[0:00] This is the morning service at Holy Trinity on the 20th of June 2004.
[0:11] The preacher is Paul Dudley and is entitled I am the resurrection and life and is based on John chapter 11 verses 1 to 16 and verses 25 to 27.
[0:28] Is that working now? That's working. Well if all the boys and girls want to come up the front now, all the boys and girls want to come and sit up the front up here.
[0:45] That was terrific everyone. Just terrific. Look at all the boys and girls. That's fantastic.
[0:56] There's lots of people I know and lots of people I don't know as well. Now there's a rule being up the front up here. You can't come up onto this area up on the step so you need to hop back off.
[1:09] Hop back off. That's it. Great. Well boys and girls, we have got so many things to thank God for. There's so many good things. But do you know what? I've got my friend here Grunch and he's my green furry monster.
[1:25] But don't get scared. He's so nice. Hand up those who like Grunch. The adults. Oh there's a few adults there. Oh yeah there's a few adults there. That's good. Yeah. Actually I know.
[1:36] Oh. Oh. There he is there. He's putting up his hand too. How about we call up Grunch. Can you come up please Grunch? Hello Grunch. Hello. Oh.
[1:47] Hey Paul. Grunch. Come here and give me a cuddle. No. Shucks. Hey he's my friend. Hey Grunch.
[1:57] Did you just hear this great singing? That was fantastic Paul. Let me see if you could go on up and down. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Here we. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
[2:08] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Grunch. Grunch. You should have seen it. Everyone was going up and down. Ready? Go up and down. Up and down. Up and down. That was great. Well it was great.
[2:22] But you know they're actually singing about all the good things that we can see around in our creation. There's so many good things. There's heaps of stuff Paul. Oh there is isn't there? Smelly fish. Old shoes. All the trees.
[2:33] Families. People. Yes. Lots and lots of stuff. There's lots of. I'm not sure that I like smelly fish so much. But there are lots of really good things that we can give thanks to God Paul.
[2:44] It's very good. Very good isn't it? It's fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Very very. But you know what Grunch? What Paul? I've got something that's broken. Something that's broken?
[2:57] Yeah. Let me just get it for you. Don't you hate when you forget your props? Yes. See this Grunch?
[3:07] Yeah. This is my alarm clock that I got for my 10th birthday. 50 years old Paul! Hey, hey, hey, hey. No wonder it's broken. Settle down there.
[3:18] Sorry. Do you know I've got stickers on it here and the knob's broken off though and it rattles. It no longer works anymore.
[3:31] It's broken. But Paul. Yeah. Broken things can be fixed. Hang on. Let me just have a look here. Ah, old lady's shoe. No. Um.
[3:42] Oh. I think that's a little bit broken as well, Paul. But I'll tell you what. That is broken as well. Paul. Yeah. Hammer. Hammer. Nails. And glue.
[3:56] Fix it, Paul. Fix it. Oh, sorry. Um. Um. Do you know. I don't think a hammer is actually going to fix my alarm clock. Why have you got a broken? The shoe's not broken. Oh, sorry, Paul.
[4:07] Put that back in the collection. Right. Well, um. No, look, Grunch. I've got all these things that are broken and I just. Yeah. Look. As I look around, you know, the world's not perfect. What do you mean, Paul?
[4:19] It's not perfect. There are things that are broken. Like we've just seen some of these toys in my alarm clock. But, you know, things aren't absolutely perfect. Well, I look pretty good to me.
[4:31] What do you mean? Well, there are some things that are broken. Do you know, I asked some kids about some of the things that they had that were broken. Would you like to see it? That'd be great. It's on a video on here. Let's see if we can get the video working.
[4:43] It's, I asked some kids about things that were broken. And, uh, my little daughter's on there when she was very young. Let's see if we can get it up. Got to push the button.
[4:55] It's, it's, it will. We're all go. It was coming. Maybe it's broken. Maybe it's broken. Yes, that's a good call.
[5:06] Thank you for that. Hang on. Oh, no. We've got the, we just need to hit video on the button. Um, if we just pause the video.
[5:25] Do you like that broke? I'll come up and have a quick look. What type of car was it? Broken things. Did I tell you about broken things? I've got a broken video projector here.
[5:36] Oh, yeah. Hang on a moment. I got Zillatoy. Right. You got Zillatoy. What happened? The leg came off. The leg came off. You got Zillatoy. My teeth. Let's have a look.
[5:47] Bit of volume there. Big smile. One of my baseball trophies. And I've had a broken arm.
[5:59] I've had a broken nose. And did that make sense? Did that make you sad? Yeah. What happened? Have you had anything broken? Yeah. A China doll. You had a China doll broken?
[6:11] Did you cry? You didn't? No. I didn't. I didn't. Oh. Have you had anything broken? No. I didn't.
[6:21] I didn't. I didn't. Did you do it? My mum broke something. Can you do it? My mum broke something. I didn't break a glass. Did your mum break a glass? Yeah. Oh. I broke my gummy.
