Use this children’s Sunday School lesson about Jesus’ first miracle to teach kids how Jesus changes us.
Needed: Bibles, powdered drink mix or cookie dough ingredients, drawing paper and crayons or colored pencils
Intro Game: Power Up Freeze Tag
Divide the students into two teams. One team is It and tries to tag the members of the other team. When a student is tagged, they freeze in place. Every minute or so, a designated Power Up leader runs through the play area. If someone on the team being chased tags the Power Up leader, the leader shouts, “Power Up!” and the frozen students are back in the game. The roles also reverse, so that now they are It and the other team is running from them.
Explain that Jesus changes us, just like getting a power-up changed the game.
Lesson
Ask students, Who can tell me what a miracle is?
A miracle is when God does something and makes something happen that normally wouldn’t happen. If someone had a disease and they would normally die from that disease, but then, God heals them, that’s a miracle. If someone is in a really bad car accident, but they don’t get hurt, that’s a miracle. Does anyone else have a story about when a miracle happened?
(Read John 2:1-11.)
What was the problem in this story? (The people were having a party at a wedding, and they ran out of wine.)
Do you remember what Mary, Jesus’ mother, told the workers at the wedding to do? (She told them to do whatever Jesus told them to.)
Do you think it’s important for us to do whatever Jesus tells us to? (Yes. We need to do whatever Jesus tells us.)
So, Jesus and the workers went into the kitchen, and what did Jesus do? (Jesus turned the water into wine.)
Would you say that what Jesus did was a miracle? (Yes. Water doesn’t usually change into wine, so Jesus did a miracle by making it happen.)
Demonstration: It Changed!
Show students how we can turn something into another by adding ingredients together. If you only have a little time, you can add a powdered drink mix to water. If you have a little more time, you can mix cookie batter and bake the cookies for an after-lesson treat.
When you’re finished, ask, How is what we did to change our ingredients into something else different from what Jesus did to change the water into wine?
Jesus didn’t add anything to the water to make it turn into wine. He did a miracle.
Lesson continues…
Did you know that Jesus has also done a miracle in our lives?
Jesus changed the water into wine. He changed one thing into a totally different thing. And Jesus does that to us too. Just as Jesus changed the water into wine, Jesus changes us from people who don’t believe in God to people who do believe in God. He changes us from people who would be going to Hell to people who will now be going to Heaven. He changes us from people who do wrong things to people who do right things. Jesus does a miracle in our lives by changing our hearts to love God.
There is one more thing we should talk about in this story. Jesus made a lot of wine. Does that mean it’s okay to drink alcohol, like beer and wine, and get drunk?
The Bible says it’s okay to drink if you’re old enough, but it’s also okay to not drink. You don’t have to drink. But the Bible does say that it’s wrong to get drunk. That’s because when people drink too much and get drunk, they get mean or they do stupid things. So, it’s wrong to get drunk.
The big thing to remember this week, though, is that Jesus changes our hearts to love God and do the right things.
Craft: Miracles
Give students drawing supplies and have them draw two pictures. The first can be of God or Jesus performing any miracle: a scene from the Bible, a modern healing, etc. The second should be of God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit changing them into a believer or a more mature believer.
Closing Prayer
Jesus, we thank You for performing a miracle in our lives and changing us. We pray that You’ll keep changing us to be more and more like You. Amen.
You can also find this lesson for Kindle or in print in my book, Jesus Starts His Work.