Easter & Family Discipleship
Parenting
This week, we encourage families to walk with their kids through the days of Holy Week. Beginning Monday, our CGKids team will be doing Instagram Live sessions that coincide with the day's Family Discipleship reading. Join in at 7pm Monday – Saturday by following Center Grove Kids on Instagram @cg_kids.
Mark 11:15-19
Discipleship Tip: A fun way to engage children with scripture is to act it out together!
Jesus had just entered Jerusalem the day before on Palm Sunday. In Mark 11:11 we see that after coming into Jerusalem, Jesus went into the temple and “looked around at everything”. Do you know why Jesus cared about what was happening in the temple? For the people in Jerusalem, the temple was a lot like church is for us now. It was a place where God’s people went to worship God, pray and learn from church teachers. Remember – Jesus is God! He was looking around the temple (His temple) to be sure it was being the type of place it was supposed to be. But sadly, it was not.
When Jesus returned to the temple on Monday, we see that the temple was not being treated as a place to only worship God. The people had made it into something else as they were buying and selling things (and not in a very kind way either). Just imagine the shouts of sellers and noises and smells from the animals!
Jesus was mad about what the temple had become. So mad, that He flipped over tables, tossing coins onto the ground and told the people to leave. He was cleansing His temple – that means He was cleaning up – getting rid of the things that shouldn’t be there, the things that were in the way of people worshipping God.
You know, we are meant to worship God with our whole heart. In fact, our lives are like the temple – a place where God lives and is worshipped. And Jesus wants our hearts and lives to be cleansed too.
What sorts of things do we do when we go to church?
Can you imagine if we walked into church and there were a bunch of unkind, loud people selling things all over the place?
Would that distract you from getting to your class and listening to the lesson?
Is there anything going on in your heart that Jesus wants to clean up? Maybe you’re upset with a friend or sibling or having trouble obeying your parents.
A great strategy to keep our hearts focused while we pray is to use the acronym PART. This stands for Praise, Admit, Request and Thank. Use the sentence starters below to help guide your kids in their prayer time this week.
Praise | “Wow, God, you are...”
Admit | “I’m sorry for...”
Request | “Please help...”
Thank | “Thank you for...”
Mark 12:28-34
Discipleship Tip: A fun way to engage children with scripture is to act it out together!
Yesterday, we read about Jesus cleansing the temple. He sent away the people who were not there to worship God, but instead were buying and selling things for their own good.
Jesus really wants people to know just how much God loves them. But – while God loves us so much, he also hates sin. That meant that sometimes Jesus had to point out the sin that He saw. Not everyone Jesus spoke with wanted to hear that or accept God’s love. In fact, there were some who even grew to hate him.
The Bible talks about the “Chief Priests”, “Scribes” and “Sadducees”. These were groups of people who knew a lot about the Bible and were supposed to be teaching and leading people to worship God. The problem was…they had gotten God’s Word mixed up. They became so concerned with following all of God’s rules (and even made their own rules!) that they did not even believe that Jesus was the Messiah! They were hypocrites. A hypocrite is someone who says one thing, but does the opposite, and that is not a good thing.
On Tuesday, Jesus was teaching in the temple and these religious leaders began questioning him. They were trying to trick him, to show the people that He was not who He claimed to be. But He was! He was Jesus! The Messiah! The Son of God! Even when Jesus was teaching about the commandments to love (today’s scripture reading) the Chief Priests were angry. After the events of Tuesday, these religious leaders began making a plan to arrest Jesus.
What are the two greatest commandments from our passage in Mark?
Does it sound like the Chief Priests were following those commands?
How do you think Jesus felt when people heard him talk about God but they didn’t believe?
A great strategy to keep our hearts focused while we pray is to use the acronym PART. This stands for Praise, Admit, Request and Thank. Use the sentence starters below to help guide your kids in their prayer time this week.
Praise | “Wow, God, you are...”
Admit | “I’m sorry for...”
Request | “Please help...”
Thank | “Thank you for...”
Luke 22:7-13
Jesus Storybook Bible: “God to the Rescue”
Discipleship Tip: A fun way to engage children with scripture is to act it out together!
Jesus began his ministry – which means teaching the people about God – when He was bout 30 years old and did that for three years. During that time, He shared three Passover feasts with his disciples – and the last one was the week of Easter.
Let’s talk about the Passover, that’s a tricky word. Do you remember that story from the Old Testament where Moses led God’s people (the Israelites) out of Egypt? There was a ruler, called a pharaoh, who enslaved God’s people. Basically, he made them work really, really hard, was very unkind to them, and they couldn’t leave. But God used a man named Moses to rescue His people. God brought 10 plagues on the land – things like frogs and gnats and sickness and darkness – to convince pharaoh to let the people go. The last plague was so bad, so painful, that pharaoh finally agreed to free God’s people.
The tenth plague sadly caused a lot of people to die. But not God’s people. He gave them instructions to place the blood of a lamb over their doors to protect them. God “passed-over” those houses.
After than, God’s people remembered what He did to rescue them from pharaoh by celebrating Passover each year. The Wednesday before Easter, Jesus asked some of his disciples to get things ready for their final Passover feast together. The disciples didn’t yet know it, but this Passover would be different than all the rest. God was getting ready for an even greater rescue than the Israelites experienced. He was about to rescue the world from sin and death forever.
Why do you think God told his people to put the blood of a lamb over their doors?
What was God getting to rescue people from at Easter?
What kinds of things does your family do to remember what God has done?
A great strategy to keep our hearts focused while we pray is to use the acronym PART. This stands for Praise, Admit, Request and Thank. Use the sentence starters below to help guide your kids in their prayer time this week.
Praise | “Wow, God, you are...”
