matthew

Jesus feeds the 5000

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

This month we are learning about the miracles Jesus did! A miracle is something that shouldn’t be able to happen, but God makes it happen because God can do ANYTHING!

 

Today’s story can be found in Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9, and John 6.

By now, Jesus was pretty popular and lots of people wanted to come listen to Him teach. One day, over 5000 people came to listen to Him. (Thats a LOT of people!) Jesus taught them all day about God, from breakfast until dinner time and by then, the people were HUNGRY!

The disciples (Jesus’ helpers) came to Jesus and said, “Um…you should probably let the people go home now…they’re pretty hungry.”

But Jesus said, “Find something for them to eat.”

“But Jesus?!” they answered. “We don’t have enough food for ALL these people?! And we can’t just buy food?! Do you know how much money it would take to buy food for ALL these people!?”

Andrew, one of the disciples said, “Jesus? We found a boy with some food. It’s only 2 small fish and 5 rolls of bread…but how we can share that with so many people?”

Jesus told all the people to sit down. He prayed to God and thanked Him for the food. Then He started taking the bread and fish, and He broke them into pieces and started handing them out to the disciples to give to the people. And the pieces kept coming…and coming…and coming…and soon EVERYONE had eaten! It was a miracle, Jesus made the food keep coming until everyone had enough AND they went and got the leftovers and they had 12 basketfuls left over!

**(12 is a common Biblical number, [e.g. the 12 tribes, the 12 disciples], and is often described as one of the “perfect” numbers of the Bible symbolizing completeness. The number 12 is often used when God’s power and authority are on display.)

Andrew knew Jesus could take care of the people’s hunger and WE know that Jesus will take care of our needs too. (1 Peter 5:7, Matt 6:25-34, Heb 4:16, Phil 4:6-8).

Jesus took care of the people and He will take care of us too!

For our craft today, we used do-a-dot markers to make a lot of faces, then we drew eyes, noses and mouths on the people. We cut out a basket from brown construction paper and glued pieces of yellow paper (bread) and goldfish crackers to the basket.

Our text reads: Jesus feeds the 5000. Mt 14, Mark 6, Luke 9, John 6

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Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

Jesus calms the storm

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Hi all! This month we are learning about the miracles Jesus performed! A miracle is something that shouldn’t be able to happen, but God makes it happen!

Today’s story can be found in Matthew 8, Mark 4 and Luke 8.

 

Jesus and His disciples had had a busy day. There were a LOT of people who wanted to listen to Jesus teach. At the end of the day, He was very tired and said maybe they should all get in a boat and sail across to the other side of the lake for some peace and quiet.

Remember, several of Jesus’ disciples were fisherman, so they knew a LOT about sailing a boat. So they all got in, and soon Jesus fell asleep.

Before long, a big storm came. There was thunder and lightning and the boat was rocking and rocking and the waves were so big, they were crashing all over the boat. The disciples were even scared by the big storm and one of them woke Jesus up and said “Save us! Save us! We’re going to drown!”

Jesus got up, and said to the wind and waves, “STOP! Be still!” and do you know what happened?! The lightning stopped, the thunder stopped, the rain stopped, and the water was still again.

“Why were you so afraid?” Jesus asked the disciples. “Didn’t you believe I would keep you safe?”

The disciples’ mouths all hung open…”who IS this guy?!” they wondered. “Even the storm and water obey Him?! Wow!” (Even though the disciples loved Jesus and believed what He said, they didn’t REALLY understand His power as God’s son. They were always amazed by the things He would do. Sometimes even though we know God can do ANYTHING, it’s still pretty amazing when He does cool things!)

We know we can trust God too. When we feel scared, we can pray and ask Jesus to help us too!

For our craft today we took a piece of dark blue construction paper for the background. Then we ripped some light blue and black construction paper and glued it in layers on the bottom 1/2 of the page to be the waves.

We cut out a black cloud, a yellow lightning bolt and a brown boat and added those to our pictures.

Our text reads: Jesus calmed the storm. Matt 8, Mark 4, Luke 8IMG_1863IMG_1864

 

Thanks for joining us again! Love to you all!

The soldier’s faith

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello again! This month we are learning about the miracles Jesus did. A miracle is something that shouldn’t be able to happen, but God makes it happen, because God can do ANYTHING!

