LEADERS HUB
Year 1, Term 1, Week 4: Ideas for Junior Group
Week 4: The Good News... From John The Baptist!
Lesson Objective:
John the Baptist preached to the people, telling them to turn back to God because the saviour was coming soon!
Bible Passage:
Matthew 3:1-15
Memory Verse:
Matthew 3:1-2 - Years later, John the Baptist started preaching in the desert of Judea. He said, “Turn back to God! The Kingdom of Heaven will soon be here!”
Story Idea: Read It or Act it!
Recall:
- Ask the kids if they remember last weeks lesson and prompt them to remember that Micah had a message - he told God's people that God would send a SPECIAL king - Jesus!
Read the story of John the Baptist in 'The Jesus Storybook Bible' while showing the pictures to the kids (Heaven Breaks through - page 200)
OR
- Dress yourself as John (in something that looks like camel hair, eg. a hessian sack from the cupboard with a head and arm holes cut in it, or a robe from the costume cupboard) and your helper as a person from Bible times (robe from the cupboard)
- Collect toy grasshoppers/bugs from the cupboard and bring a jar of honey
- Tell the kids about John the Baptist and his message, covering the following main points:
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- In the Bible, there was a man named John who was born around the same time as Jesus
- John was STRANGE
- He lived in the bush, wore clothes made of CAMEL HAIR and he ate grasshoppers dipped in honey! EEWWW! (Show kids bugs and honey)
- John loved God
- John knew that everybody, including himself had done the wrong thing - they had sinned - they had gone in the opposite direction than what Jesus wanted them to (have helper walk away from you with back turned)
- John went around reminding everyone that they were going the wrong way and that they needed saving
- John was telling everyone that they should turn back to God because the saviour would be here soon!
- 'Hey! You! Over there! You are walking away from God because of the wrong things you are doing! God is sending a saviour, so you need to turn back to Him! The Saviour will be here soon!
- Because of John, lots of people turned back to God and trusted Jesus to save them from their sins! (Have helper turn and walk towards you)
- John's message is for us too! We have all done the wrong thing and moved away from God, but God wanted us to know Him, so He sent Jesus to pay for our sins, so we could turn back to Him!
Quiz Questions:
1. What was strange about John? His clothes and he ate bugs!
2. Did John love God? Yes
3. John knew that the people weren't listening to God, how could he tell? They were doing the opposite of what God wanted
4. John told the people that the special saviour was coming, who is the saviour? Jesus
5. Did people listen to John and turn back to follow God? Yes
6. Can we trust Jesus to fix our sin too? Yes
Game Idea: Musical Statues
- Have the children dance around the room to music
- When the music stops, all the children should freeze
- Any children who move are out and can move to one side of the room to dance or sit off to the side
- The last child left in is the winner
Remind the kids that John taught everyone that we should stop living our old way and trust Jesus to fix our sin!
Whole Group Craft Idea: Grasshoppers
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- Before the lesson, spray paint some wooden clothes pegs green (Pegs and paint in cupboard), gather pipe cleaners, googly eyes and PVA glue
- Cut some pipe cleaners in half
- Have the kids bend their pipe cleaners into grasshopper legs and glue them into their peg, then glue googley eyes to their peg as shown
- Hang the grasshoppers around the John the Baptist display made by the older kids
Remind the kids that John was a strange character who ate grasshoppers, but he loved God and reminded everyone to turn back to God because the saviour, Jesus, was coming!
