Day
4
Salvation
Now
as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside and said
to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem,
and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of
the law. They will condemn Him to death and will turn Him over to the Gentiles
to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day He will be raised to
Life!” Matthew 20:17-19 NIV®
[This
next passage is after Jesus had arisen from the dead.]
Mary
Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she
told them that He had said these things to her. On the even[ing] of that first
day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear
of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, He showed them His hands
and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus
said, “Peace be with you! As the Father
has sent Me, I am sending you.” John 20:18-21 NIV®
……………………………………………………………….
“For
God so loved the world that he gave His one and only son, that whoever believes
in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NIV®
……………………………………………………………….
Discussion
Example:
Explain,
“Before it ever happened, Jesus told His Disciples that He was going to be
betrayed, and condemned, mocked, flogged, and crucified, and rise again on the
third day. The Disciples had to be very confused with this. They may have
wondered, ‘How could Jesus know all of this before it happened?’ ‘If Jesus is
crucified as He says, how can He rise on the third day?’ ”
“The
thing they forgot is that Jesus is the Son of God and is all-knowing and knew
this ahead and wanted to prepare His Disciples for this. He did this so they truly knew
Jesus was the Savior when He arose from the dead as He said He would.
“The
thing I think is amazing is that Jesus knew ahead of time that the soldiers were going
to tease Him, hit Him, and kill Him, but He didn’t run away and hide. I’m not
sure I would have gone through all of that if I knew ahead of time that it was going to
happen, but He did that for us! He did this, so that all who believe He is our
Savior could one day join Him in heaven. Pretty amazing!"
……………………………………………………………….
Arts
and Crafts Example:
Have
the children make a quick free form design on a piece of paper with a crayon.
(This is a great time to use old, broken crayons.) Then they are to color each
portion within shapes and outside of the shapes, so that no shape touches the
same color, coloring as hard as possible until the whole sheet is colored.
Explain,
“It was a very sad day for the Disciples and the followers of Jesus, when He
was crucified on the cross and buried in the tomb, even the skies turned dark.
You are going to take a black crayon and color as hard as you can over your
drawing so that there are no light spaces to represent the dark sky and the
sadness the disciples felt.”
When
finished say, “Jesus’ death had a purpose. Since we are all sinful people,
because of Jesus Christ’s death and rising from the grave for us, all who
believe He is our Savior can one day go to heaven to be with Him.
“Imagine
how confused and excited Mary and the other Disciples were when they saw Jesus
Christ had really risen from the grave as He told them He would. Now, take the
item ( the end of scissors that aren't too sharp, tooth pick, plastic silverware, etc.) and scratch out a
design in the top of your paper to represent all the joy and happiness they
must have felt when they saw their Lord and Savior alive on Easter.”
……………………………………………………………….
Science
Example:
Each
student will need 2 rubber bands and a cardboard tube (toilet paper tubes or
from rolls of foil, etc. cut about the size of a toilet paper tube). They may need some assistance to put the rubber bands around the tube stretching from end to end to
make a musical instrument.
Explain,
“When Mary and the Disciples finally realized that Jesus had arisen from the
dead, they had to be so excited! We are making instruments to sing things like:
Rejoice our Savior is Risen or other things you might think they would sing.”
After
they make their instruments and sing, ask them the following. “What is your Hypothesis about what
makes the music in the instrument you created?” After listening to their Hypotheses
explain, “The vibrations from the rubber bands creates sound waves that make
the sounds you hear.”
……………………………………………………………….
Game
Example:
Say,
“We are going to play Share the Good News, which is similar to Heads-Up
7-Up.”
Have
3, 5, or 7 students stand up (depending on the size of the group) and explain: that are going to gently tap
the thumb of one student per round, to represent sharing the Good News
that Jesus is Risen! The other students are seated with their heads down,
eyes closed and thumb up. After the tappers have returned say, “Heads-Up,
Jesus is Risen!”
Call
on the students who have been tapped one at a time, and explain that they will
identify who has tapped them by saying something like, “I think Fred was
sharing the Good News with me.” If identified correctly, the person becomes the
tapper, if the student puts their head down with the rest of the students on the next round.
……………………………………………………………….
