Leaders Notes

In the last Energize session we sought to answer the question “Who is Jesus?”  In this session we look more closely at the reasons why Jesus came to the earth 2000 years ago.  This session is important as we try and unpack the mystery of the incarnation – that God lived amongst us as a man!  The session explores three reasons why Jesus came to the earth.

Firstly, we look at the fact that Jesus came to the earth to show us what God is really like.  Paul reminds us that Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15).  Studying Jesus life gives us a fantastic revelation of the nature of God. He is not simply a man – He is God made flesh.

Secondly, we look at the fact that Jesus came to earth to enter into our suffering.  The writer to Hebrews reminds us that Jesus is our great High Priest because He understands the struggles and temptations that we suffer (Hebrews 4:15).  We really want to re-assure young people that when they talk to God about the tough times in life they can know that He understands.

Finally, and most importantly, we look at the fact that Jesus came to save us from sin and death.  He was willing to enter a sin-soaked world and head to the cross, all the while knowing that the empty tomb was following three days behind.  It’s important that the young people understand that Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save it – motivated by the love of God (John 3:16-18).

We hope that this session will help young people become even more excited about Jesus, the radical Son of God.

Game: Strings
Duration: 10 mins Equipment Required: Elastic bands, varying lengths of string. Description: Divide the group into two. Ask them to stand in a group. Take 3 to 4 leaders and place an elastic band around their knees. Tuck into their elastic band varying lengths of strings, 1/3 tucked in and 2/3 hanging out. Now ask the leaders to move around the hall, avoiding the young people, ask the young people to grab as much string from the leaders’ legs as possible. After set time limits stop the game, ask the young people to go back to their groups and lay the string out on the floor, the team with the longest string line is the winner. Play this again if required. The Point: Just for fun.

Game: Around The World
Duration: 5 mins Equipment Required: Long rope, tennis ball (or similar). Description: Attach the tennis ball to the end of the rope. Ask the group to stand in a circle around you and then rotate in either a clockwise or anticlockwise direction so that the rope with the tennis ball is at last 3 inches of the ground. Let the rope out a little at a time until it is near the group circle. Invite the group to stand in the circle and jump over the rope as it rotates. Keep rotating the rope until it hits a young person, that person is out and is asked to sit down. Now restart the game. Keep going until you have a clear winner. The Point: Just for fun.

Game: Keys
Duration: 10 mins Equipment Required: A bunch of keys, a chair and a blindfold. Description: Ask a young person to be blindfolded and sat on a chair in the centre of the room. Have a leader stand behind them and place a bunch of keys on the floor under the chair. Now ask members of the group to attempt to collect the keys from under the chair without making a noise. The blindfolded person listens for noises and points to where they think the person is moving. If they are correct that person is out. When a member of the group gets the keys back to their place without being pointed out, they are the winner. The Point: Just for fun.

Music: 'What If God Was One Of Us?'
Duration: 10 mins Equipment Required: A copy of the song ‘One Of Us’ (Joan Osbourne) and the means to play it. Description: Tell the group that they are going to hear a song which asks an important question about God.  Ask them to listen to the words and to think about the questions and comments that the song is making about God. If you don’t have access to the song you could just show the group the lyrics, which can be found at: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/joan+osborne/one+of+us_20072479.html Now ask the following questions: What do you think the message of this song is about? If you could ask one question to God what would you ask? Would it help you to believe in God if you saw Him face to face? What do you think He would look like? How do you think that people would respond to Him? Why do you think He would come to earth? Many people say that they find it hard to believe in God because they can’t see Him.  Imagine if God did actually come to earth and walked our streets. What might He be like? How would He behave? Would He just be a stranger or would it be obvious that He was different from anyone else? The Point: To help the young people to start thinking about what might happen if God came to earth.

