Jesus Is Deliverer. BIBLE PASSAGE Matthew 26:14-35 (Last Supper)

Transcription

1 Jesus Is Deliverer BIBLE PASSAGE Matthew 26:14-35 (Last Supper) REMEMBER VERSE How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth! Psalm 47:2 SCHEDULE Anticipate 5 10 minutes Celebrate & Respond Large Group minutes Respond & Bless Small Group minutes Environment: KNOWING Nothing could be more important than knowing and being known by God. We live in a world that denies absolute truth and yet God s Word offers just that. As we create an environment that upholds and displays God s truth, we give children a foundation based on knowing God, His Word, and a relationship with Him through Christ. God is holy, mighty, and awesome, yet He has 1

2 chosen to make Himself known to us! April 28/ 29 2

3 Equipping Volunteers The Passover occurred right before God freed His people from the worst and final plague in Egypt the death of the firstborn. Each year following that event, God s people paused to remember and celebrate what He had done and how He had delivered them. The Passover meal reminded the Israelites of God s faithfulness and pointed to a time when He would establish a new covenant with His people. Passover was held the first month of the religious year. On our current calendar, it falls around late March or early April. Each year during this time, crowds gather in Jerusalem to celebrate and remember this important event in Israel s history. The traditional Passover meal included unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and a roasted lamb. Unleavened bread symbolized the hasty way the Israelites left Egypt during the exodus; the bitter herbs symbolized the harshness of slave life; and the roasted lamb reminded the Israelites of how God allowed death to pass over the homes with lamb s blood painted over their doorways. It s interesting to note that each house participating in the Passover needed its own spotless, male lamb. Each lamb would be kept separate until the fourteenth day, when it would be slain. Once the lamb was killed, it was roasted whole so that no bones were broken (Exodus 12:46). At the Passover celebration, Jesus fulfilled this traditional feast by presenting Himself as the Passover lamb the sacrifice to which all previous Passovers had been pointing. The Lamb of God is the ultimate sacrifice for the sin of those who receive Him. Jesus was the pure, spotless Lamb because He lived a life without sin. And, like the lamb at Passover, not one of His bones was broken upon His death. His shed blood satisfied the Father s wrath and saves believers from their bondage to sin. 3

4 Anticipate// (Small Group) 5 10 min 1. Activity #1- Breaking Free SUPPLIES- A balloon (blow up before starting) SET UP AND ENGAGE- Jesus is the Deliverer for all mankind because He died on the cross for our sins. Before we accepted His salvation, we were like the Israelites in Egypt, enslaved to our sin and in need of a deliverer to free us. Play a game that gets kids thinking about the idea of being stuck or enslaved. Have the kids form a circle, standing up and holding hands. Put the balloon in the middle. Have one child stand in the middle of the circle and one stand on the outside. Have the child in the circle try to kick the balloon to the child on the outside of the circle. The group must try to keep the balloon inside the circle while holding hands and not moving their feet. 2. Earning Rocks See if any children have earned any rocks for the Rock Wall today. Children who memorized last week's memory verse, children who brought their Bible, or those who brought a friend. Pass out the rocks and let the kids write on the rocks their name, or the verse they memorized. (kids add rocks to rock wall at beginning of next section). 4

5 Celebrate// (Large Group) min 1. Welcome & Traditions ROCK WALL CELEBRATION- Open up Celebrate time by celebrating all of the rocks that the kids have earned this week! Let them add them to the rock wall and encourage everyone to keep working on their verses, remembering their Bible and bringing friends! WELCOME VISITORS- Use this time to also welcome any new visitors. Give them a big round of applause for coming! And have a nearby leader give each visitor a high five! CONNECT- To finish up welcome time, let kids engage in today s connect question! Show Connect Slide for kids to view. Encourage them to ask someone they might not know yet. After a minute or two, ask several kids to tell their friends answers to the group- CONNECT ACTIVITY: LINK ARMS AND SEE IF THE KIDS CAN CREATE A GIANT CHAIN IN LESS THAN A MINUTE! 2. Remember Verse Pass out Bibles to any kids who don t have one to use during today s lesson. Introduce kids to this week s Remember Verse. Open your Bibles and read it together. How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth! Psalm 47:2 3. Prayer of Release Next, pray a Prayer of Release. This is a time for kids and leaders to pause, be still, and ask God to quiet their hearts and minds. Encourage kids to quiet their voices and take a seat. Then ask them to pray with you. 4. The Big God Story- Jesus Is Delieverer SUPPLIES- Bible, Image Slides on flash drive: bitter herbs, flat bread, roasted lamb, Matthew 26:26, Matthew 26:27-28 SET UP- Though this part of The Big God Story can be delivered verbatim, read it before the lesson, so you can personally interact with the material. Before teaching, point out that what they are about to hear is true and is recorded in the Bible. Open your Bible, and encourage kids to do the same, to the passage and leave it open and visible throughout The Big God Story. Encourage adult volunteers to keep an eye out for kids who need help finding the Scripture passage. You may even want to write the reference in large print on a whiteboard. ENGAGE- Last week we heard about a woman named Mary who poured expensive perfume on Jesus feet to help prepare Him for His death. Mary loved Jesus so much that she worshipped Him this way in front of everyone who was around them. Today we re going to hear how Jesus and His friends celebrated Passover before His trial and death on the cross. Does anyone remember what Passover is? (Encourage the kids to answer.) Well, way back in The Big God Story, God s people, the Israelites, lived as slaves in Egypt until God raised up a leader named Moses to help lead God s people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. God sent many plagues on Egypt so Pharaoh would let the Israelites go. Do you remember some of the plagues God sent? (Encourage kids to share some answers.) The last plague God sent was a very sad one. It was a plague to take the lives of all the firstborn sons of Egypt. But God wanted to save His people from this plague, so He gave them some special instructions. He told them to take the blood of a perfect lamb and paint it on the doorposts of their homes. When the plague came, the homes with the lamb s blood on them would be passed over, sparing the lives of the people who lived inside. Through this Passover, God revealed to His people that He is the Deliverer, the One who saves them. He wanted His people to know Him and trust Him. God s didn t want His people to forget how important this was, so He told them to celebrate it every year to remind them of how they d been delivered. Every year they ate the same Passover meal. Though they didn t know it at the time, the Passover meal pointed to a time in the future when God would reveal Himself as the Deliverer and Passover Lamb through His Son, Jesus. 5

6 So, before Jesus trial and death on the cross, Jesus and His disciples shared a special Passover meal. Jesus wanted to reveal more of who He was to His disciples by explaining what His death would mean. As they ate, Jesus began to explain that this Passover meal would take on a new meaning. He started by using the different items they were eating. The Passover meal included bitter herbs (show image of bitter herbs), which reminded God s people of the bitterness of slavery they had suffered in Egypt. The meal also included unleavened bread (or flat bread), which reminded the people of how quickly they had left Egypt (show image of flat bread or display the flat bread prop). And the Passover meal included a perfect lamb (show image of roasted lamb). When they were about to eat the flat bread, Jesus said, Take and eat; this is my body (read this directly from your Bible and show verse slide of Matthew 26:26). Wow! What an interesting thing for Jesus to say! Why do you think Jesus would say that? (Encourage kids to give answers.) Jesus handed the disciples the bread and told them the bread represented His own body that would soon die. Jesus was telling them to remember Him whenever they ate the bread. Then, Jesus took the cup, gave it to His disciples, and said, Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Show verse slide of Matthew 26:27 28.) The cup s contents represented the blood that Jesus would shed on the cross. It s through Jesus blood that people are saved. Jesus was telling His disciples they could experience true forgiveness through His blood, and to remember that whenever they drank from the cup. Jesus changed the focus of the Passover from Israel s deliverance from slavery to a new focus on deliverance from sin. The disciples might have thought they were celebrating the Israelites deliverance, but they were really celebrating everyone s future deliverance from sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus! Wow! Jesus is the Passover Lamb. As the Lamb of God, Jesus blood would be shed to bring freedom not from slavery to a nation, but from slavery to sin. Jesus would soon be the once-and-for-all sacrifice because He was the perfect Lamb! This is all really amazing because it still applies to us today. Maybe you ve eaten the meal Jesus ate with His disciples the bread that represents His body and the cup of juice that represents His blood. And if you have, you ve probably heard someone read the instructions from the Bible to eat and drink this meal in remembrance of [Jesus] (1 Corinthians 11:24b). You see, we still eat this Passover meal bread and wine (or juice) to remind us of Jesus body being broken and His blood spilt for us on the cross. When Jesus came to earth and died on the cross, shedding His blood for us, He freed us and delivered us from being slaves to sin. He is the Deliverer the hero that we needed. Have you heard of stories about heroes who delivered people from slavery or from captivity? (If you have time, remind the kids of some of these stories: Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, etc.) These stories aren t real; they re just fairy tales and stories. But Jesus is real, and He really is a Hero. Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, He revealed Himself to be the Hero, the Deliverer, who has the power to free us from our slavery and captivity to sin. Jesus did this because He loves us. And He did this so we can choose to be free in Him. (Tell a story of a time Jesus delivered you.) 6

