Teaching 2 Timothy 4

3-5s

Theme: Listen to people who teach us about Jesus

Aim: That they love to listen, don’t get distracted but keep going

Intro

·         Listening games – eg Simon Says (one leader tries to distract them)

Teaching

[You’ll need the Timothy and Paul puppets as well as a speech bubble with a reveal of ‘Jesus’, a set of ear head bands and a picture of Alexander the metalworker]

Recap – Timothy is in charge of a church in Ephesus. Paul told Timothy that the Bible was all he needed to know about Jesus.

Paul had some instructions for Timothy as he led the church in Ephesus. Here’s what he said: Read 4v1-2.

Did you hear what Paul said? He told Timothy to ‘preach the good news’! That means to keep teaching the Bible which tells us about Jesus. [hold up speech bubble] So Timothy was to keep standing in front of the church every Sunday and reading and teaching the Bible so that they would hear about … Jesus [reveal ‘Jesus’ in the speech bubble]

Timothy was to do that always, no matter what else was going on. And Paul warned him that some people wouldn’t listen. Read 4v3-4. [put on ear head band] They would much rather listen to anything else than what the Bible has to say. ‘Oh, listen,’ they’d say, ‘There’s a really interesting story over here, let’s go there instead!’

But Timothy was to keep teaching people from the Bible, even when that happened.

Paul reminds Timothy about someone who has already wandered away. His name was Alexander, and he worked bashing metal into shapes. Listen, [read 4v14-15 and hold up picture]. It must have been really hard for Paul and for Timothy to keep teaching people about Jesus from the Bible when people were mean like Alexander.

It would have been really easy for Timothy to get angry with Alexander and people like him, but Paul said, ‘no, you’re not to get angry.’ Read 4v5

Paul said, look at me, this is what I’ve been doing. Read 4v6-8. Paul is about to die in prison, but he’s told as many people as he can about Jesus, and so his job is finished.

Timothy was to carry it on, opening the Bible with people to show them Jesus.

What about you? It’s really easy to stop listening when mummy or daddy or people at church tell you about Jesus. We need to really listen carefully so that we can get to know Jesus better and better.

Pray

Craft

·         Ear head bands

·         Make a book and stick pictures of Jesus in

·         Decorate fig rolls with white icing to look like Bibles

Songs

·         The Best book to read is the Bible – Colin Buchanan

·         2 Timothy 3:16 – J is for Jesus

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5-11s

Theme: Listen when people open the Bible to show us Jesus

Aim: That they don’t get distracted or bored by the message of Jesus

Intro

·         Listening game – eg Simon Says, with a leader trying to distract them

Teaching

Recap – Letter from Paul to younger man running church in Ephesus. Timothy has all he needs to face the pressures around him with the Bible

Paul gives Timothy some instructions this week – Read 4:1-2.

What is Timothy to do? – preach the word, tell people about Jesus. [give a ‘Timothy’ a loudspeaker and let him talk about Jesus for a bit].

He’s to do this at all times, carefully and clearly and boldly.

But, do you think everyone will listen? Read 4v3-5. Some people will get distracted and start wandering away from listening carefully.

Paul gives Timothy an example, Alexander the Metalworker [dress one up as Alexander]. Here’s what he said, read 4v14-18. So Alexander had stopped listening and was causing loads of problems, but Timothy was to keep teaching the Bible. [let Timothy do a bit more preaching, despite Alexander being there].

Paul gives himself as a great example of someone who has kept speaking about Jesus [dress one as Paul] Read 4:6-8. Here’s someone who is near death saying, I’ve done everything I can to tell people about Jesus. That is all I can do. Timothy do the same.

So, we’ve got a good example in Paul and a bad example in Alexander. So Timothy is to carry on preaching and showing people Jesus from the Bible.

What about you? Are you easily distracted from listening to the Bible? Do you sometimes get bored if you’ve already heard that story before? Keep listening carefully when people tell you about Jesus from the Bible.

Pray

Table time [make a ‘Bible’ and stick in pictures of Jesus]:

Knowledge

·         What was Timothy to keep doing?

·         Was everyone going to listen? What were they going to do?

·         What had some people already done?

Understanding

·         Why do you think some people stop listening to the Bible/Jesus?

·         What do you think people would rather listen to?

Application

·         What can you do to keep listening and not get distracted?

·         When do you get distracted or bored by the message of Jesus?

Spare – Memory verse: 2 Timothy 3:16

Teaching 2 Timothy 3:1-9

3-5s

Theme: Sometimes there are pretend Christians

Aim: Don’t be like them!

Intro:

·         Real or pretend – have toy fruit and real fruit. They need to separate.

·         Let’s Pretend – they have to pretend to be eg an animal., and the others have to guess [possible spare for the end]

Teaching:

[have a large outline of a false teacher which you will add symbols to and a tick list]

Recap – can you remember who Paul was writing to? Last week we saw that Timothy was to keep loving Jesus and keep loving all the people in the church.

This week Paul tells Timothy that there are pretend Christians in the church. They say that they love Jesus but they don’t really. How would Timothy know who they were?

Paul gives Timothy a tick list so he could know. First of all he says, that they will love themselves [stick on a heart with a picture of the cut out in it]. That means instead of loving Jesus and what He wants, they would only do things that made them happy.

Secondly, they were lovers of money [stick on heart with picture of money]. They wanted more and more things, more and more sweets and toys, instead of loving Jesus. They will not love God.

And because they were not loving Jesus, it meant that they said horrible things [stick on a speech bubble]. They would say how brilliant they were and how horrible everyone else was. They were rude to their mummies and daddies. They wouldn’t forgive people when they said sorry. They were cruel and hated doing good things. They would do silly things without thinking about it.

You see lots of people would say they were friends of Jesus but actually they weren’t they were just pretend. If we love Jesus we will stop being like this. We will begin to change and be more like Jesus. And Jesus was never … [read through the list]

So shall we pray that we would be able to spot when people are being pretend friends of Jesus. And let’s pray that we wouldn’t be these things.

Pray

Craft:

·         False teacher sticking – have a smaller outline and stick on symbols from the story. They could also do themselves and stick on opposite symbols (eg a heart with a J, a speech bubble with good things, etc)

·         Prayer badges – Help me not to be…

Songs:

·         Fruit of the Spirit song – Colin Buchanan

·         Little by Little Jesus is Changing Me – Colin Buchanan

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5-11s

Theme: Paul warns of pretend Christians who say they love Jesus but live differently

Aim: Don’t worry about them but have nothing to do with them

Intro:

·         Follow my leader – have two leaders up front. One gives angry directions and calls the other leader names. The other speaks gently and lovingly. Children need to decide who to follow.

Teaching:

Recap – last week Paul warned Timothy about these false teachers. This week he carries on telling him about people who say they are followers of Jesus, but just don’t live that way. They’re pretend Christians.

[have one ‘real Christian’ and one ‘pretend Christian’, put wigs and moustache, etc on both to show that they’re not actually ‘pretend Christians’]

Paul begins with a warning – read v1. The ‘last days’ are all the time until Jesus comes back. And there will always be ‘pretend Christians’, those who say they are Christians but don’t live like it. Paul is particularly talking about church leaders here as we’ll see.

This is what they will be like: read slowly v2-5 and stick each word and its opposite on both volunteers. Get the children to think what each means and looks like.

Paul then talks about two men – read v8. These were the magicians in Pharaoh’s court [picture]. They could do some of the miracles along with Moses. It looked like they also had God’s power…for a while. The same is true of these church leaders, people will follow them for a while but it will soon become clear that they are not God’s friends.

So, there will be church leaders who don’t live in a way the pleases Jesus and lead God’s people astray. Let’s pray for good leaders.

Let’s pray that we would be more like our ‘real Christian’ than our ‘pretend Christian’

Pray

Table time: [younger ones stick words from v2-5 on body outline]

Knowledge

·         What were the pretend Christians like?

·         What did the pretend Christians do?

Understanding

·         Why was Timothy not to be surprised?

·         Why was Timothy not to worry?

Application

·         Which of these words are true of you?

·         Where do we need to pray that we would change?

Teaching 2 Timothy 2:14-26

3-5s

Theme: We need good people to lead our church

Aim: To pray for our church leaders and see what it means to be a church leader

Intro:

·         Faces of people always on call eg ambulance, firemen, doctor, etc. What do they do? When?

Teaching:

[you will need a photo of all the ministers heads on sticks, Paul and Timothy puppets plus Hymenaeus and Philetus popsicle-stick characters]

Who are these people? [take answers] What do they do?

Recap last week – sadness then wonderful. Some people in the church were saying that Paul was wrong about this. [Introduce Hymenaeus and Philetus popsicle-stick characters] They were arguing with Timothy and making a lot of people upset [have an argument between H, P and Timothy].

Paul told Timothy that he had to teach the Bible well to show that H&P were wrong. [put a Bible in Timothy’s hand] The same is true of our leaders. They have to teach us the Bible well [stick a picture of a Bible on the photos].

But Timothy was not to go having an argument. Have you ever had an argument with your brother or sister like this, ‘Did! Didn’t! Did! Didn’t! etc’? That’s exactly what Timothy was not to do! He wasn’t to fight and argue and be rude. Instead Paul wrote to him saying, [Read 2 Tim 3:22-25].

Did you hear? What was Timothy to be? [patient, peaceful, gentle]

These are the things that our leaders should be, too. [stick words on photos].

We need leaders who can teach us the Bible well but also don’t argue and aren’t rude; who are patient and peaceful and gentle. Let’s pray for our leaders that they would be like this.

Pray

Craft:

·         Thank you cards/Prayer cards for the church leaders

·         Matchbox Bibles – wrap black felt around the two flat sides and a thin strip of white felt around the three remaining sides and decorate the ‘front’

Songs:

·         I can talk to Jesus (from J is for Jesus)

·         Memory verse from last week (Colin Buchanan)

5-11s

Theme: Our church leaders should not quarrel but teach the Bible gently

Aim: That they pray for our church leaders and see what they want to grow up to be

Intro:

·         Follow my leader – print out a photo of a church leader then turn into a mask. Have a child wearing it at the front of the line. The others need to follow and copy. Purpose – our church leaders should show us what it’s like to live for Jesus.

Teaching:

Recap on last week – suffering then glory.

But some people were saying that wasn’t the case. Two people in particular were in Ephesus and were saying,

[dress two up as Hymenaeus and Philetus] ‘Everyone has already risen from the dead!’

That may sound strange but they were saying, we don’t need to suffer any more. Being a Christian means you don’t get any sicknesses or sadnesses. Is that right? No, of course not. And this teaching was spreading like a virus throughout the church and it had to be stopped.

And so Paul told Timothy that he had to tell them that they were wrong. But he had to do it in the right way. He couldn’t just shout and have a big fight with them!

Read v14-17. Timothy was to teach the Bible. That’s what would convince people who had been upset by H&P. That’s what our church leaders should do [attach a picture of a Bible to photos of church leaders].

And so gives Timothy a picture of what a church leader should be like. [have a cheap everyday glass and a champagne flute and explain the difference between them]. Read v20-21. So church leaders are to be set aside by God for teaching us the Bible, just like the champagne flute is set apart just for drinking a special drink.

But listen to what else Timothy was to be like and let’s see if we can work out what our church leaders should be like: read v22-26 slowly and get them to add words to the photos of church leaders.

Pray for the church leaders together

Table time: [whilst making prayer/thank you cards for the church leaders]

Knowledge

·         What had happened in the church in Ephesus where Timothy was?

·         What did Paul tell Timothy to do about it?

·         What was Timothy not to do?

Understanding

·         Why is Timothy not to just shout and scream?

·         Who is like Timothy for us today?

Application

·         What should our church leaders do and be like?

·         How can we help them be like that?

·         What do you need to change if you ever wanted to be a church leader?

Teaching 2 Timothy 2:1-13

3-5s

Theme: Life can be sad but soon it will be wonderful

Aim: That they keep loving Jesus and don’t give up

Intro:

Give them a variety of pictures to colour which you will need for the story: happy face, sad face, a soldier, an athlete, a farmer, a cross, and empty tomb and Paul in chains

Teaching:

[Hold up the two faces] Ask: When do you feel happy? When do you feel sad?

Sometimes we can be sad because we have to work hard and not give up.

