The Lutheran Hour
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"Nothing But The Truth"
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Text: John 20:27-31
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! The angel’s words of truth, underwritten and underscored by the proclamation of faith made by the disciple Thomas tell a doubting, despairing world that Jesus Christ has won the victory. Sin, death, and devil have been defeated, forgiveness and heaven have been won. By God’s grace, by the Spirit’s power may a sure and certain faith in the Christ be granted to us all. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Not so long ago I preached at the anniversary of a church. During the course of the sermon I quoted the Savior who, in John 14 said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father but through Me.” I also quoted some of the other passages where Jesus spoke about Himself being the Truth. In John 6:45, Jesus said He spoke the truth, the truth which many refused to receive. In John 18:37, Jesus said if anybody wants the truth, that person should listen to Him. The point of my message was this: Jesus is the one and only Truth who can save. He is not a truth, nor is He part of the truth, nor is He my truth as differentiated from your Cousin Frieda’s truth. Jesus is the only truth who saves.
That day there was a young man who hung around, waiting for an opportunity to speak to me privately. When everyone else was gone, he came close and said, “Pastor, it’s all fine and good for you to preach about Jesus being the truth, but this past week I heard a Muslim cleric and he said Islam had the truth. Personally, I think both religions are probably equally right. Don’t they all tell people to do good to each other so they can be sure of getting to heaven?”
Since the young man had referred to Islam, I tried to explain the differences between that faith and that of Christianity. I shared how Christianity worships the Trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, while Islam thinks the claim of Jesus being God’s Son is blasphemous. I spent more than a few moments telling him that Islam finds repugnant the belief that Jesus is humanity’s heaven-sent Substitute and they most certainly reject the belief that our forgiveness and eternal salvation is completely dependent upon faith in the crucified and risen Savior. I did my best to explain the differences, but when I was done, without any sarcasm in his voice, he said, “See, that’s what I mean, you all pretty much agree. You are all trying to get to heaven… you’re just using different terms.” Today’s message is about truth.
Truth is that for which the human heart most longs and it is God’s gift our minds find hardest to believe. As proof, I hold up Adam and Eve. In the Garden they were surrounded by God’s faultless, flawless blessings. Their world had no room for pain, or tears, or hurt, or illness, death, or sorrow. Perfection was the truth which had been given to them by their loving Lord. Still, it was a truth they could not receive without questioning. All too easily they believed Satan when the evil one slyly suggested, “Is it not possible that God is holding out on you? Is it not probable that there is more… so much more for you to enjoy? Here, look at this fruit. Is it not tempting to the eye? No doubt it would be pleasant to the palate. Please, help yourself. What harm could it do?” Apparently a great deal of harm.
Truth is that for which the human heart most longs; it is God’s gift our minds find hardest to believe. When the Christ stood on trial before the representative of Rome, Pontius Pilate, it didn’t take long before the procurator realized he was dealing with a most exceptional Fellow. It took a little bit longer for Pilate to conclude that Jesus had been framed, that he was totally innocent of any wrong doing and that He certainly had done nothing so horrible, so horrifying He needed to suffer and die upon the cross. It is to Pilate’s credit that he could recognize truth when he saw it; it is to his shame that once he found it, he could so easily ignore it. History has judged the judge of Jesus and found him wanting. When the time came for Pilate to stand up for the truth, he faltered and failed. When he had to choose between setting free a murderous public enemy or releasing the Man in whom he had found no guilt, Pilate simply didn’t care. Truth was thrown out the window and Pilate worshipped the god of expediency.
Truth is that for which the human heart most longs; it is God’s gift our minds find hardest to believe. That is most certainly true when it came to the events of the first Easter Sunday. Throughout His ministry, Jesus had told His disciples what they could expect toward the end of His earthly time. Mathew (16 v.21) says, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” That’s pretty plain, isn’t it? Maybe so, but in the very next chapter Matthew records… “in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”
Not once, not twice, but three times Jesus says, “In Jerusalem they are going to arrest me… and they are going to try me… and I am going to die on the cross.” And then, each time Jesus added, “and on the third day I’m going to rise from the dead.” It’s that last part which should have caught their attention. Now you and I both know everybody dies; but hardly nobody ever rises from the dead. Rising from the dead is pretty special. I’ve done hundreds of funerals, but none of them has ever risen from the dead… at least not yet. That’s why the disciples should have remembered the many times Jesus had said He was going to rise on the third day. They should have remembered, but they didn’t.
