Small Steps: What conversations is God giving you with people on the way to becoming Christians?

Acts 16:11-15

11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

Listening Guide

Discussion questions

Sermon

Intro  

What good could we do around here?  

That’s the question we closed with last week. That was last week’s small step. I enjoyed this week seeing how just asking that small  

• Myself and the family - volunteering 

• MG – friend lost  

• DW visit to neighbor who lost her husband. She was just having a hard time with it and needed a visit.  

This is what happens when God is straightening out our hearts. We do good. We just can’t help it.  

That’s not doing good is good enough. We don’t think that doing good is good enough. We can do all the good in the world and that will never make people say “Jesus is my Savior and Lord.” We can do all the good and that will never take someone out of the control and the influence of the supernatural forces that are trying to destroy their lives.  

Luther’s conversion a new way of seeing “the righteousness of God”. It was like “the gates of heaven sprang open for him”  

Another example that has stuck with me is Francis Collins. Francis Collins is famous now because he was the director of the human genome project. A long time agao, during his clinical training, he cared for a woman who was dieing. One day she had a real crisis, but pulled out of it by some kind of a miracle. Afterwards she talked about her belief in God and asked him, “What do you believe, Doctor?”  

Francis said, “I was stunned. I said I didn’t really know. Her question had made me realize that as an atheist, I had arrived at an answer to the most important issue that we humans ever deal with. Is there a God? And I had arrived there without ever really looking at the evidence.”  

So he started looking at all the evidence. He looked at physics and biology and mathematics, the fine tuning of the universe and so much more. He came away with the conclusion, he said, "God must be an amazing physicist and mathematician," Collins thought. "But does he or she actually care about me?"  

 As he continued to search for answers, Collins said he met a person who "not only claimed to know those answers and to know God, but to be God". "That was Jesus Christ," he said. 

Collins went through this amazing process that didn’t just let him be a person to do good, but fundamentally opened him up to a new way of looking at life. That the God of the universe actually cared about him.  

Adventure 

This is what God wants. He works to open people up.  

That’s what we get to see today with the apostle Paul in a city called Phillippi. God uses him to have this great conversation with a woman who is on her way to becoming a Christian. He does more than just get her to do good.  

Development 

We’re in the book of Acts, which is the story of the early Christian church written by a man named Luke. We’re in chapter 16, which is on page ____ if you have one of these blue/white Bibles.  

“On the Sabbath, we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer.... [Lydia] was a worshiper of God.” (verse 13-14)  

Lots of good religious people out there. People who pray. People who worship. They might know something vaguely about God. Maybe even some of us.  

Paul came to her and he opened his mouth. Undoubtedly, he preached the gospel. Don’t get too confused about that. We’ve got so much other evidence that he couldn’t have said anything but the gospel.  

“The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” (verse 14)  

The message of the event was unmistakable. This woman, Lydia, was a good woman and she was doing good things. God still wanted to open her heart.  

We hold up this idea of having “an open mind”. That’s a cultural value that people in the 20th century and the 21st century really wanted, they pursued.  

The thing of it is, in some respects, not every respect, but some, the ancient world was much more open-minded than parts of the modern world. The city of Philippi was home to at least three different people groups - people from Greece, people from Italy, and people from Turkey. They worshiped at least 10 different gods as far as we can tell.  

And yet, God still wants to open up her heart. What do you imagine this is like? [“The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” (verse 14)] 

CS Lewis compared it to what it feels like to see a beautiful sight. When you hear a piece of music or you see a beautiful sight, what do you do? You feel like you have to grab somebody else and praise it with them. You grab your friend, and you say, “Look at this. Isn’t this great?” Why are you praising it? Because it’s beautiful. The more you praise it, the more you enjoy it. Isn’t that right? The more you praise it, the more you enjoy it. 

You say, “Look at this. Isn’t this great? Look at the lines. Look at the colors. Look at this and that.” The more you praise it, the more you’re enjoying it, the more the other person is enjoying it. Right? Why are you praising it? Does it need it? It doesn’t. It’s beautiful. It’s an end in itself.  

This is the thing. Lydia had a God who was useful, but that day, she received a God who was beautiful. Before that, she was probably a good person. I imagine that she wasn’t murdering people. She wasn’t committing adultery. She was helping her neighbors. She was probably doing good.  

After salvation, what happened? After the gospel came in, what happened? Did she start lying? Did she start committing adultery? No! “Well, there’s no difference.” All the difference in the world! It’s not a burden. It’s not crushing. She is not doing it because God is useful. Now she is doing it because God is beautiful. She obeys to enjoy him. She obeys to delight him. She obeys to praise him. 

This is the thing. Closed and open is not about religious or irreligious.  

If you’re like me, you say, I don’t feel closed. I feel like I’m pretty open. I like new experiences. I like new ideas. I try new things. How can you say I’m closed? 

That’s the thing. We live in a world where the default is to be closed, so we don’t even see that its closed. We’re not looking for the beauty, the wonder, the majesty, the awe to be pouring into the world. We aren’t ever caught up in a moment of pure adoration and wonder. Let me give you just on small example.  

I was reading a political biography the other day. The president was talking with a politician trying to get him to agree to a bill. The president and the chair of the committee were talking with this guy and trying to negotiate changes that would get him to say yes to the bill. Finally the president asked, is there anything I could say that could change your mind? Or to put it another way, is there any evidence I could give you that would get you to change your mind? The guy said no. He said there was absolutely closed to that kind of a possibility.  

I’m not saying open and closed has to do with your politics. That’s not the point of the example. The point of the example us this.  

That you and I are closed by default. We are closed to that awe and wonder and pure praise when we aren’t going to get anything. Were aren’t going to work that way.  

We are wired to get something out of life. We want things to be useful. We are not at all interested in that kind of free expression of adoration and love that pours out simply because something is wonderful.  

The bible uses this picture opened and closed at a few key moments to describe us.  

• Is. 44:18 “They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand” 

• Mt 13:15 “For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes”   

There is only one person in the world, who, in the middle of the worst experience, did not close himself up. He opened himself up.  

When Jesus is on the cross, he quotes Psalm 22 a number of times. One of the verses says,  

“My heart has turned to wax;   

 it has melted within me.” (Psalm 22:14)  

What does that mean? It means that Jesus, on the cross, didn’t keep himself closed. He didn’t keep his heart shut up. Jesus went through on the cross...the heart, the center of his self-determination and he poured it out. He took his thinking, his feeling, and his wanting. He poured it out.  

There was one thing in this entire world that was worth the heart of God. You and I hold our hearts back. We don’t want to be broken hearted so we keep them to ourselves. There was one thing worth God’s heart. It wasn’t a tragedy. It wasn’t a sorrow. There was nothing sad. There was just nothing else in this whole world that was worth the heart of God. That was you.  

He opened himself up for you. 

If you’ve ever had a friend who came to you, running and sobbing. They’d just experienced some huge tragedy in their life and they poured out their heart to you. What did you do? Did you just stand their stone cold impervious, you didn’t move, you didn’t smile, you didn’t cry, you didn’t do anything? No You wrapped your arms around them. You started to cry. Your heart opened up with them.  

It doesn’t matter how much sadness you’ve endured, or how great your life is. … He has opened up his heart for you.  

Open your heart to him.  

Action 

What we would love to see here at Peace is to do what Paul does here. To be people who bring people the gospel of Jesus. That’s our vision. That’s our heart.  

That’s a huge thing. That’s a big goal. Much bigger than saying, I’m going to change the world. If you could figure out housing that is affordable, close to a city for jobs and transportation, opens up the door for upward mobility, you could really change things. That’s hard. I would say that’s nowhere near as hard as bring the kind of person in the lives of your friends and neighbors that will let them see the beauty and the wonder and the majesty of the gospel. 

And every time I hear of a conversation one of you has with someone about the gospel I’m convinced that God is at work among us. He is opening your heart and through you opening the hearts of others. I’d love to see that with you.

What kind of conversations do you have with people who are on the way to becoming Christians?  

Small Steps: What good can we do around here?

Acts 8:9-25

9 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10 and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” 11 They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. 12 But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19 and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

20 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

24 Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

25 After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

Listening guide

“Simon said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”” (verse 19) 

Do you want to ______ _________? 

“Simon offered them money.” (verse 18) “you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.” 

“You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God” (verse 21) 

You’ve got a great __________ to play your _________.  

What good can we do around here?  

Sermon

I’ve never been happy, I think I will always have some regrets, that we left China. When we left for China in 2010, we knew it was only a guaranteed 2 years. Everything after that was up for grabs. But when we left, we went to stay. We sold our cars. We got our will and trust and life insurance taken care of. We – alright I – committed to learning Chinese. We went to stay. But after 2 years, there was no funding and I just accepted it was time to move on. We moved back.

I spent the next couple of years explaining to Chinese friends and other people why we left. Why did we stop doing a good thing that we were good at? Who cares how hard it was? Finally I realized, why did we come back? It would have taken some jumps and some risks. We gave up doing something good because of respect and even more, the danger, challenges and hard things that would have come if we had stayed on our own.

I got to leave that one with God. Thing is, I think that’s how most of us behave most of the time. We give up good for others, maybe because of respect, but even more because we avoid danger, the challenges, and the hard things that would really let us do something good.

During the pandemic, a couple of people have told me that they felt uncomfortable walking into a gathering at church and they just walked out. They either felt like people were sitting too close together or too many people didn’t wear masks.

We’ve all got opinions and we’re all sick of this stuff.

For the most part, what people haven’t done is talked to the other people and tried to work something out. They haven’t talked to me and asked me to put on something else for them.

Someone might say, they shouldn’t have to. We should go out of our way to accommodate them. I hear that. I want to accommodate people as I can.

Very few of us want to be police officers and firefighters

We don’t get involved in conflicts at work

I can’t help but compare these choices we make to the distinct times in history when people chose to face danger, hardship, and struggles to do good for other people. Not just for themselves but for others.

For example,

“In the early fourth century, the historian Eusebius wrote about a plague that was rolling over the eastern half of the Empire. Healthy people would flee the cities for the safety of the countryside. But one group largely stayed behind—Christians. “All day long, [Christians] tended to the dying and to their burial, countless numbers with no one to care for them.”

It doesn’t even have to be such a big thing. I think of one time someone did good for me. They spoke up and defended me at a public meeting or gathering. They didn’t risk their physical life, but they certainly risked their reputation and good relationships with other people.

What about you? Has anyone ever faced danger, hardship, and struggles to do good for you?

And this week, we’ve got a great example from a man named Philip. He went into the city of Samaria, It's a city that was primarily composed of individuals hostile to Philip and the other early Christians. He didn’t just preach. He also did miracles and good things for the people.

Adventure/Promise

Easter doesn’t just promise a new creation breaking into the world.

Easter doesn’t just promise a new story for our lives. A story that makes us ask, what is Jesus saying to me in his Word?

Easter also says something about the part you play in this new creation and new story. The promise is that you get a great part. (verse 21)

Let’s get that.

Development

We’re learning this with the story of man named Simon from Samaria today. He is often called Simon Magus or Simon the magician.

I think this is a neat event. Why? Because it is a story of a guy. He isn’t really religious at all, but he is very spiritual. His life is entirely turned upside down because of the Easter message.

 He’s a famous guy in Samaria. He can probably do supernatural tricks. So when he sees Philip, Peter, and John, not their preaching, but the things they can do by the gift of the Spirit, he is really excited.

“Simon said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”” (verse 19) Now, he is obviously clueless. But realize, Simon sees that the gift of the Holy Spirit is the greatest good we could give to someone else and he wants that.

Even as a guy who can do supernatural tricks, mini-miracles and signs, he recognizes that the gift of the Holy Spirit would do a lot more for people.

 I’m sure he is a little selfish. He wants to gain popularity and attention. Still, it’s hard not to see that he wants to be part of a good thing for other people.

Simon kind of calls me out. He gets this basic principle, this basic truth. You and I are far more than what we accumulate. The real measure of us is what we do for others. Simon wants to do good for other people more than I often do.

I was talking with another guy this week and we were talking about how easy it is to get upset with the people when no one shows up at events and how easy it is to be ecstatic or super happy when all kinds of people do show up for gatherings and events. And we were saying, I don’t think that is because I’m happy for them or upset for them. No, we’re upset because we, we don’t feel loved and successful and important if nobody shows up. And if we feel super happy its because we feel loved and successful and important. You see what I’m saying?

How bad is it that me, a guy who has the Holy Spirit, wants what I can get from you. Simon, a guy who doesn’t have the Holy Spirit, wants it so he can do things for others.

I thought about it a couple of other times this week. I was talking with a young person about future jobs. This person said they wanted a different job because they wanted to help people. For other people. Do we realize how great that is? That someone doesn’t just want a job to become rich? That was the norm in America in the early 90s. Sit in a classroom and ask kids what they want to do when they grow up. Be a basketball star and make a lot of money. I just want to be rich. Maybe that’s changed. People didn’t say I want to do good for others.

(Do you want to do good?)

Here is what I’m saying. Simon from Samaria is not a particularly religious person. He is a spiritual person. But he wants something good for other people more than many religious people.

Do you want to do good for other people?

