40 Amazing Days- Christ’s resurrection to His ascension

 

Days 1-10

 

Day 1      Mt 27:62-66, Mt 28: 1-4, Mt 28:11-15       The Deception                                 

Mt 27:62-66 

62The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63“Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

   65“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Mt 28: 1-4

   1After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

   2There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

Mt 28:11-15  

    11While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

 

Questions to consider

  1. Why was the tomb secured? V62-64
  2. What happened to the guards? V2-4
  3. What did the guards do afterwards? V11
  4. What plan was devised? V 13-15

 

Day 2 Mt 28:1-8     The Empty Tomb report 1                                      

    1After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

   2There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

   5The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

   8So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 

Questions to consider

  1. When did this take place? V 1
  2. Who was involved? V1
  3. Why did they go? V1
  4. What were they told to do? V6b
  5. What else were they told to do? V7
  6. What was their response? V8

 

Day 3 Mk 16:1-8    The Empty Tomb       report 2                                

    1When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. 2Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

   4But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

   6“Don't be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ ”

   8Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.  

Questions to consider

  1. When did this take place? V 1,2
  2. Who was involved? V1
  3. Why did they go? V1
  4. What were they told to do? V6b
  5. What else were they told to do? V7
  6. What was their response? V8

 Day 4 Luke 24:1-10    The Empty Tomb       report 3                                

   1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8Then they remembered his words.    9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.

 Questions to consider

  1. When did this take place? V 1,2
  2. Who was involved? V1,10
  3. Why did they go? V1
  4. What happened when they went in? v2
  5. What was their response? V9

 Day 5 Luke 24:9-12            Tomb Inspected By Peter                                  

   9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

Questions to consider

  1. What did Peter do when he heard the news?  V12a
  2. What did Peter see? V12b

 

Day 6 John 20:1-9               Tomb Inspected by Peter and John                    

   1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!”

   3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Questions to consider

  1. How many disciples went to the tomb?
  2. What did the first disciple see? V5
  3. What did Peter see? V6-7
  4. What was their response? V9

Day 7 Mt 28:2-7                   Angelic Announcement – 1                              

Mt 28 2-7    2There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

   5The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

Questions to consider

  1. What did the angel do? V2
  2. What did angel say about Jesus? V6a
  3. What were the women to tell  the disciples? V7

 Day 8 Mk 16: 5-7                Angelic Announcement – 2              

5As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.  6“Don't be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ ”

Questions to consider

  1. What did the angel say about Jesus? V6
  2. What were the women to tell the disciples?  V7

 Day 9 Lk 24: 4-8                 Angelic Announcement – 3              

 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8Then they remembered his words.

 Questions to consider

  1. What did the angels says about Jesus? V6
  2. What were the women told to remember? V6b-7

 

Day 10 – Mark 16: 9-11   John 20:10-18           Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

Mark 16: 9-11

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. 10She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. 11When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.

John 20:10-18

   10Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

   13They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

   “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don't know where they have put him.”

14At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

   15“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

   Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

   16Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

   She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

   17Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

   18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Questions to consider

  1. Who was at the tomb? John 20:11,18
  2. What was she doing? John 20:11
  3. Who did she see? John 20:16
  4. What did Jesus tell her not to do and why? John 20: 17a
  5. What did she tell the disciples? John 20:18