The Power of His Resurrection for You and Me! John 20:24 31

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1 The Power of His Resurrection for You and Me! John 20:24 31 Easter Sunday March 27, 2016 AM Pastor Ken Hepner Introduction: This is Resurrection Sunday It is the day in the church calendar, in which we join with people all over the world to celebrate the truth that Jesus our Lord came to this earth to deal a deathblow to the power of sin to enslave us, and the power of death and Hell to hold onto us. We celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, to the glory of God the Father, granting all who believe power to be Victorious over Sin s Power to enslave us. That first resurrection morning begins a unique and interesting portion of our Savior s life and ministry on our behalf here on earth. It represents a transition period between His earthly ministry and His heavenly exaltation at the right hand of the Father on High. He knew He was risen King Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth, but there were things to attend to here on earth. There was a group of very bewildered followers who must learn who He really is and what it was that they had really come to believe. There is a type here for us if we have eyes to see it; a pattern Jesus is showing us about a life that is hidden with Christ in God s presence. What we see here is true Christian life, what it means to live with our hearts and our heads in heaven and our feet planted firmly on the earth. I have been asking the Holy Spirit give us Eyes to See and Hearts to Believe what we see in the life of Jesus as He lives in each one of us here today. The cry of my heart as your pastor is for each person who calls Cedar Grove Church their home church to Encounter the Lord Jesus personally, to experience His conviction of our need to know Him personally. I pray that we all may be struck by a new awareness of His life in our own experience and walk with Him in a new sense of His holy Abiding Presence in our hearts, setting our hearts of fire with His Holy Love! What kind of Christ is this Jesus we have come to love and adore? Luke helps us to grasp who Jesus really is in his words found in Acts 1:3 After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave man convincing proofs that was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. He is a Living Christ The resurrection of Jesus means that He is alive for ever and ever, and He holds the key to eternal life in heaven and eternal punishment in Hell. The true Christ of Christianity is not a suffering, bleeding, dying Redeemer. He is alive and His heart is a glowing fire, inflamed with the love and holiness of God streaming from His face! He is a Victorious Christ The resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate triumph over all of the schemes, wiles, and tactics of Satan our archenemy. It is our victory over sin, death, and all the powers of hell. Our part in this victory is to choose to make what He did for us personal. We 1

2 come to the Cross and the empty tomb and accept by faith what He has done for us, was for me personally. We receive His life and power dwelling in our hearts every day. He is a Mighty Christ The Lord Jesus who showed Himself to Mary, as Risen Lord was gentle and sweet to her. And yet, this One who is risen from the dead is Omnipotence in person. He says to His followers, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. The might power of His resurrection is available to you and to me for our every day living. Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers to know the incomparably great power of God that raised Jesus from the dead, actually living in their hearts. May it be so in us today Lord Jesus! He is a Loving Christ The resurrection of Jesus gives us a picture of a Christ who loved us so deeply and tenderly that He willingly took into Himself all that we had done that was offensive to the Father and crucified it for us. He walks among us and ministers to us with tender mercy, like that with which He touched Mary of Magdala and Thomas the doubter. He is an Ever-Present Christ And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age. The promise of this incredible passage is not only fulfilled in the sense that He is with us all when we gather together. The truth is that He lives in each one of our hearts by His Spirit. His nature directly affects our lives with His constant companionship and leadership. This is a profound mystery: That He, the God of ages, lives in me! The portion of Scripture we will be studying this morning is when Jesus met with Thomas during the second week of His ministry on the earth as Risen King Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth. The reason we know this was the second week is the Bible says it was the second week. That first resurrection day meeting was minus one disciple: Thomas wasn t there and made the audacious statement that he really didn t believe the brothers who told him Jesus is alive! Verse 25 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. This incredibly beautiful passage of Scripture has some things to teach us about Jesus ways with some of us when we struggle to believe Him. With tender condescension Jesus seems to completely overlook Thomas obstinence and unreasonableness of a week earlier. Jesus seems, on the contrary, to be anxious to remove his difficulties and enable him to believe because His words to his doubting man are: Stop doubting and believe. Thomas was overwhelmed, not so much by the physical wounds of Jesus, but by His heartsearching omniscience, and the incredible grace with which Jesus submitted to his proud and unbelieving demands. He responds with an incredulous My Lord and my God! There are some powerful lessons here for us. So let s examine them shall we? I. Jesus is a Christ Who Speaks to Our Hearts: Jesus came to them on the Lord s Day, the freshly instituted new Sabbath Day of rest, to speak to the hearts of those who had gathered in His courts to praise Him and to pour out their hearts to Him in prayer. To say that these men are struggling over what had happened to Jesus in the past 2

