Memory Verse:
John 6:29
"Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
Memory Verse Craft:
Change the words to the memory verse words. Have the memory verse in the top right hand corner of the page, have the boy and the grass and that in the bottom left hand corner of the page. Leave the rest og the page blank and have the children draw pictures or write words describing what they feel the Lord has given them.
Story:
John 6:1-15
When you have something, let’s say chips or gum, but you only have a little bit, what do you do? Do you keep it for yourself because there is only a little, or do you share it with others until it is gone? We will see in our Bible story today what one young boy did with his small lunch.
After Jesus returned to Jerusalem and healed the man who had been sick for thirty-eight years, He went back to Galilee. In Galilee, Jesus and His disciples went to the Sea of Galilee and they went all the way over to the far side of the sea. Sometimes, when we think about the sea, we think of flat land and beaches. The Sea of Galilee was surrounded by mountains and valleys and Jesus and His disciples climbed up one of the mountains and sat down. As they were sitting
and resting or talking, and looking out from the mountain, they saw a crowd coming toward them. The crowd had seen Jesus’ miracles. They knew th at He had made sick people well and they had been following Jesus. This was a very big crowd, a crowd of 5,000 or more! It may have been more because it talks about 5,000 men and we know that there was at least one young boy. There may have been other boys and girls and even women.
Jesus looked at them and knew that they were hungry. Jesus had aplan, but He wanted to see what His disciples had learned about faith.
Remember, faith is believing, even when you can’t see how it will workout.
Jesus asked one of His disciples, Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that all of these people can eat?” All Philip could think of was that not even “200 denarii” would buy enough bread to give each of them a piece, much less satisfy their hunger. In Jesus’ time, a denarius was a silver, Roman coin. It was what people would make for working a whole day. And Philip had figured out that 200 day’s wages would not even buy a piece of bread for each one! They needed a lot of food. What would they do? Andrew, one of Jesus’ other disciples, had an idea
but he was not sure how it would work. He had met a young boy who
brought his lunch with him. The boy’s lunch was just enough for him, but he was willing to share. But how would five loaves of bread and two small fish help feed 5,000 or more people?
Five loaves of bread and two small fish could be enough . . . with faith! What is faith? It is believing that God can do something even if we don’t understand
how He will do it. Jesus took over and asked His disciples to have the people sit
down. At the bottom of the hill where Jesus and His disciples had been, in the valley, was a very nice grassy area . So, the people sat down in the nice, soft grass. Jesus told God “thank you” for the food and then He began to pass out the food, bread first, to all the people.
And they all ate. Then the fish was given to everyone and they each ate as much as they wanted, until they were filled! How did that happen?
Only five people should have been able to eat from five small loaves of bread!
But as Jesus distributed the bread it multiplied until everyone had eaten! The same thing happened with the fish. And not just that, but there were even leftovers!
What a miracle! How amazing! What a sign from God! And because of this sign, the people knew that Jesus was from God. Do you remember from last week’s story, when Jesus was upset because the people needed to see a miracle to believe? How about you? Do you need to see a special miracle or will you believe what God says in the Bible? He can take care of you just like He took care of the big crowd!
Prayer:
“Thank you, God, for sending Jesus. Thank you for doing amazing things!
Thankyou for feeding a lot of people with a little food. And thank you for
all the things I take for granted each day, like the food we have eaten (and will
eat) today, for snacks, for a bed to sleep in, for the TV, for the air we breath.
Amen"
Craft:
Make paper plate fish. Using any sized paper plate, draw a basic fish shape on it, including eye and scales. Have children colour in scales and eyes and decorate with construction paper fins and tail.
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