Jesus Teaches About Mercy and Forgiveness

7/27/2023

Parable of the Unforgiving Servant by Jennifer Tolbert

Jesus taught the people what pleases God through stories called parables. Jesus wanted the people to understand that how important forgiveness is to God so he told them a story about an unforgiving servant. This story is found in Matthew 18:21-35.
Key Concepts:
1. God was us to forgive.
2. Jesus used stories, called parables, to help the people to understand what pleases God.
3. Jesus is our teacher. He showed us how to live a life that pleases God.

Memory Verse

Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. -Matthew 13:34

Songs

Books of the New Testament
This Little Light of Mine
A Joyful Heart
Lord, My Desire
Wonderful, Merciful Savior
Nobody Fills My Heart Like Jesus
Love is Something if You Give It Away

Story

Begin Class with Songs, Games, Table Activity, or Sharing Time

Open Class in Prayer

Introducing the Story Ideas
1. Whiteboard Wipe Out from Trueway Kids.
Supplies: Whiteboard, Expo Marker, Eraser
Ask your child if they know what it means to forgive? Explain that to forgive someone is to wipe out the debt they owe or let go of the anger we feel toward them for doing something wrong.
Using a whiteboard or a chalkboard, ask your child to name some bad actions that would need forgiveness. Make lots of marks on the board representing each sin. For example, stealing, disobeying, backtalk, etc. Share how sin marks our lives and we need Jesus to make us clean.
Now, talk about a time that someone wronged your child. Perhaps a sibling took a toy, or a friend was unkind. Using a different color make a small line to represent the sin that someone committed against them. Ask who owes the greater debt.
Wipe the board clean of the lines representing their sin. Explain that this is what God does when we ask Him to forgive our sins. Jesus died so that our debt could be wiped clean...(visit TruewayKids.org to keep reading)

2. Soap and Sin
This experiment works well with a small group of kids. Fill a bowl with water. Tell children that the water is pure like God. Next, sprinkle pepper into the bowl. Tell children to pretend that the pepper is dirty like sin. At first sprinkle only a little pepper, but keep adding more until most of the water’s surface is covered. Put a dab of soap on your finger and talk about how God can clean sin out of people’s lives. Insert your soapy finger in the bowl, and watch how the pepper instantly moves away, leaving a clear ring of water around your finger.

Story: Jesus wanted his followers to understand forgiveness, and how important it is to show mercy to one another. Jesus taught the people through stories called parables (or earthly stories with a heavenly meaning) to help his followers understand how they could please God in their attitude and heart towards wealth and possessions.

READ Matthew 18:21-25 or tell them the story of the unforgiving servant.
EMPHASIZE that: