Pointing To Jesus In Every Bible Talk

Pointing to Jesus in every bible talk

In the Introduction of one of my favourite children’s ministry books, the author writes,

‘There are many good books designed to make your teaching easier, but this is not one of them.’[1]

I love this. He is writing to help readers make our bible teaching better, which might make the preparation harder. While we might be drawn to the quick fix, a moment’s reflection on the significance of our task in teaching young people God’s truth will remind us that we actually want to be faithful and effective teachers of God’s Word, even if it is harder.

The present challenges of COVID restrictions, with the inability to meet face to face, force us to reduce our ministry programs down to what really counts. And many have focused on finding ways to effectively teach the Bible over Zoom, livestream or recorded clip. I’m not going to write about how to do those well but instead to suggest a diagnostic question you can ask to make sure your bible teaching is pointing children and families to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It probably won’t make your task easier, but I pray it will make your talks more faithful and effective.

Here’s the question, ‘Does my talk point hearers to Jesus as Lord and Saviour?’

It might seem pretty unspectacular. The idea that we should be pointing to Jesus in every bible talk is hopefully not new. Jesus himself taught his disciples on the road to Emmaus ‘what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself’ and he started with Moses and all the Prophets (Luke 24:27). All of the Old Testament looks forward to Jesus and all of the New Testament looks to his coming, and his coming again. As Graeme Goldsworthy puts it,

Since Christ is the truth, God’s final and fullest word to mankind, all other words in the Bible are given their final meaning by him.’[2]

It is only through Jesus that we can fully understand the meaning and relevance of God’s word, both Old Testament and New.

But it can be harder than we think.

Imagine a lesson about King Solomon. We look for the link. It’s not so hard to find. Jesus, just like Solomon, is in David’s line. Jesus is a greater king than Solomon and builds a better temple. This is all true and helpful but it doesn’t answer the ‘So what?’. The link to Jesus is there, but without answering the ‘so what’, it is just an interesting fact.

This is why the end part of the diagnostic question is so important – ‘Does my talk point hearers to Jesus as Lord and Saviour?’

We need to be pointing to Jesus as the one who is the only way, the truth and the life, now and forever. He is the solution to all the problems in every Old Testament story just as he is for ours.

Let’s go back to the example. Solomon was a great king, who built a magnificent temple but he sinned and wandered away from God. His sin had consequences for the entire nation of Israel, and many years later, the temple he built was destroyed. Also, the Israelites regularly forgot to faithfully worship God even before this. There were real problems left unresolved in Solomon’s time and afterwards. It is in Jesus that we find a faithful king who rules his people perfectly forever. It is Jesus who builds a temple of his people by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16, Ephesians 2:21-22).

We are part of this story. God promised David that his son would rule God’s people forever (2 Samuel 7), and this still has meaning for those of us who want to be God’s people. By digging into the link further, we can see that Jesus fixes all the problems left unresolved in Solomon’s time. Jesus rescues God’s people from the problems Solomon created, and because we are part of the same big storyline, he is our rescuer and king too.

Presenting Jesus clearly as Saviour and Lord will always have implications for our hearers.  We can rejoice in the perfection of Jesus and that he lives forever, unlike Solomon. We can joyfully submit to his kingship, thankful we can be part of his kingdom because of his grace. Unpacking all these implications is usually the best part of a discussion group time after the talk.  The important question is, does your talk point to Jesus as Saviour and Lord so that these conversations are possible?

So far, so good. How does this all fit in a short talk for children? Well, it takes some hard work and careful preparation.

-        We need to have spent enough time exploring and meditating on the passage that we are clear on what we want to teach and how we are going to point to Jesus. The clearer it is in our head, the better we can communicate to others.

-        Showing how every passage points to Jesus is not an ‘add on’ that makes your talk that little bit too long. Resist the urge to leave it out because it might make your talk too long or boring. Showing children why this matters is not boring.

-        Make a bible timeline something that your children are familiar with so you can refer to where today’s story fits in in relation to where we are now (that bit near the end hopefully just before Jesus returns!).

However, if you are delivering a bible talk this week, I encourage you to ask the question, ‘Does this talk point my hearers to Jesus as Saviour and Lord?’ And put the hard work in to make sure it does.

 Note: Want more like this? The Ministry Support Team has a training module on Preparing gospel-centred bible lessons that is available upon request. Contact your regional Advisor here.

[1] Show them Jesus by Jack Klumpenhower (2014) p2.

[2] According to Plan by Graeme Goldsworthy (1991) p72, original emphasis.