VERSES: Matthew 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-31; Luke 13:18-19
MEMORY VERSE: Matthew 13:31. "...The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed..."
BOOK TO REMEMBER: 2 John. Write "2 John" on small slips of paper, so the students may memorize another New Testament book at home.
PRAYER: Thank God for the good messages He inspired men to write in the Bible.
SPECIAL SONG: Jesus Taught By Parable And Miracle (see March - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #4 on this blog. Click on orange circle to hear tune.)
VISUAL AID: Actual mustard seed or pictures of mustard seed and mustard seed trees.
LESSON POINTS:
- As we have been studying about Jesus and the things that He said and did while He lived here on the earth, we are learning about some of the parables that He told the people. Parables were like a secret code. They were stories about earthly things, but also had a spiritual meaning. Jesus told the people a story about the things they knew like farming or cleaning or a treasure, and while it seemed to the people who were listening that He was simply telling a story, it meant much more. Later, Jesus would tell the spiritual part or what the parable really meant to the disciples. There were Jewish leaders who were always listening to Jesus, hoping to catch Him in something they could report His teaching as something bad, but Jesus only told good things.
- Jesus told the parable about the kingdom of heaven being like a grain of mustard seed. He said that a man took mustard seed and planted it in his field. The mustard seed is one of the smallest, tiniest of all seeds, but when it grows, it is huge! It grows and grows and grows until it grows into a tree where birds come and live in its branches.
- What was the secret meaning behind this parable? Jesus said the kingdom of heaven or the church was like this mustard seed. It would start out so very tiny, but it would grow and grow and grow until it filled the whole earth!
- Definition of 'parable' - a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson.
- Mustard seeds are only about 1-2 mm in size. Mustard trees can grow up to 20 feet high.
Materials needed: 9" x 12" blue construction paper, 4" x 9" brown construction paper, 4" x 12" green construction paper, scrap of white construction paper, stickers of birds or make your own with colorful paper that is found around the house , kitchen, or magazines (I cut circles out of a leftover bulletin board border.), glue, markers, crayons, scissors.
- Hand out blue paper. This is the background.
- Hand out brown paper.
- Cut a tree trunk out of the brown paper by cutting two curved lines. This is the trunk
- Glue trunk to bottom middle of blue paper.
- Hand out green paper.
- Fold green paper.
- Cut hearts out of green paper. These are the leaves.
- Glue leaves on top of the tree trunk.
- Glue small square of white paper on blue paper.
- Write "Size of mustard seed" on white paper.
- Draw tiny dot on white paper. This is the mustard seed.
- With red crayon, draw an arrow from white square to tree.
- Write "Size of Mustard Tree" in the middle of the tree trunk.
- Write "PARABLE OF THE MUSTARD SEED" at the top of the blue paper.
- Write "Matthew 13:31, 32" at the bottom of the blue paper.
- Hand out "bird materials."
- Cut out two birds out of colorful magazines, empty boxes, discarded shiny paper, etc.
- Glue birds to the leaves in the tree.
