Childrens Sermon Service

At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.” (v. 31)

Object: A pair of glasses or sunglasses covered with paper, or Vaseline, or something that makes it very difficult to see through them clearly.

Hello, everyone! Are you ready for today’s story? (Let them respond.) Great! But before I tell you the story, who can tell me what I have here? (Show the glasses and let them respond.) They are glasses, aren’t they? But what is different about these glasses? (Let them respond.) They would be pretty hard to see through, wouldn’t they? (Let them respond.) Would anyone like to try them? (If any want to try them, let them look through the glasses and ask them to describe what it is like.) It would be pretty hard to see what is really going on if we wore glasses like these, wouldn’t it? (Let them respond.) Well, today’s story reminds us that, sometimes, even when we aren’t wearing glasses like these, we still have a hard time seeing things clearly and knowing what is really real. Let me tell you the story.

One day, Jesus was talking with a bunch of people in their synagogue. Does anyone remember what a synagogue is? (Let them respond.) It is the place they went to worship God, just like we come to our church, right? Jesus was in their synagogue, teaching them and telling them stories about what God wanted them to do. People all over town heard that Jesus was there, and more and more of them went to hear what Jesus was saying. The crowd in the synagogue got bigger and bigger. But then, something happened.

Some people came in the door and when everyone else saw them, they all looked at the new people and got really nervous. The new people were dressed differently than everyone else. They had fancier clothes and wore fancy-looking robes and hats, and everyone knew who the new people were. They were Pharisees. Have you ever heard about Pharisees? (Let them respond.) The Pharisees were people who studied all of the old laws andwent around making sure everyone followed all of the old laws. And if a Pharisee caught someone breaking any of the old laws, they could make that person pay a fine, or even put them in prison. And the Pharisees didn’t like Jesus, because Jesus said we should forgive each other when we make a mistake, instead of fining them or putting them in prison. The people all knew that some of the Pharisees in Jerusalem had decided that Jesus needed to stop his teaching, even if they had to kill him to stop him.

So, how do you think the people felt when they saw those Pharisees walk into the synagogue with them? (Let them respond.) I’ll bet they were pretty scared, don’t you? (Let them respond.) The people saw the robes and the hats, and they all thought, “Uh-oh, Pharisees! Look out! They are going to do something bad to us now!”

The Pharisees walked into the room and went right up to talk to Jesus. Everyone thought they were going to grab Jesus or do something to make him stop talking to everyone. And do you know what the Pharisees did then? (Let them respond.) They went up to Jesus and said, “We just found out that King Herod is going to try to kill you, so you need to leave this place and go someplace where you can be safe!” Instead of doing something to hurt Jesus, these Pharisees came to save him. Now, how do you think everyone in the synagogue felt? (Let them respond.)

They were amazed! When they first saw the Pharisees, the people were sure they had come to do something really bad. They saw the robes and the hats, and they assumed they knew what the Pharisees were like. But they got a surprise, didn’t they? (Let them respond.)

It’s almost like they had these glasses on when the Pharisees came in, isn’t it? (Show the glasses again.) They thought they were seeing what was going on, but they weren’t. And when the Pharisees talked to Jesus, it was like the people took off the glasses, and saw who the Pharisees really were, isn’t it? (Let them respond.)

You know, sometimes I think we have a hard time seeing what is really going on too, don’t we? (Let them respond.) Sometimes we see someone, and we just automatically think they are going to do something bad, or something to hurt us, or that they are just someone we don’t like, don’t we? (Let them respond.) Maybe it’s because of what they are wearing, or what they look like, or how they talk, or something else like that, but when we see them, it’s like we are wearing the blurry glasses (show the glasses) and we don’t see who they really are. And sometimes, just like the people in the synagogue that day, we get a big surprise and find out we are wrong, don’t we? (Let them respond.)

I hope this story will remind us that God loves every one of us no matter who we are, what we have, or where we are from. And God wants us to do what we can do to help each other and show everyone that we care about them just like God does.

I hope you will remember how much God loves you, and how much God wants us to love other people and help them know how much God loves them, too.

Let’s have a prayer before we go back to our seats.

Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us. 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.