Eye-Witnesses

Luke 24:36-48

Eye-Witnesses

There are events in our lives that we believe because of what we are told.

We are told that the earth is tilted on a 23 degree axis.

How many of you, here today have measured the degree of the earth’s tilt?

How many of you, here today, believe that the earth is tilted 23 degrees?

We can prove scientifically that the earth is tilted because we have seasons.

If the earth was not tilted, we would not experience spring & fall.

Our weather patterns would be closer to those living on Mother Earth at the center, near the equator, where the distance from the sun is pretty much the same throughout the year and the temperatures are very predictable.

We believe the facts about the earth even more than our great, great ancestors, who thought the earth was flat, because we have seen pictures from outer space.

But even before these pictures, we believe the earth is round and the Copernium Theorem because we trust in the witness of Copernicus.

Most of us have probably watched some type of court proceedings where the witnesses have to give their testimonies and the jury or the judge has to determine if the eye witnesses are telling the truth.

I happen to watch Judge Judy, from time to time because I like to learn what tricks Judge Judy has up her sleeve to tell who is lying and who is telling the truth.

I was raised to believe that everyone tells the truth, and knowing as an adult, that that is not true, I had to teach myself how to be savvy enough, keen enough, and watchful enough to recognize fact from malarkey!

Most of us probably remember the O.J. Simpson trials.

We were not eye witnesses, but many of us formed opinions based on testimony from the forensic scientists.

Although none of us were eye witnesses to the case, none of us were there to actually see who murdered Nicole.Simpson, we formed an opinion by what the news media brought us through radio, newspapers, and television.

Much of our history, we get through eye witnesses passed down from one generation to another.

We rely on what we’re told.

We’re told that Betsy Ross made the first flag, and as children in school, we believe it.

We were told, when I was in school, that Christopher Columbus discovered America, and of course, I believed it.

We were told that Albert Einstein developed the theory of relativity,

…that Isaac Newton built the first reflecting telescope…

…that Louis Pasteur discovered pasteurization…

…that Ben Franklin discovered electricity and invented the Franklin Stove and bifocal spectacles…

…that Alexander Graham Bell discovered the telephone.

How much of our history have we actually seen with our own eyes?

Very little.

How much of our history, do we believe because of eye witnesses who were there, at the time?

Do we believe Mozart wrote symphonies?

How many of us personally knew Mozart and shook his hands or watched him play the piano?

Do we believe Picasso was a cubist?

Do we believe Norman Rockwell painted those treasured pictures we see in Doctor’s offices?

There is a lot we believe from the stories we hear of actual eye witnesses.

But more and more, atheists are trying to discredit the Bible and God.

It’s time we, as Christians reclaim our eye-witness testimonies.

Jesus suffered and died on the cross in public humiliation.

Why?

Certainly not because it was pleasurable.

He was crucified publicly because eye witnesses could give testimony that it actually happened.

And when Jesus was seen resurrected from the dead, eye witnesses gave their testimonies.

These were reliable sources.

These were people that knew Jesus personally.

They didn’t read about Jesus in the news.

They ate with him and drank with him, and watched him perform miracles.

Can you imagine their shock, when during their grief from the loss of Jesus, that He reappeared to them?

Of course they thought He was a ghost.

But to prove that He was not, He ate with the disciples.

He allowed them to touch Him and feel that he had actual substance and flesh.

Do not let people who live in darkness take our eye witness testimony from us.

Our scripture is just as sound as any factual eye witness testimony that would appear in court.

Early Christians were willing to die for the truth.

Early Christians were willing to risk their lives to share the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

It was prophecy told by Isaiah to the Jewish people.

Again, eye-witnesses.

The prophecies were written down because they were important.

Before they were written down, they were shared verbatim through the oral tradition.

The scriptures which we call the Old Testament are so sacred to the scribes, that if they make one mistake in copying them…1 letter, the whole manuscript has to be destroyed and they have to start over from the beginning.