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Amazing Bible heroes teach us how God can use each of us to be an everyday hero for Him!
Each Bible lesson in this series connects a Bible Hero to well-known Super Hero in an effort to engage kids and youth with what they know from the movies & comics to the truth we can find in God's Word.
Bible Heroes Lesson Summary: God's made the way for our rescue! His plan was already in place before sin ever entered the world. Jesus left heaven to make The Way for us to come back to God, to be born again and live forever with Him in Heaven.
Time/Audience: This lesson took about 40 minutes with a group of 12 third and fourth graders. It is easily adaptable to be used with both younger children and youth.
Bible Lesson Scriptures: John 3
Bible Hero Lesson Key Takeaway: Jesus is the ultimate hero and our only true rescuer!
Play “The Copycat game”. Students stand in a circle with a person in the middle trying to guess who begins the action being copied. Game point: Who are we following in our lives? As believers, we should be keeping our eyes on Jesus daily…He is our captain & commander!
Ask:
“If you could have one super power – what would it be?”
“Which “super hero” do you think is the best & why?”
THE REAL SUPER HERO IS JESUS…Our Captain & Commander!
Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America was the first of Marvel Comics’ group of heroes called “The Avengers”. He was known to stand for freedom and justice. He would stand up for anyone needing a hero. He was a weak young man that the army didn’t want until he became a part of a secret experiment called “Project: Rebirth” which made him a strong super soldier in World War II.
Of course we know Captain America was not a real man. There is a real Avenger or Redeemer like we talked about earlier this week. His name is Jesus. He is fully God and came to earth as fully man so that we could be rescued from death caused by sin. He is ready to save anyone willing to admit we need a hero…a Savior. Only Jesus can rescue us and give us eternal life. Yes, it is God’s “Project: Rebirth”. Jesus made a way for us to be born again as He says in the Gospel of John chapter 3!
I always like to let my students know it is okay to use the Table of Contents in their Bibles if they are not sure where a Book of the Bible is.
For this lesson we'll be using all four of the Gospels found at the beginning of the New Testament. The word "gospel" means good news. God used four different men to write accounts of the life of Jesus here on this earth.
In the Gospel of John, chapter 3, Jesus talks to Nicodemus about being born again. Turn there and read the chapter; you will recognize verse 16 right away, but did you know that Jesus was talking to Nicodemus when He said this?
In quoting John 3:16, have you ever thought about the phrase "should not perish"? We tend to just gloss over this part and focus on the "good" parts.
The definition of perish is to suffer death, and here Jesus is referring to more than just physical death.
What did Jesus mean when He said this? Let's go back to the very last verse in John 3 (verse36). It says -
"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them." NIV
It didn't say God's wrath (extreme anger) would come on them, but would remain on them...that's us...every single person whoever has lived or will live on this earth.
We can go back up to verse 18 also and Jesus says - "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's One and only Son."
Did you see that? It says "condemned already." You may have been thinking by not right-out rejecting Jesus you were safe. The truth is a choice must be made. God did not want us to "have" to love Him or be like puppets; He has always given a choice. Adam and Eve from the beginning had a choice to choose to trust and love God or not. In the same way, every single person including me and you are given the same choice.
Not making a choice is a choice though, and therefore, we remain in desperate need of a rescuer and not just a rescuer, but a Redeemer Who was willing to pay the price to pay for our sin and make us right with God again.
We can choose to trust and obey God by saying "Yes; I do accept Jesus!" or we get what we choose...a life and an eternity of "no God."
Spiritual death is a life without God which continues into an eternity separated from God and everything that is good, right, true, love, light, life, peace, joy, hope and so much more.
The Bible calls this place Hell; it's there we would perish forever. God did not create it for us; it was created for Satan and the fallen angels, but He gives us the ability to choose it. Hell is a place designed for punishment because of rebellion against God.
God is all-knowing. Adam and Eve choosing sin did not surprise Him. He already had a plan in place. Jesus had already made the choice to be our rescuer, our avenger.
In our focal verse, John 3:16 He says "For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son."
That was not an "uh-oh" decision. Jesus was in the beginning with God and was God. All things came into being by Him.
Let's flip back to the first chapter of John and read John 1:1-14.
This is what Jesus was telling Nicodemus; we must be born again, born spiritually again by God's Spirit. When Adam and Eve disobeyed, death came both spiritually and eventually physically.
We may be alive physically, but until we receive Jesus we remain dead spiritually.
God is for us; He made the way for us to have spiritual and eternal life again! Jesus left heaven and came to where we are so that He could be The Way for us to go to heaven and be with Him forever. Just like John 3:16 says, we can have eternal life...forever with God and everything good and perfect because of what Jesus did.
The Bible calls this rescue - salvation. It is a gift; we don't have to pay for it. (Ephesians 2:8-10) We do have to receive it to make it ours though.
God gave His Son, Jesus, but that does not mean this rescue was free. Jesus gave His life.
We ask Jesus not only to be our Avenger, our Rescuer, our Redeemer, but also our Captain, our Lord. We surrender our lives to His control, His leadership. Our life changes!
Let's read John 3:21:
"But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God."
When we come to have Jesus as our Captain, every day we ask Him through His Holy Spirit Who now lives within us to guide us and give us strength to do God's will. Every day we are to become more and more like Jesus. We won't become perfect until we see Him face to face, but our life should now reflect Jesus to others. We have been born to a new life!
Jesus is the ultimate hero and He is REAL! He came to earth born as a man, lived a perfect life and never sinned, died on the cross paying for our sin, and was raised to life so that He can give His eternal life to us!
When we turn to Him admitting we need Him to rescue us because we are sinners (we have rebelled against God), He saves us and becomes our Lord…our Captain. We follow Him and let Him lead us into victory and into life!
God is for you! Jesus is our ONLY hero and desires to lead us each and every day as our Captain. We can trust Him with our life now and our life forever!
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 3:16 NIV
If you already have accepted Jesus as your Savior and Lord (Captain), thank Him for saving you! Pledge your allegiance to Him; tell Him you want to live for Him and serve Him everyday from now on!
If you have not asked Jesus to rescue you and be your Savior (Redeemer/Avenger), you can ask Him right now! Let a leader know if you need help. But if you don’t feel that “tug” on your heart yet, ask God to lead you to Him. Keep seeking after Him. God promises that if we seek Him with our whole heart, we will find Him. He knows you and wants you to know Him!
We may consider ourselves "experts" on superheroes like The Avengers, but what can we recall about Jesus?
See how quickly they can think of 5 things in the following groups. This can be competitive as two teams or just as one group.
Printable Lesson - Bible Hero - Jesus Our Ultimate Hero
© Copyright 2021, Susan Smart Permission granted for personal use or small group only.
Access the rest of our Super Bible Heroes lesson series with other super heroes connected to true Bible heroes and truths from God's Word to help kids learn how they can stand firm and be a hero for God!
Special note: We do preview the websites to which we link, but are unable to peruse them completely. We try to check others' faith statements and make sure they do profess Jesus Christ as God's Son and salvation is found only in Him. It must, however, be your responsibility to personally dig into God's Word and allow the Holy Spirit to be your first and final teacher on all subjects. "Our website may contain affiliate marketing links, which means we may get paid commission on sales of those products or services we write about. Our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers or affiliate partnerships. This disclosure is provided in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR § 255.5: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” |
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