NT-05

"Magi Visit Jesus”

Matthew 2:1-12

Big Idea

Jesus is King of the Universe.

 

Materials Needed:

Backpack,   Small clear bottle filled with vegetable oil   Gold (real or fake) chain or necklace,   Small bottle of perfume,   Foldable travel map,   Three small boxes,   Wrapping paper,   table,   small plastic/paper star,   crown,   toy camel/horse,   Resource: Herod picture,   Small pillow


Setup:

1. Place the bottle of oil, the gold chain, and the bottle of perfume each in their own box. Wrap each box in wrapping paper. With a marker, label the box with the gold chain "#1", the box with the oil "#2" and the box with the perfume "#3".
2. Place the three boxes, the map, crown, camel/horse, picture of Herod, small pillow and the star inside the backpack. Set the table up in the middle of the teaching area.


Lesson

1. Explain the following:

    Today, we're going to be talking a little bit about the universe. As you already know, the universe is the sun, moon, all the stars, and everything else there is. And, you learned that there are tons of stars, 10 Sextillion to be exact. Who even knew that sextillion was a real word? The universe is a huge place!

    Our story from the Bible today is about finding a king. But not just a king of a country. Not even just a king of the world. He was, and still is, king of the entire universe! But before we can talk about just who exactly that king is, we have to meet the people looking for him.


2. Explain the following:

    Our story is from the book of Matthew, in second half of the Bible, which is called the New Testament. (Open up your Bible to the second chapter of Matthew as you explain the following.) The New Testament is all about how Jesus, God's Son, came to earth to live as one of us, to teach us how to follow him, and to die to save us from our sins. Our story starts right around the time Jesus was born, but it happens a long ways away from where the place where Jesus was born. And since we're a long ways from where we need to be, we're going to have to go on a trip. Good thing I've already packed up my stuff. (Put on the backpack).

    A lot of times, when you look in someone's backpack, you can tell what kind of trip they're going on. If it's filled with ropes and mountain boots, you can probably guess they are going mountain climbing. Or if it's filled with flip flops and swim shorts, you'd figure they're going to the beach. So, let's check out what's in my bag.


3. Select a volunteer to come up front. By whispering in his/her ear, inform your volunteer to unzip the backpack on your back and take out the star. Have him/her hand it to you and then return to his/her seat. Hold up the star and explain the following:

    Who in the world packs a star when they're going on a trip? Well, this star tells about the people who are going on our trip. The Bible calls them "magi from the east" (Write "Magi" on the chalk/wipe board.)  So, who in the world were the "magi from the east"?

    The magi lived in a land far to the east of Israel, where Jesus was born. We don't know exactly what country they were from, but they lived in a land where most, if not all, of the people didn't follow the God we learn about in the Bible. But one thing they did follow was the stars in the sky. They'd keep track of all the stars they saw in the sky. They'd draw charts of different constellations and make maps of the stars. And, night after night, they'd pay attention to how the stars would move in the sky. They were pretty smart people, but they didn't know the God of the Bible.

    The magi believed that, by looking at the stars and seeing how they moved, you could learn things about people and what was going on in the world. When they saw things like certain stars move closer to other stars, they believed they could discover something big that was about to happen. They had all kinds of rules and beliefs about what these different things meant. Well, the Bible says that one day, they saw a particularly special star in the sky. And when they looked at their charts and maps and consulted their rules and beliefs, they thought it could only mean one thing. (Set the star down on the table.)


4. Select a volunteer to come up front. By whispering in his/her ear, inform your volunteer to unzip the backpack on your back and take out the crown. Have him/her hand it to you and then return to his/her seat. Hold up the crown and explain the following:

    The magi thought that the stars were telling them that a king had been born in the country of Israel. Now, who do we know that was born in the country of Israel? (Allow the children to respond until someone says "Jesus.") Jesus was born in Israel, in the city of Bethlehem, and the special star they noticed shone to the magi right when Jesus was born. This was a pretty big deal to the magi. We know this because they decided to pack up their stuff and make the long journey to see the newly-born king. (Set the crown down on the table.)


5. Select a volunteer to come up front. By whispering in his/her ear, inform your volunteer to unzip the backpack on your back and take out the camel/horse. Have him/her hand it to you and then return to his/her seat. Hold up the camel/horse and explain the following:

    The magi had a long way to travel in order to get to Israel. And since they didn't have airplanes, cars, or trains back then, they either had to walk, or take a ride on a camel or horse. The Bible doesn't tell us exactly what they rode on, or if they walked, but magi were pretty important people, so most people assume they rode on camels. Regardless, the trip took them quite a while. When they finally arrived in Israel, the little baby that they thought was born to be king of Israel was now a bigger baby, maybe even a toddler!
    The magi believed that the stars had told them that a king had been born in Israel, but they didn't know exactly where, so they went to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, to ask where exactly they could find him. (Set the camel down on the table.)

