Sunday School Planning Miracles. Easter Pentecost

Transcription

1 Sunday School Planning Miracles Easter Pentecost Easter time is of course the time of the greatest miracle performed by Jesus his resurrection from the dead. It is therefore a good time to begin to think about Jesus miracles and how they fit into the bigger picture of the story of creation and salvation. 3 rd April John 20: resurrection Introduction: Talk about celebrating Easter together what have we done to celebrate? Why are we celebrating? New life greatest miracle Story: Read a version of John 20 then explain the life cycle of a butterfly. Focus particularly on the cocoon and how it looks as though the butterfly s life is over. The cocoon looks as though it is dead but then the butterfly emerges fully grown and beautiful Game: Caterpillar crawl race. Create a start and finish line and have children wiggle along on their tummies in a race. Craft: Butterfly templates available from Baker Ross or make your own! Use pipe cleaners for the body/antennae

2 10 th April John 21 miraculous catch Introduction: As well as his resurrection Jesus did lots of miracles. So over the next few weeks we will be thinking about many other amazing things which Jesus did. Story: John 21 One day, Jesus came to a Lake and saw two boats drawn up on the shore. Now one of these belonged to a man named Simon Peter, who was at the water's edge washing his nets. Jesus entered into this boat and asked Simon to push it off from the land a little. Then He sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when He had done speaking to them He said to Simon, "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets to catch fish." Simon, answering Him, said, "Master, we have worked all through the night and haven t caught any fish, but if you ask me to, I will let down the net again." And they let down the net into the sea, but it caught such a huge number of fish that they could not draw them up; and the net broke. Then Simon called James and John, who were in the other boat, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both boats with the fishes, so that they began to sink. They were amazed at the miracle and followed Jesus from that day onwards. Game: Using balls from a ball pit and a sheet for a net play a fishing game with the children. Give teams of children different colour balls as fish to catch which they can do so by keeping them on the sheet. Other children have to keep their colour but bounce the others of the sheet. Craft: Fingerprint fish. Net drawn out on a piece of paper. Children use inkpads to add fish to the net and then draw on their tails.

3 17 th April - Noah s Ark water miracles of Jesus Introduction: There are also stories in the Old Testament (before Jesus was born) that we know about and Noah s Ark is one of them. It reminds us of the power God has over water. Story: Noah s Ark God was sad because he saw that people on earth were not living good lives. He decided that he would flood the world to make them change their ways. But the Lord was pleased with Noah. So God said to Noah, make yourself an ark out of wood. I am going to bring a flood on the earth but I will make my promise with you. If you make the ark and go onto it with your family and with two animals of every kind I will keep you safe. So Noah did as God asked and when the flood came he and his family and all the animals were safe on the ark. They stayed on the ark for 40 days and 40 nights and then they noticed that the flood waters had gone down. They sent out a bird to find land but the bird came back, there was no dry land. They waited and then sent out a dove, the dove came back with a branch which showed Noah there were trees growing on dry land. Then God put a rainbow in the sky showing that he kept his promise with Noah, they were all safe, God was happy and he promised never to flood the world again. Can anyone think of anything Jesus did which showed us he had power over water too? (walking on water, calming the storm) Game: Use some blue cloth with some children to do the river trick (waving the cloth to make it look like water) while another child walks along a thin straight line one foot in front of the other trying to balance. Craft: Windsock using a toilet roll with blue tissue paper strips coming out of one end. Decorate the toilet roll in a rainbow pattern to remind us of Noah s ark story.

