New Testament

The promise fulfilled

The Story of Christmas

A young woman shall bear a child

He shall be called Immanuel, God with us.

This is the story of the Most Amazing Thing that Has Ever Happened in the
History of the World...

Before the world began it was God’s plan to sesnd to earth a savior.

A prophecy fulfilled

Thousands of years ago,

God spoke to Abraham under the stars
and promised that through him
all people would be blessed.

Abraham had a son named Isaac.

From Isaac came Judah.
From the house of Judah came Obed,
whose mother was Ruth.
From Obed came Jesse,
of whom the prophet Isaiah wrote,

"The Root of Jesse will spring up,

one who will arise to rule the nations;
the Gentiles will hope in him."

From Jesse came David the King.

David was the father of Solomon.

And from the line of Solomon,
there came a man named Jacob,
who was the father of Joseph,
who took Mary to be his wife.

To them Jesus was born;

the light of the world,
King of Kings,
Lord of Lords,
the Everlasting God,
the promised one of Abraham,
who came to bless and save us all.

Gabriel’s Message

The Angel Gabriel was sent from heaven.

He came to a far corner of the world, to Galilee, to a little town called Nazareth.
And there he appeared to a young woman named Mary who was engaged to be
married to Joseph, who was of the house of David.

The angel said to Mary, "Greetings, most highly favored one! For God is with
you!"

But Mary was afraid, and wondered what sort of greeting this might be.

The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for God has found great delight in
you. You shall have a child and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and
will be called the Son of the Most High. To him will the throne of heaven be given,
and he will reign for ever, his kingdom will not end."

"How can this be?" Mary asked. "I am not yet married, and have never been with
a man."

The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the
Most High will wrap around you, and so the one born to you will be called the
Son of God.

"And that you may know what I am saying is true, behold, your cousin Elizabeth,
whom everyone thought too old to have a child, is carrying a child inside her even
now.

"For nothing is impossible with God."

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary said, "May it be to me as you have said."

When the angel had left, Mary hurried to her cousin Elizabeth, and found
everything to be just as the angel had said.

The birth of our savior

In those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world
should be taxed.

And so each went to his own city to be counted.

So Joseph went up from Nazareth to Judea, to the town of Bethlehem, the City of
David, because he was of the house and family of David. He went with Mary, who
was to be his wife, who was carrying a child by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And while they were there in Bethlehem, the time came for the baby to be born.
And so Mary gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths, and
laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

There were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch
over their sheep through the night.

The angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone all
around them, and they were all afraid. But the angel said to them, "Do not be
afraid! I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be to all people. For this
day, in the city of David, is born to you a savior, it is Christ the Lord! And this will
be a sign for you - you will find the baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in
a manger."

Then suddenly, there was with the angel, a great company of angels, praising God
and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to all in whom God's favor rests."

In the beginning was the Word,

...and the word was with God, and the word was God.

He was in in the beginning with God, through him all things were made. In him
was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and
the darkness cannot overcome it.

And the Word became flesh and lived on earth with us.

To all who receive him, who believe in his name, he gives the power to become
children of God.

Jesus feeds 5,000 – Let’s talk about bread

Part One

Just think of the smell of fresh bread baking in the oven... even if it is
bread baking in one of those bread machines.

Bread really IS good!

A peanut butter and jelly sandwich would be pretty messy without two
pieces of bread on the outside.

But for most of the time people have been wandering around here on
earth, bread has been even more important than that. People have
been eating bread for thousands of years.

I’d like to know who woke one morning and said,

“I’ve got a great idea!

"Let’s take some of that stuff that is growing all over the place out
back - what’s it called? Wheat? Yeah, that wheat stuff. Let’s pick some
of that stuff and let it dry out. Then lets take a couple of rocks and
smash the wheat between the two rocks until it turns into powder.
Then let’s add some water and mix it all up into.... dough.... let’s call
that mixed up stuff dough. Then let’s take the dough and put it into a
fire! Doesn’t that sound like a great idea!”

“Uh, uh, yeah sure... Great idea!”

Who would have thought of that?!!!

I think God must have had something to do with it.

So they took the mashed up, mixed up stuff and stuck it into the fire -
and they got bread! Well, it wasn’t bread exactly. It was more like a
cracker, but it tasted pretty good!

Then someone must have let some goat’s milk sit around too long,
until it started to get all hard and stinky, and so they spread some of
that on the bread - and called it “cheese and crackers.” Well, maybe
not.

And then one day, some stuff called yeast got into the dough.

Before mom had a chance to put the dough into the fire, one of her
kids must have fallen down and skinned his knee or something. And
while she was away looking for a Bandaid (which would have taken a
while - since Bandaids weren't invented yet!) - a strange thing
happened.

The lump of dough grew to twice its size! It was like it was alive!

But mom stuck it into the fire anyway (you know how moms are - they
don't like to waste anything!). And this time, when she took it out - it
was really bread! It was bread like we think of bread.

And for most of the time since then, bread has been the main thing
most people ate. If you said, “We have no bread!” What you were
really saying was, “We have no food!”

People needed bread to stay alive.

That's how important bread is.

Yep! Bread is pretty amazing stuff!

Part Two

Moses was in trouble.

BIG trouble!

God had sent him to lead his people out of Egypt and back to the
Promised Land. And, until now, things were going pretty well. Pharaoh
finally let Moses and his people go. The Egyptians were so glad to see
them leave, they piled their wagons and carts with treasures of silver
and gold. And God himself was leading the way to the Promised Land
as a great cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

But now Moses was standing on the shores of the Red Sea.

Behind him was the great multitude of God’s people.

And behind THEM was the roar of Pharaoh’s army, charging at them in
a thundering cloud of sand and dust.

Pharaoh had changed his mind, and he was coming to take the
Israelites back into slavery in Egypt.

God's people were trapped between the Red Sea and Pharaoh and his
army!

What was Moses going to do?!

Well, God had a plan. God ALWAYS has a plan. In fact, nothing happens
in this world that ISN’T part of God’s plan!

Once again, God raised his mighty arm.

He made a great wind come up to dry a path right through the middle
of the sea. A great wall of water was on their right, and a great wall of
water was on their left - but the Israelites walked right through the
middle on dry ground!
When the last foot of the last old man of God’s people stepped onto
the shore on the opposite side (he was walking kind of slow - and he
wasn’t in all that a big a hurry - this was something you don’t see
every day!), God made the walls of water came crashing down on
Pharaoh and his army.

The mighty Pharaoh, and all his chariots, horse and rider, were tossed
into the sea.

It was an awesome miracle of God.

A few thousand years later, someone would make a great movie about
it, with all sorts of spectacular special effects. But the real thing was
much more spectacular than any movie could ever be!

After they were all safely across the sea, Moses led the Israelites on -
straight into the desert!

Now, the desert is not exactly the place you would want to take a
bunch of people for lunch. It wasn’t like there was a Dairy Queen, or a
Pizza Hut, or even a McDonald’s every ten miles! Just think if there
WERE a McDonald’s up ahead - and you pulled in just after the
Israelites...

You’d be at the end of a line over a million people long. Yikes!!

You probably couldn’t even SEE the McDonald's, you’d be so far away!
And WAY up ahead, some kid would be changing the sign out front.

That morning it said;

“Over Three People Served!”

Now he was changing it to,

“Over One Million served.”

