Is It Really True?
April 4, 2010 Easter Proverbs 3:5-9 John 20:1-30
We are in the third and final message in our series, “Is it really true”. Has anybody here ever believed something was really really true, only later did to discover what you believed was actually not true? Who knows the feeling of falling in love and having a crush on someone and thinking wow, that person is the most wonderful person to have ever lived and is just right for you? But then reality came in and you now don’t want anything to do with that person. You don’t even understand how you could have been so dumb to fall in love in the first place.
Have you ever believed you were going to mop another team all over the floor or the field, but at the end of the game, they had more points than you did? Have you ever believed you know you got a good grade on a test, only to be disappointed when you saw your actual grade on paper. Believing something is true, doesn’t make it true.
There are some things that we can be wrong about, that don’t have a lot of consequences when we find out the truth, but there are other things that have major consequences for our lives if what we believe is false. If you believe you can make the light before it turns red and you don’t, and a tractor trailer is coming full steam ahead, you’re in serious trouble.
If you believe you don’t need to get that pain checked out because you don’t like going to the doctor, but that pain is telling you something is wrong and in reality cancer is spreading through your body, your false belief can cost you some valuable time in getting treatment.
If you believe you can trust an individual that you may or may not know, and your belief is wrong, you can be swindled out of money, betrayed in a relationship, or even murdered. It really is important to know the truth in advance. The price of not knowing may be a lot more than you want to pay,
If you are not a Christian today, is what you believe about God really true? Is it true that you are good enough to go to heaven without Jesus Christ? Is it true that God grades us an a curve in that no one is perfect, but as long as we can think of five people that we know we are better than they are, then we know we are going to make it into heaven? Is it true that God does not care what we do, so long as we say that we love God and try to do the right thing most of the time?
Is it true there really is not a God and we have made God up just to get people’s money and to try to control them? Is it true that there is a heaven, but there is no hell? Is it true that it does not matter what you believe as long as you are true to what it is you believe in? Is it true that once you die, that’s it and everything is just a black nothingness?
My friend if any of these statements are true, then Jesus Christ is a liar, and we may as well all go home and try to get in as much fun as we can because one thing is true and that is, every last one of us is going to die. When we die, we will know immediately the consequences of our beliefs, be they right or wrong.
The moment we die we will know there is an after life, there is a God, and there is a judgment. We will also know that there is a heaven and there is a hell, and that we will be spending time in one of the other. How can I be so sure of this? Because we have the testimony of a person who died and came back to life again and told us what to expect.
Some 2000 years ago, God loved this world enough to take on the form of a human being in order to help us live life with our sins forgiven and our trust placed in Him. God took on a human body in the form of Jesus Christ. When Jesus became an adult he preached that God loves everyone, and that in loving God back, our lives would be changed. The first step in loving God is asking God’s forgiveness for living without God and disobeying his commandments. That’s called repentance.
Jesus called for people to repent, and that made a lot of people angry. Some did not want to stop the wrong things they were doing. Some felt they were good enough as they were and they did not need Jesus in their lives. Jesus told them, “I am the Way, the truth, and the Life, no one can come to God except through me.” Some people got so angry at Jesus they wanted to kill him. They said, “who do you think you are? How can we even know what you said is true”?
Jesus said, “if you kill me, in three days I will come back to life.” There has been no religious teacher who has offered this kind of proof as to the truth of his message. You won’t proof. Kill me, and in three days I’ll check back in with you.
Jesus knew in advance, that they were going to take him up on his offer. He knew they were going to kill him. He even told his disciples, look when we get to Jerusalem, the religious leaders are going to kill me, but don’t let it get you to upset. It won’t be over until I say it’s over.
Now the leaders believed if they killed him. They would not have anything else to worry about. Tradition has it that Jesus was killed on Friday, even though it was more likely he was killed on Thursday. They believed that if we kill him, our problem will be over once and for all. Their belief appeared to be true at first as they were beating and brutalizing him. But just because something looks true at the moment, doesn’t mean there is not something coming to disprove the belief. They did not know that Sunday was coming.
Let’s look at this clip for a moment in helping us to see why we are sitting here on Easter Sunday.
Jesus’ appearance on Sunday caught everybody by surprise. Even those who had walked with him, loved him, been changed by him, and served him did not believe that his coming to life was really true.
There were a group of women who went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ dead body. When they got there they were shocked to discover the body was already gone and angels were there telling them Jesus is Risen. When the women ran and told the disciples that “Jesus is Risen”, they did not respond “He Is risen indeed.” Their response was, “you are out of your minds. Your emotions are getting the best of you. This cannot be true.”
Peter and John ran to the tomb not to see the risen Savior, but to find out if Jesus’ body had been stolen or not. It was not until they saw the burial cloths lying there with no body inside that they believed something was happening. They went home and locked themselves inside the house to keep from being accused of stealing the body. Jesus had to appear to them personally before they would believe. When he appeared, it scared the daylights out of them thinking they were seeing a ghost. Jesus had to say, “Peace be with you.”
When they tried to tell Thomas, one of Jesus’s 12 disciples, who had seen all the miracles Jesus had done from walking on the water, healing the sick, feeding 5000, to raising the dead, he was upset with them. Thomas said, “I am not falling for all that. I saw him die on that cross. If you want me to believe, you call him so that I can put my fingers in the place of the nails and my hand in the slot where the spear went in, I will never believe.”