4 24 th April raising of Lazarus Introduction: Is Jesus the only person who has come back to life? No, there is a story in the Bible about one of Jesus friends who he brought back to life. Jesus also promises us that we will all have eternal life. Story: Lazarus was a good friend of Jesus. So when Lazarus was ill, his sisters Martha and Mary - called to Jesus, asking Him to come and heal Lazarus. But Jesus waited. After a couple days, he told the disciples he was going to see them. When Jesus arrived, Martha met him on the road. She told Jesus Lazarus had died and that he was too late. Jesus said Lazarus would live again. Martha replied that she knew he would rise again on the last day. Jesus answered, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" Martha said yes, she believed Jesus was the Messiah. Martha and Mary took Jesus to the place where Lazarus was buried and he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" And he came out of the tomb, still wrapped in the burial cloths. Game: Mummys wrapping up 2 children in toilet paper race to wrap them up and then another race for them to get out. Craft: Write I am the resurrection and the life on the egg/tomb

5 1 st May Healing of the blind man Introduction: Last week we talked about Jesus bringing someone back to life. This is an amazing story but we don t think it happens very often. But there are lots of different things we can ask for God s help with. Jesus healed people who couldn t walk, talk or see. But we can ask God to open our eyes not because we can t see but to help us see things differently, to open our hearts to help us love people more etc. Story: You can t see anything, but you can hear lots of noises, and lots of people. What s going on? you shout. (All shout out.) Jesus is coming. You are still sitting down. But you get very excited because you ve heard of Jesus. You know he has helped lots of different people. Jump up! (All jump up.) Wave your arms and shout as loud as you can, Jesus! (All wave.) Jesus stops and asks you what you want. Go towards him. What do you say? I want to see! Then you can see! You see Jesus! You see all the people. You jump up and shout, Hooray! (All shout.) You follow Jesus along the road, telling everyone, I can see! What an amazing thing to do! Game: blindfold trying to tie shoes, scratch nose, touch someone else s toes pin the tail on the donkey etc. Learn the song Open our eyes Lord, we want to see Jesus, to reach out and touch him and say that we love him. Open our ears Lord and help us to listen, O open our eyes Lord, we want to see Jesus. Craft: big collage of the word amazing Jesus can do amazing things.

6 8 th - May John 5:1-9 healing of the man brought through the roof LISA Introduction: Story: The Bible tells us that four men were carrying a paralyzed man to Jesus. They knew that if they could just get him to Jesus that Jesus could heal him, but they couldn't get to where Jesus was because of the large crowd. The four men carried their friend up to the roof and made an opening in the roof. Then they lowered the man down through the roof to where Jesus was. When Jesus saw how much faith these four men had, he not only healed the paralyzed man, he even forgave him of all his sins. He said rise get up, take your mat and walk. People didn t understand but this meant that his sins were forgiven and that he was healed. Game: Blanket relay: Give each team a blanket to carry a similar item from the start to finish line without dropping the item. If the item drops to the ground, the team must stop and go back to the starting line with the item to be carried, and start over Craft: Stick man made using template and lolly stick. A felt mat which he can then lie on or put under his arm.

7 15 th May Pentecost Introduction: What does the word Pentecost mean? Colour red is a clue We remember the story of when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be with his friends and it looked like there was fire on their heads. 50 days after Easter Story: Using numbers 1 day, after Jesus had gone back to heaven the 12 disciples had come together to thank God and suddenly a sound like the blowing of a strong wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. Next they saw 6 tongues of fire that separated and came to rest of each of them. When the tongues of fire came they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in different languages. The Bible says that there were people of many different nationalities staying in Jerusalem from all over and many of them speaking different languages. These people ran over to see what all the noise was about and were surprised to hear their own languages spoken throughout this group. The Bible even lists up to 16 different places people were from and could hear their language spoken! A crowd of about 30 had gathered to see what was happening. Some of the crowd started making fun of them and started to think that they had too much wine and it was making them act funny. When Peter started to hear these rumors he raised his voice and talked to the crowd which was no about 40 people. He explained that they weren't drinking wine. Peter explained how God brought Jesus to them and that they had crucified him. Peter explained that they should repent (say they're sorry and stop doing bad things) and be baptized so that others would know that they believed in God and were trying to change. Now, because of Jesus death and his resurrection people could be forgiven and receive the Holy Spirit from now on. And 50 people that day were baptized and received the Holy Spirit. Game: use the numbers to do some simple maths e.g.2 x 6 = = 40 keep referring to the number 50 if you can Craft: Use a paper plate to make a dove, reminding us that the Holy Spirit is gentle as a dove