Have You Seen Him?

Greeting

Good morning Lighthouse Church!

Let me begin by saying that it is great to be back. I was invited to speak to our Lighthouse Chula Vista campus last Sunday and so I missed being here with you all. I’m going to also say that Pastor Sam Angulo did an incredible job continuing our series, This Is The Gospel.

Today, we’re going to keep working our way through this discussion about the euangelion, or what is the Good News about the Kingdom of God.

But before I do that I did want to make one special announcement about a way for you to Make a Difference in the life of someone this Thanksgiving.

donate a basket, or

receive a basket for yourself or a loved one.

I also didn’t want to let this moment pass without saying THANK YOU to all of our Veterans at Lighthouse Church. We have a number of you who have served our country. My brothers, who are members here, have served our country. So we want to say THANK YOU for your service, your selfless, and to your families, the sacrifice that your service might have made on them.

Let’s clap our hands for them this morning.

Let’s go to 1 Corinthians 15:17 this morning.

1 Corinthians 15:17 (NIV)

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

The last time that I spoke in this series my sermon title was It Was Jesus All Along and today my title is, Have You Seen Him?

Have You Seen Him?

Introduction

Do you all remember when you heard President Trump start throwing around the term “Fake News”?

It got really popular while he was in office during his first term, and especially as he ran for his re-election in 2020.

That term is weighty when you think about it. Someone is reporting something to be true, and there is the potential that it is completely false. Completely made up. It’s not real. It is fake.

And then, someone could report something that is entirely true and accurate, but the moment someone says Fake News it has everyone wondering wether or not it’s true. As if somehow that’s just the one thing to make everything else go away.

What a time to be alive and use that term - Fake News.

When I think about the best way to disprove fake news I think what you need is a witness. We need someone who was there and can attest to the fact that something happened.

As a matter of fact, in the Jewish culture, two witnesses were required in order to bring an accusation or a charge against someone.

You can’t just make stuff up. There needs to be 2 people to have witnessed something in order for it to be credible.

Transition

Today we are going to pick up where Pastor Sam left off as we work our way through the eight movements of the Gospel and we’re going to talk about Jesus appearing to many.

Text

Our text this morning is from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. In that letter there is an entire chapter devoted to the fact of Jesus’ resurrection. Paul is telling his readers that the resurrection is not even debatable.

Why would Paul write this?

Well there were some in that church that had faith in God, but still struggled to get with the fact that Jesus was buried and raised from the dead. So Paul has some things to say about that. Let’s read some of what Paul said to those folks.

1 Corinthians 15:14–15 (NIV)

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.

Paul is coming on strong here. He’s telling this church that they can’t be a part of this new way of following the teachings of Jesus, and somehow believe that Jesus is still dead or that his body was stolen to make it look like he rose from the dead.

Paul is telling them what good is it to have living faith in a dead person. He’s calling out their hypocrisy.

And do you see what else Paul is saying to this group?

He is saying that our preaching is useless, your faith is useless, and me and that guy Apollos that you all love so much, we’re all a bunch of liars.

If it feels like Paul was writing a little strong, that’s because he is.

He’s really upset that somehow this false teaching has infiltrated the church that Jesus did not actually rise from the dead. Or said differently, Jesus is not alive.

We Are All Witnesses

So what does the Bible say about the resurrection of Jesus that we learned about last week?

Well, the Bible teaches that it happened, and then the Bible gives us several witnesses who saw that it happened. That matters.

Why?

Because when the Pharisees, Jesus’ ops, found out about the resurrection they literally paid the soldiers guarding the tomb to say that it didn’t happen. They were trying to run a fake news propaganda.

Let’s read the story. Let’s first start with the resurrection that they tried to stop.

Matthew 27:63–65 (NIV)

“Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.”

Matthew 28:11–15 (NIV)

While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

So there is a misinformation scheme that is already in place shortly after the resurrection of Jesus. The Pharisees were hard at work trying to make it look like a resurrection did not occur.

So what needs to happen in order to refute their claims?

There needs to be witnesses that said otherwise.

And do you know what?

There are witnesses. And not just a few. There are a lot of witness that Jesus was alive and that he appeared to many.

I’m not going to preach us through each one of these, but I am going to provide each one of these so that you know the length to which Jesus made sure people saw him.

So the exact number of appearances is up for debate because some of them overlap in the scriptures, but it is at minimum 8 appearances and at most 12 appearances depending on how you count them.

Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene John 20:14-18

Jesus appeared to the other Mary and women Matthew 28:9-10

Jesus appeared to Peter Luke 24:34

Jesus appeared on the Road to Emmaus Luke 24:13-31

Jesus appeared to his Disciples without Thomas John 20:19-25

Jesus appeared to his Disciples with Thomas John 20:26-29

Jesus appeared to his Disciples on the Shore of Galilee John 21:1-4

Jesus appeared to 500 in Galilee Matthew 28:16-20, 1 Corinthians 15:6

Jesus appeared to his followers at his Ascension Luke 24:50-51, Acts :1:6-9

In total, Jesus appeared to over 500 people during the 40 days before his ascension.

And if you are wondering why it was so important for Jesus to do this it is because a King needs his witnesses.

Remember, the gospel is a Kingdom proclamation. It is telling the world the ‘good news’ that a King has come to rescue them from a life of destruction and into a life in abundance.

Every Kingdom requires witnesses of the King.

A witness is someone who does two things. The first is they saw what happened, and then they testify about what happened.

How many of you like to watch court room drama shows?

You see how in those shows there needs to be a witness who is willing to testify?

That’s what Jesus needed. He needed witnesses that were willing to say, Jesus lives! He is alive and His kingdom has come!

And when we consider the length to which these witnesses would go, they were willing to go all the way to death to tell others about the resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus Meets With The Witnesses

Now as I said a moment ago, there’s one particular story that I want to pull on from the all of the appearances of Jesus. That is the story of the Road to Emmaus that is found is Luke 24.

The story opens like this…

Luke 24:13 (NIV)

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

How many of them were going to Emmaus?

How many witnesses in Jewish culture are required in order to bring a claim?

Jesus doesn’t miss the details, does he?

Luke 24:14–15 (NIV)

They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them;

Now, these men don’t recognize Jesus because he is in his glorified body. So they continue on with their conversation and this leads Jesus to ask them, “What are you talking about?”

Luke 24:18–19 (NIV)

One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” “What things?” he asked.

Now, Jesus is just toying with these guys now.

Remember I talked about a leading question in my message on John 4? Well, Jesus is doing it again.

This man with a jacked up name, Cleopas, gets a little sassy with Jesus, and rather than Jesus clapping back he just leads him on…

“What are you talking about Willis?”

Now for the sake of time I’ll paraphrase what Cleopas says to him. He’s tells him that supposedly Jesus was a prophet and there were man who were starting to believe that he was more than a prophet; he was the Messiah that they were waiting for. But, Jesus was killed, so there’s no way he could be the Messiah, he was probably just a prophet. But then a couple of women went to the tomb and Jesus wasn’t there! So we don’t know if Jesus rose from the dead.

“Like, actually.”

Or if his body was taken by the Pharisees, or if his body was taken by his disciples.

Now, Jesus is about to give Cleopas a lesson on the scriptures and the gospel. But I want us to pause for a second and let’s give Cleopas his flowers. He understood a lot of what was going on. He knew about Jesus, he knew about the things He did that qualified him to be a prophet, and he also seemed to understand that he was more than a prophet. Cleopas isn’t lost. He’s a little confused, but he’s not too far from the truth.

[Transition]

Remember when I gave us the example of the puzzle?

Well, let’s just say that Cleopas had all of the pieces of the puzzle, but needed some help putting them together.

And now here is Jesus, and Cleopas doesn’t even know that he is talking to him.

Let me quote the scholar James Edwards who put their conversation this way:

“The Road to Emmaus gives us the ironic story of living disciples talking about a dead Jesus, while a living Jesus speaks with lifeless disciples.”

That conundrum is the state of many followers of Jesus today. We talk, live, and act as if Jesus is dead. We say he’s alive, but we don’t live like he is alive.

A living God requires living faith.

So what’s the problem?

Well, today we are teaching that Jesus appeared to many, but I want to know, has he appeared to you?

Have you seen Him?

Have you had a personal encounter with Jesus so that you are left without doubt or question that you know that Jesus is alive and that He is the living King?

I get that Jesus appeared to over 500, but has he appeared to you?

The Road to Emmaus gives us a story of how Jesus wanted to reveal himself to these men.

And so, let’s get back to this story. He walks with these men and when they arrive Jesus intended to walk a little further. But something compelled these men to stay with him a little longer.

What compelled those men on that road is what compels us today to lean in to Jesus when we come here. Many of you when you first came felt something deep within you that made you want to stay here in this moment. You are experiencing what these men experienced when they were in the presence of Jesus; a man risen from the grave and appearing to many.

Conclusion

As these men convince Jesus to stay they sit down and have a meal together. We read in the story that as Jesus broke bread with them, suddenly their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus.

You see I believe it is when we have a posture like these men who said, we don’t know who this guy is but we know we don’t want him to leave, and that’s what Jesus reveals himself to us.

You don’t have to know and understand everything in this Bible, a holy curiosity will do. Just a desire to stay a bit and to allow your hearts to be open and Jesus will appear to you.

In Luke’s gospel Jesus breaks bread three times.

When Jesus fed 5,000

When Jesus fed 12 at the last supper

When Jesus fed 2 on the Road to Emmaus

The first meal led to satisfaction.

The Bible records that everyone man, woman and child ate and they were satisfied.

The second meal led to remembrance.

Jesus said do this in remembrance of me.

The third meal led to revelation.

Luke 24:30–31 (NIV)

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.

I love what these two men say in their hearts after they realize Jesus had appeared to them…

Luke 24:32 (NIV)

They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

Before Jesus came and walked with them, these two men had burdened hearts. They were overwhelmed by the events in Jerusalem. They were heavy.

But the moment they walked with Jesus, their burdened hearts became burning hearts. Dead faith was lit on fire as they walked with Jesus.

Call

Have you lost that fire? Have you never found that kind of fire?

Perhaps what is needed then in your life is to see Jesus. To have him appear to you this morning.

If you need a fresh touch from heaven today, I’m going to open these altars, and we’re going to stay here a while. We’re not going to run out of here, but like the two men on the Road to Emmaus, we’re going to say to Jesus, “Stay with us. Because the day is almost over.”