Teaching the Gospel – Who will be King?
Day One – God made the world and He is King
Bible Verse – Revelation 4:11
BIG IDEA – God is in charge of the world because he made it and everything in
it – therefore God is King.
Explain how Genesis 1 & 2 tells us all about how God made the world. Say that
the end of the Bible teaches about this as well.
Read Revelation 4:11 “Our Lord and God! You are worthy to receive glory,
honour and power. For you created all things, and by your will they were given
existence and life.”
Some of the words in this verse are complicated, so we are going to explain
them.
Ask what does it mean to be worthy?
If someone is worthy to receive something, then they deserve to get it.
They should get it.
Explain that if God is worthy to receive glory, honour and power, then we should
treat him as King because He deserves it. If we honour the King, we do what the
King says, and we obey the King’s laws. God is not a selfish bossy King like some
human Kings, but loving and good.
Ask why the verse tells us that God deserves to be treated as King?
He created all things and gives them existence and life.
Explain that this means that God didn’t just make everything, but he also keeps
everything going – if it wasn’t for Him, we wouldn’t be here.
Draw the picture and go over what you learnt from the verse.
Remember to say…
 God made the world and everything in it [draw world] so He is in charge
of it – He’s the King.
 God is a good, loving King, not bossy like human Kings. He filled the world
with good things.
 God made people too [draw people] and gives them life. That means
that He’s our King [draw crown and write God on it]. We should honour
Him and do what He tells us in the Bible.
Ask if the children have any questions – if you run out of time make sure they
write them down and save them for later.
Pray thanking God for the world He has made and for giving us life.
Day Two – Saying no to God
Bible Verse – Romans 3:10-12
BIG IDEA – To say no to God and disobey Him is to not treat Him as King.
Explain how that when God made the world it was good.
Ask if the children think the world is a good place now.
Discuss the meaning of the word sinful
Not treating God as King by doing bad, naughty, wrong things; doing
what you shouldn’t, not doing what you should.
Think about things that we do which are naughty or bad. Why are they bad?
Who is hurt or upset by them? How does God want us to behave in these
situations?
Share some of the things you have thought about. Try to make sure they are
personal (lying, greed, disobedience) rather than extreme things like murder
that the kids can’t relate to.
Explain that we ALL do things that are not what God wants us to do. We do
what we want, instead of what God wants, so we are trying to be King. This is
why bad things happen and the world is not good, because when we do what
we want we are selfish.
Read Romans 3:10-12 “There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one
who understands, no-one who seeks God. All have turned away… there is noone who does good, not even one.”
Draw the picture and go over what you learnt.
Remember to say…
 God made the world and everything in it [draw world] so He is in charge
of it – He’s the King. [draw big crown with ‘God’]
 Even though God is the true King, we don’t want Him to be our King. We
all say no to God [cross out big crown] by not obeying God. We do what
we want [draw person] and pretend that we are king, not God. [draw
little crown over person]
 This causes lots of problems. By all trying to do things our own way, we hurt
each other and make a big mess of God’s good world.
Ask if the children have any questions – if you run out of time make sure they
write them down and save them for later.
Pray saying sorry for saying no to God and not treating Him as King.
Day Three – Punishment
Bible Verse – Hebrews 9:27
BIG IDEA – When we say no to God we deserve to be punished.
Recap about saying no to God. When God made the world it was very good,
but we have messed it up. We are looking at what God does to fix the world.
Story – Use this story to illustrate that sin must be punished.
‘Jack’ takes his brother’s super bouncy ball without asking and then plays with it
where he shouldn’t, inside the house. He knew that his mum and dad said not
to, but he did anyway, and broke a window! What are Jack’s mum and dad
going to do when they get home? Say it doesn’t matter and give him some
sweets or send him to his room and make him pay for the window to be fixed
with his pocket money? If they gave sweets, it would be like saying he did
nothing wrong, when he did. It wouldn’t be fair or right. It would be fair to send
him to his room, because he did do something wrong.
Read Hebrews 9:27 “Man is destined to die once, and after that face
judgement.”
Discuss what it means to face judgement.
God will decide whether we have done things wrong and deserve to be
punished.
Explain that we all disobey God (like Jack disobeyed his parents) and so we
deserve punishment. It wouldn’t be fair if God just said ‘it doesn’t matter’ when it
we hurt people and treat Him like He isn’t King. God is going to make the world
into a wonderful new Kingdom where everything is happy. He will punish
everyone who doesn’t treat Him as King by keeping them out of this Kingdom.
The problem is that we are all people who deserve to be punished because we
disobey God.
Draw the picture and go over what you learnt.
Remember to say…
 [draw big crown with ‘God’] It makes God angry that we don’t obey Him
as King, and mess up his world. [draw world]
 God won’t let us keep saying no and pretending to be King [draw person
with small crown] but will show that He is the only King. He will set up a
wonderful Kingdom that will never end, and shut out everyone who says
no to him. [cross out person]
 We all deserve God’s punishment… but the good news is yet to come.
