INTRO.- Response to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the death is like anything else. We see, we hear, we question, and we consider. And we either believe or we do not.
ILL.- It was possibly the most prayed-for event in human history. And it succeeded! On Sunday, July 20, 1969, as hundreds of millions on earth watched over the TV, the first man set foot on the moon. They landed on the southwestern shore of the Sea of Tranquillity. And when Neil Armstrong stepped down on the lunar surface, he remarked: “That’s one small step for man—one giant leap for mankind.”
But did you believe it really happened when they showed it on TV? And do you believe it now?
ILL.- Do you remember where you were on that morning of September 11, 2001, the day of terrorism? I was going to the hospital in Joplin, MO, to get my mother and put her in a nursing home. When I first heard about those terrorist attacks and the explosion of the twin towers, I thought, “This can’t be true!” BUT IT WAS TRUE. We wondered at those pictures on TV and may have thought, “This can’t be happening” but it did. THERE IS NO QUESTION TODAY! Some events are very real even though we may question them, whereas others may not be real and we should question them!
ILL.- Do you remember seeing the illusionist, David Copperfield, make a jet airplane disappear? Did you believe it? I didn’t believe it but I also couldn’t explain it. Copperfield is an illusionist. He creates illusions. It’s not real. But how did he do it if he really didn’t make that plane disappear? I read that there is netting that is used in stage productions that is draped from light to light between the massive spotlights that encircles the plane. So the illusion is performed with a set of lights and netting. How exactly? I don’t know.
While we may not completely understand how a David Copperfield performs his illusions, it’s fascinating, BUT NOT BELIEVABLE. It’s entertaining, but not reality.
But what about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? Was this only an illusion or a trick to make people believe in a person who was not real or maybe wasn’t what He claimed to be? Do we believe Him or do we not? Do we believe in His resurrection or do we not?
PROP.- Lessons about people in response to the resurrection of Jesus.
1- Some consider Jesus but do not recognize Him
2- Some know scripture but do not believe it
I. SOME CONSIDER JESUS BUT DO NOT BELIEVE
ILL.- A burglar broke into a home and was looking around. He heard a soft voice say, "Jesus is watching you.” Thinking it was just his imagination, he continued his search. Again the voice said "Jesus is watching you.”
He turned his flashlight around and saw a parrot in a cage. He asked the parrot if he was the one talking and the parrot said, "yes." He asked the parrot what his name was and the parrot said, "Moses." The burglar asked, "what kind of people would name a parrot Moses?" The parrot said, "the same kind of people who would name their pit bull Jesus".
I believe in Jesus but I don’t want to meet a pit bull named Jesus. But there is no question in my mind that Jesus is who He claimed to be: came from heaven and lived on earth over 2000 years ago, performed miracles, raised the dead, fed the multitudes, cast out demons, and died on the cross, bearing our sins in His body so that we might believe Him, trust Him and some day go to heaven! There are many people, however, who only consider Jesus briefly but are kept somehow from believing in Him and trusting Him as their Savior.
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
These two disciples were kept from recognizing Jesus at this particular time as they walked along. They believed but didn’t recognize Jesus at this time. In this incident, Jesus kept them from recognizing Him but in the world today it’s a different story. It’s not Jesus who keeps people from recognizing who He is and what He can do for them. Obviously, Jesus wants people to believe in Him and trust Him for salvation.
ILL.- I read one time that the ex-TV host, Larry King, who is an agnostic, said he would like to interview Jesus and ask him if he really believed he was born of a virgin. I find that somewhat humorous. I would think Larry King would want to ask Jesus something more important, like, “Did you really rise from the dead and is heaven real?” Nevertheless, I guess Larry King is not afraid to consider Jesus even if he doesn’t believe in Him. That’s more than some in Hollywood would do. Many won’t even consider Jesus.
ILL.- “I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.” — H.G. Wells, British author (1866-1946) At least, Wells considered Jesus.
ILL.- John Lennon of the Beatles said: “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first - rock and roll or Christianity." As we know, John Lennon has been gone since 1980 when he was shot at the age of 40 but Christianity is still going!
Many people today may talk about Jesus, Christianity or religion in a general sense but they don’t recognize Jesus as the Son of God. I think they want to believe but they are kept from recognizing Him as the son of God.
Why would a person not want to believe in heaven? Knowing that this life will come to an end some day why would you not want to believe in life after death? And for that matter,believe in a better life than this one? It seems so sensible to believe in Jesus and heaven but many people are kept from believing.
What is it that keeps them from recognizing Jesus as the Son of God and Savior of the world? It’s not God. It’s the world. It’s the world and the evil one who keeps from believing Jesus and the promise of eternal life.
I John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”
The cravings of this world can make an unbeliever out of people or keep people from believing. If people listen to the world, the teachings of the world, and get all wrapped up in the things of the world, they will say “no” to Jesus and Christianity.
