The Blessed Who Have Not Seen Jesus

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. John the 20th chapter.

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Now on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the door is being locked where the disciples were for fear of the

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Jews. Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

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Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. And Jesus said to them again, peace be with you. As the

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Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the

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Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.

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Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the

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Lord. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the marks of the nails and place my finger into the marks of the nails and place my hand into his side,

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I will never believe. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them.

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Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. And then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands.

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Put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.

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Thomas answered him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, have you believed because you've seen me?

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Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet believed. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

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Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Santa Claus, the

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Easter Bunny, the Great Pumpkin, Father Time, Jack Frost, and how about my favorite,

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Heatmiser. Yeah, every morning when I wake up I look a lot like that guy, like Heatmiser.

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Yeah, see no one except for children believe that these characters, mythological characters, they believe them to be real.

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These are people, these are characters that exist only in the world of allegory and myth.

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But what about Jesus and his bodily resurrection from the grave? Isn't that the same?

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You know, as someone who was once asked about the importance of the

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Easter Sunday once blurted out, oh, Easter Sunday is the day that Jesus emerged from the tomb and then saw his shadow, which indicated that there were six more weeks of winter.

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Mm -hmm. Yeah, see, here's the thing, is that far too many pastors have capitulated to the idea that the resurrection is just a myth, and they preach it as if it's allegory.

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Let me give you an example, have you ever heard a sermon that goes something along the lines of this, Jesus rising from the tomb reminds us of spring, when the flowers rise and they bloom again, and this is a down payment of warmer days to come?

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You see, that's what Jesus's rising from the tomb is all about, it's all about new life during spring. No, it's not.

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Or worse, how about when law and gospel are not properly distinguished in a church, and as a result of that, nagging doubts arise regarding your own salvation, and those nagging doubts at times can be overwhelming.

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In fact, some postmodern preachers, they teach you to embrace your doubts, and they say, oh, doubt is not an enemy of faith, doubt is a friend of faith.

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And so the problem is this, is that this is not the faith once delivered to the

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Saints. We'll note that Peter never acted like, never talked or spoke like the resurrection was an allegory, that it was a myth.

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In fact, he writes the exact opposite. In his final letter that he writes before he himself is crucified, and gave his final witness to the resurrection of Jesus, Peter writes these words in 2

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Peter 1, We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Instead, we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.

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In fact, every New Testament apostle writing as eyewitnesses, they continue to affirm the historical fact that Jesus Christ, crucified on a

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Friday afternoon, died, gave up His life, was buried, and then

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He rose again bodily from the grave. And that bodily resurrection, the disciples make it clear that they ate with Jesus, they talked with Jesus, they spent time with Jesus.

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And so we live in an age where people sit there and go, you know, you Christians really are weird. You're just weird.

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The reason why you're weird is because you actually believe that Jesus rose bodily from the grave. Now come on, we live in the 21st century.

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Who's silly enough to believe that? Are you sure it wasn't bodily but, you know, something different?

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And like I said, far too many pastors teach as if, well, it wasn't bodily, it was like something different.

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And so with that, we're going to take a look at our Gospel text, and we'll take a look at one other Apostle as well.

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And here's the idea, is that the disciple Thomas, he's not unlike many people today.

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Maybe not unlike you, I mean, if you've ever had nagging doubts as to whether or not Jesus rose bodily from the grave, then

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Thomas, his account of what happened is for you in order to give you confidence in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and he's not the only one.

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Two of the Apostles who wrote the New...two of Jesus' Apostles, ones that he sent, both of them, just unbelievers, who then believe.

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And we'll kind of work that out. So here's what it says in our Gospel text. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week.

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So you know the context, we're picking up on Easter Sunday, this is the first Easter Sunday, the first day of the resurrection,

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Jesus has risen from the dead, and that evening, while all the disciples have a locked door meeting, they're meeting in secret, and Jesus appeared, appeared in their midst, even though the doors were locked.

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And the reason why the doors were locked, they were afraid of the Jews. And so Jesus came and stood among them, and he said to them, and listen to the words, peace be with you.

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Now this is important, this is not a throwaway sentence. Consider the circumstances. Remember on Monday, Thursday, remember on Passion Sunday, remember on Good Friday, we read the accounts of Jesus' passion and his death, and on Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday, we read the account of how

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Peter, Jesus said to his disciples on the night that he was going to be betrayed, he said to them, the

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Scriptures must be fulfilled, and the Scriptures say that I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.

