Father, we want to thank you because we have been singing the gospel, we have been praying the gospel, and now we are going to preach the gospel. You know, Lord, the absolute impossibility that a human being can transform another human being Only your word applied by your Holy Spirit can do that work in the heart. The salvation is yours, O Lord, so that all the glory is yours also. Father, pour out your Holy Spirit in this place so that Jesus Christ, our Savior, can be properly exalted. Transform lives, O Lord. Believers and unbelievers, transform lives in this place. porque te lo pedimos en el precioso nombre de Jesús. Amén y amén. Hay eventos en la historia que han cambiado el rumbo de la humanidad. Y me refiero a guerras, descubrimientos, revoluciones. But none of those things have the importance nor the implications of the event that we have come to proclaim, that we have come to celebrate today, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches us that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, which is the great chapter of the New Testament about resurrection, Paul says that if Christ did not rise, Christianity has no foundation, our faith would have no value, our hope would be an illusion, and in verse 19 of chapter 15, Pablo says that if Christ did not rise again, Christians are the most worthy beings of pity on the entire planet. But, if it is true that about 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ rose from the grave three days after being crucified, then we cannot do anything else And I want to underline that. We cannot do anything other than prostrate before Him in worship and recognize Him as our God, as our Lord, as Thomas did in the story that we are going to expose this morning, which our brother Mario read a moment ago. Now, before considering this story, allow me to take a few minutes to briefly reconstruct the events of that weekend, which is the context in which our story is located. Jesus Christ was crucified on Friday morning. His death occurred around three in the afternoon. Then he was buried in a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea until Sunday morning. That Sunday, very early, a group of women went to the tomb. Obviously, I'm reconstructing the story taking from Matthew, Luke, Mark, not only from John. A group of women go to the tomb, not waiting for Jesus Christ to resurrect. They went to anoint with spices the dead body of the Lord. It was the custom of the Jews. But when they arrived, they found that the huge stone that covered the entrance of the tomb had been removed and the body of Jesus was not there. In the midst of his anguish, of his confusion, the scripture says that two angels stand next to them and give them the surprising news that the Lord has risen. They run to tell the news to the disciples, but listen, Luke tells us that the words of them seemed crazy to them, and they did not believe them. Luke 24, 11. My brothers and friends who are here this morning, let us not imagine the disciples as a group of credulous, of credulous people, fanatical, who were willing to believe anything. The first reaction of the disciples to the news was doubt, not faith. So Peter and John run to the tomb, they find everything as the women had told them. The tomb was open, the tomb was empty. And now listen to what John says in chapter 20, in verse 9. Because they had not yet understood the scripture that Jesus had to be resurrected from among the dead. It is at the moment that they see the empty tomb that they realize what had happened and begin to fit the same prophecies of Jesus that he had mentioned on three occasions during his ministry. I am going to be delivered, I am going to be dead, I am going to be crucified and I am going to be resurrected on the third day. A short time later, the Lord appears to Mary Magdalene, then to Peter, then to the two disciples who were on their way to Emmaus, and finally, that same Sunday, He appears before the rest of the disciples. Let's look once more at verse 19. Then, at the sunset of that day, the first of the week, and the gates of the place where the disciples were, being closed, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came, and sat among them, and said to them, Peace to you. At the sunset of that same day, says John, pointing out that he is referring to Sunday, verse 1. He says that the Lord rises on the first day of the week. Jesus stands among them and says, Peace to you. And this is one of those things that the Lord does. He does not reprimand them for having abandoned them at the time of the arrest, but blesses them. In verse 20 it says that he shows them his hands and his sides, and the idea is so that they have no doubt that the one in front of them is the same Jesus who was crucified three days before. But Thomas was not there. And I know that many people use that text to say, well, that's why you have to be on Sunday night in the church. Well, I don't think that's the idea. But the truth is that Thomas was not there. And when he finally gets to the meeting place where the disciples were, Jesus had left. They tell him what just happened, but he resists believing it. And that brings us to the first part of our story, which I have titled, The Doubt that is Born of Disenchantment. Look again at verse 24. What is our text really? John chapter 20, verse 24. Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, the little one, was not with them when Jesus came. Then the other disciples said to him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, If I do not see in your hands the mark of the nails, and I put my finger in the place of the nails, and I put my hand on your side, I will not believe. Now, before I make judgments about Thomas's skepticism, about Thomas's iniquity, I want to make two clarifications. The first is that Thomas was not the only one who doubted. Remember, brothers, Luke 24, verse 11. All the disciples reacted in exactly the same way to the report of the women. None of them reacted with faith. They all doubted. Now the second, and probably the most important thing here, is that Thomas' doubt was not that of a hardened unbeliever, it was that of a wounded believer. And this is very important. There is a huge difference between honest doubt and the cynicism of the unbeliever. Thomas' doubt was not the objection of a materialist unbeliever, it was a crisis of the soul. My brothers, Thomas did not have problems with the idea of ​​the resurrection itself. Do not forget that Thomas was a pious Jew. Thomas knew the Old Testament, and in the Old Testament there are at least two or three accounts of resurrections. So Thomas did not have problems with the idea of the resurrection of Jesus. His problem was that he had already suffered a great disappointment, a profound disappointment, and therefore he was not willing to go through that again. Tomás had believed with all his heart that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Tomás had left everything to follow Him. For three and a half years he walked with Him, listened to His teachings, witnessed His miracles, but suddenly everything fell apart when Jesus was arrested, humiliated, and crucified as a criminal. That did not fit in the preconceived idea that the Jews had of the Messiah. My brothers, we have to understand that for a Jew of the first century, the Messiahs do not die. The Messiahs always win, so that with the death of Jesus, the hopes of Thomas were shattered. And I suppose that all of us here can identify with him in this fight against disappointment. Look, my brothers, many of our doubts do not arise from philosophical arguments. Many of our doubts arise from unfulfilled expectations, unfulfilled expectations. You have prayed for years, for something, and God has not answered you, or he did not answer you as you expected. You became a member of a church, and you came out wounded. And I have the conviction that there are believers who are like ecclesiastical fugitives. And the reasons, I keep jumping from church to church, and the reasons are because they go to a church, they are waiting for them to find paradise on earth, and they forget that the church is a community of sinners in reconstruction. We are in remodeling. And they leave the church wounded. Or you started the Christian life with enthusiasm, but then came a sensitive loss, then came a betrayal, a crisis, and now doubts. Not because you are arrogant, but because you do not want to be vulnerable again. You prefer not to get excited before suffering another disappointment. Well, I think something like that was what could have happened with Thomas. His skepticism was a wrong mechanism of protection. And I underline the word wrong. When one is disappointed, when one is hurt, one protects. But my brothers, this is a wrong mechanism of protection. Thomas had to be absolutely sure before trusting again. De ahí su reto en el versículo 25. Si no veo en sus manos la señal de los clavos, y meto el dedo en el lugar de los clavos, y pongo la mano en su costado, no creeré. Se dieron cuenta, a él no le bastaba con ver. Tomás quería tocar. Tomás necesitaba pruebas concretas, no porque fuera un cínico, repito, sino porque su corazón estaba roto. How can it be that the heart of some is here this morning? Now, what Thomas did not know was that Jesus was listening to him. He was there. What Thomas did not know, by the way, brothers, remember, remember, my brothers, that when Jesus died, he died physically in his human nature, but he was still alive in his divine nature. So Jesus was there, he was going to Thomas, even though Thomas didn't see him, and Jesus took Thomas' challenge very seriously. Look, let me underline this part here. You know what, brothers? Jesus knows our doubts. Once they asked him, are you a believer? And he said, no, I'm a doubter. Look, when we are in the middle of a test, the first thing that comes out is not faith, the first thing that comes out is doubt. And we have to take the weapon of faith, and as Martin Luyens says, faith is crushing the head of the serpent of doubt. But there is something that you have to do with what you believe. ¿Por qué habéis temido, le dice Cristo a los discípulos en la barca, hombres de poca fe? Y luego les pregunta, ¿dónde está vuestra fe? ¿Dónde metieron la fe? ¿Qué hicieron con ella? Hay algo que nosotros tenemos que hacer, pero Jesús conoce nuestras dudas, Jesús conoce nuestras heridas, Él sabe cómo tratarlas. Tomás había cerrado por un momento la puerta de la fe, pero no había tirado la llave. Y eso es importante. He was in crisis, but he was not lost. And the reason why he was not lost was because Jesus still loved him. And still Jesus, in a mysterious way, was still holding him in his faith. So he himself, in person, would deal with the problem of Thomas' heart. And that brings us to the second part of our story. The encounter that transforms doubt into worship. The encounter that transforms doubt into worship. Verse 26. Eight days later, by the way, the Jews counted the days this way. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So when it says, eight days later, what John is telling us is, the next Sunday, una semana después sus discípulos estaban otra vez dentro tomás con ellos esta vez y estando las puertas cerradas jesus vino y se puso en medio de ellos y dijo paz a vosotros el domingo siguiente jesus viene a la habitación Like the previous time, the door is closed, Jesus is placed in the middle of it and says, Peace to you. But immediately he turns to Thomas and grants him the empirical proof that he had asked for. Verse 27. Then he said to Thomas, Bring your finger here, look at my hands, extend your hand here, and put it on my side, and be not unbelieving, but believing. Con una mezcla de ternura, firmeza, Jesús viene a sacar a Tomás del pozo de la duda. Y yo espero, mis hermanos, que Jesús venga esta mañana a través de su palabra y saque a algunos aquí del pozo de la duda. Y, por supuesto, eso fue suficiente para revertir su resistencia interior en adoración. Versículo 28, respondió Tomás y le dijo, Señor mío y Dios mío, Notice that Thomas didn't just say, Jesus, it's you! You're alive! No, his confession goes much further. It's an exclamation of worship and personal surrender. He not only recognizes that Jesus has risen, what Thomas is recognizing here is that Jesus is his God and his Lord. Y eso es importante. Esta palabra Señor era la que los judíos utilizaban para referirse a Jehová, al Dios del pacto. Así que cuando Tomás le dice a Jesús, Señor mío y Dios mío, está siendo una declaración profundamente teológica, pero al mismo tiempo sumamente personal. Tú eres mi Señor. Tú eres mi Dios. Ahora, Let's try to put ourselves in the mind of Thomas before we get to that declaration of faith. Because don't forget, brothers, that between verse 25 and verse 26 there is a week in between. So, there are seven days between the first time Jesus visits the disciples and the second time. The first time without Thomas, the second time with Thomas. The question is, and I know I'm going to speculate a little here, allow me a little speculation, but I think I have a basis for it. Let's suppose for a moment what could have been in Thomas' mind during those seven days. Mary Magdalene assured that she had seen the Lord. Pedro y Juan también. Los dos discípulos que iban camino de Maús contaban cómo caminaron con él. Y ahora todos los apóstoles decían haberlo visto. Probablemente Tomás estaba atrapado entre el deseo de creer y el miedo a volver a ilusionarse. ¿Han estado todavía así en algún momento? Es como una tensión rara. It's very possible that in that process, Thomas began to remember things that Jesus had said during his ministry, and that now took on a new meaning. Like that time, for example, in John chapter 14, verse 9, when Philip asks the Lord to show him to the Father, and Jesus replies, Philip, the one who has seen me has seen the Father. O cuando dice en Juan capítulo 10, versículo 30, yo y el Padre somos uno. O aquella declaración impresionante en Juan capítulo 8, versículo 58, cuando Jesús le dice a los judíos antes que Abraham fuese yo soy, utilizando el nombre con el que Dios se revela a Moisés