Here is a soldier – he has to work hard and not give up fighting the enemy [put under the sad face]. But if he keeps fighting and doesn’t give up then he’ll win the battle and it will be wonderful for him. [put under happy face]

Here is a runner – he has to work hard running. He gets out of breath and pants and sweats, but he needs to keep moving his legs otherwise he will lose the race [put under sad face]. But if he keeps running hard he’ll finish the race and it will be wonderful for him. [put under happy face]

Here is a farmer – he has to work hard digging the ground and planting his seeds [put under sad face]. He has to do this when its sunny and when its rainy. If he stops, he’ll have no food to eat. But if he keeps going and works hard then soon all the plants will grow big and he’ll have lots of food and it will be wonderful for him [put under happy face].

Here is Jesus [put the cross under the sad face] – even though he was God and very good and very strong, he let people put him on a cross to die. It was very sad. But then, 3 days later, Jesus was alive again [put empty tomb under happy face]. It was wonderful for him and us.

Here is Paul [put Paul under sad face]. He is in prison and in chains. That means he can’t go out and play but is stuck inside. It was very sad. But he knows that one day He will live with Jesus and it will be wonderful.

Here are you and me [have a picture of a group of people under the sad face]. Sometimes loving Jesus won’t be easy and we’ll be sad. Other kids may say things to us because we love Jesus. It may mean we won’t get to do what we want to do. But one day it will be wonderful for us too [put under happy face]. We will live with Jesus too.

So, it is really good to keep loving Jesus now, even when we’re sad. So we shouldn’t give up. The soldier, the runner and the famer don’t give up. We shouldn’t give up being Jesus’ friend because one day it will be wonderful for us too.

Pray

Activities

·         Make Paul’s chains out of loops of silver card (or stick on silver foil)

·         Happy and sad face masks

Songs:

·         Follow, follow (EMU)

·         Remember Jesus Christ (Colin Buchanan – v8 set to music)

5-11s

Theme: We may suffer now, but keep going as soon it will be glorious

Aim: That they follow Jesus in good times and bad

Intro:

·         Endurance game – can they sit still and quiet for 1 minute? Or can they keep copying the actions for the whole game?

Teaching:

Recap with baton and read 2v1-2.

[Hold up an emoji with gritted teeth] Ask: What do you find hard going? [take suggestions – eg football training, homework, music practice]

What happens if you keep going at these things? [eg win the match because you’ve trained, get good test results or learn to read, play a piece of music].

Paul writes to Timothy to tell him to keep going and not give up because he has a wonderful future in store (and because the good news about Jesus depends on it!)

Read v4 – He starts by telling him about a soldier [dress a child up as a soldier]. Being a soldier is hard going. You have to train and be very fit and then, when you’re fighting in a battle, it can be horrible and deadly. But if you don’t run away and you keep fighting then you have a glorious victory in battle. A wonderful future.

Read v5 – [Dress a child up as an athlete and give him the baton] If you’re an athlete then you need to do loads of training which is really hard work. And then in the race you’re puffing and sweating and you can’t give up until you get to the finish line, it’s hard going. But if you keep going and finish the race, then you get the crown! A wonderful future.

Read v6 – [dress a child up as a famer] If you’re a farmer you have to dig all year and sow your seeds. It’s hard work. And if you give up and don’t bother then you end up with nothing but weeds. But if you work hard and keep going then you’ll have an amazing crop by the Spring. A wonderful future.

Read v8 – Jesus, too, had to suffer on the cross but then he rose from the dead. A wonderful future.

Read v9-10 – Paul is in chains suffering because he loves Jesus. But he keeps going and doesn’t give up because he knows he has a wonderful future.

The same is to be true of Timothy – he is to keep going and not give up, don’t drop the baton! Read v11-13.

Following Jesus may become hard for you. Other kids may tease you or call you names because you love Jesus. But the good news of Jesus isn’t stopped by this. So don’t give up following him. We have a wonderful future ahead of us if we keep trusting Jesus. We will live with him and reign with him. Keep loving and trusting Jesus!

Table time: [little ones can stick on pictures of soldiers, athletes and famers onto v8]

Knowledge

·         What is Timothy not to do?

·         What is Timothy to do?

Understanding

·         How do the examples of the soldier, the athlete and the farmer help him?

·         How does Paul’s example help him?

·         What promises does Paul give Timothy?

Application

·         When is it hard for you to be a Christian?

·         From this passage, what helps you to keep going?

Pray for the persecuted church