K-2. Nicodemus. February 7-8, John 2:23-25, 3:1-21, John 3:16 Adventure Bible for Early Readers (pp ) Jesus Gives Us New Life

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1 K-2 February 7-8, 2015 John 2:23-25, 3:1-21, John 3:16 Adventure Bible for Early Readers (pp ) Connect Time (15 minutes): Five minutes after the service begins, split kids into groups and begin their activity. Large Group (30 minutes): Begin 20 minutes after the service starts. Model what it looks like to be engaged in large group. Nicodemus Jesus Gives Us New Life We re dealing with pretty important subject matter today-believing in Jesus can give us new life! Kids may have questions about what this means. Be ready to have honest conversations about how we all mess up, so we need a rescuer to help us. That s Jesus s job-to rescue us from all the wrong in the world! Small Group (15 minutes): Keep kids in small groups until parents arrive. If you all have extra time at the end, you can review the video and songs together. Ask kids to explain their picture to youwhat does it mean? Why have they drawn a picture of themselves and Jesus? We re watching a video version of the The Very Hungry Caterpillar Watch the clip here: 7q38VmQ

2 Goal: Connect Time is all about engaging kids in an activity that allows them to connect with each other right away while simultaneously piquing their curiosity for Large Group and preparing their minds for what they re going to hear. FREEZE TAG *Gather kids into a large group for this activity. Pick out 2 volunteers and bring them up front. Assign one volunteer to tag people. Once they tag you, you have to freeze your body, and you are not allowed to move. Assign the other volunteer to un-tag people. They will go around to frozen people and give them a high five to unfreeze them. Make it clear that kids may only walk, not run. If they run, they will be taken out of the game. Once you ve played for 10 minutes, separate into groups and ask these two questions: 1) What does it feel like when you get tagged? and 2) What were the best and worst parts of your week? Before you head into Large Group, remind them about your expectations for their behavior: (1) be kind, (2) listen when somebody speaks, and (3) follow the leader s instructions.

3 Goal: Kids will (1) learn about Nicodemus and Jesus story and (2) understand how Jesus gives us new life if we accept his rescue! Why: Jesus came to rescue us and give us new life, that s his purpose. That makes it really important for us to understand how to accept him! Tip: Kids may have a lot of questions today. Be open to talking about what it means to have a new life in Jesus. Review and Dig Deeper: *Pass around a bean bag to the person who s speaking. Each group member should be prepared to hold the bean bag and answer questions. 1) Who was Nicodemus? 2) What did he ask Jesus? 3) How did Nicodemus act when Jesus said he had to be born again? 4) How can you be born again? 5) How does it make you feel to know that Jesus came to earth just so He could rescue you? 6) Do you want to be part of Jesus family, and get a new life through Him? WHITE OUT SIN Pass out ½ sheet of white paper and red marker or red crayon to each kid. Tell kids to think of something wrong they have done recently, and write it down or draw a picture of it on their paper. Pass out red tissue paper and glue sticks. Tell kids to cover up their sin by putting glue on their paper, then covering it with the tissue paper (make sure kids glue the paper first, and not put glue on the tissue so it doesn t rip) Explain that Jesus covers up our sin too. Even though we do wrong things, he still wants to rescue us and have us in his family. He forgives us and wipes out our sin! Once they ve taped over their sin, they can draw a picture of themselves living a new life with Jesus. Let them decide how they want to show that, but if they need help, suggest things like a picture of you and Jesus together or a picture of Jesus helping you, etc.

4 Prayer Thank Jesus for coming to earth to rescue us. Ask him to help us remember that we can always go to him when we re in trouble, and we need a new life! Extra time? Take turns imagining what your new life will be like when you join Jesus in heaven. What things will you do together? What will it be like to spend with him?

5 1 We re using some books and movies today to help illustrate how Jesus gives us new life. The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe all show how we can be old creations, turned into something new! Here s the worship videos we ll be watching this week: Because You Love Me All Our Hope *Click to play intro music Hey guys! It s good to have you here today. Everyone turn to someone and give them a great big high five! (Let kids respond.) Awesome! Now everyone raise your hand if you got frozen in our game of tag? (Let kids respond.) It looks like a lot of you had to stay still in our game! Let s try freezing again. On the count of 3, everybody freeze in a crazy pose. Ready? 1, 2 3! (Do a crazy pose along with kids.) Okay, one more time. 1, 2 3! (Do another crazy pose with kids.) Okay, okay, everybody shake it out! (Shake your arms and legs to undo your pose.) I don t know about you all, but I don t like being frozen. I like to run around and escape from the person who s trying to tag me. When I m frozen, I don t get to move at all. What if you all had to be frozen for an entire day? Would that be fun? (Let kids respond.) Well it s a good thing that there was someone running around giving high fives today, wasn t it? What happened when you got a high five? (Let a kid answer.) That s right, you got unfrozen! You came back to life and were able to move around again! Today we re going to talk about how Jesus does the same thing; but instead of giving us high fives and unfreezing us, he gives us a brand new life! INTRO: NICODEMUS Our story starts with a guy named Nicodemus. Can you all say that with me? (Repeat Nicodemus with the kids.) Great job! Nicodemus had a very important job. He was a Pharisee. Everyone say that with me (repeat Pharisee with kids). Very good. Back in Jesus time, a Pharisee was a special teacher who knew all the laws of the Bible. Pharisees knew A LOT of information. They told people what to do to make God happy. Some Pharisees thought they knew EVERYTHING. But Nicodemus didn t think so. Nicodemus knew a lot of useful things, but he wanted to know more! So he went to Jesus. He asked Jesus lots and lots of questions. Has anybody ever asked your parents a lot of questions before? (Let kids raise their hands.) Let s see what they talked about.