Admit | “I’m sorry for...”
Request | “Please help...”
Thank | “Thank you for...”
John 13:1-5, Luke 22:14-23
Jesus Storybook Bible: “The Servant King”
Discipleship Tip: A fun way to engage children with scripture is to act it out together!
Yesterday, we jumped back to the Old Testament to look at the very first Passover to help us understand why God’s people remembered it each year. Today is the day that Jesus shared in that same Passover meal with his disciples – but for the very last time.
After the meal, Jesus did something really surprising. And it had to do with feet! Now, I think we can all agree that feet are a little bit gross, and stinky. And in Jesus’ time, feet were especially dirty and stinky because they didn’t have great shoes to wear around.
So – Jesus – the Son of God, the King of kings, got down and washed his friends feet. They were shocked! That’s something that a servant does! And that’s exactly why Jesus did it. He wanted to show his disciples how to love others. We love others best when we serve them, when we decide that what they need is most important.
Serving others isn’t always easy. In fact, it’s usually really hard. But with Jesus’ help, we can love and serve others just like he told his disciples to.
What do you think it felt like to be a disciple, getting your feet washed by Jesus?
Share about a time when you have served a friend or family member.
How can you serve a family member or friend this week?
A great strategy to keep our hearts focused while we pray is to use the acronym PART. This stands for Praise, Admit, Request and Thank. Use the sentence starters below to help guide your kids in their prayer time this week.
Praise | “Wow, God, you are...”
Admit | “I’m sorry for...”
Request | “Please help...”
Thank | “Thank you for...”
Matthew 27:27-66
Jesus Storybook Bible: “The Sun Stops Shining”
Discipleship Tip: A fun way to engage children with scripture is to act it out together!
Today is a day that brings a lot of different emotions. Jesus carried a cross on his back and then the Roman soldiers nailed him to it. Jesus felt a lot of pain that last day of his life. He was beaten and bloody before he even got to the cross. And oh, those nails! It makes me cringe thinking of how bad that must have hurt.
Remember, Jesus is God. He can do anything! He could have easily stopped the soldiers from beating him. He could have easily gotten off the cross. He could have stopped all the pain. But if He did that, he would not have been able to rescue us like God wanted him to.
When Jesus died on the cross, crazy things started happening The giant, thick curtain of the temple was torn in half, the earth became complete dark (even though it was the middle of the day), the earth shook like an earthquake and rocks were split. Now, that does not normally happen when someone dies! But Jesus was not a normal guy, was he? Even one of the Roman soldiers said “Truly this was the Son of God!”
What Jesus did on the cross is kind of hard to understand. It might help if we go back to one of the first stories in the Bible. Do you remember Adam and Eve? God’s first children, they made the decision to disobey him and broke their perfect relationship with him. But God always had a plan to rescue his people.
The Jesus Storybook Bible says “It will not always be so! I will come to rescue you! And when I do, I’m going to do battle against the snake. I’ll get rid of the sin and the dark and the sadness you let in here. I’m coming back for you!”
That’s what Jesus did on the cross. He was God’s Great Rescuer!
How do you feel when you read about the pain that Jesus had to experience?
What happened to the earth in the moment that Jesus died on the cross?
What questions do you have about this story?
A great strategy to keep our hearts focused while we pray is to use the acronym PART. This stands for Praise, Admit, Request and Thank. Use the sentence starters below to help guide your kids in their prayer time this week.
Praise | “Wow, God, you are...”
Admit | “I’m sorry for...”
Request | “Please help...”
Thank | “Thank you for...”
Psalm 23
Jesus Storybook Bible: “The Good Shepherd”
Discipleship Tip: A fun way to engage children with scripture is to act it out together!
Good Friday is a hard day to understand. And it was difficult for people then too.
Imagine being a close friend of Jesus. Walking and talking with him everyday for 3 whole years, watching him heal people and do miracles that no one else could do. Believing that he really was the Messiah, the rescuer, the Son of God. Then he just…dies. I image they felt very sad, very confused and very unsure. Their world was shaken.
I imagine they asked questions like this:
What happened?
Was Jesus really the Messiah?
What do we do now? Are we next?
Where is everyone? Are they safe?
Is it really over? Is He really gone?
Now think about those Chief Priests, the ones who were involved in arresting and killing him. Just yesterday they nailed him to the cross. But they also witnessed those crazy things when He died – the darkness over the earth, the earthquake, the curtain of the temple tearing and the rocks splitting.
I imagine they asked questions like this:
What happened yesterday?
Was Jesus really the Messiah?
Did we make a mistake?
Saturday in our Holy Week journey is the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a day where people did not work or clean the house or do the dishes or go to the market – they just rested and worshipped God. It’s why Jesus’ friends didn’t go to the tomb until Sunday. But a day that was meant for rest, I image, brought very little rest for these people.
Even though the disciples listened to Jesus’ teaching about who he was and what he came to do, they never fully understood it until after his resurrection. To be honest, how could you believe that someone could come back to life just like that?! Jesus performed miracles on other people. How could He perform a miracle on himself if he was dead?
Yet…He could. And He did. Join us Sunday morning at 9:15 or 11am to read about Jesus’ miraculous resurrection together. You can also keep reading in your Jesus Storybook Bible to hear the rest of the true story of Jesus and God’s love for us.
Talk Together
How would you be feeling if you were one of Jesus’ friends?
How would you feel if you were a chief priest?
Pray Together
A great strategy to keep our hearts focused while we pray is to use the acronym PART. This stands for Praise, Admit, Request and Thank. Use the sentence starters below to help guide your kids in their prayer time this week.
Praise | “Wow, God, you are...”
Admit | “I’m sorry for...”
Request | “Please help...”
Thank | “Thank you for...”
