Mystery Manor – Week 2

Mystery question: Are God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit the same?

Need to Know: God is Three in one!

Bible Story: Creation; Angel speaks to Mary; Jesus is Baptized; The Cross

Genesis 1:1-2, 26-27

Luke 1:26-38

Matthew 3:13-17

Luke 23:44-47

Memory verse: But without faith (cover eyes) no one (shake head) can please God. (Point up) We must believe (hand over heart) that God is real (nod head) and that He rewards everyone (hands out in front) who searches for Him. (Point up) Hebrews 11:6

Preparation:

Making invisible ink!

Please have the following items ready for after the lesson:

1. Baking soda (A tablespoon measurement)
2. A bank paper
3. Earbuds (4)
4. Small bowl
5. Newspaper to work on (we don’t want to make a mess)
6. A glass of water
7. Colouring pencils/ grape juice
8. Paintbrush (if you going to use grape juice)

Worship Time

Lesson:

Welcome back to our new series Mystery Manner!️‍♀️🕵️‍♂️ I hope that you are excited to hear what Parker and Stevie are going to find today!

Before we get into our great mystery with Parker and Stevie, let’s get up! Shake up! And get ready for praise and worship.

Story time:

Question: Has anyone ever wondered if God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the same? I can definitely say that I have. Are you ready to meet up with Parker and Stevie as they investigate this great mystery today? Let’s meet up with them in 5…4…3…2…1 here we go!

Stevie holds on to Parker’s T-shirt pulling him to the kitchen. Parker all confused and doesn’t understand why Stevie is pulling him to the kitchen shouts “Stevie! Why are you pulling me to the kitchen? Now is definitely not the time for a snack, we just found our next clue!

“Don’t be ridiculous Parker” Stevie says laughing, “I didn’t come in here to get a snack, I came here because the kitchen has better light”. Stevie took a close look at the page from grandpa Pif-Paf’s Bible “Please be careful with it, you don’t want to tear it” Parker exclaims. “Oh Parker, just as I thought, this is probably some meaningless little note that Great Grandpa Pif-Paf left on this Bible page, like a reminder dentures (artificial teeth) in. Stevie holds the page up for Parker to see. “Now Parker, I’m one step closer to proving that this mystery is all made up” Stevie says to Parker.

Parker however, disagreed with Stevie, believing that this could be the next BIG clue. Parker believes that these are like a series of clues that will definitely lead to them solving the MYSTERY! Stevie in disbelief rolled his eyes, still unable to grasp the fact that Parker believes that there is a  ”BIG MYSTERY” to be solved. “This is just some old man scribble scrabble” he says. Parker being persistent reaches into Stevie’s detective bag to find the magnifying glass “I’m going to find out what the clue says, okay! Stevie was not okay with the fact that

Parker took the magnifying glass out of his bag “Uhm….first of all excuse you! Second of all, there is no way that you’ll be able to read that Parker, it’s almost impossible to see”

“Well I’m sure you probably have something in your bag that can restore faded ink, don’t you Mr Smarty pants” Parker sarcastically says. Stevie surprisingly had something that could restore faded the ink on the Bible page that grandpa Pif-Paf left. This according to Stevie is a risky procedure, and the cousins should be very cautious when doing it, because one wrong move could mean that the document would be ruined!

This left the cousins with one tough choice to make, either not do anything and never know what the clue says or risk ruining the document while trying to figure what the clue says.  “As a scientist, I would recommend that we be thorough in our search, but if you want to give up now Parker, I’m okay with that too. Parker was stressed and didn’t know what to do, this was a pretty tough choice to make, and he was really excited about the clue. Parker gained confidence after giving it a thorough thought, he then took the Bible page and placed it on the kitchen table “Okay the Stevie, let’s do it!” 

Stevie reached into his detective bag and took out three different bottles. One of the three solutions could work to restore the ink. “I’ve got lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide (bleach), and some ammonia (for purification)” Parker was disgusted by the smell of the ammonia, “EWWWWW! You have a sickness in your bottle”. Stevie rolled his eyes ad explaining “No, ammonia is a cleaning material” 

The ink on the paper has just faded over time according to the observation Stevie had made while examining the page. After thinking for quite some time Stevie decided that the best solution to use is lemon juice. Stevie took out his safety goggles and gloves from the detective, he puts them on before he did the experiment. Parker was very impressed that Stevie –who didn’t believe that this MYSTERY could be true- was prepared.  Just as Stevie was getting ready to use the lemon juice he discovered that the lemon juice bottle was empty, he had forgotten to refill it after his previous experiment. The cousins ended up using stale lemon heads that Parker found behind some kitchen utensils. It WORKED! The stale lemon heads actually worked!

