It Matters

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There is a story about a grandfather who wanted to see how much his four-year-old granddaughter knew about the Easter story. He put her on his lap and asked, “Julie, why do we celebrate Easter?” Without hesitating, she said, “Jesus was crucified. After He died, His body was put into a grave. They rolled a big stone in front of the opening. A bunch of soldiers guarded the tomb. On the third day, there was a big earthquake and the stone rolled away.”

Grandpa was pleased with how much his granddaughter knew about the Easter story but then she continued, “When the earthquake happened, the entire town came out by the grave. And if Jesus came out and saw His shadow, they knew there would be six more weeks of winter!”

I Corinthians 15:17

17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

For hundreds of years people have tried to disprove Jesus death and resurrection. For hundreds of years people have tried to prove his death and resurrection. It is a never-ending battle of words against words. Scientists have attempted to explain away any possibility of near death experiences by saying that “Within the first 30 seconds after the heart had stopped, all the mammals displayed a surge of highly synchronized brain activity that had features associated with consciousness and visual activation. The burst of electrical patterns even exceeded levels seen during a normal, awake state.” I was in a “tweeting battle”  this past week with a couple of atheist and a couple of doubters who questioned everything I had to say.  They saw  Easter as a bunch of foolishness and a fairy tale.

As important as I think words are, and as much as I like to prove others wrong, and as much as I want to persuade you to believe that his death and resurrection did happen. As much as I want to persuade you that without his death and resurrection there would not be hope. As much as I want to persuade you to believe  that without his death and resurrection your faith is futile. If you don’t believe in his death and resurrection all of scripture is just a fairy tale. It is just a legendary story. It is just like all the other religions.  We wouldn’t have any reason to celebrate today. It would be just  another holiday where we gather with our family. It would be just another reason to go out to eat. If you don’t believe in His death and resurrection we are just worshipping the god of fertility today or the god of weather.

Does it really matter what you believe in?

Does it really matter why I believe?

All of us believe in something. Even the atheists I have been tweeting with believe in something.  All of us are in an intellectual pursuit of truth.  I was bombarded with questions that told me that even the least religious people are looking for truth.  I was doing pretty good until another well – meaning lady blasted them for the way they believed.

What we believe in affects every part of our life.

• It affects the decisions we make
• It affects the things we do.
• It affects the way we think and feel.
• It affects the direction of your life.
• It affects what or who we put our faith in.

The question I pose is – Do YOU believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? I believe most of us in here would say, “yes, I believe!”  But  Jesus says, “even the demons in hell believe in him.”  That’s why the demons trembled when they recognized him. That’s why they asked him to leave them alone when they were in His presence.  They believed who he said he was.  But they didn’t put their faith in Him. Belief is an intellectual pursuit of the truth.  All us in here have a believe system. All of us in here have probably made Jesus a part of that belief system. If I were to ask you that question – Most of us would raise our hands and say, “YES, I BELIEVE”. 

Do you see the problem? We have only made Jesus a PART of our belief system. When he is only a part of our belief system he becomes one of many gods we worship.  We turn Jesus into an idol (one of many things we believe in). What I mean by this is that we buy the plaque for our wall, we buy Christian books and magazines, we buy the Christian t-shirt, we buy the bumper sticker, we buy the little fishy emblem for our car declaring who we believe and we call that faith. But he never completely has our heart. We never really put our faith in Him.

Not all who believe in him put their faith in Him.

Charles Blondin’s greatest fame came in June of 1859 when he attempted to become the first person to cross a tightrope stretched over a quarter of a mile across the mighty Niagara Falls.

He walked across 160 feet above falls several times, each time with a different daring feat – once in a sack, on stilts, on a bicycle, in the dark, and once he even carried a stove and cooked an omelet!

On one occasion though, he asked for the participation of a volunteer.

In 1859 at Niagara Falls,  A large crowd gathered and a buzz of excitement ran along both sides of the river bank. The crowd “Oooohed!” and “Aaaaahed!” as Blondin carefully walked across one dangerous step after another — blindfolded and pushing a wheelbarrow.