Our story today is from Luke 7 and Matthew 8.

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Jesus was traveling around teaching people about God and doing amazing things. He came to a town called Capernaum and in that town, there lived a centurion (a soldier). He had a servant who was very very sick and about to die. The solider loved his servant and wanted him to get better. He knew Jesus could do it…but he was too nervous to ask, so he sent some of the leaders of the town to ask Jesus.

“Jesus, this soldier is a good man, a hard worker…he even helped build the church here! Will you please come and help his servant?”

Jesus agreed and they started towards the soldier’s house. The soldier knew Jesus was really important and he felt bad for using Jesus’ time. He came out of his house and said, “I don’t really deserve to have you visit me. I know you are great…and I’m just a regular guy. But I believe if you just SAY that my servant will be better…then I know he will be.”

Jesus was very impressed by the soldier’s belief and He said, “Everyone….listen to this man! His faith is great! Go home and your servant will be all better.” The man knew Jesus could just say the words and the servant would be better. He went back to his house and his servant WAS all better! He was humble (which means He knew Jesus was greater than him) and he believed that Jesus could do it.

Just one chapter before in Matthew 7, Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?  If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

Jesus heals a leper

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Hi all!

This month we are studying the miracles of Jesus. Today’s story can be found in Luke 5 and Matthew 8.

Jesus was traveling around teaching and performing miracles. (Remember what a miracle is? A miracle is something that shouldn’t be able to happen, but GOD makes it happen!)

One day as Jesus was walking, a man with leprosy came and fell down on the ground in front of Jesus. Leprosy is a kind of sickness in your skin. It was very ouchy, very GROSS, and many times very contagious (easy to make other people sick too!) People who had leprosy had to leave their family and friends and live outside the city (so they didn’t get anyone else’s skin sick.) If they thought they got all better, they could come back to the temple and the priest would say if they were all better or not. If they were, the priest would give an offering (like a special present) to God and then the person would be allowed to come live back in the city.

Well, this man fell before Jesus and said, “If you want to, I know you can make me all better.”

Know what Jesus said? He said, “I DO want to!” (It makes Jesus very happy when people believe in Him. I think the man’s faith made Jesus very happy.) Then He touched the man. A lot of people were probably surprised that Jesus touched the man since his skin was so sick and he could get Jesus sick too! But it didn’t make Jesus sick…instead…when Jesus touched the man, his leprosy went away right away…he was all better!!

Jesus told the man to go see the priests and give God the offerings he was supposed to…but He told the man to not tell anybody what had happened. (Because Jesus wasn’t ready for ALL the people who would come see Him when they heard about the cool stuff He could do.) But you know what? That man was SOOOO excited and thankful that Jesus helped him, that he couldn’t help it. He told LOTS of people what Jesus had done! And the people who had been watching told lots of people too! Everyone was so excited about Jesus being nice to the man and healing him.

When God does amazing in our lives, we should tell other people too! What an amazing God we serve. Our God can do ANYTHING!

For our craft today, we drew a face and then used do-a-dots (circle markers…but you could really use anything you wanted) to dot half of the man’s face. The other half we left clean. So 1/2 looks leprous and 1/2 looks clean.

Our text reads: Jesus healed a leper. Luke 5, Matt 8

 

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

Transfiguration/Jesus shows His glory

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Hi all!

Today’s story can be found in Matthew 17, Mark 9 and Luke 9.

This is the story of Jesus’ transfiguration. That’s a BIG word, isn’t it?! It means Jesus’ figure transformed. His body changed.

 

Jesus and some of His disciples (Peter, James, and John) went out to a mountain one day and He asked them to pray for Him. Then He went further up the mountain and all of a sudden He was BRIGHT WHITE! The brightest white they had ever seen! He was glowing like a flash of lightning! Then, the disciples saw Elijah and Moses with Him and they were all talking together about what Jesus was about to do in Jersulam. (die on the cross for our sins)

**(Moses represents the law by which all people know they are sinners and need a Savior; and Elijah represents the prophets who told about a Messiah who would come. These two men show that the entire old testament is true and pointing to Jesus as that chosen Messiah/Savior.)

Peter said, “Let us make some shelters for you all!” (He was excited and wanted them to stay).

But then a big cloud came and the disciples got scared. God said, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen. Listen to Him.” The disciples fell down and covered their faces…but then Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid…get up.” And when they peeked open their eyes…it was only Jesus. (Elijah, Moses and the cloud were all gone). Just regular human Jesus.

 

The disciples had seen Jesus as God’s son…shining in His glory. They heard God’s voice, they saw the law and the prophets…all three pointing to Jesus. Jesus changed His appearance from a regular man, to that of the Son of God to show His disciples (and us) that He IS the chosen one of God, sent to save us.

 

 

We did two activities today. First, we took a piece of black paper and folded in the sides. Then we cut out a basic shape–three men on a hill.

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Then we glued a piece of white tissue paper to the back

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Then we turned it around, and drew faces on the white tissue paper, turned off all the lights and used a flashlight from behind to illuminate the three men.

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Our next project was to cut out the 3 men and a cloud and glue them together. Then we added glitter all over.

 

Our text reads: Jesus shows His glory! Matt 17, Mark 9, Luke 9

 

Thanks for joining us again! Love to you all!

Let the children come

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

Today’s story can be found in Matthew 19, Mark 10 and Luke 18.

Jesus was going around teaching and lots of people would bring their babies and children to see Jesus so He could touch them, heal them or bless them. Lots of children would surround Jesus and the big important leaders would say “No no, go away…don’t bother Jesus.”

But Jesus said, “No! Let the children come to me! The kingdom of God belongs to them!”

Sometimes grown ups forget what’s really important. Remember yesterday how Martha was too busy to spend time with Jesus? But He said THAT’s the most important thing? Sometimes kids are better than grown ups at remembering what’s really important. These children wanted to BE with Jesus! And the grown ups thought Jesus was too busy and important. But Jesus is NEVER too busy for us… even kids! And just because you’re small doesn’t mean God is too big for you. He loves you. He has big plans for you. And you don’t have to be a grown up to love God or do BIG things for Him.

Sometimes it’s hard for grown ups to slow down and trust God with all their hearts…you can help remind them that God made us, He loves us, He died for us and He is always with us.

You may be small, but you can have a BIG love for God. He has a BIG love for you!

For our craft today we cut out some arms and glued on some pictures of kids (we cut out of magazines…you could also glue YOUR child’s picture on). Our text reads: “Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me!’ Matt 19, Mark 10, Luke 18”

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Thanks for joining us, love to you all!

Jesus calls Matthew

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Hello again! Today’s story can be found in Matthew 9: 9-12 and Luke 5: 27-31.

 

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Jesus was just starting to teach the people and do some pretty amazing miracles. More people were hearing about Him and choosing to follow Him.

One day, He was walking past the tax booth and saw a tax collector named Matthew. Most people didn’t like the tax collectors. Many times they tried to take more than they were supposed to and they weren’t nice about it. They were not thought of as “nice guys.”

*The best way I could describe this to my kids is the sheriff in Robin Hood. He takes everyone’s money and he’s a jerk about it. Everyone is kind of afraid of him.

But Jesus stopped and asked the man to follow Him and he did! Matthew was so excited that Jesus would notice him that he had a big dinner for Jesus and all his friends. The Bible says Matthew’s friends weren’t the best kind of people either…but Jesus was happy to have dinner with them.

The pharisees  were the most religious guys who tried to follow every single law perfectly and thought they were SO much better than everyone else. (But they didn’t really love like God wanted them to. They would say they followed the law, but God’s most important law is to love God and love others and they weren’t very good at that part.) They were amazed that Jesus would EAT with “these people”?

“What are you doing?!” they asked.

Jesus said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, sick people do. These people have sick hearts and they need Me…they need God. I came to love and save EVERYONE, ANYONE who will believe in Me.”

Isn’t it wonderful to know that no matter what Jesus will love us?

We can also be sure to love those around us…even people who don’t always make great choices. Maybe ESPECIALLY we should love and take care of the people who don’t make very good choices…because it is those people who need God the most.

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Jesus calls His first disciples

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

Today’s story is from Matthew 4:18-22 and Luke 5:1-11.

