Up to this point, the disciples knew that Jesus was pretty important in redemptive history, possibly even the Messiah, but they didn’t fully understand what that all meant… even us 2,000 years later don’t fully understand what that meant. However, when Jesus took Peter, James and John up to the mountain and was transfigured, I […]
After listening to Jesus’ story about “The Master and the Servants” or “The Parable of the Talents” what do you think he was trying to tell his audience (and us) about what life in his kingdom is like? That we are each responsible for the “talents” or the resources God has given us. If we […]
In our current study of the parables, Jesus further frustrates his listeners with the parable of the workers in the vineyard. As the landowner says at the end of the story: “Are you so frustrated because I am so generous?” I think we all are (or can be) frustrated with God because he is so […]
A rich young man approaches Jesus and asks him: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Now we often read that in a timeline sense, like “how do I live forever?” This young man was asking a much deeper, more pressing question: “What must I do to live the kind of life that […]
“Just who is my neighbor?” We’ve (humans) been asking this question for millenia. And this was the very question posed to Jesus back 2,000 years ago: “Who do I have to LOVE?” And it was just like the Son of God to pinpoint exactly “who” it was to the person (or group of people) asking […]
Jesus spent some time with some shady people: tax collectors and sinners. This frustrated the religious, “super-duper Christian” types. So Jesus told a series of three stories: Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, and Lost Son. Now, when the Scripture writers repeat themselves, it is saying something like: PAY ATTENTION HERE! Only in a few instances does […]
This past Sunday we started into some of the teachings of Jesus: the Parables. A parable is “a story with a point” as one student put it. And he was right! Jesus told some compelling stories to his listeners that challenged the current thinking of the day in light of the kingdom of God (Jesus) […]
We stepped back into LIVE acting the story this past Sunday. Jesus raising Lazarus back from the dead has a lot of action in it that makes it perfect for involving the students in the re-telling of the story. Jesus Raises Lazarus Back to Life [y3_w11] Story Lesson (317.65kb, pdf) Audio File (11.25mb, mp3) Video Link […]
Pastor Heath Davis subs in and shares the miraculous story of Jesus walking on water and commanding obedience over creation. Jesus Walks on Water [y3_w10] Story Lesson (341.25kb, pdf) Audio File (14.73mb, mp3) Video Link (11.6.11 @ vimeo.com) Video Link (11.2.08 @ vimeo.com)
Jesus feeding the 5,000 is a well-known story. It’s difficult to mess up, and, at the same time, introduce anything really new. With this in mind I used this opportunity to give the Main Street students some perspective on where we were in the New Testament; particularly the books we are pulling the stories of […]
This past weekend in Main Street, we recounted more miracles of Jesus. He healed: Jairus’ daughter a bleeding woman 10 lepers one leper I kind of set the students up this past Sunday. It was awesome! Every week we rotate either singing or playing a game. This week was the game rotation. So we played […]
This past weekend in Main Street, we did the story where Jesus meets this wild and crazy demon-possessed guy and delivers him from “Legion.” We showed a clip from The Story Keepers, which did a great job telling the story in under 2 minutes. Additionally, we showed a video from about 4 years ago. At […]
This past weekend in Main Street, we recounted some of the miracles of Jesus. He healed: a lame man by a pool a man with a shriveled hand (on the Sabbath) a paralytic let down from the roof by some friends a blind man (again on the Sabbath) We learned that “miracles” are REAL unlike […]
Galileo was our special guest @ Main Street a couple of years ago and he shared about his experience doing the opposite (having a different theory of geocentrism than the leading minds of the day). He connects and relates his experience with what Jesus experienced, particularly in Jesus’ message entitled: “The Sermon on the Mount.” […]
The students in Main Street learned that the main point of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was (and is): “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near…” 180 degree turnaround. Do virtually the opposite of what we would humanly (or in our flesh) want to do. We reviewed the four categories of people Jesus encountered […]
A little over 3 years ago, when we were in the New Testament (Main Street | Year 3) and started with the Birth of Jesus story, I decided to get in character and tell them a unique kind of Christmas story. It is tough telling kids the same story over and over again and not […]
Jesus is led into the wilderness by the Spirit (right after he is baptized) and is there (both physically and symbolically) for 40 days and 40 nights. He is hungry, tired and worn. And the devil, the tempter, comes to Jesus in his human weakness and tempts him. I recently returned from a business trip […]
This week we find ourselves interacting with John the Baptist (JTB), the cousin of Jesus. The Main Street students grabbed their Bibles, turned to Mark 1, and read about who JTB was, what JTB talked about, and who JTB baptized. Talk about a passionately, wild man of God. John the Baptist and Jesus’ Baptism [y3_w03] Story […]
This teaching contains the stories of Jesus being dedicated at the Temple when he was 8 days old (Luke 2:21-40) and when Mary and Joseph misplaced Jesus when he was 12, and was found sitting among the teachers in the Temple (Luke 2:41-52). Unfortunetly, the LIVE teaching from 9.11.11 didn’t get recorded. There is a […]
It’s Christmas in the Fall! Main Street | Year 3 focuses on the New Testament and starts with the birth of Jesus. This Sunday we used a couple of clips from the “Story Keepers” (a series of videos which chronicle the stories of the life of Jesus in a post-resurrection, new-church community Roman world). Birth […]