Believing Is Seeing

BELIEVING IS SEEING

John 20.19-31

S: Resurrection

C: Belief

Pr: BELIEF IN JESUS BRINGS CLARITY TO OUR LIVES.

TS: We will find in our study of John 20.19-31 where our relationship with Jesus begins.

Type: Inductive

I. PEACE (19-20)

II. MISSION (21-23)

III. UNBELIEF (24-25)

IV. WORSHIP (26-29)

V. LIFE (30-31)

PA: How is the change to be observed?

• Believe in the Lord Jesus (and you will be saved)

• Worship Jesus (He is God in the flesh)

• Go and proclaim the good news.

Version: ESV

RMBC 15 April 07 AM

INTRODUCTION:

1. What do you find unbelievable?

If you are like me, you find yourself saying from time to time, “I don’t believe it!”

Something really amazing happens, but we act like we disbelieve.

“I don’t believe it.”

Just think of the technological changes that have happened over the past years.

Place yourself back into 1980…

Would you have believed at the time that almost every home would have a computer?

We did not even imagine anything like e-mail and the Internet.

It seemed so unbelievable.

Every once in a while, though, we hear a story, and it is too out of this world, and we don’t believe it at all.

It reminds me of a…

ILL Disbelief (H)

… pastor’s small son that was told by his mother that he should wash his hands because there were germs living in all that dirt.

He refused and complained, by saying: "Germs and Jesus! Germs and Jesus! That’s all I ever hear around this house, and I’ve never seen either one!"

Well, some of the disciples were having trouble believing the stories about Jesus that were coming back to them.

They were just too wonderful to be true.

But throughout this day after the Sabbath, people were reporting having seen Jesus.

It was so unbelievable!

After all…

2. It is hard to believe that a dead person can stop being dead.

You can almost imagine the conversations some may have had with Mary Magadalene.

“C’mon Mary – you must be imagining things – you are so emotionally overwrought – you are just seeing things.”

But it was more than Mary.

All the women that went to the tomb had met Jesus.

Cleopas and another follower had met Jesus as they were on the way to Emmaus.

Jesus had also shown Himself to Simon Peter.

It has been a busy day.

There was a missing body, and the unbelievable story of a dead man that had stopped being dead, which leads us to our text today…

3. We will find in our study of John 20.19-31 where our relationship with Jesus begins.

OUR STUDY:

I. PEACE (19-20)

(19) 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.

Even though there is news about Jesus, the disciples are still in hiding.

Some have seen Jesus.

Some have been trying to figure out what is going on.

Nevertheless, they are trying to avoid confrontation.

They are still rightly concerned about the religious leaders.

So, as they are gathered together, who shows up?

Jesus.

There is no knock on the door.

He is just there, and the door is still locked, probably a heavy bolt sliding through rings.

In other words, you don’t get through the door without making a racket.

How does He get in?

Is He a ghost?

We are not told how He was able to enter.

We are simply to understand it as a miracle.

But I think it is fair to say that this kind of appearance is kind of scary.

So…

4. Jesus calms their fears.

He deals gently with them.

“Peace to you.”

You have to appreciate what Jesus does not say.

He does not say, “Where were you guys?”

“How could you let me down like that?”

No…He says, “Peace.”

But we can be sure that after a moment of stunned silence, their hearts are racing, the adrenaline is flowing, and their goose bumps are bumping.

They are filled with joy and amazement.

Jesus is there with them.

Everything was truly all right.

And they discovered quickly, Jesus was not quite done with them yet, for they have a…

II. MISSION (21-23)

…to fulfill.

(21) Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (22) And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. (23) If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”