Text: John 20:1-10

Faith is believing the Word of God and acting upon it.

The writers at Got Questions remind us, "...it may be helpful to come up with a working definition of faith. Faith, contrary to popular opinion, is not 'belief without proof.' Faith is a complete trust or confidence in someone or something. That trust or confidence we have in someone is built up over time as he proves himself faithful time and time again."

Jesus proved Himself faithful when He rose from the dead. It is impossible to return from the dead without miraculous intervention.
In our text:

• Mary discovers an empty tomb.
• If someone had added the resurrection testimony to the Scriptures after the fact, they surely wouldn't have had a woman, especially Mary Magdalene, serving as the first witness. Except in rare circumstances, Jewish law did not allow women to give testimony in a court of law. People don't concoct a story to deceive others and include information that would discredit it.
• The Jewish leadership did not deny that the tomb was empty. They spread the false information that Jesus' followers stole the body (Matthew 28:13).
• If the disciples had stolen the body, they would not have responded to Mary's testimony in the manner they did (running to the tomb).

These are just four examples from our text that strengthen our faith in Jesus. We will see many more over the next weeks.

The empty tomb begs the question:
If we believe Jesus rose from the dead, shouldn't we be able to trust Him with the details of our life?

Why don't we trust Him?

Many times, we just get distracted. The world, the flesh, and the devil constantly bombard us with temptations from our natural world. These things are very appealing. They feel good. They temporarily give us pleasure. We find significance in them.

A gospel-centered, supernatural mindset is essential if we are going to see through Satan's seductive traps. A trap is effective because it doesn't look like a trap. And sin often doesn't look all that sinful.

Romans 14:23 tells us, "Whatever is not from faith is sin." This is a failure to trust God in all areas of life.

Trust in Christ is found as we must remind ourselves often of the gospel and how it has changed us (preach the gospel to ourselves)!  "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). You've been given supernatural, Holy Spirit purpose, power, and spiritual gifting! Will you make your purpose a priority over the meaningless activities of this natural world?