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# Lesson Plan 3.11: Resurrection and Ascension
**Course:** New Testament
**Grade Level:** 10th Grade
**Date:** Monday, October 19, 2026
**Day of Unit:** Day 10 of 12
**Opener Type:** BD — Brain Dump
**Duration:** 44 minutes (5th hour) / 47 minutes (1st hour)
**Bible Reference:** John 20:1-31; Matthew 28:16-20; Luke 24:50-53 (with Matthew 28:11-15; Luke 24:36-43; Romans 4:25; Romans 8:34)

## Structure
- The three GENERATION ATTEMPT questions and the three EXPLAIN sub-headers are the same three items in the same order.
- Students attempt each one from Scripture on the front of the worksheet.
- EXPLAIN walks the same three, asking what they found before filling in the details.
- The worksheet footer is the exit ticket.

- Combined day: CSI 3.11 (Resurrection) and 3.12 (Ascension), plus the Pattern Synthesis that closes the sub-week packet (3.6, 3.8, 3.10).
- First day back after the three sub days. The opener is a longer Brain Dump that walks Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in order, and it takes the ENGAGE time. Read the three days of footers before class.
- Beats I and II are both in John 20, which was the weekend reading. Beat III is read in class.
- Cut: the Emmaus road (Luke 24:13-35). Named only in EXPLAIN 2 as a time he was not recognized. Cut: the longer ending of Mark (Mark 16:9-20).
- The Pattern Synthesis is in ELABORATE and is the only place the three sub-day sheets are pulled together. Protect it if time runs short. Cut from EXPLAIN 1 first.
- 1st hour has three extra minutes. They go to the Pattern Synthesis.
- Review day tomorrow. Unit 3 test Wednesday.

## Learning Objectives
- Students will explain why the women as first witnesses and Thomas's demand for proof support the truth of the resurrection accounts.
- Students will explain the commission Jesus gives in Matthew 28:18-20 and what the ascension means for his ongoing work.
- Students will name details of Passion Week found in only one Gospel and explain how the four accounts together give the complete picture.

## Materials
- nt-3-11-slide-plan — class presentation slides
- Bibles for each student
- nt-3-11-worksheet-resurrection-and-ascension
- *The three sub-day sheets (3.6, 3.8, 3.10), ready to hand back at ELABORATE.*

## Lesson Sequence

### OPENER — BD: Brain Dump, Sub-Week Review (9 minutes)

- No ENGAGE today. The opener takes its time.
- Notes closed. The sub-day sheets stay in the stack until ELABORATE.
- Prompt: Write everything you remember from the three sub days, one day at a time.
	- Wednesday: the triumphal entry and the temple.
	- Thursday: the anointing, the Last Supper, and the garden.
	- Friday: the trials and the cross.
- Three minutes writing. Then walk the three days in order. Take answers from the room before giving any.
- Wednesday:
	- What did the crowd shout, and what were they asking for?
		- *Looking for:* "Hosanna," from Psalm 118:25-26: LORD, save us. Son of David and king of Israel are royal titles. They wanted a king to save them from Rome.
	- Why did Jesus ride a donkey?
		- *Looking for:* Zechariah 9:9, "lowly and riding on a donkey." A king going to war rides a warhorse. A king coming in peace rides a donkey. Jesus sent for it on purpose (Matthew 21:1-4).
	- Why did Jesus clear the temple?
		- *Looking for:* "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:7, NIV). The selling filled the Court of the Gentiles. "A den of robbers" (Jeremiah 7:11): they hid in the temple from God instead of meeting him there.
- Thursday:
	- What did the anointing at Bethany prepare Jesus for, and who objected?
		- *Looking for:* his burial (Mark 14:8). The woman is Mary, Lazarus' sister (John 12:3). Judas objects because he is a thief (John 12:6), and goes to the chief priests right after (Mark 14:10-11).
	- What did Jesus say the bread and the cup now mean?
		- *Looking for:* his body given for you, and "the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:19-20, NIV). On the first Passover the lamb died and the firstborn lived (Exodus 12:13). He is the lamb.
	- What happened in the garden?
		- *Looking for:* "Yet not what I will, but what you will" (Mark 14:36, NIV). The disciples sleep three times. Judas betrays him with a kiss. "Then everyone deserted him and fled" (Mark 14:50, NIV).
- Friday:
	- Who put Jesus on trial, and who went free?
		- *Looking for:* Annas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate, Herod, then Pilate again. Pilate finds no basis for a charge three times (Luke 23:4, 14, 22). Barabbas, in prison for insurrection and murder, goes free.
	- Name as many of the seven sayings from the cross as you can.
		- *Looking for:* Father, forgive them. Today you will be with me in paradise. Here is your son, here is your mother. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me (Psalm 22:1). I am thirsty. It is finished. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. No single Gospel has all seven.
	- What happened to the temple curtain, and what does it mean?
		- *Looking for:* torn in two from top to bottom (Mark 15:38), by God. The way into the Most Holy Place is open through Jesus' body (Hebrews 10:19-20).
- Whatever was thin goes to tomorrow's review.

### GENERATION ATTEMPT (12 minutes)

**I. Who Finds the Empty Tomb? (4 min)**

- Read John 20:1-18. Who comes to the tomb first, and what does she think has happened?
	- *Looking for:* Mary Magdalene, early on the first day of the week, while it is still dark (20:1). She thinks someone has moved the body. "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" (John 20:2, NIV). She thinks Jesus is the gardener (20:15).
	- *Expect* she knew right away that he was risen. Push them to verses 2, 13, and 15. Three times she says the body has been taken.
- When does she recognize him, and what does he send her to do?
	- *Looking for:* when he says her name (20:16). He sends her to the disciples (20:17). "I have seen the Lord!" (John 20:18, NIV).

**II. What Does Thomas Need? (4 min)**

- Read John 20:24-31. What does Thomas say he needs before he will believe, and what does he call Jesus when he sees him?
	- *Looking for:* to see the nail marks, put his finger where the nails were, and put his hand into his side (20:25). "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28, NIV).
	- *Expect* Thomas did not think anyone could rise from the dead. Close enough for the first half. Push them to what he calls Jesus in verse 28: not teacher, not Messiah, God.
- Why does John say he wrote his book?
	- *Looking for:* "that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31, NIV). Accept believe and have life.

**III. What Does Jesus Leave Them With? (4 min)**

- Read Matthew 28:16-20. What does Jesus claim, what does he tell them to do, and what does he promise?
	- *Looking for:* all authority in heaven and on earth (28:18). Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey (28:19-20). "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20, NIV).
	- *Expect* he leaves them on their own. Push them to the last sentence. He is going, and he is staying.
- Read Luke 24:50-53. How do the disciples respond when he is taken up?
	- *Looking for:* they worship him and go back to Jerusalem with great joy, praising God at the temple (24:52-53).
	- *Expect* they were sad. Push them to verse 52. Luke says joy.

### EXPLAIN (12 minutes)

**1. Who Finds the Empty Tomb? (4 min)**

- Take their answers first.
- No one saw the moment Jesus rose. The Gospels give us the empty tomb and the people who met him afterward.
- The stone was rolled away so the witnesses could see in, not so Jesus could get out.
- All four Gospels name women as the first witnesses, and Mary Magdalene is in all four (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:10; John 20:1).
- In Jesus' day a woman's testimony was not accepted in court.
	- "But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex" (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 4.219).
- Someone making the story up would not choose women as the first witnesses. The Gospels name them because that is what happened.
- Mary thinks the body has been taken (John 20:2) and that Jesus is the gardener (John 20:15). She knows him when he says her name (John 20:16).
- The disciples do not believe them at first. "But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense" (Luke 24:11, NIV).
- The Gospels differ on details: how many women, how many angels. All four agree on the core. The tomb is empty, it is the first day of the week, and Jesus is alive.
- The early church did not rewrite the four accounts to make them match. Independent witnesses who agree on the core and differ on the details is what real testimony looks like.
- Matthew adds the guards (Matthew 28:11-15). The chief priests pay them to say, "His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep" (Matthew 28:13, NIV).
- Even the cover story admits the tomb was empty.