5. Select a volunteer to come up front. By whispering in his/her ear, inform your volunteer to unzip the backpack on your back and take out the picture. Have him/her hand it to you and then return to his/her seat. Hold up the picture and explain the following:
    The magi went to the man in charge of Israel, King Herod. This picture is what people think he looked like. The Bible says they asked Herod, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
    Now, King Herod didn't like hearing that a baby had been born king of the Jews. The Jews were the people who lived in Israel, and he was already their king. They didn't need another king, let alone a little baby! He asked the leaders of Israel, people whose job it was to study and teach the Bible, where the Bible said the king of the Jews was supposed to be born. They answered him, "Bethlehem." Now, do you know of anyone who was born in Bethlehem, in the country of Israel? (Allow the children to respond until someone says "Jesus.")
    Herod told the magi to go to Bethlehem to see this "king of the Jews."  He told the magi to come back and report to him after they found the child. Still, Herod really didn't like the idea of another king in Israel, and he began making secret plans to get rid of the child. (Set the picture of Herod down on the table.)
    After they met with Herod, the magi began the trip from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. As they started, the same star they before appeared in the sky. The Bible says that "the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was." The magi were super-excited when they saw the star again. Surely, they thought, this little kid was a really big deal!
    When they came to the house directly below the star, they stopped, and who do you think they found there? (Allow the children to answer until some responds with "Jesus.") They found Jesus there, along with his mother, Mary. When they saw him, the magi bowed down to the ground and worshiped him. Imagine, these were grown men and very important people, and they were bowing down and worshiping a little child!   

6. Select a volunteer to come up front. By whispering in his/her ear, inform your volunteer to unzip the backpack on your back and take out present #2. Have him/her open up the present and hand the gold chain to you and then return to his/her seat. Hold up the chain and explain the following:
    After they worshiped Jesus, the magi gave gifts to the child. Now, these weren't ordinary gifts that you'd give a child. You know, things like toys. These were really expensive and special gifts that you'd normally give a king. And that's exactly what the magi thought Jesus was. So, let's check out the first thing the magi gave Jesus. (Select a child to come up front and unwrap the present.) This chain represents the first gift the magi gave Jesus: gold. Now, they probably didn't give Jesus a little gold chain like this. They might have given him gold coins, or simply pieces of gold. But it was worth a lot of money, much more money than Mary, Joseph, and Jesus had. (Set the gold chain down on the table.)

7. Select a volunteer to come up front. By whispering in his/her ear, inform your volunteer to unzip the backpack on your back and take out present #2. Have him/her open up the present and hand the oil to you and then return to his/her seat. Hold up the oil and explain the following:
    The second gift the magi gave Jesus was myrrh. This isn't something that you see very often, but like the gold, it's a really expensive gift. It's a nice smelling oil. It could be burned to create a nice smell in special ceremonies. It also was used on body of a person who had just died, to keep their body smelling nice until they were buried.
    This is another gift a little kid wouldn't use, but Mary and Joseph could have sold it for a lot of money. It also helps us think about the fact that child Jesus would grow up into a man who would die to save us from our sins. (Set the bottle of oil down on the table.)

8. Select a volunteer to come up front. By whispering in his/her ear, inform your volunteer to unzip the backpack on your back and take out present #2. Have him/her open up the present and hand the perfume to you and then return to his/her seat. Hold up the perfume and explain the following:
    The third gift the magi gave Jesus was frankincense. It was a very pleasant smelling perfume. It was often used by the priests, people who worshiped God. They would light the frankincense, causing it to release it's smell as it burned away.
    Just like the other gifts, frankincense wasn't something for Jesus to play with. It was a very expensive gift for a king, and something Mary and Joseph could have sold for a lot of money. (Set the perfume on the table.)

9. Select a volunteer to come up front. By whispering in his/her ear, inform your volunteer to unzip the backpack on your back and take out the small pillow. Have him/her hand it to you and then return to his/her seat. Hold up the pillow and explain the following:
    After they had worshiped Jesus and given him these gifts, the magi left. The Bible then said that one night hey had a special dream as they slept. In this dream, they were warned not to go back to Herod because he wanted to harm Jesus. So, the magi listened and headed back to their own country by a different path than they had taken before.

10. Take off the backpack and explain the following as you put the items back in it:
    The magi believed that stars told them things about people and the world. In this story, they believed that the stars told them that a king of Israel had been born. And that was kind of right. Jesus is the king of Israel.
    But Jesus isn't the king of just Israel. He's the king of the United States, and the king of England, Canada, France, and Italy. He's the king of the entire world. Jesus is God, even though he was a person with a body just like you and me. And God created the entire world, and he's the one who's in charge of it.
    But God didn't just create the world. He created the sun, moon, and those very same stars that the magi looked at every night. Jesus isn't just king of this world. He's the king of everything. He's the king of the universe. The magi did the right thing by bowing down and worshiping him. It's what we should do, too. Jesus is king of the universe: of the sun, moon, stars, of this earth, and of you and me.