Remember
Breath Prayer
Breath in: You alone
Breath out: Are my strength and shield
Remember one another
Is anyone celebrating something that happened this week? Let’s share so we can all thank God together.
Is anyone struggling, feeling sad, lonely or scared? How can we pray for one another?
Remember what we learned last week: Gather, a picture of heaven
When we gather together with other Believers we are the Church. Where the Church is gathered, God is with us.
Practice the Following Jesus Liturgy (With our youngest kids only focus on the portion that we’re currently learning)
Reflect: Go and Make Disciples
Story-tell: Introduce the time by telling the kids that you are going to read a scripture and then we're going to try to repeat it back. The scripture that is going to be read comes from the Book of Matthew. At this part of the story Jesus has already been crucified on the cross, died, and rose again. Now this is what He said to his followers and friends after he had been raised from the dead.
Read and reread Matthew 28: 18-20
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Have a volunteer share whatever portion of the scripture they can remember. With the help of multiple kids, see how much of the verse they can remember.
Ask questions:
Who has all authority?
Who is Jesus giving His authority to?
So that we can do what?
What are we to teach people?
This is a tough job. What encouragement does Jesus give us at the end?
Story-telling: Scripture Drama
After Jesus told His friends to go and make disciples, can you guess what they did? They WENT! That's what the Book of Acts is all about in the Bible. Jesus went up into heaven to sit on His throne and His friends went all over the Earth telling people about Him. They shared about His miracles, His power, His ability to forgive people and rescue them from sin. Many many people decided to follow Jesus.
The Bible tells a story about Peter hearing from God and obeying. His obedience led him to a house of people who were hungry to hear about Jesus and become His followers.
Important things to understand before getting to the story.
God has always wanted people from every nation and language to know Him and worship Him.
In the beginning God chose a certain people to be set apart and follow Him. This was the nation of Israel, the Jewish people. He gave them rules to follow that would make them different from other nations. Some of those rules were about animals that they were allowed to eat and animals they were not allowed to eat.
The Jewish people were waiting for a Messiah, or someone they believed would save them from trouble.
People who are not Jewish are called Gentiles. Jews and Gentiles did not associate with one another.
The story we are about to hear is about one of the first times that the disciples realized that Jesus came to welcome everyone into His family, not only the Jewish people.
Have the kids tell the story back in their own words.
What was the sequence of events?
It may help to read Acts 10.
Now, have the kids take turns acting out the story. You can adapt the roles depending on how many children you have in your group (2-5 roles available).
Peter - has a vision of heaven, God tells him to eat.
God, Voice from heaven: Everything God makes is pure.
Romans - sent from Cornelius to get Peter and bring him to Cornelius' house
Cornelius - God told him to invite Peter to His house
Household of people - Holy Spirit comes and fills everyone "Aha! Jesus is the Messiah! We can be saved!"
Help the kids remember the story. You may act it out two or three times, helping the children to get progressively more independent.
Close and Pray
The Bible says that people will not know Jesus unless someone tells them.
Who told you about Jesus?
Who can you tell about Jesus?
Let's pray for those people in our lives who don't know Jesus, and let's ask God to send someone to tell them the good news, even if that means giving us the courage to share with them.