AWANA, Week 3 (Acts 2:14-47)

(these are the scripts written by Tim and Brahms for AWANA, in a continuing series on the early church)

Moe is a horse puppet.
Joe and Jim are twin iguana puppets.

AWANA, WEEK 3: Acts 2:14-47

MOE: I still remember what Natalie said a few weeks ago, about church. She said: “Church is not a building; church is people who hang out with God.” That was really cool.

JOE: MOE, how did the church get started?

JIM: Yeah, MOE, why did people first decide they want get together and talk about God?

MOE: Well, I’m not sure. But you remember last week how there was the sound of a violent wind, the tongues of fire and lots of different languages?

JOE: Yeah. Must have been pretty crazy.

JIM: Yeah.

MOE: There were a lot of people there, thousands of people. They heard the wind; they saw the tongues of fire; they heard the languages. They wanted to know: What is going on? What does this mean? Are these people drunk? Maybe they had too much beer or wine!

JOE: So the church is a bunch of people who get together and act strange?

JIM: Strange way to start a religion.

MOE: It wasn’t like that. But it did get their attention.

TIM: Then a guy got up. His name was Peter. He was one of Jesus’ friends, but not the brave one. One time, when some people asked if he was Jesus’ friend, he pretended he didn’t know or like him, so he wouldn’t get in trouble.

MOE: Sounds like a loser. No friend of mine.

TIM: Because when Jesus came back to life, he told Peter what he did didn’t matter any more. He forgave Peter.

JOE: So that’s how the church started?

JIM: How?

JOE: Peter gives a big speech, blah, blah, blah, everybody’s happy and they throw a big party, and that’s the church?

JIM: Party church!

BRAHMS: Actually, Peter said "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. “ (Acts 2:22-24)

TIM: When the people saw Peter standing there; when the people saw the tongues of flame and heard the wind, they realized that these were the same types of miracles that Jesus had done. When Peter was talking, they figured out they were the ones who did something wrong. The Bible says, “For all [everyone] has sinned.”

MOE: What did they do? They must have been really sad.

TIM: Read what the Bible said:

MOE: “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

JOE/JIM: What did they do?

MOE: Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

TIM: If you do something wrong, who gets punished? Does your brother get punished? Does your dog get punished? No, you get punished. But God, when you hurt him by the things you do wrong and you know they are wrong, said, I will send Jesus to take your punishment.

BRAHMS: Those people must have been really happy.

TIM: There were more than 3000. And those 3000 were the start of the church.

BRAHMS: Peter, hurt Jesus by pretending not to know him. Jesus forgave him. These people helped the men who nailed Jesus on the cross. Jesus forgave them. And you and me: we have all done things wrong. Jesus can forgive us.

TIM: So that we can live forever with God. And, so that we can be a part of his church, hanging out with people who love God.

BRAHMS: The people who were there would eventually go home, taking the good news of Jesus with them. Let’s learn a little bit more about people who are going around the world today, taking the good news of Jesus with them.