Sermon Tone Analysis

What benefit does the resurrection of Jesus have for us today?

Intro

How much faith is enough Faith?

Illus: Mother who was told if she had more faith bad things wouldn’t happen to her

This supposes that faith is hers to increase and to give.

She would be the author of and one who controls faith within her

This is not what we see in Scripture!

Illus: Matt 8:23-27

The disciples in the boat and the storm come

25 And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.”

26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?”

What if Jesus wasn’t rebuking the disciples, but just simply stating a fact

Faith - comes from God - they did not have the ability to believe because God has not given it to them

If Jesus was rebuking them he would be rebuking the Father

If Jesus was simply stating fact he meant that they had not been given faith to believe who Jesus was

Problem: Christians often believe that faith comes from them and is something they can increase.

Drama

First Day of the week

First day of the week

Sunday - Lord’s Day

Q. 59.

Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly sabbath?

A. From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath.

This practice began with the early church

Paul recognizes this gathering in

The disciples practiced it

Discrepancy?

How many women were there?

John mentions one woman

John

Matthew mentions 2

Mark mentions 3

Luke just says women

Luke

John focuses on Mary as the eye witness and is satisfied to do so

Yet we see from his words there were more than Mary there

Shroud of Turin

A full length controversial shroud that the RC church has that supposedly shows a picture of Jesus imprinted within it

It is a full body length shroud that most date back to the middle ages.

Calvin rightly points out this cannot be the shroud of Jesus since John’s account clearly states here that:

Typical Jewish custom as represented in Lazarus

Doctrine

Lord’s Day

First day of the week

Sunday - Lord’s Day

Faith

Is revealed in small yet evident ways

Has no partiality

First to a woman and then to his disciples

Faith’s feeble beginnings

God work’s through the little mundane things, sometimes insignificant things

Is revealed by God’s Effectual Calling

Disciples did not know of the resurrection

They had little faith that Marys witness was true

Peter ran and John followed

The little faith they had was given them by God to go and see

Some seed of faith, therefore, remained in their hearts, but quenched for a time, so that they were not aware of having what they had.

Thus the Spirit of God often works in the elect in a secret manner.

In short, we must believe that there was some concealed root, from which we see fruit produced.

Doxology

We cannot increase our faith!

Only God can do that.

THE grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts,b and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the word: by which also, and by the administration of the sacraments, and prayer, it is increased and strengthened.d

Matthew

Illus: Hammock

Little Faith - proven by testing

The resurrection gives us faith to run after Jesus Christ

At his lowest point Peter runs after Jesus

Small faith still caused him to run

It’s this same faith the the HS gives the elect to draw them to Christ

The resurrection gives us the faith to look for Jesus Christ

Mary and Peter seek Jesus in the tomb

The HS gives us faith to see Jesus in every circumstance

The resurrection causes us to tell others about Jesus Christ

Mary came and told the disciples

God uses His means to strengthen our faith - Let us use those means, the means of grace established by Him

To be a disciple you don’t need to have all the answers and know everything - God does not expect this

He does expect that you will, when given even the smallest amount of faith, to run to Christ, Seek him, and then grow in this faith through the means of grace.