Jesus meets humanity

[John 1:1-18]

Intro: What is the earliest thing you can remember? Can you remember what you had for breakfast? Can you remember what you were doing last week? Last year? Who remembers their first birthday? Who remembers before they were born? No-one remembers because there wasn’t a ‘you’ before you were born. But Jesus remembers a time before he was born: he remembers a time before anyone called him Jesus… a time when he was called … the Word!

Games: To introduce some of the objects/animals from the Bible story

1. 5 Tree - The children will spread themselves around the room; a leader calls out a number ‘5’ and an object ‘tree’ the kids then form a group of 5 (or the nearest number possible) and use their bodies to make one tree. For littler kids or smaller spaces you can put them in groups and leave the number element out of it. For round a table try drawing with your eyes closed or while you quickly count to five.
   Here are some things related to today’s story: Sheep, Bethlehem, Perfume bottle, Manger, Angel, Camel, Treasure chest.

2. Shepherd, Shepherd Sheep - Shepherd, shepherd, sheep!
   (Like duck, duck, goose!) Sit in a circle and one person walks round tapping the others gently(!) on the head as they pass, each time they tap they say ‘shepherd’. On at least one person’s head they must say ‘sheep’ and the sheep and tapper must run round the circle, whoever gets back to the vacated gap first sits there and the person left ‘taps’ the next round. For around a table if they can’t tap heads have everyone put a hand in the middle of the table for tapping in anyorder and have them race to sing baa baa black sheep.

Drama:

Although this series is working through John, our dramas for this session actually come from Matthew and Luke and tell of some of the first humans the newly human Jesus encounters.

1. Jesus meets The Shepherds (At the end of the main script two sections are repeated. That’s so the angels and Mary and Joseph can each have a print out of their parts without having to print all the sections they’re not in. Just delete them if you don’t want that.)

2. Jesus meets The Wise Men

Activity: to recap what they have learnt

If there are enough kids to divide into teams keep score by hanging a Christmas decoration on a leader for each team. If you don’t need to keep score hanging a decoration can be the prize for each right answer. The questions here are taken from the talk and dramas - you can add questions about anything includng what you’ve been learning in the run up to Christmas/this lesson.

Christmas Quiz

• What was the name of the baby born on the first Christmas?
  Jesus

• What name does John (who wrote about Jesus’ life) use to describe Jesus?
  The Word

• What does the name Jesus mean?
  God saves

• When the Wise men came looking for Jesus who did they tell Herod they were looking for?
  The King of the Jews

• When the wise men met Jesus they gave him gold. What does the gold show us Jesus would grow up to be?
  A king

• When the wise men met Jesus they gave him frankincense. What does the frankincense show us Jesus would grow up to be?
  A priest

• When the wise men met Jesus they gave him myrrh. What does the myrrh show us Jesus would grow up to do?
  Die

• Who did the angels say had been born in Bethlehem?
  A saviour/Messiah/Lord

• Where did The Word come from?
  The Father/God

• How did the shepherds, the wise men, the blind man, the Samaritan woman, Nicodemus and Nathaniel respond when they met Jesus?
  They worshipped him (then they told people)

• How did Herod and later on the Pharisees respond to Jesus?
  They rejected him/They wanted to kill him 

Bonus Round
Teams take it in turns to say names given to Jesus, they can hang a decoration for every one they can think of.

Song Suggestions:
Jesus Saves - Colin Buchanan
Born is the King (It’s Christmas) - Hillsong Worship
The God of Wow - Sovereign Grace Music

Memory Verse:

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Separate your class into 3. Group 1 says “in the beginning,” group 2 says “the Word” and group 3 says “God”. They can all say “John 1 verse 1.” Have a leader ‘conduct’ them by pointing at the group whose turn it is to speak and filling in the missing words. After some practice invite the kids to take turns as the conductor. Use the big sweeping move that onductors do to bring everyone in to get them to say the reference. Have some fun mixing it up at the beginning while they learn their parts.