Leader Guide

Teaching

Tags:
Discipleship Challenge materials:
  • Lifeline Bookmark
  • String, twine, or yarn in six-inch lengths   
  • Sample craft made in Lesson 1
  • Copy the three Jeremiah Signpost Cards onto cardstock if possible, in color or black and white. 
  • Discipleship Challenge materials (for children who missed previous lessons; see Lesson 1 for details)

Appointed by God: Jeremiah points to Jesus.

Have a child select the first Signpost card and read it aloud. Tape the card to the wall or prop it up so children can see it. Lead a discussion with the information below. Repeat for the other two Signpost cards. Additional material is included for Grades 4–6 to look up and discuss.

Signpost 1 Honor God’s Temple             

Jeremiah’s life and words point us to Jesus. The words that Jeremiah spoke to the people of Israel and to leaders of different nations were not his own. Who gave Jeremiah the words to speak? God.   

God touched Jeremiah’s mouth when He was a young man and said, “Look, I have put My words in your mouth!” Through Jeremiah, God called His people to repent and return to Him. God called Himself the potter; what did He call His people? Clay.

God loves His people and wants to form us according to His plan and purpose. He longs for His children to honor and worship Him. Instead, the people in Jeremiah’s time worshiped idols and dishonored God and His Temple. They believed they could do as they wished and still be safe from God’s anger, simply because the Lord’s Temple was in their midst. The people turned God’s Temple into a market place!        

Jeremiah warned the people as they brought goods into the city gates to sell on the Sabbath day. He called the Temple a den of thieves. Do you remember who also called the Temple a den of thieves many years later? Jesus.

Jesus entered the Temple and turned over the tables and chairs of the merchants and moneychangers. He drove out everyone buying and selling animals for sacrifice. Both Jeremiah and Jesus were bold and took action to purify God’s temple!

Because they were not afraid to speak the truth, both men were falsely accused, arrested, and punished. Both were persecuted by their own people!

OPTIONAL VERSES FOR GRADES 4–6

Jeremiah 7:8-11 (NLT): 

8 “Don’t be fooled into thinking that you will never suffer because the Temple is here. It’s a lie! 9 Do you really think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and burn incense to Baal and all those other new gods of yours, 10 and then come here and stand before Me in My Temple and chant, 'We are safe!'—only to go right back to all those evils again? 11 Don’t you yourselves admit that this Temple, which bears My name, has become a den of thieves? Surely I see all the evil going on there. I, the Lord, have spoken!"

Matthew 21:12-13 (NLT):

12 Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. 13 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”

Jeremiah 20:1-2 (NLT):

1 Now Pashhur son of Immer, the priest in charge of the Temple of the LORD, heard what Jeremiah was prophesying. 2 So he arrested Jeremiah the prophet and had him whipped and put in stocks at the Benjamin Gate of the LORD’s Temple.

Luke 22:13-18 (cev):

 13 Pilate called together the chief priests, the leaders, and the people. 14 He told them, “You brought Jesus to me and said He was a troublemaker. But I have questioned Him here in front of you, and I have not found Him guilty of anything that you say He has done. 15 Herod didn’t find Him guilty either and sent Him back. “This man doesn’t deserve to be put to death! 16-17 I will just have Him beaten with a whip and set free. 18 But the whole crowd shouted, “Kill Jesus! Give us Barabbas!” 

Signpost 2 True Predictions

Jeremiah also points us to Jesus through the prophecies and predictions he made about the future—events that only God could reveal. Jeremiah predicted that the Messiah would be both human and God. How did Jesus come into the world? He came into the world as a baby born to Mary.  

The angel of God named Gabriel announced to Mary that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and she would bring forth a child named Jesus, the Holy one—the Son of God!

OPTIONAL VERSES FOR GRADES 4–6

Jeremiah 33:15-16 (NLT):

 “In those days and at that time I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will do what is just and right throughout the land.” (NLT)  
"In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called: 'THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’" (NKJV). 

Luke 1:28-33 (NLT):

 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name Him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His ancestor David. 33 And He will reign over Israel forever; His Kingdom will never end!”

Romans 1:3-4 (NLT):

3 The Good News is about His Son. In His earthly life He was born into King David’s family line, 4 and He was shown to be the Son of God when He was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.

Signpost 3 The New Covenant

Jeremiah points us to Christ by talking about God’s agreement with His people, called a covenant. The people were angry that Jeremiah was pointing out their sins. He reminded them that they were ignoring the covenant and living in disobedience to God. He warned them that God would punish them for their sins.

However, this was not the end! Jeremiah prophesied that God would make a new promise to Israel. This covenant would be different. He would place His instructions deep within them and write it on their hearts. God would forgive them and no longer remember their sins. What an amazing love God had for His people—and also has for us today!

Sin ruined Israel’s relationship with God. They turned their back on Him to worship false gods and to follow their own ways. It is the same today; sin can ruin our relationship with God. Yet, just like in Jeremiah’s day, God calls us to repent and return to Him. Through Jesus, we have a new covenant or agreement with God. Jesus died for the sins of all people. When we trust in Him, we are forgiven. Our sins are washed away, and He no longer remembers them.  1 John 1:9 says:

"But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”

Jeremiah predicted Jerusalem’s downfall. He also spoke of their bright future in Jeremiah 29:11:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” 

As Jesus, God became man. He lived a sinless life and suffered death on the cross to pay for our sins. He rose to life again to give us a new life here and forever in heaven.

Through Jesus, we share in the hope of the new covenant. John 3:16 says:

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”

OPTIONAL VERSES FOR GRADES 4–6

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NLT):

31 “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord.
33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know Me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”

Luke 22:20 (NLT):

After supper He took another cup of wine and said, "This cup is the new covenant between God and His people—an agreement confirmed with My blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.
Discipleship Challenge/Practical Application


Give any child who missed Lesson 1 a Life Ring Bookmark page and a six-inch length of string, twine, or yarn. Show children the sample craft made in Lesson 1 and have them assemble the craft at home.

Hold up the sample craft.

In the past two lessons, our challenge was to learn the first two parts of Jeremiah 29:11 written on the Life Ring. Who can close their eyes and say it?

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster.”

Did anyone face a difficult situation and choose to take hold of your lifeline instead of worrying? Children respond.

Our final challenge for this course is to learn the last part of Jeremiah 29:11:

“To give you a future and a hope.”

Everyone wants to be filled with hope. If we have hope, we can endure hard times. God is our future, our hope, and salvation; we have a bright future in Him! When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we know that He is living inside us, giving us power and strength and peace. And we also know that someday, He will take us to heaven to live with Him forever!

So let’s say the whole verse together.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

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