BIBLE EXPLORE / NEW TESTAMENT / LUKE / LUKE 2

Book of Luke: Chapter 2

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Jesus Presented in the Temple (Luke 2:22-40)

When Joseph and Mary took their infant Jesus to the temple to dedicate Him to God, they met Simeon and Anna—two senior adults who knew who Jesus really was. They rejoiced in seeing Jesus and in what He would accomplish in and for God’s kingdom.

Simeon and Anna 

Mary and Joseph took baby Jesus to the temple because God commanded his people to do that.  They were being obedient and faithful to God.  They weren't expecting anything  amazing to happen. But something amazing did happen.  
There was a man named Simeon who was living in Jerusalem, where the temple was.  Sometimes he went to the temple and sometimes he didn't, but on the day that baby Jesus was going to be there, God told Simeon to go to the temple.  God didn't say why, but Simeon obeyed! You see, many years earlier, the Holy Spirit had come to Simeon and told him that before he died, he was going to see the Saviour, the Messiah-- in other words, Jesus, but Simeon didn't know his name! Simeon believed what God had said.  He had faith.  Do you know what faith is? (allow answers). Well faith is believing in something you can't see.  Simeon believed that the Saviour was coming in his lifetime because God told him that, but he hadn't see the Saviour with his own eyes.  THAT was about to change. Simeon went to the temple and when he saw Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus, he went right up to them and asked to hold the baby.  He said, 'Now I've seen my saviour.  Now whatever happens to me is ok."  Then he turned to Mary and Joseph and told them how special their baby was, how he was going to be a bright light in the world and save people.  Then Simeon blessed Mary and Joseph-- and Mary and Joseph were amazed!  God had kept his promise to Simeon!
Nearby there was someone else who was going to know who Jesus was.  Anna.  Anna was 84 years old.  She'd been serving God and praying in the temple for many years.  Maybe she heard Simeon praising God, or maybe God just led her to where Mary and Joseph and Jesus were, but Anna also was so excited about seeing Jesus. Imagine spending years and years and years serving and loving God and then suddenly seeing the baby that was going to grow up and free people from their sins.  Not only did she praise God, but she started talking about Jesus to everyone who wanted to be free! 
Anna and Simeon both recognized that Jesus was a king, and Mary and Joseph understood even more just how important their baby was!

Activities

Simeon and Anna Puzzle (Sunday School Zone)
Secret Code Activity (Sunday School Zone)
Wordsearch (Sunday School Zone)
Wordsearch (Bible Explore)
Puppets (Sunday school zone)
Colouring in (Higher Praise)

Quick questions

• I wonder how Mary and Joseph felt when they heard all that Simeon and Anna said.
• I wonder how Simeon felt waiting and waiting to see the saviour.
• I wonder how you'd feel if you had to wait a long time for something promised to happen.

Story resource

Story and questions(Ministry to Children)

Jesus as a child (Luke 2:41-52)

Today's story helps us understand that Jesus knew who he was, even when he was young.

Story

(If you have a similar story to start with, use your own.  If not, you can say that you heard a story about....)
Say something like: "When my children were little, we went on holiday and visited the Waitomo Caves.  It was an amazing experience.  We especially liked the glowworms.  All of us, including our six children, went through the cave together, got into the boat and saw the glowworms.  But something happened and instead of 6 children coming out with us at the end of the tour, there were only 5!  At first I thought Tim was with his dad and his dad thought he was with me. You can imagine how frantic we were when we realised that Tim wasn't with either of us. There were so many people and it seemed like such a dangerous place.  My husband and I looked at each other and quietly asked each of our other children if they'd seen Tim.  "No" was there answer.  The older boys went up the different paths to see if perhaps he'd gotten ahead of us, but Tim was nowhere to be found.  Finally while the others were looking, I went back into the entrance of the cave, hoping that somehow Tim had just gotten turned around.  And there he was!  He was standing with another group of tourists, listening to the guide and getting ready to go back through the caves.  After hugging him and making sure he was all right, I asked him, "Where were you?"  He looked up, smiled and said, "Mummy, I love this place. I just wanted to stay longer.  Where were you?"
That reminds me a little of our story today. Mary and Joseph were on their way home and had been travelling for a full day when they realised that Jesus not only wasn't with them, but he wasn't with any of their friends or other relatives. They hurried back to Jerusalem, frantically looking for him, and found him, 3 days after they'd left the city. He was sitting with the teachers in the temple, asking questions, answering questions, listening. The people were amazed at how wise he was. But still, when Mary and Joseph found him, they were so relieved.  It must have been a horrible time not to be able to find their son!  When Mary said, "Where were you? We've been looking for you for three days!"  Jesus answered, "Didn't you know that I'd be in my Father's House?"  Mary and Joseph might not have understood what Jesus meant, but when we hear about that, we can know that Jesus knew who he was.  He knew that God was his father and that He was God's Son!

Game: What's missing? 

What you need:

• a tray
• 15-20 small objects
• a tea towel to cover the tray

What you do:​

1. Place the objects on the tray and cover them with the tea towel. 
2. Place the tray where everyone can see it.
3. Lift the towel and give the group 1 minute to memorize everything on the tray.
4. Cover the tray and have the children cover their eyes (look down) as you remove one object.
5. Take the tea towel off and see if the children can discover which object is missing.
6. You can play this a number of times.

Note: For younger children have as few as 5 objects.  For older children and adults, use 15-20 objects

Drinking straw maze

Note: This activity contains marbles so is not for children under 5.

What you need:

• a cardboard box, lid or piece of corrugated (strong) cardboard for each child
• cardboard drinking straws
• glue guns
• scissors
• a marble for each child
• pencils, crayons or felts, if desired
• sello tape

​What you do:

1. Make your own maze to show and demonstrate with the children
2. Give each child a piece of cardboard
3. Show them how to draw a simple maze, explaining that a maze is a difficult way of getting from one place to another.
4. Show your maze and explain that each person is going to get to make their own.
5. Encourage the children to lay out their maze— either by drawing it first or by laying out the drinking straws.  Let them know that they can cut the straws to fit the way they want them to.
6. Once they have the maze laid out, they can come to you and you will help them glue the straws down. 
7. When the maze is completed, give the child a marble and allow them to roll the marble through the maze from start to finish.

Note: This is quite challenging.  If you have very young children, pre make 2 mazes and with supervision, allow them to play with them.
You can use sello tape instead of a glue gun if you find the straws move too much before you're able to glue them down

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