How We Know Who Jesus Is
I post these Children’s Sermons to inspire other Children’s Ministers with ideas for their work.
Text: I John 5: 14-21
How We Know Who Jesus Is: The Letters/Word from God
Do any of you kids know what these are? Hold up a stack of letters.
Yes, they are letters. When I was a kid, if you lived out of town and wanted to send a message to your grandmother or your friend at camp, you….wrote a letter. You had stationary or a postcard; you needed a pen; you needed to know the address so the letter would go to the correct place, and you needed a stamp.
In other words, it took time and thought, and you didn’t just do this to say hi. You usually asked the person how they were, told them you missed them, and told them what you were doing.
And if you were really fortunate, you received letters too. And if you were very fond of the person, you kept their letters
This stack is from my best friend Cheri, whom I met in high school. We wrote letters back and forth when we went away to college. She went to school in Kansas,
This is a stack of letters from my Dad to me at college…
This is a stack from my grandmother…
All these letters are about 40 years old. My best friend Cheri has passed away, as has my dad and my grandparents. But I remember them so well. They were in my life. I hugged them. I have their letters written in their handwriting with their own words. They are not going away. What happens if I begin to forget them—which could happen if my memory goes bad? I have their letters. What do I do when I’m really sad that they are gone? I might read some letters.
The set of letters from my dad is really special. There were times when I was younger that I wondered why my parents got divorced. When my dad left our home, three of my relatives said my dad was a bad person. He didn’t really love us kids. It took me a long while to learn that this was not true, and later, I knew this was an outright lie. As I spent more time with my dad and became an adult, I figured this out. I learned that he was asked to take an important job in Chile in South America, but he turned it down because he couldn’t see us if he lived there. When he turned that job down, he lost the job he had.
I found that my dad really cared for me. Whenever I was sick he would call me each and every morning to see how I was doing. And he was the only one who could talk me into not going to work if I felt sick.
And one of the best proofs of his love for me is in his letters. In his handwriting, in his own words.
That’s the way it is with the book of I John. John is writing repeatedly that we can KNOW that Jesus loves us. John was a first-hand eyewitness. He was there. John was Jesus’ friend. He saw him do miracles. He asked Jesus hard questions. He was there when Jesus died. He was the first man to realize that Jesus had risen from the dead.
But there were people around when John was alive who were saying that Jesus wasn’t God. That He had not died and risen again. They were telling lies. John wrote this book so that you and I would KNOW, that we would be CONFIDENT or SURE that Jesus is God’s Son. That we have eternal life with him. We do not need to be tricked and believe these lies.
I want to encourage you to use your printed Bible, not the one on your phone or laptop, and read and re-read God’s word. Remember, it is God’s letter to you and me telling us the entire story of God. Mark it up with a reminder about how He loves you and how you know you have eternal life. Touch the real thing. Bring your actual Bible to church and write what you learn in Sunday School or church in the margins. Teach yourself and remind yourself of God’s love and will for you by reading the real book, the real letter, so to speak. Let’s pray.
Thank you for the gift of your Word, Lord. Thank you for giving us this love letter of how you love us so much you sent Jesus to save us from our sin. And you want us not just to hope this is true or wish it is true. You want us to KNOW that it is true. Help each of us to love your Word and to read it over and over, reminding us of your unchanging love for us.
T