Barnabas Encourages Christians in Antioch

14 Pages·2011·1.11 MB·English

by  Randy Kady

1 2
S e s s i o n Barnabas Encourages Christians in Antioch
Acts 11:19-26
Worship Theme:
Christians worship God together.
Weaving Faith Into Life:
Kids will worship God together with joy.
Session Sequence What Children Will Do Supplies
Sing KidsOwn Worship Kit:
Let’s Praise • “Worship Only You” (track 1) Songs From FaithWeaver
• “A New Creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17) (track 2) Classroom Supplies:
God!
• “To God Be the Glory” (track 16) Chalkboard (or whiteboard), chalk (or
(about 25 minutes) • “Children of God” (track 7) marker), Bible, CD player, thin thread,
• “His Mercy” (Titus 3:5a) (track 6) scissors, clear tape
Session Sequence What Children Will Do Supplies
Clap, Clap, Pat, Pat
Work together in a rhythmic chant.
Let’s Learn *Building Blocks Classroom Supplies:
Build things alone and with others to discover Large building blocks, such as Duplo
the Point!
that it is more fun to do things together. construction toys
(about 25 minutes)
Drawing Close Classroom Supplies:
Interact with the story, and play a game of Bible, picture of Jesus
getting close to Jesus.
150 FaithWeaver • Spring Quarter
Session Sequence What Children Will Do Supplies
Deserted Classroom Supplies:
Pretend they’re on a deserted island, and think Masking tape, pens, construction
about what they need. paper
Let’s Learn
*Magnetic Worship KidsOwn Worship Kit:
the Point! Attract paper clips with a magnet to discover Magnets
what happens when we worship together. Classroom Supplies:
(about 25 minutes)
Bibles, paper clips, card stock
*E-Mail Classroom Supplies:
Create encouraging mail for each other. Construction paper, markers
Session Sequence What Children Will Do Supplies
The Offering KidsOwn Worship Kit:
Offer their gifts to God. Songs From FaithWeaver:
“I Believe” (John 1:12) (track 5)
Classroom Supplies:
Offering bowls, CD player
Let’s Pray!
Prayer Share KidsOwn Worship Kit:
(about 10 minutes)
Pray for each other in pairs. Songs From FaithWeaver
Classroom Supplies:
CD player
Yea, God!
Celebrate God with a cheer.
* Starred activities can be used successfully with preschool and elementary children together.
Customize your session to fit your needs. You can separate preschoolers and elementary children for Section 2.
Or, if you keep the children all together for the entire worship session, we suggest you choose from the starred activities.
Session 12 • KidsOwn Worship 151
Bible Background for Leaders
Barnabas Encourages Christians in Antioch
Acts 11:19-26
In the chapters leading up to today’s passage, God What happened in Antioch was significant in that
revealed to Peter that the message of Christ is not only for it apparently was the first time Jewish and non-Jewish
Jews but for non-Jews as well. Peter then took that message Christians joined together in fellowship. People there were
to the household of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, and God accustomed to rubbing shoulders with people of different
poured out the Holy Spirit on these non-Jews who came backgrounds and of different ethnic groups. The church in
to faith in Christ. The Jerusalem church had a hard time Antioch set a wonderful example for churches to follow in
accepting that non-Jews could become believers in Christ, centuries to come.
but after Peter explained everything that had happened, As the text tells us, Jesus’ followers were first called
they praised God that he had granted even the Gentiles Christians in Antioch. Prior to that they had been referred
eternal life through Jesus (Acts 10:1–11:18). to as believers, brethren, saints, and, of course, disciples. It’s
significant that in Antioch this diverse group of followers
In today’s passage, we see that the early followers of
took on a name that means “like Christ.” As they lived out
Christ had been scattered from Jerusalem because of the
Jesus’ example and encouraged others in the faith, people
persecution that began after Stephen was killed by stoning.
noticed. What a compliment it would be for others to
The Jews had stoned him after he accused them of killing
consider us to be like Jesus!
the Messiah, Jesus. Everywhere the scattered followers
went, they told people about Jesus (Acts 7:1–8:4).
It’s no surprise, then, that the believers who were
Devotion for Leaders
scattered to Antioch, the world’s third largest city at the
time, began sharing the message of Christ not only with Barnabas knew that faith doesn’t grow in isolation. We
the many Jews who lived there but also with the non-Jews. all need encouragement from other Christians. Strong
When the Jerusalem church heard that a great number of
Christian friendships will help your relationship with
people had turned to the Lord, they were ready to accept
Jesus flourish!
these non-Jewish believers, and they sent Barnabas (whose
Weaving Faith Into Your Life: Encouragement is
name means “son of encouragement”) to see what was
essential to spiritual growth. Who is like Barnabas in
happening and to contribute to the spreading of the gospel
your life? Someone you turn to for encouragement
message. So many people were placing their faith in Christ
that Barnabas needed help, and the person he thought and spiritual accountability? Write the person’s
of was the Apostle Paul, whom he had befriended and name here: _____________ _____.To whom are you
defended before the apostles in Jerusalem after Paul met a Barnabas? Someone you’re regularly cheering
Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-30). on and challenging? Write the person’s name
here: _ ______________ . If you’ve left either of the lines
blank, commit to fill them in this week.
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Why We Worship for Leaders
The experience of worshipping together can be compared to playing in a
magnificent symphony orchestra. Each instrument contributes a unique timbre,
each musician a special talent, and each movement a wonderful sound that is
fulfilling to those involved in the symphony. And just as the musical experience is
fulfilling for the musicians, it is pleasing to the audience.
Worshipping together fulfills our deepest longing for a relationship with God.
At the same time, it is exactly what God longs to hear. Help children know that
God is our audience as we worship together. Help them see that their worship
contributes to a beautiful symphony that is music to God’s ears.
Easy Prep for Leaders
Let’s Praise God!—Write the words to “Worship Only You” on the chalkboard. Cut
two 1-foot pieces of thin thread for each child. Tape two pieces of thread under
each chair. If you don’t use chairs, tape the thread along a wall or under a table.
Deserted—Use masking tape to outline a circle on the floor. Make the circle large
enough for everyone to comfortably sit in.
Preschool Activities—Refer to the preschool pages for preparations.
Let’s Praise God!
Play Songs From FaithWeaver, Spring 2012 as the children arrive. Greet everyone,
and say, “Let’s worship God together today.” Ask kids to find two friends to sit
with during worship. If someone is new, introduce him or her to a pair of friendly
partners, and seat the new child with the pair. When you’re ready to begin the
session,
Hello, everyone! Today we’re seated with two friends because
we’re going to learn about worshipping God together, not
just by ourselves. Not only can we worship God with a friend,
we can worship God together as a whole group just as the
Christians in the Bible did. When we worship together, we
experience God’s love together, and we encourage each other
to lift God up in praise.
The Bible tells us that others will know we are Christians by our
love. As we love God together and love one another, people
will be drawn to us and to Jesus. They will want to have a
relationship with Jesus, too.
Let’s try something to demonstrate what it means to worship
together. As we sing “Worship Only You,” we’ll see how singing
together can help us worship God.
Display the lyrics for “Worship Only You.” Divide the kids into two groups:
Group A and Group B. Explain that when the song begins, Group A will sing the
first line of the song and Group B will sing the second line. Encourage groups
Session 12 • KidsOwn Worship 153
to continue alternating lines this way throughout the song. Both Group A and
Group B will sing the last line of the song together.
Sing “Worship Only You.”
Track 1
Lyrics are in the back of this book.
• How did each group add to our worship? (By adding their part;
each group made the song more exciting.)
We each add something special and unique when we worship
together. That’s why it’s so important to worship God with
others. God made each of us unique. We are his masterpiece.
• What is a masterpiece? (A fabulous painting; an artist’s best
work.)
A masterpiece is a wonderful painting painted by a master
artist, a wonderful artist. God is our master artist. He created
us all wonderfully. We are his workmanship, created to love
him. We are all God’s children, and when we worship God
together, we grow closer to God and to each other. We become
more like the masterpiece he created us to be. Let’s sing “A
New Creation.”
Sing “A New Creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Track 2
Lyrics are in the back of this book.
We are God’s artwork, created to love and serve God. And we
can love and serve God together when we worship together.
• Why is it important to worship together? (We encourage each
other as we worship together; we have more fun when we worship
together; we add different things to our worship when we do it
together.)
• What are some ways we can worship together? (We can sing
together; we can pray together; we can tell each other the great
things God has done.)
Those are all great ways we can worship God together! When we
worship God together, we’re giving God glory in all our unique
ways. Let’s give God glory as we sing “To God Be the Glory.”
Sing “To God Be the Glory.”
Track 16
Lyrics are in the back of this book.
Worshipping together brings glory to God. But it does
something else, too. When we worship together, we encourage
each other and grow stronger in our faith. Let’s do an
experiment to see how we do that.
Lead kids to find the thread taped somewhere in the room. Hold up a piece of
thread.
154 FaithWeaver • Spring Quarter
• Would it be easy or hard to break this piece of thread? Why?
Check out the
(Easy, because it’s thin; hard, because it would take a lot of effort.) FaithWeaver
Worship DVD
Let kids try to break their threads.
included with your
KidsOwn Worship
OK, that one broke pretty easily. Let’s try this again a different
Kit! Use these segments to help
way. Find two or three friends near you, and tightly twist your you lead worship with your
second piece of thread with your friends’ pieces of thread. children each week.
When kids have twisted their threads together, have them take turns trying to
break the three- or four-cord strand.
• Why did the one piece of thread break easily? (Because it was
alone; it was weak by itself.)
• What makes the thread stronger when it’s with other pieces? (It
has more pieces; the pieces work together to make it stronger; the
pieces make a cord that’s thicker than one piece.)
• How are we like or not like the thread? (We can’t do everything
by ourselves; we need others to help us; we’re stronger when there
are others doing things with us.)
• Why is our faith stronger when we worship with other
believers? (We encourage each other and help each other
become strong in faith; we help each other worship.)
Our faith is stronger when we worship together. We are God’s
children who come together to worship God and help each
other grow in faith. Our next song says, “We are the children
of God.” Let’s really put the emphasis on the word we. Let’s
remember how strong we can be when we stand with others as
God’s children.
Sing “Children of God.”
Track 7
Lyrics are in the back of this book.
We worship God together because he saved us by his mercy and
love. We rejoice because God saves everyone who calls on his
name. Everyone who asks can have a relationship with Jesus. It
is exciting to know that God loves all of us. We all have a special
place in his heart. Let’s thank him by singing “His Mercy.”
Sing “His Mercy” (Titus 3:5a).
Track 6
Lyrics are in the back of this book.
God, we worship you together today because it brings you
glory, it makes us stronger, it encourages us in our faith, and it
draws others to you. Thank you for sending Jesus for all of us.
Thank you that we can worship you together. In Jesus’ name,
amen.
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Let’s Learn the Point!
Preschool Activities, pages 157-158
At this time, have the preschool leader invite the preschoolers to go to
their own room for this section of activities. Tear out the Preschool Activities
page, and give it to the preschool leader. Have the preschool leader bring the
preschoolers back to participate in Let’s Pray! with the older children. If you
prefer to keep all the children together, do the starred (*) activities. They will
work well with both elementary and preschool children.
Elementary Activities
Deserted
Give everyone a piece of construction paper and a pen. Have kids spread out
around the room, staying away from the circle you outlined before the session,
and ask them to stand on their construction paper.
You were all traveling across the ocean on the same airplane
when it had to land in the ocean. Now you’ve each washed
ashore on a different deserted island. Your construction paper
is your island, so go ahead and stand on it now.
In the midst of this sad situation, there is some good news.
Something from the plane has washed ashore with you to help you
survive for a few days. I want you to think for a minute about what
one item you’d like to have to help you survive. You can choose one
thing. When you decide, write it on your construction-paper island.
One more thing: Since you’re on a deserted island by yourself,
you’re not allowed to talk to anyone else.
Give kids time to choose one thing they’ll need. Then ask the following
questions. Instead of having kids answer you, tell them to write their answers on
their islands. Remind them that they can’t talk.
• How long do you think you can stay alive on your deserted island
with the item you chose? (Two days; a week; maybe 10 days.)
• How would you feel if you knew you’d be stuck on this island
for the rest of your life by yourself—with no one to talk to and
no one to help you? (I’d be scared; I’d feel lonely; I’d really miss my
dog and my family.)
Well, the good news is that you don’t have to be on your island
by yourself. You noticed another bigger island within swimming
distance of your island. So you decide to take the item that’s
going to keep you alive and swim to the new island, which
happens to be this taped-off section.
(continued on page 159)
156 FaithWeaver • Spring Quarter
Preschool Activities
SSeessssiioonn12
Barnabas Encourages Christians in Antioch
Acts 11:19-26
Worship Theme: Using Theo
Christians worship God together. Consider using Theophilus
the FaithRetriever puppet
today in these ways:
Easy Prep for Leaders
• Have Theo lead the
preschoolers from the
Drawing Close—Display a picture of Jesus on a wall at one end of the room.
main worship area to the
preschool room.
• Have Theo lead the
chant in the “Clap, Clap,
Pat, Pat” activity.
• See the KidsOwn
Worship Kit for a puppet skit written for
today’s worship session.
Clap, Clap, Pat, Pat Click, click, click. (Click your shoes together.)
We worship God with our mouths.
We’re going to have some fun worshipping
Sing, sing, sing. (Sing these words.)
God together with our hands, our feet, and our
smiles. Pray, pray, pray. (Bow your head and fold your hands.)
Ask the children to form a circle. Stand in the middle of the Smile, smile, smile. (Smile big.)
circle, and lead children in a rhythmic chant. Have them do the
Have the children sit on the floor.
motions as they chant:
• What’s more fun—clapping by yourself
We worship God with our hands.
(demonstrate) or clapping with all your
Clap, clap, clap. (Clap your hands three times.) friends?
Pat, pat, pat. (Pat your hands on your legs three times.) • Is it more fun to sing by yourself or with other
people?
