CHILDREN’S DEVOTIONS FOR THE WEEK OF: 9/14-9/19/08
LESSON TITLE: Jesus and Nicodemus
THEME: We all need a new, spiritual birth.
SCRIPTURE: John 3:1-21

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 Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a leader among the Jews and came to Jesus during the night to ask Him some questions. How Jesus answered gives us one of the clearest statements of salvation in the whole Bible. Jesus clearly said that we “must be born again.”

We learned on Sunday how that we all need a new, spiritual birth. Only the Lord can make all things brand new. If we only trust in Jesus we can receive this new birth. Enjoy this week as you continue to look at our wonderful salvation and new birth found in Jesus.

The section of scripture that we studied was John 3:1-21. 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
Twister
Text: John 3:8 -“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Also read John 3:1-8

I can remember as a kid growing up, we would have these miniature tornadoes that would spin down onto the playground during recess. It was just wind moving around very fast causing kind of a whirlwind, but they would pick up a lot of dust and dirt. They would also pickup plastic sandwich bags, paper sacks, napkins and other assorted litter and twirl them all up into the air.

After lifting up the trash it would fling off a few items at a time from the core, releasing them to drift back down to earth. If you were in a good spot you could watch the twister move, zigzagging all across the playground. It moved left or right, as the wind would shift it. It was as if you could see the wind. Only what you were really seeing was the dirt and trash. You would really only see the effects of the wind.

Jesus told Nicodemus that the Spirit of God is like the wind. We can not see Him, but we can see the effects of His power in our lives. Just like we could see the twister in the playground because of the things that it twirled around, we can see the Spirit’s work in our life when He saves us and makes a change in our hearts and lives. Other people sitting in a good spot to see us can also see God at work in our lives. So the Spirit of God will blow like the wind into the heart of anyone who will receive Jesus as Savior. The Spirit of God can not be seen but He is at work drawing people toward Jesus (John 6:44).

So the next time you see a tornado on television or a whirlwind on your playground, think about how the Spirit of God is moving all over the world to reach the hearts of men and women, boys and girls. We might not actually see the Spirit of God, but we can see what He does for those who accept Jesus into their lives. Nicodemus learned that he could experience God’s Spirit in His life by believing in the very One he was speaking with. Did you know that you could do the same when you believe in Jesus?

• Have you ever seen a real tornado? What was that like?
• How is the wind like the Holy Spirit?
• How can the Holy Spirit be seen in your life?

Kid’s Bible Dictionary
Wind: One of the symbols for the Holy Spirit.


Day Two
Born Twice
Text: John 3:4 -“Nicodemus said to Him, ‘how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’” Also read John 3:1-8

Have you ever heard someone say, “If you are born once you will die twice, but if you are born twice you will die only once?” You kind of have to think about that question for a little bit. What does it mean? Well, everyone is born into this world as a brand new baby. Also everyone will die someday, one birth and one death. But the Bible says that those who die without knowing Jesus they will spend all of eternity separated from Him. This is called the “second death (Revelation 21:8).”

So someone who dies without Jesus will have one birth and two deaths. None of us want to have that happen. God has provided a way so that it doesn’t have to happen to any one. How? By being born again! If we are born a second time then we won’t have to die twice, in fact we will have eternal life and live forever.

When Nicodemus met with Jesus he didn’t understand how someone could be born twice. But Jesus explains to Nicodemus that there are two kinds of births. The first is our physical birth. That is when you were a brand new baby. The second birth is a new spiritual birth.

How can someone be born spiritually? This happens when someone accepts Jesus into their heart. When we accept God’s love and sacrifice for us and we ask him to forgive us of our sins, then the Spirit of God gives a new birth to our spirit. We become alive inside. The Holy Spirit lives in us to be a comfort, a guide and the power source we need to live for God the rest of our lives. This is what it means to be born of the Spirit. The Lord has made it so easy to come to Him through Jesus that no one should ever have to experience that “second death.” We need to accept God’s salvation and be born again into eternal life.

• Why do you think we need a new birth to be right with God?
• Have you been born again?

Kid’s Bible Dictionary
Born Again: Receiving Jesus as our savior by trusting in Him. Our spirit is made alive through the Holy Spirit.

Day Three
Snake on a Stick
Text: John 3:14 -“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” Also read Numbers 21:4-9

Do you like snakes? How would you feel about finding a few of them in your path as you are hiking in the mountains? Most people do not like snakes. A snake usually isn’t the favorite choice for a stuffed animal to cuddle with at bedtime. Nor is it the most popular choice for a family pet. It’s as if there is a curse on snakes. Have these slithering reptiles just gotten a “bad rap” or should I say “dissed” or better yet “hissed”? Well there is a reason why this may be.