Jesus was not in the room with them at the time, but he heard every word that Thomas spoke. Jesus then appears out of nowhere in this locked room and says to Thomas, here are my hands, and here is my side, go ahead and do what you have to do in order to believe. Jesus wanted them to know it was really true.
How can we know that it was really true that Jesus rose from the dead. First of all, all his enemies had to do was to produce the dead body of Jesus. Roman soldiers had been guarding the body for three days and there was no way anyone could have taken it from them. If the enemies of Jesus had just said, “We got the body, come and see it for yourselves” that would have ended the resurrection story. They did not have a body, because Jesus was using his transformed resurrected body to appear to the people.
Second we know that people are not willing to give up their lives for something they know is a lie. Suppose you were being robbed and you knew you didn’t have a million dollars in your house or anywhere else for that matter, but the thief said, I’m going to kill you unless you give me that million dollars you got hidden in this house. How many of you are going to say, “I’ll die before I give up my million dollars? Why because you know the million dollars is a lie.
If the thief said I saw you on the news, saying you had a million dollars. How many of you are going to say, oh yeah I did say that, so go ahead and kill me? How many of you are going to tell the truth and say “I was lying when I said that. There’s no million dollars in this house.”
Most of the twelve disciples are going to face having to chose between Jesus or their lives. They will be asked to deny that Jesus rose from the dead and deny that Jesus is the son of God or be killed. They are all going to choose to be beaten, jailed or killed for their belief in a resurrected Christ . If they knew Jesus had not risen, they would not have given up their lives for a lie.
Third, Jesus did not appear to just a small group for ten second appearance and disappear. At one time 500 people were present when Jesus showed up. After his resurrection, Jesus hung around for about 40 days before finally going to heaven with the promise that one day He would be back.
Fourth, Jesus told us before he died that He would be able to come back to life. Everything that Jesus said would happen to him, happened just as he said it was going to happen. He made it clear, that even though he was going to be killed, he was still in charge. He said, “I voluntarily lay down my life, no one is taking it from me. “With the snap of his finger, as the Son Of God, Jesus could have wiped out the entire Roman army that crucified him. But because he came to pay for the wrong we have done, love for us led him to die for us. It wasn’t nails that kept him on the cross. It was love.
The Fifth reason for Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is that of changed lives. Before he died, Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly.” Some of you have discovered the power of those words and the life you have found in Christ. You know what it was to be hurt deeply by someone and inside of you, you wanted to strike back and you wanted to get even, but the power of Christ enabled you to rise above those feelings and you were able to allow forgiveness to flow through you to that other person. You know you didn’t do it by yourself. It was the Living God inside of you that made it happen.
Some of you know what it was like to look at your life and realize that you had just made a mess of things. You had allowed things into your life that made you ashamed of yourself. You really didn’t know how you could get your life back together again. But then you ran into a Living Risen Lord, who said, “let me put the pieces back how they ought to be.” You invited this Risen Lord into your life and you’re not yet all you’re going to be, but you thank God every day, you’re not what you use to be.
Some of you know what it was like to hear the Doctor say there’s not much more that we can do. You may as well call your family together and start to make some plans, but you put your faith in a living, risen Savior and you’re still alive to say, “I’m still here worshipping the Lord of hosts.
Some of your were ready to give up on life itself. Nothing you were doing seemed to be falling into place. Nothing seemed to be working out. Your family was getting on your nerves. The job was falling to pieces. You didn’t know where to turn. You thought the only way out was to just end it all by killing yourself. But then you ran into Jesus. Not a dead a Jesus, but a living Jesus.
A Jesus who could hear your cries. A Jesus who could comfort your heart. A Jesus who could say, “I got this. You just live one day at a time and follow my lead. A Jesus who could say, “you are not going through this by yourself. I got your back.” A Jesus who could say, “don’t worry about what others are saying about you. You are my child and I love you.” A Jesus who could say, “I saw you when you stumbled, I saw you when you fell, But I am here to let you know, you can back up again, and start growing in me all over again. I am not through with you yet.
Pastor Kellie said, if you want to know if it’s true, go ask somebody who ought to know because of a personal knowledge of the situation. Is there anybody here who can say, “my life is not what it use to be?” Is there anybody who can say, “I been set free from drugs and addictions? Is there anybody who can say, “I was down and discouraged, but today I’m filled with hope.
Is there anybody who can say, “I know with the choices I made for my life, I could have been dead and gone, but Jesus did not give up on me?” Is there anybody who can say, “I didn’t make the wrong choice because I knew Jesus was walking with me?” Is there anybody who can say, “I’m glad for Mary Magdalene’s testimony, I’m glad for Peter’s testimony, I’m glad for Thomas’s testimony, but I’m glad most of all for what God has done in my life and for the testimony Jesus has given to me. I know that I know that Jesus is Risen because I know He’s risen in me.
It’s true my friend. Jesus is alive. Easter & Resurrection is for real. One day you are going to see the Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for yourself. Will you be ready to meet him when that day comes? I encourage you to get ready to meet him right now.
