ICHTHUS Part 1

Who is Jesus? Intro to ICHTHUS Materials: White board Playdoh & coin Index cards with verses for kids Intro People put a lot of things on the back of their cars. I saw some funny bumper stickers – maybe you’ve been these: One has really, really small writing, and when you finally get your car close enough, it says If you’re close enough to read this bumper sticker, you’re TOO close! Another one reads – The more I am around people, the more I love my dog! People put lots if interesting things on their cars. One time I saw a little car and someone had put a big key on the back, as if you could wind the car up to make it go! Some people also put things on their cards to tell other people important things about them. Maybe you’ve seen the “baby on board” signs. There’s another thing I’ve seen on some cars, and it looks like this: Does anybody know what this thing means? There are a few very, very old symbols that Christians used. The fish is one of them. The Chi-Rho is another The Chi-Rho is made out of 2 Greek letters that are the first 2 letters of the word Christ in Greek. Other early symbols were a cross, and a shepherd. EARLY CHRISTIAN HISTORY Jesus lived about 2,000 years ago and died about 33AD. Slowly, more and more people heard about Jesus and believed He was God. These people becamse Christians. Some of you may not know that for about 300 years after Jesus died, Christians were in great danger for believing in Jesus. At this time, the great empire of Rome ruled a huge part of the world, and Rome would only allow certain “approved” religions to exist. And Christianity was NOT an approved religion. When Christians said that Jesus was Lord, the Roman Empire heard this as saying that Caesar, the Roman emperor, was NOT Lord. And so for many years, Christians were seen as troublemakers, and they were not allowed to get together to worship – at least not legally. Some Christians suffered horribly for their faith in Jesus. So Christians found ways of meeting in secret. Sometimes they met in places no one else wanted to go. They met in deep caves where people buried people. And they also had secret symbols to let other Christians know where to meet to worship. Imagine if we had to hide our AWANA clubs because we might be thrown in jail if we were caught here tonight. Imagine that we had to meet in a different place each week to be safe, and we had to draw a symbol to let people know where we’d be meeting tonight! Would you quit AWANA? Or would you still try to come? There still exists in Rome a huge network of caves called the Catacombs where Christians met to worship, and you can take a tour and see the places where Christians carved symbols into the stone. Years later, these caves became burial places for Christians too. The fish symbol is very interesting. Do any of you know what an acronym is? It’s a word and each letter of the word stands for another word. You may know many acronyms, so let’s see which you know: ATM ID PBJ SOS ICTHUS • Iasous • Christos • Theou Huios • Soter In this little phrase, Christians said the most important things about their faith in Jesus. And so we here at T&T are going to take 3 weeks to think about these 5 words and why they are so important. This is part of what you’re learning in Book 1 – who is Jesus? Tonight we’re going to take two of them - Theou Huios – what you have learned as the answer to the question “Who is Jesus?” - Jesus is God and the Son of God. You learned John 10:30 – I and the Father are one. We’re going to look at some more things the Bible teaches us about Jesus being God – because this is too important to get wrong! I’m going to need some help finding some things in the Bible to help us – hand out cards with: Luke 1:35 Isaiah 9:6 Philippians 2:6-7 Hebrews 1:3 Revelation 19:10 Son of God We’ve just celebrated Christmas so the story of Jesus’ birth should be pretty familiar to you. Think with me about the visit the angel Gabriel had with Mary before Jesus was born. Let’s all turn to Luke chapter 2. What did this angel say to Mary? Who has Luke 1:35? Please read it? What does this tell us about this baby’s mother? Would this baby have a regular father? How was this baby made? (Write on white board – Jesus Christ Human mother Holy Spirit/Most high – the child will be the Son of God Let’s look at another place, and look up a verse back in the Old Testament that we often hear around Christmas. Who has Isaiah 9:6? (write Mighty God/child) This doesn’t sound like any child I have ever known. 3. Let’s look at another things the Bible teaches us about Jesus being the Son of God. Who has Philippians 2:6-7 This part of Philippians is teaching Christians about how much Jesus gave up to become human. What does the verse say – although He was in very nature …….. Now what does “nature” mean? I have a wonderful pet named Chari, who is a golden retriever, and she is in very nature a …dog I look around here and everyone I see is in very nature a … human being What what does this verse tell us about Jesus’ nature? That he was in very nature…God (write on white board) 4. Let’s look at one more – Hebrews 1:3. This verse helps us in another way to understand how Jesus could be God. The words “exact representation” is really a very special word in Greek. To help us understand, let me take some of this Playdoh. And here I have a coin. If I push the PlayDoh on the coin, would you say I get a good copy of the coin, or a poor one? It’s a really good one. And the word used here in Hebrews is the word people used to describe the way a mold was used to create exact copies of coins – perfect copies. Now don’t get confused. What Hebrews is saying is that when you see Jesus, you see exactly what God is. It’s a perfect image. Okay, those are really helpful words that help us understand Jesus’ nature as God. – Jesus is exactly like God JESUS DOES THINGS ONLY GOD CAN DO: The Bible tells us that Jesus is really human – and really God. And he’s not a little bit human and a little bit God. He’s 100% human and 100% God! So if this is true, can you think of things Jesus did while he was on earth that showed he was more than just a human being? Let’s think together about a wonderful miracle Jesus did while he was on earth. He was teaching in a house, and there were lots, and lots of people crowding in. Four friends had a friend who was paralyzed, and they wanted Jesus to heal their friend. Do you remember what happened? Do you remember what Jesus said? So you know that I have the authority to forgive sins, … Only God can forgive sins, and so Jesus was saying – I’m God. And as the people saw the man get up and walk, Jesus also taught them that he could forgive sins. (add forgives sins to white board) There were many times when Jesus showed that he had power over creation. Can you think of one? • Calming the storm • Walking on water • Healing sick people • Raising the dead • Feeding 5000 with hardly any food I don’t know about you (write on board – power over nature), but when I was little, I wished I could make a bird fly over to me and land on my finger, or wish I could make it snow really really hard so we could have a day off from school – but I coulnd’t do it. I did not have power over nature! Here’s one that is a little more difficult to understand, but I think you all can. The Bible is very, very clear that only God is worthy of being worshiped. The last book of the Bible is called Revelation, and in that book, the apostle John is being helped by an Angel to learn things about the end of time. Who has Revelation 19:10 What is happening here? The angel clearly tells John that he should not be worshipped, even though he was powerful and awesome. But earlier in Revelation 5:5-14 we have a glimpse of Jesus being worshiped by angels and everything in heaven and earth worshiping Jesus! So let’s think – If only God is worthy of worship, (hold up one thumb) and Jesus is being worshiped and he’s not saying – don’t do that like the angel said – (hold up other thumb) then we must conclude that Jesus is…God. (lock thumbs) Now maybe you’re thinking – I already know this. Of course Jesus is God. But boys and girls, there are many many people who do not believe this. They find it impossible to believe that any human being could be God. And if it were any one other than Jesus, they would be right. I’m not God, and neither are you. Believing that Jesus is the Son of God, or of the same nature as God, is one of the most basic things that Christians believe. The early Christians understood this and we need to as well. Don’t let yourself be confused. Christians believe that Jesus is God!