Do I have good news for you or what?
Have you ever wondered who made you? Or who made the world we live in? Or what life is all about?
Do you ever look at our world and think, "Man, something must have gone wrong! Bad things happen. People are mean. And sometimes, I wrong things, even though I know better!"
Well, if you have questions like that, I have good news for you! I know a place where we can find the answers!
We have a message from our maker!
In a book we call "The Bible," we have a message from the one who made you, me, and everything we see. It's a great big book with lots of important, wonderful, interesting, and even strange things to tell us. The Bible is so big, we would have to read day and night for THREE DAYS straight in order to read everything it has to say to us!
Thankfully, I've read the Bible all the way through. And I want to share with you the quick version of the most important things it has to teach us. We'll read little bits of it, and I'll explain exactly what it means for me and you!
I have bad news... and good news!
The Bible has some bad news to tell us, and I won't lie – it's pretty bad! But it also has some good to tell us, too! So when we get to the bad news, just keep going. Why? Because the good news the Bible has to tell us is the best news ever!
So what are we waiting for? Let's start reading!
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The Bible says...
Psalm 100:3, NIrV
Know that the Lord is God. He made us, and we belong to him. We are his people.
What this means...
God is our maker and our king.
None of us here today on this planet are here by accident. We are here because God made us. God made the world we live on, too. In fact, he made everything! To explain exactly who God is would take a lifetime and more, but here's the short-version: he's a forever-old being who knows everything there is to know, can do whatever he wants to do, and fills every inch of our great big universe. And if all that sounds a little scary, you should also know this: God is very, very, very good!
God is the reason there is anything. He made you, me, and everything else. He's our Creator! And because God made us, he’s the boss! He’s in charge! He’s our king! And as our king, he gets to tell us what to do.
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The Bible says...
Romans 3:23, NIrV
Everyone has sinned. No one measures up to God’s glory.
What this means...
We are sinners who have broken God's commands.
As our maker and our king, God is in charge. He decides what is right and wrong. And he’s told us how he wants to live in his world. In the pages of our Bibles, there are lots of rules and commands. You might have heard some of them before:
Do not tell lies.
Do not steal.
Honor your mother and your father.
Love God with all of your heart.
Love other people like you love yourself.
Have you ever broken any of those rules? Have you told a lie? Have you taken something that didn't belong to you? Have you treated someone unkindly? Have you ever loved anyone or anything more than you loved God? If so, you've broken God's commands. Or, to use the Bible's special word... you've sinned!
But don't feel alone. The Bible tells us that everyone has sinned. You've sinned. I've sinned. Your parents and brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and teachers and friends... they've all sinned, too! All of us have broken the rules and commands of God our maker!
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The Bible says...
Romans 6:23, NIrV
When you sin, the pay you get is death.
What this means...
The pay for sin is death.
Remember I told you that the story of the Bible had some bad news and some good news? Well, this is the bad news part! Whenever we do wrong, we earn a consequence! If you stole candy from your baby brother or sister, you’d probably get a timeout! Well, when we disobey God our maker and king, there’s a consequence, too! And because there's nothing worse than disobeying our great God, there's no consequence bigger than the one for sin – it's death!
The Bible describes the pay for sin as a forever fiery death far away from all the good things our great God has to give us. This is sad and scary news because all of us, including me, have sinned. But thankfully, the bad news is all over. It's time for good news!
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The Bible says...
John 3:16, NIrV
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son...
What this means...
God so loved the world, He sent his Son to save sinners.
Remember, I told you that I had bad news… and good news! And this is the good news! Even though you and I disobeyed God’s commands even though we were all sinners... God still loved us a whole bunch! He loved us with a big and forgiving and never-stopping kind of love. And God's great love for sinners like you and me caused him to send someone to rescue us from the forever, fiery death of sin!
Incredibly, the person God sent to save us was his own Son! About 2000 years ago, a special miracle baby was born. This little guy's name was Jesus. And he was the most incredible person ever to walk our planet. This Jesus was 100% a human being just like you and me (with eyes and ears and toes and everything else). But at the same time, he was also 100% God! And Jesus the God-man was the perfect one to rescue us from the forever fiery death of our sin!
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The Bible says...
Romans 5:8, NIrV
But here is how God has shown his love for us. While we were still sinners, Christ (Jesus) died for us.
What this means...
God's Son Jesus died to pay for our sins.
Let's think back to all we've learned so far. First, we learned that God is our maker and king. Next, we learned that we are all sinners who have disobeyed our maker and king. Then, we learned that the pay we earn for sin is forever death. That was the bad news!
But when we got some good news. We learned that God loved us and sent someone to rescue us. That man was named Jesus. And incredibly, he was totally human and totally God at the same time!
Here's the story of how God's Son saved us from sin. Since the pay for sin is death, Jesus decided to pay that price for us. He decided to die for our sins so that we wouldn't have to.
The way Jesus died was awful! His hands and feet were nailed to a cross, a piece of wood shaped like the letter T. It was a bloody and painful and shameful way to die. But Jesus was willing to go to through the absolute worst in order to save you and me from the absolute worst!
By dying on that cross, Jesus saved us from our sins. He paid the price of death in our place. And because he was the all-powerful Son of God, he was able to pay for your sins... and my sin... and the sins of the whole world, all in one day!
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The Bible says...
1 Corinthians 15:3-4, NIrV
Christ (Jesus) died for our sins... He was buried. He was raised from the dead on the third day...
What this means...
Jesus rose from the dead on the third day.
After Jesus died on the cross, some of his friends wrapped him up in cloths (a bit like a mummy) and laid him inside a tomb (a bit like a little cave). And that's where they expected Jesus' story to end. But remember, Jesus was God's Son. And because of that, something incredible happened.
On the morning of the third day after his death – he rose from the dead. His lifeless body came alive again, better than ever! When his friends saw him for the first time, they couldn't believe what had happened. They actually thought he was a ghost!
To prove he was no spooky spirit, Jesus let his disciples touch and poke and squeeze his back-from-the-dead body. He even let them poke their fingers into the nail scars in his hands! When all was said and done, 500 people got to see with their own eyes that Jesus had risen from the dead!
This is important: when Jesus rose from the dead, he proved that he was no ordinary dude. By beating death and coming back to life, He proved that he really was the Son of God! And do you know what that also means? That also means our sins have really been paid for!
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The Bible says...
John 3:16, NIrV
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
What this means...
If we trust in Jesus as our savior and king, we join his forever kingdom!
Back when we began, I said that the Bible had bad news and good news. The bad news was this: we are all sinners, and the pay for sin is forever death. In terms of bad news, it doesn't get much worse than that! But thankfully, the good news I have to share is so unbelievably good, it will blow your mind!
Here’s the good news: God promises to give us the gift of eternal (forever) life in his forever kingdom! He promises us a future where we can live with him in a perfect world, where everyday will be the best day of our lives! In terms of good news, it doesn't get much better than that!
So what does God ask us to do to receive this special gift? What does he want us to do to join his forever kingdom?
Does he say, “Try really hard to be a good person and I'll let you join my kingdom?”
No!
Does he say, “Give me a million dollars and I'll let you join my kingdom!”
No!
So what does God tell us to do? He says...
Believe!
“Believe in my son, Jesus! Trust in what he did to save you! Have faith that Jesus died to pay for your sins. Believe the good news that he rose from the dead!”
God’s promise to every sinner is this: if you trust in Jesus to save you from sin, if you understand he needs to be the king of your life, he'll forgive every single one of your sins. He'll rescue you from sin and death. And you’ll become a part of God’s forever kingdom!
© 2023 Andrew Doane. All rights reserved.