DO YOU BELIEVE?

Have you ever been on vacation and seen one of those Ripley’s Believe It or Not places? There are all kinds of oddities and weird things in them. I’ve never personally been in one, but I have the internet to tell me about them!

They were created by a man named Robert Ripley who started with a cartoon entitled “Believe It or Not” in 1918. This led him to start what He called “Odditoriums” where he would display exhibits as “proof” of his tales he told in the cartoons.

Now, the very name, “Believe It or Not,” tells us that these exhibits are of an extraordinary nature and are hard to believe. What type of things are we talking about here?

Well here are a few of the exhibits

-A Mummified Corpse that Attends Meetings

-A Man Who Finds a Message in a Bottle and Inherits Millions

-A Boy Raised By Monkeys

All of these stories are either true or have parts that are true, and you have to decide whether to believe them or not.

The sad thing is that there are people who would rather believe a Ripley’s exhibit to be true than to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. A Ripley’s exhibit won’t do much for your soul, but the resurrection of Jesus will change your eternity!

This morning I want to ask you the question, “Do You Believe?” It’s a simple question with a profound consequence for your life. We are going to look at the resurrected Christ this morning and see some of His Disciples and their own struggles to believe, but ultimately I hope you walk away with a greater faith than you had before.

This is not fake news, this is the real deal! Let’s take a look at our text this morning in John 20.