1 Peter Sunday School Lesson for Kids -

Who Are We?

from...

The Rock: Children Sunday School Lessons on the Apostle Peter by [Wilson, Rev. Stephen R.]

Use this children’s Sunday School lesson to tell students how special they are in Christ.

Needed: Bibles

Intro Game: Taking Our Place

Divide students into two teams for a game of Freeze Tag. Choose one team to be It, chasing the other team. Then, choose one student from the team being chased. They are “Jesus.” They cannot be tagged. They can go stand in the place of a frozen team member, allowing them to run again. When “Jesus” takes the place of someone else, they must stay there for 3 seconds since Jesus was in the grave for three days.

Before the game, set a timer for 3 or 5 minutes, depending on how many students you have. If the team chasing the other gets everyone out within that time limit, they win. If they don’t, the team being chased wins.

Switch roles and play again.

Lesson

Tell students, Like the other Apostles, Peter traveled to different towns and started churches in all the towns he visited. Then, later, after he left those towns, he would send letters back to the churches to teach them more about God.

The lesson we’re going to learn today is part of Peter’s letter to one of the churches. The things Peter wrote in that letter to teach the church back then can also teach us today.

(Read 1 Peter 2:9-10.)

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

“Peter is telling the people and us what we are. The first thing he says is that we are a chosen people. What do you think it means for us to be a chosen people? Who chose us? (God chose us to be His people.)

God chose you. Think about that. God, who created everything—the sun and the stars, and everything there is—chose you! God loves you that much!

Peter also says that we are a royal priesthood. What does the word royal mean?

It means that you are a king or a queen or that you’re in the king or queen’s family.

How are we royal?

We’re royal because we’re in God’s family, and God is the King of the whole Universe. We’re His royal children, princes and princesses in God’s Kingdom.

We are also priests. What does a priest do?

A priest is another name for pastor. Priests and pastors pray to God for people and teach people about God.

How can we be priests and pastors to other people?

We can pray for people and tell them about God and Jesus.

Peter says that we are holy. What does the word holy mean? (Special or different.)

How are we supposed to be special or different from other people for God?

As God’s people, we listen to God. We believe what God wants us to believe and do what God what God wants us to do. We obey God’s rules and do the right things, even if other people don’t.

Peter says that God called us out of darkness into the light. What do you think he means by the darkness? (Our sins.)

And what is the light? (Believing in God and having God forgive us for our sins.)

Peter says that God gave us mercy. What does the word mercy mean?

It means that we were supposed to be punished for something, but God didn’t punish us. He gave us mercy.

What were we supposed to be punished for?

We were supposed to be punished for our sins, but God sent Jesus to die on the cross to take our punishment for us so that we could be forgiven for our sins, for all the wrong things that we’ve done. Jesus took our place.

So, Peter is telling us to remember how special we are. We are God’s royal children. He chose us to follow Him and to teach other people about Him, and He forgave us for all of our sins.

Game: Called out Darkness into Light

Dim the lights and shine a flashlight on the wall or on the floor. Make it go different places. Tell the students that they have to follow the light. The last one to reach a new spot is out. The last student in the game gets to shine the light for the new round.

Remind students that God called us out of the darkness of our sins into His light.

Game: Disciple Tag

Remind students that as God’s royal priesthood, it’s our job to tell other people about Him.

Choose one student to be It. When they tag someone, that person links hands with them and joins their team. They continue adding people to their team, linking hands with each one until all but one student is part of their chain. That remaining student becomes It for the next round.

Play two or three rounds and then, explain that when we tell people about Jesus, we want them to believe in Jesus too. If they do, they become a Christian and join our team. Then, they help us tell more people about Jesus.

Closing Prayer

Father God, we thank You for sending Jesus to take our punishment for us and for making us Your special, royal children, Your priests to share the message about You. Help us to live the way You want us to so that we can honor You. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.