Children’s Sermon

Matthew 4:12-23

Going Fishing!

By Dell Smith Klein

OBJECT A fishing pole, or a fish net

Have you ever gone fishing? (Allow children to respond.) What do you take with you when you go fishing? (Wait for children to respond.) You might take a fishing pole, worms or other bait. If you were going camping, too, you’d take a bedroll.

Kelly and Kyle love fishing. When they go with their parents, they usually fish from the shore of the lake. Sometimes their grandfather takes them fishing in his boat.

One Saturday, while they were fishing on the lake, their grandfather told them that the people of Jesus’ day sometimes used a spear or a rod with a hook on it to catch fish––and sometimes they used large nets. They could catch only one fish at a time with a spear or rod, but when they cast out their nets, they could bring in many fish.

But if their net was too full of fish, it might break. Then all the fish would escape, and the fishermen would have to mend the net before going fishing again.

At the time of our story from the Holy Bible, Jesus lived in Capernaum, a town on the northwest corner of the Lake of Galilee. At that time Jesus preached about repentance. Repentance means to apologize for doing wrong things and to try to make them right.

One day Jesus saw two brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew. They were fishermen with big nets. They would go out on a boat, cast their net and after several hours they would haul their catch back to shore. Jesus said to Peter and Andrew, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men.” (Matthew 4:18) He also called James and John, who were mending their nets beside the sea. All four men left fishing and began to follow Jesus. They wanted to hear more of Jesus teaching.

Their grandfather told Kelly and Kyle that Jesus is still calling people to follow him. The Holy Bible tells us that Jesus taught people to love God and to be kind to others. Jesus and his followers went to many places teaching, preaching and helping people. I want to follow him, don’t you? (Allow children to answer before your prayer.)

PRAYER

Thank you, Jesus, for calling Peter, Andrew, James and John to follow you. Thank you for calling us to follow you, too. We want to learn more about how you helped people, and about the things you taught your followers in the Holy Bible. Amen.

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible

Copyright 2014, Richard Niell Donovan