Knowing God by Obedient Faith: John the Baptist

This is the fifth of a series of rotation Sunday school lessons for Silverdale United Methodist Church (SUMC) on the theme “Knowing God by Obedient Faith” written for September 2004 through May 2005 rotation Sunday school at SUMC. Some of the lesson material is from material posted on http://www.rotation.org by various other authors that is available without copyright restrictions as long as credit is given to the authors and it is not used for commercial purposes. Gail Smith is the author of this present series of lessons for SUMC.
SUMC’s rotation Sunday school is called Kids’ Faith T.R.E.K. (Totally Receiving and Embracing God’s Kingdom).
Lessons are taught in the following workshops:
· Creation Cove – Art/Games: tissue paper collage or origami doves
· Master’s Mountain Theatre -- Drama/Puppets: drama of John the Baptizer
· Scripture Tent – Storytelling: story told from Scripture
· Video Viewpoint – Video: video story of John the Baptizer
· Hallelujah Hill – Assembly: meets every week before workshops begin

Scripture References: Matthew 3:1 – 17; Mark1: 1 – 11; Luke 3:1 – 22; John1: 19 – 37 and others as cited in “Biblical Explanation and Background for Teaching” and elsewhere.
Memory Verses:
“…a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’” Matthew 3:17
“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Proverbs 28:13 (bonus verse)

Theme: Just as the Holy Spirit revealed Jesus, the Lamb of God, to John the Baptist, so He reveals God’s Son Jesus to each person who seeks to know God by faith.

Goals:
1. Children will become familiar with the story of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus.
2. Children will learn that Jesus, God’s Son, came to be their sin-bearer and showed his willingness to do this by being baptized.
3. Children will learn that “repentance” means to “turn around”, and that God calls and enables us to turn away from sin and toward Himself.
4. Children will learn that God has a particular plan for each one of us to receive his word by faith and to act on his word by faith.
5. Children will learn what the baptism of Jesus meant, and what the baptism of the believer means.
Concepts:
1. God sent John the Baptist to prepare people to receive God’s Son, Jesus, our Savior.
2. God loved us before we were born, and has a plan for each one of us to know Him by faith in his Son Jesus Christ.
3. God calls us turn away from sin and to His Son, Jesus, by faith.
4. When Jesus has forgiven our sins, the Holy Spirit gives us power live for Jesus and to share with other people about who Jesus is.
5. Baptism is a symbol of our faith that Jesus took our sin away by being killed on a cross and being raised again to life.

