Most of the teens at YF listen to two sermons each Sunday, so I decided this term we are going to do something different. Instead of a 15-20 minute sermon from yours truly, I am going to tell a story each week. Each story will be connected to one great story — the Story of God. It’s simple, yet when we hear a story told in a different way, we pick up things we missed before.

Then we break out into small groups, and the adult leaders (1) retell the story through asking questions and (2) discuss how we can apply the story.

On Sunday, we started with The Prologue: Beginnings and discussed how Lucifer was jealous of the glory and praise the angels were giving God for his creation and was cast out of heaven for leading 1/3 of the angels in rebellion against God.

You can download the complete curriculum here.

Over at The Gospel Coalition website, John Starke has written a brief article on teaching children the gospel through everyday prayers. This is valuable for young children, but it is also important for teenagers as well.

Starke says that, as parents, we must:

1. Teach them how to talk to God
2. Teach them how to be thankful
3. Teach them the gospel

Read the entire article here. It is short and to the point.

My daughter, Annaleigh, is still a few years away from teenagehood, but that gives me extra time to prepare for those years where everything changes — a stage American psychologist G Stanley Hall called ‘storm and stress’. As parents of teenagers, you are already in that stage and know of these storms and stresses. Some of you may be scrambling around, looking everywhere for help. My hope is that this blog will be some sort of help to you, providing you with resources and information that will encourage, support, and guide you through this difficult period of adolescent development.

David Murray just wrote an article explaining three lessons he has learned in parenting teenagers. They are…

1. Family v Friends
2. Relationships v Riches
3. Education v Entertainment

He also provides questions for you to ask your teenagers in these three areas. You can read the article in its entirety here.

The following is teaching for large group Youth Fellowship, 12 December 2010. Please take the time to read over this, search the Scriptures, and discuss with your children.

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All the colorful lights are going up. Snow is coming down. Thanksgiving, at least for us Americans, is over, which means we turn our attention to the time of year most everybody loves — Christmas!

How many of you have seen the film, Miracle on 34th Street? The 1947 version is excellent. But anyway, spoiler alert, the “miracle” on 34th street is that a wee girl, Susan, is given a gift at Christmas that confirms to her that Santa Claus is real. Now, I hope that it would take a miracle for everyone here to believe in Santa Claus. And if you did before I just said that, I’m sorry I just ruined your life.

But during this season, sometimes it seems like extra-ordinary things happen. Some people call them “Christmas miracles”. Not long ago, a mother went into cardiac arrest on Christmas Eve, and she and her baby died. But then they both miraculously came back to life. This is part of the excitement of the Christmas season — miracles. Things that occur out of the ordinary. They fill the heart and bring joy to the soul. And you may hear of or experience a Christmas miracle this year. But in the excitement and hubbub of this holiday season, may we never forget the greatest of Christmas miracles — the Son of God born to a virgin, entering human history to redeem the children of God.

The Bible is filled with all kinds of miracles. A man and his family build a giant ark which keeps them alive 40 days and 40 nights in the midst of a worldwide flood. A sea parts in two to allow an entire nation of people to cross to the other side and escape death. Three men are thrown into a fiery furnace, but not one hair from their heads is burned. A man feeds thousands of people, not once but twice, with just a small amount of food. At a wedding party, the wine runs out, so a man turns water into wine. A man walks on water out toward a boat, then another man walks out of the boat to meet him in the water. And the greatest miracle of all — a man is raised from the dead after three days in the grave and shows himself to his followers.

Tonight we’re focusing on perhaps the second greatest miracle — the virgin birth. Let’s read Matthew’s account of what happened some 2000 years ago.

Read Matthew 1:18-25.

So Mary and Joseph were betrothed to be married. That simply means that they were legally engaged and were even called husband and wife, even though they weren’t yet married. And having sex at this point was still considered immoral. In fact, sex during betrothal was considered adultery and would warrant the death penalty of stoning.

So Joseph decided he wanted to quietly divorce her, because remember the betrothal was a legal engagement. But an angel appeared to him and told him that her child was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit, fulfilling the prophecy that a virgin would conceive and bear a son who would save his people from their sins.

