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Why Thomas chose faith after seeing the risen Jesus · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:36
  Welcome to Faith Is.
• 0:37
  I'm Pastor Rick Stevens, and this is the place where faith is absolute confidence in the trustworthiness of God.
• 0:45
  It's the place where we stretch in God's direction.
• 0:50
  This is the place where we nudge, push, cajole, challenge each other to trust God and to stretch toward his high calling.
• 1:03
  Well, I'm the pastor of Diplomat Wesleyan Church in Cape Coral, Florida, a real church, a lot like a lot of churches across the United States.
• 1:11
  We are full of real people.
• 1:13
  We have our ups and downs, like life is in general, and we press on because there's no reason not to.
• 1:21
  We are going to continue to have confidence in God.
• 1:26
  We're going to continue to have faith and trust him.
• 1:30
  So I hope you'll join us on the journey.
• 1:32
  Today we're going to talk about a few things.
• 1:34
  And I've kind of been on this idea lately, thinking a lot about the importance of us thinking like Christians.
• 1:42
  And so I want to circle back and think about that a little bit.
• 1:45
  And in relation to that, talk a little bit about the struggles that the world is having.
• 2:03
  And of course, the whole world, the I guess I should say the whole internet world was brought up in flames over something that President Donald Trump posted earlier, and we want to talk about that just a little bit.
• 2:20
  Don't want to get too distracted by that.
• 2:22
  Lots of people have been just over the top on that whole subject.
• 2:26
  And we want to touch on immigration, and we remind ourselves to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 2:33
  And elections are coming, so we want to remind ourselves about that.
• 2:36
  We got a lot to talk about today.
• 2:38
  And one of the really good things, America reads the Bible.
• 2:43
  We're going to talk about that a little bit too.
• 2:45
  Maybe you haven't heard about that.
• 2:46
  If you haven't, then it's time because this is the weekend it begins.
• 2:51
  And I want you to be aware of that.
• 2:53
  But let's start with this idea of thinking like Christians.
• 2:58
  Now, it's not at all my intention to say that you aren't allowed to have an opinion as a Christian.
• 3:06
  No, that's fine.
• 3:08
  And we live in a country where we are free to voice our opinions.
• 3:13
  And by the way, in case you haven't noticed, people are pretty quick to do that these days.
• 3:19
  Now, what I would like to caution all of us is to make sure that when you express an opinion about something, that it's an informed opinion.
• 3:30
  And what I mean by that is that your perspective on something, your conclusion about something, your opinion about something should flow from your Christian perspective, Christian convictions, and reflect the wisdom of the Bible.
• 3:48
  I think that's our responsibility as followers of Christ is to have those kinds of uh how should it say I guess I should say opinions, those kinds of thoughts.
• 4:00
  They should be informed.
• 4:01
  Now, one of the things that we need to do if we're going to be well informed is we need to have an idea of what the Bible says about things.
• 4:09
  So as always, make sure you read it.
• 4:13
  That helps a whole lot.
• 4:15
  But the other thing is that in the context of reading it and developing our perspective and thinking it through, we often have to peel back the distractions to get to the heart of the issue, and we have to be careful not to get caught up in other people's feelings, other people's uh, how should I say, agenda for us, other people trying to manipulate us or position themselves in a certain way.
• 4:41
  We want to think beyond all that stuff that clutters up things and really understand the heart of the issue.
• 4:48
  So one of the examples of that is the developing problem, maybe it's more than developing in some places, with anti-Semitism.
• 4:57
  We have a lot of people that are getting caught up in blaming Israel for one thing or another and too many things.
• 5:05
  And so we need to take a look at that and think about it.
• 5:09
  Now, someone recently asked me, how do we help our young men and women not get caught up in that?
• 5:15
  Well, it's very easy for people to get caught up in it, particularly if they don't think carefully.
• 5:21
  They will hear someone say something, and they will assume that person knows what they're talking about, and so they will immediately tend to adopt that idea, that position uncritically.
• 5:35
  What I want to get us to do is to make sure that we think about things.
• 5:38
  So when I was talking to my friends about this, I said, well, if you hear someone, it couldn't be a young person, it can be an older person for that matter, expressing some anti-Semitic idea, something against God's people, then you could start with a simple question.
• 5:57
  Ask them, do you believe the Bible?
• 6:00
  And that's a baseline beginning.
• 6:02
  Do you believe the Bible?
• 6:04
  Because if they say they do, then that should give them some information about concluding whether they should be for or against God's people and maybe what that means.
• 6:17
  So if they say yes, then that opens the door to say, well, do you know who God chose to be his special people?
• 6:27
  Well, they probably will know that if they're inclined to say yes, they believe the Bible.
• 6:34
  They may not, and you may need to point them to the point, the place in the Bible, Genesis chapter 15, where God invites Abraham to be his covenant partner, and that will help them understand that the descendants of Abraham, we often say Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• 6:53
  That was the beginning of the line of God's people.
• 6:57
  We often describe them that way.
• 6:59
  They are the Jewish people.
• 7:00
  People.
• 7:00
  They're the Israelites, sometimes we say, although Israelites can refer to somebody who lives in the country of Israel.
• 7:00
  They're the Israelites, sometimes we say, although Israelites can refer to somebody who lives in the country of Israel.
• 7:07
  So you've got to be careful about some of the ways the language used, but it's but it's very correct to say that the descendants of Abraham are God's chosen people.
• 7:07
  So you've got to be careful about some of the ways the language used, but it's but it's very correct to say that the descendants of Abraham are God's chosen people.
• 7:18
  Well, once you get that far, then you can ask the question has God changed his mind?
• 7:18
  Well, once you get that far, then you can ask the question, has God changed his mind?
• 7:25
  And see, I'm suggesting that when we try to
• 7:25
  And see, I'm suggesting that when we try to get people to think carefully about these issues, we ask questions because that's a better way than simply hammering them with a position.
• 7:40
  Ask them questions and help them and help you as he asked the questions, come to understand what they believe, what they think, and how they came to that conclusion.
• 7:53
  So if you start with, do you believe the Bible?
• 7:56
  And then do you know who God chose to be his special people, and then has God changed his mind?
• 8:03
  And ask them to explain how they came to those conclusions.
• 8:08
  And then you can begin to have a conversation about that.
• 8:10
  And by the way, I don't know any place in the Bible that it says God changed his mind.
• 8:16
  It just doesn't say that.
• 8:18
  What it says is that when Jesus came, we who are followers of him as the Messiah, we were engrafted into the people of God.
• 8:29
  It doesn't say God rejected his people.
• 8:32
  Now lots of people want to come up with all kinds of reasons to say that God rejected his people, but God, throughout the history of his relationship with his people, has continued to keep his promises and to continue treating them as his covenant partners.
• 8:52
  We would at huge risk to ourselves try to tear that down.
• 8:59
  Now, people will argue all kinds of different things.
• 9:02
  Well, does that mean the nation of Israel as we see it today is God's holy people?
• 9:11
  Does that mean, if they are, that we can't criticize them?
• 9:15
  Well, there are all kinds of ways to define God's people.
• 9:19
  Generally speaking, the biblical definition is the descendants of Abraham.
• 9:25
  Is Israel the nation, the geography, God's promised land to his people?
• 9:30
  Yes.
• 9:31
  And there's no indication in the Bible that he changed his mind.
• 9:36
  So, you know, the best we have to work with is God has a group of people that are his.
• 9:42
  We call them the Jews.
• 9:43
  They call themselves the Jews.
• 9:45
  They are his people.
• 9:47
  God nowhere indicates that he rejected them as his covenant partners.
• 9:54
  Is God grieved that they did not and have not recognized Jesus as Messiah?
• 9:59
  Sure.
• 10:00
  I think there's plenty of biblical evidence of that.
• 10:03
  But the point that God is trying to make is to make them want to find out and to discover that Jesus is Messiah.
• 10:11
  I don't know how God's going to unfold all of that.
• 10:14
  I kind of think it might surprise some of us.
• 10:32
  Now, that doesn't require you to agree with everything the nation of Israel does to support God's people.
• 10:40
  Nations make mistakes.
• 10:42
  Governments make mistakes.
• 10:44
  In this country, it's our national sport to complain about the government and to say sometimes we say it's too big.
• 10:52
  I rather tend to think that the size is not the biggest problem.
• 10:56
  I tend to agree, I think it was Ronald Reagan who said the government's just too dumb.
• 11:02
  Well, that's kind of a colloquial way of saying it's not really efficient, and some things it just doesn't do well, and we shouldn't expect it to do what it can't do well, and we could go on and on, but you get the idea.
• 11:14
  Now, make sure that you guard against when you're thinking about opinions, these emotional responses.
• 11:21
  I mentioned that a few moments ago.
• 11:24
  I mean, we are going to respond emotionally to things sometimes.
• 11:27
  Okay, that's that just is what it is.
• 11:29
  I understand that.
• 11:30
  You understand that.
• 11:32
  But kind of what I'm getting at with this idea of don't fall into an emotional response trap is that sometimes we hear something and we wish things would be a certain way, and they're just not going to be that way.
• 11:49
  And wishing something is going to be a certain way isn't going to make it happen.
• 11:55
  And you may be demonstrating that you have a compassionate heart because you wish something would be a certain way.
• 12:02
  But if you're going to think like a Christian, then we have to go beyond some of those initial responses and think things through.
• 12:10
  We'll kind of get to an example of that in a minute with the immigration question.
• 12:15
  And a couple of other things that I just want to kind of prod us to think about.
• 12:19
  So the whole point is for me during this time we have together to try to encourage us to think carefully about things that go on and to think about them from a Christian perspective, to not get caught up in wishing it was a certain way, but to recognize that there are things that are just true and they are the way they are, and we have to navigate life in those conditions.
• 12:48
  So let me bring up another one.
• 12:50
  Sometimes there are things that I think I shouldn't even begin to talk about, but you know, if we're going to be careful Christians, we have to think about the things that happen that come up from time to time.
• 13:05
  And you may have noticed earlier this week, there was a rather large kerfluffle.
• 13:12
  I like that word.
• 13:13
  I learned that word in Canada.
• 13:14
  Don't know if it originated there, but there was a rather large kerfuffle over a picture that President Trump posted depicting some people say him as Jesus touching someone and healing them.
• 13:30
  I don't know if you saw the picture or not.
• 13:32
  If you haven't seen it, you can surely find it.
• 13:35
  It was created by a guy some time ago, I think several years ago, if I remember correctly, I've met the guy that did that.
• 13:43
  He's a nice guy, a straight-ahead guy.
• 13:45
  Why he created that picture that way, I have no idea.
• 13:49
  Never asked him, didn't know about the picture on the occasion I had to meet him.
• 13:53
  It's just a picture.
• 13:55
  He created.
• 13:56
  It means something to people, obviously.
• 13:58
  That's why they had such a visceral response to it.
• 14:00
  Such a visceral response to it.
• 14:03
  Now, the thing that I noticed about that was almost all of the responses that I saw were based on some emotional response to the picture.
• 14:03
  Now, the thing that I noticed about that was almost all of the responses that I saw were based on some emotional response to the picture.
• 14:14
  I mean, people were calling it blasphemous.
• 14:14
  I mean, people were calling it blasphemous.
• 14:17
  Well, depends how you define blasphemous, but that's a pretty emotional, pretty serious response.
• 14:17
  Well, depends how you define blasphemous, but that's a pretty emotional, pretty serious response.
• 14:25
  And just to be sure you understand where I'm coming from, I did not think.
• 14:25
  And just to be sure you understand where I'm coming from, I did not think it was wise to post that picture.
• 14:32
  I'm not particularly convinced it was wise to craft the picture.
• 14:37
  All right, because people assume things when they look at stuff like that, and they have a tendency to, well, can we just be honest, go crazy about stuff like that?
• 14:47
  So it doesn't demonstrate good wisdom to be having depictions like this.
• 14:56
  But it doesn't necessarily mean that the intent behind it, either the person who made it, or frankly, the president for posting it.
• 15:08
  It doesn't mean that evil intent was behind it.
• 15:13
  See, this is one of the things that we as Christians have to think about.
• 15:17
  We cannot know the motives that people have for the things that they do.
• 15:23
  We often assume we know, but we need to be very careful about that.
• 15:29
  The other thing that I was really struck by was, and this one really, oh I really just was disturbed by this, was all of the Christians who wanted to take the moral high ground as though they were so much better than everybody else, and aha, I can show you how bad President Trump really is, and they began to talk about that.
• 15:53
  Well, it's kind of interesting, and again, they can have their opinion.
• 15:58
  I don't mind.
• 15:59
  I have my opinion.
• 16:01
  They might mind mine, I don't know.
• 16:03
  But it's not the fact that they feel a certain way or think a certain way about it.
• 16:08
  It's that some of these Christians wanted to take the moral high ground, and yet in taking the moral high ground, they were very quick to politicize and have been for a long time, the president's real and perceived faults.
• 16:27
  Some of them just get displayed on a national stage.
• 16:31
  I'm thankful mine are not.
• 16:33
  You probably are the same way.
• 16:36
  But what bothers me is when Christians want to take the moral high ground, but then stoop to the level of judging someone, and we don't want to get into judge or judge not.
• 16:50
  We all evaluate, if you want to use that word, we all have to judge right from wrong.
• 16:55
  But these people want to take the moral high ground as though they are superior to all of the rest of us.
• 17:00
  And I learned a long time ago, and it's real easy to talk about this, it's much more difficult to do this.
• 17:07
  But a very wise person said that God only shows us the fault of another, another person to teach us how to pray.
• 17:18
  And you know, that seems to me that we as Christians, when we look at the world around us, and it just doesn't just apply to political figures.
• 17:25
  They get a lot of attention, whether rightly or wrongly, they do a lot of dumb things sometimes.
• 17:31
  It just is what it is.
• 17:32
  We're all human.
• 17:33
  As a woman I knew years ago said people are people, and they are.
• 19:01
  Well, I guess it shows you that people don't care what I have to say, and that's fine, I'm not worried about that.
• 19:07
  But I think you and I, when we think about it, we need to rise above some of that.
• 19:12
  Now, we also from time to time face really difficult issues.
• 19:19
  And if unless you've been hiding under a rock someplace in this country, you are aware that the topic of immigration has boiled over in so many ways.
• 19:32
  And a lot of people have a lot of thoughts about it, and it is one of those complicated issues that has a whole lot of stuff going on, and here today we are not going to unpack all of that.
• 19:45
  But I do want to challenge us to think about that.
• 19:48
  Now, Jesus said the whole law is tied up in the statement, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.
• 20:00
  We all get that.
• 20:02
  We're to love God with everything, and we're to love our neighbors.
• 20:06
  Well, the question becomes what does loving our neighbors look like?
• 20:12
  Now, some people will say loving our neighbors means if they're here in this country, whether if they're an immigrant, whether they're legal or illegal, we just love our neighbors.
• 20:22
  Yeah, well, I couldn't go along with that.
• 20:25
  But just loving our neighbors doesn't deal with the legal or illegal status that they have.
• 20:33
  Loving our neighbors also has to include how do we care for our neighbors, the people in our neighborhoods, the people in our cities, the citizens of our country.
• 20:46
  Well, we had a real challenging incident in my county just a few weeks ago on a road at a convenience store that I've driven by many times.
• 20:57
  In fact, I drove by it yesterday.
• 21:00
  A man attacked a woman in the parking lot with a hammer, and it looked to me, I did watch the video, don't know all the details about it, but I watched the video, and he swung that hammer, and it looked to me like the way he hit her, she was dead before she hit the ground.
• 21:00
  A man attacked a woman in the parking lot with a hammer.
• 21:05
  And it looked to me, I did watch the video.
• 21:08
  Don't know all the details about it, but I watched the video, and he swung that hammer, and it looked to me like the way he hit her, she was dead before she hit the ground.
• 21:16
  It was chilling.
• 21:16
  It was chilling, terrible.
• 21:17
  Terrible.
• 21:18
  Well, he was an illegal immigrant in this country illegally.
• 21:18
  Well, he was an illegal immigrant in this country illegally.
• 21:23
  Well, how do we respond to people who are here that don't belong?
• 21:23
  Well, how do we respond to people who are here that don't belong in a way to protect our neighbors who live here legitimately?
• 21:34
  How do we show love?
• 21:36
  Wouldn't it have been loving to have gotten that man in custody of some kind before he could kill that woman?
• 21:43
  You know, what did we really love her by looking the other way on immigration?
• 21:48
  See, those are the kind of things that we have to think about carefully.
• 21:53
  And now an emotional response could be get him out of here right now, tomorrow, deport him.
• 22:00
  Well, I'll get that response.
• 22:02
  Some others could say, well, he probably got caught up in something he didn't know, and maybe there was more to the story.
• 22:08
  Okay, then they try to talk talk around the issue.
• 22:12
  Okay, let's not be emotional about this.
• 22:15
  Let's begin to think about it more carefully.
• 22:17
  And you'll need to think about that because it's gonna come up in election season, and you're gonna have to vote for people who have a position on immigration and what to do about it.
• 22:30
  And then I just want to challenge you that you have to think about love for everyone.
• 22:35
  How do you think about love for the immigrants?
• 22:38
  Legal and illegal that are here, particularly how to respond to the illegal immigrants.
• 22:44
  And then how do you express love for the citizens of this country that made the country what it is?
• 22:50
  It's a challenging one, but we need to think about that.
• 22:54
  God expects that of us.
• 22:56
  Now, in all of this, I want to also remind us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 23:01
  We need to pray that God would bring about peace in that part of the world.
• 23:07
  Uh I don't know how he's gonna untangle all the things.
• 23:11
  There are some promising things going on.
• 23:13
  You see the news the same as I do.
• 23:15
  But no matter what, we need to hear the words of Psalm 122, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 23:22
  May they prosper who love you.
• 23:25
  Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers.
• 23:30
  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 23:32
  And I want to tell you about one more thing before we take a break.
• 23:36
  I don't know if you're aware of this, but there's something that begins this weekend, begins on Saturday, April 18th, called America Reads the Bible.
• 23:45
  Some people have organized a group of a whole bunch of people to take turns reading through the entire text of the Bible, starting in Genesis all the way to Revelation.
• 23:57
  I think that's a fascinating and terrific idea.
• 24:00
  I understand you can watch it on television.
• 24:03
  There's a way to see it streamed.
• 24:04
  What you'll need to do is go to the website, read the B America Reads the Bible.
• 24:09
  Sorry, America Reads the Bible, and find the details there.
• 24:13
  But a lot of people are participating, some political leaders, some entertainment figures, some people you've heard of, some people you probably haven't heard of.
• 24:21
  But the fact that they've set this side as this time aside, and they're going to participate in reading the Bible is absolutely fascinating, and I think it's a good thing.
• 24:31
  So check out America Reads the Bible.
• 24:34
  Maybe you'll want to go to the website and sign up so you can watch some of what's going on.
• 24:40
  I'll leave that to you.
• 24:41
  You can figure that out.
• 24:42
  America reads the Bible.
• 24:44
  And finally, the last thing, just a reminder.
• 24:47
  If we're going to think like Christians, we have to think like Christians when it comes to elections.
• 24:51
  And a whole lot of people are talking a whole lot about elections.
• 24:54
  They are here locally, they're talking about it nationally.
• 24:58
  How do we choose a candidate?
• 24:59
  I have some friends that are pretty deep into vetting candidates, and I'm glad they get way in the weeds of that in ways that I have not, and I benefit from their help.
• 25:09
  But let me give you my shorthand way of vetting candidates.
• 25:13
  I want to vote for the candidate that will lessen evil.
• 25:17
  And if they stand for something that God says is evil, I'm not going to vote for them.
• 25:22
  I'm going to vote for the candidate, probably not a perfect candidate, but the candidate that lessens evil.
• 25:30
  I hope you will take that seriously and cast your vote the same way.
• 25:33
  We'll be back in a minute.
• 25:34
  I'm Pastor Rick.
• 25:36
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• 25:38
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• 29:32
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• 29:36
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• 29:40
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• 29:49
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• 29:55
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• 29:57
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• 30:01
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• 30:05
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  Welcome back to Faith is.
• 33:50
  Now I think that's just the most amazing thing.
• 33:52
  All of a sudden, here comes Jesus and he's just there.
• 33:55
  And they're looking around and whoa, where'd he come from?
• 33:58
  I just wonder what was said in that moment.
• 34:00
  There must have been a lot of laughing and and rejoicing.
• 34:04
  But anyway, John tells the story says Jesus said, Peace be with you.
