Calling of Matthew

CALLING OF MATTHEW

Objectives:

  1. Children should know that Matthew was a tax collector.
  2. Children should know that Matthew was one of Jesus’s disciples.
  3. Children should memorize the 12 disciples.

 

Possible Lesson Plan:

  1. Open with prayer.

 

  1. Read the story of Matthew in the Beginner’s Bible, pages 311-313, or  the Read with Me Bible, page 294. Supplement with the Golden Children’s Bible, pages 370-371, or the Arch book, “The Man Who Learned to Give”. What was Matthew’s job? Was he liked by most people? Why or why not?

 

  1. True/False Questions:

True                                                     False

            Matthew was a tax collector.                          Matthew was a doctor.

            Jesus went to Matthew’s house.                     Jesus hated Matthew.

            Matthew was Jesus’s disciple.                        Matthew hated Jesus.

            Matthew gave back the money he stole.         Matthew stole Jesus’s money.

 

Add Matthew, the Tax Collector, to your timeline:

  1. Talk a bit about liking people: What makes someone a good friend, a nice person? Have the children come up with some characteristics. What makes someone a “bad” person? Did most people think Matthew was a nice person or a bad person? Why? Did most people like Matthew? Did they visit him? Were they nice to him? How did Jesus treat Matthew? Do you know some people who are not so nice? How do we treat people who are not so nice? Are we being like Jesus?

 

  1. Make a Money Pouch: Take a circle of leather or heavy fabric or felt. Cut 8 holes around the top. Use 2 shoelaces or heavy yarn or twine for each pouch and lace around the top, one in each direction. Pull tight and knot drawstring. Decorate the outside with fabric markers or acrylic paint if desired.

  Alternate Craft: Work instead on learning the names of all the disciples, now all called by our LOrd with the addition of Matthew. Use popsicle sticks and glue dots, allow the students to write in the names or do it ahead of time with a sharpie, decorate with faces and color the rest of the popsicle stick, and glue to the carrying stick to get the entire project home and display it. 

 

  1. Close with prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to love even people who are not nice to me and to be like You.