The Centurion s Servant

The Centurion s Servant Lesson At-A-Glance Scripture Reference Matthew 8:5-13 Lesson Focus Ask Jesus for help! Gather (10 minutes) Arrival Time Kids list the different times when people need help and do Activity Page. Circle Time Kids greet each other with a class cheer, and discuss whom they can turn to when they need help. Prayer Time Kids pray for those in helping professions. Activity Pages Markers, pencils, whiteboard, dry-erase marker Lists from Arrival Time Open the Bible (15 minutes) The Centurion s Servant Storytelling Leader or kid reads aloud from the Spark Story Bible, and kids act out the story. Jesus Heals Kids read the story review, which spells out a Bible story word. Jesus Cares I Care Kids draw a picture of a friend or family member who is sick or needs help. Spark Story Bibles, Lesson Stickers Pencils, markers The Centurion s Servant 91

Activate Faith (15 minutes) Lesson At-A-Glance Help and Healing Kids match photos of people who need help with the names of people who can help them. What Is a Centurion? Kids learn facts about Roman centurions. Go, Go, Home! Kids play a game to reinforce the Bible story message. Markers Send (5 minutes) Good-bye Time Kids select what they will do at home this week, say the lesson focus statement, and do a goodbye action rhyme. Prayer Time Kids pray, asking Jesus to help specific people who are ill., Family Pages Pencils, scissors Visit www.sparksundayschool.org for more Spark content! Watch a short Lesson Prep Video that will prepare you and give you confidence to explore this Bible story with the kids you are leading. You will also find downloadable resources for this lesson: an Activity Page, a Family Page, and two additional in-class activities. 92 The Centurion s Servant

Gather (10 minutes) Arrival Time Set out markers, pencils, and copies of the Activity Page for this lesson. Write H-E-L-P in big letters on the whiteboard. What would you do if you heard someone cry out, Help! Affirm responses. One of the first things you d have to do is find a trusted adult you could go to. You d also have to find out what kind of help the person needed. Name some different times that people might need, help and I ll write your answers on the board. List those situations on the board. Some ideas are: a young child who needs a shoe tied, a child who fell down and needs a bandage, someone who is sick, someone who gets hurt in an accident, someone with a toothache, someone who is sad or lonely. Activity Pages Markers Pencils Whiteboard Dry-erase marker Write H-E-L-P-E-R-S on the whiteboard. Now, let s think about help in another way. I m going to name some situations that you might get into. Then you tell me whom you would go to if you needed help. Whom would you go to if you broke your arm; you needed help with homework; you saw a house on fire; you heard a strange noise in the middle of the night; you didn t understand a Bible story; you were being bullied in school. List these answers on the board, too, under the heading HELPERS. Invite kids to do the Activity Page. When all kids have arrived, invite them to join you in a circle or small group. Circle Time Let s all stand in a circle and put one hand in the middle, so our hands stack on top of each other. Place your hand in first to demonstrate. After everyone has a hand in the circle, shout together, God loves everyone! God knows our names! Now, we ll each shout our own names out loud and lift up our hands starting with the person whose hand is on top. Kids take turns saying their names, in the order their hands are stacked from top to bottom. After all names are said, tell everyone, Raise both of your hands high and shout, Praaaise God! Lists from Arrival Time If the kids in your class tried the Faith on the Go! activities from last week s leaflet, be sure to invite kids to share what they did. Ask everyone how they showed love to someone or helped another person during the last week. When we came to class today, we made a couple of lists. The first one described different times when people need help. The second one named some of the people we can go to if we need help. When have you asked for help? Let kids respond. If you re ever in trouble, or don t know what to do, it s good to talk to a trusted adult. God puts all sorts of people in our lives for that very reason parents, teachers, pastors, nurses, police officers. They want us to tell them when we need help! The Centurion s Servant 93

Who else can we turn to if we need help? Pause while kids respond. Jesus! No matter what s going on in our lives, we can always pray and ask Jesus to help us. We can also ask him to help other people. That s what a Roman officer did in today s Bible story. And in a few minutes, we ll find out what happened! Prayer Time We ve been talking about people who need help and people who are helpers. Listen carefully to our prayer. I m going to name people who help us. Use your fingers to count how many helpers I name. Don t forget to count Jesus, too! (Solution: 11) Dear Jesus, Thank you for... Doctors, nurses, and ambulance drivers, Police officers and brave firefighters; Teachers and pastors and lots of friends, Parents and grandparents bless all of them. Thank you for all helpers everywhere. And thank you, Jesus, for hearing every prayer! Amen. Open the Bible (15 minutes) The Centurion s Servant Storytelling Today s Bible story is about a Roman soldier, called a centurion. He needed help, because his servant was sick and could no longer walk. What would the centurion do? Let s open our Spark Story Bibles and find out! Pass out the Spark Story Bibles and invite everyone to find The Centurion s Servant, on pages 290 291. Wait until all kids have found the story, assisting those who may need help. Encourage kids to follow along as you read or ask for a volunteer to read out loud. Spark Story Bibles Now, let s try acting out the story that we just heard! I m going to read part of the story and do some actions. You will do the actions with me. Everyone stand up! Jesus went to visit the people in a town called Capernaum. (Walk in place.) When he arrived, a large crowd was waiting to see him. (Wave arms all around and up and down.) A soldier, called a centurion, hurried toward Jesus. (Run in place.) 94 The Centurion s Servant

