Believe - Pastor Dr. Roger Cook

Amen. There's a wonderful release in just praising Him isn't there? just letting all our doubts and our fears let them stay in the tomb! He has risen! amen well, lovely to hear and see the stories of our hope and I wanted to focus a little bit this morning on John's account of the resurrection. The different New Testament stories of what happened so early on that Easter Sunday, you can tell that they're real accounts I'm told by lawyers we've got a lawyer in our midst that when there are genuine eyewitnesses accounts of events that happen everybody sees them from a slightly different perspective and the stories don't always necessarily immediately all match up. In fact if they do exactly match up the lawyers say "somebody is telling porkies" because everybody sees things through their own eyes and in a situation like the confusion and the wonder and the amazement that happened that Easter day, the stories that the different Gospels tell, all come from a different perspective and John's account well we need to listen to John's account because John was there John was actually there and in reading it he must have had a long conversation with Mary because Mary told him in John's Gospel about her meeting with the man she thought was the gardener but He amen He showed Himself alive first of all to Mary but let's read the beginning if we can of John's Gospel chapter 20 together this is about 8 verses so it'll take a little while but let's read it   Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other Disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” Peter therefore went out, and the other Disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other Disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that's been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other Disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also, and he saw and believed. amen he saw and believed I love reading that story there was something of a footrace going on and I think if John suffered from pride at all it seems to have been that he was a better runner than Peter because he emphasizes the point. I don't know maybe he was a bit younger maybe he had not eaten so many fish who knows? but he outran Peter they were both in the confusion and the breathlessness of it all Mary had run back into uh the room where the Disciples were all hiding together afraid of the Jews the power of God had not yet come which emboldened them so much but anyway she ran to where the Disciples were huddled together and Peter and John raced to the tomb and John did get there first, but he didn't go in he didn't go in. Just little things tell us so much about the different personalities of people and how God is able we're all so different and God is able to take you and me and we're different and use us in a way which is true to the the way He made us and to His own power in resurrection life and there's something in John's personality which was not like Peter Peter was absolutely "Mr feet first" he absolutely was! try and put Peter in a boat he'll get out of it he was must have been somewhat what's the word impetuous sort of guy first to his feet well Jesus gave him the keys to the Kingdom and Jesus called Peter and Peter was the first person after Pentecost or at Pentecost to preach the Gospel with such power and effect and was also the man who well Les Wheeldon who has spoken to us here calls Peter the blurter because Peter whether it was his feet or his mouth he went first. And God used the person he was, not the person he wasn't, to preach the Gospel first of all to the Jews and then to the Gentiles, John was a different personality John was much more reflective and careful and thinking and bless God that he was because there is no Gospel like John's Gospel. Written long after the other Gospels the scholars tell us and so full of reflection and care just thinking about what God has done for us in Christ Jesus amen. But Peter went in first and can you imagine? what happened the grave clothes and the napkin that had been around Jesus' head lying there how can we describe it? untouched by human hand we could put it that way somehow was it just before the women got to the tomb? was it just before Mary came with the spices to anoint his body he had been buried so hastily? between the sixth hour of the day and the evening which began the Sabbath very quickly Joseph of Arimathea he'd asked Pilate for the body they buried Him very quickly and the women came to anoint the body with spices and they were too late they were too late. That had already happened anyway Jesus had been anointed for his burial you can read the story it had already happened but how was it the grave clothes were just lying there somehow there'd been a lifeless body in them and in a twinkling of an eye the body was not there and those grave clothes must have just settled in the tomb exactly where the body had been... just just folded down... and Jesus was alive and risen amen and Peter and John saw where the grave clothes just folded down lay there. And when John saw that, what we just read was: he believed when he saw the grave clothes when he saw the evidence I mean John newell's he'd heard Jesus time and again teach the Disciples and make it clear to them that He would be betrayed and the chief priests and the elders and the scribes they would take Him by wicked hands He told them on a number of occasions exactly what was going to happen what had long