Memory Verse: Galatians 2:20

How many can tell me what are the Six Steps to the Throne?

Answer: Crucified, Died, Buried, Quickened, Raised and Seated.

In the Old Testament, God gave us pictures of what we call Spiritual Truths. How many know King Solomon built a tabernacle like Moses did, only it was called a temple? In this temple was a throne and there were Six Steps to climb up to that throne. That is where we get Six Steps to the Throne from.

(I found the kids love it when you take the time to embellish the story. I described the throne completely being done in gold and how that represents God’s presence.)

The throne means the place where Jesus is seated. Now in Moses’ tabernacle, there was a table with bread on it, and it was called shewbread.

Does anyone know how many cakes of bread were on that table? There were twelve. But this is important, because this is another picture of the Six Steps to the Throne.

Does this remind you of when we take communion? We’ll discuss more about communion later, okay?

There are two stacks here. (To make an impact with the kids, I picked up the bread and placed them on the plates one at a time. On one plate I said this cake represents Jesus being crucified. Then I placed a cake on the other plate and asked the kid’s, "If this one over here represents Jesus being crucified, what does this cake here represent? They easily understood it was us being crucified, and I emphasized WITH CHRIST. I had them do this through each step/cake). On this stack, the bread on the bottom represents Jesus being Crucified, and in the other stack, the bread on the bottom represents us being crucified with Him. Then He died, and we died with Him. Jesus was buried, we were buried with Him. Jesus was quickened, and we were quickened with Him. He was raised from the dead, and we were raised with Him, and then Jesus was seated in heaven and we were seated there with Him. Everything that happened to Jesus, happened to us. And now we are going to find out how. Today we are going to learn about being Crucified with Christ.

Can someone tell me what being crucified means?

Answer: In the Bible it means to be executed by being nailed to a cross.

In this lesson, we are going to learn that when Jesus was crucified, we were crucified with Him. < Look up: Vines page 249. Crucified (sustauroo)>

Who can tell me why we needed to be crucified? The answer is because of Adam. Do you remember the story of Adam & Eve? What did Adam do?

He disobeyed God and that meant he sinned. (I asked the kids to tell me what happened in the Garden of Eden. When they were done describing, I continued) When Adam sinned, he made all men become sinners, because he was the first man and we all came through him. So this means when you and I were born, we were born with the sin nature, because of what Adam did. (The kids immediately began to shout that it wasn’t fair.) That wasn’t fair, was it? But because God wanted us to be His children and he loved us so much, He already made a provision so that we would not be permanently separated from Him. Does anyone know what that provision was? Answer: JESUS! But before we could be brought into right standing with God, something had to be done. Someone had to fulfill God’s Law, meaning somebody had to come along that never sinned. Only one Person could do that, huh? Jesus, God’s own Son never sinned. Jesus has God’s nature, doesn’t He? So God chose Jesus to be born and become like us, but because He was a part of God, He was able to grow up without sinning. God needed a last man Adam, who would undo everything the first Adam did. In the Bible, Jesus is called the last man Adam.

How many brought your Bible today? How many have a Bible? If you have your own Bible, remember to bring it every week because we will be reading from our Bible. Now those with a Bible turn to 1 Corinthians 15:45

Now how did Jesus undo everything Adam did? Answer: He went to the cross. Why did Jesus go to the cross? Because we were sinners and the Bible says that the penalty for sin is death. We were living in spiritual death, we were not born again with the Life of God in us. Have a child read Romans 5:12

Did you know that the Israelites did not know they were sinning until God gave Moses the Law? The Law was given to expose sin. God wanted us to know we were not right with Him.

Okay, now lets find out how Jesus reversed the sin Adam released into the world. Have a child read 2 Cor. 5:21

So what did God do? Answer: He made Jesus become sin for us.

Can you imagine how Jesus must have felt when God placed the sin of the world on Him? Who can tell me when Jesus became sin? Answer: in the Garden. Teacher read Amplified Bible version of Luke 22:44

Jesus was in such agony that he sweat blood. It was very painful for the Son of God to become like us and take on the nature of Adam. Did you know that when Jesus went to the cross, you were there in Him? Have a child read John 12:32

When Jesus was hanging on the cross and He had become us on the cross, He even forgot God was His Father. Read Mark 15:34

Jesus called His father God. He had so completely drawn you and me into Himself, He forgot He was the Son of God. When Jesus was crucified, you and I were crucified, because we were in Him spiritually. And when God looked at the cross, He did not see Jesus dying, He saw you and me dying. God saw the nature of Adam destroyed in us. We are no longer descendants of Adam. We are now in Christ, and everything that happened to Jesus, happened to us. Now God is showing us what He did in Christ Jesus, and how it effects us. Isn’t that wonderful?

Did you like the puppet skit? What did Oogene learn in the puppet skit?

What have you learned today?

Now we’re going to make a picture of you being crucified with Christ.

Have the children color a picture of Jesus on the cross. When they are finished have children cut out their face from a picture (be prepared by taking pictures of the children the week before or use a Polaroid camera) and glue their face over Jesus’ heart. Remind the children when Jesus was crucified, they were crucified. (I used coloring/drawing sheets that had a sticky strip on the back so the children could take them home and hang them on a wall, refrigerator or mirror. I put wax paper over the sticky strip so the kids could take them home. I also wrote the memory verse on the bottom of every paper and asked the kids to put the picture in a place where they would read their memory verse every day, to help them memorize it. They loved this craft project.)

Communion. Use the pita bread from illustration and have the children do communion with each other, having the children tell what it means to them and have a child pray. Have printed up in large print so all the children can read together 1 Corinthians 11:24-26. The children can snack on leftover pita bread and grape juice. (Our kids thought this was an awesome snack. Most importantly, the 4 year olds who came in for the last part of the class went out telling their parents what the bread and wine/ grape juice represented.)

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