Renewal's First Ingredient: Renewed Worship John 4:23 - 24

"The hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth."
 

- Last week we defined church renewal as the continual transformation of God's people into the people he has called them to be, doing the things he has called them to do.

- This week as we continue exploring what church renewal is we'll take a closer look at these two verses from the encounter Jesus had with the woman at the well in the fourth chapter of John's Gospel.

*- First we'll place these verses in the broader context of Jesus' ministry, and then we will take a closer look at them.

- I believe we need to look at these verses in particular because they come to us straight from the ministry of Jesus and they speak directly to Jesus' heart for people and how renewed hearts come from a renewed relationship with God, both knowing him and responding to him in worship.

*- As we look at the Gospels, it is helpful for us to remember why Jesus came. First of all Jesus came to be the light of the world.

- Previously, God called Israel and set them apart to be his people as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to be a light to the nations.

- The trouble was that Israel had largely failed in this area through ongoing historic disobedience to God's call.

- Jesus came to accomplish what Israel could not. He came to be the light of the world. Jesus came to call a new/renewed people to be empowered by his Holy Spirit to be the light of the world.

- Now that we have some sense of the broader context of Jesus ministry, let's take a closer look at the specific context of John four and verses 23 – 24.

* - Jesus also came to call the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It was no accident that Jesus stopped at Jacob's well that day.

- Jews had no associations with Samaritans because of their religious compromise and because they viewed Samaritans as impure, as well as their previous history.

- Remember that Samaritans were descendents of the northern kingdom of Israel who had broken off from Judah and Benjamin and intermarried with other peoples. Israel and Judah fought and held grudges like feuding families from the time of the exile 500 years before right into the first century A.D.

- As we have heard before it was odd for a Jewish Rabbi to give a Samaritan the time of day and even more odd for him to be in Samaria and asking a Samaritan woman for a drink.

- But ask Jesus did, out of which their whole conversation ensued and the woman came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah and told her whole village so they came and heard Jesus for themselves and they too believed.

- In the broader context of Jesus' ministry, this one story is an example of how Jesus turned upside down 1st century Jewish thinking about remaining pure and separate from those around them.

- Jesus had to go through Samaria precisely because he was and is the Shepherd to the lost sheep of Israel, and what was Samaria but a nation of lost sheep?

- Jesus reached out to Samaria as the Shepherd of Israel and the light of the world, to show Samaria his light and his love.

*- Now that we have it freshly in our minds what Jesus was doing we need to go back.  I have suggested that renewal's first ingredient is renewed worship. But a question arises from that statement: what is renewed worship?

- To answer that question we must look to our Scripture for today.

*- "The hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth."

*- Please allow me echo the Scriptures by saying that renewed worship is worship that is offered to the Father by true worshippers in spirit and in truth.

*- With those words, Jesus introduced a new order where the important question ceases to be where people worship. The important question is now how one worships. (In addition to whom)

- The answer to the question of how we worship is wrapped in terms of worshiping God as Father. Jesus had a favorite term that he used for God which was Father and he taught his followers to do the same.

- Renewed worship comes from new knowledge of who God is and who we are in Christ. It is only through our relationship with Christ that we acknowledge that God is our Father.

- He is our Father because he is our Creator, but more importantly he is our Father because he has adopted us as coheirs with Christ and given us the right to become children of God.

* - To worship God as Father, we must realize that God takes us into his story not the other way around. It is not we who take God into our stories, our lives, but God invites us to come alongside him and join him in the unfolding of his great story as he reveals Jesus Christ who died and rose again to the world.

*- What did Jesus mean when he said that true worshippers worship in spirit? Renewed worship comes from the heart. The heart is the most inner part of a human being. It is that part of us which bears the image of God. The true location of renewed worship is a renewed heart. Everything else is expendable.

- Because God is spirit, then it is from a renewed human spirit that worship must flow. Only a renewed human being can worship the Father in spirit.

- The woman said, "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” John 4:20 (ESV)

- Jesus says, "Yes salvation comes from the Jews, but worship is not about Mt. Gerazim or Mt. Zion. It's not about temples and sanctuaries. It's not about the holy place or the commonplace. It's not about location. It's about worshiping the Father in spirit and in truth."

