Proof of Belief

Romans 6

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

This might be a decision day for somebody here so I would ask you just briefly to consider where you
stand this morning. Do you believe that there is a God? Now, kind of settle that, you know in your
mind. Then do you believe that the Bible is reliable history? Those are primarily intellectual
questions so you should be able to say to yourself where you stand in regard to those two. Now, the
third one is the crucial one, do you believe in the light of that historical evidence that Jesus is
the son of your maker? Do you believe that?

Now, if you do believe that, you’ll see very plainly that he must be still alive because he
obviously passed through death and came back to life so what you can do once, you can do a billion
times. Now, that means he is alive now. Now you know that if I said to you, “I am the son of the
maker of the universe” you know what you would all do. I know what I would do. You would all come to
me and you’d say, “Tell me, why am I here? Tell me about your father, what does he think of me? What
are his plans for me? What can I do to fulfill them?” You know that. We’d all just be up here in
crowds to get him to tell us what we should do.

Now, that’s the obvious logical step if you believe Jesus is the Son of God. It’s interesting,
that’s what he said. He said, “he who believes in me, will also do the works that I do.” He said
if you believe in me, if you believe I am the Son of God, then you will automatically say to
yourself that I must be living a life that is pleasing to my Father and you will want to live the
same kind of life. Actually that’s the key to confronting Jesus on your own personally.

It is, because there’s a massive step between an intellectual concept and a living personal
confrontation with a person and you know you can’t have it with Napoleon. We can believe that
Napoleon lived, we can believe that Julius Caesar lived, we can believe that Hitler lived and
Churchill lived but we know there’s no way in which we can meet them. Because in fact, they’re
subject to death, but you can meet this man who is the Son of God. The way to do it loved ones, the
way to move from just an intellectual concept about him being God’s Son into an actual living
confrontation with him is the way he said.

He said, “He who believes in me, will also do the works that I do” and that’s it. If you start doing
that, Jesus will give you a power to see him because he is not material substance and you’ll need a
special power to be able to see him. He gives you that power of faith if you really show him that
you believe he is God’s Son. The way you show him is by doing the works that he does. “He who
believes in me will also do the works that I do.”

So that’s the secret. That’s the secret this morning. If you really do believe there’s a God and you
do believe this Bible is reliable history intellectually, and you believe from examining Jesus’ life
that he is the Son of God then it is possible for you to begin to actually contact him, that’s it.
It’s possible for you to actually begin to contact him and for him to communicate to you what he and
his father had in mind for you. It’s possible if you will show that you believe in him by doing also
the works that he does — that’s it.

I’d speak especially to those of you who think at all academically. This is the difficulty I got

myself into where I could not get from an intellectual concept about Jesus to an actual personal
confrontation with Him. I didn’t realize that the way through that is to behave as you normally
would, before the Son of God, you’d want to be like him. You’d want to make your life like his. The
moment you do that, he begins to give you faith. Faith is a power and an ability to see him alive
and to know him, that’s it. So that’s the key. I’d point you to the last bit of what I tried to
write there on that page 5 if you’d like to look at it.

It’s page 5, that piece on Communion. If you look just half way down it, I’ll just read it slowly.
If you’d be kind enough to just look at it as I read it, half way down the page there. “This is how
you, this morning can make that seemingly impossible leap from an intellectual concept that Jesus is
God’s Son to an actual experiential relationship with him. Today in communion, show him that you
believe he is real by lining up your life with his. Stop doing what he says is wrong. Start doing
what he says is right. And study his life so that you can become like him. This is the part of
faith that you can exercise yourself, you can believe your own logic and you can do what Jesus says
you should do. Then he will give you the supernatural ability to know him and communicate with him
and he himself will communicate with you.”

This is what Jesus says, “If you lie, this morning, stop lying, if you swear, stop swearing, if you
criticize others, stop it. If you don’t tithe, start tithing, if you don’t put yourself out for
anybody, start going out of your way for others’ sake. If you don’t read the Bible every day, start
reading it each morning. If you indulge in unclean daydreaming and imaginations, stop it. Start
substituting memories of things that Jesus did in Galilee. If you boast and show off and try to be
the center of attention, stop it and start trying to build others up. Start living like Jesus and he
will begin to show you what his Father’s plans are for you. That’s it — that’s what communion is
about.

So will you deal with God, each in your own way? And I am going to deal with Him in my way and
let’s each one see that the key to passing from this intellectual stuff into an actual personal
confrontation with Jesus is to put your ‘will’ where your head is. You know, we say put your money
where your mouth is. Well, put your ‘will’ where your head is.

You say you believe he is the Son of God? Okay, show him by beginning to do the things that he says
you should do. That’s a miracle. I mean I changed my life when I got clear of that endless circle of
mental mediation and thinking and it was a miracle. Suddenly something began to come from the other
side of space — it’s just a miracle. You know it’s because I began to take him seriously and began
to change my life to meet what he said was right.

So loved ones that’s what communion is about. So don’t stay away from the bread and the wine because
you’re not a church member, that’s not important. The important thing is that you would take it
seriously. That as you take this bread and wine, you yourself in your own life would resolve to stop
doing the things that he through your conscience has told you, you are wrong. Stop doing it and
start lining your life up with him and as you are real with him, he’ll be real with you. That’s it,
you take him seriously, he’ll take you seriously and he’ll come from the other side and show himself
to you.

So loved ones, will you think about that now as we begin? If you don’t want to do that then don’t
take the bread and wine, you know because that’s tragic. The Bible says, “If you eat and drink
without discerning the body, you eat and drink damnation onto your own soul.” So don’t, just pass
it along. But if you are ready to be serious with Jesus then do take it with joy and as you take

the bread and wine into your body, his Spirit will begin to put himself inside you and you’ll begin
to sense a real relationship with him. Really he’ll rise inside you, that’s a miracle.

Let’s stand as we receive the invitation.

You that do truly and earnestly repent of your sins and are in love and charity with your neighbors
and intend to lead a new life following the commandments of God and walking from henceforth in His
Holy ways, draw near with faith and take this holy sacrament to your comfort and make your humble
confession unto Almighty God.

Let’s be seated as we pray.

Lord Jesus, for some of us it’s the first time to speak to you as if you were really alive and so
we’ll say it again Lord Jesus, we do believe that you’re not just a human being but that you are
God’s Son. Therefore that you are alive and even though you haven’t material substance this time as
you had in Galilee, we believe that you’re here in this place and that you can see us. Lord Jesus we
desperately want to know you personally and to have some kind of relationship with you and with your
Father, our maker. We need to start finding out what we’re here for and why our lives were created.

So Lord Jesus you’ve said that if we believe in you, we’ll do also the works that you do. So, we
look at your life and we see it’s very different from ours. We’ve been taught for years that we
can’t possibly be like you but we don’t know Lord whether we can or not, but we realize that you
said to us that we should be, that if we do love you, we’ll keep your words.

So, Lord this morning, we would be honest with you about our sins. We confess them to you now, we’d
admit that they are wrong. We would tell you that we intend to be different after we walk out of
this room this morning. We intend to live like you. Lord, we believe that if we put our will all on
your side, you will miraculously do what you promised. You will give us power to live like you and
you will give us the ability of faith to know you. So Lord that’s what we’re going to do this day.

As we pray and meditate before you now, we ask you to bring to our remembrance all the things that
you want us to begin to change and we will put our will where our intellect is. Amen.