3 few days would be a gross understatement. Jesus promised them that they would see Him, He would return to them and here He is! He knows what they have been thinking, saying, and doing all week. Jesus knew all about Thomas actions of the previous Sunday. He had heard his willful words and unbelief with his brothers. Jesus showed Thomas that He knew all about it, all the sin, the obstinacy, and the doubts he felt. And He went right to Thomas to Speak Directly into his Heart about what was going on inside him. What we see in this picture is a pretty powerful truth of His kingdom on earth. As He met with His followers in this text, even so He meets with us here today. Have we not often been struck with how a preacher of the Gospel message seems to know exactly what we have been thinking or even talking about in the privacy of our home? Haven t we all had the unnerving experience of a preacher revealing our inmost thoughts and unveiling our hearts? Maybe we thought, How in the world did he know about that? Did my kids tell him about me? The Lord has made it clear that the preaching of His Gospel message is an activity He desires to Anoint and use in powerful ways to Reveal Himself to our Hearts. He who stands behind and in the preaching of His word, has made the following disclosure about His ability to know and speak to our hearts. Hebrews 4:12, 13 His word is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Don t be fearful, full of dread or condemnation about struggling with doubts. That passage, written from the heart of the Hebrew author under the Spirit s leadership, concludes verse 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Jesus went right to Thomas and sought out his perplexed and troubled disciple first. Even so, if you re here this morning loaded down with cares, or questions, or doubts, He is coming to seek you out right now to help with blessing. The Lord Jesus has light for our darkness, strength for our weakness, comfort for our sorrow, and tender loving compassion for our loneliness. So bring Him what we truly feel today, the good, bad, and even the ugly, and lay it at His feet with the confidence. He already knows about it anyway and cares deeply for us right where we are! II. Jesus is a Christ Who is Patient with Doubters: The second thing we learn about the Risen King Jesus from this story is that He is infinitely patient and tender with doubters. How gentle is His treatment of Thomas, free of rebuke and scorn. His way with Thomas avoids irritation and offense. He even withholds the gentle reproof of His doubting follower until after Thomas feels restored by His grace and love. Jesus was gracious with Thomas in his skepticism and his stubborn refusal to accept the testimony of his brothers. What Thomas says to his brothers, on that first resurrection evening, honestly borders 3

4 on the ugly Sin of Unbelief! Unbelief is a willful sin of choice. It is not just lack of faith. It is actually choosing to not believe! Way different thing! If the truth were told by all of us in this Life Center today, we could look back on times when Jesus was infinitely patient with us too. The Lord knows how we have sinned, how we have spoken our doubts to others, how we have chosen the Path of Self-Interest. How tenderly and compassionately the Lord works with those of us who long to know Him more intimately than we presently do. Jesus has been incredibly gracious and patient with me, when I have done things that have broken His heart. He has patiently borne with me when I have struggled with believing and with very imperfect faith. He has met me in the exact same way as He met Thomas: He met me where I was and began to slowly move me into a deepening and broadening understanding of who He is and what He came to earth to do for me. The moral to this story is that we shouldn t be discouraged by the struggles we have to believe Him, to walk in maturing faith. The Master will meet us Right Where we are, will take all that we can give to Him, and will lead us further down the pathways to His righteousness if we will simply decide to follow along! If we are suffering, discouraged, despondent, and struggling to regain inner victory in our faith walk with God we should take courage from this story. The Lord cares infinitely for us all and is reaching to us, regardless of how together we have it all presently! The fact is the Spirit of Jesus pouring victory into you and me is just one simple and sincere prayer away. Blessed and patient Christ Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth, how tenderly You have reached Your mercy to us again and again! III. Jesus is a Christ Who Reveals Himself to Us: This incident in the lives of Thomas and all of those who saw it take place is a picture for all to see that in all of our doubts, fears, suspicions, and difficulties in believing God, the true answer to all of these issues of the heart is the Revelation of Christ Jesus Himself. Jesus healed Thomas of his skepticism, not by reasoning with him, but by showing Himself to him. He reached out to him and showed him the nail prints and the hole in His side. John 20:27 Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. Thomas needed no more convincing; he had seen the Lord Jesus for himself, felt His living flesh, and above all he had experienced Jesus heart searching gaze of love. The answer to all of our doubts, fears, skepticism, and distrust is Jesus holy presence in our hearts, making His Word alive in us like a fire in our bones. Jesus promised to do this for us earlier in John s Gospel account in 14:21b He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. 4

5 This is exactly what the Hebrew author told us in Hebrews 1:1 3a In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining everything by his powerful word. When you get alone with God this week for your time of reading the Bible and prayer, don t think of it as merely a discipline to be maintained. Think of it as time to be alone with Jesus who is sitting there with you, living in you, and who desires to make Himself known to you as you invest quality time in His presence! When we leave this building today our role as His witnesses is to enable people to see Jesus. We will never win anyone to Christ through any logic, by argument, theological position, or by expounding our doctrines. What every person in our sphere of influence needs is to meet Jesus. He is the solution to difficulties and pain. Jesus crucified for our sins, risen Lord who cares deeply for every one we meet. The best way people can see Jesus today is when they see His life in our lives transforming us! Thomas response was, My Lord and my God! For a Jewish man to say these words about another person is a powerful thing to behold. In that culture when someone spoke the term Lord we need to understand that it was reserved for one to whom a person Voluntarily Submits. God is a reference to the absolute divinity, the Omniscience and Omnipotence of who God is, the all-sufficient, all-encompassing Creator God. This would be blasphemy if applied to anyone but God! Yet Thomas crossed the threshold from doubting and obstinacy to believing and confession of Jesus as his very own Lord and God in a heartbeat. How did Thomas do that so readily? The fact of the matter is that when he looked into the eyes of Jesus and saw there something he had never seen before, the fixed gaze of God looking into him, the response was Complete Undoing of all that he was and all he had come to believe. Jesus who stood before him was no less than the eternal God in person! This is exactly what Peter meant when he stood before the Sanhedrin a few weeks later and declared in Acts 2:36 God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. For the disciples of Jesus gathered there in the upper room with him on this Lord s Day, Jesus was without question the Son of God, risen King of all that is. They believed Him to be Lord over everything for the church. Here is the sixty four dollar question that this encounter between Jesus and Thomas begs in our lives: Is this our Christ Jesus? Do we believe Him to be Lord over everything we face in life? Does He tower over difficult things we have to walk through, the days of suffering we face? Does your Christ tower over sins you have done and the self-interest you see in yourself and does He grant us victory over the will of our adversaries? 5

6 IV. Jesus is a Christ Who Expects Our Implicit Faith: Jesus addresses two kinds of faith in this text, in Thomas life one that is elementary and one that is maturing and God-honoring. The having seen kind of faith: Because you have seen me you have believed. He accepted that this is a starting point for Thomas, and it often is for many of us as well. Faith that springs from sight, from answers to prayer, from having seen God act is good. But there is a higher level of faith: The having never seen and yet believing kind of faith; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. This kind of faith receives Jesus highest blessing because it reveals a simple, childlike trust that He is who He says He is and will do what He has said He will do. The Bible teaches us that even the faith we use to come to know Jesus personally is a gift. The gift of faith to trust the Lord is absolutely essential to our experiencing the salvation of our souls, the forgiveness of sins, and the joy of becoming brand new in Christ Jesus. Receiving Jesus as Savior and Lord is as simple as choosing to take Him at His word, believing that He really does want to help you in your time of need. Followers of Jesus who pray the Lord has a word of encouragement for us. Are you praying and praying about something that is really difficult, for which you must have God s action to succeed? Do we wonder why sometimes our prayers are unanswered, perhaps for years? Do we ever wonder why we seem to have to wait and wait for evidence of the providential working of God? John 20:29 is our verse: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. The Power to Believe God when we have Nothing but God to believe is itself a tremendous Blessing! This is exactly what Paul prayed for the followers of Jesus to come to know in Ephesians 1:18 20 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. Abraham lived out for us an example of believing God when all you have is God to believe. The testimony is found in Romans 4:17b, 18 He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Against all hope, Abraham in home believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, So shall your offspring be. When we come to Jesus and ask Him to forgive us we often feel unworthy, helpless, and hopeless because we feel convicted of our sins and failures. The truth is that He sees us in our sins and failures and loves us anyway, accepts us right where we are, forgives us of all our sins, and cleanses us of all unrighteousness. This is His promise: I John 1:9 If we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. 6

7 If you turn to the Lord Jesus today and trust Him to forgive you, cleanse you, and come to live in your heart He will never ever cast you away, and He will receive you warmly into His family! 7

8 March 27, 2016 The Power of His Resurrection for You and Me John 20:24 31 Introduction: This is Resurrection Sunday We will see what the risen Jesus means for we who believe: We may be V over sin s P. After Jesus resurrection, there were things on earth to attend to: A group of bewildered followers must learn who Jesus is and what they had come to B. The true Christian life is seen in Jesus life here. Christians live with our heart and soul in H but our feet are firmly planted on E. My heart-cry for all of us as a church family is that we may E the Lord Jesus P. Luke helps us to grasp who Jesus really is in Acts 1:3, He is a L Christ a V Christ a M Christ a L Christ an E - P Christ. The story before us is when Jesus met with His doubting follower, Thomas, during the second week after He rose from the dead. There are some wonderful things here for us to learn about Jesus ways with us when we S to B Him. I. Jesus is a Christ Who Speaks to Our Hearts: Jesus came to His struggling followers as He promised them He would! He knew what Thomas had been saying! He went straight to His doubting man and S to his H. As Jesus met with His people, even so He meets with us today. The Lord has made it clear that the P of His Gospel M is something He will powerfully A and use in our lives to R Himself to our hearts and minds! Hebrews 4:12 13, 16 concludes II. Jesus is a Christ Who is Patient with Doubters: We learn in the passage, Jesus is so patient with us when we doubt Him! 8

9 What Thomas said borders on the ugly S of U! Jesus is patient with us too. He knows our S and that we have chosen the path of S -I. The moral of this story is if we struggle to walk in a maturing faith, Jesus will meet us R W we are and draw us to Himself! Jesus cares infinitely for you and me regardless of how together we are! III. Jesus is a Christ Who Reveals Himself to Us: The true answer to our fears, doubts, suspicion, and skepticism is a R of Jesus Christ Himself to us and in us! The answer to a heart that hungers to know Him is the P of Jesus making His Word A in us, a fire in our bones! Hebrews 1:1 3 What every person in our sphere of influence needs is to meet Jesus. When Thomas did so, his response was My Lord and my God! When someone in that culture used the term Lord, it was given to one to whom they V S. When Thomas looked into Jesus eyes, he saw something he had never seen before, the Eternal God s fixed gaze of love looking at him. Thomas experienced the C U of all he thought! This Risen Jesus who reveals God is what Peter meant in Acts 2:36. Our sixty-four dollar question of the morning? IV. Jesus is a Christ Who Expects Our Implicit Faith: Jesus addresses two kinds of faith in this encounter with Thomas: the having S kind and the having not seen yet B kind of faith! The Bible teaches us the faith we have to believe in Jesus for the cleansing of sin and to receive His life within us is the G of God to us! For we who have been praying for years for someone to turn to Jesus The P to believe Jesus when we have N but God to believe is a tremendous blessing to us, Ephesians 1:18 20 and Abraham s example, Romans 4:17b 18. When we come to Jesus by faith and feel unworthy, helpless, hopeless to change, He meets us right there. It is His promise to us in I John 1:9 If we turn to Him and trust Him He will come into us and dwell there! 9

10 Discussion Starter Questions for Home Groups 1. Do you think it is widely understood and believed that Jesus came to earth to grant us the power to be victorious over sin s power to enslave us? 2. There were five things spoken about Jesus our Christ, our Lord. Which one or ones spoke more powerfully to your heart? Why? 3. When Jesus came to Thomas he patiently worked to restore Him. Why do you think John recorded this story for his readers? What does he want us to see? 4. Why do you think the Lord has chosen to use the vehicle of His Word preached and expounded to people by frail human instruments? 5. In the message a distinction was drawn between doubting and the sin of unbelief. How would you describe the difference between the two things dwelling in a human heart? 6. In your opinion how does God make His Word come alive to His men and women? Who empowers it as we read it and makes it alive with meaning within us? 7. What is the difference between having seen and having not seen and yet believing? Why is it important to understand this aspect of our faith? 8. The Bible calls us to believe God when we have nothing but God to believe. Why is this an important concept for us to understand? What does this mean for us as we live out our faith each day? 9. Read together aloud Ephesians 1:15 23 and Romans 6:1 14. Discuss insights you have regarding what the resurrection of Jesus means to us. 10. What are some ways the Lord has patiently worked in your heart and mind when you were struggling? Who did the Lord bring into your life to help you? Can you share with your home group how the Lord has worked to restore you? 10