Telling Your Story (2 of 4)
Series: Contagious Christianity
Jeff Strite
I John 1:1-9
OPEN: They tell me that being a "preacher's kid" can be difficult for a young child. I read once of a preacher's little boy who was told by his mother that he should wash his hands because there were germs living in all the dirt he'd been playing in.
He looked up at his mother and got this really disgusted look on his face. "Germs? Germs?" He said. "Germs and Jesus! Germs and Jesus! That's all I ever hear around this house! And I've never seen either one!"
APPLY: At that young age, that little boy wasn't sure he was comfortable believing in something that he hadn't seen.
A lot of people are like that.
Remember how Thomas reacted to the news that Jesus had risen from the dead? John 20:25 tells us: '"…he said to (the other disciples), '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.'"
Thomas had difficulty believing in something he had not seen and touched.
I. But now - here his first letter - we find the Apostle John saying:
"YES… I have seen,
I have heard
I have touched this Jesus
AND that's what I've been preaching about."
And John is saying that he believes so strongly in this Jesus (this Jesus that he'd seen and touched and heard) that he wrote that he was proclaiming "to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us…." (1 John 1:3)
Now, you'd think that it would be easier for us if we, like the Apostle John here, could claim to have seen and touched and heard Jesus. You'd think that it would be easier for us to convince people about Jesus if we our selves had actually seen and touched and heard Jesus.
But the Gospels repeatedly point out that even when people PERSONALLY SAW the miraculous power of Jesus, they still rejected Him. Even when they heard from the lips of those who had personally seen Jesus they still would not bel ...
Series: Contagious Christianity
Jeff Strite
I John 1:1-9
OPEN: They tell me that being a "preacher's kid" can be difficult for a young child. I read once of a preacher's little boy who was told by his mother that he should wash his hands because there were germs living in all the dirt he'd been playing in.
He looked up at his mother and got this really disgusted look on his face. "Germs? Germs?" He said. "Germs and Jesus! Germs and Jesus! That's all I ever hear around this house! And I've never seen either one!"
APPLY: At that young age, that little boy wasn't sure he was comfortable believing in something that he hadn't seen.
A lot of people are like that.
Remember how Thomas reacted to the news that Jesus had risen from the dead? John 20:25 tells us: '"…he said to (the other disciples), '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.'"
Thomas had difficulty believing in something he had not seen and touched.
I. But now - here his first letter - we find the Apostle John saying:
"YES… I have seen,
I have heard
I have touched this Jesus
AND that's what I've been preaching about."
And John is saying that he believes so strongly in this Jesus (this Jesus that he'd seen and touched and heard) that he wrote that he was proclaiming "to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us…." (1 John 1:3)
Now, you'd think that it would be easier for us if we, like the Apostle John here, could claim to have seen and touched and heard Jesus. You'd think that it would be easier for us to convince people about Jesus if we our selves had actually seen and touched and heard Jesus.
But the Gospels repeatedly point out that even when people PERSONALLY SAW the miraculous power of Jesus, they still rejected Him. Even when they heard from the lips of those who had personally seen Jesus they still would not bel ...
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