Childrens Sermon Service

Good morning! I brought some dominoes with me this morning and I want you to help me. What I like to do with dominoes is to line them up and have them just far enough apart so that when I push the end one down, it hits the one next to it and so on until every one of them falls down. Do you like to do this? (Let them answer.) Okay ---- let's do it. (Have the children line up the dominoes as rapidly as possible. To keep this within a reasonable time limit, count out no more than 10 dominoes per child.)

Now, let's see what happens (start the dominoes falling). When one domino falls, it causes the others to fall as well. They are all affected by each other because they are close enough to each other.

But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way? (v. 26:54)

Teachers or Parents: If you have a Palm Sunday processional in your worship service, talk about it. "Why did we have a parade?" If your church does not have a Palm Sunday processional, have one in Sunday school. Perhaps you can parade around the church as part of your Sunday church school opening. Hand out palm branches.

* If you have live palm branches as part of your procession, experiment with folding the palm fronds into crosses. The simplest might be two placed crosswise and stapled in the middle. Have the children make and give these to worshippers if they have an opportunity.

* Learn a verse of that ancient Palm Sunday hymn, "All Glory, Laud, And Honor." Use it in your processional.

Teachers or Parents: The Passion history gives us a chance to
instill in our children an understanding of the obedience of
Jesus which has resulted in our salvation. Because of his
submission to the Father's will, all of us have been saved. By
the same token, children need to be in submission to their own
parents and others whom God places in authority over them.

*Put the Ten Commandments up on a board or easel. Explain to
the children that these are God's rules for us and we need to be
in submission to them. Pick two or three for discussion,
including the third so that you can talk about obedience to
parents. Talk about the submission of Jesus to the Father's will.

There are a lot of very familiar themes in our gospel reading for today. It's the beginning of Holy Week, so there are some significant pieces of the story that must be told. Let's focus on one part: the Last Supper. In this part of the lesson we hear about Jesus taking the bread and wine and sharing them with his disciples. He tells them that the bread is his body and that the wine is his blood. He is preparing them for his death, and he wants them to understand that he is dying for them.

... who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. (vv. 6-7)

Good morning, boys and girls. If you were God, what do you think you would want to look like? (let them answer) Would you like to be tall, handsome, or beautiful, with great looking muscles or a pretty figure? What kind of clothes would you wear? (let them answer)

Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What will you give me if I betray him to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him. (26:14-16)


Good morning, boys and girls. Is anyone here named Judas? (let them answer) Do you go to school with anyone named Judas? (let them answer) Do you know anyone named Judas? (let them answer) Does anyone have a pet named Judas or know of a dog or cat called Judas? (let them answer)

Judas is not a popular name today even though the name is used in the Bible. Other people in the Bible are also named Judas.

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

Materials:
Shoe boxes
Construction paper
Glue
Scissors
Markers

Directions:
1. Give each of the children a shoe box.

2. Have the children use construction paper to make a diorama (a scene constructed in a shoe box).

3. Tell the children to imagine the setting when Jesus walked on earth and to create it in the box. The scene might include any event from the Bible, such as the birth of Jesus. In this example, children might make their boxes look like the stable covered in brown paper, with paper characters of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in a manger.

But emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form. (v. 7)

Good morning, boys and girls! How are you this morning? (allow answers) How many of you have a pitcher like this at your house? (allow answers) What kinds of things do you put in pitchers? (allow answers) Sometimes we call pitchers by the things that are in them. Maybe it is "the Kool-Aid pitcher" or "the lemonade pitcher" or "the water pitcher." Do you have pitchers with names like that? (allow answers) What other kinds of names do you call pitchers? (allow answers)

And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him. (v. 26:16)

Good morning, boys and girls! How are you this morning? (allow answers) How many of you know what today is? (allow answers) Today is Palm Sunday! This is the day that we celebrate Jesus' ride into Jerusalem. It was like a parade: people lined the streets, waving palm branches and shouting "Hosanna!" They were excited to see Jesus ride into the city.

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


Directions:
1. Have each child write down three things about themselves. Two things should be true. One thing should be false.

2. Have the children take turns reading what they wrote. Have the rest of the children guess which statement is the false one.

3. Discuss Judas' betrayal of Jesus. Judas must have said many things that were not true to the other disciples, because they trusted him to the end. Talk about how it is important to be honest with our friends and loved ones.

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

Hey, who wants to be my friend?  I have candy to share!  I am so happy that you are all my wonderful friends!! (Pass out candy)

Has this ever happen to you at school?  Everyone wants to be friends with you if you are a kid that has cool stuff and shares it with others.  But when all the candy is gone or all the cool stuff disappears who remains your true friend? 

In this age of social media, the biggest thrill is getting a follower. A follower means someone likes the pictures or content you create so much they want to see everything you post. If getting a follower is the best thing that can happen, then when someone unfollows you it is devastating. For Jesus, the week of the Passion is a downhill spiral of people unfollowing him. First Judas, then the crowds, then his friends, one by one they all “click” unfollow on Jesus’s account. Jesus’s subscriber count is nearly 0 when the criminal on the cross next to him chooses to follow Jesus for the first time. Jesus shows us that when we know we are on the path God has set for us the follower count does not matter, because the one who does matter, God, will never unfollow us.

Object: A wipe-off marker board, markers, and eraser. The board can be of any size you can find.

Good morning, boys and girls. Everyone here this morning has taken an elevator ride before, right? (Let them answer.) Have you ever gotten on an elevator that was going down, (point down) and you wanted to go up, (point up) so you went down (point down) to go up (point up)? That's what we are going to do this morning. Only our elevator is an imaginary one.

(Ask the students to stand up. You are the elevator operator. Open the elevator door and ask the children to get in. Ask them which direction they are going -- the answer is "up." Tell them you are going down, but that they may get on to go down first, and then go up. Then take the elevator down, and finally go back up. Let them out, and then ask that they sit in their places. Finish the story.)

Good morning! Today I brought a sign with me. Can someone tell me what it says? (Have one of the older children read it.) Now why do you think I brought this with me this morning? (Let them answer.) I brought this with me because it is very similar to the sign they put on Jesus' cross. (Here you can recap the Passion Sunday reading.)

Good morning! I brought two pictures to show you today. Here
is a picture of Jesus having a dinner with his friends (show the
picture), and here is one of Jesus suffering on the cross (show
the picture). Now, if you were Jesus, which of these two things
would you rather be doing? (Let them answer.) Yes, of course. If
any of us were given that choice, we would rather be doing
anything other than suffering on a cross. In fact, I doubt that
there is anything that would convince one of us to allow
ourselves to be crucified, but that's exactly what Jesus did.

Do you think Jesus could have stopped those men from nailing
him to a cross? (Let them answer.) Yes, he could have. After all

Good morning! Who knows what today is? (get responses) Yes! It's Palm Sunday, which is the last Sunday in Lent. That means that next Sunday is Easter! We've been waiting a long time to celebrate Easter. We're getting close, but we aren't quite ready to celebrate it yet. We still have to tell the story of Jesus' death before we can tell the story of his resurrection.

... but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form.... (v. 7)


Good morning, boys and girls. I have three vases of water with me this morning. Which vase do you think represents Jesus? (let them answer) You think Jesus is the vase with the brightly colored water? That's a good guess, but watch what I'm going to do. (empty the colored water and replace it with clear water) Now there are three vases with clear water. If one of them stands for Jesus and the other two stand for you and me, how can we tell which one is supposed to be Jesus? (let them answer)

Good morning, boys and girls. I brought a rock with me to help me tell you this morning's Bible lesson. Do you know which disciple Jesus named "the rock?" (Let them answer.) The answer is Peter. Jesus named Peter "the rock," because Jesus once said to Peter "on this rock I will build my church." Jesus meant that he would build his church with Peter as the beginning point, or the foundation stone. When I think of a rock, I think of something very solid, very hard and something that I can trust to stand on. Large rocks seldom chip or crumble. That's the interesting thing about Peter. Even though Peter is the rock or foundation of the church, Peter had a weakness. Peter is just like you and I. We all have weaknesses.

Good morning! I have here a note from a parent. It reads this
way: "When you get home from school today, I want you to clean
your room, wash the dishes, and take out the garbage." Now, if
you got that note from one of your parents, what would you do?
(Let them answer.) I hope that most of you would do what your
parent had asked you to do. We have a word for doing what our
parents ask us to do. It's called obedience.

I doubt that your parents ever ask you to do anything
unreasonable. Sometimes, however, the things they ask you to do
are hard to do or they keep you from doing what you really want
to do. When that happens, should you still do what they want you

Who knows what we celebrate next Sunday? (get responses) That's right! We celebrate Easter, so that means that the waiting of Lent is almost over. Before we can get to Easter, though, we have to finish preparing ourselves. We're not done yet -- there's still a lot to talk about before we can get to the Easter celebration. We still have to talk about when Jesus was taken prisoner. We have to tell the story of the Last Supper on the night before he died. We still have to talk about the day he was crucified on a cross. There's a lot that happens between today and Easter day.

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


Materials:
Plain white paper
Paint
Markers
Stickers
Green construction paper
Glue, tape
Paper milk cartons (1/2 pint cartons from school, one per child) with a door cut out of one side

Directions:

Prepare the cartons by washing them completely and allowing them to dry. This might be easier if you cut the bottoms off. An adult should also take a box cutter and cut a door in one side of the carton.

Give the children a plain white piece of paper and have them "blueprint" their houses. Encourage them to be creative and plan where windows will go, and all other parts.

Teachers: The Passion narrative reading for this Sunday is long and has many sub-plots. This is an opportunity to focus on one of the sub-plots: the meaning of communion. Children watch communion during church, but do not participate. They are interested in it and have many questions about it. The focus of this activity is on Matthew 26:26-29, which is the last supper.

Tell them the story of the last supper. Explain that Jesus and the disciples met in the upper room. Jesus is about to give the communion. You will show your students what took place. It will help them understand what happens when communion is given in church. You might ask your pastor to help explain this to your class.