7 Respond// (Large Group) min. 1. Worship Response Stations Spend 5-10 minutes in Worship Response Stations, letting children respond to the lesson they just heard in their own way. Assist younger children and guide when necessary. 2. Jesus Delivers Us SUPPLIES- verse sheet, scissors, tape SET UP- Cut the verses into strips, and link the strips by stapling or taping them to form a long chain. Make several chains. There should be one link for each child. ENGAGE- Today we heard all about how Jesus is the Deliverer who has the power to break us free from being slaves to our sins. Though we may not be slaves to another country, like the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, we re slaves to our sins without Jesus. Being slaves to our sins means we have bad thoughts, we do things that aren t good for us or others, and, though we might try not to do these things, we still do! In the end, without the deliverance Jesus offers, we re slaves to sin like a prisoner stuck in a tower. And, like a prisoner stuck in a tower, we need a hero. We need a deliverer. We need Jesus the One who has made it possible for us to be free from our sins. Jesus wants us to be free from our sin. He wants to be our Hero. He is the One who can free us from the prisons of our sin, our bad thoughts, the behaviors we do that we don t like, the fears we have, or the heaviness we carry around. He wants to break our chains and bring us into a life of freedom in Him a life in which we don t have to rely on ourselves anymore because we can rely on Him. Hook all of the chains together and have the kids stand on the inside of the chain circle. Have a leader open in prayer (reminding them that Jesus is the Deliverer, not only of sins but also of all kinds of pains, sorrows, fears, and worries). Encourage the kids to confess those to Jesus and pray for freedom in Him.and then encourage kids to pray about anything on their hearts. Close by having another leader pray, giving thanks to God for delivering us all and then break through the chain together. Explain that the chains represent ways they can be enslaved by their sin. Invite them to break off a chain link, symbolizing their desire for Jesus to deliver them. Show them each chain link includes a verse that points them to Jesus as their Deliverer. 3. Worship Through Music Finish large group Celebrate with a time of singing music. 1. Remember 2. Love Came Down 3. Happy Day Then exit Large Group to spend time applying the things from today in a small group setting. 7

8 Respond// (Small Group) min. 1. Reflect: The Passover meal reminds us of how God delivered His people from slavery in Egypt. For the Israelites, Passover acted as an object lesson for how God s Son would deliver people from their sins. God showed Himself to be the Deliverer in a physical way for the Israelites and the Deliverer for everyone who believes in Him for all time. (Leaders: Encourage the kids to open their Bibles and read the suggested passages.) Questions for Younger Kids How did God use Moses to deliver His people from Egypt? (Exodus 6:13; 12:31 32) Why did God s people celebrate Passover? (Deuteronomy 16:1) Why did Jesus want to celebrate Passover with His disciples? (Luke 22:14 20) What did Jesus say the bread and the cup represented? (Matthew 26:26 28) How is Jesus our Deliverer? (Romans 8:1 2) Questions for Older Kids How did God use Moses to deliver His people from Egypt? (Exodus 6:13; 12:31 32, 51 52; 13:3) How does Passover point to Jesus? (1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Peter 1:9) What did the bread and cup of Passover represent? (Exodus 12:7; 13:6 8; Deuteronomy 16:1; Matthew 26:26 28) How are we like slaves, and what enslaves us? (John 8:33 34; Romans 6:6 7) How is Jesus our Deliverer? (Romans 8:1 2) 2. Engage: Jail Break (Dodgeball) SUPPLIES- Several soft balls, jail sign, tape SETUP- Tape a line down the center of the room, creating two sides. Hang the sign in one corner. ENGAGE- Split the kids into two teams and position them on either side of the tape line. When the leader shouts, Go! the teams throw their foam balls at each other, trying to hit someone on the opposing team. Anybody who gets hit goes to Jail. A person can get out of jail if one of his teammates catches a ball from the other team. When an entire team is in jail, the game ends. 8

9 Bless// (Small Group) 5 min. 1. Blessing Encourage the kids to hold their hands in front of them, palms up. This posture is meant to symbolize a willingness of heart to respond to God s Holy Spirit and receive what God has for them. Open a Bible and read Psalm 18:2. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation. I pray that you will know Jesus is your salvation, and that you will know the One who delivers you from sin and death. May you daily praise Him for being the One who gives you freedom. 2. HomeFront HomeFront Weekly: Be sure to send home the HomeFront Weekly for next week s lesson! This preteaching tool for parents encourages families to spend time in God s Word together before children arrive at church. 9