Jesus is the New and Better…
…Adam

Intro: Who can you think of who has changed the lives of everybody on the planet? Show some pictures of well-known people and ask whose life they have changed i.e Einstein, who changed the way we look at space; Martin Luther King; Christopher Columbus, who discovered America – and destroyed a lot of the native American population; Hitler, who started the second world war; Gandhi, who refused to fight and used a peaceful way to change how India was ruled; your mum, who has changed your life even if they haven’t changed the world. Two people have changed the world more than any others and we’re going to learn about them today!

Games: To connect to the idea that Jesus did similar things to Adam.

1. Follow the leader - Take it in turns to be at the front of the line, all the kids in line must do whatever the person at the front is doing, whether that is standing , waving, running, jumping, dancing, skipping, hopping, sitting etc.

2. Mirrors - A leader or a kid starts up the front with everybody facing them. They make a shape with their body - the more complicated the better, everybody else gets to 5 to look then they must shut their eyes and try and recreate the same shape with their own bodies. The person at the front then gets to pick one person who is the most accurate. There are now two people up and they both get to make shapes which everybody copies one shape at a time. Each of them pick a person and the game continues!

Talk: Here are my talk notes, the Bible refrences are there so you know when my points came from, and I wouldn’t recommend quoting all of them. You could do this as one talk or split it in two with a game in the middle. The same goes for this talk which is based on Paul’s perspective on Adam in Romans 5.

Drama:
Here are three sketches with the themes from this lesson. You can pick the one that best fits your kids abilities.
For 4-6 year olds there are some ideas of freeze frames for Death Enters a Perfect World. If you have a small enough group that you can’t divide by age get the older kids to take it in turn to direct.
For 7-9 year olds there’s a Newsroom sketch with the theme of How to be God’s Friend. You can combine any of the reporter or presenter roles if you have fewer kids, or split them up if you need more.
For 10-12 year olds there’s a advert style sketch about Upgrading Adam, which is a more direct comparison between him and Jesus. It’s based on the Shouty Man sketches by the Horrible History Team.

Activity: To demonstrate that Jesus has dealt with our sin.
On scraps of paper get the children to write or draw things they’ve done that God would not want them to. They will probably come up with actions like ‘fighting with my sister’, or ‘not putting away my clothes when my mum said to’ and other similar things. It might be helpful to remind them of Jesus two most important laws – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”; and, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” from Luke 10:27.

Then either get them to stick their paper to a cross or to some one representing Jesus and then ‘deal’ with them by putting them in the bin, or if you have a flair for the dramatic you could set them on fire; showing how Jesus can take all our sins away so that we are free to be friends with God.

Songs:
Our God is a Great Big God – Vineyard Records
He Died Upon The Cross - Colin Buchanan

Memory Verse: Learn Isaiah 46:9&10 (There is a simplified version of these verses in song form by Colin Buchanan).
Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please.’