Use this lesson about Christmas prophecies to teach kids how biblical prophets told about Jesus. Teach children that Jesus fulfilled God’s promise.
Sunday School Lesson on Christmas Prophecies
Part 1: How Prophets Foretell Jesus
Time: About 15 minutes
You’ll need:
- uninflated balloons
Begin by welcoming kids warmly. Have them stand on one side of the room and form two groups.
Say: We’re going to start today by playing a game about promises. Put the balloons in the middle of a table, and have groups stand on opposite sides of the table.
Say: Each group will have five minutes to blow up as many balloons as it can. But each group has to tell the other group ahead of time how many balloons it promises to blow up in five minutes. And the balloons have to be fully blown up; you can’t just blow them up partway!
The group that comes closest to keeping its promise wins! Go ahead and talk with the rest of your group, and decide how many balloons you think your group can blow up. You want to blow up more balloons than the other group!
Give kids a few moments to make their predictions.
Say: Okay! Are groups ready? Blow up your balloons! Have the groups try to blow up the number of balloons they’ve promised to blow up.
After five minutes, stop and count the balloons. Then gather kids together.
Talk About It
Ask:
- Tell what it was like to make a promise you weren’t sure you could keep.
- How does that compare to making real promises?
- Explain whether it’s important to you to keep promises.
- What’s it like for you when someone doesn’t keep his or her promise to you?
Say: When people don’t keep their promises to us, it makes it hard for us to trust those people. But God made a very special promise to us, which he kept and showed us that we can trust God. Today we’ll learn what that promise was and discover that Jesus fulfilled God’s promise.
Part 2: God Speaks to Jeremiah
Time: About 20 minutes
You’ll need:
- Bibles
- paper
- markers
- pens
- scissors (several pairs)
Say: Jeremiah was a prophet, which meant he received messages that God gave him and passed them on to God’s people. One day God gave Jeremiah an important message about something special that was going to happen. Jeremiah told God’s message to the people of Israel. Let’s find out what Jeremiah said.
Make sure kids have Bibles, and ask them to turn to Jeremiah 33:14-16. Ask for a willing preteen to read the verses aloud.
Say: The message, or prophecy, referred to the promise God made to Jerusalem that he would send a Messiah. The one thing the promise didn’t include was a timeline. God’s people had to wait for an unknown length of time. And it took more than 500 years before the promise was fulfilled. Let’s get a better idea of what 500 years looks like.
Bible Exploration Activity
Distribute paper, pens, markers, and scissors. Ask kids to draw on the left side what they imagine this spot looked like 500 years ago. For reference, remind them that Christopher Columbus landed in America in 1492, and Jamestown, Virginia, was settled in 1607. Then have them draw on the right side what they imagine it’ll look like 500 years from now.
In the middle of the page is a square. Have them cut out three sides to create a flap they can open to look through their page and see what this place looks like today.
Say: It’s hard for us to remember details of things we know happened 500 years ago, and even harder to predict what will happen 500 years from now. But it wasn’t hard for Jeremiah, because God told him what was going to happen in the future. Jeremiah told people that the Messiah, Jesus, was coming. And more than 500 years later, Jesus fulfilled God’s promise.
Next have kids form groups of two or three.
Say: In your group, try to think of a promise you could make that might still be valuable in 500 years. Allow a few minutes. Then have kids share their ideas with the whole group. Have kids vote on whether they think each idea will work.
Talk About It
Ask:
- What’s the main difference you notice between the promises you tried to make and the promise God kept?
- How does this promise help you trust God more in your own life?
- How can you show God you trust him?
Say: Jesus fulfilled God’s promise. God is so much greater than we are, and his promises show that. Seeing and understanding how God keeps his promises can help us trust him with things we don’t understand in our lives. Let’s take a look at our Key Verse to find out more.