**2. What Does Thomas Need? (4 min)**

- Take their answers first.
- That Sunday evening Jesus comes to the disciples behind locked doors (John 20:19). Thomas is not there (John 20:24).
- "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe" (John 20:25, NIV).
- A week later Jesus offers him exactly what he asked for. "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe" (John 20:27, NIV).
- His resurrection body is a real body. It still has the scars. In Luke he eats fish in front of them (Luke 24:42-43).
	- "Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have" (Luke 24:39, NIV).
- It is also different. He comes through locked doors. Mary does not recognize him at first (John 20:14), and neither do the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:16, 31).
- "Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God!'" (John 20:28, NIV).
- John opens his Gospel with "the Word was God" (John 1:1, NIV). He closes the main story with a disciple calling Jesus God. John 1:1 and John 20:28 are the bookends.
- "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29, NIV). That is every believer after the first disciples, including you.
- John 20:31 is the verse this unit is built on. John wrote the signs down so the reader would come to the same confession Thomas did.

**3. What Does Jesus Leave Them With? (4 min)**

- Take their answers first.
- Forty days pass between the resurrection and the ascension (Acts 1:3). Most of the appearances are in Galilee. He is teaching them again, and now they understand.
- He gives the commission on a mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:16).
- "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (Matthew 28:18, NIV).
- On another mountain Satan offered him the kingdoms of the world. "'All this I will give you,' he said, 'if you will bow down and worship me'" (Matthew 4:9, NIV). Jesus refused. After the cross, the Father gives him ALL authority.
- A **commission** is one person giving another the authority to carry out a task. Jesus has the authority, and he sends them out under it.
- Before the resurrection he preached mostly to Israel. Now it is all nations, Jews and Gentiles.
- Matthew opens with Immanuel, "which means 'God with us'" (Matthew 1:23, NIV). He closes with "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20, NIV).
- "While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy" (Luke 24:51-52, NIV).
- The **ascension** ends his appearances on earth in his body. It does not end his work. He sits at the Father's right hand and prays for his people.
	- "Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us" (Romans 8:34, NIV).
- Luke picks up the story again in Acts. That is Unit 4, starting Monday, October 26.

### ELABORATE (8 minutes)

**Passion Week Across the Four Gospels (8 min)**

- *Hand back the 3.6, 3.8, and 3.10 sheets.*
- At tables, with the three sheets and today's: from Sunday to Sunday, find one thing that only one Gospel tells you.
	- *Looking for:* open. Expect palm branches and "king of Israel" (John 12:13), Jesus weeping over the city (Luke 19:41-44), the foot washing (John 13:1-15), Mary of Bethany named and Judas the thief (John 12:3-6), "Father, forgive them" and the thief in paradise (Luke 23:34, 43), "It is finished" (John 19:30), the guards' story (Matthew 28:11-15), and Thomas (John 20:24-29).
- Discuss what they found.
- No single Gospel has all seven sayings from the cross. You needed all four to fill in the chart.
- Four witnesses, one week. Together they give the complete picture of Passion Week.
- Each stop in the week fulfills an Old Testament promise or picture:
	- Sunday, the entry. "See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey" (Zechariah 9:9, NIV). Jesus sends for the donkey on purpose. He comes in peace, not to war.
	- Monday, the temple. "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:7, NIV). Jesus clears the Court of the Gentiles, the one place the nations could come to pray.
	- Thursday, the supper. "The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you" (Exodus 12:13, NIV). Jesus makes the bread his body and the cup his blood. He is the Passover lamb.
	- Friday, the trial. "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him" (Isaiah 53:5, NIV). Barabbas the murderer goes free. The innocent dies in the place of the guilty.
	- Friday, the cross. "They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment" (Psalm 22:18, NIV). The soldiers do it at the foot of the cross (John 19:23-24). Jesus prays the psalm's first line: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, NIV).
	- Friday, the curtain. Only the high priest went behind the curtain into the Most Holy Place, once a year (Leviticus 16:2, 34). When Jesus dies, "The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" (Mark 15:38, NIV). The way to God is open.
	- Sunday, the empty tomb. "You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your faithful one see decay" (Psalm 16:10, NIV). Peter preaches this verse at Pentecost (Acts 2:27-31). That is Unit 4.
- "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification" (Romans 4:25, NIV).
- His death brought forgiveness. His resurrection brought new life.
- This is fulfillment. Every stop in the week is an Old Testament promise landing in Christ. The empty tomb is God's verdict that the sacrifice was accepted.
- The commission did not end with the eleven. Every disciple since is sent with the same promise, and that includes you: "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20, NIV).