(Maybe that’s how that got started.... maybe not!)But there wasn’t a
McDonald’s. Just hot, dry sand for as far as the eye could see. There
wasn’t even a pop machine to stop and get an ice cold Coke (if there
was, one poor little pop machine, standing out in the desert - how in
the world could it take over two million quarters?!).It wasn’t long
before the people started grumbling.They were tired and hot and
hungry. So they whined to Moses, “So, what’s the deal? Did you lead us
off into the desert so we could starve to death?! We would have been
better off in Egypt! At least there we had bread to eat!”Isn’t that how it
goes sometimes? God can bless us in amazing and wonderful ways,
but the moment things aren’t going the way we want, we start
complaining - like God doesn’t love us any more or something.So
Moses had a chat with God. God said to him, “I have heard my people’s
complaints. And so that they will know that I am God, I will send them
food from heaven.”The next morning, God did just that. He sent them
bread from heaven.Well, it didn’t fall from the sky all sliced and
wrapped in plastic - that could have hurt somebody! No, this stuff
looked more like a flaky, white frost that covered the ground. The
Israelites took one look at it and said, “What’s this stuff?!” So that’s
what they called it, “manna,” which meant, “What’s this stuff?!”
Really! But it was good stuff!Of course it was, it was angel food!Even in
desert times, God loves and cares for his people. God told them to
gather as much as they wanted - there is always enough with God - it’s
not like he ever runs out of ANYTHING. But there must not have been
any preservatives in it, because if they kept any to have some extra for
the next day, it was all full of worms and rotten by then. Yuck! Except
on the Sabbath. God told them to gather up twice as much the day
before, so that they wouldn’t have to work on the Sabbath. And the
bread always kept just fine then.This was all God’s way of teaching
them to trust in him each day for the things they needed - and to show
them that he would always provide just what they needed for that day.
But they should always trust in God, and not in their own doing.That's
how it is with God. He gives us all that we need each day, and what we
have each day is all that we need.And so, God delivered bread from
heaven every morning. Every morning, some gathered a lot, and some
gathered a little. But those who gathered a lot, never gathered too
much, and those who gathered less never had too little. It was sort of
like Goldilocks and the three bears - it was always just right! There was
always enough for all of Israel to eat their fill. Who else but God could
do such an amazing, wonderful thing?!

Many years later….

There was a prophet named Elisha.

God had chosen him to tell the people about the things of heaven. And
so one day Elisha invited one hundred of his closest friends over to
teach them all that he knew.

God decided to provide a visual aid.

He was going to show Elisha’s guests that everything Elisha was

teaching them about him was true.

It just so happened that there was another famine in the land. It was
too dry for much to grow, and there wasn’t a lot of food to be had. And
Elisha had a hundred guests to feed!

“How in the world are we going to feed all these people?!” Elisha’s
poor, frazzled servant said to him.

Elisha said, “There is a man here who has twenty loaves of bread and
some grain. That will be enough.”

“For a hundred people??!!!” Elisha’s servant fretted. “And where are we

going to find enough plates?!!”

“With God, all things are possible,” Elisha calmly said. “We will see
what God can do. He has promised that we shall eat, and that we will
have more than enough left over... and, what are plates??!!”

So Elisha’s servant took the twenty loaves of bread and began to hand
them out to their guests.

The more he handed out, the more there was to hand out!

He kept handing out bread, and handing out bread. Elisha’s guests
kept eating and eating - until everyone was full! And even then, there
was more left over.

What amazing things only God can do!

Part Three

You won’t believe it!”

“It was AMAZING!” Peter said to Jesus.

Peter was one of the twelve followers Jesus had chosen to help him tell
the world about God’s incredible love. Jesus called them his disciples.

There was nothing special about these guys. They weren’t the smartest
in their class - they probably didn’t even GO to class. Ever. They
weren’t the biggest or the strongest. They weren’t star athletes, or
ruggedly handsome, or movie stars (of course, they didn’t HAVE
movies stars back then. That was mostly because they didn’t have
movies!)

No, these guys were just ordinary, most likely smelly most of the time,
fishermen.

What made them special was being with Jesus. It’s always that way.
God takes the ordinary, and makes it extraordinary!

Anyway, a few days before, Jesus had sent the twelve of them out into
the nearby villages to heal the sick and to tell the good news that the
Kingdom of God was near.

“We could hardly believe our eyes!” Peter said, “People came to us
who were sick - and we made them well!”

I think sometimes the disciples forgot just who Jesus was.

Of course they could do what Jesus sent them to do!

Jesus had filled them with his power. He wouldn’t send them out to do
something without giving them the power to do it, would he?

But you can’t go around healing the sick without people starting to
follow you - especially the ones who all of a sudden can see and walk!

So now a huge crowd was following Jesus and his disciples. They were
all hoping to see more miracles.

But Jesus and his disciples were tired. They really needed to get away
and get some rest.

The tried to get away in a boat. But it was no good. The crowd of
people just ran along the shore after them.

Finally, Jesus got out of the boat and climbed to the top of a hill. He
turned around, opened his arms, and welcomed everyone. He knew
they were like sheep without a shepherd. And so he began to tell them
some more about how much God loved them. And he healed many
who were sick.

The crowd around him grew and grew.

Meanwhile, the disciples were getting nervous.

The crowd was very large now, and it was getting past dinner time.
And, just like it was for the Israelites in the desert, there wasn’t a
McDonald’s in sight. Well, there wouldn’t be for another couple of
thousand years. It would be a little too late by then!

“What are we going to do?” the disciples started asking each other.

“Tell these people to go back to their homes,” James finally said to

Jesus. “They are getting hungry, and there is nothing to eat here.”

Well, there WAS one little boy who had five loaves of bread and two
fish.

(“Oh, oh,” the little boy thought. All of a sudden everyone seemed to
be looking at him.)

Jesus said to Phillip, “You can feed this great crowd of people!”

“ME?!!!” Phillip said.

“How can I feed all these people! It would take me half a year to earn
enough money to buy bread for all these people. And even then, it
would only be enough for every one to have just a little”

Jesus must have known something the rest of them didn’t.

Just then Jesus saw the boy with the bread and the fish (the little boy
was hiding his dinner behind his back now).

“There,” Jesus said, “there is enough food.”

“But, Jesus,” Andrew said. “He has only five loaves of bread and two
fish. There must be five thousand men here, plus their wives and their
sisters and their daughters. You can’t feed five thousand people with
five loaves and two fish!”

“Ask the boy to come here,” Jesus said.

Jesus wrapped his arms around the little boy and smiled at him with a
smile that seemed to warm the boy all over. “Would you share your
bread and fish with us, so that we all can eat?” Jesus asked.

Five loaves of bread? And two fish? For all these people?! That can’t be
possible! “This I have to see!” the boy must have thought to himself.
And so, he said, “Sure!”

So Jesus told his disciples to have the people sit down on the grass in
groups of fifty and a hundred.

Before, it was a great crowd of people. Now, they were gathered into
little neighborhoods, laughing and talking with each other and
becoming friends. That’s how God likes it.

Then Jesus took the bread, and he looked up to heaven and said,
“Thank you, Father, for your great love and all your wonderful gifts!”
Then he broke the bread and gave it to his disciples. They took the
bread and began to hand it out to the people.

They kept handing it out and handing it out - and the amazing thing
was, there was always more to give. Soon, everyone in that huge, huge
crowd had some bread, and not just a little.

They all had as much bread as they wanted!

It was just like what happened a long time ago with Elisha and his
hundred guests.

They did the same thing with the fish too.

And, just like with the bread, there always seemed to be another fish to
hand out (even though it was a little harder handing out all those
slippery fish!). How could that be?!!

Before long, every one - more than five thousand people - had all the
bread and fish they wanted!

When they all had eaten their fill, Jesus said, “Now gather up what is
left over, so that none will be lost.”

And so the disciples did as Jesus told them. They filled TWELVE baskets
with the left over pieces of bread!

They started out with only five loaves, they fed over five thousand
people - and they still had twelve baskets full of bread left over.

Now, that’s what I call wonder bread!

When the people saw all of this, they were amazed.

The ones who had been paying attention at Sabbath school were
probably thinking, “Hey! Isn’t this just like how God gave our people
manna in the desert?! Only GOD can do that!!!”

