Aim to learn that God gave Jesus the power to heal people
Aim
*To learn that God gave Jesus the power to heal people
* To learn hat Jesus wanted to show people that God was working through him.
Materials
* Children’s Bible stories
* Jesus heals at the poolside – John 5:1-15
* The man with the shriveled hand – Matthew 12:9-14
* Large pictures of the stories
* Children’s worksheets
* Board Game, “Going to see Jesus”
Lesson Outline
1. Introduction
2. Two Stories
3. Discussion
4. Activities – act out the story, worksheet, spot-the difference, “Going to see Jesus” game
5. Review the aims
6. Prayer
1) Introduction
* Talk about the children’s health. Is everybody well today? Do you get sick sometimes? What kind of sickness? fever? headache? tummy ache? pain in your ears? What do you do when you get sick? Stay home, take medicine, visit the doctor. God gave a body, We have legs to walk, hands to hold, eyes to see, ears to hear, mouths to speak. Some people can’t walk and have to sit in wheel chairs. What would it be like if you couldn’t walk at all? Some people can’t move their arms and pick things up. How would you eat if you couldn’t move your arms and hands?
* Before reading the stories explain the words synagogue and Sabbath.
Synagogue – a building for Jewish religious meetings, like a church
Sabbath – the day of rest for Jews, when people do not work
Use the large pictures to tell the stories. Ask the children what they think is happening in each picture.
2) Two Stories
The Healing at the Pool – John 5:1-15
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded
by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw
him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Jesus heals a man with a shriveled hand – Matthew 12:9-14
Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there.
Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
Look at other pictures – Jesus healing a blind man (Mark 8:22-26) and Jesus touching a man with leprosy Mark 1:40-45)
3) Discussion
* How could Jesus do this? God gave him this power. He healed out of his love for people. Many people who were sick wanted to see Jesus. He healed many, many people.
* Jesus also healed so they could understand who he was. He was the Messiah, the chosen one of God they had been waiting for. He wanted them to listen to him and follow his teachings, so God’s kingdom could be built
* Even though Jesus healed, the pharisees didn’t like what he did, because he healed on the Sabbath or day of rest. The man who was healed at the poolside was criticized for carrying his mat on the Sabbath day, because carrying the mat was viewed as “work,” something forbidden on the Sabbath. The pharisees attitude made it more difficult for Jesus.
4) Activities
* Act out one of the stories.
* Complete the worksheets. Choose the worksheets that are the most appropriate.
* Play “Going to see Jesus, a board game. Roll the dice and move towards Jesus. When you land on a black square, you go back. The one who reaches Jesus first is healed first.
5) Review the aims
* To learn that God gave Jesus the power to heal people
* To learn hat Jesus wanted to show people that God was working through him.
6) Prayer
* Say a prayer to thank God that we are healthy – we can see and hear and walk and talk. Thank God for Jesus who helped so many people, because of his love
