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Easter Overview

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi everyone!

 

It’s the week where we celebrate Easter and although we’ve covered Easter several times already, today I am making a one-time lesson. (The other years we have spread this out over several days), but this year I find myself needing a one-day lesson. So here we go.

Gen 1-3: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He made everything! And His favorite thing He made was people.

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God made a man named Adam and a woman named Eve and they lived with God in a very special place. They were all together and happy and nothing was ever bad.

Until, one day…one of God’s special helpers decided HE wanted to be the biggest and the best–he thought he could even be better than God!? His name is Satan. And one day he came to the garden where they lived and tricked Eve. God had told Adam and Eve they could eat anything they wanted EXCEPT the fruit from one special tree…the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they ate from it, they would die.

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But Satan said, “You won’t REALLY die…God just doesn’t want you to be as smart as Him!” So they disobeyed God. When we disobey God, that’s called sin. There was a consequence for their sin. The consequence was: they couldn’t stay with God in that perfect place and one day they would die.

Sin entered the world. And everyone since Adam and Eve has sinned. When we sin, our consequence is that we too will one day die and we *should* be apart from God forever because of our sin…

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But God had a plan…        (Rom 5:12-21)

 

Gen 11-25: A long time later, Adam and Eve had children, and their children had children and on and on and on and on and on until we get to a man named Abraham.

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Abraham loved God. And even though things were hard now (since people were away from God), Abraham still obeyed God and trusted Him. God taught Abraham about sacrifice. Sacrifice is giving up something you really love for something better. In the old days when Abraham lived, one of the most important things to them was their sheep and other animals. They would use the wool for clothes, and they would eat their animals. They could sell them for money to buy other food. Cows gave them milk to drink and they used animals to ride around (no cars back then!) God taught Abraham that if he (or anyone who sinned) would sacrifice an animal to God (kill it and give it to God) that his or her sins would be forgiven. This was a way for them to show God they loved HIM more than their most favorite thing…that God was FIRST in their lives. God would see the blood from the animal and He would look at their yucky sinful hearts, and He would forgive them and see them as perfect again.

The only problem was…every time they sinned…they had to give another sacrifice. But God still had a plan…

 

Exodus 2-20: After Abraham had a son, his son had children and on and on and on until a boy named Moses was born. The people who loved God were now living in a place called Egypt (far away from the place God had picked for them to live) and the king there, called Pharaoh was very mean to God’s people. When Moses was a old man, God picked him to tell the mean Pharaoh to let God’s people go back home. But the Pharaoh said “NO!” So God gave Pharaoh a bad consequence. Then Moses said again, “Let God’s people go!” and the Pharaoh said “NO!” So there was another bad consequence. This happened nine times!! And on the last time when the Pharaoh said “NO,” God said, “This will be the last consequence. All of the first born baby boys will die. UNLESS, you sacrifice an animal (a lamb) and paint around the door of your house with the blood.”

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God’s people listened and obeyed. Each family gave up their best sheep and painted the door with the blood, just like God said. But Pharaoh and his people laughed and said, “No way! We’re not giving up OUR sheep, we won’t listen to YOUR God!?” That night…an angel of God came by each house and if the people had obeyed God, he passed over the house and went to the next one. But if the people had not obeyed God, then the first born boy in that house died….even the Pharaoh’s son died. It was then, that Pharaoh let the people go.

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The people left and headed towards the place God had picked for them. While they were traveling, Moses went up on a mountain and there God spoke to him and gave him the rules the people were supposed to obey. God gave us the rules because He wants us to follow them, but He KNOWS we all sin sometimes (Romans 3:23). The rules SHOW US that we are not perfect like God is, and that we NEED HIM to be perfect and to forgive us when we disobey Him.

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God’s people eventually made it to the place He had for them but they did not always obey Him. They sinned (just like we do) and had to be forgiven every time with the blood of a sheep.

Luke 1-2 BUT, finally, many many many many many years later, God was ready to show us His big and perfect plan! He sent His only and perfect son Jesus into the world as a little baby.

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Jesus grew up and learned and went to school and made His bed and helped put away dishes and cleaned His room. He was a regular person and ALSO, He never sinned, because He is God’s son. (2 Cor 5:21, 1 John 3:5, Hebrews 4:15)

When Jesus became a grown up, He taught the people about God and He did a lot of  miracles (those are things only God’s power can do)–like make sick people better, help blind people see, turn water into wine or turn a little food into a LOT of food.

