Teaching John 15:18-31

3-5s

Theme: People treated Jesus badly so they will treat His friends badly

Aim: That they continue to trust Jesus through these times

Intro

‘Love’ ‘hate’ – Have a sign with a ‘love’ sign on one side and a ‘hate’ sign on the other. They have to stand up if they love eg pizza, etc.

Bible

How does it feel when someone doesn’t want to play with us? How does it feel when someone says something horrible to us? [have some emoticons on the table which they can grab according to how they feel]

Jesus was talking to His friends. He knows that the next day He will be arrested and killed on a cross?

Read story from a children’s Bible

How do you think Jesus felt during that story? Who treated Him badly? What did they do to Him?

Jesus says that some people won’t like it if we’re friends with Him and they will treat us badly too.

Listen to Jesus’ words: Read 15:18-21 [hold up ‘love’ ‘hate’ sign as you come to those words]

Jesus says some people really won’t like us being Jesus’ friends. That might make us really sad, it might even mean we cry.

This happened to Jesus’ friends after He died and rose again.

Here’s Peter [have a picture] – the Roman King, Nero, threw him in prison and then killed him just because he was Jesus’ friend

Here’s Stephen [picture] – the Jewish leaders threw stones at him until he died because he loved Jesus

Here’s Paul [picture] – he was sent to prison and beaten because he was Jesus’ friend

I wonder if maybe we find this a little bit scary, and it is. But Jesus also says we’re not alone when this happens. Read 15:26-27. Do you remember we talked about the Holy Spirit? He is with us when people are being horrible because we’re Jesus’ friends. Jesus warns His friends so that they can be ready.

So when someone is horrible to you because you love Jesus, don’t be surprised, but remember that Jesus’ Spirit is with you and don’t be afraid to talk about Jesus.

Pray – could look at some stories of persecuted Christians

Activities

• Stick on pictures of people from the story and persecuted Christians today

Songs

Follow, follow and Stick with Jesus (from a Very, very big God)

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5-11s

Theme: Religious people hated Jesus so they will also hate His followers

Aim: That the children are not afraid to be known as His

Intro

‘Speech’ – they have to talk about eg football for 30seconds while the group throws sponges at them

‘Love/Hate’ – have a sign with ‘love’ on one side and ‘hate’ on the other. Stand in the middle of the room. Shout something out, eg Marmite. They need to run to one side or the other as to whether they love or hate it.

Bible

[This could be done with a large body outline – write on how they treated Jesus, then turn over and fill in with words from John 15:18-16:4]

How does it feel when someone doesn’t like you?

Lots of people didn’t like Jesus; who? What did they do to Jesus? [Hold up the ‘Hate’ side of the sign]

Jesus knew this was going to happen the next day:

Read his arrest and crucifixion from a short children’s Bible.

What was it like for Jesus?

And it was the Jewish leaders, the religious people, who killed him!

But if they hated Jesus, they will also hate Jesus’ followers. Those who ‘love’ Jesus [hold up ‘love’ side] other people will ‘hate’ [switch sign]

Read John 15:18-21

Has this happened to anyone? [Maybe have a story with pictures from the persecuted church to illustrate?]

It may be those who call themselves Christians or are leaders in the church who attack us most! [Story of William Tyndale or Wycliffe?]

But Jesus says that the worst thing these people can do is to ‘hate’ God’s own Son, Jesus. It’s even worse than if they had never heard of Him. Read v22-24. And we shouldn’t be surprised because all through the Old Testament God’s leaders had been attacked by His people. King David was ‘hated’ by Saul and wrote this, read John 15:25. The prophets were all ‘hated’ and treated badly just for bringing God’s message, just for ‘loving’ God.

And this came true for Jesus followers:

Peter – he loved Jesus, but the Emperor Nero ‘hated’ him and probably crucified him upside down.

Stephen – he loved Jesus but the Jewish leaders hated him and stoned him to death

Paul – he ‘loved’ Jesus but was put in jail and beaten lots of times by those who hated him for it.

So what are you going to do when your friends laugh at you for following Jesus? When people ‘hate’ us for ‘loving’ Jesus what should we do? [Take suggestions]

Jesus gives us some helpful reminders:

Read 15:26-27. Who has He given to help you? The Holy Spirit

Read 16:1-4. We’re to keep standing up for Jesus. Why? Well, how big is God? And how big are our friends? So, who should we want to please more?

What’s the worst that other people can do to us? What’s the worst God can do to us? So, who should we fear more?

[Could play sponges game at this point with quite specific applications to train them]

Pray for those being persecuted around the world today.