We are a people that rejoice in all situations, certainly, because all things work together for good to them that love you. And we avow this morning our faithfulness and love for you, Lord. We pray that you will carry us through all the vicissitudes of life. In these circumstances, Lord, that are sometimes inexplicable and unexplainable, and we come to places where we wonder why, but in one moment, Lord, that will all be changed. We'll be in your presence and transfixed with your glory, and we'll understand it better. So, Lord, in the meantime, give us faith. We're going to walk by faith. We're going to learn more about your Word, and that Word will strengthen our inner man, and it will help us, Father, through all the problems that beset us. So remember us this morning, and give us a powerful morning, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, I'd like to see more people on Wednesday night. Wouldn't hurt you to be here, an extra shot in the arm in the middle of the week. And you'll join us, and you know, I don't know if you've noticed, but it's getting lighter out, so some of you that are afraid to drive at night, it won't be long before it'll be bright, sunny night, so join us. Seven o'clock, we have the lesson on Job, and this lesson, very important, valuable lesson, all of them are. But in this case, Job makes his argument that he's hoping to find the Lord. He wants to find Him and be able to sit before his seat and make his complaint known to the Lord. And I think all of us probably relate to this at some time or another. We're wondering where he is. And in case you didn't know, he's on the throne in heaven, and he will be there forevermore. But there are times that we need to just draw an eye into him, and the Bible says, he will draw an eye into us. So there's a lesson about all this, so that I may know him and where to find him, that I might come even to his seat. Now next week, well, I don't know if it's gonna be next week. It'll be sometime, but I'm gonna start my new series on Solomon. So you might want to get a head start and start reading in Kings and Chronicles about... He was the son of David. The son of David. He was the son of Bathsheba. He was the rightful heir to the throne of Israel. King Solomon. King Solomon. King Solomon. adored by his followers, blessed with divine wisdom, renowned for his condign judgments. Cut the child in half! God bless this child and his children's children. And most of all, his true mother. Commander of a mighty army. Architect of the house of God. Prolific writer of a thousand proverbs. Honored by a foreign queen. Corrupted by his Gentile wives. Ashtoreth, answering your prayers? She grants us children and cares for the spirits of our loved ones in love. Committed sacrilege with pagan gods. Died in misery and regret. Solomon. That will be part two of whatever we teach today from Luke chapter 24. You're finding your place, hopefully. And what we've come to is, well, the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. There's so many aspects to it and nuances that we want to be able to elucidate. There's some contention about where Jesus was when he gave out the Great Commission, and my answer to that is, when you read the four Gospels and try to put them together, they don't always fit as neatly as we'd like them to. But I think there's repetition that's involved, in that Jesus just didn't give the Great Commission one time, perhaps several times on different occasions. Certainly, he might have, when he was in the upper room with the disciples in the 21st chapter of John, it might have been the 20th chapter of John, might have been there that he gave the commission, at least partially. We certainly know that that was the case just before he ascends into heaven. when he's on the Mount of Olives. So, these different circumstances, wherever he might have been, he probably repeated what that commission was. And Luke's account here in the 47th verse, where we're taking up, is that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And this would be, again, repeated in different circumstances and contexts. Mark chapter 16, he says it a little differently, go and preach the gospel. Matthew chapter 28, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So if you put the composite picture together and maybe see different places, you can put the entire commission together. At any rate, to condense it here, as Luke often does in his accounts, he said, ye shall be witnesses of these things. And so we're all called to be a witness. All of us are a witness one way or the other, by the way. And if you're born again, are you born again? Are there any born again Christians here? One or two of you, oh, I got some work here, right? If you're born again, you are a witness. You're a witness to the truth. And you're to go forth giving that witness out, as a matter of fact. And this is what Jesus is commissioning, what it seems just to be those in the upper room, the eleven. But I would have to think that there are many more that are involved when he speaks this. He's