Cross

Easter Overview

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi everyone!

 

It’s the week where we celebrate Easter and although we’ve covered Easter several times already, today I am making a one-time lesson. (The other years we have spread this out over several days), but this year I find myself needing a one-day lesson. So here we go.

Gen 1-3: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He made everything! And His favorite thing He made was people.

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God made a man named Adam and a woman named Eve and they lived with God in a very special place. They were all together and happy and nothing was ever bad.

Until, one day…one of God’s special helpers decided HE wanted to be the biggest and the best–he thought he could even be better than God!? His name is Satan. And one day he came to the garden where they lived and tricked Eve. God had told Adam and Eve they could eat anything they wanted EXCEPT the fruit from one special tree…the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they ate from it, they would die.

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But Satan said, “You won’t REALLY die…God just doesn’t want you to be as smart as Him!” So they disobeyed God. When we disobey God, that’s called sin. There was a consequence for their sin. The consequence was: they couldn’t stay with God in that perfect place and one day they would die.

Sin entered the world. And everyone since Adam and Eve has sinned. When we sin, our consequence is that we too will one day die and we *should* be apart from God forever because of our sin…

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But God had a plan…        (Rom 5:12-21)

 

Gen 11-25: A long time later, Adam and Eve had children, and their children had children and on and on and on and on and on until we get to a man named Abraham.

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Abraham loved God. And even though things were hard now (since people were away from God), Abraham still obeyed God and trusted Him. God taught Abraham about sacrifice. Sacrifice is giving up something you really love for something better. In the old days when Abraham lived, one of the most important things to them was their sheep and other animals. They would use the wool for clothes, and they would eat their animals. They could sell them for money to buy other food. Cows gave them milk to drink and they used animals to ride around (no cars back then!) God taught Abraham that if he (or anyone who sinned) would sacrifice an animal to God (kill it and give it to God) that his or her sins would be forgiven. This was a way for them to show God they loved HIM more than their most favorite thing…that God was FIRST in their lives. God would see the blood from the animal and He would look at their yucky sinful hearts, and He would forgive them and see them as perfect again.

The only problem was…every time they sinned…they had to give another sacrifice. But God still had a plan…

 

Exodus 2-20: After Abraham had a son, his son had children and on and on and on until a boy named Moses was born. The people who loved God were now living in a place called Egypt (far away from the place God had picked for them to live) and the king there, called Pharaoh was very mean to God’s people. When Moses was a old man, God picked him to tell the mean Pharaoh to let God’s people go back home. But the Pharaoh said “NO!” So God gave Pharaoh a bad consequence. Then Moses said again, “Let God’s people go!” and the Pharaoh said “NO!” So there was another bad consequence. This happened nine times!! And on the last time when the Pharaoh said “NO,” God said, “This will be the last consequence. All of the first born baby boys will die. UNLESS, you sacrifice an animal (a lamb) and paint around the door of your house with the blood.”

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God’s people listened and obeyed. Each family gave up their best sheep and painted the door with the blood, just like God said. But Pharaoh and his people laughed and said, “No way! We’re not giving up OUR sheep, we won’t listen to YOUR God!?” That night…an angel of God came by each house and if the people had obeyed God, he passed over the house and went to the next one. But if the people had not obeyed God, then the first born boy in that house died….even the Pharaoh’s son died. It was then, that Pharaoh let the people go.

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The people left and headed towards the place God had picked for them. While they were traveling, Moses went up on a mountain and there God spoke to him and gave him the rules the people were supposed to obey. God gave us the rules because He wants us to follow them, but He KNOWS we all sin sometimes (Romans 3:23). The rules SHOW US that we are not perfect like God is, and that we NEED HIM to be perfect and to forgive us when we disobey Him.

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God’s people eventually made it to the place He had for them but they did not always obey Him. They sinned (just like we do) and had to be forgiven every time with the blood of a sheep.

Luke 1-2 BUT, finally, many many many many many years later, God was ready to show us His big and perfect plan! He sent His only and perfect son Jesus into the world as a little baby.

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Jesus grew up and learned and went to school and made His bed and helped put away dishes and cleaned His room. He was a regular person and ALSO, He never sinned, because He is God’s son. (2 Cor 5:21, 1 John 3:5, Hebrews 4:15)

When Jesus became a grown up, He taught the people about God and He did a lot of  miracles (those are things only God’s power can do)–like make sick people better, help blind people see, turn water into wine or turn a little food into a LOT of food.