### EXIT TICKET — Worksheet Footer (3 minutes)

- The footer at the bottom of the sheet is the exit ticket: clearest thing, muddiest thing, one question you still have, and the confidence row.
- Sheets collected on the way out.
- Review day tomorrow. Unit 3 test Wednesday, on Chromebooks.

## Homework
- Read Chapter 3.12, "Ascension," in the student text (pages 85-86).
- Bring your notes and worksheets from the whole unit tomorrow.

See the original as Bethel CRC wrote it, for reference

## Lesson Sequence

### OPENER — BD: Brain Dump, Sub-Week Review (9 minutes)

- No ENGAGE today. The opener takes its time.
- Notes closed. The sub-day sheets stay in the stack until ELABORATE.
- Prompt: Write everything you remember from the three sub days, one day at a time.
- Wednesday: the triumphal entry and the temple.
- Thursday: the anointing, the Last Supper, and the garden.
- Friday: the trials and the cross.
- Three minutes writing. Then walk the three days in order. Take answers from the room before giving any.
- Wednesday:
- What did the crowd shout, and what were they asking for?
- *Looking for:* "Hosanna," from Psalm 118:25-26: LORD, save us. Son of David and king of Israel are royal titles. They wanted a king to save them from Rome.
- Why did Jesus ride a donkey?
- *Looking for:* Zechariah 9:9, "lowly and riding on a donkey." A king going to war rides a warhorse. A king coming in peace rides a donkey. Jesus sent for it on purpose (Matthew 21:1-4).
- Why did Jesus clear the temple?
- *Looking for:* "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:7, NIV). The selling filled the Court of the Gentiles. "A den of robbers" (Jeremiah 7:11): they hid in the temple from God instead of meeting him there.
- Thursday:
- What did the anointing at Bethany prepare Jesus for, and who objected?
- *Looking for:* his burial (Mark 14:8). The woman is Mary, Lazarus' sister (John 12:3). Judas objects because he is a thief (John 12:6), and goes to the chief priests right after (Mark 14:10-11).
- What did Jesus say the bread and the cup now mean?
- *Looking for:* his body given for you, and "the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:19-20, NIV). On the first Passover the lamb died and the firstborn lived (Exodus 12:13). He is the lamb.
- What happened in the garden?
- *Looking for:* "Yet not what I will, but what you will" (Mark 14:36, NIV). The disciples sleep three times. Judas betrays him with a kiss. "Then everyone deserted him and fled" (Mark 14:50, NIV).
- Friday:
- Who put Jesus on trial, and who went free?
- *Looking for:* Annas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate, Herod, then Pilate again. Pilate finds no basis for a charge three times (Luke 23:4, 14, 22). Barabbas, in prison for insurrection and murder, goes free.
- Name as many of the seven sayings from the cross as you can.
- *Looking for:* Father, forgive them. Today you will be with me in paradise. Here is your son, here is your mother. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me (Psalm 22:1). I am thirsty. It is finished. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. No single Gospel has all seven.
- What happened to the temple curtain, and what does it mean?
- *Looking for:* torn in two from top to bottom (Mark 15:38), by God. The way into the Most Holy Place is open through Jesus' body (Hebrews 10:19-20).
- Whatever was thin goes to tomorrow's review.

