Word of Salvation – Vol.50 No.11 – March 2005

 

Too Good to Be True!

 

Sermon by Rev J Haverland on Luke 24:37-44

Scripture Readings:  Psalm 16; 1 Corinthians 15:12-28; Luke 24:30-53

 

Brothers and Sisters in Christ…

Sometimes you read a story that seems incredible – so much so that it seems hard to believe. You read it out to others in the family or at work, and they say, “That is amazing! How is that possible?” Some incidents seem so impossible that you can hardly believe they are true. You doubt what you read or hear.

This was how the disciples responded on that Easter Sunday morning to the news that Jesus had risen from the dead. Some of the women had been to the tomb early that morning and had come back with a report that the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty. Jesus had risen! The disciples didn’t believe them. “Just like women,” they said. Their words seemed to them like nonsense. It seemed incredible, amazing, impossible. How could that be true?

Sometimes we, too, have our doubts, our questions, our difficulties about matters of faith and the Bible. Even that great Christian intellectual, C S Lewis, said that at times the Christian faith seemed to him to be incredible. This is especially true when we consider the resurrection of Christ. It seems so amazing that it is hard to believe.

Yet the resurrection of our Lord is the central reality of our Christian faith. If you are a Christian, your faith stands or falls by the fact of the resurrection of our Lord. If Jesus has not been raised, “our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Cor 15:14). If Christ has not been raised, the Apostles were liars, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins and you have no hope that Jesus will return. But, writes the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Today we will examine this great truth about our Lord Jesus – that he rose from the dead. We will examine the response of the disciples to his appearance. We will look at their reasons for disbelief; and then consider the reasons Jesus gave them to believe, and apply this to our own doubts so as to strengthen our faith.

Three reasons are given for the DISBELIEF OF THE DISCIPLES. First of all they did not believe for amazement (vs 41).

That Jesus was alive seemed impossible. This was beyond their range of experience. It was beyond comprehension; beyond the scope of their mind. Dead men do not rise – and they knew Jesus had died. They had seen him flogged, beaten, and nailed to cross. They had heard him cry out and had seen him die. Some of them were there when Nicodemus and Joseph had taken him down from the cross. They had watched as he was placed in the tomb and the stone was rolled over. It was final, over, finished – he was gone.

But then, three days later, they saw him alive! It seemed impossible, hard to believe. This had never happened before. Sure, Jesus had raised Lazarus; but how could he raise himself?

Many people today also find this difficult to grasp, especially in our 21st century where scientific rationalism still has such a hold on people’s minds. Many people will only believe what can be tested, proved and worked out in a lab. They are locked into the mind-set of modernism and its denial of the supernatural.

This is typical of the liberals in the church who deny the virgin birth of Jesus and his miracles and his resurrection. They will not believe anything that goes beyond the natural events of this world. They do not believe that an almighty and powerful God actively intervenes in history. These people will come up with other explanations as to why the disciples thought Jesus had risen. Some claim that the disciples were dreaming, hallucinating – they were having visions, they only thought they saw Jesus. Others claim that their belief was the result of wishful thinking; they really wanted Jesus to rise and in their minds they turned their wishes into reality.

But these “explanations” are nonsense. The disciples did not expect Jesus to rise. That was the last thing on their minds. They were too overcome with grief. That is why, when they did see him, they thought they were seeing a ghost and they had trouble believing. They did not believe because they were so amazed; and in the same way people today have trouble believing for amazement.

Secondly, the disciples did not believe for joy. Sometimes people say, “That’s too good to be true!” They say that when they hear such good news they hardly dare believe it. When Jacob heard the news that Joseph was alive in Egypt, he “was stunned. He did not believe them.” His sons had to persuade him that this was indeed true and had to show him the evidence for this (Gen 45:26). Then he believed them.

Maybe you felt this when you thought you had failed your exam but you received word that you had passed – it seemed too good to be true! Or you were certain you would not get that job because the interview went so badly, but the agency phoned you to say you could start on Monday! All these things seem too much to hope for, too much to expect. You hardly dare believe such good news for fear you may be disappointed. This is how the disciples responded that day.

In the same way the very good news of the gospel keeps people today from believing. They think there must be more to it. “You don’t get something for nothing.” “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” They want to know, “Why?! What’s the catch? What does God want from me? Why would God give me eternal life?” They don’t believe it because the news seems too good to be true.

This can happen to us at times. This life is so full of suffering that the hope of eternal happiness seems too much to expect. These bodies are so troubled by sickness and pain that the promise of a new body seems beyond imagination. Some of you may have been disappointed so often that you have become cynical – you can’t, or won’t, believe the good news of the gospel. Sometimes, like the disciples, we are struggling to believe because of joy.

Thirdly, they did not believe because of doubt. The Greek word for doubt is ‘dialogismos’, from which we get our word dialogue. It means to reason within yourself, to have an inner debate, to go to and fro, to waver, to have an internal conflict, to hesitate, to be torn between two opinions, to be undecided, to be up in the air. This is how the disciples felt. They were in two minds. They found it hard to believe that Jesus had risen.