Look at the events of that first Resurrection Sunday. The women who had been closest to Jesus didn’t wend their way through the pre-dawn darkness so they might put together the ingredients for the first Easter Sonrise breakfast. Those ladies weren’t celebrating a resurrection; they were going to finish a burial. They were saying final farewells to Someone whom they thought was going to change the world. And the disciples? In the hours since Jesus had died, Jesus’ friends had not been busy putting together a mass choir to sing the Hallelujah Chorus at the entrance to Jesus’ tomb.
Neither the men nor the women had spent Saturday dyeing Easter eggs and buying chocolate Easter bunnies and multi-colored Peeps. They didn’t go to the local rental place and pick up a few hundred folding chairs to accommodate the crowds which were sure to gather to see Jesus emerge from the grave as He said He would. The disciples did none of those things. What they did do was hide. They hid because they were afraid they might get arrested, tried, whipped, beaten, crowned with thorns, and crucified. Their frightened souls had no room to think about a resurrection. For them, truth had been God’s gift their minds had found hardest to believe.
Of course there were some who remembered Jesus’ promise to defeat the grave. Look at Jesus’ enemies. They remembered and because they remembered they went to Pilate and requested he put a guard and a seal and all kinds of extra protection on Jesus’ tomb. They wanted to make sure everything stayed safe. Yes, Jesus’ murderers remembered but His disciples didn’t. You know, so often the critics of Christianity talk about the Bible as if it were a bunch of stories which were cobbled together years later by the disciples so they could make some money and make themselves look good as they created their very own made-up religion. If that really is the case, how come the disciples showed themselves to be such clueless ignoramuses? It doesn’t make sense. The truth is, they didn’t think Jesus was going to rise…
… and the women didn’t believe it either. They were so sure Jesus was going to stay dead that when He did rise as He had promised, they still had a tough time accepting the truth. At the end of that first day of resurrection, after Jesus had shown Himself to the women and to a disciple or two, most of Jesus’ followers were still talking about Him in the past tense. “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel”, the disciples on the road to Emmaus mournfully said. They were talking to the Savior, but they still had a tough time believing He was risen.
That night Jesus appeared to ten of His oldest and dearest friends … the ones who had heard Him promise He would rise on the third day … the ones who had heard the reports of the ladies who had seen Jesus … the ones who … well, you get the idea. When Jesus personally came to them, what did they do; how did they react? Luke tells us, (24:37ff) “they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.” Knowing His disciples were thinking He was a ghost, Jesus extended this invitation: “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
Finally, and at long last, the disciples must have grasped the truth. Is that what you’re thinking? Wrong. Do not underestimate humanity’s ability to reject the truth … especially when that truth has come from God. Indeed, Luke tells us: “they still disbelieved … and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.” Apparently eating some fish did the trick and the ten rejoiced. Later, when Thomas showed up, they told their brother the good news, “Jesus has risen from the dead, just as He said He would.”
And Thomas said, ‘I don’t think so: Thomas said, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Truly, truth is that for which the human heart most longs and it is God’s gift our minds find hardest to believe. A week later, Jesus came to visit Thomas who was with the other disciples. It is interesting to note that Jesus didn’t start the visit by giving Thomas a tongue lashing for his attitude. Jesus didn’t say, “Look, I told you I was going to rise, didn’t I? Didn’t I tell you a bunch of times? Then I sent angels to tell everyone the resurrection was a done deal. I appeared to Mary, I showed myself to the ladies; I talked to Peter and James and the two guys on the road to Emmaus. I showed myself to the ten disciples. Did they tell you I had to eat some fish with them before they were ready to believe? Then, after I’d done all that, you don’t believe the truth. After all that, you get stubborn.” No, Jesus didn’t say any of that. What He did do was say, “Thomas, you need proof? Here it is. Touch My hands, My side. I’m real.” And finally, at long last, Thomas believed what he had only hoped for. Truth is that for which the human heart longs and it is hardest of God’s gifts to receive.
It’s not any different today. The world still has a tough time believing Jesus fu[filled the law for us; that He resisted Satan’s temptations for us; that He defeated death. True, the skeptics and cynics are pretty much compel[ed to agree Jesus lived and He died. But when it comes to the resurrection, oh, the shenanigans those little doubters and deniers have to put to explain away the resurrection. Some nonbelievers prefer the idea that Jesus went into a coma. Blood loss from the whipping and the crucifixion brought Him real close to death.
Those who believe this think Jesus was alive but unresponsive when He was taken down off the cross. They also think that when He was put into a cool tomb, He revived. Could it happen? No, it couldn’t. The Roman death squad would have forfeited their own lives if Jesus had lived. That’s why they stabbed Him in the heart with a spear.There are other explanations which try to erase or explain the resurrection. There’s the “figment-of-the-disciples-imaginations” theory. That silly excuse says these disciples so much wanted to see Jesus, that they did … in sort of a mega-mass hallucination. Could it happen? No, it couldn’t. Hallucinations don’t eat fish like Jesus did; you can’t feel an illusion’s breath; you don’t touch illusions. Jesus was really alive and that’s the truth. There are still other explanations to the resurrection. There is the doppelganger theory. You know … a doppelganger is your carbon copy. Everybody is supposed to have one. Well, this theory says that while Jesus #1 was decomposing in His tomb, His doppelganger went around pretending to have risen. Could it happen? No, it couldn’t. To end Christianity and expose the charlatan, all the Jewish leaders would have to do was go to the tomb and show everybody Jesus’ corpse.
There are some who say: Jesus only rose in the minds and hearts of the disciples. That’s one even some Christian churches like. You’ve seen that kind of scene played out in the movies. Some adult usually says to a little child, “Your friend isn’t dead. As long as you remember him in your heart and think about him in your head, he’s still very much alive.” Could that be an explanation for the resurrection? No, it can’t. Once again, if Jesus only rose in spirit and His body were still in the tomb, the people who opposed Christianity would have put that body on display and ended the whole thing. They didn’t do that because they couldn’t do that. Jesus had risen and all who believe on Him as Savior are saved.
The explanations go on and on and on and on. Some say the disciples forgot where they put Jesus’ body and went to the wrong grave. Some say the disciples remembered where they put the body and managed to make it past the Roman guards and steal it away. Some say …oh, they say a lot of things, but the bottom line is this: “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” That which is said about Jesus’ cross can also be said about His empty tomb. To the world a risen Jesus is foolishness and folly, but for those of us who have seen the risen Savior, who, like Thomas have said, “My Lord and my God”, a living Lord Jesus is salvation and eternal life.
And that’s where some of you have a problem, isn’t it? You want truth, but you don’t know what to do with it when it’s put right there in front of you. That is, my friends, because even as the world searches for truth, longs for truth, it has been taught there is no such thing as truth. That’s why individuals think they ought to search for the truth, but they should never believe they’ve found it. That same attitude has permeated our colleges. At our great universities students are taught the only thing they can believe for sure is that they can’t believe anything for sure. Our children in the lower grades are taught that technique is more important than truth; and the only judgment they should ever make is to make no judgment at all. It seems and sounds so wonderful. You believe what you want and I’ll believe what I want, and we’ll all find our truth and we’ll all be happy.
The only problem is this: God has put into your heart a desire to feel secure and sure, but you can’t. When somebody like me says, “Christ is risen”, you want to believe, you long to believe, but you can’t believe. Every bone in your body screams out that you shouldn’t believe, you can’t believe, it’s too risky to believe, it’s too narrow-minded to believe such a thing. If that’s what you’re thinking, let me reply: Yup, believing Jesus has risen to save you is all of those things. And it’s one other thing: it is true.
