Jesus Walking on the Water

BIBLE TEXT: The story is taken from Matthew 14:22-33. Teachers should read the story first to review what they are teaching. Simplified story text is associated with each chart for the teacher to read as they show the material. MATTHEW 14:22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It’s a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid." 28 "Lord, if it’s you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." 29 "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came towards Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" 32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshipped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."(NIV)STORY TO TELL: Today we are learning the story about Jesus walking on the water.

Welcome to the Lessons of Love children’s series as provided with love by the church of Christ in Carbondale, Illinois. These lessons and illustrations were created using paper flip charts and colored markers. You can print these out from PowerPoint and use as regular flip charts. Print the illustrations on one side of the paper and the notes on the other. You can also simply present them from your computer. These lessons are copyrighted but are provided free for your use. You may use them as long as you don’t charge money for them. If you wish to use them in a commercial project, email Terry Taylor for permission.

Jesus needed some time alone, so He told His Apostles to get in a boat and go ahead of Him to Bethsaida. Then Jesus dismissed the crowd that was with Him and went up to a mountain by himself.

Now the boat with the apostles in it was out in the middle of the lake and Jesus saw that the apostles were really having a hard time rowing the boat because the wind was against them. On toward morning while it was still dark, Jesus went walking across the water toward the apostles. He intended to walk on past them but they saw Him and thought He was a ghost. They cried out in fear. Jesus called to the men, “Don’t be afraid. It’s just me.”

When Peter realized it was Jesus and saw what He was doing, he thought, “I ‘d like to do that too.” So he called Jesus, “Lord if it’s really you, let me com to you on the water.” Jesus said, “Come.”Then Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. Everything was going fine as long as peter kept his eyes on Jesus. But when he began to notice the wind, he became afraid.

Peter began to sink. “Help, I’m drowning,” he screamed. Jesus reached out to him and took his hand and said, “Peter, why do you have such little faith? Why do you doubt?”(Application may be made here that as long as we keep our eyes on Jesus and His power, we can walk over our own problems. But when we begin to focus our attention on our problems and our own power to solve them, we begin sinking in our problems.)

And Jesus and Peter got back into the boat and the apostles fell down and worshipped Jesus. “Truly, you are the Son of God,” they said.