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.
The Jewish scribes took the Torah, and the books of the prophets, and the wisdom literature seriously.
They dedicated their lives to making sure that the accurate ancient records were not tainted or distorted.
And we have eye witnesses from our generation who have found the dead sea scrolls, buried within a cave for centuries, and those ancient manuscripts match our present day manuscripts from the ancient Hebrew letter for letter.
If only our news reporters today, had the same precision in reporting news and facts and figures today, maybe we, as a culture, would not be so susceptible to doubting the Word Of God as it is written in the Bible.
We cannot touch Jesus’ actual hands and feet today.
But we do have a way of knowing God exists and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was not a myth, but actual fact.
God, our almighty Father, gives us the gift of faith.
But it takes a step or two or three or more, to believe and receive that gift.
It takes a humility to say, I am not God.
It takes a humility to say, I am a human being with faults, in need of a savior.
Arrogance shuts out the Holy Spirit who gives us faith.
Pride shuts out the Holy Spirit who gives us belief.
Holding onto grudges shuts out the Comforter who gives us truth.
Putting fame, riches, and fortunes before God shuts out the Wisdom of God.
We must cleanse ourselves from all our unrighteousness in order to let the Holy One into our lives.
God who is Holy, cannot dwell in an unclean spirit.
And to get clean, Jesus died on the cross for us, so that when we come to God and admit our sins, they are wiped clean and remembered no more.
Sin is wiped out and the Holy Spirit has a place to dwell within us, change our hearts, make us new, and bring us joy and healing.
Growing up in the church, I used to pray a prayer in song with the other members of the congregation, from scripture…
Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me, the joy of life’s salvation.
And uphold a right spirit within me.
Cast your doubts upon the Lord.
Confess your doubts to God.
Lay your burdens at His feet.
Let Him help you.
Be an eye witness to His mercy and grace.
Believe in the miraculous.
It is what sets our Christian faith apart from all other religions.
Buddhism has no miracles.
Islam has no miracles.
Hinduism has no miracles.
Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Jesus Christ will make eye witnesses of all who come before Him and ask Him into their hearts with a repentance that is sincere.
We know prayer works.
We are eye witnesses to miracles today.
Because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.
God is not dead, and Jesus is alive.
Hallelujah.
Amen.
