A Bloody Easter (you know… actually)

Hello all, it’s Easter soon!
I’d like to teach my children about the death and resurrection of Christ this Easter in light of the Old Testament substitutionary sacrifices (wow, big words). So just in case it’s helpful, here are my notes. I do plan to prepare some teaching for Good Friday and Easter Sunday too, but to give you a chance to use it I thought I’d post this now.
I hope to do these lessons next week, in the days leading up to Easter weekend. Am praying it will help them to see why Jesus died and why it’s wonderful news for us that he’s our sacrificial Lamb.
Let me know if you have any questions about it. Sorry about the formatting. I tried my best!

Memory verse: ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’
(Colin Buchanan, Romans 6:23 from Remember the Lord or Seeds Family Worship ‘Hey Man’ from Seeds of Faith (available on their website)) I will spend time explaining what this verse means. (P.S. After doing the first session, I was somewhat discouraged the learn that my 3 year old thought we were singing ‘a tunnel life’ which would be much less exciting than eternal life. Always good to check they understand what’s going on!)
I’m using the Jesus Storybook Bible, but I’m sure you could use another children’s Bible which include the relevant stories.

Bible story	Questions/Discussion & Activity
The Present – JSB p. 62 (Abraham and Isaac)	Remind them about Abraham, the promise and the son of the promise, Isaac. Read the story. 1. How do you think Abraham felt at the beginning? (Sad! Confused!) 2. Did he have to kill his son? (No!) When we sin, the punishment is death. Someone has to die for our sin. But in this story. Isaac didn’t have to die – what died instead of Isaac? (The ram) 3. BUT, Abraham had said God would provide a LAMB. So where is the lamb? Jesus is the Lamb that God provided. Jesus died for our sin so we don’t have to. He died for Abraham’s sin and Isaac’s sin too. We’ll find out more about that later in the week. Pray and sing the memory verse.Activity – Popcorn RamsUse picture of ram (I shall ask my husband to copy a basic one from a colouring page online) and write ‘The Lord will provide’ under it. Stick popcorn to the ram’s body (optional! Could just colour it in). And/or colouring page such as: https://craftingthewordofgod.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/abraham-offers-isaac-coloring-page.pdf
God to the Rescue! – JSB P. 84 (The Plagues, Passover and Exodus)	We learned last time about Abraham and his son Isaac. Isaac’s grandson was Joseph, and he and his brothers had loads of children so there were a lot of God’s people now. Let’s find out what happened to them. Read the story. 1. God wanted to rescue his people from Egypt – but did Pharoah want to let them go? 2. God punished Pharoah and the Egyptians by sending lots of plagues – do you remember any of them? 3. The last plague was the worst – God said he would kill the firstborn son in every family. But how could God’s people escape this punishment? (They had to kill a lamb instead and put its blood on their door frames.) 4. So if they killed a lamb and put the blood on the door frames, would they be safe from God’s punishment? (Yes! And we saw them all get out of Egypt in the end, didn’t we?) 5. Yesterday we looked at how Isaac didn’t have to die – what animal died in his place? (A ram.) 6. In this story what animal dies in the place of the sons of God’s people? (A lamb.) Yes! Do you see that God provides something to die instead of his people. They deserve to be punished and die, BUT because they trust God and sacrifice an animal instead, God keeps them safe. Pray and sing memory verse. Activity – Hand Lambs Make lambs by drawing round their hand on black paper or card. The thumb becomes the head and the four fingers the legs. Stick/draw an eye on! Cotton wool for the body! I recommend doing something with red paint so that the blood stays in their memory. (Nothing too graphic! My son was traumatised once by a Passover drama!) Paint a pic of a door frame red (see link below) – you could pretend to cut up your lambs first – or have a pre-made sacrificial one to cut up! http://www.biblekids.eu/anticotestamento/moses/moses_coloring_pages/moses-coloring-page-6.jpg
The Servant King – JSB p. 286. The last supper	Do you remember how God rescued his people from Egypt? (Recap on the Passover) God’s people would celebrate the Passover every year by having a meal together and telling the story. They would eat a lamb and remember how the lamb had died instead of God’s people. In this story, Jesus celebrates the Passover with his disciples.Read story. (Have props – bread and red juice – to talk them through this.) 1. What did Jesus say about the bread? (It is his body – it will break like the bread) 2. What did he say about the wine? (It’s like his blood – it will pour out) 3. Did Jesus know that he was about to be killed on the cross? (Yes!)Just as the Passover lamb died, now Jesus was going to die instead of the disciples. They wouldn’t have to kill a lamb and put the blood on their doors – Jesus would be their sacrifice instead. We are like the disciples – we can be saved from death if we trust in the blood of Jesus. Just like the ram was killed instead of Isaac. Just like the lamb was killed instead of the sons in Egypt. Jesus was killed on the cross, instead of you and me. Pray and sing memory verse. Activity – Sacrifice collage Colouring page – Jesus and bread/wine such as http://www.kidsplaycolor.com/jesus-raise-his-grail-in-the-last-supper-coloring-page/ On A3 paper (or two stuck together if you need them) stick their rams and their lambs and then draw arrows down to the picture Jesus with the bread and wine. Explain that Jesus is our sacrifice (write that underneath)