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Children's Sermon / Sunday School lesson: Fishers of Men


Sunday school talk / Sermon idea: Luke 5:1-11   Fishers of Men
Show the children a large fishing net or use a blanket as a pretend fish net. Explain how they used to fish with nets and how Jesus said his disciples were to be “fishers of men” or “fishers of people.”
Have the children take a corner of the “net” and move about “catching” some people and bringing them in to your group. (Alternative: Consider making a “net” by having some of the kid’s link arms together.”)
 
  fisher of men
Objects needed: a large piece of netting or a blanket that you can use as a pretend fishing net.
 
Complete children’s sermon / Sunday school lesson introduction: Evangelism
 
Good morning children! The bible reading that we have for today is about Jesus telling his disciples that he is going to make them “fishers of people.” One day Jesus met some fishermen named Peter, James and John. After doing a wonderful miracle of catching many fish, Jesus called them to follow him. He said that he would change their jobs from being fishers of fish to being fisher on men /people! Instead of catching fish Jesus wanted them to start catching people! He wanted them to tell others about Jesus and bring them along as followers. Instead of bringing fish into the boat he wanted them to bring people into the church and into the Kingdom of God. I want to show you what I mean. I need a few of you to come over here. (Have some of the children stand a little ways away from the group.) Let’s pretend that you don’t know anything about Jesus and his love. OK. Now let’s have some more of you stand over here. (Have another little group stand off to the other side) Let’s pretend they don’t know about Jesus and his love either. Now the rest of us here will be the “fishers of men.” Some of you can take the corners of this blanket. Perfect! Now let’s go and do some fishing. Follow me. Hey! Look over here. These people look a little lost. I think we need to bring them into the Kingdom of God. Let’s come around them and bring them into the church. (Scoop them up and bring them front and center.) Great. However, there are still some more people over there that look like they are on the outside. Let’s go and fish for those people. (“Net” these people and bring them in so you are all together as a big group.) You did a good job being fishers of people.
Although we don’t use a real net to bring people to Jesus he does want us to go out and “catch” people and bring them in the Kingdom. There are many things we can do to be good fishers of people. We can show love and care to other people. We can tell them about Jesus and his wonderful love. We can pray for them. And we can invite them here to church where they can experience some of the love and joy of the family of God. With the Holy Spirit’s help they just might decide to be followers of Jesus, just like the rest of us fish!
 
Children’s Prayer: Dear God, as followers of Jesus help us to be good fishers of men. Help us show your love by our words and by our actions so that many people would be brought into your Kingdom. Help us to be good fishers of men like Peter, James and John. Amen!

Copyright Sundaychildrensfocus.com  Andrew Hewlett  Feel free to use this talk on Sunday morning but please give credit to sundaychildrensfocus.com and consider linking to this site. Blessings, A.H.

 

Children’s Sermon / Sunday school lesson – Christian Unity

    1 Corinthians 12:12-31 The Body of Christ
 
Sermon / object lesson: Prior to your talk, have a child lie down on a large piece of cardboard so that you can trace the outline of his/her body. Then cut cardboard body part pieces into a simple “body puzzle.” During your kids talk hold up various cardboard “body parts” and discuss how all alone they are not much good. Get the children to each hold a body part and see if you can quickly hold them in place to make the whole body complete. Congratulate the children and explain how when the body is together it is alive and effective. Explain how each of us, with our different gifts is a part of the body of Christ. We need each other and we need to be together in unity if we are going to be effective in “being Jesus” to a broken world.
 
(As a Sunday school lesson you could go into much more detail about use of gifts, how we need each other, and the idea that we are the “hands and feet” of Jesus. We are the church, the physical manifestation of our risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.)
 
Objects Lesson items: Large cardboard body part “cut outs” made out of cardboard. I would suggest about ten body parts (left hand, right hand, head, left foot, etc.)
 
Children’s sermon: Good morning children! One of our bible readings this morning is from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. In his letter Paul encourages the believers to all work together as one unit. He said that in the same way a body is made up of many parts, each of us is like a part of the body of Christ – his church. I’ll show you what I mean. (Bring out your cardboard body parts. Hold up some individual parts.) What this? Yes, it’s a hand. If a hand was all by itself would it be much good? Right. It wouldn’t. What’s this? Yes, it’s a foot. Would a foot be much good all on its own? Etc.
It’s pretty easy to see that each part of the body needs each other. Let’s see if we can put the parts of the body together into a whole body. (Hand out the different parts and help hold them in place (upright) so that everyone in the congregation can see. After you have all the parts in place give the children a cheer to congratulate them.) That’s wonderful. Please keep holding the body parts in place for a moment. Now all the parts are together and this person could do all kinds of good things. (You could give some examples.) Each one of us has different and special gifts and talents. Trying to use our gifts alone doesn’t really work. We need other people’s gifts and talents and other people need our gifts and talents. God made us to be together like different parts of the same body.
 
Children’s Prayer: Dear God, thank you that each of us is a special person with special gifts and talents. Thank you that I have gifts that other people need and other people have gifts that I need. Help us all to work together like a body with many parts. In Jesus name – Amen!

Copyright sundaychildrensfocus.com Andrew Hewlett   - Feel free to use this lesson on Sunday morning but please give credit to Sundaychildrensfocus and consider linking to this site. Thanks - A.H.

 

A Fresh New Year - Children's Sermon / Object lesson

 

   (Church year: Season of Ephiphany - as an alternate to this talk about The Three Wise Men (in progress - check it out)
Happy New Year

Children’s Sermon idea: This is an object lesson about starting afresh in the New Year. Show your day timer or notebook from the previous year. Show that it is a little messy and discuss some regrets, mistakes and the fact you didn’t do some things that you believe God wanted you to do. Then show them your brand new day timer or notebook representing the New Year. There is no point in trying to change the past but we have an opportunity to start afresh and write on our planner / calendar the things that God wants us to do for the coming year. Consider getting the kids to suggest some things to put on your “to do” list. (For dramatic effect you could throw you old day timer or notebook in the garbage bin.)
 --- Another idea: Show some Old items and contrast them with New items you recieved at Christmas. Use this to discuss that we have a brand new year that God has given as a gift to us. 
(Note: Churches that follow the liturgical calendar will recognize that Advent is the beginning of the church year. However, most kids still recognize this as “the New Year.”)
 
Object lesson props: Old day timer, calendar or notebook and a clean, new day timer, calendar or notebook.
Alternative: If children are very young you could also use a used coloring book and a new coloring book instead of a calendar.
Or....use a dirty blackboard representing last year and clean it off to demonstrate that God has a brand new year full of new excitement. 
 
Full Children’s Sermon: Good morning children. I trust you all had a good Christmas. At this time of year you often hear people saying “Merry Christmas.” Sometimes you hear people say “Merry Christmas and a happy _____ _____ ?” That’s right, a Happy New Year. A brand new year started on January 1. This is the new year of 2010. Now is a good time to think about planning to do the things that God wants us to do in this New Year. I want you to look at these two notebooks. This book is the planning book that I used for last year and this is my new planning book. Let’s look at the old one that I used last year. Wow. It’s a bit messy isn’t it? Let’s look through it. (Discuss successes, failures, mistakes and things you didn’t get around to doing.) Now look at this new planning book that I’m going to use for the coming year. (Show them the nice clean pages.) Doesn’t this look nice? Nothing has happened yet so I have the opportunity to start afresh. I can’t change the past but I can plan to do the things that God wants me to do this year. The beginning of the year is a good time to pray and ask God to show you the things he wants you to do in the coming year. There also might be some things you don’t want to do in the coming year. It’s also good to ask God to give you his strength and power to do his will. We can’t do the work of God in our own strength; we need the power of the Holy Spirit to help us. (Consider getting the kids to suggest some good activities and write them into your notebook right there. After you have finished you could throw your old day timer or notebook into the garbage)
 
Children’s Prayer: Dear God, thank you that it is the beginning of a new year. Please forgive us for the things we’ve done wrong in the past year and give us your strength to live for you in the New Year to come. This is the beginning of an exciting new adventure. Thank you that you promise to be with us and guide us every day. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

Copyright Andrew Hewlett - Sundaychildrensfocus.com   Feel free to use this on Sunday morning but please give credit to Sundaychildrensfocus.com and consider putting a link to this site. Blessings, Andrew


Children’s sermon: Jesus turns the water to wine

John 2:1-11 Epiphany 2 – Wedding at Cana     

 Water into Wine
Children’s sermon / object lesson idea: Give a paraphrased explanation of Jesus turning the water into wine. While you tell the story place 6 empty glasses (representing the six stone jars) on a bench where the children can see them. For special effect put a drop or two of red food colouring in the bottom of each cup. As you explain how Jesus turned the water into wine pour clear water into the six glasses. The water will instantly turn red. Explain how you did your visual effect with food colouring but explain how Jesus really turned in into wine.
 
Object lesson items: six clear glasses, some drops of food colouring placed in the bottom of each cup, a large clear pitcher of clean water.
 
Children’s Sermon: Good morning children! Today’s bible reading is about a very special day when Jesus turned water into wine. It was a wonderful miracle. This showed Jesus’ wonderful power and also his concern that a wedding celebration would be a success. I’ll tell you what happened and give a little demonstration with these glasses. One day there was a wedding celebration in a place called Cana in Galilee. Jesus, his mother, and the disciples were invited to the wedding. All of a sudden they realized that they had run out of wine. The people of that day considered this to be a terrible, embarrassing mistake. When Jesus found out about this he asked the servants to fill up six jars with water. (Pick up the pitcher of water and fill up the glasses. The food colouring will make the water look like wine.)
When they had finished filling up the jars Jesus asked the servants to take some to the master of the wedding. When the master tasted the water (taste some of the water) he was amazed that it was such good tasting wine. He said that they had obviously saved this best wine until last. Not everyone knew where the wine had come from but the servants did. The disciples also knew that it was Jesus that turned the water into wine. This wonderful miracle helped them to place their trust in Jesus.
Well, that’s what happened on that special day long ago. I’ll show you how I did it. (Explain how you used food colouring.) However, Jesus really did turn the water into wine. It was a great miracle and it showed that Jesus was no ordinary person. He was the son of God!
 
Children’s Prayer: Dear God. Thank you for this wonderful miracle that Jesus did many years ago. Thank you that even though we can’t see him he is alive and he loves us so very much. Help us to trust in him just like the disciples did. We ask this in Jesus’ name – Amen!

Copyright Sundaychildrensfocus.com Andrew Hewlett   - Feel free to use this lesson on Sunday morning but please give credit to sundaychildrensfocus.com and consider placing a link to this site. Blessings, A.H.

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