Believing Faith in the Resurrection of Jesus | Luke 24:1-8

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Appreciate it in a skit. That's really, really good. There is no uh there is no resurrection celebration today without the cross. And uh let's never forget that. And I appreciate the kids doing that. It's really, really good. Uh great song, uh great song service. Appreciate the choirs, great seeing the choir and great special with Jeremy and Ferrari. It's just awesome. And uh today is a celebration. It really is. It's a victory celebration for us to believe in Christ, that we have eternal life in him. And uh it's just an amazing day, and it's great to see everybody out. So if you would take your Bible and turn to Luke chapter 24, I just simply titled this Believing Faith in the Resurrection of Jesus. Believing faith in the resurrection of Jesus. That's the most important thing we have to do, we must do to be saved, is have faith in the resurrection of Christ and his sacrifice and understanding the truth of God's word. So we're going to turn to Luke 24, in verse 1, it says, Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came into the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre, and they entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass they were much perplexed thereabout. Behold, two men stood by them in shining garments, and they were afraid, and bowed down their face to the earth and said to them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? And he was he that says, He is not here but risen. He says, Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet with you in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified the third in the third day to rise again. Now look in verse 8. And it says, And they remembered his words. Let's go to the Lord in word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we just humbly bow before you. Lord, just thanking you so much for this very special day. That we remember the resurrection of Christ and knowing that he is alive today, interceding at this very moment for all of us, uh, sitting at your right hand, and again, just interceding for us. We can't thank you enough for his death, his burial, his resurrection, and again his intercession at this moment. And Lord, for your Holy Spirit and for your word, and Lord for your mercy and your grace. And I do ask you this morning for your preaching grace. Again, Lord, that you would just hide me behind the cross and I remain there and just be your mouthpiece, that you would just speak through me. And as we read your word and hear your word, realize that you're speaking to each and every heart. Uh, first and foremost, to be saved, to repent of their sins and call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. And for us that are saved, to not just remember you today, but each and every day as we walk uh worthy of you and walk in victory of you for you, and when you receive all the honor and the glory. Again, we just can't thank you enough, Lord, for your love, your mercy, and your grace again. We ask forgiveness of sins and we ask us all in Jesus' name. Amen. So as we uh look at this story, very familiar story, uh, I love verse five. Verse five, it says, and he says, Why seek ye the living? The angel says, Why seek ye the living among the dead? It's a great question to those that believe in Christ. We wouldn't, you know, think if someone would come up here today and say, I'm looking for Jesus. We wouldn't point them across the road to the cemetery. We pray they'd come in here. They'd come in here and they would find Christ in here. That's where Christ is at. He says, We're two or three, he says in Matthew 18, verse 20, so when two or three are gathered in my name, what? He is in the midst of you. Well, guess what? There's more than two or three gathered here this morning. So how does that tell us that Jesus Christ, his Holy Spirit, is here today, at this very moment, here with us, with us today, uh, wanting to save, to be the lost to be saved, and wanting to save to do what? To be living in victory. To be living in victory, to truly be celebrating today because you belong to Him, knowing that there will one day be a resurrection, where we'll all be together, great reunion day. So I want us to think about that today as we, you know, why do we believe the resurrection of Christ? Why is it so important to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Well, we can't be saved without it. We can't be saved without it. That's why I titled it Believing Faith in the Resurrection of Christ. Turn to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10, it plainly tells us we must believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 10, look what it says in verse 9. Romans 10, 9 says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. But there's a huge word there, if. We all have free will. God has given us the ability to choose him. He chose us, but guess what? We must choose him. And it says in verse 10, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. And it says, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. We must confess that we're sinners and we're lost, but we confess that we believe in Christ. We believe he died for our sin. We believe he paid our sin debt, and he rose again that third day after dying on the cross. We believe in those things, and we ask God to save us, and guess what? We're saved. We're born again. But it says this about the scripture. It said in verse 11, for the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him should not be ashamed, for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord overall is rich unto all that call upon his name. Now I love verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Kind of like the Sunday school lesson today. From the poorest of poor to the richest of rich, everybody in between has the opportunity to be saved. If we'll just call upon the name of the Lord. Then he says in verse 14, How then shall they call upon him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? In verse 15, it says, And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. But he says in verse 16, But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed all report. Now look at verse 17. It says, So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It's so important that we truly hear God's word. That the faith, we place our faith in the sacrifice of the cross, our faith in the resurrection of Jesus, faith in his return, faith in the entirety of the all from Genesis to revelation of God's word. And believe to believe God's word is not a blind faith. It's exactly what verse 17 says. It says, faith cometh by hearing what? Hearing the word of God. I encourage you to have a Bible, read it daily, apply, understand it, and apply it to your life, and God will change your life. And Jesus taught this over and over again by hearing the word. That faith comes by hearing the word. And Jesus taught this again over and over as he would teach the parables and teach lessons and things. He would say at the end of most of his speech, he'd say, or his teachings, he would say, He that has ears to hear, let him hear. What's he saying? Not just hear me with your ears, that you would hear the word with your heart. That it would convict. It would go into you and change your life. You would repent of the things in your life and turn from those things and turn to him and be led by the word. Turn back to Luke chapter 24. And look what it says. When they came to the tomb, it was empty, and the stone was rolled away. And he said, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here but risen. Look in verse 8. It says, And they remembered his words. Whose words? The words of Christ. They remembered those disciples, those ladies that went to the tomb. They remembered the words of Christ. So I encourage you today. Not just today, but every single day that we remember the words of Jesus Christ. We would read his word daily. I'm not talking about chapters or so many things. Just read a little bit of God's word today. Every day it will change your life. Read it daily. Read it daily. And it would. It will change your life. And what it did when they remembered his words, what's happened when they realized about the resurrection? What did it do? It only strengthened their faith. It strengthened their faith in the word. It confirmed the word. So what's what it is? It's a celebration. That's the message for us today. That today would be a celebration of the day that changed the world. And also that changed your life. You belong to God. You're not the same person. You've died. You've been born again. And that's as a time to celebrate. You know, the resurrection of Jesus was the greatest victory in the world. The greatest victory ever. That overcome death, hell, and the grave. You know, you think about, you know, y'all know me, I'm a sports guy, and you think about a team winning, guess what? There's a celebration, there's high fives. You won a state championship. I remember us dogpiling out there. Man, it was a fun one. You won the state championship. Everybody out there dogpiling all the different things. Think about Team USA here recently in the Winter Olympics, won a gold medal for the first time in 46 years, and everybody celebrated. You know, yeah, it was amazing. It was amazing. It was great. But, you know, we got to celebrate. They won. Uh never skated damn well one time. I tried to skyscape, but guess what? I still celebrated with the Team America that won. And so you think about those things that about Christ dying for us, it's the greatest victory. And what do we do? We celebrate in that. And he gave us the victory, and we're part of that when we believe in that. I mean, what a day to celebrate today, as we think about it. And again, it's not a blind faith in the resurrection of Christ. It's faith that is built upon yielding to the Holy Spirit, being taught by the Word, and believing the Word of God. Truly believing the Word of God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and strength, and living for the Lord. So it's two points today, this Easter Sunday. Two points. Oh, hallelujah. Because sometimes I can have five or six, most times three, but here's today. It's just two things I want you to think about. Two things. Faith and the unmistakable proofs. The unmistakable proofs that Jesus Christ is alive today and He's resurrected after three days in the tomb. Faith and the unmistakable proofs. And secondly, are we living in victory or are we living in vanity? Are we living in victory or are we living in vanity? I pray you were living in victory. You know, it's so important we understand that. So turn to Acts chapter 1. We think about faith and the unmistakable proofs of the resurrection.

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Acts chapter 1. I love how Acts starts.

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It tells us in Acts chapter 1, verse 1, the former treatise I have made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and to teach. Well, Acts, help us understand God's word how's laid out. Acts is like Luke part two. He wrote Luke according to the gospel according to Luke, the great physician, and then he picks it up and he's writing it to the same man, Acts, as the actions of the church. And he says, the former letter, which is the group of the book of Luke, of the gospel, and he says, this is the next one of all the things that Jesus began both to do and to teach. Until when? Well, look in verse 2. Until the day in which he was taken up, after they had through the Holy Ghost had been given commandments of the apostles whom he had chosen. Then we see in verse 3, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. That word infallible proofs is unmistakable. There was unmistakable things that proved that Jesus Christ is alive today. What's the greatest? The resurrection. They saw him for 40 days. He didn't just come to this, didn't must just resurrect him when we read in Luke 24, the stone was rolled away, and he says, He's not here. He's not among the dead, he's among the living. Then he went back. No. He was on this earth walking around for 40 days, teaching the church, and then ascended back to the Father. So all we're going to look at is the unmistakable proofs. Turn to John. John chapter 2. John chapter 2. See, Jesus would teach all about his death and his resurrection. And he says in John chapter 2. But we have to, he wanted people to understand it. So he would use parables and different things to help them understand what he was teaching. So in John chapter 2 and verse 13, it was the time of the Passover. It says the Passover was the Jews. Verse 13. And the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Well, what'd he do that for? Well, last week we talked about being a Passover. Jesus was a Jew. What was it? He was commanded to do what? Be part of the Passover. And so it was that time. And they found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and changes of money. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple. And the sheep and the oxen poured out the changes of money and overthrew the tables. Wow. Let me get straight. Who's doing this?

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Jesus. Guess what? Jesus got upset at sin. I pray sin offends you.

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It offended Christ. And so to the point where they are taking his temple, God's temple, and they're using it like to make money. And it upset Christ. So he cleansed the temple. This is the first time he does it twice. This is the first time he does it. But he turns the tables over and he runs everybody out there. And what's he say? And he said unto them that so does, take these things, hence, make not my father's house a house of merchandise. Then look in verse 17. And his disciples remembered that was written, The zeal of thine house has eaten me up. They remembered what? Psalm 69, 9. They remembered, again, God's word. It's so important that we remembered God's word, that we know God's word. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Always looking for a sign. What Jesus said in verse 19. Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple in three days, I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But look what we get to see when we look back. We're so blessed to have the completed word. And in Jesus' day, he's in the physical flesh in a physical body, and they're talking to him, and they don't believe who he is. And he says, You're going to destroy this body, you're going to destroy this temple, they thought he was talking about the building. But he plainly tells us what he was teaching in the next verse. But he spake of the temple of his body, verse 21. It says, When therefore he was risen from the dead. Talking about the resurrection. There it is, all there for us in the beginning of John. Isn't that amazing? That he teaches that he's going to be crucified, he's going to die, his body's going to be destroyed, and in three days he's going to be raised up. There we find it in John chapter 2. And his disciples remembered that he had said unto them, and they believed, here it is, the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. Again, why is it so important that we remember the word of God? Because it's the only way. It's the only way to find the truth. It is the only truth. Understanding the word of God. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. John 14, 6. Understanding that. It's so important. We realize the unmistakable proofs. You know, Jesus was predicting his death, but also not just his death, he's also predicting his resurrection. You know, it's preached throughout the world, even up till now, to the day, all over this country and all over the world, what people are doing, celebrating the resurrection of Christ, preaching about the resurrection of Christ. You know, the apostle Paul would preach that message over and over and over again. But I love how he explained the importance of it to the Corinthian church. To the Corinthian church, turn if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He does an amazing job. The Holy Spirit, of course, writing it. And he's talking about the resurrection of Jesus and the importance of it and how, and how they believed it. But he's reaffirming their faith in it and what Christ had actually given them by being resurrected. Look in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 1. It says, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which you also have received, and wherein you stand, by which you also saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. What's he want them to do? To remember the words. To remember the words that he preached. Remember the word of God. I can stand up here, and most preachers can stand up here and tell you a funny story. Or we can talk about, like I just mentioned, the hockey team won in gold. Guess what? I don't want you to remember the hockey team winning gold. Okay? More importantly, I want you to remember that Jesus Christ died for your sins. Understanding that. Understand the scriptures. Remember the words. Remember God's truth. Remember the word of God. And he says, For I delivered unto you first of all, in verse 3, that which I also received, how that Christ died for your sins according to the scriptures. And he was buried and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. All this was prophesied from the Psalms to Isaiah. All these prophets would prophesy about Jesus Christ coming, the Messiah coming and dying and being resurrected. All being prophesied. And guess what? It was fulfilled when Jesus was crucified and rose again that third day. And then he talks about in verse 5, talking about infallible proofs. And he was seen of Cephas. Then of the twelve. Well, Cephas was the Aramic name for Peter. He's saying to Peter. Peter saw him. And after that, he was seen above 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain until this present, but some are falling asleep. He said some are older, some have died. Well, see it there in that phrase, not just taking a nap, they passed. He said, Some are still alive. Over 500 people. So just think about it. If 500 people come knocking on your door and say, Guess what? Your house is on fire. You're like, really? Where at? Backyard, your back of your house is on fire. If 500 people come knocking on your door and say, I see flames in your backyard and your back bedroom or whatever it might be, the back part of your house is on fire, would you believe them? 500. I think eventually you might walk around and peek outside and say, Man, is my house on fire? I think you've ought to believe them. I know it's a silly illustration, but it's true. 500 people seen Jesus Christ alive. What'd the law say? Two or three. And the mouth of two or three witnesses could come that could be confirmed. You have five hundred people. Don't ever forget that. That Jesus was seen by over 500 people, not before the crucifixion, but after the resurrection. Seen. That's what Paul's reminding them of. He was seen. He was seen of Peter. He was seen of the twelve. And then he was seen of over five hundred. And after that, in verse 7, after that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And he says, and last of all, he was seen of me also, as one born out of due season. What do you see? On the road to Damascus. Paul was a persecutor of the church, a persecutor of the truth. And he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. And he was blinded for those days, those three days, and then all that about how God changed Paul's life. And look what he's preaching now through the church in Corinth. And he says, least of all in verse 9 of the apostles that I am, for I am least of the apostles that I'm not meet to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. You talk about a changed life. An amazing transformation happened in the life of Paul. So don't think for a second, well, I've done all you might be thinking, I've done this, this, and there's no way God could ever save me. Guess what he could say? There's nowhere that you've been that God's grace cannot, no sin you've committed that God's grace cannot cover. Christ paid it all on the cross. And that's what Paul, he brings that up and he says, I've done, I've I've persecuted the church. But he says in verse 10, But by grace, but by the grace of God I am what I am. And his grace was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God which was in me, which was with me. Therefore, whether I, it were I or they, or so we preached, and so they we ye believed. He said, So if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? Can you imagine that? Going to the church, from part of the church that I there is no resurrection of Jesus. And he's like, but if there be no resurrection in verse 13 of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ not be risen, then your preaching, and our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain. He says, Yea, we also found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ. And says, Whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not, and he says, For if the dead rise not, and he is not Christ raised. He said, And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, and yet you are in your sins. He says, Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. Then he says in verse 19, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. He said, The foolishness of not believing in the resurrection of Christ. He says, But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. And he says, For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. He says, For in Christ are in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. And he preached this amazing message. He says, But every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits, after they have after they that are of Christ at his coming, then come at the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom of God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all the rule and all authority and power. And he said he must reign till he put all enemies under his foot, under his feet. And what's the last enemy that he shall destroy be death? And he preached an amazing message to them about the resurrection of Christ and the importance of it. Then you jump all the way down to verse 55, and he talks about, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? But he says, But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. How awesome is that! It's a victorious day. Each day that God allows us to live, guess what? It's not just Easter Sunday, it's victorious. But every day that we're on this side of the grass, we have the Holy Spirit inside of us, it's a victorious day that we get to represent the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. It's an amazing opportunity to be the salt and be the light that Jesus has called us to be. But we celebrate today, remembering the resurrection of Christ. And you read about all those proofs, the miracles and the things. He ate with the disciples. He was seen by over 500 witnesses. Over 500 people saw him alive after the crucifixion. So we must ask ourselves, when Paul talks about this to the Corinthian church, he says, Are you living basically living in victory or are you living in vanity? So that's the second point. Ask yourself Am I living a victorious life for the Lord Jesus Christ? Or is it all vanity? Am I chasing after vanity? The things of this world, like Solomon talked about in Ecclesiastes, living a life under the sun, S U N. And he said he'd done all those things. And the money, all the different things, the vineyards, he had it all. At the end of his life, it says all vanity. It means nothing. It was nothingness to him. And so you ask yourself, what am I going after? What am I living for? Am I living victorious or am I living for in vanity? And I think to myself, as I was studying this past week, what story stands out to someone that lives in victory or lives in vanity? Turn to John chapter 20. John chapter 20 is an example of one of Jesus' disciples. And this is after the resurrection of Jesus, before the ascension. I truly believe it's one of the greatest stories about whether or not we're living the proofs of the resurrection, but also are we living as a perfect picture of what it looks like to be living in victory or living in vanity. John chapter 20 and verse 18. It says, Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the stone rolled away, that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her. So she tells the disciples, it says, in the same day of the evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for the fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be unto you. So there they are, they're hiding. Because they had just seen Jesus crucified, they were followers of Christ, so they were scared. Scared of what? Scared of persecution. Afraid the same thing was going to happen to them. But Mary comes and says, He's alive. I've seen him. And then Jesus shows up. Just shows up. He says, Peace be unto you. And when he had said so, he showed unto them his hands and his side. They were the disciples glad that they had when they had saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you. As my Father has sent me, even so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and he said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. How amazing is that! How amazing is that! Because what happened? In the Old Testament, we see about King David, see about King Saul, we see about these prophets. Where was the Holy Spirit of God? It was upon them on the outside. It dwelt upon them to protect them, to guide them, to teach them. But when Jesus died and he came back, where did he say, I will be, I will be inside of you. And he breathed on him, and guess what? The Holy Spirit went inside of them. And all of us that are saved today, guess where the Holy Spirit is upon us today? He is inside of us today. Wanting to do what? For us to be yielding to him. To be yielding to him. Instead of chasing the things of the flesh, we'd be led by the Spirit of God. And that's what we see. He breathed on them. And he says, Receive ye the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit. Then he says in verse 23, Whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained. But then we get to verse 24. But Thomas, one of the 12, called Dynamas, was not with them when Jesus came. Man, of all times to miss church. Of all the times to miss church. There's Jesus. He shows up after the resurrection. They're up there hiding. Mary comes and says, I've talked to him. He's alive. And he tells the disciples, and guess what? And shows them his hands, shows them his side.

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And Thomas isn't there. I'm here to tell you. We miss so many blessings by not being faithful to the Lord's church.

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I'm telling you, you miss so many blessings by not being faithful to the Lord's church. Look what Thomas missed out on. Not just seeing the resurrection of Jesus, but also he missed out on what? The greatest blessing after salvation? The Holy Spirit. Jesus breathed on them, and they had the Holy Spirit inside of them. So he had to wait to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. I truly believe it. Why? Because he wasn't in service. He wasn't doing what God wanted, he wasn't there. And instead of saying, instead of Thomas saying, tell me more about him. What did he look like? What did he say? What did he sound like? What did he feel like? What did the hands look like? What did his side look like? Did he leave any instructions for us to do? You know, did he ask of any? Did he ask about me? What did he say?

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He didn't say any of that. But what did he say? Look at verse 25. The disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord.

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But he said unto them, Except I shall see his hands and print of nails, and put my finger to the print of nails and thrust my hand to his side, I will not believe.

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How many sit here today? And say the exact same thing.

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I will not give my life to the Lord until I know without a shadow of a doubt that He's alive, that He's real. He may have saved me, but I'm not gonna live for Him until I know, without a shadow of a doubt, this, that, and the other.

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You're never gonna know. You're never gonna know. Why? Because you don't have faith. You don't have faith. Thomas wanted proof, not from the Word.

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He didn't have enough faith. Proof not from faith. The Bible is very clear about how important faith is. Hebrews 11, 6 says, it is impossible to please God without faith. Because we must believe that it's a rewarder of those that come to him. And so many people, yes, I believe without a doubt, want to be saved. Who doesn't want to be saved? You come to somebody and say, hey, do you want to be saved and go to heaven, or you want to be saved and go to keep from going to hell? I believe a hundred out of a hundred people would say, Yeah, I'd like to go to heaven. I don't want to go to hell. I'm gonna say, okay, you got to admit that you're a sinner and believe that Jesus Christ paid your sin debt and he died and he's rose again. Well, I'm not so sure about all that. Why? Well, they're not so sure about it. Because it's God's word. They don't have faith in the word. Because what we just read in Romans 10, 17, then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And so many people say, okay, I'll be saved. I'll place my faith in him, in him saving me, but I won't place my faith in him guiding my life. So what do they do? They don't live in victory, they live in vanity. And that's Thomas. That's Thomas. He wasn't living a victorious life. Why?

