Shownotes
The last episode ended on a cliffhanger. Why was Jesus doing what he was doing? Why was that the loving thing to do? Thankfully, Jesus has a plan. Join Dave as he explores John 11:17-44.
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Transcripts
G'day everyone.
Speaker:Dave here.
Speaker:Welcome to stories of a faithful God for kids.
Speaker:Did you know you can tell how important people
Speaker:think something is by what they do to make it happen?
Speaker:Like eating.
Speaker:Most of the time you probably don't even think
Speaker:too hard about eating.
Speaker:But if you don't get to eat, if you haven't
Speaker:had food for a long time, you're gonna start making noises like.
Speaker:And you're gonna start saying things like mu, I'm so hungry.
Speaker:And if it goes on even longer, you'll probably start making life hard for everyone around you
Speaker:until you get food.
Speaker:You'll be like, feed me.
Speaker:Feed me.
Speaker:Because eating food is really important.
Speaker:Or what about going to the bathroom? If you really need to go, you're going to do
Speaker:things to make sure it happens.
Speaker:Maybe you're going to run as fast as you can
Speaker:to the bathroom.
Speaker:Maybe you're going to cross your legs and hop
Speaker:along until you get there.
Speaker:Maybe you'll make someone who's really big and
Speaker:fast carry you there.
Speaker:Other things aren't so important, like eating
Speaker:asparagus.
Speaker:Even if you like asparagus, if you don't have
Speaker:it for a while, you're probably not going to do a whole lot to make sure you eat asparagus.
Speaker:What about believing in Jesus? How important is that?
Speaker:If it is important, what would you do to help someone believe in Jesus?
Speaker:More importantly, what will Jesus do to help people believe in him?
Speaker:Well, we're about to find out.
Speaker:Get ready for our next episode of stories of a
Speaker:faithful God for kids.
Speaker:At the end of our last story, things were
Speaker:totally weird because Jesus loves his disciples and Mary and Martha and Lazarus.
Speaker:He'd let Lazarus die.
Speaker:He hadn't traveled down to heal him.
Speaker:Even weirder, now that Lazarus has died, Jesus wants to travel down to him now.
Speaker:Even weirder, Jesus said before that Lazarus sickness will not end in death.
Speaker:But now he's dead.
Speaker:Even weirder, the town where Lazarus died,
Speaker:Bethany, is just down the road from Jerusalem where people want to kill Jesus.
Speaker:So why would Jesus want to go to a town near where people want to kill him?
Speaker:To see a guy who can't be healed anymore.
Speaker:And how's that?
Speaker:A way of showing love and care to people.
Speaker:And why did Jesus say that Lazarus wouldn't
Speaker:end up dead? This needs checking out.
Speaker:Jesus gets to Bethany and he discovers that Lazarus dead body had been in the tomb for
Speaker:four days in Mary and Martha's house.
Speaker:Lots of people have come from Jerusalem to
Speaker:help Mary and Martha in their sadness.
Speaker:I know Jerusalem where lots of people want to
Speaker:kill Jesus anyway.
Speaker:Martha hears that Jesus is on his way and she
Speaker:goes out to meet him.
Speaker:Mary stays at home, though.
Speaker:Now remember, Martha's brothers just died.
Speaker:Jesus could have healed him.
Speaker:He chose not to come.
Speaker:How do you think Martha's feeling about Jesus?
Speaker:Surprisingly, she still trusts him.
Speaker:She says to Jesus in verse 21, lord, if you
Speaker:had been here, my brother would not have died.
Speaker:But I know that even now God will give you
Speaker:anything you ask.
Speaker:That sounds really good, doesn't it?
Speaker:It sounds like she really believes in Jesus.
Speaker:And so Jesus replies with some good news.
Speaker:He says to her, your brother will rise and live again.
Speaker:Whoa, that's a big thing to say.
Speaker:And if Martha's right that God will give Jesus
Speaker:anything he asks, then Jesus could ask right now.
Speaker:And Lazarus will rise again right now.
Speaker:Unfortunately, even though Martha said those
Speaker:words, she doesn't fully believe them yet.
Speaker:She doesn't actually think that Jesus can
Speaker:raise Lazarus to life right now.
