What Happened After Jesus Died? (How the Church Started!) | Bible Stories for Kids

Minnow Laugh and Grow Bible Jesus had been betrayed. He was arrested and put to death on a cross. It was a sad day. Yes, Jesus gave his life for us. The sun had gone down and it was time to bury him. Only his mom and a few friends were there. You remembered. So, what did they do? They got help from a man. I am Joseph from Arimathea, a follower of Jesus. I am very sad that Jesus has died. I have been waiting for the kingdom he spoke of to come. I want to do something nice for him, to show Jesus how much I loved him. So Joseph did something special. He went to Pontius Pilate. I want to take care of Jesus' body. I want to give him a grave. All right, go ahead. Now, when important people died in Israel, they were not buried in the ground. Really? No, their bodies were placed in special tombs that were carved out of solid rock. You mean like a cave? Like a small cave. Well, Joseph had one that he was going to use someday. But guess what? He decided to give it to Jesus. So, Jesus' body was placed inside Joseph's tomb. And then a big rock was rolled in front of the cave so no one could get in. And then... Someone is here to see you, Pilate. Oh, it's you again. Yup, we're back. You didn't think we'd give up that easily, did you? What do you want? Look, Jesus said that he would come back from the dead. And? Well, what if his friends go to the tomb, move the rock, and take his body and then say, Jesus is alive! Hmm. That would cause a lot of trouble for you, Pilate. Hmm, I never thought of that. So Pilate put guards outside the tomb to make sure no one moved the rock. Eyes peeled. We don't want anyone to move this rock. Yeah, no one's gonna get past us. No, sir. Wow, so the Pharisees and the Sadducees were still worried about Jesus? Yup. You see, when Jesus was alive, he said, In three days, I will rise from the dead. Well, Jesus had died and was buried on a Friday. That's day one. All day Saturday his body lay in Joseph's tomb with the guards keeping watch. That was day two? Right. So Sunday morning comes around... Day three! And two women who were Jesus' friends made their way to the tomb to put spices and perfume on his body. Cause that was something that people did in those days. When all of a sudden... Whoa! What happened? An earthquake shook the ground and an angel appeared. The angel rolled away the rock. When the women arrived, there lay the two soldiers passed out on the ground. There lay the rock and there, well, there was no Jesus. Don't be afraid. Oh, uh, okay. I know you're looking for Jesus, but he isn't here. He has risen, just like he said he would. Jesus is alive. What? The women were so excited. They wanted to go tell their other friends what happened. When suddenly... Don't be afraid. Jesus showed up? He sure did. But Jesus' disciples were nowhere to be found. Really? Why? You see, after Jesus died on the cross, they had gotten some good news and some sad news. What was the good news? Jesus was alive! Yes, yes, yes. That was good news. And, uh, what was the sad news? Jesus was going to leave them. Oh. But there was also some other good news. Good. Oh, double good. What was it? It was time for Jesus' friends to spread the good news about his kingdom. But that's a ginormous job. Which is why Jesus left them with even more good news. Jesus promised to send his followers a helper. A helper? Who? No one knew. So, for the time being, Jesus' friends hid in Jerusalem, waiting and praying. They hid? They didn't want the Pharisees and Sadducees coming after them like they had come after Jesus. So, they were trying very hard not to attract too much attention. I get it. One day passed. Then two. Then... We've been praying for three days, and still no sign of the helper. What should we do? What Jesus told us to do, I guess. So they continued to pray. Four days passed. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. It's been nine days. What should we do? Then, on the tenth day, boom! Boom? A sound like a huge wind filled the house. And something that looked like little flames of fire appeared over their heads. What was it? The Spirit of God! The Holy Spirit! Whoa! Was the Holy Spirit the helper Jesus promised? Yes! The helper had come! Amazing! And something even more amazing happened. Because as the disciples were filled with God's Spirit, they began to praise God. And... Great is the Lord! What did you say? Hey! How do you know that language? Everyone in the room began speaking in different languages that they did not know. Whoa! That was really helpful, because remember, during those days, people from all over the Roman world were visiting Jerusalem. Suddenly, they were hearing all about Jesus in their own language. It was a miracle! Hey, everybody! Have I got news for you! Wait! I thought Jesus' friends were all hiding. Not anymore! God's helper helped them to be brave. Peter boldly told the people all about Jesus. And guess what? There's more? Oh, yes! The crowd was so amazed with Peter's message that... Well, guess