Worship Programs

Theme:

"Kingdom Power"

First Sunday in Advent -

Sunday School

Opening Exercises 

Have kids participate in a spontaneous drama.  You will need one narrator and a few people to “play” the parts of the lepers, the disciples and Jesus.  No practice is required.  The narrator simply reads the story and as the parts are mentioned, have kids play along as requested.  The idea is for kids to react to their instructions as they hear them for the first time.

Narrator:

The day was sunny…not a cloud in the sky.  A group of lepers was milling about, talking about the day and how they wished they could see their families and friends (lepers sigh and talk loudly).  One leper interrupted the daily chatter with incredible news.  He burst into the group and yelled, “Hey, I have incredible news!!!”  The lepers immediately started whispering excitedly among themselves.  The leper with the news started talking very fast, so fast that the others could hardly understand him.  The whispering amongst the lepers became like loud murmurs.  Finally the leper with the news whistled and yelled, “This man – Jesus – He can HEAL us!!!”  The lepers fell silent.  Heal?  They looked at each other in confusion.  How could anyone heal them of leprosy?  There was no cure for leprosy…

They thought very hard about this for awhile.  They walked with their heads down looking confused.  Jesus and His disciples passed by them stopping a few feet away for a moments rest.  One of the disciples, Peter, offered Jesus some water by calling out to Him saying, “Hey Jesus, do you want a drink of water?”  The lepers immediately looked up.  This man was Jesus!  They looked at each other excitedly and together waved their hands in the air, shouting, “Jesus…Master…have mercy on us!”  But Jesus couldn’t quite hear them.  He and His disciples were deep in conversation.  The lepers yelled once more, this time with your help (have the audience help by yelling “Jesus…Master…have mercy on us!”).

Jesus looked over and smiled.  He said, “Hey – all you need to do is go and visit the priest!”  The lepers took one look at each other and started running, skipping and cheering all the way to the priest’s place…at least, all the lepers except for one.  He was the one who had told his friends about Jesus earlier.  He seemed to be running in slow motion…very slow motion.   Suddenly, as he was running, he felt different.  He looked at the sky (still running in slow motion)…no, nothing different there…still a blue sky above.  He looked at the ground…no, nothing different.  Wait!!  He stopped abruptly and looked at his feet, then his legs, shaking them out.  He looked at his hands, and his arms, then shook them out as well.  Then he started up with the hokey pokey (start singing the song with the help of the audience while the actor performs the actions). 

He was cured!  He was free from leprosy.  He gasped loudly.  Then he shouted “yippee” at the top of his lungs.  Then he jumped up and down…did some cartwheels…and jumping jacks.  Then he turned and looked for Jesus.  He needed to thank this man who had given him such an incredible gift.  He ran up to Jesus and fell on his face, holding on to Jesus’ feet.  He said “thank you” over and over again, as fast as he could speak. 

Jesus pulled him up and asked him if any of the others had come back with him.  The leper shook his head.  Then he and Jesus embraced.

THE END

Make the following points based on Luke 17:11-19:

• Has anyone ever done something amazing for you? Ask kids to respond with stories.  How did you feel?  What did you do in response to the help you received?

• Have you ever done something nice for someone else?  What did they do in response to the help you gave?  How did you feel?

• The Bible tells us of the time when Jesus healed 10 men who had leprosy.  Leprosy was a terrible, contagious disease that afflicted many people in Bible times.  In fact, it still affects people in certain parts of the world.  People who had leprosy were forced by law to live away from their families and friends, and away from the town in which they lived.  The disease was so contagious that it would spread to anyone with whom they spent time.  For those who had it, they not only had to deal with the disease, but the fact that they would never be able to be with the ones they loved.  How would you feel if you had leprosy?

• Before someone who had leprosy could be let back into their town and into their home, they had to show themselves to a priest who would declare them “clean” – free from leprosy.

• The 10 men had probably heard about Jesus and His healing powers.  How do you think the lepers felt when they saw that Jesus was entering their village?

• Jesus simply told them to go and see a priest.  All the lepers would have known what that meant (they would no longer have leprosy)…and on their way, they were indeed healed.  One leper, when he realized what had happened, immediately ran back to Jesus to thank Him.  He didn’t wait until after he saw the priest.  He didn’t simply expect that Jesus would or should heal him.  It was a miracle that he no longer had leprosy, and he wanted to thank and praise the man who had taken it away from him. 

• Jesus had done something incredible!  Jesus deserved as much praise and thanks as these men could possibly give…however, only one of them thought to give Jesus what He deserved.

• What do you have to thank God for?  Have kids think of as many things as possible (you could try going through the alphabet…naming a few things for each letter, e.g. A for apples, aunts, etc.). 

• Talk about Jesus’ sacrifice for us and how He has blessed us amazingly by saving us.

• Jesus did something incredible for us!  Everyday He does so much for us; we have so much to thank Him for (refer to the alphabet list).  Very often we forget to thank Him.  We are like the lepers that were healed.  You would think that being healed didn’t mean anything to them because they didn’t stop to thank God…but we know that being healed was probably the best thing that ever happened to them.

• Even the simplest things such as waking up in the morning, feeling the warm sun and being with our friends and family are tremendous gifts from God.  We need to remember to thank God for all He does in our lives everyday…and especially on that one day when Jesus died for our sins.  The gift of forgiveness and everlasting life is so great that we should be like that one leper who returned to Jesus.  We should thank Him and thank Him and thank Him.

Prayers of Thanksgiving