Jesus Crucifed - Children's Sunday School Lesson

Jesus Dies and Takes Away Our Sins

Use this children’s Sunday School lesson to teach children about how Jesus died for us to forgive us for our sins.

 

Needed: Bibles, rotten food, candy bars, newspaper or other paper, Silly Putty or the following: food coloring, white glue, liquid starch (like Sta-Flo for laundry), measuring cups, sandwich baggies

 

 

Intro Game: Taking Our Place – Divide students into two teams for a game of Freeze Tag. Choose one team to be It, chasing the other team. Then, choose one student from the team being chased. They are “Jesus.” They cannot be tagged. They can go stand in the place of a frozen team member, allowing them to run again. When “Jesus” takes the place of someone else, they must stay there for 3 seconds since Jesus was in the grave for three days.

 

Before the game, set a timer for 3 or 5 minutes, depending on how many students you have. If the team chasing the other gets everyone out within that time limit, they win. If they don’t, the team being chased wins.

 

Switch roles and play again.

 

 

Lesson: Read Matthew 27:11.

 

 

Why did Pilate ask Jesus if He was the King of the Jews?

 

If Jesus was a king, He might have tried to take over the country and fight the Romans ,and Pilate can’t let Jesus start a war against the Romans because Pilate works for the Roman government.

 

Why did Jesus say that He is the King of the Jews?

 

Jesus is the descendant of King David, which means He is the rightful King. Jesus is also God, so He is the King of everything.

 

(Read Matthew 27:12-14.)

 

 

Why didn’t Jesus answer any more of Pilate’s questions?

 

Jesus didn’t want to defend Himself. He knew He was supposed to let Pilate crucify Him so that He could die for our sins.

 

(Read Matthew 27:15-46.)

 

 

When Jesus was on the cross, why did He say, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

 

Jesus had taken all the sins of everyone in the whole world on Himself. He had to take our sins on Himself so that He could take away our sins for us and save us.

 

But having all those sins on Him meant that God didn’t want to be with Him. When we have sin in our lives, God doesn’t want to be with us because God doesn’t want to be around people who do bad things. If we ask for forgiveness and stop doing bad things, then God will come to be with us again.

 

(Read Matthew 27:47-61.)

 

 

Object Lesson: Give kids something unpleasant, such as a rotten banana or something. Have a row of good prizes lined up, like candy bars. Ask each child if they’d like to keep what they have (the bad thing) or trade it for one of the prizes. It should be a no-brainer.

 

After everyone has made their choice, explain that Jesus takes our sin and gives us the best thing of all, life forever with God.

 

 

Craft: Taking Our Sin – Have students make silly putty or bring some in for each student. Have them practice using the silly putty to copy print or pictures off of a newspaper or other printed paper.

 

After they’ve played with it for a few minutes, explain that Jesus took our sins on Himself when He died on the cross.

 

To make silly putty: Tell students to pour 1/4 cup of white glue, a few drops of food coloring, and 1/8 cup of liquid starch into a sandwich baggie. Close the baggie and knead the mixture with your fingers through the baggie until it gains the right consistency. If it is not hardening properly, add a little more liquid starch.

 

Game: Taking Our Place – Play the intro game again, reminding students that Jesus took our place when He took our punishment and died on the cross for us.

 

Closing Prayer: Jesus, we thank You for taking the punishment for our sins so that we could be forgiven. Help us to believe and trust in You always. Amen.