• 34:08
  Having said this, he showed them his hands and his side, so the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
• 34:13
  Yeah, I bet they really did.
• 34:15
  Oh, sorry, shouldn't interrupt.
• 34:16
  Verse 21.
• 34:17
  Jesus said to them again, Peace to you, as the Father has sent me, I also send you.
• 34:23
  After saying this, he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.
• 34:28
  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.
• 34:31
  If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.
• 34:34
  But Thomas called twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
• 34:39
  So the other disciples were telling him, We've seen the Lord.
• 34:43
  But he said to them, If I don't see the mark of the nails in his hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will never believe.
• 34:55
  A week later, his disciples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them.
• 34:58
  Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
• 35:00
  Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
• 35:03
  And again, I get that visual image.
• 35:03
  And again, I get that visual image.
• 35:05
  I hope you read the scripture with some imagination.
• 35:05
  I hope you read the scripture with some imagination.
• 35:08
  Here they are, and all of a sudden, poof, there's Jesus.
• 35:08
  Here they are, and all of a sudden, poof, there's Jesus.
• 35:11
  Just amazing.
• 35:11
  Just amazing.
• 35:12
  Verse 27.
• 35:12
  Verse 27.
• 35:13
  Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and look at my hands, reach out your hand and put it into my side.
• 35:13
  Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and look at my hands, reach out your hand and put it into my side.
• 35:19
  Don't be faithless, but believe.
• 35:19
  Don't be faithless, but believe.
• 35:22
  Thomas responded to him, My Lord and my God.
• 35:22
  Thomas responded to him, My Lord and my God.
• 35:25
  And Jesus said, Because you have seen me, you have believed.
• 35:25
  And Jesus said, Because you have seen me, you have believed.
• 35:29
  Bless you.
• 35:29
  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.
• 35:34
  And that's for us.
• 35:35
  That last statement, that's for you and I.
• 35:37
  We haven't seen, but we've believed.
• 35:40
  And Jesus says we're blessed because we believed without seeing.
• 35:44
  Now, what's going on here with Thomas and these words?
• 35:48
  Okay, Jesus appears to them, and he says something very, very interesting.
• 35:53
  He says to them, after giving them the Holy Spirit, he says, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.
• 36:00
  If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.
• 36:03
  Now, that's a rather, can we say, enigmatic statement?
• 36:07
  Like, what in the world?
• 36:09
  I mean, really, what's he talking about?
• 36:13
  I mean, who can forgive sins but God alone?
• 36:17
  I mean, we know that from Mark chapter 2.
• 36:20
  You remember the story?
• 36:21
  The guys brought the parallel paralyzed friend.
• 36:24
  They couldn't get in to see Jesus, so they tore up the roof and lowered him down right to Jesus, and Jesus looked at him and said, Your sins are forgiven.
• 36:33
  And man, that sent the people abuzzin, particularly the teachers of the law, because they said rightfully, who can forgive sins but God alone?
• 36:44
  And Jesus looks at them.
• 36:46
  I don't know if he smiled.
• 36:47
  I kind of think he might have.
• 36:49
  I have no idea.
• 36:51
  But remember, he's just told the man your sins are forgiven.
• 36:54
  They're just challenging him.
• 36:55
  Who can forgive sins but God alone?
• 36:57
  And Jesus looks at them, maybe he winks at his disciples, I don't know, and proceeds to heal the man.
• 37:04
  As though, yeah, he's forgiven, and I'll show you, I'll heal him too, because guess what?
• 37:10
  I'm God.
• 37:11
  Well, God is not giving up his authority to forgive sins when Jesus says to his disciples that they can forgive sins.
• 37:23
  It's more to be understood as a commission, like the idea of Pentecost.
• 37:29
  Because notice that it says that he breathed on them, and that idea of breathing on them is very consistent with the way the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit of God.
• 37:49
  Now, remember John the Baptist.
• 37:52
  It's similar to that.
• 37:54
  John the Baptist baptized people, and it was described as a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
• 38:02
  Now, John wasn't the forgiver of sins, that was God, but he was delegated, commissioned by God to do that.
• 38:11
  It's an ability to help people understand that there is forgiveness with God.
• 38:16
  It's a it's the responsibility to tell the good news to people.
• 38:20
  It's a little bit like the experience I had many years ago.
• 38:24
  I I thought I was in over my head, frankly, but I was at a church, fairly new to the church, and and an elderly lady wanted to talk to me, invited me and my wife to her house and wanted to have a conversation.
• 38:38
  I sure agreed to do that.
• 38:40
  What else was I going to do?
• 38:41
  I wasn't reluctant to go, but I surely was a little apprehensive about what this was all about.
• 38:49
  Well, we got there, and and she was a wonderful lady.
• 38:52
  I mean, no question about that.
• 38:55
  And she proceeded to tell us a little bit about her life story, and then ask, can God forgive me?
• 39:03
  Will God forgive me?
• 39:05
  Am I forgiven?
• 39:06
  Well, knowing what I know, knowing what you know about the grace of God, it wasn't difficult for me.
• 39:12
  In fact, it was a delight for me to say to her, Absolutely, God forgives you.
• 39:17
  I cannot imagine a situation where God would hold that against you.
• 39:22
  And we went on our way.
• 39:23
  We had a nice visit, and I always hoped, it never got brought up again, that she was a different person because she did not have to live under the pressure of what God has God forgiven me.
• 39:38
  And my assurance was he has.
• 39:40
  Well, that wasn't my forgiveness of sins.
• 39:44
  That was my opportunity, responsibility, privilege as a minister of the gospel to hear her story and to hear what happened, and to understand that God is a God who forgives us our trespasses.
• 39:58
  Remember the Lord's prayer.
• 40:00
  Now, that's part of it.
• 40:02
  But there's also another little aspect of that that I've been wondering about.
• 40:06
  And you know, this is a a little bit challenging because when I read this same passage from the message, it kind of stands out a little differently.
• 40:19
  So I want to open the message and read those verses to you from the message, and um see what you think.
• 40:30
  See how it strikes you.
• 40:32
  See if you kind of think about it differently, having heard this.
• 40:37
  Okay, so same story, same idea.
• 40:42
  Jesus comes in, and he says to them, if you forgive someone's sins, they're gone for good.
• 40:52
  If you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?
• 40:57
  Well, now that's a really interesting way that Eugene Peterson puts it in the message.
• 41:04
  If you forgive someone's sins, they're gone for good.
• 41:07
  If you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?
• 41:11
  And so I began to think, hmm.
• 41:14
  Now the Bible tells us that we're supposed to forgive people when they sin against us.
• 41:19
  And I kind of got that sense from the way the message puts it.
• 41:24
  So if someone needs your forgiveness, and maybe someone does, it's a common problem.
• 41:30
  Someone needs your forgiveness, then you need to forgive them.
• 41:35
  And as far as you're concerned, they are gone for good.
• 41:39
  Let it be God's problem.
• 41:41
  At that point, it is, not yours.
• 41:44
  But then when he says, if you don't forgive sins, if you don't forgive that person their sins, then maybe you have a legitimate beef about them.
• 41:52
  I'm not saying you're your grudge is not legitimate.
• 41:58
  I'm saying what Peterson says here in John, if you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?
• 42:00
  What Peterson says here in John, if you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?
• 42:08
  What are you going to do with the person?
• 42:08
  What are you going to do with the person?
• 42:09
  What are you going to do with the sins?
• 42:09
  What are you going to do with the sins?
• 42:12
  You see, framing it that way really challenges us on a whole new level.
• 42:12
  You see, framing it that way really challenges us on a whole new level.
• 42:20
  So people are going to argue about whether that's an appropriate interpretation of that verse.
• 42:20
  So people are going to argue about whether that's an appropriate interpretation of that verse.
• 42:25
  I get that.
• 42:25
  I get that.
• 42:26
  Okay.
• 42:26
  Okay.
• 42:26
  It challenges us.
• 42:26
  It challenges us.
• 42:27
  I think it's definitely worth our consideration.
• 42:27
  I think it's definitely worth our consideration.
• 42:31
  But how do we wrestle with trying to understand the Bible?
• 42:35
  Because interpreting it is always our challenge.
• 42:38
  And I came across this idea that that really has helped me quite a bit.
• 42:43
  If you're familiar with the idea in the tech world of compression, you will understand this a whole lot easier and better.
• 42:50
  I'll try to explain it a little bit.
• 42:52
  But imagine it this way.
• 42:55
  God has thoughts that he wants to communicate to us.
• 42:59
  God has a lot of thoughts, a lot of understanding.
• 43:07
  All right, so he wants to communicate to us, so he has given us the Bible.
• 43:18
  Now, I don't think it's difficult to understand that what we have in the Bible is a snapshot.
• 43:27
  It's a bit of what God wanted us to understand.
• 43:30
  Important, yes.
• 43:31
  But does any single verse in the Bible really represent all that God is thinking when He had those guys write it down?
• 43:41
  I think we'd all say, no, it doesn't represent everything because God has a lot more thoughts.
• 43:45
  His thoughts are way beyond ours.
• 43:48
  And so we understand that we have what God has revealed to us in the pages of the Bible.
• 43:54
  All right.
• 43:55
  Now, compression takes a large, let's just say image, because it's a lot associated with pictures, takes a large picture and takes out some of what's in the image and puts it in a form that then is more usable.
• 44:12
  For example, you will often see pictures posted on the internet that aren't the same as they were taken originally.
• 44:19
  They've been compressed.
• 44:21
  Many times music that was recorded in all of its lush reality is compressed because the file sizes are just too big, either in the case of pictures or in the case of music.
• 44:33
  And so it's compressed.
• 44:35
  Now, when we see those pictures, when we listen to that music, we get the idea.
• 44:40
  Most of us don't even notice the difference.
• 44:43
  But it's not the whole image, it's not the complete frequency of sound that was recorded.
• 44:51
  It was compressed.
• 44:52
  You can think about God giving us the Bible in much that same way.
• 44:56
  And so God has given us these pictures in this translation, this that translation, this English view of it, this English statement.
• 45:05
  And so when different groups of translators or individual translators put it into our language, they are in a sense compressing God's thoughts, but in a way to help us understand them, because if we tried to fill our brain with everything that's in God's brain, if you want to think of it that way, we'd have an impossible job.
• 45:26
  So that's one of the ways that I think God is helping us with all these English translations.
• 45:31
  It's He's helping us realize that He's just trying to get through to us in a way.
• 45:35
  Now, when I say that, am I saying you need to give up your favorite English translation and start reading a different one?
• 45:42
  That's not what I'm saying.
• 45:44
  If you have an English translation, and I hope you do, that you read and benefit from, keep reading, keep benefiting.
• 45:50
  But if you get stuck, or if you want some other help, get another English translation and let it help decompress what God is trying to say to you.
• 46:00
  So that's kind of why I was fascinated by this message translation, because it made me think about this whole business of forgiveness differently.
• 46:08
  I can easily understand the delegated ability to communicate God's message of forgiveness.
• 46:14
  That's what we do as Christians, especially that's what we do as ministers.
• 46:18
  We invite people to experience God's forgiveness.
• 46:22
  But there's also that element that you know, if if we are not involved in the forgiving business personally, what are we gonna do with that sin that's unforgiven?
• 46:33
  What are we gonna do with that person that's unforgiven?
• 46:36
  I mean, I don't want to deal with that, do you?
• 46:38
  I want God to take care of that.
• 46:40
  I want to forgive as God has called me to forgive.
• 46:44
  It's not always easy.
• 46:45
  I don't pretend that it is for you, for me, for anybody.
• 46:49
  But I don't want to have to deal with the sin or that person.
• 46:54
  I want God to take that.
• 46:55
  And let me tell you, it is the relief of a lifetime to let go of that stuff and to forgive and to let God take care of the sin and the person.
• 47:06
  He already took care of the sin.
• 47:07
  That's what happened at the cross.
• 47:09
  Now let God work to redeem the heart of that person.
• 47:14
  Because if they really did that awful thing to you, then they and God need to have a conversation.
• 47:22
  And I, for one, like the idea of them having a conversation with God a lot more than them having a conversation with me, because they and God can work that out a whole lot better than making it my responsibility.
• 47:35
  I'm gonna forgive, so I don't have to deal with them or the sin.
• 47:39
  I hope that makes sense.
• 47:40
  Okay, so let's continue through the story.
• 47:43
  So we get the idea then that there's something going on with that.
• 47:47
  But now Thomas, he he comes up and he says uh he's not gonna believe him until he sees for himself.
• 47:54
  Now he was only asking for the same evidence that the others received.
• 48:00
  Nothing more, nothing less.
• 48:03
  And yet so many people want to call him doubting Thomas.
• 48:06
  Well, I get it that he wasn't convinced yet, but he doesn't say he doubts, he just says I'm not convinced yet.
• 48:12
  That's a little different way to think about it, don't you think?
• 48:14
  And Thomas did a couple of things right.
• 48:16
  One, he said, what evidence would convince him?
• 48:20
  If I see for myself, I'll be convinced.
• 48:22
  Now, many people, I hope you're not one of them, but you might be.
• 48:26
  Many people position themselves so that they are never satisfied with any evidence.
• 48:32
  You give them an answer to one question and they come up with another question.
• 48:37
  Well, okay, I heard you say that, but what about this?
• 48:40
  And it's always what about this, and what about this?
• 48:42
  Fine, I don't have any problem with us wrestling with our questions and asking God to give us good answers.
• 48:49
  But what I'm suggesting is that Thomas did one thing right.
• 48:53
  He recognized up front what would convince him, and he dealt with the available evidence.
• 49:00
  Evidence.
• 49:01
  Too many people just go shopping for a God and they don't think about what will convince them.
• 49:01
  Too many people just go shopping for a God and they don't think about what will convince them.
• 49:08
  And we need to take that seriously.
• 49:08
  And we need to take that seriously.
• 49:10
  Now, uh last week or so, I can't remember exactly when it was, but it's been within the last week or two.
• 49:10
  Now, uh last week or so, I can't remember exactly when it was, but it's been within the last week or two.
• 49:17
  I was reading in Psalm 16 again in the message, and and it just hit me.
• 49:17
  I was reading in Psalm 16 again in the message, and it just hit me.
• 49:22
  So many people, they're they're not like Thomas.
• 49:22
  So many people, they're not like Thomas.
• 49:25
  They don't straightforwardly say, Here's what I need from God to convince me.
• 49:25
  They don't straightforwardly say, here's what I need from God to convince me.
• 49:30
  They go God shopping.
• 49:31
  And in Psalm 16, as the message puts it, the psalmist starts out by saying, Keep me safe, O God.
• 49:38
  I've run for dear life to you.
• 49:40
  I say to God, be my Lord.
• 49:42
  Without you, nothing makes sense.
• 49:46
  Now there's a clue right there that God helps make sense of life for us.
• 49:52
  Continuing.
• 49:53
  And these God chosen lives all around, what splendid friends they make.
• 49:59
  In other words, the psalmist is saying, I chose God.
• 50:02
  And then he gives us a caution in verse 4.
• 50:06
  Don't just go shopping for a God.
• 50:09
  Gods are not for sale.
• 50:11
  How many people today?
• 50:14
  Maybe you've fallen into this trap.
• 50:16
  They go shopping for a God, small g God, that will suit them, that will match what they believe.
• 50:23
  They don't look for the one true God.
• 50:27
  They go shopping for a God.
• 50:29
  And the psalmist says Gods are not for sale.
• 50:32
  He goes on to say, I'll never treat God names like brand names.
• 50:38
  Oh boy, such wisdom there.
• 50:41
  People shop around.
• 50:43
  They think they get caught up with this religious idea or this religious perspective.
• 50:47
  I'm going to be uh and you fill in the blank.
• 50:49
  Don't go shopping for a God.
• 50:51
  Don't look for a brand name God.
• 50:53
  There is one true God.
• 50:55
  That's what Thomas discovered when he discovered Jesus, the one true God.
• 51:03
  Now, the other thing that he did right was he identified the source of truth.
• 51:08
  Said, if I see Jesus, that's the source of truth.
• 51:13
  See, we need to ask ourselves what our source of truth is.
• 51:16
  Now, for a lot of people, their source of truth is how they feel.
• 51:21
  If that's how they are, then they're going to think one way about God today and another way tomorrow because they feel differently today than they will tomorrow and the next day and the day after that.
• 51:32
  And too many times people get caught up in their feelings.
• 51:36
  And this is a problem that we all need to wrestle with because it doesn't help us when we get caught up in our feelings and we fail to, like Thomas, evaluate the available evidence.
• 51:50
  Now, Thomas Sowell had something real insightful to say about that.
• 51:54
  Now it sounds like he's talking about education, and I think he was talking about it, but by now it's a lot more than education.
• 52:01
  This is a cultural problem.
• 52:02
  Listen to what Thomas Sowell said.
• 52:04
  The problem isn't that Johnny can't read.
• 52:08
  I will add in here, it is a problem in many places that children are not learning to read.
• 52:15
  The problem isn't that Johnny can't read.
• 52:17
  The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think.
• 52:22
  Oh.
• 52:23
  Now that got my attention.
• 52:24
  Can't think.
• 52:26
  He continues.
• 52:27
  The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is.
• 52:31
  He confuses it with feeling.
• 52:34
  And there's the quote.
• 52:37
  He doesn't know what thinking is, but he confuses it with feeling.
• 52:41
  You see, that's where we have our opinions and our thoughts and our feelings, and then we trust our feelings as the source of truth.
• 52:50
  That is a trap.
• 52:52
  See, you might fall into the trap of saying, Well, my friend says, and so you trust your friend because it feels right to trust your friend.
• 53:00
  Or you might please a group of people and say, Well, I agree with them because you want to be accepted by that them.
• 53:07
  You see, it comes down to this.
• 53:10
  Another minister who's now with the Lord said, if Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said.
• 53:21
  If he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said?
• 53:27
  Now there's more to the quote, but let's stop right there.
• 53:31
  He phrases this as an if-then proposition.
• 53:35
  If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said.
• 53:40
  So how about you?
• 53:42
  Do you accept that he rose from the dead?
• 53:44
  Then you have to accept all that he said.
• 53:47
  If he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said?
• 53:52
  See, if you don't believe Jesus rose from the dead, then really it doesn't matter.
• 53:57
  Because he didn't demonstrate that he could overcome our worst enemy, death.
• 54:05
  You understand how he's framing this.
• 54:07
  If Jesus rose from the dead, you have to accept it.
• 54:09
  If he didn't, then why are you worried about it?
• 54:12
  The issue, he continues, the issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teachings, but whether or not he rose from the dead.
• 54:25
  In other words, the issue is not whether you feel good about Jesus saying that we need to love our neighbor as ourselves.
• 54:35
  The issue is not how you feel about praying the Lord's prayer, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against it.
• 54:46
  None of that is the issue how you feel about it.
• 54:49
  The issue is whether or not Jesus rose from the dead.
• 54:54
  Now, now, where are you on that?
• 54:57
  Now, I've frequently saved this time of the year.
• 55:00
  I would say it most any time of the year, but I especially say at this time of the year to remind all of us that Easter never ends.
• 55:07
  Because the resurrection is a settled fact of history, and Jesus really did overcome death.
• 55:24
  What it comes down to for us is if you believe that, then you have to take what he said seriously.
• 55:32
  And everything hangs on that, not on whether you like it or not.
• 55:37
  So that's where people shop for gods.
• 55:39
  It's not about shopping for a God that you like, a perspective that you like, a philosophy you can embrace, a church that believes the way you do.
• 55:49
  The issue is whether or not you embrace the teachings of Jesus.
• 55:55
  It's not how you feel about it.
• 55:57
  There are some things that challenge us.
• 55:59
  There's no question about it.
• 56:00
  About it.
• 56:00
  We grow through some of those kind of things.
• 56:01
  We grow through some of those kind of things.
• 56:04
  The issue is if Jesus is alive, if he really was dead, buried, and resurrected, that changes everything.
• 56:04
  The issue is if Jesus is alive, if he really was dead, buried, and resurrected, that changes everything.
• 56:16
  And if you believe that, then you absolutely have to wrestle with everything that he said.
• 56:16
  And if you believe that, then you absolutely have to wrestle with everything that he said.
• 56:23
  Doesn't matter how you feel about it, it matters that he is the one who is the way, the truth, and the life.
• 56:23
  Doesn't matter how you feel about it, it matters that he is the one who is the way, the truth.
• 56:31
  And he invites us to follow him, and he says, He came to show us the truth.
• 56:36
  And you can trust him.
• 56:38
  I hope you will.
• 56:39
  I'm Pastor Rick.