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Lesson #2-20 Mark 5:1-20 Sunday, January 26, 2020 Lesson #2-20 rd th Mark 5:1-20 3 -6 Key Verse: “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy [God] has shown you.” Mark 5:19 The Point: Jesus has power to save us from evil. Making Connections: The Power of the Kingdom Bible Nuts & Bolts: Who Were the Gentiles? Spiritual Practice: Prayer © 2014-2019 Spirit and Truth Publishing—All Rights Reserved 1 Lesson #2-20 (3rd-6th) January 26, 2020 None Discuss what it feels like to be all alone. None Identify different groups. Bibles Video recording device Record the story as a video report. Adhesive bandages Mural paper Pray for people who need healing. Marker Permanent markers Index cards Masking tape Play a game about the characters. Marker © 2014-2019 Spirit and Truth Publishing—All Rights Reserved 2 Lesson #2-20 (3rd-6th) January 26, 2020 Large paper plates Small paper plates Make a pig craft. Pink construction paper Pink paint Googly eyes Pink chenille stems Glue sticks Black markers Scissors Wooden clip clothes pins None Play a game about welcome. Bible Book page (found at end of lesson) Cardstock or plain paper Optional ongoing activity. Pens or pencils Markers or crayons Optional: three-ring binders, hole punch None © 2014-2019 Spirit and Truth Publishing—All Rights Reserved 3 Lesson #2-20 (3rd-6th) January 26, 2020 Making Connections The Point As we move out of the stories of the season of Jesus has power to save us from evil. Christmas, we move directly into powerful healing The man who was possessed by demons experienced stories. We hear how Jesus creates relationships a powerful, life-altering miracle. He had lived life as through healing, both between himself and the an outcast, excluded from his friends and family. person healed, and between that person and their When Jesus healed him, he begged to be allowed to families and community. The power of the come with Jesus, but Jesus turned him down. Instead, kingdom is becoming evident through the works Jesus instructed him to share the story with his of Jesus in his earthly ministry. friends and family. How often, when we have been saved from the darkest pit, do we wish to simply stay Story Summary: with Jesus and relive our healing? Instead, Jesus calls Jesus Heals an Outcast us to share our experience with those around us, so that they, too, may experience the miracle of a In today’s story, Jesus meets a man who is relationship with Jesus. possessed by demons. The man is living among the caves, isolated from the rest of his community because of his condition. The man recognizes Bible Nuts & Bolts: Jesus and calls out to him. Jesus heals the man, Who Were the Gentiles? casting the demons out into a herd of pigs. When The word “gentile” means someone who is not the people in the village see the healed demoniac, Jewish. It comes from the Latin word for nations. they respond with fear, asking Jesus to leave. Jesus Christianity originally began as a Jewish movement. tells the grateful man to share his experience of Some parts of the Hebrew Bible discouraged Jews God’s mercy with his friends and family. from marrying and eating with Gentiles. This belief carried over into the early church. The first major There are many aspects of this story that were disagreement in the early church was whether or not unclean to Judean residents, such as the pigs, the Gentiles could be Christian without first becoming tombs and how close they were to the city—even Jewish. The Council at Jerusalem in 49 CE the territory itself. The fact that Jesus traveled to determined that Gentiles could become Christians this unclean territory would have been scandalous. without first being Jewish. Paul reminds us that in However, Jesus’ power is not limited simply to Jesus there is no distinction between Gentile and Jew. Jews, but includes grace and mercy for Gentiles as well. Spiritual Practice: Prayer The stories that we hear following Christmas are stories of Jesus as he walks on earth, interacting with his disciples and those he encounters. The people flock to Jesus with their requests for healing, inclusion, and understanding. Today, we speak to Jesus through prayer. While Jesus is not among us in the flesh, he is no less responsive to hearing our needs as we speak to him. © 2014-2019 Spirit and Truth Publishing—All Rights Reserved 4 Lesson #2-20 (3rd-6th) ⚫ January 26, 2020 Discuss what it feels like to be all alone. You will need: Nothing During class: 1. How many of you have ever been someplace where you did not feel comfortable, or you felt like you were being left out? Maybe you were a new student at school, or you were at a party where you did not know anyone. Has anything like that ever happened to any of you? Turn to one or two people near you and talk about how this felt. 2. Sometimes we feel like we are all alone, and that we do not have any friends. That is the way the man in today’s story felt, too. He was sick, and because of that, the people in his town made him live all by himself away from everyone else. He was very lonely. But Jesus came and healed him, and he could be with his friends and family again. What an exciting story! © 2014-2019 Spirit and Truth Publishing—All Rights Reserved 5 Lesson #2-20 (3rd-6th) January 26, 2020 Identify different groups. You will need: Nothing During class: 1. How many of you like to play sports? We are going to get in groups according to what sports we like. So if you enjoy playing basketball, come and stand over here. Designate an area and have students move. If you like soccer, make a group here. Continue making small groups in different areas. Baseball players here, and football players here. Who likes video games and e-sports? What other sports do we have? Finally, if you do not enjoy sports or do not play a sport at all, come over here. 2. Now what if the football players were to say to the soccer players, “Because you are different than us, Jesus does not love you as much.” That would seem pretty silly. Jesus loves all people the same. But when Jesus was first preaching and teaching, there was a group of people that thought they had all the right answers about religion and faith. Those people were the Jewish leaders, and they thought that anyone who was not Jewish was not as good as they were. The people who were not Jewish were called Gentiles. But when Jesus came, Jesus made sure that everybody knew that they were loved, and that God’s love was for all people, whether they were Jewish or Gentile, or if they liked basketball or soccer. God loves all people! © 2014-2019 Spirit and Truth Publishing—All Rights Reserved 6 Lesson #2-20 (3rd-6th) January 26, 2020 Record the story as a video report. You will need: Bibles Video recording device Before class: 1. Many students may have access to phones for this activity. If not, you may want to have technology on hand, or consider doing the activity as a large group. During class: 1. In the story today, we hear of a man who was living in isolation. He was sick— the Bible says he had evil living in him—that kept him apart from other people. He was not able to live with his family in his home or be near his friends. We have talked a lot about God and God’s relationship with the people of Israel. Today we hear a story about Jesus restoring a man to relationship. 2. Read the story to the group. If you have a Children’s Bible with the story, that might be a good option. 3. This is a vivid, amazing story. This man has lived in chains and shackles, and has been sent out to live among the dead, in the tombs. But Jesus did not see an evil person; Jesus saw a hurting person. Jesus reached out to the man and healed him. After the healing, the story tells us that the rest of the townspeople saw the man “clothed and in his right mind” and sitting with Jesus. 4. After he was healed, the man was so happy and thankful that he wanted to leave everything behind and go with Jesus. He wanted to spend his life with this man of miracles who had changed his life. What did Jesus tell him? [No, go and tell other people about what the Lord has done for you.] 5. Can you imagine what this would have looked like if there were news crews and technology to report this? We are going to create our own news videos of this amazing event. 6. Divide the class into pairs or small groups, or work together as one large group, depending on the amount of video recorders you have available. Give each group at least one Bible. © 2014-2019 Spirit and Truth Publishing—All Rights Reserved 7 Lesson #2-20 (3rd-6th) January 26, 2020 7. Our story today is found in the book of Mark, chapter 5, verses 1-20. Read the story again, and decide what characters you want to interview. You will need people to be the cameraperson, the reporter, and the person or character being interviewed.
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