The Faith of the Centurion

Matthew 8:5-13

Teaching Videos

Idea 1

Read “A Captain’s Faith” on page 324 in The Beginner’s Bible.

Questions:

  1. Who came to talk to Jesus?

  2. What was wrong with the servant?

  3. Why didn’t Jesus need to go to the captain’s house?

  4. Who did Jesus heal?

Teaching Ideas

Idea 2

Play Centurion and the soldiers.

  • Choose a volunteer or one of the kids to be the Centurion and everyone else can be a soldier. (Explain to the kids that Centurion’s were in charge of 100 soldiers and the soldiers need to do whatever the Centurion orders them to do)

  • Before you start, give the Centurion some ideas of orders they can make. Like asking some kids to go to the kitchen and make them a snack, or glass or water, or cleaning up something, or getting you a ball.

  • Once the game is over or the kids are sick of being told what to do, talk to the kids about the Centurion’s faith. The Centurion had faith in Jesus like he had faith in his soldiers, whatever the soldiers were told to do, they did it. Just like when Jesus said he could help the servant, the Centurion believed Jesus at his word.

Idea 3

Do a faith demonstration with the kids.

  • Gather the kids in a group and ask for a volunteer to come up to the front.

  • Blindfold the volunteer, then set a chair on the other side of the room without letting the volunteer know.

  • Give the volunteer instructions on moving around the room, to make it a little bit exciting have them almost bump into a few things.

  • Guide them with your voice to the chair, have them turn around the correct was without knowing it is there and then ask them to sit down.

  • Once the volunteer sits, talk about faith and how it is believing without seeing. The volunteer believed all the instructions even sitting down in a chair that they didn’t know was there. In today’s story the Centurion believed Jesus without seeing that the servant was healed.

Idea 4

Make a faith list.

  • Tell the kids that faith is believing without seeing. Then give them some examples of things we have faith in - like a chair when we sit on it, we believe it will hold us up or we believe the lights will go on when we flick a light switch.

  • Give them 10 minutes to go around and make a list of all the things we have faith in. If the kids are young and can’t write yet, then give the a pack of sticky notes and ask them to put a sticky note on each thing they find that we have faith in.

Idea 5

Talk about the Centurion believing Jesus would heal his servant without needing Jesus to go to his house.

  • Get a strong magnet and some paper clips. Bring the magnet closer and closer to the paper clips until they move.

  • Talk about how the magnet made the paper clips move without touching them. In the same way Jesus healed the servant without touching him.