 | This week at church I worked with the younger half of the Sunday school and we looked at 'The Great Commission'. This is the part of the bible where Jesus sent his disciples out into the world, telling them to spread the news of the gospel to the nations. |
The Great Commission
Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him - but some of them still doubted! Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
- Matthew 28:16-20
Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him - but some of them still doubted! Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
- Matthew 28:16-20
As is often the case with the younger Sunday school we began the lesson with a game. We played Simon says as I felt it would be a fun way to introduce the idea of listening to commands. We played for about ten minutes before I explained that we would now move from listening to what 'Simon' says, to look at something very important that Jesus said.
I read the story of the great commission and Jesus' ascension from a children's bible so that the language was easy for them to understand, it also covered Pentecost when the Holy Spirit settled on the disciples in fire form. I complied some questions I thought they might have about the story and some discussion points including "What are nations?", "What did Jesus mean when he said 'make disciples?" and "How can we show or tell people about Jesus every day?" I was amazed that the children had a good answer for every single question I had written down. One child asked "Do you know who the Holy Spirit is?" This was a question I had further down my list that we hadn't reached yet so I said good question and asked if he knew...and was amazed to hear that he did! This boy was only 5 and yet he was able to tell the class about the Holy Spirit. I thought that was amazing. We also discussed how in the story Jesus went up to Heaven, but does that mean he is gone or is he really still with us, and has anyone ever felt him near to them? This was a particularly interesting question as a couple of the children shared stories about when they knew Jesus was with them.
After the discussion time we moved on to the main activity. We had a large (A1) world map on black paper and all sorts of shiny papers to fill it in with. We chose reds and golds to make it look fiery.
I read the story of the great commission and Jesus' ascension from a children's bible so that the language was easy for them to understand, it also covered Pentecost when the Holy Spirit settled on the disciples in fire form. I complied some questions I thought they might have about the story and some discussion points including "What are nations?", "What did Jesus mean when he said 'make disciples?" and "How can we show or tell people about Jesus every day?" I was amazed that the children had a good answer for every single question I had written down. One child asked "Do you know who the Holy Spirit is?" This was a question I had further down my list that we hadn't reached yet so I said good question and asked if he knew...and was amazed to hear that he did! This boy was only 5 and yet he was able to tell the class about the Holy Spirit. I thought that was amazing. We also discussed how in the story Jesus went up to Heaven, but does that mean he is gone or is he really still with us, and has anyone ever felt him near to them? This was a particularly interesting question as a couple of the children shared stories about when they knew Jesus was with them.
After the discussion time we moved on to the main activity. We had a large (A1) world map on black paper and all sorts of shiny papers to fill it in with. We chose reds and golds to make it look fiery.
The idea of this activity was to focus on the Holy Spirit and the command Jesus gave to his disciples and to represent this by taking the big, empty, black world map and setting the nations ablaze with Holy Fire! AKA filling the landmasses with shiny, fire coloured paper and material. It was quite effective, if not explosive - as you will see in the next image a lot of the fire landed in the sea as well!
The plan had been that after they had finished filling in the map they could then draw small individual pictures to go around the edge describing ways they could spread the good news about Jesus in their 'every day' lives. We never actually got round to this as we ran out of time but I would suggest it as an activity if you were looking to make the project a bit more personal, are working with slightly older children or simply have more time to fill!
RSS Feed