God's Hero
Children's sermon
The Giant Book Of Children's Sermons
Matthew To Revelation
Object: a sword
Good morning, boys and girls. I suppose that all of you know that not everything that happens in the world is good. Sometimes people do some very bad things to themselves and to others. Today I am going to tell you about one of those things so that you will learn how strongly some men and women believe in Jesus. Jesus is so important to many people that they are willing to die at earlier ages, so that people will not forget that Jesus is a loving God.
James was one of the disciples of Jesus, and the brother of another disciple called John. James and John had been teaching about Jesus for a couple of years to a lot of people. Many of the people who heard them speak believed that what they said was true, and they became followers of Jesus. There was nothing that made James so happy as when someone, who had never before believed that Jesus was the Son of God, became a follower and shared in God's love.
James taught here and there, and then one day, while James was with some of the people in the church, the king of Judea became very angry about the good things that people were saying about the disciples and Jesus, and he decided that he would put a stop to it. He did not like people talking about Jesus as a great king, and as the one who gave everything that people needed. The king thought that he should be the only one that people spoke about, so he sent his soldiers out to get the followers of Jesus.
One of the first ones they found was James. They did not just arrest him, but instead they took out their swords and killed him in front of all of the other people who were watching. The soldiers thought that this would be a good lesson. The soldiers knew how afraid the people were of swords, and they thought that everyone else would be just as afraid.
When James died with that sword through him, he did so still loving Jesus and forgiving the men who killed him. The soldiers could not believe it, but that is the way the followers of Jesus acted. There was no way that a follower could be frightened by a sword. They knew that when they died, no matter how they died, that Jesus would be there to welcome them into the same kingdom that he went to when he died.
No sword could stop people from being followers of Jesus. Herod learned that, and so had everyone else who tried to stop people from being Christians. Many Christians died as heroes as they tried to teach the truth about Jesus.
Maybe the next time that you see a sword, you will remember the day that James died and how he taught others about the way that he believed in Jesus.
Good morning, boys and girls. I suppose that all of you know that not everything that happens in the world is good. Sometimes people do some very bad things to themselves and to others. Today I am going to tell you about one of those things so that you will learn how strongly some men and women believe in Jesus. Jesus is so important to many people that they are willing to die at earlier ages, so that people will not forget that Jesus is a loving God.
James was one of the disciples of Jesus, and the brother of another disciple called John. James and John had been teaching about Jesus for a couple of years to a lot of people. Many of the people who heard them speak believed that what they said was true, and they became followers of Jesus. There was nothing that made James so happy as when someone, who had never before believed that Jesus was the Son of God, became a follower and shared in God's love.
James taught here and there, and then one day, while James was with some of the people in the church, the king of Judea became very angry about the good things that people were saying about the disciples and Jesus, and he decided that he would put a stop to it. He did not like people talking about Jesus as a great king, and as the one who gave everything that people needed. The king thought that he should be the only one that people spoke about, so he sent his soldiers out to get the followers of Jesus.
One of the first ones they found was James. They did not just arrest him, but instead they took out their swords and killed him in front of all of the other people who were watching. The soldiers thought that this would be a good lesson. The soldiers knew how afraid the people were of swords, and they thought that everyone else would be just as afraid.
When James died with that sword through him, he did so still loving Jesus and forgiving the men who killed him. The soldiers could not believe it, but that is the way the followers of Jesus acted. There was no way that a follower could be frightened by a sword. They knew that when they died, no matter how they died, that Jesus would be there to welcome them into the same kingdom that he went to when he died.
No sword could stop people from being followers of Jesus. Herod learned that, and so had everyone else who tried to stop people from being Christians. Many Christians died as heroes as they tried to teach the truth about Jesus.
Maybe the next time that you see a sword, you will remember the day that James died and how he taught others about the way that he believed in Jesus.
