But God - Lesson 2

Summary: This week's lessons is about how the words “but God” changed things in the life of Jesus. It’s hard not to get excited when you read the “but God” in Acts 13:28-32 (HCSB). Jesus was dead, BUT GOD gave Him life again! This will be an evangelistic message if you have lost students in your small group. But while it has value for lost students, the primary focus is going out and sharing with people who do not know Christ.

Outline:

• There was death (v. 28-29) • There was life (v. 30) • There was sharing (v. 32)

An Awesome Experience

share the story of meeting the Robertson's.

Today, We’re gonna talk about something that is awesome!

But first, we have to cover some bad news. Read Acts 13:28-32 with me.

Death

1. There was death (v. 28-29, HCSB).

[Get another student to read just verses 28-29.]

How do we know when someone is dead?

[This could get interesting, but you want to help students understand that all of those things were the same in Jesus’ day. That moment on the cross, He took His last breath. There was no denying it. He had all the signs of someone who was dead.

The Swoon Theory: The shock of the pain felt on the cross caused Jesus to faint. He merely fainted, so once He was in the coolness of the tomb, His body revived and walked out of the tomb.

The Hallucination Theory: Jesus really did not come back from the dead. The people who saw Christ after His resurrection were suffering from hallucinations.

The Impersonation Theory: Jesus died, and that was it. The person the disciples saw after the resurrection was only someone impersonating Jesus.

The Thief Theory. Jesus died, and the disciples stole His body and lied about seeing Him alive after His death.

[Take some time to share all that Jesus went through. He was betrayed, he was mocked, he was beaten, and ultimately, He took His last breath on the cross.]

Just like Jesus was dead, we are spiritually dead.

There is no denying that when someone is dead, they all have the same signs, regardless of where they are from or how they died. We are spiritually dead; Jesus was dead and laid in a tomb … BUT GOD.

Life

2. There was life (v. 30, HCSB).

[Get another student to read verses 28-29, but add verse 30 the end of it.]

[Tell the story of the resurrection of Jesus. Add some excitement to it so that students really understand how great it is.]

Imagine how awesome this would have been. Jesus' mother Mary and Mary Magdalene grab their spices and decide they are going to go and anoint the tomb of Jesus. What they did not know was that the tomb had already been anointed. The ladies get to the tomb, and they see that the stone was rolled away. I can imagine what is going through their heads when they see the stone rolled away. They walk in expecting to still see the body of Jesus. They walk into the tomb and do not see Jesus, but they see an angel. The angel tells them, “I know who you are looking for, but He is not here. He is risen."

Jesus was dead on the cross, BUT GOD gave him life again!

Think about how incredible this was for a moment. Jesus was beaten, He was mocked, He died on the cross … BUT GOD gave Him life again!

We are spiritually dead, we are engulfed in sin ... but God wants to give us life.

None of us have the power to give someone life again, but we serve a God who does have that power. He gave Jesus life … and He wants to give us life, too. He wants us to turn our lives over to Him and live for Him every day.

So there was death … there was life … and then there was sharing about what happened.

Sharing

3. There was sharing (v. 32, HCSB).

[Get a student to read verse 32.]

Hopefully, if you had some information that could save someone’s life, you would share it with others. You would not keep information like that in.

We should be the same way with the story of Jesus. We all have friends and family members who do not have a relationship with Jesus. It’s our job to share Jesus with them!

Thankfully, after Mary and Mary Magdalene found the empty tomb, they went and told other people what God had done. We must be the same way!. We must be willing to share the good news of Jesus with other people.

Hell is a real place.

Hell is a real place. Hell is a real place for people who are still guilty of sin and dead in their relationship to God, and we have the opportunity to share with people how they can spend eternity in heaven instead.

No one has to go to hell. There are people each of you know, that if some tragedy was to happen today, they probably wouldn’t end up in heaven. Don’t miss your opportunities.

Remember: Jesus died and was laid in a tomb ... BUT GOD gave Him life again.

We are dead, BUT GOD gives new life.

We are spiritually dead. We constantly walk off the path that God has for us. BUT GOD wants us to give our lives to Him. He also wants us to share our new life with people who do not know Jesus - that’s why we have new life!

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