Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31; Psalm 118
April 16, 2023
Lloyd Penner
“Do You Believe in God?”
Recently, a colleague at the University of Winnipeg out of the blue asked me, “Do you believe in God?” I was taken aback at first because this is not a question that professors at a secular university generally ask. I answered, “Yes, I do believe in God” He replied that he did not but was genuinely interested in exploring the subject. We then talked about the evidence both for and against the existence of God. However, I realized later that this kind of discussion usually leads nowhere. Next time we meet to resume our conversation, I am simply going to tell him about my faith journey: why I am a follower of Jesus and how the resurrected Jesus affects my life.
What can we learn from the early Christians about how to share our faith? First, they did not engage in speculative and philosophical discussions about God. No, they just told people about their experiences with Jesus for the past 3 years. They believed in God because they had seen God at work in His Son every day as he met the needs of people and taught them about the Kingdom of God. But most of all they believed in God because they had witnessed the resurrection of Jesus which they were convinced could only have been done by the power of God. They also told people what had happened on the evening of the day Jesus had been resurrected. They had gathered in fear behind locked doors when Jesus suddenly appeared and told them, “Peace be with you.” How reassuring those words must have been! Thomas, who was not there, had trouble believing that it was really Jesus who had appeared to the other disciples. But he was convinced 8 days later when Jesus appeared this time when he was present and repeated the same words, “Peace be with you” and then showed Thomas his wounds.
The early Christians would have agreed with Peter who, in the passage we heard said, “God has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” They also attracted new people to the faith by inviting them to join their new community, a community in which they shared their lives as we heard in the Acts passage. Miracles were also occurring. All of this was happening because of the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit. It was certainly not because of clever arguments that people were joining this new community every day. But the belief that Jesus was alive also enabled them to endure severe persecution. They would never have been willing to die for the faith if they had doubts about the resurrection. And the Christian church would not have survived for 2000 years without that firm conviction. Of course, the exact nature of the resurrection is a mystery but that does not detract from its significance.
We are also people of the resurrection. We were not there when it happened but that does not matter. As Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed”. We can learn much from the experience of the early believers. First of all, we also have a story of our experiences with the risen Christ. We are Christians because we have responded to the call of Jesus to be his disciples. We also owe a great debt to those who have gone before us who kept the faith alive. We are believers today because some people told us about Jesus and challenged us to become his follower. If our faith is to survive it will be because Christians pass on the faith to subsequent generations.
But how are we to do this in our secular world? For many Canadians, Christianity has a bad reputation and often for good reasons. I want to share with you some ideas that I researched about how to share our faith. First, we need to get to know non-Christians as people. All people are created in the image of God. We need to meet people where they are on their life’s journey. Listen to their concerns and establish a relationship with them. Find points of connection with their lives. We must also avoid using a lot of Christian jargon which can turn people off. It is probably best to just tell them about our journey of faith. As I said earlier, this is what I intend to do with my university colleague when we next meet. (This is the same approach I want to use if and when my grand children ask me why I believe in God. We should also welcome questions and admit that we don’t have all the answers. Finally, we can pray for them but ultimately leave it up to the Holy Spirit to work in their lives.
In addition to what we can do as individuals to share our faith, what role does the corporate witness of Grain of Wheat have in preserving and passing on the faith. When Grain of Wheat was founded almost 42 years ago, we were sometimes asked “What is your main purpose in building our church-community?” We usually answered, “We just want to be the church-the church that Jesus has called us to be. A gathering of believers that stand as a witness to the world of the transforming power of the risen Christ and is willing to confront the evil principalities and powers Paul speaks about in the book of Ephesians. One of the best ways to do this was to demonstrate what Christian community was all about-the sharing of our lives. This served as a testimony against individualism and excessive consumerism. We also believed that just being the church would attract people to join us which in fact happened quite often. Right now, many people in our city are facing multiple challenges. As a church, we financially support ministries that are helping needy people.
But is there more that we can do? People are in desperate need of community. With our experience in being a church community are there ways that we could share that experience with people in need? I don’t have the answer to that. The teaching team has invited Paul Loewen from Siloam Mission to share with us about their ministry and needs on Wednesday, June 7th. Maybe this will stimulate a conversation about how we can embody our resurrection faith in practical ways in this city. We all have a story to tell of the grace of God in our lives. We are witnesses to the resurrection. Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed.