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Fruitful - Day Four Bible Lesson - Love & Joy

Teen/Adult Bible Lesson

PDF version of this lesson: Fruitful 042 Bible Day Four Older.pdf

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God loves us and sent his Son to die in our place so our sin could be washed away. Jesus brings us back to a joyful relationship with God.

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For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16

You can read about Jesus' death, burial and resurrection in the the book of Luke in the New Testament. Here’s where to look:

Jesus' Death, Burial, and Resurrection
Betrayal and Last Supper: Luke 22: 1-46
Arrest: Luke 22:47-64
Death: Luke 23
Resurrection: Luke 24

In today’s lesson we will talk about some of the things that happened in those chapters. If you want to read the whole story later, read all of Luke chapters 22, 23, and 24 in your Bible.

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God created the world to be a beautiful place where human beings could live in perfect fellowship with Him. From the very beginning, though, mankind chose sin instead of following God’s instructions.

What are some definitions of sin that you have heard?

Sin can be described in a lot of ways:

Choosing to do something we know is wrong
Choosing to do something that is against the laws of God
Anything we do that is outside of God’s wishes
Anything we do that harms ourselves or other people
Insisting that we are in charge of our lives, no matter what God says

When the first people, Adam and Eve, chose their way over God’s way, sin and death entered the world. Everything fell out of balance.

Many people ask why God allows suffering on earth. That was never God’s will. God wanted everything to stay in balance. He told us how to keep everything perfect, but we chose the opposite path. Humans chose to invite sin and all of its consequences into the world. We still deal with those problems today.

We can’t just wish away our sin and we can’t be good on our own. We can try to do the right thing all the time, but we will fail often. God loves us and made a plan to bring us back to Him. God promised that He would send someone who would live a perfect life and become the one, final sacrifice that would take away our sin and allow us to turn to God.

God’s people expected a powerful Messiah to come and free them from not only their sins, but from the Romans. They thought that when the Messiah came, God would establish His heavenly Kingdom on earth and all their problems would be over.

As we learned on Monday, God sent His only Son, Jesus, as a tiny baby in a stable in Bethlehem—not as a warrior king who would conquer the Romans. God’s plan was much bigger, much better, and much more important than just dealing with some Romans. God promised that in the same way one man, Adam, had sinned and brought sin into the world, God would send one man to take the punishment for sin in a way that would remove sin for everyone who trusts in Him.

So that one sin of Adam brought the punishment of death to all people. But in the same way, Christ did something so good that it makes all people right with God. And that brings them true life. One man disobeyed God and many became sinners. But in the same way, one man obeyed God and many will be made right.
Romans 5:18-19 (ERV)

Jesus knew what would happen to Him, and he reminded the disciples many times that He would be arrested and killed. He told them not to be discouraged, because He would defeat death and return to them.

Jesus was arrested and accused of many crimes, although He was innocent of all of them. His accusers didn’t understand God’s promises. They couldn’t see that the man standing before them was the Messiah God had promised for centuries! They put Jesus to death as a criminal on a cross.

After Jesus died, the Romans took Him down from the cross and gave His body to a man named Joseph, who had Jesus buried in a tomb that Joseph owned. The Romans rolled a large stone over the entrance to the tomb so no one could steal Jesus' body and tell everyone that He had risen from the dead.

Early on Sunday morning, after the Sabbath, some women who loved Jesus went to His tomb with spices to put on Jesus’ body. When they got to the tomb, the large stone covering the entrance had been rolled away! They went inside to find Jesus’ body, but He was not there!

Suddenly, two men appeared in shining robes. They were angels! The women were afraid. The angels asked them why they were looking for Jesus in a tomb. They said that Jesus was not there because He was alive! He had risen from the dead, just as He had promised! Then the women remembered Jesus’ words.

The women were so excited that they ran to tell the disciples what had happened. The disciples didn’t believe them! Peter decided to run to the tomb and see it for himself. He ran there as fast as he could.

When he got to the tomb and looked inside, he saw that the tomb was empty except for the linen cloth that Jesus had been wrapped in. He was so happy! Jesus was alive!

The Romans paid the guards at the tomb to say that someone had come and taken Jesus' body away, but over the next forty days, hundreds of people saw and talked to Jesus. It definitely wasn’t a trick like the Romans wanted people to think. Jesus was alive!

Jesus rose from the dead, proving that He really is God’s Son. He showed us that He has power over death and sin. Because He rose from the dead, we know that everything He told us is true.

You can make Jesus the King of your life by inviting Him into your heart. When you give Him control of your life, His Spirit guides you and takes care of you, and you can get to know Him more and more as you study the Bible and pray.

When you give your life to Him, you can know that someday you will be with Jesus forever in Heaven. What an amazing gift! God loves us and sent Jesus to save us, and what Jesus did for us brings us great joy!

The love and joy that we receive from God are listed as fruit of God’s Spirit. Do you remember the verse that tells us about the fruit of the Spirit?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23

Did you notice that love and joy are the first two fruit in the list?