And so they said to each other,

“He has to be from God!”

So, What’s the big deal?

The thing is….

...the boy could have held onto his fish and his bread.

He could have said, “It’s mine! It’s mine! It’s mine! It belongs to me!”
He could have held onto it real tight. And he would have had five
loaves and two fish. He would have had enough to feed one person.

But instead he gave it all to Jesus.

And Jesus took his five loaves and two fish and fed over five thousand
people.

What wonderful, amazing things God can do when we share what he

has given us!

We might not think we have very much, but he can take the little we
think we have, and multiple it a hundred times!

That’s how it is with God. He is so powerful, and has so much to give,

there is always more than enough for everyone - there’s more left over
than what we even had to start with!

But….
...there is something more important than that here.

Jesus fed the five thousand people just like his father fed the Israelites
in the desert, and just like his father in heaven multiplied the bread for
the prophet Elisha.

It was something only God can do.

It was one of the real and powerful ways Jesus proved that he really is
God’s son.

But even more important than that!

Later on Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. Whoever believes in me

will never die, but will live forever!”

Jesus didn’t come to earth just to make sure we had enough bread to
eat. He came to give us a different kind of bread, a bread that would
make us live forever. But it isn’t the kind of bread you eat. It’s
something called faith.

When you eat bread, it goes inside of you. It becomes part of you, and
it keeps your body healthy and well. It gives you life.
That’s how it is with Jesus.

When you believe in Jesus, you let him inside of you. You let him inside
your mind and your heart and your spirit. He becomes a part of you.
He gives you life. That is how Jesus is the bread of life.

Jesus lives inside of you, and because of that, you will live with him
forever.

God loves us, he cares for us always.

How wonderful God is!

Walking on Water
Matt 14.22-33, Mark 6.45-52, John 6.15-21

Jesus just did an amazing thing.

In the hot sun on a rocky hillside, he took two smelly fish and five
crusty loaves of bread and fed over five thousand people.

“WOW!” The disciples must have thought, “We should open a

restaurant!”

Well, maybe they didn’t think the restaurant part - but they were
amazed by the miracle they just saw Jesus do.

The crowd was still buzzing about the whole thing when Jesus took
Peter by the arm and said, “You guys go on ahead to the other side of
the lake. I’ll catch up with you later.”

Okay, we don’t really know what Jesus said exactly. For one thing, he
was speaking in Aramaic and not English. And chances are pretty good
he didn’t call the disciples ‘you guys.’ But we do know that Jesus told
the disciples to get in their boat and go across the lake. He needed
some time to be alone.

Well, imagine if you had crowds of people following you around

everywhere you went, always wanting something from you. You’d want
to get away to be alone sometimes too! Jesus needed time to pray.

We all do!

So Jesus blessed the people and sent them on their way home. And he
sent them away full - not just with a good meal, but with the word of
God. They all left knowing a little better just how much God loved
them. So Jesus watched the last few stragglers pick their way through
the rocks down the hillside, and then he turned and climbed up the
mountain a ways.

When night came, Jesus was still there praying, alone on the
mountainside. Of course, he wasn’t really alone. He was with his
Father. No one is ever really alone. God is always with us.

Meanwhile, the disciples were on the lake below, trying to row across
it.

It was very dark now, and a strong wind was blowing right in their
faces. Well, right in the faces of the lucky ones who weren’t trying to
row against it. Those poor guys had their backs to the wind and were
rowing against it with all their might - and hardly getting anywhere!

“This is just great!” they were probably grumbling to each other as

sprays of water splashed in their faces and the waves tossed their little
boat every which way - except the way they wanted to go! “Jesus
sends us out across the lake with this blasted wind doing its best to
blow us back! Couldn’t he do something about that?!” (We like to
grumble whenever things get hard, don’t we.)

But Jesus could see that they were in trouble.

The wind was still whipping, the sea was still tossing their boat this
way and that, when one of the disciples happened to look out into the
night.

“WHAT IS THAT?!!!”

There was a man walking on the water!!!

In the dark of the night they saw a man coming towards them on the
water - his hair was blowing wildly, his robe was being whipped by the
wind like a flag in a windstorm.

They were terrified!

...well, wouldn’t YOU be?!

“IT’S A GHOST!!” they screamed.

But just then, they heard a voice say, “Take courage! Don’t be afraid. It
is me!”
It was Jesus!

“Lord, is it really you?” Peter said, holding his hand over his eyes to
block the spray of the splashing waves.

“If it really IS you, tell me to come out to you on the water!”

Peter was a brave man! Or he was crazy!

Jesus said, “Come.”

Peter stuck one leg out over the side of the boat and set his foot on the
water. It didn’t sink in!

He stepped out with his other foot, and it didn’t sink. He stood up. He
was standing on the water! He took one step, and then another, and
then another. He was walking on the water, just like Jesus!

Peter was walking on the water!

He might have even been thinking to himself, “Hey! Look at me. I am

walking on the water! Aren’t I great!”

But wait a minute. People can’t walk on water. And then Peter started
to look around him. All of a sudden, the boat seemed awfully small and
far away. There was nothing but black, churning water all around him.
The waves were lapping at his feet, water was stinging his eyes.

And then, just like that, the water under his feet let go.

“Help me, Lord!” Peter gulped, splashing wildly as the cold water
swallowed him down. “Save me!”

But before the water could gulp Peter down entirely, Jesus reached
down with strong hand (he WAS a carpenter after all) and grabbed him
by the arm.

“Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

And with that, Jesus pulled Peter up out of the water and carried him,
dripping wet, back to the boat.

Just as they were climbing over the side of the boat, the wind died
away and the sea turned smooth as glass. Everything was suddenly
peaceful and quiet.
One minute the wind was roaring and the sea was crashing, the next
all was peaceful and calm. Some of the disciples must have
remembered just then the Psalm they learned in Hebrew school -

“Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them
out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper, the waves of the
sea were hushed.”

(That was from Psalm 107, in case you haven’t been to Hebrew school
yet.)

Those disciples knew that only God has the power to calm the wind
and the waves - and that’s just what Jesus did.

“Truly you ARE the Son of God!” they said to Jesus in awe and wonder.
And they bowed down and worshipped him right then and there.

Now, we don’t know for sure, but maybe Peter sat there shivering in
the back of the boat with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders,
thinking about all that had just happened. And maybe he was hearing
over and over in his head the words Jesus had calmy said, ‘Why did
you doubt?’

‘Oh, you of little faith. Why did you doubt?’

Why DID Peter doubt?

Just the day before he saw Jesus turn two fish and five loaves of bread
into enough to feed five thousand people. And now he saw Jesus
walking on the water. Jesus said it was okay, so he stepped out onto
the water. He trusted Jesus.

He stepped out of the boat because Jesus had called him, and his faith
held him up.

But then he saw the darkness all around him, he felt the the wind
stinging his face, he saw the swirling black water beneath him... and
he doubted. He took his eyes off Jesus and he became afraid.

He forgot about Jesus.

And he sank.

And it may be that Peter learned a lesson that night that he never
forgot. When trouble is all around - keep your eyes on Jesus. He will
never let you sink.

“O Lord, Almighty God, who is there as strong as you? Who is there

more faithful? For you rule the raging sea, you have the power to still
the pounding waves.”
Psalm 89. 8,9

The Lord is King! Our God reigns! He wears his majesty like a robe, he
wraps himself in strength. By his power he created the world, and it
will never be moved. The waters rise and the sea roars, but greater is
the might of the Lord!”
Psalm 93

“Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matt 28.20

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Hebrews 13:6

So we say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13.5-6

The Story of Zacchaeus up a tree

(Luke 19.1-10)

There are two things….

...you should know about Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus was a little man.

And Zacchaeus was a rich man.

And nobody liked him very much.

Okay, that’s three things.

Nobody liked Zacchaeus very much mostly because he got rich taking
money from other people and giving it to the Romans.

