Do You Believe?

Christ is Risen!

Many modern minds believe that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is impossible.  They say it's just a metaphor.  We live in a scientific age and many people doubt miracles, or simply don't believe in them at all.  So, for many people the Resurrection is just not allowed by their worldview.

If that's you, let's do a thought experiment.  What would it take to smash your worldview, your opinions and beliefs, and convince you that Jesus was raised bodily from the dead?  You might say, "it would have to be overwhelming evidence.  It would have to be absolutely convincing proof for me to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead!"

I want you to realize that whatever it would take to convince you, whatever kind of proof it would take to hit you and make you believe Jesus was raised from the dead - It must have hit his disciples!  Although they probably had different reasons, the idea of a resurrection was just as inconceivable for them to believe as it is for modern people to believe.  Greeks believed salvation was the soul being released from the body at death.  They had no reason to hope for a resurrection.  Some Jews believed in a resurrection at the end of time when all things would be restored.  But someone rising in the middle of history just didn't fit their theology.


Jesus kept telling his followers, "I'm going to be killed and then rise again on the third day."  But on the third day no one showed up at the tomb to see.  Only a few women went - and that was to pay their last respects.  Even when they found the stone moved, and the tomb empty their first response was, "Someone took his body!"  Rising from the dead conflicted with their worldview so sharply that they didn't even show up out of curiosity to see what would happen.

So something must have been overwhelmingly convincing to them, because they did change their minds.  They did believe!  The Gospel writers tell us what affected them so strongly:  Jesus appeared to them alive.  There are several occurrences recorded where Jesus appeared to his followers after the crucifixion. 

* Hundreds of people believed because they actually saw and heard and touched a living Jesus!

* Thousands more believed because they heard and believed the eyewitness testimony of those who actually saw the risen Jesus! 
 
By the way, you have the eyewitness testimony too!  The Bible, the Gospel writers are the eyewitnesses to these things that the early church had.  Read them and decide.

Do you believe?!

Good Friday 2010

Find one of the passages about the passion.  Read it and pray it.  Remember what Jesus did for us.

Matthew 27

Mark 15

Luke 23

John 19

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Many religious figures have assumed a state of humility as they endeavored to patiently teach their followers to walk in the way in which they themselves have discovered.

Then comes Jesus. 

• The Word of God Made Flesh

• The Image of the Invisible God

• The Firstborn over all creation 

• The Radiance of God's Glory

• The Exact Representation of God's Being

• The Only Begotten Son of God

This is not a gentle soul with a divine spark

He is the Spark of all Creation

This is not an awakened soul 

He is the Breath of Life

This is not an enlightened soul 

He is the Light of the World

He is the "Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made..."

The One I've been describing, He is the One who stooped down at Simon Peter's feet, washing and drying them only a few hours before this same disciple denied Him.  The "I AM" who appeared to Moses, the Lord God Almighty made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.  Maybe other religious leaders have set examples of humility and service to others.  But what other lord or god has ever descended from his altar, or pedestal to serve his subjects in such a way as this?

Jesus is the link between heaven and earth; between God and people.  In this simple act of service He humanizes God's love for us, and sanctifies our love for God.  No one else could have done that.

I choose to love the God who first loved me.

I choose to serve the only God who serves!

 Mark 10:45 

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

 John 13:2-15

²The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. ³Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

 ⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"

 ⁷Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."

 ⁸"No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet."
      Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."

 ⁹"Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"

 ¹⁰Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you." ¹¹For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

 ¹²When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. ¹³"You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. ¹⁵I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.