Who is

Jesus?

5- WEEK SUNDAY SCHOOL CURRICULUM

FROM BIG TRUTHS FOR YOUNG HEARTS
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given; and
the government shall
be uponhis shoulder,
and his name shall be
called Wonderful
Counselor, Mighty
God, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
This Christmas help your students grow their picture of who Jesus is. Through these 5 Christmas lessons,
children will not only see Jesus as the baby in the manger but will get a full picture of the person of Jesus
Christ. They'll wait with anticipation after hearing the prophecies of Jesus' birth, they'll marvel as those
prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus and then will see how Jesus lived during His time on earth; being fully God
and fully man.

These 5 lessons are best taught in the 3 weeks leading up to Christmas and the 2 weeks after Christmas.

"Who is Jesus?" is part of a year-long series called "Big Truths for Young Hearts" and these lessons are found
in unit 2 of the series.

“Big Truths for Young Hearts” is a 52-week lesson series based on the book ‘Big Truths for Young Hearts’ by
Bruce Ware. In this book, Dr. Ware unpacks the riches of God’s word in a systematic way designed to help kids
to grasp of big picture of who God is and all He desires us to know through His Word. This year long curriculum
series takes the concepts, or the BIG TRUTHS, presented in the book and provides teachers, parents and
churches with all the resources they need to proclaim those truths to the children in their lives.

The curriculum units follow the chapters in Dr Ware’s book. A list of the units in this series is found on page 6.
The hope is that churches would teach straight through the materials, as in many ways the units do build on
each other. But the units are also written in such a way that you could easily teach them as a stand-alone
curriculum. A full scope and sequence of the materials is available to download from the Sunday School Store.

Who is Jesus?

• A Person Who was Alive Long Before He was Born

o Text – Isaiah 9:6
o Prophecies of Jesus’ Birth
o Main Point – Jesus is the I Am
• How Jesus Emptied Himself in Becoming Also a Man
o Text – Philippians 2:5-11
o Jesus Humbled Himself
o Main Point – Jesus became a man to die our death

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 • The Incarnation: God and Man Together
o Text – John 1 & Luke 2
o The Birth of Jesus
o Main Point – Jesus is Immanuel: God with Us
• Jesus Lived in the Power of the Spirit
o Text – Isaiah 61 & Luke 4
o Jesus Taught that He is the Messiah
o Main Point – Jesus lived in the power of the Holy Spirit
• Jesus Resisted Temptation, Living a Sinless Life
o Text – Matthew 4:1-11
o The Temptations of Jesus
o Main Point – Jesus resisted temptation in the power of the Holy Spirit

The key verse for this half of the unit is Isaiah 9:6 -
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name
shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
All Scripture references are taken from the ESV version of the Bible.

Each lesson contains the following:

• Introductory Activity
• Large Group Worship Time
o Welcome activity
o Study God’s Word – teaching materials for the Biblical text
o 3 songs
o Prayer
• Small Group Lessons (2 options – ages 5-8 and ages 8-12)
o Review
o Application
o Memory Verse
o Prayer
o All necessary printables and resources
• Take home – family devotional guide

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You are viewing the FREE sample lesson – use the link below to purchase the complete Who is Jesus? 5‐Week 
children’s ministry curriculum. 

https://sundayschool.store/products/who-is-jesus-5-week-christmas-series-download-only 

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Big Truths Unit Content:
1. Unit 1 - God’s Word and God’s Own Life as God – 9 weeks

2. Unit 2 - God as Three in One – 5 weeks

and Who is Jesus? – 5 weeks (this is a perfect lead up to Christmas)

3. Unit 3 - God: Creator and Ruler of All – 6 weeks

and Our Human Nature and Our Sin – 5 weeks

4. Unit 4 - The Work that Jesus has done – 6 weeks (this is a great Easter series)
and The Holy Spirit – 4 weeks

5. Unit 5 - Our Great Salvation – 6 weeks

and The Church of Jesus Christ – 6 weeks

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 Sharing the Gospel with Children
All curriculum from “The Sunday School Store” is heavy on the gospel and each lesson provides
ample ideas of how to share the Gospel with the kids in your class. Our prayer is that weekly
you will have many opportunities to talk with children about the good news of Jesus Christ.

