By Josh Bones

Take just a minute to reflect on how awesome our Lord is. Think of all of creation, think on how the Lord made it all and has sustained it through every second of its existence. Think of the story of Israel through the Old Testament, think of how the Lord carried them through their trials, smashed their enemies, and saved them from destruction time and time and time again. Think about the incredible grace that has been shown to us in God’s own son dying for us on a cross so that we can be in eternal relationship with him. There is just so much to our God that it really is beyond our comprehension!

Now picture this: God, Ruler of the universe, Creator of all things and Redeemer of his chosen people, and imagine him in the skin of a middle aged man, on his knees in the dust, washing someone’s dirty, smelly feet. Sounds crazy doesn’t it? But that’s exactly what Jesus did for his disciples in John 13 (chase it up now!). That’s right, Jesus, the Lord and Ruler of all things past, present and future got down on his knees and scrubbed the disciple’s stinky feet clean.

Why would he do this? What on earth could he be trying to show them? That God is a God of clean feet? I don’t think so, in fact it seems to me that there’s something far more significant than just feet washing going on here. Jesus washing the disciples’ feet was to demonstrate two things, follow this through with me.

Firstly, and most significantly, Jesus washing those feet was symbolic of what he was about to do on the cross. When Jesus defeated sin through his death and resurrection, he didn’t clean our feet, but instead offered to clean our souls. Anyone can clean someone’s feet, in fact anyone can clean their own feet quite easily, but only Jesus can take away our sins and clean us so that we can be friends with God.

Secondly, Jesus was showing that he didn’t come to be a ruler who pushes people around and tells everyone what to do. Jesus came as a ruler who serves his people, even to the point of death! This is something worth thinking about, if we are God’s people saved through Jesus’ blood, and if we desire to be more like Jesus, then how should we act? Jesus has answered it for us right here – we should serve.

But who should we serve and how should we do it? Well as Christians we should, of course, be serving God with everything we do, but what does this actually look like in our lives? It means many things, things that we hear every week in youth group like reading the bible so we can know God better and talking to our friends about Jesus so they can serve him to. But as well as this, it means serving other Christians.

1 Peter 4:10 says, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace”. This means that we should constantly be on the look out to see how we can serve our Christian brothers and sisters. Think about what this means particularly for youth group, let me give you some examples; if God has given you strong arms, maybe you could help setting up chairs; if God has given you a caring heart, maybe you could listen to people who are upset and cheer them up; if God has given you a clever mind, maybe you could help set up the sound gear or computers; if God has given you a big friendly smile, maybe you could go say hello to that new person by themselves up the back. Don’t hear me saying ‘only help out if you think your good at something’, that’s not the case at all! Maybe you don’t have a strong arm, that doesn’t mean the chairs don’t need to be set up, get stuck in and help out anyway!

As Christians we are all about serving God, and one way of doing that is by serving others. Don’t be one of those people who just sit in church or youth, listen to the talk, eat the supper, then leaves. Instead, be one of the people who is always on the lookout for what needs to be done, for who needs a friend, for how they can make someone else’s life easier. Remember, by serving others, we are really serving God!

Can you think of ways to serve at ccecyouth?  Leave your comments…

Last week we were presented with the claim that the actual bones of Jesus have been found and are now in our possession.

If this is the case then this is an enormously significant archaeological discovery. It is perhaps the most significant find of all time. It would mean the whole Christian faith completely crumbles or at best becomes nothing more than the basis of a program of personal morality that may or may not be adopted as good to live by. But as the apostle Paul says – if Christ has not been raised then we are still in our sins and to be pitied more than all men because we have believed a lie (1 Cor 15).

Is this discovery truly what it claims to be? In answer consider the two sides of this case.

On the one side is a set of very slim circumstantial evidences. On the other is a very impressive set of eye witness accounts, an extensive set of ancient non-Christian testimonies which confirm the eye witness accounts, the existence of the early church, the experience of the early Christians and the perfect integration of all these pieces of evidence into a seamless whole.

Consider the slim circumstantial evidence first.

In 1980 an emergency evacuation of an ancient tomb discovered by engineers unearthed a number of burial boxes (ossuaries). A number of the boxes had these inscriptions “Jesus, son of Joseph”; “Maria”; “Mariamene”; “Matthew”; “Judas, son of Jesus”.

At the time the Jewish archaeologists made nothing of it and simply stored them away with the many, many other burial boxes. They concluded that it was a burial chamber probably used by three or four generations of Jews from the beginning of the Common Era.

The boxes would’ve lain untouched in the storage facility except that the man famous for presenting to the world the supposed bones of Jesus’ brother (it seems a forgery) found them while doing research for a documentary and drew what he says were the obvious lines between the dots.

However, consider the following evidence.

The tomb was tampered with in ancient times and vandalized. Every fourth woman in the ancient world had the name Mary (remember there were three Mary’s mentioned in the gospels alone) and Jesus was as common as John is today (perhaps more so). In fact, we have a letter dating from the first century written by someone named Jesus, addressed to someone else named Jesus and witnessed by a third party named Jesus.

The man who wrote the official report when the boxes were first found and stored states that, “The names on the ossuaries are very common names or derivatives of names.” The echo of the names of the members of Jesus’ family, he says, “is just a coincidence.” Hence the archeologists at the time stored the boxes convinced they held little significance.

Add to this the enormous historical problems that arise as this possibility is contemplated. If Jesus’ life didn’t end in the way the Gospels’ state but rather he married and had children why would he and his family be buried in Jerusalem when he actually lived in northern Galilee? How could he and or his family afford such a burial spot? If it is acknowledged that he was buried there because that was the site of his crucifixion, why was his child also buried there instead of back in Nazareth? And how did he have a child when there is not a scrap of historical evidence he was even married let alone had a child following along behind throughout his wanderings etc.?

Consider the evidence on the other side.

An impressive set of eye-witness accounts – bound together in our Bible are the earliest known records of the life of Jesus. They were included in our Bible precisely because they were early and known to be written by those that saw and heard Jesus and so were best placed to give testimony about him. Not only do these records bear the undeniable stamp of unpretentious historical remembrances, they all unambiguously assert that the Jesus of history was crucified under Pontius Pilate around the age of 30 (no mention of marriage or a child).

They also are all united in their claim that he then rose bodily from the grave three days later and was seen by many people. These comments are entirely unadorned with the marks of fabrication. They are simple and plain as befits a straight forward historical account.

Further eye-witness testimony is added by the Apostle Paul who asserts that this conviction was proclaimed loudly and boldly by those first witnesses in the city of Jerusalem itself – within metres of his empty tomb.

History confirms much of this. We have an extensive collection of writings by non-Christian authors that not only confirm the fact of Jesus’ crucifixion but also confirm that the early Christians claim he rose again bodily.

All of this is significant. For this modern discovery to be true it would leave us with only two possible conclusions about all this evidence. Either those early eye-witnesses lied, or they were deceived. The ‘lie’ conclusion flies in the face of the character of not only the writings of those men but the extra-ordinary lives they lived in sacrificing all to declare the resurrection of Jesus. The deceived conclusion flies in the face of the historical fact that the enemies of the Christian faith failed to bring forward the real body of Jesus. If Jesus was all along buried in a tomb in Jerusalem why didn’t anyone point it out to those who kept preaching he was risen – in the very city his body was apparently lying? And if they did bring out the body, how did the claim that he had risen take such a hold among the people of the very city his body was apparently lying in?

Further evidence of the fact of Jesus’ early death and resurrection is the establishment of the church. Something changed Jesus’ followers from cowards who were afraid of servant girls to a group of men who courageously took the news of Jesus victory over death to all the world and in very short order convinced thousands of people (in Jerusalem and surrounding areas) that Jesus was bodily raised from the grave. The change was enormous, so the thing that worked this change must itself have been enormous – a resurrection.
Added to this is the spiritual experience of these early followers. This kind of evidence may not be admissible in a court of law but it is compelling nonetheless.

But finally, it is powerful that all these pieces of evidence explain perfectly the circumstances surrounding Jesus, his life and times and all that followed. They dovetail so well together it only makes sense if it is the simple truth.

By contrast the possibility his body might have lain in a tomb in Jerusalem until 1980 creates a minefield of historical oddities and difficulties – as mentioned above.

In the end it is a matter of the trustworthiness of the eyewitness accounts – men who were there – versus very slim circumstantial evidence.

Andrew

4th March 2007

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Who is Jesus?  Who do people think that he was? Everyone has an opinion on Jesus.  Some people think he was a cool dude.  Others think that he is their homeboy.  Some think that Jesus was a great teacher.  Some thought he was a liar.  Others said that he was a lunatic.  While others claimed that he was the Lord of the universe!!

Who do you think Jesus is?  Do you think about him?  If you do—what do you think he is like?

About 2000 years ago there was a biography written about Jesus by a man named Mark.  In the gospel according to Mark you see Jesus ask his close friends this question.

Who do people say I am?

How do they reply?  Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah and still others say one of the prophets.

The whole way up until this point the question on everyone’s lips is: Who is this man?  In chapters 1-8 of Mark we see Jesus do some incredible things.  He teaches with authority.  He heals the sick.  He walks on water.  He feeds 5000 people with only a few bread rolls and a couple of fish.  He calms a storm.  He raises a dead girl back to life!