A lot of the people LOVED Jesus, but some people did not. The Bible teachers didn’t like that Jesus talked about forgiveness and love instead of teaching them about FOLLOWING THE RULES and the kings in charge didn’t like that the people liked Jesus more than them. “What is he tries to take over and be king?!!?” they worried. So they came up with a plan to get rid of Him.

Matt 21: It came time for the people to celebrate Passover (a big holiday where they remembered God passing over the houses of the people who obeyed Him and how He led them away from Egypt to the place He had for them). Jesus came to town to also celebrate. Lots of people were excited to see Him. So excited that they waved palm tree branches and laid coats on the ground so the dirt roads wouldn’t make Him all dusty. They shouted “Hosanna! We love you! We praise you!” This just made the leaders even MORE jealous and MORE angry. They HAD to get rid of Jesus.

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Matt 26-27: Jesus had a group of helpers, called disciples. One of them agreed to help the jealous leaders. A couple days later, Jesus was eating with His disciples and He told them He had to leave soon, but He would be back. The disciples were sad and confused. Jesus went to pray and most of His disciples went too, but one of them, Judas, went to get the leaders.

When Judas brought the leaders back, they captured Jesus. His other disciples tried to stop them, but Jesus said, “No. This needs to happen.”

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They took Jesus and decided to kill him. The built a cross out of wood and they put nails in His hands to keep Him stuck on the cross. They called Him names, they hit Him, they beat Him up, and they made fun of Him. They made Him carry that big wooden cross up a hill and then he had to hang on it for a long time until He died.

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They also had two other people who had done bad things on crosses next to Jesus. They had sinned, but Jesus hadn’t…but He was dying anyway. One of the guys next to Jesus made fun of Him…but the other one KNEW Jesus was God’s son and asked Jesus to forgive him. Jesus said, “Yes. And today you will be with me in a perfect place.”

Jesus asked God to forgive ALL the people and then He died. The Bible tells us that Jesus was God’s plan for our sins. Just like the people used to sacrifice their best, God sent HIS best, His son Jesus, to be a PERFECT sacrifice (since an animal can never be perfect it was never good enough). Jesus was a PERFECT sacrifice that would clean away our sin once and for all. (Rom 6:1-11, Heb 10:4, 1 Peter 1:9) His blood is the once and for all sacrifice to take away sin.

When God looks at our hearts now, if we believe in Him and say with our mouths that JESUS IS OUR LORD, then He will only see the sacrifice of Jesus and He will see us as perfect again. (Heb 9:11-15, Rom 3:24, Heb 10:1-18)

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But that’s not even the end of the story!

Matt 28: After He died, they put Jesus’ body in a tomb and they rolled a big, big, BIG rock in front of it so no one could take it. The leaders were so nervous they even had guards watching the tomb.

Three days later, there was an earthquake and the rock rolled away. The guards were so scared they fainted! Some women who loved Jesus were coming to see His body and to put some smelly good things on it, but when they got there, the tomb was open, the rock was moved and an angel was sitting on the rock.

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The women were so afraid!! But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid…I know you’re looking for Jesus….but He’s not here…He’s ALIVE! Go tell the others and go find Him!” They did tell the others and they did find Jesus. Jesus stayed with them a little while longer before He went back to heaven to be with God.

 

 

Jesus died in our place as a sacrifice. But He didn’t STAY dead…He is more powerful than even death. And now when we sin, if we ask Him to forgive us and we believe in His sacrifice, He WILL forgive us. God will look over our sin and see Jesus and He will forgive us and we will get to live forever with Him. (Rom 10:9, John 17:3, Rom 5:6-11, John 3:16)

“6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:6-11)

 

THAT is why we celebrate Easter.

We are all made and loved by God. We are all sinners. Sins have consequences. Only Jesus, the perfect son of God can take the place of our consequences. He died to forgive us and lived again to give us forever life with God in heaven!!!!

Romans 10:9 says, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

 

Amen! Thanks for joining us all, hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

Good Friday

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all. We are continuing the story of Easter today. Today’s story can be found in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19.

Today is called Good Friday, though the story seems very very sad.

Jesus had been arrested because the leaders didn’t like how much the people liked Jesus. They were scared He would try to be more important than them. They took Him to the Israelite leaders and the Roman leaders and nobody could really decide what to do with Him.

