Adventurers with Jesus: April- June 2024

By R.H. Boyd Publishing Corp.

Adventurers with Jesus (Ages 9-11) is an age-appropriate Christian quarterly lesson guide. Lesson presentations are easily taught and understood and show students how to find salvation through Jesus Christ. It follows the International Uniform Sunday School Lesson Outline from the National Council of Churches.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation
• Release date: Mar 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798886351866

Book preview

Lesson #1

April 7, 2024

Good Lead to Friends Jesus

Lesson Passage: Luke 5:17–26

NRSV

ONE day while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem were sitting nearby, and the power of the Lord was with him to heal.

18 Just then some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher. They were trying to bring him in and lay him before Jesus,

19 but, finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus.

20 When he saw their faith, he said, Friend, your sins are forgiven you.

21 Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, Who is this who is speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?

22 When Jesus perceived their questionings, he answered them, "Why do you raise such questions in your hearts?

23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’?

24 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins—he said to the one who was paralyzed—I say to you, stand up and take your stretcher and go to your home."

25 Immediately he stood up before them, took what he had been lying on, and went to his home, glorifying God.

26 Amazement seized all of them, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen incredible things today.

Today’s Lesson Story

One day, while Jesus was teaching in Capernaum, some Pharisees and teachers of the Law joined the crowd of people that had gathered around to listen. The Pharisees were a group of Jewish teachers who were skeptical of Jesus. They refused to believe that Jesus was God’s Son. However, they had followed Him there from surrounding villages, hoping to catch Him in an error against the Law of Moses.

Unlike the Pharisees, the common people loved Jesus! Wherever Jesus went to teach, many people followed. On this particular day, there were so many people gathered at the house where Jesus was teaching that there was no room left—either inside or outside—to stand among the crowd! Many of the people came because they had heard that Jesus could heal the sick. Families and friends would bring their loved ones to Jesus because they knew He would have compassion on them.

One such group of men who believed in Jesus’ healing power brought a paralyzed man to the gathering. This sick man could not move his legs to walk, so, his friends had to carry him on his pallet or bed. However, when the men arrived, the crowd was so large that they could not get to Jesus. It must have been super challenging for these men! They most likely carried their friend to the right of the crowd, to the left of the crowd, then, to the middle of the crowd, only to find no room to get close. Determined to see Jesus, they went up on the roof of the house, tore off some palm leaf tiles, and lowered the sick man down through the hole, right to the place where Jesus stood!

When Jesus saw the faith of these men, He said to the sick man, Friend, your sins are forgiven you. This made the Pharisees very angry! They accused Jesus of blasphemy, which is telling a terrible lie against God. The Pharisees said, Who can forgive sins but God alone? Because the Pharisees did not believe Jesus was who He said He was, they accused Him of pretending to be God and by doing so, insulting and disrespecting God. What the Pharisees did not know was that Jesus did have the power to forgive the man’s sins. Jesus was God in physical form. Jesus is the second part of the Trinity, who came to the earth as His Father God’s representative.

Jesus then asked the Pharisees which would have been easier to proclaim, Your sins are forgiven you, or Stand up and walk. The Pharisees had been correct when they said only God could forgive sin but had failed to realize that Jesus was God. If Jesus had not been God and had first said, Stand up and walk, the sick man would not have been healed. Maybe Jesus chose the order of the commands so that the Pharisees could learn that, as God, He had the power and authority to both heal and forgive.

Jesus said to the sick man, Stand up and take your bed and go to your home. Immediately, the man stood up with the same legs that just a minute before refused to move. He rolled up the bed he had been laying on and walked toward home, praising God all the way. The people in attendance had witnessed a miracle and were filled with amazement at what they had