Matthew 28; Luke 24; John 20

Witnesses of the Resurrected Savior

Jesus Christ appeared to many individuals and groups after His Resurrection. This lesson can help strengthen your testimony that the Savior lives as you study the experiences of some of these witnesses.

Sharing testimonies of Jesus Christ. Look for opportunities to share testimonies of Jesus Christ, including the testimonies of apostles and prophets. This will invite the Holy Ghost to bear witness of the truth.

Student preparation: Invite students to read Ether 12:5–9 with this question in mind: How can you know that Jesus Christ lives without seeing Him?

Possible Learning Activities

Believing without seeing

Be sure to save adequate time for students to bear their testimonies of Jesus Christ toward the end of the lesson.

Look at the following image of the resurrected Savior emerging from the tomb. Record in your study journal what you might share with someone who doubts that this very important event occurred. What scripture accounts of the Savior’s Resurrection could you share with them?

• Why do you think it is important to the Lord that we each obtain our own testimony that He lives?

Reflect on your testimony that Jesus Christ lives and on how you would be blessed by strengthening this testimony. Studying the words of those who know the Savior lives can strengthen our faith in His living reality even if others around us doubt. As you study today, be mindful of promptings from the Holy Ghost that confirm the truth of these accounts to your heart and mind.

New Testament witnesses

Study at least one of the following New Testament accounts of people who saw the resurrected Savior. Then record your answers to the two questions that follow and any other thoughts and impressions that may come to you.

Consider placing pictures representing the following four accounts, along with the corresponding scripture references, in different areas of the room. Invite students to visit each area individually or in small groups and to study the corresponding accounts.

Alternatively, based on student needs, the students may spend more time studying one of the following accounts in depth rather than briefly studying all four accounts. Some ideas for studying these accounts are found in the “Supplemental Learning Activities” section of the lesson.

1. Faithful women: Matthew 28:1–10

2. Two disciples on the road to Emmaus: Luke 24:13–35

3. Mary Magdalene: John 20:11–18

4. Thomas: John 20:24–29

• What did you learn that could strengthen your faith that Jesus Christ lives?

• What did you learn about the Savior from His interaction with this person or these people?

Other scriptural witnesses

Your testimony of the Savior can be further strengthened by studying additional witnesses in other scriptures. Study at least one of the following scripture passages. Then record your answers to the two questions that follow and any other thoughts and impressions that may come to you.

Note that each of these passages contains a doctrinal mastery scripture passage. Consider inviting students to mark these passages in a distinctive way so they can identify them as such.

1. People in the ancient Americas shortly after the Savior’s Resurrection: 3 Nephi 11:8–17

2. Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon: Doctrine and Covenants 76:19–24

• How could what you read strengthen your belief that Jesus Christ lives?

• What additional insights about Jesus Christ did you gain?

Modern witnesses

Another vital way to strengthen your testimony that Jesus Christ lives is through studying the testimonies of modern “special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world” (Doctrine and Covenants 107:23), the ordained Apostles in our day.

Consider replacing either of the following statements with other living Apostles’ testimonies.

You may want to watch the video “Come unto Me” (from time code 16:18 to 16:47) and the video “The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent” (2:26), both available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org. Or read the statements by President Eyring and Elder Holland, two modern witnesses of Jesus Christ.

President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency testified:

I am a witness of the Resurrection of the Lord as surely as if I had been there in the evening with the two disciples in the house on Emmaus road. I know that He lives as surely as did Joseph Smith when he saw the Father and the Son in the light of a brilliant morning in a grove of trees in Palmyra.

This is the true Church of Jesus Christ.

(Henry B. Eyring, “Come unto Me,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2013, 25)

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles testified:

I testify that Jesus Christ is the literal, living Son of our literal, living God. … I bear witness that He was literally resurrected from the tomb and, after ascending to His Father to complete the process of that Resurrection, He appeared, repeatedly, to hundreds of disciples in the Old World and in the New. I know He is the Holy One of Israel, the Messiah who will one day come again in final glory, to reign on earth as Lord of lords and King of kings.

(Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2007, 42)

• Why do you think the Savior has provided us with modern witnesses in addition to His ancient witnesses?