- Many people continue to make the same mistake as the Samaritan woman at the well made in thinking that you can't worship God properly unless you worship God in the officially sanctioned locations, the specially set apart places of worship.

- The questions of time, location, and style are not important. What matters is that we worship God as Father from the heart.

*- I've already mentioned that God invites us to participate with him and join him in the unfolding of his story. Renewed worship is about God's story and God's story is truth. That's why Jesus said true worshippers worship in truth.

- Jesus himself claims to be the truth and that whoever is on the side of truth listens to him.

- When we think of truth we think about whether or not something is real or genuine, whether or not something is factually true, that is, it's historical fact.

- While we might say that our worship must come from a sincere heart & while it is important for our worship to be sincere, that it comes from a genuine desire to worship God, sincerity does not cover it.

- It is not enough for Christian worship to be sincere, because it is possible to be sincere and also be sincerely wrong.

- Most religious people from any number of the world's religions are sincere, they truly are. But their sincerity is not enough because they're worship is not grounded in God's story, the story whose foundation is historical fact, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave.

*-Renewed worship is in truth because we worship what is true; rather we worship the one who is truth.

* - The prophets foresaw a coming day when God's glory and name would break in on the entire earth.  As Jesus told the woman, "The hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth."

*- Just as the life of the age to come may be enjoyed here and now, so too the worship of the age to come can be offered here and now.

* - Renewed worship cannot be tied to set locations, times, or styles. Renewed worship is offered in spirit and in truth because God is Spirit and Truth.

- Renewed worship is about renewed worshipers joining God in the unfolding of his story.

- So often when we come to Sunday services we make worship about what we get from it. We make it about our comfort and our needs.

- But you know something; worship is not about what we get from it. Worship is not about our comfort. Worship is not about our needs.

- We come to Sunday services looking for that word that'll get us through the week and you know worship really isn't about that either.

- Renewed worship really isn't about us. Renewed worship is about renewed worshipers joining God in the unfolding of his story.

*- Our verse for memory and meditation is John 4:24, "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:24 (ESV)

- If we want to experience renewal, then we must be prepared to worship God in spirit and in truth and that means being willing to join God in his story because worship is all about him.

-Haven't we been coming to worship with the wrong questions? The main question we ask is this: what can I get from God?

- Renewed worship means being willing to learn to think differently and ask different questions.

* - As a church, it means we need to be willing to ask: what can we do to be the light that God has called us to be? What can we do to join God as he works out his story?

- Renewed worshipers don't need to worry about location, where they worship, because their daily lives are offerings to God in worship.

- Their daily lives are offerings to God in worship because they have joined God and are working with him in the unfolding of his story.

- People in our culture have been fed the idea that there is no super story that makes sense of life, that there is no larger story that fits all of life under one umbrella.

- Most people in our culture have only heard that the only story that matters is the mini-story, their little story that is focused on the self.

- Is there any wonder why people are finding no meaning in their lives? People in our culture are longing to be part of something bigger than themselves.

- That is what we have to offer the world as renewed worshippers. We have God's invitation to join him in the unfolding of his story.

- People need to see God's story working out in our lives and they need to hear God's story from us because most people today don't know God's story.

- Renewed worship is about renewed worshipers joining God in the unfolding of in his story.

- I also think there's another lesson in this for us. If we make the unfolding of God's story the focus of our lives and the life of the church, then we will learn to let go of the stuff that doesn't matter since what really matters is the unfolding of God's story. In the big picture, nothing is more important that God’s story.

- Renewed worship is about renewed worshipers joining God in the unfolding of in his story.

