Believing Is Seeing

“Believing is Seeing”

Mark 16:1-14

Pastor John Bright

When Pokémon Go was released in 2016, the church I was serving began to get visitors to the side parking lot. They told me that the location was a gym where they could battle other trainers, It still looked like a parking lot to me. 😊 When they looked at their phones or devices, they saw an augmented view of reality. “Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that blends virtual elements with the real world, enhancing the user’s perception and interaction with their environment. Unlike virtual reality, which creates a completely immersive digital experience, augmented reality overlays computer-generated content onto the real world, seamlessly integrating virtual and physical elements.

AR technology relies on a combination of hardware and software to create this blended reality experience. It uses sensors, cameras, and GPS to track the user’s position and movements, allowing virtual objects to be anchored and interact with the real world in real-time.

The visual aspects of augmented reality are typically seen through the use of headsets, glasses, or mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets. These devices display virtual content onto the user’s view, either through a transparent display or by overlaying digital images and information onto the device’s camera feed.” https://robots.net/tech/how-is-a-game-like-pokemon-go-an-example-of-augmented-reality/

Vision is vital when we determine what we believe. There is an old story about Jonathon Edwards who preached to the coal miners in England. He asked one man, “What do you believe?”

“Well, I believe the same as the church.”

“And what does the church believe?” “Well, they believe the same as me.”

Seeing he was getting nowhere, Whitfield said, “And what is it that you both believe?”

“Well, I suppose the same thing.” 😊

Which Christ Do I Find?

In the Disciples of Jesus, we see three ways to find Jesus. That’s the question for us to answer on this Resurrection Sunday – “Which Christ do I find?” We are presented with three options:

• Living Christ

• Dying Christ

• Risen Christ

Finding a Living Christ

If we go back to the Gospels, we will see the Disciples who find the Living Christ. We can see the same in every congregation today. We see folks who serve in their power. For these folks, it’s all DUTY and no JOY. These folks are serious!

Maybe we see following Jesus today as hard work. It had to be so much better for those first Disciples. It was hard to be a Disciple in the Bible. Jesus told them parables that were hard to understand. Jesus put unrealistic expectations on them, like feeding over 5,000 people. And don’t forget poor old Peter. He gets a new name one minute, and then in the next minute, he hears, “get thou behind me satan.” Those disciples even argued about who was the greatest. Sounds like a normal congregation, huh? They even try to keep little kids and blind people away from Jesus, but He keeps telling them about a Kingdom where all these are welcome.

At this point, the Disciples are not what we call saved. Who was the first one to experience the salvation we know? The thief on the cross. On Sunday night, John records this from Jesus' visit to the Upper Room: John 20:22 “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.” Unfortunately, too many folks sitting in church pews on a Sunday morning have never had that experience – those folks are NOT saved.

When we only find a Living Christ, we see a baby in a manger and a boy at the Temple. We hold onto the image of a man tempted by satan and calming the storm. That image of the Living Christ is when we see Him at a Passover meal and then kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane. That’s all. The first Disciples didn’t understand at this point, and neither do you, if you have only found a Living Christ.

Finding a Dying Christ

We find the awesome result of Jesus blood shed on Calvary in Ephesians 2:1-5 “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”