A lot of the people LOVED Jesus, but some people did not. The Bible teachers didn’t like that Jesus talked about forgiveness and love instead of teaching them about FOLLOWING THE RULES and the kings in charge didn’t like that the people liked Jesus more than them. “What is he tries to take over and be king?!!?” they worried. So they came up with a plan to get rid of Him.

Matt 21: It came time for the people to celebrate Passover (a big holiday where they remembered God passing over the houses of the people who obeyed Him and how He led them away from Egypt to the place He had for them). Jesus came to town to also celebrate. Lots of people were excited to see Him. So excited that they waved palm tree branches and laid coats on the ground so the dirt roads wouldn’t make Him all dusty. They shouted “Hosanna! We love you! We praise you!” This just made the leaders even MORE jealous and MORE angry. They HAD to get rid of Jesus.

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Matt 26-27: Jesus had a group of helpers, called disciples. One of them agreed to help the jealous leaders. A couple days later, Jesus was eating with His disciples and He told them He had to leave soon, but He would be back. The disciples were sad and confused. Jesus went to pray and most of His disciples went too, but one of them, Judas, went to get the leaders.

When Judas brought the leaders back, they captured Jesus. His other disciples tried to stop them, but Jesus said, “No. This needs to happen.”

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They took Jesus and decided to kill him. The built a cross out of wood and they put nails in His hands to keep Him stuck on the cross. They called Him names, they hit Him, they beat Him up, and they made fun of Him. They made Him carry that big wooden cross up a hill and then he had to hang on it for a long time until He died.

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They also had two other people who had done bad things on crosses next to Jesus. They had sinned, but Jesus hadn’t…but He was dying anyway. One of the guys next to Jesus made fun of Him…but the other one KNEW Jesus was God’s son and asked Jesus to forgive him. Jesus said, “Yes. And today you will be with me in a perfect place.”

Jesus asked God to forgive ALL the people and then He died. The Bible tells us that Jesus was God’s plan for our sins. Just like the people used to sacrifice their best, God sent HIS best, His son Jesus, to be a PERFECT sacrifice (since an animal can never be perfect it was never good enough). Jesus was a PERFECT sacrifice that would clean away our sin once and for all. (Rom 6:1-11, Heb 10:4, 1 Peter 1:9) His blood is the once and for all sacrifice to take away sin.

When God looks at our hearts now, if we believe in Him and say with our mouths that JESUS IS OUR LORD, then He will only see the sacrifice of Jesus and He will see us as perfect again. (Heb 9:11-15, Rom 3:24, Heb 10:1-18)

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But that’s not even the end of the story!

Matt 28: After He died, they put Jesus’ body in a tomb and they rolled a big, big, BIG rock in front of it so no one could take it. The leaders were so nervous they even had guards watching the tomb.

Three days later, there was an earthquake and the rock rolled away. The guards were so scared they fainted! Some women who loved Jesus were coming to see His body and to put some smelly good things on it, but when they got there, the tomb was open, the rock was moved and an angel was sitting on the rock.

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The women were so afraid!! But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid…I know you’re looking for Jesus….but He’s not here…He’s ALIVE! Go tell the others and go find Him!” They did tell the others and they did find Jesus. Jesus stayed with them a little while longer before He went back to heaven to be with God.

 

 

Jesus died in our place as a sacrifice. But He didn’t STAY dead…He is more powerful than even death. And now when we sin, if we ask Him to forgive us and we believe in His sacrifice, He WILL forgive us. God will look over our sin and see Jesus and He will forgive us and we will get to live forever with Him. (Rom 10:9, John 17:3, Rom 5:6-11, John 3:16)

“6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:6-11)

 

THAT is why we celebrate Easter.

We are all made and loved by God. We are all sinners. Sins have consequences. Only Jesus, the perfect son of God can take the place of our consequences. He died to forgive us and lived again to give us forever life with God in heaven!!!!

Romans 10:9 says, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

 

Amen! Thanks for joining us all, hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

David the Shepherd

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all…today’s lesson is a variance on David the shepherd. Today’s lesson is more focused whereas last year’s lesson was more broad. (Found HERE.)

