“The Case for Christ” DVD Study Questions for Student Ministries (3 of 3)

“The Case for Christ” Video {3 of 3}

~ Discussion Questions:

• 1- According to the Bible, Jesus died and He resurrected three days later…so why is that good news?
• 2- Three days after Jesus’ crucifixion, the people who had first discovered that Jesus was alive were women. If you were to create a fake resurrection story (as some critics say) back in the culture of Jesus’ lifetime, would it be smart idea to say that women were the first eyewitnesses? Why is this an important question?
• 3- Even back in Jesus’ day, His enemies were trying to make up a story about how Jesus was no longer to be found in his tomb. What was this story [read Matthew 28:12-13 to find out]?
• 4- How courageous were Jesus’ disciples before His resurrection? What about afterwards? Pretty big difference, right?
• 5- Why is the resurrection important? Can you share at least two reasons?

 

~ Memory Verse:

• ““I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live.” (John 11:25) [HCSB]

 

~  Jesus’ Death

• People have tried to come up with all kinds of theories about Jesus’ death. But think about this: “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water” (John 19:34). Many scientists believe this was actually from a ruptured heart, and overall, is it reasonable to believe that a man could survive crucifixion? Seriously, if the Roman soldiers were to have gone to college in our day, they would major in killing people as cruelly as possible – in other words, they were really good at making sure people died, otherwise they (the soldiers) would be killed for not doing their job. So really, we’re left with three options: (1) Jesus died and His body was stolen (2) Jesus miraculously didn’t die (3) Jesus died and resurrected three days later. The last two options require miracles to be possible, and so that doesn’t settle well with skeptics. So was it the first option? Matthew 28:12-13 includes this very accusation, and really, it wasn’t very compelling to Jesus’ disciples. In fact, why would you risk your life to take a dead body out of a tomb? No, the most believable scenario is that option 2 or 3 happened – and if God performed a miracle, why wouldn’t He perform the miracle of raising Jesus from the dead?

 

~  Jesus’ Empty Tomb

• We haven’t found the body of Jesus in almost 2,000 years of history. There were, however, eyewitnesses to Jesus’ empty tomb who saw not a dead body of Jesus, but a living one. Luke 24 tells us that a group of women were actually the first to witness the resurrected Jesus. Now here’s the thing: if you were going to make up a story about Jesus rising from the dead, you would NOT have women be the first eyewitnesses. Back in the first century, women were not trusted as much as men. It would be a very foolish thing to say that women were the first eyewitnesses – unless, of course, the account was true. And not only women saw Jesus, but also His disciples, and hundreds of other followers (see 1 Corinthians 15).

 

~  Jesus’ Resurrection

• If you’ve seen The Hunger Games movie or read the book, then you probably remember how a couple of districts always had the strongest tributes to send to the “hunger games” battle, whereas other districts were not quite as powerful. Now, to make a comparison with the disciples, let’s just say that they weren’t as naturally courageous as some – at least not before the resurrection. In other words, they were the underdogs and the outcasts to be chosen for a dangerous assignment. Peter denied Jesus three times on the eve of Jesus’ crucifixion despite Peter’s original intentions; the other disciples abandoned Jesus too. However, after Jesus rose from the dead, these men were transformed by God – they were willing to do anything for Christ. Most of the disciples were killed for their faith, but none denied Jesus in their greatest of struggles. But the only reason why there was such a change is because they met the resurrected Savior and God Himself empowered them to proclaim the Gospel to every nation. So here’s the thing: if Jesus really did rise from the grave, you can’t just say “Man, what a good teacher!” Plenty of people can and have tried to claim themselves to be a savior from God, but only Jesus has risen from the dead to prove it. Is Jesus your Savior and Lord, or is He just an interesting person from history? Are you trusting in Him to cover your sins, or are you trying to cover up your own guilt? And are you telling people about the good news of what Jesus has accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection?

“The Case for Christ” DVD Study Questions for Student Ministries (2 of 3)

• Discussion Questions:
  • 1- Jesus is often called the “Son of Man” in the Bible, does that simply mean that He was the “son” of a “man” (Joseph) or did that have a more important meaning? Why, then, is it so special that Jesus is the “Son of Man”?
  • 2- Both Jesus’ followers as well as those who hated Him spoke of Jesus as being a “miracle-worker.” How did His followers explain these miracles? [Who gave Him this power?] How did His opponents explain these miracles? [Who gave Him this power?]
  • 3- Let’s say you bump into a friend who says, “Miracles are impossible, they go against the laws of nature!” What would you say?
  • 4- In some crime scenes, leaving a thumb-print identifies the ONLY possible suspect. Jesus fulfilled over 40 Old Testament prophecies, could anyone else have done this? Can you name a few prophecies He fulfilled? [think about Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, Daniel 7, and Isaiah 9]
  • 5- What is Jesus doing now that He has ascended into Heaven? Is He just taking a break from ministering to us or is He active? [check out 1 John 2:1, Hebrews 4:14-16, and Hebrews 7:23-25)
• Memory Verse:
  • “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

 

Study Notes 

~  Son of Man

• On the surface, it sounds kind of irrelevant for Jesus to be called the “Son of Man.” After all, you are a son or daughter of a man and woman – not overly impressive, if that’s all the title means. The “Son of Man” is actually an incredible title that goes back into the Old Testament, Daniel 7:13-14 to be exact. There, we read of the “Son of Man” who is in the presence of the “Ancient of Days” (God the Father), and is promised a kingdom. Unlike kingdoms and nations that rise and fall (Greece, Rome, Turkey, Spain, even the USA), Jesus will one day rule this world and wipe out the problems of sin, pain, suffering, and heartache forever. What’s the good news about Jesus being the “Son of Man”? It means we have a King who will take back this sin-cursed world and transform it into what it was it created for: peace, love, joy, and mostly importantly, the worship of the One True God.

~ Miracle-Worker

• Hockey isn’t a very popular sport down in the South, but you may have at least heard of the movie, “Miracle.” It’s the story of how the 1980 USA hockey team won the gold medal in the Olympics, against all odds. A lot of people look at the extremely “unlikely” things in life and say “that’s a miracle.” But here’s the thing: Jesus did the extremely “impossible.” You can’t just heal the blind and the crippled, raise the dead (John 11), walk on water, feed thousands with one boy’s lunch, and rise from the dead yourself – but according to the Bible, Jesus did. While His followers believed that God’s power was within Him, those who hated Jesus claimed that Satan gave Him the power. What do you believe?

~ Promised Messiah

• God’s people longed for their promised Savior (Messiah) to finally come. The descriptions about this Messiah from Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 are clearly about His death as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sin. Before He could be the Kingdom ruler (“Son of Man”), He became a servant who suffered – “the cross precedes the crown.” Why should we think that as Christians life will be easy? No, to be like Jesus, we will go through trials and difficulty. While false teachers announce that you can have “Your Best Life Now,” Jesus says “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). Why on earth would you do that? Because the cross (your daily decision to being a follower of Jesus, even at the cost of pain) precedes the crown.

“The Case for Christ” DVD Study Questions for Student Ministries (1 of 3)

“The Case for Christ” DVD Study Questions for Student Ministries

  Discussion Questions:

• 1- If someone were to tell you that the New Testament Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were written much later after Jesus’ life, how would you respond?
• 2- How did the New Testament Gospel writers get their information?
  • Matthew?
  • Mark?
  • Luke?
  • John?
• 3- We don’t have the original manuscripts that the writers of the New Testament wrote on [just copies of copies of copies, etc.]; does that mean our New Testament is not reliable? Why or why not?
• 4- There are some documents that were written in the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries called “Gnostic Gospels.” Which Jesus is the actual Person in history? How do you know?
• 5- Do you have a favorite book in the New Testament? If so, what makes it special to you personally

Memory Verses

• “It seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you…that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” (Luke 1:3-4)

Commentary Notes (The Case for Christ Video Part 1 of 3)

• Oral Tradition:

The way we communicate in the 21^st century is incredibly different from even 30-40 years ago. Imagine a world without cell phones, the internet (including Twitter and Facebook!), email, iPods, and the radio – scary! But really, that was the world when the New Testament was written. When the “average Joe” wanted to keep his entertainment, he didn’t have an Amazon Kindle to digitally save his books, he didn’t have an iPod to store his songs; he memorized it. If he made a mistake on a line of a song, then he had a whole community of people to tell him “you’re wrong.” We don’t have the New Testament because one fan of Jesus started the whole thing, who told another guy, who told another guy…there were HUNDREDS of eyewitnesses! Yes, the 4 Gospels were completed in written form roughly 15-30 years after Jesus returned to heaven, but the message of what Jesus did spread like wildfire because of spoken word. And when you look at all 4 Gospels, you see the same story! Why? Because it was preserved accurately.

• Eyewitness Accounts

If in the year A.D. 4013 people were to look back 2,000 years and say, “I don’t know if there really was a pop singer named Justin Bieber” – that wouldn’t be very reasonable, especially since there are all kinds of eyewitnesses (yes, lots of eyes paying careful attention to his every move, as you’ve heard all too often). Comparing Jesus with J-Biebs may not be a great comparison, but you get the idea. Let’s think about the Gospel writers for a second. Matthew and John were the very disciples of Jesus – they traveled with him and listened closely to his teaching for years. Mark was a close friend to Peter (one of the 12 first disciples, aka “apostles”). And Luke was a close friend to Paul, who wrote down first-hand eyewitness accounts [Luke 1]. That’s what you call good sources! Not to mention, all Christians were agreeing with these writers.

• Original “Autographs” of the New Testament

When I first heard that we don’t have the original piece of manuscript [“autographs’] that Paul or Peter or Luke wrote on, I was shocked – you don’t need to be. The material that people wrote on back in the day was not very good quality. Plus, we do have about 5,000+ copies of the New Testament in the original language AND all of the New Testament quoted in the writings of Christians shortly after the life of Jesus AND everybody is saying the same thing: Jesus is the Son of God, who lived a perfect life, died on a cross for our sins, resurrected 3 days later, and ascended to heaven. [See also 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 for more info]

• Gnostic Gospels

About 100+ years after the New Testament was written, some false teachers started writing about “Jesus.” A lot of critics look at these writings (Gnostic Gospels) and think, “We’ve found the real Jesus!” This, once again, is not very reasonable. Let’s say you are a judge and a case is brought to you from 100 years ago. Would you trust the sources closest in time to the crime scene (that all agree with one another – even the people who didn’t like the victim) or would you trust a small handful of people who never lived during the time of the crime scene? Your call, your honor…