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And so Jesus said, because the Scriptures must be fulfilled, he said to his disciples, tonight y 'all are going to disperse, you're gonna flee like cockroaches, that's the

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Roseboro paraphrase. And of course Peter says, no way, that's not gonna happen, Lord, even if I have to die with you,

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I will never forsake you. It's like he wasn't paying attention at all, all right?

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He wasn't paying attention at all, because Jesus said, the Scriptures have to be fulfilled. When has

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God ever said something's gonna happen and it not happened? So Jesus turns right around and says to Peter, listen, before the rooster crows, you're gonna deny me three times.

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Oh no no no no. And he got all the other disciples to basically say, Jesus, you're crazy, we'll never forsake you.

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Every single one of them. And so you'll note, none of them listened to Jesus, none of them were paying attention to what he was saying, and all of them were acting as if somehow they were above the

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Word of God, and of course the Word of God was fulfilled. And Peter, of all people, the guy who said he was with Jesus to the end, heart and soul, there he was.

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He showed up at that kangaroo court in the middle of the night at Caiaphas's house, and what did he do?

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Exactly what Jesus said he would do. Some little slave girl, you know, came by the fire and said, oh, aren't you one of Jesus's disciples?

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I don't know the man, I've never met him, I don't know what you're talking about. Well, you have a Galilean accent, surely you're one of his disciples.

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Three times he denies Christ. Three times. And then the rooster crows, and one of the gospel texts says

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Jesus looked at Peter. And that had to be a look that just killed him, because he fled and he wept.

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And so that was the brave Peter who was with Jesus, heart and soul, all the disciples said, we'll never forsake you

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Lord, and well they did. And so you would expect, though, that Jesus, who said in his teaching, anyone who denies me before men,

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I will deny them before the Father. You'd think that maybe the first resurrection appearance should be

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Jesus in his glory, conquering the grave and appearing for the purpose of letting these guys have it, giving them a stern talking to, upbraiding them, letting him know how disappointed he was in their lack of faith and their inability to confess him.

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But that's not what happens at all. Not at all. None of the things that we would expect, this isn't the story of the

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Count of Monte Cristo, where revenge is dished up cold. No, this is something completely different.

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The words that Jesus speaks to his disciple are these, peace be with you,

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Shalom. Whoa. And why is it?

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Because he's bled and died for all their sins, he's conquered the death. He did all of these things for their salvation.

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You think Jesus was unaware that his disciples were sinners? Of course he knew they were, right? So he comes, and in his resurrection appearance, the first thing he says to them is, peace be with you.

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So when he had said this, he showed them his hands, he showed them his side.

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And so Jesus has kept within his body, his physical body that has risen from the grave, he's kept the nail prints, he's kept the scars of where the spear pierced his side, all of these trophies of his great victory over sin, death, and the devil.

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So then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord, and Jesus said to them again, listen to what he says, peace be with you.

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Peace. And we learned from other gospel accounts that they thought they had seen a ghost when Jesus showed up, and so Jesus is there to comfort them, not to judge them, not to condemn them.

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And then he says this, as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.

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And you'll note then that Jesus is the Apostle of God the Father, and Jesus now is sending out his disciples, and they being sent, they become

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Apostles themselves. Apostolos, in the Greek word here, it means ones who are sent, sent ones, they are sent from somebody.

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So Jesus is sending them, and when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit.

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If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.

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He has given the authority to the Church now to forgive and to retain sins. And all this is great news, and well, we don't know why, but verse 24 makes it clear that Thomas wasn't there, he missed the meeting.

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We're not sure what was the cause of that, but he shows up later and the other disciples told him, we've seen the

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Lord! And he said, no, unless I see the hands and the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand in the side,

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I will never believe. Never.

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Those are strong words. And so you'll note, we call him Doubting Thomas, that may not be exactly accurate.

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We might be better calling him Unbelieving Thomas, and he's just not gonna have any of it.

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And so what do we expect Jesus to do when he shows up? Oh, to let Thomas have it, to upbraid him.

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But note here, Thomas' unbelief, his complete skepticism regarding the resurrection of Jesus, which makes no sense if you think about it.

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Here, ten of your closest colleagues whom you've been traipsing around the Judean wilderness for three years, all of them have witnessed the miracles of Jesus, saw him multiply the loaves and the fishes, saw him walk on the water, saw him calm a storm on the

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Sea of Galilee with a word, saw him raise Lazarus from the dead, saw him raise

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Jarius, saw all the things that they saw Jesus do, giving sight to the blind, giving the ability for paralytics to walk, hearing to the deaf, healing sicknesses and diseases, and casting out demons.

