Year B. 4th Term. Lesson 5. Bible buddy - One thankful leper

Scripture: for teacher background:  Luke 17

Making contact:

Discuss what it means to be grateful and how important it is to say thanks. 

As an experiment you could hand out something like a little sweet each and count how many of the children say thank you.

Suggested songs:

Ten sick lepers  (Tune Ten Green Bottles)

Ten sick lepers wanting to be healed

Ten sick lepers wanting to be healed

And if Jesus Christ should come and heal them all

There’ll be no sick lepers wanting to be healed

Nine healed lepers run to show the priests

Nine healed lepers run to show the priests

And if they don’t stop to thank the Lord

There’ll be nine ungrateful lepers who forgot to thank the Lord

One healed leper runs back to thank the Lord

One healed leper runs back to thank the Lord

And if all God’s children would only stop to say:

“Thank You, Jesus for helping me today.”

 Other song suggestions:

Count your blessings name them one by one

Thank you Jesus, Amen

Thank you Lord for this fine day

I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart.

 Exploration:

Jesus was going into a village one day when ten men who had a dreaded skin disease called leprosy met him. 

They stood at a distance, because they weren’t allowed to come near people. They had left their homes and families and were thrown away by society and left to rot and die. 

They shouted: “Jesus! Master! Have pity on us!” 

Jesus saw them and told them to go and present themselves to the priests at the temple.

On their way there they were healed. 

One of them, a Samaritan, turned back and found Jesus and fell at His feet to thank Him. Jesus said to him: 

“ There were ten men who were healed, where are the other nine? Why is this foreigner the only one who came back to give thanks to God.? 

Then Jesus said: “Get up and go; your faith has made you well.”

Application

 Only one leper out of ten came back to thank Jesus. 

Are you part of the nine or are you the one who always says thank you?

Sometimes our prayers to Jesus look like shopping lists of all we want God to do for us. Make your list a thank you list and count all your blessings. 

Try and begin your prayers with thanks and praise.

Use the tsp method. TSP = Thank you. Sorry. Please.

Challenge to Mission

Jesus wasn’t scared of these sick people and He prayed for them. We must also help people and pray for them in Jesus name. 

Many people are sick with HIV and AIDS and we need to care for them and not throw them away like lepers. 

We can give food, visit them and tell them about Jesus. 

They need to know that Jesus loves them and wants to help them. They might die sooner than we will, but we all have to die someday, whether we have AIDS or not, so we all need to be born again and washed of our sins.

Jesus cares very much that we reach out and help the suffering people in our world.

Consolidation

 Worksheet. The children must tick 1 block out of 10 to show how many lepers said thank you.

 There is also a teaspoon prayer – teaching the pattern of  Thank You, Sorry and Please praying.

Memory Verse

“Be joyful always. Pray at all times and be thankful in all circumstances.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16 and 17