If We Believe in Jesus, We'll Receive Eternal Life
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Accepting God’s Grace • Lesson 11 Bible Point If we believe in Jesus, we’ll receive eternal life. Bible Verse “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Growing Closer to Jesus Students will n experience what it’s like to receive grace—unmerited kindness; n discover how it feels to be helpless to save themselves; n learn that God’s gift of salvation is offered to everyone; and n discover that Jesus offers something to them—eternal life—that they could never win on their own. Teacher Enrichment Bible Basis n Accepting God’s Grace This passage is one of the most remarkable explanations of God’s plan of Romans salvation found anywhere in the Bible. It’s easy to begin to think that God 5:6-9 sent Jesus to die for the good people who have accepted him. But this passage makes it clear that Jesus died for the ungodly—people who are living their lives in blatant sin. People who are like we were before we became Christians—and worse! Every once in a while you hear of someone intentionally giving his or her own life to save someone else. Usually it’s a mother dying to save a baby or a brother dying to save a sister. But you seldom hear of people intentionally giving up their lives for someone they don’t know—or for someone known to be evil. Yet that’s what God did through Jesus. And that’s the point Paul is making in this passage. The Creator of our universe sacrificed his only Son so that a world full of sinners like us could have a relationship with him and eternal life in heaven. He did it at just the right time—when nothing else could possibly save us. And he offers salvation to us for free—all we have to do is confess our sins and believe in him. What God did for us is almost beyond belief. And that’s what God’s grace is all about! Prayer • Read Ephesians 2:8-9. • Think about how grace and faith work together in our salvation. • Pray: God, as I teach my class, help me to share your plan of salvation in a way that will connect with my pupils. Send your Spirit to work in their hearts so that… Hands-On Bible Curriculum—Grades 5 & 6 129 Lesson 11 Before the Lesson n Collect items for the activities you plan to use, referring to the Classroom Supplies and Learning Lab Supplies listed in the chart. n Make photocopies of the “Takin’ It Home” handout (at the end of this lesson) to send home with your students. n Pray for your students and for God’s direction as you teach the lesson. This Lesson at a Glance What Students Will Do Classroom Supplies Learning Lab Supplies Attention Amazing Grace—Choose CD player Grabber whether to let losing players stay in a game, and relate the experience to God’s grace. Bible Catcher’s Up!—Participate in Bibles, 2 ping-pong balls Exploration & a hopeless exercise, and then Application discuss John 8:1-11. To Die For—Using modeling Bibles, CD player clay, form a symbol representing the one person they’d die for, and then read Romans 5:6-9. Grab Ball—Perform a difficult Bibles, candy, ping-pong ball task, and then discuss Romans 10:9-13. Closing Action/Reaction—Create Bibles, markers, tape, paper, CD a sculpture or drawing that player symbolizes a personal reaction to Jesus before offering prayers of thanks for the grace made available through Jesus. Welcome When kids arrive, remind them that you’ll sound the slide flute when you need their attention, and you’ll wait for all of them to look at you without talking before you continue. Before you begin the lesson, engage kids in conversation about how they applied last week’s lesson to their lives. Use questions such as “How did knowing God forgives you help you to forgive someone else last week?” and “How do you feel after you’ve forgiven someone?” Let kids share any discussions about the take-home page as well. 130 Hands-On Bible Curriculum—Grades 5 & 6 Accepting God’s Grace Attention Grabber n Amazing Grace SUPPLIES: CD player Form a circle. Tell students you’re going to play a track 9 game that only one person in the group can win. Give the inflatable microphone to one student. Give a pair of rainbow glasses to another student. Cue the song “We Will Live Forever” (John 3:16) (track 9) on the CD. Say: When I start the music, if you’re holding the inflatable microphone, say your name into the microphone, and then pass it to the person on your right. If you have the rainbow glasses, put them on, shout, “I see!” and then pass the glasses to the person on your right. The people who get the items must do the same things. And whenever the music stops, you must freeze. The person who’s caught holding the inflatable microphone is out of the game. But the person who has the rainbow glasses may “save” the eliminated person by shouting “Grace!” after the music stops. If that person shouts “Grace!” the person holding the microphone can stay in the game. If not, the person with the microphone is out. When I start the music again, continue passing the microphone and the glasses. Ready? Start the music, and let it play for 10 seconds or so. Stop the CD, and give the person with the glasses time to decide whether to extend grace. Continue playing the game for a few more minutes or until only one person is left. Collect the Learning Lab items for use in later lessons. Have students sit in a circle. Then ask: • Was this game fair to everyone? Why or why not? (No, some people got extra chances; yeah, everyone got to try it.) • What feelings did you experience when you were caught with the microphone? (Embarrassment; humiliation.) • How did you feel when you were caught with the glasses? (Powerful; important.) • How are those feelings like or unlike the feelings we experience when we realize that God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus is free to everyone? (It seems unfair that some people get more chances to know Jesus; I’m glad this gift is For variation, pass around all the Learning Lab items. The person free because my brother still gets in a lot of trouble and needs God badly.) holding the rainbow glasses when • What does it mean to you to know that through God’s grace you can live the music stops can shout out forever? (I’m happy, but I don’t want to go to heaven yet; I’m only 11, so it’s hard to “Grace!” for anyone caught holding imagine living that long; I think it’s great!) a type of ball (suction-ball or crazy Say: The game we just played is an example of how God gives his gift of bouncer). grace to us. Some of you might think of grace as something you say before dinner. But grace really means to pardon or show kindness to someone. In our game, you could choose who you wanted to extend grace to. But today we’ll discover that God doesn’t have to choose between people. He extends his grace to everyone! How? Through Jesus Christ, who came to save the whole world. If we believe in Jesus, we’ll receive eternal life. God will pardon us and show kindness to any and every one of us—even when none of us deserves it! Hands-On Bible Curriculum—Grades 5 & 6 131 Lesson 11 Bible Exploration & Application n Catcher’s Up! It’s important to say the Bible Point SUPPLIES: Bibles, 2 ping-pong balls just as it’s written in each activity. Form two teams, and have the members of each team Repeating the Bible Point over and line up single file. Designate the first person in each line to over throughout the lesson will help kids remember it and apply it be a Pitcher in this game, and have the Pitchers move about to their lives. 10 feet away from their respective teams. Give each Pitcher a ping-pong ball. Designate the second person in each line to be the Catcher for that team, and give him or her a catcher from the suction-ball catch set. Instruct Catchers to each place the suction-ball catcher on their left foot with the elastic under their shoe and the shallow bowl sitting on top. Say: The goal of this game is for the Pitcher to toss the ping-pong ball to his or her teammate and for the teammate to catch it. Catchers The ping-pong ball will bounce must each balance on their right foot while attempting to catch the out of the suction-ball catchers ping-pong ball pitched to them. Pitchers will pitch twice to each Catcher. as kids try to catch them. In the After attempting to catch the ball, each Catcher should give the suction- highly unlikely event that a student ball catcher to the next person in line and move to the back of the line. does catch a ball in the catcher, ask Ready? Go! this person an additional question in the debriefing (following the When each Catcher has had two tries, gather students in a circle.