Jesus Rides into Jerusalem

(The next few weeks will be devoted to stories surrounding the theme of Easter and Christ's passion week)

Lesson aim: Jesus is King and worthy of all our Praise

Visual aids: Palm branches, pictures from Children’s Bible, whenever the word ‘King’ is mentioned the children have to put their hands of their heads in the shape of a crown.

Activity: Make own donkeys with leaves and pieces of material stuck to the base.
Songs: He is the King of Kings; He made the stars to shine; Trust and Obey.

Scripture: Luke 19:28-40

Memory verse: ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.’ Luke 19:38
Do you remember that last week we did the Bible story of the man who was paralyzed? Remind children and do memory verse – ‘Jesus said, Get up, pick up your bed and go home’ Luke 5:24.
Remember that Jesus could do the miracles he did because He is God. Most people who saw Jesus did not know He was God.

Today we are going to see Jesus being worshipped as King. DO you know what a King wears? A crown, yes and Kings rule over many people and those people must obey and respect their King. Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem with His friends. Jesus knew everything that was going to happen and knew it was time for Him to prepare to go to the Cross.
When Jesus and his disciples were close to Jerusalem, Jesus sent two of them to go to the village and look for a donkey (what sound does a donkey make?), untie it and bring it back to Jesus. Jesus said if people ask why you are taking the donkey, say because the Lord has need of it. People did ask why and Jesus’ friends the 2 disciples told them because the Lord needs it and they let them go. Wow everything happened just as Jesus said! They brought the donkey to Jesus and put some of their jackets over the donkey for Jesus to sit on. They all went together into Jerusalem and Jesus rode on the donkey with friends behind him. There were lots of people there and as Jesus rode along they placed their coats on the road in front of the donkey.
As Jesus entered Jerusalem the people began to wave palm branches and praise God for all the mighty things they had seen Jesus do.

They said: ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.’ Luke 19:38

These people were right to call Jesus King but many of them did not love and obey Jesus so they were saying something with their mouth which was not true in their hearts. Jesus is King, he is King of Kings and we must remember that every day. He was the only King who could pay for our sins! Thank you King Jesus!