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THIS WEEK’S PASSAGE MATTHEW 1
PREPARATION
You will need a lot of cotton wool, glue, black sacks, newspapers and sheep / lamb masks for the first activity. You’ll also need pens, Bibles, paper and small prizes. For the balloon activity, print out Matthew 2:2, but cut it up into individual words and place each word inside an inflated balloon. In another balloon place the Bible reference and in another these instructions, ‘Put the words together to make a verse.’ For the last activity, download and print a number of different images of Jesus – depicting him at different stages in his life.
HUMAN LAMBS
10 mins
As the young people arrive, invite them to form fairly large groups (up to eight young people). They should nominate one of their number to become decorated as a ‘human lamb’. Using only black sacks, newspaper and cotton wool, the rest of the group should seek to transform them into a small sheep.
Once these artistic creations are finished, either hold a catwalk-style modelling contest, or if you have a more energetic group, hold a sprint race before judging. If the latter, the winner is the ‘lamb’ with the costume which has best held together!
JESUS NAME GAME
10 mins
Give everyone a piece of paper and read out or display the following words and phrases: Christ, Lord, The Word, Son of David, Lamb of God, Rabbi, Light of the World, Son of Man… and then some fake ones (feel free to invent your own): The Keeper of Souls, Leader of Christians, The Mighty, Jesus-Bethel, Prince of Dreams, Lighthouse, Staff of Moses, Heart of God, Kevin.
Explain that some of them are names given in the New Testament for Jesus, whereas others aren’t. The young people should write down six names which they believe are genuine names or titles given to Jesus in the New Testament. Once they’ve done that, begin reading the correct names. The first person to get six correct answers wins.
MESSIAH
10 mins
Give out Bibles, and ask everyone to open them to Matthew chapter 1. Explain that before the ‘Christmas’ story in Matthew, he gives us this long line of people – from Abraham through to Mary, mother of Jesus – which shows how God has been building up to this, all along. Ask the group:
Why is it important that Jesus is part of this family line?
Which other names do you notice here?
Now read verses 16–17. Ask:
What do you understand by the word ‘Messiah’?
Verse 17 talks about the relationship between the exile and the Messiah. What kind of Messiah do you think the Jewish people were expecting?
SAVIOUR
5 mins
Now move on to look at verses 20–23. We’re into the Christmas story now, as Joseph meets an angel of the Lord in a dream. Ask someone to read these verses aloud to the group. Then ask the group:
What do we learn about Jesus in these verses?
What does the name ‘Jesus’ appear to mean?
What does it mean to be ‘saved from your sins’?
KEY POINT
Instead of a hero who would fight off the Roman Empire the Jewish people got a saviour who could rescue them from death itself – to save them from the things that separate them from God, and open up the way back to him.
LAMB
10 mins
He might not tell the Christmas story, but one of the first things John does in his Gospel is give Jesus another name – one which we’ve already used a couple of times in this session. Ask someone to read John 1:29 to the group. Now ask:
Why is Jesus referred to as a lamb? What does that mean?
How does this name link in with the previous two we’ve looked at?
Explain that before Jesus came, the Jewish people kept peace with God by making sacrifices of lambs, goats and other animals – giving up things that were valuable to them in order to say sorry for the things they did wrong. When Jesus came, he became the one ‘lamb’ whose sacrifice would make amends for all the sins of the world.
KEY POINT
The meaning of Jesus’ birth is really found in his death. He is the promised Messiah and the saviour the world needed – but in order to truly save people he had to become a sacrificial lamb… and die.
BALLOON STOMP / KING
5 mins
Bring out your inflated balloons – containing words from the key verse you’re going to look at now – Matthew 2:2. Distribute the balloons evenly around the room and then tell everyone to stamp on the balloons in order to retrieve the secret message hidden inside them. Don’t say anything else – just wait for them to figure out what they have to do. After a short time, someone should find the instructions, and they’ll begin to order the verse. Once they’ve arranged the words correctly, get everyone to read it out together, and explain the final part of the jigsaw – through his birth, death and resurrection, Jesus is king.
WHO IS JESUS TO YOU?
5 mins
As a final reflective activity, have various printed images of Jesus laid out around the room or pinned to walls. Give the young people pens, and invite them in silence to walk around the room, looking at each of the pictures, and thinking about what those pictures mean to them. Invite them to write on the pictures any names for or descriptions of Jesus (eg king, confusing, man), or questions that they might have for him. You might want to display these somewhere to provoke further conversation in the future.