You can’t buy your way there. “Simon offered them money.” (verse 18) but Peter rebuked him saying, “you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.” Simon didn’t realize how much of a jerk he was. Peter said this was wicked and he was captive to sin.

You and I can’t buy the gift of God with money. Why?

Because someone else has already bought the gift of God for us. Not with money. There isn’t enough money in the world to pay for all the wickedness that you and I do. He could buy it with his holy and precious blood. Let me give you this illustration.

One time a young freshman student at college sat next to a 26-year-old single mother trying to get her degree. The two started to talk about the grace and mercy of Christ in the cross. He didn’t know it at the time, but she really needed. She wasn’t just a single mom but she was having an affair. The student and some other guys would go over and babysit her child and try to talk with her. A friend was in a band playing at a church in the area and they invited her to hear him. She agreed.

The minister got up and said we would talk about sexual activity. He had this red rose. That was his object lesson. He said you, pure, undefiled are this rose. He smelled it, he looked it at. He said it’s beautiful and smells wonderful. He threw it out in the crowd and told them to smell the rose. He then began one of these terrible, horrific handlings of what sexual activity is and isn’t. It was one of those were the pastor screams at the listeners saying, “Do you want get diseases?”

He was thinking there with this mom next to him. “What are you doing?” As the minister wrapped up, he asked, “Where’s my rose?” Some kid brought the rose back and it was broken, leaves shredded, and almost all the petals pulled off. His point was to hold up the rose and say, “Who would want this rose?”

The student, he was filled with anger. He couldn’t shout. But he said quietly, “Jesus wants the rose!”

The illustration makes us realize...we really are badly off. We might want to be beautiful. We might want to smell lovely. We might want to feel velvety smooth like the petals of a rose. We might want to bring a smile to people’s face, like a beautiful bouquet of roses on mother’s day. Speaking of which, mother’s day coming. Don’t forget.) But we don’t!

We’re ragged, we’re tattered. We’re broken. We’re ripped apart. We can blame it on others and say, they won’t let us help them. But it’s really because we are so much more of a mess than we’d like to admit.

Jesus wants the rose. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/a-shepherd-and-his-unregenerate-sheep, accessed 12/08/2018).

It is absolutely true that you cannot get the gift of the Holy Spirit apart without repenting. If you can’t say, Lord, for all my talk of doing good, I really don’t do. I’m sorry for this. … If you can’t say that, you won’t get the Holy Spirit. And it is even more true that there is absolutely nothing you can pay.

Jesus paid the price.

The great value of Jesus is that he gives his life “for us”. What does that little word “for” mean? Let me expand on this illustration of the rose a little bit.

If I was a gardener and I had a beautiful garden of roses, there are all kinds of ways I could work for those roses. I could simply devote my life to the care of the roses. I water them. I prune them. I fertilize them. Another way I could work for the roses, I could actually work to get the roses. I could sneak into the garden late one night and sneak one out. I’d be working for the rose. If a rose got smashed and trampled on, I could prune it or maybe even dig it out and cut it back. I could put it in a special pot and help it start over. If I wanted to go really far, if a storm was coming one night, I could go out there and put my body over the roses.

The one thing I would never do is take the place of the roses. If a storm swept through that garden and broke all those roses, I could never putting on little rose petals and standing in the middle of the garden.

In the greatest act of love known, Jesus doesn’t just prune and correct you and I. He doesn’t just give us a fresh start if we get trampled down. He doesn’t just cover us with his body and shelter us. He actually gets planted in the garden. In our place. He puts on the thorns. He gets ripped apart and shredded by the storm. He gets crushed. He dies. He comes back to life. And he grows to restart the garden. For us. In our place.

This is the way to get your right and do good. (“You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God” (verse 21)

That word “right” doesn’t mean “righteousness” or “rightness” or goodness” like it often does in the Bible. The word “right” here means “straight” or “direct”.

Jesus says the more you see that I was the guy who paid the price... the more you see that I’m guy who brings life. The more I will set your heart straight.

He wants a personal relationship with you. Every other founder of a major religion died and just left you his teaching. That’s all you can do. Follow the teaching and try to figure out how to straighten out your life.

Jesus has died and risen so you can follow him personally. If you pray, you’re not talking to some dead guy. Give him real prayers. Repent. Get beneath the surface. Let him straighten you out.

If you worship, you’re not worship a king from an old story. You are worshiping the living Lord of the universe. Pour out your heart before him. Hold nothing back!

When you love, you aren’t just following the rules. He is loving through you. Feel his power coursing through your veins. Let his heart make you alive.

That’s your great heart.

You’ve got a great heart to play your part

Action

So friends, if we’re getting great hearts, let’s get to some good around here. That’s the next small step we can take.

If we’ve asked, “What is God saying to me and what am I going to do about” and we’ve asked, “What is Jesus saying to me in his Word”, what you and I can be sure of is that we’re guided by more than just our little ideas and dreams.

We’ve been set straight by the risen Lord Jesus. I know a few weeks ago some of you were asking, hey, where did this ramp thing come from? Why are we installing these ramps? That happened because someone around here was asking that question, what good can we do around here? And others of you remember last year when we sent out cards to a lot of people and made the huge heart on the wall. Again, a couple of people said, “what good can we do around here?”

Unlike Simon, we aren’t buying a great heart. Our hearts been bought and paid for. We’ve got a great heart to play our part.

Small Steps: What is Jesus saying to me in the Word?

Luke 24:36-49

Listening guide

Easter is not just a letter from a law firm.... 

Easter is a better __________. 

“Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” (verse 44) 

Easter isn’t just a story that he can celebrate. It’s a story …...  

“The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (verse 46-47)   

Easter is a story we can all _____________. 

Ask yourself: What is Jesus saying to me in his Word?   

Discussion questions

Sermon

I gave you this illustration last week. I don’t know if you liked it, no one told me. Easter is like getting a letter from a legitimate law firm saying that you are the long lost relative of a very important family. You have just inherited millions.  

That would be a great story.  

It would be a little awkward for sure. I can’t imagine what you would tell your family when you got home. 

The conversation with your friends, that would be pretty fun. Can you imagine saying, Hey everyone, you’ve been great. Thanks for being my friends. I’ll try not to forget you in my life. I’m off to Switzerland for a weekend of business deals and skiing! I’ll see you in Congress someday! 

Can you imagine telling your boss, hey boss, thanks for all the opportunities and encouragement you gave me. I’m sorry I can’t teach the 4th graders anymore. I’ve got to go be the VP for business development for this big fortune 500 company.  

What a great story! That would be a crazy story! 

As far as I can tell, there is just one problem. Your story doesn’t do a thing for me.  

If you get a letter saying you’re part of an important family and you’re suddenly rich, and I’m your friend, how does that help me?  

If you’re suddenly famous and rich, and I’m your brother, what does that mean about me? 

If I’m your mother and you’re walking out my door because you belong to another mother, where does that leave me? 

Now maybe I can get some money from you. Maybe I get a business reference from you. But I lose you. I still lose out.  

That’s where this illustration breaks down. Easter is a much better story. 

Adventure  

That’s what Jesus wants to give us this week. Jesus wants to give us a better story to celebrate.  

Development 

Today’s event, Jesus showed up in a room with his disciples. He showed them his hands and feet. He was not a ghost or a spirit. He was actually physically alive.  

This is one of those crazy places where Luke is trying to tell us just how different the resurrection of Jesus is. Peter, James, John, and all the other Jewish people had no problem with a resurrection at the end of the world. They believed everyone would rise at the end.  

They also thought there was a life after death. They thought people were spirits or ghosts or something like that.  

What they didn’t believe, no one believed that people rise from the dead. They never thought Jesus would show up with a body. Suddenly they saw this once dead now living man.  

Jesus changed the entire story. He said, “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” (verse 44)  

You’ve got to know how weird this is. If you read the Old Testament and you’ve got this verse in mind, you won’t read the name Jesus one time. I know the name Joshua is the same root as Jesus, but you won’t find the name Jesus.  

If you read the Old Testament, you won’t hear about a cross.  

If you read the Old Testament, you won’t read about a soldier and an empty tomb.  

What you will find is an endless string of birds and sheep and cows sacrificed.  

What you will find is a prophet who leads his people to the promised land.  

What you will find a slave who sets people free.  

What you will find is a servant who saves people.  

What you will find is a king who reigns forever.  

What you will find is the mighty made low, the humble raised up, and the dead coming to life.  

What you will find is a story to celebrate. What Jesus has done, he has said, No matter how bad things are. No matter how sick people are. No matter how poor people are. No matter how confused people are. No matter how many people die … you should celebrate.  

This is the thing... God has said, no matter how much hell demands from you, I’ve given more. No matter how much death asks of you, I’ve answered more. No matter how much sin steals from you, I’ve handed out more.  

The real stories, the deep stories .... the “if we serve we can succeed”. The “if we sacrifice someone can prevail”. The “if we give generously, we will reap richly”. Easter says celebrate ... because they’re true.  

They won’t be true for you if you don’t trust him. But Easter says they can be true because of him for all of you.  

That’s what Easter. It’s a story we can celebrate. And unlike the story of ancient Israel, it’s a story for all of us, for you.  

Because Easter is only kind of like the letter from the law firm. Easter is more like a story of Pheidippedes. In 490 BC a man named Pheidippides ran about 150 miles from the city of Marathon to the city of Sparta. He needed to ask the Spartans for help to fight the Persians. He then turned around and ran back. He ran 300 miles over a few days! But that isn’t the run that made him famous. Because a little while later the Greeks won the battle at Marathon, he ran the 26 miles from Marathon to Athens. He announced “Joy, we win!” Pheidippides - Wikipedia  

What did he make for us? The marathon. Do you know how many people’s lives he changed with that run? Millions and millions have people run the race people will call “the best and most rewarding type of pain out there” What Does it Feel Like to Run a Marathon? The No BS Truth - Better Than Alive “Running has given me so much … I can’t wait to do this again.” What It Feels Like to Run Your First Marathon | Marathon Training Academy. Millions of people run races because of him.  

I bet a lot of you would say, I would never run a marathon. I bet there are only one or two people in this whole room who have in the past or would in the future run a marathon.  

But the point of the illustration is this:  

 “The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (verse 46-47)  

Jesus both suffered and rose. He is the one person who both lost and won all by himself.  

Ever since the first human beings, Adam and Eve, some people suffered and some people succeeded. Some people won and some people lost. Cain lived and Abel died. Abraham grew rich and Lot became corrupt. Jacob got the birthright and Esau lost out. The Hebrews were enslaved, the Egyptians walked free. Achan went down, Joshua rose up. Saul lost the crown, David gained the throne. The Israelites went into exile, the Assyria captured them.  

And this continues even today. The Germans lost WW2, the Americans won. The Republicans lost the elections, the Democrats won. The Democrats lost the election, the Republicans won.  

Pheidippedes is one of those rare stories where the same guy lost and won. Because he ran this great race that has changed human history, giving millions of people the inspiration to get healthy and do more. But even he died.  

Jesus is the only one who first died then rose. He has completely shifted the story. His story is the only one where people are both losers and winners.  

The death and resurrection of Jesus is the one event that tells each and every one of us we are both more sinful, broken, and corrupt than we imagine and we are more forgiven, loved, and accepted than we could possibly believe. 

For any of us to come after him, we must practice both repentance and the forgiveness. All of us. All of the time.  

I can’t help but think of the example of Corrie ten Boom. I think I’ve mentioned it before because it’s just so powerful. She and her sisters were prisoners at the German war camp Ravensbruck during WW2. Her sister Betsie died there.  

After the war, she became an active evangelist and went to Germany to proclaim the gospel. A guard came up to her one day after a talk. He asked, “A fine message, Fraulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea! ... I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, will you forgive me?” 

And her response is beautiful. If you have a chance, look it up sometime. In short, she said, “I stood there—I whose sins had again and again been forgiven—and could not forgive. Betsie had died in that place. .... Then she prayed “Jesus, help me!” .... And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. “I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!” . . . I had never known love so intensely, as I did then. But even then, I realized it was not my love . . . It was the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Scott Sauls, A Gentle Answer, Thomas Nelson, 2020, pp.19-20) 

Easter is a story we can all celebrate because Easter says the only way we can get in is both repentance and forgiveness. There is not a neighbor … because we all win and lose. Easter is a story we can all celebrate 

Action 

I want you to take this as the greatest story. Here is the next step I want you to learn to ask yourself as we follow Jesus? what is Jesus saying to me in his Word?  

Because the Word of God died to make this story come alive. You are reading the greatest story ever told. No one else has come up with such a marvelous, such a magnificent, such a simple, such a profound, such a humble, such an amazing story.  

And certainly no one else has made it come alive.  

It’s easy to think that pastors have a profound and complicated practice of reading this great story. I don’t. My regular practice of reading is pretty simple. I read 2 chapters. I write down one verse that I notice. I explain the verse. I apply verse. I respond to the verse. 

I can’t tell you how many mornings I have heard this story speak to me. I know I ask many of you what is Jesus saying to you in his Word and maybe you don’t feel like you have a good answer. If I have something to say, it’s not because of a great seminary education.  

I know how much some of you love a good story. Easter is a story we can all celebrate 

Small Steps: What is God saying to me and what am I going to do about it?

