* LESSON
* ACTIVITY
* HANDOUT #1
* HANDOUT #2
* TEMPTATION OF JESUS PLAY
Bible Memory Verse:
"Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only." Luke 4:8 (Matthew 4:10)
Jesus is God. He was never created; He always was. He chose to give up all the beauty of heaven to become a man. He loved us so much that He chose to come down to earth and die for our sins so that we could go to heaven. He became a man-He could only be one place at one time; He became tired and had to sleep; He became hungry and had to eat; He felt pain and suffered. He had a body just like we do.
But there was something very different about Jesus. He had the nature of God. He never sinned. He was tempted by the devil just like we are. WHO IS THE DEVIL? WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE TEMPTED?
After John the Baptist baptized Him, Jesus left the crowd of people at the Jordan River where He had been baptized. The Holy Spirit led Him into the desert. No one was with Him. It was a lonely place. Jesus stayed there for 40 days and 40 nights–almost 6 weeks. All that time He didn’t have anything to eat. He was very hungry.
Satan, the devil, knew how weak and hungry Jesus was. He thought this would be a good time to tempt Jesus. He decided to tempt Jesus to do something wrong. Satan knew that Jesus was sent to earth to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Jesus could be the perfect sacrifice only if He never sinned. Satan wanted to make Jesus sin. "If I can only get Jesus to do one wrong thing," Satan may have thought, "then He will be a sinner too. Then He cannot save anyone. " So Satan said to Jesus, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Matthew 4:3
But Jesus quoted the Old Testament of the Bible. Jesus said, "It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’" Deuteronomy 8:3 Jesus resisted the devil by quoting the Word of God and obeying God the Father. He could have made stones into bread, but He didn’t.
Satan’s first temptation didn’t work, so He tried another. He even thought of a Bible verse. “For he will commands his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in your hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Psalm 51:11-12 The devil took Jesus to the highest point of the temple. He said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. Matthew 4:6
But Jesus said, "It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Deuteronomy. 6:16 Jesus wasn’t going to make God prove that He would protect Him. Jesus did only what God told Him to do.
Satan tried to get Jesus to sin a third time. The devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor and riches. "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me it will be yours." Luke 4:6-7 The devil does rule over the kingdoms of this world but he only has as much control as men will give him. God had planned for man to rule, but when Adam sinned, the devil gained control. He could give the kingdoms of the world to Jesus. The devil was saying to Jesus that if Jesus worshiped Him, He would rule over all the kingdoms of the world without having to suffer and die to pay for people’s sins.
Jesus loved the people He had made and wanted them to be with Him in a perfect world that was not corrupted by the devil. Jesus knew He would someday rule over all the nations of the world. He said, "Get away from Me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.” Deuteronomy 6:13
Finally Satan quit. He couldn’t get Jesus to do anything wrong so he went away. Angels then came and cared for Jesus.
Satan tempts us to do wrong, just as he tempted Jesus. WHAT ARE SOME WAYS SATAN TEMPTS US TO DO WRONG? WHAT SHOULD WE DO WHEN WE ARE TEMPTED?
Jesus understands how we feel when we are tempted because He was tempted. “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” Hebrews 2:18 He can give us strength to do right if we ask Him to help us when we are tempted to do wrong.
If we decide to belong to Jesus we can tell the devil to get away from us, just like Jesus did. He has given that right to Christians.
Each time Jesus was tempted, He used the Bible to fight Satan. God’s Word is a powerful weapon against evil. The more we know of the Bible, the more Jesus can use it to help us to keep from doing wrong. When we pray and ask God for help, He can help us remember Bible verses we have memorized. He can also give us courage to be strong and do what we know is right.
Even though Jesus was tempted, He did not sin. Because He was perfect, He could die in our place. He took the penalty for our sins. If we ask Him to forgive us, we do not have to go to an everlasting punishment.
QUESTIONS:
1. Where did Jesus go after He was baptized?
2. Who tempted Jesus to sin?
3. How did Jesus resist Satan’s temptations?
4. What can we do when we are tempted to do something wrong?
Tell each child a situation and he (or the class) is to tell you if God or the devil is speaking to him.
TEMPTATION OF JESUS
Bible Memory Verse:
"Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only." Luke 4:8 (Matthew 4:10)
Words to choose from: 40, TEMPT, FAST, NEVER, BIBLE, WORD, WORSHIP, DESERT, DEVIL, BAPTIST
1. Jesus was baptized by John the __ __ __ __ __ __ __.
2. Jesus went in to the __ __ __ __ __ __ after He was baptized.
3. __ __ __ __ means to go without food.