Biblical Explanation and Background for Teaching

The story of John the Baptist is the story of God’s plan for a herald to prepare the way and announce the coming of the King, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Once Jesus is announced and anointed for ministry by the Holy Spirit, John begins to fade from the scene, and Jesus takes center stage. The crux of John’s announcement is Jesus’ baptism whereby Jesus identified with human sinfulness, although he was himself sinless, and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove and God the Father announced, “this is my Son whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)
The story of John the Baptist (“John”) really begins with Isaiah, over 700 years before Jesus was born, when Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 40:3), “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.’” In ancient times highways were often little more than a dirt track, and the pathway was smoothed and straightened before the king came to visit so the king and his retinue could arrive in splendor. The picture is one of a prophet who would come before Messiah (“God’s anointed one”) and prepare the way for the Kingdom of God, which is exactly what John did.
Malachi, the last Hebrew prophet before John the Baptist (400 years before John), also prophesied of John: “See I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”(Malachi 4: 5,6) So God had planned for John the Baptist, and John seemed to be aware of God’s plan as well. He dressed in rough clothing like Elijah, he ate wilderness food (“locusts and wild honey”), and he even preached and baptized in the same region of the country where Elijah had begun his ministry. And like Elijah, his ministry was to call the people to repentance from sin and back to faith-filled obedience to God. He was preaching to a self-indulgent generation who needed to repent of wandering from God, just as many people need to repent today.
In fact, John was the son of a priest named “Zechariah”, and he could have followed in his father’s profession as a temple priest in Jerusalem, but from before his birth he had another calling. We won’t teach his birth story in this rotation, but it is found in Luke 1:5 – 25. John must have been disgusted with the corrupt religious system of the time in which he lived and chose a life devoted to God in the wilderness outside the city.
John the Baptist feared God (a healthy, faith-filled “fear” that means to be in awe of God), but he did not fear man. He said things that upset people, but he was true to God’s word and to his God-given message. When a delegation of religious officials came to interview him and ask him, “Who are you?” he called them a bunch of snakes, just crawling out from under the rocks! He said their “tree” had born no fruit and was about to be cut off at the roots (so it wouldn’t grow back)! “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matthew 3:7 – 10) John finally did suffer for his bold words; he publicly denounced King Herod’s marriage to Herodias, Herod’s brother’s wife and Herod had him thrown in jail. He was later executed for the same reason, at Herodias’ request.
John was humble; he said, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry.” (Matthew 3: 11) If a teacher had disciples, the disciples could do anything for him except unlatch or carry his sandals; that was considered a slaves’ job. John was identifying with the lowly slave, and by doing so he exalted Jesus.
John’s calling, his “job”, was to be the last of the prophets, to point people to Jesus the Messiah, and to call people to repent of their sins and to turn to God. So he said, “I baptize you with water for repentance…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:11,12) He was saying that Jesus would send his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to fill those who believed in him, and that later the judgment by God would come on all people.
Jesus said John was the greatest of the prophets, although he did no miracles, and yet that “the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he [John].” (Matthew 11:11) Jesus meant that those who believed that He was God’s Son had the privilege of being in his kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, not a political kingdom.
When Jesus came to John to be baptized, John recognized Jesus as sinless. Unlike the other people who came to John for baptism, Jesus had no sin to confess. John was asking people to be baptized as a sign of a new life, of having repented (“turned around” or turned away from) of their old, sinful way of life and dedicated to living life in God’s will by faith. John’s baptism was not like Christian baptism today in that it was just to show repentance; Jesus had not yet died on the cross for our sins. Baptism was customarily used for proselytes, converts from paganism to Judaism, to show that they’d left their old ways and were coming to God. John was asking everyone to repent, confess their sin and be baptized.
When Jesus asked John to baptize him, Jesus was identifying with the sinfulness of human beings, in essence saying, “I’m ready to begin my ministry as Messiah, to take the sins of the world on myself at the cross.” Jesus also did this as a step of obedient faith! And when Jesus was baptized, God showed John that Jesus really was the long-expected Messiah who would take away the sins of the world. John had apparently heard from God that he would see the Holy Spirit coming on the one who was the Messiah, and as Jesus came out of the water after baptism, John saw “the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 3:17) This was John’s confirmation that Jesus was “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29) From that time on John said that his own ministry must decrease and Jesus’ ministry must increase. (John 4:30)
Water baptism is a symbol of death and new life. Being “dead to sin and alive in Christ” is what many new converts learn about baptism. Baptism is also a sign of being one of God’s own people, separated from the ways and philosophy of the unbelieving world. In many countries where the dominant religion is not Christianity, for a Christian to take baptism is grounds for being forced out of the family and/or community. But for those who know Jesus as Savior and Lord, the believer’s baptism is like joining with Jesus in saying to the world that Jesus has taken away sin and given new life. Jesus was sinless, but he took the punishment for our sins by dying on the cross: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
God is working in the life of each child and adult to draw that person to Himself, to faith in Jesus, His Son, and to new life empowered by the Holy Spirit to both live in obedient faith and to share about Jesus. A child can and should be drawn to know God by faith. When a child says, “I’ve asked Jesus to forgive my sins”, he or she should be reassured that God promises that they are indeed forgiven (John 3:16). Some children may choose to take baptism as a testimony of new life in Christ, although this should be with the support of their family if at all possible. Children are often dedicated to God as babies, and we call it “baptism”, but that is a promise to raise a child in a faith-filled family, and it is different from the baptism of a believer.
Baptism is not a “magical” way of becoming one of God’s own people; it is testimony of whose you are, however, and God does bless the believer in baptism. It is one of the Christian “sacraments”, something Jesus told us to do and gave us an example to follow, just as He gave us the sacrament of communion. If any child asks to be baptized as a believer, they should first discuss it with their family and with the pastor. Children often try to please adults; baptism is a serious personal faith decision and should not ever be done just to please others.

