Children’s Sermon

Mark 1: 4-11

Getting Ready

Objects suggested: Pictures of a wedding, a wedding veil or wedding dress, or other memento from a wedding.

A wedding is one of the happiest celebrations you can imagine. If you have had the opportunity to be a guest at a wedding you may remember seeing beautiful flowers, eating wedding cake, and talking with other friends and family members of the bride and groom, who came to celebrate the marriage.

Usually there is organ music and then the groom appears, along with his best friends. The friends of the bride come down the aisle, one at a time, dressed in fine clothes. They may be followed by a flower girl and a small boy carrying wedding rings on a pillow.

After all of the members of the wedding party enter and file to the front of the church, the other people in the church stand and the bride enters. This is an exciting moment – the guests have been waiting to see the bride. Preparations were made ahead of time to allow this moment to happen.

Before Jesus began his ministry on earth preparations were made for his arrival. John the Baptist came before to prepare the people to meet Jesus who he described as “… he who is mightier than I…” (1:7).

The Bible tells us that John the Baptist was sent to baptize people in preparation for the arrival of Jesus. Many people confessed their sins and were baptized by John the Baptist in the river Jordan. He said, “After me comes he who is mightier than I… (1:7). “I baptized you in water, but he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit” (1:8).

We are told that when we confess our sins and accept the love of Jesus that we are given the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God that lives within us. Let’s remember to celebrate each day and be thankful for the preparations that God made for us to know about Jesus and his love.

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible