A Children’s Sermon on John 3:1-17

Supplies: Two ice cubes, a glass of water, and a paper towel.

Jesus says “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel will save it.”

Isn’t that backwards? When you save something, don’t we keep it, not lose it? Well, let’s see. I want to save this ice cube. So I will put it in my pocket. (Wrap in towel and put away.) Do you know what will happen? It will melt, and I won’t have it any more.

Now, I’ll take the second ice cube and put it in the water. What will happen to it? It will make the water cold as it melts into it. So even though it is lost, it really served its purpose. We too, can live our lives apart from others or we give ourselves for others by sharing what we have. What we give, we gain, because it becomes part of other people. We give our lives to help others because Christ gave his life to help us. Because he gave his life, he saved ours.