Teaching Nehemiah 3

3-5s

Theme: Everyone has a part to play in the building of God’s kingdom, no matter who you are.

Intros:

·         Find some activity which they all need to be involved in eg have a large sheet and a balloon and they have to stop the balloon falling off, or something similar

Teaching:

[you will need lots of jenga blocks/matchboxes/books for the wall]

Recap and reminder – God’s people had been living in the land of Israel but had disobeyed God. So God sent the Babylonian army to punish them and they were led off to live in a distant land for 70 years. Now they are coming back, but the walls and gates around Jerusalem have been broken down and Nehemiah, the King’s cupbearer has come back to fix them.

[Have a puppet Nehemiah] Nehemiah has seen the walls of Jerusalem and fells sad. Can he fix them all by himself? No!

This is a big city with great big walls – Nehemiah can’t do it all. What do you think he could do? [take suggestions]

He got everyone involved from the priests to the goldsmiths to the perfumers to the shopkeepers [if possible give each child something representing a job they could do, eg for a baker give one a rolling pin].

Do you think you could have done some wall building as a baker/perfumer/etc? Of course you would have got stuck in! Boys and girls were involved. It wasn’t just for some, it was for everyone.

Only one group of people didn’t get involved – the leading men of Tekoa. They thought they were too important to get their hands dirty serving God! Of course, they were totally wrong.

Jesus wants to build his kingdom – but that’s not bricks and walls, its people: he wants people to hear about his wonderful forgiveness and to trust him more. We can all help with that. Some of us can chatter with our friends in class about how great Jesus is; some of us can help the older people in church by chatting to them; some of us can help build Jesus’ kingdom by writing a little card to people who are poorly in church.

What could you do? [take answers]

Pray

Craft:

·         Writing cards to encourage people in church – elderly or poorly

·         Prayer bricks – get them to think of someone to pray for and stick their name onto a Jenga brick then add to the pile as they pray

·         Coloring page

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5-11s

Theme: Everyone has a part to play in the building of God’s kingdom, no matter who you are.

Intro:

·         Keep up the balloon – everyone needs to touch it

·         Large cloth with balloon – everyone has to hold onto it and stop the balloon coming off

Talk about was it easier or harder everyone working together?

Teaching:

Recap on Bible history and what has happened so far in the story

This week it looks like a really dull chapter – just a long list of who did what on the wall. But the important thing is that everyone got involved.

Even the baker [give one a baker’s outfit] – he got stuck into building around the dung gate!

The priest – he got stuck into building the sheep gate!

Boys and girls got stuck into building – Nehemiah divided up the area of the wall and gave everyone a part to fix. [put them in a circle and give them a section to ‘build’]

Only one group of people didn’t get involved: the leading men of Tekoa. They thought they were too important! Do you think they were? No, of course not.

What is Jesus building now? It’s not a wall. [take suggestions]

He’s building his church – and that’s something that we can all be involved in. What can we do to be involved in building up his people? [take suggestions]

[possible suggestions – chatting about Jesus, inviting, welcoming, looking after those who might be missing or sad, visiting, sending cards, getting cups of tea for the older folks, etc]

Which of these could you do? Don’t be like those who do nothing, we’re serving Jesus together.

Table Time:

Knowledge

·         What needed done in Jerusalem?

·         Who got involved?

·         Who didn’t get involved?

Understanding

·         Why didn’t some people get involved?

·         Why do you think the others got stuck in?

·         What is Jesus building now?

Application

·         What could you do to help build Jesus’ kingdom?

·         How are you going to do it?

Teaching Nehemiah 1

3-5s

Theme: God is building his people from trouble and shame, and has provided a wonderful , loving leader

Intros:

·         Building – give them some objects to build with – do they like it? How would they feel if it was knocked down?

·         What makes them sad, afraid, worried? – have some pictures to help them think

Teaching:

Context

A long, long time ago, long before Jesus came, God gave His people, the Israelites, a land to live in [mark out a space on the table]. They lived here happily for a long time. God gave them kings [place small crowns in the ‘land’] – Saul, David, Solomon. They lived in the city of Jerusalem [build a city out of small jenga bricks] and even built a temple, a big building, to worship God in.

Sadly God’s people didn’t love and obey him and God sent an enemy army from Babylon to come and take them away [bring in little army figures] They destroyed the temple and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. [break down the walls]

After 70 years God’s people returned to the land. First they rebuilt the temple and then they listened to God’s rules and tried to make themselves right with God again.

But not everyone came home. Some were left in Babylon under King Artaxerxes [have a small king figure on a throne outside the ‘land’]. One of those was Nehemiah, who was the King’s cupbearer. That meant that he tasted the King’s drinks before bringing them to him. [have a small figure with a cup].

