?
• How did Beth’s story make you feel?
• What do you believe about life after death? Why do you believe that?
• What would change your mind about whether there’s life after death?

Read John 11:1-4 and 17-44. Also 20:11-18

Things to ponder

Take a moment to think and reflect. Jot down anything you’d like to talk about.

• Is there anything from John chapters 11 or 20 you would question or want to talk about?
• If Jesus shows us what God is like, what does him raising Lazarus and of his own resurrection show us about God?
• If Jesus really did rise from the dead, how could or should that change how you relate to him now?

How has your view of Jesus changed since the start of the course? What has changed your mind, or has kept you believing the same about him as before?

More to the story

In John chapters 1-11 Jesus was in all different places, with all different people, teaching crowds and performing signs. From chapter 12 onwards everything becomes much more focused. Jesus stayed in one place (the capital city, Jerusalem) and with one small group of people (the twelve disciples). Even time itself becomes more focused. Repeatedly in the first half of the book Jesus said that his ‘hour’ had not yet come. When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem he declared that ‘the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.’ With those words and others, Jesus predicted his betrayal and crucifixion, his ultimate mission. But even with such personal agony ahead of him, he didn’t stop caring for his friends and took time to prepare them for life after his departure. 

In chapter 13 Jesus told his disciples that he would be with them ‘only a little longer’ and that they ‘cannot come’ where he is going but ‘will follow later’. The disciples seemed rocked by that bombshell, even if they didn’t fully understand it. In chapter 14 we read how Jesus comforted them…

Read John 14:1-11 then consider these questions:

• How did Jesus comfort the disciples?
• What do you make of the staggeringly huge claims he made about himself?
• What do these verses tell us about life after death?

Jot down observations/questions you have about these verses that you’d like to discuss

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