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All of his closest ten buddies are saying, we've seen Jesus! Nope, not having it.

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Not at all. I don't believe you. So eight days later, the following Sunday.

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Note how Jesus keeps appearing on Sunday. It's as if Jesus is kick -starting the day in which

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Christians normally, normally worship. We can worship on any day, but Christians normally worship on Sunday.

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Why? It's the day of the resurrection. So eight days later, his disciples were inside, and Thomas was with them, and although the doors were locked,

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Jesus came and stood among them. Now, a little bit of a note here, kind of a funny note. Those of you familiar with Bethel Church in Redding, California, complete wingnut wackerdoodles, there's a group of people there in the so -called

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Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry who are practicing learning how to walk through walls. None of them have pulled it off yet.

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Unless, of course, they break the drywall of the process. But note that Jesus Christ, God of God, light of light, very

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God of very God, and also human, the Son of David, God and man,

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Jesus is able to walk through walls. He's able to appear in a room with locked doors. Locked doors cannot keep

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Jesus out. He did not have to climb in a back window while no one was looking. This wasn't a magic trick, it was a miracle.

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So Jesus came and stood among them, and again, here are the words, Peace be with you.

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Oh, including to you, Thomas. So then he said to Thomas, hey Thomas, put your finger here, see my hands.

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And so note, Jesus here is quite accommodating. And note, Thomas is an eyewitness, and who is the fellow that wrote this gospel?

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John. John's in the room too. And so think of it this way, if you're struggling with doubts regarding the resurrection, this was written.

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Thomas's doubts, his unbelief, are there for you to consider, because in seeing the resurrected

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Jesus, this unbeliever becomes a believer. So put your finger here, see my hands, put out your hand, place it in my side, do not be disbelieving, but believe.

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And whatever Jesus commands, Jesus supplies, he says. So he no longer disbelieves, but now he believes, and out comes one of the most amazing confessions of all time.

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Thomas then says, Hakurios mu, kaiotheos mu. You are my

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Lord, and you are mine. Oh, no truer words could have ever been spoken.

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What a great confession. Oh, and by the way, Jesus is your Lord and God as well, even if you do not recognize that fact to be true.

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Him confessing it is him having his eyes open and seeing the truth. And then Jesus said to him, have you believed because you've seen me?

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Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed. So let me point this out to y 'all, and that is that I'm pretty sure none of you have had coffee with Jesus at Starbucks lately.

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I haven't either. But that being the case, you haven't seen with your eyes the risen

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Jesus, have you? No, I haven't, you haven't. But all of that being said then, then listen to the words of Jesus, because these words are for you.

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You who believe and trust in Jesus and have not seen him with your physical eyes,

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Jesus says you are blessed. You have the blessing of the forgiveness of sins.

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You've been blessed with the gift of faith. You have been blessed with an inheritance that is imperishable. We'll talk about your blessings in just a minute, because man, when you start to add them all up, you realize we are not paupers.

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We are wealthy beyond all reason, even though we have to suffer in this life.

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And then note the last words that John writes. Now Jesus did many other signs, many other things in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book.

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In another part he kind of muses and says, I'm sure if we were to write them all down, there wouldn't be room in all the books in the

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That's how many he performed. But he says these signs, these signs are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

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Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

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Salvation is by grace, through faith alone. Everyone who believes in Jesus will not be put to shame.

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The scriptures are clear in this. Do you believe? I doubt that you're here because you don't believe, so I'm here assuming that you're here because you believe.

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Then note how you are blessed. Now there's one other fellow whose conversion is quite notable, and the reason it is quite notable is due to the fact that this fellow hated

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Christians. And the person I am referring to is none other than the man whom we now know as the

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Apostle Paul. But that's not how he started his career. He started his career as a fellow, as a

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Pharisee by the name of Saul of Tarsus, Saul of Tarsus. And this is the fellow who, when

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Christianity gets up and running, when Peter and James and John are proclaiming

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Christ, the forgiveness of sins, that they are eyewitnesses of the resurrection, Saul of Tarsus took it upon himself to put an end to this movement.

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The movement, by the way, it's not a movement, it's the Church. The name of the group, they referred to themselves originally as The Way.

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Interesting name for Christianity as The Way, and indeed it is The Way because Jesus is

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The Way. And so it was Saul of Tarsus, he wanted to stomp this thing out.

