Scripture

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Scripture Mark 13:1-8

Faith Builders 5th - 8th grade Lesson

As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’

Sunday, November 15 Heads Up!

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, ‘Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?’ Then Jesus began to say to them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!”* and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

Opening Activity

Lesson Focus: Listening for Jesus

Lesson Outline: 

Opening Activity: o Video and Comic

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Community Building Activity o Listening SkillsDyads

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Read the Scripture

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Scripture Breakdown

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Small Group Discussions

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Small Group Closing Activity

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Closing Prayer

Watch this video: An End of the World Prediction Gone Wrong

Discuss with the class the times the end of the world has been portrayed in the media. You can share this cartoon too:

Community Building Activity—Listening Skills The best method for learning a new skill or technique is to practice it. One great way to practice listening skills is to interview another person. Break the group up into dyads, or ask the youth to pair up themselves. Ideally, each team will consist of two young people who don't know each other very well. Give instructions as follows:  

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Each person will interview his or her partner for three to five minutes. The goal of each interviewer will be to elicit the following information from his or her partner: Who s/he lives with, favorite and least favorite subjects in school, hobbies, dream job, faith life, and anything else they can glean in 3 minutes. The interviewer's job will be to encourage his or her partner to share information and feelings by using non-verbal signals and active listening, while remaining neutral about his or her partner's opinions. The interviewer will be responsible for reporting the results of their interview to the rest of the class. After three minutes, each dyad will switch roles (listener-speaker).

After explaining the instructions, ask if anyone has any questions. Once the activity has started, use a timer to keep things moving. Give students a "heads up" when they have one minute left to their interview. When time is up, have everyone come back together as a group. Go around the room, asking each person to report the results of interviewing and listening to his or her partner. After each person has had a chance to report, ask the young people to evaluate the process of listening.    

Did they find themselves paying attention to their partners? If not, what was distracting them? Did they feel heard by their partners? If yes, what made them feel like their partner was paying attention? Ask students how they felt in each role (speaker and listener). Do they think their feelings might have impacted upon their listening skills? Do they feel like they know their partners better because of this exercise?

Ask students to add any skills that might have been omitted from this discussion — anything they noticed during the lesson that made them feel their partner was listening to them.

Read Scripture Mark 13:1-8

Scripture Breakdown From the ECLA FaithLens Blog: This portion of Mark’s gospel could be titled, “Don’t Be Distracted.” Don’t be distracted by the size and beauty of the temple, for it will fall. Don’t be distracted by false messiahs; they are imposters. Don’t be distracted by war and strife, these things will happen. The disciples of Jesus’ day had trouble comprehending his hints about the destruction of the temple and his second coming and they were eager for greater clarity about the events that would signal the “beginnings of sorrows.” Modern Christians can perhaps be forgiven if we look for meaning in these signs. After all, we’ve been taught that everything fits, somehow, into God’s plan. We see dramatic events, especially bad ones like war, and wonder where they fit in. And we are eager for a sign that God is still in control. “Take heed,” Jesus says, “that no one deceives you.” We should not let anyone or anything fool us into doubting the reality of God’s covenant in Christ. The temple may fall, but God still stands with his people. Fake prophets and messiahs don’t offer the salvation we receive in Christ. And we must not let trouble in the world or in our lives make us miss the love, comfort and strength God offers when we need it most. We must take care not to overlook God’s daily blessings, or miss an opportunity to be a blessing to someone else. There’s no point in our worrying about events we can’t control or (often) understand. Instead, we can be confident of God’s presence in our lives, and that confidence can reassure us and free our hearts and minds to focus on fulfilling his purpose for each of us.

Small Group Discussions Split into small groups for discussion questions: 1. Jesus asks his disciples to take heed and not be deceived. Who or what might be deceiving Christians today? 2. What distracts you from focusing on God? 3. How can you avoid being deceived? 4. Do you find it easy to listen to Jesus? Why or why not? 5. If you knew the world would end tomorrow, what would you do? Small Group Closing Activity Share with your group the picture of the cairn attached. A cairn is a mound of rough stones built as a memorial or landmark, typically on a hilltop or skyline. These have been used for 1000 of years (it's in our nature to build things up). People have used temples and stones stacked as a marker to Gods presence. Although it may go away, Gods presence to us does not. Focus not on temporal, but eternal things. How/where would you build a cairn to mark God’s presence in your life—to help you remember to listen to Jesus’ words? Draw a picture or build something using playdough/legos/building blocks/etc.

Closing Prayer