Jesus to Me

ME

Jesus to Me

*Show pic of Camp Garner Creek*

I was ten years old at Camp Garner Creek in Dickson, TN

(This is the summer camp we go to now)

Back then the tabernacle didn't have any walls: just a roof, stage and some pews.

It was a weeknight and my Dad was singing in the service.

The preacher got up and shared the Word and then gave an invitation for everyone to come up. I can't remember what He said during the message or invitation, but Jesus showed up, spoke to my heart and I accepted Him as my Savior.

I followed Jesus for a while, but after several years I walked far away from Jesus.

*Show pic of Covenant Fellowship Church*

And when I was at my lowest point, ready to just give up on everything, Jesus showed up again and spoke powerfully to my broken spirit through a friend named Tony. Jesus spoke through Tony and told me that the peace I was seeking after and never finding in a life of sin could only be found in Him.

I turned from my sin and made Jesus Lord and Savior of my life that day and never turned back.

Two different times, 11 years apart, Jesus showed up in my life in two very different ways.

WE

*Show title slide*

We all will have an encounter with Jesus at some point in our lives.

Maybe that’s already happened for you or maybe it hasn’t.

Maybe He spoke to you at a camp or church service, or maybe out in the woods or in your room at home.

For many people in the Middle East who were once muslims, Jesus spoke to them in dreams and they gave their lives to Him.

For these Christians in the Middle East, Jesus spoke to them in lots of different ways:

Jesus speaking Scripture to them, even Scripture they had never heard before.

Jesus telling people to do something.

A dream or vision that led to a feeling of being clean or at peace.

A man in white physically appearing.

Jesus has also showed up to people through Bible tracts, television and movies, and of course, through other people who love Him.

The point is that Jesus shows up and meets each one of us right where we are...

GOD

Jesus showed up in some incredible ways to those closest to Him in the days and weeks after He was beaten, nailed to a cross and died.

When His friends were in their darkest hour, Jesus came to them in some incredible ways:

MARY

John 20:11–18 NIV

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

The Angels

*Show Ark of the Covenant Photo*

one at the head and the other at the foot of where Jesus had been laid in the tomb.

Some really smart people think the location of the angels where the crucified body of Jesus had been signified the angels at the two ends of the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant from the Old Testament.

Like the mercy seat found above the ark of the covenant (Exod 25:18–19; 37:1–9), the empty tomb may be seen as the place where God himself made atonement for sin.

Mary Doesn’t Recognize Jesus at first...

How does she not know who He is?

I mean, she followed this man all the way until His death… how could she not know?

No one had ever before encountered a resurrected body. “Of course we know him. Of course we don’t know him. He is the same. He is different. He is alive, with a new sort of life, the kind we’ve never seen before”

But then Jesus calls her name...

In the one or two seconds this turn took, the world shifted ever so slightly on its axis and history, moved from b.c. to a.d. A second before this turn there is a woman in the deepest human despair over the death of her hero; and one second later the there is a woman who is overjoyed in the presence of the death-conquering Central Figure of history.… When she turned to him at this moment, human history took a turn to the hope that death had died and life had meaning now.

Then Jesus gives Mary a Mission

John 20:17 NIV

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

Don’t sit around trying to hold on Mary! — Go tell my brothers what I’m doing!

So often, God moves in a Christian’s life and they just want to hold on to that moment forever. The problem with holding on is that you can’t move forward with what Jesus wants you to do.

So Mary gets up and does what her Lord has told her to do.

Jesus shows up...

The disciples were gathered with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders.

This is crazy:

On the greatest day in the history of the world, a day when God defeated death itself and began restoring His creation, His closest followers were not celebrating but cowering in fear.

Then Jesus walks through walls and just shows up to the disciples.

How would you feel if this happened?

I would have probably jumped back real quick… and maybe the disciples had the same reaction, bc Jesus says “Peace be with you.”

Shalom means: "May God give you every good thing."

And then Jesus gave them a mission, a calling for their lives.

As Jesus gave them this calling, He breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

The word used for breathe in this verse is the same word used to describe God breathing life into the first man, Adam.

Jesus is breathing new life into them by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Some incredible things happened in this place, but one guy was missing: Thomas.

Gotta See it To Believe It

John 20:25 The Message

The other disciples told him, “We saw the Master.” But he said, “Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won’t believe it.”

So Eight days later Jesus shows up and says “Bet.”

John 20:27 The Message

Then he focused his attention on Thomas. “Take your finger and examine my hands. Take your hand and stick it in my side. Don’t be unbelieving. Believe.”

Thomas says “My Lord and my God!”

He knows now… and this was the first time Jesus was called “my God.”

Thomas, known as the doubter, is the first one of the disciples to really take Jesus personally.

“Jesus is mine. And I am His.”

Thomas believed because He saw, but then Jesus says that those who have not seen and yet have believed are the ones who are uniquely blessed.

JESUS SHOWS HIMSELF UNIQUELY TO ME SO I MAY KNOW HIM.

And so now it comes down to you...

YOU

Ray “I Need Help” Video

Ray Charles learned to believe without seeing because his mother loved him enough to let him figure it out on His own.

And that’s what you’ve got to do as well… believe without seeing this God that loves you and wants you to be with YOU forever...

Hebrews 11:6 The Message

It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.

And once you believe in this God you can’t see and make Him Lord of your life, you’ve got to figure out how to live for Him.

You respond in love to Jesus for what He’s done for you by the way that you live.

A daily life of disciplined obedience. The obedience of faith.

Because when you truly believe in Jesus, you do what He says.

*Prayer slide*

If you’re here tonight and you’ve never believed in this God you can’t see, but you’ve felt His presence tonight… felt Him speaking to your heart, felt Him calling you to a new life in Jesus Christ, with every head down and eye closed, raise your hand right where you are.

If you’re here tonight and you’ve placed your trust in Jesus already, but you’re really struggling with living for Him now, if that’s you and you’re ready to lay everything down at Jesus’ feet and live a life of obedient faith in Him, raise your hand.

WE

What if we all believed with all our hearts in this God that we can’t see… but we can really FEEL?

What if we lived lives of obedient faith and honored God above all else in our lives?

What happened with those first Christians… the way the Spirit was poured out upon them so that thousands were saved and the Gospel went throughout the world… those same things would happen by the power of the Holy Spirit through us.

How cool would that be? How incredible would that be?

May it be so among us, may we live fully for Jesus, and may lives be changed because of what He’s doing through us...