What I Have Seen (John)

April 8, 2005

Opening Text: I Corinthians 15:1-11

Cross Testimonies:  What I Have Seen (John)

Revelation 1:9-19a

Proposition: The Resurrection presents a evidence to make the decision to believe in Christ.

Read the TEXT.

According to the December 2006 issue of GQ, one of the things you might not know about Will Ferrell is that he always gives thanks to Jesus.  Jesus Hernandez his bodyguard and trainer.  While Ferrell’s comment is made tongue in cheek there is another who has people giving thanks to him and calling upon him as Savior.  He is Puerto Rican born Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda.  His Growing in Grace ministry has 100,000 followers in 300 congregations in two dozen countries as well as millions who could be reached through the ministries satellite ministry.  He founded the ministry in 1986, thirteen years after in a vision the “Lord integrated into him.”  By 1998 he proclaimed he was the reincarnated Apostle Paul.  In 2005 he declared himself Christ, and early this year announced that he is that as the second coming of Christ he rejects the worship of Jesus of Nazareth and declared himself the Anti-Christ.[1]

To this claim long ago the apostle John concurred: I John 2:18.

Again John the apostle tells of the reason for recording what he saw (John 20:31-32).

1.  The Word of God

Ch. Dwelt Tabernacled, Camped Out Among Us

Shared in Chapter 3 with the leader of the People, Chapter 4 with the Samaritan outcast

I AM - 4:24, 26, 8:24, 28, 58, 13:19.

11:25  

2.  The Work of Christ

7 Miracles

Birth, Wedding, Funeral

Ch. 4, Ch.2              Ch. 11

3.  The Wrong done to Christ

John followed the trials

Was at the Cross - Entrusted with Christ Mother

Heard the words It is finised

This wrong brought about God’s redemption

4.  The Resurrection of Christ

First to the tomb

Second to enter

What he saw convinced him

Appearance to the ten, the eleven

5.  The Return of Christ

6 decades later - While on the Isle of Patmos

Vision of the returning Christ.

A Minister shared his story of being asked about the return of Christ by West African Seminary Students.  Curious as to what was the shout which Paul says will accompany the returning Christ in I Thessalonians 4.  As they demanded an answer beyond, “I don’t know.” He considered the stories of persecution he had heard and abject poverty he had seen.  He replied, “Enough”

Enough suffering.  Enough Starvation, Enough terror.  Enough death.  Enough indignity.  Enough lives trapped in hopelessness.  Enough sickness and disease.  Enough time.  Enough.

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[1]Campo-Flores, Arian “He Calls Himself God,” Newsweek, February 5, 2007, p. 55.