Hope is such a weird thing. It’s amazingly powerful, and can drive people to incredible feats and accomplishments, but we seldom notice the hope we have until we really need it. The people of Israel once had to wait 400 years to hear from God, a lot of them had HOPE He was going to do something awesome, but we can have even more HOPE because HE did what He said He was going to do.
Today we talked about the prophet Malachi had told the Jews that he was going to send a prophet before the great and awesome Day of the Lord. The Jews knew the Day of The Lord meant the coming of a Mesiah King, whom we know now as Jesus.
They had to wait 400 years for Malachi’s prophecy to come true, but it did. It started with a wild-eyed, bug eating, man of God telling people to turn from their sins and to be ready because He was coming. Jesus showed up just like both Malachi and John said He would and did all the things God said He would do, differently than they thought for sure, but He did them.
Because of this our Big Idea for the day is: We have Hope because He arrived.
Today’s Bible Story: Prepare the Way (John the Baptist Prepares the Way) • Mark 1:1-13
Today’s Key Verse: Prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight paths for him. Mark 1:3b (NIrV)
To access the Journey Today show video, click here.
After the video lesson, you can use the attached materials to help take your family deeper into the lesson:
Family Discussion questions:
- What’s the longest you’ve ever had to hope for something?
- Why do you think God sent John the Baptist before Jesus?
God has been doing what He’s said He’s going to do for thousands of years, and we can have hope that He’s still doing it today. As we get ready with our friends and family in churches around the world for Easter, our celebration of Jesus’s resurrection and our path back into a relationship with God we can have hope of an even more amazing tomorrow. Jesus is coming back, and while we don’t know when, we can celebrate the hope, and remember We have Hope because He arrived.
Jennifer Foley is the Children's Ministry Leader at Abundant Life.