Nobody liked the Romans much either. That was because they came in
from another country like a bunch of big bullies. They came with all
their soldiers and swords and spears and stuff and made people do
things they didn’t want to do, like give them money.

That's what Zacchaeus did. He collected money for the Romans. They
called it "collecting taxes." Some of the money he gave to the Romans
- but lots of it he kept for himself. And that’s how he got rich.

Zacchaeus was a very rich man...

And Zacchaeus was a little man... without a lot of friends.

Zacchaeus lived in a town called Jericho a long time ago. You might
remember Jericho, if you heard the story about the walls that came
tumbling down when the trumpets blew. But that was way before
Zacchaeus’s time.

One bright, sunny day, Zacchaeus looked down the dirt road that came
into Jericho and he saw a crowd of people coming his way.

Back then, everybody was taking about a guy named Jesus.

Everywhere Jesus went, people who were sick got better, people who
couldn’t walk could walk again, people who were blind could see again.
Jesus was a pretty amazing guy! And everybody wanted to see just
who this Jesus guy was. Including Zacchaeus.

The only trouble was, everywhere Jesus went there were always crowds
of people all around him - and remember, Zacchaeus was a little man.
He knew that he’d never be able see over a great crowd of people.

Zacchaeus ran up to the edge of the crowd and stood on his tiptoes to
see what the big deal was.

But all he could see were the backs of people’s heads.

He tried jumping up and down. He bounced from one side and then to
the other. But still he couldn’t see.

But then, on one lucky bounce, he saw the man at the center of the
crowd. It was Jesus!

Zacchaeus tried to push his way through the crowd, but everyone
wanted to see Jesus, and they wouldn’t let him through.

What could he do? He wanted to see Jesus too!

Then Zacchaeus turned around and saw a sycamore tree growing right
beside the road Jesus was walking along.

Zacchaeus had an idea!

He ran on ahead and climbed up the Sycamore tree. He didn’t care if

he looked silly or not. He wanted to see Jesus!

Sure enough, Jesus stopped right under the sycamore tree. He looked
up, and there was Zacchaeus peeking through the branches.

“Zacchaeus!” Jesus said to him, “Hurry down from there!

“I must stay at your house today!”

“How does he know my name??!” Zacchaeus thought to himself. “But

he does! He knows my name! And he wants to come and stay at MY
house!”

Zacchaeus flew down that tree quicker than you could say “Zacchaeus,
Zacchaeus sitting in a tree.”

When his feet hit the ground, he was so happy he nearly did a little
dance! But that’s just what Jesus does to people. Jesus laughed and
slapped his arm around Zacchaeus’s shoulder, and together they
started off towards Zacchaeus’s house.

But the people in the crowd were not so happy.

They had spent all day in the hot sun following Jesus, and now he was
going to stay at the house of Zacchaeus, a rich, cheating tax collector.
They began to grumble about Zacchaeus...

“This man is a sinner!” one woman said.

“He cheats and steals from his own people!” said an old man.

“He isn’t good enough for Jesus to come and stay at his house!”

Zacchaeus heard what the people were saying about him, and he must
have known that they were right. So he said, “Listen! I will give half of
everything I have to the poor! And if I cheated anyone, I will pay them
back four times as much!”

Jesus was going to be a guest at his house. And what do you do when
you are expecting company? You clean things up!
That’s just what Zacchaeus did. Only he cleaned himself up on the
inside first. Zacchaeus wanted to make things right for Jesus. He was
so happy that Jesus wanted to come to his house, he wanted to make
Jesus happy too.

And Jesus WAS happy!

Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house!

“Your life was all wrong, but now it is all right. You were lost, but now
you have been saved!

“That why I am here. I came to find and save the lost!”

Zacchaeus was a little man, but now he felt ten feet tall!

And you know what?

Jesus knows you too! Jesus knows you by name, just like he knew
Zacchaeus.

He wants to come and tell you how much he loves you.

He wants to tell you the good news of his home in heaven. He wants to
laugh with you and cry with you, and be with you no matter what.

But Jesus can’t exactly walk up to your front door and ring the bell. It
would take a LONG time for Jesus to walk up to every house in the
world! You’d be all old and wrinkly by the time he finally got to yours...
and he wouldn’t be able to stay very long. There are a LOT of houses in
the world to get to!

Back when Jesus stayed at Zacchaeus’s house, all the other people
grumbled because each one of them wanted Jesus to stay at THEIR
house. But when Jesus was on earth, he just couldn’t stay at every
house every night.

That’s why Jesus went to heaven. Jesus went to heaven so he could

send his Spirit to live with each of us - all at the same time!

Of course, you can’t see his Spirit.

But you can’t see love either. You can’t hear it or smell it or touch it.
But you know when love is there. That’s how it is with Jesus. When
Jesus comes to you, you can’t see him, or hear him, or touch him. But
you know that he is there.
Jesus wants to come to your house today!

All you have to do is ask him in!

Meditations for the Easter Season

This is how we know what love is – Jesus Christ gave his life for us.

Passover

A family waits in the dark.

Outside it is strangely quiet.

In the cool night air of Egypt, the whisper of a breeze rustles the leaves
of a tree.

This is the night.

This is the night Moses told the children of Israel to be ready for. This is
the night they are going to be set free from the pain and suffering of
slavery in a foreign land. This is the night they are going to begin their
journey to a land flowing with milk and honey.

This is the night the angel of death is coming.

Moses had told them to go out to their flocks four days before and
choose a spotless lamb. It was to be a lamb without any defects, its
wool without any bare spots, its eyes clear, its legs straight and strong.

They took the lamb into their house, and it lived with them like a family
pet.

And then this day, at sunset, they killed the lamb and prepared the
meat for a special meal - the Passover Meal. They roasted the meat on
a fire with bitter herbs to remind them of the bitter taste of slavery.
They made a flat, hard, bread without yeast because there wasn’t time
to let dough rise. They ate with their walking sticks in their hands, and
their sandals on their feet. They had to be ready to leave at any
moment.

But, most importantly, they took a bowl, and with a hyssop branch
they marked the crosspiece and sideposts of their front door with the
blood of the lamb.
And now they waited.

At midnight they heard a cry way off in the distance. It was the cry of a
mother who just discovered that her first born child was dead. And
then they heard another cry, and then another, and then another. Until
the night was filled with the awful cries of pain and loss.

The angel of death had come to Egypt.

But the angel of death didn’t come to this house.

The angel of death passed over every house that was marked with
blood.

They were saved by the blood of the lamb.

That very night, Pharaoh commanded Moses, “Take your people and
go!”

Sent by God - This is the beginning of the Gospel of John:

“In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the
word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made
through him. In him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”

Before there was anything at all, the whole world was an idea in God’s
mind. But you can’t see an idea. You can’t feel it or touch it or taste it
or hear it. It is invisible.

No one can know an idea in your head until you tell them about it. Your
words make your idea something they can understand.

And so God said, “Let there be light!” And there was light.

God spoke, and God’s word made an invisible idea something we can
see.

Jesus is God’s word. He is all the goodness and power of the invisible
God. The creator of the universe came to earth in a way we can see
and feel and hear and touch.

Now, there was a man sent by God. His name was John. Today we call
him John the Baptist. God sent John to be a witness.

Suppose one day you went to school, and no one knew who you were.
What could you do?
You could have your best friend be your witness. Your best friend could
tell everyone who you were.

That’s what God sent John to do. God sent John to tell everyone who
Jesus was.

And so one day, John was out in the wilderness telling everyone about
God and his kingdom. When he saw Jesus walking along, John said,

“Look! There is the Lamb of God!”

What did he mean by that?!

Remember the Passover? God’s people sacrificed a lamb and marked

their doors with its blood. That night, the angel of death passed over
every house that was marked by the blood of the lamb. The Passover
lamb gave its life so God’s people could live.

