TGP2801 - Scriptures are Confirmed

Intro

Afraid of What? - Video Screen Game

Teaching

Luke 24:36-49

When Doubts and Fears come, Take Hold of the Peace of Christ. (36-38a) Peace

Jesus appears to those who abandoned Him in His time of need. (36)

His greeting is friendly, He knew they’d likely be scared and wonder if He’s even real.

Their response shows us they were scared: (37)

Startled – someone jumps out at you when you come around the corner

Frightened – maybe you have a phobia

Thought they saw a Ghost – right before I turned 13, Camp Monikwa, water balloons

The disciples were hiding, behind locked doors, Jesus appears and they are even more afraid

Have you been afraid, are you dealing with fear now?

Have you abandoned Jesus or never followed Him in the first place

Whatever you’re going through, Jesus is here to bring you peace

When Doubts and Fears come, Center Your heart on Jesus. (38b-43) Hope

Doubt is a feeling of uncertainty

When we struggle with doubt,

don’t hold it in - Audience Participation: hold your breath - how do you start to feel before you finally give up? THat’s how doubt grows

confess it to the Lord

confess it to a friend or youth leader, we’re here to help

Jesus didn’t need them to confess; He knew their hearts already (38-40)

Notice that all their fears and doubts don’t magically go away (41a)

Jesus is raised with a real body, He asks for food to eat. (41b-42)

This wasn’t a hallucination or dream.

Jesus really came back to life in a real body.

When Doubts and Fears come, examine the evidence. (44-49) Confidence

God’s mind is so much bigger than we can begin to understand

Essential Doctrine: God is Transcendent

He’s not part of creation, He created it

He is greater in power, greatness, goodness, and purity.

We can’t begin to understand His thoughts

Isaiah 55:8-9  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Jesus came though to be with us – to show us God, to help us understand

He opens the mind of the disciples (44-45)

We need the Spirit’s help to understand God’s Word and to pray

The Bible is one Big Story about God’s plan over time

We must read and learn about the OT to understand all the prophecies Jesus fulfilled

The Apostles and Disciples were eyewitnesses:

2 Peter 1:16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

2 Peter 1:21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Most of them died for their faith in Jesus, people don’t die for what they know is a lie

Conclusion

Christ Connection: After His Death, Jesus appeared to His disciples to confirm He was alive and had defeated death and sin.

Over the course of 40 days, He appeared to over 500 people, most were still alive when the Apostle Paul wrote this:

1 Corinthians 15:3–11 ESV

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

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