Do you remember what David was doing before God said he would be the new king? He was taking care of the sheep! That’s called being a shepherd. What kinds of things do you think a shepherd has to do? (Feed the sheep, get them water, keep them safe, show them where to go, keep them healthy.) The shepherd loves his sheep.

When David got bigger, he was like a shepherd to the people of Israel. He became king and he took care of the people just like he took care of the sheep! He kept them safe, fighting in battles, and he made sure they had food and water. He led the people to God and he obeyed God which helped remind the people to obey God too! (2 Samuel 5:2, 1 Chronicles 11:2, Ezekiel 34:11-23, Psalm 78:70-72)

David would get married and have a baby boy. And that boy would grow up and have a boy and he would have a boy and on and on for 14 times, until another baby boy was born–Jesus. Jesus is like a shepherd too. He leads us to God and He keeps us safe. David wrote a lot of songs and in those songs, David called God “our Shepherd” a lot. (Psalm 23:1-3, 28:9, 95:7, 79:13, 100:3)

He takes care of us…and even more important than making sure we have the THINGS we need, He takes care of our hearts. Jesus doesn’t just take care of us, He loves us, just like a shepherd loves his sheep. (Isaiah 40:11, 53:6, Micah 7:4, Jeremiah 31:10)

Sometimes if a wolf or other scary animal would come and try to eat one of the sheep, the shepherd would fight the animal–even if he died..he would try to fight to save his sheep. Do you remember Jesus died for us? Sin (anything that disobeys God) wants to have our hearts…which keeps us away from God forever…but Jesus, the Good Shepherd, fought and died to save us. (Isaiah 53:6, John 10:11). But He didn’t stay dead–because unlike a regular shepherd, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is stronger than sin and death. Not EVEN dying can keep Jesus away from us or away from loving us.

God gave His people in Israel a good shepherd, David to lead them and protect them. But later He would give ALL of us Jesus, the Good Shepherd (the best shepherd of all) to love us, protect us, and save our hearts.

 

For today’s craft, we cut out a sheep’s head and then glued some fluffy cotton balls to make a sheep.

 

Thanks again for joining us. Love to you all!

Peter heals a crippled man

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hey all! Today’s Bible story is from Acts 3.

Remember, Jesus had died on the cross, lived again, and God’s Spirit came to live in the believers’ hearts.

One day Peter and John (two of Jesus’ disciples) were going to the temple (the church) at the time of prayer. There was a man who was crippled (he couldn’t walk) and he had been that way his whole life. Every day he would sit and beg for money from the people going into the temple courts. (Because he couldn’t walk, he couldn’t really work…so he just had to hope that people would be nice and share some money with him.) When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple, he asked them for money. Peter and John looked at him. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get some money from them.

Then Peter said, “I do not have money, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ, WALK.” He took the man by the hand, helped him up, and right away the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.  When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they knew him as the same man who used to sit begging and they were so surprised to see  what had happened to him.

When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Why does this surprise you? We didn’t make this man walk by our OWN power?! The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has sent His Son Jesus. You had him killed, but God raised him from the dead. We saw Him alive again. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through Him that has healed this man. Now its your turn to turn to God, so that your sins may be forgiven, and you too can receive God’s spirit.”

But there are always going to be people who don’t want to hear about Jesus. Isn’t that sad? Some of the people didn’t like that they were teaching about Jesus.

We know God can do anything! The people shouldn’t have been too surprised to hear Peter say they could do these things by Jesus’ power, but they were. God even surprises grown ups sometimes by the wonderful things He does! And the most wonderful He has done, is sending His Son Jesus to die for us and His Spirit to live in our hearts.

We drew pictures of the story today. (Time for my disclaimer that I’m a big fan of child-made art…we don’t do a lot of pre-made stuff…so it usually looks like 3-5 year old work…I believe it helps them retain the story better when THEY make it and have some creative freedom with it.)

Our text reads: Why are you surprised? God can do ANYTHING! Acts 3

 

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

Thomas Doubts

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Welcome back! Today’s story can be found in John 20:24-29.

After Jesus rose alive from the tomb, He appeared to many people and He appeared to His disciples, but one of them, Thomas, was not with the others when Jesus came. They told Thomas that they had seen Jesus and that He was ALIVE!

But Thomas said, “No! I don’t believe it! Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were I will not believe.” (Remember when Jesus died on the cross they put nails in His hands and nailed Him to the cross. He would now have holes there where the nails were.)

A week later His disciples were in a house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were locked, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” The doors were locked but Jesus still got in! Remember: God can do anything! Jesus is part of God, God’s son. He can do anything, even get through locked doors!

Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “It IS you, Jesus! My Lord and my God!”

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

We know Jesus now lives in Heaven with God, so we will probably not see Him while we live here, before we die. BUT, we still believe! Jesus said it’s a wonderful thing for someone who hasn’t even seen Him to believe in Him. We can trust His words. That is called Faith. In Hebrews 11:1 of the Bible it says, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we cannot see.” We can not see Jesus, but we KNOW Him and we love Him. We are sure of our hope of living in heaven with Him. Thomas didn’t believe until he saw Jesus…and do you know lots of people today still don’t believe in Jesus because they can’t see Him?

If trusting in God without seeing Him seems hard sometimes, you can always pray and talk to God and ask Him to help you have faith, and believe.

 

For our craft today, we traced our hands and used a pen to make a small hole in the hands, then used our scissors to make it a bit bigger. Our text reads:

“Blessed are those who haven’t seen Me and still believe.” John 20:29

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Thanks for joining us again! Love to you all!

HE IS RISEN!

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!  We are doing our Easter lesson today! He is Risen!

This story can be found in the Bible in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24 and John 20.

It was now Sunday morning. Jesus had died on the cross on Friday. The leaders who wanted Him dead were laughing and happy He was finally gone! The people who loved Jesus missed Him terribly and even though He had told them LOTS of times that He would die and be alive again 3 days later (Matt 17:22, Mark 8:31, John 2:19, Matt 12:39-40, Matt 16:21, John 10:17, 18, see also: Isaiah 53:5-12, Psalm 35:19, Psalm 69:4, Psalm 22:16, Zech 12:10, Psalm 22:1, Psalm 16:10, Psalm 49:15) …they didn’t really understand and they were very sad AND they were scared the leaders would come after them next.

After Jesus died, the soldiers and leaders remembered Jesus saying He would live again and they set up guards in front of the tomb (kind of like a cave) where Jesus’ body was put after He died. They put a HUGE stone (bigger than your dad!) in front of the tomb…it would take a LOT of people to move it. They kept watch day and night because they thought the disciples would try to come take Jesus’ body and pretend He was alive. (They didn’t believe Jesus would REALLY live again!)

That Sunday morning, a few of the women who loved Jesus went to the tomb. They were going to put oil and spices on His body and pray. But, one of God’s angels came, rolled back the stone and sat on it. The guards were so scared they fainted!

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; HE HAS RISEN, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’”

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid but SO EXCITED, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my disciples; I will see them soon.”

This is THE story of the Bible. God is all powerful. He is perfect. He made all things and is in all things. He is stronger than anything, even death. God has the power over life and death. Our sin keeps us from God and we should die forever in hell away from God. But God sent His son Jesus to die in our place so we don’t have to. We know Jesus died and lived again and because He did that for us, when we die, we will live again in heaven if we believe He died for us and make Him king of our hearts.

Jesus dying AND living again shows God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. It proves that God has the power to raise us from the dead. It shows that those who believe in Christ will not remain dead, but will be resurrected unto forever life.

AMEN!

 

Today we made a diorama (or dino-rino as my kids called it). Basically a little theater and characters to tell the story.

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We used two pieces of green and 2 pieces of blue construction paper to make the grass and sky in our box. We cut out a sun and taped it to the ceiling with a string. We cut out a tomb and folded under the end to tape to the floor of our box. Then we crumpled up a piece of brown paper to be the stone. We also made a flat empty bed inside the tomb.

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The guards are guarding the tomb. (We drew them scared).

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The women are coming to visit the tomb.

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The angel is on the rock, inside the tomb is empty. The guards have passed out and the women are listening to the angel. Jesus is waiting to see them!

 

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all! Happy Easter!

Good Friday

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all. We are continuing the story of Easter today. Today’s story can be found in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19.

Today is called Good Friday, though the story seems very very sad.