General Tips for Teachers:
1. Please study the background material ahead of time and prepare your lesson for the age group you’ll have each Sunday.
2. Make it a goal to (1) Pray for the children you’ll be teaching and (2) Teach with the “goals” and “concepts” in mind so you teach purposefully, but teach as the Holy Spirit leads you also.
3. The questions/journal for each section should also help you focus your lesson on a particular point. If at all possible, plan your teaching and activity time so there’s time left for journaling, questions and prayer because these are important lesson components.
4. Have a servant’s heart, desiring to bless others more than to please yourself, and to minister God’s love to the learners.
5. Speak clearly, with adequate preparation, and try to stay within our (unfortunately) limited time period so we don’t inconvenience family schedules.
6. Do not assume students know what you’re talking about; many have little background or understanding of Christianity or the Bible.

Creation Cove – Art Workshop

Welcome the children and their guide(s) to the workshop, introduce yourself, and open in prayer. Please try to start on time and end on time, and focus your attention on the children.
Attendance: The guides take care of this. The children will be wearing nametags, so you can call them by name. Include the guide(s) in class discussion and prayer, and give them opportunities to interact with the children. They will also help with the journal time at the end of the lesson, and may help with the workshop activity.
Post the Bible memory verses, Matthew 3:17 and the bonus verse, Proverbs 28:13. (“Bonus” means that after a child has learned Matthew 3:17, he or she may try to learn Proverbs 28: 13 also.)
Teach the lesson. You could introduce the lesson simply by reading Luke 3:1- 22 from the Living Bible, a version that is easier for children to understand. Or you could summarize the story in your own words. Older children could help by reading out loud from their Bible. If the group has already been to the storyteller, ask them to tell you what they’ve learned. If you think the children can quietly work on the art project during the teaching, have them start before you do in depth teaching.
Art Project Suggestions:
1. Make a dipped tissue collage of the scene of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus and the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus. Students could copy Matthew 3:17 into their journal and answer the journal question with it.
2. If dipped tissue doesn’t work for you, you can also try dipping colored chalk into a small dish of liquid starch and drawing the scene with chalks. The liquid starch enhances the color and staying power of the chalk. Various color background sheets could be offered as choices.
3. For grade 5 & 6: Provide the students with copies and an example of the winged bird, and provide them with paper so they can try to make an origami dove. It’s actually pretty complicated, and probably too difficult for the younger grades. They might also like to do the collage, or might choose to do the collage instead. These are both things they can do quietly as you and they discuss the lesson, if necessary.
Supplies and Procedure:
Supplies for DIPPED TISSUE COLLAGE:
1. Scraps of colored tissue paper
2. Diluted (half water, half glue) white school glue in shallow containers
3. Background paper; you could use cream colored or light blue 8 ½ in. X 11in. construction paper.
4. Scissors for everyone
5. Pencils and plain paper for drawing figures to cut out and glued on the collage
6. Old lesson papers (see Resource Room) could provide an alternative source of figures to cut and paste
Procedure:
Pass out the background papers. Students should write their names on the back in pencil. Have available the other supplies: tissue, thinned glue, paper, scissors, old lessons. Tell the students they may, if absolutely necessary, sketch their scene lightly on the background in pencil. They will want an area for the sky, maybe with sun or clouds, an area for grass and trees and for a crowd, a river with a place for John and Jesus to stand, maybe a few rocks, and some way of showing “the Holy Spirit descending like a dove” on Jesus. Explain that people didn’t all just SEE a bird-like thing landing on Jesus, but that it was John’s awareness of God’s Holy Spirit coming on Jesus; it was something sensed spiritually by John.

