Old Skool Jesus #10 and #11

We are definitely nearing the end of our Old Skool Jesus series, which makes me a bit sad since we've been having so much fun...but se la vie, no?

Old Skool Jesus #9 got wrapped into the "Save Christmas, Save the World" theme, so you can re-catch that here: "Save Christmas, Save the World"

Old Skool Jesus #10- Jesus Style Ministry (Zach) Luke 19:1-9
We all know the story of Zacchaeus and the song that goes with his short stature, but he was more than just a "wee little man". So many times we get caught up in the fact that we've "heard that story so many times" so we don't look for new angles to teach the "played out stories" from. Jesus made a significant statement as to why He came in this section of Scripture. Zach was a hated guy, considered a traitor, unclean and unwanted. Jesus stepped over cultural boundaries, man-made laws and fopaus in order to reach out to a unloved, rich, short tax collector. Zach had such a strong desire to see Jesus that he was willing to further disgrace himself (and he was probably made fun of) by climbing a tree just to get a GLIMPSE of Jesus. Jesus then did the unthinkable and went to Zach's house and announced it to the public that that's where he was going. This was a BIG deal, in fact it was upwards to being scandelous! Jesus, a learned rabbi was going to spend time with someone his culture considered: unclean, unloveable, a nasty scoundral, a traitor and a thief.

Two things we notice in this story besides the scandal of it all however is that 1. The mere presence of Jesus changed Zach and 2. Jesus describes he came to "Seek and save that which was lost" (Luke 19:9). He shares with us that His style of ministry is to reach the unlovely, love them enough to be with them and then watch how the Presence of God transforms them!

I challenged my teens in how they can seek the unlovely in their schools, I gave an example of a kid that was hated in my school and how a friend of my challenged he and I to hang out with this guy. In the end he came to church, he didn't accept Christ, but at least the Lord planted a seed in his life.

Old Skool Jesus #11- Jesus Style Ministry (Samaritan Woman) John 4:1-28
I didn't teach this one to the teens, because I gave the floor over to my collegue in ministry: The High School Pastor. He broke them into groups that they wouldn't normally be in. He said: get into a group with people not from your own: race, background, school or someone you comepletely just don't know.

He then asked them to share something small they can remember being guilty about. They ended up talking about some things and after about 4 minutes, he brought them back to the front. He then told a time where he remembers feeling extremely guilty (and it was quite funny). He then talking about the Samaritan Woman and how she too felt guilty about her past. After his little intro, he showed a clip from the movie "the Gospel of John" that had the whole story of the Samaritan woman.

The thing to notice about the Samaritan woman is that she was even more hated than Zach. was. She was #1 a hated Samaritan of whom never talked to Jews and visa versa; she was #2 a Woman and #3 a notoriously dirty woman to the people she lived near. She went out to get water at noon, which is the hottest time of day because she was guilty, ashamed and didn't want to deal with people because of her lifestyle.

This is not a person a Jewish rabbi would even encounter, much less talk to! Here again, Jesus goes across several boundaries to reach out to someone who is unlovable, or even hated. The message Corey gave was that because of this encounter, the Samaritan womans life changed! After she hung out with Jesus, she began to talk to people, and share that he had told her everything about herself. This womans wittness changed because she encountered the real Christ! It was a cool point to make.

Next week is "He-Man Jesus" and the close of our 12 week series on "The Old Skool Jesus". After that we begin our study on Identity, which is deeply rooted in the Word and I will make available the whole series here, as I did with the Old Skool Jesus series. Here again is the downloadable packet for this series: "Old Skool Jesus PDF"

Below is the video I shared with the teens for the Zacchaeus lesson.