Jesus had been arrested because the leaders didn’t like how much the people liked Jesus. They were scared He would try to be more important than them. They took Him to the Israelite leaders and the Roman leaders and nobody could really decide what to do with Him.

Some of the leaders didn’t like that He said He was God’s son (even though He was.) Some of the leaders didn’t like how powerful He was (but remember, God can do ANYTHING!) Some of the leaders didn’t like how much the people loved Him (and how much HE loved them!!)

It was very confusing. Some of the leaders didn’t see any reason Jesus should die…but some of the others finally got the crowd all worked up and soon the people were yelling for Jesus to die.

(*parents of small children can edit this as needed) They hurt Him. They hit Him with sticks, they spit on Him, they took off His clothes and smacked Him with sharp thorny sticks. It was very very ouchy. But Jesus knew it had to happen. They made a crown from some thorns and put it on His head and laughed and laughed and said “HA! HERE’S YOUR ‘KING!'” They were making fun of Jesus. Finally, they got two big BIG pieces of wood and nailed and tied them together to make a cross. They made Jesus carry that big cross all through the streets. Some of the people in the streets (like the disciples and Jesus’ mom Mary) cried, because they loved Jesus, but most of the people were saying terrible things and were very mean to Him.

Finally, He went up a big hill and they put the cross in the ground standing up. Then they took nails and hammered through His hands into the wood (OUCH!) and they hammered His feet into the wood too. (OUCH!)

Some of the people laughed at Jesus and said, “If you are REALLY God’s son, you’d have enough power to get down off that cross!”

And that was true. Jesus DID have enough power to get off the cross. He could have asked for help from God, or for angels to help, or He could have just walked away, but He didn’t.

While He was on the cross, God put all our bad choices (sin) on Jesus. He felt all the pain and consequences for our choices. He did that so WE don’t have to. Jesus asked God to forgive us. You, your mom, your dad, your grandma, your cousins, His disciples, the Pharisees, “bad guys”…everyone. There were two other people who HAD made bad choices who were also dying on crosses on either side of Jesus. One of them laughed at Jesus, but the other asked Jesus to forgive him. And even though he was about to die, Jesus said, “Yes! I WILL forgive you. Today when you die, you will be with Me in heaven.” (It’s NEVER too late to choose Jesus!)

And the saddest part was, when He was taking our sin, God couldn’t even look at Him. (Because God is perfect, He can’t be around nasty sin…so He couldn’t be near Jesus) and that’s the worst thing…to be apart from God. God is all goodness and love so to apart from God is not feel any goodness, any love or any happiness. Our bad sin keeps us AWAY from God forever. But Jesus took that FOR US on the cross, so our sin doesn’t have to keep us away from God! We CAN live with Him in perfectness forever in heaven, because we are FORGIVEN by God…because Jesus took all that punishment, all those consequences FOR US. THAT is why it is GOOD Friday.

The sky got dark, there was thunder and lightning and an earthquake. God was mad. Do you know why? He was mad that Jesus was in so much pain. Do you know it makes your mom and dad very sad when you get hurt? And if they see someone hurt you it makes them mad. Because they love you! and they want everyone to be nice to you! When someone is mean to you, it makes them angry. God was angry that His son was so sad and in so much pain.

But an amazing thing happened. In the temple (the church) there was a big front room where everyone prayed. Then behind a GIANT curtain was a thing called the Ark of the Covenant (a special box where God’s Spirit was). When Jesus died, that curtain tore into 2 pieces, top to bottom and it was God saying “My Spirit will now live in EVERYONE who loves Me. Not just in the temple, but in everyone’s heart who loves Me and chooses Me.”

Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said “It is finished.” Then He died.

He meant His work of taking our sins was finished. He took it all. Every bad thing you can ever think of, Jesus died for that. It is forgiven if we just ask and decide we want Jesus to be OUR King. (1 John 1:9, John 3:16-17, Isaiah 53:3-5, Romans 5:6-10, Romans 3:22-24, 1 Peter 2:24).

You can talk with your parents/grandparents/pastor about this story and what it means to you. Maybe you’re ready to say “Thank you Jesus for dying for me! Please forgive my sins and be my King.”

We made cardboard crosses today, but mostly the discussion was our focus.

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Thanks for joining us. Can’t wait for SUNDAY!! Happy Easter-love to you all!

