70. Resurrection: Life for Everyone who Believes

G' day and welcome to Stories of a Faithful God For Kids.

Dave here.

If you told people that you saw a watermelon turn into a dinosaur, people would laugh at you.

It's unbelievable.

It just never happens.

If you said you saw a giraffe with wings, would anyone believe you?

Of course not.

If you told everyone that a donkey swallowed you, then spat you out, then swallowed you again and spat you out, then swallowed you again and spat you out, and then painted your face green, how many people do you think would believe you?

I'm guessing not many.

Making up stories like that can be fun, but that doesn't mean that people will actually believe that they happened.

The Bible story we're looking at today is something that a lot of people think is just made up.

They think it's all pretend.

It's as silly as a giraffe with wings.

And so they think it's unbelievable it could never happen.

In fact, the first people to not believe it are the people in the story itself.

But something happened.

Something changed.

What was unbelievable became believable.

They realised it wasn't made up, but really true.

And if you believe it, then something wonderful happens.

Get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

At the end of our last episode, some strange stories had started to spread.

Mary Magdalene had rushed to the disciples and told them she'd seen Jesus alive.

How could that be?

He'd been killed on a cross.

He'd been buried in a tomb.

And dead people don't come back to life, do they?

Peter and John had also been to the tomb.

And just like Mary, they'd seen that the tomb was empty.

Unlike Mary, though, they didn't get to see Jesus alive.

They'd just seen the cloths that had been around his body folded and left where the body used to be.

Almost as though someone had made his bed.

Hmm.

But that can't mean that Jesus is actually alive, can it?

Surely no one would believe that.

Well, it's the first day of the week.

The disciples are all together in a room.

They've locked the doors because they're afraid that the same Jews who killed Jesus would come for them next.

No one can get out.

No one can get in.

Suddenly, amazingly wonderfully, someone comes in.

Even more amazingly, that someone is Jesus.

Not the dead body of Jesus, but Jesus.

Alive, living, breathing, speaking.

In fact, he says to them in John 20:19, peace be with you.

If it had been unbelievable that Jesus is alive, it isn't now.

Now they have to believe it.

Jesus is standing right there.

In front of them, speaking to them.

It'd be really strange to say to someone standing in front of you, I don't believe that you're really here.

Thankfully, none of them do.

Why would they?

Jesus is clearly alive.

In fact, to prove it's really him, he shows them his hands and his side.

His hands where the nails went in to nail him to the cross.

His side where the spear went in.

Remember, a soldier had stabbed Jesus body in the side with his spear just to make 100% sure that he really was dead.

And he was.

He was completely dead.

But now he's here, talking, standing alive.

And the disciples are super excited.

Then Jesus gives them a really important job to do.

He says in verse 21, Peace be with you.

As the Father sent me, I now send you.

He isn't going to send them alone.

In fact, he gives them the greatest helper they could possibly have.

He gives them God, the Holy Spirit.

Even though they're weak, he's strong.

Even though they can't change anyone, the Holy Spirit can.

And they're going to need him.

Because they're going to do such an important job.

They're going to tell people how they can be forgiven.

Forgiven for all the wrong things we've done.

Forgiven for all the ways that we haven't loved God and lived the way God made us to be.

Forgiven for all the ways we haven't loved other people.

They're going to tell people that you can have this forgiveness only by believing in the living king, the Lord Jesus.

It's the same message we heard back in John 3:36.

That verse says, he who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will never have that life.

God's anger stays with him.

So they're going to tell the world, believe in Jesus.

Unfortunately, the very first person they tell someone you'd expect to understand and believe doesn't believe them.

His name is Thomas.

He's one of the disciples.

He was there at the dinner on the night before Jesus died.

He was there when Jesus healed sick people.

He was there when Jesus raised Lazarus to life.

Unfortunately, he's the only disciple not there when Jesus appeared in the locked room.

When he gets back after Jesus has gone, the other disciples can't wait to tell him the good news.

We saw the Lord, they tell him in verse 25.

But Thomas, despite everything he's seen Jesus do, despite the fact that he's loved Jesus and trusted him before, doesn't believe now.

I mean, after all, dead people don't Come back to life, right?

Thomas says to them, I will not believe it until I see the nail marks in his hands.

And I will not believe until I put my finger where the nails were and put my hand in his side.

This is a disaster.

If Thomas won't believe without seeing Jesus, the guy who's seen Jesus do so much, how can we believe we can't see Jesus?

Is this actually believable by anyone?

Well, it's a week later.

The disciples are all in the locked room again.

This time Thomas is with them.

Suddenly Jesus is there with them again.

He even says the same thing again.

Peace be with you.

It's kind of like an ancient way of saying, g' day.

Now Jesus knows everything.

And he knows Thomas hasn't believed what the others have told him.

So he turns straight to Thomas and he says to him in verse 27, put your finger here, look at my hands, Put your hand in my side.

Stop doubting and believe.

It'd be pretty gross to put your hand into the spear hole in Jesus side.

But Jesus is saying to Thomas, I really want you to believe this really is me.

Stop doubting.

Thankfully, Thomas does believe.

Now he's seen Jesus with his own eyes.

In fact, he's worked something out about Jesus.

He's realised something really important.

He.

He's realized that Jesus isn't just a living human being, he's also the true and living God.

God and human at the same time.

He says to Jesus in verse 28, my Lord and my God.

This is great.

Finally Thomas gets it.

This is what Jesus has been proving throughout the whole gospel.

He's been doing things and saying things that prove that he is God the Son.

Thomas has seen and heard all of that now and he finally believes.

But what about us?

We haven't seen with our own eyes.

We haven't heard with our own ears.

Strangely, Jesus actually says to Thomas that we're better off because of that.

He says to him, you believe because you see me.

Those who believe without seeing me will be truly happy.

And that's really great.

I love being happy.

But how can we believe this all happened almost 2000 years ago?

How can we believe without seeing?

Some people today say that followers of Jesus are really silly, that they don't know how to think about things.

They believe in something that's unbelievable and they have no proof.

But actually that isn't true, is it?

Sure, we haven't seen Jesus with our own eyes and heard Jesus with our own ears.

But that doesn't mean we have no proof that he's alive, that he's powerful, that he's God.

Because the people who did see him have told us about it.

In fact, one of them, John, wrote this book that we've been learning from, the Gospel of John.

Throughout the whole book, he's been telling us what he heard Jesus say, what he saw Jesus do, how he witnessed Jesus alive after he'd been killed.

He's laid it all out for us like a good detective who's discovered something and wants to show other people the proof.

He could have written a lot more.

In fact, if you go and read the other gospels, like Matthew, Mark and Luke, you'd see just how much more he could have written.

He's written enough, though, to show us that Jesus is alive.

Jesus is who he says he is.

He is the king God promised to send long, long ago, all through the Old Testament.

He's the Christ or Messiah.

He really is God in the flesh.

He's written all this because he wants us to believe in Jesus, know him, trust him as your king.

Because if you do believe in him, you'll have what he's been promising throughout the whole gospel.

Life forever.

Real life.

Life with God, Life in God's family.

John tells us in verse 30, Jesus did many other miracles before his followers that are not written in this book.

But these are written so that you can believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Then, by believing, you can have life through his name, I hope you believe in Jesus as your king and so have life.

Meanwhile, Jesus hasn't quite finished with his disciples.

He's still got a bit more to show them.

He still has a bit more to tell them.

But that's a story for next time.

Keep trusting Jesus.

Bye for now.