Activity: If God Was...
Duration: 10 mins Equipment Required: Paper and pens. Description: Tell the group that we going to look at a creative way to help them think about how they see God.  You could either do this as a large group, small groups or as an individual exercise. Ask the following questions and invite the young people to write down their answers.  Encourage them to write down their first thoughts… If you could describe God with one word, what word would you use to describe Him (e.g. powerful, distant)? If you could describe God in terms of a colour, what colour would you give Him (e.g. red, green)? If you could describe God in terms of an animal, what animal would you use to describe Him (e.g. Lion, lamb)? If you could describe God in terms of nature, what would aspect of nature would you use (mountain, pouring rain) If you have a very ‘arty’ group you could encourage them to respond to each of the questions (particularly 2 to 4) by drawing their answer. Ask you Group what they think the best way to get to know God would be? It would be great to meet Him, up close and personal. The Point: To encourage the young people to start to think about what God is like as we introduce the subject of Jesus incarnation fully revealing God in human form.

Activity: How Do I Know That You Are God?
Duration: 10 mins Equipment Required: None. Description: Tell the young people to imagine how they would react if someone stood up in their assembly at school tomorrow announcing that they were God.  What would be their initial reaction? Shock, horror, amazement, hilarity! Inform them that their task is to brainstorm (in small groups) the different things that they would expect to see in order for them to believe that the person was telling the truth.  Help them draw out ideas like: The things that the person did The things that the person said The way the person behaved If you have a creative Group you could encourage them to create a poster - even a ‘wanted’ poster - that describes what they would be looking for in God on earth. Use this as a great opportunity to unpack their thinking about God. The Point: To encourage the young people to consider how we might know that someone is God.

Bible Study: God Revealed
Duration: 15 mins Equipment Required: Bibles. Description: Make the point that people have always sought after proof that God exists.  The Bible tells us that the miracle of creation itself should be enough to prove to us that our universe is designed intelligently by an incredible creator (Romans 1:20).  However, 2000 years ago God pulls out all the stops to prove once and for all that He exists. Ask: Can anyone remember the name of Jesus’ earthly mother? Can anyone remember what was very unique about His birth? Read Matthew 1:23. Jesus had many names and one of His names is mentioned in this passage.  Immanuel - which means “God with us”! In the last session we looked at the fact that Jesus is the Son of God.  In this session we consider why Jesus came to the earth to live as a normal human male for 33 years. Ask: Why do you think Jesus came to the earth 2,000 years ago? Read John 14:8-9.  One of Jesus’ friends, Philip, is saying to Jesus that he wishes to could see God. What is Jesus response to this? Jesus clearly tells Philip that if Philip has seen Jesus, He has seen God. This reminds us that one of the reasons that Jesus came to the earth 2,000 years ago was to show us what God is like. Invite the group to answer true or false to the following questions: Jesus loved all people regardless of who they were, where they had been or what they had done? TRUE or FALSE Jesus offered people the opportunity to receive forgiveness for all the bad things that they had done in their past? TRUE or FALSE. Jesus performed some amazing miracles which would be impossible for normal human beings e.g.  turning water into wine, feeding thousands of people with 5 loaves and 2 fish, calming stormy seas, healing the sick and raising the dead? TRUE or FALSE. Jesus gave incredible advice for the best way to live life.  People were amazed at His wisdom and how He seemed to know how people could be the most fulfilled? TRUE or FALSE. Jesus never did anything wrong.  He never committed any sin, even though He was tempted? TRUE or FALSE. Of course, all of these statements are true. Jesus is lived a perfect and amazing life.  The kind of life that only God would live if He walked the streets of our world.  The Point: To help young people to understand that one of the reasons that Jesus came to earth was to show us what God was really like?

