The Messiah as Son of God

We talked about Jesus as the Son of God tonight.  We asked the kids if they had nicknames when they were younger and whether or not they liked their nicknames.  If they didn't like their nicknames or didn't have one, we asked them what they thought a cool nickname would be for them now.

Everyone got a pen then and three "I am..." squares.  They each had to write three truthful statements about themselves that were pretty specific descriptions of who they were.  "I am into soccer."  "I love horses."  "I am Italian-American."  They kept their squares hidden from the other kids around them and did not include their names on the squares.  We collected them up and shuffled them.  We passed the squares back out to everyone then and asked them to go around and use a piece of tape to attach the squares they had onto the backs of the people they thought they described.  They had to do so without talking or asking questions.

When all squares were taped to the youths' backs, each one checked to see if the squares they were wearing were really the squares they filled out about themselves.  They left their squares taped to their backs and took off the squares that were not originally theirs.

In round 2, the kids could take the remaining squares and walk around asking each other questions to figure out which square belonged to which youth.  We talked about the easy and hard aspects of this game.  We asked how well the squares their friends taped to their backs fit with who they really are.

Next we showed the kids magazine pictures of random people who were not actors or famous music stars.  They could only see the pictures for about 3 seconds.  We asked them to imagine they were witnesses of a crime involving those people then and pretend they were describing those people to the police.  The kids brainstormed important details and descriptions of each person.  We brought the pictures out again to judge how well they were able to describe each person and the details they overlooked.  We asked the kids how much easier they thought it would have been to describe their brother or sister, or mom or dad.  Describing close family members of friends would be much easier than describing strangers because we see them daily and know them personally.

Just like there are people we know very well and who know us personally, there were people who lived with Jesus and saw Him day to day.  They were eyewitnesses to who He was, what He was like, what He said, and what He did.  They could describe Jesus very, very well.  We discussed the first four books of the New Testament then  and how the writers of each gospel wrote about their own experiences with Jesus and the accounts shared with them by others.  The gospels contain many stories and teachings about Jesus that were witnessed by the very people who told them.  Tonight, we looked specifically at the gospel of Mark.

We read Mark 1:1 and Mark 9:2-8 then and considered what it seemed like Mark was emphasizing in this gospel.  What's so important about what God the Father says about Jesus?  We talked about how the gospel of Mark was written to declare one key truth about Jesus:  He is the Son of God.

We talked then about the four key eyewitnesses about Jesus in Mark and how they all confirmed the same important idea:  Jesus is the Son of God.

• God as a witness:  Mark 1:9-11, 9:2-8
• Demons as witnesses:  Mark 3:10, 11, and Mark 5:1-7
• Jesus Himself as a witness:  Mark 14:32-36, 14:55-64
• A Roman guard as a witness:  Mark 15:37-39

Then we talked about why it matters that even the demons acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God.  Why was it important that a guard who was part of Jesus' execution team said this about Jesus?  What does it mean that Jesus was both God and human?  We get out traits - hair color, eye color, height, skin color - from our biological parents.  In essence, we are 50/50 of our biological parents.  Jesus was different.  He wasn't 50% God and 50% human.  50% God would mean He only had half the power or divinity.  He wasn't only half human either.  He was 100% human and 100% God.  As we talked more about the realities of these facts with the kids, we gave them paper and art supplies and invited them to doodle their thoughts on paper....either in a poem or drawing or just in random words.

Jesus was a child.  He grew.  He was a teenager.  He had favorite foods.  He needed sleep.  He needed time alone.  He felt pain.  He had friends and experienced all kinds of human emotions - fear, betrayal, joy, hurt, delight, temptation.  We read Hebrews 2:14-15.  As a human, Jesus understands our needs.  He can help us.  As God, He has power and authority over sin.  He can forgive us.  He holds the entire universe, including every aspect of our lives, in His hand.  Philippians 2:5-11 - Jesus wasn't just a good guy who taught good things.  He wasn't just "close" to God.  He was God!  We can put our full trust in Him.  He is powerful, faithful, and true.  What difference does it make in your life that Jesus was totally human?  What difference does it make for you that He is totally God?

We ended the evening listening to Son of God by Starfield and Son of God by Lincoln Brewster.  We reminded the kids again this week how awesome, unfathomable, and mind-blowing it is that this God of ours...High Priest, King of Kings, Servant, and now Son of God...PURSUES us and desires to have an intimate and personal relationship with us.

Here's Chris Tomlin and Son of God.

The Messiah As Servant

We studied about the Messiah as servant tonight.  We started out asking the youth what one of the most disobedient things they did as a child was, whether or not they got caught, and if they felt guilty afterwards.

Then we played a revised edition of rock-paper-scissors.  The rules were lawyer beats jury, jury beats judge, and judge beats lawyer.  The kids stood back-to-back and, on the count of three, turned to face each other.  For lawyer, they had to point at their opponent and say "Guilty!"  For jury, they scratched their chin and said "Hmmmm..."  For judge they had to pound their fist into the palm of their other hand and shout "Order in the court!"  The kids played best two out of three with their partners and winners paired with other winners until just one youth was standing.

