Follow Me

Matthew 9:9-12; Luke 5:1-11

Our true story comes from a part of the Bible called the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew was a disciple of Jesus. That means Jesus was his teacher. Our true story also comes from a part of the Bible called the Gospel of Luke. Luke loved Jesus and wanted others to know and love Jesus, too. And the word gospel means “good news!”

Our true story is about the first twelve people who followed Jesus. They were called the disciples.


Peter and Andrew were fishermen. One day, while Peter and Andrew were fishing, Jesus told them, “Follow Me!”


And Peter and Andrew followed Jesus!


James and his brother John were fishermen too. They were working with their dad when Jesus said, “Follow Me!” And James and John followed Jesus too!


In the next town, Jesus found a man named Phillip!


Phillip followed Jesus and brought his friend Nathanael.


Nathanael to follow Jesus too!


Next, we have Matthew. Matthew was a tax collector and had made a lot of bad choices. But Jesus still loved Matthew and wanted to be his friend. Jesus told Matthew, “Come, follow Me.” And Matthew did! Matthew followed Jesus! 


There was also Thomas and James . . . Thaddeus and Simon and Judas!


Jesus had twelve disciples! That was His first team. Go team! But that’s not all of this story, because Jesus isn’t done yet!


Jesus wants YOU to be on His team too . . . and your friends . . . and your family . . . because Jesus loves everyone, and Jesus wants everyone to be His friend forever! So, when someone asks you, “Who wants to be your friend forever?” You can say, “Jesus wants to be my friend forever!”






Bible Paraphrase: “I have called you friends.” —John 15:15, NIV

Text Truth: Jesus wants everyone to follow Him.



Family Devotional

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
—Matthew 9:9

In our Bible Story, Jesus told twelve people to follow Him. Those twelve people became Jesus’ friends, the disciples. Jesus wanted His disciples to help Him tell everyone, everywhere that Jesus wants EVERYONE to follow Him! It doesn’t matter where you live, what you look like, what your job is, what language you speak, what you’ve done . . . Jesus wants EVERYONE to be His friend forever! And that means Jesus wants to be YOUR friend forever!

“I have called you friends.” —John 15:15, NIV

With your family, take a piece of paper and make a list of people. Have each family member list the name of a person. They can be any person you can think of because Jesus wants everyone to follow Him and be His friend!

Pray with your family. Allow any family members to pray if they wish. In your own words, say, “Dear God, thank You for sending Jesus to be friends with everyone. We pray that (read the list your family made) will follow Jesus. And I pray that (name each family member) will follow Jesus too. We love You, God. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

-
Story illustrations are made possible by a joint venture of Good News Productions, International and College Press Publishing Co. Artist. Paula Nash Giltner (http://www.theglobalgospel.org).  FreeBibleimages (http://freebibleimages.org) have been granted permission to make these images freely available for personal, teaching and ministry use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Early Christians Shared Everything

Image
Acts 4:32-37 Our story comes from a book of the Bible called Acts. That name is short for “the Acts of the Apostles.” The word "Apostle" is another word to describe a helper of Jesus. Our Bible story tells us about some people who loved Jesus. The people were gathered together in a room. Buzz, buzz, buzz. The room filled with talking and laughter. The people called themselves Christians because they did what Jesus Christ said to do (Christian means "follower of Christ"). The Christians knew that Jesus was God’s Son. They wanted others to know about Jesus, too. Grandmas, grandpas, moms, dads, and children met together in homes. They would pray, sing, and learn about Jesus together. All these people loved Jesus. They were like one big, happy family. Because they loved Jesus, the Christians happily shared what they had more than others. Everything a person had was happily shared with the rest of the Bible-time Christians. They shared food so every
Read more

Abraham and His Family Moved to a New Land

Image
Genesis 12:1-9 Our story comes from the book, or part, of the Bible called Genesis. Genesis means "the beginning." A man and woman lived in a land called Ur. The man was named Abram and the woman was named Sarai. Abram and Sarai were husband and wife. God called Abram and Sarai and gave them new names! Abram means “nobel father.” But God changed his name to “Abraham,” which means “father of many.” Sarai” means “princess.” But God changed her name to “Sarah,” which means “mother of nations.” Now they were Abraham and Sarah, "father of many" and "mother of nations!" Abraham grew up in the land called Ur. When he was grown, Abraham moved with his family to a new land called Haran. But then, in the land of Haran, God appeared to Abraham and told him to leave his country. God told Abraham to move to a new land. God promised to be with Abraham and show him where to go. God also promised to give Abraham children, grandchildren, and many g
Read more

Isaac Did Not Fight

Image
Genesis 26:12-25 Take-Home Our story comes from the book, or part, of the Bible called Genesis. Genesis means "the beginning." The Bible tells us about a man named Isaac. God gave Isaac lots of land. God blessed Isaac by helping him have many animals and servants. When the animals needed water to drink, Isaac and his helpers took them to a well. A well is a hole in the ground that helps you reach water that is under the ground. The animals and people drank the water from the well. The people who lived near Isaac were upset because he had more animals than they did. They filled Isaac’s wells with dirt so the animals couldn’t drink the water. But Isaac didn’t fight. He knew fighting doesn’t fix problems. The people told him to move away. Isaac didn’t have to go, but he packed his things and moved. Clippity-clop. Isaac made a new home on his land for his family and animals. Diggity-dig. Isaac dug a well so his animals would have water to drink. But Isaac
Read more