Speaker:But she does know God's promise that at the
Speaker:end of the world, God's people will be raised to life.
Speaker:So she assumes that that's what Jesus is talking about.
Speaker:She says in verse 24, I know that he will rise and live again in the resurrection on the last
Speaker:day.
Speaker:Resurrection means coming back to life.
Speaker:But Jesus wants her to know and believe that she doesn't have to wait until the last day of
Speaker:the universe because something wonderful has happened.
Speaker:Some one wonderful has arrived.
Speaker:Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the
Speaker:life.
Speaker:He who believes in me will have life even if
Speaker:he dies.
Speaker:And he who lives and believes in me will never
Speaker:die.
Speaker:I know this is huge.
Speaker:If you remember back to the last episode, Jesus didnt want to say that Lazarus was dead.
Speaker:He said hes sleeping.
Speaker:And the big difference between sleeping and
Speaker:death is that you can wake up from one of those.
Speaker:Jesus is saying he has the power of life, the power to wake up someone whos died.
Speaker:And he will wake up anyone who believes in him.
Speaker:That makes believing in him really important.
Speaker:It's the difference between life and death,
Speaker:the difference between living forever and dying forever.
Speaker:So Jesus looks at Martha and asks Martha, do you believe this?
Speaker:And she replies, yes, lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God.
Speaker:You are the one who is coming into the world.
Speaker:That's so good.
Speaker:It's great that she believes in Jesus, except just like she said good words before, that she
Speaker:didn't fully believe.
Speaker:Even now she doesn't fully believe Jesus.
Speaker:We'll see that in a little bit.
Speaker:Anyway, Martha heads back to the house and
Speaker:calls her sister Mary aside.
Speaker:She tells her that Jesus wants to see her.
Speaker:So Mary runs out of the house.
Speaker:The rest of the people in the house remember
Speaker:there's a big crowd who've come to be with Mary and Martha.
Speaker:They see Mary run out.
Speaker:They don't know where she's going, but they
Speaker:assume she's going to the tomb where Lazarus's body is.
Speaker:So they all decide to follow her.
Speaker:When Mary gets to Jesus, she seems angrier
Speaker:than Martha was.
Speaker:She falls down at his feet and says, lord, if
Speaker:you had been here, my brother would not have died.
Speaker:Its like shes saying, why didnt you come? You could have saved him.
Speaker:I mean, imagine an ambulance turning up four days after someones died.
Speaker:Itd be like, wow, you could have helped a few days ago.
Speaker:Now youre pretty useless.
Speaker:Except Jesus is not an ambulance.
Speaker:Jesus has more power than an ambulance.
Speaker:The problem is, no one seems to believe that.
Speaker:Jesus looks at her crying.
Speaker:He looks at all the crowd that's followed her.
Speaker:They're all crying too.
Speaker:They all go to the tomb where everyone's
Speaker:crying.
Speaker:And then Jesus cries as well.
Speaker:Some of the Jews look at Jesus and they're amazed.
Speaker:They're like, wow, see how much he loved Lazarus.
Speaker:He's in tears.
Speaker:Other people, though, are shocked for another
Speaker:reason.
Speaker:They're more thinking, love Lazarus.
Speaker:Love Lazarus.
Speaker:If he loved Lazarus so much, tell me this.
Speaker:How come he didn't heal him? In verse 37, they say, if Jesus healed the
Speaker:eyes of the blind man, why didn't he keep Lazarus from dying?
Speaker:And that's a great question.
Speaker:Why didn't Jesus stop Lazarus from dying?
Speaker:And while we're at it, whys he even crying? He let Lazarus die.
Speaker:Well, feeling very sad and a bit angry, Jesus and the crowd arrive at the tomb.
Speaker:Theres a big stone rolled in front of the tomb, which is made out of a cave.
Speaker:Jesus says, move the stone away.
Speaker:I know this is so awkward.
Speaker:Imagine going to a cemetery where dead bodies are buried and saying, ah, just dig up all the
Speaker:soil so we can see the coffin.
Speaker:Who would say that?
Speaker:Who would do that? It's so weird.
Speaker:Everyone's standing around thinking, did he just say that?
Speaker:Finally, Martha says something that's pretty gross but true.
Speaker:It's something you don't really want to have to think about with your dead brother.