Some of the leaders didn’t like that He said He was God’s son (even though He was.) Some of the leaders didn’t like how powerful He was (but remember, God can do ANYTHING!) Some of the leaders didn’t like how much the people loved Him (and how much HE loved them!!)

It was very confusing. Some of the leaders didn’t see any reason Jesus should die…but some of the others finally got the crowd all worked up and soon the people were yelling for Jesus to die.

(*parents of small children can edit this as needed) They hurt Him. They hit Him with sticks, they spit on Him, they took off His clothes and smacked Him with sharp thorny sticks. It was very very ouchy. But Jesus knew it had to happen. They made a crown from some thorns and put it on His head and laughed and laughed and said “HA! HERE’S YOUR ‘KING!'” They were making fun of Jesus. Finally, they got two big BIG pieces of wood and nailed and tied them together to make a cross. They made Jesus carry that big cross all through the streets. Some of the people in the streets (like the disciples and Jesus’ mom Mary) cried, because they loved Jesus, but most of the people were saying terrible things and were very mean to Him.

Finally, He went up a big hill and they put the cross in the ground standing up. Then they took nails and hammered through His hands into the wood (OUCH!) and they hammered His feet into the wood too. (OUCH!)

Some of the people laughed at Jesus and said, “If you are REALLY God’s son, you’d have enough power to get down off that cross!”

And that was true. Jesus DID have enough power to get off the cross. He could have asked for help from God, or for angels to help, or He could have just walked away, but He didn’t.

While He was on the cross, God put all our bad choices (sin) on Jesus. He felt all the pain and consequences for our choices. He did that so WE don’t have to. Jesus asked God to forgive us. You, your mom, your dad, your grandma, your cousins, His disciples, the Pharisees, “bad guys”…everyone. There were two other people who HAD made bad choices who were also dying on crosses on either side of Jesus. One of them laughed at Jesus, but the other asked Jesus to forgive him. And even though he was about to die, Jesus said, “Yes! I WILL forgive you. Today when you die, you will be with Me in heaven.” (It’s NEVER too late to choose Jesus!)

And the saddest part was, when He was taking our sin, God couldn’t even look at Him. (Because God is perfect, He can’t be around nasty sin…so He couldn’t be near Jesus) and that’s the worst thing…to be apart from God. God is all goodness and love so to apart from God is not feel any goodness, any love or any happiness. Our bad sin keeps us AWAY from God forever. But Jesus took that FOR US on the cross, so our sin doesn’t have to keep us away from God! We CAN live with Him in perfectness forever in heaven, because we are FORGIVEN by God…because Jesus took all that punishment, all those consequences FOR US. THAT is why it is GOOD Friday.

The sky got dark, there was thunder and lightning and an earthquake. God was mad. Do you know why? He was mad that Jesus was in so much pain. Do you know it makes your mom and dad very sad when you get hurt? And if they see someone hurt you it makes them mad. Because they love you! and they want everyone to be nice to you! When someone is mean to you, it makes them angry. God was angry that His son was so sad and in so much pain.

But an amazing thing happened. In the temple (the church) there was a big front room where everyone prayed. Then behind a GIANT curtain was a thing called the Ark of the Covenant (a special box where God’s Spirit was). When Jesus died, that curtain tore into 2 pieces, top to bottom and it was God saying “My Spirit will now live in EVERYONE who loves Me. Not just in the temple, but in everyone’s heart who loves Me and chooses Me.”

Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said “It is finished.” Then He died.

He meant His work of taking our sins was finished. He took it all. Every bad thing you can ever think of, Jesus died for that. It is forgiven if we just ask and decide we want Jesus to be OUR King. (1 John 1:9, John 3:16-17, Isaiah 53:3-5, Romans 5:6-10, Romans 3:22-24, 1 Peter 2:24).

You can talk with your parents/grandparents/pastor about this story and what it means to you. Maybe you’re ready to say “Thank you Jesus for dying for me! Please forgive my sins and be my King.”

We made cardboard crosses today, but mostly the discussion was our focus.

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Thanks for joining us. Can’t wait for SUNDAY!! Happy Easter-love to you all!

The Last Supper

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all. This week we are learning about the things that happened right before Easter. Today’s story can be found in Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22 and John 13.

Jesus and His disciples were celebrating Passover. That’s when the Israelites remembered how God brought them out of Egypt away from the bad Pharaoh. Jesus and His disciples were eating together in an upper room of a house in Jerusalem.

First, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. Back then they didn’t have real roads like we do today…just dusty paths so the peoples’ feet were always so dusty and dirty. Usually a servant would wash the feet, but this day Jesus did. Peter said, “Jesus! YOU shouldn’t be washing feet! You’re too important!”

But Jesus answered him, “I have to wash you, or you’ll never really be clean.” He didn’t mean Peter could never be clean unless Jesus washed his feet, Jesus was saying that He has to wash away our sins or we’ll never really be clean. The only way to be free from our sins and the consequences of our sins is to let Jesus make us clean by dying for us.

Jesus knew this would be the last time He would eat with His friends. He told them, “I am about to suffer. But God is about to do something amazing.” Then He took some bread and broke it into pieces for everyone and said, “This is broken, just like my body will broken. Every time you eat together, remember what I have done for you.” Then He gave them all something to drink and said, “This drink is like my blood. Every time you sit down to drink together, remember how I gave my blood to cover your sins.”

(Does your family ever pray before you eat? When we sit down to eat and drink together we pray and talk to God and we remember how much He loves us and that He died for us! And we say THANK YOU! Thank you for the food we will eat and thank you for dying for our sins so we don’t have to!)

Then Jesus said, “One of you is going to betray me. Go do what you have to do.” Judas got up and went to find the leaders to bring them to Jesus. Jesus knew Judas was going to give Him to the leaders, but He didn’t stop him. Jesus knew this had to happen. And even though Judas was going to do a very bad thing, Jesus still loved him, just like He loves us even when we make bad choices.

Peter said, “I will NEVER make a bad choice against you! I will stand by you ALWAYS!” But Jesus said, “before today is done, you will pretend you don’t know me 3 different times.” Jesus already knows the choices we will make and He chooses to love us and forgive us anyway.

We will have more of the story tomorrow.

For our craft today we drew Jesus at the table with the bread and glasses of wine and then we cut out 12 faces from magazines to be the disciples. Our text reads: The Last Supper Matt 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, John 13.

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Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

Easter Take 2 (Part 2)

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Easter Take 2 (Part 2)

Jesus Arrested Matthew 26; Luke 22 After Jesus had supper with His disciples, He sent Judas away to do what he had planned to do (bring the leaders to Jesus so they could capture Him.) The leaders wanted to capture Jesus and kill Him because they didn’t like Him. They were jealous of how much the people liked Jesus and they were worried He would try to be king above them. Jesus told His disciples He wanted to pray, so they went out and Jesus asked His disciples to wait for Him while He talked to God. Jesus knew what was about to happen and He asked God if there was ANY other way to do it. He knew He was about to die for our sins…and that it would not be easy or happy. But God said…it has to be this way. When Jesus was done talking to God, He went back and found all the disciples sleeping. He told them they should also get up and talk to God…because what was about to happen was going to be REALLY sad and they all needed God’s strength. Then, Judas came back with the leaders who didn’t like Jesus. Judas walked up to Jesus and kissed Him (this was the special signal they had worked out.) Then the guards knew whom to take. They arrested Jesus and His disciples said, “should we fight?!” But Jesus told them to put down their swords. He knew if He wanted to, He could call a whole bunch of angels to come and help Him…but He was obeying His Father, God. Discussion: Why did the leaders want to capture Jesus? How did Jesus feel when He was praying? Why didn’t Jesus try to get away? Talk about how sometimes it seems like God has weird plans…things we don’t understand. But no matter what, we have to trust Him…like Jesus did.

