Today our Epic Explorers are finding out that Jesus forgives sins. We don’t treat God the way we should and we all have sin in our hearts. Only Jesus has the power to forgive sin and rescue us, restoring the broken relationship between us and God that our sin creates.
You might like to look on our map to see where we are today. Can you find Discovery Dens?
Game
Picture quiz: Can you guess what the objects are when they are close up?
Jesus sees everything, he knows all about us. He knows that our biggest need is forgiveness.
Craft
The paralysed man
- You will need
- gingerbread men or cookies cut into the shape of a person
- icing
- smarties/chocolate buttons
- strawberry laces
- rectangle of card for the mat
- pens
- hole punch
- Decorate the gingerbread man or cookie
- Colour in the card mat with patterns to make it look like a mat. Punch a hole in each corner
- Take 2 strawberry laces and snap in half; then thread each half-lace through a hole and tie.
- Lay the gingerbread man on the mat and practice gently lowering him down.
- Talk about how Jesus forgave the man first, before healing him, because our greatest problem is our sin.
Jesus Forgives
Today we’re exploring the problem of sin and how Jesus has the power to forgive. Sin isn’t just about the wrong things we say and do, it’s also about our attitude towards God – the way we ignore him and disobey him, the way we don’t treat him as we should. You could think of sin like this:
- Shove off God,
- I‘m in charge
- Not you!
We will be looking at Mark 2: 1-17, the story of the 4 friends who brought their paralysed friend to see Jesus.
For younger children
Some questions to think about together
- How did the paralysed man get to Jesus?
- I wonder how the people watching feel
- I wonder how the paralysed man felt
- Why do you think Jesus forgave the man first?
Sin is a problem but Jesus has the power to deal with it. Next time we’ll find out exactly how Jesus dealt with sin.
Prayer:
Can you think of ways you mess up, put yourself first? Sit quietly and tell God about it. You might like to say sorry to God.
Remember that Jesus can forgive our sins, if we ask him. He has power over everything and will forgive us when we mess up.
Memory verse
Can you remember the first part of our memory verse from last time?
The next part is:
Did not come to be served but to serve
Part 3 next time!!