Lesson 1 for Week of April 1, 2018 A PROMISE KEPT Background Passage: Luke 24:1 35 Lesson Passage: Luke 24:1 12, 30 35 UNIFYING TOPIC: He Has Risen LESSON TEXT I. Remembering the Promise (Luke 24:1 8) II. Questioning the Promise (Luke 24:9 12) III. Seeing the Promise (Luke 24:30 35) THE MAIN THOUGHT Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. (Luke 24:34, KJV) UNIFYING PRINCIPLE People often question the promises of their leaders. How can they come to have assurance in the midst of doubt? In the breaking of bread and making Himself known to His disciples, the risen Christ kept His promises. LESSON AIM To explore details of the resurrection story as a promise both made and kept by Jesus. LIFE AIM To help students understand the promised death and resurrection of Jesus as a promise with eternal benefits for the people of God. BEFORE YOU TEACH Consider... Focus for College and Career Young adults may struggle with understanding how biblical promises relate to their daily lives. They may see Jesus death and resurrection as a promise concerning life after death, but not as a promise concerning life before death. Focus for Adult Christian Life Older adults may have already experienced what God s promises mean and look like in their own lives, but may still struggle with the waiting periods of promises which have yet to be fulfilled. Though they know God s promises to be true and His Word sure, they may still struggle with bouts of doubt and fear. Supplementary Study Materials For further reference, see today s lesson from Boyd s Commentary, New National Baptist Hymnal, 21st Century Edition, #142 (NNBH #84), and God s Promises Bible. Need more teacher helps? Visit https://www.rhboyd.com. BIBLE STUDY FOR WEEK OF APRIL 1, 2018 7
TEACHING STEPS... First Step: Before class, use the notes gleaned from God s Word in Life to prepare a class opener. Write your plans down in the section labeled My Plan to Introduce the Lesson. While reading through the Exposition, use the provided space to note things you want to discuss and/or to create a personal lesson plan. Suggested questions and/or ideas may be found in the Connect with Learners boxes throughout the lesson. Second Step: When class begins, after completing Suggested Opening Exercises, open the lesson with your My Plan to Introduce the Lesson content. Consider discussing how and why people often struggle with God s promises in their lives. Third Step: Ask someone to read today s Bible passage. Then, read respective openers. For Adult Christian Life (ACL) read the Intro. For College and Career (CC) read Let s Get Started. Fourth Step: Continue into the Lesson. Use Connect with Learners, Lesson Steps, and any personal notes recorded in Notes sections to guide your teaching. Allow space for questions and reflection. Fifth Step: End the class with a preview of the coming class. Close with prayer. God s Word in Life The resurrection of Jesus was a promise kept that affected the lives of the disciples in major life-altering and heart-pumping ways. Does it still do that today? This morning, as we celebrate Easter, we will join many others in proclaiming, The Lord is risen indeed! However, like the disciples in today s lesson, we, too, have a choice as to what we do with, and beyond, this proclamation. Do we believe its implications? The promised resurrection of Jesus is a promise kept that reassures us when we are down. That is to say, when we are consumed with hopelessness and despair, we can get up because Jesus got up! Because of the finiteness of our human nature, we sometimes go through a cycle of forgetting and doubting God s promises. But the fulfillment of God s promises in the past assures us of fulfillment of God s promises for today. My Plan to Introduce the Lesson: Connect with Learners: Ask participants to list examples of the consequences experienced when people place trust in themselves, other people, or things like finances and jobs. Encourage both personal and biblical examples. Prep Notes 8 MASTER TEACHER
Introduction How is it that with little to no doubt we can place our trust in things that only mildly guarantee a return? We trust our jobs to provide checks in exchange for work, social security to supply financial means at the end of our careers, and family and friends to surround us during times of distress. When those things falter and do not go the way we anticipated, we often lose hope. We forget the enduring promises of God, the examples throughout Scripture of how those promises have been kept, and the evidence of how those promises interact with our daily lives. In short, we lose sight of God s truth. In today s lesson, you will be sharing with your students the story of how disciples of Jesus struggled with the promise Jesus made concerning His death and resurrection. I. Remembering the Promise (Luke 24:1 8) At the end of Luke 23 (vv. 50 56), Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for Jesus body. Though Joseph was a member of the counsel that conspired to crucify Jesus, Joseph did not agree with the counsel s decisions and actions concerning Jesus: Joseph waited expectantly for the Kingdom of God. With Joseph were several women from Galilee who wanted to see where Jesus body would be laid. They followed Joseph to the tomb, then returned home to prepare spices and perfumes to anoint the body. This was customary to prevent odor of the deceased. Though we can consider the women s desire to anoint KJV Luke 24:1 8 NOW upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. 3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: 5 And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, 7 Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. 8 And they remembered his words, NRSV Luke 24:1 8 BUT on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in, they did not find the body. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5 The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. 6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again. 8 Then they remembered his words, BIBLE STUDY FOR WEEK OF APRIL 1, 2018 9
