CHRIST DIES AND RISES TO NEW LIFE
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
MATTHEW 27:39-40, 45-54 28:1-10
Key Verse
“And as they went to tell the disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, “Rejoice!”.
So they came and held him by the feet and worshipped Him”
Matthew 28:9
INTRODUCTION
We know that God loves us to such an extent that God the Father sent His Beloved Son to leave His throne in heaven and come down to earth as a human being to be like one of us, and to teach us, heal us, minister to us in every day needed, and then to take all our sins ever done on Himself, and though innocent of sin died in our place, taking responsibility for the many awful things we have done.
It is amazing that God who created us would have done such a think when we disobeyed Him and sinned. God’s nature is to love and to save the people He created. He loves to heal and to reconcile persons who accept Him as their Redeemer and Saviour for He wanted those to be part of His family and live with Him through all the ages of eternity.
We cannot understand the nature of God fully for we are limited human beings with limited understanding, but we know God loves us and He has proven this time and time again by what He has done over many thousands of years.
So Jesus Christ came and was our brother. He died on the Cross to bear our sins on Himself so that we would not die. When some women went to His tomb fearing that the tomb was sealed and the entrance blocked by a huge stone and with soldiers guarding the entrance they expected His dead body to be there. But they were shocked for the stone had been rolled away from the entrance, the soldiers had been lying down on the ground as if they were dead, and an angel gloriously dressed in shimmering white was there and told them the tomb was empty as Jesus had previously told them it would be. They should go and tell the other disciples Jesus was risen from the dead and He would meet them shortly.
You can imagine the thrill the women had when they saw Jesus alive. They tried to hold on to him and they worshipped Him.
They rejoiced.
But that was not the end of it for He was resurrected from the dead to show us that He was God and He then at His resurrection took His place at the right hand of authority and power of His Father. There He acts in the position of representing us before the Father and this ensures we are forgiven of our sins.
This shows us Jesus died but now has new life. We will look like Him in a glorious body one day when He returns to earth to clean up all the bad things that are happening. New life is something we all should desire and we will have it when we come to Jesus, believe in Him as our Creator and our Saviour, and we will surely live with Him in eternity, where there is no limitation caused by time.
It is a good and wise thing to follow the leading of someone who thinks right thoughts. It is not good to follow people who think thoughts which harm others and lead them down a path leading to suffering and death. This is what the apostle Matthew is doing in the Scriptures he wrote. So he took on this valuable task to show others the way to true life.
He wanted the people to stay away from those who wanted to deceive them and take them away from the right relationship to God the Father and to Jesus Christ. He sent Jesus Christ from heaven to become a man and to perform the role of Saviour, Redeemer, and a representative or Advocate before God the Father so that the anger of God would not fall on people.
Jesus and His Father did all of that because they had created men and they loved men and did not want all of them to be destroyed. They loved people and set the example of how people are to love and care for each other, and do what was necessary to save others from the awful consequences of their actions.
Love is in the nature of nature and it should be in our nature. We who love God should love others and are to be helpers of those who have lost their way and remain away from God.