Scripture: for teacher background: John 12:24 ( This lesson could be done in the lead up to Easter - 2 weeks before)
Making contact:
Plant bulbs in 5 litre ice cream containers if possible.
E.g. daffodils.
Otherwise plant bean seeds.
Exploration:
We are coming up to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday
soon.
Imagine how it must have been for Jesus in the 2 weeks before He died. He
seemed to know that He was going to die and He seemed to realize that He had to
die. There was no other way to save us!
He told a very short parable which shows this. He said:
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. If
it dies it bears much fruit.”
Jesus is talking about how necessary it was that He must
die. If He didn’t die, then He would be like a dry seed.
Before a great crop is
possible, the planted seed must actually die. As the seed dies a whole new
plant grows up which then bears lots more seeds.
We must never think that God was caught by surprise and that the devil won the battle. God knew that Jesus would die from the beginning of the Bible.
He told people over and over in all the prophecies because this was His plan all along to save us.
Jesus is also saying that a person who loves only himself or
herself is lost.
Remember last week’s parables of the rich men and how they
lived for themselves?
They were lost.
They needed to die to self and live for
God and others. Then lots of fruit begins to grow.
Application
Ask the older children what this means: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." (Tertullian said this in the year 197)
It is
because Jesus died on the cross that sin and death were conquered. When they
were hammering the nails in Jesus’ hands it was as if they were hammering sin
to that cross. Anger and jealousy and greed and all sin were laid on the cross.
You can come today to Jesus and put all your sins, feelings of anger and
jealousy, your worries, and the future all on the cross.
When you die one day, you will also be like that grain of
wheat.
Your body will die like a seed, but your spirit will rise up just like a
daffodil or a tree.
But this only happens if you believe in Jesus.
Jesus died on the cross like one lonely seed, but today
there are millions and millions of seeds – many Christians who love and follow
Him.
Challenge to Mission
Tell someone else the wonderful news of how Jesus died for
them.
A worksheet. There is also a card that can be made and
coloured in by the children and they can give it to someone on Easter Sunday
morning. It just gets folded twice.
Memory Verse
"Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it
remains a single grain; but if it dies it bears much fruit.” John 12:24
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