The centurion was a powerful man. (Make muscles with your biceps.) Jesus, I need your help, the centurion said. (Stretch out both arms in front and lean forward.) My servant is sick. I believe you can heal him. (Nod head and cross hands over heart.) Jesus was amazed at the centurion s faith. (Jump up and down.) Jesus said to the centurion, Go home! Your servant is no longer sick. (Run in place.) The centurion rushed home, where he found his servant healed. (Jump up and down.) The end! And good job! Let s talk about the centurion a little bit. There were some things that he did do and some things that he did not do. Did the centurion trust Jesus? (yes) Did he ask for help? (yes) Did he give Jesus orders? (no) Did he brag to Jesus about how important he was? (no) The centurion was a powerful man. He probably could have ordered Jesus to come to his house and heal his servant. But the centurion trusted Jesus completely and knew that Jesus could heal his servant. What a great role model the centurion was! Wouldn t it be great if we all trusted Jesus like the centurion did? Have a brief conversation about the story. Ask the kids these questions: 1. What was wrong with the centurion s servant? (He was sick and couldn t walk.) 2. What did Jesus do when the centurion asked for help for his sick servant? (Jesus healed his servant.) 3. How would you feel if you were the servant in the story? Affirm all responses. The Centurion s Servant 95

Jesus Heals If kids are not already seated at a table, move to one for this activity. Give each kid a leaflet. The centurion believed that Jesus could heal his servant and asked Jesus for help. And because of his faith, Jesus healed the sick servant. Let s use our big stickers to complete the picture of the centurion reaching out to Jesus. Hand out big stickers to kids. Give kids time to place their stickers. Lesson Stickers The Roman centurion was a powerful man, but he knew he wasn t powerful enough to heal his sick servant. So, the centurion turned to Jesus for help. Let s read through the short story on page 1 of our leaflets. Invite kids to take turns reading the different lines of the story. Now, look at the first letter of each line in your story. If you put those letters in order, what word do they spell? (HEAL) And what did Jesus do when the centurion asked him for help? Let kids respond. Yes, Jesus healed the sick servant! Let s look at the bottom of this page and read about where we can find this story in the Bible. Today s Bible story, The Centurion s Servant, is from the Gospel of Matthew. With 28 chapters, Matthew is the longest of the four Gospels. The other three Gospels in the New Testament are Mark, Luke, and John. Give kids the three word stickers. Now look at the bottom of the third page in your leaflet. It has the same words that we just read, but it s missing some important words. Use the word stickers to fill in the blanks. Which word do you think goes where? (chapters, longest, Gospels) After attaching the stickers, read the statements together. If you are interested in teaching your kids a Bible Memory Verse from this story, use this one. Teach it to them by inviting them to echo what you say, one phrase at a time. And to the centurion Jesus said, Go; let it be done for you according to your faith. And the servant was healed in that hour. Matthew 8:13 Jesus Cares I Care Invite kids to open to the second page of their leaflets. When the centurion had a sick servant, he knew what to do. Whom did he ask for help? (Jesus) When we are worried about someone, we can turn to Jesus, too! Let s think about a person we know who is or has been sick or needs help. Pause and help each kid think of a person from home, school, or the congregation. In the blank space beside Jesus, we ll draw a picture of that person. As we draw, let s say a silent prayer to Jesus, asking him to heal or help our friends. Give kids time to complete their drawings and talk about who they are drawing if they wish. Pencils Markers Jesus cared about the centurion and about his sick servant. Jesus cares about us and our friends, too. It s good to know that we can turn to Jesus whenever we re worried or afraid. 96 The Centurion s Servant

