Jesus Walks on Water--Sunday School Lesson for Kids

Jesus was tired from feeding the multitude. He asked the disciples to go ahead to the boat while he dismissed the crowd. Jesus went by himself to a mountainside to pray following the crowd's dispersal.

The disciples' boat was a considerable distance from land and waves were lapping against it.

1) How did Jesus get to the boat the disciples were on? He walked on the water over to it.

2) What was the reaction of the disciples? They were afraid and thought he was a ghost.

Jesus told his disciples it was him and they should not be afraid. Peter wasn't convinced. He told Jesus if it was him to have him walk on the water to meet Jesus. Jesus told Peter to walk toward him. Peter walked fine until he lost his focus and became afraid of sinking due to the wind.

1) Do you know people who believe in Jesus but waver like Peter when bad things happen? This teaches us we should not be afraid and we should keep our focus on Christ. Storms may make it more difficult to keep our eyes on Jesus but it is in those times it is the most important. Jesus did not deny Peter's faith-he just questioned the amount. None of us has perfectly strong faith all the time and Peter was no exception. Sometimes even when we want to walk in our faith, we fall but Christ catches us.
.2) Did Peter drown? No, Jesus caught him and asked him why he doubted. Jesus does this for all of us when we lack faith. There is no storm he can't calm in our lives.

When the disciples climbed down from the boat, everything went still and there was no more wind. Jesus calmed the storm. The disciples worshipped Jesus following this miracle and called him the son of God.

1) Could Peter walk on water because there was no waves? No, he walked on the water toward Jesus because he had help from God.

2) Did Peter need to believe in himself or God? God

3) Is Jesus in control of the entire world? Yes-even the waves obey him. All of creation obeys God.

4) Did the disciples believe Jesus was the son of God after seeing the miracle? Yes-they worshipped him.

5) Did Jesus do miracles like walking on water to be famous and popular? No-he did them because he loves us and wants us to know he is the son of God.

6) Does God ask us to do things when we can't do them? No, he enables us to do things even when we can't at times as well. Peter walked on water only because of God and his own faith in God.

Craft: You will need 1 Styrofoam cup per child, markers, ribbon or yarn, stickers (I cut the Christian fish shape out of sticky foam backed sheets), hole puncher, construction paper if you go the memory verse route.

Turn the cup upside down, draw blue lines for water and then draw a brown boat. Draw a larger stick figure man to represent Christ and smaller stick figure men to represent his disciples on the boat. Put the fish stickers on the cup down where the water would be. Poke two holes in the top of the cup and thread a ribbon through if desired. It is possible to tie the memory verse (or a statement that needs to be remembered) to the cup after the ribbon is threaded through. Two options-to be remembered "Jesus is Lord over creation", memory verse, "How great are his signs and how mighty are his wonders"-Daniel 4:3 (KJV). Write which you choose onto construction paper, use the hole puncher and thread the ends of the ribbon through the construction paper after bringing them through the holes in the cup.

I used glue and glitter on the top of the cup as well to make the craft more fun though I made this craft two separate times and this was not the time from the pictures.
*Important--you will need to make the stick figured men large or cut the fish shape much smaller than I did if you want to make the craft more size-appropriate. These pictures are from the first time I did the craft and the fish are bigger than the men. They look like whales instead of fish.

Sources: http://www.ebibleteacher.com/children/lessons/water.htm(wonderful lesson--has PowerPoint graphics that can be used to tell the story). I used a drawing from this site for my craft as well.

Lifeway for kids

KJV