21 Easter Bible Verses For Kids to Celebrate the Resurrection

This Easter season, teach your children about the most popular story from the Bible! This holiday is about much more than the Easter bunny or plastic eggs. The bodily resurrection of Jesus is the key turning point in all of history.

Spend some time talking about the Resurrection with your kids, sharing the peace, hope and joy we have through Christ.

Here are 21 great Bible verses to teach your children that explain the Easter story.

As an idea, have your kids pick a memory verse from this list and then say it together once a day for seven days. Incorporate some fun hand motions or actions. You’d be surprised at how quickly you learn it–even your littlest ones!

You can use them in an Easter Sunday school lesson too!

What Bible Verses Talk About the Resurrection?

There are many wonderful verses from God’s Word to learn with your children about the good news of the Resurrection! And they don’t only come from the gospels. There are a lot of Scriptures that touch on the story of Jesus’ resurrection and its impact on our lives in different ways.

Today I’m sharing 21 of these verses with you.

How to Teach the Easter Story to Young Children

Before we get to the Resurrection, it’s important to help our children understand Jesus’ journey to the cross.

First begin by telling your kids that Jesus is the Son of God and that He came to earth to live a sinless life. That means he never did anything wrong! For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21
Remind them that we do things wrong, we sin. But God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to earth and to die for our sins. And the good news is that He came alive again! That’s the joy of the Resurrection: because Jesus lives, we can live too! “Because I live, you will live also.” John 14:19
Explain that not only can we have a relationship with Jesus while we are here on earth but we have hope because we know we will be with Jesus in Heaven someday. Share Romans 10:9 with your child:that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Now you can get into the details of the whole story of Easter!

1. Start first with the account of Palm Sunday! That’s always a fun passage to read.

Have your kids make a little palm using this simple craft idea or putting your child’s handprints together into a palm branch (HERE) to wave around and shout “Hosanna!” after you read it from the Bible.

And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee.” Matthew 2:19

2. You can then read about how Jesus prayed with His disciples when He knew it was time for Him to go to the cross and when he was sentenced to the cross:

Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Matthew 26:45

Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” And he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!” and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Matthew 27:22-23,29

Although it is hard to read, it’s important that our kids have an understanding of what Jesus went through because it helps them take joy in Resurrection Sunday all the more!

If you need help explaining Jesus’ death to your children, please read this post: How to Talk to Your Kids about Good Friday

3. Share with your kids one set of verses about Christ’s death on the cross. You could read one of these:

When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Matthew 27: 35-37

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:28-30

4. Read about the burial of Jesus, where His friends Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus gently lay him in a tomb:

Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. John 19:40-41

This is when the greatest part of the story begins!

Easter Story Resurrection Bible Verses for Kids to Learn

The account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most important Bible passages to teach your kids about the true meaning of Easter! Here are the best Bible verses to help explain the resurrection.

Read what happens when Jesus’ friends, Mary Magdalene and another Mary, visited the entrance of the tomb:

1. Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Matthew 28:1-6

2. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. Luke 22:2-3

Jesus appears to the disciples after His resurrection. Many of them are astonished to see Him alive! Thomas doubts that Jesus is really there in person, so He speaks to Thomas:

3. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” John 20:27

Forty days later, Jesus ascended into Heaven to be with His Father. Mark 16:19 explains this by saying:

4. So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

These next two verses from the Gospel of John are a great reminder of how Jesus needed to die for us to be in Heaven (being lifted up**) and shares the simple message of salvation.

5. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:15-16

**Why did Jesus compare himself to a snake in these verses? He was referencing the passage from Numbers 21:4-9 when Moses lifted up a bronze snake in the wilderness on God’s command, so that the Israelites who had been bitten by a real, poisonous snake, would not die, but live. This was a “picture” of Christ that was understood by the Jewish people in Jesus’ day, so they could see how He was the fulfillment of the Old Testament stories of salvation.

One of the ways we know that Jesus is the Son of God is that it was proved by His resurrection – He did not stay dead, but came alive again! Teach your children one of these verses:

6. Who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 1:4

7. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

We have so many blessings through Jesus’ resurrection! Here’s a great memory verse for your kids to learn to remind them of this truth:

8. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1:3

Additional Resurrection Bible Verses

9. And (Jesus) said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Luke 24:46-47

10. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. Philippians 3:10

11. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4

12. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter 1:3

13. “For I know that my redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” Job 19:25

14. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” John 11:2

I hope this post helps you to teach your children Easter Bible verses and have a simple way to explain the resurrection!