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He was there when the first Christian was martyred for their confession of Christ, and that fellow's name is

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Stephen. And when he was being stoned to death unjustly, it was a murder, there was

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Saul of Tarsus. He was watching everybody's cloaks while they did the deed and approving of what they had done, and he took it upon himself to, well, breathe out murderous threats and put a stop to this thing.

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And so in Acts chapter 9, consider this. The unbeliever, not just any old garden variety unbeliever, but the most hostile of unbelievers ever.

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It says that Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, and he went to the high priest, and he asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found anyone belonging to The Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

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Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.

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And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Shaul, that's his name in Hebrew by the way,

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Shaul, why are you persecuting me? Now pay attention to those words, because anybody who persecutes a

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Christian is not persecuting that Christian, that person is persecuting Jesus himself. And so Saul said, who are you,

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Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

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But rise, enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. And the men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.

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Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So one minute

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Saul is upright, the next minute he's on his face on the ground, and in the process he has now become what?

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An eyewitness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He has heard the voice of Jesus himself, and he has seen the glorious glory of his risen might.

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And Saul now is an eyewitness of the resurrection, but he's not quite yet a Christian. And so he rose from the ground, his eyes were opened, he saw nothing, so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

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For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named

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Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and note something here, today's so -called prophets, oh man, what a mess they are.

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These are people who will say something to the effect of, I hear the Lord saying that there's going to be a shaking and a shifting, and that in the near future there will be a suddenly, and they're masters of saying nothing.

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And not only that, they try to teach you that as Christians you need to learn how to hear the voice of God, as if God's out there communicating to you and saying, hello,

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I'm God, can you hear me? Hello? All right, it's nonsense, and so they will charge you $500 to teach you how to hear the voice of God.

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You're gonna note here, Ananias did it for free, and not only that, he heard the voice of God, he knew exactly who was talking to him.

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I assure you, if Jesus has anything to say to you and he were to talk to you, you'd say, yes Lord, I'm right here, yes

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Lord, you'd know exactly who was talking to you. And then you're gonna note here that when Jesus speaks he gives very specific details.

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He doesn't talk about shifting, shakings, and suddenlies, and how there's going to be a this or that, or just all the prophecy buzzwords that they use today.

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These aren't prophecies, this is nonsense. So listen here, here's Ananias, he's minding his own business,

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Jesus appears to him and he says his name, Ananias, and he knows exactly who's talking.

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He says, here I am, Lord. And so the Lord said to him, rise, go to the street called

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Straight, tells him exactly where to go, he gives him the address, he gives him the zip code, he gives him the name of the homeowner, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named

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Saul, for behold he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.

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Now those are some very specific details. Now a little bit of a note here,

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Ananias is a little bit nervous about the assignment, because he doesn't want to end up like Stephen quite yet, so Ananias answers,

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Lord, I've heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.

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Oh by the way, don't let that word go over too quickly. Your saints.

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Listen to that word. Everybody who is a Christian is a saint. By the way, the

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Greek word there is hagioi. You know what it means? What the hagioi are?

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What does it mean to be somebody who is a hagios? That's the singular, hagios, singular. So if you are an individual saint, you are a hagios.

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If you are part of the group of saints, like right now I'm speaking to y 'all in the plural, you are the hagioi.

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Oh the Greek word hagios is a big word. You know what it means? The holy one.

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Because you've been made holy. Remember, you're blessed. You who have not seen

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Jesus and yet believe, you are blessed. And God calls you his hagioi, his holy ones.

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You have been made holy by Christ. So he says, how much evil he's done to your saints at Jerusalem.

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And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. But the

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Lord said to him, go, he's a chosen instrument of mine. And you sit there and go, what?

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So note here that that Paul, Saul of Tarsus, did not make a freewill decision to ask

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Jesus into his heart. Isn't that weird? Okay, instead he was on his way to go arrest Christians, to bind them and beat them and drag them back to Jerusalem, and what ended up happening is

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Jesus Christ himself showed up, and now Saul is an eyewitness of the resurrection, and Jesus takes

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Saul and he drags him into his kingdom, kicking and screaming.

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Saul did not choose him, Christ chose him. So go, he's a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the

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Gentiles and the kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

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A little more commentary here. All those pastors and preachers out there who are telling you that Christianity is all about you having your best life now, they're lying.

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That it's all about you having health and divine wealth and prosperity, because you're the head, not the tail.

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Oh, take a look at the Apostle Paul, when he was called by Christ, he was called to do what?

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To proclaim Jesus and to suffer. And we too are called to do the same.

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We'll talk about that more in a minute. So Ananias departed, he entered the house, and laying his hands on Saul, he said,

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Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the

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Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, he regained his sight, and then he rose and he was baptized.

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And at that moment then, he was joined with Jesus in Christ's death and his resurrection.

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His sins were washed away, he was regenerated and made alive in Christ, and given the gift of faith, the forgiveness of his sins, and called to be an

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Apostle, and an important one too. Where would Christianity today be without the book of Romans, or the book of Galatians?

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Without those books, oh, it would be hard, almost impossible to fight the people who would deny that you are saved by grace through faith alone, apart from works.

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And I thank God that he called such an unworthy fellow as Saul of Tarsus to be his

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Apostle, because that gives me hope. Because he's called somebody as unworthy as me to be a believer and blessed, along with all the others who are

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Christ's hagioi. And then it says this about Saul, from day one then, from some days he was with the disciples at Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim

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Jesus in all the synagogues, saying, Jesus is the Son of God. And all who heard him, they were amazed and said,

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Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem? So note, just like Thomas, now there's

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Saul of Tarsus, and he's proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God, claiming that Jesus is his

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Lord and his God, just like Thomas. And don't let this fact go too quick over you.

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This conversion, no one saw it coming. The magnitude of it is huge.

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How huge? Well, think of it this way. It is as huge as if Adolf Hitler had decided to become a

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Jew. That's how big this is. The great persecutor of the

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Christian faith and of Christ now is confessing Jesus to be his

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Lord and his God, and everybody is sitting there going, What? Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem, of those who called upon this name?

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And has he not come here for the purpose to bring them bound before the chief priests? But Saul increased all the more in strength, and he confounded the

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Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the

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Christ. What an amazing turnaround. Now, note then, note then, that Saul, who becomes the

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Apostle Paul, says these words to us in 1st Corinthians 15. He's an eyewitness of the resurrection.

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He says, I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins, your sins, my sins, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the

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Scriptures. He was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and he appeared to Cephas, that's

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Peter, then to the twelve, and then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

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And then he appeared to James, then to all the Apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

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And he says, I am the least of the Apostles, I'm not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the

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Church of God, but by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain.

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On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, it was the grace of God that is within me.

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And the same Apostle Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians 15, the eyewitness of the resurrection himself,

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Paul is, and he says, now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

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This makes no sense to Paul, because he's seen Jesus! But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even

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Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.

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So all these pastors sitting there going, well, you know, we don't really need to focus on whether or not

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Jesus rose bodily from the dead, it's all some kind of allegory regarding how life returns in the spring, these people are out of their minds.

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If Christ has not been raised from the dead, then Christianity is false, your faith is in vain.

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And Paul says, and we are found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God, that he raised

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Christ, whom he did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised. And so if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.

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You're still in your sins. You know, to steal a line from one of my favorite comedy movies,

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Young Frankenstein, I think that's how you have to say it, right? If Christ has not been raised, your faith is doo -doo!

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It doesn't amount to a hill of beans, what good is Christianity with a

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Jesus who's still dead? It's false, it's a lie! So that's the point.

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And so you'll note then, he said and says this in verse 20 of 1st Corinthians 15, but in fact

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Christ has been raised from the dead. And how does he know? Because he's seen Jesus!

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He is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

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For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Each in his own order though,

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Christ the firstfruits, then in his coming those who belong to Christ. And then will come the end, when he will deliver the kingdom of God to the

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Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all of his enemies under his feet.

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And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Ha! Can't wait for that day to come.

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Oh, the reason why we're all locked up in our homes is because death is still out there doing its thing!

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And we're waiting, waiting for Christ to return and to destroy even death itself. Now I told you that I wanted to talk about how blessed you are.

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And in this context then, the Apostle Peter is going to help us out. Consider again the words of our

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Epistle text and how they relate to you, because they do. Here's what it says, "'Blessed be

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God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy.'"

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Oh, listen to those words, okay? Peter, when he talks about the mercy of God, he is not talking about, well, you know, mercy, you know, a little bit of mercy.

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No, no, it's magos, it's great mercy. It is the great mercy of God that he has caused you, has caused me, to be born again.

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Born again to what? To a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

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Because Christ is risen from the dead, Peter the eyewitness, the guy who denied Christ three times and was forgiven and restored by Christ himself, he laid down his life and he himself was martyred for the

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Christian faith, crucified on a cross in Nero's circus. It took him three days to die because he was crucified upside down.

