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

Transcription

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

2 Dec week 1 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 1 objectives: To discover that this verse comes from the book of Luke and to take a look at the angel s special message. GAME: 8 mins Aims: To play a game about babies before talking about announcing the birth of a child. You will need: Baby photographs of people that the children know well, printable photo frames and answer sheets (see Printables). Print off enough photo frames for the number of baby photographs you have. Spread the frames out on a table and place a photograph on top of each. Photocopy sufficient answer sheets for one between three or four children. Divide the children into groups of three or four. Encourage them to work together to work out who the babies are. When they think they know, encourage them to fill in their answer sheet. As an alternative play a game of bring me... using store catalogues. You will need: A large sheet of paper, one catalogue per group, scissors and a glue stick. Draw a score chart on the large piece of paper with a column for each group. Divide the children into groups and encourage them to sit on the floor. Give each group a pair of scissors and a catalogue (or pages from a catalogue - making sure the pages include a variety of equipment). Sit slightly away from the groups but make sure each group is an equal distance from you. Call out the following items one at a time for the children to find: something to help a baby sleep, something to take a baby for a walk in, something quiet for a baby to play with, something noisy for a baby to play with, something to help keep a baby safe and something to keep a baby warm. When they have found an item that fits the description the children need to quickly cut it out and bring it to you. Stick the first picture that is given to you onto the score chart, sticking it in the column of the team that cut it out. When you have asked for all of the items count up the number of pictures in each column. The team with the most pictures is the winning team. Copyright 2016

3 Dec week 1 TALK ABOUT: 7 mins You will need: A whiteboard or a large sheet of paper, marker pens, a Bible, a message sign and Messiah sign (see Printables), a piece of A4 card, glue stick, a baby announcement card and a photograph of you, or someone you know as a baby. 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 in the reference. Explain that this verse comes from the book of Luke. Luke is one of four Gospels that tell the story of Jesus life. Quickly draw a smiley faces next to the verse and write the name Luke under it. People that have carefully studied the Bible think Luke was a doctor. They think Luke probably didn't know Jesus but he talked to people that did and wrote down what they told him. Explain that 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. Ask the children if they know what the message was the angel was about to give to the shepherds. Respond positively to the children s answers. 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. If you have time quickly show the announcement card and the baby photograph. Talk about how parents tell their friends and family that their baby has been born. Show the message sign and read the message aloud. Explain that the angel called Jesus the Messiah. This made the message very exciting. Spend a couple of minutes talking about the Messiah. Turn the message sign over and show the Messiah sign. 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. Nobody knew exactly when the Messiah was going to come or what He would be like, but they knew He was going to be special. 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. Reminders... Copyright 2016

4 Printables 1. Topic overview 2. Printable photo frame 3. Answer sheet 4. Message sign 5. 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. Printable photo frame

8 3. Answer sheet

9 4. Message sign

10 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 5. Messiah sign