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BIBLE EXPLORE / NEW TESTAMENT / LUKE

Book of Luke: Chapter 24

Easter Day (John 20:1-18 and Luke 24:1-12)

The aim of today is to understand that Jesus rose from the dead and brings us hope of new life in him, and that something happy and wonderful can come out of something very sad.

Input for Leaders

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A beautiful image from the Visio Lectio project, created by the Anglican Diocese of Auckland. © Sarah West. All Rights reserved, shared with permission. ​
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Seven Minute Sermon Podcast
Centuries of speculation have given Mary Magdalene a bad reputation. But her life actually provides a great example to follow. This 7 minute sermon podcast from Rev. George Penk is based on Luke 8.1-2 and John 20.14-17
Gospel Conversations 2025: ​Christ is Risen! We realise some of you will be watching this in order to prepare for a Sunday sermon, but if not, this is one of those weeks where we do recommend you wait until Sunday to watch it. We don't want to anticipate Easter Sunday before we go through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday: they involve their own work and meditation. But once you get to Sunday, be ready to celebrate!
Gospel Conversations 2024: (Mark 16:1-9) This is a real celebration of the resurrection, what an amazing, glorious story we are given! 

​Gospel Conversations 2023: (John 20:1-18) Rejoicing in the deep mystery, love and hope of Mary Magdalene's encounter with the risen Jesus in the garden. You won't want to miss this one!

Easy Easter Packs

Here are a few things that might be useful if you are making up Easter Packs to hand out to kids.

Intergenerational Worship

Intergenerational Services from Scripture Union
A collection of resources and ideas, written and compiled by Rev Katherine Ruhl Intergen Australia. Bible references: Luke
Or this Combined Easter collection of resources and ideas, includes Palm Sunday (as above) but also resources for Good Friday and Easter Sunday. ​

Kids Talks

Questions to think about

  • What is your favourite part of Easter?
  • What do we say to each other at church on Easter?
  • I wonder what Mary was thinking when she saw the empty tomb?  
  • I wonder why Mary didn't recognise Jesus when she first saw him?"
  • I wonder what you would have been thinking if you'd gone to Jesus' tomb and found it empty?"
  • What do you think the disciples thought when they heard about
    Jesus?
  • How do you think Jesus' mother felt when she found out her son
    was alive again?
  • How can we spread the joy of Easter?

Celebrate with balloons! 

Love this idea from Carmen Kamrath from Childrens Ministry.com
Could be used in so many ways :) 

You’ll need: Helium balloons with ribbons attached (one for every child) and
a large brown blanket or tarp
Before kids arrive, place helium-filled balloons under a large “tomb” formed by a brown blanket or tarp.
Gather children around the tomb and talk about how after Jesus died on the cross he was buried in a cave and the guards covered it with a large rock. Remind them that on Easter morning, his friends discovered that Jesus defeated death and is alive! Then release the blanket so the balloons float to the ceiling. Remind children that just as the balloons rose from the “tomb,” Jesus rose from the grave so we could live with him forever.

As kids leave, give them a balloon to take home to remind them of the Easter message.

Pray it!

5 Creative Prayer Stations telling the story of Holy Week. Includes questions to think about and a script for taking a group of children around the stations. (Flame Creative).  

Easter Egg Prayers (FlameCreative) - simple multisensory prayers using a hollow chocolate easter egg. 

Games

Nothing like a few games for Easter fun! Try these:
SAFETY NOTE: If using eggs check for allergies. You can sub raw or hard-boiled eggs out for chocolate easter eggs, plastic easter eggs with lollies in, or ping pong balls.

Activities

Flowering the Cross
Flowering the Cross is an old Easter tradition! It involves decorating a bare cross with flowers as a symbol of the resurrection. The activity can be shaped to fit the specific message of your service. You will need: wooden cross wrapped in netting or wire, baskets of flowers and greenery.
St John's Johnsonville did this activity as part of an intergenerational service. They displayed John 3:16 in full, and instructions that said "What has been broken in your heart or in your world this year? Choose something to decorate the cross with. Ask God to transform the brokenness with his love and grace. Thread your flower onto the cross."
Easter Outdoor Trail (Scottish Bible Society) - Various options and could easily be adapted to be a fabulous intergenerational activity.
Our Sins are Wiped Away (Children's Ministry) - object lesson about Jesus forgiving our sins.
​Pebble Easter Eggs
A simple and beautiful craft, great for all ages to make, and you could use them in a treasure hunt activity too. (Sunhats & Wellieboots)
Other creative Easter activities

Preschool Fun

Here are some ways you can invite your preschoolers to play their way into the bible story and spending time with God. 

​Share the Story: How about using a small world play tray to tell the story? Doubles as a great open-ended exploratory activity after the story. 

Share the Story: A simple version of resurrection eggs for little ones. (Happy Home Fairy)

Hide and Seek: Check out the ideas in this lesson plan for 3-5's (Faith in Kids)

Playdough: Try these Easter playdough mats from FlameCreative.

Happy face, sad face: Make double sided masks out of paper plates, or blow up balloons and draw different emotion faces on them. Things to chat about: What makes you happy and sad? How did Jesus friends feel?

Surprises: Play with a jack-in-the-box or a game like Buckaroo ​where there is an element of surprise. Talk about: What is it like to be surprised? What surprises have you had? Are they good? bad?

Alive again! Play the 'sleeping giant' game with the kids. Talk about Jesus being dead and then alive again.
More Easter Resources can be found on our Strandz Website.