4. Jesus fasted for __ __ days and nights.
5. To __ __ __ __ __is to try to get someone to sin.
6. The __ __ __ __ __ tempted Jesus.
7. Jesus answered the devil by quoting God’s __ __ __ __, the Bible.
8. Jesus __ __ __ __ __ sinned.
9. When the devil tries to get us to sin we can quote the __ __ __ __ __.
10. To__ __ __ __ __ __ __ God means to give Him great respect and honor.
TEMPTATION OF JESUS
Bible Memory Verse:
“Worship the Lord your God and serve him only…” Matthew 4:10
CROSSWORD PUZZLE
Down
1. Who tried to get Jesus to sin?
Across
1. What did Satan try to get Jesus to do?
2. What is the word that means “try to get someone to sin?”
1
1 __ __ __
__
2 __ __ __ __ __ __ __
__
__
Choose from these words: TEMPLE, BIBLE, WORSHIP, CHRISTIANS, BAPTIST, FORGIVEN, MEMORIZE, BREAD, DESERT, TEST, PAID, DEVIL. SUFFERING
1. John the __ __ __ __ __ __ __ baptized Jesus.
2. Jesus went into the __ __ __ __ __ __ where He was tempted by Satan.
3. Another name for Satan is the __ __ __ __ __.
4. Because of Satan there is so much __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ in the world.
5. The devil tried to get Jesus to turn stones into __ __ __ __ __?
6. Satan tempted Jesus to throw Himself down from the __ __ __ __ __ __.
7. Jesus said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the __ __ __ __.
8. Satan wanted Jesus to __ __ __ __ __ __ __ him.
9. If Jesus had sinned He could not have __ __ __ __ the penalty for our sins and our sins could not have been
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __.
10. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ have the right to tell Satan to leave them alone.
11. One way to defeat Satan is to quote the __ __ __ __ __.
12. One reason we should __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ the Bible to help us defeat Satan.
Bible Memory Verse:
"Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only." Luke 4:8 (Matthew 4:10)
CHARACTERS: Jolly the Giraffe, Polly the Polar Bear, Leo the Lion
(JOLLY & POLLY enter)
JOLLY: Hi, Kids! Isn’t it wonderful that Jesus didn’t give in when He was tempted by the devil. Jesus never sinned so He could be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. His death has so much value that anyone who asks can have their sins forgiven.
POLLY: I sure wish I could say that—that I never give in when the devil tempts me. Sometimes I’m bad.
JOLLY: No one is perfect except Jesus. But what Jesus did when He was tempted is something we can all do.
POLLY: You mean quote the Bible?
JOLLY: Yes. That is really quoting what God says. For instance, when Jesus says, "Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only." Luke 4:8, Matthew 4:10 He is summing up what God tells us to do in the Bible.
POLLY: Then if we want to know God, we should study the Bible. That would help us not to sin because we know what God expects.
JOLLY: And what the consequences are when we sin.
POLLY: Oh—I forgot–Hi, Kids! I’m sorry I forgot to say Hi before. Have you seen Leo, kids? (wait for response) Have you seen Leo, Jolly?
JOLLY: No, I haven’t, but he should be here soon. That’s right, he was going to tell us how God spoke to him, wasn’t he?
POLLY: Leo! Leo!
LEO: (from offstage) What, Polly. (enter) Hi, everyone!
POLLY: You were going to tell us how God spoke to you.
LEO: Oh, yeah. What I was going to tell you happened a couple weeks ago. I had lots of things to do, so I thought I would never get done. Then Saturday afternoon, I found I had finished what I planned to do. I thought about Kid’s Club and how we had talked about God talking to us. So I asked God what He wanted me to do now. I looked out the window, and I saw a little boy and girl. The little girl was crying. So I went outside and asked if I could help. The little girl had gotten hurt when she fell off her sled. The little boy was too young to go home and get help, so they were really happy to have me come and help them. They came into my house, and I called their parents. I gave them some hot apple cider and talked to them about Jesus until their parents came. I felt like that is what God wanted to do. I felt like He had planned for that to happen.
POLLY: That is an exciting story!
JOLLY: Do you know the little boy and girl?
LEO: No, but now I do. They have become my friends. I hope someday they will come to Kid’s Club.
POLLY: That would be nice!
JOLLY: That reminds me. Kids, be sure and ask your friends to come to Kid’s Club. Then they can learn about Jesus. Or, if they already know Him, they can learn more about Him.
POLLY & LEO: That’s a good idea.
JOLLY: Bye, everybody! See you next week.
POLLY & LEO: Bye, kids!
(Puppets exit)