John 13:31-35, Real Love 1, Real Love Sacrifices Self

My apologies for not publishing this message sooner...it was from 2011. DSL
 ¬Has anyone here today seen dominoes set up by the thousands (or even millions) and after they're set up someone tipping over the first one which sends them tumbling one by one?
 A lot of planning goes into something like that. The whole thing has to be designed, mapped out and then set up. It takes hours, days, even months.
 When the dominoes start falling, we witness a chain reaction which leads to a glorious finish.
 Glory is one of those words we hear quite often and never really gets defined. It's a word that contains a lot of emotion or wonder. It gets used when we experience something that has a big Wow factor. Such as, "Oh what a glorious view!" or "That performance was glorious!"
 Jesus uses the word glory four times in our passage today. As we reflect on what Jesus had to say, what is the Wow factor Jesus was talking about? What is the glory that Jesus was talking about?
 Judas left the room with his mind made up. His decision to betray Jesus now final. If Judas' decision was final, then Jesus' decision was also final. The events which lead to the crucifixion of Jesus were set in motion, and would very soon find their end.
 The dominoes are tumbling toward the climax of Good Friday, the climax of Jesus presence on earth. As Michael Card sings, "the climax of the cross, the moment our hope was born." The cross certainly had Wow factor, but not in a normal way.
 According to John's testimony, Jesus final words from the cross were, "It is finished." The dominoes have fallen and the glory of God in Jesus is on display for everyone to see. That's the glory Jesus was talking about as he began to speak to his disciples that astonishing night.
 It was also on this night that Jesus reclined with the Twelve to eat the feast of Passover. They all would have looked to Jesus to fulfill the fatherly role to answer the questions that the youngest children are taught to ask about the importance of the Passover meal and what the different foods represent.
 But on this night the disciples' role is unique. They witness the answers Jesus provides which bring out the new meaning of this night that centers on Jesus suffering on the cross. We see more Wow factor here, I think.
 But before we can go any further, we have to deal with the question that jumps off the page at us from verse 33. Where is Jesus going that the leaders of the Jews and his disciples cannot go? Peter asked him that very question, "Lord, where are you going?"
 The answer, Jesus is going to the cross and then back to his Father.
 Both the Jewish leaders and the Twelve were kept from seeing the importance and glory of the cross because of their hardness of heart and spiritual blindness.
 It was the relationship of the disciples with Jesus and his devotion to that relationship that enabled them to be brought back to faith after Jesus returned from the grave, risen from the dead.
 It was also the stubborn, unreasonable, hard hearts of the leaders of the Jews that kept them from turning to Jesus in faith and to a new relationship with God the Father.
 It's the Wow factor in Jesus relationship with his disciples that I want to focus on today.
 In verse 34, Jesus gives a new command that is based on the disciples' relationship to him and to one another. He said, "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other."
 This standard is not something completely new. His disciples would be familiar with this law of love as it is given in the Law of Moses.
 Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (ESV)
 Leviticus 19:18 also says, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the LORD.” (ESV)
 "Love one another," says Jesus, "as I have loved you." Wow!
 If Christians love each other the way Jesus showed his love, then it will be unmistakeable!
 Jesus did not simply say, "Love one another." Jesus was very specific about the kind of love his disciples must learn for each other with those words, "just as I have loved you."
 Jesus love is unconditional, limitless. The unmistakeable Wow factor is in the cross! That Jesus suffered and died for the greater joy of rescuing believers from sin and death, that Jesus sacrificed himself out of love for us, Wow! That is glorious.
 That is the point of Jesus' famous words to Nicodemus. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16
 "Love each other," Jesus said, "just as I have loved you."
 Real love sacrifices self.
 One hundred years after John wrote his gospel, Tertullian, a famous early theologian, reported that the non-Christians of his day said of Christians, "See how they love one another!" & "How ready to die for one another!" (Tertullian, Apology, quoted in F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John & Epistles, p. 295)
 The message that real love sacrifices self is up-side-down and backwards when compared to the message of Western culture.
 Today's culture is obsessed with self. It says, "Put yourself first, please yourself & gratify your desires, always follow your heart, if it feels good do it." These are the messages we hear in the mass media every day.
 But the message of the cross is something completely different. Real love, according to Jesus, sacrifices self. If that isn't a message with Wow factor, then I don't know what one is.
 You know, there is something no culture ever seems to lose and that is a hunger for heroes. Heroes wow us. We can look at a heroic act and say, "Wow!" or "Glorious!"
 People love heroes, be they superheroes or every day, ordinary heroes, but let me ask you something. What could be more heroic than self sacrificing love?
 Palasan of Stepanava, Armenia rushed into the local school immediately following the earthquake of 1988 & saved 28 children from the crumbling building before he perished in an aftershock that brought down what was left of the building.
 A young woman, while paying for her education, saves every penny so that she can support a half dozen sponsor children so that they can have the same opportunities she had for good nutrition, health care, clothes, shelter, education, as well as, being introduced to Christ and his church.
 Those are some extraordinary examples, but what does every day, ordinary (if we can call it that) self sacrificing love look like?
 Do we face situations that would give non-Christians/un-churched people the idea that we really do love each other? What would cause them to say, "See how they love one another!?" & "How ready to die for one another!"
 Where do our hearts and minds need to be every day if we are to become that kind of people? If real love sacrifices self, then how should it look?
 For starters, it should look like joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness gentleness and self-control. These qualities are the evidence that God's love & the Holy Spirit's presence is in our lives.
 When was the last time I exercised self-control & did not get angry by responding to an annoying situation with kindness & gentleness?
 The Bible says, "Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry."
 Young people, when was the last time you joyfully went and did a chore or something a parent asked you to do? Joyfully?
 The Bible says, "Be joyful always" and "Do everything without complaining or arguing."
 What about the next time you drive by your elderly neighbour and she's out shovelling her driveway, why not stop and show her the simple kindness of doing it for her?
 The Bible says, "Take care of orphans and widows in their distress."
 Am I willing to sacrifice a job with big pay and long hours for the sake of raising a family that knows and loves God, or is it acceptable for me to be a workaholic, money driven, absentee parent?
 The Bible says about its commands, "Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up."
 Just what exactly are we willing to sacrifice to show our love for Jesus to others who love Jesus?
 The Bible asks, "If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion--how can God's love be in that person?"
 If we see someone in need and we have the ability or the means to meet that need, then it is our responsibility to meet it.
 For us to love each other with real self-sacrificing love our very natures need to undergo massive changes.
 It must become our highest goal, our number one priority, to learn how to love like Jesus loves.
 As wow and as glorious as all this is, I think verse 35 packs the most Wow factor, the most glory of all.
 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.(NLT)
 When we really do love each other, the world takes notice and exclaims: "See how they love one another! How ready to die for one another!" It's then that the world is ready to hear about Christ.
 Showing each other real Christ-like love, shows the world we are really like Christ.

Renewal: What Is It? Why Do We Need It? Eph 4:11-16 (ESV)

* - We live in a time of accelerated change. The changes taking place in the world all around us in technology and information alone are simply mind blowing to say the least.

- The amount of information (and misinformation) is doubling about every 18 mos. Compared to the 20th century information doubled around every decade after 1950.

- Change is the one constant in the world and in our lives.  Truly, because we live in this world, our lives are always changing.

- Believe it or not, change is necessary for the church, but change seems to be the one thing that the church is slowest to embrace.

- If change is constant, then why is the church so slow to change?

- If I may be so bold, change is something many of us in the church simply refuse. We dig in our heels and we cling to our preconceived notions about what the church is supposed to be like.

- Change makes us uncomfortable and in times of accelerated change we want the church to be our security blanket: warm, fuzzy, and familiar.

- Making changes in the church is like taking away our warm fuzzy security blanket.

- Like little children we throw a tantrum, we want what we want when we want it, and we want our 'blankie' now.

- But God wants us to grow up in every way into maturity, into Christ's likeness, to be like him.

* - In order for the church to continue growing up, we need to continually ask what needs to change and why.

- When we don't ask these things, then the church of today is coasting on the work of the church of yesterday instead of doing the work that she has been called by God to do today.

* - In the title of this morning's message, I asked two questions and the first question is what is renewal? Church renewal is the continual transformation of God's people into the people he has called them to be, doing the things he has called them to do.

- As God's people, we are called to grow, develop, and mature and this kind of personal and interpersonal spiritual growth requires constant change.

- Not only does it require changes in our behavior, but it requires changes in the very depths of our souls.

- It is for this reason that Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 that we are not to conform to this world but be transformed by the renewal of our minds. We need to allow God to change the way we think.

- The way we see the world, the way we understand ourselves, the way we relate to our families, the way we do our jobs, the way we relate to everyone else needs to undergo regular evaluation.

