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September 2 - October 8, 2020
Jesus tells us that the work of proclaiming God’s kingdom is dangerous. It takes courage. It demands earnest prayer. It’s more about faith than giftedness, and it requires no resources other than those God provides. It’s a high-stakes spiritual battle, using supernatural weapons. Anyone who’s willing to engage the fight on this level is needed for the cause. Such an adventurer will reap a rare mix of power, humility, and wide-eyed joy.
These kids actually have good reasons to quit. They look back and realize that they learned much about Christian behavior and churchy experiences, but whatever they learned about Jesus didn’t really change them. They never saw him so strikingly that he became their one, overriding hope and their greatest love. They were never convinced that Jesus is better—a zillion times better—than anything and everything else.
When the account of Achan is taught at all, it’s usually with the moral point that stealing is wrong. Okay, but that girl needed to hear the larger biblical point: that sin destroys life with God. Then she needed the biggest point of all—the theme of the whole Bible: that wherever sin destroys, Jesus heals.
It worked because the cross of Jesus—not principles for good living—is the engine of the Christian life.
Joy in Jesus was the application!
First, the content of the message matters; it must be about Jesus.
He understood that those kids had school teachers or Sesame Street to tell them how to be good listeners. They needed him to show them something better—how Christ speaks so stunningly that listening will never be the same.
Second, the cross of Christ applies to the entire Christian life. It isn’t just something you believe to become a Christian. It’s also the framework for living as a Christian.
Third, faith in this message comes from God. There’s every reason to speak God’s message God’s way—because it’s God who brings true repentance and spiritual growth.
The message of Jesus’s death and resurrection is a tool of the Spirit to change hearts. Nagging is not. Rather than coax the kids into temporarily acting better, Joe told about Jesus and trusted God to use that message to make the kids become better.
In Bible times, the Greek word for “good news” or “gospel” (euangélion) was not a religious word. It was used for good news brought by a herald—perhaps news of a battle won or a king crowned—something everyone needed to hear and respond to.
The good news means you relate to God based on what Jesus has done for you, not what you’ve done to prove yourself worthy.
The typical lesson for kids isn’t like this. Instead, it tends to be what mine were for years—little more than a lecture about some way you ought to live for God. Such lessons create pressure and invite pretending.
Fellow teachers, our challenge is to proclaim the good news of Jesus so clearly and consistently that no kid of ours will ever place him in a category with typical religious leaders. Our calling is to be good-news fanatics. I
It’s good to challenge kids to obey God. Just make sure they’re responding out of faith in the love of Jesus, not out of mere moralism.
Remember, even Paul didn’t think he spoke the good news particularly well. The power is in the message.
Notice ways God acts in the story. There are more than I mentioned in this chapter, so you might want to write them down. Meditate on ways Jesus acts the same in the New Testament, as well as today, and thank him for the kind of Savior he is. Share. The next time you’re alone with your kids or have a few extra minutes in class, share about your time studying Samuel and what you learned. Let your kids observe your own desire to see Jesus.
