Auto-generated - may contain small errors. Always verify with the audio version.
Everybody hear that? Please may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may I am not worthy to have you come into my home.
And I know you will not be comfortable as it's you in a Roman song. But you only need to say the word. And he will be healed.
I'm not worthy. I am the truth about the child. He's actually my son. I'm so ashamed I shouldn't be asking you.
But I am. And I know you can do. Master. I never thought I'd say this.
But he's worthy to have to do this, right? He loves our people. He's helpless. Do not trouble yourself.
You can heal him from a distance with only a word of command. I also have authority moving under me. If I say I want to go, he goes. If I say to another, come, he comes.
Anything. Anything you command in this world will happen. I know it. Even this. Stand up.
Watch your eyes. Enjoy your smile.
And truly, I tell you, there was no one in Israel that I found such faith. I was rejected in my own hometown. And I'm threatened by the religious leaders of my own people.
And yet this man, a Jedi, has more bold confidence in what he believes that I can do than anyone I have yet encountered.
may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may Amen, amen, amen.
Amen. Isn't it amazing the faith that someone can have? So this Gentile, this centurion had more faith than the disciples did when Jesus appeared to them.
He said, I have enough faith that I know you can do this from afar. And he did, he healed the centurion's son.
And I thought it was important that we see that before we begin and look at what we're going to look at today in John chapter 20, verses 19 through 31.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, I just ask as we come before you, Lord, that you be the one standing up here, not me.
I'm going to go sit back down and I want you to be the one in the forefront. I'm just going to let you do this all because I can't.
But I know you can. My faith in you is unboundless when it comes to the things I know you're able to do. And Lord, I know those of us here, we want so bad to hear your word.
We want so bad to be closer to you. And we want so bad to feel the love of your son, Jesus, as we feel the love of God. I pray this in the name of Jesus.
Amen. Faith and believe. So last week, John talked about we had he gave the story of three different people that found Jesus after he had been raised from the dead and the stone had been rolled away.
And he covered John and Peter and Mary Magdalene and their faith. And John said he believed that that was part of the scripture was he saw and he believed.
Took him a while with Peter. But then Mary at first didn't think it was him and thought it was a gardener. And he said, go and tell them I will come see them.
And here's the thing we also have to understand. It happened the same day. This was the very first Easter. Think about that.
The very first Easter. I don't know how this thing works. Let's see if I can make it work. And if not, I'll do it the old fashioned way. There we go.
It did work for me. Wow. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the disciples had gathered together and locked the doors of the place because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.
Now, we're going to stop right there. So even though John and Peter had come back to him because not all the disciples are there. Only 10 of the 11 are there. OK. They were afraid of the Jewish leaders, even though John had seen and Mary had seen that Jesus had been raised from the dead.
That key word there is the doors were locked. And by the way, this isn't the year 2700 when, you know, you can say, Scotty, beam me up or Scotty, beam me somewhere.
And it says, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you. So how did Jesus get to be there if he wasn't God?
God's son. God's son. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, peace be with you.
Just as the father has sent me, I also send you. And after he said this, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive anyone's sin, they are forgiven. And if you retain anyone's sin, they are retained. And I thought it was interesting that he said to them twice, peace be with you.
And the peace be with you isn't the peace that I may say, hey, man, I want you to have peace. You know, peace, brother. That's not what Jesus was saying. Jesus was saying, we got this.
That God's got this. How many times have you ever heard me say, God's got this? So in Ezekiel, I think I messed my thing up.
Let's see if I did. I did. I wanted to go there first. So when Jesus said, peace be with you, it can be understood as you don't need to be afraid. You are reconciled with God.
I am with you, even in difficult circumstances. You can have inner wholeness and security in God. And the relationship between you and God can be restored.
So him saying, peace be with you is the same thing as me telling you, I know that God's got this. No matter how hard it can be on us, if we believe that God's got this, God's going to heal or change the circumstance or make things that much better.
And the being afraid because the Jewish leaders are going to come after you because you were Jesus's followers is unneeded.
Because God's going to protect them from that. Plain and simple. The same way he's going to protect you and me from those evil forces they're going to try to get us.
Because the devil runs around stealing and killing and destroying every single day. He tries to get you to not do the right thing. He may send a circumstance to you that you may think is a small, little, bitty thing.
And all it does is anger you and then you smart off to the wrong person. And then what happens is a bad thing happens. Instead, we have to be strong in our faith to let God handle it.
And he will. No matter what it is. God will take care of it. In Ezekiel 37, 1 through 6, it says, The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out of the spirit of the Lord and placed me in the midst of the valley.
And it was full of bones. He made me walk all around among them. I realized there was a great many bones in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live?
And I said to him, Sovereign Lord, you know. Then he said to me, prophesize over these bones and tell them, dry bones, listen to the Lord's message. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones.
Look, I'm about to infuse breath into you. That's the key word there. I'm going to infuse breath into you. And you will live. And I will put tendons on you and muscles over you.
And I will cover you with skin. And I will put breath in you. And you will live. Then you will know that I am Lord. And Jesus had said earlier, he said, Peace be with you.
And he gave them instructions, and then he breathed on them. And when he breathed on them, he filled them with the Holy Spirit. Because he breathed on them.
I know later in Acts, we look at how the Holy Spirit came upon everybody. But these ten received it then. Through that breath.
And that's why I wanted to go over that verse in Ezekiel. And it actually goes through to 14, but we're not going to go that far. So I didn't want to have you guys listen to me run my mouth.
And we'll go to 24 and 25. Now Thomas called Didymus. One of the twelve was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord.
But he replied, Unless I see the wounds from the nails in his hands, and put my finger into the wounds from the nails, and put my hands into his side, I will never believe. Now here the key is, Jesus wasn't with Thomas when Thomas said this.
It was just him and the other ten. Because this didn't necessarily happen the same day, or maybe it did later on after Jesus left that room.
But again, I tell you, how did he get to the room? Have you ever thought about that? And we see here, Thomas saying, He's not going to believe unless he sees it with his own hands.
As we look at 26 through 29, it says, Eight days later, the disciples were again together in the house, and Thomas was with them. And although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
And then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here, and examine my hands. Extend your hand and put it into my side.
Do not continue in your unbelief, but believe. Thomas replied to him, My Lord, my God. Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me?
Blessed are the people who have not seen and yet have believed. So I asked you, Did you have to see to believe?
Or did you believe because of your faith? Because of, Are you the ones that are blessed because you have not seen and believed? Which are you?
And do you believe? Have you taken that step to believe that Christ died on the cross? Have you taken that step to know that no matter what goes on, God's got this?
Have you taken that step to know that no matter what's going on in your life, that God's going to cure it or heal it or bring you through it? Do you know that beyond belief?
You know, I probably shared this story before. I don't remember where I shared it, but I know I've shared it. When Tammy and I first moved to North Carolina, so like I was a little behind on a car payment, and I had told them, Yes, you know what?
The payment is in the mail. And the guy told me, Well, you know what? If I don't see it, by next week, I'm going to come get your car. I said, Well, the payment was made.
And so I, on Friday, the Friday that it was supposed to be a week later, he called me, and he goes, Well, I still ain't got your, and then he shut up. And I had told God earlier in the day, I said, God, you need to show me something.
And the guy shut up. And then he said, Oh, I'm sorry. Your payment just hit. And that's how I knew that God, no matter what it was, would take care of me.
I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, no matter how bad the circumstance was, God would take care of me. And he does.
Still to this day, every time I turn around, he's taking care of me. He's granting me things. He's just reaching down and giving me the wonderful son and the wonderful daughters that I have.
He's taking care of me. I couldn't ask for a better son than I have in Mark. I really can't. And my daughters, them, none of them, I couldn't ask for better daughters.
They treat me with such respect and love. It's unbelievable. And I know a lot of parents get that, and then some parents don't. But I get a lot of love and respect from my children.
And I know it's because of God, not because of me. Because I truly know that God's got this.
And then John writes, Now Jesus performed many other miracles, signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book, but these are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name.
So I heard this story I wanted to share with you, and it's one of the best stories I've ever heard in my life. And it was, there was this man that was a king, and he was a good king.
He took care of his subjects, and he loved them. And he had a big, big vault with a lot of gold in it. And then he started hearing that somebody was stealing money.
And he sent out a thing and said, Okay, when you find who steals, it brings them before me so I can judge them. And then they were stealing more gold.
And so he said, They're going to get ten lashes. And then they continued to steal. And then it went to thirty lashes, which is the same as giving them death. And then he found out that the person that was stealing from him was his own daughter.
And the king was stuck between, Is he going to go ahead and say, Do what he said or not?
So the king judged her and said, You're going to get the thirty lashes. So when the executioner took her and put her on the thing and was getting ready to hit her with the first lash, he said, Stop!
And he went, and he got on top of his daughter and covered his daughter like this. And he said, Now punish her. And he took the thirty lashes for his daughter.
See, that's what Jesus did for us. He took our lashes so that we could be with God when we pass on.
And that's why we need to believe that Christ got this. That peace be with you.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, Lord, we just thank you for this time. Thank you for the way you just preached this message. Thank you for all that you do.
Thank you for taking care of us and loving us and bringing us through it. And thank you for showing us that faith is where we need to be. And Lord, if there's anyone in this room that doesn't believe, please let them come to one of the pastors or one of the deacons and let us know about it.
Have us pray for them and be with them. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.