I don’t usually begin a sermon on a sad note like this, but sometimes we need to pause and remember what life is all about. There was a great loss recently in the entertainment world. Larry LaPrise, the Detroit native who wrote the song "The Hokey Pokey", died at age 83.
I’m told he died peacefully and that he led a full and happy life. Still it was a difficult time for the family and It was especially difficult for to get him in the casket. They put his left leg in and... well, that was when the trouble started.
Well it’s been two thousand years now since they had similar trouble in Jerusalem. A man named Jesus who had been causing trouble for the religous leaders had been executed to silence him. But they couldn’t keep him in the grave either.
But when the news started to spread that Jesus had cheated the grave, not everybody believed it. Down through history the same has been true. Not everyone who hears the story about the one who came back from the other side of death believes it anymore than you believed the story I just told about Larry LaPrise.
Some of you here this morning may still have serious doubts. The question for me is, what would I need to do to help you believe. Or in other words what are the necessary ingredients for Faith in the resurrection?
To answer that question I’d like to go to the story we just read about the first one who had questions about the story so that we can see what helped him come to believe in Jesus’ resurrection.
The first thing he needed was a...
Testimony
24Now Thomas (called 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 it."
Thomas has been reproached across the centuries as a doubter, But I would be among the first to speak up in his behalf. Because I believe that in Thomas’ demand for proof, he is to be admired rather than ridiculed. In fact, Jesus himself said back in Matthew 24:26, "If they say to you, ’There he is!’, don’t believe it." And there are too many people today who believe too much on the basis of too little. I am appalled at how much irrational garbage people are willing to swallow without a particle of solid evidence to back it up. People read horoscopes, lay out Tarot cards, and call 900-numbers to learn their futures. A few will even follow David Koresh to Waco Texas.
Call me a Doubting Thomas, too, if you please. But I’m not about to believe Dionne Warwick, David Koresh, or Chaplain Caley without some proof — some good, solid proof. Too much is at stake for me to accept just any claim someone makes.
On the other hand, I don’t want to be such a radical skeptic that I set standards of proof so high they can never be met. Neither do I want to be so gullible that any sort of alleged proof will count as an actual one. Fair and reasonable standards, however, ought to be imposed on every proof offered for any point of view.
Our proofs for Jesus’ resurrection will obviously not be the same ones Thomas was given. But we need to be reminded that no figure of history — whether Socrates, Julius Caesar,
Abraham Lincoln, or Jesus — is available for immediate sensory experiences through sight, sound, or touch. All of them have to be authenticated to us indirectly through history, archaeology, and documents. Through Testimony.
When held to the strictest standards of historical evidence — standards much higher than the ones applied to the ancient Pharaohs or Alexander the Great or George Washington — we have more testimony about Jesus’ life history, and resurrection from the dead than practically any other event in history. It is on the basis of these many lines of proof — not some blind leap of faith or irrational sentimentality — that I stake my life now and my destiny for all eternity. On the basis of that same evidence, I do not hesitate to invite all others to place your faith in him (Alan Smith, from a Sermon entitled "Faith That doesn’t have to touch" on Sermoncentral.com)
And what testimony is there?
1. Jesus predicted His resurrection (Matt 16:21; Mark 9:9-10; John 2:18-22).
2. The Old Testament prophesied it (Psalm 16:10; compare Acts 2:25-31; 13:33-37).
3. The tomb was empty and the grave clothes vacant. if those who opposed Christ wished to silence His disciples, all they had to do was produce a body, but they could not (John 20:3-9).
4. Many people saw the resurrected Christ. They looked on His face, touched Him, heard His voice, and saw Him eat. The church was founded on the message of the ressurection in the very city that His death occurred in and grew by thousands within 2 months of the Crucifixion (Matt. 28:16-20; Luke 24:13-39; John 20:11-29; John 21:1-9; Acts 1:6-11; 1 Cor. 15:3-8).
5. The lives of the disciples were revolutionized. Though they fled and even denied Christ at the time of His arrest, they later feared no one in their proclamation of the risen Christ--who gives their life for something they know to be false? (Matt 26:56, 69-75).
6. Men and women today testify that the power of the risen Christ has transformed their lives. We know that Jesus is alive not only because of the historical and biblical evidence but also because He has miraculously touched our lives.
People refuse to believe that which they don’t want to believe, in spite of evidence. When explorers first went to Australia they found a mammal which laid eggs; spent some time in water, some on land; had a broad, flat tail, webbed feet, and a bill similar to a duck. Upon their return to England, they told the populace of this, and all felt it was a hoax. They returned to Australia and found a pelt from this animal and took it back to England, but the people still felt it was a hoax. In spite of the evidence, they disbelieved because they didn’t want to believe. ( J. McDowell, Answers to tough questions, under "miracles")
So the first ingredient of Faith is Testimony--the proof of the ressurection. But it doesn’t stop there. Jesus wasn’t offended at Thomas’s desire to know more, because he understood that we need a...
Touch
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."
28Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
The touch of Jesus is the difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge.
A pastor friend of mine shared with me a story about a teenage girl who had been coming to his church for a little over a year. It was Sharon’s second Easter at Adventure Community Church, and after the service, she came up and said to my friend, Tony, "Do you mean to tell me that Easter is a religious holiday?" He told her yes. She said, "Do you mean we believe that Jesus was a real person and that he came and lived this perfect life and then died on the cross, and then three days later came back from the dead?" Tony told her yes, again. She said, "You know, if that’s true, that’d be really cool." He said, "Sharon, I believe with all my heart that it’s true." To which she replied, "Cool." She and her whole family became regulars.
Sharon made the leap of faith because Jesus and the followers of Jesus had touched her heart. Perhaps you’ve felt the touch of God upon your heart for the first time today, as you heard God’s people rejoice in the Risen Lord as we sang songs not just about Him but to Him. The Bible says that He inhabits or is made alive in the praises of His people. You were feeling the touch of Jesus. Maybe as you’ve heard me inviting you to consider the evidence you’ve felt a tug at your heart that you can’t explain. Well, the Bible says that God uses the foolishness of preaching to draw people’s hearts. You’re feeling the touch of God.
The next step for you is to experince...
Transformation
v. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Those who believe or trust in Jesus experience a new life. There’s a change that’s indescribable but noticable. Pastor Lee Stroebel tells of how his 5 year old daughter Allison noticed the change in him from a man who was bitter and angry to a man filled with Love. She went to her mommy and said "Mommy, I want God to do for me what he’s done for Daddy."
Sitting in this room right now I could point out person after person whose stories I know, who have been transformed by their faith in the risen Lord, Jesus. And transformation is what you will experience also if you decide to trust in Jesus, Not just to believe that he existed or even to believe that He’s risen. I believe in Osama Bin Laden, but I’m not trusting in him for anything, I don’t believe in his cause.
I’m talking about trusting that Jesus died willingly to pay the price for your sins and that he rose again to win eternal life for you. I’m talking about realizing once and for all that you can never overcome the problem of sin on your own, that you can never make up for your past and that only by trusting in Jesus can your heart be made right with God.
If you’ve heard and believed my testimony this morning, If you’ve felt His touch and trusted in Him, your life truly will be transformed!