Peter Denies Jesus

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all. This week we are learning the story of Easter. The part of the story for today can be found in Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22 and John 18.

When Jesus was eating His last supper with His disciples He told them they would all soon leave Him. But Peter said, “Never Jesus! I will NEVER leave you!”

But Jesus said, “Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will pretend THREE times that you don’t know me.”

When they came to arrest Jesus they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Most of the disciples ran away scared, but Peter followed close by to see what would happen to Jesus. Some other people at the high priest’s house made a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together. Peter sat down with them to warm up. A servant girl saw him seated there. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with Jesus.”

But he denied it. “I don’t know him,” he said.

A little later someone else saw him and said, “You are one of His disciples.”

“I am not!” Peter replied.

About an hour later another person said, “For sure this man was with Jesus!”

Peter replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. Jesus turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the words He had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and cried and cried and cried.

 

When Jesus was taken away and the people were being mean to Him, Peter did NOT PROUDLY say, “YES! I know Jesus! He is God’s son! He is good, He is Lord, He is King, He can do ANYTHING and He loves YOU!”

Instead He got scared and pretended he never even knew Jesus. We should ALWAYS trust God’s plan and NEVER EVER be afraid to tell other people about Him. Peter cried and cried because he felt so bad about pretending he didn’t know Jesus. He felt very sorry and wished he HAD told the people he knew Jesus.

(Jesus said it’s important we tell other people about Him and that we love Him and how much He loves us. And Jesus will go before God and tell Him that “YES! I died for them and they love us! I have forgiven their sins and they can be Your children and live with us in heaven forever.” If we don’t obey God or pretend we don’t know Him, then He will say, “No. I do not know them. They are not your children. They can not stay with us in heaven.”)

 

Later in the Bible story, Peter will say sorry to Jesus and Jesus will forgive him for pretending he didn’t know Him. But this day was a very sad day for Peter. Sometimes even people who love Jesus very much can make bad choices…but He will forgive us when we ask, just like He will forgive Peter later.

For today’s craft we made roosters using one sheet of brown, one sheet of black and a 1/2 sheet of red construction paper.

Our “pattern pieces” are below:

We cut the pieces and glued them together to make our roosters. Our text reads:

Peter denied Jesus 3 times. We should ALWAYS tell people about Jesus! Luke 22

 

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Jesus is Arrested

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! This week we are learning the story of Jesus dying for our sins. Today’s story can be found in Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22 and John 18.

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(Van Gogh -Oliver Trees-The Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives)

After their last meal together, Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, which is a garden, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter, James and John, and he began to be very sad and upset. He said to them, “My heart is overwhelmed with sadness. Stay here and keep watch with me.” He knew that Judas was about to do something very bad and that He was about to die in a very ouch way.

Going a little farther, He fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” That means “If this can happen any other way, please let’s do that. But if this the only way to save the people, then ok. I will do whatever YOU want, God.”

He went back to His disciples and found them sleeping! “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter.“Watch and pray!”

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done. If the only way to save the people from their sins is for me to die, then I will do it.” Remember, Jesus is God’s son, and He knew what was about to happen, but He was also a REAL person and was very scared because He knew it would be painful.

When he came back, He again found His disciples sleeping. So he left them and went away once more and prayed a third time.

Then He returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping ? Look, the time has come, and I will be given over to the sinners. Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

While he was still speaking, Judas, (one of His disciples) arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the leaders who didn’t like Jesus. Judas had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is Jesus; arrest him.” Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi (teacher)!” and kissed him.

Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.” Jesus knew exactly what Judas was doing and still called him friend.

The men stepped forward, took Jesus and arrested him. With that, Peter reached for his sword, took it out and cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant.

“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him. “Do you think I can’t call on my Father God, and He will at once send thousands of angels to help Me? But the words of God (the Scriptures) say it must happen in this way.” Peter wanted for help and fight for Jesus, but Jesus said, “No. We don’t hurt others just because they are mean to us. If I wanted, I could ask God and He would send thousands of angels to help me. But I’m not going to do that, because this HAS to happen.”

Then Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. But I want you to know, this has all taken place just like prophets in the old testament have said it would.” Then all the disciples all got scared that THEY would be arrested too and they all ran away.

 

This is a sad part of the story, isn’t it? All of Jesus’ friends left Him. When hard things happen to us, we can remember to stick.with.Jesus. Even if we are scared, we know He is God and He is in control. The disciples did not trust Jesus’ plan.

In the Bible in the old testament the prophets talked about Jesus and how He would come and save us and how He would die. Everything happened just like they said. God’s words are ALWAYS true. We can trust what we read in the Bible.

 

We didn’t do a craft today, but we did watch The Beginner’s Bible Story of Easter.

 

Thanks for joining us. We’ll have more of the story tomorrow. Love to you all!

 

The Last Supper

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all. This week we are learning about the things that happened right before Easter. Today’s story can be found in Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22 and John 13.

Jesus and His disciples were celebrating Passover. That’s when the Israelites remembered how God brought them out of Egypt away from the bad Pharaoh. Jesus and His disciples were eating together in an upper room of a house in Jerusalem.

First, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. Back then they didn’t have real roads like we do today…just dusty paths so the peoples’ feet were always so dusty and dirty. Usually a servant would wash the feet, but this day Jesus did. Peter said, “Jesus! YOU shouldn’t be washing feet! You’re too important!”

But Jesus answered him, “I have to wash you, or you’ll never really be clean.” He didn’t mean Peter could never be clean unless Jesus washed his feet, Jesus was saying that He has to wash away our sins or we’ll never really be clean. The only way to be free from our sins and the consequences of our sins is to let Jesus make us clean by dying for us.

Jesus knew this would be the last time He would eat with His friends. He told them, “I am about to suffer. But God is about to do something amazing.” Then He took some bread and broke it into pieces for everyone and said, “This is broken, just like my body will broken. Every time you eat together, remember what I have done for you.” Then He gave them all something to drink and said, “This drink is like my blood. Every time you sit down to drink together, remember how I gave my blood to cover your sins.”

(Does your family ever pray before you eat? When we sit down to eat and drink together we pray and talk to God and we remember how much He loves us and that He died for us! And we say THANK YOU! Thank you for the food we will eat and thank you for dying for our sins so we don’t have to!)

Then Jesus said, “One of you is going to betray me. Go do what you have to do.” Judas got up and went to find the leaders to bring them to Jesus. Jesus knew Judas was going to give Him to the leaders, but He didn’t stop him. Jesus knew this had to happen. And even though Judas was going to do a very bad thing, Jesus still loved him, just like He loves us even when we make bad choices.

Peter said, “I will NEVER make a bad choice against you! I will stand by you ALWAYS!” But Jesus said, “before today is done, you will pretend you don’t know me 3 different times.” Jesus already knows the choices we will make and He chooses to love us and forgive us anyway.

We will have more of the story tomorrow.

For our craft today we drew Jesus at the table with the bread and glasses of wine and then we cut out 12 faces from magazines to be the disciples. Our text reads: The Last Supper Matt 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, John 13.

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Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

For God So Loved…

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

As we begin our Easter lessons tomorrow, I wanted to finish up the teachings of Jesus with this one.

This can be found in John 3:1-17.

There was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who came to Jesus one night and said, “Rabbi (which means teacher), we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. No one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not doing it.”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

Does that seem like a silly thing to say? What do you think that means?

“How can someone be born again when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “A mommy can’t have the same baby two times?!”

Jesus answered, “No one can enter heaven unless they are born of the Spirit. People have people babies, but the Spirit of God helps you be born into a life with God!”

“How can that be?” Nicodemus asked.

The Jesus got a little frustrated that even the Pharisees-the leaders of the Israelites didn’t really understand God!

He said, “The Son of Man (Jesus) must be lifted up (meaning He would die for our sins), so everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

“For God SO loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die forever but have eternal life. God did not send his Me into the world to punish everyone for their sins, but to save everyone!”

 

God loved us so much, He sent His perfect son Jesus to die in our place…because we are NOT perfect. Heaven with God is only for PERFECT things…so Jesus said “I will die in their place. They are supposed to die forever for their bad choices, but I will die and You (God) can see them as perfect instead.” If we believe this then we will have forever life with God.

 

For our craft today we cut out a blue circle (the world) and added any kind of green shapes we wanted (to make the land). We added a big heart and the words to John 3:16.

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This  is a cute song version posted from The Rizers.

This version is from Hillsong Kids.

Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!