This is what the virgin birth is all about — Mary, not yet married and still sexually innocent, conceived a child without a father and through a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. This is a doctrine, a teaching, that was never questioned in the church until the 19th century, when theologians began teaching against the miraculous and supernatural. And to this day, there are many, even inside the church, who do not believe in the virgin birth. But tonight I want to quickly share two reasons why the virgin birth is absolutely necessary for Christianity.

The first reason the virgin birth is important is because it shows that salvation, rescue and redemption of God’s children, ultimately comes from the Lord. God promised the first humans, Adam and Eve, that the woman’s offspring would be struck by the serpent but would eventually crush his head. In other words, God would send someone to break the curse of the fall and defeat the evil work of sin and Satan. But this deliverer would be sent from God, so salvation would depend on the Lord.

I’ve mentioned this before, but think to the story of Gideon. He had 32,000 men fit for battle and ready to take on the Midianites. But through a process of elimination, God cut down his army to just 300. Why? So they would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was the Lord who gave them victory that day. It is the Lord who saves, not human effort. This is why we should never get frustrated if our friends do not respond when we tell them about Jesus, because ultimately it is God who saves by his Spirit.

Think about it this way. As humans, because of our sin we can never reach God. No amount of human effort can earn salvation from our sin. But God humbly and mercifully came down to us. And even in the conception and birth of the redeemer, it was not human effort that produced a Saviour; it was the Spirit of God. The virgin birth shows us that the redemption of man is only through the work of the Lord.

But second, the virgin birth is important in that it makes possible both the full deity and full humanity of one person. It explains how Jesus came to the earth 100% man but also 100% God. Born of a human but conceived by the Spirit.

Since he was born of a woman, he is fully part of the human race and able to identify with us. He experienced the same kinds of things we do — thirst and hunger, emotions, temptations to sin. The angel said that Jesus would be called Immanuel, which means “God with us”. Being born a human, God is most certainly with us. It would be difficult to identify with a Saviour who was sent to earth in any other way. So he was born of a woman.

But since he was conceived in Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit, he can be fully God.

I read about the story of a man, Dr. William Evans, who was preaching one Sunday on the virgin birth. And the church was amazed when he raised his Bible and tore out the pages that narrate the birth of the Lord. As the scraps floated down, he shouted, “If we can’t believe in the virgin birth, let’s tear it out of the Bible!” And then as he drove home his point, he tore out the resurrection chapters, then the miracle narratives, then anything conveying the supernatural. The floor was covered with ripped pages. Finally, with immense drama he held up the only remaining portion and said, “And this is all we have left — the Sermon on the Mount. And that has no authority for me if a divine Christ didn’t preach it.”

See, the divinity of Christ, the fact that he is fully God, rests upon the fact that he was born of a virgin and conceived by the Spirit. Because when Adam sinned, the entire human race was separated from God. So everyone in the genealogical line of Adam (that’s everyone in the world for those keeping track) — everyone is legally guilty and morally corrupted by sin, even from birth. This is called inherited or original sin. We inherit the sin of Adam. So if Christ had also been conceived through the sexual relations of Mary and Joseph, he would have also inherited the sin of Adam. And he wouldn’t have been fully divine. And therefore, he couldn’t have saved us.

But he was born of the Spirit.

Read Luke 1:30-35. “The child to be born will be called” what? Holy — set apart from sin.

Most importantly, because he was born holy, without sin, fully God, he was able to withstand temptation. He lived a righteous life, free of any sin. Because of this, he was able to be the perfect, spotless sacrifice we needed to redeem us.

Read 1 Peter 1:17-19.

What does this mean? It means Jesus is our lamb! Without spot or blemish. So it’s only by his blood that we are saved.

Friends, the virgin birth is very important. And I hope and pray that you believe this teaching, because it is from the Bible, God’s own words to us. But don’t leave here without knowing an even greater teaching — that Jesus Christ lived the life we cannot live, he died for us the death we deserve, and he defeated death and sin and Satan and is seated on high. And one day, King Jesus will come again and reign over the new heavens and new earth.

