Bread of Life!
Children's sermon
Object: A basket filled with different kinds of bread. Have the basket covered when you begin. I usually try to have a mix of sliced bread, pita bread, flatbread, French bread, and any others I can find.
* * *
Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent!
I brought something to help me tell the story today. (Show the covered basket.) I wonder if anyone can guess what I have in this basket? (Let them respond.) I have a basket filled with bread. (Uncover the basket.) Now, I wonder if anyone can guess why I have a basketful of bread for our story today. (Let them respond.)
The Bible talks a lot about bread. There is a story about the night everyone baked bread really fast because Moses was going to lead them all to their new home. And there is the story about how they were all lost in the wilderness and didn’t have any food, so God sent them bread from heaven every morning for them to eat. And there is the story about the time the crowd of five thousand people came to see Jesus, and when they got hungry, Jesus fed all of them with just two fish and five little loaves of bread. And there was the time he taught everyone how to pray to thank God for their daily bread. And in today’s story, Jesus is talking to everyone and tells them that He is the bread of life that God has sent to them. And there are more stories like that. Does anyone have an idea why the Bible has so many stories about bread? (Let them respond.)
Bread was really important to the people in the Bible. When Moses was here, the people were very poor and didn’t have enough money to buy much food. So they would go out every day and pick some grain from the fields to make bread for their families to eat. They would grind the grain up into flour, add a little bit of water to it, flatten it out into a thin piece of dough, and lay it on a hot rock to bake it. (Show a piece of flatbread or pita.) A lot of the time, all they had to eat was the flat pieces of bread they had to make every day. Sometimes they found other food, like fruit, but they didn’t have refrigerators to put it in and didn’t have aluminum foil to wrap it up in, so it all got stale or rotten really fast. So if they didn’t have their bread, they wouldn’t have anything to eat at all.
The people Jesus was talking to all knew about Moses, so they all understood how important bread really was. So when Jesus told them they should pray and thank God for their daily bread, they knew exactly what he meant. They knew it was important for them to thank God for helping them have the things they needed, like their little bit of bread every day. They knew they might not be alive if they didn’t have their daily bread. It was that important.
When Jesus reminded the people how many times God had taken care of them by giving them the bread from heaven, they all shouted, “Always give us this bread!”. They wanted Jesus to give them more of that bread right now. But does anyone know what Jesus did? (Let them respond.) He didn’t give them more bread like they wanted him to. He looked at all the people and said, “I am the bread of life. If you believe in me, you will never be hungry or thirsty again.” He said that he was the new bread of life that God was giving them from heaven. Does anyone have an idea what Jesus meant? (Let them respond.)
In the past, God took care of them by giving them bread to eat every day. (Pick up a piece of bread.) Every day, they would eat their bread until they had enough and their stomachs felt better. But now, God was not giving them something that would make their stomachs feel better for one day but would give them everything they needed to be happy, forever. Jesus was not like a piece of bread that would go stale and have to be thrown away tomorrow. (Put down the bread.) If they followed Jesus, God would give them everything they needed to do what God wanted them to do every day.
(Show the basket full of bread.) We eat all kinds of bread, don’t we? (Show some of the bread in the basket.) The next time we eat our bread, I hope we can remember that in many places, a few pieces of bread are still all the people have to eat. And sometimes we meet people who don’t have enough bread to eat at all, don’t we? Or nice clothes, or a nice home, or a nice place to sleep at night. Let’s pray and ask God to show us how we can be the bread of life for those people, and take care of each other the way God takes care of us.
Prayer
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us and for forgiving us when we forget that. And please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.
* * *
Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent!
I brought something to help me tell the story today. (Show the covered basket.) I wonder if anyone can guess what I have in this basket? (Let them respond.) I have a basket filled with bread. (Uncover the basket.) Now, I wonder if anyone can guess why I have a basketful of bread for our story today. (Let them respond.)
The Bible talks a lot about bread. There is a story about the night everyone baked bread really fast because Moses was going to lead them all to their new home. And there is the story about how they were all lost in the wilderness and didn’t have any food, so God sent them bread from heaven every morning for them to eat. And there is the story about the time the crowd of five thousand people came to see Jesus, and when they got hungry, Jesus fed all of them with just two fish and five little loaves of bread. And there was the time he taught everyone how to pray to thank God for their daily bread. And in today’s story, Jesus is talking to everyone and tells them that He is the bread of life that God has sent to them. And there are more stories like that. Does anyone have an idea why the Bible has so many stories about bread? (Let them respond.)
Bread was really important to the people in the Bible. When Moses was here, the people were very poor and didn’t have enough money to buy much food. So they would go out every day and pick some grain from the fields to make bread for their families to eat. They would grind the grain up into flour, add a little bit of water to it, flatten it out into a thin piece of dough, and lay it on a hot rock to bake it. (Show a piece of flatbread or pita.) A lot of the time, all they had to eat was the flat pieces of bread they had to make every day. Sometimes they found other food, like fruit, but they didn’t have refrigerators to put it in and didn’t have aluminum foil to wrap it up in, so it all got stale or rotten really fast. So if they didn’t have their bread, they wouldn’t have anything to eat at all.
The people Jesus was talking to all knew about Moses, so they all understood how important bread really was. So when Jesus told them they should pray and thank God for their daily bread, they knew exactly what he meant. They knew it was important for them to thank God for helping them have the things they needed, like their little bit of bread every day. They knew they might not be alive if they didn’t have their daily bread. It was that important.
When Jesus reminded the people how many times God had taken care of them by giving them the bread from heaven, they all shouted, “Always give us this bread!”. They wanted Jesus to give them more of that bread right now. But does anyone know what Jesus did? (Let them respond.) He didn’t give them more bread like they wanted him to. He looked at all the people and said, “I am the bread of life. If you believe in me, you will never be hungry or thirsty again.” He said that he was the new bread of life that God was giving them from heaven. Does anyone have an idea what Jesus meant? (Let them respond.)
In the past, God took care of them by giving them bread to eat every day. (Pick up a piece of bread.) Every day, they would eat their bread until they had enough and their stomachs felt better. But now, God was not giving them something that would make their stomachs feel better for one day but would give them everything they needed to be happy, forever. Jesus was not like a piece of bread that would go stale and have to be thrown away tomorrow. (Put down the bread.) If they followed Jesus, God would give them everything they needed to do what God wanted them to do every day.
(Show the basket full of bread.) We eat all kinds of bread, don’t we? (Show some of the bread in the basket.) The next time we eat our bread, I hope we can remember that in many places, a few pieces of bread are still all the people have to eat. And sometimes we meet people who don’t have enough bread to eat at all, don’t we? Or nice clothes, or a nice home, or a nice place to sleep at night. Let’s pray and ask God to show us how we can be the bread of life for those people, and take care of each other the way God takes care of us.
Prayer
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us and for forgiving us when we forget that. And please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.
