witnesses

While they were saying these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” They were terrified and afraid. They thought they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you startled? Why are doubts arising in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet. It’s really me! Touch me and see, for a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones like you see I have.” As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. Because they were wondering and questioning in the midst of their happiness, he said to them, “Do you have anything to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish. Taking it, he ate it in front of them. Jesus said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the Law from Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. He said to them, “This is what is written: the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and a change of heart and life for the forgiveness of sins must be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. (Luke 24:36-48, CEB)

Easter week 3 this year is Luke. In this season of Easter we have had Mark, on Easter Sunday, John, and the text we always have on Easter 2, that doesn’t have the word doubt in it, and now week three from Luke. Which does actually have the doubt in it.

Why do doubts arise in your heart?

Why do people doubt followers of Jesus?

Or is it they doubt Jesus?

I work in campus ministry and the majority of the people I meet that have doubts about faith it is about the church and not about Jesus.

They hear about love and feel persecution.

They hear about acceptance and are made to change to belong.

They hear about forgiveness and get more charges brought against them.

They hear about freedom and are chained in bondage.

Why do we doubt?

Because the witnesses get in the way.

You have the greatest gift of all to be a witness to the love the world needs.

Will you be open to that and be a witness or will you continue in hate and block those who need God’s love from it?

Love like Jesus.

Be a witness to the love of a resurrection God that brings new life!

Loving People. Loving God.

greater…

An argument broke out among the disciples over which one of them should be regarded as the greatest. But Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles rule over their subjects, and those in authority over them are called ‘friends of the people.’ But that’s not the way it will be with you. Instead, the greatest among you must become like a person of lower status and the leader like a servant. So which one is greater, the one who is seated at the table or the one who serves at the table? Isn’t it the one who is seated at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. “You are the ones who have continued with me in my trials. And I confer royal power on you just as my Father granted royal power to me. Thus you will eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones overseeing the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke 22:24-30, CEB)

Who is greater?

Jesus came not to be served but to serve. And isn’t Jesus the greatest?

So then, the one who serves is greater.

But we shouldn’t be concerned with who is greater. We should be concerned with doing what Jesus called and told us to do. Love. Love God and love neighbor.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

relationship

I write these things to you about those who are attempting to deceive you. As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains on you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you the truth. But since his anointing teaches you about all things (it’s true and not a lie), remain in relationship to him just as he taught you. And now, little children, remain in relationship to Jesus, so that when he appears we can have confidence and not be ashamed in front of him when he comes. (1 John 2:26-28, CEB)

do not be deceived by those who want to make your faith is a list of dos and don’ts and not about being in a relationship with a creator that loves you and everything else they created.

When faith becomes about living a certain way and following rules it is not about the relationship and has become something God never intended.

Be in a relationship with God and love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Figured out…

Little children, it is the last hour. Just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really part of us. If they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us. But by going out from us, they showed they all are not part of us. But you have an anointing from the holy one, and all of you know the truth. I don’t write to you because you don’t know the truth but because you know it. You know that no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? Isn’t it the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This person is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father, but the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, what you heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you will also remain in relationship to the Son and in the Father. This is the promise that he himself gave us: eternal life. (1 John 2:18-25, CEB)

So who is the antichrist?

I have seen a lot of people inserted into this name over the years and many I probably haven’t seen. The one thing I have come to know is true is that when someone says someone else is the antichrist they are usually wrong.

And this text says that many antichrists have appeared. Who is to say we all aren’t antichrists? We all falter and do things that will cause some one to think they can not be a part of the community. Not on purpose but it happens.

When we lead someone astray from knowing Jesus loves them, aren’t we an antichrist?

We should focus on showing love and being Jesus to the world, rather than on who the antichrist is and when the end will happen.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Entrapment

Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a widow but no children, the brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman; when he died, he left no children. The second married her and died without leaving any children. The third did the same. None of the seven left any children. Finally, the woman died. At the resurrection, when they all rise up, whose wife will she be? All seven were married to her.” Jesus said to them, “Isn’t this the reason you are wrong, because you don’t know either the scriptures or God’s power? When people rise from the dead, they won’t marry nor will they be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like God’s angels. As for the resurrection from the dead, haven’t you read in the scroll from Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God said to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He isn’t the God of the dead but of the living. You are seriously mistaken.” (Mark 12:18-27, CEB)

The Sadducees don’t believe in resurrection but ask a question about resurrection. They want to get Jesus to say something they can us against him.

This in and of itself violates God’s commandments. Love God. Love neighbor. This is not loving Jesus but is trying to get something against him.

If this is how you operate, maybe you should reevaluate why you do what you do.

Love should be the foundation of everything we do.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Remains…

Little children, I’m writing to you because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus’ name. Parents, I’m writing to you because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. Young people, I’m writing to you because you have conquered the evil one. Little children, I write to you because you know the Father. Parents, I write to you because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. Young people, I write to you because you are strong, the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one. Don’t love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. Everything that is in the world—the craving for whatever the body feels, the craving for whatever the eyes see and the arrogant pride in one’s possessions—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world and its cravings are passing away, but the person who does the will of God remains forever. (1 John 2:12-17, CEB)

The person who does the will of God remains forever.

We are not to be conformed to this world. And do and be what God has called us to be. And what is it that God calls us to do and be?

Love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul. And love your neighbor as yourself.

Love God. Love everyone else. Simple.

Love. and remain.

Loving People. Loving God.

Liar

This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments. The one who claims, “I know him,” while not keeping his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in this person. But the love of God is truly perfected in whoever keeps his word. This is how we know we are in him. The one who claims to remain in him ought to live in the same way as he lived. Dear friends, I’m not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the message you heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light already shines. The one who claims to be in the light while hating a brother or sister is in the darkness even now. The person loving a brother and sister stays in the light, and there is nothing in the light that causes a person to stumble. But the person who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and lives in the darkness, and doesn’t know where to go because the darkness blinds the eyes. (1 John 2:3-11, CEB)

The one who claims, “I know him,” while not keeping his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in this person.

But God loves those who keep God’s word. What word?

Not a new commandment but one from old, from the beginning.

What drives out darkness and brings light?

In my mind, and with what God commanded, that’s love.

Love is what we are told to be and do. And the one who does not love is not a follower of God.

Love like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

Don’t Doubt???

It was still the first day of the week. That evening, while the disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they aren’t forgiven.” Thomas, the one called Didymus, one of the Twelve, wasn’t with the disciples when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, “We’ve seen the Lord!” But he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger in the wounds left by the nails, and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe.” After eight days his disciples were again in a house and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus entered and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here. Look at my hands. Put your hand into my side. No more disbelief. Believe!” Thomas responded to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus replied, “Do you believe because you see me? Happy are those who don’t see and yet believe.” Then Jesus did many other miraculous signs in his disciples’ presence, signs that aren’t recorded in this scroll. But these things are written so that you will believe that Jesus is the Christ, God’s Son, and that believing, you will have life in his name. (John 20:19-31, CEB)

If you have grown up in a congregation or been attending one for some years you have probably heard this text before, as it is the gospel text for the second Sunday of Easter every year. You have probably also come to know it as The Doubting Thomas Text.

Why is it that Thomas gets the name doubter?

We don’t call Judas, Betraying Judas. Or Peter, Denying Peter. And yet these are those two disciples’ downfall. (Side note: We would need to have a discussion about Judas, he didn’t betray but handed over, and that is different, but to make a point here I am using betray.)

And really Thomas asked for no more that the other 10 there (Judas and Thomas were not there) got. They didn’t know who Jesus was until they saw his hands and his side, and that is what Thomas asked for.

And to make a point even more clear, the word doubt doesn’t appear in this text in Greek. There is a Greek word for doubt and that is διστάζω. That word does not appear in this text. The part that is translated as doubt is ἄπιστος ἀλλὰ πιστός. And the CEB above helps with this by translating the text as “no more disbelief. Believe!” The text, ἄπιστος ἀλλὰ πιστός is do not be un pistos but pistos. Pistos is the Greek word for faith, belief, or trust. It means all three. Jesus didn’t say do not doubt but believe. He said do not be unbelieving but believe. Do not be unfaithful but faithful. Do not be untrusting but trusting.

To me, the opposite of belief is not doubt. Doubt pushes me to question and find the answer. Doubt is not something we as followers of Christ should avoid. God is big enough for our doubts.

Live into the questions and follow where Jesus is calling us.

Faith is not about the easy path, the one without questions. Faith is about following and loving like we were told to do.

Love Like Jesus.

Loving People. Loving God.

light

Jesus shouted, “Whoever believes in me doesn’t believe in me but in the one who sent me. Whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I have come as a light into the world so that everyone who believes in me won’t live in darkness. If people hear my words and don’t keep them, I don’t judge them. I didn’t come to judge the world but to save it. Whoever rejects me and doesn’t receive my words will be judged at the last day by the word I have spoken. I don’t speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me regarding what I should speak and say. I know that his commandment is eternal life. Therefore, whatever I say is just as the Father has said to me.” (John 12:44-50, CEB)

Jesus never said to believe in him, he pointed people to God.

Jesus also said here he didn’t come to judge the world but to save the world. If people hear the words he doesn’t judge them if they don’t keep them. So why do so many who claim to follow Jesus feel like they need to do something that Jesus never did and said he would not do?

We need to be light. Shine on God and show people love. Not judge them because they don’t accept it the way we expect them to.

Love like Jesus.

Do not judge.

Be Light.

Loving People. Loving God.

confidence

After their release, Peter and John returned to the brothers and sisters and reported everything the chief priests and elders had said. They listened, then lifted their voices in unison to God, “Master, you are the one who created the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. You are the one who spoke by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant: Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers gathered together as one against the Lord and against his Christ. Indeed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with Gentiles and Israelites, did gather in this city against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and plan had already determined would happen. Now, Lord, take note of their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with complete confidence. Stretch out your hand to bring healing and enable signs and wonders to be performed through the name of Jesus, your holy servant.” After they prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking God’s word with confidence. (Acts 4:23-31, CEB)

We have all been filled like these disciples were filled.

We are filled with the Holy Spirit. We can be confident in what we are speaking.

The Holy Spirit will give us the words to speak.

We can confidently share our faith and the love God has give us with everyone around us.

Love like Jesus.

Speak with confidence.

Loving People. Loving God.