### GENERATION ATTEMPT (12 minutes)

**I. Who Finds the Empty Tomb? (4 min)**

- Read John 20:1-18. Who comes to the tomb first, and what does she think has happened?
- *Looking for:* Mary Magdalene, early on the first day of the week, while it is still dark (20:1). She thinks someone has moved the body. "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" (John 20:2, NIV). She thinks Jesus is the gardener (20:15).
- *Expect* she knew right away that he was risen. Push them to verses 2, 13, and 15. Three times she says the body has been taken.
- When does she recognize him, and what does he send her to do?
- *Looking for:* when he says her name (20:16). He sends her to the disciples (20:17). "I have seen the Lord!" (John 20:18, NIV).

**II. What Does Thomas Need? (4 min)**

- Read John 20:24-31. What does Thomas say he needs before he will believe, and what does he call Jesus when he sees him?
- *Looking for:* to see the nail marks, put his finger where the nails were, and put his hand into his side (20:25). "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28, NIV).
- *Expect* Thomas did not think anyone could rise from the dead. Close enough for the first half. Push them to what he calls Jesus in verse 28: not teacher, not Messiah, God.
- Why does John say he wrote his book?
- *Looking for:* "that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31, NIV). Accept believe and have life.

**III. What Does Jesus Leave Them With? (4 min)**

- Read Matthew 28:16-20. What does Jesus claim, what does he tell them to do, and what does he promise?
- *Looking for:* all authority in heaven and on earth (28:18). Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey (28:19-20). "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20, NIV).
- *Expect* he leaves them on their own. Push them to the last sentence. He is going, and he is staying.
- Read Luke 24:50-53. How do the disciples respond when he is taken up?
- *Looking for:* they worship him and go back to Jerusalem with great joy, praising God at the temple (24:52-53).
- *Expect* they were sad. Push them to verse 52. Luke says joy.

### EXPLAIN (12 minutes)

**1. Who Finds the Empty Tomb? (4 min)**

- Take their answers first.
- No one saw the moment Jesus rose. The Gospels give us the empty tomb and the people who met him afterward.
- The stone was rolled away so the witnesses could see in, not so Jesus could get out.
- All four Gospels name women as the first witnesses, and Mary Magdalene is in all four (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:10; John 20:1).
- In Jesus' day a woman's testimony was not accepted in court.
- "But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex" (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 4.219).
- Someone making the story up would not choose women as the first witnesses. The Gospels name them because that is what happened.
- Mary thinks the body has been taken (John 20:2) and that Jesus is the gardener (John 20:15). She knows him when he says her name (John 20:16).
- The disciples do not believe them at first. "But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense" (Luke 24:11, NIV).
- The Gospels differ on details: how many women, how many angels. All four agree on the core. The tomb is empty, it is the first day of the week, and Jesus is alive.
- The early church did not rewrite the four accounts to make them match. Independent witnesses who agree on the core and differ on the details is what real testimony looks like.
- Matthew adds the guards (Matthew 28:11-15). The chief priests pay them to say, "His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep" (Matthew 28:13, NIV).
- Even the cover story admits the tomb was empty.

**2. What Does Thomas Need? (4 min)**

- Take their answers first.
- That Sunday evening Jesus comes to the disciples behind locked doors (John 20:19). Thomas is not there (John 20:24).
- "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe" (John 20:25, NIV).
- A week later Jesus offers him exactly what he asked for. "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe" (John 20:27, NIV).
- His resurrection body is a real body. It still has the scars. In Luke he eats fish in front of them (Luke 24:42-43).
- "Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have" (Luke 24:39, NIV).
- It is also different. He comes through locked doors. Mary does not recognize him at first (John 20:14), and neither do the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:16, 31).
- "Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God!'" (John 20:28, NIV).
- John opens his Gospel with "the Word was God" (John 1:1, NIV). He closes the main story with a disciple calling Jesus God. John 1:1 and John 20:28 are the bookends.
- "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29, NIV). That is every believer after the first disciples, including you.
- John 20:31 is the verse this unit is built on. John wrote the signs down so the reader would come to the same confession Thomas did.

