Week 8

QUESTIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT AND SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION

What Believers Believe, Week Eight: The Resurrection of the Dead

Before jumping into this week’s questions, please take some time to read slowly and carefully through John 11:17-27, I Corinthians 15:42-55, and II Corinthians 5:9-10.

As you begin your discussion time with your group, please take a moment to read or recite together the following words of the Apostles’ Creed:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,

and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the dead. On the third day, He rose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven, where He sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

From there He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Read John 11:17-27 out loud in your group.

What are your initial reactions to this passage? What words or phrases stand out to you, or what questions do you have from this reading?

Look closely at Martha’s words in John 11:21-22. Without a doubt, her words reveal great faith. Apparently, she had an absolute confidence in the Lord Jesus’ ability to heal, saying, “If You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Even then, she went on to add, “I know that even now God will give You whatever You ask.” Martha’s words expressed tremendous faith; yet when Jesus revealed His intention to raise Lazarus from the dead, she refused to accept it, even openly resisting the Lord’s command to remove the stone from the tomb (v. 39).

Do you ever worry that your walk with the Lord doesn’t always line up with your talk about Him? In what areas of life do you sometimes struggle to walk out the kind of trust in God you want to walk in? Have you ever encouraged someone else to trust God, even though you sometimes fail to do that? What are some practical things you can do to close the gap between what you profess about Christ and how you live it?

Read vv. 23-24 again. It appears Martha and Jesus were talking at cross purposes here, using the same words but with different meanings.

What does Martha’s response to the Lord in v. 24 reveal?

Like most of the Jews in Jesus’ day, Martha believed in the promised resurrection of the dead at the end of time. She just didn’t catch on that Jesus was talking about resuscitating her brother right then. The raising of Lazarus was a profound miracle, but it was not the resurrection believers are hoping for since that resurrection will involve an imperishable body that will never die again.

Read vv. 25-26 again.

What does Jesus mean by, “He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies”? What does He mean in the next verse by, “Whoever lives and believes in Me will never die”?

In classic prophetic form, Jesus uses words in more than one way to convey deep truths obliquely. Believers receive eternal life the moment they trust in Christ, but the fullness of that life awaits the resurrection of the body. In v. 25, Jesus is referring to the coming resurrection of the dead, promising that even those who’ve died and been buried will, one day, live again in bodily form. In v. 26, however, He’s acknowledging that trust in Him brings His followers into the promise of eternal life from the moment they believe, so that, if they’ll continue to trust in Him, in some very real way they’ll never experience the full terror and power of death but will rather move from life in this world into life with Him in heaven.

Read I Corinthians 15:42-55 out loud in your group.

What are your initial reactions to this passage? What words or phrases stand out to you, or what questions do you have from this reading? What, if anything, do you find encouraging? What, if anything, do you find confusing?

Vv. 42-44 draw distinctions between the body you have right now – the one with which you were born – and the body you will have at the resurrection if you are a follower of Jesus. Don’t be confused by the statement that the body to come is a “spiritual body” (vv. 44, 45), as if it implies eternity in a spiritual, disembodied state. The resurrection body is still a body (soma is the word in Greek); it’s just a body that perfectly blends spirit and matter, a body specifically designed and perfectly suited for the merged heaven and earth that is to come.

What is the promise of I Corinthians 15:49? The body Christians have following the resurrection will be like the body Jesus has now (ie, following His resurrection). What are some of the characteristics of the resurrection body found in this passage of Scripture or in the Scriptures that speak of the resurrected Christ?

In vv. 50-52, Paul notes that every believer must go through this bodily transformation in order to function in the fullness of God’s kingdom. Those who have died in Christ will see their bodies raised, changed, and reunited with their souls and spirits; and those who are alive at the Lord’s return will see their bodies transformed in an instant.

How do these verses from I Corinthians compare with I Thessalonians 4:16-17?

Read II Corinthians 5:9-10 out loud in your group.

The resurrection of the body means eternal life for the followers of Christ, but it also means standing before Him to give an accounting and to receive the proper recompense for the life lived in the pre-resurrection body. This judgment seat of Christ is about sanctification not justification, that is, it’s about being rewarded (or not) rather than about being saved (or not). In this way, the judgment seat of Christ is the fulfillment of verses like Hebrews 6:10 (“God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them.”) and Luke 14:13-14 (“But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”).

Read Matthew 16:24-27.

In light of the coming judgment seat of Christ, how does this passage instruct you to live?

Read II Peter 3:10-13.

In light of the coming judgment seat of Christ, how does this passage instruct you to live?

As you close your small group gathering this week, take some time to pray and thank the Lord for His promises of eternal life and the coming resurrection of the dead. Then place an empty chair in the middle of the room and pray for the lost, asking the Lord in His mercy to fill the empty chair with the people He’s calling to Himself.