LESSON OVERVIEW

The following is a brief overview of the lessons to be taught in the following classes:
- Pre-School
- Elemantary grades

March 2, 2008
Today in Sunday School the children learned about Jesus healing a blind man (John 9). Jesus came into this world to forgive us and grant us faith--spiritual sight. He gives sight to our souls by forgiving our sins. In your family faith discussions discuss how sin blinds us in our life of faith. What ways does sin do that? How do the Word and Sacraments give us “eyes of faith” so that we can believe?

March 9, 2008
Today’s Sunday School lesson is the raising of Jesus good friend, Lazarus. In resurrecting Lazarus (John 11:1–45), Jesus demonstrated that He can indeed raise all who believe in Him for salvation. True life is eternal life with Jesus. Talk with your children about how in this life we see and experience the effects of sin—sickness, injury, and death. Assure them that Jesus, our savior from sin and death, has guaranteed that in heaven our lives will be free of sin and its effects eternally. As a family, confess the second article of the Apostles’ Creed together.

March 16, 2008
On this Palm Sunday the Sunday School lesson covers Matthew’s account of the Passion of Christ as He ventured to the cross for you and me. The Father, the perfect, righteous judge of the universe, forsook Jesus on the cross so that the perfect, righteous sacrifice, Jesus Christ could be punished for the sins of the whole world. Talk with your children about the wages of sin (death) and the gift of God (eternal life) in Christ Jesus. Talk about the importance of relying on Jesus blood and merit rather than our own works for salvation as you consider Luther’s explanation to the second article.

March 23, 2008
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia! Today in Sunday School your children are joining in the celebration of Christ’s resurrection as they study Matthew’s account of Easter morning (Matthew 28:1–10). Talk with your children today and this week about the reality of the bodily resurrection and what that means for us and our resurrection from the dead. Christ’s resurrection fills us with confident hope that as Christ has been raised from the dead and that we, too, will rise bodily to eternal life with Him in heaven.

March 30, 2008
On the first Easter, Jesus reveals to Mary Magdalene and to His disciples that He is alive (John 20:1–18). In Sunday School today the children learned how Jesus comes to us in His Word, so that the Spirit can give us faith to believe in Christ’s resurrection and comfort us when we mourn the death of loved ones. Talk with your children about how Christ has reconciled us to God and thus gives us eternal life. Review the third article of the Apostles’ Creed and Luther’s Explanation to it as you talk about how the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts.

April 6, 2008
Today in Sunday School the children learned of how the disciples recognized the resurrected Jesus through the Scriptures and the breaking of bread when he appeared to them on the Emmaus Road (Luke 24:3–15). Talk with your children about how Christ comes to us and abides with us through Word and Sacrament, continuing to open our eyes and strengthening our faith.

April 13, 2008
The children in Sunday School learned how Jesus identified Himself as the “Good Shepherd” and the “Door of the Sheep”. They learned how we entered that door and were made His sheep through Baptism. Talk with your child about how Jesus continues to feed and care for us with His Word and Sacraments. Talk about how other voices, sinful voices, in this world try to draw us away from our shepherd, Jesus.

April 20, 2008
In Sunday School today the children learned how each of us is like the lame beggar as we stand before God (Acts 3). Yet through the means of grace, God’s Word and Sacraments, God bestows on us what Christ accomplished on the cross: forgiveness of sins. In your family discussions, talk about what it means to have the “forgiveness of sins.”

April 27, 2008
In the learning the story of Stephen (Acts 6–7), the first martyr, the children in Sunday School learned how we are crushed and enraged at the accusations of the God’s Law, but the Gospel comes to bring peace and quietness with the forgiveness of our sins. Talk with your children and point out that in church we hear from the pastor the same Word of God that Stephen preached: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

May 4, 2008
In Sunday School today the children learned that as Jesus came to the Ethiopian (Acts 8:26–40), He comes to us in our weakness, for we cannot by our own reason or strength come to Him. In your family faith talks, discuss how the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies us, keeping us with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

May 11, 2008
Today in Sunday School the children learned that as God did with Paul, so God does with us. Through the Law we are crushed by the weight of our sin and are helpless. As God revived Paul through Ananias (Acts 9:1–31), He revives us through our pastors with the proclamation of His Word and the administration of His Sacraments granting forgiveness, life, and salvation to all who believe. Talk to your children about how the Sacraments and God’s Word revive you so that you may live as God’s child.

May 18, 2008
In Sunday School, the children learned the story of Peter and Cornelius (Acts 10) and how like them the Good News comes to us. Talk about how in church we receive the Good News that, although we are judged unrighteous and deserving of death, God mercifully declares us holy, righteous, and innocent because of Christ. What does this mean for our daily lives is a good question to discuss as a family.

May 25, 2008
As it was for Peter, so it is for us is the message of today’s Sunday School lesson (Acts 12). The Word of God is never proclaimed in vain. Though we suffer because of the sin of others, God’s will is done. Talk with your children about modern day persecution of the church of God and how, even in the midst of persecution, God sustains and increases His Church. How does God’s Word break through the chains of our sin and the suffering it causes?