Lessons // Videos // 2-Month Roster // Leader Contact Info // Leader FB Group // Old Lessons

Unit 17 Session 2 – Jesus Was Born

BIBLE PASSAGE: Luke 2:1-20 MAIN POINT: Jesus was born to be God’s promised Savior KEY PASSAGE: Matthew 1:21 BIG PICTURE QUESTION: Why was Jesus born? Jesus was born to rescue us from sin.

PREPARING FOR THE LESSON 1) PRAY.

2) READ THE VERSES: Luke 2:1-20 Matthew 1:21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. When you share this story with kids, remind them that Jesus came because we needed him. The purpose of Jesus’ birth was twofold: to bring glory to God and to make peace between God and those who trust in Jesus’ death and resurrection. 3) WATCH THE VIDEO Bible story video: https://vimeo.com/304296305 Discussion Starter Video: https://vimeo.com/304296845 Optional Songs: https://vimeo.com/304298453 - “He Will Save” https://vimeo.com/304297835 - “He is Born” 4) READ/FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE OPENING ACTIVITY ACTIVITY: No room Use tape to mark shapes of various sizes on the floor. Make sure some are too small for your entire group. Challenge kids to see how many people they can fit into each shape. **For more fun, play music and when the music stops the kids have to find a shape to fit into (that must be different than the last shape they were in)

Make sure to let them know what “fitting” means. 1 foot in, both feet in, one hand one foot, can’t be touching anyone, etc Say: Were you all able to fit into any of the shapes? How did you feel when there was no room for you? Today’s Bible story is about when Jesus was born. Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem and the time came for Mary to have her baby. But there was no place for them to stay as the town was full of people! Mary must have felt afraid, but God had a great plan for her. Mary was the mother of Jesus, God’s Son! 5) READ/FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE AFTER-STORY ACTIVITIES ACTIVITY: Find someone who… Gather the group in one central area. Tell kids to “Find someone who …” and then say a unique character trait that describes a kid in the room. It can be a talent you know she has, a unique article of clothing she is wearing, or something else. When the group thinks they have found the person you were referring to, they will stand in a circle around her and she will sit down. Once you have verified whether they have found the right kid, reset the game and play again, picking a new trait. Say: The shepherds were given a very specific description of Jesus: a baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a feeding trough. There were likely many babies wrapped in cloth that night, but only one was lying in a feeding trough! When they found Jesus, they knew it was Him! They were so happy to have found the Messiah, they went out and told everyone what they heard and saw! When we meet Jesus, He changes our lives and makes us want to tell others about Him too! Jesus is the best gift we could ever receive, because only Jesus was born to rescue us from sin by dying on the cross in our place and rising from the dead. ACTIVITY: Key Passage Each word of the key passage will be written on Christmas Ornaments. There will be a tree outline from masking tape on the wall. Arrange the ornaments in a random order to the side of the tree. Choose a child to come and move one of the ornaments to the tree with the aim of the words being placed in the correct order from top to bottom. (Picture of correct placement will be provided in the classroom once we get the tree up on the wall and can take a picture) Say: Can you remember what the name Jesus means? (Jesus means “Savior.”) God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world with a special purpose. Jesus was born to be God’s promised Savior. He came to rescue people from sin. ACTIVITY: Sheep Wranglers Option 2: Sheep wranglers Form two teams of kids. Give each kid a candy cane and instruct kids to stand on the edges of the room. In the center of the room, dump a large bag of cotton balls on the floor to represent sheep. When you say “go” teams will have 45 seconds to gather as many “sheep” as they can to their side of the room using only their candy canes to push the cotton balls around. Play again as time allows Say: Who remembers the important role the shepherds played in the Christmas story? We will learn more about it soon! ACTIVITY: Discussion Starter Video Say: Christmas is a celebration of the most important birthday ever—Jesus’ birthday! Watch this video and think about some of your favorite birthday traditions. Show the “Unit 17, Session 2” discussion starter video. Ask the kids about their favorite ways to celebrate their birthday. Do they like eating cake? What about receiving presents? Do they break piñatas or give out goody bags?

Say: Christmas is a celebration of Jesus’ birth. Why do we celebrate Jesus’ birth? The birth of Jesus was good news. It was the fulfillment of God’s promise to finally deal with our sin. We needed a Savior, and Jesus was born to be God’s promised Savior. ACTIVITY: Zonk Divide kids into two teams. Ask the first team a review question (below). If they answer correctly, they can come and pick a circle from the board. If it is a “ZONK”, the turn ends. If they draw “points”, they have the option of stopping and safely banking/soring those points OR they can keep choosing circles, to earn more points. They do risk picking up a ZONK and losing all the points they have gained THAT TURN. When they stop picking circles, all the points they are holding are safely banked, which means that the leader records the score on a board for their team. (Ex: draws 200, then draws 100, then draws 500, then stops – they earned 800 points for their team) When a child draws a ZONK, their turn immediately ends and they lose all the points they had just drawn, if any. To add fun, have the team support their choosing team member by chanting “points points points!” and the opposing team shouting “zonk zonk zonk!”. About half way through, shuffle the dots that have been drawn and place them back on the board. WE WILL PLAY THIS GAME Then ask the following questions:

Lesson 1 (last week)

• Whose family would the King come from? (Jesse’s family, Isa. 11:1)

• What would the Spirit of God help Him do? (be wise and understanding, know and fear God; Isa. 11:2)

• How will He judge? (He will judge righteously and justly, always doing the right thing; Isa. 11:3-5)

• What will happen when He brings peace? (Wolves and lambs will live together, leopards and goats will lie next to each other, children will play with snakes, and so forth; Isa. 11:6-9)

• The earth will be filled with knowledge of God like what? (like the seas are filled with water, Isa. 11:9)

• Who will come together under this King? (all nations, Isa. 11:10) Lesson 2 (this week)

• To what city did Mary and Joseph travel? (Bethlehem, Luke 2:4)

• Why did Joseph and Mary travel to Bethlehem? (Joseph was from David’s family, and they needed to return to the city of David for the census; Luke 2:1-4)

• What did Mary wrap Baby Jesus in? (cloth or swaddling clothes, Luke 2:7)

• Where did Mary lay Jesus? (in a feeding trough for animals, Luke 2:7)

• Who were the first people to hear about Jesus’ birth? (shepherds watching their sheep, Luke 2:8-11)

• How did the shepherds feel when they saw the angel? (terrified, Luke 2:9)

• What type of news did the angel tell the shepherds? (good news, Luke 2:10)

• Who was the good news about Jesus’ birth intended for? (all people whom God favors, Luke 2:10-11)

• What did the angels tell the shepherds to look for? (a baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a feeding trough, Luke 2:12)

• What did the shepherds do after they found Jesus? (went around spreading the news to others; Luke 2:17,20)

• What did Mary do? (She stored up the memories and meditated on them, Luke 2:19)

• What does the name Jesus mean? (Savior, Matt. 1:21) Say: God’s promise to send a Savior was fulfilled! Jesus was born, just as God had promised from the beginning! The Rescuer had arrived as a little baby in a feeding trough. No one seemed to be expecting that! But the best gift God could have given was just that—a newborn baby born to save

us from our sin. We celebrate Christmas to remember the night God, after years of silence, moved forward with His daring rescue operation to take away our sin. Jesus was born to be God’s promised Savior. ACTIVITY: Christmas PopStick People or Door Hangers Using the provided supplies, create Christmas characters out of pop sticks Using the provided supplies, decorate a door hanger for Christmas (door hangers will be made of card stock instead of wood as pictured).

===============================

RUNNING THE LESSON ON THE DAY RUNNING SHEET 1) Hello! Welcome back! 2) OFFERING (Beftu and Mohamed) 3) Opening Activity 4) Review Point out on the timeline the Bible stories about Isaiah: “God Called Isaiah” and “Isaiah Preached About the Messiah.” This is just after the Elijah stories on the timeline and what we’ll be covering in the first couple of weeks in the new year.

Say: Here is where our timeline shows that Isaiah lived. Then here is where Jesus was born. [Point to “Jesus Was Born” on the timeline.] Isaiah lived hundreds of years before Jesus was born, but God spoke through Isaiah about His plan to send the Messiah. At just the right time, God kept His promise to send the Messiah. 5) Big Picture before we jump into our story, let’s remember our big picture question. When I ask it, shout the answer back to me in your most joyful voices. Ready? Why was Jesus born? [Allow kids to respond.] Jesus was born to rescue us from sin! Jesus came to fulfill God’s promises, to bring glory to God, and to make peace between God and everyone who trusts in Him. 6) Watch the video 7) Discuss the story Say: Isn’t this one of the most wonderful stories you’ve ever heard? Jesus came to rescue us! Jesus was born to be God’s promised Savior. He lived a life kind of like yours and mine. He came as a baby, He grew to be a kid just like you. He had schoolwork and chores, and He played with His friends. And He kept growing and became an adult and went to the temple and showed the religious leaders that He learned the Scriptures, kind of like you when you share your memory verses with us. As an adult, He served others and spoke true things and taught people about God, kind of like some of the adults you know here at church or at home. Jesus lived like us in many ways. He laughed and cried and got hungry and needed to sleep. But Jesus is unlike us in many ways, too. Because while He is fully human, He also is fully God. Our story last week from Isaiah told us that God’s Spirit rested on Him. Because Jesus is God, He never sinned. Not even once. Not even a little bit. That’s something that none of us can say about ourselves. Jesus came to earth, in part, to live a life like you and me so He could know us so personally and so deeply. He did this because He loved us so tremendously. But He also lived a sinless life—unlike you and me—so He could become the final and perfect sacrifice to atone for, or pay for, our sins. Jesus was born to rescue us from sin! As we celebrate Christmas together, let’s also keep Easter in mind, which is a time where we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus paid for sin, and He made the way for us to be at peace with God. He defeated death and is in heaven preparing the Kingdom for His people. Here we are—waiting for the day another of God’s promises will be fulfilled. On that day, Jesus will return to take His people to live with Him forever in His perfect kingdom. 8) Pray God, thank You for Christmas and for the time You have given us to gather together to learn about You and to celebrate You. I pray that all the kids in this group would receive Your greatest gift—salvation in Jesus. We love You. Amen. 9) Activities (choose from above)