how many of them became followers of Jesus that day? Oh, uh, let's see. Ten? Higher! Twenty? Higher! Thirty? Forty? Sixty? One hundred? Three thousand! What? Yep! Then Jesus' disciples started bravely talking about Jesus all over Jerusalem. Everyone must have been amazed! They were, except for... well, you know who? Yep! Still us! The Pharisees and Sadducees! And just as grumpy as ever! Hey! You better stop talking about Jesus or... or... or we'll arrest you! They threatened the disciples, but the disciples went on telling people about Jesus anyway. Because Jesus sent them the helper? Yes! For the first time ever, God's spirit and power were available for all of Jesus' followers. The Holy Spirit had come and they were boldly sharing the good news, Jesus died for our sins, with everybody! I'd like to follow Jesus! I'd like to follow Jesus, too! Wow! So many followers! Yep! And now it was time to spread the good news all over the Roman world. How would they do that? Oh! God had someone special in mind for the job. Peter? Nope! John? No! Andrew? Matthew? James? Simon? Bartholomew? No! It was a man named... Saul! Also known as... Paul! Saul was his Hebrew name, but outside of Israel people knew him as Paul. So, Saul was Paul? Yep! And he was also... A Pharisee! And like all good Pharisees, I want to make sure everybody follows all the rules, all the time! Remember, the Pharisees thought Jesus was breaking all the rules. So, they had worked with the Sadducees to have him arrested. They wanted to hurt Jesus! And they did! Right! Well, Saul was so concerned about the rules that after Jesus died, he made it his job to... Arrest him! Arrest her! Arrest them! I'm making it my job to arrest as many of Jesus' followers as I can! So, Saul, who was Paul, was a Pharisee? And an enemy of Jesus! But how could God use an enemy of Jesus to spread the good news about him all over the world? Because even though Paul was going one way, God was about to turn him around. How? By stopping him in his tracks! You see, one day, Saul was traveling to a town called Damascus, hoping to find more of Jesus' disciples. I'm gonna arrest them! I'm gonna lock them up! I'm gonna arrest them! A bright light hit him right in the face! A bright light? A very bright light! And then a voice from heaven said, Who was it? That's what Saul wanted to know. And the voice replied, Jesus was talking to Saul? I mean, Paul? Wow! He must have been so surprised! And even more so when he realized that, Suddenly Saul was blind. Then Jesus told him to go to Damascus anyway and wait there. Why? Because Jesus had a follower there named, Jesus spoke to Ananias in a dream and told him to go find Saul. You mean, the man that came to arrest us? The one who hasn't stopped making trouble? That mean man? Why do you want me to find him? Then Jesus said, So what did Ananias do? He trusted Jesus. So when he found Saul, he prayed for him and something amazing happened. I can see! I can see! Wow! Then something even more amazing happened. What? Saul became a follower of Jesus. Double wow! And then something even way more amazing happened. What could that be? Hey! Hey! Jesus is the Son of God! Hey you! Jesus is the Son of God! He started telling everyone about Jesus. So Saul went from being Jesus' enemy, to being Paul, Jesus' friend. And more importantly, a disciple. I've got to tell everybody about Jesus! Anywhere! Everywhere! Whatever Paul did, he did with his whole heart. And now that he met Jesus, he was ready for God to use him to turn the Roman world upside down. First of all, Paul was really smart. As a Pharisee, he had spent years studying and memorizing God's law and the stories of Israel. Second, he spoke Hebrew, the language of Israel. Shalom! And he also spoke Greek, the language of the Roman Empire. Shirete! And there was one more thing that made Paul perfect for the job. Really? What? He was a Roman citizen, which meant... I can travel anywhere! Paul could go everywhere in the Roman world and talk to anyone about... Jesus! Right! So, Paul grabbed his things and... I'm hitting the road. Ciao! See ya! Because of Paul's travels, groups of Jesus followers were popping up everywhere. They were given a new name, Christians, which means little Christs. And they began meeting together in groups we now call churches. Wow! How great is that! Very great! Though it wasn't always great. It wasn't? Sometimes Paul was attacked by people that wanted him to stop talking about Jesus. Other times he was arrested and thrown in jail. That... that's terrible! Yes, but God helped Paul in those hard times. Really? Yep. One time he was on a ship and guess what happened? Uh-oh! Don't tell me it sank! It did! It did! But Paul and the crew made it to an island where the local people helped them. Phew! That was nice! It was, but then as Paul was building a fire, he got bit by... A poisonous snake! Oh no! A snake? That's really terrible! He's a goner! But you know what Paul did? He trusted God. He shook the snake off and kept on working. He did? Uh-huh. When nothing happened to Paul, the