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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the first edition of the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked niv are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Verses marked nasb are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org) All emphasis (italics) in Scripture verses has been added by the authors. Cover by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota Cover photo © Comstock / Thinkstock THE UNSHAKABLE TRUTH is a trademark of The Hawkins Children’s LLC. Harvest House Publishers, Inc., is the exclusive licensee of the federally registered trademark THE UNSHAKABLE TRUTH.
RESURRECTED—EXPERIENCE FREEDOM FROM THE FEAR OF DEATH Course 8 of The Unshakable Truth® Journey Growth Guides Copyright © 2012 by Josh McDowell Ministry and Sean McDowell Published by Harvest House Publishers Eugene, Oregon 97402 www.harvesthousepublishers.com ISBN 978-0-7369-4648-3 (pbk.) ISBN 978-0-7369-4649-0 (eBook) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other— except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 / VP-NI / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents What Is the Unshakable Truth Journey All About? . . . . . . . . . . 7
SESSION ONE The Purpose of Christ’s Resurrection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
SESSION TWO Why We Believe with Confidence That Jesus Rose from the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
SESSION THREE Because He Lives, We Will Live . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
SESSION FOUR What Is Our Life Focus? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
SESSION FIVE Being a Source of Comfort Within Your Community . . . . . . . . . 67 Take the Complete Unshakable Truth Journey! . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Evaluation Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
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SESSION ONE
tHe PURPose oF CHRIst’s ResURReCtIon
W
hen you were growing up,
what did Easter Sunday
mean to you? When and how
did you come to realize the day was actually a celebration of Christ’s resurrection?
How important was the resurrection of Jesus? Would it really matter if Jesus was in fact the perfect sacrifice of God, but didn’t rise from the dead? Why or why not?
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OUR GROUP OBJECTIVE To explore the significance and purpose of Christ’s resurrection and what it means to us personally.
Someone read John 11:25 . What was Jesus promising? _________________________________
Who would Jesus have to be and what kind of power would he have to possess to deliver on this promise?
To reinforce the truth that Jesus had to be God and possess the
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Session One: The Purpose of Christ’s Resurrection power to conquer death himself in order for us to receive eternal life, read 1 John 5:19 and Hebrews 2:14-15. Based on 1 John, who controls this world order? ______________ Based on Hebrews 2, since it is Satan who has the power of death, what did God have to do to break that power over us?
Is that all Jesus had to do to secure our eternal salvation: take on the form of a human, die for our sins as the perfect sacrifice, and rise to life again? Is there anything more he needed to do? Why or why not?
Someone read the following. The Old Testament was clear that a sacrifice was necessary for God to forgive sins. It was a “life-fora-life” exchange. And a holy and just God made the instructions to Moses very specific.
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RESURRECTED Scripture tells us that “the Lord called to Moses from the Tabernacle and said to him, ‘Give the following instruction to the people of Israel. When you present an animal as an offering to the Lord… it must be a male with no defects…Lay your hand on the animal’s head, and the Lord will accept its death in your place to purify you, making you right with him’ ” (Leviticus 1:1-4 nlt). The priest would go into the Holy of Holies within the Temple and sprinkle the blood of a blameless sacrifice on the altar before God. And because God accepted the sacrifice, the sins of the people were forgiven. Someone read Hebrews 2:17. Jesus became God’s perfect sacrifice for our sins, but what was the point of his becoming our High Priest?
To reinforce this truth, someone read these verses in Hebrews consecutively.
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Session One: The Purpose of Christ’s Resurrection Read Hebrews chapter 9: 11-12, 24-26, and chapter 10:11-12. What had to happen to secure our salvation—with our sins atoned for and the promise of eternal life?
Someone read the following. (This is drawn from chapter 32 of The Unshakable Truth book.) Jesus had to rise physically, bodily, from the dead “so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. He then could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). That is why Paul the apostle was so emphatic about the bodily resurrection of Jesus being the foundation of our faith. He said, “If Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Jesus’ promise to forgive us of our sins and be the atoning sacrifice that would allow us to have a relationship with God was based not only upon his death, but also upon his resurrection to conquer death and present his own blood sacrifice before God the Father.
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RESURRECTED “If Christ has not been raised…then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation for your sins…[and] we are the most miserable people in the world…But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:17,19-20). It is a historical reality that Jesus’ body was raised to new life. And because of that, we have new life. “God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead” (Ephesians 2:4-5). Therefore:
We believe the truth that Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins and on the third day bodily rose to life again in order to transform our lives and secure our eternal salvation.
The resurrection shows us clearly that death has no power over the righteous Son of the sovereign God. Jesus broke the power of death by rising from the grave, and in doing so he pierced the kingdom of darkness with a penetrating light. What seemed to
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Session One: The Purpose of Christ’s Resurrection be the destruction of Christ, throwing the human race into a hopeless situation, proved to be the very means of the hope of eternal life. Christ’s sacrificial death for our atonement would have been meaningless without his bodily resurrection. Unless Jesus did literally rise from the dead, his promise of forgiven sins and an eternal relationship with God is nothing but a fantasy, a false hope. Jesus’ death was an atoning necessity and his resurrection a historic necessity if our salvation is to mean anything at all.
!
Truth Encounter Someone read the following.
God is holy and almighty. He cannot tolerate sin. No mortal tainted by the sin nature can even look upon him and live. When Isaiah the prophet saw God in a vision he cried out, “My destruction is sealed, for I am a sinful man and a member of a sinful race” (Isaiah 6:5). God’s awesome judgment is to be feared. Someone read 1 John 4:16-18.
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RESURRECTED What casts out our fear? ____________________________________ Why can we face God with confidence? ______________________
Someone read Hebrews 10:19-22. Again, what gives us boldness to enter heaven’s Most Holy Place? ____________________________________________________
You may find it difficult to always feel that such a holy and allpowerful God desires you to come directly into his presence. We sometimes allow life and various things to hinder us from coming to God freely in prayer and through his Word so we can have an intimate relationship with him. What are some of the hindrances we encounter that might keep us from meeting God face-to-face through prayer and his Word? Openly and honestly share those hindrances or obstacles that keep you from developing a deepened intimacy with God.
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Session One: The Purpose of Christ’s Resurrection What must we do to overcome these hindrances in our lives?
Take time now as a group to go boldly before God in prayer. First, thank him for his Son as your High Priest—your Advocate before the Father. Then confess to him the hindrances that have kept you from spending time with him in prayer and his Word to become intimate with him. Make notes here of your prayer.
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TruthTalk—An Assignment of the Week
This week share with a member of your family or a friend just what the resurrection of Christ means to you . You have been given eternal life because of Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection . And as your High Priest you have direct access to God to become intimate with him . Consider saying something like:
It was the apostle
1
“In my group meeting this week I have been learning just what the
Paul…who said,
resurrection of Jesus means to me
“Our preaching is
personally . I have discovered that
useless and so is
because Christ rose again…
your faith” if Jesus has not risen from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:14 NIV).
.”
He said this because Jesus would have been less than deity if he could not
2
“I’ve often been hindered from a deepened relationship with God
conquer death.
through a consistent prayer life
And he would not
and devotional life in the Word
have been able to
because…
present his atoning blood before God
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Session One: The Purpose of Christ’s Resurrection without his bodily resurrection. Christ’s
.”
redemptive act wasn’t just in dying.
3
Christ’s redemptive act was both dy-
“This week I’ve been learning that because Jesus rose from the dead
ing and offering his
and became my High Priest, I have
blood before God in
direct access to God . And as a
a resurrected bodily
result I am…
form.
.” Read chapter 33 of The Unshakable Truth book . Note: Someone bring duct tape to next week’s meeting for use in a special illustration .
Close in Prayer
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