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GOD'S LOVE IS...

Week 3 - GOD’S LOVE IS BIG

This week’s material is based on the healing of the official’s son and is found in John chapter 4 verses 43 - 54.

part 1     

Lead-in session

Outline for Leaders

The purpose of this drama is to demonstrate what it means for something to be ‘BIG’. Later we’ll go on to talk about how God’s love is BIG, so big that it reaches out to everyone far and wide, all over the world. There's enough love to go round and at the same time God is interested in each and every one of us as individuals. 

Characters: Bill and Tom  

Props: 3 boxes, one small, one medium and one very big. Table and two chairs, table decoration of some description.

(Bill walks onto the stage and sits down at the table to read a book with a cup of tea. Tom comes through the door into the room.)

DRAMA - The BIG Box

Bill: Ah Tom, I was wondering, would you be kind enough to get me a cardboard box please?

Tom: (Looking puzzled) Er, yeah, okay I’ll go and find one.

(Tom returns with a very small cardboard box and hands it to Bill.)

(Bill looks at the box rather quizzically.)

Bill: Tom, couldn’t you have found a box that was bigger than this?

Tom: Oh alright.

(Tom returns but this time with a medium sized box, shoe box or similar will do.)

(Bill examines the box with a quizzical look again.)

Tom: Okay, you are fussy – I suppose you want a bigger one?

Bill: Do you mind Tom?

(Tom with a look of frustration shrugs his shoulders and heads off in search of a bigger box.)

(Tom comes back but this time with a huge box, so big that he needs several other people to help him carry it.)

Bill: (Jumping with excitement) YES! That’s the one Tom.

Tom: Well you might have said that you wanted a giant cardboard box in the first place Bill!

Bill: Well, thing is Tom, we needed something really big today because our theme is ‘God’s Love is BIG’. And God’s Love is BIG, so BIG that it stretches right across the world to everyone, everywhere, so BIG that it surrounds each one of us as individuals too. That’s BIG and we’re going to hear more about this later.

part 2

Bible Chat

Healing of the Official’s Son
(John chapter 4 verses 46 – 54) 

Outline for Leaders

The Official in this account heard about Jesus before he ever met Him and he believed the news he was hearing! The message of Jesus was BIG! It had spread many miles and now it had reached this man too. When he finally heard that Jesus was only a couple of days away from his home, he went to find Him. The man’s son was sick and he believed that Jesus could heal him. Jesus told the man to go home because his son had been healed. Again the man had faith to believe that what Jesus said was true. Sure enough, without Jesus being anywhere near the boy, he was made well. Then the Official’s entire household believed. The emphasis here is that God's love is so BIG, so BIG that it has spread across towns and cities and countries and endlessly through the corridors of time. God wants everyone, everywhere to hear this Good News! 

The Bible talk may be presented in various ways, two options are given below:

(OPTION 1) Tell the story using a few simple props:

·         Large picture of an ear

·         Something indicative of how news spreads –
newspaper  

·         Maybe one or two place names on the board or
map of Israel – Jerusalem, Cana, Capernaum

·         A clock set at one o’clock

Diagrammatic symbol for news travelling

Our story begins in a place called Capernaum, a fishing village in Israel, at the edge of the sea of Galilee. In Capernaum there lived a man who was a Royal Official, a man of importance. But he had a problem his son was sick, very sick, unless someone could make him well, the boy was going to die.   

Miles away (85 miles) Jesus was in Jerusalem with His disciples. He’d been in that area for a while, helping people, healing them, telling them about God His father. Jesus was always moving about visiting the towns and villages throughout Israel, so that people everywhere could hear the Good News about God’s amazing love.

The Official in Capernaum so needed help with his son, but no one had been able to make him well and Jesus was so far away.

The Official must have heard good reports about what Jesus was doing, how Jesus was healing people and changing their lives by His miracles. He must have longed to see Jesus for himself because his son was really poorly but Jesus was still nowhere near Capernaum. Would He ever come up the country as far as Capernaum? I don’t know how long this man had waited, but his son certainly wasn’t getting any better.

It was time for Jesus to move on again and suddenly, Jesus and his disciples were headed up North towards Cana in Galilee. As usual they stopped at the towns and villages along the way.  

Then one day, the news spread that Jesus was actually in Cana a town about 10 miles away from where the Official lived. Jesus was in Cana! This was his opportunity, his big chance. He would go to Cana straight away.

He arrived in Cana, found Jesus and begged him to go to Capernaum with him and heal his son, but there were so many people around and they all wanted to see Jesus. The Official got desperate, how would he ever get Jesus away from all these people? He pleaded with Jesus again that He would go with him to Capernaum before his son died and then a remarkable thing happened, Jesus turned to the man and said, “Go back home, your son will live.” The Official believed what Jesus said and started home immediately – it was one o’clock. The man believed, he had faith, he set off home without Jesus, believing that his son would be healed on Jesus’ word.

It was a tiring journey for him to get home and it would have been very hot. As he got nearer to his home maybe he wondered if his son would be well. He needn’t have had any doubts at all about that, as two of his servants met him with the amazing news that his son was alive and well.

“When, did this happen, when did the healing take place?” the Official asked, “yesterday at one o’clock’’ they told him. The Official then knew that this was the exact time that Jesus had told him to go and that his son would live.

Not only did the man believe in Jesus, but all of the people in his house did too. 

God’s Love is BIG it spreads everywhere, it has spread to you and me right here or wherever we are. God’s Love is HUGE it has travelled all through time. The Official believed what Jesus said. The boy was healed without seeing Jesus. We may not be able to see Jesus physically but He can help us in our everyday lives because He is alive today!

OPTION 2 - Use the PowerPoint provided. (Download PowerPoint and leaders’ notes from bottom of this page) 

Bible Chat

part 3    

Response Time (in small groups) 

1.    What’s the biggest thing you’ve ever seen? 

2.    Get the kids to think of other words to describe just how BIG God’s love is (enormous, gigantic, massive, huge... Could write these down on a piece of paper).    

3.    The world is a big place but not too big for God’s love to reach us all. Draw a world and place inside the words from John chapter 3 verse 16. Emphasise the words the world and everyone. God includes us all. (For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.)

4.    Pray with the children asking for God’s help to trust in His love and power.

Week 3 DOWNLOADS

Drama Script, Bible Chat and Response Time Leaders’ Notes
PowerPoint Week 3 - Key Phrase Slide
PDF Image Large Ear
PDF Image Diagram Symbol for News Travelling
Image - Basic Map of Israel
PowerPoint for Alternative Bible Chat option 2 - Healing of the Official’s Son