March 27, 2016 - Easter-Altar Worship

Tony and Michelle Pawlak

MEMORY VERSE

Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen!

Happy Easter, everyone!  So, what does Easter have to do with altar worship?  Good question.  Today's lesson explores that very thing.  

     An altar is something that is built for making sacrifices to God.  The most important sacrifice was the sin offering; the once a year sacrifice of an unblemished lamb.  This was made by the high priest during Passover for the sins of Israel.  However, the blood of animals wasn't enough to pay for our sins forever.  We needed something better.

     The first altars were built of uncut stones. Later, they built them of cut stones.  Then they built a moveable bronze altar for the Tabernacle and eventually a larger one for the Temple.  However, there was to be one more altar...

     Last week we left off at the Last Supper where Jesus revealed that one of the Disciples would betray Him.  Judas Iscariot then mysteriously left the dinner. The rest of them went with Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane.  There, Jesus told them that they would all abandon Him out of fear.  Peter refused to believe that!  He said he would never abandon Jesus no matter what. Jesus then told Peter that he would deny he even knew Jesus three times that very night!

     Then he took Peter, James and John and went off to pray.  Jesus asked His Father if there was any way to avoid what was coming but completely surrendered to what God the Father wanted. Afterwards, Judas came with soldiers to arrest Jesus. Peter valiantly tried to stop them but eventually ran away with the rest of the Disciples.  However, Peter followed from a distance and waited outside as they took Jesus into the house of Caiaphas, the high priest. 

     Inside the house, Jesus was being put on trial.  They were unable to find people to accuse Jesus of anything so they found people to lie.  Even these did not agree with each other. The entire time Jesus stood there as quiet as a lamb (John the Baptist had called Jesus the "Lamb of God" at His baptism). Finally, Jesus was asked plainly if he was the Son of God.  His answer is in Mark 14:62 “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Hearing this they saw no more need for witnesses and considered Jesus guilty of blasphemy, a crime punishable by death! They then blindfolded Jesus and began to strike him saying, “Prophesy to us, Messiah. Who hit you?” (Matthew 26:68)

     Outside in the courtyard, Peter is confronted three times with people accusing him of being a follower of Jesus. Each time Peter denies this.  Then, suddenly, he hears the rooster crow and remembers that Jesus said Peter would deny Him three times.  Peter is so ashamed of himself that he goes away and cries uncontrollably.

     Jesus is then taken to see Pontius Pilate, the Roman in charge of Jerusalem.  Since the Romans were in charge of Israel, they had to be the ones to put Jesus to death because the Jews weren't allowed.  Pilate questioned Jesus but found no reason to convict Him.  When he heard that Jesus was from Galilee, he sent Him to King Herod who was in charge there.

     Herod was happy to see Jesus since he had heard of all the miraculous things He had done.  Herod told Jesus to perform a miracle for him but Jesus just stood there silent as a lamb again.  This angered Herod and he said that Jesus was probably crazy but not deserving of death.  Then they decided to mock Jesus.  They put a purple robe on him and pressed a crown of sharp thorns into his head!  Then they took him back to Pilate.  

     Pilate decided to have Jesus scourged but not killed. Afterwards he planned to let Jesus go.  However, the Priests convinced the people to insist that Jesus be crucified (Killed by being nailed to a cross).  Pilate tried one last time to save Jesus.  He gave the people a choice to either free Jesus or a murderer name Barabbas.  The people chose Barabbas and said to crucify Jesus.  Finally, Pilate gave in and gave the order to crucify Jesus.

     When someone was crucified, the Romans made the criminals carry their crosses through the streets of Jerusalem all the way to Golgotha (Calvary) where they would die.  Jesus, however, was too weak after being beaten, scourged, and made to wear a crown of thorns.  So the Romans found a man name Simon from Cyrene to carry it for Him.  

     Once they made it to Golgotha, Jesus was nailed to His cross through His hands and feet.  While He hung there, the soldiers gambled for His clothes, the people mocked Him, and the Priests challenged Him to get Himself down.  Even one of the two thieves He was crucified with started making fun of Him!  The other thief was smarter.  He knew who Jesus was and told the other man to leave Him alone.  He knew they deserved their punishment but Jesus had done nothing wrong.  He then asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His Kingdom.  Jesus said they would be together in Paradise before the day was over.