God sent Jesus to give his life for us, so that everyone who believes in
Jesus can live with him in heaven forever.

God sent Jesus to be OUR Passover lamb.

Some time later, John was baptizing his followers in the Jordan River.
He told them to admit their sins and ask God’s forgiveness. Baptism
was a sign that they were leaving their sins behind and beginning a
new life with God.

And so Jesus came to John to be baptized. It wasn’t that Jesus had any
sins that needed to be forgiven - Jesus never sinned. But he was about
to leave his old life behind, and begin the work that God sent him to
do.

John said to Jesus, “But you should be baptizing me!” But Jesus insisted
that John baptize him. It was what God wanted, and Jesus did
everything that God wanted.

When Jesus stepped out of the water, the spirit of God appeared over
him like a dove, and a deep voice said,

“This is my beloved Son, of whom I am well pleased.”

And so Jesus began his work to save us.

The Last Supper – a reading for Holy Thursday

The Passover was at hand.

Jesus sat with his disciples on a hillside just outside the city of
Jerusalem. It was still early in the day, but already the shade of a tree
was welcomed relief from the sun.

It was the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the day the
lamb was to be killed for the Passover meal. The disciples said to Jesus,
“Master, where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal for you?”

Jesus said to them, “Go into the city. A man carrying a water jar will
meet you there. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters,
‘The Teacher says, My hour has come. We will celebrate the Passover
at your house.’ He will show you to an upstairs room, and there you will
make the Passover feast ready.”

And so the disciples walked down the hillside and entered the city.

Inside the city walls, the hot, dusty streets were crowded with people.
Like the disciples, they had traveled to Jerusalem from all over the
countryside to celebrate the Passover.

Still, even in those crowded streets, the disciples found things just as
Jesus said they would.

They shook the dust from their feet as best they could and entered the
house the man with the water jar had led them to. And there they
prepared the Passover meal.

When evening came, Jesus joined his disciples in the upper room.

They had just sat down at the table when Jesus rose, removed his outer
robe, and tied a towel around his waist. He poured water into a large
basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and dry them with the
towel.

When he came to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Master, how can I let my
Lord stoop down to wash my feet?”

Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash your feet, you will no longer be
my disciple.”

Peter said, “Not just my feet then! Wash my face and hands as well!”

Jesus smiled at Peter warmly. Then he put his robe back on and
returned to the table. “Do you understand what I have just done? You
call me Master and Lord, and that is right. So, if I, your Master and
Lord, have stooped down to serve you, even more then should you
serve each other.”

As they were eating, Jesus became deeply saddened and said, “One of
you is about to betray me.”

The disciples looked at each other in shock. One by one they asked
Jesus, “Is it me, Lord?”

“Master, can it be me?” said one.

“Surely you don’t mean me!” said another.

“I would never betray you!” said a third.

But as Jesus was dipping his bread into a bowl, he quietly said, “The
one who dips his bread with me will betray me.” Just as he did, Judas
dipped his bread into the same bowl. “Surely, you don’t mean me!” he
said, though none of the other disciples but one heard any of this.

“Go, and do what you must do,” Jesus said, and at once Judas got up
from the table and went out into the night.

The other disciples looked at each other, wondering what might be

happening.

Then Jesus took a piece of bread, lifted it up, and gave thanks to God.
He took the bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples saying,

“Take, and eat. This is my body, given for you. Do this in memory of
me.”

Then he took the cup of wine, gave thanks to God, and gave it to them.
“This is my blood, poured out for many. It is the blood of the new
covenant, given for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink
this wine again until I drink the new wine with you in my Father’s
kingdom.”

The disciples couldn’t know it at the time, but Jesus was telling them
that he was about to become the one, true Passover lamb. His life was
going to be given once and for all, so that we all might live with him
forever. His blood was going to be poured out so that our sins would be
forever forgiven.
After the meal, they sang a hymn, and then they went out into the
night, to the Mount of Olives.

Good Friday – One life given for all

In the Garden of Gethsemane

This night you will all run away.”

“I will never leave you!” Peter said to Jesus as they walked the dark
streets of Jerusalem.

“I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will say three times that you
do not know me,” Jesus said to him.

“I will never say that,” Peter said. And all the disciples said the same.

They walked on to the Mount of Olives without saying another word.

The night air was cold against their faces and not a star shone in the
sky.

They came to a place called Gethsemane, a lonely garden on a hillside.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Wait here while I go to pray.” And then he
took Peter, James and John and walked on a bit farther into the night.
Jesus said to them, “The pain in my heart is so great it almost crushes
me. Stay here and watch with me.”

Then Jesus walked off a short distance and fell to the cold, hard
ground. “Father in heaven,” he prayed, “please take away the suffering
I know is coming! It is too much for me. But I will do what you want and
not what I want.”

He prayed this way for nearly an hour. Then he struggled back to his
feet and returned to Peter, James and John, and they were sleeping.

“You couldn’t stay awake with me for even an hour?” he said to them.
Your hearts are in the right place, but it is hard to do what is right.”

Three times this happened, and each time Jesus found his disciples
asleep. At last he said, “Look, the time has come!”

As he said this, the disciples saw a band of men coming towards them
through the dark with lanterns, torches, clubs and swords.

The man leading the way was Judas.

He went straight to Jesus and kissed him. This was the signal that Jesus
was the one that they were looking for. The chief priests of the Jews
had paid Judas 30 pieces of silver to lead them to Jesus.

The crowd surrounded Jesus and held him tight. Peter grabbed a sword
and swung it at one of the high priest’s slaves and cut off his ear.

“Put your sword away,” Jesus said. “Don’t you know I could call all the
angels of God to rescue me? But I must do for you what God has
promised through his prophets from long ago.” And then he touched
the man’s ear and healed it.

At that moment all the disciples ran away into the night.
By the flickering light of torches….
The crowd dragged Jesus through the streets of Jerusalem to the house
of Caiaphas, the chief priest of the Jews. The council of the high priests
was waiting there. They were looking for a reason to put Jesus to
death, but they couldn’t find any evidence against him.

So they convinced many people to come before them and tell lies
about Jesus instead.

Two men came up and said, “This man said he could tear the temple of
God down, and in three days build it back up!”

But Jesus didn’t say a word.

Finally, the High Priest said, “Tell us - are you the Messiah, the Son of
God?”

“That is what you say,” Jesus answered. “But I will tell you this. You will
see the Son of God sitting at the right hand of the Almighty God, riding
on the clouds of heaven.”

“That is enough!” the High Priest cried. “This man claims to be the Son
of God, and according to our law, for that he must die!”

And then they began to spit in Jesus’ face. They blindfolded him and
beat him, all the while saying, “Tell us who hit you, Messiah!”
Peter denies Jesus three times

Meanwhile, outside the courtyard…

Peter was sitting by the fire warming himself.

“Weren’t you with Jesus of Nazareth?” one of the servant women said
to him.
“I don’t know what you are talking about!” Peter said as he stepped
away from the light of the fire.

“I know you! I saw you with Jesus!” another servant woman said to
Peter at the entrance of the courtyard.

Peter denied it again. “I tell you, I do not know the man!” he said.

A short time later, some men saw Peter standing in the shadows by the
courtyard wall. “Of course you are one of his disciples!” they said. “We
can tell by the way you speak!”

For the third time, Peter said, “I swear, I do not know the man!”

Just then, a rooster crowed.

And Peter remembered what Jesus had told him. “Before the rooster
crows, you will say three times that you do not know me.” Peter went
out and cried bitterly.

The Crucifixion

Early the next morning….

The chief priests had Jesus tied in chains and they led him off to
Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of the city.

“Are you the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked Jesus.

“So you say,” was all that Jesus would answer.