As a result, they were “troubled”. They were uncertain, ill at ease, anxious. Doubt does this to you. It throws you into turmoil. It upsets your balance. It throws your mind into confusion. We have all experienced this at times – that our minds are in turmoil because our faith and belief in God and Jesus and the Bible are under attack.

So the disciples did not believe for amazement, for joy and because of doubt; and we sometimes do not believe for the same reasons.

But Jesus gave them REASONS TO BELIEVE!

First of all he wanted them to examine their doubt. “He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your minds?'” (vs 38). Jesus forced them to face their doubt, to admit it, to bring it out into open, to acknowledge their state of mind.

You need to do this, too. Don’t bury your doubts and hope they will go away. Don’t pretend they aren’t there. Get them out into the open, look at them for what they are, examine them, be specific about your doubts. This has the advantage of reducing them and making them more manageable. Examining your doubts narrows them down and defines the precise areas of difficulty.

As you consider your doubts, bear in mind that doubt is not a sin; rather it is the temptation to sin; it is the temptation to unbelief not the sin itself. Yet, because the temptation to disbelieve is serious, it is vital that you deal with it. Don’t let this temptation get such a hold of your faith that you slide into unbelief. Rather, you need to wrestle with it so that you come out on the side of faith – with a faith that is stronger for having asked the questions and answered them. Examine your doubt.

Part of examining your doubt is to also examine the physical evidence for the resurrection (vss 39, 41-43). “Look at my hands and feet”, Jesus said (vs 39). Luke was a doctor and he noted the physical details. Jesus had been crucified and he had the marks of the nails as proof of that. “It is I myself”, he assured them.

Think of a time when you met someone in unexpected circumstances or in an unfamiliar place – you may not have recognised them. Maybe it was years later, or they were in different clothing, or they may have changed their hairstyle. They may have said to you, “Don’t you remember me?! It really is me!” In the same way Jesus assured his disciples “It is I myself.”

Later he used the same proof with Thomas, inviting him to put his finger in his hands and his hand in his side. “Stop doubting and believe”, he urged him (Jn 20:27). He also said, “Touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (vs 39 b). Jesus was not a ghost, as they thought at first.

“And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement he asked, ‘Do you have anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it in their presence” (vss 41-43). Jesus wanted to prove this for them beyond any doubt. He confirmed that he was real. Ghosts don’t eat fish for supper.

It is true that he was different than before. He had a glorified human body. He could enter through closed doors and disappear suddenly. But he still had a physical human body. He could be seen and touched – he was real.

Today we cannot see Jesus – he is not physically present. He is not with us in a tangible way. But we have these written records of eyewitness accounts from the disciples.

We have more manuscript evidence for these gospels than for any of the writings of the historians of that time, such as the Greek historian Herodotus or the Jewish historian Josephus. Today, living all these years later, you can examine the physical evidence as it is recorded in the gospels. Read it and believe.

Finally, Jesus urged his disciples to examine the scriptural evidence. “He said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms’.” (vs 44)

He reminded them of what he had told them earlier during his ministry with them – things they had forgotten. They had not understood these truths because their minds were dull and the Holy Spirit had not yet opened up their understanding.

He reminded them of what was written in the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. Every part of the Old Testament spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ, such as Psalm 16: “you will not abandon me to the grave nor will you your Holy One see decay.” Jesus was the hope of Genesis and the deliverer of Exodus. He was the pillar of cloud in Numbers and the fulfilment of the Law of Deuteronomy. He was the ideal leader of the judges and the kings. The visions and prophecies of Isaiah were all fulfilled in him, as well as the three days of Jonah and the longings of the Psalms. All these spoke of him and pointed forward to him.

These Old Testament Scriptures were written over a period of 1000 years by about thirty different authors, and they all followed one central theme – that God’s covenant promises would be fulfilled in Christ. God was working to a plan, he was following his purpose, he was and is the sovereign Lord arranging all things according to his counsel and will. All that God the Father planned came to its fulfilment in the life and death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ.

The Christian faith centres in Christ. To be a Christian you must believe that Jesus was and is the Son of God; that he was born into this world, that he died on the cross as the payment for your sins, and that he rose again. If you believe in Jesus you will have eternal life.

You may find all this too hard to believe; too much to accept; too incredible to be true. But the Christian faith is reasonable. If you have doubts, get them out in the open and examine them and deal with them. Examine also the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament about Jesus. Read the eyewitness accounts of his resurrection.

You will see that the Christian faith can stand your doubts; that it can be examined and tested; that there are good reasons to believe – reasons consistent with the facts.

If you do all this with an open mind and heart, and with a desire to believe, then the Holy Spirit will take you beyond your doubts, and beyond your reasoning, to faith.

This faith takes us past what we can see with our physical eyes to what we can see with spiritual sight – such faith that “is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Heb 11:1). This faith believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, born into this world, who died and rose again.

It seems “too good to be true”. Yet it is both good and true: it is the good news of God, and it is truth of the Bible!

Amen.