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The Empty Tomb

International Sunday School Lesson April 2 2023 Spring Quarter #5

Luke 24:1-12 ESV  But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.  (2)  And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,  (3)  but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  (4)  While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.  (5)  And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?  (6)  He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,  (7)  that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”  (8)  And they remembered his words,  (9)  and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.  (10)  Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles,  (11)  but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.  (12)  But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

Luke 24:1-12 ESV 

Notes

Background

  • C.I. Scofield — The order of events, combining the four narratives, is as follows: Three women, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and Salome, start for the sepulchre, followed by other women bearing spices. The three find the stone rolled away, and Mary Magdalene goes to tell the disciples. Luk 23:55 to Luk 24:9; Joh 20:1; Joh 20:2. Mary, the mother of James and Joses, draws nearer the tomb and sees the angel of the Lord Mat 28:2. She goes back to meet the other women following with the spices. Meanwhile Peter and John, warned by Mary Magdalene, arrive, look in, and go away Joh 20:3-10. Mary Magdalene returns weeping, sees the two angels and then Jesus Joh 20:11-18 and goes as He bade her to tell the disciples. Mary (mother of James and Joses), meanwhile, has met the women with the spices and, returning with them, they see the two angels.; Luk 24:4; Luk 24:5; Mar 16:5. They also receive the angelic message, and, going to seek the disciples, are met by Jesus. Mat 28:8-10.

Stone Rolled Away — Luke 24:1-2

  • McGee The stone was not rolled away to let the Lord Jesus out but to let them in.

Gone — Luke 24:3

  • Pulpit No evangelist describes the Resurrection-no earthly being having been present. St. Matthew is the evangelist who, in his narrative, goes furthest back. He mentions the shock of the earthquake, the awful presence of the angel, the benumbing terror which seized the guards who were watching. Most probably these signs accompanied the Resurrection.

Living Among the Dead — Luke 24:4-5

  • Pulpit To one company of women one angel appeared: to another, two. Mary Magdalene, a little later, saw two angels in white sitting, as it were keeping watch and ward over the sepulchre for a short time after the sacred form had left it.

Remember — Luke 24:6-7

  • Mark 8:31-33 (ESV) And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. [32] And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. [33] But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Tell the World — Luke 24:8-9

  • Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV) And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Unbelief — Luke 24:10-11

Marveled — Luke 24:12

  • John 20:3-10 (ESV) So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. [4] Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. [5] And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. [6] Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, [7] and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. [8] Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; [9] for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. [10] Then the disciples went back to their homes.

The Call of Abram

International Sunday School September 4 2022 Fall #1

Lesson Scriptures

Genesis 12:1-7 ESV  Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  (2)  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  (3)  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  (4)  So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.  (5)  And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,  (6)  Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.  (7)  Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

Genesis 12:1-7 ESV

Genesis 15:1-7 ESV  After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”  (2)  But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”  (3)  And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”  (4)  And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”  (5)  And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”  (6)  And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.  (7)  And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”

Genesis 15:1-7 ESV 

Notes

Call of Abram Gen 12:1-3

  • Joshua 24:2 (ESV) And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods.
  • Enter world to be blessed by the Messiah and this gives the world the opportunity to be be blessed by accepting Jesus as our personnel Savior.

Abram Obeys Gen 12:4-6

  • People lived a lot longer in that day. Abraham 175 when he died so this was middle-age for him.
  • Hebrews 11:8-9 (ESV) By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. [9] By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

Promise and Alter Gen 12:7

  • The first mention of a theophany in the Bible.
  • But Abram did not see God the Father. He saw the pre-existent Son of God. See John 1:18 NIV  “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”

Fear Not Gen 15:1

  • This happened right after Abraham rescued Lot from the attack and capture of the multiple Kings.
  • This was a night vision, not a dream.
  • Psalms 27:1 (ESV) Of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Abram Childless Gen 15:2-4

  • The first use of LORD God (Adonai Jehovah) in combination in the Bible.
  • According to the Code of Hammurabi, Eliezer, his steward, Abram’s head servant would inherit if Abram did not have a child.

Faith Counted as Righteousness Gen 15:5-7

  • Hebrews 11:11-12 (ESV) By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. [12] Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
Youtube Presentation of Sunday School Lesson

Peace with God

International Sunday School July 25, 2021 Summer #8

Romans 5:1-11 NIV  Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  (2)  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.  (3)  Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  (4)  perseverance, character; and character, hope.  (5)  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.  (6)  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  (7)  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.  (8)  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  (9)  Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!  (10)  For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!  (11)  Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Romans 5:1-11 NIV 

Revealed Love

International Sunday School September 27, 2020

Genesis 45:1-8 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. (2) And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it. (3) Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence. (4) Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! (5) And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. (6) For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. (7) But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. (8) “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.

Genesis 45:10-15 You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me–you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. (11) I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.’ (12) “You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. (13) Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.” (14) Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. (15) And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.

 

Consequences for Injustice

International Sunday School Spring #3 March 15, 2020

Habakkuk 2:6-14 (NIV) [6] “Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying, “ ‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion! How long must this go on?’ [7] Will not your creditors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their prey. [8] Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed human blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them. [9] “Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, setting his nest on high to escape the clutches of ruin! [10] You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. [11] The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. [12] “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice! [13] Has not the LORD Almighty determined that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing? [14] For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

Sunday School — July 2, 2017

Moses

Exodus 3:1-12 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. (2) And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. (3) And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” (4) When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” (5) Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” (6) And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. (7) Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, (8) and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (9) And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. (10) Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” (11) But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (12) He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

Sunday School — June 4, 2017

Deborah and Barak

Judges 4:1-10 And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD after Ehud died. (2) And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. (3) Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years. (4) Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. (5) She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment. (6) She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. (7) And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand’?” (8) Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” (9) And she said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. (10) And Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. And 10,000 men went up at his heels, and Deborah went up with him.

Sunday School — May 28, 2017

Pervasive Love

Jonah 4:1-11 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. (2) And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. (3) Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (4) And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?” (5) Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. (6) Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. (7) But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. (8) When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” (9) But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” (10) And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. (11) And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

Sunday School — May 21, 2017

Forgiving Love

Jonah 3:1-10 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, (2) “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” (3) So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. (4) Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (5) And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. (6) The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. (7) And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, (8) but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. (9) Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” (10) When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Sunday School — May 14, 2017

Preserving Love

Jonah 2:1-10  Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish,  (2)  saying, “I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.  (3)  For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me.  (4)  Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’  (5)  The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head  (6)  at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.  (7)  When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.  (8)  Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.  (9)  But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!”  (10)  And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.