Feeding the 5000 – Matthew 14:14-21; Mark 6:33-44; John 6:1-14
A large group of people followed Jesus into the mountains. Jesus taught them all day. When the sun started to set, the disciples realized that the people had not eaten and could not easily return to the city to get food. Jesus asked Philip where they could buy food. Philip said that even if they had a store to buy food from, they did not have enough money for all the people. But Jesus already knew what He was going to do.
Jesus then asked if anyone had food that they could share. Another disciple, Andrew, brought a boy’s lunch to Jesus. It had five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus took the bread and fish and prayed over them. He then gave the food to his disciples who started passing it out to the people.
Amazingly, as they handed out the food they still had more left. They continued to give out the food until all the people had eaten all they wanted. When they gathered the unused food back together they had 12 baskets of bread left!
Jesus Walking on the Water – Matthew 14:23-34; Mark 6:45-53; John 6:15-25
After Jesus fed the 5000 He sent His disciples across the sea of Galilee in a boat. While they were going across the water in the boat, Jesus went into the mountain to pray.
The disciples were caught in a storm and had worked all night trying to get to the other side. Sometime between 3:00 and 6:00 in the morning they saw someone coming to them on the water. It was not another boat, but it was someone walking on the water! They were scared. At first they did not know it was Jesus coming to join them.
Jesus called out to the disciples and told them to not be afraid. When they knew it was Jesus they welcomed Him into the boat.
The Bible says that even though the disciples had just seen Jesus feed 5000 people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, they were still surprised to see Him do these great miracles.
Jesus Heals a Paralytic – Mark 12:1-12
Jesus was preaching in a house one day and there were lots of people. So many people were there that when a group of men brought their friend to see Jesus, they could not get near the house. But they knew that if they could take their friend, who was lying in his bed, to Jesus, that Jesus could heal him. They knew it would be impossible to get to Jesus through the door so they decided to go through the roof. The roof? Yes, they climbed up on the house to see Jesus.
The Bible says that they tore a hole in the roof of the house and lowered their friend’s bed down to Jesus. Jesus looked at the men and knew they had great faith to trust Jesus to heal their friend. Jesus said that He would forgive the man’s sins. Some people got mad because they did not think that Jesus had the authority from God to forgive people. Jesus said that He could not only forgive the man’s sins, but could also make him healthy again. He turned to the man and told him to fold up his bed and walk out of the house. The man did. The people were starting to learn that Jesus really was the Son of God.
Sunday School Lesson for Jesus Heals a Paralytic [1]
Prodigal Son – Luke 15:11-32
Jesus told a story of a young man who was tired of living at home. He wanted his father to give him the money he would get as his inheritance so that he could go live on his own. Jesus says that the young man took the money and moved to a far country. While he had lots of money he also had lots of friends. But, soon his money was gone and his friends left. There was also a famine in the area—that means they didn’t have enough food.
Since he had no money, no food and no friends, he had to find a job that would let him eat. He worked for a farmer and fed the pigs. When he was really hungry he ate with the pigs!
One day he realized that the servants at his father’s house had better food and more money than he had. If he had to work for someone else, he decided that it would be better to work for his father. He could feed his father’s pigs and still be able to eat good food.
When he went home he was surprised to find his father waiting for him. The father knew that he would come home some day. But the father did not make the young man work for him like a servant. Instead he gave the boy good clothes and prepared a fancy meal for him. His father forgave him for running away and wasting his money.
More on Prodigal Son Story [2]
Zacchaeus – Luke 19:1-10
One day when Jesus was walking through Jericho he met a man named Zacchaeus. The Bible says that this man was very rich. Why was he rich? He collected tax money to give to the government, but he kept much of it for himself. He was a thief. He took too much money from the people and then did not give all of it to the government like he was supposed to.
The Bible also says this man was not very tall. When Jesus was walking through the area Zacchaeus wanted to see him, but there were too many tall people around Jesus. He decided to climb into a tree. This would let him look over the people and see Jesus.
Zacchaeus was probably very surprised when Jesus looked at him in the tree. Jesus told the short man that He wanted to go to Zacchaeus’ house to eat. The tax collector was very happy. But not everyone was happy. They thought that Jesus should not go to the house of a thief like Zacchaeus. They complained. Jesus said to Zacchaeus, and those around him, that He came to save people who were sinners. The reason Jesus came to the earth is to find people who know they are sinners and will let Him save them.
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