Shownotes
When you've got some good news you usually can't wait to tell other people. In this episode, we meet a bunch of people who can't wait to tell someone who they think Jesus is. Join Dave as he explores John 1:29-50.
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Transcripts
G'day, Dave here.
Speaker:Welcome to stories of a faithful God for kids.
Speaker:It's really exciting to see more and more people come on board and start listening.
Speaker:It's great to have you with us.
Speaker:Please tell as many people as you can about
Speaker:the show.
Speaker:People didn't seem so keen to fill in the
Speaker:survey from last week, though.
Speaker:I think I'll have to go back to the drawing
Speaker:board and come up with some better questions for you.
Speaker:I wonder if anyone's worked out why I've chosen a baby as the picture for this John
Speaker:series.
Speaker:If you have, or if you want to have a guess,
Speaker:send me a message@faithfulgod.net.
Speaker:dot I want you to imagine that you've just
Speaker:heard some fantastic news.
Speaker:Maybe your favourite athlete just won a gold
Speaker:medal at the Olympics, or you just found out your family is going to have another baby.
Speaker:Or you discovered that someone is going to give you a million dollars.
Speaker:Now, how would you feel if I then said to you, you can be excited, but youre not allowed to
Speaker:tell anyone, you cant let anyone know.
Speaker:Its like your mouth is glued shut.
Speaker:Like how would that make you feel? Would you feel more happy about the good news
Speaker:or less happy? My guess is it would make you less happy.
Speaker:It'd be really frustrating because good news is for sharing, right?
Speaker:When you hear something that makes you really excited, you want other people to be excited
Speaker:with you.
Speaker:In today's story, some people hear something
Speaker:really exciting and they can't wait to find someone to tell.
Speaker:It's time for our next episode of stories of a faithful God for kids.
Speaker:In our last episode, John the Baptist was really excited.
Speaker:He'd been waiting and getting people ready for someone super special to arrive.
Speaker:That person was Jesus.
Speaker:When he did arrive, it's like John was jumping
Speaker:up and down saying, that's him, that's him.
Speaker:He doesn't want to keep the good news to
Speaker:himself.
Speaker:And then nothing happened.
Speaker:John had lots of people following him and they should have been just as excited as him.
Speaker:But we don't hear anything from them now.
Speaker:It's the next day and John's going to try
Speaker:again.
Speaker:He's standing there with two of his followers.
Speaker:He sees Jesus and he tells them in verse 36 of John, chapter one, look, the lamb of God.
Speaker:This time, the two followers get what they're meant to do.
Speaker:They've been following John, but he's just been getting people ready for someone more
Speaker:important.
Speaker:Now they turn away from John and they start
Speaker:following Jesus.
Speaker:In verse 38, we're told Jesus turned and saw
Speaker:them following him, he asked, what do you want?
Speaker:They said, rabbi, where are you staying? Rabbi means teacher.
Speaker:Jesus answered, come with me and you will see.
Speaker:So the two men went with Jesus.
Speaker:They saw the place where Jesus was staying and stayed there with him that day.
Speaker:It was then about 04:00.
Speaker:Finally, the good news about Jesus is starting
Speaker:to spread.
Speaker:Finally, some people have clicked and that he
Speaker:is the one they've been waiting for.
Speaker:And once that's happened, once they've
Speaker:realised the good news, they don't want to keep it to themselves.
Speaker:One of the two men is a guy named Andrew.
Speaker:Andrew's got a brother named Simon, though
Speaker:pretty soon he's going to be known as Simon Peter.
Speaker:And we're told in verse 41, the first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon.
Speaker:He said to Simon, we've found the messiah.
Speaker:Messiah means Christ.
Speaker:Remember, the Christ is the one God promised to send to fix all the problems in the world.
Speaker:Finding him is huge news.
Speaker:And Andrew can't wait to tell his brother.
Speaker:He takes him off to meet Jesus.
Speaker:Amazingly, even though Simon's meeting Jesus,
Speaker:it seems like Jesus already knows him.
Speaker:He already has a plan for him, so much so that
Speaker:he's even been able to give him a new name.
Speaker:In verse 24, we hear Jesus looked at Simon and
Speaker:said, you are Simon, son of John.
Speaker:You will be called Cephas.
Speaker:Cephas means Peter.
Speaker:That's why he's known as Simon Peter and
Speaker:sometimes just Peter, even though it doesn't sound like it.
Speaker:Cephas and Peter are actually the same name, but in two different languages, just like
Speaker:Messiah and Christ are the same word in different languages.
