The parable of the great banquet
Kids at home 14th March
Sometimes Jesus told stories when He wanted people to really understand important lessons. If the lessons were hard then Jesus sometimes told simple stories to help people understand the things that were hard to understand. These stories were called parables.
Over the next few weeks we are going to be learning some of the parables that Jesus told and looking at what Jesus is teaching us in each one!
Today we are learning about the parable of the great banquet!
Let’s start with some worship! Feel free to sing and dance or just watch and listen, Jesus doesn’t mind how we worship, he just loves it when we spend time with him and sing his praises!
You are Good – Bethel Kids
Our God is a Great Big God – Vineyard Kids
Alive – Hillsong Young & Free
This is Amazing Grace – Bethel Kids
Story time
The parable of the great banquet
When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
“‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’” Luke 14: 15-24 NIV
You can also watch the parable of the great banquet here!
Some important points to remember from the story…
- Jesus tells the story of a man who planned an amazing party with lots of delicious food (also known as a banquet) but when the party was about to start, all the people that he’d invited started making excuses and saying they weren’t able to come…
- When the man heard this, he was upset but he didn’t want his amazing party to go to waste so he invited some other people instead! The other people that he invited were people who didn’t have very much money and people that were suffering with things like not being able to see or walk. These people were seen to be ‘outsiders’ in those days and were often looked down on.
- Even after the new people he’d invited had come along to the party, there was still room for more people to come along! The man asked his servant to go out to the roads and the country lanes and invite the people he saw so that the party would be full!
- Through telling this parable, Jesus is teaching us that just like that amazing party, we have also all been invited to an amazing party with God and God has sent out His invitation to each of us to be with Him and be a part of His Kingdom!
- Jesus is reminding us that just like the first guests who were invited, we can also make excuses today and forget to accept God’s wonderful invitation to live life with Him! We might become so busy playing sports, going to school, seeing our friends and thinking about other things that we don’t have time for being with God in His Kingdom!
- If we accept God’s invitation to follow Him today then we can enjoy being best friends with Jesus while we are here on this earth and experience His wonderful presence with us right now!
- The bible tells us that one day whoever has accepted God’s invitation will get to go the best party we could ever imagine, something wonderful God has planned for us (just like this amazing party we heard about in the story) and celebrate in Heaven with Him!
- While we’re waiting for the big, huge party in Heaven that God is preparing that we will get to go to one day, until that day we can be part of God’s Kingdom right now and so we need to make sure that we don’t get too busy or distracted and we make sure to make time to accept His amazing invite to spend time with Him!
- This parable also reminds us that there is always room for more people to come and join in, we can invite others to accept God’s invitation and join us at the best party ever! This invitation is for everyone, whoever we meet, no matter what! We can tell people about Jesus and His amazing love and that we get to be friends with Him and experience His presence right now but we also have something amazing to look forward to one day when we will be with Him in Heaven!
Some things to talk to your family about…
- Have you ever been to or thrown a party? What was it like? Can you remember your favourite part or the bit you enjoyed the most?
- How do you normally get ready for a party? What sort of things do you have to do?
- What would the best party you could ever dream of be like?
- What things can sometimes seem more important than spending time with God?
- How much time do you spend listening to and talking to God? Would you like to spend more time with Him? How do you think you could do that?
Memory Verse
Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God. Luke 14:15
Activity: Memory verse treasure hunt!
This verse reminds us to give thanks to God because He loves us so much that He invites us to follow Him and live life with Him here on earth but also to spend forever with him in Heaven!
To help us learn and remember this amazing promise, write out the memory verse and cut each word out separately so that you have 15 small pieces of paper each with one word of the memory verse written on.
- Blessed
- Is
- The
- One
- Who
- Will
- Eat
- At
- The
- Feast
- In
- The
- Kingdom
- Of
- God
Now, why don’t you (or one member of your family) go and hide these pieces of paper around the house and challenge the rest of the family (or another member of the family) to go and find them! When you’ve found all of the pieces, try and put them back together in order together! You could take it in turns to do this until you’ve remembered the verse off by heart!
Prayer time
Why don’t you spend a couple of minutes asking God who He wants you to invite and share the good news of Jesus with this week? Maybe there is someone at school or in your family that doesn’t know Him yet?
Dear God,
Thank you that you love us so much that you have prepared an amazing party for us in Heaven that we get to look forward to going to one day and being with you forever! Thank you that we can also be part of your wonderful Kingdom today here on earth and that you listen to us and help us and are always by our side! Would you help us to put you first and not get too distracted or busy with other things and would you help us to share your amazing invitation with others and invite them to join in with following you which is the best thing of all!
Amen
