Do You Believe That?
Sermon Notes
Intro:
Happy Easter everybody my name’s Louis I’m the lead teaching pastor here at City Awakening, it’s great to be with you this morning. The same question in the video is the same question I want to ask you, and it’s do you believe that’s true? Do you believe what the people in the video believe, which is that Jesus truly has risen from the dead?...Do you believe that’s true? See at some point in your life you decided to believe that is true, or believe that isn’t true. At some point you decided to believe Jesus truly has risen from the dead, or believe he hasn’t risen from the dead, and if you grew up in the church you probably started believing the resurrection was true when you were a child or teenager. You had a parent, pastor, youth pastor tell you it’s true and with child-like faith you believed it. But then you graduated from high school, moved out, and had a peer, a professor, something happen in your life that challenged your faith, and it caused you to doubt...It caused you to doubt the child-like faith you once had.
In fact some of you might be doubting your faith right now because of the pandemic. It’s what happens in times of despair, you’ll find both skeptics and believers questioning things they believe. Some skeptics will question their skepticism hoping there’s a God who can save them from despair, and some believers will question why God hasn’t saved them from despair. In times of despair you’ll find both skeptics and believers questioning things they believe, and today’s text is filled with doubt in despair. It’s filled with people just like us, who sometimes doubted in times of despair, and so let’s turn to John 20:19-29 and get into it. If you open your bible to the middle, turn a few books to the right you’ll find John. We’ll be in John 20:19-29. The title of today’s message is Do You Believe That, and here’s the big idea. Everything changes, if you believe that Jesus rose from the dead...Everything changes, if you believe that Jesus rose from the dead.
Context:
Here’s your context. In ch 18 Jesus is put on trial by the Jews and Roman Governor Pontius Pilate. Then in ch 19 the Romans torture Jesus, crucify him, pierce his heart with a sword to make sure he’s dead, and put his body in a sealed tomb guarded by soldiers. But in ch 20 Jesus rises from the dead, and Mary Magdalene sees the tomb’s opened. So she tells Peter and another disciple, they run to check it out, and all they find is an empty tomb with Jesus’ burial clothes. So they head home to figure things out, and this is when Mary sees Jesus. She sees Jesus at the tomb, and runs back to tell Peter and the other disciples he’s risen. We’ll pick it up from there.
The Word:
John 20:19-29 states this, “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews...” Notice the text says they “locked the doors,” for “fear of the Jews,” meaning they’re hiding because they’re afraid the Jews might torture and kill them like Jesus, especially if rumors spread that he’s risen. So they’re hiding in fear, and we’d hide too if we saw the person we believed was our Savior, our hero get brutally tortured and crucified. It’d be like us seeing Jesus return today and instead of him restoring the world, we see him get beat up and killed. It’d be devastating to us! It’d be the worst thing in the world for a Christian! If Jesus returned and died all our hopes, dreams, faith would die with him. It’d be devastating, which is exactly how the disciples felt. When they saw Jesus die they saw all their hopes, dreams, faith die with him. At one point they believed, but after he died they doubted in despair. They doubted even the resurrection, even that Jesus would rise again on the 3rd day, and I’ll give you 5 examples of this. It’s 5 doubting moments they had after Jesus died.
#1 Mary comes to mourn, not celebrate = When Mary comes to the tomb she comes to mourn, not celebrate. She comes to finish the burial rituals so Jesus can have a proper burial. If she believed Jesus would rise, she would’ve came with a kazoo to celebrate, not spices to mourn.
#2 Mary’s 1st response isn’t he’s risen! = When Mary sees the tomb’s been opened, her 1st response isn’t “He’s risen!” It’s “He’s stolen!” In vs 2 she says, “They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve laid him.” Her 1st response isn’t “He’s risen!” It’s “He’s taken! He’s stolen!” It never crosses her mind that he’s risen.
#3 None of the disciples are waiting at the tomb = None of the disciples are waiting at the tomb to see if he’s risen. They don’t say “Hey it’s the 3rd day, maybe we should check it out. Maybe we should see if he’s risen.” Not one of them says that, which is why Mary has to go get them! It’s because they’re not waiting, not anticipating, not expecting Jesus to rise.
#4 The disciples didn’t believe Mary = The first time Mary tells the disciples the tomb’s empty they didn’t believe her. Luke 24:11 says, “Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” They didn’t believe Mary or the other women, except for Peter and the other disciple who ran to check it out.
#5 Two disciples admitted they lost hope = While they were walking a road to Emmaus they said this in Luke 24:21, “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” Notice the past tense. It says they ‘had’ hoped, meaning they don’t anymore. They had hope, but that hope died when Jesus died...Everything changed for them after Jesus died on the cross. They doubted in despair, and didn’t believe he’d rise again. They’re hiding in a house with the doors locked, trying to figure out if the rumors are true. They’re trying to figure out what happened to Jesus’ body, and they’re afraid of what the Jews will do to their bodies, if rumors spread that he’s risen.
Again vs. 19 states, “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’” So the disciples finally see Jesus and they’re “glad.” He turns their despair into gladness just like he’ll do for us one day. He’ll turn our despair into gladness too. But notice he’s also sending them to share that gladness with the world. He’s sending them to spread the good news that he’s risen, the good news that he really is our Lord and Savior who died for our sins on the cross. But you’re not risking your life following those orders if he didn’t rise. You’re not risking your life for a dead Savior. If Jesus didn’t rise you’ll sit and hide, but if Jesus did rise, you’ll risk your life... You’ll risk your life to follow him and his orders, because you know you’re following a living Savior, not a dead one. When Jesus appears to them he’s not only restoring their faith, he’s also strengthening their faith, so they’ll unlock the doors and spread the good news to the world. But there’s still 1 more disciple who’s doubting, who doesn’t believe he’s risen, and it’s Thomas. Listen to vs 24.
Vs. 24 states, “Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.’” It’s another doubting moment, only this time it’s specific. Thomas gets very specific about what it’ll take for him to believe. So we’re clearly seeing that the disciples doubted, and it’s important to realize this because some people have an incorrect view of ancient history. They’ll view us as intelligent and people in ancient history as unintelligent. They’ll view us as thinkers, and them as gullible people ready to believe anything. “Hey I saw a dragon! I saw Bigfoot! I saw Elvis. I saw Jesus rise from the dead! Do you believe me?” Sure!..No questions, no thought, it’s just sure! I’ll believe those things...Now you might be able to say some faiths started that way, but you can’t say that about Christianity. The Christian faith, including faith in the resurrection didn’t start with gullible belief, it started with thinkers like you and me who at first rejected the claims that Jesus had risen. They were just as skeptical of it back then, as modern humanity is today. Thomas doesn’t even believe his friends.
Vs. 26, “Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 27 Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.’ 28 Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ 29 Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” So Thomas end ups believing too, and Jesus says blessed are those who have not seen, yet still believe. Can you guess who the have not’s are? It’s you and me. We’re the have not’s Jesus is talking about, which leaves us with the question we started with. It’s do you believe?...Do you believe Jesus has risen from the dead?...Like Thomas some of you say you’ll only believe it if you see it. But if your only standard of belief is seeing, you’ll have to say all of history isn’t true either. You can’t be biased holding one standard of belief for Jesus, but then changing that standard when it comes to other events in history. You believe certain events in history happened not because you saw it, but because you looked at the historical facts, thought about it, and believed it happened. So let’s do the same with Jesus, let’s look at the historical facts of what happened. The historical facts are that when Jesus died:
They believed that, he was literally dead.
They believed that, he wasn’t coming back on the 3rd day.
They believed that, he was a dead Lord.
They believed that, he was a dead Savior.
They believed that, he was a dead Messiah.
They believed that, hope was lost.
They believed that, their lives were now at risk.