speaking it to all of us through all the generations of time. I'm a witness. You're a witness. And we've got to do the best that we can with our witness. In fact, Sue has a sign up on her telephone pole. Is that right, Sue? And she showed me a picture of it. It's a sign about this big. And I guess it's okay to tack it to your telephone pole. So far so good. I mean the dog owners use them all the time Right, so why can't we but so you put it up there and it's a it's the gospel message That's put out there. So everybody that drives by has an opportunity. That's a witness We can be a witness in many different ways. So Make sure that we fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. All of us are called to a glorious eternal life. We're going to live forever with Jesus. And as professed, a good profession before many witnesses. So, let us make sure that at the end, won't it be glorious? We might get there, and people may come up to us. I gave this story a while back, but it was several years ago, and I was coming from Mercy Hospital and walking to the jail. I was to preach at the jail, which I do every Tuesday until COVID came. In fact, I would be celebrating my 40th year at the jail. Started in 1981, but now I'm kind of closed out. Can you imagine that? Here's a guy that wants to get into jail. But I'm on my way over from Mercy Walking, from Mercy Hospital, over that, up on the bluff where Duquesne University is, and I'm ready to go down those steps, about 200 steps down to 2nd Avenue, when all of a sudden a UPS driver pulls up on the curb in front of me, kind of suddenly, jumps out of the UPS, out of the side, driver's side, and starts running towards me, and he says, And I didn't know what I had done. I didn't know UPS drivers could arrest you. I said, you! I said, me! You! I'm looking around me. And he said, you. He said, you saved my life. And I thought, I'm looking in his face. I usually remember faces. But I could not play, I didn't know what he was talking about. He said, you saved my life. And I said, how did I save your life? I'm glad I did. And I'm glad to take credit for it, but when? When was this? And he said it was 10, 12, 15 years ago, I forget what he said. Down at the county jail. And he said it was Unit 6. And that would be Danny Yeager's pod, right? Is that Danny in the back? Officer Yeager? He gave me the two-minute warning all the time, right? This guy was in my Bible study there many years ago, and sure enough, he said I got saved. I gave my heart to Jesus. He said I quit my drugs. I got out of the trouble that I was in. He said I started living a respectable life. I married my girlfriend. Beautiful, right? And of course I tell all the guys the same thing. Don't tell me about your fiance of 20 years. I'm tired of hearing it, right? And got married and I'm living a right life. And he said, I've got a house. He said, I've got a UPS job, which I shouldn't have, you know, with felonies on my record. And he said, all that because it started back in the county jail those many years ago. He said, you saved my life. He said, and just to see you going. And he said, I said, well, I'm on my way now. He said, keep up what you're doing, the great work, and so on. Well, that felt terrific, you know. You like to hear that. That maybe you were a good witness to somebody. Maybe it was only one person, but you eventually influenced the person to follow the cross of Jesus Christ. There can't be anything more important than that. I don't know what else you could be doing with your lives. What else it is you've got? Everybody here has some kind of vocation and that that pays the rent. I understand all that but listen that isn't who you are God has a higher calling than just working at some place. He wants you to be a witness for the truth and let us be a good witness and let us make a good profession of our faith before many witnesses so that at the end, wouldn't it be a great surprise if we get to heaven and someone comes up and says, You saved my life. Now, of course, we understand we didn't save their lives, but we were the tool that God used to bring them to salvation. That's all that we can be. We can show them where the watering hole is, but they have to drink the everlasting water. So, okay, so with great power, God promised to give power out, the apostles would be a witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. And so, they heard the commission, and they went out under the anointing of God's Holy Spirit, and they became a witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So, You know, we're not believing some cunningly devised fable, in case you're wondering. This is reality, and what Jesus did. But you know, there were those that knew that Jesus had been raised from the dead, and they wanted to live the lie. They wanted to reject it. They wanted to propel that lie throughout Jerusalem, that Jesus' body had been stolen by the disciples. And so after the news came back to the people that crucified Jesus that he was risen from the dead, that the tomb was empty, they had to do something about the matter. So immediately they summoned the soldiers that were placed there by pilot to guard the tomb And they had taken counsel together and they gave large money unto the soldiers saying, say ye that his disciples came by night and stole him while we slept. Now what a story that is. First of all, these soldiers appointed by Pontius Pilate, they are, what can we say, they're the Green Berets. He's sending out legionnaires. These people will die for the cause of Rome. And here they are, the easiest task you can have is guarding the tomb of a dead man. Not only is the Roman seal affixed to that tomb, but the tomb now is sealed with a diameter, 10-foot diameter stone weighing about a ton. They would have to push it, several men had to push it and pry it to get into a groove where it would kind of go into the slot and seal the tomb up. Now can you imagine the disciples coming the Roman soldier sleeping, and having to pry that stone back up out of the groove to get it out would take a lot of effort, a lot of groaning, and a lot of noise, and yet the soldier slept through the whole thing. an incredible story. Who would believe that nonsense? Well, there are many people that don't believe in Jesus and don't believe in the resurrection, and they will live and die, and they will go to hell forever because they reject the story. This is not some cunningly devised fable. The people that saw Jesus were eyewitnesses He said your witnesses you saw it all and what a thing they saw and so We have seen and do testify that the father sent the son to be the Savior of the world They testified wherever they went. I witness accounts So John writes, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, which we have handled of the word of life. And Peter also adds, for we have not followed these cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For every young person here, you are going to face a crisis in your life at some point. The devil is going to come and try to unsettle you about your childlike faith. For now, it's easy to embrace the Lord. Your parents follow Jesus. You come to church. Everybody here seems to be exuberant, living, I hope, consistent Christian lives. God forbid that we are stumbling blocks that young people see we're nothing but phonies and hypocrites. God forbid that they see any of you being a bad witness and witnessing for the devil's side. We're to witness for the light. We should be living a life, a noble life, a life that reaches for, but never attains perfection, but reaches forth to that which is before, and that our young people do not stumble over our testimony. Listen, a lot of young people have come in and come out of the church. A lot of them are in the world right now. But there's not a single one of them, I think, that could ever point and say that they were nothing but hypocrites up at that church. I don't think they'll have that as an argument. They have to live a contradiction until they come back to Jesus. At any rate, I want to tell all you young people, He is worth following all the days of your life. I found him as a teenager, and I'm glad I did. He saved me from a lot of trouble. He'll save you from trouble as well. And all these things that we tell you, don't do this, don't do that, all these things that we're telling you about, it's all for your safety. It'll be the best life of all. You live your life a pure person. You live your life without cigarettes, without drunkenness, without drugs, without promiscuous sex. You will be much happier. than your peers in the world. They'll be sad. They'll live their lives, broken lives. Many, some of them will commit suicide because life isn't worth living if you're living in the world and living for the devil. But you live for Jesus. You'll be a happy person, right? Anybody agree with me here? Because a lot of people here lived that old life, didn't you? And the devil beat up on you, didn't he? He almost took you to hell, but what happened? But God snatched you out of the pit, like brims from the burning, and he put his Holy Spirit in your life, and he gave you a new life. He brought you up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and he put a new song in our mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and trust in the Lord. Young people follow the resurrected Jesus. And don't buy in, well, the intellectuals will tell you, oh, no, that's all phony, and they don't believe in it, and they reject it, and how can you believe these fables and fairy tales? You know, the world has done you a great disservice. As young people, you have that faith. It's a beautiful thing. But they'll make cynics of you as early as possible. You'll get into school. They'll start teaching you lies about that you came out of a primordial soup. And they'll call it evolution. They'll call it science. And they'll convince you that this is the way everything happened. They'll show you pictures of a big bang that happened. and how billions of years ago out of nothing came something, you know, and little by little that you came from an ape, you became an ape, and then little by little you became a man, and they're going to tell you these fables, cunningly devised fables, but fables nonetheless. and you'll be impressed because all the people that you look up to, your teachers, all of these college professors, you'll look at them and think, well, you know, they're intelligent people, they have degrees after their names, and you will be duly impressed by all of that, and you'll say, you know what, I'm not believing that old Bible anymore, relegate that to the ash heap now, I'm smarter than that, smarter than God. Don't believe their lies, young people. Don't believe them. Follow Christ all the days of your life. Pledge early on to be his servant. Get to the altar and say, Lord, never will I sway. I'm following Jesus, and I'm never turning back. So, cunningly devised fable. You know, here they are starting to tell kids the evolution. What do parents even teach their kids? Sandy Claws. That nonsense. I'll get in trouble for this, probably. I got in trouble recently. I'm really worried about getting in trouble, as you can see. But it's a replacement for Jesus. You know? Someone in a red suit. Well, Jesus is coming back with his garments dipped in blood, isn't he? He's going to be coming back on a flying animal. You say, how can that be? Right? Reindeer? No, no, no. White horse. Right? He knows whether you've been bad or good. That's Jesus we're talking about. So I don't want anybody replacing Jesus. Those are fables. Superman, Spider-Man, Batman. They're all gods. Little gods. Tutelary deities. They have different names, but if you go back in the ancient Greek and Roman pantheon, what are you going to see? Every one of those gods. Superman. They're named differently. Hercules, perhaps, or Thor. and whatever those names happen to be. They just changed today and people today go to the movies and they're impressed by it and live by fantasy Wonder Woman and all the nonsense and so forth. They're in the way of the true and living God, my friends. Follow Christ. Follow Jesus. It's good advice. So, even as they delivered, Luke said, they delivered them unto us which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. And so eyewitnesses that saw Jesus passed it on to the next generation, that's what Luke's saying. Luke was in a sense a second generation Christian because there's no evidence that he ever saw the Lord or heard the Lord. He heard it from the apostle Paul and he got saved. He heard it from an eyewitness that saw the glory of the Lord. Paul saw him on the road to Damascus. And so, they delivered these words to me, is what Luke's saying. From the beginning, they were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. There were many post-resurrection appearances. Sixteen of them I've delineated here. Mostly people say twelve, but I bring Paul into the picture as well. And we talked about several of these in the last number of weeks. I haven't mentioned this one yet, and that's Thomas. Why, for the rest of time immemorial, he's been called Doubting Thomas. Poor Thomas, he doesn't have a chance. Yet he was the one that said, in John's Gospel, when they said, well, are we going to go and see Lazarus is dead? Well, they were talking about persecuting Jesus, maybe even killing Jesus if he went near Jerusalem. And so what did Thomas say? Well, we'll go with you, Lord, and we'll die with you. So he did have a heart for the Lord, didn't he? But it was tested sorely. It was hard for him. He was a materialist, a sensualist. He wanted to see evidence. And when he heard that Jesus was risen, he wasn't in the upper room when Jesus came back. And the others came excitedly and told him the story. And Thomas, named Didymus, he must have had a twin, was not with them when Jesus came. And the other disciples therefore said unto him, we have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, except I shall see in his hand the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. Had to have evidence. Now, I don't know. I've talked to a lot of skeptics over the years, and they want to see some proof. I was preaching to Mark in Square years back, and this guy came up and said, one miracle. That's all I want to see. Give me one miracle. I said, well, would you want me to part the Monongahela River? What would you like? I said, listen, the children of Israel had multiple miracles, and they ended up rejecting. They wouldn't go into the Promised Land. Signs and wonders won't get it, folks. That's a deficient faith. You have to keep feeding that frenzy. People have to keep seeing more to be convinced. Now you know this is the great illustration because Jesus had an opportunity to teach the great principles of believing without seeing. No evidence. The definition of faith, Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1. Now then faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. You can't demand of God I have to see something for me to believe. It's God's rule. You have to trust Him without seeing. By the way, evidence is everywhere. If you can't see God's fingerprints, and