Jesus’ Resurrection: Easter Sunday School Lesson
Let’s embark on a powerful journey into the most pivotal event in human history, the resurrection story of Jesus! Discover how Jesus miraculously overcame death.. Explore the wonder of His triumph over the grave and how it changes everything for us. Get ready for an exhilarating lesson that unveils the power of Jesus’ resurrection!”
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Group Worship
Risen
In this song, kids learn that Jesus rose from the dead and is alive. The repeated “hallelujah” and mentions of power highlight the joy and strength found in this belief.
Hosanna Rock!
In this song, the kids are taught to joyfully praise the Lord using the word “Hosanna” and fun actions like clapping and waving. The song promotes coming together and expressing happiness in worship.
Group Worship
Risen
In this song, kids learn that Jesus rose from the dead and is alive. The repeated “hallelujah” and mentions of power highlight the joy and strength found in this belief.
Hosanna Rock!
In this song, the kids are taught to joyfully praise the Lord using the word “Hosanna” and fun actions like clapping and waving. The song promotes coming together and expressing happiness in worship.
Opening Activity | Word Sneak
Objects Needed: An index card with a word on it for each kid
Goal: Use a secret word in a chat without your friend guessing it!
How to Play:
- Everyone gets a card with a secret word. Don’t show it to others!
- Two kids sit in chairs at the front. They start talking to each other.
- Try to use your secret word in the talk without your friend noticing.
- Example: If your word is ‘spaghettios’ and your friend talks about their pet, you might say, “My pet eats spaghettios!”
- When you use your word, go back to the line and the next kid takes a turn.
Remember: The chat should sound normal, even with the secret word!
Words to use: bunny, egg, cross, snorkel, Starbucks, Jesus, Clorox, hairbow, boot, Simba, football, snow, Statue of Liberty, potatoes, Judas, ornament, violin, tomb, broom, etc.
Object Lesson | Jesus’ Amazing Power
Objects Needed: bottle, rubber band, toothpicks, jug of water, gauze
Put the gauze over the top of the bottle and secure it with a rubber band.
Place the bottle in a container big enough to catch any water that might spill.
Take your just of water and pour it into the empty bottle, filling it completely full to the top.
Now discuss how death “normally” happens. People die never to return back to life.
Tip the bottle over and demonstrate how easily the water is poured out.
Now talk about how Jesus had power over something as powerful as death. He died on the cross, was buried and assumed to be dead, by even his closest followers.
Fill the bottle back up with water. Put the palm of your hand over the top of the bottle and keep it there while you flip the bottle over, like you are pouring the water out.
Now, talk about how Jesus had power over death and 3 days later, came back to life! It was truly an Easter miracle!
Slowly lower your hand away from the bottle…a little water might spill out initially, but pretty quickly, the surface tension created will keep all the water inside the bottle!
Lesson Script
Matthew 28, Luke 24
How many of you like magic tricks? Well, today, we’re going to try a few.
(Without kids seeing, write the word “NO” on an index card or big piece of paper. Then, ask the kids, “Does anyone know what I wrote?” they’ll say NO! and you can flip it over to show them that they were right!)
Wow! That’s magic! I bet I can show you an even cooler one. Are you ready?
(Pull out a giant marshmallow and put it on a plate.)
I bet I can make this marshmallow disappear. Ready? Count me down!
(Have the kids count down from 3. When they get to 1, put the marshmallow in your mouth, raise your hands in triumph, and act like you actually made the marshmallow disappear. Bow!)
Last week, we talked about Jesus’ death. He was put in a tomb, and all his friends were super sad because he was dead… but something kind of magical happened. Except it wasn’t exactly magic. It was just Jesus doing what only He could have done. Let’s open up John 20.
John 20:1-2
“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone was moved away from the entrance. She ran at once to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, breathlessly panting. “They took the Master from the tomb! We don’t know where they’ve put him”
So, Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb where Jesus was, mostly because she wants to put spices on him so he doesn’t start smelling like… well, like a dead guy. She gets there, she looks inside, and BAM. Nobody’s there. He disappeared! Just like my marshmallow!
Okay, maybe not JUST like my marshmallow…
Okay, maybe not JUST like my marshmallow… This seems a little more legit, doesn’t it? So Jesus disappears, and Mary runs back to Simon Peter and tells him she can’t find Jesus, and I’m sure he laughs at her. “Oh, where was the last place you put him?”
Well, ok maybe he didn’t say exactly that!
So they all go to the tomb together.
Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she knelt to look into the tomb and saw two angels sitting there, dressed in white, one at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus’s body had been laid. They said to her,
JOHN 20:13b
““Woman, why are you weeping?” (NKJV)
Mary tells them…
JOHN 20:13b
“Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” (NKJV)
“Mary”, He says.
And instantly Mary recognizes the voice.
JOHN 20:16b
“Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher)” (NKJV)
Jesus said,
JOHN 20:17b
“Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ ” (NKJV)
Mary Magdalene went, telling the news to the disciples. “I saw the Master!” and she told them everything he said to her.
Wait, what? So Jesus goes missing from His tomb, and now He shows up in front of her and is… not dead anymore. Even though everyone just saw Him die the other day. Not only did they see Him die, they buried him! The man was big-time dead, no faking. And now He was standing in front of her… so what does that mean?
