What does the term fellowship mean? What about Immanuel? Here is a simple Christmas Salvation Object lesson that will help kids understand both of those terms.
Materials: plastic model animals, dollhouse people (I used a lion, zebra, giraffe, and bear.)
Focus Scripture: Romans 8:10-11, John 3:3
Christmas Salvation Object Lesson:
Do you know what fellowship is? (Allow for answers.) Think about animals for a minute. {Hold up the lion, zebra, and then giraffe.} Lions hang around with lions. Giraffes hang around with other giraffes. Zebras gather in herds with other zebras. {Hold up the bear.} What about bears? They don’t really travel together in groups. But bears are more friendly to other bears than to other animals. Mama bears take care of baby bears, but not baby squirrels.
What about God? God is Spirit. Who does He hang out with? (Allow for answers. The kids will probably say people, but you want them to answer another “spirit”.)
Christmas Salvation Lesson:
- When God created the world it was God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden. What made them different than all of the animals? (Genesis 2:7 tells us that God breathed into man and it became a living being.) When God created people, he breathed his spirit into Adam and Eve to give them life.
- {Hold up the dollhouse people.} Satan spoke to Eve and told her that she would not really die if she ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. What was the choice that Adam and Eve made? (They ate fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.) Did their bodies die? (No.) No, but the spirit that had been breathed into them did die. {Have the dollhouse people lie down.} God can only hang out with Spirit, remember? So he had to tell Adam and Eve to leave the garden.
- As soon as sin entered the world, God started a plan to get his people back to him. The wages of sin is death, but God wanted fellowship with his people. He wanted to hang out with them.
- The Old Testament tells us over and over again different things God did to get his people back. He created the law, created the tabernacle, and created the temple and sacrifices. But people could not do what needed to be done to make their spirits alive again. The people could not be righteous enough.
- A prophet named Isaiah said a very strange thing in Isaiah 7:14. He told the people that a virgin would have a baby and that the name of that baby would be “Immanuel”. The Israelites knew what “Immanuel” meant. It meant “God with us.” This was strange because, in those days, the place to be with God was at the temple, or the synagogue.
- In Bethlehem, God allowed his son to be born as a baby. His name, Jesus, means “God saves”. But that isn’t the name Immanuel, is it? The angel Gabriel told Mary to name the baby Jesus because God was bringing salvation which would allow for Him to dwell, and “hang-out”, with his people once more. “God with us!”
Application of Christmas Salvation Object Lesson:
{Hold up the dollhouse people.} Each person has this sin problem. Every person has a dead spirit within them. We are born spiritually dead. We cannot do anything to get our spirits alive again. God has to fix that problem.
A man named Nicodemus went to Jesus. Jesus told him that unless you become born again you cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus, now confused, asked, “How can I re-enter my mother and be born again?” Jesus told him that you had to be born of water and of the spirit. Ahha!! There is that dead spirit that is inside of us. It must be reborn!!
What about the verse that says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved?” (Acts 16:31) Believing and being born again are two different things. Even Satan believes in Jesus, but he is not born again. For example: I believe that Tim Tebow is a real person, but I don’t know him. I’ve never met him. Believing is only a part of being born again.
The term for believe means to entrust. It comes from another Hebrew word that means to be persuaded. When someone believes in the Lord Jesus, then that person is persuaded to entrust Jesus with his entire being. And when that belief is that strong, Jesus then dwells inside and the spirit is born again. It is given NEW LIFE!
If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:10-11
And then you know God. You have met him. And the Creator of the entire universe dwells inside of your body. This equals fellowship! God with us!
Conclusion of the Christmas Salvation Lesson:
Do you believe in Jesus like I believe in Tim Tebow? Perhaps you know Jesus exists, but you don’t dwell with him. When you believe with your whole being that Jesus dwells in you, then you act differently. You walk and talk with Jesus. Introduce Jesus to your friends. You gather with other people who know Jesus and dwell with him. Read about Jesus so you can know more about him
Are you doing those things? Or are you still spiritually dead?
Christmas is a great time to learn more about Jesus and to really think about what he did when he was born in Bethlehem.
Jesus is a great God. I urge you to dwell with him today!
