Doubt

I got to speak in Church yesterday and I thought I would write here what I spoke about. For those who were in service yesterday, sorry you have to hear this again but maybe you will get something new out of it.

Yesterday was the Sunday after Easter and that is always a difficult day, espicially if you have to preach. There is so much momentum building up to Easter and all that that celebration involves that the weeks follow kinda seem like a let down, all that momentum is gone. We can get caught up in the hype of the celebration. So let me ask you do you really believe what we celebrate. Do you believe that Jesus died of the cross then three days later he rose from the dead and is alive today...or do you have doubts about that story.

Doubt is a pretty common thing in humans. All the disciples had doubts about Jesus truly being alive. The two guys on the road to Emmaus doubted so much they decided to go home, that is why Jesus caught up with them on the road. When he appeared to the disciples in the Upper Room they doubted ti was him, they thought they were seeing a ghost.

Doubt is a pretty common theme in the last chapters of the gospels but there are other common threads or theme. Jesus does not condemn his followers for doubting his resurrection but what he does do is give them 2 things to combat their disbelief and if we use these examples they can help take away our doubts as well.

With the guys on the road to Emmaus Jesus gave them his story. The bible says in Luke 24 that when Cleopas told the stranger(Jesus) of what had happened in the past days and how they doubted Jesus was the real Messiah, Jesus gave them his story starting all the way back to the books of Moses and highlighting all the Prophets said about the Messiah. Jesus gave them his story of which he was the hero.

So what is your story and how is Jesus made the hero. We cannot go through this life without God being a part of it. Even athesists who deny Jesus with their mouths proclaim the exsistence of God with the fact that they are still breathing. We cannot escape him no matter how hard we try. God has been a part of your story from the beginning. When you tell your story, make Jesus the hero of it. The proof of Jesus being apart of your life will take away any doubt you may have that he is alive today.

In the Upper Room Jesus gave his followers his body. They thought he was a ghost but he showed them his body as proof that he is alive. We don't have the physicial body of Jesus here with us today but we have something just as good, the church is the body of Christ. In Ephesians the church is called the body of Christ here on earth. So if you have doubts about Jesus being alive, get more involved in the body of Christ. See the body alive and active and be apart of it. When the church is doing it's job of loving God and loving and serving our neighbors, people can't help but notice that Jesus is alive today.

I heard a story of an athesist down in North Carolina who did all kinds of stuff to be a pain for this church in his neighborhood but they never spoke out against him or anything. It happened that the man need eye surgrey because he was going blind but didn't have the money to pay. The church raise the money for him to have the surgrey and he became a believer because of it.

That is the church being the risen, alive body of Christ here on earth. That took away that mans doubts and I know if you get more involved in the body or invite your friends to come be apart or see the body at work, yours and their doubts will vanish for all eternity.

May our LORD be with you
Josh