“Quick Parker, grab a notebook and pen from my detective bag and write down what it says before the lemon juice fades”. After writing it down Parker read the clue aloud “It looks like some kind of riddle, it says” clue “HOLY SPIRIT, FATHER, SON. THIS GREAT MYSTERY: 3in1, this is definitely the next CLUE!” Parker took the recipe box that had a 3in1 symbol on it, from the shelf he found the Lemonheads. Stevie opened up the recipe box (clue 2) that had the same 3in1 symbol on it as the Bible page (clue 1) had. Disappointingly Parker picks up one of the coloured lenses that were inside of the box “What are these? Contact lenses for a giant” he then places it on his eye. Stevie took the other coloured lens that was in the box and placed it on his eye, as he explained to Parker what it was “these are coloured caps for light Parker”. He reaches in his detective bag and took out the flashlight. “When I shine the light through one of these lenses, the light appears to be that colour”. Amazed by this discovery Parker checks to see if there was anything else in the recipe box. “It’s a puzzle” Stevie said to Parker. “Wait a second! Stevie, when I put those coloured lenses over the clue, I could see something that wasn’t there before”

“Yes Parker, this is called 3D. This is an invention of glasses with three coloured lenses overlaid”. Sarcastically Parker replies to Stevie “how fascinating”. Stevie is still in great disbelief, as clever as the clue was he still could not get how God can be three in one, “that’s not even possible” he says. “Let’s see how grandpa Pif-Paf would explain this Stevie”.

“Okay Parker, this has gone too far. God is three in one? He’s one God AND he’s three persons…but not three Gods?” confusingly Stevie says to Parker. “This makes perfect sense Stevie, I get it”. “Please explain to me Parker”.  Parker starts explaining to Stevie, “It’s like the puzzle from the box said, God is three in one. That means God is made up of the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son….God is three in one”. This was a lot said, Stevie was still very much confused and did not understand what Parker was saying. “It’s like these three lenses Stevie, when you look at them all together, you see black, but it is actually made up of red, blue and green! So it’s all one color, but made up of three colors! Each color has a different job but together they are one color”.

“So when God said, ‘let Us make people reflect our own image’, He was talking about God the Father, Holy Spirit and Jesus the Son right?” Stevie asked. “You are correct Stevie”.

“I think we have even more to think about” Stevie exclaimed, “there is definitely more to this MYSTERY than I first gave it credit for. Look Parker! The lemon juice must have dripped down and made something appear on this page from the Bible that wasn’t there before!”

Could that be the next BIG CLUE for cousins Parker and Stevie?

TO BE CONTINUED…

Activity time:

Introduce the memory verse:

But without faith (cover eyes) no one (shake head) can please God. (Point up) We must believe (hand over heart) that God is real (nod head) and that He rewards everyone (hands out in front) who searches for Him. (Point up) Hebrews 11:6

Discussion: Have you wondered how it could be possible that God is three in one?  We can’t figure out everything about God, but this helps us begin to understand the mystery of God being three in one! And that is what we need to know today! GOD IS THREE IN ONE

Can you remember what we learned in the Bible story?

1. True or False: God has always been and will always be alive. (True)
2. Who moved like a bird over the water when God the Father created the world: The Holy Spirit or seagulls? (The Holy Spirit)
3. When the angel Gabriel came to Mary, who did Gabriel say Mary was going to have? (Jesus the Son of God)
4. When Jesus came up out of the water He was baptized, what did He see? (The Holy Spirit like a dove)
5. When Jesus was on the cross, who did He talk to? (God the Father)
6. How can we know God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the same? (God is three persons in one)

So here is the answer to our MYSTERY question & what we need to know today:

GOD IS THREE IN ONE!

Repeat the memory verse:

But without faith (cover eyes) no one (shake head) can please God. (Point up) We must believe (hand over heart) that God is real (nod head) and that He rewards everyone (hands out in front) who searches for Him. (Point up) Hebrews 11:6

Are you ready to make some invisible ink? Let’s get straight to it!

INVISIBLE INK TIME!

Method:

1. Put baking soda into the empty bowl
2. Throw water into the bowl with the baking soda inside
3. Dip earbuds into the mixture and write you an invisible message on the blank paper
4. Colour lightly over your message and watch it appear on the paper.

For use of the grape juice:

• For use of the grape juice, dip the paintbrush into the juice and lightly paint over your invisible message and watch as it appears

Have fun watching your invisible messages appear!