In this message you have heard how the disciples were afraid, how they didn’t believe. They were like you. They doubted for you. But eventually they saw the Savior and they couldn’t deny any longer. When somebody asked, “What shall we do to be saved?” the disciples didn’t reply, “Well, you know, it’s this way, each of us has to find our own path. My truth isn’t your truth.” To that question they said, “Believe on the crucified, the living Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. “The resurrection is God’s proof that the price of our guilt has been paid. Believe it for it is true. Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed. If you wish to join us in that resurrection proclamation, please call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers)
April 11 , 2010
Topic: After-Death ExperiencesAnnouncer: Now, Pastor Ken Klaus responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer and today we’re talking about after-death experiences.
Klaus: And we’ll try to offer some explanations.
Announcer: A listener writes: “I recently met a person who had been on the operating
table and his heart stopped. He then found himself floating above the table able to hear and see everything that was happening in the room. Then he saw a bright light and felt
himself being pulled toward it. As he got closer, he could see family members and someone he identified as Jesus. They were all smiling and welcoming him.”Klaus: Since we don’t know how Jesus looked, how does this fellow know it was Jesus
that he saw?Announcer: Well, I guess he saw someone who looked the way we imagine Jesus should look. Somehow he knew it was Jesus.
Klaus: OK. What’s the rest of the letter say?
Announcer: According to this man, what happened next is that someone already in heaven–his father or his mother–somebody said it wasn’t yet his time, he needed to go back. He didn’t want to go back, but he did and he woke up in the hospital. And, later, his doctor told him they thought they’d lost him. In fact, the doctor said the man had actually died there on the operating table, and they had to revive him.
Klaus: All very interesting, Mark–but I haven’t heard a question yet!
Announcer: Well, the letter continues. It says, “1 also know someone who said they were temporarily dead and the vision they saw was very scary. Sort of like what we think of as hell. They weren’t Christian, but after that experience they took an interest in Christianity.”
Klaus: Yeah, still no question.
Announcer: Still no question. This writer has also done research on people from other religions who have had similar experiences and they claim to have seen things that reflected their religious beliefs.
Klaus: And now the question?
Announcer: Now the question. “Pastor Klaus, can you tell me what these after-death experiences are all about? Are they for real? Do people really see these things and does the Bible say anything about it?”
Klaus: Ah! Now that is a question. And, as far as I know our listener is right. The Bible doesn’t talk much about these after-death experiences. I would love to read an interview with the young man from Nain, or Jairus’ daughter, or Lazarus.
Announcer: All people who had died but were raised again by Jesus. And, in the case of Lazarus, he had already been dead for several days before he was raised.
Klaus: Yeah. Amazingly, nobody interviews these folks; nobody asks them, ‘Tell me, what did you see; who did you see; what was it like?” We don’t know if they remembered, or if they forgot. I do know Lazarus was alive enough that it motivated the religious authorities to get rid of Jesus as quickly as they could. Still, there is no record of what Lazarus saw or experienced prior to him being raised again.
Announcer: So we really can’t say anything, for sure?
Klaus: Not exactly, Mark. We can suggest some explanations. Maybe there’s a physiological explanation. These visions and experiences may be the result of the person’s mind. They’re under stress, they’re fighting for life … maybe the brain produces some sort of chemical to cause these experiences, like in a dream.
Announcer: So that would mean God isn’t necessarily involved.
Klaus: Well, in such an instance, that would be true. It could also be that it’s the devil, engaging in some sort of spiritual deception. He disguises himself as an angel of light. This may be his last-ditch attempt to mislead somebody … so, in such a circumstance, he would pullout all the stops and try to make people draw some false conclusions.
Announcer: Could that happen?
Klaus: Yeah, it could. Satan is the father of lies and he works on us when we are at our weakest. I would say, if a person comes away from this experience with the idea that everybody goes to heaven, regardless of what they believed in during life–that really has to be a satanic thought.
Announcer: And obviously that wouldn’t be from God.
Klaus: And, it wouldn’t be from God. And, of course, the last option is that the Triune God is giving people a vision.
Announcer: Well, how would you know if that’s the case?
Klaus: As always, test the spirits. Does the vision agree with the rest of Scripture or does it contradict it? If it contradicts what we learn from God’s Word, then it isn’t coming from God.
Announcer: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.