How did you feel about Sunday morning’s Easter celebration?
As I am typing this blog entry up on Friday morning, the sun is just coming up, and I am prayerfully expecting God to do great things in our body, and in me. I’m in my office at the church, listening to one of my favorite songs, Graves Into Gardens, which we will be singing together this weekend. It is a great reminder of how He is constantly transforming me from death to life, all because of the cross and the resurrection! Thank you, Jesus… There is nothing better than you!
It is so good that we know the whole story of the resurrection, isn’t it? Mary and the other Galilean women didn’t though… What were they planning to do as the sun was coming up on that Sunday morning?
But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.
Luke 24:1 NLT
Why do you think they went to the tomb, and not the disciples?
They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus.
Luke 24:2 NLT
How do you think they felt when they discovered that the tomb was empty?
As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes. The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.” Then they remembered that he had said this. So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it. However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.
Luke 24:4-12 NLT
What explanation did the angels give for Jesus not being in the tomb?
What does it say about the disciples, who thought the empty tomb story “sounded like nonsense,” and “they didn’t believe it?”
Peter responded differently. He ran to the tomb, had a look, and then what did he do?
Do you think he knew Jesus was alive when he arrived at the tomb? Why or why not? (hint: I am looking at what he did next.)
In the early part of his ministry, Jesus always told the disciples to keep him a little on the downlow. It wasn’t time for his identity to be revealed. BUT, he did tell them from early on what he would ultimately do for us:
Jesus warned his disciples not to tell anyone who he was. “The Son of Man must suffer many terrible things,” he said. “He will be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.”
Luke 9:21-22 NLT
Why do you think the disciples didn’t remember what Jesus said about rising from the dead on the third day? (this isn’t the only time he talked about it, either.)
Why do you think they disbelieved the women’s story about the empty tomb?
Even though Jesus had been repetitively clear with them, the disciples really had a hard time figuring out what his plan was. You can see throughout Jesus’ ministry that the disciples had a very different idea of where Jesus was heading. They kept thinking he was headed for a throne, but he was heading for the cross. They kept thinking the uprising would happen any time, but Jesus was in the process of laying down his life for all of us.
Why is it hard to trust God when our plans don’t match up with his plan?
Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. 2 It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.
I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve.
1 Corinthians 15:1-5 NLT
Why do you think Paul is reminding the Corinthians about this? Why is this such an important thing to remember?
Paul calls this the “most important.” He is saying the Good News is more important than anything else.
What is this Good News? What is the gospel?
How crucial is the cross to our story?
How crucial is the resurrection to our story?
If Christ stayed in the tomb, would his death have covered everyone’s sins? Why or why not? (hint: hypostatic union. His death shows he is one thing, his life shows he is another.)
For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.
Romans 1:16 NLT
How do you respond when someone challenges the reality of the resurrection? How do you unashamedly proclaim Jesus’ resurrection to others?
Who can you proclaim the resurrection to this week?