Sunday School – 28th March 2021 I am the Way – John 14 1-7

It was lovely to see so many of you last week for our zoom Sunday School session on ‘I am the Good Shepherd’. This week we are looking at Jesus as the way in which we can come to know God.

Introduction

For this you will need a map of the local area (an OS or road map would be fine) with your house and visible on it, or you could you Google Maps.

-Can the children find their house on the map?

-Can they find Tywyn Baptist Church on the map?

-Can they plot a route, or remember the route, from your house to Church?

-Do they know where someone else in our Sunday school group lives? (, , Llwyngwril, Tywyn, , Happy Valley…), can they plot a route from one of these places to Church?

-If you’ve got more time, you could plot other routes from your house – school, best friend’s house, grandparents (if close by, or use google maps to go further afield), the beach!

Point out to the children that there are lots of different routes they could take to get to these places, and also that when we all meet in church we all take different routes to get there. In the Bible passage we are going to look at today, Jesus says that He is the ONLY WAY. Ask the children what they think this might mean.

Story

There are a couple of ways in which you could present this passage to your children.

1) Print out the verse below and cut out each individual verse (I have put it in a better format for this in Resource 1) Stick each verse somewhere around the room/house, making the journey fairly complicated so that they have to travel to find each verse…

1Jesus said to his disciples, "Don't be worried! Have faith in God and have faith in me. 2There are many rooms in my Father's house. I wouldn't tell you this, unless it was true. I am going there to prepare a place for each of you. 3After I have done this, I will come back and take you with me. Then we will be together.4You know the way to where I am going." 5Thomas said, "Lord, we don't even know where you are going! How can we know the way?" 6"I am the way, the truth, and the life!" Jesus answered. "Without me, no one can go to the Father.

Take the children on a journey, visiting each of the verses you’ve stuck up. At each verse, use the questions below to help the children unpack what the passage is saying. (Each question corresponds to a verse)

Questions for discussion:

1. Say that Jesus had just been telling his disciples what was going to happen to him and they were scared and worried. What do we worry about? What does Jesus say to do when we are worried? 2. Who is Jesus’ father? What sort of rooms do you think there are in God’s house? What does the end of this verse say? There’s a place for all of us in his house! 3. Can we get to God’s house on our own? Who has to take us there? 4. Where do you know the way to? School, the shops? How do you feel when you know the way? Safe! 5. Say that Thomas didn’t really get what Jesus was saying so Jesus makes it really obvious in the next verse. 6. When you go on long journeys, who knows the way? Usually the grown ups you’re with - this means we don’t have to worry because they will take us there. Where is Jesus going to take us? Do we have to worry about how to get there on our own

2) Read the passage above, or with younger children you could read a story book about a journey (eg ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’) to lead you in to questions about journeys.

-After reading the story, ask the children what they would need to help them find their way on a long journey (ie satnav/map)

-Say that those would be useful, but there’s something that would be even better. Use the example of going for a long walk, eg up a mountain, a map would help, but someone who has already been that way before would be even better! They know which way to go, and where the tricky bits are.

- Chat with the children about how we are all going on a journey to get to know God better, and it’s a journey that can take a very long time (our whole lives!), but we need to know where we are going.

-In the Bible, Jesus tells us ‘I am the way!’ Jesus knows God better than anyone (because He is fully God) so He is the best person to follow to get to know God better.

-What else can Jesus show us the was on? Explain to the children that this is why we talk about ‘following Jesus’. You would only want to follow someone if you are sure they know where they are going, and we can be completely sure that Jesus knows the way!

Craft

-Using blue and white card, or blue paint, make ‘One Way’ Signs with the children. Write ‘JESUS’ on the arrow to remind the children of what we have been thinking about today.

-If you don’t mind mess… you could use paint to make the children’s footprints on some thick paper or card. Help the children to write ‘I follow Jesus because He is the way!’ around their footprints. For a less messy version, you could draw round their feet on some coloured card!

Reflection

If you have been making an ongoing ‘response wall’ for this series, ask the children to write or draw a picture to sum up this week’s story and to help them reflect on what we have been thinking about.

Listen (and dance along) to one of the following songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ2zXc_9Q00 (sorry, this one’s a bit psychedelic!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rIxtNZNDhI (a bit calmer, but you could make up some actions)