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Church School Lesson for Home: Second Sunday of Easter, Doubting Thomas
Dear families- In case you missed our Google Meet yesterday, here is our lesson that you can do at home!
New and Goods: This week we shared how we celebrated Easter
Opening Prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you for our time together today. Please help us to listen to your words and learn how to be a good disciple.
In Jesus' Name we Pray,
Amen
Our lesson yesterday came from the book of John. (John 20: 19-31)
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Jesus Appears to Thomas
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The Purpose of John’s Gospel
30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe[b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Activity #1:
Here is a list of outrageous facts: some true and some false. See if your child can correctly guess which facts are true and which facts are fale.
-They have square watermelons in Japan because they stack better: true
-A bird's feathers weigh more than its bones: true
-Penguins can smell toothpaste from miles away: false
-A violin contains about 70 pieces of wood: true
-An ostrich can run faster than a horse: true
-50 years ago m and m's were candy coated peas during a chocolate shortage: false
-The Irish like Thomas the Tank Engine so much that they put faces on all of their trains.: false
Discuss: was it hard to decide which facts were true or false?
Activity #2:
You can watch this video depicting the story of Thomas
Discuss: How would you have felt if you were Thomas? Would you have believed what your friends told you? How would you have felt if you were the other disciples who first saw Jesus? How would you have described the experience to others?
Activity #3: Guess the Character
Choose a well known character in your head. Then give three clues about your character and see if your child can guess who it is. Then switch places. See how many you can each guess.
Some of the characters we used were: Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Elsa, Moana and Super Mario
Discuss: Was it hard finding the right clues to describe your character? Sometimes we assume that other people know all the same things we do about the characters we love. But sometimes they need more details to really jog their memory. Sometimes we also assume that everyone else knows about Jesus the way that we do, but they might not!
We are Jesus' disciples in today's world! As his disciples we have two jobs:
-to be like Thomas: Jesus told Thomas that "blessed are those who believe without seeing." We have never seen Jesus in person, so we must also believe without seeing!
-to be like the disciples that DID see Jesus: Even though we didn't SEE Jesus, we have seen his love, and it is our job to describe it to other people-just like the other disciples tried to explain to Thomas what they saw. And we want to describe it in a way that makes others recognize Jesus!
Closing Prayer:
Dear God,
Thank you for showing us your love every day. Please help us to describe your love to others so that everyone will know Jesus like we do!
In Jesus' name,
Amen