At the time of Passover, Pilate would set free any prisoner the people
wanted. A crowd had gathered outside the governor’s palace, and so
Pilate said to them, “Shall I set free this Jesus, your messiah?”

“We want Barabbas!” the crowd shouted back. Barabbas was a well
known criminal.

“What shall I do with Jesus then?”

“Crucify him!” the people shouted back.

“But why?” Pilate pleaded. “What crime has he committed?”

“Crucify him!” the people cried out all the more.

Pilate could see there was no use in arguing any more. The chief
priests had convinced the crowd that Jesus had to die. And so he took a
bowl and washed his hands. It was his way of saying he would have no
part in it. “I find no reason to condemn this man!” he said.

“Let his blood be on us and on our children!” the crowd shouted back.

And so Pilate set Barabbas free. He escaped the sentence of death and
Jesus took his place - just like Jesus would take the place of all sinners.

Pilate’s soldiers dragged Jesus inside of the palace.

They stripped off his clothes and whipped him. The metal barbs of the
whips tore shreads of skin off his back. Then they put a purple robe on
his back and made a crown out of thorny branches and pressed it into
his head. They put a stick in his hands and knelt down in front of him.
“Long live the king of the Jews!” they said, making fun of him. Then
they spat in his face, and hit him over the head with the stick.

When that wasn’t fun anymore, they took the robe away and led him
off to be crucified.

They put a heavy cross on his bruised and bleeding back, and pushed
him along, through the dusty streets of the city. Along the way the
crowds pressed against the soldiers trying to get a better look. All the
while they mocked him and spat on him as he passed by.

When Jesus could barely stumble another step, the soldiers took hold
of a man from Cyrene named Simon, and forced him to carry the cross
for him.

At last they came to the place called Golgotha, a hill they called the
place of the skull. They offered Jesus a bitter wine mixed with a drug
called myrrh, but he refused to drink it. Then the soldiers stretched
Jesus out on the cross and drove heavy nails through his hands and
feet.

And there they raised him up on the cross, and crucified him between
two thieves.

The soldiers took his clothes and divided them among them. But his
robe was made of one piece. “Let’s not tear it,” the soldiers said. And
so they tossed dice to see who would get it.

On his cross there was a sign that said, “Jesus, King of the Jews.”
People passing by laughed at him and called out, “If you are God’s son,
then save yourself, and come down off that cross!”

At noon, a terrible darkness fell over the whole land.

For three hours the sun did not shine. At last, Jesus cried out in a loud
voice filled with pain and anguish, “My God, my God, why did you
leave me?”

The people standing nearby thought he was calling for Elijah.

One of the soldiers took a sponge and soaked it in vinegar and tried to
make him drink it. “Wait! Let us see if Elijah will save him!” someone in
the crowd shouted.

But Jesus cried, “It is finished!”

And then, with a loud cry, he breathed his last and died.

The Earth Cries Out

The earth shook.

It was as if the whole earth shuddered the moment Jesus died.

Mountains trembled.

Rocks split open.

And at that moment, the curtain that hung in the temple was torn in
two from top to bottom.

That curtain was used to separate the people from the Holy of Holies,
the sacred place in the temple where only the priests could enter. Only
they could come before God and speak for the people.

Now that curtain had been torn apart. It was as though God were
saying there is no longer anything that separates God from his people.
Meanwhile, complete darkness continued to cover the earth. The light
of the world had gone out.

The soldiers who were standing by the cross fell to the ground. The
earth rumbled all around them - and they were terrified!

And as the ground shook beneath them, one of the soldiers cried out,
“This truly was the Son of God!”
And then, a mighty and strange thing began to happen. Graves broke
open in the countryside all around, and people who had died believing
in God were seen walking in the city by many astonished and
frightened people.

Near the cross too were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James
and Joseph, and the wife of Zebedee. They stood off in the distance,
their hearts were breaking too.

When evening had come, and the whole world lay still, a man named
Joseph came to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. And so Pilate
ordered his soldiers to take the lifeless body down from the cross.

There was a garden nearby, and in it there was a new tomb where no
one had ever been buried. It was carved out of solid rock. Joseph
wrapped the body of Jesus in a new linen sheet and placed it in the
tomb because the Sabbath was near, and the tomb was close at hand.

Then he rolled a large stone across the front of the tomb and sealed it
shut.
Now, the chief priests and the Pharisees were frightened too.

But they had other reasons. That night, they met together secretly.
“What are we going to do?! What if the disciples of Jesus try to steal
the body? Then they will tell the people that he has risen from the
dead! That cannot happen!”

And so the next day, it was the Sabbath, the chief priests and the
Pharisees met with Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “this Jesus told the people,
‘In three days, I will rise again!’ We are afraid his disciples might steal
his body and try to trick the people.”

So Pilate ordered a group of his strongest soldiers to go to the tomb.

They put a seal on the stone that covered the entrance. That way, if
the seal was broken, they would know someone had broken in.

And then, just to make sure the tomb could not be broken into, Pilate
ordered his men to keep guard through the night.

The First Easter Morning

It was early Sunday morning.
The sun was just beginning to rise, and in the pale light, a group of
women hurried along together.

The morning air felt cool against their skin. They were on their way to
the tomb of Jesus, with oils and perfume to properly bury the body.

Mary Magdalene was with them. She walked with her head bowed, and
tears still rolling down her cheek. Mary the mother of James and Joseph
was also there.

As they walked, they talked quietly with each other. “But who will roll
away the stone?” they wondered.

He is Risen!

Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared at the Tomb.

His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as
blinding snow. There was a great earthquake, and the guards fell to the
ground as if they were dead.

With an easy push, the angel rolled away the stone and sat down on it.

Now, when the women got to the tomb…

...they were were surprised to see that the stone had already been
rolled away.

It was more puzzling still, when they looked inside.

The tomb was empty!

Then suddenly they saw two angels, as shining and bright as the first.
One of the angels spoke to them gently,

“Do not be afraid!” he said.

“Why are you looking for the living among the dead?

"You seek Jesus, but he is not here. He has been raised from the dead,
just like he said!

"Come and see for yourselves.”

When the women entered the tomb, they saw the clothes that had
been wrapped around the body of Jesus lying there, and the cloth that
had been wrapped around his head neatly folded - something no grave
robber would have done!

“Now go!” the angel said, “And tell his disciples, Jesus has risen from
the dead!”
And so the women ran from the tomb, filled with joy and wonder, to tell
the good news -
“Jesus is Risen”

Jesus Christ is Risen today,

The light has driven
The dark away!

Nick by Nite – How must I be saved?

Nicodemus and Jesus – A story of Salvation

(inspired by John 3.1-8)

Nicodemus came to Jesus by night.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee.

He was an important man. He was a teacher of the Jewish people, and

he was supposed to know everything about the ways of God.

But he was afraid.

He was old now, his beard was long and gray, and in the deepest
corner of his heart, he knew that there was one thing he didn't know.
And so one night Nicodemus came to Jesus in secret and said,

"Teacher, what must I do to be saved?"

There was something about Jesus, something about the way he looked
into your eyes that said, "I know."

"Unless a man is born again, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God!"

was all that Jesus said.

"But, Master, I am old! How can I be born again? Am I supposed to

crawl back into mother's stomach and be born again? I don't think it
will work!"

But Jesus smiled warmly. "I tell you, unless you are born of water and
the spirit, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God."

Nicodemus left Jesus that night, still very much in the dark.

Now, this next part isn't in the Bible. But it could have happened
something like this...
The old, tired, and very confused Nicodemus crawled into bed that
night, saying over and over to himself, "Unless you are born again, you
cannot enter the kingdom of God...Unless you are born again..."

And then he had a dream.

He was a young boy again, and a package arrived at the door.

You know how exciting it is whenever a package arrives at the door -

especially one you weren't expecting! This package was wrapped
almost too wondrously to tear open. On it was a note on handmade
paper, and written by hand in gold ink it said,

"To Nicodemus. Try not to get it dirty."

Well, Nicodemus TRIED to open the package carefully, but in the end,
he couldn't help it. He tore it open.

Inside was the most beautiful robe he had ever seen.

It was dazzling white with brightly colored stripes at the bottom and
the ends of the sleeves, in designs that seemed to have been hand
stitched especially for him - amazing designs of all the things he really
liked; lions and dragons and bowls of fresh figs with cheese.

It was a robe obviously made with incredible love.

He put it on right away. Everyone in his little town had gotten one, and
that next day, they all looked so magnificent.

Of course, Nicodemus wore his everywhere.

He TRIED to keep it clean. He really did.

But then he got into a fight with his little brother one day, and got a
grass stain on the knee that just wouldn't come out no matter how
hard he tried to wash it.

And one day he lied to his mother about where he was going, and the
next morning his robe didn't seem quite as bright as it did before. He
cheated on a test once - just one answer, honest! but the next day the
designs on his sleeves seemed a little duller. And then he stole that
biscuit from his little sister - the one she had been saving for after
school - and a bit of jam spilled on the front of his robe, and there was
another stain that wouldn't go away.
Still, he tried to keep his robe clean as best he could.

Not everyone did. Some didn't care how dirty or torn or tattered their
robes got, as long as they were having fun. It didn't matter to them at
all if they were ruining an incredible gift.

And then one day many years later there was another note on the
door.

"The King is Having a Feast. At the sound of the trumpet, all will come."

Now, the King's palace was deep in the woods, and no one from
Nicodemus's little village had ever been there before.

But there were stories.

There were stories of music and dancing, and laughing all night long,
until you could hardly stand up. There were stories of food piled so
high on great long tables that there was hardly anywhere left to eat.
And tall, crystal glasses filled with sweet drinks that tingled your toes
but never rotted your teeth no matter how much you drank (or gave
you a stomach ache either!).

And there was a great fireplace. Every night by the flickering light of
the fire, the King would tell stories like no one had ever heard before -
amazing stories, and they always seemed to be just about you. And the
endings were always just perfect, better than you could ever dream up
yourself.

Well, at last the day came.

A trumpet was heard off in the distance.

But what do you wear to the King's palace?

Your absolutely finest, of course. And for everyone in this poor village,
that was the robe they each had received all those years before.

Only some of those robes weren't so fine anymore. Some were worse
than others - some MUCH worse.

Some people were ashamed at how shabby their robes had become,
and dreaded the thought of having to appear before the King in
practically rags.
Some others didn't care, just as long as there was free food.

But Nicodemus had kept his robe cleaner than most. He tried his best.

Still, somehow it didn't seem to be enough.

The next morning, a path into the woods appeared. Everyone was sure
there hadn't been one there before. And as the crowds pushed along it,
foxes and squirrels and deer seemed to leap along beside them.

When they all arrived at the palace, they found that it was surrounded
by a great wall made of the purest, whitest stone they had ever seen.

They crowded and pushed their way along the road that led up to the
main gate - a magnificent gate, as high as twelve men, made entirely
of gold.

But then, an astounding thing happened.

There was a poor beggar, in tattered rags, sitting near the gate.

"I am the King's son, listen to me!" the man said.

"The King loves you all so dearly, and his greatest desire is for you to
come to his feast. But only those who are properly dressed can ever
enter the King's palace. And look at you! But yet there is a way. Believe
in me! Come in by me!"

Now, some people didn't take too kindly to the idea that their finest
robes weren't worthy of the king, and so they began to make fun of the
poor beggar man.

"Ha!" they said, "And look at the rags you are wearing!"

And they began to tease him and mock him... and then they spit on
him, "There, that will help you clean your rags!" they said. The truth
was, while the beggar's robes were torn and muddied, it didn't seem to
be of his own doing - and somehow, their robes seemed all the
shabbier in comparison.

They felt ashamed in his presence somehow, and they didn't like it.
They didn't like it all.

Finally they had enough of this trouble-maker ruining their special day -
he was the problem, after all, not them - and so they began to push
and shove him. They wanted to remove him from their sight for good.
As they cruelly pushed him along, the young man looked into
Nicodemus's eyes and asked,

"Do you believe in me?"

And something in Nicodemus's heart said,

"Yes."

Things got uglier and uglier, the crowd became angrier and angrier,
until at last, they carried the beggar off and beat him to death.

Then one by one they came to the palace door.

As each one entered, the heavy gold door thundered shut behind
them. Time passed, and Nicodemus could hear the sound of crying
somewhere off in the distance.

Well, at last it was Nicodemus's turn to step through the door.

He stepped through the entryway and the heavy door closed behind
him.

What Nicodemus saw now I can't say - because there are no words to
describe it! But it was more glorious, more brilliant, more splendiferous
than all the stories he had ever heard.

And then he looked down at the robe he was wearing... and he knew at
once it didn't belong in a place as perfect as this.

His heart sank.

Off to his left he saw the wealthy man who had entered just before
him. His robe had looked even more carefully kept than his own before
they had entered, but now, in the glorious light of the palace, it looked
so shabby and dirty.

The poor owner was shown to a small door and let out. And as the door
opened, Nicodemus could hear then that this was where the crying was
coming from. It was the cry of all those souls who had seen what they
could have had, but were found not worthy.

They all had been invited to the feast, but they could not be a part of
it.
Nicodemus waited for his turn to be escorted out.

But then to his complete amazement, the young beggar appeared. His
robe was torn and bloody - but he was very much alive!

"You do believe in me," the beggar said, as his eyes looked straight
into Nicodemus's heart.

There was a basin on the floor, and the beggar took off his robe and
squeezed some of the blood into the water in the basin. Then he
dipped his robe into it, until you could see nothing but the water mixed
with blood.

And then an amazing thing happened.

The beggar took the robe from basin - and it was white as snow! It was
so bright and spotless it hurt Nicodemus's eyes to look at it.

And even more than that, the man had changed.

He was no longer a beaten and bloody beggar. He was now standing

there tall and magnificent. Truly he WAS the King's own son!

"My dear Nicodemus! Did you not know that my father built this house
out of love for you?"

"Here," the King's son said to Nicodemus, "Put on my robe, washed in

my blood. Now you are worthy to enter my Father's Feast."

Nicodemus awoke from his dream.

Now he understood what Jesus had said.

Believe in Jesus, and you will be made brand new, you will be born
again.

Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through me."
John 14:6

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone,

the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself
through Christ.
2 Cor 5.16

Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes --who are they,
 and where did they come from?"

I answered, "Sir, you know."

And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great
tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb."
Rev. 7:13, 14

Though your sins be as scarlet,

they shall be white as snow."
Isaiah 1.18

But now the righteousness from God has been made known. It is the
righteousness from God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all
who believe.

We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But we are made
right again by God's grace. We are redeemed by Christ Jesus.

For God presented Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins. By our faith in his
blood, He became our sacrifice.

He did this to prove that he is just. In his great patience he let sin go
unpunished because of his love for us. But now justice has come, and
the rightful price for sin has been paid by the death of Jesus on the
cross, and we who believe in him have been put right with God through
our faith in Jesus.
Rom. 3:21-26 (paraphrased)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:16

God’s Amazing Plan – the wonderful hope of things to come!

A lesson from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians
(Ephesians 1.3-14, 2.1-10)

God has brought us into his family!

The creator of the whole universe is our Father. We are his children,
and Jesus is our brother.

All the riches of heaven now belong to us! They belong to us because
they belong to God, and we are his children.
Just think - the sun, the moon, the earth and stars, are ours!

What a wonder!

And this was God's plan from the very beginning of time.

Before he even made the world, God planned to bring us into his
family, to be together with his son Jesus.

But there was a problem.

