Childrens Sermon Service

Object: A coin to flip.

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Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Our story today is about something really amazing that happened to Jesus’ friends one day. I will tell you the story, and then you see if you can tell me what you think is so amazing about it. Are you ready? (Let them respond.) Great! Here we go.

You probably remember how Jesus’ friends felt after he was crucified, don’t you? (Let them respond.) They were sad, but most of all they were really afraid, weren’t they? (Let them respond.) Even after some of them had seen that Jesus was back again, they were so afraid that the people who had killed Jesus were going to come and get them, too, so they spent most of their time hiding from everyone. They hid from the Romans. They hid from the Pharisees. They hid from the Sadducees. They hid from the Jewish leaders. And most of all, they hid from the leaders of the temple. They believed those groups were their enemies, so they hid from them. And if they did go anywhere, some of them like Peter carried a sword so they could fight their enemies if they had to. But they didn’t go to town. They didn’t go to the marketplace. And they never, ever, went to the temple. They had too many enemies and they were too afraid.

But one day, Jesus got them to go with him to the hillside across the valley from the city. It was the place where he had ridden on the donkey when they came to town a couple of weeks ago. Do you remember that story about Palm Sunday? (Let them respond.) While they were there, Jesus talked to them. He explained why everything that had happened, had happened and told them that God was going to do something really special for them to make sure they were safe. And then, while they were watching him, Jesus was taken up to heaven. The story says he was just carried right up to heaven. And then the story says,

“Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.”

I think that is a really amazing story, don’t you? (Let them respond.) What do you think is the most amazing part of the story? (Let them respond.) Seeing Jesus floating up in the sky? That was pretty special, wasn’t it? (Let them respond.) But it wasn’t the most amazing part of the story for me. For me, the really amazing part is that they all went back to town and spent their time waiting at the temple praising God.

Before they went with Jesus to the hillside, they were too afraid to even go out of their house. Now they were spending all of their time at the temple, the place they had been the most afraid to go to. I think that is amazing!

What changed them? Why were they not afraid to go out anymore?

Before he left, Jesus told them that God knew all about the stuff that was going on, and they didn’t need to worry about any enemies they might have to fight. He said that God was going to give them something very special so they didn’t need to worry about anything, and they could just do the work that God asked them to do. So, he said to relax. God is going to take care of you. And, right now, I want you to go back to town and just wait for what God is going to send you. And that’s what they did.

Sometimes we still get afraid, don’t we? (Let them respond.) Maybe at night we hear noises, or maybe we hear something on the news, or maybe we hear someone talking about enemies they believe we have. It can be scary, can’t it? (Let them respond.)

The good news is that we have a choice. We can be afraid, or we can be joyful and happy that God is with us. How can we choose? Well, we could just listen to what some people say and believe there are enemies who are going to get us. Or maybe we can just flip a coin. (Show the coin and flip it into your hand.) Heads, we’re going to panic and be afraid of enemies. Tails, we’re going to relax and trust God to take care of us.

Or, we can believe what Jesus said. (Put the coin away.) We don’t need to believe people who are talking about enemies, and we don’t need to flip a coin. Jesus said that God is going to take care of us, and we don’t need to be afraid of others. We don’t need to spend our time worrying about that. We need to just trust that God is going to take care of us and do what Jesus asked us to do. That’s what Jesus’ friends did, and I think we can do that too, don’t you? (Let them respond.)

Let’s pray and ask God to remind us that Jesus loves every one of us and wants us to follow him 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.