Unit 19 / Lesson 1
The Great Commission
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Lesson 105: The Great Commission
Teacher's Prep
Games
Blow the Ping Pong Ball
Materials needed
One ping pong ball per five children
One chair per five children
Game: Bottle Flip relay
Prepare two disposable plastic water bottles, filled about 1/4 full with water. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of a bottle flip, you can watch this YouTube video:
Tangrams
Print the Tangrams template below, one per team of two children. Ideally, you should print on colored cardstock. If cardstock is not available, other options include construction paper, coloured paper, or plain white paper.
For every two children, cut out the seven shapes on the template (cutting is tedious, but it really makes the game smoother if you have all the pieces ready before the game starts)
Put each set of shapes in a little baggie. A Ziploc bag will help you to reuse the shapes next time you do this activity.
Also, print one of these sheets of animal shapes per team of two:
Main activity: Bead Art
Please see this video for instructions and materials:
Bead Art | Activities for Kids | Michaels, by Michaels Stores
Materials needed:
Foam board
X-Acto knife
Assorted beads
Glitter & Sequin Glue
You may be able to make creative substitutions to some of the materials above.
In addition to craft materials, you will want to provide tables for crafting.
Intro
Gathering
How was your week?
Intro Game: Blow the Ping Pong Ball
Instructions
We'll start off our lesson with a game!
It's a relay race with ping pong balls! Here's how it works. We will have teams of five people each. If you have six people, one of you needs to join another team. And if you have less than five, some of you might need to go twice.
Each team will have a ping pong ball. You will take turns blowing the ping pong ball across the room and back. To make this more challenging, there is a chair on the other side of the room, and you will need to blow the ping pong ball around the far side of the chair before you get back.
Teacher: demonstrate the path of the ball – from the starting line, around the back of the chair, and then back to the starting line.
Let's form our teams, and line up one one side of the room. We'll see how fast we can do this relay race.
Teacher: pick the side of the room that the children will line up on, and mark a starting line, either with tape or with some physical markers like pylons. On the far side of the room, set chairs for each team, leaving space all around the chairs so that children can blow a ping pong ball around the chairs. You may want to play more than one round if time and interest allows.
Debrief
We played this game because it helps us to start thinking about our lesson. Think about the ping pong ball for a moment. The ball will never go where it needs to go, unless you blow on it. It might roll around here and there, but it will never finish the race by itself. It needs help! So, we gave it help, but our help was sort of invisible! You can't really see our breath when it’s blowing the ball -- but it's there, and it's the most important thing in the game.
Relevance
And did you know -- we're a lot like that ping pong ball! All of us are part of something really big. God has big plans for us. And, we have no way to finish his plan by ourselves. So, God helps us. We can't see God, but he's here with us. And, he gives us power to do his work.
Big Question
So our big question today is: when will we have God's power?
Big Idea
Our big idea today is: God gives us power when we help people to know him.
And, there are two ways to help people to know him.
1. We can help people know God for the first time.
2. And, if they already know God, we can help them to know God better.
That's what our Bible passage is about today.
Bible Reference
First, let's watch a cartoon about our Bible passage.
Teacher: play this YouTube video:
Jesus' Ascension, by Saddleback Kids
Now let's read our Bible passage.
Matthew 28:18-20 (ICB)
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All power in heaven and on earth is given to me. 19 So go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach them to obey everything that I have told you. You can be sure that I will be with you always. I will continue with you until the end of the world.”
Point 1
Point
The first thing we learn from our Bible passage is:
1. God gives us power when we help people know him for the first time.
Game: Bottle Flip relay
Instructions
We'll start this point with a game! It's the bottle flip relay! It's really simple. We're going to do a bottle flip so that our water bottle lands the right way. Once it lands right side up, you run to the far wall, touch the wall, and then come back and tag the next person on your team, and then they can do a bottle flip. When everyone on your team is done, you win!
Teacher: form two teams and provide each team with a bottle that is one-quarter full. Count down for the children to start the game.
Debrief
We played this game because it reminds us, sometimes we don't get what we want right away. But, we will win if we just keep trying and don’t give up.
And, it's like that when we help people to know God for the first time.
Bible Reference
Let's read our Bible passage again.
Matthew 28:18-20 (ICB)
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All power in heaven and on earth is given to me. 19 So go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach them to obey everything that I have told you. You can be sure that I will be with you always. I will continue with you until the end of the world.”
