| Simon the Zealot is transformed by becoming part of Jesus’ Apostles, his change is psychological and not physical, meanwhile the man with the shrivelled hand undergoes a very physical transformation. This pop-up craft begs us to question how the characters are transformed and how does our relationship with Jesus transform us? |  |
…continue reading about Simon the Zealot (Matthew 12) | Craft
Here are the images you need for the hero’s attributes linked to Simon the Zealot (Matthew 12).
Each hero set contains a high quality graphic of the character, a take home bible card and a colouring page.
The images are displayed small here, click on the image you wish to have, then save the image that loads.
(Please note : these images have no watermark but are not copyright free, they are only intended for classroom use.)
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Extra’s for this lesson
If you want the teachers page then please click on the image for the pdf.
Today’s hero is Simon the Zealot because he show us the gift of Commitment.
Essential Teachers notes:
Children ride the latest fad hard and often being different equals exclusion. But being passionate about something doesn’t always go had in hand with other popular pursuits. Being a Zealot is just that, being zealous, passionate, about your beliefs – it would have made some of Jesus’ other companions uncomfortable choices for travelling partners.
Main Passage : Matthew 12
Additional passages : Matthew 10, 1 Samuel 21
—————————————- …continue reading about Simon the Zealot (Matthew 12) | Story
Teaching is challenge, and often just when you think you are getting somewhere one of the beautiful little darlings turns around and lands a big philosophical question like a slap across the face. Your mind whirls and whizzes trying to find an answer you can fit into a sentence or two as you watch the crowd of faces light up with recognition of a major flaw in your teaching or even worse switch off completely. Working on your feet you feel like you have 3 options:
1. Try and say something to placate the child, hoping them don’t ask for details.
2. Tell the child that’s a big question and you’ll like a minute to think about the answer, then either revisit it or more likely forget.
3. Distract the children with a new activity.
There are specific courses run for explaining apologetics to kids, the web is full of one sentence answers, and yet I find them hugely dangerous. Many teens dismiss easy answers when faith stops producing them, they relegate God to Santa and the tooth fairy and other things that have just as daft reasoning behind them.
Take for example the age old question ‘why did God create the world’. Some say ‘he wanted the company’ more scripturally based answers are ‘for his glory’ (psalm 19) ‘because he loved us’ (Jeremiah 31) ‘because we were part of his plan’ (Ephesians 6) or ‘to do his work’ (Ephesians 2). None of them are really sufficient, the logic is incomplete at best. If I was really pressed for scripture I’d go with Isaiah:
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom” (Isaiah 40:28).
It’s tough not knowing the answers and it’s tough admitting it. It makes us sound weak, foolish and uneducated, but pat answers are just as bad. We are blessed to be in relationship with a God too big for answers but willing to make himself small enough for us to ask. We should not be afraid of the words ‘I don’t know‘, because you can always follow them with ‘God is a mystery, faith is believing even when you can’t find the answers, because you know enough answers to not need to know them all.’ Teaching youngsters to see God as the greatest of mysteries to discover, is a gift we have been given and one we should not squander with pat answers.
This worksheet for the Apostle Jude Thaddaues is full of symbolism and confusion. Untangle the picture, discuss the images in the arrows and try and fill in the missing puzzle pieces either in small groups or pairs. Overall the sheet rejects the idea that we have to have all the answers. This is a big issue for youngsters who live a lot of their lives not being able to find out the ‘why’ and yet having an innate urge to ask the question.
To complete this worksheet the children need colouring pens, pencils or crayons.
The PDF can be downloaded by clicking on the images.
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