Pentecost and the Empty Glasses (Children’s Address)

(Have ready on a table a selection of glasses as named below)

It is the church’s birthday today. Pentecost! (50 days after a feast called the Passover)

Jesus had already departed to heaven, and he told the disciples to wait and pray for the gift which the Father had promised would come to them. The Holy Spirit !

And now He had arrived!

If the disciples hadn’t followed his instructions, and hadn’t waited patiently for the promise… if they had not given themselves to prayer and to meeting together… they would have been like this upturned glass. Filling a glass like this is impossible.  Similarly, the disciples would not have received anything either.

Let us be careful we are not like an upturned glass!

Say there had been bickering, divisions and broken relationships instead of harmony…

rather like this broken glass. How could the Spirit of God have remained in them, without draining away…

Say that some of them were broken people and didn’t feel worthy enough to receive anything from God, and had drifted off without knowing his healing touch?

Let us be careful we are not like this broken glass!

Say there had been disobedience, unclean thoughts and minds, idolatries…

Rather like this dirty, unwashed glass. How could the Holy Spirit of God enter that which was unclean or unloving or uncharitable?

Let us be careful we are not like this dirty glass!

What if they had been closed, suspicious, wary, or ashamed of God’s gift…rather like this narrow glass, they could have been robbed of so much blessing spilling out over the side.

Let us be careful we’re not narrow or judgemental in our thinking.

A clearer picture of what happened at Pentecost, is this kind of glass… a champagne glass at the top of a large pyramid of other similar glasses. (this set can be obtained from most joke shops or party shops)

Not only were they filled, there was an outpouring, an overflowing of the richest wine imaginable, tumbling out to others... (demonstrate pouring into the top glass, and let the children watch the water tumble into all the other glasses.) and three thousand people that day received the Holy Spirit too.

Life-giving, rivers of living water began to flow that day into the hearts of all those who came to believe.

Recommended song which can be sung and mimed using cheerleader sticks, is DEPENDENCE DAY by Dave Godfrey.

Matthew  28. 16-20

NOW THE 11 DISCIPLES WENT TO GALILEE, TO THE MOUNTAIN TO WHICH JESUS HAD DIRECTED THEM. WHEN THEY SAW HIM, THEY WORSHIPPED HIM, BUT SOME DOUBTED.

AND JESUS CAME AND SAID TO THEM,

‘ALL AUTHORITY IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME.

GO THEREFORE AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS, BAPTISING THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND TEACHING THEM TO OBEY EVERYTHING THAT I HAVE COMMANDED YOU, AND REMEMBER I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, TO THE END OF THE AGE.’

ONCE GOD’S SPIRIT HAD COME UPON THE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS, THEIR LIVES WERE DRAMATICALLY CHANGED. THEY HAD A JOB TO DO AND NOW THEY WERE CLEAN, FILLED WITH POWER, EQUIPPPED, AND READY.