How could we ever be with such a good and perfect God, when we
know all the bad things we have done? Worse than that, God can't let
bad things go unpunished. That wouldn't be right or fair, and God is
perfect in all things.

But God loves us so much, that he planned from the beginning to send
Jesus to take the punishment he knew one day we would all deserve.

And so, when the right time came, God took our sins from us, and put
them all on Jesus. He accepted Jesus in our place on the cross to pay
the price for all the wrong we have ever done, or ever will do, no
matter how bad.

All our sins have been paid for by the highest price in all the universe.
They have been paid for by the blood of Jesus. Our debt has been
settled, now and forever. There is nothing more we could ever do. It is
done. We have been set free.

In God's eyes now, we are as fresh and clean and pure as if we never
sinned at all.

When God sees you and me, he sees Jesus. He doesn't see all the
mistakes we have made, or all the times we have messed up or
disappointed him. All of that has been completely washed away.

When God sees us, he sees the pure and perfect light of his son.

Now, because of God's great love for us, we are part of his family
forever.

God has done an amazing thing!

The Golden Rule

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
But what does that mean exactly?

One day…...a large crowd was following Jesus and so he climbed to the
top of a hill so every one could see him. He sat down on a rock, and all
the people sat down on the grass around him. And then Jesus began to
tell them all about God (after all, he should know, since he is God’s
own son!).

“If you were a mom or a dad, and one of your children asked you for
something for breakfast, would you give them a snake? Or a bowl full
of spiders? No! You know better than that! And you know hardly
anything about being a parent.

“Just think then. Your Father in heaven knows everything about being a
good parent. When you ask him for something, will He give you
something bad? Would He give you a bowl of spiders? No way! He will
give you only what is good.

“Don’t you see? You already know what is good and what is bad. So
always do for other people what you would like them to do for you. You
know that that is good. Be good to others, just like you want them to
be good to you. That is what all the laws in all the world are really all
about.”
Another time…
...Jesus was teaching his disciples and he said to them, “Now I am
going to tell you something that is hard to do.

“Love your enemies.

“Even if they hate you, and do mean things to you, love them back. If
someone pulls your hair, don’t pull theirs back. Do something nice for
them instead. If someone takes something of yours, don’t get all mad
and try to grab it back. Instead, let them have it, and be happy for
them, just like you would be happy if they let you have something of
theirs.

“That’s hard! But believe me, if everyone did this, it would change the
world!

“Do for others just what you want them to do for you. If you really do
that, you may just find that your enemy will become your friend.”

You’ll find these two stories in your Bible. The first is from Matthew 7:9-
12, and the second is in Luke 6:27-31. You can look them up and read
them there yourself.
 Keep your eyes on the prize – the joy of knowing Jesus
(Philippians 3.7-14)

Paul the Apostle wrote this…

There is nothing better than knowing Jesus.

I consider everything I have achieved in this life worth nothing

compared to the greatness of knowing Jesus my Lord. And I would
gladly give up everything in this world for the joy of having Christ call
me his friend and brother.

Not that I could ever earn or deserve that. But Christ calls me his friend
and brother because I believe in him. He makes me good and holy, and
worthy of his friendship and love because of my faith in him.

And so, one thing I do. I forget what happened yesterday, and I keep
my eyes on what is ahead. I press on to win the prize that God is
keeping for me - and that is to share in an everlasting life overflowing
with love and happiness with Jesus.

There is nothing better than that on earth or in heaven.

Paul
From his letter to the Philippians

The Armor of God!

A Lesson Taken from Paul's Letter to the Ephesians

Good news!
Even before the beginning of time..
...God planned to send Jesus to save us!

Save us from what?

Well, when God made the world it was perfect in every way.

And then Adam came along and ate the fruit God told him not to eat.
Bad idea! At that moment God’s perfect world wasn’t perfect anymore.
Adam decided to do things his way and not God's way, and that never
works. Sin got in. And sin ruins everything.

God tried to warn Adam. He told him that if he ate the fruit of that tree
he would surely die.
And that's exactly what Adam did.

Well, he didn’t drop over dead right there! He lived for a long time
afterwards. But he didn’t live forever either. One day he died, just like
God said he would. God wasn’t being mean or unfair. God just knew
that’s what sin does.

And we all sin.

We all do what we want to do instead of what God wants us to do. So

we are in trouble! Sin is like a terrible disease, and we all are going to
die from it.

And that’s what Jesus came to save us from!

God loves us so much, He sent His Son to make things right again.

And the price was very high. Sin brought death into God’s perfect
world. The only price to make it right again is for the guilty ones to die
- and that’s us.

But Jesus died FOR us. Jesus took the punishment we deserved. What
amazing, awesome love that is!

But wait!

That's not the end of the story!

Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead!

Jesus defeated death! So now, even though we all are going to die just
like Adam - we all can rise from the dead just like Jesus!

If we believe in Jesus, and we believe that he died for our sins, God will
raise us from dead just like Jesus rose from the dead! That's something
we just can't do ourselves no matter how hard we try - but God can.
And that is God's gift to everyone who believes in His Son.

And now God can adopt us as His children. One day, everything God
has will be ours, and we will live with God forever!

That is the Good News!

Now, since we ARE God’s children, we should live like God’s children.
Always be good and honest and loving. Let’s not be like the people who
don’t care about God, who do mean and terrible things.
But we all know, it's not always easy...

The Armor of God

We are in a battle!

We have an enemy who wants to steal away everything God wants us

to have. Only it’s not a battle we can see. Our enemy is Satan - and
Satan lives in the invisible world of the spirit. Even though we can’t see
him, Satan is very real. And he wants nothing more than to take us
away from God.

And Satan is sneaky. He will use every trick to get us to turn away from
God.

You don’t have to be afraid of Satan - but you have to be ready to fight
him!

Be strong in the Lord!

Make God's strength (He has a bunch!) your strength! Like a great
warrior, you need to put on your armor. Because your enemy is a spirit,
God will give you spiritual armor.

So put on the whole Armor of God!

The Belt of Truth

Tie the Belt of Truth around waist. God is real. God loves you, and Jesus
died for your sins. God is on your side - that is the Truth!

Hold on to the Truth, and like a good tight belt, the truth will hold you
up and keep you strong when Satan attacks.

The Breastplate of Righteousness

Guard your heart.

Put on the Breastplate of Righteousness. Always do what is right and

good. That way, Satan won’t have anything to grab onto to worm his
way into your heart. You will be able to stand straight and tall, with
your head held high.

The shoes of the Gospel of peace

Next, put on the Shoes of The Gospel of Peace.

Be ready to go wherever God sends you to tell the Good News of God’s
amazing love for us.

The shield of faith

And then, to protect yourself from Satan’s flaming arrows, take up the
Shield of Faith!

The God of the Universe is on your side. God is your protector. Put your
faith in Him and Satan cannot hurt you!

The helmet of salvation

Now, put on the Helmet of Salvation.

You are saved! You are God’s child! Satan has already lost, death is
already defeated, and nothing can ever take you away from God. Keep
your thoughts always on that!

The sword of the spirit

And finally, take up the Sword of the Spirit.

God has given us a weapon to fight back against Satan’s lies and
accusations. Our weapon is the truth of God’s Word. It is the Bible.
God’s Word can cut Satan’s lies to pieces. Use God’s Word to fight
Satan just like Jesus did when Satan tempted him in the desert. The
words of the Bible are your sword.

You are God's child. He will never let you go! Hold onto that Truth!

Always do what is good and right.

Be ready to tell anyone you meet about God's amazing love.

Put all your trust in Jesus, and know that he has saved you.

And finally, fight the devil with God's own Word.

Satan is going to try to take away all the good things God has for you -
but don’t worry - God is on our side! And with God on our side, no one -
not even Satan - can defeat us!
Be bold! Be strong! For the Lord your God is with you!

Be bold! Be strong!