Lesson No. ( 44 ) Saint Matthew

References:

Matthew 9:9.

Notes for Servants

«         Christ who is the origin of everything renews the soul.  The word is the means and the Gospel is God's power for salvation.  Romans 1:16.

«         Jesus, when He chooses His Disciples, selected them with different characters to represent all humanity and its weaknesses.

Objectives

General: Christ's love for sinners.

Specific:

The children will be able to ...

1. Know that Jesus choose His Disciples from different types of people.
2. Believe that God can change anyone from bad to good.
3. Understand that God loves everyone and is willing to give anyone a chance to be good.

Bible Verse

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.”

(Matt 28:19)

Teaching Aids

None.

Instruction

(1) Review last week's lesson.

(2) Who remembers the verse?

(3) Remind the children about the church occasions for the coming week.

(4) Servant may start by asking the following:

1. Who can remember the names of Christ's Disciples?
2. Who do collects taxes now?
3. Who collected taxes at the time of Jesus?

(5) Teacher should prepare the appropriate questions to emphasize the objectives during the lesson.

Story Time

At the time of Jesus, there were some people in Judea who collected taxes for the Roman Empire.  Those people were called tax collectors.  The tax collectors at that time were very tough on people and everybody hated them.  Many of them used to collect a lot more than what they should.  Those who do not pay will be put in jail until his family pays the taxes.  Levi was one of the tax collectors at that time in the city of Capernaum.

One day Jesus went to Capernaum, while He was walking along, he saw Levi the tax collector sitting in his tax office.  Jesus said to him, "Follow me."  The power of Jesus’ word affected Levi’s heart.  The words of Jesus were sweet and gentle.  Levi left the money and everything and followed Him saying, "O Lord, take me by your hand."

Levi followed Jesus and became one of His twelve Disciples.  The Lord Jesus called him Matthew, which means the gift of God.  God gave Matthew the gift of writing the first Gospel.  He accompanied the Apostles all the time, even after the Ascension of Christ.  He preached the good news in the land of Cush and Persia.  He was martyred in the land of Cush in the year 62 when someone stabbed him with a spear and he won the crown of martyrdom and the crown of apostleship.

Discussion

1 - Follow up the story by talking about it with the children.

2 - Continue the discussion while they do the activity.

Learning Activities

Activity Sheet.