Running to Tell the Good News
Month 12: Risen & Sending · Loving Others
Today's Scripture
Read together: Matthew 28:8-10
8 So they hurried away from the tomb in fear and great joy, and ran to tell His disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came to Him, grasped His feet, and worshiped Him. 10 “Do not be afraid,” said Jesus. “Go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee. There they will see Me.”
Memory Verse
“He is not here; He has risen, just as He said! Come, see the place where He lay.”— Matthew 28:6 (BSB)
📖 Bible-in-a-Year (optional)
Today's reading: Galatians 2-4
Reading the whole Bible in a year — do this when you have extra time. ("I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" — we are children of God and heirs through faith.)The Heart of It
Look at what the women do the moment they hear the news. They "went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word" (). They don't hold the good news close like a private treasure. They run. Even while they are still trembling, their first instinct is to share the best thing they have ever heard with the people they love. And along the way, Jesus Himself meets them with one word. "Greetings!" Then He says it again. "Go and tell My brethren." This is a Loving Others day because the resurrection is not the kind of news you can love your neighbor and keep quiet about. The greatest gift of love we can ever give someone is to tell them that death is defeated and Jesus is alive.
Notice what Jesus calls the disciples in verse 10. He calls them "My brethren." Just days earlier these same men had abandoned Him, denied Him, and scattered into the night. He had every right to call them deserters. Instead He calls them brothers, and He sends the women to gather them in. That is the love the resurrection sets loose. It is a love that forgives. It runs to include the very people who failed. It refuses to let anyone be written off. When we love others well, we do both things the women did. We run to tell, sharing the good news of the risen Jesus. And we run to gather, welcoming back the ones who have wandered. Your family can be a household that does this. Quick with the good news, and quicker still with grace.
Around the Table
The women were so happy about Jesus that they RAN to tell their friends! Good news is for sharing, not keeping.
Let's do it: "Run" in place like the women, then "tell" the person next to you, "Jesus is alive!"
Jesus called His disciples "My brethren" even though they had run away from Him. He forgave them, and He still wanted them.
Let's talk: Who is someone who needs to hear that Jesus loves them and is alive? How could our family tell them this week?
The women's first response to the resurrection was to go and tell. Real joy in the gospel naturally overflows toward others.
Let's go deeper: Why do you think Jesus chose to call the men who deserted Him "My brethren"? What does that show about how we should treat people who have let us down?
💬 Conversation Starter
What is a piece of news so good you couldn't wait to tell someone? Who did you run to first?— The women ran to their friends with the best news in history.
🛡️ Defending the Faith
The way the disciples changed is itself evidence. Cowards who fled at the cross became bold witnesses. They would not stop talking about the risen Jesus, even under threat of death. Something happened between Friday and Sunday that changed frightened men into fearless messengers.
For Dad · Go Deeper
Evangelism in your home will rise or fall on one thing. It depends on whether your children see the gospel as good news worth running about. Or whether they see it as a duty, a sales pitch, or a source of embarrassment. The women didn't share Jesus because they had to. They ran because joy was bursting out of them. The best thing you can do to raise children who tell others about Jesus is to let them catch you genuinely delighting in Him. Talk about answered prayer at dinner. Mention the person you got to encourage at work. Pray out loud for the neighbor who doesn't know the Lord, and then actually walk over with cookies. As the old missionary saying goes, the gospel is "one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread." You are not training salespeople. You are raising glad witnesses who know where the bread is and can't help pointing the way.
Draws on: Rebecca Manley Pippert, Out of the Saltshaker and into the World.
Let's Pray Together
"Father, thank You for the best news in the world. Jesus is alive! Fill us with so much joy that we can't help but run and tell others. Help us love people the way You do, even those who have hurt us. In Jesus' name, amen."
Good news this good can't stay quiet. Jesus is alive, and love means running to tell.