Use this free children’s sermon to teach about the Tower of Babel and Pentecost Sunday in your Sunday School, kids church, or children’s ministry moment. Download the PDF lesson plan below and watch our teaching example video. Then gather your object lesson supplies as you prepare to share this message from God’s Word with the young people in your congregation.
Children’s Sermon Lesson Objective: This message notes two important stories from the Bible, and emphasizes the importance of putting Jesus at the center of all efforts and relationships. Use a “toppling tower” illustration to show children how easily things can fall apart when they do not have a solid foundation or sticking point. In the same way, the people trying to build the Tower of Babel failed and fell apart because they wanted to rely on themselves to get to God. However, at Pentecost, the language confusion of Babel was reversed when believers put their faith in the Holy Spirit and His power. Explain how critical it is to put our trust not in ourselves, but in God.
Law/Gospel Theme: We can easily be tempted to think that we have power over our own lives and salvation. We might think that if we follow the rules well enough or do enough, we can earn God’s love, just like the people of Genesis thought they could “make a name for themselves.” We know that without God, we are nothing. We will fall apart and fail time and again unless we lean on Him. Our hope and salvation come through Christ alone. With His strength at the center of what we do, amazing things can happen!
Object Lesson Materials: Cups (Styrofoam or plastic); glue or tape (additional option: blocks or Jenga pieces of some sort).
Bible Passage: Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-21
More Bible Teaching Activities for Kids:
- Watch this children’s sermon lesson and the craft ideas for the Tower of Babel
- Compare our full Sunday School Lesson from Genesis 11:1-9
- Compare another Bible Lesson for Kids on the Tower of Babel
- Compare another Tower of Babel children’s sermon
- Browse more activities for teaching the Tower of Babel
Children’s Sermon Lesson (Genesis 11:1-9) Tower of Babel
Greet children, equipped with several cups and a hard surface on which to place them.
Hello, children of God! I have a little challenge for you today. I have these cups here, and I want to see how high you can stack them up. Place them top to top, and bottom to bottom, like this (demonstrate how to place the cups together so that the rims go together or the bottoms go together. It should be tricky to get them too high without the stack falling over). Uh-oh…it looks like this tower is a little shaky. It falls over kind of easily, doesn’t it? Hmm… Why don’t we try something else. Let’s see if we can add some glue in between the cups. Maybe that will help them stick together. (Stack the cups again, adding glue or tape to adhere them together). So when there’s glue in between, it holds these cups in place. Now I can get more of them to stay together, and even if the tower falls, it doesn’t totally fall apart!
You know, this reminds me of our lives in some ways. When we center our lives on Christ—when all that we do, our relationships and everything about us, puts Him first and foremost, things hold together. But there are some times when we try to act on our own power, and that will usually wind up failing. I can think of some stories in the Bible where people tried doing things on their own, and it certainly didn’t work out well. For instance, there was one story early in the history of things, when some people tried to build a huge tower. They thought if they built an impressive enough building, they could make a name for themselves and show everyone how mighty and amazing they were. Well, God had other plans. God knew these people couldn’t help themselves or somehow get themselves to Heaven or achievement just by what they did. They needed God. So instead of coming together and working for the Lord, these folks wound up getting divided. Their language was suddenly confused, and they couldn’t understand each other anymore. We call this the Tower of Babel, which is easy to remember when we think of the “babbling” sound we hear when we don’t understand a language. The people in the story couldn’t keep working on their tower, and they wound up scattering apart in defeat. It’s really kind of a sad story!
However, much later, Jesus came along, the healer of all old hurts. Jesus promised to send His Spirit, who would help the disciples and comfort them with His presence. Well, that Spirit came at Pentecost. All of the believers were gathered together, and the Holy Spirit entered like a rushing wind, with tongues of fire! And then something amazing happened: even though there were people from many different places and languages, they all understood each other! They could hear what the disciples were saying like it was their own language. It was sort of a reversal of what happened at the Tower of Babel. Their, people tried to work for themselves and got mixed up and scattered. But at Pentecost, people came together. They waited patiently on God, and put Him at the center of things. And there was more understanding! Instead of confusion, they had clarity. The Holy Spirit helped them grow together instead of separating, and helped them understand instead of falling apart.
And that Spirit is still with us now. We might not always understand other languages, at least not without study. But when we trust God, wait on HIM, and put Him in the middle of all that we do, He will be the glue that holds all things together. Keep God in the center. Lean on Him, not on your own understanding or power. And be thankful! Without God, nothing is possible. With Him, anything is possible!
Why don’t we say a prayer of thanks right now?
Children’s Prayer Moment
(Have kids repeat each line)
Dear God,
Thank you for allowing us to come together
Thank you for sending your Spirit
Who gives us strength and power
Please help us to love one another.
Thank you for your love
We love you, God!
In Jesus name, Amen!
Scripture Verses / Bible Story to Reference:
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused[a] the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
-Genesis 11:1-9
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested[a] on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” …
21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ -Acts 2:1-21
Thank you for downloading these free materials. Our team is grateful for your trust and pray that God will bless your ministry.
This resource was prepared by Kristin Schmidt (pictured right). She serves at the Epiphany Lutheran Church in Castle Rock, CO. She has shared her teaching gifts through Ministry-To-Children since 2014 and now serves as our lead curriculum writer.
Every week she writes new Sunday School lessons, Bible crafts, and children’s sermons.
Kristin has a professional background in elementary and pre-school education. A graduate of Biola University, she holds a Master of Education and will receive the Master of Theology degree from Concordia University, Irvine, California, in May 2020. Kristin grew up in southern California and lived the past 10 years in Georgia. She is a long-distance runner and voracious reader. In addition to children’s curriculum, she shares her student ministry activities and lesson ideas on YouthGroupMinistry.com