Jesus was baptised in the Jordan River by his cousin, John. He was 30 years old. Jesus was not baptised because He needed to repent of wrong but because He wanted to do everything that was right. He “fulfilled all righteousness”. His heavenly Father was “well pleased.”

Scripture References: Matthew 3:13-17

Suggested Emphasis: Please God by obeying Him and making right choices.

Group Share Time

Allow everyone to share a time their parents were proud of them for something. Parents can share times when their children made them proud. Expand this to talking about times when others acted in a way that made teachers, leaders or others pleased by their good choices or behavior. In the story today we will learn of a time that God was very pleased with something his son did.

Story from the Bible

An adult or young reader can read the words below as the slides are shown.

1. Cover: Baptism of Jesus; Matthew 3:13-17

2. God sent Jesus to earth to do a very special work in his life. As he grew up Jesus waited patiently until the right time to begin God’s special work.

3. Jesus was the Son of God but he was also a human being living on this earth. He learned all the things that a human being needs to know. Jesus grew up in the town of Nazareth. His mother was Mary and Mary’s husband was Joseph.

4. Joseph treated Jesus like he was his own son. Joseph was a carpenter and he taught Jesus how to do carpentry work.

5. Finally, when Jesus was 30 years old, the time came to do God’s special work. Jesus left his hometown of Nazareth to begin his preaching ministry.

6. The first place Jesus went was to the Jordan River where his cousin, John, was preaching. Jesus knew that John was telling people that they needed to repent of their sins. They needed to and have soft hearts towards God. Many people were being baptised.

7. John the Baptist was baptising people because they were sorry for bad things they had done. John was so surprised when JESUS came to him and wanted to be baptised. How could this be? Jesus had never done bad things. Why should he be baptised? John said to Jesus, “I should not baptise you. You should baptise me instead!”

8. But Jesus insisted that John baptise him. He explained to John that obeying God is not just about stopping the bad things in your life. Obeying God is also about doing what is right. Being baptised was the right thing to do and Jesus wanted everyone to know that he chose to do everything right and follow God.

9. So John took Jesus down into the Jordan River and baptised him. He put Jesus all the way under the water and then pulled him back up again.

10. John had baptised many people but this time something was very different. Something very special happened after Jesus was baptised. The clouds began to move apart and the sky opened up. The Holy Spirit came down out of heaven like a beautiful dove and landed on Jesus. The voice of God also came from heaven. God said, “This is my Son and I love him. I am very pleased with him.”

11. Now John knew for sure that Jesus was the Son of God. Jesus was the Messiah who came to save the world. Jesus was the King of the Jews. God loved the world so much that he had sent his son, Jesus, to the earth.

Jesus made God very happy that day because he chose to do the right thing. Do you choose to do the right thing? What things do you do to make God happy? (Let children answer.)

Verse(s) to Think About

“And a voice spoke from heaven. The voice said, ‘This is my Son and I love him. I am very pleased with him.’” Matthew 3:17

“But Jesus said, ‘Those who hear the teaching of God and obey it—they are the ones who are truly blessed.’” Luke 11:28

“If you love me, you will do the things I command.” John 14:15

“You are my friends if you do what I command you.” John 15:14

Choose Activities and Learn Together

Select activities that suit your family or group. Consider ages and abilities and how to involve everyone present in at least one of the activities.

AT HOME: Search for awards, diplomas or certificates in your home and talk about how each of these honours represent some sort of accomplishment and feeling of pride.
EXPLORE: Use Google earth or other maps to find the Jordan River.
IN THE WORD: Compare the baptism of Jesus with other examples of baptism in the Bible. How are they the same? How are they different? How does this relate to your own baptism experience? Examples: Acts 2:38-39; Acts 8:36-40; Acts 19:1-5
GAME/ACTIVITY: Draw a line down the center of a blank poster board to form two columns. At the top of one column write “To obey is to stop doing wrong” and on the other write “To obey is to do right”. Fill the columns with examples of each. How are each of these important in a Christian’s life?
CREATIVE: Pair up adults and children. The adult can draw stick figures of John the Baptist and Jesus in the water. Then the child can continue the drawing with crayons or marders to colour the water. Alternatively, they could use paints.
LIFE APPLICATION: Before class write situations on individual cards. For a mixed age group perhaps childhood situations could be written on cards of one colour while situations relating to teens and then adults on cards of other colours. Everyone can take turns reading the situations out loud. Use a coin toss or roll of dice to decide if a right or wrong choice should be made in that situation. Example: “heads” is the right choice and “tails” is the wrong.
- Child situations could include playground, siblings, parents and/or school.
- Teenage situations could involve school, friends, entertainment and/or social life.
- Adult situations might be those involving relationships, work , employers and employees, obeying the law and/or attitudes.
- For mixed ages write Child reads a situation that says: “My brother gets to go to the movies and I don’t.” The child tosses the coin and it is “tails” so the child might decide that the thing to do in that situation would be to cry and whine to their mother. Class can then decide the consequences of making the choice to do wrong.
LITTLE ONES: For younger children download a colouring picture. Try some new ways to use colouring pictures.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: If “Dove” brand chocolates available serve those. Veges or chips can be served with dip as a fun reminder of Jesus being dipped in the Jordan.

Song Suggestions:

Singing does not have to be a performance. Don’t take yourself too seriously. In the privacy of your own home or within a small group allow yourself to just be genuine and enjoy the experience together.

Singing songs yourself is more reliable than viewing them online. If you are viewing published videos online on forums such as YouTube be sure and preview them first to make sure there are not unhelpful advertisements. To avoid long pauses due to internet speed issues play the song through once before you begin and then hold it paused and ready to go at the beginning of the song.

Deep and Wide Song
I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N (Song)
As a group make up some verses to the following song sung to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”. If you have a larger group divide into to teams and sing verses back and forth:
If you love God and you know it *don’t tell lies.
If you love God and you know it *don’t tell lies.
If you love God and you know it then your life will surely show it.
If you love God and you know it *don’t tell lies.
*other verses could be things like “obey your parents”, “never steal” or “say kind words”.
Trust and Obey (A Capella Hymns on YouTube-singalong)
More songs to choose from