people realized that they had seen... A miracle! They were so excited that they brought sick people to Paul and... God healed them! Oh! So, you see, even in the hard times, Paul was filled with joy. God gave Paul the strength to be happy if he was full or if he was hungry. If he had money or if he had none. If he was free or if he was in jail. No matter how many hard things happened to Paul, he could be happy knowing God was with him. The Pharisees and the Sadducees, on the other hand, were not happy. And you know why. Paul was supposed to be arresting Jesus' followers. Yes, but instead he was helping churches grow all over the place. So, the Pharisees and Sadducees had Paul thrown in jail. And there he found out something really bad. Uh-oh. What? They were planning to kill him. That's the most terrible... What did Paul do? I am a Roman citizen. I appeal unto Caesar. Appeal to Caesar? What does that mean? I'll explain. Remember that Paul was a Roman citizen? By appealing to Caesar, the Roman ruler at the time, he was asking for Roman protection. So, Paul was sent all the way to Rome, where Caesar lived. Now, all he had to do was wait for his turn to tell Caesar about Jesus. But Caesar was a little busy, so Paul sat in jail for two whole years. Two years? What did he do all that time? Since he couldn't go out and tell people about Jesus... I wrote letters. Letters? Yes, lots of letters that helped churches learn how to be followers of Jesus. You've probably seen some of Paul's letters in the Bible, like Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. Oh, what's Philippians about? That one was all about joy, and it was written to the Christians in Philippi. Because Paul was full of joy, no matter what. It sure sounds like he stayed busy. Yes, busy for Jesus, even when he was in jail. Wow, God really helped Paul turn something that was terrible into something very good. Yes, he did, and in one of those letters, Paul wrote, Something wrong? It's just that, well, I have no idea what that means. That's okay. Some of Paul's letters were a little hard to understand. I'll explain what Paul meant when he said, Let's begin with the word justified. Let's say someone goes to the store to get some bananas. These bananas are great! Put the bananas down! Okay? You didn't pay for those bananas! I sure did! You heard the alarm. You did not! I did! Did not! You are wrong! I am? No, she's right. Here's the receipt. She paid for the bananas. It's right for her to take them home. Oh, I see. So she's not wrong. She's right. She is justified. It's justified. Done nothing wrong. It seemed like the girl did something wrong, but the owner said that what she did was right. So she was justified. Right. And what about grace? What does that mean? The word grace means undeserved favor. Those are just more big words. I still don't get it. Well, favor means kindness. So grace or undeserved favor means you have been given a kindness. A gift that you didn't earn. For example, I finished mowing the lawn, Grandpa. And you've done a great job. Here's the money I said I'd pay you. Yahoo! Did the boy deserve that money? For sure. He earned it. Yes, he did. Now, what if this happens? You're such a wonderful grandson. Here's a little money for you to buy something you like. It's just a gift because I love you. Wow! Thanks, Grandpa. Did the boy earn the money this time? No. The money was a gift. Right. And that's exactly what grace is. A gift that you didn't earn. And what is the gift that Paul was talking about that we haven't earned? Well, it's much better than money. The gift we haven't earned is friendship with God. Friendship with God? Yes. A forever kind of friendship. Today, tomorrow, and someday in a world without sadness or sickness. A world made right. That sounds amazing. It is. God wants to spend forever with us. And only one thing will keep us away from this forever kind of friendship. What is that? Sin. Remember that sin turns us away from God. It breaks our friendship with Him. To be friends with God, we need to have our labels changed from wrong to right. Like the girl in the supermarket. Yes. But you see, we can't change our own labels. That is why Jesus came. It's why He died on the cross. When Jesus took our sins, He took our labels that said wrong and put them on Himself. Then He took His own label that said right and put it on us. Jesus justified us. Wow. Jesus loves us so much. He does. And because of what He did, we are... Justified. By grace through faith. And what is faith? Faith is trusting that Jesus will do what He said He would do. Faith is believing the good news about Jesus and the forever kind of friendship that we can have with Him. Our labels are changed from wrong to right. Right. Wow. I'm so glad Jesus loves us so much. Do you want more Laugh and Grow Bible? What do you mean? Sign up for Minnow and get more Bible stories and loads more amazing shows. Wow. How cool is that? Minnow is a great place to stream Christian shows for kids. Amazing. Download the Minnow app and start your free trial today. Yay!