Luke 24:1-12
Your Story
Talk about the first time you heard about Jesus. Did Jesus’ resurrection sound unbelievable? How did you come to believe?
My Story and the Bible Story
I’ve believed in Jesus for as long as I can remember. I was in church almost from the moment I was born, and I don’t remember believing anything different. I have always believed that Jesus died but that Jesus also rose again. But, as I have thought more about it over the years, it does sound fantastic. After all, nobody else has ever risen from the dead—only Jesus. In Surprised by Hope, scholar N.T. Wright talks about how we know that Jesus rose from the dead. One of his reasons is that the women were the ones who witnessed it. In those days, women’s voices and opinions weren’t valued. If you were making up a story you wanted others to believe, you wouldn’t make women the primary witnesses. In addition to this evidence, we also have evidence that is less tangible but no less real. Jesus changes people. When we believe in Jesus, it changes us. Jesus’ death was important, but his resurrection was even more so. He died for us, but by rising, he also defeated death so that we could always be close to God. As you read through this Easter passage, think through how you might have felt if you were one of the women who discovered that Jesus was gone. Think through how you might have felt if you were Peter.
Read Luke 24:1-12.
Jesus was alive! This had never happened before, and it was hard for the apostles to believe. But, in Luke’s Gospel, the women believed. They saw that Jesus’ body was gone, they heard from the angels that Jesus had risen, and they believed. They told these things to the apostles, but the apostles thought it was nonsense.
How many times do we think that the things God does are nonsense? How often do we say, “that’s impossible” or “that couldn’t have happened”? How many times do we find ourselves later saying “wow, I didn’t think God could do that”? God is bigger than anything we can understand. We try to put God in a box and God refuses to go. We try to say God can’t do something
and God does it. And when the people killed God’s Son, God raised Him from the dead. There’s nothing that God can’t do! When you hear about something that God is doing that seems unbelievable, remember that first Easter morning. And remember that, “what is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27).
Discussion and Prayer
1. As a family, talk about any things God has done that are hard for you to believe. Remind your children of how much bigger God is than we think.
2. Talk about that first Easter morning and how the women must have felt. How do you think the apostles felt when they heard the news?
3. How can you share the good news that Jesus rose from the dead?
4. Pray, thanking God that He is bigger than any of the boxes we try to put Him in. Thank God that nothing is impossible with Him.
Jessica Asbell is currently serving as the Minister to Children at First Baptist Church of Roswell, GA. She has worked with children in various capacities at several churches, including Winter Park Baptist in Wilmington, NC, First Baptist of Decatur, GA, and Highland Hills Baptist in Macon, GA. She has a Master of Divinity from McAfee School of Theology and a BBA from Mercer University. In her spare time she loves to read, watch movies, and of course spend time with her sweet kitty, Lucy.
