After - Day 14

INTRODUCTION
The following is a guide to help facilitate discussion. Feel free to add or subtract or change questions to fit the conversation, and pray for the Spirit to lead in all things.

OPEN
What’s a favorite memory, or a favorite aspect, about Easter?

HEAD
Read John 19 - 20 together and share any wisdom, insights, or questions in response to the reading.

How do you think the crowd could go from shouting “Hosanna” on Sunday to “Crucify” on Friday?

Jesus continued to think of others all the way up to His last breathe.  Can you name the different people and groups he cared for on the cross?

Knowing that crucifixion was one of the absolute worse ways to die every designed by men, and knowing that for every breath Jesus took to speak would have caused excruciating pain, what does it mean to you that He continued to endure that pain to speak words of forgiveness and love on the cross.

What would that Sabbath have been like for the followers of Jesus?

Imagine being Mary, weeping outside the tomb of Jesus. Not only was your hope lost on Friday, to add insult to injury the very body of her Savior was taken. Describe the emotions she might have experienced once she heard the “gardener” speak her name?

Yes, the disciples had seen Lazarus raised from the dead, but the one who raised Him was dead and now alive.  When you think of Thomas’ reaction to the resurrected Christ, do you struggle to understand his doubt or do you identify with it?

HEART
What are some of the things that you and I do that “we know not” as it relates to sin?

If Jesus was so willing to forgive even those that were nailing Him to the cross, and even the criminal who had mocked Him but then asked Him to save him, why do we struggle to forgive in like manner?

Thinking about Thomas, as well as all the disciples prior to Jesus’ ascension (Matthew 28: 17), are doubt and faith opposites or do they somehow go together? Explain.

What does the cross of Christ AND the empty tomb mean to you?

HANDS
This study looks at the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  Each gospel has it’s perspective of these events and it’s always meaningful for the follower of Jesus to spend time in these passages to reflect on what it all means, what God accomplished and communicated to all humanity through these events, and how wide and long and high and deep is the love of the Trinity towards their beloved Creation.  Listen to these in an audio version through Good Friday, Saturday, and Easter Sunday: Matthew 27-28, Mark 15: 16-Mark 16, Luke 23-24, John 19-20. 

LIVING WORDS for YOUR WEEK
“He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭28‬:‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

”The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭1‬:‭18‬ ‭NLT‬‬