Preschool Teacher Guide Session Title: Isaiah Preached About the Messiah Bible Passage: Isaiah 53 Big Picture Question: Whom did Isaiah preach about? Isaiah preached about Jesus. Key Passage: Isaiah 53:6 Unit Christ Connection: God s promised Messiah comes out of David s family and is described in Isaiah s prophecy TEACHER BIBLE STUDY Prep Time The Book of Isaiah contains four servant songs poems about the servant of God. (Isa. 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:12 53:12) In these poems, the prophet Isaiah describes the working out of God s plan of redemption. We see a vision of the promised Messiah, the innocent substitute who would suffer for the sake of sinners. Through Jesus, God brings sinners back to Himself. The fourth and final servant song is found in Isaiah 53. In this passage, Isaiah provides an answer to the question, How can a just God justify the ungodly? How can He declare innocent those who are guilty? How can He treat bad people as though they are good? How can He love people like us? A just God can t just look the other way. He doesn t say, Don t worry about it, or No big deal. That s cheap grace. Sin against a big God is a big deal. God didn t just forgive our sins, He dealt with them. And this grace was costly. The price? God s own Son. Jesus fulfilled Isaiah s prophecies of a suffering servant. People assumed God had cursed the Suffering Servant for His own sins. But no; Jesus was sinless. So why did He suffer? He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him. The Suffering Servant died the death we deserve. When we trust in Jesus, our sins are wiped away paid for by His blood and His righteousness is credited to us. When Christ s work on the cross was finished, God rewarded Him. For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9-11). Welcome/Transition Time (15 minutes) Lesson Snack/Video Activities 1 2012 LifeWay Christian Resources
WELCOME/TRANSITION TIME (15 minutes) Greet boys and girls as they arrive. Direct them to work on the color/activity page. After that, they may choose to play with a favorite toy or do another activity that you have provided. Color Page/Activity Sheet: Find the Book Name - provided Crayons or colored pencils color/activity sheet, 1 per child Say Pick a favorite color to color each space that has a dot in it. Color the other spaces any color you choose except for the color in the dot spaces. Find the name of a very special book. Here is a hint: This book tells us about God and Jesus. Spell JESUS Make word strips from construction paper to spell JESUS, and cut out letters from a few extra word strips. The letters on the word strip should be spread wide enough apart for kids to match letters to them easily. Make enough letters to match with each word strip so that more than one child can play at a time. Kids pull a letter from a bag and match it with their word strip. Put letters that have already been matched back into the bag and draw again. Say Whom did Isaiah preach about? Isaiah preached about Jesus. Transition to Lesson Use your usual transition cue to signal that it is time for Bible study. Ring the bell, show the countdown video, flip the lights, or clap a simple rhythm for children to copy to gain attention. LESSON Worship Music Classroom DVD contains worship songs for each unit that the children will enjoy learning. Unit 15 DVD Story Time Say What does a king look like? Does (teacher s name) look like a king? Why not? God told His people that One was coming who would be their king, but God said He would not look like a king. 2 2012 LifeWay Christian Resources
THE BIBLE STORY Preschool Teacher Guide Isaiah Preached About the Messiah Isaiah 53 Isaiah was a prophet. He gave the people of God special messages from God. Isaiah told the people what was going to happen in the future. Isaiah reminded them that God had a plan. God had a plan to send someone to rescue people from sin. Someone was coming, and He was called the Messiah. The Messiah would be a servant of God. The people didn t know who the Messiah was, but Isaiah told them what the Messiah would do. God s servant grew up, and He looked very ordinary. He wasn t handsome. No one paid attention to Him, and they didn t want to be His friend. They stayed away from Him. God s servant hurt. He knew how it felt to be sick, Isaiah said. Isaiah said that people saw God s servant, but they looked the other way. They didn t care about Him or love Him. But God s servant still did what God wanted Him to do. He came to help people and save them from sin, and that is what He did. The Servant was punished. People thought that He was punished because He had done something wrong. But He never did anything wrong! We were supposed to be punished, but He was punished in our place. We are the ones who do wrong things. We do not love God like we should. But instead of punishing us, God punished Him! Then Isaiah said that something bad was going to happen to the Messiah. He is going to be hurt and treated badly. But He will not say anything. People will be unfair to Him, and they will take Him away. He will be treated like a criminal, but He isn t a criminal. But even though bad people did this to God s servant, God planned this to happen. When the Servant died, He took away people s guilt so God could look at them and say, Not guilty! God would even say, You re good! God s servant would not stay dead. No, God would bring Him back to life! God s good servant will see all of the people He saved by dying in their place, and He will be happy. He will be glad that He hurt and was treated badly because people were helped. Then God will give Him a reward, Isaiah said. God will give Him honor for doing the right thing, for saving people from sin. God will welcome His friends who walked away from Him. Christ Connection: God planned a very long time ago that Jesus would die on the cross for our sins. Many, many years before Jesus was born, Isaiah wrote about what Jesus would do. Jesus died to save people from sin. * Use only the words in bold to review the Bible story or tell it to younger preschoolers. Review/Key Passage Key Passage Poster Big Picture Question Poster Say Did Isaiah say the Messiah would be impressive and famous? (No, He would look ordinary and be a servant.) Did the Messiah do what God wanted Him to do? (yes) 3 2012 LifeWay Christian Resources
Did God plan for the Messiah to die? (yes) But what wonderful thing would happen after the Messiah died? (God would bring Him back to life. He will be happy to have been punished for our sin because people who trust Him will live with Him in heaven.) Read the key passage and sing All We Like Sheep (Thank You, God). Point out that the passage is found in the Bible in Isaiah 53. Talk about it. Ask: Whom did Isaiah preach about? Isaiah preached about Jesus. Say God planned a very long time ago that Jesus would die on the cross for our sins. Many, many years before Jesus was born, Isaiah wrote about what Jesus would do. Jesus died to save people from sin. SNACK/VIDEO Snack Signal for cleanup time using the countdown video or whatever method you prefer. Take a bathroom break and wash hands before the snack. Ask for volunteers to help set up and serve the snack. Remind kids to wait until everyone has been served before eating. Thank God for your snack. Watch Video Show the video Isaiah Preached about the Messiah (from Classroom DVD) ACTIVITIES Herd Sheep - provided Tape several squares (fences) on either the floor or tables. Children will work with a partner. Offer cotton balls as sheep and chenille stems as crooks. One child tries to move sheep out of the square, and the other child tries to move sheep into the square. Partners must take turns. Read the key passage after everyone has had a turn. Say Shepherds guide sheep where they need to go. Sometimes shepherds lead sheep into fresh pastures. Sometimes sheep need to be inside a fence or barn. Do you think it is safer for our sheep to be inside the fence or outside? (Inside at night. The sheep can stay safe and happy inside the fence. Outside in the daytime. They are safe wherever the shepherd takes them.) Another place in the Bible calls Jesus our shepherd. Whom did Isaiah preach about? Isaiah preached about Jesus. 4 2012 LifeWay Christian Resources
Pick up Preschool children need to be picked up by a parent/grandparent and the adult must show the parent receipt with matching I.D. number. If the tag is missing, the adult can go to the Welcome Center and have a receipt reprinted. Welcome the second session teachers and tell them what they need to know about the children who are present. 5 2012 LifeWay Christian Resources