Jesus the resurrection Alive and Well!!! Appearances week 3 Thomas gets labeled And Jesus Appears to the 500 Christ The KING Pres
Paul Wallace
Ordained Pastor, Both Conventional & Social Media Ministries, Fire Department Chaplain, Maintenance Worker 1, Certified Safety Professional, Proven Governmental Leader, True Team Builder, You will love all of this resume
Jesus the resurrection Alive and Well!!!
Appearances week 3????????
Thomas gets labeled And Jesus Appears to the 500
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Video Introduction https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cro3jFJg5YY/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
The Music we post are on YouTube, but I would also suggest you consider visiting one of these Houses of Worship and join in the wonderful sing too. We have visited most of the Churches in the past, I am sure the music will be a blessing.
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Call to Worship
Revelation 5:12 saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the LAMB that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing."
Processional
Praise To The LORD The Almighty
St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, New York City, New York
Passing of the Peace of Christ
May The Peace Of Christ Be With You,
ALL: And Also With You
Please take a moment to pass the Peace
First Reading
Genesis 12:13 "Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you."
?Genesis 12:19 "Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her and go."
?Genesis 20:2 Abraham said of Sarah his wife, "She is my sister." So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
?Genesis 20:5 "Did he not himself say to me, 'She is my sister'? And she herself said, 'He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this."
Genesis 26:7 When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "my wife," thinking, "the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is beautiful."
?8 It came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah.
?9 Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, "Behold, certainly she is your wife! How then did you say, 'She is my sister'?" And Isaac said to him, "Because I said, 'I might die on account of her.'"
?10 Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us."
?11 So Abimelech charged all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death."
?12 ? Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him,
This Is The WORD Of The LORD
ALL: Thanks Be To GOD!!
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The LORD’S Prayer & Apostles Creed
Matthew 6:9 ? And Jesus said "In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
?10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
?11 Give us this day our daily bread.
?12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
?13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Christian What Do You Believe?
I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead, and buried:
He descended into hell;
The third day he rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
The Holy Catholic Church;
The Communion of Saints;
The Forgiveness of sins;
The Resurrection of the body,
And the Life everlasting.
Amen.
The Doxology
Praise GOD From Whom All Blessings Flow: Tune All Creatures of Our God and King
Dr. Kristine Rizzotto, Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Hymn
How Deep The FATHER’S Love For Us
Nicole Nordeman
Thomas gets labeled And Jesus Appears to the 500
John 20:22-29
22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
?23 "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
?24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
?25 The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."
?26 ? And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!"
?27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing."
?28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"
?29 Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
1Co 15:1 ? Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,
?2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
?3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
?4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
?5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
?6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;
?7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;
?8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
?9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
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This is of course our third message on the Appearances of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ post resurrection and takes us in two directions.
First we will look at the doubter Thomas, and second we will look Paul’s reporting on the appearance to the more then 500.
First Let’s look at our first passage, and the labeling of Thomas
We remember that John records John 20:24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
That Thomas had been absent when Jesus appeared the week before, and had the Disciples physically handle HIM, and ate a piece of fish in front of them, proving HE indeed rose in the Body.
So we need to be honest here, if you remember last week I gave you and example of my brother who recently passed away, and suggested, that if my Wife Robin had seen him alive and well I would have thought what?
Come on, part of learning to love, understand, and see how honest the Bible truly is, is that we read it honestly, and NOT read it as many preach it.
So what would you this of my Wife’s pronouncement?
Of Course (and we do not drink Alcohol, due to the hidden carbs as one reason, the other I don’t like the taste as it taste like something that has gone bad) we would check the liquor cabinet, or feel her forehead?expecting high fever.
But then She adds “I had Dinner with Him and He ate a piece of fish!!”
We need to answer honestly as Thomas would have.
He was not there last week, the last time he saw Jesus HE was beaten bloodied, and VERY Dead!!!
So Thomas says what we humans, and yes the Disciples the week before did say, I need physical proof with my own eyes to prove this.
Why is labeling Thomas a doubter a bad example of preaching
Hopefully by now we already understand why calling Thomas a doubter, and that this is wrong, is an example of bad teaching, as the answer really is two sided, yes of course Thomas, as we should have believed, but NO Thomas reaction is NOT a surprise to Jesus.
The week before, on the word of Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, how did the Apostles take the news?
“Thanks Mary & Mary, we really believe you, thanks so much”
No they “?Luke 24:?11 But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.
?12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he *saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.
Well let me know answer my feelings had my Wife reported that She even had dinner with my Brother;
I would have lovingly said “Honey, I trust you, but something this miraculous, I have to see for my own eyes.
But then why have so many of us have sat through sermons on how Thomas was such a doubter, and just how WRONG this was?
It sadly comes from teaching that sees us as the important part of the Bible, and not Jesus as the solely important part throughout the Bible.
It does not allow us to see the camel going through the eye of the needle as Humanly IMPOSSIBLE, and also the does not allow us to understand that is exactly the point.
The Bible is about the LORD making the impossible possible by the power of HIS WORD, it is about raising the Dead EVERY Second of the day. But sadly the most preachers don’t really believe we were dead in our trespasses and sins, and that it was impossible for us to come to faith on our own.
Let’s quickly remember something about Thomas, and his reaction, as it is honest, true, yes wrong, but also in a body of work that also had him saying in Bethany, “Let us go to Jerusalem, that we may” what?
That is right Die with HIM.
One of the most honest responses to Jesus in the Bible is found in Mark 9:24 Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief."(NAS95)
This should be on our mind before we judge.
I would love to expand on this point but I want to take some time on the appearance to the more than 500.
Appearing before the 500
1Corithians 15:4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
?5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
?6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;
Why switch gears here?
Well as we said at the beginning of this series, the we are focusing on the real proofs of the Bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the appearance before the 500 plus is one of those proofs.
About 30 years ago the Fire Department was asked and I was one of the volunteers in a fund raiser at Hackettstown High School in a Donkey Basketball game.
The gym at our High School at the time seated around 500 plus, convenient but also true, do you think the people who attended that game could say that they indeed saw a Donkey Basketball Game, and would you believe all 500 plus people had they all been interviewed by the press who, as you could not attend the game?
Yes you would, and I could even show you proof of the Jackastronaut certificate we all received.
So why when 500 plus are reported to have seen Jesus that we have those who call Christianity a “Myth”?
Why there still are doubters with so many witnesses
We need to again understand and have preachers who really understand and believe;
Ezekiel 12:2 "Son of man, you live in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, ears to hear but do not hear; for they are a rebellious house.
Matthew 13:13 "Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
It has not changed, we could write and preach the GREATEST Sermon EVER, and unless the HOLY SPIRIT open our Dead Eyes we will NOT believe!
Jesus IS THE GREATEST PREACHER ever, and what does HE tell us???
This a real question;
YES HE tells us not even HIS WORDS will be believed if the FATHER has not willed it!
Yet week in and week out we are told how to obey the law, and how we need to change, when the truth is ONLY the LORD Saves us, and ONLY The LORD directs our steps post salvation.
I am not kidding, 90% of (it is higher than this number) all the preachers we have heard coast to coast, and the post we see on social media, tell us how we need to be Holy as GOD is Holy, and how we need to change, when the real Story of the Bible is how only Christ The HOLY SPIRIT changes us!!
I know this is tough to understand, but the truth is You did not find Jesus, as HE was NEVER Lost, HE Found YOU, and that has been the truth throughout the Bible!
You don’t believe me, WHO found who in Genesis Chapter 3 and the fall???
Ge 3:8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
?9 ? Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"
?10 He said, "I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself."
Believe me and this is the great news, if the LORD wants to save you, you can run, and hide but praise be to GOD in Christ Jesus our LORD, HE WILL FIND and redeem you.
The Church Sadly LOVES to Label, as the Synagogues before them, But Jesus loves to redeem we labeled.
And as with ME, we are the worst of the sinners, as there are NO better sinners!
This is the Great news of Easter and the Bible!
Next week we will focus on Jesus the resurrection Alive and Well, and Multiple Appearances ?
As we prepare for Ascension Sunday and Pentecost
Hymn
In Christ Alone
Royal Albert Hall, South Kensington, London, England
The LORD’S Feast
1st Corinthians 11
23 ? For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;
?24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
?25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
?26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
?27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
?28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
?29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.
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Guide Me Oh Though Great Redeemer
St. Paul’s Cathedral, City of London, London, England
The LORD’S Benediction
2nd Peter 3:17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;
?18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
(NKJV)
Let Us Go Forth As Those Who Love And Proclaim Our Risen LORD and Savior Jesus Christ
Response By All: Thanks Be To GOD, Alleluia, Alleluia, AMEN
Recessional
"Christ for the world we sing"
St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, New York City, New York