4.3- Why do I belive in Jesus?

4.3-



One of reasons I believe in Jesus is the unusual ethical life of those who have been my teachers.
They had learned the good news that Jesus Christ was the son of God from His empty tomb.
They regularly gathered for worship with people whose lives were very much aligned with their values and some not so much.  What were those values?  They were Jesus values.

Death is a normal part of life, but it is not the end of life.
Evidence of this “seen world” speaks of a designer of this world who is generally, “unseen”.

The good leaders of Jesus’ people have had a great deal of experience with walking with God.
Weeping is a time to bring the people of God close together with each other.
Good leaders are good at asking good questions.
Good leaders know the names of people.

Leadership is expected for all people. They don’t give special titles to men and women.  All are considered ministers and priests.

They don’t cling to the physical body of their beloved.  They know that humans are not physical beings having a spiritual experience, but are spiritual beings having a physical experience.

They have joy for the person who has finished his/her work on earth in a strong way.

Some of the people have had more experiences with walking with God than others.  Some are more expressive of those times than others.  There are people with a doubtful temperament and others with a childlike faith.  All are loved through the times of doubt.

There is a spirit of grace, mercy and peace that saturates the meetings.

All present at the meeting have had times of failure and forgiveness from God and each other.

The believers who have experienced closeness with God have also had times when they felt their distance and doubts.

The unusual ethical lives and the grace, mercy and peace of the people is a result of the spirit of God poured out on the group.

Even in the case of those that were not well aligned with the clear values there was mercy for all the sincere people.  All were allowed to be active regardless of their particular struggle.  All received mercy, grace, peace and mutual acceptance from the congregation.

John 20.

20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. ² So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

³ So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴ Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷ as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. ⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹ (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) ¹⁰ Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.



Larry Wishard
3.29.19