- Like a computer that's not functioning the way it supposed to function, we need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in reprogramming the way our minds think

- This change in our thinking needs to happen more than in our personal lives, it also needs to happen in our thinking with regards to the church.

* - So church renewal involves personal change at the level of our being, who we are and whose we are.

- Let's go back for a few moments to the image of a child's security blanket.

- The longer the child has a security blanket and clings to it, then the harder it is for that child to let go of that blanket.

- So also, the longer things stay the same in the church, then the harder they are to change.

- And you know, the older a security blanket gets the more shabby and worn-out it becomes and before long it outlives its usefulness.

- As adults we can understand a child's need for security blanket in their early years. A security blanket can function as a source of real comfort, we get that.

- But there is a time to say goodbye to security blankets. The level of a child's attachment to their security blanket needs to begin falling by a certain age to the point where the child will naturally phase it out or with the help of their parents be finished with it.

- Some children need more help than others with that phasing out process because they feel insecure for whatever reason and insist on dragging that thing everywhere.

* - Now the trouble with the security blanket metaphor is that is difficult for us to identify what they are in the church. So we need to ask, what do our security blankets look like?

* - Let me suggest a few possibilities: our security blankets may look like a ministry or program, a tradition or a style of worship, or it may be something connected to the church building or certain spaces within it.

- Remember I said we need to continually ask ourselves what needs to change and why.

- Once we identify what our security blankets are we need to ask ourselves what purpose they serve, have we outgrown them, or are they worn-out and no longer useful.

- The thing is, we need to feel secure, but we need to get those feelings of security from the right place, rather the right person.

* - Friends, our security can only be found in Jesus Christ. Ministries, programs, traditions, worship styles, buildings and so on, these things are temporal, that is, they are temporary and not eternal. What is eternal, what lasts forever can only be found in Jesus.

* - Speaking of Jesus, when answering the question does this need to change, we first need to ask if Jesus died for it.

- Allow me to suggest that Jesus did not die for ministries, programs, traditions, worship styles, or buildings. Jesus died to set people free from these things. He died for people. It's people that matter. Only people have eternal destinies.

- Please, don't hear what I'm not saying. I am not saying we don't need ministries, programs, traditions, worship styles, or buildings and so on because we do need them.

- What we need to understand is that we need them to the extent that they serve a purpose for Christ's purposes and that we need to evaluate and question their effectiveness and their function in the church rather than allowing them to usurp their roles as tools of the church.

- When we become so attached to these things that we serve them instead of them serving us that is where problems arise.

* - Now for the second question in the title of this morning sermon: why do we need it (renewal)?

- We need renewal in the church because we do need to change. We need to change because our sin nature is constantly striving for us to find our security in something or someone other than Jesus Christ.

- Let's look again at our definition for church renewal.

* - Church renewal is the continual transformation of God's people into the people he has called them to be, doing the things he has called them to do.

- Over the next three weeks, we are going to look at what I believe are three key ingredients for church renewal.

- On May 27 will look at Renewal's First Ingredient which is Renewed Worship. In that message will take an in-depth look at John 4: 23 – 24.

- On June 3 will take a look at Renewal's Second Ingredient, the Great Commission which is found in Matthew 28:19 – 20.

- Finally, on June 10 will look at Renewal's Third Ingredients which are the Greatest Commandments, as found in Mark 12:28 – 34.

- Oftentimes publicly we say we want revival, but I wonder if inwardly we fear the revival that real renewal can bring because it means giving up our security blankets, trusting Christ more, and becoming risk-takers.

- The renewal brought about by the Spirit of God at work among us is something that we cannot control. Therefore, we need to be prepared to surrender more control of the church and of our lives to God's Spirit.

* - That brings me to today's take home truth: Become like Jesus; release those security blankets; be secure in him.

- Our memory verse for the week is, "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ" Eph. 4:15 (ESV).

- Become like Jesus; release those security blankets; be secure in him.

MBC Worship Sunday, April 22, 2012 A Brief Journey with John, 4: Seeing Jesus John 20:24-31

- Some people like to be with others when struck with the finality and grief that death brings because there is something about togetherness that flies in the face of death and contradicts it.

