Lesson continued

Today our story is about a man named John. There are thousands of people in this world with the name John. That’s a lot of Johns. (You may want to ask the children if they know someone with the name John?) But God knew who John was before he was even born. He had a special job for John to do when he grew up to be a man.

God wanted John to have special parents who could teach him to love him and serve him. God gave John to Elizabeth and Zacharias. Elizabeth and Zacharias had been praying for a child for a very long time. They thought that they were getting too old to have children, but God answered their prayers and gave them John.

They taught John about God and told him that he had a special job to do for God. John was different than most people of his time — He lived out in the wilderness. (He probably felt closer to God there.) He dressed in clothes that were made from camel’s hair and ate things that he found in the desert-like locust (grasshoppers) and wild honey.

One day God’s words came to John and John began to preach to the people what God had told him. He told them to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Does anyone know what the word “repent” means? (Give the children a chance to answer.) It means to stop doing wrong. John was telling the people to get ready – to make their hearts right – because their Savior was coming soon. When the people heard him many of them felt sorry for doing wrong and wanted to show everyone that they were sorry. John would baptize the people in the Jordan River who repented to show others that they were changing their ways. Soon people began to call him John the Baptist.  People from all over would come out to the wilderness and listen to John the Baptist. Some people thought he was their promised Savior, but John told them that he wasn’t and that his job was to tell people about the Savior and get them ready to meet him.

• What was John the Baptist preaching? ("Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.")

• What did he mean by that? (Jesus was coming soon!)

• Where did John live? (in the wilderness)

• What did John wear for clothing? (clothes made out of camel hair)

• What did John eat? (locusts and wild honey)

• Why did people go out to the wilderness to see John? (they were confessing their sins and being baptized)

• In this story, people were confessing their sins to John the Baptist and being baptized.

• Have you confessed your sins and been baptized?

Directions

1. Give each child a spoon. Have them use 3 pipe cleaners (glue them to the stem.) Then add googly eyes! Give each child a spoon. Have them use 3 pipe cleaners (glue them to the stem.) Then add googly eyes! 

Directions

1. Before class print out the patterns (John the Baptist Pattern, Bubbles Pattern with Bible Verses, Blank Bubbles)

2.  Cut tan yarn into 1/2″ pieces.

3. In class have your children color the picture, and then glue the yarn pieces to John the Baptist’s clothes.

4. Glue the picture to a piece of construction paper. Have your children draw a conversation bubble on a white piece of paper (or use the pattern).  Write Matthew 3:2 Bible verse in the bubble, and then glue it to the picture.

Directions

1. Divide the kids into two teams
2. Line them up "relay" style so that one person from each team will take a turn at a time.
3. Give the first person in each team a baby doll and tell them they will run down to their team's bucket, put the baby doll in the bucket, put their hands in the air and say "Thank you God for making me clean", pick their baby doll up from the bucket, run back down to their team, and hand the baby to the next person in line. 
4. Repeat this with each kid until everyone has had a chance to go. The first team to complete this wins!