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.
Here's Chris Tomlin and Son of God.