- Being together is life-affirming, comforting and reassuring to us that we are not alone in our grief.

- However, some people prefer to be alone with their grief. While others are talking and reminiscing, crying and laughing, some genuinely do not want to share their feelings and may even disappear until they have dealt with their grief. Some prefer solitude rather than the safety of numbers.

- Thomas preferred to be alone with his grief.

- We know that because he was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them and because of his refusal to believe.

* - Unfortunately, modern thinkers that we are, we like to put people inside a box and one of the ways that we do that is through nicknames that are often misnomers.

- I believe that Thomas has not been aptly named 'doubting Thomas'. We have made a mistake by permanently attaching the prefix 'doubting' before Thomas. I think Thomas has been misnamed.

- If Thomas had been with the other disciples when Jesus suddenly showed up among them in the upper room on the evening of that first Easter Sunday, then we would not have this story because Thomas would have also seen and been with Jesus that day.

- As it was, Thomas was not with the other disciples that evening. He had gone off by himself to deal with his grief. He had accepted and resigned himself to the finality of Jesus' death.

- When the others told Thomas that they had seen the risen Lord Jesus, as far as Thomas was concerned they were all having delusions of grandeur.

- He had no interest in what he saw as wishful thinking because as yet he did not understand the Scripture that Messiah must suffer and die and rise again.

- The empty tomb was not enough for Thomas, just as it was not enough for Peter, Mary Magdalene and the rest of the disciples.

- If it was true, then he wanted more. He wanted conclusive proof. In fact, he demanded it. He wanted to see and touch Jesus.

- As he said, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

* - Because Jesus loved Thomas and because he is gracious he indulged Thomas's skepticism and responded to the buried hopes and desires of Thomas's heart with living proof.

- What about Thomas's response? When faced with living proof, Thomas's response is that of immediate faith; "My Lord and my God!"

* - Thomas's response is a confession of faith in words that are deeper and more profound than any language used by the witnesses of Christ's resurrection up to this point.

- Thomas confessed his newfound faith with complete conviction and expressed it recognizing Jesus as his Lord and his God.

- I want to take a moment and ask a question: what does this say to us about the skeptics and doubters of this world?

* - The doubters, sceptics and pessimists of the world demand proof. They want to see the risen Christ show up with skin on.

- Friends, it is no accident that the apostle Paul refers to the church as the body of Christ, Christ's body. The church is supposed to have an incarnational ministry in the world. We are supposed to incarnate, to embody, Christ to the world now that he has gone to heaven and poured out his Spirit.

- We represent and personify Christ. That is to say that we are the ones who carry out Christ's mission in the power of the Holy Spirit with skin on in Jesus name.

- For the world, we are Christ's body; we are the skin, the flesh they see that is the proof of his life.

- The world does not believe because they do not see Jesus.

- The disciples did not believe until they saw Jesus. Thomas did not believe until he saw Jesus.

- The disciple whom Jesus loved, as we read on Easter Sunday, he saw and believed.

- The world must see before they will believe. In their minds, seeing is believing.

- In order for the world to see and believe, they need to see the risen Christ in two ways: 1) they need to see the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus; and 2) they need to see evidence of Jesus life in the life of God's people as we show and tell the world about the love and message of Christ.

- The world needs to see Christ alive in us in order to see that Christ is alive.  Seeing Jesus alive and well in the body of Christ prepares the world to see Jesus alive and well through the evidence for his resurrection.

-I want to take a few moments to list and briefly describe some *resurrection facts which Josh and Sean McDowell share in their book Evidence for the Resurrection.

* - Fact number one: The Roman Seal upon the Tomb Was Broken. The consequences of breaking the Roman seal were severe. The perpetrators would've been hunted down and severely punished. The disciples of Jesus are portrayed as cowards when Jesus was arrested. They were incapable of breaking the seal.

* - Fact number two: The Tomb Is Empty. All four biblical gospel accounts are in agreement about the empty tomb. Not only that, but we also have Jewish and Roman sources and traditions that act as hostile witnesses acknowledging the empty tomb. When a source admits a fact that is not in its favor, then the fact is held to be genuine, i.e., that it is true.