When talking of the gospel, Charles Spurgeon once said,

“The things that are essential to salvation are so exceedingly simple

that no child need sit down in despair of understanding the things
which make for his peace. Christ crucified is not a riddle for sages, but
a plain truth for plain people. True it is meat for men, but it is also
milk for babes.”

Every time you are with children at church, make sure that you take the time to present the
plain truth of the gospel and to pray for the children in your care that they would have hears
ready to hear and receive the good news.

Here are some helpful tools to use when sharing the gospel:

• Use a tract such as Who will be King? from Matthias Media. This simple presentation shows God as
the rightful king and sin causing us to crown ourselves. It ends by reminding kids that there can only
be one king and asks them if they will be their king or if God will be their king.

• Draw an illustration like The Bridge to Life, like the one from Navigators. In this illustration, man and
God are seen separated with no way to bridge the gap. As the gospel is presented, the cross is
drawn in the gap to show that the only way back to God is through Jesus' atoning work on the
cross.

• Simply talk through the storyline of the Bible using the words - God, man, Jesus, response. God
created a perfect world and man to be in a perfect relationship with Him. Man disobeyed the one
rule that God gave him, and this was the first sin. The Bible tells is that the right punishment for sin
is death. Jesus, the son of God, came to earth as a baby and lived a perfect sinless life. He died on
the cross in our place to pay the price for our sin. Three days later, Jesus came back to life so that
we can live forever with Him. Now that you've heard this good news you have to decide how you
will respond. Will you believe this truth and follow Jesus, or will you choose to ignore this good
news?

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 Theme: Who is Jesus?
Memory Verse: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6
Challenge Verse: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the
only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
Bible Story: Jesus came to earth – John 1
The Point: Jesus is Immanuel: God with us

Introduction – What are you Doing this Week? (5-8 minutes)

WHAT YOU NEED: nothing needed

Before the start of large group, spend a few minutes with your group sharing family Christmas traditions and
talking about what everyone will be doing this week/ month/ year to celebrate Christmas. Have kids tell you
what they’re the most excited about and share stories about their favorite Christmas memories.

SAY: “This morning in large group we’re going to talk about what it means that Jesus came to earth to live with
His people.”

Take your group to Large Group Time.

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Large Group (25-35 minutes)
Welcome
To start the morning on a lighter note (as kids will be excited about Christmas), have a Christmas tree race. For
this game, you need 2 volunteers to be Christmas trees (small group leaders or older kids) and each of them need
2-3 decorators. The trees cannot speak or move on their own. The decorators are each given a bag of
decorations (some ornaments & ribbon to use to attach them, tinsel or garland, etc.) They have 3 minutes to
decorate their tree. The winning tree is the one who is able to walk across the room without any of their
decorations falling off. 



Worship Time
“That was crazy watching you guys decorate your trees like that. Doing something like that was obviously just
for fun, but somehow seeing the decorations I was reminded of why we celebrate Christmas each year anyway.
It’s not about the tree or the lights or the decorations or family dinners or even the presents. It’s about the
greatest gift that we could possibly imagine. God gave His Son. God sent Jesus to earth to live as a man and to
die on the cross taking the punishment that each of us deserve. 



The amazing thing is that Christmas isn’t even all about the shepherds and angels and Jesus in the manger.
Christmas is about why Jesus came to earth. Christmas is about the cross. Let’s sing a song that reminds us of
that great truth.


 It’s About the Cross

As we sing this next song about salvation being born, let’s notice what the words teach us about who Jesus is,
some of the name and titles given to him, and why he came to earth. 


Salvation is Born

Study God’s Word

*** for the story you’ll need a Christmas tree….either an actual tree, or the shape of a tree on the wall and
words, pictures or ornaments to hang on the tree as you go through the story….

“How many of you have Christmas trees or some other decorations in your house? It looks like here we are the
week before (2 weeks before – whenever you are using this lesson) Christmas and we have an empty Christmas
tree, so this morning we need to make sure it gets decorated. But we need to be careful and decorate it with
things that help us remember that Jesus came to earth to take the punishment that we deserve. And we’re
going to do this tree decorating with just a couple of verses that I know you’re all familiar with (John 1:1-2 &
John 1:14. (you might want to have these verses on a screen).

Use the following discussion points as you put the “ornaments” on the tree using this suggested pattern).

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God- - John1:1 starts out with the same 3 words as the whole Bible
starts out with… In the beginning…. If we flip back to Genesis 1:1,
we see that the next word is God, reminding us that God has no
beginning and that He was all there was when everything else
began, because He made everything else.

The Word- - In the beginning was the Word. The Word was there in
the beginning, before the creation of the world. So, who is the
Word? Let’s read the rest of verses 1 & 2 together. “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”

I know that all of you are jumping ahead to the answer here
because you know it, but let’s make sure we can make sense of this
truth from the Bible. This verse is telling us that in the beginning
before there was anything else, when there was just God, that
there was someone with God and that this someone was God Himself.

We know that this verse is talking about Jesus and this verse helps us learn a crucial truth about Jesus. Jesus is
God Himself and He has always been God. He is fully God. Can you guys say that truth with me…Jesus is fully
God.

Let’s move on and see what happened to “The Word” and how He went from being with God in the beginning
to coming to earth.


Flesh- - John 1:14, which is our challenge verse for the day says, And the Word became flesh. Jesus, who we just
said is fully God became a person, He put on a body like you and I have. Here’s a big word for you (turn over the
flesh ornament to reveal)

Incarnation- -This word means putting on a body. Jesus is the only One in the whole world who this word refers
to. Jesus is the only ONE who ever became a person.

So, we can say that Jesus is God incarnate or God in a body or God in the flesh. But how did this happen? Did
Jesus just appear one day walking along a road in a fully grown man’s body? Let’s listen to, and sing along if you
want, to the words of this song as they tell us the story of Jesus becoming a man…. (during the song, put the
following ornaments on the tree…. shepherds, night, angel, GOOD NEWS, joy, All People, SAVIOR, nativity
scene…and refer back to them as you finish the story)

Joy

Jesus became a man and took on flesh by being born as a baby. He was born as a baby who would grow up to be
the Savior; the One sent by God to rescue His people. Did you catch what the angel said to the shepherds? “I
bring you Good News…” What was the good news? The good news was that God had sent the Messiah, the
Savior, the Rescuer that they had been waiting for. (add a cross over the words Good News) That’s what
Christmas is all about.

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Now that we’ve seen how Jesus became a man, let’s get back to our verse and see what else we can learn about
Him

Dwelt- - the verse goes on to say… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus came to live with
people. Why is that such a big deal? It’s a big deal because God is perfect…Jesus is perfect….and because of sin,
we are the farthest thing from perfect you can imagine. The perfect God took on an imperfect body and came to
live with imperfect people. He came to live with sinful humanity. One of the really cool things about this part of
the verse is that the word dwelt is the same word as tabernacle. Who remembers when we heard about God
tabernacling (or living) with His people before? In the Old Testament, God had His people build a tabernacle (or
a tent) for Him to live with them, but remember that God, in the most holy place, was separated from the
people by a curtain. Now, He is tabernacling with them in human form.

Our verse finishing by saying, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son[d] from the Father, full of grace
and truth. The end of this verse wraps up what we’ve been talking about by reminding us that Jesus is the glory
of God, He is God Himself. It reminds us that He came from the Father, or as John 3:16 tells us, He was sent by
the Father. And we’re reminded that Jesus is the truth. As He Himself will tell us in John 14:6, Jesus is the Way to
the Father (being the One to have come from the Father), He is the Truth, and He is the only way to have life
with the Father.

Before we go to our small groups, let’s sing a song that gives us the opportunity to rejoice in why Jesus came to
earth.


Jesus Came to Save Sinners

Let’s say our verse one more time… “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his
glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

Pray
Let’s pray.

“Dear God, thank You for the greatest gift we could ever imagine. Thank you for sending Jesus to earth to live a
perfect life and die in our place. Help us to learn more today about the Good News of Jesus coming to earth and
to be reminded that Jesus came to earth as a baby to die on the cross. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.”

Dismiss kids to small groups.

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Small Group (30 - 40 minutes)
Younger group – ages 5-8

Before the Session:

• Tell the Story - one set of story cards (same as ones in large group + a few extra), Bibles
• Separated and Together - Bibles
• Praise Him, Praise Him, All You Little Children – nothing needed
• Wrap a Verse – 1 roll of wrapping paper, tape, 1 set of memory verse cards, Bibles

FLASHBACK: Last week we started our unit on “Who is Jesus?” by looking at the truth that Jesus is the eternal I
AM. We read prophecies about His birth and listened in as He gave Himself the name I AM (which was the name
God gave Himself in Exodus 3).



