Lazarus Kids' talk

Thanks for your prayers today. This is the kid's talk I gave in church.

We have a terrible enemy. Death. We spend a lot of time battling this enemy. We use weapons like medicines and operations and we try to stay healthy. Sometimes we do well and we think we're winning... but sooner or later death beats us. None of us are strong enough to beat him, our weapons aren't good enough.

We lost a battle against death this week. Little Abby got very sick and she died. We're sad. And we should be sad.

But Jesus shows us that even though we can't beat death, he can. I'm going to tell you a story now. Something that Jesus did to show everyone that he is stronger than death.

***

Jesus had lots of friends, but some of them were very special to him. These are Jesus' friends Mary and Martha. Mary and Martha, together with their brother Lazarus were very dear to Jesus. Mary loved Jesus so much that once she poured expensive perfume all over his feet.

Mary and Martha loved Jesus and they believed that he was God's son, the king of all the world. But one day something terrible happened. Jesus was away in another town and their brother Lazarus got sick. Mary and Martha felt worried. They knew that Jesus could make their brother better, so they sent a message to Jesus asking him to come quickly and heal Lazarus.

Do you think Jesus would come?

When Jesus heard the news he didn't come. He knew that Lazarus was very very sick, but he stayed right where he was for another two days. Jesus' friends were confused. What was Jesus doing? But Jesus said, 'Wait and see.' He was going to show everyone that he was stronger than death and that death didn't have to win.

After two days Jesus started the journey to Mary and Martha and Lazarus' house. It took them them a few days to get there because they had to walk. When they did get there, everyone was very sad. Lazarus had been dead and in a tomb for four days. Mary and Martha and Lazarus' friends were crying. They wondered why Jesus hadn't come sooner.

Martha came right up to Jesus. "Lord," she said, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies. Do you believe this?"

"Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ,the Son of God."

Then Mary came up. She said, 'Lord, if you had been here, our brother wouldn't have died.'

Jesus saw everyone so sad. They had loved Lazarus and Jesus had loved him too. It is awful when death wins.

Jesus walked over to Lazarus' tomb and he cried.

'Look how much he loved Lazarus,' everyone said.

Now death might be stronger than us, but death is not stronger than Jesus. Jesus had known all along what he was going to do. He wanted to show everyone that he could defeat death.

Jesus came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

Take away the stone," he said. But nobody wanted to take away the stone.

'Lazarus has been in there for four days.' they said.

But they moved the stone away as Jesus asked.

Jesus looked at Lazarus' tomb. He stood up and cried out in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!'

Do you know what happened next? The dead man came out, his hands and feet still wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

And everyone was amazed. Lazarus had been dead, but now he was walking around again! Jesus could defeat death!

***

When Jesus raised Lazarus to life it was actually a sign to prove to us that Jesus can do something even better than what he did for Lazarus.

You see, after Lazarus came back to life again, he was just like he was before he had been sick. Just like a normal person. But eventually, his body got sick again (maybe when he was very old) and he died. Lazarus still couldn't beat death forever.

Jesus said, 'I and the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die.'

Jesus raised Lazarus to life to show us that he is stronger than death. Everyone who believes in him will live even though they die.

Little Abby has died. Jesus could have raised her body straight away like he did with Lazarus and we would like it if he had. But one day, like all of us, Abby would still die. Jesus does something much better.

Right now Abby is in heaven with Jesus. She is waiting with him for the day when he will make her a brand new body. One much better than Lazarus' body. And one much better than her old body. Her new body will never get sick or hurt or sad again. It will be perfect in every way. At that time Jesus will absolutely defeat death. And we will all be happy. That's what we look forward to.

[Feel free to borrow this talk. Pictures in reverse order - thanks blogger!]