Jesus Wants Us to be With Him

Short Talk (SHT203) Jesus wants us to be with Him © Jane Hulme 2020 Aim of Short talk: Use of Short talk: Main themes: Biblical references: Lectionary: Props: To encourage people with the hope that Jesus wants us to be with Him where He is, and He has made it possible for that to happen. This is a short All Age talk picking out one issue from the Lectionary Gospel reading of the Sunday main service. The talk stands alone and assumes that the Gospel Bible reading may not yet have been read to the congregation. It could be used for example, for the whole congregation before the children go out to their age specific groups, leaving the adults with a full sermon later. Jesus, Hope John 14:1-14 Year A – The 5th Sunday of Easter You need a picture to PowerPoint of the following homes (see Appendix 1): • Simon Cowell’s home in Barbados • Cristiano Ronaldo’s home in Spain • The King’s home in Buckingham Palace SHORT TALK: “Jesus wants us to be with Him” .................................................................................................................. I want you to imagine for a moment that one day there is a knock on your front door. • When you open the door, there is a really famous person standing there. • They say that they really want you to spend a week with them in their home. • Who would you most like that to be? Would you like that person to be Simon Cowell? • Imagine if he invited you to spend a week with him in his Barbados home. (Project picture of Simon Cowell’s Barbados home) • Or how about Cristiano Ronaldo? • Imagine if he invited you to spend a week with him in his Madrid home. (Project picture of Cristiano’s Madrid home) • Or how about His Majesty the King? • Imagine if he invited you to spend a week with him in Buckingham Palace (Project picture of Buckingham Palace) It would be pretty amazing if any of those people said that they wanted you to spend time with them wouldn’t it? • I think that you would feel very honoured wouldn’t you? © Jane Hulme 2020 2 Shortly before Jesus died, He told His disciples that He would be leaving them soon. • Naturally, the disciples were very upset because they loved Jesus. • But Jesus told them not to be upset because He was going on ahead of them to prepare a place for them in “God’s house,” because Jesus wanted His disciples to be with Him where He was going to go. Now the disciples didn’t really understand what Jesus was talking about because they hadn’t yet accepted that Jesus was going to die and rise again. • But what Jesus meant was that through His death and resurrection, He was opening up the door for His disciples and all believers to be with Him one day, • living in His Father’s presence, His Father’s house if you like, • not just for a week but for all eternity. Isn’t it amazing that Jesus, the Son of God wants ordinary people like you and me to actually be with Him; to live with Him? • What an incredible honour. So, whatever happens to us each day, and some days are really hard and difficult, • we have something really wonderful to look forward to. Jesus wants us to live with Him for all eternity, • not perhaps in a house like Simon Cowell’s, or Ronaldo’s or the Kings’s, • but in His loving presence, • and He went to great lengths to make that possible for us. • What a great hope we have. © Jane Hulme 2020 3 Simon Cowell’s home in Barbados Appendix 1 4 Cristiano Ronaldo’s home in Madrid Buckingham Palace © Jane Hulme 2020