In the first book of the Bible, Genesis there is a story about a snake. It is the story about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It is a true story about how the serpent deceived Eve. The snake was really Satan in disguise. The story is about how all of mankind became trapped in sin. Because of this, sin will always be associated with Satan, who is described as a serpent. This is probably why people still today think of snakes as evil. God put a curse on snakes that they would slither on their stomachs on the ground.

In John 3:14 we see that Jesus said that His death on the cross would be like the time that a snake was lifted up in the wilderness. What was He talking about? This is talking about another story in the Bible. The story is about a time when Moses was commanded by God to put a brass serpent on a pole for the sick people to look at and be healed. Poisonous snakes were biting the people as judgment for their sin. God provided a way for them to be healed. If they would look at the snake on the pole they would live but if they did not they would die. None would live if bitten, unless they looked at the snake.

This is all a picture of what Jesus did on the cross. Jesus became a curse for us by dying on the cross (Galatians 3:13). He took the sin, which curses all mankind with separation from God, and died in our place. So when we look to Jesus’ death on the cross, it is just like the people bitten by the snakes looking to the snake on the pole to save them. Jesus, who took the curse of our sin, will save everyone who looks to Him for salvation.

• What do you think about snakes?
• When we realize we’ve been “bitten by a poisonous snake” (a sinner) what should we do?

Kid’s Bible Dictionary
Lifted Up: Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.

Day Four
He Loves Me…He Loves Me Not…
Text: John 3:16 -“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Also read Romans 5:8

Picking the dandelion from the grass, the young girl began to pull the petals out one by one and with the first said, “He loves me.” Then she would pull another and say, “He loves me not.” Then another, “He loves me.” Then another, “He loves me not.” Then another, “He loves me.” Then still another, “He loves me not.” Until she pulled the last petal, which ended in a shout with “He loves me!”

Have you ever heard of this game? The funny thing is that no matter how many petals that were on the flower or even if she said, “He loves me,’” after each time she pulled out a petal, it wouldn’t change the young man’s heart for the girl. But a lot of people feel as though they are playing the same game in wondering if God loves them or not. They just don’t know for sure if He really loves them. Or worse, they may think that maybe He doesn’t even care if they exist at all. Have you ever wondered if God loves you?

God wants you to be very sure of His love for you. He does not want one person in the entire world to ever have to wonder if He loves them. In order to make sure everyone would know His love He gave us His word. The Bible is the truth about God’s love for us. John 3:16 (see above), probably the most famous verse in the Bible, declares God’s love for us. God’s son is Jesus, and Jesus is a living example of God’s word. John 1:1 says that Jesus was the word and the word was God and verse 14 says that the word became flesh and came to live as a man. This was so that we would see God’s love in Jesus and through His death we might have everlasting life. So God tells us through the Bible and through Jesus that He loves us. We can be sure that He loves us because the Bible tells us so.

Do you know the song “Jesus Loves Me”? Part of it goes like this, “Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes Jesus loves me...The Bible tells me so!”

• Do you know for sure that God loves you?
• How does John 3:16 help you to understand God’s love for you?

Kid’s Bible Activity
As a family spend the next few minutes worshipping the Lord. You can sing “Jesus Loves Me” together or maybe “Lord I Lift Your Name on High.”

Day Five
Bats of the Bible
Text: John 3:19 -“And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Also read John 3:19-21
Have you ever studied bats in school? One of the interesting things about bats is that they sleep all day, usually in a cave or dark place, and will only come out at night. That is when they look for food and do all of the other things that bats do. But one thing is for sure! Bats hate the light!

They will always return to their cave, or resting place before the sun comes up the next day. They can’t stand to be in the light. It is interesting also that there are some people described in the Bible who are a lot like bats. Let’s look them up and see what the Bible says.

The bats of the Bible are described in John 3:19-21. These verses say that light (Jesus) has come into the world, but there are people who love darkness instead of Jesus, because they practice or do evil things. People who make a habit out of doing evil are people who really hate the light (Jesus). They will not come to the light (Jesus) because they are afraid the light will expose their evil deeds. Sounds a lot like a bat! When the light comes you can find them hiding out somewhere in a dark place. God would have them come to Him and turn away from doing evil things, but unfortunately some people love what they are doing more that the light of Jesus. They reject Jesus, the life and light of the world.

When we follow Jesus and obey the commands of the Bible, we show people we love the light. Obeying God and living “Christ-like” are great examples to others that we love the light, we want nothing to do with darkness. What a wonderful life we can have in the light! Do you need to come into the light of God today? Are you willing to make Jesus your Lord and Savior? Come into His wonderful light today; don’t hang out in the darkness any longer.

• Have you ever seen a real bat?
• Why do most people who do evil want to do it in the darkness?
• Why is it so important to come into the light of Jesus?

Kid’s Prayer Time
This week we learned a lot about Jesus and His wonderful new birth that He offers each one of us. Let’s pray this week and thank Him for such a great salvation.

Memory Verse…
First and Second Grade
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Third Grade and Above “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

John 3:16