**3. What Does Jesus Leave Them With? (4 min)**

- Take their answers first.
- Forty days pass between the resurrection and the ascension (Acts 1:3). Most of the appearances are in Galilee. He is teaching them again, and now they understand.
- He gives the commission on a mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:16).
- "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (Matthew 28:18, NIV).
- On another mountain Satan offered him the kingdoms of the world. "'All this I will give you,' he said, 'if you will bow down and worship me'" (Matthew 4:9, NIV). Jesus refused. After the cross, the Father gives him ALL authority.
- A **commission** is one person giving another the authority to carry out a task. Jesus has the authority, and he sends them out under it.
- Before the resurrection he preached mostly to Israel. Now it is all nations, Jews and Gentiles.
- Matthew opens with Immanuel, "which means 'God with us'" (Matthew 1:23, NIV). He closes with "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20, NIV).
- "While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy" (Luke 24:51-52, NIV).
- The **ascension** ends his appearances on earth in his body. It does not end his work. He sits at the Father's right hand and prays for his people.
- "Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us" (Romans 8:34, NIV).
- Luke picks up the story again in Acts. That is Unit 4, starting Monday, October 26.

### ELABORATE (8 minutes)

**Passion Week Across the Four Gospels (8 min)**

- *Hand back the 3.6, 3.8, and 3.10 sheets.*
- At tables, with the three sheets and today's: from Sunday to Sunday, find one thing that only one Gospel tells you.
- *Looking for:* open. Expect palm branches and "king of Israel" (John 12:13), Jesus weeping over the city (Luke 19:41-44), the foot washing (John 13:1-15), Mary of Bethany named and Judas the thief (John 12:3-6), "Father, forgive them" and the thief in paradise (Luke 23:34, 43), "It is finished" (John 19:30), the guards' story (Matthew 28:11-15), and Thomas (John 20:24-29).
- Discuss what they found.
- No single Gospel has all seven sayings from the cross. You needed all four to fill in the chart.
- Four witnesses, one week. Together they give the complete picture of Passion Week.
- Each stop in the week fulfills an Old Testament promise or picture:
- Sunday, the entry. "See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey" (Zechariah 9:9, NIV). Jesus sends for the donkey on purpose. He comes in peace, not to war.
- Monday, the temple. "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:7, NIV). Jesus clears the Court of the Gentiles, the one place the nations could come to pray.
- Thursday, the supper. "The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you" (Exodus 12:13, NIV). Jesus makes the bread his body and the cup his blood. He is the Passover lamb.
- Friday, the trial. "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him" (Isaiah 53:5, NIV). Barabbas the murderer goes free. The innocent dies in the place of the guilty.
- Friday, the cross. "They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment" (Psalm 22:18, NIV). The soldiers do it at the foot of the cross (John 19:23-24). Jesus prays the psalm's first line: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, NIV).
- Friday, the curtain. Only the high priest went behind the curtain into the Most Holy Place, once a year (Leviticus 16:2, 34). When Jesus dies, "The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" (Mark 15:38, NIV). The way to God is open.
- Sunday, the empty tomb. "You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your faithful one see decay" (Psalm 16:10, NIV). Peter preaches this verse at Pentecost (Acts 2:27-31). That is Unit 4.
- "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification" (Romans 4:25, NIV).
- His death brought forgiveness. His resurrection brought new life.
- This is fulfillment. Every stop in the week is an Old Testament promise landing in Christ. The empty tomb is God's verdict that the sacrifice was accepted.
- The commission did not end with the eleven. Every disciple since is sent with the same promise, and that includes you: "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20, NIV).

### EXIT TICKET — Worksheet Footer (3 minutes)

## Homework
- Read Chapter 3.12, "Ascension," in the student text (pages 85-86).
- Bring your notes and worksheets from the whole unit tomorrow.

I would like to share this version with other churches, with Bethel CRC credited as where it started.