Jesus on the Cross/Good Friday Matthew 27; Luke 23; John 18-19 After Jesus was arrested, Judas (who had betrayed Jesus) was very VERY sorry for what he had done. Most of the disciples were scared and ran away, but a couple stayed nearby and watched to see what would happen to Jesus. The guards took Jesus before the Roman Governor (like a president), named Pilate, and said “here He is! He says He is God’s son! And He’s been causing trouble!” Pilate said, “well…ARE you the King? Are you here to save these people?” “I am” Jesus said. Then Pilate sent Jesus to another leader, named Herod. He was in charge of all the Jewish people (like Jesus). Herod had heard a lot about Jesus and he wanted to see Jesus do some cool miracles. But Jesus remained silent. So Herod and his men started being mean to Jesus. They said mean things and hurt him and then they sent Him back to Pilate. Pilate said, “I can’t find anything wrong with this man. You don’t like Him…but He’s not a bad guy. Herod even sent Him back…so…I have to let Him go.” The people did not like that. The leaders wanted Jesus to die because they were jealous of how much the people liked Him and they worried Jesus would try to take over as ruler. The people were now upset because they WANTED Jesus to be their king…but Jesus never came to earth to be a king…He is king in our hearts and He made and rules over everything…but He never meant to be a king on earth. So now all the people were mad and they yelled and said “you must kill Jesus!” Pilate didn’t want to argue anymore…so he had Jesus taken away to die. The guards there were even more mean to Jesus. They hurt Him and put a painful crown made of sharp thorns on His head. Then they made a cross (like a letter T) out of two BIG pieces of wood and they made Jesus carry it on His back all through the town and up to a hill. They put the cross up on the hill and there were two other “bad guys” who had to die that die because they had made some very very bad choices. Their crosses were put up on either side of Jesus. They took nails and put them through Jesus’ hands into the cross so He was hanging there on those pieces of wood. There were many people there who were glad Jesus was dying…but there were also some who believed in Jesus and they were very sad to see Jesus on the cross. One of the men on the other crosses also believed in Jesus and asked Jesus to forgive him for his bad choices. Jesus said yes, He would forgive the man; and because the man believed in Jesus, that when he died that day, he would get to live in heaven with Jesus forever. The most important part about this day is what happened to Jesus on the cross. God put all the bad choices (sins) of all the people (even you!) on Jesus that day. Jesus was perfect…He is God and God’s son and so He NEVER sins. Sin is anything not perfect, so Jesus had to separate from God to take all the not perfect things on Himself. This meant He was apart from God on the cross. That was the saddest part for Jesus. BUT, because He obeyed God and took all our bad things on Himself, then when God sees us…He no longer sees those yucky things…He only sees perfect, beautiful Jesus. If we believe in Jesus and that He died for us, then God forgives us for our bad choices…because Jesus took them for us. When Jesus had taken all our sins on Himself, He asked God to forgive the people (and us) and then He died. The sky became dark and there was an earthquake and it shook the temple (the church) and God tore open the big curtain that was inside. The curtain used to separate the front and back parts of the church and only one man, one time a year could go to the back part of the church to talk right to God. We used to be apart from God, never being good enough to live with Him in heaven…(like the curtain separated the front and back parts of the church), but since Jesus died for us, now we can be forgiven and live with God forever. Then some of the people who still loved Jesus, took his body, wrapped it up and put his body in a tomb or grave (like a cave). They put a gigantic stone in front of the entrance so nobody could do inside. The leaders were worried about something happening, so they made guards stand in front of the tomb day and night. Discussion: What did the people do to Jesus? Why did Jesus have to die? Activities:

  1. Write Jesus a thank you note
  2. If you have resurrection eggs…you can talk through them with your child(ren) and let them tell you what they remember of the story

Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Easter-Egg-Set-Resurrection-Religious/dp/1602003920

  1. We made these scenes of the cross. Paint and cutting some strips of black paper and gluing them to show a simple picture of what happened that day.

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He’s ALIVE! Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20 On Sunday, after Jesus had died, some of the women who loved Jesus went to the place where His body was buried (they were going to put some oil and smelly-good spices on his body). That morning, there was another earthquake. An angel from God rolled away the stone and sat on top of it. The guards were so scared they fell down and passed out. When the women came to visit Jesus they were also scared of the angel but he said, “don’t be afraid. Why are you here? Jesus isn’t here!? He’s ALIVE! See? Just like He said…He’s alive! Now go tell the disciples!” Jesus not only died for our sins…but He didn’t stay dead! That shows us that Jesus has power over sin, and death and life…and eternal (or forever) death and life. He didn’t just die…He lived again. And because He lives, that means He has the power to let us LIVE forever too! There is NOTHING God can not do! Discussion: What happened on Sunday after Jesus had died? What does it mean that Jesus didn’t stay dead? How does that make you feel? What do you think of this story? Activities:

  1. Resurrection rolls (found here): http://www.lifeway.com/kidsministry/2014/03/31/easter-recipe-resurrection-rolls/
  2. We will be making roll away tombs. Draw the tomb on a piece of paper. Cut two slits next to the tomb. Cut out a circle stone and attach a long strip of heavy paper or card stock to the circle. Feed the long strip though the slits in the paper so that the stone can slide in front and away from the tomb.

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3. We also made a resurrection cake: (use a cookie cutter to cut a hole in the middle for the empty tomb then frost over the top) When you cut into it, it reveals an empty middle.

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