* - Fact number three: The Huge Stone Is Removed. Not only was the stone rolled back from the entrance to the tomb, but a careful reading of the four canonical gospel accounts reveals that the stone was moved some distance away from the tomb. No one, especially not a group of cowardly disciples, could have moved that stone some distance away from the tomb without alerting the guards because of its size and weight.

* - Fact number four: The Roman Guard Goes AWOL (Absent without leave). Not only did the Roman guards commit dereliction of duty, but they fled. They left their place of responsibility without leave. The punishment for these sorts of failures was death.

- Also the fear of the kind of death they would receive resulted in close attention of Roman soldiers to their duties.

- The chief priests could have brought these accusations to the Roman authorities, but the evidence at the tomb was such that it made it impossible for the chief priests to bring any charge so they bribed the guards.

* - Fact number five: The Burial Clothes Tell a Tale. The body certainly would not have been stolen because no grave robber would have gone to the trouble of removing the burial cloths and leaving them to look as if the body came out of them like a cocoon.

- However, he would've taken the body, grave clothes and all.

- As we learned on Easter Sunday, the facial cloth was folded in a place by itself as a sign that Jesus was finished with death and never intended to return to that experience ever again.

- The grave clothes remained in the place where Jesus body had lain and yet were empty and undisturbed.

* -Fact number six: The Confirmed Encounters with Christ. What is the evidence for the post-resurrection encounters with Christ?

* - First, there is the large number of eyewitnesses. In the earliest statement of faith of the church, which we find in First Corinthians 15:3-8, we are told over 500 people saw Jesus at one time in addition to the Twelve disciples. Generally speaking, the greater the number of witnesses to a published historical event the more accurate that event is considered to be because it could be verified.

* - Second, there is the variety of witnesses and locations. No two of the encounters that disciples had with the risen Christ are the same. Mary Magdalene saw him early in the morning. Those on the road to Emmaus saw him in the afternoon. The apostles saw him in the evening. Mary saw him outdoors and alone. The apostles were in the upper room and the doors were locked.

- In our passage for today Jesus appears to Thomas then not only does Thomas see Jesus but Thomas touches the places where the nails pierced his hands and feet and put his hand in Jesus side.

* - Third, the inclusion of hostile witnesses. Before his conversion, Saul of Tarsus persecuted Christians but following a personal encounter with the risen Christ his zeal to eliminate Christians was transformed into zeal to create Christians. James and the brothers of Jesus not only refuse to believe in him but attempted to set up a death trap for him at a feast in Jerusalem. Yet according to the New Testament Jesus brothers are counted among the believers. The most plausible explanation for their conversions is that they too had eyewitness encounters with the risen Christ.

- The one thing that must be acknowledged regarding the testimony of written history about the resurrection of Christ is that no one ever stepped forward to claim that the body was still in the tomb. Anyone who made that claim 2000 years ago would've been easily exposed as charlatans and liars just as they are today.

- Titanic director James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici, aka the naked archaeologist, concocted such a story which aired on the Discovery Channel a few years ago (The Lost Tomb of Jesus)and when their faulty theories and poor archaeology came to light the network dropped them like a hot potato because they didn't do their homework.

- Jesus promised a special blessing to those who believe without actually seeing his resurrection body. For us, faith comes by hearing. We have heard the message but we live in a world where seeing is believing.

* - John and the other gospel writers understood this which is why they presented accurate eyewitness accounts of the events of Jesus life and ministry and especially of his death, burial, and resurrection, so that in hearing and in reading we could see the evidence and come to faith in Jesus Christ.

- As John wrote, "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (vv. 30-31)

- Life in his name... Having life in Jesus name means more than simple belief because even the demons believe and shudder. Having life in Jesus name is to have life in his person.

- Having life in Jesus name means Jesus lives within you by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

- Having life in Jesus name means that you will do and say the kinds of things that Jesus would have you do and say.

- Having life in Jesus name means that you will become the kind of person Jesus would be if Jesus were you.

- Having life in Jesus name means the world will look at you and see Jesus.

** - The world wants to see Jesus, so let them see Jesus in you.