Re:verse Game Planner December week 3. The Birth of Jesus Luke 2:10

Transcription

1 Re:verse Game Planner December week 3 The Birth of Jesus Luke 2:10

2 Dec week 3 Teaching a Bible verse through games THIS MONTH S TOPIC: The Birth of Jesus Children will explore this topic by learning and understanding this month s Bible verse. THIS MONTH S VERSE: Luke 2:10 The angel said to them, Don t be afraid! I have good news for you, a message that will fill everyone with joy. Scripture is taken from GOD S WORD, 1995 God s Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group. Week 3 objectives: To think about the shepherds being told not to be afraid and to discover why the angel s message was such good news. GAME: 8 mins Aims: To remind the children that an angel suddenly appeared in front of the shepherds. You will need: Thick marker pens, large sheets of paper - preferably A1 size or from a roll of lining paper, blindfolds, sticky tape or sticky tac. Stick a large piece of paper to a wall. Ask for a volunteer, explaining that they will need to wear a blindfold for this challenge. Encourage the volunteer to stand facing the paper. Ask them to cover their eyes with the blindfold. Give the volunteer a marker pen and ask them to draw an angel on the paper in front of them. When they have finished drawing ask them to remove the blindfold so that they can see their angel. The children will find this hilarious as most of the drawings will look nothing like an angel. If children would rather not participate allow them to watch this activity. TALK ABOUT: 7 mins You will need: A whiteboard or large sheet of paper, marker pens, a Bible, a message sign and Messiah sign (see Printables), a piece of A4 card and a glue stick. Before the session stick the message sign to one side of the piece of card and the Messiah sign to the other. Write the verse on a sheet of paper or whiteboard. Circle the word Luke and remind the children that this verse was written by a man called Luke. Ask one of the older children to quickly find the book of Luke in a Bible. Explain that Luke was writing about a group of shepherds watching their sheep in a field. Suddenly an angel appeared in front of them. Luke tells us what the angel said, Don t be afraid! I have good news for you, a message that will fill everyone with joy. Point to the verse as you read it aloud. Circle the phrase don't be afraid. Ask the children why the shepherds might have felt frightened. Describe how quiet it would have been on the hills. Encourage the children to imagine the types of noises the shepherds may have heard. Explain that it would have been dark too they may have had a small fire and Copyright 2016

3 Dec week 3 perhaps an oil lamp. Try and emphasise how startling it would have been for the shepherds to suddenly be surrounded by bright light and to then to see a mighty angel in front of them. Remind the children of the game they have just played, explain that just as they could suddenly see clearly when they took off their blindfolds, when the angel appeared to the shepherds the countryside lit up around them. The angel knew that if the shepherds were scared they wouldn't be able to listen, so he told them not to be afraid. The angel wanted them to understand that there was nothing to worry about he had good news to give them. Circle the word message. Ask the children if they can remember what the angel s message was. Respond positively to the children s answers. Show the children the message sign. Explain that the angel told the shepherds that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem. Show the children the Messiah sign. Remind the children that the Messiah was the special person God had promised to send to His people. Later the shepherds would find the baby lying in a manger just as the angel had described. They would discover the baby was called Jesus and they would pass on the message to others that this tiny baby was the Messiah. Circle the phrase good news. Ask the children why this message was such good news. Explain that, at the time of Jesus birth, hearing that the Messiah had arrived would have been wonderful news for God s people. Although they didn t know what He would be like, they understood that He would be sent from God and would do God's work on earth. However as Jesus grew up, people began to see more and more why His birth really was such great, great news. Encourage the children to think about the wonderful things Jesus did when He lived with people. Explain that the Bible teaches that Jesus did many, many great things: Jesus showed people God s love and taught them how to live He healed the sick, fed the hungry and comforted the poor. However the Bible tells us that the greatest thing Jesus did was make a way for people to become close friends with God. If you have time talk very briefly about Jesus death and resurrection. Explain that when Jesus was around thirty years old some soldiers put Him on a big, wooden cross. The cross was hard and rough, it was used as a way to punish people, but Jesus did not deserve to be punished. Jesus was put on the cross in the morning and in the afternoon He died. It was a very sad time for Jesus friends and family however God had a plan. On the third day He raised His Son, Jesus back to life. Now, because Jesus lived, died and rose again, everybody, everywhere can say Yes to God s love and forgiveness and become close friends with Him. Christians believe Jesus birth was good news because of who He is and what He came to do. They believe His birth was good news for people thousands of years ago, and is still good news for people today. Reminders... Copyright 2016