That’s right… It means Jesus rose from the dead. That’s pretty amazing, right?
But what does it mean for you and for me? Do any of you know?
Jesus rising from the dead is a huge deal. In fact, you could say that everything Jesus ever did hinges on Him rising from the dead… Do you know why?
Jesus told everyone He was the Son of God. He made all of these claims, and one of them was that He was sent from God—God, who can do anything. He claimed to be able to save us from our sins by dying from us.
But none of that matters if Jesus doesn’t rise from the dead. Jesus proved He had the power to do everything He said, because He had the power nobody else ever had: to defeat death.
If Jesus hadn’t been raised from the dead, death would have proven to be more powerful than Him. It would mean that Jesus wasn’t all that He said he was. But Jesus DID rise from the dead, and He proved, once and for all, that He had the power to do anything and everything he said… and that we could trust Him.
So when Jesus says…
He can move mountains, we can believe Him.
When Jesus says He loves us, we can believe Him.
When Jesus says our sins are forgiven, we can believe Him.
When Jesus says we are now able to be with God, we can believe Him.
When Jesus defeated death, He showed all of us that death isn’t the end of us. That no matter how grim and gloomy life gets, Jesus can defeat it. He showed us that life is greater than death. (A guide for leading a kid to Jesus)
The best (science experiment style) object lessons that makes teachers jump for joy.
Tricks with water, eggs, and more. No magic skills or hours of prep required. You are going to love these object lessons and then use every last one of them.
Group Game | Old and New
Objects Needed: two cardboard boxes, markers, 10 old items (an opened bottle of water, a half-bag of chips, etc, an old book, old shoes, etc), 10 new items (unopened bottle of water, picture frame with the model family still in it, a flower that’s not wilted, a blank notebook, an unsharpened pencil, etc), blindfolds, masking tape
Setup:
- Use tape to split the play area into two.
- Make two teams of kids.
- Place a box on each side: one says “old” and the other “new.”
How to Play:
- Each team picks one kid to stand in the middle, wearing a blindfold.
- The other kids wait behind the play area with one old or new item each.
- The blindfolded kid feels an item and guesses if it’s old or new.
- They try to toss it into the right box.
- If they miss the box, their team shouts “MISS!” The blindfolded kid then walks (still blindfolded) to put the item in the box.
- After all items are tossed, the team fixes any mistakes, but they can’t use their hands! They help each other to move the items.
- The team that sorts the items correctly first wins!
Lesson Tie-in: Jesus’ death and resurrection give us the opportunity to have a new life, a life that never ends by spending eternity with Jesus in heaven. Let’s have a little fun with the idea of something “new” and see if you can figure out what items are new and which aren’t.
Memory Verse
Today we learned of Jesus resurrection from the dead! Because of Jesus death on the cross and three days later, His resurrection, we have the opportunity to ask Jesus to save us from our sins and take us to be with Him in Heaven one day!
Our memory verse is all about Jesus conquering death and what that means for us – everlasting life!
John 11:25
"I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who believes in Me will never die. "
Small Group Questions
Who went to the tomb on the morning of the 3rd day?
Mary Magdalene
Why was she there?
To put spices on Jesus’ body
What was strange about the tomb?
Jesus wasn’t in it
Who did Mary run to?
Simon Peter
Who did Mary see at the tomb?
Two angels
Who spoke to Mary?
Jesus
How did Mary know it was Jesus?
He called her by her name
Why was Jesus’s resurrection important?
Answers will vary
What does the resurrection tell you about Jesus’s power?
He has power over EVERYTHING!
Small Group Activity | Peeps in a bucket
Objects Needed: Boxes of peeps, a bucket for each group
Small groups will race to see which group can get the most peeps in a bucket. Pick one person from each group to hold a bucket on their head. The rest of the group will have thirty seconds to try and toss as many peeps into the bucket as possible. Repeat as many times as you wish.
Words For This Week
Today’s Scripture: Matthew 28, Luke 24
Memory Verse: “I am the resurrection and the life; He who believes in Me will live if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” John 11:25
——————
For the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about Jesus… and the strange things that happened around His death. We’ve talked about how the people praised Jesus. And we’ve talked about how they turned their back on Him, convicting Him of a crime He didn’t commit. Then, they killed Him.
We also talked about how Jesus died willingly, a perfect man. He took all of our sins upon himself, voluntarily going to the cross so that we could be with God and have life forever. It seemed like such a sad story until we learned today about his resurrection.
In our story today, Jesus’ body went missing. He later revealed that He was alive to Mary, telling her that He had defeated death! You see, Jesus dying for our sins is important. He told us He would do that. But Jesus also said He would rise from the dead. That was a promise he made. If that promise didn’t come true, it would have meant that Jesus wasn’t who He said He was. It would have meant that Jesus wasn’t actually the Messiah and that Jesus couldn’t save us from our sins.
That’s why Easter Sunday and the resurrection are important! They show us that Jesus really WAS the Son of God and that His death was not in vain. It shows us that there is life after death and that Jesus alone has the power to rescue anyone who believes and give them everlasting life!
Key Thought:
Jesus is Life!
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