Great song to sing on Easter 10-hooray. Words can be found here.
Ministry to Children posted an awesome 4 minute video for children that wonderfully sums up the message of Easter.
Happy Easter!!
Easter
Use Tangible Easter Objects to Teach Intangible Truths
Easter is the time to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, but this usually gets pushed aside by traditional Easter activities such as the Easter Bunny, colored eggs, and new clothes. Easter comes at springtime and some of our traditions at Easter are actually a part of the pagan springtime celebration. But that’s ok . . . we can use these tangible things to help children understand intangible ideas.
The bunny stays in a rabbit hole in the ground all winter. When spring comes, the bunny comes out of his hole. We can relate this to Jesus being in the tomb for three days, but on Easter morning, He came out and is alive today.
Eggs remind us of new life. Coloring them reminds us of how beautiful our world is as the earth comes back to life again with new flowers and new leaves and grass. Relate this to Jesus coming back to life.
New chicks, bunnies, lambs, and ducks are also reminders of new life. Jesus gives us new life by what He did on the Cross for us.
Put Bible verses on the eggs you hide and then gather together to read them all. Some suggested verses are:
Revelation 21:5 Jesus makes all things new.
Galatians 2:20 Jesus Christ lives.
Matthew 28:6 Jesus is risen.
Song of Solomon 2:12 The flowers appear on the earth.
Make a cross out of twigs or craft sticks and keep it in a prominent place during the Easter season. Point out that it is empty because Jesus didn’t stay on the cross or in the tomb . . . He is alive!!
A great book to teach the real meaning of Easter is Easter Bunny, Are You For Real?
10-hooray This is a song that children really love about the empty tomb . It is from Every Song a Bible Story from Maranatha Music.
Make Easter a family time of worshiping together and thinking about the risen Lord. Read the Easter story together from Matthew 27-28, Mark 15 – 16, or Luke 23-24.
Jesus vs the Easter Bunny
Have some fun with these videos. Let them spark conversation about the real meaning of Easter.
RESURRECTION DAY
IT’S SUNDAY MORNING!
“Low in the grave He lay, Jesus my Savior,
waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!
Vainly they watch his bed, Jesus my Savior,
vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord!
Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus my Savior;
He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!”
Up from the grave He arose;
with a mighty triumph o’er his foes;
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
and He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!”
1 Cor. 15:3-4
I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me—that Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said.
Rejoice for this validates everything that Jesus did and said! It also grants us a confirmed hope! We who are alive in Christ will one day be reunited with those who are asleep in Christ!
Romans 5:17
The sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over us, but all who receive God’s wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!
Day Seven of Passion Week
Think on these things today.
The followers of Jesus were devastated. All their hopes and dreams were gone. Jesus’ body lay wrapped in the grave clothes soaked with the spices and preserving materials. But Jesus was not in the grave. He was very busy on this important day.
1 Peter 3:18-22
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. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also–not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand–with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
What does this mean? It means that right after Christ died, between the Cross and His Resurrection, He went before the spirits in prison, that is Hell, and proclaimed that God’s promise of salvation was fulfilled in Him, the Savior of the world. But who are the spirits to whom He preached? Scripture says that they were the disobedient toward God who were living upon earth while Noah was preparing the Ark and who were not saved during the flood.
Does this mean that Christ gave them a second chance to be saved? No! It means that Jesus Christ went before them and proclaimed His triumph; He went to vindicate the way of faith, to proclaim that the faith of Noah was victorious. Noah’s life and his proclamation of faith in God were never vindicated in his day; therefore, Christ Himself went before the spirits of unbelievers and personally proclaimed the victory.
Jesus also was collecting keys. He picked up the keys to death, hell, and the grave.
This was a busy day for the Savior. His followers were in despair and did not have a clue as to what He was doing . They were in the dark and they wondered where was God. All the time God was moving in the most triumphant way, in the dark, to work the greatest miracle of all time. Wow, were they surprised the following morning. “. . . Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)
Remember when you are in your dark times . . . God did His best work in the dark!!!!!