Sermon Tone Analysis
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John 20:24-
Introduction
In the Name of the Risen Jesus, Amen.
Recently, I went into a local pizzaria to pick up an order.
I had my clerical shirt on.
“You a priest?” he uttered.
“I’m a Lutheran Pastor”.
“Oh, I don’t believe in that shit.”
“Do you go to church”, I asked.
“We’re catholic, but we don’t go to church.
Life is too short.”
“Science has proven religion to be wrong.
Religion is nothing but a fairy tale.”
“OK, so you haven’t been to church in years, and yet you make a judgment about Christianity?
How do you know that you’re right”?
No answer.
“Tell you what.
This is Lent, a season of the Church year when there are a lot of opportunities to worship.
Why don’t you at least go to your church and see what Christianity is really about?” “I’ll pass”.
It seems that this ancient argument between science and religion, first brought up in the 8th Century B.C. has made a strong comeback among those who are those born since 2000, known as the “Millennials”.
The “religion” of science is being furiously taught in our schools today with the underlying satanic conclusion that science is the only thing that can be believed, since it bases everything on proof.
And if it’s provable it must certainly must be true.
The logical outcome of this syllogism is that anything else, therefore, particularly religion, cannot and must not be true.
Ergo, “fairy tale”.
Take note of this, because it is one of the strong reasons that the Church does not seem to be reaching the youth of today with the Gospel of Jesus Christ It is a new wall, a new impediment that must be breeched.
Praise the Lord that it is the Holy Spirit that does this through our sharing of God’s creative word.
All is not lost, though the current climate can be very frustrating.
Such was the case with a young man with whom I had a brief contact not too long ago.
I went into the pizzaria to pick up an order.
I had may clerical shirt on.
“You a priest?” he uttered.
“I’m a Lutheran Pastor”.
“Oh, I don’t believe in that shit.”
“Do you go to church”, I asked.
“We’re catholic, but we don’t go to church.
Life is too short.”
“Science has proven religion to be wrong.
Religion is nothing but a fairy tale.”
“OK, so you haven’t been to church in years, and yet you make a judgment about Christianity?
How do you know that you’re right”?
No answer.
“Tell you what.
This is Lent, a season of the Church year when there are a lot of opportunities to worship.
Why don’t you at least go to your church and see what Christianity is really about?” “I’ll pass”.
True science and true religion are extremely complementary.
They are not at odds.
The problem, of course, is that when science becomes philosophy, or religion turns into something it is not, there will never be agreement.
Certainly, one can be a scientist and also be a Christian- some of the greatest scientists that have ever lived embraced the Christian faith, some were even apologists for it!
Enter Thomas
The disciple, who was a Twin, got it wrong.
He would have fit in nicely with the zeitgeist of modern education.
The scientific premise is this: Dead people do not come back to life.
The disciples said that in his absence they had seen the Lord.
The sentence is in conflict.
Since it is provable that dead people do not come back to life— something that our own eyes and experience tells us— then the disciples must have been wrong.
“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
The world has called him “doubting Thomas” ever since.
Scripture is pretty clear that ALL the disciples doubted when they heard the news from the women.
Otherwise, why were the disciples locked in a room for fear?
By the way, the Scripture is pretty clear that ALL the disciples doubted when they heard the news from the women.
Otherwise, why were the disciples locked in a room for fear?
Before they could demand proof, Jesus appears, grants them His peace, and shows them His hands and side.
They were overjoyed.
And… like we don’t doubt??....
We know about the resurrection by the witness of the Holy Spirit to our hearts in Scripture.
We know what that means.
We know that death has been trampled out by death.
We know that even if we die, yet shall we live because it was this very Resurrection of Jesus into which each of us has been baptized.
And yet, life’s problems seem too big for us.
We put our eyes on our own suffering and not on the empty tomb.
We are crushed when a loved one dies and though our heads give assent to the resurrection, our hearts do not believe a word of it.
We demand Jesus to prove to us that He is risen.
Easter has become just another day, and maybe it is better to believe in bunnies and color and then hide eggs.
Paul addresses this:
1 Corinthians 15:12-
Our text continues:
John 20:26-
Thomas had to have proof.
And even though Jesus could have chided him, He shows up.
In that same locked room.
And once again He announces His peace— that true peace which can only come when our sins are taken away by Him.
He immediately offers Himself to Thomas so that he might believe.
Too.
Good.
To.
Be.
True.
It is Jesus!
My Lord and My God! Alive from the dead.
Now what does the scientific mind do with this?
Some people hold that miracles— especially this greatest miracle of rising from the dead— are when the “laws of nature” are set aside and the unexplainable happens.
That is our perspective.
It is not God’s.
The laws of nature, indeed, nature itself, all fall under the curse of sin.
And the curse of sin causes us to see things that are really not true.
They are true for us.
But they are not what God intended.
Aside from Miracles showing the Divinity of Christ— which they do, do that you might believe, miracles show us how God intended the world to be.
A world where man would be perfect, even as we see in Jesus’ perfect, sinless and holy life.
A world where all suffering, pain and death do not exist- which we will experience in heaven through this Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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