Jesus was now a grown up. He had been baptized by John and tempted in the desert and now He was just starting to teach the people all about God. One day, Jesus was teaching a crowd of people near a lake. He saw two empty boats and the fisherman cleaning up from their day. He got in one of the boats and asked the fisherman (named Simon Peter) to sail the boat out a bit so He could teach the people and then they could all see and hear Him (they were all crowding Him before.)

When He was done teaching, He told the fishermen to sail further out and put their nets into the water.

“Eh, we already tried. There’s no fish today!” Simon said. “But…I guess since YOU’RE asking…I’ll try it..one more time.” (Simon Peter trusted Jesus!)

And guess what happened when he put his fishing net in the water? LOTS of fish! There were so many fish, Simon and his brother Andrew called their friends, James and John, out in their boat and they filled up both boats so full of fish the boats started to sink!

Simon fell down in front of Jesus and said, “I’m so sorry! You were right! I am a sinful man.”

But Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid…I’m not going to yell at you. But now, follow me and I will make you fishers of men!”

(Where they going to catch people in a net?? No…they were going to tell people about God and “catch their hearts.” They used to catch fish all day, and now when they followed Jesus, they would be getting people to follow God.)
These were Jesus’ first disciples. A disciple is someone who follows a leader and learns from them. They would also help Jesus on His journeys–telling people about God and God would even let them do some pretty amazing things which we’ll learn about later.

Did Jesus pick big important kings to be His helpers? He picked regular fisherman. He didn’t pick the fanciest, richest or strongest people. He picked regular people…just like you and me, to be His followers. (Of course God does WANT rich, strong, fancy people and kings to follow Him….but Jesus was showing that you don’t have to be anyone famous to love and obey Him.)

For our craft today we made fish from construction paper, a googly eye and some tissue paper.

Our text reads: “I will make you fishers of men. Luke 5:10”

 

Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!

Jesus is tempted

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Hi all! Today’s story is from Matthew 4. (Also touched on in Mark 1 and Luke 4)

After Jesus was baptized by John, the Holy Spirit led Him to the desert and He fasted for 40 days. (That means He didn’t eat any food. Instead of eating, He prayed and talked with God. You can imagine that after 40 days He was HUNGRY!!!)

**Side note: Do you remember what God’s helpers are called? (The angels.) Who made the angels? (God did!) So who do you think is more powerful, the angels or God? (God is!) But just like people, God lets the angels choose if they will love and obey Him. Some of them choose not to and these bad angels are called demons. Their leader is named Satan (or the devil). He wants people to NOT love God. And he thinks HE is better and more powerful than God. (But we know he’s NOT!)

So…Satan came to visit Jesus in the desert to try to trick Him and get Him to stop following God’s rules.

Matthew 4 tells us 3 different things Satan did to try to trick Jesus. First, he knew Jesus was very hungry, so he said, “Why don’t you take some of the stones around here and turn them into bread? If you’re REALLY God’s son…You could do that!”

But Jesus said, “NO! God says ‘food and bread are good for people, but God is MORE important.’ I choose God.”

Then Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple (the church) and said, “If You’re REALLY God’s son, then jump all the way down and let His angels catch you!”

But Jesus said, “NO! God says ‘You are NOT supposed to try to trick God!'”

Lastly, Satan took Jesus to a high mountain and they looked over all the kingdoms of the world. Satan said, “If You will bow down and worship ME, I will give You all of this! You can have all the kingdoms and all the people!”

But Jesus said, “NO! God says ‘worship only HIM!'”

(Every time Satan tried to trick Jesus, Jesus used God’s words to fight Him. We can use the Bible verses we know too when people try to get us to stop following God. Sometimes we can even THINK things that are untrue, like “i’m not pretty enough or good enough.” But then we can remember that the Bible says “I am fearfully and wonderfully made! And God loves me!”)

Satan tried to get Jesus to do things His own way, instead of God’s way, but Jesus remembered God’s words and followed Him.

After that, Satan left Jesus alone and God sent some of His angels to help Jesus (probably to get Him some food and take Him back home.)

 

For our craft today we made a little book.

The front says “Jesus was tempted. Matthew 4”

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Page 1: Satan said, “turn the stones to bread”

(You could use clipart from the internet, but i like child-produced art, so i let them draw stones and bread how they could).

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Page 2: Jesus said, “No! People need food, but they need God more!”IMG_1316

Page 3: Satan said, “Jump! and let the angels save you!”

(This is how we drew the temple– a box, with big columns, a triangle roof and Jesus standing at the top.)
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Page 4: Jesus said, “No! Do not try to trick God!”IMG_1318

Page 5: Satan said, “worship me and i’ll give all the kingdoms to you”

(we drew a castle)

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Page 6: Jesus said, “No! We are supposed to worship ONLY God”

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Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Jesus is baptized

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Hi all! Today’s story is from Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, and John 1.

John was Jesus’ cousin. Do you remember how he jumped in his mommy’s tummy when he was still a growing baby when Mary came to visit? The angel told John’s parents he would lead the way for the Messiah.

John and Jesus were now grownups. John wandered all around telling everyone that the Messiah was coming! He also told them to repent of their sins (that means tell God every wrong thing they’d done, AND ask God to forgive them.) Then, he would baptize them. That means he would lower them into some water (usually a lake or river) and then bring them right back up. The going under was a way to show they were leaving their sins behind, and coming out of the water new and forgiven by God.

Going in and out of the water is NOT what made God forgive the people. It was just a sign to show others that they had asked God to forgive them.

One day, Jesus came to John and asked to be baptized.

“But Jesus!? YOU are the Messiah! You’ve never done anything wrong! I should be baptized by YOU!” (Remember Jesus is God’s son, so He’s perfect and CAN’T sin (make bad choices.))

But Jesus said, “This is the right thing to do.” Jesus wanted to be baptized by John to:

  1. Show the people He was one of them.
  2. He was also setting an example for us. When we love God and ask Him to forgive us of our sins, then He asks us to be baptized…to show everyone the decision we’ve made to follow Him. (1 Peter 3:21, Col 2:12, Acts 2:38-41, Mark 16:16)
  3. Also, Jesus was about the show people who He REALLY was.

John agreed and baptized Jesus. When Jesus came up out of the water, the Bible says, the sky opened and the spirit of God came down as a dove and landed on Jesus. Then everyone heard God say, “This is My son, who I love. I am pleased with Him.”

 

**God is 3 people in one. This is called the trinity. There is God the Father in heaven; Jesus, God’s son; and the Holy Spirit, God’s spirit. When Jesus was baptized, God showed Himself to the people in all 3 ways…with Jesus, His Spirit and in His voice. (The trinity can be confusing to think about…even for grownups. The nice thing is…we will fully never understand God and His ways…and that’s OK! HE does…and we know we can trust Him. These things might make more sense as you get bigger…but you can now know God has 3 parts…the Father, the Son and the Spirit.)

Jesus showed the people who He really was–God’s son. John told everyone THIS was the Messiah and with His baptism, Jesus showed us about dying to sin and coming up with new life with God (just like He would die on the cross and rise again.)

 

For our craft today, we started with a popsicle stick and a string about 4x the length of the popsicle stick. (In the photo below the string is tied but DON’T tie it yet.)

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Tape the string lengthwise to the popsicle stick. Then  you can draw a face on the top of the stick and add whatever kind of “clothing” you want. (We opted for triangle construction paper).  That will make your “Jesus popsicle stick on a string.”

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Next we found some cardboard and cut it to match a sheet of construction paper and glued blue construction paper to the cardboard. (You can make it any size you’d like as long is it’s bigger than the popsicle stick).

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We cut out a dove shape and cut up and glued some feathers on our dove and glued the dove onto our blue construction paper.

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Then we cut two holes big enough for “popsicle stick Jesus” to fit through. They are about 1 popsicle stick length apart. (A grownup should do this part!)

Then we ran our string through the holes and tied it together. This makes a loop through the holes so “popsicle stick Jesus” can go into the water, around the back and back out of the water.

Lastly we added our text: Jesus was baptized. “This is My son. I am pleased with him.” Luke 3:22IMG_1267

Above is our completed project. The kids had a lot of fun putting Jesus into the water and pulling Him back out.

 

**Update:

THIS VIDEO of today’s story is from Saddleback Kids.

THIS is a more in-depth version from Crossroads Kids’ Club.

Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!