Sunday Sermon
sunday morning 7th Dec 2008
John 20 - the empty tomb.
The great question of faith is : did Jesus rise from the dead?
Faith lives or dies depending on the answer to the question.
It’s an extraordinary question to ask at the physical level because we know that if anything dies, it dies! There is no coming to life again.
But life is more than just the physical.
Our hope and dreams, our imaginations, our thoughts all lie at a none-physical level.
At this non-physical level, this spiritual level, we all long for life after death!
We all believe that there must be more to life than 70 years or more of hard work and a lot of disappointment, some joy and then death!
And so every generation asks, in every culture in the world, through all of history - is there life after death!
There seems to be an internal optimist in everyone! Life must be better, more than this!
e.g. The ancient Egyptians believed in life after death and prepared for it in the most extravagant of ways!
To ask the question about life after death is one of the most important questions to ask.
We can contemplate nature as we go through the death of winter and ask - is there to be new life, resurrection, in the spring?
Is there going to be harvest when the seed is planted and dies?
Is there going to be new life every morning when we wake up out of sleep?
Much in this world would seem to point to life after death.
But will we ever know for sure? Maybe until we die we will not.
We come to John 20 and we ask did Jesus rise from the dead.
In so asking we also ask: Will we rise from the dead?
1) the tomb was empty. V1-9
There should have been a body there - dead, rotting, cold, lifeless.
The disciples went in and found no body, but grave clothes.
And the assumption was that the body had been taken - v2.
The disciples did not expect the Resurrection. They expected the dead body of Jesus.
The empty tomb posed a question - Where is it? Where is the body?
But that was all. The empty tomb did not say Jesus is alive!
The mere fact of an empty tomb is no reason to believe - but it does raise questions.
APP
Questions are important for a solid foundation in the faith.
If we accept everything unquestioningly then there is no real commitment to it.
There is no learning, without reasoning through and questioning.
But often the devil comes and says ~ “don’t ask questions”, just accept!
But God made us with minds and abilities to think and decide.
Questions have to be asked.
So go on and ask your questions - if this is true then it will stand the test of our questions.
2) the tomb was full v10-18
Mary Magdalene then looks in and sees angels v12.
Who was she - not a reliable witness.
She had had 7 evil spirits posses her, before the Lord healed her!
Why would such a poor witness be chosen if this was a made up account!
If the early church was trying to fool people into belief they would have chosen a reliable witness, someone with credibility!
Not a woman, and not one who had been possessed.
Her account is recorded simply because it was true!
Having seen the angels she then turns and sees the Lord!
Yet she does not recognise Him!
Why not - because she was not looking for him alive but dead!
Only at the voice does she recognise Him! V16
Then she has to let Him go again and tell the disciples what has happened.
APP
Why was Mary (and the other women) so privileged?
Was it because of her love for the Lord.
Her one concern was to as soon as possible get to the tomb, to do all she could.
She was afraid, bewildered, emotional - but she was doing what she could!
We are told that love covers over as multitude of sins - 1Pet4v8.
We may do things wrongly, we may doubt and make mistakes!
But if we love, then the blessing will follow.
Love actually is the driving force of Kingdom work.
We work because we love people, not because we are experts who never fail, not because we are professionals with big wages!
We love the Lord and we love people and so we get on with the kingdom work.
3) the tomb was forgotten for Jesus was alive! V19-31. (the forgotten tomb.)
Following His appearance to Mary Jesus appears to the disciples twice, a week apart.
On both occasions Jesus says “peace be with you” v19 & 26.
Also on both occasions he shows the scars on his hands, feet and side.
The second appearance was especially for Thomas who did not believe because he had missed the first appearance.
But then seeing and touching Jesus led him to exclaim “My Lord and my God” v28.
He saw Jesus and he believed. That in itself is magnificent.
Because seeing is not always believing!
If we see something that is contrary to what we fundamentally believe then we will not believe what we are seeing! E.g. Luke 16v29-31 rich man and Lazarus.
Yes, Thomas had his doubts, but he believed in the end.
APP
The question is what about you?
If you are not prepared to believe then you will not believe.
But if you want to believe, if you like the thought, if there is a possibility that it’s true, then open up and believe!
What will be the result of belief? V29 - Jesus say you will be blessed, which at its root means happy.
Happy because of your new life and your new hope.
sunday evening 7th Dec 2008
Gen 22
What can we learn about the life of faith from Gen 22?
This is one of the most famous passages of scripture and for good reason.
The basic teaching is that faith is tested!
1) testing in the life of faith.
V1 lets us in on the secret right from the start. God was testing Abraham.
What is testing all about?
Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
Deuteronomy 8:16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.
Deuteronomy 13:3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Judges 2:21-22 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22 I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did."
2 Chronicles 32:31 But when envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous sign that had occurred in the land, God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart.
Psalm 26:2 Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind;
In the testing God is looking to the heart of the person to see if they really love and obey Him. To see if they really fear Him!
But does not God already know all things?
In the mysterious depth of God - yes He does.
But here we are told that God tests Abraham to find out the real condition of his heart!
So at another level God does not know until we freely act!
How does this tie up?
All I can say is that God is hiding his knowledge from himself, so that we are free to act. E.g. Adam hid in the garden and God asked where he was. God knew, but God was hiding himself to so that Adam could hid!
In the end God is mystery and we cannot logically tie up our responsibility and Gods sovereignty into nice little boxes!
But faith does not need to, faith takes the word of scripture and lives by it.
The first test Abraham faces is this: is he listening?
God called him and he responded right away - “here I am”
Lesson 1:
- faith listens for Gods voice. He speaks and we are to respond.
We may have questions. We may have doubts but we respond nonetheless.
This is the exact course Abraham took.
V2 Abraham is told to sacrifice his son!
V3 - he obeys right away! - passes the second test
He listens and then obeys
- faith is obedient to whatever the Lord says.
V4 - it was a long journey. God was leading him all the way. Thus Abraham was still passing the test. He could have turned off the track at any point.
He could have stopped listening!
V5 then he separates from his servants. Full of assurance that he and the boy will return. To worship lit- bow down. Pay homage.
Lesson 2: strong faith is always assured of Gods goodness.
Faith is sure over all seemingly contradictory evidence that God is good and faithful to his promises.
This is what we see as the story continues.
V6 Isaac carries the wood, Abraham carries the fire and the knife
V7 Isaac notices that the actual sacrifice is missing!
V8 faith responds - God will provide the sacrifice Himself!!
V9 at the place of sacrifice Abraham gets it all ready
V10 he is about to slay his son
V11 then God speaks again! Abraham responds in the same way “here I am”
- Faith keeps on listening! And takes all that God has to say.
Faith has no right to pick and mix the message of God.
V12 told not to touch the boy. God now knows that Abraham fears God above everything else.
- faith asks first and foremost - what does God think: that is the fear of the Lord.
V13 then the ram is used as the sacrifice in place of Isaac.
V14 thus Abraham’s earlier prediction came true v8 - God did provide.
Faith knows that before it happens! Faith trust.
V15 God speaks again. Angel, lit- messenger.
Note: where does God speak from? Heaven - but that is just the surrounding atmosphere. It is not far off, but right here.
V16-18: the message is a reaffirmation of the covenant promise.
V19 following this momentous mountain top experience Abraham just gets back on with life at hand!
Lesson 3: living faith spends most of it time off the mountain.
- faith has great spiritual highs, but most of the time faith has to work out in the simple bread and butter of normal every day life!
Faith is not allowed to stay on the mountain top!
Tests may seem hard, but often through them we receive the mountain top blessing!
Final note:
The NT interprets this whole event for us in Heb 11v16
Hebrews 11:19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
The interpretation is that Abraham used his mind to logically consider the command of God. He considered Gods promise about Isaacs role in the covenant, he considered Gods faithfulness to keep the promise, and he considered Gods power to raise the dead. Having considered in this way he got on with the task of obeying!
Faith demands that we sit down and think!
God expects us to use our minds. Living by faith does not mean that we have to sacrifice our intellects!
Christianity is not a cult, we do not live by blind faith.
The best of our thinking, reasoning and thought has to be poured into our faith.
Yet there will always be a tension this side of eternity. We will not always be able to reason and figure out why! But we need always to come back to Trust.
With the words of the disciples - “to whom else shall we go, you have the words of eternal life” John 6v68.