John 20:19-31

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Jesus Appears to Thomas

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The Purpose of John’s Gospel

30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe[b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Listening guide

“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” (verse 19)   

What do you think “peace” is? _____________________________ 

“Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe” (verse 27) 

God _________ up for us. 

“What is God saying to me? And what am I going to do about it?”  

Sermon

(picture of letter)

If you received a formal letter in the mail from a legitimate law firm saying that you were the long lost heir of an important family and had just inherited the family name and many millions of dollars....wow. You would be skeptical for sure. You would probably think it is too good to be true. I still think you would investigate that kind of a claim.

You would look at the letter and see that it had a return address and a real signature at the bottom of the page. You would get on the website and see that the firm looked legit and that the lawyer existed. You would check the better business bureau. You’d look the family up. You would think, this can’t be true! This has to be a scam...It looks so real.

Finally you would call and say, hey, I got this letter. It must be a joke. It says I’m part of this other family and I’ve inherited millions. It’s a joke, right? The lawyer might say, no joke, no scam. Come in, I’ll show you the will and the evidence.

So you would. You’d get the millions. You’d get the name. You would walk out of that office as someone else.

At that point, you’re just getting started. If you want, you can go back to your old life. Your old family, old ways, and old routines. The better way, I think most of us would say, is you go forward. You learn what it means to live with millions. You learn what it means to live with a new name and a new family.

I think a lot of us would find that really hard. We’d say, I don’t want to give up my old life, my old friends, and my old family. I like it. But we know we really should go forward. We should learn how to live with money. We should embrace our family.

We got to start by learning our new family facts. Who are our parents. Where they’re from. What do they value. Our siblings.

We need to learn the rules. We say, I always thought murder was wrong. Is it wrong for you? What about stealing?  Do you lie?

I think most of us would find hardest part changing the behaviors that make us who we are. For example, I think all of us are used to financial scarcity. Our entire life is dictated in part by how much money we have. How do we live differently when you can do whatever you want?

Or I think all of us are used to having other people tell us the rules and how to behave. We don’t have much authority. How do we live differently when we’re important and we’re making decisions?

I think this is the tough part. Getting the inheritance and the family is just the first step. Becoming a new person is a whole different thing. That’s what we want to do for the next few weeks.

Adventure/Promise

I would say Easter is the best letter from a law firm you could ever get.

With Easter, Jesus says, I give you the greatest fortune you could ever imagine. You can be God’s long lost child. I want to give you a new family, a new identity, and a new fortune.

And especially if you’re just starting out, you’ve got to learn all the doctrines of this family. Who is the father, who is the mother, what do they value, and all that. Maybe you already know that.

You’ve got to learn the rules as well. They’re the 10 commandments. They tell us what’s right and wrong, what we can and cannot do.

(small steps picture)

I think the hardest part, you have to figure out how to behave like you belong in the family. We have to live like we’re worth more than we’ve ever imagined as long as we’re connected to Christ. We have to live like we’re part of an eternal family. And we have to learn to depend on Jesus’ goodness, his righteousness.

That kind of life doesn’t happen in a moment. You don’t change like that overnight. You take small steps. That’s what we’re going to do.

Let’s take smell steps.

Development

We’ve got a great lesson here today. The lesson leads us to a man named Thomas. He could very well be the person most overwhelmed by Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus invites him to take just a small step.

That is the only way anybody can process what happened. Small steps. Jesus rising was basically more than everyone could handle. Let me remind us of a few of the people.

The first people at the tomb were a few women. They did not leave the tomb with joy and laughter. They were trembling and fled from the tomb and did not talk to anyone right away. The first men did not know what to think about it and ran to see for themselves. Jesus met a woman named Mary who did not even recognize him after he rose! The first men who got to talk to Jesus were so overwhelmed by the experience that they left the village they had walked to and ran a few miles back to Jerusalem at night. Men in ancient times didn’t run. There aren’t many middle aged men who could run a few miles at night. The most overwhelmed people … Let me read you this verse.

“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” (verse 19)

Did you see this? Jesus has just risen from the dead and the disciples were locked in! They had no idea how to process what was going on. That could have been Jewish religious leaders arresting them for stealing the body of Jesus. That could have been the Jewish mob coming to kill them like Jesus. They could have been afraid that all the people were going to rise up in rebellion and insurrection. Whatever it was the resurrection of Jesus was more than they could process. And here is how much more.  

Jesus showed up and he said to them, “peace be with you”. This is the common Jewish greeting. It really isn’t that surprising. What is surprising.... Jesus never announces peace to his disciples until he gets to his death and his resurrection.

Jesus has always said, I didn’t come to bring peace. I came to bring a sword and division. He brought it.

He brought conflict. He brought justice. He brought death. He stirred up the hatred and the violence of the people. He let them pour out all their anger at the injustice of life against him. He took it in his body on the cross.

He took their wrath. He took their rage. He took their sickness. So when he says, “peace is yours” you know he isn’t talking about a smooth lake on a Saturday morning where you can sip some coffee and catch fish.

What do you think “peace” is? _____________________________

I’m guessing because of American culture, we all imagine peace wrong. Here is how Walter Brueggeman describes peace in the Bible. “In the NT the word “peace” indicates more than the absence of war. .... šālôm included “everything necessary to healthful living: good health, a sense of well-being, good fortune, the cohesiveness of the community, relationship to relatives and their state of being, and anything else deemed necessary for everything to be in order” (Westermann, 24 [cf. Brueggemann, 13–23]).” (Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, peace) 

“everything in order”. Jesus has just risen from the dead and for the first time, he says to his disciples, peace. You cannot overestimate what Jesus did when he rose. He has finally started to make everything right.

Let me just give you one example. When the apostle Paul tells us what it means that Jesus has risen from the dead, he writes, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!” You look at what Paul says here.

He says if you are in Christ, a new creation has come. “in Christ” doesn’t mean inside of Jesus Christ. It means connected to Christ or in relationship to Christ. Paul says if you are connected or in relationship to Jesus, a new creation exists.

I’ve had people say to me, not a lot, say to me, I don’t feel much different after knowing Jesus than I did before. Some people say that. I would say by and large, far and away, the people who stay around say, I am not the same person I was. I’ve been transformed.

Some people say, I behave differently. I used to ___ and now I act this way. Other people say, I feel differently. I’m more compassionate, more thoughtful.

Friends, this is  God’s peace breaking in. This is the new creation remaking you. This is everything, even you, in order.

I want you to imagine for a moment one of those movie scenes where a team of people rush in to take over an office that isn’t really theirs at the moment. So there is an office, let’s pretend it is financial counselors and belongs to Fred and Fred. Then a team of people rush in. They have a new sign that says, “Jane and Fred”. They cover over the old one. They change all the nameplates on the doors. They swap out the business cards. They throw away the old fake plants and put out fresh new flowers. They dump the silly magazines and put out a nice array of public interest publications, newspapers, and even a few books.

At first it all feels out of place. It feels weird. It doesn’t feel right. Over time you get used to it. And over time you change to feel like you belong.

Friends, this is why you and I have such a problem with Christianity. It’s not because there aren’t enough facts. I would be glad to talk with you about the facts and the evidence for the resurrection of the dead.

What is the problem? Someone has rushed into our world and changed all the signs, all the flowers, all the magazines, all the newspapers, and the couches and everything else. It’s all still the same size and shape. But it’s new. And we feel out of place.

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead isn’t something you can wish away. You can just learn to embrace it.

You can see the signs that he puts up. You can touch them and see. You can notice how the flowers look different. You can read the books and the magazines and the articles. You can notice every piece of new life in this world and say, this is where God is speaking to me of a new life that is so much greater.

What I mean is, Jesus comes to Thomas and says, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe” (verse 27)

Jesus has put everything in order, everything right. You can simply begin to touch all the marks of the new life

One of the neat stories of Easter is a woman named Joni Eareckson Tada. She was in an accident at 17 and has been a quadriplegic ever since. While she was getting around in her wheelchair, she went to church. The problem was she couldn’t kneel at any worship events. Everyone did except Joni. She said, “With everyone kneeling, I certainly stood out. I couldn’t stop the tears.”

She wasn’t crying from pity. She said that the sight of hundreds of people on their knees before God was so beautiful – “a picture of heaven”. She went on to say, “the first thing I plan to do on resurrected legs is to drop on grateful, glorified knees. I will quietly kneel at the feet of Jesus....Can you imagine the hope that the resurrection gives someone who is spinal cord-injured like me?”

Friends, Easter means God shows up for us. He is showing up for you and me with his new resurrected life. He is showing up as he puts everything in order. He is showing up with his peace.

Action

And like Thomas, like Tada, I want you to look at those signs and say “What is God saying to me? And what am I going to do about it?”

Easter is this great letter that says you and I have a new fortune and a new family. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?

This is where God has shown up.