Sermon Discussion Guide 11-16-25

Sermon Discussion Guide
The Book of John | John 11:38-57

Gathering Question:
What is one way you’ve experienced God in your life this week?

Gathering Prayer
Father, by Your Spirit, would You guide us into all truth. Help us to hear and be attentive to Your voice as we work through this study. In the name of Jesus, Your Son, we pray, Amen.

Opening Questions

• What stood out to you in the sermon? 
• What insights did you gain? 
• What questions did it raise?

Read John 11:38-57

The Sign at the Tomb

• What do you think this sign—the raising of Lazarus—reveals about who Jesus is?
• What do you think it means when Jesus tells the people, “Take away the stone,” and later, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go”?
• After witnessing this event, some believed, while others plotted to kill Jesus.
  What does that tell us about how people respond to Jesus’ signs even today?

Life From Death

• Reflect on this quote from Charles Spurgeon, “We are dead by nature, and you can never produce life out of death: the essential elements are wanting… from human nature the last spark of heavenly life is gone, and it is vain to seek for life among the dead…  The life of every Christian is Christ. He is the beginning of life, being the Resurrection: when he comes to us, we live. Regeneration is the result of contact with Christ: we are born again unto living hope by his resurrection from the dead. The life of the Christian in its commencement is in Christ alone; not a fragment of it is from himself, and the continuance of that life is equally the same; Jesus is not only the resurrection to begin with, but also the life to go on with. To look to self is to turn to a broken cistern which can hold no water. I tell you, you must learn that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Anything that is beyond the circle of Christ is death.” 
• What stands out to you? What challenges you? What encourages you?
• What does it mean for you to confess that Jesus is your life and not just the giver of it?
• What are some ways that you are tempted to look to yourself for life, rather than to Jesus?

Do You Believe?

• Read John 11:25-26 again. Do you notice the different ways he speaks of belief? 
• How does believing that Jesus is the resurrection and the life require letting go of self-reliance?
• How do you move from “I believe this in theory” to “I trust this with my whole life”?

Closing Prayer