Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Resurrection Response

One of my greatest joys and equally greatest area of nervousness is teaching bible study for our third grade Whiz Kids once a week. When I teach the children of our church, I have insight as to how a child grows up, their knowledge of scripture, their home life, and church history. I love knowing these parts of children's lives. So it's hard not knowing if any of these precious students our church members tudor have even heard who Christ is.

Each year we've begun Whiz Kids with a blank slate assuming that none of these kids have been introduced to the Gospel especially the "churchy" words that we use in bible study at the church.  Some years, we've had more churched kids than others. The past few weeks, we've been studying the death and resurrection of Jesus. We've had such tender conversations about how awful and tragic the death of Jesus was including fresh tears from these kids. There's nothing like seeing the Gospel unfold and click in the hearts of 9-year-olds. We talked about the celebration all of Jesus' friends, family, and followers must have experienced when they saw him resurrected in all of His glory. They worshiped at His feet! We talked about what it means for US that Jesus came back from the dead- and what a gift salvation is for us!

So yesterday before we dismissed our students for spring break, we talked about since we now believe Jesus is actually IS who He said He was, now what?

Is this story supposed to remind us of God's love for us? You bet.
Is it something to celebrate and Praise God for? Absolutely.
Does this real event in history make us proclaim personal salvation? Yes!

But, any of the above statements WITHOUT obeying the Great Commission isn't listening to Jesus' authority. The last documented words we have of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels are of Jesus telling His disciples to go to all the nations and make disciples. That was His response to the Resurrection.

His documented words after the Resurrection weren't "See, I told you I loved you!" or "Keep this act of love only in your heart forever."  Even though there is a deeply personal response and life change to the resurrection of Christ, the established believers weren't His focus. It was the exact opposite. Jesus' response was get up, go, and tell everyone who doesn't know, and God will be with us.

So, I challenged our Whiz Kids with this question: What does that look like for you, in the third grade in Dalton? Does it mean God is calling you across the world? Not necessarily. It means where you are, talk about Jesus. One child suggested in a very detailed way that she could have bible study with her class on Fridays at lunch. YES! One child said he would make sure his younger brother and sister knew the teachings of Jesus because they've never heard them before. YES!

Friends, what can be our response? Are we making sure that this is our response to Easter morning? Are we talking, teaching, and sharing with our coworkers, family, and parents of children on sports teams? If third graders in Dalton can be creative and enthusiastic about their response to the Resurrection and the direct order from Christ Himself... surely, we can too.






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