This is the 3rd part in a mini-series of lessons/ activities for a one day Easter VBS event called “A Week with Jesus.” You can find the introductory materials about this event and the teaching materials for the opening ceremony here and the activities for stations 1 & 2 here.
SERIES INDEX – part one – part two – part three – part four – part five
In this post you’ll find the teaching materials for 2 more of the activity stations.
Station 3- -Wash the Disciples Feet
Read the story– – read from John 13:1-17 or be prepared to tell the story in your own words. With older kids, encourage them to look the story up in the Bible. Make sure you hit the following points as you go through the story:
- Jesus and the disciples had come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover together.
- When people normally got together for a meal, one of the servants would wash everyone’s feet. This was a necessary act as people’s feet would be dirty from walking everywhere and when you sat down to eat, you would sit on the floor, so your feet might be in someone’s face.
- This evening there was no one to wash their feet.
- So, Jesus got up and wrapped a towel around Himself and knelt down in front of the disciples to wash their feet.
- The disciples must have felt uncomfortable having their teacher, their leader, their master wash their feet and Peter protested.
- As with everything else, Jesus used this time to teach His disciples something important. Jesus was teaching them that He (the Creator of the universe, the Son of God) had humbled Himself and come to earth to do be beaten and mocked and killed to pay the price for their sin. He had come to do something for them (and for all of His people) that we could never do for ourselves. He had come to die in our place.
- After Jesus finished washing their feet, He told His disciples to follow Him example and humbly serve others for the sake of the Gospel.
ACTIVITY- – Draw & Wash Off…. After reading the story, show kids the “good news” picture (download here). Talk through the symbols on the poster and how this poster teaches us the Good News of Jesus….
* Jesus Came to Earth
* Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for our sin
* Jesus was buried and rose back to life on the 3rd day and went back to heaven
* One day, Jesus will come back to earth to take His people to live with Him forever.
Then, have the kids draw a couple of these symbols on their feet using washable markers. After they’ve drawn the good news on their feet, have them partner up with someone else in the group and wash each other’s feet (using baby wipes). As they wash off the symbols, they should remind each other of the good news just like Jesus reminded the disciples of what He had done and what He would do for them as He washed their feet.
BEFORE SWITCHING GROUPS: say, “When Jesus came to earth, He did something that seems unimaginable ~ The Son of God became a person and lived on earth. The Creator of the universe entered into the world He created. So, kneeling in front of His disciples and washing their feet shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Jesus had come to suffer and die in our place. Jesus had come to do what we could never do and die on the cross to pay the price for our sin. The Bible tells us that we are all sinners and there is nothing we can do to get rid of our own sin, but that when Jesus died on the cross He paid the price for our sin so that we could be forgiven and live with Him forever.”
Station 4- -Jesus’ Arrest
Read the story– – read from Mark 14:32-50 or be prepared to tell the story in your own words. With older kids, encourage them to look the story up in the Bible. Make sure you hit the following points as you go through the story:
- After eating together (celebrating Passover), Jesus and His disciples walked out of town to place on the mount of olives called the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus liked to go and pray.
- Jesus told the disciples that what was going to happen next would be very difficult and that they would all run away and desert Him. None of the disciples wanted to believe that this would be true of them.
- Jesus asked the disciples to stay and pray while He went off alone to pray.
- Jesus prayed to His Father and asked if there was any other way. Jesus knew that this is why He had come….He had come to die for His people. But, it was still very hard. Then Jesus prayed and said that He would do what He had come to do. He would die.
- Then, a group of soldiers, led by Judas (who had been one of Jesus’ disciples and had betrayed Him), came into the garden.
- Jesus asked them who they wanted. They said “Jesus” and He replied by saying “I Am He.” When Jesus said this, the soldiers fell backward to the ground. The soldiers did this because Jesus was basically saying that He is God…. (I am is the name God gave Himself when speaking to Moses in the burning bush).
- Jesus allowed the soldiers to arrest Him and stopped Peter who wanted to fight them off.
- And, just as Jesus had warned, all of the disciples ran away.
- As Jesus was being arrested, He knew that terrible things were about to happen to Him, but He also knew that this was all part of God’s plan. This is why He had come. He came to rescue God’s people by dying on the cross in their place to pay the price for their sin.
ACTIVITY: Memory Verse- Paper Chain relay….
** Prepare the activity by printing the words of John 3:17 (2-3 words at a time) onto strips of paper (1 1/2 x 8 inches) laminating them and attaching velcro at each end so that they can be made into chain links.
After reading the story, kids will race to work as a team to make a chain (in verse order) out of the Bible verse words. Explain that our key verse for the morning (John 3:17), reminds us that Jesus came to earth for this – to be chained and beaten and killed to pay the price for our sin by dying in our place on the cross. Read the verse together a couple of times and then…
AGES 6+– – Divide into 2-3 teams (or as many teams as you have verse sets). Have teams line up behind a starting line facing a jumbled pile of verse word strips. One person from each team at a time will run to the pile and collect the first word strip and wrap it around their wrist fastening it to their arm. The 2nd person will go collect the 2nd strip and connect it to the 1st, beginning to make a chain. Play continues until all 8 verse strips have been collected and one team member on each team has a chain (in verse order) hanging from their wrist.
AGES 4-6– – Divide into 2-3 teams (based on # of helpers you have) and work as a team to put the words in verse order. For younger kids you should also have a verse page with the words in numbered sections so kids can match words. Once the verse word strips are in order, work together to make a chain out of the strips and take turns pretending to be arrested and putting the chains on your wrists. As you do this, say the verse together several times.
BEFORE SWITCHING GROUPS: say, “Our key verse for this morning teaches us that God sent Jesus to the world to save the world through Him. The truth is that we all need to be saved whether we realize it or not. We are all chained up by sin and we can’t get rid of sin by ourselves. Sin is anything we do that doesn’t put God first and the Bible says that we’ve all sinned. Thankfully, as we’ve seen this morning and as this one verse reminds us, Jesus came to the world to rescue or save us from our sin. Jesus rescued us from our sin by dying on the cross and taking the punishment that we deserve. Jesus was chained up and led to the cross in our place.”