en Éxodo capítulo 3, versículo 14. Cuando ellos me pregunten quién fue que se me apareció, tú les vas a decir que yo soy también Yo soy el eterno presente el que nunca pasa el que nunca cambia yo soy Thomas was present when Jesus healed a paralytic and told him, your sins are forgiven. Do you remember how the religious leaders of Israel reacted? They reacted outraged, because who can forgive sins if not only God? And they were right. Only God can do what Jesus just did. Thomas was there when, in the burial of Lazarus, Christ said to Martha, Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. Brothers, think, what common and ordinary human being can tell another person, listen to me, life and death are in my hands, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he is dead, will live. Who can claim such authority? Unless it is God. Tomás must have remembered all the times Jesus said, I'm going to be delivered, I'm going to be crucified, and I'm going to be resurrected. I repeat, I'm speculating. But all these things that Tomás had heard for more than three years, surely they were returning to his memory with a new light. Todo comenzaba a encajar como las piezas de un rompecabezas. De manera que al ver a Jesús frente a él, ya no había más espacio para la duda, sólo para la adoración. Esa es la única respuesta coherente que Tomás pudo dar. ¿Y saben qué, mis hermanos, amigos que están aquí en esta mañana? Esa también es la única respuesta coherente para ti y para mí. No basta con decir yo creo en Dios. Santiago dice que los demonios también creen y tiemblan. En la calle hay mucha gente que cree en Dios y va camino al infierno. No, no, no basta con creer en Dios. Ni siquiera basta con creer que Jesús es la segunda persona de la trinidad que se levantó de los muertos. Eso no es suficiente. The true faith recognizes that this glorious God who became man, who died on a cross for our sins, who resurrected on the third day, is my Lord and my God. I can no longer ignore Him. that I must entrust my life and my death to him, that I must surrender myself entirely to him. That is why I was saying at the beginning of this message that if it is true that Jesus rose from the dead, it is absolutely impossible to react with indifference. No one can remain neutral before a person like Jesus. Either we pose as Thomas and worship him, or we completely reject him. There is no middle ground with him. It's impossible. What Thomas understood that Sunday afternoon is that he was before the King and the Lord of the Universe, before whom there is no other answer than to prostrate in adoration. There is no other possible reaction before the person of Jesus. By the way, brothers, And I say this with a lot of sadness. I think that's where the great incoherence of superficial Christianity that we see so often in our days lies. People who say they believe in Jesus, who belong to a church, but whose lives don't show any passion, absolutely no passion for their glory, nor the fruits that derive from that passion. No se puede confesar con los labios que Jesús es el Señor y luego vivir como si el Señor fuera yo. No se puede. Tenía un amigo mexicano, muy peculiar, que me decía, mira, te lo voy a poner fácil. Yo no puedo cantar el domingo, Jesús es mi rey soberano, y el resto de la semana, pero sigo siendo el rey. What Mexicans understand. No, you can't. That is incoherent. That is a contradiction. If Jesus is the one who said to be who he was, he deserves much more than a half-way delivery. He deserves our total delivery. I had another friend who, when he was recounting his conversion, he said, look, when I started going to church, I said, OK, Lord, I'll give you 50% of my life, and Christ said no. OK, Lord, look, 75% of my life Jesus said no. OK, OK, I'll give you 99%, neither. It's 100%. Because He is the Lord. He is king of kings, he is lord of lords, he is the master of the universe, who on the third day rose from the grave. Brothers, who are we talking about here? It's the Lord. I love how they say, we have seen the Lord, not Jesus. Now, the story does not end there. The story doesn't end there, because if John had stopped in the confession of Thomas, Thomas was baptized, he said, Lord my God, my God, someone could say, well, good for him. How lucky Thomas was! But I have not seen what he saw, and therefore I cannot believe as he believed. And that brings us to the third part of our story. The instrument that God uses to convert the one who has not seen. Here are many Christians, and I hope that none of you say you had an encounter with the risen Christ. That happened to Paul on the way to Damascus, and that doesn't happen every day. In fact, it has never happened again. How did you believe in Christ? Well, verse 29. Jesus said to him, Because you have seen me, you have believed. dichosos, bienaventurados, como dice la reina Valera del sesenta, los que no vieron y sin embargo creyeron. Ahora vamos a detenernos un momento aquí porque lo que Jesús está diciendo en este pasaje no es, no es, que una fe ciega es mejor that a faith that rests in evidence. I repeat, that is not what Jesus was, as if he believed more the one who thinks less. Have you seen that? There are people who believe that the more brute, the greater your faith. No, no, no. In fact, at least in the Dominican Republic, En la década, principio del siglo XX, me cuentan cristianos viejos que los creyentes tenían miedo de enviar a sus hijos a la universidad porque tenían temor de que en la universidad perdieran la fe. Y la idea era como, lo prefiero bruto pero piadoso. No, no. No hay que hacer. No hay que hacer esa dicotomía. Eso no es lo que Jesús está diciendo aquí. Es como, Tomás, tú tienes una fe de segunda clase porque tuviste que verme para creer. Bienaventurados los que sin tener ninguna prueba decidieron creer en mí. Así es como muchos interpretan el versículo 29. Lamentablemente, hermanos, ese es el concepto que muchos tienen hoy día de la fe. es una especie de salto al vacío, irracional, como si la fe no tuviera nada que ver con hechos concretos, con realidades históricas, sino más bien con un sentimiento subjetivo del corazón. Yo no sé cuántos de ustedes tuvieron la desdicha de leer a Dan Brown y la famosa novela El Código da Vinci. Pero en esa infame novela, el experto en simbolismo esotérico, Robert Langdon, Define faith in this way. Faith is the acceptance of what we imagine as truth, even if it cannot be proven. No. That is not the kind of faith that Christ expects of you and me. My brothers, faith is not an emotional fantasy. Faith is not a mystical feeling disconnected from reality. It is a reasonable response to the historical, prophetic, and apostolic testimony that God has left recorded in His Word. So what Jesus is saying to Thomas is something like this, Thomas, you believed because you saw me, but a generation will come after another, after another, after another, after another, that will not have that privilege that you had, they will not be able to see me, physically, but they will also believe, and they will be blessed. Do you know why? Because in what will their faith rest? In the faithful testimony that you, the apostles, are going to leave in writing. How do I know? From what verse 30 and 31 say. In other words, Jesus is preparing his disciples and the reader of the Gospel of John for a faith based on the written word and not on a visual experience. Look at verse 30. And many other signs Jesus also made in the presence of his disciples. Neither you nor I have seen that. We know it because it is written in the Gospels. that are not written in this book, but these have been written, the ones that Juan wrote, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so that when you believe, you may have life in his name. These have been written so that you may In other words, the instrument that God has used since then to convert skeptics into believers is the written testimony of the apostles preserved for us in the sacred scriptures under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So it is not by miraculous signs, it is not by mystical experiences that we are going to believe. When I was a young pastor, very young, a little while ago. I was in the city of Puerto Plata, in the north of the island, where we started to plant a church, and I went out to preach house by house. And I met a lady who said to me, you're a pastor, I believe in the Lord. I said, that's great. And how did you believe? She said, well, look, I've been going to an evangelical church for many years, Pero no podía creer hasta que tuve un sueño. Y en el sueño yo me vi en el infierno y no sé cuántas cosas y entonces me convertí. Y yo callado. Después no me quería bautizar y pasé tiempo en la iglesia hasta que tuve otro sueño. Que yo tenía que bautizarme. Dije lo del pastor joven porque tal vez en el día de hoy yo no haría lo que hice en ese momento. You know that young people have a lot of impetuosity, but not always wisdom. And I said, Ma'am, you are a very disobedient woman. Because God already told you in the Word that you should repent, and you had to have a dream to repent. God already told you in the Word that you should be baptized, and you had to have another dream to be baptized. I said, Ma'am, God doesn't have to come from heaven again to tell us what He already told us in the Bible. No es por experiencias místicas. Nosotros creemos por el poder todopoderoso de la palabra de Dios. Mis hermanos, este libro está vivo. La palabra de Dios es viva, es eficaz, es más cortante que toda espada de doble filo. Dios obra a través de su palabra. La fe viene por el oír, y el oír por la palabra de Dios. Romano 10, 17. La fe viene por el oír. De paso, ese es un texto extraño, porque debería decir, la fe viene por el oír la palabra de Dios, pero eso no es lo que dice. Lo que el texto dice es que la fe viene por el oír, y el oír es el que viene por la palabra de Dios, y no se pregunte el oír qué, o el oír a quién. Romans 10 14 says that no one can believe in Christ unless they listen to Christ. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. The reason why you are a Christian, my beloved brother, is because you heard the voice of Jesus. When did you hear the voice of Jesus? When someone in a pulpit, a common and ordinary human being, He preached the word of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. To hear Christ comes from hearing the preaching of his word. That's what Romans 10, 17 says. In fact, the same apostles, remember, understood the resurrection because they remembered the scripture. Do you remember verse 11? In verse 9, it says that Peter and John run to the tomb. In the Gospels, there are details. Obviously, John was more athletic than Peter and comes first. Then comes Peter, enters the tomb, sees that the tomb is empty. Then comes John. Then also came the other disciple who had arrived first at the tomb and saw and believed because they had not yet understood the scripture that Jesus had to resurrect from among the dead. What convinced the disciples was not only the empty tomb. It was the empty tomb that confirmed this book. It is the scripture. So faith is not a leap into the void. It is a firm confidence in a revealed truth, confirmed by witnesses worthy of credit, and sealed by the Holy Spirit through the inspiration of the Scriptures. We do not believe because we do. We believe because God has spoken, we believe because God has acted in history and has left it recorded in his word under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We believe because he illuminated our understanding to accept his word as it is, the word of God that works in the believers, says Paul in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13. Let me ask you a question. ¿Quiénes fueron los padres fundadores de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica? Tú lo sabes. Algunos nombres. La pregunta es, ¿cómo lo sabes? ¿Cómo lo sabes? ¿Cómo tú sabes lo que ellos hicieron? Bueno, tú no lo viste con tus propios ojos. But we have in our hands a reliable historical testimony, documents, letters, constitutions, accounts of witnesses. Well, this is how our faith operates. It's not an emptiness. It rests on solid evidences. Listen to the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, the great chapter of the resurrection. Because, first of all, I have taught you what I myself received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter. Cephas. Then at 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at the same time. And last of all, like an abortion, says Paul, he appeared to me. See what the testimony is, the scriptures and the eyewitnesses. The Old Testament contains hundreds of prophecies that were fulfilled at the foot of the letter in the history of Jesus. His virginal birth in the village of Bethlehem, of the descendants of David. his burial among the rich, his resurrection, just to name a few. All that was announced centuries in advance. Add to that the very person of Jesus. How to explain a man like Jesus, the character of Jesus, the wisdom of Jesus, his compassion, his authority? Look, my brothers, no one can make up a person like Jesus. And there is also the testimony of the apostles. Remember, they all doubted at first, remember? But something happened that radically transformed them. These men were willing to die to proclaim the truth that Jesus had risen. And in fact, many of them died as martyrs. These men had nothing to gain humanly speaking, nor wealth, nor prestige, nor security. The only thing they gained with this message was persecution, jail and death. And the question is, why were they willing to do all that? Well, because they had seen with their own eyes the resurrected Christ. And let's not forget Saul of Tarsus, the ferocious persecutor of the Christians. What transformed him in the Apostle to the Gentiles? What was it that transformed the persecutor into a preacher? Paul says, well, the last of all appeared to me, the encounter with Jesus. And what about the empty tomb? Think about this, brothers. If the Romans or the Jews had been able to present the body of Jesus, Christianity would not have lasted a week. The reason why Christianity was successful is because they preached that Jesus had risen and the body never appeared. That's why someone said, that the stone of the tomb was not removed so that Jesus could come out. They say, well, the angel had to come and remove the stone so that Jesus could come out. No, Jesus, glorified, could remove the stone by himself. My brothers, the reason why the stone was removed was not so that Jesus could come out, it was so that the world could enter and confirm that there was no one there, that that tomb was empty and is still empty. The Christian faith is very well founded. We don't believe without evidence. Now, you know what? We don't believe only because of the evidence. Because, in the end, it is the Holy Spirit that opens the eyes of the heart so that we can see the glory of Christ in the Gospel. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 and 4, that if our gospel is hidden among those who are lost, it is hidden, in which the God of this century blinded the understanding of the unbelievers so that the light of the gospel of the glory of God does not shine on them. The unbeliever is blind, voluntarily blind. And Paul says, despite all this, I preach. And if you ask him, Pablo, I don't understand you. You say that the unbeliever is blind. Why do you preach the Gospel? Verse 6. Because God, who commanded the light to shine from the darkness, is the one who shined in our hearts for the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In other words, the same God who in Genesis, chapter 1, verse 3, said, Let there be light. One day, when you were sitting in the church, Listening to the preaching of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit came to you because God chose you for salvation before the foundation of the world, and suddenly He said to you, Be the light, and you at that moment saw what you had never seen before, that Jesus Christ is glorious above all things, and that it is worth living for Him and dying for Him. That is conversion. And when the Holy Spirit Open our eyes to see Christ resurrected in all his majesty. Not only are we convinced, we are captivated. And this is important. In other words, seeing his glory through the Scriptures not only transforms our ideas, it transforms our affections. transforma nuestro corazón. Pablo dice en el capítulo 3 versículo 18 que nosotros todos vemos como en un espejo la gloria del señor y al ver la gloria del señor en las escrituras somos transformados de gloria en gloria en la misma imagen como por el espíritu del señor. La obediencia cristiana no nace simplemente del deber sino del deleite. Look, my brothers, nothing arouses more passion for holiness, nothing arouses more passion for holiness than to be dazzled by the glory, the majesty, the beauty of Jesus. That is the explanation of the apostolic testimony. That is why they lived as they lived and died as they died. Some ask, how did Jesus enter that room with the doors closed? And there is a preacher who says, incorrect question. Jesus could enter wherever he wanted because he had a glorified body. The question was not how Jesus entered that room with the doors closed. The question is how he was able to get the disciples out of there. Because remember brothers, they were filled with fear. How was it that this gang of cowards went out into the world to face death and proclaim that Jesus Christ rose again? Because they saw Jesus. Because they saw Jesus. And that was enough to transform them completely. That was enough to fill them with passion for the Gospel. They understood that the resurrected Christ cannot receive less than that. He gave Himself for us with reserves. He did not descend from heaven partially, nor did He die partially, nor did He suffer partially. He gave everything, brothers. For you, for me. Everything. Can we respond to Him today with a selective obedience? With a warm worship, a distracted love? Of course not. If He is the Lord, the Lord, then He is worthy of all our love, of all our devotion. The love of Christ forces us to think that if one died for all, then all died, and for all died, so that those who live no longer live for themselves, that you are not the Lord of your life, nor am I, so that those who live no longer live for themselves. It is not your will, it is His, it is not your glory, it is His, but for the one who died and rose again for them. He not only must have a place in our agenda, no, he must be the center of our existence. And I clarify, it's not about paying God for what he did. I'm not talking, I remember a hymn that said, my life I gave for you, my blood I spilled, now I have to answer you doing the same. Yo estoy de acuerdo con el himno siempre que no parezca una transacción. O sea, no es que yo tengo que