Next we asked the kids to consider a part of Scripture viewed as lawyers and a judge while they played the role of the jury.  We picked a judge, prosecutor, and defense attorney and the rest of the youth were the jury.  We explained that parts of Isaiah often played out like a courtroom scene to get the point across about human guilt and judgment.  The prosecutor then read Isaiah 1:2-3.  The judge read verses 4-6.  The prosecutor read verses 11-12 & 15-17.  And the defense attorney read verse 18.

We talked to the kids about the relationship between Israel, God's people, and God at this point in Scripture.  What did the prosecutor say God accused Israel of doing?  What hope did the defense attorney offer from God?  As the jury, would you have been as gracious as God and offered Israel a chance to be free?  Why or why not?

In Isaiah 1:18, even after Israel rejected God, He still told them He would take their sins away.  We talked about this paradox...how Jesus can be both King (as we discussed last week) and Servant (as He appears to be this week).  Both seem contradictory, yet both are true.  They give us depth...a deeper view of the Messiah.

We talked about the four passages in Isaiah then that are sometimes called servant songs.  Each describe Messiah as a servant and what He will do for God's people.  The kids read Isaiah 42:1-9, 49:1-7, 50:4-9, and Isaiah 53 in groups of two or three then and answered questions about each of the passages in centers set up around the room.  We brainstormed as a group then possible song titles for each of the servant songs, if they were modern-day musical hits.

We read Isaiah 53:4, 5 then and asked the kids how they felt knowing that Jesus became a servant to the point of dying for our sins.  We had these words also written on a piece of poster board and, as we played some praise and worship music, we asked the kids to go up and write one sentence on the poster that reflected how these verses made them feel....like "He did it for me.  He was killed because of my sin."

Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would go through terrible suffering for us.  He would do it to bring us good news, to bind up and heal our hearts, and to set us free from sin. - Isaiah 61:1 - We asked the kids to really think about the personal difference it makes in their life knowing that the Messiah suffered for them.  THIS IS THE VERY GOD WHO PURSUES THEM AND A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM EVERY SINGLE DAY.  We pray they will fully grasp how awesome, humbling, and unthinkable that truth really is.

We ended with a YouTube called Jesus, the Suffering Servant.  Don't forget parents to encourage them every day to complete their 5 for 5 World Challenges.  They are short, themed devotionals that will ground them in what we talked about here tonight.

That's My King!!

We began our evening by talking about one of the challenges the kids had from last week's devotional.  They had to ask a nonbeliever what they thought was humanity's biggest problem.  Some answers were obesity, welfare, no respect for others, aging, laziness, garbage on TV, bad video games, parents not taking care of their kids.  We discussed how the majority of these answers could all be tied right back into sin, but how no one asked was willing to call their answers sin...when that is in fact humanity's biggest problem.  Interesting.  Calling them sin would be acknowledging that sin exists, as well as a God who judges that sin.

Tonight we conquered learning about our Messiah as King.  First we asked the youth, if they could be king or queen of the world for a day, what's one thing they'd do.  The answers ranged from ban school, make doing math illegal, pay off all my parents' bills, make sure no one was homeless, ban all little brothers and sisters for a day.

Then we held a Royalty Triathlon between the boys and the girls.  First competition was the Nobility Ability to Balance.  Royalty needs good posture.  Two youth each representing the boys and girls were given large hardback books to balance on their heads and walk with.  They also had to stand on one leg and turn in a circle with the books on their heads.  Whoever kept the book balanced the longest, won.  Girls won!

Next was the Stately Silver Spoons.  Royalty is often said to be born with a silver spoon in their mouths!  We took it literally!  The youth held the end of a spoon in their mouths and used the spoon to scoop as many cotton balls out of a bowl as they could.  Boys won that one!

Then was Majestic Movement.  Since all royalty is required to attend a ball, we asked the youth to show off their best dance moves.  The one with the loudest applause won.  Girls took first place here.

After the fun, we moved into our lesson.  When we think of a symbol to represent our Christian faith, we think of a cross, but Old Testament believers pictured a throne.  They knew their salvation would come through a promised king.

Looking at Psalm 2 and Psalm 89:1-18 written on giant poster boards, we asked the kids to read them over and make marks on them with pens or highlighters or markers.  Some things we asked them to do include:

• Circle key words.
• Put a question mark by something you don't understand.
• Draw arrows connecting similar ideas.
• Underline repeated ideas.
• Put a word or phrase in modern language.
• Draw happy, mad, or sad faces next to emotions.
• Doodle pictures of what words made them think of.

We gave the kids about ten minutes to read and mark the Psalms and then discussed them.  We asked them what stood out to them, similarities and differences, surprises, and what they enjoyed about them.  We talked about how in these Psalms there was an obvious and special relationship between God and the King mentioned.  The King's reign was described as eternal and characterized by righteousness and justice.

