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Short Fun Children's sermon - The Authority of Jesus questioned

 
Children’s Sermon idea:
After welcoming the children / youth arrange to be interrupted by “Jesus.” (Someone who might look like Jesus and wear a long robe. In order to make it clear they could wear a sign, “JESUS.”) After Jesus asks to speak to the children explain that this is YOUR time for teaching and that he will have to find something else to do. Have fun with the interaction. Then debrief with the children and explain how crazy it would be to tell Jesus that he is not allowed to teach. It’s His Church and he is God the Son! Give a short explanation of the Matt 21:23-28 and remind that children that he is the most important person in the church and in our lives.
 
Object lesson items / props: This involves some dramatic preparation. Pick someone to be Jesus. They could wear a bathrobe with a sign that says “Jesus.”
 
Full (Free!) Kids Sermon:
Good morning children! This morning I would like to talk to you about our bible reading from Matthew chapter 21…(Make this the cue for JESUS to come up front and interrupt you by asking to speak to the children. ) “Excuse me, I’m Jesus and I would like to speak to the children this morning.” (Look startled and perplexed.) Wow. It’s great to have you hear Jesus but it is actually my job to speak to the children on Sunday mornings. “But I have something important to say to the children…” Well, you need to understand that I was hired to be the pastor (or youth group teacher) of this church so I don’t think you should be doing my job. “But I just want to tell my children about my love…” Hey! I think you should go now before you put me out of a job…(User Jesus off to the side.)
 
(Let’s give Mr____ a big hand for helping me out with this little drama.)
 
Children, that was just a fun little drama to remind us of how foolish it would be to tell Jesus that he couldn’t speak in our church. Of course we would want Jesus to speak to us. This is His church, He is our Saviour and we would always want to let him speak to us. Since He is the “Boss” it would be terrible if I didn’t let him speak in His church. However, that is what seemed to happen in our bible lesson today for Matthew chapter 21. The religious leaders got angry that Jesus was teaching the people. They said it was their job and not his. But we know that Jesus had been put in charge by God the Father. However, even though Jesus the most important person of all the leaders didn’t like him teaching the people.
 
Our little drama and the reading from the Bible should remind us that Jesus is the most important person the whole world. He is our boss or leader and the most important teacher of all. We should always read our Bible and learn more about Jesus the wonderful teacher. The good news is that he is still alive and guides us, leads us, and teaches us through the Holy Spirit.
 

Children’s Prayer: Thank you God for sending Jesus. Help us to learn from Him and follow him each day of our life. In Jesus’ name – Amen.

Copyright sundaychildrensfocus.com  2011 Andrew Hewlett   Feel free to use this on Sunday morning but please give credit to Sundaychildrensfocus  

Kids drama sermon - Matthew 20: 1-15 Parable of the workers in the vineyard

 
Idea for Children’s sermon:   
 
(1) Consider acting out the parable. Pick out the key actors and ask them to act the story out as you give a paraphrased account of the story.
 
--Another option:
 
(2) Have a long time member of the congregation (or older believer) come up front. Hand them a big box and explain to the children that this represents (or shows us) that this faithful order Christian has received a “big box” of the wonderful life and love of Jesus Christ. Then bring up another younger person who has only been a Christian for a short period of time. Ask the children what size box of Jesus’ love and life they should have. Hand them the same size box and explain how even new believers get the same huge amount of God’s love and life in Jesus Christ.
 
Object lesson items needed: Two large boxes the same size. In big letters write on each box, “The Love and Life of Jesus Christ.
 
Full Children’s Sermon:
 
Good Morning Children! This morning I’m going to ask Mr. Jones to come up in front of the church with us. (Ask Mr. Jones to come forward.) He is a very special person because he is 80 years old. He has always been a believer in Jesus Christ and he has been a member of our church longer than anyone else has. I wonder how much of the life and love of Jesus Christ has been given to him. I’m going to pretend the life and love of Jesus Christ is like this big box. (Hand the box to Mr. Jones.) He has been a believer for a very long time and I think he should have large amount of God’s live and love in Jesus Christ. Now, I’m going to ask another person to come forward. Debbie, will you please come forward? Debbie is only 16 years old and she has only been a believer in Jesus for one year! Some of you might remember when she was baptized. Since Debbie is a brand new Christian, how much of the life and love of Jesus Christ does she get? Should she perhaps get a little amount like this small box here? (Hold it up besides Mr. Jones’ box.) That would make sense wouldn’t it? She hasn’t been following Jesus nearly as much as Mr. Jones here. However, do you know what is amazing? The bible says that a new Christian believer like Debbie gets just as much of the life and love of Jesus as a long time believer like Mr. Jones. (Put the small box down and hand them a large box the same size as Mr. Jones’ to Debbie.) Isn’t that wonderful. God blesses us with a huge amount of the life and love of Jesus Christ even if we are a new Christian! Notice too the big smile on Mr. Jones’ face. He does not feel this is unfair. He’s happy that Debbie has this same wonderful gift of love and joy.
 
