baptism #2 Acts 2:38-39
Memory verse: Mark 1:8
I Indeed baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
Lesson: Acts 2:38-39
Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. for the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."
Games: Cotton ball vaseline race, mummy wrap
Activities: Memory verse thief
Order of Service:
Worship? 2-3 songs
Review: Mark 1:8, who remembers the verse? Prize for kids who remember.
Lesson: Acts 2:38-39
Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. for the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."
Define the hard parts, examples: Repent, what does it mean? Baptized (review for kids who were there last week and explain for new ones) Remission of sins, (forgiveness of sins) Holy Spirit (this will be the focus of our lesson today), all who are afar off (those who are not near)
repeat the verses using more defined words Example: Say your sorry and get baptized to show you believe in Jesus Christ who forgives us of our sins, and then you will have the Holy Spirit who comforts us, guides us and loves us. This isn't just for you, but for everyone you know, and everyone you will meet in the future.
Now lets focus on who the Holy Spirit is. And how He is a gift.
The Names of the Holy Spirit are: The Counselor, comforter, the spirit of: truth, wisdom, grace, glory, holiness, judgement, life, might, prophecy, revelation... to name a few.
Ask the kids if they know what any of these things are.. try to get a good conversation going about these things. You can bring props to explain them as well.. ex: a blanket to represent a comforter, a pen and pad of paper for the 'counselor', glasses for wisdom, a flash light for glory or holiness, a robe for judgment (like the judge in a court room), a weight for might... you can also look up other names for the Holy Spirit and bring props for them.
With each identifying item get a child to use it... and tell how it represents the Holy Spirit, and spend some time asking the children why God would give us this as a gift. EX: Why would God give us someone to comfort us? and wrap us up like this blanket in warmth and love?, or Why do you think that God wanted to give us a friend who is WISE and can help us to become wise?
Try to make this portion as interesting and as long as you can spending enough time on each subject of the Holy Spirit as you can, but not to the point of bringing the kids to boredom... we want them to stay entertained but learn about the truth, and the wonderful aspects of the Holy Spirit, and how they can be beneficial to them.
Game: Vaseline cotton ball race.
supplies needed: Cotton balls, 2 bowls, and vaseline.
How to play: Split the kids into 2 groups, explain that once we are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit he travels with us where ever we go, he sort of sticks to us. Then place a small amount of vaseline on each child's nose and give them each a cotton ball. Then line them up about 10 to 15 feet away from a bowl (one for each team). Ask them to stick the cotton ball to their noses and one at a time run to their team bowl and drop the cotton ball into the bowl. They may not use their hands, and if the cotton ball falls they must return to the start and try again, if their cotton falls off you may want to apply a little more vaseline. Which ever team gets all the cotton balls into their bowl first wins.
note: If there are 10 or fewer kids in class you may want to give them each two or more turns.
Memory Verse: Mark 1:8
I indeed baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
For the memory portion of today's service you will need to recruit a volunteer (preferably a teen or your assistant) to be a 'theif" Supply them with a mask, or bandanna to put over their face. You will also need pieces of paper or blocks with each of the words of your memory verse on them, that you can display for the kids to see.
Point out each of the words individually as you say the memory verse. Then turn to ask the kids something about the verse and while your back is turned the memory verse theif will sneak behind you to steal one of the words. when you turn back around you will see the missing verse and blame the kids or someone else (you don't know about the bandit). Try the verse out without the help of that word, and when you are not looking the bandit will steal another word.. continue this until all the words or only one are left, then you will discover the bandit and attempt to capture him but let them escape the room. This should be VERY dramatic to make the kids laugh.
Game:
Mummy wrap
Supplies needed: 2 rolls of toilet paper for each team, and some random things like baseball caps and sunglasses, enough that each team has about 4 random things.
How to play: Even though the Holy Spirit is invisible and we can not describe what he looks like, we know he is always with us, and so it could be fun to give us a mental picture of what he could look like. Split the children into groups of three, give each group 2 rolls of TP and a few accessories, then tell them that one person will act as the Holy Spirit, and the other two will dress him, using the toilet paper and accessories. You will probably want to have a camera handy to take pictures of the creations the kids come up with. You may even just place all the accessories in a big box and ask the teams to each chose 4 items that they might like to use. Then give the kids a certain amount of time (5-10mins) to create their version of the Holy Spirit. At the end choose one that looks the best to 'win'.
Memory Verse:
Mark 1:8 I indeed baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
Give each of the kids a chance to say one word, point to 'sally' and she will say "I" then John can say "indeed" and so on...
Review the lesson.
What is the importance of Baptism?
Why would we want to identify with Jesus?
What does God give us when we are baptized?
Who is the Holy Spirit?
Feel free to add more questions of your own.
Ask the kids if they have become Christians? would they like to? Ask them if they have anything concerning them that they would like prayer for? Anything they think that the 'comforter, or counselor' can help them with.
FREE TIME.