Teaching John 17

Theme: Jesus prays for one group of people who know God

Intros:

·        Prayer collage – things they can pray for. Ask: Did you know that Jesus prayed for you?

·        You could try playing Chinese whispers (passing on the message)

Teaching:

Background: Jesus is in this upstairs room having a final meal with his 12 special friends. [hold up picture]. See if they can remember what Jesus has already said.

[Give them all a face to hold. Have a sheet of paper with ‘God’ written on. You will also need a cross].

Do you ever fall out with people? What do you fall out about?

So sometimes x argues with y. [two faces pretend to argue together]

Remember that’s what happened after Adam and Eve sinned and left the garden. They all fell out and argued and ignored what God wanted.

But now Jesus is going to show how great God is by making a new people that belong to God.

Remember: sin means we can’t be God’s friends. [begin to put your face on the sheet then draw back]. But Jesus says, ‘I’m going to die so that people can have life forever, eternal life.’ Read some of 17:1-5. [Stick on cross]

And the Jesus sent out His followers to tell people this Good News. And His followers told other people, who told other people. And now we’ve heard too.

Because of the cross we can now be friends with God and have life forever! Hooray! [Stick faces on sheet]

But look if we’ve been called to God and can now know Him, look, we’re together. We are one people. That means it’s not good to argue and fight with each other. That’s what we used to do. But now we’re one people, God’s people. We should love each other as He has loved us. Read John 17: 20-23.

Isn’t it amazing? Jesus prayed all of this the night before He died. He prayed for you and He prayed for me. He prayed that we might know Him and be one, love each other and not fall out.

Pray

Activities:

·        Concertina people – or stick people holding hands, label with people from church

·        Make small version of the model from the story – make cross out of playdough and stick faces round it

Songs:

·        Early in the Morning Jesus rose to pray (from Meet the King)

·        I belong to Him and Jesus Died for all the Children (from Very, very Big God)

5-11s

Theme: Jesus prayed that when He died God would be glorified by choosing a united people that know Him.

Intros:

·        Some game to get them squabbling? – could do drawing each other and then use later in the teaching

·        Chinese whispers – passing on the message

Teaching:

Recap – night before Jesus died

in the upper room [could get them lying down eating bread]

            Jesus said He was going but would send the Spirit

Then Jesus prays! He looks to heaven and He says:

            [get one to read 17:1-5]

What does Jesus mean? He is saying that when He dies the next day God would be glorified, that is everyone will see how great God is! Why? Because by dying Jesus is opening the way for people to know God and have life forever. [Have a big piece of paper with ‘God’ written on it]

Remember, because of our sin we can’t be friends with God but Jesus has come to die for our sin and now we can have life forever. [get them to make a big cross and stick it in the middle of the piece of paper]. God can now call a people who will know and love Him.

And so then Jesus prays for His special 12 disciples as they would have to go and tell the world this great news. He prays that they would be protected and kept His.

And then Jesus prays for us. Amazing, isn’t it? Get someone to read 17:20-23. Did you see? Jesus prayed that we would be ‘one’, united, together, not falling out all the time. That’s what happened after Adam and Eve left the garden because of their sin; everyone argued and fell out and were divided. But Jesus is calling a new people to God and they will be one. [Could stick faces on the sheet at this stage] Look, we’re all one people, therefore we love each other and care for each other, not bite and snap at each other. We belong to God now.

Table time:

Have a picture of someone in prayer – stick on some of the things from the talk: cross, glory, eternal life, united, 12 disciples. Talk about it as they stick them on.

Teaching John 15:18-31

3-5s

Theme: People treated Jesus badly so they will treat His friends badly

Aim: That they continue to trust Jesus through these times

Intro

‘Love’ ‘hate’ – Have a sign with a ‘love’ sign on one side and a ‘hate’ sign on the other. They have to stand up if they love eg pizza, etc.

Bible

How does it feel when someone doesn’t want to play with us? How does it feel when someone says something horrible to us? [have some emoticons on the table which they can grab according to how they feel]

Jesus was talking to His friends. He knows that the next day He will be arrested and killed on a cross?

Read story from a children’s Bible

How do you think Jesus felt during that story? Who treated Him badly? What did they do to Him?

Jesus says that some people won’t like it if we’re friends with Him and they will treat us badly too.

Listen to Jesus’ words: Read 15:18-21 [hold up ‘love’ ‘hate’ sign as you come to those words]

Jesus says some people really won’t like us being Jesus’ friends. That might make us really sad, it might even mean we cry.

This happened to Jesus’ friends after He died and rose again.

Here’s Peter [have a picture] – the Roman King, Nero, threw him in prison and then killed him just because he was Jesus’ friend

Here’s Stephen [picture] – the Jewish leaders threw stones at him until he died because he loved Jesus

Here’s Paul [picture] – he was sent to prison and beaten because he was Jesus’ friend

I wonder if maybe we find this a little bit scary, and it is. But Jesus also says we’re not alone when this happens. Read 15:26-27. Do you remember we talked about the Holy Spirit? He is with us when people are being horrible because we’re Jesus’ friends. Jesus warns His friends so that they can be ready.

So when someone is horrible to you because you love Jesus, don’t be surprised, but remember that Jesus’ Spirit is with you and don’t be afraid to talk about Jesus.

Pray – could look at some stories of persecuted Christians

Activities

• Stick on pictures of people from the story and persecuted Christians today

Songs

Follow, follow and Stick with Jesus (from a Very, very big God)

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5-11s

Theme: Religious people hated Jesus so they will also hate His followers

Aim: That the children are not afraid to be known as His

Intro

‘Speech’ – they have to talk about eg football for 30seconds while the group throws sponges at them

‘Love/Hate’ – have a sign with ‘love’ on one side and ‘hate’ on the other. Stand in the middle of the room. Shout something out, eg Marmite. They need to run to one side or the other as to whether they love or hate it.

Bible

[This could be done with a large body outline – write on how they treated Jesus, then turn over and fill in with words from John 15:18-16:4]

How does it feel when someone doesn’t like you?

Lots of people didn’t like Jesus; who? What did they do to Jesus? [Hold up the ‘Hate’ side of the sign]

Jesus knew this was going to happen the next day:

Read his arrest and crucifixion from a short children’s Bible.

What was it like for Jesus?

And it was the Jewish leaders, the religious people, who killed him!

But if they hated Jesus, they will also hate Jesus’ followers. Those who ‘love’ Jesus [hold up ‘love’ side] other people will ‘hate’ [switch sign]

Read John 15:18-21

Has this happened to anyone? [Maybe have a story with pictures from the persecuted church to illustrate?]

It may be those who call themselves Christians or are leaders in the church who attack us most! [Story of William Tyndale or Wycliffe?]

But Jesus says that the worst thing these people can do is to ‘hate’ God’s own Son, Jesus. It’s even worse than if they had never heard of Him. Read v22-24. And we shouldn’t be surprised because all through the Old Testament God’s leaders had been attacked by His people. King David was ‘hated’ by Saul and wrote this, read John 15:25. The prophets were all ‘hated’ and treated badly just for bringing God’s message, just for ‘loving’ God.

And this came true for Jesus followers:

Peter – he loved Jesus, but the Emperor Nero ‘hated’ him and probably crucified him upside down.

Stephen – he loved Jesus but the Jewish leaders hated him and stoned him to death

Paul – he ‘loved’ Jesus but was put in jail and beaten lots of times by those who hated him for it.

So what are you going to do when your friends laugh at you for following Jesus? When people ‘hate’ us for ‘loving’ Jesus what should we do? [Take suggestions]

Jesus gives us some helpful reminders:

Read 15:26-27. Who has He given to help you? The Holy Spirit

Read 16:1-4. We’re to keep standing up for Jesus. Why? Well, how big is God? And how big are our friends? So, who should we want to please more?

What’s the worst that other people can do to us? What’s the worst God can do to us? So, who should we fear more?

[Could play sponges game at this point with quite specific applications to train them]

Pray for those being persecuted around the world today.

Teaching John 15v1-17

3-5s

Theme: Stay with Jesus by loving and obeying Him and telling others about Him

Intro

• Making branches – get them to make branches for the story.
• Get them to make ‘fruit’

Teaching

Read v1a

Jesus says that He is the vine – Have a big branch (rolled up newspaper?)

And He says that each one of us are branches attached to Him – add branches

What does Jesus mean? – He means that we belong to Him, we are His. So x belongs to Jesus (add their name to a branch and continue).

And we’re to keep belonging to Him by loving Him and doing what He tells us to do. So keep thinking about Jesus and remembering how wonderful He is. Keep trying to live His way. Read v9-11.

But the big thing that Jesus wants His branches to do is to bear fruit. (Attach a bunch of grapes to the branch.) What does Jesus mean? We can’t just attach grapes to ourselves. What he means is that we’re to go and tell others about Jesus, so that they can come and be branches too. So x goes and tells his friend y about Jesus and he decides to become a friend of Jesus and look (attach another branch with y’s name on).

But that’s not how you grow grapes is it, by sticking them on with sellotape? How do we tell others about Jesus? By seeing for ourselves how wonderful He is. [Read Basil the Branch at this point – www.lostsheep.com.au]

The big thing to remember is this: Keep remembering how wonderful Jesus is. Keep loving Him and wanting to please Him, and we’ll stay as His branches and we’ll bear fruit.

Pray

Activities

• Invitations for friends (bearing fruit)
• Carry on making the vine from the introduction

Songs

Stick with Jesus

Follow, follow (from a Very, very Big God)

5-11s

Theme: Stay with Jesus by loving and obeying Him and telling others about Him

                                                                                                                 

Intros:

Teaching:

[Make a big vine and some branches and have some grapes]

Remember – Jesus said He was going away. But He would send His Spirit to be with them. He carries on telling them how they are to live without Him there in His body.

Jesus gives them a picture – Read 15:1-7

That’s a bit of a funny picture, isn’t it? Let’s have a think about what it means.

Who is the true vine? Jesus – put up a big vine.

Who are the branches? You and me – put up branches and write their names on them.

We are to remain in Jesus. How are we to do that? Read v9-11. By loving and obeying Him. So always remember Jesus, remind yourself about how wonderful He is every day. Always look to Him, don’t get distracted by other things in life, but remember how brilliant He is and love to live the way He wants you to. That means loving others.

And when we do that we’ll bear fruit. Read v16. Stick on fruit. That means that we love Jesus so much that we’re overflowing with love for Him and we tell others about Him. They then come to follow Him and become branches too. [Add more branches on the vine with other names on].

We can’t just stick fruit on. It comes from loving Jesus. [Read Basil the Branch]

But if we don’t love and obey Jesus listen to what happens. Read v2-6. God the Father, the gardener, will take away every branch that doesn’t bear fruit. So if [made-up person] doesn’t love and obey Jesus then the Father will remove Him. So it’s really important to love Jesus with all our hearts, minds and bodies.

[At this point – get them to make a branch with a friend’s name. Pray for the friend and attach to the vine].

Table time:

Younger ones – have a big picture. Get them to write their names on and colour etc. while asking the questions below.

Older ones – Read passage and answer questions. Then make invitations to invite their friends.

Knowledge

• Who is the vine? Who are the branches?

• Who is the gardener? What does He do?

• What does the gardener want the branches to do?

Understanding

• What does it mean to remain in Jesus? (v9-10)

• What does it mean to bear fruit? (v16)

• What happens if we don’t bear fruit? (v2-6)

Application

• How much do you love Jesus at the moment?
• How much are you obeying Jesus at the moment?
• What friend should we pray for?g

Teaching John 14:8-31

[This week we will primarily teach the doctrine of the Holy Spirit from this passage. The questions are about knowing God and so we’ll focus on the HS role in helping us to do that.]

3-5s

Theme: Jesus sent His Holy Spirit so that we can know God, the Father.

Intro:

Has anyone ever given you a really good present? What was it?

[Have a present out] This is a present from Jesus. Shall we find out what it is?

[Open – inside is a piece of paper saying ‘the Holy Spirit’] Was that what you expected? Wanted? It might not seem like much but it’s the most wonderful present Jesus could have given.