again, the devil's done his best to divert your attention and to give you some other explanation for all the miracles that surround you every day of your life. You live in a miracle. Your body is a miracle. Don't let them tell you it happened by an accident, that all this came together. If it all came together, what would we look like? I wonder sometimes, what would we look like, right? Our eye would be up here, our toe would be, you know, maybe on our thumb and so forth. If I put it together, but when God does it, it's beautifully harmonized. Perfect symmetry. What God does is always perfect. Got to see. If I don't see, I've got to feel. I've got to put my... All of this, he's saying, against the witness of those... I'm telling you, we saw him. We felt him. We know. He ate with us. And Thomas wasn't believing. And eight days later, his disciples were within, and Thomas now is with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Well, now what are you going to say, Thomas? Now you're in the room. You're an eyewitness now. You just saw Jesus come through the wall without coming through the door. Then he said to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, behold my hands. Reach hither thy hand, thrust it into my side. Be not faithless, not believing you wanted evidence. that that young choir sang, crown Him the Lord of Life. Behold His hands and feet. And we will. I mentioned last week, you know, the marks are indelible. The marks will be there for eternity, the nail prints. You and I will always be reminded that we're there only at the behest and aegis of a holy and merciful God. Because there was a Savior that took my place in your place and vicariously atoned to cover your sin record. You will be in heaven because of those scars. So behold his hands inside those wounds yet visible above in beauty. Glorified. For thou, all hail, Redeemer, hail, for thou hast died for me. Thy praise and glory shall not fail throughout eternity. How true, how true. Thomas said, Lord, my Lord and my God. There's no evidence here from the text that he said, well, wait a minute, I'm gonna take a look here. I don't think he did that. He just immediately fell at his feet, as I will, as you will, when our faith finally becomes sight. What a day. The songwriter said, face to face with Christ my Savior. Face to face, what will it be? So, when I behold him in my rapture, Jesus Christ who died for me. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed, but blessed are they that have not seen. and yet believed. He's talking about all of us here. We haven't seen Him, but we believed Him. We don't need to see anything other than His Word, and we trust Him and take Him at His Word. Eyewitnesses saw Him, and then God said, I'm going to inspire you to write the record. This record now preserved 2,000 years. You have an infallible guide. It's called the Word of God, the Bible. Even in the bad translations and the modern translations, you can't miss him. He's still there. You'll find him. You'll find him better in the King James. Learn to read it and learn to love it. It's the best translation available. First Peter tells us, blessed be God the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant, abundant mercy. God doesn't run out of mercy, does he? So we don't go there and say, you know, that nothing more. Tell the story all the time, I suppose, but you know, we went to a all-you-can-eat smorgasbord somewhere, I think when we were on one of our many vacations, and Went in there, they advertised prime rib, all you can eat. Well, I fasted all day. I said, man, I'm going to go in there and get a lot. And I went up to the guy there. He was there, and he cut a razor thin slice of roast beef. And he put it on my plate and looked at me. I'm looking at him, and I felt intimidated, so I walked back, and I came back to the plate, and I had the little slice of roast beef, and my wife said, what's wrong? I said, that's all he gave me. She said, give me that plate. But there's something about women, I don't know what it is. Right, fellas? Am I right? I would feel embarrassed to ask for more. The guy humiliated me, you know, like, who do you think you are? You know, that sort of thing. But she went up and came back a plate full of beef and so forth. It's good to have your wife along to handle things like that and to make all returns. That's my view. At any rate. Abundant mercy. God doesn't say, well, that'll be enough for you. That's enough. No, no. Abundant mercy, more than you can eat. According to his abundant mercy, he hath begotten us again, born again, has begotten us again unto a lively, a living hope. What a difference it is when you have a funeral for a person that's saved, right? It's alive, you know, because we're not mourning the death. We don't have to go through stations of the cross. We don't have to, you know, mournful singing. There's joy in the camp that a sinner has gone home and with the Lord Jesus Christ. So lively hope, a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and defiled that fate is not a way reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. So, and of course it goes on about our faith, the trial of our faith. being more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, yet be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, we haven't seen him, whom having not seen, ye love. Isn't it all true? You haven't seen him, but you love him. In whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing You see him not yet believing. He rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. It's all hinged upon faith. You can't have faith without hearing His Word, I can tell you that right now. So this exercise that we do each week, Sunday night, Wednesday night, all of this is about building yourselves up in your most holy faith. Now I try to, it's a little hard with COVID now, but I, every week for the last 46 years, I try to get people to come to church. I'm trying to get them here. Why? Do I think church is going to save them? No, but what happens here is that they will hear the words of God and that that will create faith in their hearts. Little by little, that faith becomes a reality to them and they embrace it. The more you hear it, the stronger you'll become in the things of Jesus. So don't complain that I give you 50 verses up here, right? All of that is to strengthen you. It's all good for you, isn't it? Never liked broccoli. I still don't like broccoli But I eat broccoli with my nose like this spinach even worse You can keep all the veggies and give me dessert anytime but I I want the whole meal, how about you? And your body needs the whole meal. And there are things in the meal that you might not like, but therefore you're good. And by learning and hearing them, your life will change, and you'll be stronger as a Christian for it. But this is all dessert, isn't it? The resurrection of Jesus. Why, we're looking not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, everything around us, ephemeral, evanescent. The last year, it'll be gone just like that. It'll turn to dust. Everything that's so important to you, all your valuables and so, they've gone. What's really important? Your soul and your spirit. The thing which you can't see right now. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal, We know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. So we walk by faith and not by sight. Good conclusion. All right, so Jesus, these resurrection appearances, Thomas is settled now. My Lord and my God. That's who Jesus is. He isn't just a good man. He isn't just a prophet. He is God in the flesh. That's who he is. And that's why people, Muslim people, are lost. They're lost because they reject the deity of Jesus. They believe him to be a prophet. They don't believe him to be God. As a result, they will cut your head off if they get the opportunity because you, as far as they're concerned, you are a heretic and you are a disbeliever. So you see, we'll never be able to come together on this. There's no way of agreeing with people that reject the deity of Jesus Christ. He's the only way to heaven. Jewish people, they're called the chosen people, but they don't go to heaven just because God chose them as a nation. They have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to go to heaven. They're not saved the way they are. They reject the deity of Jesus. And on it goes. It's the key that unlocks the whole door. Jesus is Lord. Jesus said, uh, Whom do men say that I am? Well, you're Elijah, one of the prophets, and Jeremiah's. But whom say ye that I am? Says to the twelve, Thou art the Christ, Peter says, the Son of the living God. Okay, the Son of the living God is, expressly means equal to God. You are God in the flesh. And he said, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, flesh and blood has not revealed this unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. The only way is the light comes finally, and it dawns upon you who he really is, and you embrace him. Well, many saw him after his resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15 gives us the description. After that, he was seen of above 500 brethren at once. Above, so we don't know how many above. of whom the greater part remain under this present, as Paul's writing to the Corinthians here, it's around 56 AD, and there's still people that saw Jesus still alive, and they're still giving the witness out, all those years since Jesus rose on, let's put it at 33 AD, for convenience sake. So, 20-some years, 25 years, people still testify, I saw him. 500 people above 500 people all saw him at the same time. That's corroboration. They all saw him at the same time. It's a little hard to gainsay. But some are falling asleep. Some had already died. What a beautiful euphemism for Christians. Falling asleep. When you die, you only fall asleep. You know how easy it is while I'm preaching? You see it happen. Right? So you fall asleep. And that's all death. We're not afraid of it. You just fall asleep and wake up in the arms of Jesus. What a beautiful thought. So, 1 Corinthians 15 also gives a single line. It says, after