ILL.- A man once said to preacher D.L. Moody, “Now that I am converted, must I give up to the world?” “No,” answered the evangelist, “you need not give up the world; if you give a ringing testimony for the Son of God the world will give you up pretty quick. They will not want you around.” The world is not our friend.
1 Peter 5:8 “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
ILL.- There is a fable which tells of three apprentice devils who were coming to this earth to finish their apprenticeship. They were talking to Satan, the chief of the devils, about their plans to tempt and to ruin men. The first said, "I will tell them that there is no God." Satan said, "That will not delude many, for they know that there is a God." The second said, "I will tell men that there is no hell." Satan answered, "You will deceive no one that way; men know even now that there is a hell for sin."
The third said, "I will tell men that there is no hurry." "Go," said Satan, "and you will ruin men by the thousands." The most dangerous of all delusions is that there is plenty of time.
Some people may consider Jesus but they won’t come to faith because Satan and the world are canceling out any faith that might develop in them.
II. SOME KNOW SCRIPTURE BUT DO NOT BELIEVE IT
ILL.- A priest was giving his flock a sermon on the Gospel, and he mentioned how with five loaves of bread our Savior fed five thousand people (Matthew 14:21); but instead of saying five thousand, he said five hundred. The altar boy told him that he had made a mistake, because the Gospel says five thousand. Whereupon, the priest said to him; “Be quiet, you fool! They already have a hard time believing five hundred.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Essentially, Jesus was saying, “How foolish you are not to believe the scriptures!” If the scriptures are the living and abiding Word of God as we believe they are, then a person is foolish not to believe the scriptures about Jesus and everything else. Do you believe the scriptures or do you not?
ILL.- George Barna wrote The State of the Church in 2002. Barna conducted a survey of Christians and here’s what he found about their knowledge of the Bible. These are Christians.
• 48% could not name the four Gospels.
• 52% cannot identify more than two or three of Jesus’ disciples.
• 60% of American Christians can’t name even five of the 10 Commandments.
• 61% of American Christians think the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham.
• 71% of American Christians think “God helps those who help themselves” is a Bible verse. George Barna said, "Americans revere the Bible, but by and large they don’t know what it says.”
It’s no wonder that many don’t believe the Bible. They don’t know it so how could they believe it?!
ILL.- Billy Graham said: “In August of 1949, I was so filled with doubts about everything that when I stood to preach and made a statement, I would say to myself: I wonder if that is the truth. I wonder if I can really say that sincerely. My ministry had gone.
“I then took the Bible up into the high Sierra Nevada mountains in California. I opened it and got on my knees. I pled, ‘Father I cannot understand many things in this Book. I cannot come intellectually all the way, but I accept it by faith to be authoritative, the inspired Word of the living God!’
Billy Graham admitted a long time that he didn’t understand everything in God’s Word but he was willing to accept it by faith. I’m sure that Billy Graham would have a lot more to say today about believing the scriptures because they have proven true during all his years of ministry. I’m sure that he has no doubts at all about the truth of scripture.
ILL.- British preacher Charles Spurgeon said: “I would recommend you either believe God up to the hilt, or else not to believe at all. Believe this book of God, every letter of it, or else reject it. There is no logical standing place between the two.”
Do you believe the message of scripture? Do you believe what it says about Jesus, His life on earth, His ministry, His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead? YOUR LIFE HANGS IN THE BALANCE OF WHETHER YOU BELIEVE OR NOT!
God Means Just What He Says
There are some who believe the Bible,
And some who believe in part,
And some who trust with reservation,
And some with all their heart.
But I know that its every promise
Is firm and true always;
It is tried as the precious silver,
And it means just what it says.
It is strange we trust each other,
And only doubt our Lord;
We will take the word of mortals,
And yet distrust His word;
But, oh, what light and glory
Would shine o’er all our days
If we always would remember
That He means just what He says.
CONCLUSION------------------------
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 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?” 33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
These men finally got it. They finally believed the message about Jesus and what did they do? They said, “It’s true that the Lord has risen from the dead.” They believed and wanted to spread the message about the risen Christ.
ILL.- A preacher once said: “Some years ago when I was speaking in the city of Minneapolis, I noticed down in the audience a young lawyer. When the meeting was over I made my way to him and said: “Are you a Christian?” “Well, sir,” he said, “I consider myself a Christian.” I said, “Are you bringing other men to Christ?” He said, “No, that is not my business; that’s your business, I am not called to do that. I am called to practice law; you are called to preach the Gospel.”
I said, “You are called to be a Christian and you are called to bring other men to Christ.” He said. “I don’t believe it.” I said. “Look here.” Then I opened my bible at Acts 8:4 and asked him to read, and he read: “They therefore that were scattered abroad went about preaching the word.” Those who were scattered were the early Christians and as they scattered they also preached Christ.
Someone well said, “If a man has a religion he is bound to do one of two things with it: give it up or give it away. If it isn’t true, he must give it up. If it is true, he must give it away.”
What are you going to do with what you believe Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the dead? Do you really believe? If so, you have only one option.
