FREEDOM IN CHRIST MINISTRIES, INC.

VBS 2019 “RESCUE MISSION”

Day 3 - Lesson

4th through 7th Grade

Bible Reference: Romans 3:21-25b; Luke 23:1-25, 32-43

What is our theme this year? It's the greatest rescue story ever. Is it true or just another fairy
tale? True, right? And we know this because God, who never lies, tells us in His Word. Who
remembers what our problem is? We have sinned. How many of us have sinned? All of us have,
right. How does God feel about our sin? He's angry. Is He right to feel this way? Yes, He's very
right to feel this way. In part, it's because He loves us so much that He is so angry. Today comes
the good news, the solution – the rescue part of the story! The solution is God Himself and it is so
incredibly awesome. We've been looking at our filthy sin and that's discouraging. We know we're
not good enough or powerful enough to clean ourselves up. Now we're going to look at God's total
and complete goodness and love. One would think it would be scary to come face to face with God's
perfection when we're so sinful. If we stand by ourselves, it is, but God came up with a plan to make
us right with Him.

Wait a minute! Did I say GOD came up with the plan to fix things between Him and us? Is that
right? Who are the ones who did the wrong? We did, right? What if you do something really mean
to your best friend, like intentionally break their favorite toy or game? (show picture ) Whose
responsibility would it be to make things right between the two of you? It would be your
responsibility, right? You are the one who deliberately broke their game or toy. If you still want to
be friends, YOU had better decide to say you are sorry and buy a new game to replace the old one. So
why is God coming up with the plan to fix things between us? We're the ones who wronged
Him. There is absolutely no way we could ever come up with a plan to clean up our sin and make
God happy. God knows this. God is the One who made us and keeps us alive. He is way bigger,
stronger, smarter and better than we are and yet He comes up with the only plan that could rescue
us from our sin against Him.

Let's look at God's plan to rescue us. We have already learned that a holy and perfect God cannot
excuse sin. God has to punish sin. He wouldn't be perfect if He just looked the other way when we
sinned. So God decided to punish Himself for our sin. God sent Jesus, His perfect Son who is also
God, to come to earth and take the punishment for sin. Jesus came to earth as a human baby. (Show
1st picture ) That's pretty incredible to think of. Here is the God who made you and me and He
decided to become like one of us so He could rescue us. Jesus lived an absolutely perfect life his
entire life on earth. Everything He ever did, said or thought was to please God. ( Show 2nd picture)
Jesus spent His entire life on earth loving God and people, teaching them how they could be right
with God, healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding the hungry and serving in many other ways. You
would think people would be so grateful to Him for doing this, yet many people reject and even hate
Him.

In our story today, the Jewish leaders have brought Jesus to trial on false accusations. They accused
Jesus of doing some pretty awful things like starting riots and opposing the Roman
government. (Show 3rd picture ) The first person the Jewish leaders took Jesus to, to try to get
FREEDOM IN CHRIST MINISTRIES, INC.
VBS 2019 “RESCUE MISSION”

Jesus killed was Pilate. Pilate was the Roman governor at the time. Pilate heard the charges against
Jesus and questioned Him. He went back to the people and told them that He found Jesus, “Not
guilty”. The people didn't like this verdict. They wanted Jesus dead. So they started yelling some
more false things about Jesus. Pilate was scared and realized that Jesus was from Galilee, so he sent
Him to King Herod. (Show 4th picture ) After Herod had questioned Jesus, he also found Jesus “Not
guilty” and sent Jesus back to Pilate. During this trial many people were yelling out horrible insults
at Jesus and making fun of Him. Herod and his soldiers joined in too. They put a royal robe on Jesus
and pretended to bow down to Him. Here was God, the One who had made these people and kept
them alive and they were busy making fun of Him. (Show 5th picture ) When Jesus got back to Pilate,
Pilate once again said to the people, “I have questioned Him and neither Herod or I find this man
guilty of any of the things you are accusing Him of.” He said he would beat Jesus and let Him go,
hoping this would make the crowd happy. But the people kept shouting louder and louder to kill
Him. They wanted Jesus dead. They wanted nothing to do with Jesus. They absolutely hated Him
and the perfect life that He lived. As we said before; Jesus spent His entire life on earth loving God
and people, teaching them how they could be right with God, healing the sick, raising the dead,
feeding the hungry and serving in many other ways. Yet, they hated Him so much that they asked
to have a really horrible criminal named Barabbas released instead of Jesus. Barabbas was a cruel
murderer and terrorist of the day. He went around hating people and hurting them. Remember,
this is how they are treating God, because Jesus is God. It's easy to look at this and wonder how
these people could do this, but when you and I reject Jesus we are doing it right along with them. Sin
blinds us and makes us enemies of God. Pilate argued with the people because he wanted to let
Jesus go, but he was afraid of the people and so in the end, Pilate let Barabbas go and sent Jesus to
be killed for doing absolutely nothing wrong – ever!