Your witness

Read John 20:29, looking for truths that Jesus Christ taught Thomas about gaining a testimony.

• What does this verse teach you about the development of your testimony of Jesus Christ?

One truth we can learn from the Savior’s teachings in this verse is that we are blessed for choosing to believe that Jesus Christ lives even when we have not seen Him.

Use the remainder of the lesson time to give students the opportunity to bear testimony of the living Savior. Choose from the following suggested questions, or use other methods to help students ponder and share their witness.

Consider inviting students to write their testimonies in their study journals or to sing a hymn as a class before sharing their testimonies aloud.

Add your personal witness of the Savior to those that you have studied today. As one way of doing this, consider recording answers to questions like the following in your study journal.

• What evidence have you seen in your life and in the lives of others that Jesus Christ lives?

• When have you felt the Holy Ghost bear witness to you of the reality of Jesus Christ?

• What advice would you give to someone who is not yet sure if they believe that the Savior lives?

Commentary and Background Information

Why were there wounds from the Crucifixion in Jesus’s resurrected body?

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote:

Even though the power of the Resurrection could have—and undoubtedly one day will have—completely restored and made new the wounds from the crucifixion, nevertheless Christ chose to retain those wounds for a purpose, including for his appearance in the last days when he will show those marks and reveal that he was wounded “in the house of [his] friends” [Zechariah 13:6; Doctrine and Covenants 45:52].

The wounds in his hands, feet, and side are signs that in mortality painful things happen even to the pure and the perfect, signs that tribulation is not evidence that God does not love us. It is a significant and hopeful fact that it is the wounded Christ who comes to our rescue.

(Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant [1997], 258–59)

John 20:17. What did the Savior mean when he asked Mary Magdalene to “touch [Him] not”?

Elder Bruce R. McConkie (1915–85) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained:

The King James Version quotes Jesus as saying “Touch me not.” The Joseph Smith Translation reads “Hold me not.” Various translations from the Greek render the passage as “Do not cling to me” or “Do not hold me.” Some give the meaning as “Do not cling to me any longer,” or “Do not hold me any longer.” Some speak of ceasing to hold him or cling to him, leaving the inference that Mary was already holding him. There is valid reason for supposing that the thought conveyed to Mary by the Risen Lord was to this effect: “You cannot hold me here, for I am going to ascend to my Father.”

(Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah: From Bethlehem to Calvary [1981], 4:264)

What videos are available to help me visualize the accounts of the resurrected Savior’s appearances?

You may want to watch the following videos (available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org):

“Jesus Is Resurrected” (4:05)

“Christ Appears on the Road to Emmaus” (3:32)

“Blessed Are They That Have Not Seen, and Yet Have Believed” (2:29)

Supplemental Learning Activities

Alternate beginning to the lesson

To begin the lesson, consider asking a student to share the name of a person they know well but whom the class and teacher have never met. Then lightheartedly pretend to doubt the existence of this person. Ask the student questions such as the following: Can anyone else in this class confirm that this person exists? If enough of us disagree with what you told us, would you begin to doubt that this person exists?

Then invite students to think about how they would respond to someone who doubts the existence of Jesus Christ.

Road to Emmaus

If spending more time on the account in Luke 24:13–35 would benefit students, consider asking the following questions:

• Why would the Savior use the scriptures to help the disciples better understand His mission?

• What scriptures might you use to help a friend better understand the Savior’s mission?

• How did the disciples describe their feelings, as recorded in verse 32? What led to the disciples feeling what they did? How would you describe promptings you have received from the Holy Ghost?

• Why is it significant that the disciples recognized the Savior “in breaking of bread”? (verse 35). How might this apply to our lives?

Choosing to believe

Invite students to read John 20:1–8, looking for what John did after hearing about Mary Magdalene’s experience. (Note that John refers to himself as “the other disciple” throughout this passage.)

Invite students to compare John’s reaction recorded in John 20:8 to Thomas’s statement recorded in John 20:24–25. Then ask the following questions:

• What are some things that you believe without needing physical proof?

• In what ways have you been blessed for choosing to believe without physical proof? (See John 20:29 .)

• How can you strengthen your faith in true things that you cannot yet see? (See Alma 32:16–21; Ether 12:6.)