Isaiah's Suffering Servant

Passage:

Familiarize yourself with the following passage:

Isaiah52:13-55:13
Of all the visions and messages that God gave Isaiah, this passage contains the most famous. It is in this passage that Isaiah describes the coming Messiah, here called the Suffering Servant. Isaiah foretells in great detail the kind of suffering that the Servant would have to go through and the kind of death that he would die. He describes the lowly and non glorious life that he would live, which was contrary to what many people believed the Messiah would be like. Isaiah goes on from this description to explain the nature of the redemptive work of the Servant that is available for anyone who will just believe in Him. It is a free gift that needs no money and has no cost. This is the greatest and most important message that Isaiah receives from God.

Object Lesson:

Supplies Needed:
• A picture of Jesus hanging on the cross (This picture can be more graphic if you are teaching older children.)
Directions:
1. Show the children the picture of Jesus on the cross before you begin story time. Ask the kids who this is. (They will of course answer Jesus.) Tell the kids that today it is easy for us to recognize this as Jesus, but before Jesus came to earth, people did not know what he was going to be like.
2. Explain to the children that Isaiah wrote down a very good description of what Jesus would be like when he came to earth. Instruct the children to look very closely at the picture as you read the passage to see if they can find some of the ways that Isaiah described Jesus.
3. Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12 out loud to the children. (If you have older children, you may have them take turns reading sections out loud.)
4. After the passage has been read, ask the children what they remembered from Isaiah’s description that they can see in the picture.

Memory Verse:

Isaiah 53:6
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Jesus Connection:

This passage is one of the most accurate descriptions of Jesus in all the Old Testament. It says that Jesus would not be popular (53:2), and he was not. It said that he would be rejected by men (53:3), and he was rejected, by his own home town! (Mark 6:4) Isaiah even described the kind of death that Jesus would face (53:5), death on a cross (John 19:16-18). Isaiah 53:12 also describes the type of redemptive work that Jesus would do, saving people from their sins. (Romans 6:23) Nowhere else in all of the Old Testament does God so clearly reveal to us His Son, Jesus!

Songs:

Fifty-three Verse Six
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMZ_dTD4xCQ
Fifty-three verse six
A verse we need to hear
Fifty three verse six
Isaiah makes it clear
We all like sheep have gone astray
We’ve turned, each one to his own way
And the Lord has laid on him
The iniquity of us all.

Games/Activities:

Carrying Our Burdens

Supplies Needed:
• A pile of books/magazines
Directions:
1. Gather all the kids at one end of the class room. Have everyone get down on their hands and knees. Place one book/magazine on the back of each child.
2. When you say go, have the kids crawl on their hands and knees to the other side of the room without dropping their burdens. If anyone drops their burden, they are out of the game.
3. Line up the remaining kids and add another book/magazine to their back, increasing their burdens. Continue in this manner until you have one kid left who has carried the heaviest load.
4. Explain to the children that Jesus carried the burden of all the sin in the whole world when he died on the cross.

Crafts:

Sheep Toilet Paper Tube

Supplies Needed:
• Toilet paper tubes
• Sheep head templates
• Scissors
• Glue
• Cotton balls
• Pipe cleaners
• Masking tape
Directions:
• Place one piece of tape over one end of the toilet paper tube. This will now be the back side of the sheep.
• Cover the tube with glue. Place cotton balls on the glue until the tube is covered. (You can pull the balls apart a little to make the sheep fluffier.)
• Cut out the sheep head template. Glue the head to the cotton balls on the open end of the tube.
• Cut 4 small segments of pipe cleaners. Turn the sheep over and glue each of the pipe cleaners into the cotton balls to make legs for the sheep. Allow the sheep time to dry.

Tender Shoots

Supplies Needed:
• Small plastic zip lock bags
• Paper towels
• Seeds
• Water
• Permanent makers
Directions:
1. Read Isaiah 53:2 to the children. Explain how Jesus is referred to in this verse as a tender shoot or plant coming up out of dry ground.  As your kids are completing the craft, talk to them about how Jesus cam as a root out of a spiritually dry people.
2. Have the kids write their names on a plastic zip lock bag.
3. Give everyone a paper towel to fold into quarters. Make the paper towel wet, being sure to squeeze out most of the excess water. Place the wet paper towel inside the plastic bag.
4. Have the kids place several seeds on the wet paper towel. Seal the bag, pressing out the air. Do not place in direct sunlight.
5. ***Make one sample bag the week before so the kids can see what  a tender shoot is as you are explaining this verse to them.***

Coloring Page:

Abraham and Isaac

Passage:

Familiarize yourself with this passage:

Genesis 21-22
Just as God promised, Abraham and Sarah had a baby boy in their old age. They named his Isaac, because he brought laugher to their life. As he grew, he was dearly loved by Abraham and Sarah, and Isaac remained their only son. When Isaac was young, God came to Abraham and tested him. God told Abraham to take Isaac and offer him as a sacrifice. The next morning, Abraham set out to obey the command of God. He took Isaac up a mountain, set up and alter and piled it with wood. When Isaac asked his father where the lamb for the offering was, Abraham told Isaac that God would provide the lamb. Then, Abraham tied up his son and laid him on the altar. Just as Abraham raised a knife in the air to kill his son, God stopped him. Abraham had passed the test. Now God knew that Abraham truly loved God because he was willing to give God the most precious thing in his life. Just then God provide a ram in a bush as a sacrifice instead of Isaac. They sacrificed that ram and worshiped God together on the mountain.

