Advanced Level, Block 9—Jesus’ Closest Followers
Week 90
The Women—Supplying and Taking Care of the Needs of Others
Point to Emphasize: Will you be like those who followed the Lord Jesus closely? Would you do the ordinary things that others do not notice?
Reference Reading: Luke 8:1-3; 10:38-39; 23:49, 55; 24:1-10; Mark 15:40-41, 47; 16:1-8; Matthew 27:55-56, 61; 28:1; Acts 1:13-15
Memory Verse: But do not forget doing good and sharing with others, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. (Hebrews 13:16)
Sample Story
When you think of Jesus and His followers, who do you usually think of? [Let the children answer… The 12 disciples, some of the names we have covered in the last few weeks, the 120 who met, etc. Chances are they won’t mention the women.] Right! Most of those you mentioned were men. But what about the women? There are many verses in the New Testament that mention the women who followed Jesus. Even the first ones to come to the tomb after Jesus was crucified were women! Some are mentioned by name, and some are not. It’s important to get the full picture of who followed Jesus.
“The women” were very necessary for the preaching of the gospel, that is, for the preaching of the good news about Jesus. Luke 8 tells us that Jesus traveled from city to city and village to village preaching and announcing the gospel. The 12 disciples, along with certain women, traveled together with Him. The women went along to take care of Jesus and His disciples by supplying their needs. This shows us a lovely picture. Some in the group were doing one thing and some were doing another – maybe buying food, preparing it, cleaning up, sewing ripped garments, providing them a place to stay, etc. What these women did was so important, because it gave Jesus a way to travel and preach the gospel! They gave what they had, and they did what they could. They did whatever was needed to be done to take care of these traveling ones. These women even provided the financial needs of the traveling ones. Without their help, Jesus and his disciples could not have traveled as much as they did because they would have had to rely on those in the towns and villages to take care of them.
When I was your age, we went to places where there were men in charge who were called “pastors, ministers, preachers”. I always thought that the preacher’s job was the most important one. I never paid attention to the people who cleaned the building, set up the chairs, put soap in the bathrooms, or took out the trash. These things went unnoticed. I thought these kinds of things were not important. I thought only the “preacher” was important. One day, however, I saw that the same “preacher” who spoke in the morning meeting was also the one who cleaned a bathroom after the meeting was over. So, my way of thinking changed. I began to realize how many ordinary things had to be done for the meeting to take place.
Let’s talk about what had to happen just for you to be here this morning. [Discussion with children. Someone had to wake them up, cook breakfast, and drive them here.] You know, other things had to happen too, things that were not so noticeable to you. Did you have clean clothes to put on this morning? Did you have to eat leftovers for breakfast? Did the car have gas? Was the electricity working in your house? Was there water when you went to wash your hands? Someone in your family took care of all these things. These ordinary things are not so noticeable, but they are more than important for us to be able to do what we do.
This is what the women who traveled with Jesus did. They did so many things that were not so noticeable, yet they were counted among those who followed Jesus closely. Would you be like them? Would you do the ordinary things that go unnoticed by others? I hope that our conversation today has made you want to be like them.