Picture Jesus—Introduction Eight Service Plans for Lent and Easter

This is part of the worship series
"Picture Jesus"

Introduction 
Lent 1 | Lent 2 | Lent 3 | Lent 4 | Lent 5 
Palm Sunday | Good Friday | Easter

Introduction

This series of messages was prepared for the worship life of Hillcrest Christian Reformed Church for Lent 1999. Our intent during this season was to help members of the congregation to slow down the pace of life and to think reflectively and devotionally about their relationship with God by focusing on the person and work of their Savior.

We viewed the entire series of services as a gallery in which a variety of portraits were displayed. Each week we invited the worshipers to study the character of their Savior more closely. The portraits, all of them taken from the gospel of John, were intended to illustrate the multiple dimensions of the person and work of Jesus.

A pdf copy of this article as it originally appeared in RW is available in the resource section at the end of the article. 

Series Outline

	Title	Scripture	Image
Lent 1	The Bread of Life	John 6:25–40
Lent 2	The Living Water	John 4:1–15
Lent 3	The Miracle-Worker	John 2:1–11
Lent 4	The Shepherd	John 10:11–18
Lent 5	The Foot Washer	John 13:1–17
Palm Sunday	The King	John 12:12–19
Good Friday	The Lamb	John 1:29; 10:11, 14–18
Easter Sunday	The Resurrection & the Life	John 11:25–26; 20:1–9

Series Images

Paul Stoub designed eight images to accompany each of the eight services in this series. These can be freely used by RW readers and are available to download at the end of this article in the resource section. Please include the following copyright statement: Paul Stoub © 1999 ReformedWorship.org CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Banner Design

Dean Heetderks designed the below banner to coordinate with Stoub's "pictures" of Jesus which can be found throughout the series. A new picture can be added each week of Lent, leading up to Easter. 

Lenten Prayer Calendar

In the weeks prior to the beginning of Lent, each staff member and ministry group was contacted to suggest three to five prayer requests for the congregation for a Lenten Prayer Calendar. These requests were assembled with one request for each day and printed in booklet form. A copy of the prayer calendar was distributed to each household of the congregation at the beginning of Lent.

Especially for Children

Our Lenten services included a time when the  children of the congregation gathered on the steps at the base of the pulpit. Each week we looked at a cross (one of six different types) and talked about its special meaning. After the service we hung a drawing of the cross in the narthex, adding the new one each week.

Week 1	The Latin Cross The Latin Cross is the most common and familiar to most of us. Long ago people started using this cross to remind them of Jesus and how he died for us. Today, whenever we see the cross, we know that the church that displays it believes in Jesus. Notice that the cross is empty. Why? Because Jesus is alive!
Week 2	The Passion Cross This is sometimes called the Crusader’s cross because it’s the kind the Crusaders carried with them. As they traveled to the Holy Land, these Christians sometimes wanted to stop and worship God. A cross with a pointed bottom could be driven into the ground easily, creating a place for worship and reminding them of how Jesus suffered for them.
Week 3	The Crosslet The crosslet hardly seems to be a cross at all until we look at it very carefully. It really is four crosses made into one by joining their bases at the center. The tops are pointing in all four directions. Jesus died for people from all directions—north, south, east, and west. God wants the whole world to know about the Jesus. The crosslet reminds us how big God’s love is.
Week 4	The Jerusalem Cross The Jerusalem Cross is the only one named after a city, the city where Jesus was crucified. This cross includes five little crosses to represent the five wounds of Jesus—two for each of his hands where he was nailed, two for each of his feet nailed to the cross, and one to represent the spear in his side. This cross helps us never to forget how much Jesus suffered.
Week 5	The Anchor Cross At first, this cross looks very different—it has an anchor built into it. Some of the first disciples were fishermen, and they knew how important an anchor was. When you throw an anchor out, it drops to the bottom of the sea and holds the boat steady so it doesn’t drift away, even during a violent storm. This special cross reminds us that Jesus is our anchor. He will always hold us tightly and keep us steady—just like an anchor keeps a boat safe.
Week 6	The Cross and Crown Ask the children to identify the two shapes in this figure—a cross and a crown. The form of this cross tells us a lot about Jesus. It tells us that Jesus suffered and died on the cross. But today Jesus is no longer on the cross. He is no longer in the tomb either. He is wearing a crown in heaven and ruling as the King of kings!