[Could play pass the parcel with questions inside – in the middle is ‘the Holy Spirit’]

Teaching:

Do you remember, Jesus says that He is going away and all His friends are really sad? He is going to die on the cross the next day, then He’ll rise from the dead and go to back to His Father God.

What are they going to do without their best friend?

But Jesus promises that He will send the Holy Spirit to be with them after He has gone. And because the Holy Spirit is God as well, it means Jesus will be with them always.

[Have a body outline – stick the piece of paper saying Holy Spirit on the person] The Holy Spirit comes to live in us when we trust Jesus. Read 14:15-17. He will never leave you. That means God is always with you, wherever you go.

This is amazing: for everyone who trusts in Jesus the Holy Spirit, God Himself, will come and live in them. [Show What’s in the Bible video clip about the Holy Spirit.]

And Jesus is telling His friends here about the Holy Spirit. Because they are worried that they will be left all on their own because Jesus is going away, Jesus is going to give them an extra special present, His Spirit. Read v18. And the Holy Spirit will help us to live for Jesus too. Read v21.

The Holy Spirit comes to help us. He helps us to get to know Jesus and to love Jesus. Without the Holy Spirit we could never know Jesus or be His friends, we would be all confused and muddled about who He is. [Stick ‘Jesus’ in the head of the outline]

The Holy Spirit gives us the Bible as well. He helped Jesus’ friends remember everything that Jesus had said and done so that they could write it down. Read v25-26. [Put a picture of a Bible in their hand]

Philip asked Jesus a question: How do we get to know God the Father? Jesus tells them that if you know and love Jesus, God the Son, then you know God the Father and God the Spirit comes and lives in you. Did you know boys and girls, that we have One God in 3 Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit? [Put Father and Son below Spirit on the body.]

Activities:

• ‘The Holy Spirit helps me know Jesus’ headbands
• Holy Spirit presents

Songs:

• The Spirit Song – from Get Ready
• I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (from A Very, very Big God)

5-11s

Theme: Jesus sent His Holy Spirit so that we can know God, the Father.

Intros:

Pass the Parcel – questions from previous weeks between the layers

Teaching:

Can we remember where Jesus is? – in an upper room, the night before He dies.

He’s just told His friends that He’s going away – he will die, rise again and then go back to God the Father. They are really upset. How will they cope without their master, their best friend? [Have a child up as one of Jesus’ friends, dress them up]

Well, there’s good news: Jesus is going to give them the most fantastic present!

The Holy Spirit! [write label saying ‘the Holy Spirit’]

But why is this such a fantastic present? Read v15-17. The Holy Spirit helps us and lives in us [stick label on child]. He is our helper who is always with us. He is the Spirit of Jesus and God Himself. So it’s a wonderful present: God Himself living in us, helping us to say no to sin and to love Jesus more.

This is amazing and new. In the OT only a few people had the HS. [Show What’s in the Bible: Holy Spirit clip]

And did you notice it’s the Holy Spirit who helps us to know who Jesus is? Without the Holy Spirit we’d be really muddled about who Jesus is and what He came to do. [put headband with ‘know Jesus’ on child]

[Could play Guess Who! – blindfold a child and they need to ‘know’ another child by feeling their face. ] The Holy Spirit takes the blindfold off our eyes so that we can ‘see’ Jesus.

The Holy Spirit also gives us the Bible. Read v25-26. He helped the disciples remember everything that Jesus said and did and to write it down. [Put a Bible in child’s hand]

[Could play ‘Remember’ – they need to tell you eg what they had for dinner last week, what you were wearing last week, etc.] Holy Spirit helped Jesus’ followers remember even the little details.

The amazing thing is that God is three in one. He is one God in three persons. Does anyone know who the three persons are? Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And Jesus says when we trust in Him we receive the Holy Spirit and therefore the Father and the Son, too. Read v18-21. [Stick Father and Son under Spirit]

So we have a lot to say thank you to Jesus for the Holy Spirit! What an amazing gift He is to us!

Let’s pray.

Table time:

Younger ones – stick stickers on outline of figure

Older ones – funsheet