"Jesus is Real" Sunday School Lesson from Mark 9:2-9

This free Bible lesson is based on Mark 9:2-9 when Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John. It is designed for children’s church or Sunday School. Please modify as best fits your ministry.
If your church follows the Revised Common Lectionary, this teaching plan would correspond to Year B – Transfiguration Sunday, Gospel Reading – Mark 9:2-9.
Opening Activity – Jesus is Real – Whiter Than White
Supplies – none, but access to found objects
Set a timer for 2 minutes and have the children look for a white object.  Their object needs to be something they can pick up, and ideally would not be the same as any other object.
Collect all the objects and compare their level of brightness.  You can even work as a class to put your objects in order from darkest to brightest.
Lesson – Jesus is Real
Supplies – bright white robe or t-shirt
How many of you think the color white is important to our lesson today?  Well, you would be correct; white is important today.
But it’s not just white.  It’s not off-white, or even bright white.  It is a bright white that is so bright white that it doesn’t exist.  Except that it did exist.  Maybe if I just tell you the story it will make some sense.
I am going to need a volunteer to play the part of Jesus and act out the story as I read it.  Ready?
As soon as Jesus chose His disciples He was really busy.  He taught huge crowds and performed tons of miracles.  When it was finally time to move on to a new town, Jesus chose 3 of His disciples to join Him for a hike.  (optional:  choose 3 more volunteers to play the disciples.)  Their names were Peter, James, and John.
Jesus led Peter, James, and John up a high mountain.  When they were far away from everyone else and out of sight, they stopped.
As soon as they stopped, Jesus’s clothes suddenly changed to white.  (Hand the child playing Jesus the robe.)  But His clothes weren’t just white.  They weren’t even bright white.  They were bright white that was so bright white it doesn’t even exist.
Ok, I know this robe isn’t that bright, but we will just have to pretend.  Jesus’s robe was so bright it almost glowed.  The Bible calls it a dazzling white.  But no matter what you call it, it was special.
Then two more men showed up out of nowhere. (optional:  choose 2 more volunteers to play Moses and Elijah.)  You might know them, their names are Moses, and Elijah.  Moses is the man who led the enslaved Israelites out of Egypt.  That was over 1,000 years before Jesus was on earth.  And that’s not all; Elijah was a prophet who helped to get rid of false gods and idols, so people would know who the one true God was.  And that was 800 years before Jesus.
800 and 1,000 years?  Can you believe it?  They went up to heaven hundreds of years earlier, and yet, here they were standing with Jesus just having a conversation like it was no big deal.
Peter, James, and John were in shock.  They couldn’t believe what they were seeing.  A bright white so bright white it doesn’t even exist, and now two very important men that should be in heaven.
Then it got even more amazing.  A cloud appeared above them and a voice spoke out, “This is my Son, whom I love.  Listen to Him!”  And suddenly it all disappeared.  No cloud, no Moses, no Elijah.  Just Jesus on a hike with Peter, James, and John, slowing walking back down the mountain.
Awesome job volunteers!  Thank you for helping tell the story today!
Wasn’t that a crazy story?  Can you even picture it?  Colors that don’t exist.  People from hundreds of years ago.  A talking cloud.  I can’t even imagine what it was like for them.
But I can imagine that it must have helped Peter, James, and John believe that Jesus really was the Messiah.  It’s hard to doubt something you can see with your own eyes.  It was proof that Jesus really is real.
Now, I highly doubt that any of us will get a visit from Moses, or hear a talking cloud, but that doesn’t mean we can’t know Jesus is real.  We just have to find out a different way.
What’s one way we can know Jesus is real?
How about the Bible?  We can see the Bible, and it tells us all about Jesus and why He came.  It tells about Jesus being born, teaching, performing miracles, dying on the cross and coming back on the third day, even glowing in a color that doesn’t exist.  There is so much written in the Bible that we can learn something new from it each and every day.  We even get to know things about Jesus that Peter, James, and John didn’t know.
What about prayer?  Have you ever prayed for something impossible, and then that impossible thing happened?  It can happen!  And it’s another way Jesus shows us He is real.
How about just looking at the absolutely amazing world God made for you?  There are so many different animals, plants, people, and places.  And we get to see that every single day.
It’s amazing to think about what it would have been like to meet Jesus, see Him perform a miracle, or even glow in a color that doesn’t exist, but it’s also amazing to have the Bible, or see a snowflake fall, or to speak to God in prayer.  Our lives are full of amazing things every single day.
Jesus is real.  And He wants us to know it.  We only have to look around us to see.  Jesus.  Is.  Real.
Activity A – Jesus is Real– Bible Verse Challenge
Supplies – Bibles
Verse – Mark 9:2-3,7-8
Pass out Bibles to students. Bibles should be closed and sitting on the table face up in front of each child. When you say go, have the kids look up this week’s Bible verse. As each child finds the verse, have them stick one finger on the verse and quietly raise their other hand. The first one to find the verse gets to read it to the rest of the class.
Help younger kids and new kids find the verse by following these steps.
Look in the Table of Contents for the book you are looking for. Make an effort to show them if it is found in the Old Testament or New Testament to help them in the future. Then open the Bible to the page number listed in the Table of Contents.
Show them the large numbers in the text, known as the chapters. Flip through pages until you find the large chapter number you are looking for.
Then scan through the text with them pointing out the smaller verse numbers until the correct number is found.
Activity B –Jesus is Real – Just Because You Can’t See It…
Supplies – white paper, white crayons, markers
Give each child a piece of paper and a crayon.  Have them write a message or draw a picture to give to someone else in the room.  Exchange papers and pass out markers.  Have the kids color the entire piece of paper with the marker to see the picture appear.
Explain to the kids that the message or picture was already there, they just couldn’t see it.  It is the same with God.  We might not be able to see God, but that doesn’t mean He isn’t there.
Closing Prayer – Jesus is Real
Ask for a volunteer to pray for the class before leaving, and encourage them to ask to ask God help everyone see that Jesus is real.

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