     As Jesus looked down at the people, He said “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)  Then, after six hours on the cross, the sky went black.  Jesus said, "It is finished."  (John 19:30) and died.  Then an earthquake shook the ground and the curtain in the Temple that blocked the Holy of Holies tore from top to bottom, opening the way to the presence of God to us all.  

     In this way, Jesus was the final sacrifice for the sin offering: the ultimate pure and unblemished Lamb of God.  The altar on which He was sacrificed was a Roman cross.  The Bible tells us “that the wages of sin is death” but Jesus had no sin to die for! This enabled His death to pay for the sins of the world.  The crucifixion of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of the sins of any who would believe in Him was the culmination of the Passover story started way back at the Exodus; and in another way, the Garden of Eden itself.  This is how the Easter story coincides with altar worship.

     Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.  The Pharisees had the tomb blocked with a huge stone, sealed and guards posted outside because they knew that Jesus said He would rise on the third day.  They were afraid the Disciples would steal His body and claim that He had risen.  

     On the third day, women were going to anoint 
Jesus' body but didn't know how they would move the stone. When they got there, they saw they didn't have to.  Earlier that morning, two angels had come and moved the stone and one even sat on it!  The guards had fallen down from fear and then ran away.  The angels said that Jesus had risen and told them to tell the Disciples.  

     At first they didn't believe the women but John and Peter went to check it out and they found the tomb open and empty.  One of the women, Mary Magdalene, also went and began weeping.  Then the two angels appeared. 

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” (John 20:13)

    She then turned around and saw who she thought was the gardener and asked him where he had put Jesus' body. He simply said, "Mary."  Then suddenly she knew she was looking at Jesus Himself!  He told her to go back and tell the Disciples.  Later, Jesus appeared to them inside a room that was completely locked.  They thought He was a ghost. To prove He was real and alive, Jesus ate some fish in front of them.  He then spent the next forty days on Earth and revealed Himself to about five hundred people.  He then gave the Disciples the Great Commission and ascended into Heaven before their eyes.

March 20, 2016 - Holiday Worship

Tony and Michelle Pawlak

MEMORY VERSE
This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24 (NIV)


Ever celebrated a holiday?  Ever wonder why it was called a holiday? Well, it was originally HOLY DAY!  A holy day was a day set aside to remember or celebrate something very important to the church. They are days that we take time out of our lives to worship God for specific things He has done in the past.

     To give an example of Holiday Worship, we decided to explore one of the most important holidays to the Jewish people that also became very special to the Christian Church: Passover.  This week's story took place over such a long period of time that we had to use a time machine to experience it all in our short class period!  

     First, we went all the way back to ancient Egypt in the year 1450 B.C.  Moses had just told Pharaoh to let God's people, the Children of Israel, go.  Pharaoh refused so God stepped in.  He sent nine horrible plagues (really bad things) to cause Pharaoh to regret defying God: turning the water to blood, frogs, gnats, flies, killed the livestock, boils, hail, locusts, and even darkness.  None of this budged the Pharaoh's hard heart.  So God decided to send one more devastating plague.

   God saw that the only way to get Pharaoh to give up was to take the life of every first born son in Egypt, including Pharaoh's!  God told Moses that he was sending an Angel of Death to do this but that there was a way to protect the Israelites.  They were to take a perfect lamb that had nothing wrong with it and sacrifice it, painting the top and sides of their doors with its blood.  That way, the angel would see the blood and pass over their home.  This is how Passover got its name.  It worked!  Pharaoh knew he was beaten and let the Israelites go.  (The parting of the Red Sea happened a little later)

     Then we got back into the time machine and went forward to the year 520 B.C.  This is the year that a great prophet named Zechariah foretold how Israel's king would arrive in Jerusalem on a donkey. 

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!

    Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!

See, your king comes to you,

    righteous and victorious,

lowly and riding on a donkey,

    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  

Zechariah 9:9 (NIV)

     Back into the time machine we went and traveled forward to the year 33 A.D.  When we got out of the time machine we found ourselves just outside Jerusalem only five days before Passover.  Jesus was just arriving with his Disciples along with thousands of other Jews from all over who came to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem.  

     Jesus sent some of His disciples to go fetch a special donkey that had never been ridden.  He even told them where to find it and how to convince its owners to let them have it!  Jesus then got on the donkey and began riding into Jerusalem.

     The people must have remembered Zechariah's prophecy because they grabbed palm branches and began waving them and laying them, as well as their coats, on the road in front of him.  They even started shouting "HOSANNA! (Which means Save, we pray).  Blessed is the King of Israel!"  This did not make the Pharisees happy.  They told Jesus to quiet the crowd down.  Jesus told them, “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40 NIV) 
   Five days later, Jesus and His disciples got together in an upper room to eat the Passover meal (which is called a SEDER).  Before they could eat, Jesus got up and began washing the disciples' feet, a job usually meant for the servants.  At first, Peter didn't want Jesus to wash his feet. He thought that Jesus was too important to be washing anyone's feet!  Jesus explained that He needed to do it or else Peter would have no place in His Kingdom. 

Jesus was showing, by example, how we should be servants to others.

     Afterwards, Jesus gave them some bad news.  He said that one of them would betray him!  They were all shocked!  One by one they asked Him if they were the one until, lastly, Judas Iscariot asked, "Is it me?"  Jesus, who already knew it was Judas, told him that what he was going to do he had better do quickly.  He didn't even try to stop him!!!  Judas left without anyone knowing why.

     After dinner, Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and passed it out to the Disciples.  He said, "This represents my body which is going to be broken for your sake." (paraphrase)  Then He took His cup of wine and said "This represents My blood which is being poured out so your sins can be forgiven." (paraphrase) We still celebrate this ceremony today.  It is called communion.  

    We will pick this story up where we left off next week as we learn about Altar Worship and the greatest Christian Holiday there is: EASTER!

March 13, 2016 - Tabernacle Worship

Tony and Michelle Pawlak

MEMORY VERSE
For you, Lord, are the Most High over all the earth;     
Psalm 97:9a (NIV)

 All this quarter we've been talking about worship in all its various forms.  In class we've been calling it WORTHSHIP because we are showing God how much He is worth to us.  

     Today, we talked about the Tabernacle in the wilderness and how the Jews would have worshiped God.  God told the Israelites to build the Tabernacle as a place to meet and worship Him.  The word "tabernacle" means tent or dwelling place.  It was often called the Tabernacle of Meeting because that is where God met with Moses or the High Priests.  While in the wilderness, God would lead His people with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  Then this pillar would settle over the Tabernacle until God wanted them to move again.  

     Here is a brief description of the function of the Tabernacle.  In the Sinai Desert, Jewish worshipers would come to the Tabernacle to offer sacrifices to God.  They would bring the best animals of their flock and offer it to God.  The priests would sacrifice the animals and then offer it to God on the Altar as a burnt sacrifice.  There were many other types of sacrifices and offerings as well.  Then, the priests would have to wash themselves in the Laver (wash basin) before they could go into the Tabernacle itself.

     After washing their hands and feet, they would go into the first room of the Tabernacle called the Holy Place.  In this room you would find the Lampstand/Menorah, the Table for Showbread (which only the priests could eat), and the altar for incense.  Once a year, the High priest would offer a sacrifice for the sins of Israel on the Altar and then take the blood and put it on the horns of the Altar of Incense. 

      The High Priest would then go into the innermost part of the Tabernacle called the Most Holy Place, also called the Holy of Holies.  There he would find the Ark of the Covenant.  The Ark was a wood box covered in gold and contained the Ten Commandments, a jar of manna, and the staff of the first High Priest; Aaron.  The Ark was covered by the Mercy Seat which was made of solid gold and had two Cherubim (the only angels that have wings) on the top.  The High Priest would put the blood on the Mercy Seat so God would forgive the sins of Israel for that year.  A description of the Priests and how the Tabernacle was set up can be found in Exodus 40.

    Since God knew that animal sacrifices would only temporarily atone for man's sins, He gave us one final sacrifice that would allow for our sins to be forgiven forever:  His son Jesus Christ! 

