Pastor Curtis Mathis
Friendship Baptist Church
April 12, 2015
Series: The People Who Crossed Jesus’ Path...
Title: Those who wouldn’t believe!
Text: Luke 24:11 (NIV)
Luke 24:11 (NIV)
11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
Introduction:
Have you ever found yourself “doubting” your salvation, or wondered if heaven is real, have you wondered if Jesus really rose from the grave, have you doubted Gods existence? Well guess what you’re not alone!
Luke 24:11 (NIV)
11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
I. The 11 Disciples
Here is a group of men that has traveled with Jesus for around three years, they have traveled with Him, they were taught by Him, they witnessed the miracles he performed and yet despite all the reasons they had TO believe… “But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.”
Let us look at their unbelief…
1. Matthew 28:16-17 (NIV)
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.
2. Mark 16:9-14 (NIV)
When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. 11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it. 12 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. 13 These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either. 14 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
3. Luke 24:1-12 (NIV)
24 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words. 9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
Luke 24:36-44 (NIV)
36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” 40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence. 44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
4. John 20:1-9 (NIV)
20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
John 20:10-16 (NIV)
10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. 11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!”(Which means “Teacher”).
John 20:24-28 (NIV)
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though 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; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
“My Lord and my God!”
Turn to the second chapter of Genesis and I want to show you where this doubt that the disciples were plagued with came from and it’s the same doubt we struggle with today!
II. How does Satan destroy our faith!
1. He Removes God as the Lord of our lives.
Genesis 2:1-4 (NIV)
2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. 4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
The term Lord God is used no more than a dozen times here the Second Chapter, but look at what happens when Satan shows up in the form of the serpent in verse three…
Genesis 3:1 (NIV)
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Look at this ever so subtle change that Satan interjected into this conversation, no longer is he Lord God, no now he is just God…Satan has succeeded in convincing us that God may be Creator but He is not Lord!!!
2. Satan get us to add or subtract from His Word!
Genesis 3:2-3 (NIV)
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
God Never said that they could not "touch" the tree...as a matter of fact as keeper of the Garden, Adam would probably have occasion to come in contact with the tree. but Satan had managed to get Eve to alter the Word of God! And Satan knew the results!
Deuteronomy 4:2 (NIV)
2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.
Proverbs 30:6 (NIV)
6 Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.
3. Satan transfer Lordship from God to us!
Genesis 3:4-6 (NIV)
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
They Wanted to be like God...we want to be God in our lives, but the truth is we are not equipped to be God! We are weak sinful creatures, who if not for the Grace of God would parish into the pits of hell! because our nature is sin not Holy!
Closing:
So you see our doubts or lack of faith if you will are rooted in Satan’s continuation of lies that he has been telling mankind since Adam and Eve! But if we turn away from Satan and his lies and rely upon God we will be able to grow a faith that Satan and his lies can not rock!!!
1 John 4:16 (NIV)
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
And what does that look like Pastor you ask?
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Because you see that is Satan’s oldest lie that WE are the ones in control we are the ones in charge…not God!!!
So today I challenge you just as Joshua did to the Israelites…
Joshua 24:15 (NIV)
15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
So who are you going Serve???
Because His Grace is enough!
Pastor Curtis.