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And you'll note the Apostle Paul also, he was martyred for the Christian faith. Martyreo means to bear witness.

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He bore witness with his life, and his head was lifted off his shoulders by a

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Roman Gladius. Oh, but what about that Thomas fellow? What about him? The one who didn't believe unless he put his fingers into the nail prints and stuff like that.

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Well, Church history tells us something about Thomas. I don't know if you know this, but Thomas himself traveled as far as India, proclaiming

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Jesus to be the Christ, and proclaiming in him the forgiveness of sins. And as it turns out, the churches that he planted there, some of them still exist to this day.

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There are churches in India that are named after Thomas, who say, and they claim, and they have very good credentials in making the claim, that it was

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Thomas, of all people, who planted those congregations, and they exist to this day. But what happened to Thomas?

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He too was martyred. He eventually gave his life in witness to the resurrection of Jesus, and he was martyred in India.

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And so you'll note, all of these men, Peter speaking to us now as also a martyr, who never once capitulated, ever once said, no, it was all a lie, we were making it up, it was just a joke, please, please, please, please spare my life.

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No, this guy who laid down his life, proclaiming that Jesus had risen from the dead, and he was an eyewitness, he says to you and I that you have an inheritance, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.

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And so remember, you are part of the Hagioi, you are the holy ones. Jesus says, although you have not seen him, you are blessed.

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You want to know how blessed you are? Good night. You've been written into the will of Jesus himself.

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And because Jesus has died, Jesus is your rich uncle, your rich brother, and he, oh my goodness, the details here,

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I don't even have the ability to kind of lay it all out. You have an inheritance in the new earth, in a world without end.

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You have a mansion, for real, crafted and constructed by the carpenter of Nazareth himself.

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You have before you life everlasting, all of this given to you as a gift, and Peter says it is imperishable, it is undefiled, it is unfading, and it is currently being kept in heaven for you.

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And if you're thinking, well, what good is that? Don't worry, he goes on to say, you who are by God's power being guarded,

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Christ himself is guarding you through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

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So think of it this way, it's kind of like, you know, if you were to have a real rich uncle die that you didn't even know you had this uncle, and you got word from some attorney, oh yeah, you've been written into the will, and he's left you a bazillion dollars.

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You wouldn't know what to do with a bazillion dollars, but believe me when I tell you, a bazillion dollars is nothing compared to the inheritance that you have waiting for you, all given as a gift.

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You would be stunned, you'd sit there and go, so note then, from the moment you are informed that you have received this inheritance, you recognize that it is yours, even if it's going to be a month or two before you can take possession of the bank account.

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It'll eventually happen. Same thing, I have tidings, Christ says you are blessed, Scripture says you have an inheritance now waiting for you,

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God himself is guarding you, and all of this will be revealed in the last time, so then rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials.

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What you're going through is nothing compared to what you're going to receive, even if what you have to go through requires you to be martyred for the

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Christian faith, tortured or silenced because of your faith in Christ. Don't worry, other men have had that privilege as well.

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Even if you have to stay in your house for another month or two, that's just an annoyance, all right?

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All of this is an annoyance we're just passing through. The thing that we have looking forward to is something beyond our ability to even comprehend at this moment.

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So note then, even if it's necessary for a little while that you go through various trials that grieve you, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, that faith that's been given to you by Christ, that faith that is more precious than gold, even though it perishes and is tested by fire, so that it may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus.

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And then listen to these words. Peter, recalling what Jesus said to Thomas and said to us, blessed are those who have not seen me and yet believe,

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Peter says, though you have not seen him, you love him. And this is true.

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Though you do not now see him, you believe in him. And that's true.

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And you rejoice with joy that is inexpressible, filled with glory, and you will obtain the outcome of your faith.

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And what is the outcome of your faith? Not your best life now, the inheritance that is to come, the obtaining of the salvation of your souls.

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And because Christ has bled and died for you and risen victorious from the grave, then you will obtain the outcome of your souls, and when you see

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Jesus face to face, and you too will be an eyewitness of the resurrection. It's coming, sooner rather than later.

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You will be an eyewitness of the resurrection. You will hear Jesus speak your name and say to you, well done.

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Well done. It is my honor to serve and to proclaim to you the holy and the blessed of Jesus, this great, great inheritance and salvation that you have.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. 470th

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota 567 -44. We thank you for your support.

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