Upon reaching the other side, the crowd’s applause was louder than the roar of the falls! Blondin suddenly stopped and addressed his audience: “Do you believe I can carry a person across in this wheelbarrow?” The crowd enthusiastically shouted, “Yes, yes, yes. You are the greatest tightrope walker in the world. You can do anything!”

“Okay,” said Blondin, “Get in the wheelbarrow…..”

Everyone believed that Blondin could do it … no one was willing to put their faith in him.

Anyone can believe.  If you asked someone if they believe in Jesus Christ more than half of them will tell you they do. But not all of them put their faith in Him. Faith is more of heart issue.

In my tweeting conversation this past week with one of the atheist, he said, “the claims of Christianity are simply not logical.” My response to him was that nothing about the claims of Christianity are logical. After I did that, a few of his other tweeting friends favorited my quote. A virgin birth? A man coming back to life after he was dead for three days? Nothing about the story  is logical. It takes faith.  Faith goes well beyond logic.

When Jesus was crucified and pronounced dead – everything the disciples believed was crushed. He had told them a couple of times that he was going to die and would be resurrected. Once it actually happened what they believed was put to the test.  It now went from head issue to a heart issue.

I can only imagine what they were thinking.

• “Even though he’s gone am I still going to follow Him?”
• “Even though he’s gone am I still going to believe in Him?”

Faith affects your heart.

After Jesus death and resurrection, the disciples were almost immediately transformed from men who were hopeless and fearful after the crucifixion into men who were confident and bold witnesses of the resurrection.

The women who saw the empty tomb, couldn’t believe their eyes. They couldn’t find his dead body any where.

• Was it stolen? If it was they would have brought in the first century CSI unit and they would have been able to produce a body to stop the successful spreading of the Christian faith in the very city the crucifixion occurred.
• Was He even dead? Wasn’t he just unconscious? I am sure he woke from being beaten near to death and stabbed in the side, removed the 2 ton stone, overcame the soldiers, and vanished from history after a few meetings with his disciples in which he convinced them he was risen from the dead.
• Or did he really rise from the dead? Am I just being gullible? Jesus said it would happen. The disciples said it happened. The women saw the tomb rolled away. They saw the linens they wrapped him in on the slab. Hundreds of witnesses actually saw Jesus walking around.   Is it gullible to believe that the supernatural happened?

I was told by a couple of atheists this past week  that I was believing in was a fairy tale. They are absolutely right if the death and resurrection of Jesus never happened. My faith is futile.

If His death and resurrection doesn’t affect your heart – which is the core of who you are – Then His death and resurrection is probably nothing but a fairy tale to you.

I often hear believers complaining and having issues  with how commercialized Easter is.  There are many who say things like, ”the world has turned Easter into about worshipping bunnies and having Easter Egg Hunts.” There is nothing wrong with bunnies, new Easter clothes and baskets, and Easter egg hunts. The New Testament church turned a pagan holiday called Easter into a celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection and still called it Easter. His death and resurrection  transformed what was once pagan holiday and turned it into a holiday that celebrates Jesus’ death and resurrection. The real problem with the celebration of Easter  is that many who say they believe in His death and resurrection never allow His death and  resurrection to affect their heart.

His death and resurrection changed everything. His death and resurrection transformed hopeless and fearful men and women into confident and bold witnesses of the resurrection. His death and resurrection transformed a pagan celebration into a celebration of the Good News. His death and resurrection transformed the criminal that was hanging next to him into a committed follower.

Did he really rise from the dead? Yes. He did. His resurrection is real.  It’s not a fairy tale. It changed history. It changed a belief system. It will change your heart.

The things we really believe in affect the heart. We put our faith into those things we believe in.  Fairy tales are nice and they make us feel good and they always have a happy ending. But His resurrection wasn’t designed to make us feel good. His resurrection was designed to transform our heart.

 Is your faith real or just a fairy tale of beliefs?

It Matters.