Children’s Prayer: Dear God, thank you for your life and love that is in Jesus Christ your Son. There is more than enough to go around. Thank you that like these big boxes here, you have a big amount of your love and life for each of us even if we are a new Christian. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

Copyright 2011 Sundaychildrensfocus.com   Andrew Hewlett  Feel free to use this on Sunday but please give credit to Sundaychildrensfocus and consider linking to this web site.  Thanks  - A.H.

Children's object lesson - Parable of the weeds and the wheat    Matt 13: 24-30, 36-43  
-- For Sunday school, youth group or children's church --

 
Sunday School Sermon idea: Have a bag filled with different types of weeds along with small flowers or plants. Making two piles, have the children decide which are the good plants and which are the weeds. After this hold up cut out pictures of people (from a magazine). Ask them if they can decide who are the good people and who are the bad people. After seeing the pictures and realizing it cannot be done, explain how it’s not really our job to go around separating good people from bad people. Our job is to show love and care to all people.
 
Object lesson items: Some weeds; some small flowers or plants; Pictures of people cut out from a magazine.
 
Complete kids sermon: Good morning children! Have any of you helped plant things in the garden or helped pull weeds? I haven’t done a lot of gardening and I find it hard to tell the difference between the weeds and the flowers. Look at this bag here. It’s full of weeds and its full of flowers. Let’s see if you can tell the difference. I’ll make two piles on this tray; one for the good plants and one for the weeds. OK. What about this one? Is it a weed or a flower? How about this one? (Some may be easy to recognize and some difficult. Have some fun with this.)
 
I think you did pretty well. However, sometimes it was hard to tell the difference, especially when the plants had not yet produced pretty flowers. Now I want you to look at these pictures here. They are pictures of people I cut out of a magazine. Why don’t we try to put them in different piles: We’ll have one pile for good people and one pile for bad people. (Hold up the pictures and ask the children to decide by looking at the people.) Hmmm. I don’t think this is working. I don’t think it’s really our job to put people into “good people” and “bad people” piles. In our bible reading today from Matthew chapter 13 Jesus makes it clear that it’s not really our job to try to decide who are the good people and who are the bad people in the world. God knows who are his friends and who are his enemies. Our job is to show the love of Jesus to everyone. 
 
Prayer for the Children: Dear God, help us not to worry too much about who is good and who is bad. Help us to show the love of Jesus to everyone. In Jesus’ name – Amen
 
Copyright 2011 Andrew Hewlett – Sundaychildrensfocus.com  Feel free to use this but consider linking to this site. Blessings, A.H.

 

Children’s Sermon: Teaching Children about Jesus and his church

 

Text - Matthew 18:15-20 “Where two or three are gathered in my name…there I am with them.” 

 
Basic bible story idea:
I’m going with the idea that there is actually a way that 1 plus 1 equals 3! Where there are two or more Christians gathered Jesus is there too. Show two pieces of coloured glass. Bring them together and show them how there is a third colour where they overlap. Show the children 4 small cut out triangle. Piece them together and show how pieced together the 4 triangles make a 5th large triangle. (Like all analogies this is does not describe perfectly how Jesus is present in our midst.) Explain how when believers gather there is actually an extra person present – Jesus.
 
Complete Children’s sermon:
 
Good morning children!  I have a question for you. What does one plus one equal? Right. However, I’m going to show you a way that one plus one equals three! This morning I have two colourful pieces of glass with me. I have this pretty piece of blue glass (hold it up for them to see), and I have this piece of yellow glass. Therefore, you can see that I have two colours in total, blue and yellow. Watch carefully. I’m going to put there two colours together. Look what happens when I put the two colours together. What colour do you see here in between? Right. There is a third new colour, green! Two pieces of coloured glass and a third new colour. I’m going to show you something else. Look at these 4 small triangles. (It might be easiest to place these on a felt board or stick them one by one on cardboard. Show them how you can fit them together in the shape of one big triangle.) There, I have 4 small triangles here but look carefully. These 4 actually make another big triangle when they are all together. When they are all together, there are actually 5 triangles. That’s pretty amazing. This reminds me of something that Jesus taught his disciples. In Matthew 18 Jesus said that where two or more believers gathered that he was there too. Now, we know that Jesus is with us always, but in some special way Jesus is right here with us when we come together. We can’t see Jesus but he said he would be right here with us. Let’s count how many children are up here now. (Count together) Great! There are ten of us. However, we know that there are really 11 of us because Jesus is here too. Let’s pray.
 
Children’s Prayer: Dear God, Thank you for this wonderful miracle that when we gather Jesus is right here with us too. In Jesus’ name – Amen!
 
Copyright 2011 Sundaychildrensfocus.com Andrew Hewlett Feel free to use this at your Sunday morning church service. Please consider placing a link to this site. A.H.

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