(10 minutes, easy set-up)
Students will discuss several verses that explained Jesus would rise from the dead.
Provide a dry erase board and markers.
Learning Goal: Students will examine the evidence that Jesus was no longer in the tomb, but was alive.
Write the following Scripture references across the board (leaving room below each one for students to list what they discover): Psalm 16:10, Isaiah 53:11 (NIV), Matthew 16:21, Matthew 17:23, Matthew 20:19.
Assign students to look up one of the verses you’ve written across the board and to write below the verse what they discovered. (Psalm 16:10—God would not abandon the Holy One to decay (death); Isaiah 53:11—After Jesus suffered, He would see the light of life; all Matthew verses—Jesus told His disciples that He would be killed and then arise from the dead on the third day.) Ask: How do we know that the disciples failed to understand what would happen to Jesus? (In the Matthew passages, the disciples rejected or were grieved by His teaching.)
Enlist a student to read Matthew 27:64. Ask: How do we know that many people had heard Jesus say that He would rise again in three days? (The chief priests convinced the Romans to set a guard at Jesus’ tomb to make sure the disciples couldn’t steal Jesus’ body and then claim He had risen from the dead.) Ask: How did the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection deny human involvement and point to God’s faithfulness to raise Him from the dead? (Review the condition of the grave linens, the presence of the angels, and Jesus’ conversation with His disciples as proof that God raised Jesus from the dead.) Emphasize that God had revealed His plans for Jesus’ resurrection through the Old Testament writings and that Jesus had further explained those plans to the disciples, which means we can trust these eyewitness accounts.