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.

AWANA: Week 2 (Acts 2:1-12)

This is the script that Brahms and I used for the 2nd week of AWANA.

(electric fan, lighters, Bibles in different languages handed out to LITs)
JOE is behind the electric fan. MOE has nose in the Bible. BRAHMS has one lighter, TIM has other lighter.

MOE: Ok, ok, here it is. This is what the Bible says: “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” Let’s try it out.

BRAHMS: Moe, what are you and Joe doing?

MOE: We’re getting ready for the big special effects scene.

BRAHMS: Special effects scene? What, are you making a big movie?

JOE: No, this is part of Council Time for Sparkies.

BRAHMS: I didn’t know that Council Time had a big special effects budget.

MOE: Well, in the Bible, in Acts chapter 2, it says there was a big wind sound. (ignoring Brahms) Ready Joe?

JOE: Ready.

MOE: Ok, fan on.

JOE: Fan on!

JOE: Nope.

MOE: Nope. Not loud enough.

TIM: Well…maybe could ask the Sparkies for some help.

MOE: That’s a great idea! Sparkies, do you think you could help us out.


MOE: Great! So, when I count to 3, Joe, you turn on the fan. And you, Sparkies, you start making a loud wind noise. Ready? 1 – 2 – 3

MOE: That’s great.

JOE: What’s the next part.

MOE: (reading) dah dah dah, dah dah, ah ok, here it is, in Acts 2, verse 3: “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.”

TIM: MOE, just before you go any further, no flame throwers are allowed in church, ok.

MOE: No problem, see, I got this lighter, see (holds up the lighter)

TIM: Ok.

MOE: Now just stick out your tongue…

TIM: Wait a second, what do you think you’re going to do?

MOE: Well, the Bible says tongues of fire. So if you stick out your tongue, I’ll use the lighter and we’ll…

BRAHMS: Sounds painful.

MOE: It gets better, BRAHMS, because you will notice that the Bible said “tongues” That’s more than one. So you can stick out your tongue, too!

TIM: MOE, this is a bad idea. If I remember what the Bible said, it didn’t say anything about people sticking out their tongue and they certainly didn’t burn their tongue.

MOE: Well, if it didn’t burn them, then what did it do?

BRAHMS: It didn’t burn them, it did something even more amazing. Let’s try this again from the top. Get your fan and lighter ready and let’s read it again.

TIM: I got it. “When the day of Pentecost [that’s almost fifty days since Jesus came back to life, and ten days since he left and went back to heaven], they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.”

BRAHMS: So all Jesus’ friends started using other languages; saying thank you to God and talking about Jesus. What was strange was that these were languages they have never spoken before.

TIM: You all speak English. Do any of you speak another language? (wait for response)

MOE: Wow! I wonder how that sounded. All those people talking about God at the same time, but in different languages. Must have been really confusing!

JOE: We should try it out.

MOE: How?

JOE: Well, we have some Bibles here, in different languages. Let’s take a verse we all know and have some of the leaders read them together. John 3:16.

MOE: Ok, from the top now. When we get to the part where it talks about different languages, you start reading.

TIM: When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.

JOE: Wow! That really was confusing. If I heard that, I wouldn’t know it was about God at all. I would think that everyone had gone crazy. Does it say in the Bible what everybody thought?

MOE: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

JOE: So it means they all heard God in their own language.

MOE: Now just imagine-if I had that today-how many YouTube videos would make sense.

TIM: I don’t know if that would help some of those videos. But here is what God did. There were a lot of people from a lot of different places. Then there were all of Jesus’ friends. Lots of people from different places. Jesus’ friends. But they couldn’t really talk to each other, because they didn’t talk the same way. So God sent the Holy Spirit so that they could understand each other. That way, when they would go back home, they could take the good news of Jesus with them.

BRAHMS: Just like you. Not everyone comes to church. Not every kid comes to AWANA. But they all need to hear about Jesus, who took away all of their sins, by paying for them with his death, so we can go to heaven.

TIM: We don’t think we can tell them. But God can also do something special so that when you tell them, they will hear it. Some of them will be amazed. Some will be confused.

BRAHMS: You do your part to tell them. God can take care of the rest. Just like he did with the wind, the fire and the languages.

AWANA: Week 1 (Acts 1:1-10)

Thought I'd post up the scripts that Brahms and I are using for AWANA. Here's week 1. MOE is a horse puppet and JOE and JIM are twin iguana puppets.

Acts 1:1-10

(basket, pulley, carabineer)

JOE is in the basket hanging from the ceiling, JIM is holding the rope. MOE is watching.

MOE: What are you doing, JIM?

JIM: I just can’t figure out how he did it.

MOE: (ignoring JIM, hallooing): JOE, you’re really high up. Aren’t you afraid of heights?

JOE: (nervous), Yes

JIM: I just can’t figure out how he did it.

JOE: (faintly) Help.

MOE: JIM, maybe you want to bring him down now?

JIM: (more emphatically) But, I just can’t figure out how he did it! I’ve got to keep trying until I figure out how he did it.

MOE: What are you talking about? Who did it? What are we talking about?

JIM: Well, it says in the Bible that after Jesus died, he came back to life

MOE: Yes, well, what does that have to do with the basket?

JOE: Yes. Basket. Why?

JIM: It says he was with his disciples for 40 days, and they talked with him and ate with him.

MOE: Yes, well, what does that have to do with the basket?

JOE: Yes. Basket. Why?

JIM: Well, it says in the book Acts, chapter 1, verse 9: “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” So somehow, Jesus left them by going up into heaven. I wondered how Jesus did it. So I rigged up this pulley, and hooked it up.

MOE: And I suppose this pillow is the pretend…

JIM: Clouds! You got it.

TIM: I think you’re kind of missing the point, though.

JOE: Yeah, yeah, you’re missing the point! I’m way up here.

JIM: No, no. You see, the disciples could have pulled on this string, and it pulls up Jesus in the basket. And then, if he was high enough, the clouds block them from seeing him.

TIM: But you are having some problems with your theory?

JIM: Two problems: #1: What did they hook the pulley on to? Did Jesus have an airplane?

TIM: That is a problem. What is the second problem?

JIM: What happened when the disciples let go of the rope. Like this (let’s go, JOE falls, TIM catches)

MOE: Whoa! JIM, you almost hurt JOE. Are you ok?

JOE: (moaning) Yeah, I am ok.

TIM: I think JOE needs to rest and I think JIM needs to put that all away.

TIM: You know, sparkies, it says in the Bible, that right after Jesus went into heaven, all of Jesus’ friends, including the disciples, were standing there, looking into the sky. It was pretty incredible. Where did he go? Is he going to come back? Some of them were probably trying to figure out just how he did it, just like JIM.

BRAHMS: Just then, two men—two angels—appeared from heaven and said to them “why do you stand here looking in the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go back into heaven” (Acts 1:11b)

TIM: They were so busy trying to figure out “how” Jesus did that, that they were already forgetting the directions he gave them. Have you ever had that happen to you? You are looking at something really cool, maybe a toy or a present or a TV show, and you forget what your Mom or Dad told you to do?

BRAHMS: Jesus had spent over one month with his friends, teaching them about something new: the church. The church is the people who trust in Jesus to help them and who do what he wants, right now. How many of you go to church? … Good. Church helps us to (1) grow up the way God wants us to grow up, (2) help other people the way God wants us to help other people, and (3) tell other people about God the way that Jesus did.

TIM: Jesus told his friends two things, just before he left: (1) He told them to wait. They didn’t want to wait. They didn’t want Jesus to leave. They wanted everything to happen now. But when you grow up, you have to learn how to wait. Jesus said (Acts 1:4b), “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.”

BRAHMS: We’ll learn more about that next week.

TIM: But the people were in a hurry. “So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) They wanted to know. Is it now? Are you going to be a king now?

BRAHMS: But Jesus told them they had to wait. And they weren’t going to know how long. Sometimes when someone tells us to wait, we think they really mean “No.” Dad, can I drive the car? Wait til your older. And maybe you think he means “Never”

Jesus knew that some things had to happen first, before he would become the king over the whole world. First, everyone in the whole world was going to have to hear about Jesus.

TIM: Now Jesus was God, but he could only talk a few people at a time. There was no TV, there were no cell phones.

BRAHMS: But God had a different idea. What would happen if he told his friends, and then his friends told their friends and then their friends told their friends about Jesus. That would be a lot faster way for people to learn about Jesus. That’s why he said: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses (people who tell people) in Jersualem, in Judea (that’s like in the next state), and Samaria (that’s like the next country, like Mexico or Canada), and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

TIM: Jesus doesn’t want to be your secret. Tell your friends. Bring them to AWANA. Bring them to church. If you keep Jesus a secret; if you don’t tell them that Jesus cares for them and paid for everything so that they can know about God the way you do; maybe they’ll never find out. Don’t be like Jesus’ friends, staring up at the sky, when you already know what he wants you to do.