Bible Study: He Understands
Duration: 10 mins Equipment Required: Bibles, paper and pens. Description: Invite the young people to brainstorm some of the struggles that we all face in life, particularly when we are growing up.  If you have a creative group they could draw examples. Ask the group to honestly answer the question: Do you think God truly understands how you feel sometimes? Sometimes it feels that God is long way away and that He has no idea about some of the things that we struggle.  We forget though that Jesus lived on the earth for 33 years and therefore would have to face faced many similar struggles. Read Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15-16.  What does this verse tell us about Jesus experience on the earth? These passages make it clear that one of the reasons that Jesus came to the earth was so that He could fully understand our suffering.  This is great news for us.  We have a God who understands the struggles that we go through because He has also experienced great trials on the earth. Have prepared three pieces of paper each with one of the following words on them: Bereaved Bullied Betrayed Put the paper in different parts of the room and ask the young people to move to one of the pieces of paper that reflects a life experience they have had.  Once in the three groups encourage the young people to share experiences they have had or they know that others have had in the area mentioned on the paper. Then make the following point depending on what Group they are in. Bereaved – Jesus knew what it was like to lose a loved one.  For example, tradition tells us that His earthly father, Joseph, died when he was quite young so he grew up without a dad. Bullied – Jesus was often bullied by people, both verbally and physically. He was often picked up, and near his death was cruelly tortured by Roman Soldiers. Betrayed – Jesus was betrayed by one of his closest friends.  He knows what it feels like to be misunderstood and have people talk about you behind your back. If there is time you could encourage the young people to move to a different group.  As you close this activity reflect upon how the young people feel about the fact that Jesus understands us as he has been through similar struggles. The Point: To help the young people to understand that one of the reasons that Jesus came to earth was to fully understand our suffering.

Illustrations: Messy Hands
Duration: 10 mins Equipment Required: See through container, water, mud, baked beans, milkshake, old food, a wedding ring. Description: Ask the group to sit around in a circle on the floor with the container in the middle. Ask for a volunteer to put the water in the container, then the milkshake, then the old food, mud, baked beans and any other disgusting things you can think of. Now tell the group that the container represents the world, full of famine, war, starvation, abuse…….Now drop a wedding ring into the muck and explain that this represents God’s prize creation, mankind. Ask the group how we are going to get the ‘prize creation’ out of the muck? Explain that the only way to save the ring is to get your hands messy. In the same way, the only way to save God’s ‘prize creation’ was for God to send Jesus to get ‘messy’. Jesus entered a sin filled world to rescue us, in the same way as the hand had to get messy to rescue the ring. Read Timothy 1:15 where Paul summarises the primary reason that Jesus came into the world. Now read John 3:16-17 and ask the following questions: How does God feel about the world – that’s us? Why did Jesus come into the world? Jesus makes it clear that His primary aim in coming to the world was to save the world from the consequence of sin.  Sin has consequences both in this life and the next.  Jesus wants us to free from those consequences so that we can experience true fulfilment. The Point: To help the young people to understand that the primary reason that Jesus came into our world was to save us from our sins so that we could have a relationship with God.

Illustrations: You Think That's Magic
Duration: 10 mins Equipment Required: White hanker-chief, Iodine, water and photographic fixer. Put just water in one bowl and put a 1/3 fixer, 2/3 water mixture in the other bowl. Description: Take the white hanker-chief and explain that this represents our life. Now talk about some of the things we might do wrong in our lives e.g. lying, cheating, gossiping, jealousy. Start to add the iodine to the hanker-chief until it is covered.   Explain that all these things are called sin.  We all sin in our deeds, words and actions. Explain that no matter what we do we cannot make ourselves better, now put the hanker-chief in the water and watch the water turn black. Now explain that Jesus came to earth to deal with our sins, he did this through dying on the cross, paying the price for all the things we have done wrong. He became our substitute. Jesus didn’t just come to die though, He rose from the dead to prove that sin and death were defeated through Him, and therefore we could overcome sin and death ourselves. Now put the hanker-chief in the water/fixer solution and watch the iodine disappear. Explain that this is what happens to our sins if we ask Jesus to forgive us. Close by reading Romans 5:6-8. The Point: To show the young people how Jesus dealt with our sin when He came to the earth.

Bible Study: The Image Of The Invisible God
Duration: 10 mins Equipment Required: Bibles. Description: If your Group are more used to getting to grips with their Bibles then this is a good opportunity to introduce them to two very important passages which unpack the mystery of the incarnation. John 1:1-14 Colossians 1:15-22 Encourage the Group to read through these passages and extract as much information they can about Jesus.  See if each young person can identify a particular verse that they find very striking and share the reasons why with the rest of the Group. The Point: To enable young people to explore more about what the Bible has to say about the incarnation.

Illustrations: The Long Silence
Duration: 5 mins Equipment Required: None. Description: Read this story to the group; At the end of time, billions of people were scattered on the vast plain before God's throne. Some shrank back from the brilliant light before them — but many other groups talked heatedly, not cringing with shame, but with belligerence. "Can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?” snapped a pert brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. "We endured terror ... beating ... torture ... death!" In another group a Negro boy lowered his collar. "What about this?" he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. "Lynched, for no crime but being black." In another crowd there was a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes. "Why should I suffer?" she murmured. "It wasn't my fault." Far out across the plain were thousands of such groups. Each had a complaint against God for all the evil end suffering He had permitted in His world. How lucky God was to live in heaven, where all was sweetness and light, where there was no weeping and fear, no hunger or hatred, no sickness or sorrow. What did God know of all that humankind had been forced to endure in this world? After all, God leads a rather sheltered sort of life, they said. So each of these groups sent forth a leader, especially chosen because they had suffered the most. A Jew, a Negro, a person from Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child, an AIDS victim. In the centre of the vast plain, these leaders consulted with each other. At last they were ready to present their case, item-by-item, leader-by-leader, to God. It was rather pertinent. Before God could be qualified to be their Judge, He must endure what they had endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth as a human being, as a man. Let him be born of the most despised race, a Jew, in poverty-stricken conditions. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. As a child, let him be forced to flee as a refugee, and live several years in a foreign country. Then give him a work to do, and an ideal to uphold that is so difficult that even his own family will think him out of his mind when he tries to do it. Let him be betrayed by his closest colleague, into the hands of those who hate him. Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury, and convicted by a cowardly judge. At the last, let him see what it means to be terribly, terribly alone — forsaken of all his friends. Let him be tortured. Then let him die. Let him die the most excruciating, end humiliating death possible, before a taunting, reviling crowd that not only verified his death but also contributed to it. As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the whole assembled throng. When the last leader had finished pronouncing his part of God's sentence, there was a long silence. No one uttered another word. Nobody moved. For suddenly, everybody knew that God had already served His sentence. Anon (written before Summer 1982) Close by asking the following questions: What struck you about the story? How should we respond to God in light of all that He has done for us? The Point:  To use a parable to help young people to understand what God has achieved through Jesus coming to the earth 2,000 years ago.

Worship and Reflection: This Is Me...
Duration: 10 mins Equipment Required: Blank postcards and pens. Description: Give each young person a blank postcard and a pen.  Invite them to write down on a postcard a personal letter or prayer to God.  The letter should be their personal and private opportunity to share with God what is good and tough in their life at present.  Once they have completed this encourage them to write on the other side of the postcard the words ‘He understands’, reminding them that God knows everything about them and He understands the joys and struggles in life. Alternatively, or additionally, you could encourage the young people to consider something new that they have learnt about Jesus today and write this down.  See if they can consider the implication of this for their own lives.  For example: perhaps they have been struck by the fact that Jesus was loving to all people and their action is to try and be more loving. Close by praying for all the young people, that they will continue in their journey of discovering Jesus. The Point: To help the young people to consider their response to what they have discovered about Jesus.

Memory Verse: Memory Verse
Duration: 5 mins Equipment Required: None. Description: ‘For God so loved the World that He gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not die but have eternal life.’ John 3:16 To help to remember this verse we will use very basic sign language for the key words; God = both hands pointed upwards Loved = both hands on the heart World = both hands make the round, world shape Gave = both hand, palms up, offering upwards Son = two little fingers linked indicating the ‘s’ for son Whoever = Hands out to the sides Believes = Fingers point to side of head Him = hands pointed upwards Die = fingers made into gun shape Eternal life = fingers in gun shape circling upwards The Point: To encourage young people to learn the Bible.

Drama: Earthbound?

Additional Information/Activities (e.g. Birthday announcements):

   

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