Hamburger Series: I am the GATE.

Scripture: for teacher background:  John 10:7-9

(Meat layer of hamburger)

 Making contact:

The children can play this game. They stand in a circle with hands joined. There is a child on the outside of the circle and a child on the inside. 

One child must catch the other. As they run around, the children holding hands in the circle can decide whether to help the catcher by lifting up their hands to make an opening. 

They can help the other child by closing the gap sometimes to stop the catcher getting to them.

 Exploration:

There is a lovely story about the animals in the jungle. As they were looking for new plants to eat and needed to move across the jungle, they came across a wall right across the whole land. The food was finished on their side of the wall and they would die if they didn’t get to the other side.

The animals decided that the monkey who was a good climber had better climb up that wall and see if there was a way over the wall. He climbed and climbed and then gave up ands slid all the way down. He panted: “There is no way over that wall.”

The animals asked hyena who could walk for days if he could see where the wall ended so they could go around the wall. He was gone for many days and eventually he staggered back. “There is no way around the wall,” he said faintly.

The animals asked the snake to try and burrow under the wall. His tail disappeared down a hole and they waited and waited. When he reappeared his face was all dirty and sad. “There is no way under this wall!”

Then the animals decided to ask the strong elephant to push against the wall. He lunged his strong body against the wall, pounding it and pounding it for days. It did not budge. “There is no way through this wall.” he said.

The animals said: “We give up. There is no way over this wall, around this wall, under this wall or through this wall. We are going to die.”

Just then an amazing thing happened. Just like a miracle a gate appeared. The animals could all walk through this beautiful gate and find lots of food on the other side and live happily ever after.

Application

 Jesus said that He is just like that gate. There is no other way to Heaven. We can’t be good enough or clever enough or famous, we all need to go through the gate and there is only one gate and that is Jesus. There is no other way.

He said that it is like a shepherd in a sheep pen.

They need to come in and go out at the gate.

In those days the shepherd would lie down in the entrance and be the gate for the sheep. 

He would protect them from wolves at night and in the day He would lead them out to green grass. The shepherd was the gate for the sheep.

Challenge to Mission

 People are like those animals. They will die if they don’t find the gate. 

If people don’t find Jesus as their gate, they cannot go to heaven, so it is very important that we tell them. Jesus wants us to tell everybody, because He doesn’t want anyone to be left to go to hell.

 Consolidation

Worksheet. The children can draw sheep going in the gate. The memory verse is printed on a picture of a meat patty. 

Remember to reward the children with a little picture of a hamburger if they know last week’s memory verse.

Memory Verse

“I AM THE GATE. Whoever enters by Me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.” John 10:9