Speaker:So the good news about Jesus has spread again.
Speaker:The next day, Jesus makes a decision.
Speaker:He reckons it's time to head off to an area called Galilee.
Speaker:He wants to bring more people, though.
Speaker:He wants the good news to spread further.
Speaker:So he finds a guy named Philip, who's from the same town that Andrew and Peter are from, and
Speaker:he says, follow me.
Speaker:Philip is really excited.
Speaker:He seems to have a pretty good idea of who Jesus is.
Speaker:And remember, good news is for sharing.
Speaker:So he rushes off and he finds his mate.
Speaker:That's australian for friend.
Speaker:He finds his mate Nathaniel, and tells him the
Speaker:good news.
Speaker:In verse 45, he says, remember that Moses
Speaker:wrote in the law about a man who was coming and the prophets also wrote about him.
Speaker:We've found him.
Speaker:He is Jesus, the son of Joseph.
Speaker:He's from Nazareth.
Speaker:And when Nathaniel hears this amazing news, he
Speaker:says, nazareth.
Speaker:Can anything good come from Nazareth?
Speaker:Oh, ummdhdeme that's not a very exciting response.
Speaker:But if you've got some great news, even if someone doesn't believe it, you really want to
Speaker:prove it to them so they can enjoy it too.
Speaker:So Philip takes Nathaniel off to meet Jesus so
Speaker:he can see for himself.
Speaker:Now, just like with Simon Peter, Jesus
Speaker:actually knows Nathaniel even before Nathaniel knows him.
Speaker:When Jesus sees Nathaniel coming towards him, he says in verse 47, he is truly a person of
Speaker:Israel.
Speaker:There is nothing false in him.
Speaker:Nothing false means there are no lies in him.
Speaker:There is nothing fake about him.
Speaker:That sounds pretty great.
Speaker:But what's Jesus actually trying to say about
Speaker:Nathaniel? Well, about a thousand years before this, King
Speaker:David in the Old Testament had written a song called a psalm.
Speaker:It's psalm 32.
Speaker:And in there he talks about his sin.
Speaker:He says that for a while he tried to hide his sin.
Speaker:Have you ever done that? You do the wrong thing, but you don't want
Speaker:anyone to find out.
Speaker:It's like you're lying or being false.
Speaker:False with everyone else, false with God, even false with yourself.
Speaker:King David says things only got better when he got rid of that falseness.
Speaker:When he told the truth about his sin and confessed it to God, then God could forgive
Speaker:him.
Speaker:His friendship with God could be fixed.
Speaker:And David says that the person who has nothing false in them, who's actually honest about
Speaker:their sin and wants to be forgiven, that person is happy.
Speaker:When Jesus sees Nathaniel, he knows that he's that sort of guy.
Speaker:Nathanael actually wants his sin dealt with.
Speaker:He doesn't want to hide it.
Speaker:How good is it then that Nathaniel's come to the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
Speaker:world? Nathanael, he's a bit shocked.
Speaker:He's like, how could Jesus possibly know this about me?
Speaker:So in verse 48, Nathaniel asks, how do you know me?
Speaker:Jesus answered, I saw you when you were under the fig tree.
Speaker:That was before Philip told you about me.
Speaker:Now Nathaniel's like, mind blown when there's
Speaker:no way that Jesus could possibly see me.
Speaker:He still knew exactly where I was under a fig
Speaker:tree.
Speaker:Do you remember from last episode how we
Speaker:talked about clues, how God put clues all through the Old Testament so that when Jesus
Speaker:came, you could recognize him? Well, in the second last book of the Old
Speaker:Testament, Zechariah, God actually talked about fig trees.
Speaker:In chapter three, he says that when his special servant comes, he'll take away all the
Speaker:sin in the land.
Speaker:Things will be so good, you'll be able to
Speaker:chill out and relax.
Speaker:You'll invite your neighbour over and where
Speaker:will you relax with them? Under a fig tree, Jesus is hinting that the
Speaker:servant has come.
Speaker:That's him.
Speaker:The time when God takes away sin is here.
Speaker:This is the best news in the world, especially
Speaker:for a guy who's honest enough to say he needs his sin taken away.
Speaker:Nathaniel is so excited, he isn't grumpily saying anymore, ugh.
Speaker:Does anything good come out of Nazareth? No. Now he believes the good news as well.
Speaker:He says to Jesus in verse 49, teacher, you are the son of God.
Speaker:You are the king of Israel.
Speaker:Jesus replies by basically saying, you ain't
Speaker:seen nothing yet.
