By George Nielsen
The BGMM handout, titled “The Kingdom and the Church”, was distributed again, and we were able to cover page one of this 3-page paper. We also explained how Jesus’ declaration, “I will build My Church,” was developed further on pages two and three, and students and their parents could review that information at home. We also will come back to this material in the Spring (beginning in late April).
In fifth grade, one of our goals is for the students to decide to be, and learn how to be, young disciples of Jesus. We teach that “Christianity is a Way of Life,” and use our On the Right Path diagram as a visual for contrasting living as Jesus’ disciple and living in a self-serving way, not bothering with anything related to serving Jesus.
Because many of the students attending today had not been present for class last week, we began by repeating the main ideas that were covered last week:
Jesus’ declaration “Upon this rock I will build My Church.”
God’s Kingdom -- the visible part, which is the Church, and the invisible part, which is the spiritual realm. This included presentation of the doctrine of the Trinity, angels and demons, and people as three-part beings (with body, soul, and spirit). Jesus’ statement to Pontius Pilate - “My kingdom is not of this world” - was presented. Then we transitioned to teaching on the End Times.
Next, we taught about the return of Jesus, as King, in His second coming. He will rule the world from Jerusalem. We teach The Millenium as being a literal period of 1,000 years. There were several questions from students about the millennial reign and about satan, his punishment in “the pit” (the abyss), his ultimate punishment in the Lake of Fire, and the punishment of non-believing human beings. There also were questions about God’s ability to destroy (annihilate) satan, which were answered by stating that God has decreed eternal punishment for satan, instead of his destruction.
Additional questions the students asked were about their eternal destiny and the timing of the Second Coming. The brief answers given were about the assurance of salvation for disciples of Jesus, and that the timing of the Second Coming is unknown, but disciples need to be committed to always being ready for the Lord’s return. Other questions were about angels and demons, and their activity. In fifth grade we have a specific learning objective to emphasize that the Biblical accounts of spiritual beings and their actions here on earth are real, not symbolic, and that this continues today, as it was in Bible times.
Next, we taught about the first petition from the Lord’s Prayer, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The brief remarks made explained the handout presentation, emphasizing numerical growth, making new disciples, and that the influence of the Church throughout society should grow.
A link to a copy of “The Kingdom and the Church” is given at the end of this summary (along with the copyright notice).
This class was one more instance where questions from students took the majority of class time. The students were told once again that we both accept and appreciate their questions, that are on-topic, and that we will adjust our schedule when needed, to allow for the questions. We began Lesson 9 from Bible Adventures, but will have to continue it next week. There is a Sunday School that Clicks video for this lesson, that will also be shown next week.
Lesson 9 presents two incidents for Jesus’ ministry -- He healed Peter’s mother-in-law, and reached out to a social outcast, Zacchaeus, the tax collector. These are used as illustrations of how much Jesus cares -- He wanted to show people that God cares about them. Because of the limited time available, these Bible stories were just mentioned and introduced. Then we turned to page four of Bible Adventures to practice the Memory Verse, Philippians 4: 19. The Lesson focus is expressed in this verse:
My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Page 4 also has a famous prayer written by Saint Francis of Assisi that emphasizes care and ministry to others, as a disciple of Jesus. Comments were made about this prayer to complete this part of the lesson presentation.
Then we said our closing prayers, to conclude the class.
The Memory Verse assignment for this week is Philippians 4: 19 (NIV), and the Emphasis verse from last month, John 3: 16 (NIV), is continued for one more week. At the request of students, we have agreed that if John 3: 17 (NIV) is also recited along with John 3: 16, one extra achievement point will be awarded.
The new Emphasis verse will be announced next week.
Students have been instructed to give the Class Handout to their parents, so that they can be helped in reviewing them. (Completing the study of the rest of this handout [pages 2 - 3] will be deferred until Session 4 of ‘BGMM’ , scheduled to begin in April.)
Materials used in today’s class can be viewed online:
The Prayer of Francis of Assisi is shown in this Blog -- in a separate post, published February 11, 2013, titled “Love, Peace, and Caring for Others”.
“The Kingdom and The Church” -page 1- (Click HERE to link to a copy of this Handout.)
Note: The Handout document listed above is Copyright c. 2011, 2012. George Nielsen. All rights reserved. Documents may be viewed/used for student or parent study and review, for students enrolled in the 5th grade class.
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