Speaker:She says in verse 49.
Speaker:But lord, it's been four days since he died of
Speaker:there will be a bad smell.
Speaker:And that's when you see she doesn't actually
Speaker:believe that Jesus can give her brother life.
Speaker:In fact, no one there believes it.
Speaker:All they're thinking about is that in the tomb, there's a dead body, and that's the end
Speaker:of it.
Speaker:And this is what's making Jesus so sad.
Speaker:He is ready and able to give life, eternal life, to whoever believes in him.
Speaker:But none of these people do believe in him.
Speaker:They believe something about Jesus.
Speaker:They believe that he's really good.
Speaker:They believe that God sent him.
Speaker:But they still don't trust him as the one to save them from death, which is so sad, because
Speaker:he's the only one who can save us from death.
Speaker:Jesus is the one who gives eternal life.
Speaker:If you don't believe in him, you're dead.
Speaker:Which is why Jesus has let this all happen.
Speaker:It's why he let Lazarus die.
Speaker:He needed to show Mary and Martha and Lazarus
Speaker:and all the crowd and all his disciples and even us, that he has the power to give life,
Speaker:that if we believe in him, we'll have eternal life.
Speaker:Jesus is trying to save everyone's life.
Speaker:He loves these people, and so he's set up this
Speaker:situation so that they can believe.
Speaker:And to do that, he had to let Lazarus die.
Speaker:Or perhaps a better way to say it is he let Lazarus fall asleep.
Speaker:Because Jesus has come to do something no one else can do.
Speaker:Jesus has come to wake him up.
Speaker:Jesus says to Martha in verse 40, didn't I
Speaker:tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?
Speaker:Glory is greatness.
Speaker:They're going to see how great God is.
Speaker:They're going to see how great Jesus is.
Speaker:So they open the tomb.
Speaker:And Jesus prays again in his prayer, you can see what Jesus wants.
Speaker:He wants people to believe in him.
Speaker:In verse 41, Jesus prays.
Speaker:Father, I thank you that you heard me.
Speaker:I know that you always hear me, but I said
Speaker:these things because of the people here around me.
Speaker:I want them to believe that you sent me.
Speaker:Then he calls out in a loud voice, Lazarus,
Speaker:come out.
Speaker:What a strange thing to do.
Speaker:As if dead people can hear you.
Speaker:As if a dead person is going, what was that?
Speaker:What's happening? The people look at the tomb.
Speaker:Suddenly they see a hand covered in cloth.
Speaker:Then an arm, then a head and a body.
Speaker:Suddenly, there's Lazarus.
Speaker:His hands and feet are wrapped with pieces of
Speaker:cloth, and he has a cloth around his face.
Speaker:The dead man just walked out of the tomb.
Speaker:Jesus has made him alive.
Speaker:He really is alive.
Speaker:And Jesus says to the crowd, take the cloth off him and let him go.
Speaker:Way back.
Speaker:At the start of all this, Jesus had said that
Speaker:Lazarus sickness will not end in death.
Speaker:Lazarus died, but that wasn't the end.
Speaker:It ended with Lazarus being raised back to life.
Speaker:This is why Jesus waited.
Speaker:This is why it was so important for Jesus to
Speaker:wait.
Speaker:This is why it was so loving for Jesus to
Speaker:wait.
Speaker:He needed to show everyone that he really can
Speaker:give people life.
Speaker:He wanted to save our lives and their lives by
Speaker:helping us to believe in him.
Speaker:Because just like Jesus said, whoever believes
Speaker:in him will have life even if you die.
Speaker:And whoever lives and believes in Jesus will
Speaker:never, ever really die.
Speaker:And so I'll ask you the same question that
Speaker:Jesus asked Martha.
Speaker:Do you believe this?
Speaker:In Jesus day? Lots of people saw Jesus power and they
Speaker:believed.
Speaker:But not everyone.
Speaker:But thats a story for next time.
Speaker:Hey Im really excited about the new stories of
Speaker:a faithful God kids club.
Speaker:Check out the trailer in the show notes.
Speaker:Sign up to be a member.
Speaker:Its going to be lots of fun.
Speaker:I hope to see you there.
Speaker:Keep trusting Jesus.
Speaker:Bye for now.