Media

Songs

Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35)

Today's story looks at Jesus appearing to his disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Reflection questions

  • What was your favorite part of the story?
  • Why did you like that part?
  • Why do you think Jesus appeared to these two disciples?
  • Why do you think the two disciples didn’t recognise Jesus at first?
  • How do we see Jesus in our lives today?
  • Tell us about a time you recogised Jesus in your life recently?
  • What at do you think God might be saying to us through this story?

Family reflection

For this creative prayer exercise you will need a piece of bread to share in pairs or as a family
  • Read: Luke 24:30-31
  • After Jesus rose from the dead he met two disciples who were sad and confused about what had happened. They only recognised him when he shared bread with them.
  • Think about your day; where have you been? What have you done?
  • What you have seen or heard? And who you have met? 
  • Where have you recognised Jesus today? ​
  • Tell the others about this as you take the bread and tear it in two. 

Every step Song

A song from Worship for Everyone
Nick and Becky Drake, from Worship for Everyone, have put out a beautiful song that ties in well with today's story.
Lyric version of the song on YouTube
Acoustic version of the song on YouTube
Every Step
With me, God is with me
Yes He’s with me every step
With me, God is with me
Yes He’s with me every step
I know God is with me every step I go
I know God is with me every step

With you, God is with you
Yes He’s with you every step
With you, God is with you
Yes He’s with you every step
I know God is with you every step you go
I know God is with you every step

Oh the love of God
Is with me every day
Every step I take
He will lead me on
Into His perfect plan
Walking hand in hand

With us, God is with us
Yes He’s with us every step
With us, God is with us
Yes He’s with us every step
I know God is with us every step we go
I know God is with us every step
​
Nick and Becky Drake
© 2018 Worship For Everyone. CCLI Number: 7122275
Source: Worship For Everyone

Comic strip

What you need
Either: A copy of the comic strip for each person or print a giant copy to colour together as a family or small group, plus stuff to colour/decorate with.
-- hand drawn by Rev Annette Cater, from the Anglican Diocese of Wellington

What to do
Colour it in. Decorate it.
How to use
​You might like to post it to a friend. Have a colouring competition, enlarge it and make a giant poster, project onto a wall and use it to make a mural on a wall/sheet.

Emmaus - Seeing Jesus

road_to_emmaus.pdf
File Size: 1938 kb
File Type: pdf
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Who am I? A game for older children

What you need
White sticky labels and a vivid

Preparation
On the labels (you will need one per child) write the names of famous people. They could be cartoon characters (sponge bob) or actors (Daniel Radcliffe) or even biblical characters (Mary). The only thing you need to remember is that the children will need to know the names that you pick. So Roy Orbison may not be a good one to use!
​
What to do
  • Don’t let the children see the labels. Get them to sit in a circle and close their eyes.
  • Tell them you are going to put a label on the back of each of them.
  • When you have finished, tell them that the object of the game is for each of them to figure out what their name is without peeking at their label. Tell them they can ask other people questions about their person, but that people can only answer yes or no.
  • An example of a good question would be ‘Am I a girl?’
  • An example of a bad question would be ‘Am I a boy or a girl?’
  • To make it harder, you could give them a time limit!

​Who am I? A game for younger children

Preparation
You will need to collect pictures of famous people, cartoon characters, etc. You will also need cardboard big enough to entirely cover the largest of your pictures
​
What to do
  • Get the children to sit in front of you. Hold up the cardboard in front of one of the pictures. Ask the children to guess what the picture is. Reveal a bit of the picture, see if they can guess now. Keep revealing a bit of the picture until they get it.
  • Challenge them to see how few guesses it takes them to guess a picture.
  • Repeat with the rest of the pictures you have chosen.

Media

Seeing is believing (Luke 24:36-48)

This story looks at Jesus appearing to his disciples in the upper room. This passage is similar to last week's lectionary reading, however it omits the story about Thomas found in John 20.

Intergenerational worship

In this week's Intergen Australia resource, Elizabeth Waldron Anstice includes a bible drama that engages with the 1 John 1:1-3 reading, a song based on 1 John 3:1 and a song that through its emphasis on faith is linked to the reading from Acts 3. View the resource here

Upper Room

Activities

Visio Lectio

A beautiful image from the Visio Lectio project, created by the Anglican Diocese of Auckland. © Sarah West. All Rights reserved, shared with permission. ​
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Preschool brainstorm

Young children can have difficulty distinguishing between fact and fantasy, so do not worry too much about explaining things that are not real to them in today's session. 
Brainstorm a list of things that we know are real, including things we can touch, taste or see, e.g.
  • I know flowers are real
  • I know my food is real
  • I know my pet is real
  • I know the sun is real
  • I know the wind is real
  • I know my family is real
  • I know that Jesus is real

Gospel Conversations

We have three years of gospel conversations for this passage! Easter 3, and we're really beginning to grapple with how to deal with the overwhelming GOODNESS of the good news of the Resurrection! Luke gives us a resurrected Jesus who is thoroughly with us, scars and all, and has yet defeated death. John Goodwin, Jenny Dawson and Esther Clarke-Prebble make up our team of conversationalists this week, hosted by Michael Godfrey. Christ is risen - indeed!
2023 Easter 3
In this Gospel Conversation, the Dunedin Diocesan Ministry Educator converses with Bishop Kelvin Wright, Anne Van Gend (Diocesan Community ministry Enabler) and Gary Griffith-Smith (Vicar of Gore Parish) around Luke 24: 36-48, the final appearance of Jesus to the disciples  (according to Luke) before he was taken up into heaven. 
2022 Easter 3
Jesus appears to his confused, scared, doubting disciples - 2000 years ago and still today! Joel Stutter joins Michael Godfrey and the Dunedin Diocese 'Gospel Conversations' team for the first time, with James Harding and Trish Franklin, as we move deeper into the joyful season of Easter.

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