This free Bible lesson is based on Mark 12:38-44 when a poor women puts two coins in the treasury which was all she had. It is designed for children’s church or Sunday School. Please modify as best fits your ministry.
If your church follows the Revised Common Lectionary, this teaching plan would correspond to Year B – 24th Sunday after Pentecost, Gospel Reading – Mark 12:38-44.
Opening Activity – Two Coins – Calculating Tithes
Supplies –coins or pretend money, offering basket
Pre-class Prep – make a small stack of money for each child, in $0.10 increments between $0.10, and $1.00.
Make a final stack to include just $0.02. Talk to the kids about tithes and offerings. Tithe = 10% of income
Offering = anything extra. Then, go over how to calculate the tithe, by moving the decimal over one place to the left. Depending on the age of the class, you may be able to skip this step. Lastly, hand out each persons money and give them a minute to figure out their tithe. This will lead into the lesson, so have them hold on to their money until it is time.
Bible Lesson – Two Coins
Did you know that the Bible has a lot to say about money? That’s because money is actually really important.
That’s how we buy things like food and medicine, which we need in order to live.
But did you know that God asks us to give Him money too? He does, but He doesn’t use His money to buy Himself groceries or visit the doctor. God uses His money to support the pastors and missionaries and helpers that tell other people about Jesus. They use that money to buy their families the food and things they need. Or maybe they use that money to travel to far off places so they can tell others about Jesus. Or they might even use that money to buy Bibles, craft supplies, and toilet paper for the church to use. It’s kind of weird to think about God needing to buy toilet paper, but it’s true.
In the Bible, Jesus and His disciples were sitting together outside of church, and they could see everyone bringing their money in to give to God. There were some of rich people bringing in a whole lot of money. They gave their tithe of 10%, just as God told them.
You all still have your money, don’t you? I think it’s time to bring our money up for we can make a tithe. If you have $1.00, stand up and come to the front. These are the super rich, and the Bible says that really liked it when people noticed them. When they went to the church to pay their tithe, they wanted people to notice them, AND they wanted people to notice just how much money they were giving.
So, rich people, how much money is your tithe? $0.10, good job! Now, when you put it in the basket, I want you to make sure everyone is watching, just like the rich people in the Bible.
Ok, now I want each one of you to come up and give your tithe (*except the child with $0.02). And just like the rich people, I want you to make sure everyone is watching.
You all did an amazing job! But we actually have one more person to bring their money up. This is the poorest person of all. In the Bible, it was a widow, which means it was a woman whose husband had died, and she was very, very, very poor. When she brought her money up, she did it quietly, so no one really knew what had happened. Except for Jesus.
So, it looks like our poorest person just dropped in 2 pennies. Which might actually be more than some of you put in. But remember, this is the poorest person, so that means this was more than just a tithe; this was an offering.
Let’s see what Jesus had to say about it.
Jesus called His disciples together and told them that the widow had given more money than everyone else combined. Do you think that’s true? Let’s count it out. Our poorest person gave $0.02, and everyone else gave $_____.
So did the poorest person give more, or less, than everyone else combined? It looks to me like they gave less. WAY less actually. But let’s see what else Jesus had to say about it, because Jesus is always right.
Jesus told His disciples that the rich people gave, but they also kept a whole lot for themselves. But the widow, she gave absolutely everything she had. I mean, EVERYTHING. The only money she had was $0.02, and she she gave all of that money to God, leaving her with nothing.
Wow, I guess Jesus is right; she did give more. She gave everything, while everyone else gave only a little.
It doesn’t matter to God if we give $1 or $1 million. What He cares about is that we give out of love. Not looking for attention. Not because we have to. Not because everyone else is doing it. God wants us to give to Him because we love Him, and we want others to be able to know Him and love Him too.
Activity A – Two Coins – Bible Verse Challenge
Supplies – Bibles
Verse – Mark 12:42-44
Pass out Bibles to students. Bibles should be closed and sitting on the table face up in front of each child. When you say go, have the kids look up this week’s Bible verse. As each child finds the verse, have them stick one finger on the verse and quietly raise their other hand. The first one to find the verse gets to read it to the rest of the class.
Help younger kids and new kids find the verse by following these steps.
Look in the Table of Contents for the book you are looking for. Make an effort to show them if it is found in the Old Testament or New Testament to help them in the future. Then open the Bible to the page number listed in the Table of Contents.
Show them the large numbers in the text, known as the chapters. Flip through pages until you find the large chapter number you are looking for.
Then scan through the text with them pointing out the smaller verse numbers until the correct number is found.
Activity B – Two Coins – Tithe, Save, Spend
Supplies – envelopes, markers
Give each child three envelopes and some markers. On each envelope, have them write one of the following on the front: Tithe 10%, Save 45%, Spend 45%. Then, on the back, have them write at lease one item that money could be used for.
Use the coins from earlier to help kids learn to divide their money between the three envelopes.
Closing Prayer – Two Coins
Ask for a volunteer to pray for the class before leaving, and encourage them to thank God for giving us the chance to help bring more people to know Him by giving our money.
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