1. Tell the Story (Review)

WHAT YOU NEED: one set of story cards (same as ones in large group + a few extra), Bibles

As kids come in and get settled down after large group, tell that you hope they were listening well in large
group, because you got the story all mixed up and you need their help to make sense of it and tell it in the right
order. Have the kids all sit in a circle on the floor and evenly distribute the cards to the kids in the group (even if
kids get multiple cards). Have them all place their cards on the floor in front of them so that everyone can see
everyone else’s cards. If you have non-readers in your group, tell them what their cards say as you hand them
out.

Then, have the kids retell the story using the cards, with you helping them fill in the blanks. As you go through
the story, you’ll be reminding them of the Biblical account of Jesus’ birth (read from Luke 2:1-20 if you want), as
well as discussing who Jesus is (God the Son, Immanuel, The Creator, Infinite, Holy, Etc.) and why He came to
earth (to take the punishment that we deserve for our sin.



Before class you should take some time to think through the story so you can retell it using the cards. 


With older groups you could encourage them to tell the part of the story for the card/ cards they are holding and
with younger groups you might want to tell the story and point to them to say the word on their card.

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SAY: “I know most of us read the Christmas story at least once a year, but I hope that this morning you saw
something new and different. In the Christmas story, we see a miracle taking place. Jesus, the Creator of the
World and God Himself was born as a baby. Jesus came to earth to live with His people and eventually to die for
His people. After years and years of people being separated from God because of sin, God has come to live with
His people. [Heart to Heart] What an amazing truth, [THE POINT] Jesus is Immanuel: God with us. And, because
Jesus came to be with His people and to die for His people, we can believe in Him, follow Him and turn away from
our sin and be saved. Jesus is the way for us to live with God (John 14:6). The amazing truth of the whole
storyline on the Bible is that because of our sin we are all separated from God and can’t do anything on our own
to get to Him, BUT He came to us so that we could live with Him.”

2. Separated and Together (Scripture Search)

WHAT YOU NEED: Bibles

To help kids understand the magnitude of the truth that Jesus came to earth to live with people, walk them
through the history of God and man (having them, or you, read & discuss the following verses, or you can be
prepared to tell these stories in your own words).

A great way to do this activity to keep younger kids engaged is to draw a storyline while you tell the story to
remind them that this is the story of the Bible. There’s no reason to talk about Jesus coming to earth as a baby if
we don’t remember why we need a Savior and what Jesus came to do!

• Genesis 1:27- -God made man in His image

• Genesis 3:21-24- -God separated man from Himself by sending them out of the garden because of their sin
• Exodus 20- - God gives His people 10 rules to separate them from the rest of the people of the earth and to
set them apart as His people. With these rules, God expects His people to be perfect and Holy like He is but
knows we can’t do this on our own. The rules (and our inability to follow them), shows us our need for Jesus
(Romans 3:20).
• Exodus 40:17-38- -God has the people build the tabernacle for Him to “dwell” with His people and lead
them, but the people are separated from the most Holy Place by a curtain, showing that because of sin God
and His people are still separated.
• John 1:14- - Jesus comes to tabernacle with His people in human form

Discuss the difference between God and man… holy and sinful, infinite and finite, the creator and creatures, etc.
Have the kids try and come up with an analogy of what it’s like that God came to live with His people. Suggest
that maybe it would be like one of them becoming a worm. Talk about how different they are from a worm and
how weird it would be to be a worm and how horrible it would be for someone who can walk and talk and think
to become a worm crawling on the ground. Then, remind kids that even as horrible and weird as that would be,
it’s still nothing compared to God becoming a man because people and worms are both creatures, so it would
be one creature becoming another creature. What God did was so much greater because Jesus is the perfect,
infinite, Creator who became a helpless baby. The ruler of everything was wrapped in cloths and placed in a
manger.
For your own meditation, consider again these statements from Sam Storms in “Pleasures Evermore”, to help
you glory in the incarnation…. This quote was also read last week.)

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“The Word became flesh! ……God became human! …. the invisible became visible! …the untouchable became
touchable! 
eternal life experienced temporal death! …the transcendent one descended and drew near! …the
unlimited became limited! 
 the infinite became finite! …the immutable became mutable! ….the unbreakable
became fragile! …spirit became matter! 
 eternity entered time! …the independent became dependent! ….the
almighty became weak! ….the loved became the hated! 
 the exalted was humbled! …glory was subjected to
shame! …fame turned into obscurity! ….from inexpressible joy to tears of unimaginable grief! …from a throne to a
cross! ….from ruler to being ruled! ….from power to weakness!”

SAY: “When we think about our own sinfulness and the perfection of Jesus, we can’t help but be amazed at the
truth of Christmas. Wrap your head around this one truth…. [THE POINT] Jesus is Immanuel: God with us.”

3. Praise Him, Praise Him, All You Little Children (Prayer)

WHAT YOU NEED: nothing needed (listen to the song at home to be prepared)

After discussing the truth and the magnitude of who Jesus is, take some time as a group to praise God for who
He is. Sing the familiar song “Praise Him, Praise Him all you little children” …. Praise Him, Praise Him all You little
children God is good, God is good….

You can substitute Jesus instead of God when you sing. Sing the song once to remind the kids what you’ll be
singing, then tell them that each time before you sing, you’ll have one of them give you a truth about Jesus to
sing. Continue as long as the kids are interested. Some words you could use to fill in the blank are- Jesus is…
God, holy, creator, perfect, messiah, born, etc.

Close the prayer time by leading your group in a prayer of praise for who Jesus is and what He did by coming to
earth to die in our place.

4. Wrap a Verse (Memory Verse)

WHAT YOU NEED: 1 roll of wrapping paper, tape, 1 set of memory verse cards, Bibles

Make sure you leave this activity for last as there is no way you’ll be able to regain the attention of the group
after this insanity!! You may even want to do the “Heart to Heart” discussion before the activity and just end
with them cleaning up the mess and you saying “Merry Christmas/ Merry God with Us Day” as they walk out the
door.

Each group will work as a team, so if there are multiple groups in the room, you need to do this activity together
in way of competition.

[Heart to Heart] Remind the kids in your group what it means that Jesus is the best gift ever, using verses like
Romans 6:23, 1 John 4:10, John 3:16, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 2:8-9 and others that remind us that as sinners
what we deserve is death and eternal separation from God. But God in His great mercy has provided one way
(John 14:6) for us to be forgiven of our sin and brought back into relationship with Him if we will turn away from
our sin (repent) and turn to Him in faith.

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Have everyone in the group look up John 1:14 in their Bibles and read it together a couple of times. Give each
group a roll of wrapping paper, some tape, a set of mixed-up verse cards and 1 pair of scissors. Explain that as a
group their goal is to wrap one team member into a nice, neat Christmas present and then cover the gift with
the words of the verse that describes the best gift imaginable…Jesus come to earth as a man to take our
punishment. Explain that both speed and creativity count in this challenge. Let kids have fun wrapping each
other and getting the verse in order and then have the kid who was wrapped rip themselves out of the wrapping
paper and say the verse together as a group.

SAY: “The truth we’ve been talking about all morning is that [THE POINT] Jesus is Immanuel: God with us and
there aren’t many verses that help us see that truth more clearly than this one. This Christmas, as you rip into
the presents that your parents have carefully purchased and wrapped for you, think back to this challenge and
the greatest gift ever- -Jesus- -God incarnate.”

5. Jesus Came to Earth (Big Truth Song) – especially for Kindergarten

***Sing to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell”

Jesus came to earth,

Jesus came to earth

He came to rescue all God’s people.

Jesus Came to earth

Conclude the session with a review and prayer.

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Small Group (30 - 40 minutes)
Older group – ages 8-12

Before the Session:

• From Your Perspective - one set of character cards, Bibles

• Separated and Together - Bibles
• Tabernacle Praise – Bibles
• Wrap a Verse – for every 4-5 kids - 1 roll of wrapping paper, tape, 1 set of memory verse cards, Bibles

FLASHBACK: Last week we started our unit on “Who is Jesus?” by looking at the truth that Jesus is the eternal I AM.
We read prophecies about His birth and listened in as He gave Himself the name I AM (which was the name God
gave Himself in Exodus 3).


1. From Your Perspective (Review)

WHAT YOU NEED: one set of character cards, Bibles

Divide the group into pairs or trios and give each group one of the character cards. Encourage them to read the
Christmas story (from Matthew and/or Luke) and to think like the character on their card. They need to figure
out how to tell what they experienced the night Jesus was born from their perspective without telling the rest of
the group who they are. Bring the group all back together and have one team at a time tell their story and have
the rest of the groups guess who they are.

SAY: “When we read a familiar story in the Bible, sometimes it’s fun to look at it from a different point of view to
help us remember the truth behind it. In the Christmas story, we see a miracle taking place. Jesus, the Creator of
the World and God Himself was born as a baby. Jesus came to earth to live with His people and eventually to die
for His people. After years and years of people being separated from God because of sin, God has come to live
with His people. [Heart to Heart] What an amazing truth, [THE POINT] Jesus is Immanuel: God with us. And,
because Jesus came to be with His people and to die for His people, by believing in Him and following Him and
turning away from your sin, we can live with God (John 14:6). The amazing truth of the whole storyline of the
Bible is that because of our sin we are all separated from God, and can’t do anything on our own to get to Him,
BUT He came to us so that we could live with Him.”

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 2. Separated and Together (Scripture Search)
WHAT YOU NEED: Bibles

To help kids understand the magnitude of the truth that Jesus came to earth to live with people, walk them
through the history of God and man (having them, or you, read & discuss the following verses, or you can be
prepared to tell these stories in your own words).

A great way to do this activity to keep younger kids engaged is to draw a storyline while you tell the story to
remind them that this is the story of the Bible. There’s no reason to talk about Jesus coming to earth as a baby if
we don’t remember why we need a Savior and what Jesus came to do!

• Genesis 1:27- -God made man in His image

• Genesis 3:21-24- -God separated man from Himself by sending them out of the garden because of their sin
• Exodus 20- - God gives His people 10 rules to separate them from the rest of the people of the earth and to
set them apart as His people. With these rules, God expects His people to be perfect and Holy like He is but
knows we can’t do this on our own. The rules (and our inability to follow them), shows us our need for Jesus
(Romans 3:20).
• Exodus 40:17-38- -God has the people build the tabernacle for Him to “dwell” with His people and lead
them, but the people are separated from the most Holy Place by a curtain, showing that because of sin God
and His people are still separated.
• John 1:14- - Jesus comes to tabernacle with His people in human form

Discuss the difference between God and man… holy and sinful, infinite and finite, the creator and creatures, etc.
Have the kids try and come up with an analogy of what it’s like that God came to live with His people. Suggest
that maybe it would be like one of them becoming a worm. Talk about how different they are from a worm and
how weird it would be to be a worm and how horrible it would be for someone who can walk and talk and think
to become a worm crawling on the ground. Then, remind kids that even as horrible and weird as that would be,
it’s still nothing compared to God becoming a man because people and worms are both creatures, so it would
be one creature becoming another creature. What God did was so much greater because Jesus is the perfect,
infinite, Creator who became a helpless baby. The ruler of everything was wrapped in cloths and placed in a
manger.
Remind the kids of these statements from Sam Storms in “Pleasures Evermore”, which they heard last week, to
help them see the fullness of Jesus’ incarnation.
“The Word became flesh! ……God became human! …. the invisible became visible! …the untouchable became
touchable! 
eternal life experienced temporal death! …the transcendent one descended and drew near! …the
unlimited became limited! 
 the infinite became finite! …the immutable became mutable! ….the unbreakable
became fragile! …spirit became matter! 
 eternity entered time! …the independent became dependent! ….the
almighty became weak! ….the loved became the hated! 
 the exalted was humbled! …glory was subjected to
shame! …fame turned into obscurity! ….from inexpressible joy to tears of unimaginable grief! …from a throne to a
cross! ….from ruler to being ruled! ….from power to weakness!”

SAY: “When we think about our own sinfulness and the perfection of Jesus, we can’t help but be amazed at the
truth of Christmas. Wrap your head around this one truth…. [THE POINT] Jesus is Immanuel: God with us.”

16
 3. Tabernacle Praise (Prayer)
WHAT YOU NEED: Bibles

After discussing the truth of what it means that Jesus is God incarnate (God in the flesh) and Immanuel (God
with us) give kids a moment to reflect on this truth. Encourage kids to close their eyes and picture their attitudes
and thoughts and actions compared to the perfection of God and the perfection that God requires of His
people. Guide them to see their sinfulness (possibly by suggestions of sinful actions or attitudes that we’ve all
likely dealt with in the last few days). After a minute or so of silent reflection, lead the group in a prayer of
praise. Take time to praise Jesus for what He did in the incarnation (use some of the thoughts from the previous
activity). Either lead the whole praise time, or open it up for kids to praise Jesus for what He did… “I praise You
because you are the creator of the universe, yet you became a helpless baby.”

