ACTS: THE GOSPEL TO THE WORLD SERIES (TALK 14/14: EASTER - HE IS RISEN!) SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS CONNECT: Who are the people in your life who, by their own admission, would never become Christians? How can you be praying for them and reaching out to them this week? WARM-UP 1. Did you do anything different to celebrate Easter this year? How was it? 2. What was most significant, or helpful, in your celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection this year? READ Isaiah 53:1-6 3. In what way does this passage point to Jesus? Why do you think the idea of a suffering-servant who was also King was so surprising? 4. How does Jesus’ death alleviate us from guilt rather than making us feel condemned? 5. How is the depth of God’s love declared on the cross? READ Luke 23:26-49 6. How does verse 34 point to Jesus’ ultimate purpose? How has it been fulfilled? 7. What was the irony in the mocking of Jesus, “he saved others, let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah the Chosen One”? Do you think we can ever mock Jesus with our lives? 8. How do the responses of the two criminals hanging alongside Jesus contrast? What is amazing about the insight that the criminal shows about the nature of Jesus’ Kingdom? 9. What is significant about darkness coming over the land? How about the curtain being torn in two? 10. All throughout the Gospel of Luke people have been confused about who Jesus is. Do you have confidence about who Jesus is? What is your response to this? READ Luke 24:1-12 11. What is the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection? (Try to brainstorm as a group.) 12. How is Jesus’ resurrection the defeat of death and the beginning of life? When will death be destroyed? 13. What’s significant about the declaration of the messengers in verses 5-7? Why do you you think the women were afraid? Why did Jesus’ words then make sense? 14. The women go and tell all they had seen. How is this a great model for us? Who can you tell this week? APPLY: What is something - even very simply - about your Easter celebrations that you could share this coming week? Who would you like to share that with? PRAY: Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the Easter weekend. Thank you for your phenomenal love poured out for us, and for your defeat of death. Help us to never take the Gospel for granted but to revel in it, proclaim it, and be transformed and renewed in it. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU " ACTS: THE GOSPEL TO THE WORLD SERIES (TALK 14/14: EASTER - HE IS RISEN!) GOING DEEPER RESOURCES On Your Front Line this Week • As people ask you how was your Easter break, can you point them to your hope in the risen Jesus? For Families • “Our Easter Story” by Prospect Arts (We used this video on Good Friday and Easter Day) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgFZDCguR8E Audio and Video • “The Evidence of Resurrection” by Dick Lucas https://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library/the-evidence-of-resurrection • “The Resurrection” by Alistair Begg https://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library/the-resurrection-part-two • “Lifting the Lid on Easter” by Centre for Public Christianity https://www.publicchristianity.org/lifting-the-lid-on-easter/ • “The Shattered Grave” by Dan Stevers (Video) https://www.danstevers.com/store/the_shattered_grave Other Helpful Books, Articles, and Courses • “In All the Destruction at the Notre dame, one Photo Stood Out” by Simon Smart https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-19/notre-dame-cathedral-good-friday/ 11028396 • “Lean Family Relocates to PNG” Story on the ABC in time for Easter by Peter Gunders https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-18/toowoomba-family-moves-to-png-highlands- to-help-close-neighbours/11021328 • “Implementing Easter” by Jill Carattini (of RZIM) https://www.rzim.org/read/a-slice-of-infinity/implementing-easter • BOOK: “Raised Forever” by Rory Shiner: https://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/raised-forever • “Ten Ways Easter Changes Everything” by John Piper https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/ten-ways-easter-changes-everything For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU " Talk 14/14 (RISEN): 21/04/19 “Easter Day” by the Rev’d Adam Lowe Bible Passage: Luke 24:1-12 and 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 Jesus is Risen! • It’s a phenomenally audacious claim, however I’m utterly convinced it’s true. • And to be clear… I’m not just speaking metaphorically: that he is alive in my heart, I’m not just speaking spiritually: that his ‘spirit’ lives on, but I’m claiming physically: that Jesus was dead, really dead, but is now alive! • And it’s not just me of course who claims this to be true, but that this is what Christianity describes as Good NEWS. • Jesus’ resurrection is not merely a cutesy story, folklore, philosophy, or wishful thinking, but that it really happened and it has changed the course of history forever. • The tomb was empty. Jesus appeared to many. A group of disciples were transformed. And rapidly, this Good News spread to the ends of the earth, with people willing to keep on telling it, even in the face of persecution and death. • We have all the evidence you would expect if Jesus rose from the dead. • And the news of Jesus’ resurrection changes everything. So today, I just want to share three reasons why it’s good news that Jesus has risen. "2 DEATH IS DEFEATED \\ PART 1 First, because Jesus has risen, death is defeated. The biblical worldview, has always had an understanding that death is an enemy. • Saying death is an enemy might seem really obvious, but actually in our culture, the way we deal with death rarely addresses it in such a way. • In Australian society, the three most common approaches to death, are to either deny it, defend it, or defy it (or at least try to). • But none of them are particularly effective. • Just take the denial of death. Pretending death doesn’t exist might seem as strange as asserting that someone was raised, yet denying death is absolutely pervasive in modern society. • One of the most common approaches to death it to play it down…to say… well not much will change, they’re still with you, they’re just in the room next door. • I don’t think that’s helpful - of course things have changed, pretending it doesn’t exist doesn’t allow people to grieve, it doesn’t acknowledge the depth of people’s pain, it doesn’t help us face our own mortality. // "3 • If you’ve ever lost someone, you know the pain it causes. Of course it’s changed. If you’ve ever witnessed someone die, part of you rebels against it, desiring life, We’ve got this innate hunch that we’re made for more, that we’re not actually just meant to be temporary, [like a snapchat post that is here today and gone tomorrow!] • Easter celebrates that this is not an unfounded suspicion, but a reality! • Paul, one of the early church leaders, said that because of Jesus’ resurrection… “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55). • Paul is mocking death… Claiming that because Jesus died on the cross, and triumphed over the grave, that the power of death has been overturned and broken forever. • The logic goes like this… • Death entered into our world with sin. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned (Romans 5:12) "4 • Paul is making it very clear here: Sin and death are linked. And as sin entered the world and broke the order of things, death entered. And as all have sinned, death comes to all. • But because on Jesus all that sin was laid, once and for all, we were reconciled to him. • Any payment notice that would have come, has been paid. • Jesus fulfilled it, because of his incredible love for you. // • That’s what we celebrated on Good Friday, that’s why Good Friday is so GOOD! • But it gets even better, because death could not hold him down. • The resurrection is the very confirmation of the work of Jesus on the cross. If Jesus stayed dead his victory would have been utterly incomplete, but because he is risen, he was been vindicated and proven right. • See: This is not just a martyr, a good man dying for another, but this is God triumphant over death itself. "5 DEATH WILL BE DESTROYED \\ PART 2 But the Good News doesn’t just stop there, because Jesus has risen, it also means that death will be destroyed. The need for that is obvious! But, when it comes to death being destroyed, we might be tempted to think as some disembodied spiritual realm, floating on a cloud, but that’s not what it is about. • An eastern view of the physical world says that matter is just an allusion. • A western view of the physical world says that matter is temporary. • But the biblical view says that God created the physical and spiritual and just as they both have broken, both will be redeemed. We long for that. It’s a great human longing. • Bodies free from aches and pains, Lives free from tragedy and sadness, World free from the effects of brokenness.