[6:33] What's broken? My gummy. Oh dear. Yeah. Yeah. I had a broken racing car. You got a broken racing car. What happened? Um. On yesterday.
[6:44] Hi. Your goldfish died. Did you cry? Well not really. I'm in fitness. Yeah. What happened? Um. Joel started to see me.
[6:56] Who's Joel? My brother. So you had a fight with your brother? Yeah. Oh dear. That's not fair. That's it too. The rest of the band broke. Oh okay.
[7:07] Was that a bit sad? Yeah. Okay. Have you had any friendships broken? No. I heard you had a bit of a fight with your brother. Is that right? Oh. We're always fighting.
[7:20] Okay. Hey. With my chickpeas. Let's have a little look. Close look at that. Stop there. Oh wow. Thanks Lizzy. Bye. Thank you.
[7:31] You can stop that there. Wow. You can stop the video there. Lots of things broken aren't there?
[7:45] Lots and lots of things. Don't ever work with puppets and videos. Oi. Oh sorry. Well do you know what? There was lots of things on that video wasn't there? That were broken. Sometimes we have broken friendships.
[7:57] But you know the saddest thing that ends up getting broken. Just put your hands down. The saddest, saddest thing that can get broken is when people die.
[8:09] It's very, very sad. It is Paul. Yeah. You can't fix that. Oh. What do you mean you can't fix that?
[8:20] Well, once somebody dies Paul, that's it. You can't fix them. Do you know that there was a man who claimed that he could fix it? There was?
[8:31] Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. In the Bible. Who? Who's this man? Jesus. Would you like to hear a story about it? I'd love to, Paul. I'd love to. Do you know what? I've got another puppet that'll help me to tell the story.
[8:43] A puppet, Paul? Yeah, yeah. I love puppets. Yeah, I know you do. Paul, Paul. I know the puppets aren't real though. Right, here we go. Here's my puppet. Oh, you're sticking your hand in the back of his head, Paul.
[8:57] I know what you're up to. Hey, Paul, do you want a tip? Yeah. You don't forget to make his mouth move. Thank you, Grunch.
[9:07] Oh, cool. I've got a big puppet here and he's going to help me tell the story that we heard a little bit about earlier about the man named Lazarus. Now, Lazarus was one of Jesus' good friends.
[9:20] This is Lazarus. Hello. Hi, Laz. Hi there. And Lazarus, well, he was a very good friend of Jesus and he had two sisters. Well, he can't hold up two fingers, that's four, but he's meant to say two.
[9:33] So, two. He had two sisters, Mary and Martha. Now, the problem was Lazarus was starting to feel a bit sick. Oh, oh, oh.
[9:49] Oh, nice. Hear me. Hear me. The people I have to work with.
[10:02] Well, Lazarus was feeling very upset. He wasn't feeling very well at all. He was feeling very, very sick. In fact, he was so sick that he looked like he might even die.
[10:15] Well, when people aren't doing well, what you do is put him into bed. Lazarus here into bed. Come on Lazarus, you just hop into bed there.
[10:28] There we go. I'll put a blanket on him. There we go. Now Mary and Martha, Lazarus' sisters, they were very worried for Lazarus.
[10:42] So they decided that they would go and tell Jesus because they knew Jesus. He was very, very special. So they sent a runner to Jesus and they said, hey Jesus, you need to come back quickly.
[10:54] Your good friend Lazarus, he's really, really sick. And Jesus, he didn't go straight away. He decided that he would wait where he was for a couple of days.
[11:07] He waited. He didn't go there straight away. So he waited. And he waited. He waited. Hey Paul.
[11:22] Yeah. You want a cup of tea while you're waiting? No, I'll be right, thanks. Oh, okay. Just thought it off. Thank you. And he waited. And at the end of two days he said, it's now time for us to go back to Judea.
[11:36] Now Jesus' friends, they said, you can't go back there. There are people who don't like you. If you go back, they might get you. Well, Jesus said, look, my friend Lazarus, he is really, really sick.
[11:56] We need to go back to him. So the disciples and Jesus went back towards Lazarus. But on the way there, a messenger came and they said, Jesus had died.
[12:12] You see, while they were waiting, Lazarus died. Now back then, when people died, they would get cloths and they would wrap the person who had died up.
[12:27] So let me just wrap poor Lazarus up here. Poor Lazarus. There we go. We'll just wrap him up a little bit. Here we go. Wrap him up.
[12:39] And then what they used to do then is, they would go and put him in a tomb, in a big cave. Now I've got my cave here, so I'll take Lazarus into the cave. There we go.
[12:51] I'll put him into the cave and then I'll roll the big stone in front. Just like that.
[13:09] Well, Jesus got into the town where Lazarus and the sisters were. It's all very sad, isn't it? Poor Lazarus is dead. Jesus came into the town.
