Dr. Stenbakken has a special gift for presenting Biblical characters and making them come alive right before
your eyes! He will be presenting the Apostle John on the Island of Patmos, Caiaphas, Judas, Peter and the Centurion.
Plan to attend each exciting presentaton!
Dr. Stenbakken presents a realistic representation of multiple people who lived at the time of Christ and in particular during the events surrounding the crucifixion. Dr. Stenbakken has spent years researching the people and the customs that existed during the time of Christ.
One of Dr. Stenbakken presentations was about John the Revelator. The setting was John in his latter years while on the island of Patmos. Although now at a very old age and held in prison, Dr. Stenbakken is able to bring in the elements of John now, and his early years when he and his brother were known as the Sons of Thunder. He brings home the flavor of John’s life before, and after his relationship with Jesus, and the transforming power of knowing Christ.
Another of these “faces” was Peter, reminding us that Peter in Greek is “Petros, or the rock”. Sometimes it is forgotten what kind of men Jesus called to be his disciples. The presentation depicts Peter as a man bigger than life. You get to see a clearer picture of the kind of man that Peter was. Contrasting his former life as a fisherman, to his new calling as a fisher of men, you can see just how knowing Christ changed men and changed men mightily.
Next we were to meet the Centurion who was in charge of the crucifixion. This began with a very somber entrance. There was very little humor in the drama that the Centurion unfolded before the audience. The Centurion wore a complete set of armor, and the weapons that a Roman soldier would carry. From the helmet, reproduced to the exact detail, to the sword he carried, the armor he wore, and the sandals on his feet. The bottom of the sandals had a hobnail pattern of a man begging for mercy. In the Centurions own words “When they beg for mercy” he then showed the bottom of his foot saying, “I give it to them”. Those in attendance were held in a gripping story of true Roman cruelty, at times graphic in nature, you could have heard a pin drop in the auditorium. The Centurion told in great detail how Christ was beaten and abused. Every aspect of the cross and the whippings was to inflict a very slow and painful death. The cross was so torturous that it was against Roman law for a woman to be hung on a cross. In the auditorium there were those who were visibly moved by the imagery that Christ suffered for our sins. The Centurion also was moved by what he saw. And as with the other “faces”, when Christ came into the Centurions life he was changed also.
Caiaphas the High Priest with Low Understanding
More pictures of the pancake breakfast