Childrens Sermon Service

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. (v. 11)

Good morning, boys and girls. I have a birthmark that you can see. (show the birthmark) I have a little hole by my ear. I was born with it and it will dwell with me all of my life. I also have a wedding ring that I wear that I have worn since I was married a number of years ago. (show the wedding ring) The wedding ring dwells with me.

SHARING THIS WEEK'S GOSPEL THEME AT SUNDAY SCHOOL AND AT HOME

Materials:
Printed calendars* (easily downloaded from the internet)
Colorful markers and stickers
Small stickers like the kind used for charts

*You can use a monthly or an annual calendar. If using monthly, you may want to repeat this activity to help the children stay current.

Directions:
1. Give each of the children a calendar.

2. Have the children place stickers on special days during the month (or year). This would include their own birthdays, family birthdays, Sundays, and so on.

3. Allow the children to decorate their calendars with the markers as they see fit.

But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. (v. 10)

Good morning, boys and girls! How are you this morning? (allow answers) How many of you have ever seen a pinecone? (allow answers) Do you know where pinecones come from? (allow answers) Pinecones come from pine trees! They are the seed pods of pine trees.

Now, when you look at a pinecone, does it look alive? (allow answers) Well… not really. It doesn't eat anything. It doesn't move. It doesn't grow. Looks pretty dead to me! In fact, it seems to be all locked down. This is a seed pod -- shouldn't it be open so that the seeds can come out? (allow answers)

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. (v. 20)

Good morning, boys and girls. How are you today? (allow answers) How many of you have ever been to a funeral? (allow answers) A funeral is a time when we gather to remember the life of someone who has died. During this Easter season, we talk a lot about life and death. After all, what do we remember during this season? (allow answers) We remember that Jesus died… and rose again!

SHARING THIS WEEK'S GOSPEL THEME
AT SUNDAY SCHOOL AND AT HOME


Materials*:
1 cup lemon juice
Equivalent of 1 cup in sugar cubes
4 cups water
Pitcher
Dixie cups


Directions:
1. Mix lemon juice and water together. Give each child a tiny taste of the lemon water.

2. Talk about whether they liked the lemon water. Tell them that sometimes things happen to us that don't "taste sweet." Discuss what those things might be.

3. Talk about how prayer helps us look at things from a new perspective. Tell each child to take some sugar cubes.

Have you ever played a word game called Scrabble? The bigger the word the more points that you get. The word I have made today is quite a small word, I wouldn't get very many points! But it is a "BIG" word in many ways. It is a word that we find in our story today.

There were two friends of Jesus that had a brother die and their comment to Jesus was, "IF (hold up the Scrabble letters) you had been here my brother would not have died." (John 11:21) Then later on in the story the other sister repeats, "IF you have been here..."

Have you ever said that same word? IF I had studied harder I would have gotten an A. IF we hadn't missed the ball we would have won the game. IF only... but so often we can't change the situation, it is done.

The story of Lazarus was always my favorite. Might be because he is from Bethany, might be that the easiest verse to memorize is from this story, “Jesus wept.” I have always believed in Einstein’s assessment that if you cannot explain something simply then one does not understand it well enough. “Jesus wept” is simple. There is so much to unpack in those two words and yet they can stand alone. Jesus’s care of humanity is deep, and it affects him. Even when he knows things will turn out okay, the pain we experience is valid enough to make him pause and lament with us. This emotion is worthy of being felt by our Savior, so why do we demonize it?

Object: Three or four rips of cloth. I have used pieces of gauze from bandages, or long strips of an old sheet. We will also need a couple of volunteers for the role-play. When you wrap your volunteer, it does not need to be tight, but just enough to show how it keeps them from moving freely and being free.

Good morning. If I want to get a particular radio program, I have to use a radio. Setting a CB radio or computer won't help me get my radio program. It doesn't help to use the television. If I want the radio show, I have to set the dial at the right place on the radio. I can put the radio dial anywhere I want, but to get the show I want, I have to put it at just the right place.

... after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was ... When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days ... Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days." (vv. 6, 17, 39)

• First Thoughts
• Teaching On Your Own
• Teaching As A Team
• Closing Prayer
• Follow-Up Lesson

The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." (v. 44)

Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to talk about one of the best stories in the Bible. The reason that so many people like it is because it is a story about Jesus and his friends.

This is a story about Jesus and his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. They had a home in a village called Bethany, which wasn't far from Jerusalem. Whenever Jesus was in the area he would stop by to see these friends.

Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to talk about attitudes. Does anyone know what an attitude is? (let them answer)

Let me see if I can help you with the word "attitude." Suppose your mother asks you to help with the dishes and you say, "Do I have to?" Or suppose your dad tells you it's time to go to bed and you say, "I'm not going." Maybe someone asks you to turn down the television and you say, "Do it yourself!"

Good morning, boys and girls. I brought something that I wonder if anyone can identify. (Let them answer.) This is a baton used by a choir, orchestra or band director. You might have seen a director use one of these. It helps the director in many ways. Can anyone tell me how it helps a director? (Let them answer.) It helps the musicians see the director while they perform. It enables the director to easily lead the choir or band.

Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have dolls that open and close their eyes? (Let them answer.) I brought this doll (tell the children its name and who it belongs to) because it will help me tell you about a man who died and was brought back to life! This story is from the Bible. It is an amazing story about how Jesus showed people that he was the Son of God. It is about a man named Lazarus, who happened to be a very good friend of Jesus.

When you look at a seed, it looks dead. It's all dried up and there appears to be no life in that seed. But if the seed is buried in the ground and receives the proper moisture, it sprouts. A tiny seed may become a giant tree over 100 feet tall. One tiny seed may produce thousands of other seeds as the plant matures. Sometimes seeds that are hundreds of years old are found. When they are planted, they spring to life. It seems like the seed was dead and then came to life. For this reason, a seed is a lot like the Christian's promise in death.

Good morning! I don't suppose many of you read the newspaper
regularly, but every day in the paper they print a section like
this one. (Show the clipping.) This is called an obituary
section. It's a list of all the people in our town who have died
recently. It tells about the person's age and family and a lot of
other stuff about their life.

In the time of Jesus, they didn't have newspapers. But if
they did have one, there would have been a really interesting
obituary for a guy named Lazarus. It would have told about
Lazarus who had two sisters. He died and was buried in a tomb.
But then, they would have said that after he was dead and buried,

Good morning! What do I have here? (Show the vitamins.) Yes,
these are vitamins. How many of you take vitamins every day? (Let
them answer.) Why do you take vitamins? (Let them answer.) Yes,
of course, we take vitamins to keep our body strong and healthy.
We get vitamins in the food we eat, but we take extra vitamins to
be sure we get enough.

Do you know that our spirit also needs vitamins? Just as our
body needs these vitamins to stay healthy, our spirit also needs
vitamins to be healthy. What do you think we can take to make our
spirit healthy? (Let them answer.) The Bible tells us that our
spirit needs to have Christ in it to be healthy. How do we get

It's nice to see you this morning! Today we have a story about one of Jesus' miracles. Do you remember the miracle we heard about last week? Jesus healed the eyes of a blind man. We talked about how Jesus performed miracles to demonstrate to people how powerful God is. Today we get to learn about that again. In today's lesson, Jesus performs a miracle that is even more unbelievable than when he healed the blind man.

Good morning! I want to tell you something that may sound strange: I love cemeteries.

How many of you have ever been to a cemetery? (show of hands) What do they look like? What are they for? (spend a few moments with this) Cemeteries are places where we bury people who have died. Their bodies are placed in boxes called caskets and buried in the ground. Markers called headstones or tombstones are placed on the ground above them. The headstones usually have the name of the person buried there along with the person's birth and death dates. Cemeteries are good places for us to go when we want to remember and thank God for the people we love who are no longer with us.

SHARING THIS WEEK'S GOSPEL THEME AT SUNDAY SCHOOL AND AT HOME


Materials:
Several rolls of inexpensive toilet tissue

Directions:

Try this! Split the children into teams and have them wrap one child in the same manner in which the dead man in the Gospel Lesson was wrapped. Allow them to wrap it pretty thickly so that it does not fall off or break easily. They will see this as a competition, of course. Then have the bound child try to break out of the binding. Let them see that it is not as easy as it seems ... stressing Jesus' amazing power ... not only did God break Jesus from his binding, but he also raised him from the dead!

Teachers: Tell this story to your class. Have them create a color and cut-out project about this story. You should create an example to show your class, so that they know how to make their own. Tell them the story and use your sample as a visual while telling the story. Take an 81/2 by 11 sheet of paper. Divide it in thirds. Each third will measure about 31/2 by 8. At the top of the first third write "Lazarus was a man." At the top of the middle third write "He died." At the top of the final third write "Jesus brought him back to life." Color each panel in a way to represent the sentence on it. Don't color scenes on the panels. Instead place designs of color patterns on the panels. The first panel might include your favorite colors.

Teachers or Parents: Plant seeds. Chances are you will want to plant them in small pots. Plant them and then bring the sprouted plants on Easter Sunday as a vivid illustration of God's bringing life from death. Before placing the seeds in the soil, note how they look "dead" and lifeless. But, through the miracle of nature, they are planted in the dark earth and take root, grow and produce even more seed. (Make sure the plants are cared for: watered, exposed to the proper amount of light, and so forth. Perhaps one of the children could be responsible.)

Teachers or Parents: Death is a subject we usually avoid
discussing with our children. Christians have nothing to fear
from death and we need to instill in our children an
understanding that death is a door to eternal life and not the
end of life. The raising of Lazarus by Jesus gives us a good
opportunity to show that God is in control and will give life to
those who believe in His Son, Jesus.

*Bring a picture of a caterpillar, a cocoon, and a butterfly
to show the children. Ask them if they know what happens to the
caterpillar when it spins a cocoon and is dormant for a while.
When they have talked about how it emerges from the cocoon as a

Today's gospel lesson tells the story of another of Jesus' miracles. Last week we heard about the healing of the blind man and today Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. This particular miracle is helpful at this time in Lent, because it is so similar to the story of Easter.