[13:20] Now, Martha heard that Jesus was in town, so she ran off to go see Jesus. She went running and she came up to Jesus and said, Jesus, I know that if you would have turned up, my brother Lazarus wouldn't have died.
[13:38] He wouldn't have died at all. Now, where's my Bible there? Because you need to hear these words very clearly. Oh, sorry. Jesus then said to her, he said, do you know that your brother will rise?
[14:00] And Martha said, yes, I know Jesus. Yes, I know that one day everyone's going to come back to life again. But Jesus said, no, no, no. Listen to what Jesus said here. He goes, I am the resurrection and the life.
[14:18] Whoever believes in me, will not, whoever believes in me, even though he die, will live. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
[14:30] He asked Martha, do you believe this? And Martha said, yes, yes, I do. So they kept on going. Well, Martha ran back to tell Mary, hey, Mary, Jesus is on the way.
[14:42] Jesus will be here very soon. Well, Mary, she got up and then she ran to Jesus and she said, Jesus, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't have died.
[14:54] And Jesus said, show me where the tomb is. Show me where Lazarus is. Mary, why would Jesus want to go to where Lazarus is?
[15:05] Well, Jesus went to where the tomb was with Mary and Martha and everyone was there. And when they got to the tomb, Jesus said, I want you to roll the stone away.
[15:20] Now, Martha, she knows that it would have smelt a little bit because poor Lazarus had been dead for a little while. It would have smelt a little bit like a bin.
[15:32] Beautiful. Beautiful. But Jesus said, no, roll away the stone. So they rolled away the stone.
[15:45] And then Jesus prayed to God in heaven. And then he said to Lazarus, Lazarus, come out. That was a bit strange thing to say to someone who's not alive, isn't it?
[15:58] But do you know what happened? Lazarus walked out from the tomb.
[16:14] And Jesus said, quick, take the cloths off him. And there was Lazarus, alive again. Can you imagine the excitement that would have been there?
[16:27] Someone who was dead for four days was now alive again. Isn't that good, Grudge? That's unbelievable, Paul. Pretty good. That's fantastic. Here is a man, Jesus, who claimed that he had the cure for death.
[16:44] Let me just put my puppet back down here. There we go. Do you know, Grudge, it was interesting what people thought about that.
[16:56] Some people thought, this is exciting. Here is Jesus, the one who can give life. But other people didn't trust Jesus and they wanted to kill Jesus because of what he did.
[17:08] Hey, Paul. Yes, Grudge. Didn't Jesus die? Do you know what? Jesus did actually die. Yeah, he did.
[17:20] What's the problem with that? Paul, I'm not sure. Is it that we can actually trust Jesus, but how can we trust Jesus if he died? Oh. Well, let me explain it like this.
[17:33] Here's a little story for you. Once upon a time, there was a boy and he had a little dog. He loved his dog. His dog rover, he was the best dog.
[17:43] He loved his dog. Who's got a dog? Oh, there's a few people who've got dogs there. Put your hands down. This was a lovely dog and this dog was a very clever dog because he'd get his ball and he would throw the ball and the dog would go get it.
[17:56] Whew. And the dog would bring back the ball. Thanks. And he'd throw it again. Thanks.
[18:10] And then he'd throw it again and bring it back. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Sometimes he could even trick the dog. Sorry.
[18:25] But he loved his dog. One day, he threw the ball so hard it went over the next door neighbor's fence and there were some mean dogs there. but the boy went over and climbed over and went down onto the fence and and and started to find his door his ball but as he was finding his ball these dogs came running towards him and they're about to attack him and he was getting very worried he called out for Rover Rover come and save me please help help but Rover didn't come and all of a sudden the boy fainted on the ground he just fainted just like that the boy woke up in hospital and the boy when he was there in hospital he had a just a few scratches not much he said to his parents my dog didn't come and save me I didn't see him but the parents said no no no you've got it all wrong your dog did come and save you your dog came and protected you Rover came over the fence and he held back all the other dogs and he saved your life but Rover Rover he's very sick the fact he died it's very sad isn't it it's a story I guess that shows that the dog saved the little boy's life when Jesus died he died to save us so that we can be God's friend forever do you know what grunge though Jesus didn't stay dead to show that he could conquer death and that he was the one who could give life he rose again how many days after three days later and we look forward to the day when Jesus comes again and then we're all going to be with him forever that Jesus will bring us through you know let me tell you a few things boys and girls this is great news it means that Jesus is alive now and he hears us when we pray to him it means also we don't have to worry about anything because we know that God and Jesus are there for us even through death which is great we look forward to when Jesus comes again boys and girls I'm going to pray so if you close your eyes let's pray dear God we do thank you so much that you sent Jesus into this world so that we can be your friends forever we thank you that he died to forgive our sins but that he rose again guaranteeing that one day we will also live with you forever and we thank you so much for this we pray this in Jesus name amen pray this in Jesus name amen amen