This Christmas, celebrate the virgin birth and keep in mind all of its implications — Jesus Christ, the Son of Man and the Son of God, both fully man and fully divine, conceived by the Spirit, born of a virgin, commissioned by God to save his people from their sins.

The original Christmas miracle.

Youth Fellowship will be moving to 7:30pm in the new year and will remain in host homes until the building project is complete. The schedule currently looks like this:

16 Jan: Host Home
23 Jan: Host Home
30 Jan: Free North
6 Feb: Host Home
13 Feb: Weekend Away
20 Feb: Host Home
27 Feb: Host Home*
6 Mar: Host Home*
13 Mar: Host Home*

*If necessary

If you would like to host a YF evening, you may email me a date or mark the sign-up sheet, which will be available this Sunday. If you would like to co-host a YF evening, which means we would split the YF into two groups (we did this on 5 Dec), just sign up both homes next to the appropriate date.

Thank you for serving the YF in this way, and please let me know if you have any questions.

The following questions were used for small group discussion at Youth Fellowship, 5 December 2010. Please take the time to read over these, search the Scriptures, and discuss with your children.

• How would you answer the question, “What were you born to do?” Do you think every person has a specific purpose in life? Explain.

• Read Philippians 2:1-11. Verses 5-11 is often referred to as the “Hymn of Christ”. Read verses 3-5 again. How did Jesus look to the interests of others instead of his own?

• What is humility? Is this something that is easy or difficult to have?

• How is humility at the centre of God’s work through Jesus (hint: verses 6-7)? How are we to respond to Christ’s humble service? (hint: verse 1-5)

• Have you heard the word “incarnation” before? What does it mean?
  • In Christian theology, the incarnation was the act of Jesus taking on human nature. It comes from the Latin incarnare, which means “to make flesh”.

• Why is the incarnation important? How is the incarnation of Jesus an act of humility?

• Read verses 8-11 again. Why did God exalt Jesus? Why is it important that Jesus was exalted? How does this affect us? What is a lord? Why is it often difficult for us to submit to Jesus as Lord?

• Read Romans 10:9. Why is declaring Jesus “Lord” essential for salvation?

• How would it affect your life if you knew when and how you would die? What was Jesus born to do? How does Jesus being born to die by crucifixion relate to our sin? So what’s so amazing about grace?

• Not only was Jesus born to die, but he was born to die by crucifixion. From the ESV Study Bible: “Crucifixion was not simply a convenient way of executing prisoners. It was the ultimate indignity, a public statement by Rome that the crucified one was beyond contempt. The excruciating physical pain was magnified by the degradation and humiliation. No other form of death, no matter how prolonged or physically agonizing, could match crucifixion as an absolute destruction of the person …. It was the ultimate counterpoint to the divine majesty of the preexistent Christ, and thus was the ultimate expression of Christ’s obedience to the Father.” Crucifixion proves how detestable our sin is to God.

• Christmas isn’t about presents, a giant tree shining with lights, snow days, or even mince pies. It’s about celebrating the fact that God became flesh for our sake. It’s about the Son of God being obedient to death on a cross. Jesus was born to die.

“Born to Die”
by Shane & Shane

When the babe was born // In a manger on the hay
God saw a veil torn // He saw Good Friday
He was born to die

Gold laid before the Christ // Incense, His presence is sweet
Myrrh to signify // victory o’er death’s sting
He was born to die

It came in a dream // To Joseph late one night
That Herod sought the King // But could not take His life
He was born to die

He said, “You won’t take my life.
You won’t take my life.
You won’t take my life …
I lay it down.”

We came here today // to celebrate His birth
But let us not forget // why Jesus came to earth
He was born to die

This is a conversation worth having between parents and teens. Please take special note of the warning at the beginning of this clip, as the clip may be offensive to you.

• What is a necessity? What would you consider necessities in life?

• Read Romans 10:13-17. Is the Bible necessary for knowledge of the gospel, i.e. salvation? Explain.

• Do you know of anyone who ever became a Christian without either reading the Bible or hearing someone tell him/her what the Bible says? How then does the Necessity of Scripture affect us as missionaries?

• Read Matthew 4:1-4. How did Jesus resist the temptation of the devil? Why do men and women need to “live on every word that comes from the mouth of God”? Is the Bible then necessary for spiritual growth?

• Do you nourish your soul on the spiritual food of the Bible as carefully and diligently as you nourish your body on physical food or your mind on academics? What makes us so spiritually insensitive that we feel physical hunger much more severely than spiritual hunger? What is the remedy?

• Read Deuteronomy 29:29. In the verse we just read, the “secret things” are God’s decretive will, i.e. the things that God has planned for the world. They include the circumstances and events in your life, like who (and if) you will marry, when you will die, etc. The “revealed things” are God’s preceptive will, i.e. the things God has commanded us to do. On which of these two wills do you think we focus more of our attention?

• When we are actively seeking to know God’s will, where should we spend most of our time and effort?

• Can we ever have certainty about God’s will apart from Scripture? Explain.

• Does the apparent guidance we receive from feelings, conscience, advice, circumstances, human reasoning, or society ever seem to conflict with God’s principles in Scripture? Explain. How should we then seek to resolve the conflict?

• Read Psalm 19:1 and Acts 14:14-17. General revelation means that God has revealed himself to all humanity through creation. Is the Bible then necessary for knowing that God exists or about his character? Can someone in a remote tribe in Africa know of God?

• Special revelation means that God has revealed himself through his own words addressed to specific people, such as the words of the Bible, words of the OT prophets and the NT apostles, and God’s personal address (on Mt. Sinai, at Jesus’ baptism, etc.). What then is the difference between general and special revelation? Can anyone know of salvation apart from special revelation? How is this important in supporting the Necessity of Scripture?

• How can knowing more about the Necessity of Scripture affect your day-to-day living?

Jamie Munson from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, has written a book called Money: God or Gift and has adapted a section of that book into an excellent article called “Leading Your Family in Stewardship”. He says, “Worship is a lifestyle that includes more than devotionals and singing,” and then he goes on to list a number of “tips for teaching your kids how to worship God with their stuff.”

1. Teach your kids about Jesus and their need for his grace
2. Invite your kids into the stewardship conversation
3. Teach your kids to divide their money (from birthdays, holidays, allowance, etc.) into three categories: give, save, and spend
4. Don’t stifle innovation; allow failure
5. Engage your kids and teach them discernment
6. Model generosity

To read an explanation for these tips, you can read the entire article here.

The following questions are being used for small group discussion at Youth Fellowship, 14 November 2010. Please take the time to read over these, search the Scriptures, and discuss with your children. For more information on this and other subjects we are currently studying, I would encourage you to buy and read Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem, which is a very clear and concise explanation of basic Christian doctrines.

• Read Acts 17:10-12. From the reading, why were the Bereans more noble than those in Thessalonica? What does this say about the clarity of Scripture?

• Why is the doctrine, or teaching, of the clarity of Scripture important, i.e. why is it important that the Bible is written plainly and clearly, in a common language? How can this doctrine be abused?

• Read 2 Corinthians 3:13-18. Do you think ordinary people among the Jews at the time of Jesus had a hard time deciding whether to believe Jesus or the scholarly experts who disagreed with him? What prevented many of the Jews from understanding? Is this still true today? Explain. Why are Christians then able to understand the message of God?

• What are some things that may continue to ‘veil our hearts’ and prevent us from reading or interpreting Scripture correctly?

• If someone does not understand a section of Scripture, is that because of Scripture or because of the person reading/listening? Explain.

• Read James 1:5-6. If you are having trouble reading a certain section or passage of Scripture, what should you do? What does this passage warn against? How does doubt cloud your understanding?

• What are some other practical things we can use to help us understand Scripture?

• Why should we not simply listen to what Bible teachers say without reading the Bible for ourselves? What would happen to the church if most believers gave up reading the Bible for themselves and only listened to Bible teachers or read books about the Bible?

• If you thought that only expert scholars could understand the Bible rightly, what would happen to your personal reading of Scripture? Has this already happened to some extent in your life or in the life of someone you know?