Jesus helps me believe!!

Welcome

Intro - my name is Jeremy and I am the Pastor here at Maranatha Baptist Fellowship

I am so glad you were able to join us for Game On this week

It’s our prayer that if you do not know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior that you would come to that relationship and if you do know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior that you would continue to grow in your walk with Him

I know you have been learning a lot about Jesus the past 2 days

On Monday you learned that Jesus does care about you

you probably read the story about the lost sheep and learned that Jesus will go after the lost

On Tuesday you learned that Jesus gives you hope

you read the story about Jesus’s friend Lazarus and how he died and Jesus brought him back to life, and learned that Jesus is our only hope

Tonight you will hopefully learn that Jesus helps you believe

Before we read tonights scripture I want to fill in some of the back story

Actually the Story starts in , lets get ready

God created everything and he put man in charge of it, and then sin entered the world

Sin is anything you and I do that does not please God

Sin is the bad stuff you and I do

God spends the rest of the Old Testament in preparation for Jesus’s coming

Jesus comes and is born and grows up and then go around teaching and preaching about God

Jesus does a lot of miracles

Jesus then is arrested and tried for something He did not do

Jesus then is beaten and nailed to a cross

Jesus died on the cross for your sins and my sins, remember sin is the bad stuff you and I do, and Jesus paid for your wrongs and my wrongs

3 days later after Jesus was buried, Jesus got up and walked out of the grave

Now lets pick up the story

John 20:19–31 NASB95

19 So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” 24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” 26 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” 30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

So Jesus shows up in the room, it says that he doesn't use the door but he just shows up in their midst.

The tomb was open not so Jesus could get out but so you and I could get in, He showed up in the room to show His power

In their time of fear Jesus shows up and reminds them to not fear and that Peace should and will be with them

In our times of fear and anxiety and worry, Jesus does show up to bring peace to us

Jesus then prepares to send them out, why would He be sending them out?

To share the good news of Him

He sends them out to forgive sins of the people in Jesus’s name

What is sin?

The bad stuff you and I do

As he prepares to send them out Jesus notices that one is missing

Thomas is missing

Thomas shows up later and the others tell him the spoke with Jesus

He is not buying it

Jesus shows up again

to show off His great power and speaks directly to Thomas

Remember Jesus showed up in their time of fear and this time he shows up in their time of disbelief

Jesus can help you believe

Believe in what you might ask, and I am glad you did

Jesus is the son of God and God sent Jesus to pay for all the bad stuff you and I have done

Romans 3:23 NASB95

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

the bible calls you and I sinners, we have missed the mark of perfection

you and I have done some bad things

Romans 5:8 NASB95

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

but even though you and I have done some bad things God still loved us

some of you need to hear that, that even though you and I have done some bad things God still loved us

God loved us enough to still die in our place

Romans 6:23 NASB95

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus died on the cross in your place and in my place, and was buried and came back to life 3 days later beating death, death could not hold the son of God

Jesus died on the cross in your place and in my place, and was buried and came back to life 3 days later beating death, death could not hold the son of God

see Jesus saved you and I from our sins

because you and I are sinners we deserve to be seperated from God

But Jesus made a way for us to be saved from our sin

through Jesus’s death on the cross he has given you and I a free gift called salvation it is being saved from our sins, it is a new life in Jesus, it is spending eternity or forever in heaven

There is a way to accept that free Gift and the Bible says in

Romans 10:9–10 NASB95

9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

It might seem we rushed through that but I want to give you the option to accept this free gift

Jesus can and will come to you when you are afraid and when you do no believe, and maybe you are here tonight and have never asked Jesus into you heart, or maybe you are here and have some disbelief going on maybe you don’t know whats going on

The bible is clear on how to accept this free gift of salvation

Does that make sense?