Resurrection

OBJECTIVE

To understand the meaning of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and it's importance in relation to the salvation of the human race.

INTRODUCTION & HOOK - 5 Minutes

One day you fall asleep and you dream back to a long long time ago and see yourself living during the time of our Father Abraham and his family. In your dream, you notice that you were one of the people who lived in the city with Abraham and knew him very well and knew that he loved God.

One day, you wake up and hear the news that Father Abraham has passed away and that his funeral is in a few hours. So, you get ready and you go down to the burial site, where you see the burial and you ask yourself, where will he go from here? He was a great person, so he will go and be with God. But just as soon as you ask yourself this question, the Angel of the Lord appears to you and takes you down to this dark place, that has chains everywhere and people crying and asking to be released.

You start to recognize the people in chains and you see Adam, Eve, Abel, Abraham and many other prophets and Holy men and women of God. Then you ask the Angel, "what is this place and why are these righteous people here?" And the Angel responds to you and says, "this is Hades, and this is where these people are because Salvation has not come upon the human race yet."

So, you get scared and begin to cry, then the Angel of the Lord tells you to calm down and takes you by your hand to a tomb that is shining bright, so bright that you cannot even open your eyes, but you notice it is very peaceful and powerful. The Angel of the Lord then says to you, "the time will come when salvation will come upon the human race, and a man named Jesus, who is the Son of God will save them by His Holy and Precious Blood." As the Angel of the Lord tells you the story of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you ask the Angel "where is Jesus?" He immediately responds to you and says "He is Risen, He is not here" You wake up from your dream and are happy

HOLY SCRIPTURE - 5 Minutes

Read Matthew 28:1-8 with the class

Memory Verse - "But the angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." (Matthew 28:5-6)

CONTENT (KEY POINTS) - 15 Minutes

As the story in the hook talked about, the Angel told us that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the human race. The question we must ask is: what did Jesus Christ save us from? The answer of course is eternal damnation or death. In this lesson you should discuss with the kids the following points:

Why did mankind need Jesus to save us?

Because of our sins that stemmed from when we ate from the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil (ead Genesis 3)

What happened after we sinned?

  • We were kicked out of the garden.
  • We knew what is now good and what is now evil, so now we had the capability to do evil (or sin).

Since we were created in the perfect image of God, the intention was for humans to remain sinless, however, when we ate from the tree, as it is written in the Gregorian Liturgy "we fell down from eternal life and were exiled from the paradise of joy."

  • Note: it would be good for the servant here to mention that the sin of Adam and Eve was from the deceit of serpent and their free will and not that God's creation was imperfect.

What was God's plan to return us back to Him and His home (heaven)?

The only way for humans to go back to eternal life was for God to send His Only Begotten Son, our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ to save us by shedding His Pure and Holy Blood for the remission of our sins.

  • Note: here the servant can talk briefly about the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ

Not only did our Lord need to die on the Cross for our sins, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ needed to Resurrect from the dead (as He did on the 3rd day).

Why? To answer this we ask: Where is the Power in the Resurrection?

  • If Christ just died and it stopped there, there would be NO Salvation How come? Well He would've been just as any normal man: live and then die

However, By His Resurrection He:

  • Saved all those before Him, broke their chain of imprisonment in Hades
  • Granted everyone (old and new) Freedom. Now death has no power over us because when we die we still have eternal life
  • Proved that there is life after death, eternal life

DISCUSSION (Challenge) - 10 Minutes

Ask the class what did we learn from our key points above?

Because we sinned we were doomed for eternal death. Our forefathers (the prophets) when they died, they went to hades and for them there was no hope of eternal life, even though they were godly people.

God saved us by sending us Emmanuel (Jesus Christ)

  • Jesus Christ became man, so that He may save man from their sins and bondage of death which ruled over us
  • Jesus had to be man, because He was saving mankind
  • Jesus had to suffer on the Cross, because to save us from sin, He had to die a death of a sinner (as you see the two thieves on His right and left)

Salvation then came from not only the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also from His Glorious Resurrection

  • After Jesus died on the Cross, He was buried in the tomb (as you read in the book of Mathew) and on the 3rd day He Rose from the dead
  • He immediately went down to Hades and physically broke the chains (chains of sin and death) from all of our forefathers (like Abraham, Adam, Eve, Moses) and brought them up to Paradise with Him.
  • Now when we die, if we were good, holy, and honest Christians during our time on earth, we go to the Paradise of Joy and wait for the Judgement Day to be admitted into Heaven
    • Note: servant here should stress the point that if Jesus did not Resurrect from the Dead, He would have been just like any other man (me and you) and would have just been born, lived, and died. But because Jesus Resurrected, we now have Eternal LIFE (not death).

LIFE APPLICATION - 2 Minutes

Ask the class to always remember that their joy on earth comes from the fact that we now have Eternal Life due to the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus, whenever I have issues on earth or feel down or bad, I should think that this is temporary but the true happiness comes from Eternal Life with Jesus, which has been granted to me from His Mercy.

Note: the goal is to teach the class to think of the Resurrection every time they are not happy to teach them that this should bring joy to them.

ACTIVITY - 5 Minutes

Sing "Very Early Sunday Morning" with the class - this is a communion hymn and really touches on the importance of the Resurrection.