Object Lesson:

Altar

Supplies Needed:
·         A bunch of small pillows or foam mats
·         A small bundle of flat sticks
·         Large bag or box
·         The smallest child from your class (you do not need to tell him/her before hand)
Direction:
1.       Put all of your pillows/mats and sticks in your large bag/box, with the sticks on the bottom.
2.       When you sit down for story time, make sure that the kids are far enough back from you that you have space to set up your altar.
3.       As you tell your story, take one pillow/mat out of your bag at a time, placing it on the floor in front of you and the children. Continue taking the pillows/mats out and pile them on top of each other until you have an altar.
4.       After you have you altar constructed, when you get to the part of the story when Isaac says, “We have the fire and the wood for the offering, but where is the lamb?”, then take out the bundle of sticks and place it on top of the altar.
5.       When you talk about Abraham placing Isaac onto the altar, take your smallest child and place them on top of the alter (You can arrange the sticks so that the child is not actually laying on the sticks, but the sticks are around the side of the child.)
6.       Take the child off when God stops Abraham in the story.

 Memory Verse:

Genesis 22:14
So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.

 Jesus Connection:

God still requires a sacrifice to take care of our issue of sin. We all have an issue with sin (Romans 3:23) and it has to be punished by death! (Romans 6:23a). The sin has to be covered with blood. (Hebrews 9:22) Just as God provided a ram for Abraham and Isaac, God has also provided the perfect sacrifice as a substitute for our sins. The blood sacrifice that God has provided for us is Jesus Christ. If we believe in Jesus, he becomes our sacrifice, his blood covers our sins, and we can have eternal life (Romans 6:23b)!

Songs:

“Father Abraham”

Father Abraham had many sons
Many sons had Father Abraham
I am one of them and so are you
So let’s all praise the Lord
Right arm!
….Left arm!
….Right foot!
….Left foot!
….Chin up!
….Turn around!
….Sit down!

“Jesus loves the little children”

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world; Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in his sight; Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Jesus died for all the children,
All the children of the world; Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in his sight; Jesus died the little children of the world.

Jesus rose for all the children,
All the children of the world; Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in his sight; Jesus arose the little children of the world.

Jesus wants the little children,
To be careful what they do; Honor father, mother dear
Keep their hearts so full of cheer; Then he'll take them home to glory by and by.

Games and Activities:

Pictionary

Supplies Needed:
·         Paper
·         Pencils
Directions:
1.       Divide the children into 2 or more teams. Provide each team with paper and pencils.
2.       Have one volunteer from each team come to you and tell them an object or scene from the Bible stories about Abraham.
3.       The children run back to their group and try to draw a picture of the object or scene. (Assure the kids that stick figures are fine!)
4.       The first team to correctly guess the word or phrase wins that round.
Word/Phrase Bank:
·         Abraham
·         Sarah
·         Isaac
·         Sheep
·         Alter
·         Pillar of salt
·         Three visitors
·         Stars
·         Isaac on the alter
·         Ect…

Crafts:

Cotton Ball Sheep

Supplies Needed:
·         Toilet paper tubes
·         Cotton balls
·         Glue
·         Sheep head print out (see below)
·         Googly eyes
·         Pipe cleaners (cut into 1 inch segments; 4 per child)
·         Scissors
·         Masking tape
Directions:
1.       Give each child a toilet paper tube, some cotton balls, a sheep head, two googly eyes and 4 pipe cleaners.
2.       Give each child a piece of masking tape and have them cover one end of the toilet paper tube. Have the kids put glue all over the outside of the toilet paper tube, including on the masking tape. Then, taking cotton balls, apply them to the glue until the entire tube is covered. (If the kids pull the cotton balls apart just a little, their sheep will be fluffier!)
3.       Have each child cut out their sheep head. Glue the googly eyes to the sheep head. Glue the sheep head to the cotton balls on the open side of the toilet paper tube.
4.       Turn the sheep upside down. Put 4 dabs of glue into the cotton balls and insert the pipe cleaners into the glue. Squeeze the cotton balls around the pipe cleaners to make sure that the glue sticks. Allow several minutes for the glue to dry.

Coloring Page: