The Mission

Something to say:

Matthew 3:14-15

14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

Jesus had a mission, a purpose to fulfill, that he would take away the sin of the world, yours, mine, even those who would eventually kill him. He has offered to take the burden of all your sin, everything you've ever done wrong, so let's let it go!

Something to show:

The boulder (exercise ball, acting like its a heavy boulder), the burden of my sin. But Jesus came to take that burden away, now it's as light as a feather!

Something to pray:
Think of some things that we've done wrong, write them on post-it notes, stick them onto the ball and lift it above our heads together to give them to Jesus. We'll pray it out loud together.

Notes:

- Centurion drama, "this boulder"

- What you've done wrong? (pump it)

- A man with no boulder (story)

- He takes our boulders

Talk:

Begin by clearing a path down the middle of the children, by saying "make way! make way! Soldiers of the empire, make way for soldiers of the empire. Then begin pushing the 'Boulder' like it's really heavy, towards the front of the room. When I finally get there I take a break, a lot of breathing, I'm exhausted.

"For Ceaser! *do a gesture to my chest*

"Let me tell you. It's a hard life for a Centurion. My name's Autolycus and I'm a man with a lot of troubles in my life. First of all I've got a family to feed. That's right, 2 boys, one girl and my wife. That's a lot of mouths to feed. Not to mention the house needs a lot of fixing up at the moment. I mean, I shouldn't complain. We get by. But it's not an easy life.

Taxes are at an all time high these days. Building the greatest empire in the world doesn't come cheap I guess. We pay more than 50% of our wages back to Ceaser. I suppose some of you guys get pocket money do you? Any of you willing to tell me how much? *take suggestions and tell them what they would get after Caesars' tax*

That's more than half! Every two danari I earn, I have to give one back! Still. Caesar takes care of his own.

Not an easy job mind you. You know some nights I don't even get to go home? Sometimes we're out camping or drawing up battle fronts. If it's not evicting people from their houses when they can't pay, it's controlling the crowds when they get rowdy. Guarding the library, training for battle. That's right, sometimes we go to war. Sometimes we have to fight. That's not easy either. I don't always know if I'll be coming home at all. Not today though, we've been given training today *gesture the boulder*

You're probably wondering what's with the boulder? It's our General, his new 'thing'. He says to us, pushing boulders builds character. Pushing boulders builds character?! I put up with it for a few days but then I started to get a bit fed up so I said to him. General, why have you got us pushing these boulders around? We're not even doing anything with them. I'll never forget what happened next. He just leaned in towards me and said. "Autolycus". Yes I replied. Tell me, have you ever lied to your commanding officer? I said "No sir, never". He said, have you ever lied to your family? I said "No sir, I wouldn't do that". So then he said, "Then tell me this, honestly. Have you ever lied to anyone?" I said, "Well, yes sir I have. I did jus the other day in fact, the governor wanted us to take control of someone's house, we had to forge some papers to make it possible but we did it. Owner wasn't best pleased but what could he do, "for Ceaser" and all that right?

"This boulder, he said, is the burden for your sin. I said "the what?" He said "the burden for your sin". What's that I said?

He said, "every time you've ever done something bad, lied to someone, hurt someone, bullied someone, stolen from someone, were unjust with someone, this boulder has got bigger. And you must carry around your mistakes wherever you go to pay for your crimes" he said. At first I thought, well that's a bit harsh. I'm not that bad am I? Everyone does it right? But then that got me thinking, if everyone does it then maybe everyone is carrying a boulder around with them. If the General has us pushing these boulders around because of all the things we've ever done wrong. Then that would explain how the boulder has become pretty big by now. See I look out into you guys and I see some boulders as well. Maybe not as big as mine, but there are definitely some troubles out there. Tell me one of you, try to be honest with me, give me one mistake that you have made in your life? Something you did wrong?

[start taking examples, pretend to inflate the boulder a little more every time] So as you can see, we've all got boulders. We've all got burdens to carry haven't we?

Have you ever met at man without a Boulder? Any of you? See that's the thing isn't it? Everyone has a boulder. Everyone... except one.

Let me tell you a story. You probably heard about this guy John. John the Baptist they all call him. Initially I thought, "bit of a trouble maker". A strange man too.

 Well I was on duty at the River Jordan a while back, and I saw this chap John. Doing his thing, you know. Baptising people. There was a large crowd gathered and he said to them, "I baptise you with water, but there is another one coming, much greater than I, whose sandals I am not even worthy to tie. And he will baptise you with fire and in the Holy Spirit."

Now don't get me wrong, John was carrying a boulder too, like the rest of us. You could tell he wasn't perfect. But he's saying that another man will come who is so righteous, that John himself wouldn't even be worthy to tie his sandals.

 Explain the story..

So the story goes, this man Jesus has 'begun his ministry'. He's been going around taking people's boulders off them. Telling them their sins have been forgiven. I don't know about mine though, it's pretty big. I'm not sure even a man like this Jesus could take my Boulder away, it's just too heavy. What do you guys think?

- Post it note prayers

- Lift the ball together

- Finish