Lesson:
Jesus and his disciples sat together eating the Passover dinner.
And Jesus said to them, "One of you will betray Me. All the
disciples were very sad and each one asked, "Is it I, Lord?" And
when Judas Iscariot asked, Jesus replied, "Yes, it is you", for Judas
was planning to betray Jesus and had already been given thirty pieces of
silver to do so.
After the dinner that evening, Jesus went into a garden to pray with His
disciples knowing that He was soon to die. And then Judas came up
to Him leading a crowd of men to arrest Jesus. Judas kissed Jesus
so that the men would know whom to arrest. And Jesus' disciples?
Although they loved Jesus, all those disciples ran away in fear!
Would you have run away?
Jesus is Tried:
Jesus was taken before the high priests and was accused of calling Himself
the Son of God. When morning came, all the chief priests and
elders voted to put Jesus to death, and took him before Pontius Pilate,
the Roman governor. But although Pontius Pilate questioned Him,
Jesus would not defend Himself. Pilate then gave in to the crowd
wishes and sentenced Jesus to be crucified. The soldiers pressed a
crown of thorns on Jesus' head and spat on him, and then led Him away to
nail Him to a cross.
On the Cross:
And as they were going to a place called Golgotha, the soldiers came upon
a man named Simon of Cyrene, and made him carry Jesus' cross. And
when they came to the place, they nailed Jesus to the cross. The
Roman soldiers gambled for His clothes and divided them among them, and
then sat down and kept watch. It became dark and after many hours
of suffering on the cross, Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have
You left me?" And then He died. And at that moment, an
earthquake shook the earth and the soldiers exclaimed, "Truly, this was
the Son of God!"
Jesus is Buried:
That evening, Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus, received
permission from Pontius Pilate to take Jesus' body down from the cross.
Joseph wrapped Jesus' body in clean linen and laid it in his
own new tomb which had been cut out of the rock. He then rolled a
great stone over the door of the tomb and went home. The next day
the chief priests went with some Roman soldiers to seal the stone of the
tomb so that no one could remove Jesus' body, and they left a guard by
the tomb.
Jesus Rises:
On the third day, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph,
went to see the tomb. And there was a great earthquake, for an
angel of the Lord had rolled back the stone. The angel said to the
women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was
crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, as He said.
Come and see where He lay, and then go quickly and tell His disciples
that He has risen from the dead. He is going before you to Galilee
and there you will see Him."
With joy the two women ran quickly to tell the disciples. As they were
going, Jesus met them on the way. They knelt at His feet and
worshipped Him. They then went to the other disciples as He asked
them to do. Later Jesus told the disciples to go out and make
disciples (followers) of all people, and teach them to obey all that He
had commanded them. Jesus said to them, "I am with you always" and
then left them staring upwards as He rose up into Heaven and disappeared
from their sight.
Jesus Wants to Live in Our Hearts:
We cannot see Jesus, but if you love Him, He is with you wherever you go.
Jesus is the Son of God and loves us all very dearly. He died to
take the punishment for all the sin and wrong things we have done.
If you ask Him, He will forgive you and come and live in your heart as
your Saviour and Best Friend. And that means that you will go to
Heaven when you die and live with Jesus for ever.
God bless!