Jesus body an act of love, it was also an act displaying their disbelief and forgetfulness of the promise of resurrection. Preparing to anoint Jesus body to avoid odor meant an expectation that Jesus would remain dead in the tomb. He did not, however. When the women returned to the tomb early in the morning, the day after Sabbath, the women found the stone had been rolled away and Jesus body no longer where it had been laid. The women responded to the discovery of an empty tomb with complete bewilderment: they were perplexed, our passage says (v. 4, KJV). In the original Greek language, to be perplexed means to be without resources; to know not what to do (Ethelbert William Bullinger, Perplexed, in A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament [London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1908] 582). In other words, in response to the empty tomb the women were at a loss for what to do, what to think, or what to believe. The women needed to be reminded that they were not without resources; they did, indeed, know what to do, what to think, and what to believe. Two men in shining garments (described as a single angel in Matt. 28:2 and 5, and as a KJV 9 And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. 11 And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. 12 Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. NRSV 9 and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened. Connect with Learners: Invite participants to talk about hopes and dreams that have been dashed or gone unfulfilled. Prep Notes 10 MASTER TEACHER
young man in Mark 16:5) said to the women: Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again (vv. 5 7, KJV). And the women remembered Jesus promise. II. Questioning the Promise (Luke 24:9 12) Luke, on one hand, led us to believe that the disciples took the testimony of the women as foolish talk: they believed them not (v. 11, KJV). The temple leaders, meanwhile, paid a large sum of money to the guards at the tomb to report Jesus body as stolen (see Matt. 28:11 15). So, the disciples considering the women s testimony idle tales would have sat well with the temple leaders. On the other hand, Luke displayed encouragement through pointing out Peter s response. Peter s instincts caused him to ignore his fellow disciples dismissal of the women s testimony and to go to the tomb to see for himself. We can assume Peter felt the need to do his own examination into what was true and what KJV Luke 24:30 35 AND it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. 32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? 33 And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, 34 Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. 35 And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. NRSV Luke 24:30 35 WHEN he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us? 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon! 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. BIBLE STUDY FOR WEEK OF APRIL 1, 2018 11
was idle tales as Christians are still encouraged to do today (see, for example, Rom. 12:2, 2 Tim. 2:15 and 1 Pet. 2:1 23). Evangelism is the Church s effort to put into the hands of unbelievers truth that can lead to a saving faith, but proving what is that good, acceptable, and perfect, will of God, rightly dividing the word of truth, and desiring the sincere milk of the Word is how the Church grows in its capacity to handle, hold onto, and believe that truth (Rom. 12:2; 2 Tim. 2:15; 1 Pet. 2:2). Perhaps Peter s prior profession of faith (in Matthew 16:16) led Peter to not immediately dismiss the women s testimony as the other disciples had. When Peter got to the tomb, he saw the linen clothes lying neatly by themselves. This indicated to Peter that robbers were not responsible for Jesus missing body. Though Peter was not lacking in faith, he still walked away wondering about what had happened. We might say Peter walked away questioning the promise. III. Seeing the Promise (Luke 24:30 35) The latter half of our lesson helps to clear up any misconceptions surrounding the resurrection of Jesus. As a stranger, Jesus encountered two disheartened disciples on the road to Emmaus: Cleopas and an unnamed disciple. He said to them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? (Luke 24:25 26, KJV). All Jewish men, from their youth teachings of customary traditions and laws, would have had a common knowledge of the Law of Moses and the prophets. This allowed Jesus to clearly point out every place the two disciples failed to connect Him to Scripture. Still unknowing of whom they were speaking to, at the end of the walk the disciples did as they had been taught during Jesus earthly ministry: they expressed hospitality to a stranger. In doing so, the disciples Lesson Steps: 12 MASTER TEACHER
reaped a benefit we can assume they did not expect. Jesus the stranger whom they had decided to host became the host. While at the table, Jesus took the bread, blessed it, and served the disciples. In doing so, He also blessed them: their eyes were opened to the promise Jesus made concerning His death and resurrection. The disciples got to see their beloved Savior again! The revelation was so influential that the two disciples said, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? (v. 32, KJV). This was the same reaction Jesus received other times in His ministry (see, for example, Matt. 7:28 29 and John 7:40). This was indeed a promise kept! Conclusion If the Gospel of Luke had ended after the first twelve verses of chapter twenty-four, we may have never had any convincing witnesses to the fact of Jesus death and resurrection. Remember the guards at the tomb were paid a large sum of money to report Jesus body as simply stolen. In Matthew s Gospel, he showed this false truth had become common belief in the Jewish community during his time (Matthew 28:11 15). What about our time? Are there false truths that have become common belief in our church communities, our families, or in our way of thinking about God s promises for us? Jesus death, burial, and resurrection offer us the promise of His presence and the promise of a community of believers with whom we may worship and do life. Together, on this Easter Sunday, let us proclaim: a promise has been kept; the Lord has risen indeed! Connect with Learners: Encourage participants to discuss how and why the resurrection of Jesus brings them hope. Prep Notes HOME DAILY DEVOTIONAL READINGS April 2 8, 2018 Monday The Reasons for the Resurrection Luke 24:36 49 Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Paul Witness to the Resurrected Christ 1 Corinthians 15:1 8 Scriptures Equip Disciples for Good Work 2 Timothy 3:14 17 Ethiopian Eunuch Hears the Good News Acts 8:26 35 Lead My People and Follow Me John 21:15 23 John s Testimony to Jesus Is True John 20:30 31; 21:24 25 Jesus Serves Breakfast to the Disciples John 21:1 14 BIBLE STUDY FOR WEEK OF APRIL 1, 2018 13