March 6, 2016 - Group Worship

Tony and Michelle Pawlak

MEMORY VERSE
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.  Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. (NIV)
Psalm 100:1-2

A few weeks ago we learned about Israel's most evil king: King Manasseh.  Manasseh had led Israel into worshiping false gods and paid dearly for it before returning to worshiping the one true God.  (You will find this story in II Chronicles 33:1-20)

     This week we learned about one of Israel's greatest kings: Manasseh's father, King Hezekiah.  This story is so important that God put it in the Bible three times: II Kings 18-19, II Chronicles 29-32:23, Isaiah 36-37.  When Hezekiah became king, Israel had been worshiping idols placed by his father, King Ahaz.  Hezekiah, however, loved God and "...did what was right in the eyes of the Lord" (II Kings 18:3) and "...kept the commands that the Lord had given Moses" (II Kings 18:6). As soon as he became king, Hezekiah began smashing all the altars and monuments to false gods as well as removing any unclean thing from the Temple; a process that took sixteen days to complete!  
     After all this was done, Hezekiah invited all Israel to come to the Temple to worship the one true God as a group.  They had singing, musicians, and many sacrifices.  So proper worship to God was restored in all Israel and everything seemed great...for awhile.  
     King Sennacherib of Assyria began going through Israel, conquering it city by city.  King Hezekiah knew Jerusalem would soon be next so he wrote a letter asking King Sennacherib what he could do so the Assyrian army wouldn't attack.  Sennacherib said he wanted three tons of silver and one ton of gold! Hezekiah, wanting to protect his city, gave all the gold and silver in Jerusalem, even the gold from the Temple doors, to Sennacherib.  Sennacherib took the money but sent his army to attack Jerusalem anyways.
     The Assyrians surrounded the city and shouted taunts at the people making fun of King Hezekiah and the God of Israel. Hezekiah knew what to

do.  He dressed in sackcloth and bowed before God in the Temple. God sent the prophet Isaiah to tell Hezekiah that Sennacherib would soon go back to Assyria.  This came true but Sennacherib left his army at Jerusalem and sent a letter to Hezekiah telling him to give up.  In the letter he said that God could not save Jerusalem any more than the gods of the other nations he'd conquered could save them.  
     Hezekiah took the letter to the Temple and showed it to God.  Hezekiah and Isaiah prayed to God, asking for help from Jerusalem and God spoke to Isaiah telling him that, "I will defend this city and save it," (Isaiah 37:35a) and that not even an arrow would be fired against the city.  
     That night, God sent an angel to kill 185,000 men of the Assyrian army.  The next morning they woke up to find their fellow soldiers dead.  Seeing this, the Assyrian army decided to break camp and go back where they came from.  
     When we worship God, alone or in a group, we can be confident to lay our problems before the Lord like King Hezekiah did and know that God can fight the battles for us.  Things can get hard sometimes but we must always trust and worship God.

Colored pictures from freebibleimages.com

February 28, 2016 - Family Worship

Tony and Michelle Pawlak

MEMORY VERSE

These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; and you are to teach them carefully to your children. (CJB)

Deuteronomy 6:6-7a

     This week we learned about the importance of worship within the family and how vital it is to pass on our faith to our children.  After God had given Moses the 10 Commandments, he presented them to the people.  The Israelites, being afraid of hearing God's voice from Mount Sinai, were sent back to camp while Moses went back to God to get the full set of instructions on how they should live in the Promised Land.  He then went back to the people to teach them what God expected of them.  

     This passage of scripture became known to the people of Israel as The Shema, and is very sacred.  It begins with "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One!"  God tells the people in Deuteronomy 6:8-9 to "Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." 
     Moses goes on to teach Israel the greatest commandment: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."
     This week we mainly wanted to focus on verses 6 and 7, " These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up,"    and verses 20-25 where Moses instructs the people that, when their children ask them about these rules, they are to tell them how God brought them out of Egypt.  Also, if they feared God and obeyed His rules, they would always prosper in the Promised Land.
     Teaching the next generation the truths of God and the Bible is so important!  If only Israel had obeyed these teachings, the world would be a very different place today. Let's make sure that we pass along our knowledge, wisdom and faith to the children so that they will not be a generation that does not know God!

Colored pictures from freebibleimages.com