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Easter Lessons

Lesson 2: Why Does the Resurrection Matter?


Lessons in this series: 1 2 3 Overview Lesson Index

Lesson Workbook (PDF) Click here
Don't Blow Your Nose! (Game) Click here


LESSON OBJECTIVES

This Easter Sunday school lesson convinces students that the Resurrection was a historical event and inspires them to live in the hope of the Resurrection to come.

Goals

1. To compare the accounts of the Resurrection in the Gospels
2. To convince students that the Resurrection was an actual historical event
3. To inspire students to live in the hope of the Resurrection to come

Topics

Easter, Resurrection

Scripture Memorization

Romans 8:11


OPENING PRAYER (5 to 10 minutes)
 

GROUP BUILDING (10 minutes) 

Don't Blow Your Nose! (Game) Click here

 

GETTING STARTED (5 minutes)

General Discussion:
• What is something from the Bible that you find hard to believe?
• What do you think makes something hard to believe?
• What would it take for you to believe something that you currently find hard to believe?

Today we are going to talk about something that—for some people—is hard to believe. That is, the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.


DIGGING DEEP (30 minutes)

We will begin by reading all four Gospel accounts of the Resurrection. As we read them, keep tabs in your workbook of some of the things mentioned in each account that are the same and those that are slightly different.

(Select four students to read the following passages.)

Matthew 28:1-10
Mark 16:1-8
Luke 24:1-12
John 20:1-10

(Below is a brief list of some of the more significant details. Your group may discover more variants.)

Workbook Activity

The Same Yet Different

Things that are the same:

1. What day of the week it was (The first day.)
2. They came to the tomb early in the morning
3. The purpose of going to the tomb (Look/anoint the body.)
4. Clothes of angels were gleaming white

Things that are different:
1. Who was present
2. Whether they felt an earthquake when the stone was rolled away
3. Amount of young men/angels (1 vs. 2) and where they appeared
4. What precisely the angel said (Though not generally.)
5. The precise reaction of the women present

  
Discussion Questions:
1. Why do you think the Gospel authors recorded the events of the Resurrection differently? (They are writing to different audiences, at different times, with different sources for their writing.)
2. Are there any details here that directly contradict or prove false the accounts given from the other authors' point of view? (No. While the details vary, there is nothing to disprove another's account.)
3. How reliable do you think the Bible is when it comes to historical detail? (It is pretty accurate and trustworthy. These accounts were written just a couple decades after the events took place.)
4. Do you think Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John give us enough information that we can be confident that Jesus actually rose from the dead? (Yes.)


MAKING IT REAL (15 minutes)

It is important that we can trust what the Bible says about the Resurrection. It is equally important for us to know how the Bible says we should be changed because of the Resurrection.

Read Romans 8:9-11

Discussion Questions:
1. What does verse 11 say about the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead? (If it lives in you, it will also give you life.)
2. What does verse 10 say about how sin makes our bodies? (It makes us dead.)
3. Do you ever think of yourself as needing a resurrection? Why/why not? (Allow for discussion.)
4. What is our only hope for a resurrection? (Jesus' Resurrection.)
5. Do you think this means only a physical resurrection? (No, it is spiritual, too.)

There is one more verse I would like for us to look at together.

Read 1 Corinthians 15:19

Discussion Questions:
1. This verse declares that if Christ gives us hope for this life only, what are we? (Pitiful!)
2. That said, should Christ’s Resurrection give us hope for this life, or just for Heaven? (The Resurrection should give us hope in this life, too.)
3. How does the power of the Resurrection give you hope for this world and for this life? (Allow for discussion.)

The truth is we can have confidence that the Resurrection actually happened. Furthermore, we can have confidence that there are little resurrections happening all around us every day. People who were dead in their sin rise to a new life. Marriages that were dead receive fresh breath because of the power of the Gospel. Again and again, the power of the Gospel changes things. Not just for our eternity, but for our here and now. In that way, it’s Easter every day. Jesus is risen from the grave and He is risen in us as we surrender to Him daily.


CLOSING PRAYER (2 minutes)

Pray for your students to live lives that are surrendered to Jesus Christ.

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