Activate Faith (15 minutes) Help and Healing Let s look at the third page of the leaflet. On this page you ll see six different pictures of people who need help. Can you find the kid who is sitting at a desk at school? If that kid needed help, who would the helper be? (teacher) What color is the word teacher? (green) Color the frame around the kid sitting in a desk green. I wonder, have any of you ever needed help in school? Pause. What kind of help did you need? Affirm responses. Who helped you? (teacher, school secretary, school nurse, principal, parent volunteer, crossing guard, lunch server) Lots of people can help us in school: teachers, school secretaries, the school nurse, the principal, parent volunteers, crossing guards, lunch servers, the custodian. Jesus sends all kinds of people to help us! Markers Can you find a photo of a baby? Pause. What is the baby doing? (crying) Babies can t ask for help. They cry instead. Who can help this crying baby? Affirm responses. From our list of words, parent is the best choice. Let s color the frame around the baby the same color as the word parent. What color is that? (yellow) How many of you have been in a hospital before? Pause. Were you a patient or visiting someone? Affirm responses and encourage kids who have been hospitalized to talk about their experiences. Do you see a photo of someone in a hospital bed? Who can help? (doctor) Color the frame around this sick person the same color as the word doctor. (blue) How many of you have heard the sirens from a fire engine? Have any of you ever climbed inside of one? Affirm responses. Do you have a fire hydrant near your home? Why are fire hydrants important? (Firefighters hook their hoses up to fire hydrants, so they can get water to fight fires.) Can you find the photo of someone who needs the help of a firefighter? Pause. Color the frame around that photo the same color as the word firefighter. (red) Have you ever been riding in a car when the car got a flat tire? Pause for responses. What happened next? Invite kids to tell about their experiences. Have you ever been in a car that has run out of gas? What did you do? Affirm responses. Let s see. We have the words pastor and police officer left. Would you call a pastor if your car broke down? (probably not) Whom would you call? (police officer, tow truck) Let s color the frame around the person with car trouble the same color as the words police officer. (brown) I see we have the word pastor left. What kind of help might you need from a pastor? Affirm responses. Sometimes people don t understand Bible stories. Others are sad and need a pastor to listen to them. Pastors can help us learn more about God and God s love. Color the frame around the person who is in church the same color as the word pastor. (orange) We all need help, sometimes. Thank you, God, for sending helpers into our lives! The Centurion s Servant 97

What Is a Centurion? Turn to the back page of your leaflets. Had any of you ever heard the word centurion before today? Let kids respond. We don t hear much about centurions anymore, because they aren t part of our modern world. Centurions were soldiers in ancient Rome. But they did a lot of other things, too. Let s read the facts on our leaflets and see what else we can learn about centurions. Let kids take turns reading the facts out loud from their leaflets. The centurion in today s Bible story was a very important man, as you can see. But he still needed Jesus! No matter how rich or strong we are, we need Jesus, too. Go, Go, Home! How many of you have played Duck, Duck, Goose? Let kids respond. Well, today we re going to play a game called, Go, Go, Home! It s played the very same way as Duck, Duck Goose! All of us will sit in a circle. We re a group of centurions. Whoever is IT will be Jesus and will tap each of us on the head saying, Go. Finally, the kid playing Jesus will tap someone and say, Home! Then, both people will run around the circle until one of them sits down in the empty spot, which is home. Any questions? Begin playing the game, making sure that everyone has a chance to go home. How does this game remind us of our Bible story today? Affirm responses. The centurion knew that Jesus could heal his sick servant. After he talked to Jesus, Jesus told the centurion to go home. His servant was healed! Send (5 minutes) Good-bye Time Thank you for coming to class today! We learned about the centurion and how he asked Jesus for help when his servant was sick. We can ask Jesus for help, too! Share that message with your family and friends this week. Direct attention to the back of the Faith on the Go! slip on the bottom of the back page of the leaflet. Kids can fill in the blanks with the name of someone they want to give this slip to, their own names, and today s date. Encourage them to mark one or more of the ideas or add their own. Have kids cut the slip off on the line, ready to give to someone else. Pencils Scissors 98 The Centurion s Servant

After class, give this slip to someone you want to do the activity with. It s like a coupon for time with you. Next week, we can tell each other what we did to share God s love and remember our Bible story! It s time for our Go Out! circle. Give kids time to stand with you in a circle. Today we heard, Ask Jesus for help! Let s say it together: Ask Jesus for help! Let s go out with God s love! Say this rhyme together while doing the motions: Put both hands in, Put both hands out, Put hands up high, And shake them all about. Spin around once, Spin again and shout: Go, God! Go, us! Let s go out! Prayer Time Invite everyone to stand in a circle. Today, on the second page of our leaflets, we drew pictures of people who were sick, and who needed healing, or people who needed help. Let s pray for those people by name right now. I ll start the prayer, and, when I pray, I ll reach out and link arms with the person to my right. Then that person will ask Jesus for help and will link arms with the person to his or her right. We ll keep doing this until everyone in the circle has prayed, and we re all linking arms! Family Pages Dear Jesus, Thank you for hearing us when we pray. Please help [name of person who is sick or needs help]. Reach out and link arms with the person to your right, who will then say: Please help [name of person who is sick or needs help]. Continue praying in this way until everyone has prayed and all arms are linked. Amen. Be sure to send the leaflets and Family Pages home with kids. The Centurion s Servant 99