John the Baptist prepares people for Jesus. (Matthew 3:1-12, Mark 1:1-8, John:19-28)
Big Idea
Tell the good news about Jesus.
Bible Verse
Romans 10:15b- "It is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"" (NIV)
1. We traced the outline of Kaleb's body on a large sheet of paper hung on the wall. We then used this outline to draw John as we learned different things about him. We gave him a hairy camel robe and drew some bugs and honey for him to eat. We added some people in the crowd and a big speech bubble from John's mouth saying "Repent!" We talked about how John dunked people under the water (baptized them) to help them understand that they needed to live a new life: they needed to repent, to stop doing all the bad things they were doing and start doing all the good things God wanted them to do. We talked about how John's job was to tell people the good news about Jesus, and that he was successful. When Jesus came, people started leaving John and following Jesus. And just like John's job was to tell people that Jesus was coming to save them, our job is to tell people that Jesus has already come to save us from our sins.
2. Our memory verse taught us that the people who bring the good news of Jesus have beautiful feet (because their feet are what they use to help bring the message to others). So, as we learned the verse, we traced the feet of each child on a piece of construction paper and wrote a word of the verse inside their foot.
3. We talked about what the good news about Jesus actually was by going over the wordless book: a book made up of only colored construction paper with no words. The first page, which was black, stood for sin and death because we've all sinned and the punishment for sin is death and being apart from God forever. The second page was red and stood for Jesus' blood. God's perfect Son, Jesus, died on a cross to pay the punishment for our sins. The third page was white, which stood for the fact that our sins could be forgiven and the "dirt" of our sins could be washed white as snow if we believe that Jesus died for us and make him our Master. The fourth page was green, which stood for the fact that God wants us to grow to be more and more like him. The last page was gold, which reminded us of the streets of gold in heaven and that one day we can spend forever with God in a perfect place.
4. To help us remember what the colors of the wordless book stood for, we played a modified game of Uno, where the regular cards were replaced by cards that corresponded to the colors from the wordless book. Each time we played a card, we had to say what that color represented in the story of the good news about Jesus.
Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity
Big Idea
Tell the good news about Jesus.
Bible Verse
Romans 10:15b- "It is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"" (NIV)
What We Did
1. We traced the outline of Kaleb's body on a large sheet of paper hung on the wall. We then used this outline to draw John as we learned different things about him. We gave him a hairy camel robe and drew some bugs and honey for him to eat. We added some people in the crowd and a big speech bubble from John's mouth saying "Repent!" We talked about how John dunked people under the water (baptized them) to help them understand that they needed to live a new life: they needed to repent, to stop doing all the bad things they were doing and start doing all the good things God wanted them to do. We talked about how John's job was to tell people the good news about Jesus, and that he was successful. When Jesus came, people started leaving John and following Jesus. And just like John's job was to tell people that Jesus was coming to save them, our job is to tell people that Jesus has already come to save us from our sins.
2. Our memory verse taught us that the people who bring the good news of Jesus have beautiful feet (because their feet are what they use to help bring the message to others). So, as we learned the verse, we traced the feet of each child on a piece of construction paper and wrote a word of the verse inside their foot.
3. We talked about what the good news about Jesus actually was by going over the wordless book: a book made up of only colored construction paper with no words. The first page, which was black, stood for sin and death because we've all sinned and the punishment for sin is death and being apart from God forever. The second page was red and stood for Jesus' blood. God's perfect Son, Jesus, died on a cross to pay the punishment for our sins. The third page was white, which stood for the fact that our sins could be forgiven and the "dirt" of our sins could be washed white as snow if we believe that Jesus died for us and make him our Master. The fourth page was green, which stood for the fact that God wants us to grow to be more and more like him. The last page was gold, which reminded us of the streets of gold in heaven and that one day we can spend forever with God in a perfect place.
4. To help us remember what the colors of the wordless book stood for, we played a modified game of Uno, where the regular cards were replaced by cards that corresponded to the colors from the wordless book. Each time we played a card, we had to say what that color represented in the story of the good news about Jesus.
Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity