LEADERS HUB
Year 1, Term 3, Week 6: Ideas for Middle Group
Week 6: God is Powerful - To Heal
Lesson Objective:
Jesus, as God's son, is powerful and can heal.
Bible Passage:
John 5: 1-18
Memory Verse:
John 5: 8-9 - Jesus told him, 'Pick up your mat and walk!' Right then, the man was healed. He picked up his mat and started walking around.
Story Idea: Tell it with a bubbling pool!
To Prepare:
- Bring a beach towel and a large blue sheet and a fake beard (can be made from felt and elastic or cardboard on a paddle pop)
- Spread the sheet out and have the kids sit around the edge of it
- Spread the towel out to one side of the sheet and choose a volounteer to sit on the mat
Tell it:
- Narrate the story, with the kids creating the bubbling action of the pool (by all holding and moving the sheet) when you say something about the bubbling water!
- Put a fake beard on to show when you are saying the words that Jesus said (and off when you go back to narrating)!
- Allow the kid on the mat to play the paralysed man - standing up at the right time!
Introduce:
- God is powerful!!
- We've seen God talk through a burning bush, and do lots of miracles - he parted the Red Sea!
- Today, we'll see that Jesus is powerful too, because He is God's son!
- The story happens near a pool of water...
- This sheet is going to be the pool of water
- Whenever I say 'the water bubbled,' everyone move the sheet up and down so it looks like water is moving
Tell the story:
- The Bible tells us about a special pool at a place called Bethesda
- Sometimes the water in the pool bubbled and moved
- People thought that if you could just touch the water when it bubbled that ANY sickness you had would go away
- There were patio areas around the side of the pool and lots of sick people would sit around the edge - waiting for the water to bubble!
- These people wanted to get better!
- Whenever the water bubbled, people would jump up and into the water!
- Beside the pool was a man who was paralised!
- The man had been there for a VERY long time - 38 years he had waited!
- Whenever the water bubbled - he couldn't get into the pool because his legs didn't work!
- Jesus (beard on) was at the pool on the Sabbath day - which is like our Sunday!
- Jesus saw the man by the pool, and asked him 'Do you want to be better?' (beard off)
- The man explained to Jesus that when the waters bubbled, he couldn't get in because his legs DIDN'T work, and he had nobody to help him!
- But Jesus is powerful because He is God's son - more powerful than the bubbly pool!
- Jesus said to the man (beard on) 'Get up, pick up your mat and walk' (Beard off)
- Straight away, the mans legs were better!
- He stood up, picked up his mat and could walk!
- Now, some of the church officials were very unhappy with Jesus!
- These officials thought that people shouldn't even carry things on God's special day - the Sabbath because that was like working!
- But Jesus (Beard on) reminded them who He was, He said 'God is always working and I am God's Son'
- Jesus is powerful - He can do Miracles, just like God because He is God's son!
Quiz Questions:
1. What did people think the bubbly water could do for them? Heal them
2. Where was the man sitting on his mat? Beside the pool
3. Why couldn't the man get into the water? He was paralysed
4. What did Jesus do for Him? Healed him
5. Why were the officials upset with Jesus? They thought people shouldn't carry things on the Sabbath
6. Who does Jesus tell them He is? God's Son
7. What does this teach us about Jesus? He is powerful, He's God's Son
8. What does this story mean for us? We can trust Jesus because we know He's powerful and He cares
Game Idea: Dance and Sit
- Bring along a small towel for each kid (as a mat)
- Have the kids stand on their mat and dance along to some music
- When you stop the music, they should sit on their mat and freeze - like they are unable to move - the last to sit is out!
- When the music plays - everyone stands up again and dances
- The last left in is the winner
Remind the kids that the paralysed man couldn't move to the water, but Jesus healed Him so he could stand up and walk!
​Craft Idea: Pool Diorama
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Before the lesson:
- Download and print the patio and people templates on white card
- Cut out Jesus and the paralysed man
- Cut small rugs from old scraps of material
- Bring along some small cardboard boxes or shoe boxes, with the front side cut out (if the base is uneven, glue a sheet of brown paper in the bottom to make an even base for the pool)
- Gather blue tissue paper and/or cellophane, paddle pops and glue
Have the kids:
- Cut the arcs out of their patio and fold along the dotted lines
- Glue pieces of tissue paper and cellophane in a rectangle shape to create a pool
- Glue paddle pops around the water to create the pool edge
- Glue in the mat, the man and Jesus (by folding the feet and gluing them to the base)