Supplies for ORIGAMI DOVES
1. Thin white printer paper
2. Direction sheets

Procedure:
1. Make a sample yourself so you will be able to demonstrate the procedure and help students.
2. Allow the students to follow along with your instructions and the direction sheet to try to be successful.
Discussion Questions: (Tell students they may use their Bibles in Matthew 3 or Luke 3 to help them answer questions.)
1. What are some things that John the Baptist did or said that tell you that he wasn’t afraid of what anyone but God thought of him? (ANS: He called the Sadducees and Pharisees “vipers” (or snakes). He told them to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8). He said their unrepentant religion was about to be cut down at the roots like a bad tree.)
2. What might give you a clue that John often prayed and listened to God? (ANS: He said he saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove on Jesus.)
3. Why were people coming to John to be baptized? (ANS: They heard him preach that they should repent – “turn away from” – their sinful ways and obey God. Baptism showed they had done this.)
4. Since Jesus did not need to repent, why did He ask John to baptize him? (ANS: Jesus was showing that he was willing to bear our sins on the cross; he was willing to become one of us, even though he was sinless.)
Journal: Write Matthew 3:17 in your journal. What three aspects of God are shown in this verse? In other words, who was speaking, who was he speaking about, and who came and filled the Lord Jesus? (ANS: Father, Son and Holy Spirit)
Close with a circle of prayer. Allow children to confess sin if they want to, to pray for one another or to praise and thank God. Then remind them to come to their next workshop next Sunday with their Bible and a friend.


Master’s Mountain Theatre – Drama/Puppets

Welcome the children and their guide(s) to the workshop, introduce yourself, and open in prayer. Please try to start on time and end on time, and focus your attention on the children.
Attendance: The guides take care of this. The children will be wearing nametags, so you can call them by name. Include the guide(s) in class discussion and prayer, and give them opportunities to interact with the children. They will also help with the journal time at the end of the lesson, and may help with the workshop activity.
Post the Bible memory verses, Matthew 3:17 and the bonus verse, Proverbs 28:13. (“Bonus” means that after a child has learned Matthew 3:17, he or she may try to learn Proverbs 28: 13 also.)
Teach the lesson. You could introduce the lesson simply by reading Luke 3:1- 22 from the Living Bible, a version that is easier for children to understand. Or you could summarize the story in your own words. Older children can help by taking turns reading out loud from their Bibles if you think there’s time. Groups that have already been to the storyteller should first tell you what they’ve learned.
Drama: JOHN THE BAPTIZER

As a pre-drama exercise, have the students quickly follow a simple obstacle course around the room. The key is that they must listen carefully, and whenever you say the word “repent” (loudly, quietly, slowly, or quickly) they must reverse direction on the obstacle course. This will give them an experience of the meaning of the word, “repentance”.
Characters: John, Jesus, Pharisees & Sadducees, Roman soldiers, tax collectors, other people
JOHN: (clothed in rough, wide-belted tunic and bearded) “Do you remember the covenant you made with God when Moses gave you the Ten Commandments? Put God first before all others, don’t worship any idols, honor God’s name, remember the worship day? Are you doing these things? Are you honoring your parents? Are you faithful to the one you married? Have you done murder, theft or lying? Are you always greedy for more?”
PERSON 1: “I have been unfaithful to my wife, and I haven’t remembered the worship day. What should I do?”
JOHN: “Repent, tell God you’ve done wrong, and then go and make right your wrong ways. Come and be baptized!”
(John “baptizes” person 1 [pours confetti on his head].)
TAX COLLECTOR: “I’ve been taking twice what I should be taking from people for taxes. What should I do?”
JOHN: “Don’t collect any more than you’re required to, and pay back what you’ve taken. Come and be baptized!”
(John baptizes the tax collector.)
ROMAN SOLDIER: “I’ve told people that they had to pay me to cross the street with them, and I’ve taken clothes off the backs of the rich just because I wanted them. What should I do?”
JOHN: “Give back what you’ve taken. Be content with your pay instead of being greedy. Come and be baptized!”
(John baptizes the Roman soldier.)
PERSON 2: “I have been neglecting to visit my elderly parents, although I know they need me. What should I do?”
JOHN: “Help your parents in their old age; bring them to live in your own home if they need it. Come and be baptized!”
(John baptizes person 2.)
PHARISEES & SADDUCEES: “Who are you, John? Are you the prophet we’ve been expecting? Are you the Messiah, our Savior?”
JOHN: “I am not that prophet; I am not the Messiah. I am not worthy to even unfasten his sandals! Who warned you to flee from God’s wrath? You’re like a fresh brood of snakes crawling out from under the rocks! Don’t say, ‘We have Abraham for our father.’ That doesn’t mean you’re holy in God’s sight. Bring forth the fruit of repentance! Or else the ax will chop your religious tree down at the roots!”
(The Pharisees and Sadducees leave, looking angrily proud, arms crossed and feet stomping.)
JESUS: (speaking gently, but firmly) “John, I want to be baptized.”
JOHN: “I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me?”
JESUS: “Please do it, for I must do all that is right.”
(Jesus and John step into the river and John baptizes Jesus. John looks up as if he sees something coming down to land on Jesus, and a voice says, “This is my beloved Son, and I am wonderfully pleased with him.”)

Discussion questions:
1. What does it mean to repent? (ANS: It means to turn around, to turn away from your sin.)
2. What is sin? (ANS: Anything that doesn’t please God, like maybe breaking one of the Ten Commandments, or even thinking sinful things or holding on to sinful attitudes.)
3. Was there anyone there who did not need to repent? (ANS: Yes, Jesus was sinless.)
4. Why was Jesus baptized? (ANS: He was baptized because that was God’s way for him to show that he was willing to go to the cross to take the punishment for our sins.)
5. (For private thought) Have you repented? Have you thanked Jesus for taking your sins on himself? Have you asked Jesus to rule in your life and asked him to fill you with his Holy Spirit?
Journal question:
Who do you respect/fear more, God or other people? How does this affect the way you talk about who Jesus is to your friends?

Close with a circle of prayer. Give everyone who wants to pray a chance to do so, and invite children to return next week for their next workshop with their Bible and a friend.


Scripture Tent – Storyteller

Welcome the children and their guide(s) to the workshop, introduce yourself, and open in prayer. Please try to start on time and end on time, and focus your attention on the children.
Attendance: The guides take care of this. The children will be wearing nametags, so you can call them by name. Include the guide(s) in class discussion and prayer, and give them opportunities to interact with the children. They will also help with the journal time at the end of the lesson, and may help with the workshop activity.
Post the Bible memory verses, Matthew 3:17 and the bonus verse, Proverbs 28:13. (“Bonus” means that after a child has learned Matthew 3:17, he or she may try to learn Proverbs 28:13 also.)
It would be helpful for you this time to have the following items to enhance your teaching:
1. A copy of a map of Israel at the time of Jesus showing the place where John was baptizing people, just southeast of Jericho on the Jordan river, north of the Dead Sea.
2. A sample of something like what John might have worn, rough material, like burlap, and a wide leather belt.
3. A fountain for the sound of water in the background, and/or a bowl of water with some sand in the bottom of the bowl.
4. A picture of grain being separated from chaff by threshing and winnowing.
5. A picture of an olive tree or of a tree being cut down with an axe.
6. A picture of the baptism of Jesus with the “Holy Spirit descending as a dove” (if possible).
7. A picture of a brood of snakes.
8. A “Bit ‘O Honey” candy bar cut into chunks for children to taste, and a plastic toy model of a locust or grasshopper. (Locusts are somewhat similar to grasshoppers.)
9. A rough rock for when John says, “God is able from these rocks to raise up children for Abraham.”

Tell the story from either an easier to understand version of the Bible like the Living Bible or The Good News Bible (from Luke 3:1-22), or else from The Children’s Bible, pages 360-361. The Children’s Bible combines Matthew 3:1-17 with Luke 3:1-22, so it is a good choice. As you tell the story, use the objects and pictures you have gathered to explain and enhance your teaching. You could start by introducing John as a wilderness character whom God sent to prepare the way for Jesus’ ministry, and show the map. Let children feel the rough fabric and the leather belt that are like what John wore, and let them taste the “Bit ‘O Honey”. Ask how they’d like to eat insects that looked like grasshoppers, the locusts. (And we don’t know if he roasted them or ate them raw!) Explain that God had called John to a special ministry that was sort of like the ministry of the Old Testament prophet, Elijah, in that he had to call a callous and self-indulgent people to repent of their sins and return to the LORD. Define “repent” as “changing your mind to go the other way” in regard to obeying God instead of disobeying God. Define “sin” as “anything that isn’t what God want us to do” or “that separates us from God”, and use the Ten Commandments as an example. Explain that all the people who came to John to be baptized were making sincere decisions to leave their sin and to obey God, except the religious leaders, who just wanted John to tell them who he was. Only Jesus had no sin, and did not need to repent, but he came to show how he would identify with us as sinners, that he was one of us and would take our sins on himself when he was crucified on the cross. Jesus paid the price of sin, death, on the cross, and God showed His approval of Jesus’ sacrifice by raising Him to life on the third day. So now each one of us, by faith, can repent and trust that God has laid our sins on Jesus. When we ask Jesus to live in us and make us new, he does it, and he fills us with His Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
Explain that the Holy Spirit is “not a bird”, but that He looked to John to be descending and coming on Jesus just as a bird would look if it landed on you. Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit for ministry after that, and God also will fill us with His Spirit when we come to Him, repenting of sin, and asking to be filled and used by Him.
Both Jesus and John were obedient to God by faith in doing what they did. John was obedient by bold preaching – he was so bold that he didn’t care if it made the king, religious leaders, or anyone else angry. Jesus’ obedience to Father God in being baptized was also a step of obedient faith, since Jesus was a person, like one of us.

Discussion questions:
1. Why did John the Baptist preach to the people and tell them to repent? (ANS: They needed to seek God’s ways and obey God so they would be ready to recognize Jesus as the Son of God and follow Him.)
2. Why didn’t John just preach in the big city, in the Temple in Jerusalem, instead of in the wilderness? (ANS: The religious leaders in Jerusalem wouldn’t let John preach there. They didn’t want to recognize and confess their sin and repent.)
3. Baptism means you’ve done what thing? (ANS: Asked God to forgive your sin, repented of your sin, and believed that God has forgiven your sin because of Jesus’ death on the cross for you.)

Journal question: Do you know whether or not God has forgiven your sin? If not, how can you know? If you do know, how can you share about Jesus?

Close with a circle of prayer, giving everyone a chance to pray out loud who wants to do so, and thanking God for being patient with us as we learn to trust Him. Remind children to return for their next workshop next week, and to bring their Bible and a friend.


Video Viewpoint – Video Workshop

Welcome the children and their guide(s) to the workshop, introduce yourself, and open in prayer. Please try to start on time and end on time, and focus your attention on the children.
Attendance: The guides take care of this. The children will be wearing nametags, so you can call them by name. Include the guide(s) in class discussion and prayer, and give them opportunities to interact with the children. They will also help with the journal time at the end of the lesson, and may help with the workshop activity.
Post the Bible memory verses, Matthew 3:17 and the bonus verse, Proverbs 28:13. (“Bonus” means that after a child has learned Matthew 3:17, he or she may try to learn Proverbs 28: 13 also.)
Introduce the video of John the Baptist after asking children what they remember of the story they’ve learned this rotation. Since this is their last workshop of the rotation, they should all have some knowledge of the story. Remind them that just as God had a special purpose for John the Baptist, He has a special purpose for each of them in His Kingdom when they’ve asked the Lord Jesus to forgive their sin and to rule their lives.
Show the video, Animated Stories: John the Baptist by Nest Entertainment (1990). It is about 25 minutes long.
Following the video, you can do some review with questions from the previous three workshops. To make the lesson more fun and memorable, try dividing the group into teams for relay races in which each team has the challenge of carrying spoons full of water to a cup on the goal line. The first team to fill their cup is the winner if someone on their team can recite one of the Bible verses perfectly. If not, another team gets to try for the perfect verse. Give treats to all participants. Close the workshop with a circle of prayer.

REFERENCES:

Bible Study Fellowship Study of John by A. Wetherell Johnson (1975)

Bible Study Fellowship Study of Matthew by A. Wetherell Johnson (1973)

Halley’s Bible Handbook by Henry H. Halley, Zondervan Publishing House (1962)

The Layman’s Parallel Bible: The Living Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers (1973)

Luke, Mark and Matthew by J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Ministries, Thomas Nelson Publishers (1991)

The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible, New International Version, 2nd edition by B. B. Kirkbride Bible Co. Inc. (1990)

http://www.rotation.org articles as follow:
The Baptism of Jesus by Amy Crane, part of a lesson set for “Riverkidz Workshops”, 8/25/04
John the Baptist: Preparing the Way Lesson Set from Desoto Presbyterian in Dallas, TX, 10/18/02


Topic title edited by Exchange Volunteer for clarity.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Amy Crane,