CHILDREN’S DEVOTIONS FOR THE WEEK OF: 8/17-8/23/2008
LESSON TITLE: John Baptizes Jesus
SCRIPTURE: Mark 1:1-11

THEME: Jesus is the Son of God.


Dear Parents…
Welcome to Bible Time for Kids! Bible Time for Kids is a series of daily devotions for children and their families. Our purpose is to supplement our Sunday morning curriculum and give you an opportunity to encourage your children to develop a daily devotional life. We hope you and your family will be blessed as you study God’s Word together.

This week in Children’s Church we learned about John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. This was when Jesus began his public ministry. He began by being baptized in order to “fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus never had any sin, but He is our example. He was baptized in order to demonstrate to us that it is the right thing to do.

He also showed us a picture of what baptism is. It pictures His death, burial and resurrection from the dead. It also pictures newness of life. We also see in this story the theme of our Sunday lesson which is “Jesus is the Son of God.” After Jesus was baptized the Father spoke from heaven declaring that Jesus is His Son. Over the next five days we will continue to look at these great truths and others. Get ready for a fun week of learning God’s word.

The section of scripture that we studied was Mark 1:1-11. The following five devotions are based on either the scripture and/or the theme for Sunday’s lesson. As a starting point it would be good for you to review these verses with your children.

These devotions are designed to help you reinforce Sunday’s lesson throughout the week with your children, provide some more ideas for the application of God’s Word in your children’s lives and provide a tool to help in family devotions.

Obviously children at various age levels will respond to the devotional in different ways. You may want to add your own ideas to these to make them more age appropriate.

May the Lord bless you as you study His Word together!


Day One
The Voice, The Son and The Dove
Text: Mark 1:10,11 -“And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” Also read 2 Corinthians 13:14

When you are baptized the pastor will baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is called the Trinity. There is only one God, but He reveals Himself in three different ways (or persons) – the Father, the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit. At Jesus’ baptism, we see all three persons of the Trinity together. Sometimes, looking at pictures, helps us to understand what something is. Let’s look at a couple of pictures to see if we can perhaps understand the Trinity a little bit better.

First, think of a big, gooey, juicy, apple or berry pie. Now let’s take and cut the pie into three equal pieces. Now from the outside of the pie we can clearly see 3 pieces. But if we were to peel off the crust we would see that the gooey, juicy insides were still all mixed together as one. This is kind of like God. On the outside we can see Him in three different persons. But there is still only one God. Of course no picture is perfect, but they help us to understand things about the Lord.

OK, let’s try one more. Think with me if you will about water. Water can come in three different forms yet each form is still water. The first would be ice. Ice is frozen water. The second is liquid, or just regular water. The last is steam. If you boiled a pot of water you would eventually see steam come out of the spout of the kettle. All three are equally water, but in three different forms.

We can never fully understand the Trinity, but the Bible clearly teaches it. At Jesus’ baptism we see all three persons in the Trinity come together. Jesus is being baptized, the Father speaks from heaven and the Spirit descends upon Jesus as a dove. God loves us and He sent His Son to die for us and He gave us His Spirit to help us to live for Him. Thank You Lord!

• As a family, look up and discuss the following verses on the Trinity: Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 Peter 1:2.

Kid’s Bible Dictionary
Trinity: The teaching in the Bible that God reveals Himself in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.


Day Two
Baptized With the Holy Spirit
Text: Mark 1:8 -“I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Also read Acts 2:1-4

The story in Mark chapter one tells us of John baptizing Jesus in the river Jordan. John baptized people in water. When John baptized people they were showing their friends and family that they were repenting of their sins and turning to God. When we are baptized in water we are also showing our friends and family that we have turned away from our sins and are asking Jesus to be the Lord of our lives.

John the Baptist said that when Jesus came that He would baptize people with the Holy Spirit. What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit? Well let’s take a look at the story of the disciples given to us in the Bible (Acts 2:1-4). Jesus’ followers were praying and waiting on the power of God that Jesus promised would come upon them so that they could be witnesses of Jesus to the world. While they were praying the Holy Spirit came upon them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and received power to be witnesses for Jesus.

So what happens when I am baptized with the Holy Spirit? Well let’s use an example. Say there is an empty glass on a table and a large pitcher of water next to it. The glass represents your life and the pitcher of water represents the Holy Spirit. If I were to take the pitcher and pour the water into the glass until is was full, then we could say that is what it is like to be filled with the Holy Spirit. When we become Christians the Holy Spirit enters “into” our hearts. Now let’s say I take the pitcher and pour more water into the glass until it overflows and pours all over the table. This is what happens when we are baptized with the Holy Spirit. We are filled up to overflowing. The Holy Spirit comes “upon” us and we overflow with the Holy Spirit. He gives us the power to live for Him and to be a witness for Him. Others come into contact with Him instead of us! The Bible says that we can just ask Jesus to give us His Holy Spirit and He will do it (Luke 11:11-13).

• What happened when Peter preached after being baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:41)?
• Have you asked for the Holy Spirit to come upon you to help you to be a witness for Jesus?


Kid’s Bible Dictionary
Baptism with the Holy Spirit: When the Holy Spirit comes “upon” us to empower us for service and to live for Jesus.


Day Three
Why Do We Do What We Do?
Text: Mark 1:10 -“And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.” Also read 2 Kings 5:1-17

Have you ever been to a water baptism service? Or have you have been baptized yourself at some time? What did you see at the baptism? There were people going into the water to be dipped into the water and brought back out by a pastor. There are a lot of places where people can be baptized. John the Baptist baptized in the Jordan River. Pastor Chuck Smith has baptized thousands in the Pacific Ocean. Pastor Damian baptizes people in swimming pools. Some churches may have their own tanks in the church building they worship in. But wherever people are baptized, the common thing for all of them is water. Another common part of baptism is being immersed or dunked under the water. But why do we use water? And why are we dunked? Why do we do what we do?

The Bible often refers to the Holy Spirit as being like water. As we use water to wash our bodies on the outside the Holy Spirit washes us on the inside. Water represents a cleansing. When we are baptized we look at the water as an example of God washing our sins away.

In the Old Testament (2 Kings 5:1-17), there was a commander in the army of Syria that had leprosy. Leprosy is a physical picture of sin. He was told that if He went and washed in the Jordan seven times that God would heal him. He did and God healed his leprosy. Baptism in water is like Namaan washing in the Jordan. It is an outside picture of what God has done for us on the inside through accepting Jesus into our hearts.

The reason why we see people get immersed under water and brought back up is another picture on the outside of what God has done on the inside. The picture is that of being dead in sin and being resurrected into new life. When we go under the water it represents Jesus’ death on the cross and when we come up it represents His resurrection from the dead. If you have asked Jesus into your heart and have never been baptized, pray and ask the Lord about being baptized when the next opportunity comes.

• What does the water in baptism picture?
• What does going under and coming back up out of the water picture?

Kid’s Bible Dictionary
Baptism: To be immersed in water to show others that the Lord has come into your heart and has given you new life.


Day Four
One Sunday Night
Text: Acts 8:36 -“Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, ‘See here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?’” Also read Acts 8:26-39

One Sunday night, many years ago I put on a white robe, and stood in line with a few other people whom I can’t remember. I stood waiting for my name to be called. When I was asked to come forward, I stepped down into a large tank of water. The water was comfortably warm so I had no problem with it lapping up against my chest. When I went into the water, Pastor Ken greeted me. Pastor Ken asked me a few questions about being a Christian. After answering the questions I closed my eyes and put my hand over my nose. Then Pastor Ken leaned my body backward until my whole body went under the water. Then he brought me back up into the standing position. As I came out of the water I could hear the clapping of hands for a brief celebration. I had just been baptized in water.

Water baptism is usually one of the first things we learn about when we become a Christian. It was the first thing that the Ethiopian Eunuch did after he received Jesus. He wanted to find some water and get baptized as soon as possible to show his new faith in Jesus.

People have been gathering together for water baptism for two thousand years. John the Baptist began baptizing people during the time of Jesus. In fact, John baptized Jesus. There have been thousands or maybe even millions of people who have been baptized in water over the years. Who are all of these people? And what do they all have in common? Well all of the people who have been baptized were Christians (followers of Jesus). A person gets baptized to make a public stand for Jesus. Water baptism is an example on the outside of what has happened to us as Christians on the inside.

• What was the first thing the Ethiopian Eunuch wanted to do after being saved?
• What is the next thing we should do after getting saved?

Kid’s Bible Challenge
If you have been saved, and have not been baptized in water, pray and see if this is what the Lord would have you to do.


Day Five
Bird Dog for Jesus
Text: John 1:7 -“This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.” Also read Matthew 5:16

My father and I used to go bird hunting. We went to a club that has a lot of land where you could hunt for the birds. We had a whole season to hunt, but could only get 36 birds. Well we hunted and hunted until the season was almost over but we had only found four birds. We looked and looked but could not find those birds anywhere. We looked in the grass and they would hide from us. We would walk right by them without finding them. Finally we decided if we were ever going to get the rest of our birds we needed someone who could point us to the birds. The last day we hunted we hired a man who had some trained bird dogs. His name was Easy Pickens and his two dogs could smell the birds. They would sniff their way to the birds and when they found them in the grass they would stop and point their nose at the birds. Well we got the rest of our birds in one day. Those dogs pointed to every bird that was hidden from our view.

John the Baptist was like a bird dog. He came out of the wilderness where he ate locusts and wild honey. He wore a coat of camel skin. He preached to people to repent of their sins. And he pointed the way to Jesus. John 1:7 says about John that he came for a witness, to bear witness to the light, that all through Him might believe. John was a pointer to Jesus. Jesus is the light of the world and John pointed to Him as the Savior of the world.

Jesus tells us to be pointers for him. We are not supposed to hide the truth about Jesus but be a pointer to Jesus, the Light of the world. Jesus is a light in our life and it is to shine out into a dark world of lost people. We don’t want to point to ourselves or to anyone else. We should only point to Jesus. We need to be more like a good bird dog for Jesus.

• Have you ever seen a bird dog?
• How was John the Baptist like a bird dog?
• How can we point others to Jesus?

Kid’s Prayer Time
If you have never been water baptized, first make sure that you have asked Jesus to come into your heart, then pray and ask the Lord to show you about being water baptized. God Bless You!



Memory Verse
First and Second Grade
“Then a voice came from heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’”

Third Grade and Above
“Then a voice came from heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’”

Mark 1:11