Church on the Corner

Starchasers: Sessions

Peter

This term we’ll be looking at the life of Peter, particularly his role as leader of the church in the first part of Acts.
Peter appearsto be a very ‘ordinary’ man but one who was transformed by God into an extraordinary leader. It can’t have been easy taking on the role of leader after Jesus, especially since the church was being persecuted at the time. Peter must have been a very faithful and strong man to take on such a role.
We’ll begin the series by looking at Peter’s mistakes, in particular his denying of Jesus. But we’ll see that wasn’t the end for Peter. Jesus welcomed him back and, filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter went on to do great things in Jesus’ name.

The weeks when we have Starchasers and the message of the mornings are: 

13th May: Acts 2
Theme – The Holy Spirit comes
We started the session with a balloon. At the start it didn’t look very exciting just a piece of plastic that doesn’t really do much. But most of us knows what it could become. Once it was filled you can see more and more of what it was meant to be like, as it gets filled it becomes more like what its meant to be.
Last time we might not have seen the best side of Peter with him denying he knew his friend Jesus. But Jesus knew what Peter could become. Jesus had a plan for Peter. Jesus wanted Peter to take care of his followers. And this week we see a different Peter, a Peter changed after he is filled with the Holy Spirit. A Peter more like the one Jesus wanted him to become.
Jesus had promised Peter, and the rest of his followers, to send a helper – the Holy Spirit. They were to wait in Jerusalem after Jesus went up to Heaven and he would send it. And so we acted out the story of Pentecost.
We split the kids into two groups, (1) the believers gathered in a house and (2) the Jews from all different nations who were in Jerusalem for the festival of Pentecost. The believers were together when there was a sound like a strong wind (cue sound effect) and what looked like tongues of fire and flames coming down on each person (cue sound effect and hand on head waving). Then the believers began speaking lots of different languages (cue appropriate sound effect).
When the Jews outside heard the commotion they came over and asked what was going on. No shy, denying Peter this time – Peter stood up and told the whole crowd about Jesus, what He had done and His death and coming back to life. After Peter spoke over 3,000 of those listening became believers too. What a change in Peter – much more like the man Jesus knew he could become.
In small groups we thought a little more about some things and what they become. A tadpole becomes a frog, an egg becomes a bird, an acorn becomes an oak. And Peter was changing, becoming the man Jesus wanted him to be. And we are promised the same Holy Spirit to help us become the person Jesus wants us to be.

29th April – Mark 14 & John 21
Theme – Jesus gives Peter a fresh start
We began, as all good Starchasers sessions should, with a clip from ‘The Simpsons’. In the clip Homer made a promise to his daughter, Lisa, to buy her a new reed for her saxophone for the school concert. But Homer broke his promise and Lisa had to go out in front of the whole school, and parents, with a broken sax.
We talked about how Lisa would have felt about Homer letting her down and how Homer must have felt afterwards. Which led us nicely into our first story about Peter…
We started with the Last Supper and Jesus telling his disciples that He was going to die. We thought about how his friends would have felt hearing this. We then moved around the different locations in the story from the upper room, to the Mount of Olives, to the Garden of Gethsemane and finally to the courtyard. Jesus told His friends, they would all leave him, they would all desert Him, every one of them. At this point Peter (one of the kids) stood up and said he’d never leave Jesus, even if it meant dying for him. Jesus told Peter that before the morning, before the cock crows, Peter would say three times he didn’t know Jesus.
And what happened? Jesus was arrested and taken away and nearly all his friends ran off and left Him, fearing for their lives. Peter and another did stay and followed behind those who arrested Jesus until they arrived at the courtyard. Peter tried to hear what was going on when Jesus was on trial while some in the courtyard thought he looked familiar. Three times Peter was asked if he knew Jesus and three times Peter said he didn’t know who this Jesus was.
Then the cock crowed. And the Bible says Jesus looked right at Peter. Peter broke down in tears and went off crying. Peter had let his friend down when He needed him most.
But was this the end? No! Despite Peter letting Jesus down, He still had plans for Peter.
We then thought about different scenarios for welcoming people back. People who’d been in hospital, a surprise visit from gran and welcoming someone back at the airport. It appears that the boys prefer food and the girls prefer hugs to welcome people back!
We then looked at how Jesus welcomed Peter back. We acted out the story in John 21 with Peter and 6 other disciples fishing. They fished all night and caught nothing. Then at dawn a man appeared on shore and told them to throw the net out on the right side. They did and this time they caught loads of fish. Peter recognised the man as Jesus and leapt out of the boat and ran/swam to the shore (leaving the others to bring in the catch!).
Jesus had breakfast with his friends (bread and fish – so we shared out some bread and fish) on the shore. Afterwards Jesus asked Peter three times ‘Peter do you love me’. Each time Peter said yes, though got more irritated each time Jesus asked. And Jesus asked Peter each time to feed his lambs or take care of his sheep. This was how Jesus welcomed Peter back.
We asked why three times, why did Jesus ask Peter three times? We thought this was because Peter denied Jesus three times. And we asked who were the lambs / sheep? We thought Jesus followers and indeed us!
In small groups we caught up after the holidays and we also gave everyone a dirty penny. It was dirty, unclean, ikky and kind of horrible. It was like how Peter must have felt after letting Jesus down. Yet that wasn’t the end for Peter. We applied some HP sauce (other sauces are available) and gave it a rub and ta-da one shiny penny. This reminded us of the new start Peter had in Jesus. He could start over again be made new. And Jesus still had an important task for Peter.
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