JOIN THE JOURNEY JR.
Families Abiding in Jesus together
With shorter reading assignments and kid-specific focus areas, Join The Journey Jr. is designed to help parents disciple their kids and engage with Scripture in the best ways for their age.
This month's memory verse
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
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And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
54The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage.* 55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 56And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!”
57Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him 58and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.*
59As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.
Acts of the Apostles 8
1Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen.
Persecution Scatters the Believers
A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. 2(Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning.) 3But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.
Can you think of a time that you had a hard time forgiving someone who wronged you? Forgiveness means choosing to let go of being angry or hurt toward someone who wronged you, even when it’s hard. Share why it was hard to forgive them. What did they do to you? Why was is hard for you to forgive them?
As Stephen was hurt for preaching about Jesus, he says something so incredible in verse 60— “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Stephen was about to be killed by the people who were hurting him, and instead of being angry or hating them, he asked God to forgive them. The Holy Spirit gave Stephen a deep love for the people, even though they were hurting him. Stephen knew how important it was for them to know Jesus. He also knew God could forgive any sin, no matter how bad it seemed.
When Jesus died on the cross, he took every person’s sin on himself—all of it! That means that for people who believe in Jesus are totally forgiven by God and God doesn’t keep score of what they did wrong. No matter how bad you think your sin is, God can forgive it through Jesus, because he already paid the consequence for your sin by dying on the cross. This is amazing news for us, and that’s the news we want to share with everyone who doesn’t know about Jesus yet!
In response to Jesus’s forgiveness toward us, we, shouldn’t keep score of what others did wrong to us. Jesus wants us to love those who have done something wrong to us and forgive them, like he forgave us. We get to show the love of God to those people when we forgive and that opens the chance for them to also come to know Jesus.
Take 15 minutes to look up these passages in the Bible that talk about forgiveness. Write down what God is teaching about forgiveness from each passage.