(Set up activity beforehand using white vinegar and salt in a small dish)
Pass around one dirty looking penny and one shiny new looking penny. Ask students if they believe the dirty penny can look pretty like the new one without any scrubbing or rubbing? Ask students if Jesus was a miracle worker or a magic man. Ask them the difference between miracles and magic. (Miracles are things that cannot be explained by people; magic is based on tricks and deceptions and is used for entertainment.) Check the penny. Tell students that although it looks like magic, it is not. The liquid in the dish contains vinegar and salt which cleans the pennies. This is not a miracle, because it can be explained. Remind students that Jesus did not do magic. He did miracles like healing the sick, giving sight to the blind and casting out demons. No one could explain how He did them, and no one else could work the miracles He did. He did them because He loved people and wanted to help them. He wanted to make their lives new like shiny pennies.
Lazarus was Jesus' friend. One day Lazarus got sick and died. Jesus wasn't there to make him well again. The friends of Lazarus took his body and put it in a cave. They rolled a big rock over the hole so nobody could go in or out.
When Jesus came, He told the men to roll away the stone, and Jesus prayed and asked God to make Lazarus alive. Lazarus came out of the tomb. He was dead but Jesus made him alive.
-Who were Jesus’ friends?
-Why didn’t Jesus go to Lazarus right away?
-What
happened when Jesus called to His friends? Lazarus had been dead for three days. His friends did
not think he would ever live on earth again.
-Were his friends happy when Jesus raised him from the dead? I’m
sure they were happy to be friends with Him.
-Are you glad that Jesus is your friend?
Ask
students, “Have you ever asked Jesus for something that you didn’t get? Even
though Lazarus’ friends could not understand why Jesus did not come to Lazarus
right away, God had a plan. Even when Jesus doesn’t give you what you ask for,
you can still be sure that He has a plan.” Pass out nice paper. Tell students
to write a prayer to God about something that they do not understand. Explain
that Jesus wants them to trust that His plan is always right, even when we
don’t understand it. Tell students that God wants us to be honest with Him and
let Him know when we don’t understand something. Reminds students God always
has a plan and that His ways are different than the ways of people. Tell
students that God wants us to thank Him even before we see the answers to our
prayers.
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