‘Incredible Love’ Childrens Lesson on Zacchaeus

BIG IDEA: GOD’S LOVE IS INCREDIBLE!

AIM: The aim of the ‘Incredible Love’ session is to help children understand that God’s love is incredible because He made a way for us to know Him!

SONG IDEAS:

1. ‘Superhero’ by Hillsong Kids
2. ‘Jesus, What a Friend!’
3. ‘Super Wonderful’ by Yancy
4. ‘Super Start’ by Yancy

GAME IDEAS:

1. Sidekick Scramble. (regular/widescreen) You will need a blindfold, a scarf or something to bind hands together, some small objects to throw such as bean bags and something to catch them in such as buckets. The buckets should be labelled with different points attached. Children work in pairs – one as a hero and another as their sidekick – the hero is blindfolded. The sidekick cannot use their hands as their hands are bound, but they can see.

Choose a few pairs to compete against one another. They must stand on one side of the room. The sidekick stands by the hero and tells them where and how far to throw. The team with the most points at the end are the winners.

2. Superhero Dash. (regular/widescreen) You will need pictures of superheroes and optional capes. Print off lots of pictures of superheroes off Google – or use the ones we have provided. Place them all around the room. Choose some players to dash around the room and bring back the pictures one at a time. The hero with the most superhero pictures at the end of the game is the winner. Variation: Split the group into teams and have them relay to dash around the room.

3. Superhero Obstacle Course. (regular/widescreen) You will need: cones, hoops, tables, buckets and bean bags or alike and optional capes. Split your group into teams. Each team has a superhero cape. Each team will also have to face an obstacle course of hula hoops to throw around their waist or jump through, tables to scramble over or under, cones to swerve around and bean bags to throw into buckets. Each player goes through the obstacle course and the next player cannot begin until they have finished. The first team to have each member complete the course is the winning team.

BIG VERSE: FOR GREAT IS THE LORD AND GREATLY TO BE PRAISED. PSALM 96:4A (NLT)

Download Bible cards.

Big Verse images: (regular/widescreen)

 

ICE BREAKER: What does the word ‘love’ mean to you?

 

SET the Scene:

Read Luke 19:1-10. 

Use one of the videos suggested in the ‘Best Videos to Teach on Zacchaeus’ blog post here.

You could also use the Incredible Love Skit.

 

SPOT the Simple Meaning:

1) GOD’S LOVE IS INCREDIBLE

Supplies: You will need a pair of scissors and some paper and a marker.

Details: To understand how to do the step through paper trick you will need to watch the Youtube video here.

Say: Wasn’t that story incredible?! Mr Incredible told Dash and Violet all about the incredible love of Jesus. Jesus even loved someone that everyone else hated! Someone that nobody wanted to hang out with. His love is so incredible and big that he loves each one of us. I want you to imagine that this piece of paper is love. [Write the word ‘love’ on the paper.] It looks cool and we can do loads of cool things with paper, we can draw and paint on it and cut it up and make it into all sorts of things. That’s like love. Love can do great things – it can make people feel good, it can help people to know that someone cares – it can do lots of good things. The Bible tells us that God’s love is the best kind of love – His kind of love is big enough to cover every one of us. hmm… this piece of paper doesn’t seem to fit around me. [Try putting the paper over your head.]

God’s love is incredible! It is the best kind of love. The Bible says that it….

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39.

Do you think this piece of paper can fit around me? It seems impossible, and maybe to you, it seems impossible that God’s love would be big enough for you. God loves you so much that He sent His son Jesus to the world so that you would know what God’s love looks like. [Start cutting the paper according to the Youtube video.]

You see, God loves you so much that He made a way for you to come to know Him, so that even the those that do terrible things can still be loved by God. How? He sent Jesus to live a perfect life and to die a perfect death. Nobody has ever lived a perfect life apart from Him. When Jesus died He took a punishment for the wrong things we have done. Kind of like when you get sent to your bedroom at home after doing something wrong. Yet Jesus decided to take our punishment for us so that we could be forgiven and friends of God. That’s why nothing can separate us from God’s love!

How incredible is that?!

God’s love is big enough for you and it is big enough for me. His love is incredible! Watch and see [fit the paper over your head]. There is nothing God cannot do. He is incredible! Nothing can separate you from His love. You are completely loved by God no matter what you have done or what you do. All you have to do is receive His love and say God I need Your love right now, please forgive me and make me new.

Let’s pray!

Father God, thank You for Your incredible love! Thank You that You sent Your son Jesus into the world so that we would know what love looks like. Please forgive us from the wrong things we have done and help us to live a life that honors You. Amen.

 

REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. What was the name of the man that tried to see Jesus? (Zacchaeus)
2. Where did the man go to try and see Jesus? (up a tree)
3. What did Zacchaeus do? (collected taxes/money off people)
4. What are taxes? (money given to the government)
5. Why was Zacchaeus nasty? (He took more money than he needed)
6. What was the name of the greatest superhero? (Jesus)
7. Where did Jesus say he wanted to go? (Zacchaeus’ house)
8. What did Zacchaeus do after meeting Jesus? (give back all the money and more)
9. What were we looking at today? The Incredible ____ that God gives. (Love)
10. What is this week’s memory verse?
11. How do we know that God loves us? (The Bible/because of Jesus)
12. What did God do to show us He loved us? (sent Jesus)

 

 

SEARCH the Scriptures:

You will need: Incredible Love Printables, capes, blue tac or tape to stick printables.

Set up: Before the session stick the Incredible Love printables around the room.

Love Relay. (regular/widescreen) Have the children get into teams. The first child in each team must put a cape on. Children must take turns to fly around the room and grab a printable before running back and tagging the next person to take the cape and fly to do the same. The team with the most printable verses at the end is the winning team.

 

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How does it feel to be loved?
2. Who do you love?
3. What makes God’s love incredible?
4. How can we have God’s love?
5. What can God’s love do?
6. How does God show His love to us?
7. How do we let God’s love in?

 

SENSE How You Feel:

How did Zacchaeus feel when Jesus asked to go to his house?

Children can explore their response to this question as you lead them through one or more of the following activities below:

1. Superhero Masks. View here. You will find the craft instructions in the Craft section of the session.
2. Color the Incredible Love activity booklet. There are two booklets for different age groups; 5-7s and 8-11s.
3. Lego building: Encourage children to create a scene of Zacchaeus up a tree with the crowd around Jesus.
4. Check out our Zacchaeus Pinterest board for more Zacchaeus crafts, snacks and ideas!

 

SEEK God:

PRAYER RESPONSE

Say: Do you want to know the incredible love of God for yourself? Well, you can! All you have to do is tell God you want to know Him and you want to know His love. His love is so big and so great that He sent His only Son to the world so that we might know God. Jesus walked on the earth and showed us what it means to be someone that is obedient to the Father God.

He showed us what a perfect life looks like. When we invite Jesus into our lives we admit that we aren’t as good as Jesus, but that we need Him and we need His love so that we might know God.

If you would like to know this love for yourself put your hand on your heart and say this prayer with me.

Let’s pray:

Father God, thank you for your incredible love! Thank you that nothing can separate us from your love. We want to know your love every day.

 

Extra Resources: