Lesson 1 Letter (Romans 1:8-32)
Dear Rome,
I’m so thankful you know Jesus! I pray I can visit you and we can share Christ together. I really want to share the gospel with you. Let me start sharing it in this letter. Ready?
The gospel means “good news.” But before we can know Jesus’ good news, we need to know the bad news first.
So here is the bad news: God is angry at all people who sin. Whether they believe in God or not, they all should know better. Just look outside right now. What are things you see that only God could do? So everyone in the world can see these things and know there is a God to obey. But instead of obeying, they sin and do things God doesn’t like. Can you think of some examples of sins? Here is a list of some:
- Not thanking God
- Worship of idols
- Men being with men (like in marriage)
- Women being with women (like in marriage)
- Coveting
- Murder
- Fighting
- Disobey parents
- Lying
- Talking about others in bad ways
- Pride and boasting
- Not believing God
Have you ever done these? The sad thing is that we all have.
And even sadder, God must punish everyone who does these with death and separation from Him. This is part of the bad news 😞
Lesson 2 Letter (Romans 2:1-11)
Hello again, Roman Christian!
I want to continue with my letter. Do you remember what I said in the first part? Hint: I explained some of the bad news.
Well, you might not like to hear this, but I need to further explain the bad news now (don’t worry, we’ll get to the good news later).
Right now you may think that other people are bad and sinful, but you are pretty good. Can you think of other people who do bad things? What are examples of sins that others do (don’t tell me names, just the bad thing done)? Now, who has done those same things (or wanted to do them)? If you’re honest, you all have. That means that you, yourself are guilty before a holy God. What kind of punishment do you deserve? Sadly, death.
Let me say it in another way. Imagine that you and your brother or sister get into a fight. Has that ever happened? And then when you talk to your mom or dad, you say, “Look at how bad my brother/sister was to me!” Have you ever said something like that? Well, maybe your brother/sister was bad, but did you do wrong, too? So you deserve punishment just like your sibling. Right? Well, it’s true with God too. That’s part of the bad news.
Lesson 3 Letter (Romans 2:12-29)
Hi again, Church of Rome!
Well, this is the third time reading from my letter. Can anyone remember what I already wrote about? Sadly, I’ve had to explain some really bad news. Guess what? There is more bad news now (but good news will come later).
Let me ask a question: If you read the Bible a lot, and you try really hard, can you go without sinning? Sadly, no. It’s like gravity; no matter how hard you try, sin is always there to pull you down. Try this: pick up a book and see if you can hold it in the air for 5 minutes. Did you do it? Now have someone explain gravity. Try it again. Did you do it now that you understand gravity? Why not?
Sin is just like that. You can read the Bible and learn all about sin. You can try your hardest to not sin. But you still sin. Which means you still deserve punishment from God who is Holy. Do you remember the punishment? Yes, death. Sadly, reading the Bible and trying hard can’t change that.
In fact, there is only 1 Person who can actually please God and not sin. Can you guess who? And if only we could get that Person to live inside us, in our heart, maybe things would be different…maybe God wouldn’t have to punish us…but that is a story for another time.
Sincerely,
Paul
Lesson 4 (Romans 3)
Forthcoming…
Lesson 5 Activity (Romans 4)
Abraham: Scene 1
- Each kid pretends to be Abraham
- Does jumping jacks to signify how old Abraham was (~90)
- Progressively get slower and weaker
- Walks with walking stick, repeating himself, “I’m so old; I’m dead”
- Walks with walking stick to God, repeating to himself, “I’m so old; I’m dead”
- God says, “Do you believe I will bring life from death?”
- Abraham: “If you say so”
- God: “Because you believe, you are good and righteous with me.”
- Abraham continues to walk slowly with walking stick, now saying: “I’m so old; I’m dead; but God says I’m good and righteous…WAHOO!!”
- Abraham has sign of life in him (shake a body part), but keep walking limply
- God says: “You are good and righteous because you believed life would come from death, now be circumcised”
- Does jumping jacks to signify how old Abraham was (~90)
Us: Scene 2
- Each kid says, “I think I’m good and righteous”
- Then they start doing jumping jacks, saying, “See how good and righteous and strong I am”
- Pause: speak of a sin, then they pretend to have a disabled body part during the jumping jacks, making them more and more lopsided.
- Repeat until they are unable to do any jumping jack.
- Each kid walks with walking stick, repeating to himself, “I’m so sinful; I’m dead”
- Walks with walking stick to God, repeating to himself, “I’m so sinful; I’m dead”
- God says, “Do you believe I brought Jesus from death to life for your sins?”
- Kids say: “If you say so”
- God: “Because you believe Jesus died and resurrected for your sins, you are good and righteous with me.”
- Kids continues to walk slowly with walking stick, now saying: “I’m so sinful; I should be dead; but God says I’m good and righteous…WAHOO!!”
- Kids have sign of life in them (shake a body part), but keep walking limply
- God says: “You are good and righteous because you believed Jesus died and resurrected for your sins, now be baptized”
- [Note: baptism will be discussed more in Romans 6]
Read and discuss
- Read Romans 4:1-5, 18-25
- Ask: what was the same about the 2 activities (Abraham and us)?
- Ask: what did you like about what you learned?
- Ask: what was difficult about what you learned?
- Ask: what did this teach you about people?
- Ask: what did this teach you about God?
- Pray and ask: is there a way you can share or obey this during the week?
Lesson 6 Activity (Romans 5)
Props: 2 colors of stickers or markers (1 color representing “life” and 1 color representing “death”)
Works best with 5+ participants
Adam and Eve: Scene 1
- 2 kids are Adam and Eve
- Someone playing God (next to someone playing Jesus) says to obey Him by eating from Tree of Life and avoiding Tree of knowledge of good and evil.
- Eve eats from Tree of knowledge of good and evil
- God marks her with “death” sticker
- Adam also eats and God marks with “death” sticker
- all the “death” stickers are put into his hand
- They have children by Adam giving his “death” sticker to Eve, who then places it on the new child(ren) she “births” — repeat with as many kids as you have left
- God tells the children to obey Him in different things, but they all go the other way
- God says, “why do you always disobey?”
- They point to the stickers and say, “we were born sinners; we like to sin”
- God sentences them all to death
- All fall and die
Jesus: Scene 2
- God lifts up a woman with the death sticker to have a son — Jesus leaves God’s side and is born; God puts a life sticker on Jesus
- God gives commands again; everyone continually disobeys except Jesus
- God says to Jesus, “You obeyed me. You get life with me forever!”
- God says to the others, “why do you always disobey?”
- They point to the stickers and say, “we were born sinners; we like to sin”
- God sentences them all to death
- Jesus says “kill me instead”
- Jesus is crucified by God—a death sticker is put on Him; He dies
- He’s dead for 3 days
- Then God raises Him up, and gives Him the whole set of life stickers.
- Jesus asks each person: “Do you want to live?”
- If they say, “yes,” He says, “follow Me,” then lifts them up, and puts a life sticker over the death sticker
- If they say, “no,” He moves on
- Those with life stickers sing praise
Read & Discuss
- Read Romans 5:12-21
- Ask: what did you like about what you learned?
- Ask: what was difficult about what you learned?
- Ask: what did this teach you about people?
- Ask: what did this teach you about God?
- Pray and ask: is there a way you can share or obey this during the week?
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