VERSES: John 2:1-11
MEMORY VERSE: John 2:11 "...and his disciples believed in him."
BOOK TO REMEMBER: Philippians. Write 'Philippians' on small slips of paper and hand out at the end of class for the students to memorize at home.
PRAYER: Thank God from whom all blessings come.
SPECIAL SONG: Jesus Taught By Parables And Miracles (see March - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #4 on this blog. Click orange circle to hear tune.)
VISUAL AID: A Large Activity (see below)
LESSON POINTS:
- In just a few lessons, we have learned a lot about Jesus, God's only begotten Son! We have learned how He was born, how Herod tried to kill Him, how He lived in Egypt for a short time, how He got 'lost' in Jerusalem when He was twelve years old, how He began to preach to the people when He was about thirty years old (Luke 3:23), and how He chose twelve men to follow Him. Today, we will study about Jesus' first miracle and why He performed miracles.
- Jesus, His disciples, and Jesus' mother, Mary, attended a wedding in the city of Cana. The Bible says that the people who were in charge of the wedding ran out of wine for the people to drink. In Bible times, people sometimes called grape juice 'wine,' so this could be a time when the drink of the wedding was grape juice and not like the wine that has alcohol in it. God is not pleased when people drink wine and get drunk.
- Mary heard that the people were out of wine and told Jesus about the problem. Jesus, being respectful, said to His mother that his time had not yet come. Mary told the servants at the wedding to do whatever Jesus told them to do.
- Jesus saw that there were six stone water pots set aside that would hold twenty to thirty gallons of water each. Jesus told the servants to fill the water pots with water. The servants filled the pots to the very brim. Jesus then told the servants to take the water pots to the host of the wedding. The host did not know that Jesus had told the servants any instructions at all, but the servants knew what Jesus had said and what they had done with their own hands. They had put water into the water pots as Jesus had asked them to do and that was all.
- When the host of the wedding had tasted the water that Jesus had turned to wine, he said that usually people gave the best wine at the beginning of the wedding, but the wine he was tasting was better than the first!
- This was the beginning of Jesus' miracles and it was done in the city of Cana in Galilee. Jesus did many miracles after this one and they were all done to prove that He was the Son of God. Could anyone else turn water into a different kind of liquid? No! But Jesus did.
- The Bible says that this miracle showed Jesus' glory and his disciples believed in Him. Jesus is the Son of God!
- Did you know that sometimes grape juice is called wine in the Bible? The Greek word (oinos) that translators translated into English could be used to refer to all forms of the grape, not only the fermented wine that we think of today.
- Just as the servants obeyed Mary's words--"whatever He saith unto you, do it"--we should do the same and obey all that Jesus says. We will be glad we did!
ACTIVITY: Jesus Turns The Water Into Wine (This activity may look difficult, but not so. Try it step by step. Try it before class time to make certain everything works smoothly.)
Materials needed: 6" x 14" brown construction paper, 6" x 16" light brown construction paper, 1.5" x 18" strip of blue paper, 1.5" x 18" strip of purple construction paper, marker or crayon, glue, tape, scissors.
- Hand out brown paper.
- Fold brown paper in half lengthwise.
- Fold brown paper again, but this time in thirds, so when it is opened it has twelve boxes.
- Unfold paper, so it is only folded in half lengthwise.
- On folded top edge, draw arches between squares.
- Cut arches out at top.
- Draw arches on bottom edges (still folded).
- Cut bottom arches out.
- Round outer corner edges. These are six brown water pots.
- Draw lines between water pots.
- On top folded edge, draw scallops from one water pot to the next.
- Write numbers (in order) on water pots.
- Hand out light brown paper.
- Glue the back of the folded water pots to the middle of the light brown paper.
- Write "Jesus' First Miracle" at the top of the light brown paper.
- Write "John 2:1-11" at the bottom of the light brown paper.
- At the edges of the dark brown paper, cut about 2" through each side of the light brown paper--but do not to the bottom edge of the light brown paper.
- Hand out blue and purple paper.
- Tape one edge of the blue paper to the one edge of the purple paper to form one long two-colored strip.
- Open dark brown water pots.
- Thread long strip of paper up through one cut side of the light brown paper where the student cut.
- Thread the long strip of paper back down through the other side of the light brown paper.
- Tape to secure.
- Close water pots.
- How it works:
- Open the water pots.
- As the student turns the blue strip to the front of the paper, the water pots are filled with blue water, but when the purple strip is turned to the front of the paper, the water pots are filled with purple wine.