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He wasn't there. He wasn't there. And he said, I won't believe unless I see him. How many people have a life like that? Well, we're blessed. Thomas was blessed.

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But eight days later, he would have a chance to not only see Jesus, but touch Jesus. But also be told very clearly to believe and not doubt and to live in victory and not in vanity. Look at verse 26. And after eight days, don't you know it was a long eight days for Thomas? I used to be, when I first started, was saved, started going to church. I was growing, man, I was doing good.

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Then hunting season showed up.

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Man.

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Man, I don't want to miss opening a day of gun season or opening a day of boat season. And I'd miss. I'd be so convicted and could not wait for Wednesday night to get, because I'd ask God to forgive me, and I wanted to be part of the fellowship of our church. And so, man, Wednesday night rolled around, I'd be one of the first ones there. There was just something missing. There was just something missing because I just felt like I was out of fellowship, not with Jesus, because he, after I asked him to save me when I got out of the tree stand or in the tree stand, Lord forgive me that I have dropped the ball and I've put something ahead of you. And then restore that fellowship with him. And I'd be doing good, but I mean I'd be longing to get to church on Wednesday. Why? Because it's a proof of our fellowship with him. It is. The Holy Spirit guides us to be a part of his fellowship with the New Testament church. And it's I couldn't belong. Put anything about Thomas. I'm sure he couldn't wait to see Jesus. It took eight days. Eight days. And after eight days again, his disciples were within, and Thomas was with them. He was there. So then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and he stood in the midst, said, Peace be unto you. Then I love this. He's with the disciples, and the thing that's recorded for us, then saith he to Thomas. He singles out Thomas.

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He says, Reach hither thy finger. And behold my hands. And reach hither thy hand and thrust them to my side. Can you imagine being Thomas? And he says, and be not faithless, but believing. You know what Jesus wants for all of us? To not be faithless.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Even when things are difficult, in the struggles of life, we be not faithless, that we be believing. That Jesus, we believe the promise of Christ when he says in Matthew, I think 13, 5, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. You may be going through a terrible valley. Don't be faithless. Be believing and trusting in the word being yielded by his Holy Spirit. Because what did Thomas say in verse 28? Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and my God.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

He finally got it. He finally seen Christ as his Lord. And that's that's the step for all of us.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

When we grow to maturity and walk in with the Lord, that we make him Lord of our life. When he is Lord of your life, guess what? You live in victory. You live a victorious life because he is Lord of your life. And he understood that Jesus truly is his Lord and Lord of Lords and King of kings.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

Have you made Jesus Lord of your life?

SPEAKER_01 32:29

Because the next verse talks about us. He says, Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Then he says, Blessed are they that have not seen yet have believed. You know, I said us. That puts a smile on my face. I haven't ever seen Jesus, but I believe in him. Why? Because of his word and his Holy Spirit. We believe the word. We get to see Jesus. You open God's word, who do we see? We see ourselves and we see Christ. And we see what Jesus has done for us. We celebrate a day like today, knowing that he's alive today. And he says in verse 29, because you have and yet have believed. That's us. Then he says in verse 30, and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But he says, But these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life through his name. And not just life through his name, but an opportunity to go from a life of vanity to a life of victory. Live in victory today. Do more than just believe in the resurrection of Jesus, make Jesus Lord of your life and live in victory. If you would please stand. Miss Michelle and Brother Matt would come forward to really think about your life. Which direction you're going, who's Lord of your life? Even if you're if you're thinking about where you are spiritually, if you're saved or lost. Well, that's where it begins, a victorious life. You have to be saved first. And then just give your life to the Lord. Submit your body a living sacrifice, as Romans 12 tells us. But I encourage you, if you've never been saved, be saved today. Repent of your sins. Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. Be the greatest decision you ever make. But after salvation, give your life to the Lord in service to him daily, as we say.