(Show the 6th picture ) Here is the perfect Son of God being humiliated and killed in the middle of 2
very bad men, as though He were one of them. Sinless Jesus was being put to death by the very
people He created and came to rescue. You and I are the ones that should be punished. We're the
sinners, the ones who have wronged God. Yet, Jesus took the punishment for you and me. Jesus
took all my sin and paid the price for it. Sin was punished as God has to do. When I believe in Jesus
Christ and that He died to rescue me, Jesus makes me clean. I can't do this for myself. Jesus is the
only one who can do it for me. Jesus takes my sin on Himself and makes me right with God. Your
rescue and my rescue cost Jesus a ton. It's more than we can ever pay. God pays it all.

How does this happen. The Bible says we are made right with God when we believe in Jesus
Christ. It is NOT anything or any good work that we do. It is ALL in what God does. ALL we do is
believe, accept God's rescue. Let's look at an example to help us understand how we accept God's
free offer. How many of you have ever ridden on an airplane before? When you ride on the airplane,
do you need to flap your arms and jump up and down to help yourself stay in the air? No, of course
not! None of that will help one little bit. All you have to do is get on the plane and trust that the
airplane and the pilot will get you safely to where you are going. In the same way, there is absolutely
nothing we can do to help God rescue us. No good deeds are good enough to help us out. That's kind
of like flapping my arms on a plane. All we need to do is to trust that Jesus paid it all and we are
safe if we stay in Him. He is our airplane, our rescue. He does everything. All we need to do is
accept His rescue. But the airplane does you NO good if you don't get in it. Jesus does you NO good
if you don't realize you need Him and ask Him into your life.

Let's finish our story. (Show 7th picture ) Both of the men that were killed with Jesus were also
making fun of Him. One of them realized his need for Jesus to rescue him before he died. He
FREEDOM IN CHRIST MINISTRIES, INC.
VBS 2019 “RESCUE MISSION”

realized his sin and said “Wait! we deserve to die for all the bad things we have done, but Jesus has
done NOTHING wrong.” He realized that Jesus is God and King of all. He asked Jesus to rescue
him. Jesus did not tell this man that he had too many bad sins. Jesus told this man that he was
forgiven and rescued from his sin. This is what each one of us needs to do to get right with God. It's
simple. If you have never accepted Jesus as your rescue, please don't delay. If you have any
questions, please come talk to one of us. This is the most important decision you will ever make.

Memory Verse: Roma 3:22-23

Ang taoʼy itinuturing ng Dios na matuwid sa pamamagitan ng pananampalataya kay Jesu-Cristo. At

walang pinapaboran ang Dios. Kaya ang sinumang sumasampalataya kay Jesu-Cristo ay itinuturing
niyang matuwid. Sapagkat ang lahat ay nagkasala at hindi naging karapat-dapat sa paningin ng Dios.
FREEDOM IN CHRIST MINISTRIES, INC.
VBS 2019 “RESCUE MISSION”
FREEDOM IN CHRIST MINISTRIES, INC.
VBS 2019 “RESCUE MISSION”
FREEDOM IN CHRIST MINISTRIES, INC.
VBS 2019 “RESCUE MISSION”