AWANA Lesson on 03.01.06

As many of you know, AWANA is a program dedicated to providing children a safe place in which they can interact with each other through fun and games while at the same time providing them with the foundation of Scripture which we always pray will lead to their salvation and growth in their Christian life.

AWANA stands for Approved Workers Are Not Ashamed and comes from 2 Timothy 2:15 which says: "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

At any rate, I was privileged to be asked to teach during the council time for AWANA's at our church (council time is when they receive their Bible instrucion...in our church it comes right after they've spent time reciting the verses they've memorized throughout the week). The following is a summary of the lesson I brought to the young people.

Jesus completes His work!

On November 30th of 2005 I had the privilege of presentation a lesson that I titled “The birth of Christ in Scripture.” We looked at passages from Genesis to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Romans. We saw how Christ was promised, from the very beginning…a carefully planned gift from God the Father to a fallen humanity.

On February 1st of 2006 the lesson I brought to you was titled “Nicodemus and the new birth.” For this lesson we focused on John 3, and we looked at what it means to be born again…to experience the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Today, my lesson is titled “Jesus completes His work.” I hope and pray that it will serve to bring us to a complete understanding of the importance that Jesus the Christ (Messiah) should have in our lives…of the love, respect, devotion, and honor with which we should live our lives BECAUSE of our Lord.

Read John 19:1-11; 28-30

This last section is, and should be, a difficult passage for the people of God to read. What I want us to do this evening is focus on those beautiful words of Jesus, “It is finished!”

What did Jesus our Lord mean when He said those words?

Remember what we read in Genesis 3:15

Sin came into the world through the disobedience of Man…and because God loved us so much…there was a gift already in place for us…Jesus!

So when we read these words of Jesus, “It is finished” we must realize that He is referring to that whole will of God that had its roots partially in the prophecy of Genesis 3:15.

That whole will being:
1. That Jesus Christ should become incarnate (born as man, yet being God) Isaiah 7:14 and Isaiah 9:6
2. That He must be exposed to shame for our sake Psalm 22:6-8
3. That He must suffer physically Psalm 22:16-18
4. That He must die Psalm 22:14

This was the will of God for Jesus. This sounds horrible doesn’t it? Yet the Father wanted this because of His love for us…

And Jesus did it because of His love for us.

Read Luke 22:39-44

Jesus willingly went through shame, pain, and death…first: because He loved the Father so much that He wanted to do all that the Father wanted Him to do…secondly: because He loved you and I so much and knew that without His death we could never be saved from our sins! Only His death could wipe away the sin of every man, woman, and child!

So, then, through His death, Jesus accomplished the following: He fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law, His perfect and holy nature submitted to the penalty that sin demands, he obtained mercy and atonement for anyone who calls upon His name! See Romans 10:9-10

I want to tell you a story:

There was a young man who lost his parents when very young…he never knew his mother and barely knew his father before they died.

This young man’s brothers were gang members…drugs and violence were a normal part of his life. When he was a teenager, he himself became involved in gang activity. He stole, robbed, and fought constantly. Even though he was not a very good fighter…his misplaced pride demanded that he never walk away from a fight.

This young man knew that God existed…but He hated God…he blamed God for the deaths of his parents, for losing his brothers to jail or to the physical abuse of someone close to them. He loved guns and the power he derived from them...

Ask) Does this sound like a very nice person?
Ask) Would you want to be around someone like this?

Someone loved this young man enough to share the gospel with him…someone loved him enough to give him a Bible. One night while reading the Scriptures he came across John 8 (paraphrase the story found there). God used this passage to open his eyes and to melt his heart…and that night this young man became a Christian!

Ask) Isn’t that amazing!?!?

It took him many years before he began to grow spiritually…before he understood that to be a Christian meant wanting to be like Jesus and wanting to obey our Father. But now this person, who is no longer a young man, tries to live for Jesus every day of his life. He messes up A LOT!!!!! But he knows that he belongs to Christ and that he will one day be serving Him in heaven!

For those of you who have not guessed it yet…do you know who this young man was? This young man who you probably wouldn’t want to be around?

He’s talking to you right now!

Ask) Why do you think I have shared this with you?
Ask) What does it have to do with the last words of our Lord and Savior?

Read Romans 6:8-11
Read Romans 8:1

The reason that I live the life I do now…the reason that I could be saved from my terrible sin…is because Jesus FINISHED the work of salvation on the cross…once and forever!

Jesus’ words meant that a sinner like myself could be forgiven…because Jesus made sure the penalty for MY sin was PAID for in FULL!

Likewise…the words of Jesus mean that for those in this room who are not Christians…that you too can receive the gift of eternal life. That you do not have to suffer the penalty of your sin…that if you believe that Jesus died for your sins on the cross…you do not have to experience the judgment of God…only His mercy!

In Isaiah 45:22, the Lord says, “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”

Young people…look to Him and be saved!

Before ending, allow me to read to you once again that wonderful passage: “Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit” John 19:29-30

[I have left the above lesson as I presented it for the children just because I wanted to maintain the feel in which I prepared it...normally we have about 15 minutes in which to present the lesson so I sort of condensed the message of the cross for them...and I pray that I managed to do this while staying true to the call to Believe...I feel I might have added more regarding the need for repentance but that was presented previously in the lesson regarding Nicodemus. :)