food4thought

Walk from the back of the school hall dressed in a Spiderman costume. Don’t say a word. Hold your finger to your lips to encourage the school to be quiet.

Read the John 3:16 in Greek! No really! 

Who can tell me what I’m saying?

I’m saying this. Put the Greek on the Power Point.

Who can tell me what it says? It’s hard isn’t it? That’s because it’s in another language. Let me translate it into English or turn it into English. Read John 3:16 in English.

If you wanted to summarise what the whole Bible is about in one sentence that’s a pretty good place to go.

We’re going to think about someone who thought that everyone should have a chance to hear that. This term you’re thinking about heroes and heroines. So we’re carrying on thinking about Christian superheroes.

What superhero have I come as today?

Christian superheroes are just ordinary people like you and me who did extraordinary things for God. Our Christian Superhero for this morning is this man. Put his picture up on PowerPoint. He was called William Tyndale. He lived from 1494 to 1536. About how long ago was that? It was roughly the same time as William Shakespeare.

William Tyndale is a Christian Superhero because He was the first man to turn the Bible into English and smuggle it into England.

I went through our house to find the Bibles that we own and here they are. These are the grown up Bibles with longer words and these are the kid’s Bibles with shorter words and pictures. 500 years ago in this country you could have been arrested, put in prison and killed for having just one of them. The Government decided that it was illegal for normal people like you and me to have a Bible. But William Tyndale thought it was really important that everyone could read a Bible if they wanted to. He thought that what the Bible said was so important that everyone ought to be able to hear it in language they understood. He could do that because he was very good at speaking other languages.

Who can speak more than 1 language?

Who can speak more than 2 languages? That’s fantastic.

But William Tyndale could speak eight different languages! Most importantly he could understand Greek and Hebrew which are the languages that the Bible is written in. He was very clever. But he learnt lots of things by asking his parents lots and lots of questions. Which I think must have driven them up the wall. But William Tyndale worked very hard and he used his skill at language to help other people. In 1524, when he was 30, He asked the authorities whether he could turn the Bible into English and he was told that he couldn’t. So he ran away to Holland and Germany where he lived for the rest of his life, away from his friends and his family. He worked secretly. Risking his life so that everyone could have a chance to read about God’s love in the Bible. Lots of people in England wanted the Bible. They thought it was really precious. But they couldn’t order one from Amazon or buy one from WH Smiths because they hadn’t been invented. And the authorities didn’t want people like you and me to have a Bible. So Tyndale smuggled his Bibles into England. The Bibles were hidden, wrapped up in cloth and then put on a ship. And so this special book was passed onto people. In the end the authorities found him, put him in prison and then killed him.

William Tyndale is a Christian Superhero because he turned the Bible into English and smuggled it into England.

He believed that the Bible’s message was so important that people should be able read about it if they wanted to. He thought it was worth risking his own life for. Because he did that it means that I can read any of these Bibles and understand them and so can you.

A kid’s slot for All Age Church aimed at infant children at CCB

William Wilberforce was a Christian Superhero who lived in the 18th Century. That’s over 200 years ago. A Christian superhero is just an ordinary person who does something extraordinary for God. I’ve got a picture of him here.

There are three things we can learn about this man.

1. He followed Jesus

God made William Wilberforce a follower of Jesus. He grew up in a family where no one read Bible stories to him and no one prayed with him. He first heard about Jesus when he was a teenager from a man called John Newton. But he started following Jesus when he was grown up. He went on holiday with one of his old teachers and they talked about God, Jesus and the Bible on the journey. It took him a while to understand things and even longer to accept them. But eventually he became a Christian. He did it even though his best friend who was about to become the Prime Minister of Great Britain tried to persuade him not to. He thought it was more important to become a follower of Jesus even if his friends didn’t want him to.

Every single one of us can decide to follow Jesus. Often our friends will try and tell us that’s a silly thing to do. Usually that’s because they haven’t understood how wonderful it is. We can help them just like John Newton and Isaac Milner helped Wilberforce by telling them all about Jesus. One of the ways we could do that is by asking our friends to come to the Easter party of Tuesday.

2. He loved people

God made William Wilberforce into a very compassionate man. A compassionate person loves people and looks after them to make sure that they’re alright.

Can you think of someone you know who’s compassionate?

Wilberforce was very rich and he had lots of friends. He could have completely ignored the poor people around him in this country. And he could have ignored people from Africa who were being used as slaves to make Britain rich.

Does anyone know what slavery is?

• Show what it’s like to be under the complete control of someone else by telling them what to do so that they do it and not letting them do what they want to do.

But he didn’t ignore the people who needed his help because he loved people. He saw the state that people were in and decided that he couldn’t let it go. They had no one else to help them and he wanted to.

Every follower of Jesus should be like that. Jesus once told a young man that God wanted him to do two things. The first was to love God and the second was to love other people. So God wants us to love people. There’ll be people at school or people who need friends and need help.

3. He changed things

God made William Wilberforce into a man who changed things. He became a Politician when he was young and that was the job he did as he grew up.

What job does your Mummy or Daddy do?

A Politician is someone who works for the Government. The Government make rules for the country so that people know what’s right and what’s wrong. His best friend was the Prime Minister and so he was very powerful. But he had to persuade people by talking to them that they ought to love the other people in this country and in this world.

Most of us won’t be as powerful as William Wilberforce but every single one of us can try and change things that are wrong. Sometimes that’ll mean we talk to people and try and get them to stop. Sometimes it’ll mean that we write a letter to the Government and get them to change what they’re doing. We won’t always persuade them but we need to try. Do you know that it took 46 years for Wilberforce to change the law about slavery. That’s older than all of you put together. It’s older than the oldest person here!

Conclusion

William Wilberforce was a very wonderful man that God used to change this country. Let’s ask God that he might make us like William Wilberforce so that we might follow Jesus, love people and change things. 

A kid’s slot for CCB all age church aimed at infant chidldren

Who can tell me what a superhero is? Someone who does amazing things.

Let’s look at some pretend superheroes [PowerPoint Slides] 

Who can tell me who these are? Asterix, Heman, The Incredible Hulk, Batman & Robin

We’re looking some of our favourite Christian superheroes at the moment. Christian superheroes are just ordinary people who did extraordinary things.

This week we’re going to think about this man.

Does anyone know who he is? He lived in Great Britain. He’s an Englishman does that help? He lived in the 18th Century, does that help? His name is George Whitefield. There can’t be too many superheroes called George!

George Whitefield is a hero because he kept on helping people to follow Jesus

1. He did it when people wanted him to stop

When he started to persuade people to follow Jesus there were lots of important people in the church who tried to stop him. They didn’t like what he was saying even though what he taught came straight from the Bible. And so he wasn’t allowed into lots of church buildings to help people hear about Jesus. So what do you think he did? He went outside. He was one of the first people to start telling people about Jesus in the open air. One book I was reading this week thinks that he preached outside of buildings 18,000 times.

2. He did it to all sorts of people

He went to lots of different countries. He went all over Great Britain helping people to become followers of Jesus. He went to Scotland 14 times, Ireland twice, he went to every county in England and Wales. That’s a lot of travelling and he did it before the invention of the car. He even went to America 7 times at a time before steam ships had been invented. And he also went to lots of different types of people. He went to the poor and to the posh. So one of the most famous times he talked to people was outside a Coal Mine in Bristol. And he also helped some very rich people, some of the most important people in the country to become followers of Jesus.

3. He did it for a very long time

He became a Christian when he went to University and so he didn’t follow Jesus when he was your age. Now that’s a shame but despite that he decided to spend the rest of his life helping others to follow Jesus. He was helping people to become followers of Jesus even on the day he died, when he was a very old man. What a great way to use the life God has given us.

Conclusion

We can be mini Christian superheroes like George Whitefield when we help people to follow Jesus.

• We can do that when we do it outside of church, at school or at home or in the park.

• We can do that when we help lots of different people perhaps from lots of different countries lots of whom live around us and go to our schools.

• We can do that for the rest of our lives even if we haven’t started yet

Why is George Whitefield a hero?

George Whitefield a hero because he kept helping people to follow Jesus

A kid’s slot from all age church

Who can tell me what a superhero is? Someone who does amazing things

Let’s look at some pretend superheroes. Who can tell me who this is? It’s Spiderman

Some superheroes are less well known and people forget them after a while, so let’s ask the older people here who these are [Bananaman, Batfink etc] 

This is my favourite. Who is it? Buzz Lightyear

We’re going to look at some of the favourite Christian superheroes over the next few weeks. Usually superheroes have a special power that helps them to do something but the people we’re going to think about were just brave and courageous. This week we’re going to think about this man.

Does anyone know who he is? He lived in Egypt. He lived in the 4th Century. His name is Athanasius. Athanasius is a hero because he kept reminding people that Jesus is God even when lots of people said that he isn’t.

If anyone here thinks that Jesus is God it’s likely that one of the reasons we do is because someone like him made sure that the church kept of teaching it. If he hadn’t done that we might not know that Jesus was God.

Athanasius knew that was wrong and so he spend the rest of his life reminding people that Jesus is God not just a person like us.

1. He kept reminding people that Jesus is God even though he was very young

When he was only 25 years old, Athanasius went to a very important meeting with lots of church leaders where they were discussing who Jesus was. It was called the Council of Nicea. He helped his boss, one of the most senior church leaders, a man called Alexander to teach the truth. When he was only 30 he became a Bishop and had to remind everyone in the church that Jesus is God. We might think that 30 is very old but actually it’s very young to have to do something so serious. We can be mini Christian superheroes when we remind people that Jesus is God even if we’re only very young.

2. He kept reminding people that Jesus is God even though important people told him he was wrong

One very important person who was there was Arius. He said that Jesus was just a human being like you and me though he was quite a special human being. The most powerful man in the whole world agreed with him. His name was Emperor Constantine and he was the most important person in the Roman Empire. We can be mini Christian superheroes when we remind people that Jesus is God even if important people like our teachers are a little bit confused and don’t realise that.

3. He kept reminding people that Jesus is God even though he was sent away from his country

He was sent out of his home country 5 times. He was sent to the desert, to Italy, to France and to Germany. He spent 15 years away from his home because the people in charge didn’t like what he said. Imagine being told that you couldn’t go home. That’d be awful wouldn’t it! We can be mini Christian superheroes when we remind people that Jesus is God even if people end up being very nasty to us. Why is Athanasius a hero?

Athanasius is a hero because he kept reminding people that Jesus is God even when lots of people said that he isn’t.

A kid’s slot from all age church

Who can tell me what a superhero is? Someone who does amazing things

Let’s look at some pretend superheroes. Who are they? [Lara Croft, Elasti Girl, Xena, Buffy]

What do they have in common? They’re all women

We’re looking some of the favourite Christian superheroes at the moment. Christian superheroes are just ordinary people who did extraordinary things. This week we’re going to think about this woman [picture]. Does anyone know who she is?

She was born 300 years ago. She lived in England in the 18th Century and she was very posh. Her name is Selina and she was the Countess of Huntingdon.

Selina, Countess of Huntingdon is a hero because she lived her whole life for God.

1. she used her home for God

Because she was very rich she had lots of houses. Home is a very special place isn’t it? Homes are great for relaxing in. She could have used her house for herself and her family but she decided to use her house for God. And so she used her home as a place where she could invite people to come and hear about Jesus. She used to have lots of people round for tea and then invite someone really good at talking about Jesus from the Bible. One of the people she used to like to get in was someone we’ve heard about already, George Whitefield. We can be a bit like her when we talk to our friends about Jesus when they come round to our house for tea

2. she used her money for God

She had lots of money because she was born into a rich family and married into a rich family. She could have used it not to buy herself lots of things but she used her money for God. She used it so that other people could hear about Jesus. She built over 200 churches and she paid for colleges so that people could learn how to teach the Bible. There’s one story where she paid for a church building by selling her loveliest jewellery. We can be a bit like her when we use our pocket money so that other people can hear about Jesus.

3. she used her position for God

She knew almost all the important people in the country. She knew all the important leaders of churches and she knew all the important political leaders. She even knew the King and the Queen who thought that she was amazing. There’s one story where the Queen told an important Bishop that it was a shame she couldn’t be a Bishop because she was so much better than they were! She could have spent her time going to parties and getting her photo in all the newspapers but she decided to use her position for God. Instead she made sure that the people who ruled this country made it easy for church leaders to teach people about Jesus from the Bible. We can be a bit like her when we remind important people that they’re supposed to be looking after people who teach the truth from the Bible.