Everyone is asking the question… who is this guy?  Where did he come from?  How can he do all these things?  By what authority is he doing all these things?  And so that was the question on everyone’s lips—and everyone had an opinion on who Jesus was.  Some loved him.  Others hated him.  While still others just didn’t know what to think.

So Jesus asks his friends the question: Who do people say I am?  The disciples share some of the ideas that are going around.  But then Jesus turns the question straight back onto them.

Have you ever had that feeling in class when you think you know the answer—but you’re just not sure—you being to believe that maybe you don’t really know the answer?

My guess is that at this point the disciples think they know who Jesus is—but they aren’t quite sure—and maybe they’re wrong.

So Jesus asks the question: but what about you… who do YOU say that I am?

Imagine that you were there for a moment—what would YOU say?

What does Peter say?

He says: “You are the Christ”.

The Christ?  The Christ?  Isn’t that just Jesus’ last name?  Jesus Christ the son of Mr and Mrs Christ?

For most people today the word Christ is either Jesus’ last name or a swearword.

But 2000 years ago the nation of Israel were waiting for THE CHRIST to appear.

‘CHRIST’ isn’t Jesus’ last name it’s actually a title that says something about who Jesus is.

The word ‘Christ’ is a Greek word that is translated ‘Messiah’ in Hebrew and ‘Anointed One’ in English.

Throughout Israel’s history they had a bunch of different guys who were types of Christ: Anointed Ones.  They were the Kings of Israel who were anointed to rule the people under God’s authority.

But one of the problems with the Anointed Ones in the Old Testament is that they kept on failing.  They didn’t rule how God wanted them to—and they failed the nation.

God in his kindness made some massive promises in the Old Testament that he would one day send a Christ that would come who would be THE Christ.  This Christ would be different from all the ones before him.  This Christ would come and rule in a way that none of the Kings before him ruled.  This King would come and his rule would be established forever (2 Samuel 7).  This King that was coming would be God himself!

So…

When Peter says to Jesus: YOU ARE THE CHRIST—what is he saying?  He’s saying that you (Jesus) are this King.  Jesus you are the King that we’ve been waiting for.

The first 8 chapters of Mark are all about ‘Who is this man?’  The answer comes in chapter 8.  Who is he?  He is THE CHRIST.  And so from chapter 8 until the end of Mark the big question is: what will it mean for Jesus to be the Christ?  And secondly—what will it mean to follow the Christ?

Straight away Jesus says what it will mean for him to be the Christ.  He explains what type of King he is.

MARK 8:31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

Jesus repeats this similar statement in ch 9 and 10 as well.  What type of King will he be?  He is a King that will suffer, be killed and rise again.  That’s why Jesus came.  To do that.  To die for us.  But to conquer death and be raised again.

What did it mean for Jesus to walk on this planet?

For Jesus to do the J-walk—it meant he died a death he didn’t deserve.  It meant he loved us when we were unlovely.  What type of King is Jesus?  He’s a servant King… not a king that came to be served but a King that came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)

Immediately after this Jesus explains something of what it will mean to follow him  In the end it’s to be like him.  To suffer and to take up your cross.

MARK 8:34 “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

What does it mean for us to follow Jesus?  What is the aim of J-WALK?  To see that following Jesus is about trusting in him and denying ourselves like he denied himself…

Next month: part 2

What do you think it might look like to deny yourself and do the J-WALK?

(Discuss in the comments)

10 - In discussion groups, ask “Why?” to everything everyone says.

9 - As a group, ask your leader to the movies and then when you are all there, tell her that you all just assumed he would be paying.

8 - Pretend that your leader has been calling you the wrong name all year. “Um…I don’t want make a big deal but my name is actually Jess, you’ve been calling me Lucia for some reason”

7 - Go to ccecyouth with a green dot on your forehead.

6 - Turn up to ccecyouth in a Karate outfit and pretend you thought it was Wednesday night. In ‘frustration’, use one of the year 7 boys as a sparring partner.

5 - Ring your leader every night after dinner and give them a detailed account of grace including everything from who said it to how hard your mum was squeezing your hand.

4 - Ask your leader to explain predestination… every 5 mins.

3 - Lead them to believe you have quit school and count how many times they try to persuade you to return. (Particularly effective if you’re under 15)

2 - Every time they suggest an activity, say to your leader “My parents forbid that sort of frivolity at home and frankly I’m shocked you would suggest it”.

1 - Ask them what book in the bible they are reading and how they are finding it and then a week later when they ask you, tell them exactly the same word for word.

Got any more? Leave them in the comments…