Message Theme & Verses: Let’s Go! Matthew 4, Mark 1, Luke 4-6
Memory Verse: Matthew 4:4 “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Jesus was baptized to show that He was the perfect God-man and to give us an example that we need our sins to be washed away. This is a symbol of dying to our old life of sin and being born again into a new life of following Jesus. Then, Jesus went into the desert to be tested. God the Father’s plan was for Jesus to be tempted by Satan. Jesus knew exactly how to stand strong against Satan, even though he was tired and hungry because He was in the desert for 40 days! Jesus used the Bible to show that Satan is a liar and even though sin sounds good, it is really a trap! Once Jesus defeated Satan’s schemes, He was prepared for His ministry. Right away, Jesus began to tell people to repent of their sins and believe that He is the rescuer sent from God the Father to save His people. Jesus’ plan to spread His message of hope and joy is to use ordinary people like you and me. He started to gather followers who would learn from Him and then become teachers. Some were fishermen, one was a tax collector and we don’t know the jobs of the others. It’s really cool that God uses regular people to tell everyone about the Good News. God can use you too. You don’t have to be super smart or a great dancer or basketball player. You don’t have to have the most friends or be a really good speaker. You just need to know that you have sin and you need Jesus to save you from your sin. Then, you need to care about other people and want them to have the salvation that comes from Jesus too!
Barkadang Questions
1. Did you every have to prepare form something like a test at school, a job, a dance performance or a sports game?
2. Why do you think God sent Jesus in the desert to prepare for His job? (First of all, Jesus took time to be alone with God the Father. This is teaching us to pray and seek God’s will. Next, Jesus had to be tempted so He would know what it feels like when we are tempted. Now, when we feel the urge to sin, we can pray to Jesus and know that He understands. He also gave us a great example of how to stand up to temptation. The Bible says that when we are tempted, if we have Jesus in our hearts, we can choose to not sin. The way that Jesus fought temptation was with the Bible. God’s Word is true and a great weapon to fight against sin. We should read it and know it. But Jesus was not just an example. He had to beat the temptation to sin. If He would have sinned, then He would not be perfect and couldn’t be the sacrifice for our sins. It was so important that Jesus was so very strong and stayed sinless. This also is a good picture of how Jesus defeated Satan. Satan is strong and cunning, but Jesus is so much stronger. When Satan tempts you to sin, run to Jesus!)
3. What is the best way to handle Satan when you are tempted to sin? (Jesus used the Bible to defeat Satan and sin. We can use the Bible too. It is important to know what God says about how we should live. The Bible tells us that if we trust in Jesus for our salvation, we now belong to God and do not belong to sin any longer. We can have victory over sin and choose to follow Jesus. This is the path to true joy. We also have prayer as our weapon. Jesus wants to help us defeat sin, so ask Him for help when you are tempted. We can also go to other Christians and tell them that we have temptation, asking them to pray for us and to remind us that the Bible says when we love and follow Jesus, we can win against sin.)
4. What did Jesus mean when He told people to repent? (Repent is a fancy word that means to turn away. It’s like if you are facing Happy House and then you just turn around. Stand up and try it. Face Happy House. Now turn away from it. Now, your back is to Happy House and you can move in the other direction. The Holy Spirit can help you do this in your mind with sin. The Bible says that repenting is “changing your mind.” All people start off thinking that their sin is good and fun. They are facing it and want to go that way. This means that their back it toward Jesus and they are rejecting Him. They think that they don’t need Jesus and that their sin will give them all they need. Then, the Holy Spirit can give us a new heart that has faith. This changes our minds. We now can say, it’s true, my sin is bad and it’s a trap. Sin won’t make me truly happy. I need to be saved from my sin. I need Jesus. So, our minds are changed from rejecting Jesus to believing in Him. Now, we can see that He is truly God, the Messiah, the Savior, the Lord of all. Thanks to the Holy Spirit giving us new hearts, we can turn our back on sin and turn to follow Jesus. If you don’t have a new heart, you can ask God to change yours. He says that everyone who calls on the name of Jesus will be saved.)
5. Jesus gathered His barkada to learn from Him and to teach others. How do you pick your barkada?
6. Do you think you could be a part of Jesus’ barkada? Why or why not? (If you think about it, none of us are good enough to be in Jesus’ barkada. He’s perfect! How can we be friends with Him. The Good News is that Jesus wants us to be His friends. Sometimes to be in a barkada, you have to do some things like steal from a store, fight another group, drink alcohol, or throw rocks at a car. Jesus says that everyone who repents of their sin and believes in Him can be in His barkada. Even better, we can be in his family. Sometimes, a barkada isn’t there for you in the hard times. But your family is stronger. Jesus’ family is even stronger than that. God promises to never leave or forsake His children. Believe in Jesus and be a part of the best barkada ever!)
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