Tag Archives: jesus

A strange twist – Easter

Bible base:

Luke 22:7-30

Teaching objectives:

To show that Christians believe Jesus’ death was part of God’s plan.

You will need:

  • The words ‘I must die because it is part of God’s plan’ written in sections on separate pieces of card.
  • A Strange Twist pdf (4005 downloads )  visual aid, copied on to a large piece of paper that will be visible to the assembly.

Introductory activity:

Bring about twelve pupils to the front and get them to stand in two circles of six facing inwards. Ask them all to stretch their arms out in front of them and then take hold of two hands at random. The two groups should then race to untangle themselves without letting go of each other’s hands.

Everyone’s arms were twisted together and it took a while to untangle them! Today’s story has a twist in it, and it might take a while to work out how to untangle it.

The story takes place when Jesus is in Jerusalem, where King Herod is ruling. Herod was unpopular, but a lot of people really liked Jesus because he helped them and cared for them. When he arrived in Jerusalem, the people greeted him as a king.

The Bible says that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem to be their king, but the story wasn’t as simple as they perhaps thought! Jesus would be King one day, but he wasn’t going to go to King Herod’s palace and overthrow him as the people might have expected. Our story takes place one night, when Jesus was having a meal with his followers and began to reveal his secret plans to them. Can you read what the plan was? Unscramble the words to find out.

Arrange the words on cards at the front, making sure that the order is muddled up.

The plan was twisted up so that we could not read it at first – it was not obvious. And as a plan, it’s not a very obvious way to become King either. What a strange twist! It seems like a strange idea, to plan to die, but this was actually Jesus’ winning idea. Long before they had gone to Jerusalem, and long before this meal they were now sharing, Jesus had told them that this was God’s plan for him.

Hold up the unfolded large ‘twisted tale’ sheet.

This is the outline of God’s plan. It doesn’t look very clear, but that is because there are a few twists in the tale.

Fold the paper along the lines so that what the assembly can see are the words ‘Jesus will be king’.

Jesus will be king, just as the people hoped, but (flip the paper over so that it says ‘Jesus will be killed’) before he becomes king, he will be killed.

How could he be killed and then become king? There is another twist to the tale!

Lift the flap at ‘A’ to reveal the words ‘Jesus will come back to life’.

Jesus will come back to life! And then, when he had overcome death, he would be King in God’s kingdom (lift flap at ‘B’ so that the sentence ‘Jesus will be King’ is revealed).

We are back at the sentence we started with, ‘Jesus will be King’. But there were amazing twists in the tale, which meant that Jesus was going to be a special King like no other. The Bible says that Jesus would die and would then become King in God’s kingdom for ever.

Optional prayer time:

Pray that God would help us to understand the twists in the amazing story of Jesus’ life and death.

The Sick House – Jesus heals many people

Aim:

To show that Jesus loves and cares for everyone.

Bible base:

Luke 4:38-40. Jesus heals many people.

You will need:

  • Dressing-up clothes for each character – you may be able to borrow some suitable biblical-style clothes from a local church, or use material draped and tied at the waist. You will need to dress Jesus, Peter, his wife, his mother-in-law, and other ill people who came to the house.
  • You may also want some pictures of houses in Jesus’ day.
  • A roll of lining paper

Preparation

  • Prepare the ‘street on a roll’ if you are using it and draw or find some pictures of appropriate houses. See How to Cheat at Visual Aids, published by Scripture Union, for some ideas.
  • Work out how you will re-tell the story.

Presentation

Introduction

  1. If this is to be the first of a series of stories, show pictures and talk a little about what the houses were like and how they were different from those in which we live.
  2. Ask the children who would help them if they were ill. That would usually be the same for people in Bible times, but not on the day of this story, because this was the Sabbath. The Sabbath was the Jews’ special day of rest, when nobody did any work.

Story

  1. Ask the children to listen carefully as you read the story from the Bible because afterwards some of them will help to tell it again. Read the story from a modern translation of the Bible, such as the Good News Bible or Contemporary English Version.
  2. Ask how they think the different people would have felt, and what they might have said.
  3. Choose children to dress up for the different parts; then re-tell the story of the sick house in your own words (or ask the children playing parts to say words if they are able to).

Include these things:

Jesus was interested in everyone who came to Peter’s house and he had time for all those who came to be made better.

And he made them better too, even though he wasn’t a doctor!

People must have wondered who this special man was.

Application

Still today, Jesus loves and cares for people who are ill and for their family and friends who are worried about them.

We can ask Jesus to help people who are ill and pray for those who look after them.

Ask which people today help ill people to get better.

Prayer

If appropriate, ask the children to think of anyone they know who is ill. During a short prayer that you say, asking God to help them to get better, have a moment of silence when each child can say quietly in their head the name of that person.

Say a prayer to thank God for people who help us when we are ill. If the school has a nurse, mention him/her by name.

Song suggestion

Jesus’ hands were kind hands, 134, Junior Praise

I matter – Jesus cares for everyone

Aim:

To show the children that each one of us matters as individuals.

Bible base:

The Gospels

You will need:

  • A selection of hats or costumes for different jobs, eg a white coat (doctor), police helmet, tweed hat (farmer), book (teacher), clock (for someone who does not have a job but has time to fill), teddy bear (child), dustbin liner (refuse collector), duster (cleaner or someone who does housework)
  • You may want to have some pictures for the story at the end

Preparation

Familiarise yourself with stories from the gospels which show that all sorts of people mattered to Jesus. (See example in Story.)

Presentation

Introduction

  1. Ask the children who they think is the most important person in the room. (They will probably name the head teacher.)
  2. Invite some children up to the front to wear or hold the costumes and props.
  3. Talk to the children about the different jobs these people do.
  4. Ask who they think is the most important, and why.
  5. We sometimes think that some people are more important than others because of the jobs they do. When Jesus lived on earth as a man he thought that everyone was important. He had time for rich people and poor, for people who were ill and those who were well, for the old and young, for those with jobs and those that begged on the streets. Everyone mattered to Jesus.

Story

Go on to tell short narratives from the gospels which illustrate this, for example:

Jesus had time for everyone. He had meals with rich people like Zacchaeus, the tax collector, who was rich because he cheated people. Jesus went to his house and, because Jesus became his friend, Zacchaeus gave away the money he had stolen.

But Jesus also saw a very poor lady put all the money that she had in an offering box at the temple, and he praised her for doing that. Jesus spent a lot of time making ill people better, like the man whose hand wouldn’t work, or people who were blind. But he also spent a lot of time listening and talking with people about God, like the 5,000 people who went to hear him one day.

Jesus helped an old lady who was his friend’s mother, when she was ill, and he did the same for a twelve-year-old girl who was dying, when her father came to ask for help.

Jesus talked to people as they were working, like Peter and Andrew the fishermen, and he stopped to talk to people who had no job, like Bartimaeus, who was blind and had to beg for money.

Everyone mattered to Jesus!

Application

Tell the children that today, everyone still matters to Jesus. Jesus cares about each and every one of us here, and about each and every person in the world.

Time to reflect

  1. Encourage the children to be still and close their eyes.
  2. Ask them to think about how each person is important to Jesus, no matter what age they are, how they look, what they can or can’t do.

Prayer

Invite the children to join in the following prayer or a similar one by saying ‘Amen’ at the end:

Dear Jesus, thank you that you had time for everyone, for poor and rich, for sick and well, for young and old alike. Thank you too that we all matter to you today and that you love each and every one of us. Amen.

Jesus always listens – Nicodemus

Aim:

To help the children understand that Jesus listens when they talk to him. He is happy to hear their prayers.

Bible base:

John 3:1-21. Jesus and Nicodemus.

You will need:

  • A collection of objects that make some kind of a noise, eg a cup and saucer, an alarm clock, an egg timer (wind up kind), a hand bell, a radio, etc (try to include the radio or something else with words – a cassette player, a talking toy!)
  • A deep box for your objects, with a hole made in one side, large enough for your hands to go through.

Presentation

Introduction

1. Start the assembly with a listening game.

  • Ask the children to listen very carefully to the things in your box, ensuring that they cannot see over the top into the box.
  • Put your hands into the back of the box through the hole. Make a noise with each object in turn.
  • As the children guess the objects correctly take them out of the box. Leave your ‘speaking’ object until last. See if the children can actually make out some of the words being said.

2. Talk to the children about whether they are good or bad listeners. There are times when it is important to listen. Talk about what if feels like when people don’t listen to you properly at all.

Story

THE SECRET VISITOR:

We read in the Bible about a time when a man came to Jesus wanting Jesus to listen to his questions and to answer them.

Tell the story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night (given below). Emphasise how much Nicodemus wanted to talk to Jesus and how willing Jesus was to listen.

Nicodemus was a teacher. He had heard a lot about Jesus, and wanted to talk to him. But he didn’t want people to see him – so he came after dark.

‘We know you’ve been sent by God,’ Nicodemus began. ‘No one could do the wonderful things you do without God’s help.’

Jesus knew the questions in Nicodemus’ mind.

‘You are a great teacher,’ Jesus said. ‘But you still have lessons to learn. You want to please God. But being good isn’t enough. You must be born all over again to enjoy God’s kingdom.’

‘What do you mean?’ Nicodemus asked.

‘You need a fresh start, a whole new life,’ Jesus answered, ‘the life I have come to bring. You see, God loves the world so much that he has sent his Son. Everyone who puts his trust in me can have this new kind of life.’

Outside it was dark. Inside the house, the lamp shone.

‘God’s light is shining in the world,’ Jesus said.

‘But people would rather live in the dark because the light shows up the wrong they do.’

(Story from ‘The Lion Children’s Bible’, retold by Pat Alexander. Used with permission.)

Application

  1. Ask the children how Nicodemus must have felt as Jesus sat and listened to him.
  2. Remind them that Jesus still listens when we talk to him in our prayers. He is so wonderful, he knows what each person has said even if they say it at the same time. He listens wherever we are and always answers us.

Song suggestion

Prayer is like a telephone, 448, Junior Praise