We read Samuel 7:8-17 and discussed what they thought the passage meant.  We talked about David and God's promise to him and why they thought God blessed David with such a promise.  We also looked at David's response to God in 2 Samuel 7:25-29 and how David believed God's promise even though he would never live to see it fulfilled through Jesus.

We asked the kids how the promise of a king personally encourages them in their lives and faith.  We read Isaiah 9:6-7.

We talked about the difference between David, who sinned and fell short of God's plan for him , as did all the kings who followed him...and the true King of Kings Jesus, our Messiah.

We ended our evening watching this powerful Youtube called "That's My King" by Dr. S.M. Lockridge.  We encouraged the kids that that's THEIR King too...the King who pursues them and desires nothing more than that His children would pursue Him too.  It's the very reason He created them in the first place!

P.S.  We play specific songs, as outlined in the curriculum, during each of the weekly lessons with Pursue.  We gave the kids CD's tonight with all of the songs that are used during this Bible study.  We encouraged them to listen to them during the week, maybe during their devotion times, and to reflect on how they can better Pursue God in their own lives.

Winter Jam 2013

It was a long, warm wait in a very crowded line/mob of people, but the majority agreed that it was well worth the wait!  About 30 of our youth and parents from both ZG and STOMP rocked out to Newsong, Matthew West, Red, Toby Mac, Jamie Grace, Sidewalk Prophets, and more.  Awesome show!  Good thing they got there when they did too because several thousand people never made it in the doors this year!

The Messiah as High Priest

So we started a 9-week curriculum today called "Pursue - Knowing the Messiah".  It's all about teaching the kids to pursue their Savior for all of the things He is to them.  Tonight's focus was on Jesus as our High Priest.  Most of the material was probably not new concepts to them, but it's being presented in a fresh new way.

First we talked about some of the best and worst jobs the kids have ever had to do.  This got pretty gross actually....especially for those with younger siblings!!

Then we played "It's a Party!"  This is where one person is the party host and stays inside the room.  The other kids enter the party after having been given their occupations.  They shake hands with the party host and give a clue as to their occupation and the host has to guess what they do for a living.  For example, the pastor shook the host's hand and said, "Bless you for inviting me to your party.  I am praying for you."  Some of our "actors" had things they had to do once at the party as well that hinted at their occupation.  We talked about how tough some of the jobs and their descriptions were and then transitioned into talking about one of the toughest jobs in the Old Testament....High Priest.

We started talking about Genesis and God's creations, specifically Adam and Eve.  We explained that like priceless works of art, people are God's masterpieces.  We talked about how this makes us feel.  Then I used a black marker to deface a poster of the Mona Lisa.  I gave her a mustache and fuzzy eye brows and marked her face all up.  Why?  Because this is what happens to God's masterpieces when they sin!  Suddenly, we're not so valuable anymore, are we?  The kids took turns cutting a piece of the poster off for themselves then and were encouraged to see that marked-up, cut-up art as themselves.

We read Leviticus 5:5-10 then and asked the kids what all of the blood and death signifies about sin and how the passage made them feel.  Then we talked about the role of the High Priest in Israel.  We read Leviticus 16:5, 15-17, and 20-22.  We asked the kids to summarize the high priest's job in their own words.  What did he do and what was he trying to achieve?  How did he represent Israel before God and how did God use him to address Israel's sin problem?  We talked about the animals that were sacrificed.

Next we talked New Testament and read Hebrews 9:11-15.  We talked about how Jesus is similar to the OT high priests and how He is different.  We talked about the Messiah's bloody sacrifice to once and for all take away our sins and how this makes us feel.  We showed the clip from The Chronicles of Narnia then....the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe...where Aslan sacrifices himself to the White Witch for Edmund's law-breaking ways.  Lucy and Susan watch on in horror and with tears...only to see Aslan rise again after he has been confirmed dead.  This wasn't actually part of the curriculum, but it was the one aspect of our lessons the kids said they would miss most with doing an actual curriculum...so I figured I'd oblige them!  And it fit!

Lastly, while quietly listening to School of Worship's rendition of "Nothing But the Blood", the kids were given paintbrushes and different shades of red paint and asked to write Jesus all over a large scroll of paper. The kids were asked to really think about the sacrifice Jesus made for them while they did this project.

We challenged the kids to really think about their own sin over the next week...their own part in the big human problem.  We asked them to consider their need for forgiveness and their dependence on a High Priest as the only true way.

That's not it until next week however.  The kids were each given a notebook and a "5 for 5 World Tour" sheet for the week.  They are life application and devotional challenges for them to do each day.  They can answer each day's question in their journal and we encouraged them to Facebook about their responses on our page or e-mail or text someone else about it.  The devotions only take 5 minutes a day and so we really encouraged the kids that, to get the most out of this study, they need to work on all five challenges before next week.

Please remind them to bring their notebooks with them weekly, as we will be adding to them with all we learn in class, as well as at home.

All of this is preparing their hearts for the ATF event in April whose theme focuses on God's relentless pursuit of each of them.