Easter Sunday - Small Group Study
Small Group Study, week commencing 13th April
Click here for a PDF version of these questions.
1. ‘So much has changed recently .. but not everything’ – Does this perspective help you today, if so how and why?
Spend time as a group acknowledging and praying about the changes. Ken lists some categories:
Level of certainty about so many things for so many people have changed
A lot of future plans have changed or are on hold
Our ability to travel and the freedom to spend time outside whenever we want to has changed
Income has changed for so many
Health and wellbeing concerns have changed and more
It is, of course, OK to bring our sadness and concerns about these changes to the Lord in prayer. Being sad about negative changes need not mean we have lost perspective or that we don’t have thankfulness and gratitude for all the remains constant and good.
2. Ken talked about people looking for somewhere to place their trust. When our news and newsfeeds are full of messages from officials and experts, what can we do to remind ourselves to ultimately place our trust in God?
3. Is it easy to look in the wrong direction for something or someone to trust in, when facing uncertain times?
4. Does the honesty of Mary, Peter and John’s misunderstandings help your confidence in the historic accuracy of the gospel account. What other things help you to believe in the risen Jesus (if you do)?
Here are verses Ken mentioned:
2 …and we don’t know where they have put him!’
9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) ]
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb.
14 At this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realise that it was Jesus. 15 ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.’
5. Ken suggested that this might be a season where the fruit of the spirit attributes are needed more than ever. Which do you particularly need today?
6. “‘All fear is gone’ is a progressive truth’.” What do you think Ken meant by that? Do you agree?
7. Are there ways, for you, in which the Easter message carries particular resonance in the current circumstances?
8. ‘This is a time when we are being asked to limit ourselves for the sake of saving lives – there is a better and more perfect version of that in Jesus’. When we feel sad for our own time of social and geographic limitations, is this an opportunity to be thankful for Jesus who limited himself so much for us? Perhaps close in prayer seeking to do this.
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