Speaker:He uses a title for himself, the son of man.
Speaker:That's Jesus way of speaking about himself.
Speaker:This is what he says.
Speaker:He says, you believe in me because I told you I saw you under the fig tree.
Speaker:But you will see greater things than that.
Speaker:And Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth,
Speaker:you will all see heaven open.
Speaker:You will see angels of God going up and coming
Speaker:down on the son of Mandev.
Speaker:Far out.
Speaker:That's pretty impressive.
Speaker:Again, though, Jesus is picking up on a clue
Speaker:that God left in the Old Testament.
Speaker:Do you remember who the first three Israelites
Speaker:were? There was Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Speaker:And Jesus is referring to something that happened to Jacob.
Speaker:There was a time when Jacob had had to run away.
Speaker:Hed been really dodgy to his brother Esau, and now Esau wanted to kill him.
Speaker:Jacob had to run away with virtually nothing.
Speaker:When he went to sleep, he even had to use a
Speaker:rock as a pillow.
Speaker:That does not sound very fun at all.
Speaker:But God wanted to show him that he was still looking after him.
Speaker:So while he was sleeping, God showed him a vision.
Speaker:Let me read it to you from Genesis, chapter 28, verse eleven.
Speaker:It says, he came to a place and spent the night there because the sun had set.
Speaker:He found a stone there and laid his head on it to go to sleep.
Speaker:Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder resting on the earth and reaching up into heaven.
Speaker:And he saw angels going up and coming down the ladder.
Speaker:And then Jacob saw the Lord standing above the ladder.
Speaker:The Lord said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your grandfather, and I am the God of
Speaker:Isaac.
Speaker:I will give you and your descendants the land
Speaker:on which you are now sleeping.
Speaker:Your descendants will be as many as the dust
Speaker:of the earth thou hast spread west and east, north and south.
Speaker:All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.
Speaker:I am with you, and I will protect you everywhere you go.
Speaker:And I'll bring you back to this land.
Speaker:I will not leave you until I have done what I
Speaker:have promised you.
Speaker:You see, even though things looked bad, God
Speaker:was with him.
Speaker:God had chosen him.
Speaker:And God was showing Jacob all this so he'd know that God was faithfully looking after
Speaker:him.
Speaker:Jesus knows that God's with him.
Speaker:Jesus knows that God's chosen him.
Speaker:But he's saying to Nathaniel and his other
Speaker:disciples, they're actually going to see things that prove that God is really with him.
Speaker:This is such great news.
Speaker:You know, the good news about Jesus, it wasn't
Speaker:just for people back then.
Speaker:It's for everyone, everywhere.
Speaker:That's why John wrote down the good news.
Speaker:It's why I'm telling you this good news.
Speaker:And remember, good news is for sharing.
Speaker:John the Baptist told his disciples.
Speaker:Andrew told it to his brother Simon.
Speaker:Philip told Nathaniel, who can you tell?
Speaker:Who do you know who doesn't know the good news about Jesus yet?
Speaker:Sometimes if you tell people, they might not believe it at first, just like Nathaniel
Speaker:didn't believe it at first.
Speaker:But that doesn't mean you just give up.
Speaker:You can pray for them that God will help them to believe the good news, that Jesus has come
Speaker:to save us.
Speaker:He's come to take away our sin and bring us
Speaker:into God's family.
Speaker:You can tell them what you've found out about
Speaker:Jesus.
Speaker:You can invite them to church or tell them to
Speaker:listen to stories of a faithful God for kids.
Speaker:If you believe this good news about Jesus,
Speaker:dont keep it to yourself for the disciples.
Speaker:Theyre about to see Jesus do his first ever
Speaker:miracle.
Speaker:Jesus is about to give them a taste of just
Speaker:how great he is.
Speaker:But thats a story for next time.
Speaker:Hi again.
Speaker:Last week I told you about the playlist I've
Speaker:set up on Spotify called SFG for Kids.
Speaker:It's got a whole lot of songs on there that
Speaker:link to the things we've learned on the podcast.
Speaker:If you want to hear a fun one for today's episode, check out good news by Johnny Burns.
Speaker:It feels a little bit like the Bible passage we looked at today.
Speaker:Good news by Johnny Burns if you've worked out or you want to guess why I've used a baby
Speaker:photo for our John series, send me a message.
Speaker:Or if you have any questions or comments, send
Speaker:them in@faithfulgod.net.
Speaker:dot grown ups thanks again for letting your
Speaker:kids listen.
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Speaker:faithful God where you can have a deeper dive into these passages.
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