Jesus Arrested Sunday School Lesson for Kids
Use this children’s Sunday School lesson to teach kids about Jesus praying in the Garden, Judas’ betrayal, and Peter’s denial.
Needed: Bibles, dice
Intro Game: Traitor Among Us!
Have students close their eyes. Explain that when you walk among them and tap one student on the shoulder, that student is the Traitor. When you tap them, they should look up and point to another student.
Have everyone open their eyes and say that the student the Traitor pointed to is not the Traitor. Students then have the opportunity to guess who the Traitor is. If they guess more than one person, have them take a vote. If the majority votes for the actual Traitor, they win and the game is over. Choose a new Traitor and play again.
If the majority is wrong, the person the Traitor pointed at is out. Have everyone close their eyes and then, ask the Traitor to point to another student. The game continues until students guess the real Traitor or the Traitor is one of the last two students left. If the Traitor makes it to the end, they win.
Play as long as time allows. Then, explain that one of Jesus’ disciples was a traitor.
Alternative Intro Game: Jesus Betrayed!
Choose one student to be Jesus. Then, have “Jesus” turn around and choose one of the other students to be the Traitor.
“Jesus” then tries to tag all the other students, but if they tag the Traitor, they’re out. “Jesus” wins when they tag everyone except the Traitor.
Explain that Jesus chose His disciples, but one of them was a traitor.
Lesson
Tell students, The Bible story we’re about to read takes place right after Jesus washed His disciples’ feet and gave them Communion for the first time.(Read Matthew 26:30-34.)
How did Jesus know that Peter would deny knowing Him? (God told Him. God knows everything even before it happens.)
(Read Matthew 26:36-38.)
Jesus said that He was sad. Why do you think He would be sad? (Jesus knew that He was going to die on the cross soon and was afraid because He knew it would hurt.)
Why did Jesus want His friends to pray with Him?
It’s good to help support each other in prayer.
What do you think Jesus wanted the disciples to pray about?
He might have wanted them to pray that He would brave and do what God wanted Him to do. Maybe He wanted to pray for themselves for God to help them stay strong and keep believing in Him when He was arrested and put to death on the cross.
(Read Matthew 26:39-44.)
What did Jesus decide about His dying?
He decided to do what God wanted Him to do and die. He wanted God to make it so that He wouldn’t have to die, but He said He would die if it was God’s will.
Even though it was hard, Jesus was willing to die because He knew that’s what God wanted Him to do so that He could save us. Jesus loved us and wanted to save us so much that He was willing to die on the cross.
Sometimes, God might ask us to do something hard, too, and we have to be willing to do it because God always has a good reason for telling us to do something. If we listen to God, everything will always work out for the best.
(Read Matthew 26:45-54.)
Peter attacked one of the guards that came to arrest Jesus, but Jesus told Peter to put his sword away. Why do you think Jesus didn’t want Peter to fight the guards? (Jesus knew that He had to be arrested so that He could die as the punishment for our sins.)
(Read Matthew 26:55-64.)
Jesus said that in the future, everyone would see Him coming with power out of the clouds. What do you think that means?
Jesus will come back out of the sky one day and will judge everyone in the whole world, sending those people who don’t believe in Him to Hell and bringing everyone who does believe in Him back to life and making them live forever.
(Read Matthew 26:65-72.)
Why did Peter say that he didn’t know Jesus? (He was afraid and thought that he might be arrested, too, for being Jesus’ follower.)
But we should never be afraid to tell people that we’re followers of Jesus. We should never be embarrassed to say we believe in Jesus.
(Read Matthew 26:73-75.)
Why was Peter crying? (He felt bad for saying he didn’t know Jesus.)
(Read Matthew 27:1-5.)
Why did Judas give back the money and then hang himself? (He felt guilty for being a traitor to Jesus and telling the guards where to find Him so that they could arrest Him.)
Was it good for Judas to hang himself? (No.)
What should he have done instead? (He should have asked God to forgive him.)
When we do something wrong, we should ask God for forgiveness. God will always forgive us when we ask Him to because He loves us.
Game: Raising the Dice
Remind students that Jesus wanted His disciples to pray with Him before He was arrested. Then, divide students into two teams and give each time a six-sided die. The first student from each team runs up to a table and rolls their dice. The student with the highest roll gets a point for their team.
The trick is that each team can help their player. As the students are rolling their die, the teams cheer. The team that’s the loudest gets to add one number to their player’s die roll. So, if Team A’s player rolls a 3, but their team is cheering the loudest, you’ll count that player’s roll as a 4.
Students re-roll in case of a tie, but only if the tie occurs after you add the cheering bonus.
After the first two students roll and you determine who gets the point, those students run back to their teams, hand off their die, and the next students run up. The team with the most points after everyone has rolled wins.
Explain that when we pray for someone, it’s like we’re cheering for them. We’re asking God to help them.
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