A message came to Nehemiah from his friend, Hanani, in Jerusalem. [Bring out message and read from v3]. Did you hear what was going on? The walls around Jerusalem are still broken down. Nobody has rebuilt them.

How do you think Nehemiah felt about this? [take suggestions, could use emotions to get responses]

Nehemiah cried. He was so sad about this. He didn’t eat for days. Because God’s city was in a mess, it made it look like God didn’t care any more. And God always cares for his people. He wants to build them up and protect them.

So Nehemiah prayed. And he prayed an amazing prayer. He started by saying, ‘God you are amazing’ Read v5 and then get them to repeat ‘God you are amazing’. [thumbs up?]

Then Nehemiah said sorry. Sorry for all the things that he and the people had done to make God angry. Read v6-7. Get them to say together, ‘Sorry God’ [thumbs down]

Then Nehemiah reminded God of the promises he had made to make right those who say sorry. Then he asked God to listen to him as he went before the king to ask the king to help. [thumbs in and say ‘please’ together]

So what have we seen in Nehemiah’s prayer [repeat words and actions]. These are things we can pray at any time.

Did you know Jesus also cried about Jerusalem? He was sad because the people there were still ignoring God hundreds of years later. Like Nehemiah, he loved and wanted to protect the people.

Does it make you sad when some people don’t love Jesus? How can you pray for them?

Craft:

·         Stick brown oblongs onto broken wall picture

·         Stick and colour sad face and pictures from the prayer

Songs:

·         Jesus loves me, this I know

·         Jesus loves the little children

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5-11s

Theme: God is building his people from trouble and shame, and has provided a wonderful , loving leader

Intro:

·         Building activity – they have a pile of boxes and have to build the walls of Jerusalem

Teaching:

Ask – what makes you sad? Today we’re going to see someone who was very sad. And he was sad about a broken wall. Does that sound a bit strange?

First, we need to do a bit of timeline: [recap bible history from entering the land, Kings, exile to Babylon (take down their wall at this) and return]

So, when they returned they rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. But some people didn’t return from Babylon. One of those people was Nehemiah, he was cupbearer to King Artaxerxes of Babylon. That meant that he drank the king’s drinks to make sure they were ok for him. [dress up two characters]

One day a message came to Nehemiah from his friend Hanani, in Jerusalem. Here is what it said, [bring message from Jerusalem to Babylon with v3 on]

How do you think Nehemiah felt about this? [Take suggestions]

Here’s how he felt – read v4. Is that how you would feel about a broken down wall? Why do you think he felt so sad? [take suggestions]

I think he felt so sad because it was bringing shame on God’s name and reputation. People saw the broken walls of Jerusalem and thought that God didn’t care about his people.

So, Nehemiah prayed [Nehemiah on knees]

[Nehemiah reads v5] Nehemiah says, ‘God, you’re brilliant!’ Always the best way to start a prayer.

[Nehemiah reads v6-7] Then Nehemiah says sorry for all his sins and the sins of his people. It’s right that we say sorry to God for all the times we disobey Him.

[Nehemiah reads v8-9] Then Nehemiah reminds God of His promises. As if to say, remember what you said you would do!

[Nehemiah reads v10-11] Then Nehemiah asks God for help as he goes before the King.

Do you know that for 400 years after the end of this book nothing happened? Then Jesus came. And do you know what Jesus did? He wept over Jerusalem. He cried because they had still rejected God. Jesus loves and cares for us and weeps over those who say no to Him. Is that how you feel about the people in your class who don’t love and trust Jesus? Is that how you feel about those in your family who don’t love and trust Jesus?

Jesus wants to build up his church, not the building but the people. That’s what He’s doing in us today and around the world. Isn’t it amazing to be part of it?

Table Time: [add a Jenga block to your ‘wall’ for each good contribution]

Knowledge

·         What was the problem in Jerusalem?

·         What was Nehemiah’s response to it?

Understanding

·         Why did Nehemiah feel so sad?

·         How is Nehemiah pointing us forward to Jesus?

Application

·         How do you feel about your friends and family who don’t love and trust Jesus?

·         What can you be praying for them?

·         How can you honour God as Nehemiah wanted to do?

FREE Reformation Teaching Resources

Just to make you aware of some FREE resources I have written to teach children about the Reformation. Please follow the link:

http://churchsociety.org/resources/page/reformation_500_resources/

These include entire sessions, church introductions, assemblies, and an evangelistic 'light' party.

Pray they may be of some use to you.