Welcome to another Bible lesson! Today, we are looking at Jesus as our Good Shepherd. There are some fun printables to download too and you will find them in our Kid's Zone.
We will learn that we can depend on Jesus to watch over us, to guide us, to care for us, and to keep us safe. We will also talk about how we are the sheep and that we need to learn to listen and recognize Jesus' voice as our Good Shepherd.
I have some fun activities for you to use with your children. At the time of writing this post, we are all on 'lock down' and the church has been suspended for a time. These activities will work well at home or in the classroom. Our story today is from John 10:1-11. It isn't in our 'My Keepsake Bible' for kids but you can read it from your own Bible or from biblegateway.com. And further down this post, you will find a video that tells the story too!
Introduction to the story:
As an introduction to this story, you could talk about the pets that you have at home. Ask your children about caring for their animals.
Ask them, how would you take care of your cat/dog/rabbit, etc.
Hopefully, your children will answer with the following answers:
Give my pet food and water.
Play with it.
Make sure it has somewhere safe and warm to sleep.
Make sure the pet has somewhere to take bathroom needs.
We will be learning about listening and recognizing Jesus' voice as our Good Shepherd. So to help your children understand this concept, ask them the following question.
'Does your pet know your voice?'
Ask your children, did they notice that when you call your pet that they come to them because it recognizes their voice?
Your pet knows the child's voice because they are used to the child taking care of it. Like when they provide food and water.
What does a shepherd do?
Now ask the children what does a shepherd does?
A shepherd is responsible for taking care of sheep. In Bible times there were lots of shepherds and they would guide the sheep to safe places where they could find grass to eat, water to drink, and a safe place to rest.
The sheep learned to follow the shepherd. The sheep recognizes the shepherd's voice and follow him.
If a wolf or bear came to attack the sheep, the shepherd would protect them and fight off the wolf or bear.
The shepherd would even act as a door!
The sheep would often be herded into a fenced-in space together and the shepherd would sit or lie at the entrance so that anything that tried to enter or leave the pen had to go through the shepherd first and that is how the shepherd was able to keep the sheep safe.
In our bible reading today, Jesus compares Himself to a shepherd. He said that He is the gateway ( see the video below). He is the way to life and to not believe anyone else that claims to be the way to life. That they are trying to trick us! We are like sheep, wandering around needing guidance. We can trust Jesus to be our shepherd.
Remember that Jesus, the Good Shepherd died on the cross to rescue us from sin. We can listen for His voice through prayer and reading scripture.
Fun activities to understand the story:
Watch this short video - the kids will love it!
Try out the games below.
Download and print out the free activity sheets that you will find in the Kid's Zone.
At the end of the post, there is a suggested prayer that you could use to pray with your children.
Games:
Lost sheep hide and seek: The teacher or parent is the shepherd and will hunt for all the sheep that are hiding!
Shepherd's voice: Have the children sit in a circle. One child wears a blindfold and is the shepherd. Then the other children (including parents!), one by one make a baa-baa sound. The 'shepherd' will listen and try to guess which child made the baa-baa sound.
Here are the activities available to download and print out in the Resource Library:
There are some activities for your child to do. There are 2 different posters for them to color in based on Psalm 23:1 that compliments our story today very well. There is a page for girls and one for the boys too! There is a line for the child to write in their name. It would be lovely framed and a great reminder that Jesus is taking care of your child.
There is also a word search and another poster that your child can color- in and place the words in the correct order to form the verse from John 10:4- which is a good verse to commit to memory.
Here is a prayer that you can pray with your children:
Have them repeat each line:
Dear God,
Thank you for being my Good shepherd. Help me to listen for your voice and to follow you. Help me to trust you. Thank you for guiding and protecting me. And thank you so much for caring about me and loving me. Amen.
I hope this lesson is a blessing to your family!
I have another post for adults that you might enjoy reading, it's called 'How to pray Psalm 23:1 for an anxious heart'. You can read it HERE.
Don't forget to share this post with your friends and families on Facebook or Pinterest.
See you next week!
xx Karen.