John 11:1-16
ICE BREAKER
What’s the most important question you have ever been asked?
Today we will look at the most important question Jesus asked Martha.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Most of us have had a version of Martha’s conversation with Jesus.
She told Him that if He had been there her brother would not have died.
Her words have a tone of rebuke.
She is saying to Him that in our time of deepest need we sent for You and we got nothing.
What is your version of this conversation?
Reflect on your season(s) of deepest need and your huge desire for Jesus to move and ask what happened in your relationship with Christ.
Share your answer with the group.
- Jesus, in reply to Martha’s question, asks her the most important question: Jesus tells her that He is the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Him will live and never die. Then He asks her, “Do you believe this?”. In the midst of your sin, brokenness and grief, do you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? Another way of asking this is: do you believe, in spite of your heartache and unanswered prayers, that Jesus is life for you now as well as in the life to come?
- One author speaks of “doubtful hurt” that creeps into our relationship with Christ in the midst of suffering and unanswered prayers.
He says we don’t abandon our faith altogether but a gap grows in our relationship with Him.
This author then points out that remembering God’s gifts is very helpful for our hearts.
He says that each and every thing you love or enjoy is a gift from God and that remembering this can help our hearts to trust Him more deeply again.
Spend some time as a group remembering the gifts God has given to you.
Talk together about what you love and enjoy and connect the dots that each and every one of these is from His heart to yours.
Jesus is not some distant Messiah. He enters our grief with us.
He feels every bit of it.
He is filled with compassion and He aches for us in our suffering.
NOTES AND QUOTES
This chapter is laid out in the following manner:
Jesus and His disciples; Jesus and Martha; Jesus and Mary; Jesus and Lazarus.
The story begins with Jesus in Bethany with his disciples.
The message comes to Jesus that Lazarus is ill.
Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus yet he stayed 2 more days.
He did this so that His glory would be on display.
Martha meets Jesus before he arrives at the house. She is deeply grieved because Lazarus has died.
She asks Jesus why He did not come in the hour of her deepest need.
Nearly all of us have had similar conversations with Jesus.
In life we see Jesus rescue others and at times we ourselves or those we love are not rescued.
In reply Jesus asks her the most important question:
He tells her that HE is the resurrection and the life and that whoever believes in Him will live and never die.
Then He asks her, “Do you believe this?”.
In the midst of the darkest time of your life, can you cling to this?
In the midst of ongoing suffering can you believe this?
Can you believe this in the midst of broken relationships or tragedy, sickness and loss?
Jesus is looking each of us in the eye and is asking: Do you believe this?
Martha replies: “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
When Jesus saw Mary weeping He was, “…deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled”. Then he wept.
Jesus is experiencing intense anger and intense grief. Have you ever been there?
Jesus is angry at Satan and death. He created Lazarus in His image and he’s dead.
Jesus has seen much death and the impact of sin and He knows His own death is coming and now He sees His close friends in deep grief.
Jesus goes to the tomb and He is again “deeply moved”.
Faith precedes evidence.
Why does Jesus cry out with a loud voice?
The next time Jesus uses a loud voice is when He speaks from the cross and says It is finished.
So, Jesus is saying to death and to Satan in a loud voice: you lose!
Jesus gets the final word.
What is binding you today? What sorrow, grief, or death is binding you?
The day of unbinding awaits all who believe.