this he was seen of James. So why is this important? Well James, what James? You know there are three. James the Apostle? James the son of Zebedee? You know, the Peter, James, and John? Nope, not that one. Well, it must be James the Less, the other apostle named James, right? The son of Cleophas. Nope, not that one. He's called James the Just. And he was the brother, or half-brother, of Jesus. And he was not a believer. until that line right there. After that he was seen of James. The Bible writes things so simply sometimes, and yet there's great profundity in it. It behooves all of us to become students to search out the word, and don't just run by it. Read it and say, what does this mean, and why is this significant, and why would Jesus make a special visit to his half-brother? And the answer is, his brothers and sisters didn't believe in him. Uh oh. So, here's a text that kind of proves this, John 7, now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. And his brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world. For neither did his brethren believe in him." You know, John gives us these asides, these parentheticals, where if we look at it, we realize John's commenting at this point, letting us know why they were making a snide Threat to Jesus if you're if you're really doing these things that you claim you're doing that people are saying that you're doing Why don't you go into Jerusalem where you've got a crowd surrounding you here and even the priests will believe But they didn't believe him now. Isn't that something now we call it sibling rivalry, don't we? Now I'm a middle child. Do we have any middle children here? How many middle children? Could we meet later in the back room together? We could commiserate. We're the forgotten children, right? So, you know, the firstborn is the favored, and the lastborn is the baby. And you are nothing. You're forgotten. So we'll talk about it later. It's too emotional for me to bring it up. So you have families and you have sibling rivalry. And it can become intense at times, as a matter of fact. So, you have to be wondering, what would it be like to have Jesus as your big brother? Some of you think, oh, it'd be terrific. He's perfect. He doesn't do anything wrong. Can you imagine that? Now, some of us live with that anyway, right? Because that's what we heard about our older brother. He couldn't do anything wrong. We did everything wrong. Yeah, maybe we should meet in the back after. At any rate. So there's this sibling rivalry. Imagine having Jesus as your older brother. How would you feel? I mean, how did anybody feel in the presence of the Lord? How will I feel even in heaven in the presence of an immaculately holy being? We all fall short of the glory. We all feel ashamed that we're not better than we are. So imagine growing up for 30 years with Jesus in the house. It couldn't have been easy for the brothers and sisters, and there was naturally a certain jealousy about Jesus. And perhaps the story had been often told to them, Jesus is different. He's special. Now they weren't there when he was born. They didn't understand the circumstances surrounding it. James, his brother, Jude, the others, they didn't know the reality. To them it sounded like a fantastical story. An angel came, visited Mary. You're going to have a child, and it's all without Joseph, and it's virgin. Putting all that together for 30 years, it might have stretched their credulity to say the least, but I think there was that resentment. And so, here is the word coming back to them, you know what your brother just did? He raised a man from the dead. They didn't believe it. There's another passage here that we should examine in light of this. It says, when his friends heard of it, they went out to take hold on him, for they said he is beside himself. Beside himself. He's mad. He's lost his mind. Now, who are these friends? Here again, you've got to study a little deeper to find out what's involved here. Because the word here, perhaps, is a misleading translation for us. Friends. These are his kinfolk. These are his near kin. These are his brothers and sisters. Now the proof first is in the wording. Etymology helps us if we go back. There are various word studies. Vines is an excellent one, certainly. But Vincent's I've had for many years, and perhaps even easier to understand than vine. If you look how these words are derived from the original language in Greek, then you begin to see that there's much more to the text than that. So his friends here, para-atos, literally means they were beside him by origin or birth, his mother or brethren. And then, of course, he's suggesting, Vincent, that you compare Mark 3 and Mark 3.31 and 3.32 And you'll get even more light on the area that this had to be his brothers and his mother that he had in mind that thought he had lost his mind. You'll see there, again, just a few verses later, that his mother and brother came, his brethren and his mother, and standing without, Jesus is inside at this point, he's teaching, and a multitude is assembled to hear his teaching, believers that are following Jesus and believing that he is the Son of God. And they sent unto him, they're outside, calling him. And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, seeking thee. And he answered and said, Who is my mother? And who are my brethren? And he looked around about what were about him and said, Behold, these are my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my mother and my sister and my brother. And Matthew goes a little further in this particular event, because the people, of course, tell us, is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? His brethren, James, Joseph, Simon, Judas, and his sisters, are they not all with us? Once then hath this man all these things, and they were offended. Now here again we want to know who were the they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house. So clearly James and his other brothers thought that he had lost his mind. In fact, they tried to prevent him and said, bring him out to us and we'll take him home. You know, he's touched in his head. He thinks he's the son of God. Delusions of grandeur. We'll take him to a psychiatrist and get him settled here. So, after his resurrection, Jesus comes to his brother James, the just, and James becomes Believer now again. It's just a single line and now we have to begin piecing things together to realize what happens What a miracle it must have been that now the skeptical brother who once thought that his brother was crazy Now sees him risen from the dead and that is enough for him to settle the issue and he becomes now the leader of the church in Jerusalem and and the writer of the Epistle of James. And he writes, I, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then says, my brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. And so his brother is the Lord, and he owned him as that, and great things came thereafter from the life of James. So he says, ye are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you. But tarry ye in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. Now, this requires much more examination, so we'll have to go into it tonight. So let's bow our heads together. Well, Lord, our meeting ends on a happy note. The salvation of a soul. In this case, one who at first was a rejecter. We learned even from Thomas there are those that were demanding proof, evidence. And Lord, it's faith that saves us. You said without faith it is impossible to please him. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Let us be found diligent seekers in this room. Let us be those, Lord, that believe without seeing. We demand no evidences, Lord. And Lord, while the world curses you, blames you for pandemics, wars, famines, earthquakes, and hurricanes, we believe in you and trust you. And we know that you work all things together for good. And that one day, Lord, you will settle all the matter and put the curse away forever. You will bring a kingdom come from heaven to earth. Lord, until that day comes, we vow to be faithful to you. And I'm speaking to all of you personally here. Are you saved? Do you know that you are saved? If you're not sure of that, you need to reach out to Jesus. I know you can't see him, but reach out to him now. Believe on him. Trust him as the risen Savior, the one who died and rose again from the dead. and receive him into your heart to forgive you of your sins and to give you and grant you victory in your life from henceforward. If you are a young person here, you may say, well, I believe because mommy and daddy say I should believe, and that's good. You should obey your parents. But it is your decision, and at some time in your life, you'll have to make the choice for yourselves. You can make the vow early in your life. You can say, Lord, now I understand and I will love you and serve you all of my life, even though I cannot see you. And even though things may happen to me that I don't understand, tragic things that may happen to me or my family, I will still promise to trust you. You will be so blessed for doing it. You will also learn conviction of sin. The Holy Ghost will live inside of you and he will not permit you to do certain things. He will be grieved by choices that you make. You will feel that and you will say, I want to be different. I want to repent. I want to live the way God wants me to live. Your life will be so blessed and so much happier. Trust those here that have walked with Jesus for many, many years. There's no turning back. There's nothing to turn back to. Love him and serve him. You will be different. Your friends will mock you. You won't act like them. You won't talk like them. You won't dress like them. Life will be different for you. But oh, what a difference. May the wonderful grace of Jesus be yours today. So, Lord, we call upon you. We trust your finished work at the cross and your glorious resurrection. Come now and live in our hearts and direct our steps from this day forward. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless all of you. Hope to see you soon, like tonight.