retribuirle al Señor. Pues yo no puedo. Yo no tengo con qué. Ni tú tampoco. Hermanos, lo que Cristo hizo no demanda devolución. Demanda adoración. ¿Ven la diferencia? When you see his total surrender, your soul responds, you gave everything for me, how could I give you less? And I know it's a struggle brothers, it's a struggle, but there is the power of the Holy Spirit. We don't obey Christ because we are afraid of losing something. There are people who think that if you don't obey, you lose salvation. No, no, no, brother. We don't obey Christ because we are afraid of losing something, but because we have already won everything. Dying to sin is not resignation, it is liberation. We have wrong concepts. The legalist has wrong concepts. And the secularist too. I don't want to be far from Jesus. I want to be close. The good news is that the resurrected Christ not only defeated death in the tomb, He lives now to work in us with that same transforming power that raised Him from the tomb. That is impressive. The voice that said to Lazarus, come out! Es la misma que puede sacarte hoy de la tumba del pecado. Es la misma voz que puede sacarte de la desesperanza. Es la misma voz que puede sacarte hoy, cristiano, de tu tibieza espiritual. Porque Jesús no solo salva, él vivifica. No solo salva. Lo que estoy tratando de decir That glory of the risen Christ not only demands our obedience, it awakens it. Not only does He call us, He captivates us. Christ captivates us. When the soul contemplates the Lord exalted in the word, alive, glorious, triumphant, everything changes. Obedience is no longer a burden, it is a privilege. Living for Christ is not a cold duty, it is the greatest joy that a redeemed heart can experience. I was reading the biography of Elizabeth Elliot these days, and she was also reading the biography of Amy Carmichael. And she was saying how Amy Carmichael, in her room, being a missionary, if you ever read the biography of Amy Carmichael, I don't know a woman who has suffered more. And she carved on the wall of the room where she lived, Yes, Lord! Do you know what that means? No matter what comes, Yes, Lord! Sí, señor. Lo que tú quieras de mí, sí, señor. Vivir para Cristo es el gozo más grande que un corazón redimido pueda experimentar. Oh, mi hermano, yo le ruego a Dios que despierte nuestros corazones hoy y que nosotros podamos caer postrados ante los pies de Jesús y decirle, Señor mío y Dios mío, But if you are here without Christ this morning, my invitation is not for you to make an emotional decision. It is not for you to make an irrational leap into the void. I am inviting you to, by looking at the evidence, to welcome the mercies of God in Christ. It is not a blind faith, it is a reasonable, transformative faith that rests in a Savior who defeated death and sin, and before whom we cannot react with indifference. My friend, to postpone Jesus is to completely reject Him. To leave Him for tomorrow is to completely reject Him. Come to Him. Not trusting in what you can do, because you won't be able to do anything to win salvation, but by recognizing your sin with an open heart and resting completely in His perfect work of salvation. He did it all. He did it all. He is a sufficient Savior for the worst of sinners. And He is willing to receive you. If you come to Him, you only have to come to Him in repentance and faith. Or that the Lord He grants you today. He grants you today that living faith that recognizes in Christ the only way to God, the only truth that can sustain you, the only life that can lift you from sin and death. My friend, Christ came so that we have life and life in abundance. I am not offering you to leave your mundane joy for a holy boredom. I am calling you to live for the first time. He came to give us life and life in abundance. Oh, that like Thomas, in this very moment, you may surrender yourself with joy to Him who is worthy of all trust, proclaiming from the depths of your soul that He is your Lord, your Savior, and your God. Oh, that the Lord may do that today. Let us pray. Father, we want to thank you for giving us the privilege, the enormous privilege of preaching your word this morning. Thank you for being able to proclaim Christ once again. We beseech you, O blessed King, come for your Holy Spirit and work, Lord, in the hearts of believers. Some here may be experiencing spiritual heaviness at this moment. Awaken them, O Lord. Oh, fill us with passion for Christ, fill us with passion for the Gospel. Forgive us, oh Lord. Forgive us for our half-heartedness. And help us, good Father. Oh, Father, save some who are here without Christ this morning. Have mercy, Lord. And bring them to Him in repentance and faith. Because we ask You in His name. Amen.