2022.05.08 Do We Believe?

Do We Believe?

John 10:22-31 • Acts 9:36-42

Happy Mother’s Day - One thing you still haven’t learned about me until now … Never say never, but as a general practice, I won’t preach a specifically “Mother’s Day” sermon. I also won’t preach a Father’s Day Sermon … or Flag Day … or Valentine’s Day … or Birthday … or Veteran’s Day … or Grandparent’s Day … or President’s Day … or MLK Day …

I’ve discovered that preaching a sermon specific to those days, invariably someone is left out! I know I will accidentally leave someone out of a message now and then, but I don’t EVER WANT to leave someone out of relating to a sermon.

You know what message won’t leave anyone out? The truth of Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ … fully God and fully human … lived, died, and alive again to save and sanctify every human being on the face of the Earth! No one is left out of the good news of Jesus Christ, so let me stick closer to that universal truth.

In case you didn’t know, Easter is not just a Sunday … it’s also a season. The season of Easter lasts 50 days. Easter begins on Easter Sunday, and ends on Pentecost Sunday. This year, Pentecost falls on June 5, so we are still in the season of Easter.

So Christ is risen! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Every Easter, discussions and doubt erupt about the issue of resurrection.

The arguments run on a wide spectrum but the arguments fall into three main categories:

It didn’t happen: A bodily resurrection isn’t physically possible.

It isn’t necessary: Jesus was resurrected in a spiritual sense, not a physical one.

It is essential: Jesus’ bodily resurrection is a non-negotiable tenet of Christianity

So, which is it?

First, I want to ask why it’s so hard to believe?

It may well be more difficult for us than earlier believers because we know more about science, but Paul wrote very specifically about this topic because it was apparently very hard to believe in his day!

In fact, when Paul wrote what was necessary to be saved, he only included two things, and one of them is believing God raised Jesus from the dead.

Romans 10:9 NLT

9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

So HALF of being saved is believing in Jesus’ resurrection. I would even argue this is the harder requirement of the two.

In Paul’s day, Greek philosophers and intellectuals in the city of Corinth were debating the reality of the resurrection, just like we do. He wrote to the Corinthian Church:

1 Corinthians 15:12–19 NASB 2020

12 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, your faith also is in vain. 15 Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If we have hoped in Christ only in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied.

See … our culture isn’t terribly different than Paul’s.

Do We Believe?

Resurrection is a regular part of the biblical narrative:

Elijah raised the widow of Zarapheth’s son from the dead in 1 Kings 17

In 2 Kings 4, Elisha raised the Shunamite’s son

A man was raised from the dead when he was tossed into Elisha’s tomb and came in contact with the prophet’s dead bones in 2 Kings 13

Jesus raised a widow’s son from Nain in Luke 7 ; Jairus’ the centurion’s daughter in Mark 5; and his friend Lazarus in John 11

When Jesus died, Matthew writes in chapter 27 that many saints’ tombs were opened and they came back to life, entered Jerusalem and “were seen by many”

In today’s reading from Acts, we see Peter raising Tabitha from the dead

Later in Acts 20, Paul raises Eutychus

According to a BBC poll in 2017, 1/4 of CHRISTIANS in England don’t believe the resurrection happened.

31% of Christians polled don’t believe in life after death at all!

We spend a lot of time looking for answers to questions that have already been answered.We’re not digging any deeper … we’re looking for an alternate answer, perhaps because we don’t like the answer that’s been provided.

John 10:24–31 NASB 2020

24 The Jews then surrounded Him and began saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep. 27 My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” 31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.

Tell us, Jesus … are you the Messiah?

Yes! I already told you and you don’t believe.

Prove it!

The works I’ve done testify of Me. But you don’t believe!

I and the Father are one.

Let’s stone this guy!

They asked for a plain saying. He gave it.

They demanded signs. He gave them.

He confessed to being God … and they tried to stone him.

So … let me suggest many of us, like the first century Jews, are looking for answers that have already been given. We’ve been given the key to life’s mysteries in the Scriptures, but those answers aren’t what we want … or they aren’t sufficient … or they don’t match what we already believe … or we’re too dull to make sense of them … or whatever excuses we want to dream up to not believe him.

Let me share with you a little bit of our basic beliefs from the United Methodist Book of Discipline. These can all be found in ¶102, and they all have more elaboration than I will read today:

United Methodists profess the historic Christian faith in God, incarnate in Jesus Christ for our salvation and ever at work in human history in the Holy Spirit.

United Methodists share a common heritage with Christians of every age and nation. This heritage is grounded in the apostolic witness to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, which is the source and measure of all valid Christian teaching.

Basic Christian Affirmations

> We hold in common with all Christians a faith in the mystery of salvation in and through Jesus Christ.

> We share the Christian belief that God’s redemptive love is realized in human life by the activity of the Holy Spirit, both in personal experience and in the community of believers.

> We understand ourselves to be part of Christ’s universal church when by adoration, proclamation, and service we become conformed to Christ.

> With other Christians we recognize that the reign of God is both a present and future reality.

> We share with many Christian communions a recognition of the authority of Scripture in matters of faith, the confession that our justification as sinners is by grace through faith, and the sober realization that the church is in need of continual reformation and renewal.

From Articles II & III of our Articles of Religion

II. The Son, who is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin; so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided; whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men.

III. Christ did truly rise again from the dead, and took again his body, with all things appertaining to the perfection of man’s nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth until he return to judge all men at the last day.

That’s a small part of what we, as United Methodists believe. The question that remains is this:

Do XXXWeXXX You Believe?