Sep. 15, 2024

Believe Again

The Tomb

Primary Text:  John 2:18–22                

This Week’s Teaching:

1)  The Sign of Jonah

Matthew 12:38–40:  Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.”  He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign!  But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.  For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” 

DQ 1) What is the “sign of Jonah”?

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2)  The Third Day

Matthew 16:21–23:  From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.  Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said.  “This shall never happen to you!”  Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” 

DQ 2) Why did Jesus say “Get behind me, Satan!” to Peter?

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3)  The Tomb

John 19:38–42:  Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus….  He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night….  Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Matthew 27:62–65:  The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate.  “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’  So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day...”  “Take a guard,” Pilate answered.  “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.”  

DQ 3) Why do you suppose Jesus waited three days before revealing He was alive?

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4)  Paradise

Luke 23:40–43:  But the other criminal rebuked him.  “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?  We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.  But this man has done nothing wrong.”  Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

1 Peter 3:18–20:  For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.  He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. 

DQ 4) Is “Paradise” the same as heaven?

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5)  The Temple

John 2:18–22:  Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”  Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”  The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”  But the temple he had spoken of was his body.  After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said.  Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

Acts 2:29–32:  “Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.  But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.  Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay.  God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.” 

DQ 5) How did the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection impact the disciples?

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