Intermediate Level, Block 9—Biographies of Jesus
Week 84
Jesus—Calling His Disciples to Follow Him
Point to Emphasize: We can be good followers by watching those who are good patterns to us.
Reading Reference: Matthew 4:16, 18-22; 9:9-13; 10:2-4; Mark 2:14-17; 3:16-19; Luke 5:1-11, 27-32; John 1:35-37, 40-42; 8:12; Acts 1:13
Memory Verse: …And He said to him, Follow Me. And he rose and followed Him. (Mark 2:14)
Sample Story
When Jesus was living on this earth many people followed Him. He attracted crowds of people and many followed Him because they were amazed at all the things He did. But there were only 12 that Jesus called to follow Him, to be taught by Him. They formed a group called the disciples. In the dictionary, it says that a disciple is “someone who follows the teaching of a leader; a pupil.” So, the most important word here is “FOLLOWS”. The disciples were those who followed Jesus to learn from Him. He was the best One to follow.
The disciples followed Jesus all the time. Wherever He went, they would also go, and all the time, they were learning from Him. They saw Him care for the youngest ones. They saw Him take care of all different ones and saw how He met every man’s need. They saw how he cared for poor ones, educated ones, sick ones, etc. They also saw Jesus feeding so many people in an orderly way. From this, they learned how they should be neat and orderly, too. By following Him and watching Him to see what kind of person He was, they learned many things.
The disciples that Jesus called were not all the same. He did not just call the “best of the best”. Some were fishermen, one was a tax collector, but all of them were willing to leave whatever they were doing to be with Jesus. They listened to what He said and even more so, they saw what kind of person He was by just being with Him and watching Him.
One time, growing up I had a good coach. She would teach us all we needed to play the game well, but she also was a leader in other ways. She was always polite, using the words “please” and “thank you” with us. She wouldn’t just bark out instructions as we played. She would shout out, “Hey (name) please remember to pass the ball.” So, after a while, I realized that I also was saying “please” and “thank you” more often. The other thing about her was that she would correct you if certain words came out of your mouth. She had rules of conduct and you had to follow them. No ugly or angry words were to come out of your mouth when you played. We all followed her lead. [Storyteller, use your own personal example]
Not all coaches are good patterns to follow, like this one was. I’m sure you have heard of some who are tremendous players in their sport or singers who have their songs heard by all. But when you see how they really live you see that they are not the kind of person you would want to follow or that your parents would like you to follow. Can you think of someone you know that you should follow as a pattern? Maybe your mom or dad, a teacher, a neighbor, a coach? We can learn so much just by watching others! [Storyteller, use the rest of the time to discuss some of the ones the children have looked up to and tried to follow.]