6 (Act out the scene as if you re two people. Put on a hat when you say Nicodemus line. Take the hat off when you say Jesus line) (Click to show slide of Nicodemus.) Nicodemus said, Jesus, I know that God is with you, because you can do amazing miracles! So do you know how we can be with God? (Click to show slide of Jesus.) Jesus said, I tell you the truth. No one can see God s kingdom without being born again. Being born again?! That s kind of a funny thing to say! Nicodemus thought it was kind of weird too. Here s what happened next: (Click to show slide of Nicodemus.) Nicodemus said, What?! How can I be born again when I m old? I can t go back inside my mom s belly! I can t be born a second time! (Click to show slide of Jesus.) Jesus said, I tell you the truth. No one can enter God s kingdom without being born again of the Holy Spirit. BEING BORN AGAIN Hmmm so Jesus says we have to be born again through the Spirit. What do you think that means? (Let a few kids answer.) Good answers, guys! To help us figure out what Jesus means, we re going to watch a video about a caterpillar! Nicodemus was a lot like this hungry caterpillar. As you watch, pay attention to what the caterpillar does at the very end, and how he becomes something new. VIDEO: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Wow! So who can tell me what happened after the caterpillar ate all that food? (Let a kid answer.) Yep, he got into a cocoon, and then waited.and waited.and then he became a beautiful butterfly! He became a new creation. We are kind of like that caterpillar. When we believe in Jesus, and accept his love, we become a new creation. We get a NEW LIFE. We are born into God s family! We become just like a beautiful new butterfly! We may not look like butterflies on the outside, but on the inside, we are completely new! That s what it means to be born again. A NEW LIFE Has anybody ever played a video game before? Well in a video game, sometimes you die, right? But what happens next? Do you have to stay forever? (Let kids respond) No way! You get to START OVER. You can get a new life as many times as you want. Well that s what happens when you believe in Jesus. You get a new life, and are born into God s family. Let s look at this verse: SLIDE: John 3:16: God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son. Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life. Wow! So when we believe that God sent us his only son, Jesus, we get to have a new life, and live forever with Him! Let s all do something fun to show this. Everybody curl up in the tiniest little ball possible! (Do it along with kids.) Okay, are you all safe in your little cocoon? Now we re

7 going to slowly break out and stretch our arms out like a big butterfly. Ready? Go! (Slowly stand up and curl your arms up and out and act like a butterfly.) Good job! We re going to watch one more video today about a man who was turned into stone. His friends find him frozen like a statue, but then something happens to give him new life, just like Jesus gives to us! VIDEO: Chronicles of Narnia (2:20-3:56) That lion turned Mr. Tumnus into a real person! He breathed new life into him, and made him a brand new creation. That s what Jesus can do. When we believe in him, we are born into God s family. We re going to sing a few songs now, and worship God for giving us his only son, Jesus! VIDEO: Because You Love Me VIDEO: All Our Hope PRAYER God, thank you for giving us your only son. Thank you for loving us so much that you would do anything for us. We love you, amen!

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9 Freeze tag - no supplies needed Per kid: One ½ sheet of white paper, 1 piece red tissue paper, red marker or crayon Per group: Adventure Bible for Early Readers (pp ), bean bag, glue sticks Adventure Bible for Early Readers (pp ) 1. Song slide: for when kids enter the room (All that You Need instrumental; mp3 only; can be downloaded on website) 2. Slide: Nicodemus 3. Slide: Jesus 4. Slide: Nicodemus 5. Slide: Jesus 6. Video: The Very Hungry Caterpillar 7. Slide: John 3:16 God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son. Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life. 8. Video: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2:20-3:56) 9. Video: Because You Love Me Video: All Our Hope Tell me about Nicodemus. What did Jesus tell Nicodemus? Daily Talk Starts Separate doc.