Gen. 28.10-22; Jn. 1.51

Imagine discovering a stairway to heaven! Imagine looking up and seeing the Lord at the top of the stairway speaking to you and promising you his presence and protection, and telling you that he wants you to be part of his plan to bless the whole world! This is what happened to Jacob, but the same is true for anyone who puts their faith in Jesus. Jesus compared himself to a stairway to heaven. Through him we can encounter God and grow in the knowledge of the truth!

Key Verse

“For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ”

– 2 Corinthians 1.20a (NLT)

Lesson

Explain to the kids that each week you’re looking at a story from the Old Testament* that points to Jesus. It’s often helpful to briefly review the previous week’s lesson.

Object Lesson (Out of reach)

Supplies: A step ladder.

Imagine you needed to reach something that was out of reach. Imagine, for instance, that you needed to get something from a high shelf in the kitchen but you weren’t tall enough to get there. What would you do? Well, you might get a step ladder to get up there. What does the ladder do? It gives you a boost so that you can reach! Sometimes builders use ladders to get up to way out of reach places that they could never get to on their own. Now, imagine trying to get to a totally out of reach place. Imagine trying to get to where God lives!

Bible story.

Props you may want to use: A pillow, a jar to represent olive oil, .

Does anybody know who Jacob is in the Bible? Jacob was one of Abraham’s grandsons. Abraham was Jacob’s grandfather and Isaac was his dad. One day Jacob did some pretty bad stuff. He lied and he cheated and he was running away from his brother Esau.

Use your Bible or a children’s Bible to tell the story from Gen. 28.10-22.

Application

Ask the children how they think God fulfilled his promise to Jacob.
Explain to the children that God knew that we cannot get to heaven unless we have help. Heaven is out of reach for us because you have to be perfect to be able to go to heaven. We need a ladder to get to heaven don’t we? Did you know that Jesus compared himself to a stairway to heaven? Through Jesus we can be restored to God! God’s promise to Jacob was that all the nations of the world would be blessed. When you put your faith in Jesus, it’s like discovering a stairway to heaven!

Prayer: Thank God for sending his Son Jesus and making a way for us to be close to him. Thank him that we can always trust his promises. Pray for wisdom and courage for the children as they seek to follow God.

* Old Testament: The first part of the Bible that tells the story of God’s people and explains his promise.


Game

Stairway to heaven relay

This goal of this game is to see which team can correctly write out the memory verse .

Supplies: Masking tape, memory verse poster

How to Play: Put strips of tape onto the carpet to mark out a ‘stairway’. Make it wide enough for all the kids to line up at the bottom of the stairway in 2 teams. Put up two blank poster boards or a whiteboard at the top of the stairway for the kids to write the memory verse on. Each child takes a turn in relay to run up each step and write the next word of the verse on the board. The team that has the verse fully written out correctly first is the winner!

Mr. Bear Are You Sleeping?

How to Play: This game is called Mr. Bear Are You Sleeping? One child is the bear and they go a short distance away from the larger group. This child lays down or sits down and closes their eyes and pretends to be asleep. The large group holds hands and says quietly “Mr. Bear are you Sleeping” The bear continues to sleep. The large group gets a little closer and asks the question again softly. This continues until the large group gets up to the sleeping bear. When they are real close they ask the question very loudly. “MR. BEAR ARE YOU SLEEPING?” The bear then roars and tries to grab the children who woke him from his sleep and the children run away screaming in excitement. The children then take turns being the bear.

This game is taken from Perpetual Preschool and would work well for 4-5 year olds. It can be used as a story intro for that age group by saying: “We’ve had a lot of fun playing that game but what do you guys really do when you sleep?” [Guide them until they guess Dream!] “That’s right, today we’re learning about a man named Jacob who had a special dream…”