The People Praised Jesus, Their Friend

Matthew 21:1-16

Our true story comes from a book of the Bible called Matthew. Matthew was one of the helpers of Jesus.

On Palm Sunday, we remember the day when Jesus came riding into the town of Jerusalem. When all the people heard Jesus was coming, they got so excited they grabbed palm branches and stood by the road so they could cheer for Jesus when He came by.


When they saw Jesus, they waved their palm branches in the air and said, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Yay, Jesus!”


The word “hosanna” means many things. Long ago, it meant “Save, please!” and was said about the special One that God would send. On this day in Jerusalem, the people knew Jesus was the One! And so, they shouted, “Hosanna!” to praise Jesus and to tell Him how special He was.


The people thought Jesus was amazing because of all the amazing things He had done. Jesus had calmed a storm. Jesus had made sick people better. Jesus had even fed a whole lot of people with only a little bit of food. The people knew Jesus could do things no one else could do!


The people also knew that Jesus was the One who had been teaching people how to love God and love people. Jesus taught them what to do with their money. Jesus taught them to obey their parents. Jesus even taught them how to be a good friend by being the best friend ever!


Jesus is your friend, too! And He is such a great friend! Jesus listens when we pray. Jesus forgives us when we mess up. Jesus is always, always there for us! And like the people, we, too can praise Him by saying, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Yay, Jesus!”



Bible Paraphrase: A friend loves at all times. – Proverbs 17:17, NIrV

Text Truth: We can praise Jesus.


Family Devotional

The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
– Matthew 21:9
In our Bible story we learned that we can praise Jesus like the people in our Bible story did. We can tell Jesus how much we love Him anytime we want. We love Jesus because He is our good friend.

A friend loves at all times. – Proverbs 17:17

A good friend loves at all times. Jesus is a good friend because Jesus loves us at all times.

With your family, make a list of reasons you want to praise your good friend Jesus. With each reason, write down the name of your family member who said it.

Pray with your family. Allow any family members to pray if they wish. Acknowledge to God you want to praise Jesus for being such a good, good friend. And acknowledge there are so many reasons to love Jesus: "We praise Jesus because (read through the reasons in your list)..." Thank God for sending Jesus to be your friend forever.


Activities You Can Do at Home


Make a Praise Palm Branch

You’ll Need: green construction paper, a glue stick, crayons or washable markers, safety scissors

  • Cut the construction paper into rectangles about six inches wide and two inches tall.
  • On each rectangle, write one way to praise Jesus, our King.
  • While you work, talk about the Bible story and how the people praised Jesus.
  • Glue the rectangles onto another piece of paper in the shape of a palm branch.



A Praise Parade

Invite friends over and have a praise parade. Before the parade, talk about different ways that they can praise Jesus, their King, during the parade. Take turns leading your parade inside and outside.

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Story illustrations are the copyright of Sweet Publishing and licensed by FreeBibleimages (http://freebibleimages.org) for free download under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike 3.0 unported licence.
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