4. Wrap a Verse (Memory Verse)

WHAT YOU NEED: for every 4-5 kids - 1 roll of wrapping paper, tape, 1 set of memory verse cards, Bibles

Make sure you leave this activity for last as there is no way you’ll be able to regain the attention of the group
after this insanity!! You may even want to do the “Heart to Heart” discussion before the activity and just end
with them cleaning up the mess and you saying “Merry Christmas/ Merry God with Us Day” as they walk out the
door.



Do this activity as a competition between groups in the room. If you don’t have multiple groups, plan on dividing
into 2 groups.

[Heart to Heart] Remind the kids in your group what it means that Jesus is the best gift ever, using verses like
Romans 6:23, 1 John 4:10, John 3:16, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 2:8-9 and others that remind us that as sinners
what we deserve is death and eternal separation from God. But God in His great mercy has provided one way
(John 14:6) for us to be forgiven of our sin and brought back into relationship with Him if only we will turn away
from our sin (repent) and turn to Him in faith.

Have everyone in the group look up John 1:14 in their Bibles and read it together a couple of times. Give each
group a roll of wrapping paper, some tape, a set of mixed-up verse cards and 1 pair of scissors. Explain that as a
group their goal is to wrap one team member into a nice, neat Christmas present and then cover the gift with
the words of the verse that describes the best gift imaginable; Jesus came to earth as a man to take our
punishment. Explain that both speed and creativity count in this challenge. Let kids have fun wrapping each
other and getting the verse in order and then have the kid who was wrapped rip themselves out of the wrapping
paper and say the verse together as a group.

SAY: “The truth we’ve been talking about all morning is that [THE POINT] Jesus is Immanuel: God with us and
there aren’t many verses that help us see that truth more clearly than this one. This Christmas as you rip into
the presents that your parents have carefully purchased and wrapped for you, think back to this challenge and
the greatest gift ever- -Jesus- -God incarnate.”

17
 Discussion Questions:

1. Part of the truth of Jesus becoming a man is that God becoming man is even more amazing than a
person becoming a worm. Why is this true? How does this truth help you honor and worship Jesus more
for what He did by becoming a man?
2. Since Jesus became a man, He can understand the weaknesses and difficulties that we experience in life.
Why should this help you trust Jesus more and pray to Him in the tough times of your life?

Conclude the session with a review and prayer.

18
 Who is Jesus?
The Incarnation:
god and man together
 And the Word
became flesh and
dwelt among us, and
we have seen his
glory, glory as of the
only Son from the
Father, full of grace
and truth.
John 1:14

 younger & large group story cards

God
the

Word

incarnation

flesh

joy dwelt
 good all
news people

angel
shepherd

night
Jesus

Savior
And the became
Word flesh
and among
dwelt us,
and we His glory
have seen
glory the only
as of
son from
 the full of
Father,
grace and

truth. John

1:14
 older - character cards

Mary Joseph

sheep shepherd

angel Jesus
 THE INCARNATION:
GOD AND MAN TOGETHER

READ JOHN 1:1

“The greatest miracle ever done in all of history is the joining together of God and man. And this was not
DAY 1

done for show or to prove some point. It was done because this was the only way that our loving and holy
God would be able to save us from our sin.”
Does this verse remind you of another verse in the Bible? If so, what verse?

Who is the Word?__________________________

What does this teach us about Jesus?________________________________

READ JOHN 1:1

DAY 2

What new truths do you learn about Jesus by adding this verse to verse 1?

READ HEBREWS 1:1-3

DAY 3

These verses are full of truths about Jesus. See how many things you can list out here....
DAY 4

Since God became a man, He can understand the weaknesses and problems we have in life.
Why should this truth help you when you’re going through a tough time?

WRAP UP THE WEEK

DAY 5

As you think about celebrating Christmas, talk about how these truths in John 1 and Philippians 2 that you've
talked about the last few weeks add to the story of Jesus' birth that you've always been familiar with. Why
did Jesus come to earth?