4 Printables 1. Topic overview 2. Message sign 3. Messiah sign

5 1. Topic overview TOPIC OVERVIEW: The Birth of Jesus THIS MONTH S VERSE: Luke 2:10 The angel said to them, Don t be afraid! I have good news for you, a message that will fill everyone with joy. Scripture is taken from GOD S WORD, 1995 God s Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group. Week 1 Objectives: To discover that this verse comes from the book of Luke and to take a look at the angel s special message. Explain that Luke is one of four Gospels that tell the story of Jesus life. People that have carefully studied the Bible think Luke was a doctor. They think he probably didn't know Jesus but talked to people that did and wrote down what they told him. When Luke wrote this verse he was writing about a group of shepherds. Tell the children that an angel suddenly appeared to the shepherds and said, Don t be afraid! I have good news for you, a message that will fill everyone with joy. Point to the verse as you read it aloud. Circle the word message. Explain that the angel was about to tell the shepherds that Jesus had been born the angel was about to announce the birth of Jesus. The angel called Jesus the Messiah. Messiah means chosen one. Hundreds of years earlier God had promised His people that He would send someone special to them. They called the person they were waiting for the Messiah. Later the shepherds would find the baby the angel had spoken about. They would discover the baby was Jesus. They would discover that Jesus was the Messiah the people had been waiting for. Week 2 Objective: To think about God choosing the shepherds to be among the first to hear that Jesus, the Messiah had been born. Explain that Luke describes the shepherds watching their sheep in a field outside Bethlehem. Suddenly an angel appeared in front of the shepherds and God s glory shone around them. Luke tells us that the shepherds were extremely frightened but The angel said to them, Don t be afraid! I have good news for you, a message that will fill everyone with joy. Explain to the children that at the time Luke wrote his book shepherds were poor and often thought of as unimportant. However the Bible shows us that God included them in the celebrations that night. He chose them to pass on the angel s message about this special baby. It would have been a huge surprise for people that the shepherds were the first to hear about the birth of the Messiah. Ask the children why they think God chose the shepherds. You might like to talk about God showing His great love by choosing those others thought were unimportant. You could also talk about Jesus as a grown up: Jesus made people feel special, He included people that had been left out and looked after the poor and lonely, He showed people God loved them more than they could ever imagine. When we think about these things perhaps it doesn t seem so surprising that God chose shepherds to hear the good news about Jesus birth. Continued on next page

6 1. Topic overview Week 3 Objectives: To think about the shepherds being told not to be afraid and to discover why the angel s message was such good news. Circle the phrase don't be afraid. Ask the children why the shepherds might have felt frightened. Describe how quiet it would have been on the hills. Explain that it would have been dark too they may have had a small fire and perhaps an oil lamp. Try and emphasise how startling it would have been for the shepherds to suddenly be surrounded by bright light and to then to see a mighty angel in front of them. The angel knew that if the shepherds were scared they wouldn't be able to listen, so he told them not to be afraid. The angel wanted them to understand that there was nothing to worry about he had good news to give them. Circle the phrase good news. Ask the children why this message was such good news. Explain that, at the time of Jesus birth, hearing that the Messiah had arrived would have been wonderful news for God s people. Although they didn t know what He would be like, they understood that He would be sent from God and would do God's work on earth. However as Jesus grew up, people began to see more and more why His birth really was such great, great news. Encourage the children to think about the wonderful things Jesus did when He lived with people. Explain that the Bible teaches that Jesus did many, many great things: Jesus showed people God s love and taught them how to live He healed the sick, fed the hungry and comforted the poor. However the Bible tells us that the greatest thing Jesus did was make a way for people to become close friends with God. Christians believe Jesus birth was good news because of who He is and what He came to do. They believe His birth was good news for people thousands of years ago, and is still good news for people today. Week 4 Objectives: To think about what the word joy means and to discover why the angel s message would bring joy to everyone. Remind the children that last week we looked at why Christians believe the angel s message is such good news. We discovered that they believe Jesus did many great and wonderful things, He showed people God s love and taught them how to live He healed the sick, fed the hungry and comforted the poor. We also discovered that the Bible tells us that the greatest thing Jesus did was make a way for people to become close friends with God. Circle the word joy. Explain that one way of describing joy is a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. Explain that Christians believe that being close friends with God brings them great joy, it makes them feel really, really happy. Recap by explaining that the angel told the shepherds that his message would fill everyone with joy. Underline the words: message, everyone and joy. Point to the words as you explain that the angel s message was that Jesus had been born. The Bible teaches that when Jesus grew up He made a way for everyone to become close friends with God. Christians believe being friends with God brings people great joy.

7 2. Message sign

8 going to be special. like, but they knew He was come or what He would be the Messiah was going to Nobody knew exactly when Messiah. were waiting for the They called the person they someone special to them. that one day He would send God promised His people 3. Messiah sign