The historical facts are that when Jesus died their faith died with him, and even those closest to him didn’t believe. Mary why are you weeping? “They killed Jesus and stole his body.” John why are you upset? “We HAD hoped Jesus was our redeemer, but he isn’t. He’s dead!” Peter why’s everyone hiding? “They killed Jesus, and we’re next.” The historical facts are when Jesus died their faith died with him, and even those closest to him didn’t believe, which is exactly why you should believe in him!...You should believe in him, believe he rose, believe he’s your Lord and Savior, believe EVERY word he’s ever said...because when Jesus died, nobody believed!...Not his friends, his family, or even his own mother. Nobody believed! But then they saw something, that changed everything...They saw something, that changed everything...
See Christianity didn’t start with people who believed something, it started with people who saw something...Christianity didn’t start with people who believed something, since nobody believed when he died! But when they saw Jesus rise from the dead it caused them to unlocked their doors saying “You can torture and kill us if you want, but we’ll never stop talking about Jesus. We’ll never stop talking about how he died for our sins on the cross, and rose again on the 3rd day!” It’s incredible from a historical perspective because Christianity started out as a nobody movement, but exploded into a massive movement. It started out with nobody believing after he died, but exploded into a massive movement with billions now believing after he’s risen. The reason that happened is because the disciples saw Jesus rise and couldn’t stop talking about it. Everything changed after Jesus died, but everything also changed after he’d risen. It’s what makes their story so compelling! See the reason I believe and the reason I think you should believe he’s risen, isn’t because mama said so, or daddy said so, or even because the bible says so. It’s because something incredible happened on that 3rd day...Something so incredible must’ve happened, that it caused these fearful, disbelieving people to unlock their doors, risk their lives being tortured, and most being killed to tell us he’s risen...You don’t do that...for a dead Savior.
The Big Idea:
So here’s the big idea. Everything changes, if you believe that...Everything changes, if you believe that Jesus rose from the dead. So do you believe that?...Do you believe that? Will you believe that?...If you’ll believe that today, if you’ll believe he rose from the dead, then here’s what it’ll mean for your life. Here’s the good news. If Jesus rose from the dead, it means…
You can believe that, he’s alive!
You can believe that, everything he’s ever said is true and can be trusted!
You can believe that, he’s your Lord!
You can believe that, he’s your Savior!
You can believe that, he’s died for ALL your sins and you’re FULLY forgiven!
You can believe that, he hears every word you pray!
You can believe that, he has new grace and mercies for you every morning!
You can believe that, he came to give you not just life, but an abundantly joyful life.
You can believe that, everyday has a purpose, and every tomorrow has a hope!
You can believe that, hardships will come in life, but they won’t overcome your life!
You can believe that, there’s life after death and you’ll be raised to life with Christ. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but shall have eternal life.
You can believe that, you’ll have a resurrected body like Jesus. So even if this coronavirus hits your mortal body, it’ll never touch your eternal body!
You can believe that, he’s coming back again to judge the living and the dead.
You can believe that, his heavenly kingdom will have no end.
You can believe that, even though you weep today! A time’s coming when you’ll see Jesus face to face, and he’ll wipe away every tear from your eyes that the sting of sin and death has caused never to return again! You’ll never weep again, grieve again, attend a funeral again, have relational conflicts again, feel the pains and troubling storms of life again. You’ll never have to lock your doors in fear, or sit in quarantine hoarding, sanitizing, using Lysol wipes on the counter tops again.
If Jesus rose from the dead you can believe that, this life isn’t your best life. The best is yet to come, and it’ll come when you get to see Jesus face to face like the disciples.
Everything can change in your life if you believe that, Jesus rose from the dead. But don’t believe that because I said so or the bible says so. Believe it because Jesus said so and did so! Believe it because Jesus said he’d rise again on the 3rd day, and he did! Believe it because something incredible happened on that 3rd day, it’s that Jesus rose from the dead. The disciples didn’t believe that at first, but they believed that in the end. The question is, will you believe that?