been prophesied that in our place we heard it in the poem this morning Jesus and we sang it bled and died for me amen and John had heard the story as had the Disciples and those who listened but it's when he saw the grave clothes he believed he believed now one of the wonderful things about John's Gospel is just that word "believe" just that word. It's always a verb in John's Gospel it's never a noun it's never a naming word it's something people do amen and John believed and that just that little word "believe" you can check me out on this don't do it now otherwise everybody will be getting their phones out we'll be in a mess but John uses that word "believe" well I checked it this morning I already knew that at least three times as much as any other book of the New Testament at least a little bit more actually, but I just checked this morning in Vine's Dictionary and he says that let me get it exactly right somebody'll check out what I say Matthew and Mark use that same little word "believe" 10 times Luke uses it 9 times but John's Gospel 99 TIMES! he really, well, I didn't ask Csaba to put this verse up but if you've got a Bible, turn with me to John chapter 20 John chapter 20 and verse 31 and we'll stay in John's Gospel for our time together this morning. John chapter 20 and verse 31 why did John take so many decades such care such as meditation on everything that he had seen and heard and why did John write his Gospel? "These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life" amen that's why John's Gospel was written it was written so that our stubborn old hearts might come to the place where right in the midst of what my life has to face I believe God amen I believe God somebody else said that I'm going to stick with John's Gospel this morning but somebody else said that just before he got shipwrecked and it was a man called Paul and he said when everybody else was running around panicking because they knew the ship was going to hit the rocks and Paul stood up and said "I believe God" amen you can read the story it's towards the end of the book of Acts but let's stay in John this morning because from beginning to end one of John's it's not the only kind of strand and theme that he weaves in to the truth he wants to embed into our hearts it's not the only truth but one of his core truths is this: now come on believe God believe God! believe God so in John chapter 1 he says this I can't honestly, we'd be here rather a long time if we were to look at 99 references about believing but it's important that we get the point and we allow the truth to sink down into our hearts there was a man sent from God John wrote in his the beginning of his Gospel whose name was John was a different John was John the Baptist. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the Light, that all through him all think that means you and me and everyone all through him might believe. amen I like to see John's Gospel maybe at another time we could take some time but I like to see John's Gospel as a whole series of encounters John's Gospel is written that way that personal meetings between all sorts of people old and young rich and poor people ready to believe people stubborn men and women and there's an underlying purpose in every encounter that every person had with Jesus in John's Gospel how are you going to believe? are you going to believe? So from the very first encounter and conversation and John's Gospel is built of conversations between all sorts of people in different conditions and one of them will suit you and me and the first one is a man called um Nathaniel now he wasn't a hard case. He, it seems if we read that story that Nathaniel had been calling out to God in his own backyard under a fig tree and Jesus said "I saw you there" I saw you there Nathaniel when something in your heart was calling out to God I saw you I saw you well Nathaniel was amazed that Jesus knew him and he said what others took a long time to come to he said You're the son of God and Jesus said and I'm reading from verse 50 here "Because I said to you 'I saw you under the fig tree' do you believe? You will see greater things yet." amen Nathaniel was not a hard case but I wonder if you were to think well who who was the hard case who was the most difficult? and it was just about the last encounter in John's Gospel there's a man called Thomas. "well I wasn't there I didn't see Jesus rise from the dead" should have been gathered with the Lord's people but wherever he was he missed it first time you know the story Jesus comes again and appears to the Disciples and Thomas has said "well less I see the woods in his hands lest I put my finger in his side, I'm not going to believe" what happened? perhaps I should just read a verse or two we're back in John chapter 20. I'll read verse 27. He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, look at My hands; reach your hand here put it in My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." amen well He had to tell Thomas off as well "Thomas because you've seen Me you've believed. Blessed are those who have not seen but believed." amen that's how you and I can be blessed and this theme runs right through consistently encounter after encounter it's what Jesus when He met people He was leading them shepherding them to faith I mean what's the best known verse in the whole of the whole Scripture? "God so loved the world that whosoever what's that word? "believe" believe, believe. and that was as a result of His conversation with a man called Nicodemus. The one I really love is this story which we, we've we can just remind ourselves of we can't do any more this morning, but of the story of the Samaritan woman the woman at the well and it's in John chapter 4 and we can't go into the whole story today but this woman she was an outcast in her own society. Because of the way she lived probably, and she wouldn't have been collecting water at a well in the middle of the day if she was the women would have they would have met in the evening and gathered together and had a good chin wag around the well, We can find other instances where that happened in the Scripture but this woman went in the in the heat of the day because she was an outcast even from her own people and her own people were Samaritans they didn't get on with the Jews at all they had the dubious background they borrowed bits of true religion from the Jewish faith and they mixed it up with other ideas that still happens in this day and age and it leads people astray in it the Samaritans had got it all wrong but anyway you know the story Jesus spoke truth to her and somehow in just speaking to this woman His words woke up a hunger for God despite her sinful life just Him speaking to her just Him being with her, it woke something up in her "give me this living water give me this living water" and He tested her heart whether it was truthful about who she was and what she had done and He spoke the truth in love to her and she saw she proceed she said "I see you you're a prophet" and then in that story she started to get all religious she said oh he's obviously a man of God, I better remember something about religion what about this mountain? our father said we should worship here but the Jews say you should worship there and let's have a religious conversation if you're a prophet. What did Jesus say? I'm just looking for the verse Csaba might want to pull it up and I'll trust you that it's the right translation it's John chapter 4 verse 21. Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me" now we can stop there this morning. "Believe Me" don't believe religion don't believe traditions, "Believe Me" amen their life was completely changed. That word believe it's nothing to do with well, what should we say? "believe-ism"? it's not it's not a let me remember my junior school teaching it's not a noun it's not a naming word it's a verb it's a doing word it always is in John always. I think once if I'm right John actually uses the word to describe a noun and he says a believing person amen and that's what you and I need to let our hearts be so changed by the Lord's working that we become believers believing people amen and it's a word it isn't believism it's to do with trusting it's to do with leaning amen moving. Faith is not an abstract thing I mean what did that man say who needed help and we all do and Jesus had promised to him if you if you believe if you believe. things become possible all things become possible and he cried out and he said "Lord I believe help my unbelief" and that's, it's not a creed it's trust and we are asked and invited by the working of God's Spirit in the human heart to somehow move in our own will and say "I believe" "I believe" "help my unbelief" amen I was thinking about this morning and I was thinking of a hymn it's not particularly an Easter Sunday hymn and I'm not sure if people know it so I wanted to ask do we know we're not seeing it this morning there is a fountain filled with blood? Peggy knows it, anybody else knows that? okay wonderful wonderful few people know it Norma knows it anyway a verse was added after the original writer penned it I do believe I will believe that Jesus died for me amen on the cross, He shed His blood from sin to set me free. Amen it's a challenge to every one of us in different situations I'm gonna believe God I'm gonna believe God and actually what Jesus said in his conversation with that Samaritan woman was you become a believer it's not a creed it's not something you can write down not saying there's anything wrong in that and have articles of Faith perhaps we need those too but what happens when you believe and this is what Jesus told the samaritan woman you become a worshipper you'll become a worshiper a worshiper in Spirit and in Truth. And the issues of whether you should be in this place or in that in mount Gerizim or of Jerusalem that's all irrelevant. You'll become a worshiper of God in Spirit and in Truth amen amen amen well we're going to break bread together this morning and um Wendy and Billy are going to be our servers so can you come out in there? and this table you don't have to feel okay you don't have to feel right you don't your life doesn't have to be in perfect order all that's necessary for you to eat this bread and drink this wine as symbols of the Lord's death is that something in your heart says "I do believe" "I believe God" if you say that in your heart today this table is for you! amen let's pray thank you, Lord thank you for everything You went through for us thank you for shepherding our hearts so that whoever we are whatever we go through You draw us to the place where something in us says "I believe I'm going to believe You" it's it's what You died to accomplish Lord a people for Your Father a Bride for Your own heart amen and when You broke bread and drunk wine Lord the night You were betrayed this is what You were looking for a people who would walk with You amen. amen.