Ask if the children have any questions – if you run out of time make sure they
write them down and save them for later.
Pray saying sorry to God for the wrong things we do that deserve punishment.
Day Four – God punished Jesus instead of me
Bible Verse – 1 Peter 3:18
BIG IDEA – God punished Jesus instead of me.
Recap Last time we had a problem – God must punish all those who say no to
Him, but this means that we will be shut out of his new Kingdom. We all deserve
to be punished.
Explain that there is good news, because God has done something to make it
so that we can be forgiven and allowed into his kingdom.
Ask if anyone knows what God has done.
Sent Jesus to help us with our big problem.
Story Use the story of Jack to illustrate what Jesus has done. (Try to use visual aids
if possible) Jack played with a ball inside and broke a window. He had to pay to
fix the window with his pocket money. What Jesus does for us is a bit like
someone paying for a new window, instead of Jack having to. Jesus pays the
cost of what we have done wrong, taking the punishment that we deserve for
the wrong things we do, and when we say no to God.
Explain that Jesus could only do this because he was perfect, and always
treated God as King. We need Jesus to do this for us, because we can’t do it for
ourselves.
Read 1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the
unrighteous, to bring you to God.”
Draw the picture and go over what you learnt.
Remember to say…
 Because God is loving, he has done something to rescue us from the
punishment we deserve.
 God send His own son Jesus into the world [draw world and Jesus figure
without arms] Jesus didn’t say no to God [draw big crown with God
above world] and so he didn’t deserve to be punished like the rest of us.
 But Jesus was punished. He was killed on a cross [draw outstretched arms]
God loved us so much that He punished his own Son instead of us.
 This means that we can be forgiven for saying no to God. We can be
welcomed into God’s wonderful kingdom as His friends.
Ask if the children have any questions – if you run out of time make sure they
write them down and save them for later.
Pray thanking God for sending Jesus to take the punishment that we should
have had.
Day Five – The Resurrection & Our Choice
Bible Verse – Acts 2:32-33, John 3:36
BIG IDEA – God brought Jesus back to life, and made him King of the whole
world. We can choose for him to be our King or go on pretending that I am King.
Recap Jesus paid the punishment that we deserved by dying on the cross
instead of us. Usually when people die, we don’t see them again on this earth.
But that’s not what happened with Jesus. Acts 1:3 says that “After his suffering,
he [Jesus] showed himself to these men [the disciples] and gave many
convincing proofs that he was alive.”
Discuss why it is so important to know that Jesus came back to life?
We can be totally sure that he took our punishment and beat death.
Read Acts 2:32-33 “God raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the
fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the
promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.”
Explain that Jesus is now in heaven with God. God made him King of the whole
world [exalted to God’s right hand] He is King of Kings and one day everyone
will call him king. He will take his friends to his new Kingdom, but punish people
who aren’t his friends.
Draw the picture and go over what you learnt.
Remember to say…
 [draw world with word God above it] When people die, we don’t see
them anymore, they stay dead. But even though Jesus died, God brought
him back to life and lots of people saw him and touched him.
 Then Jesus left this world and went back to be with God, his father. [write
Jesus over the word God] And God made Jesus the King of the whole
world. [draw crown around the words Jesus & God]
 One day, King Jesus will come back to our world. He will punish everyone
who is still saying no to God, but welcome his forgiven friends into his good
Kingdom forever.
Explain that we have only 2 ways to live. We can say ‘Jesus is my King and he is
in charge’ or we can say ‘no’ to Jesus, and ‘I’m in charge.’ [show 6th picture] If
we say yes, then we can live with Jesus forever, and if we say no we will be
punished, and shut out of the new Kingdom forever.
Read John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever
rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”
Discuss what it involved to choose to live Jesus’ way with him as King.
Think about what it means day-to-day to live for Jesus – choosing to be
truthful not to lie, choosing to be kind not to bully, etc. Living with Jesus as
your King leads to changes in your whole life.
Don’t pressure into making an adult response to the gospel – let the children ask
questions, and answer them, but don’t push for an immediate response.
Discuss how we can start living for Jesus as King.
Saying sorry to God for not treating Him as King.
Thanking God for sending Jesus to die so that you can be forgiven.
Ask God to forgive you and help you to live with Jesus as your King.
Give the children their copy of the 2 ways to live tract; so that they have a
reminder of everything you have covered in the “Who will be King?” slots.
Pray thanking and praising God for his Son, the living King. Ask Him to forgive us
and help us to live with Jesus as our King.
Ask if the children have any questions – use the extra time that you have to deal
with as many of them as possible. If you don’t think you can answer them, then
team up with another leader, or encourage them to go to their parents – they
will be delighted to talk with their children about these things. We can only
cover so many questions; so don’t be discouraged if you can’t answer them all.
Just continue to pray that the children will grow in their relationship with God.