Shake, shake, shake. (Shake hands with children on
your left and right.) It’s more fun when we do things with other
people, isn’t it? It’s the same for worship. We
We worship God with our feet.
should worship God with our friends, too. Let’s
Stomp, stomp, stomp. (Stomp your feet three times.)
find out more about doing things with friends.
Run, run, run. (Run in place.)
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Preschool Activities
* Building Blocks • What are some other things we need our
friends for?
Give each child a large building block. Duplo construction toys would You needed each other to build with your
work well. blocks. We need each other for lots of things.
God also wants us to worship him together.
I gave you a block. I want you to build something
with your block now. • Why is it good to worship together with our
friends?
The children may automatically begin adding their blocks to
other children’s blocks, or they may tell you that they can’t build • How can we worship together with our
anything with one block. If they seem stuck or start asking how friends?
they can do that with just one block, When we come to worship we have fun praising
• What could you add to your block to make it God in different ways. And we do all of that
more like a castle? together with our friends. Let’s see what
happened in the Bible when people worshipped
Allow children to build together for a few minutes.
together.
• Why is it better to build things with your
friends?
Drawing Close Ask the children to form a line so that the Jesus picture is at
the head of the line.
Open your Bible to Acts, and show it to the kids. Let’s play a game to see how worshipping together
can help us grow closer to Jesus. When I say,
Our Bible story comes from the book of Acts
“Worship together,” you’re going to take turns
today. In our story, many people who believed
getting closer to Jesus. We’ll start with the last
in Jesus were separated from each other. That
person in line.
means they didn’t live close to each other.
Ask children to run out of the circle and sit down quickly Start the game with the last person in line, and explain that
somewhere in the room so they’re away from their friends. the only way they can get close to Jesus is by moving forward in
the line, giving each person a hug. When the last person gets to
• How do you feel being away from your
the front, let the next person at the end of the line go. Continue
friends?
until everyone reaches the Jesus picture.
Do you remember what it was like to try to build
• How did we get close to Jesus?
something by yourself? It’s hard to do things
with our friends if we’re scattered all over the • Why do you think we worked together to get
place, isn’t it? It was also hard for the people in closer to Jesus?
our story to worship together. • Why is it important to worship Jesus with
But there were some people who actually did others?
worship together. Have children join you again in Your friends made it easier for you to come close
the center of the room. to the picture of Jesus. It’s easier to stay close to
And when those people worshipped together, Jesus when other people help you do it. When we
other people saw that they were having fun worship Jesus together, we help each other stay
together and wanted to worship with them! close to God.
• Have you ever seen other children having fun
and wanted to play with them? Tell us about it.
Barnabas saw that they were worshipping together
and was so happy about that. He told them to keep
it up. He said Christians should worship together a
lot so they can be closer to Jesus.
158 FaithWeaver • Spring Quarter
(continued from page 156)
Have kids pick up their construction paper and pretend to swim to the circle
you taped before the session. When kids arrive at the island, have them sit and
reveal what they wrote as their survival item and as answers to the questions.
• Now that you’re all together on one island, how can you work
together? (We can share our food; we can help each other build
huts; we can make something to use to get off the island.)
• How did you feel when you learned you could be together with
others on the island? (I was relieved; I was glad to be able to talk
to others.)
• Why is it important for us to be together with others? (We can
talk to them; we won’t be lonely; we can help each other; we can
encourage each other.)
When we’re together, we can learn from each other, encourage
each other, and build friendships. As Christians, we can also
worship together. Let’s try something to see why it’s important
for us to worship God together.
Have kids set their construction-paper islands aside so they aren’t a distraction.
* Magnetic Worship
Help kids form groups of five. Give each group a Bible, a piece of card stock, and a
magnet. Give each child a paper clip.
Ask a volunteer in each group to read Acts 11:19 aloud to the group.
This passage tells us that many people who believed in Jesus Warning
were scattered to different areas because of persecution.
Monitor your children carefully
• What does it mean to be persecuted? (To be tormented because when working with magnets.
of what they believe; they were picked on; they were hurt and Swallowed magnets can attract
each other through opposing
killed because they believed in Jesus.)
intestine walls, causing serious
infection or even death. Seek
• Why do you think they scattered? (They didn’t want to be
immediate medical attention
persecuted; they were trying to get away from the people who
if magnets are swallowed or
were hurting them.) inhaled.
• Why would they only tell Jews, people who were just like them,
about Jesus? (They were afraid to be persecuted some more; they
didn’t think they should tell others; they thought Jesus came only
for the Jews; they didn’t want anyone to hurt them.)
Since the believers had been scattered, I’d like you to scatter
your paper clips on your group’s piece of paper. These paper
clips represent the people who were scattered and told only
Jews about Jesus.
Ask a volunteer in each group to read Acts 11:20-21.
But some believers were telling people who were not Jewish
about Jesus, too! They worshipped together in Antioch, a city
near Jerusalem.
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