Explanation
So, Jesus reminded his disciples that he’s really powerful! He has all the power on earth, and all the power in heaven. That's a lot of power!
And, he promised his disciples that he would help us if we do his work.
He wanted his disciples to go and make more followers of Jesus, all over the world. Back then, most of the world didn't know about Jesus yet. So, they needed to hear about Jesus, and they needed to start following Jesus.
And, Jesus told the disciples to baptize those new followers. Back in those days, people got baptized the moment they believed in Jesus. So, it was a way of celebrating that they had a new life with Jesus. Nowadays a lot of people start following Jesus, but they wait until they’re older to get baptized, and that’s okay too.
It’s not as important when we should baptize a person. The important thing is, people need to know Jesus. And, if we help people to know Jesus, we will have his power.
Application
But, here's the tricky thing. Remember the bottle flip game? Sometimes you try to flip the bottle and it doesn't land the way you want. So, you need to try again. And, sometimes you need to try again a whole bunch of times.
And, it might be frustrating if you can’t get the bottle to land the right way, but that’s actually part of the game! It wouldn't be much of a game if you could just put the bottle down the right way, and be done.
And, real life is like that too. God COULD give us everything we want, right away. But, he doesn’t. Sometimes God lets us try things, and we don’t get what we were hoping for.
And, it can be really sad when we’re really trying to help someone to know Jesus, and they don't just get it. But, we just have to remember, God knows what he's doing. God has a plan, and his plan always works. God has chosen some people to be his children, and all of his children will eventually follow him.
We just need to do our best, and God will finish his plan, and if we wait long enough we'll see that God's plan is actually better than our plan.
Discussion Question
Let's pause for a discussion question
Do you have ideas for helping people to start following Jesus?
Point 2
Point
Moving on, the second thing we learn from our Bible passage is:
2. God gives us power when we help people know him better
Game: Tangrams
Instructions
We'll start this point with a puzzle game! It's called Tangrams. Each of you will find a partner, and you'll take a bunch of little puzzle pieces, and you'll make some animal shapes with them.
Teacher: show the children your shapes, and the animal handout.
As a team, you'll have five minutes to make as many of the animals as you can. Try to take turns and help each other out.
Teacher: give the children five minutes to finish their game. They may not need all of that time.
Debrief
We played this game because it's about putting the pieces together to make something great. And, that's what every Christian has to do when they follow Jesus. We need to take what God gives us, and we need to make it better.
Bible Reference
Let's read our Bible passage again.
Matthew 28:18-20 (ICB)
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All power in heaven and on earth is given to me. 19 So go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach them to obey everything that I have told you. You can be sure that I will be with you always. I will continue with you until the end of the world.”
Explanation
So, Jesus wants followers. But, we're not done when a person starts following Jesus. We've actually just begun. When we become Christians God gives us everything we need to follow him and become great.
But it's like the Tangrams game. We have the pieces we need, but we still need to put them together.
We need to keep learning, and we need to become strong like the first disciples. We need to obey Jesus and help other people to obey him.
And if we help people like that, Jesus promises that he will be with us, and we will have his power.
Application
So, let's keep learning about God. And, let’s practice obeying God. Because, if we obey God, then sooner or later we will see all of his promises come true. So, let’s keep learning with our heads, and let’s keep obeying with our hands.
Discussion Question
Let's pause for a discussion question.
What is one way you want to practice obeying God?
Conclusion
To wrap up our lesson, our big question today was: When will we have God's power?
Our big idea was: God gives us power when we help people to know him.
1. We can help people know God for the first time.
2. And, if they already know God, we can help them to know God better.
Main Activity
And now it's time for our main activity. Today, we are making bead art! Let's watch a quick video to see what it's like.
Teacher: play this video:
Bead Art | Activities for Kids | Michaels, by Michaels Stores
Our craft helps us to remember our lesson, because we need two things to make a good craft. First, we need all the pieces. We need beads and glue and something to stick them on.
But, second, we need to put the pieces together and keep working on the pieces until they are beautiful.
And, that’s what it’s like when we help people to know God. First we can give them the right ideas. Then, we can help them to put the right ideas together and make something great.
Teacher: provide materials on crafting tables; supervise the children as they make their crafts.