Sermon Starters: Paradigm Reset (Acts 3:12-19)

Title: Paradigm Reset
Text: Acts 3:12-19
Date: Third Sunday of Easter, April 15, 2018, Forest UMC

Introduction

• Have you ever undergone a complete 180 degrees in your understanding of something. Maybe you didn't believe in God and then you did. I hope none of you ever find out that your spouse is having an affair. We call these sorts of radical changes in thinking "paradigm shifts."
• The phase comes from Thomas Kuhn, Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
• When a new star just appeared in the sky (Tycho Brahe in 1572).
• The change from the earth as the center to the sun being the center (now we would say there is no center)
• Einstein on spacetime
• Paul's Damascus Road experience
• The resurrection was a major paradigm shift for the disciples--didn't expect him to die, didn't expect him to rise.
• The changes of Pentecost--from cowards to radicals, from revolutionaries to evangelists, from disciples to apostles
• In this passage, the people of Jerusalem had gone from crucifiers to realizing Jesus was the king.
• Last week, Thomas came to faith. This week, faith changes our paradigms.

Body
1. Faith changes our understanding of the past.

• The people of Jerusalem
• The story of the past changes. History is retold.
• Soviet joke--The future is known. It's the past that keeps changing.
• Your valuation of things changes--the apostle Paul
• Now you begin to see God in your past. I don't believe that God decides everything.
• But now you see where God may have protected you. Doors that opened and closed can take on purpose.
• Things that seemed meaningless now begin to take on a purpose.
• You begin to get a bigger picture of the past. Where the glass was empty, it now becomes full.
• Joseph--you meant it for evil, God meant it for good.

2. Faith changes the possibilities of the future.

• Look at the disciples, now bold, performing miracles, speaking in tongues
• The impossible becomes possible ("I can do all things...")
• Back to the Future, as people begin to disappear from the picture, X-Men: Days of our Future Past. Or some other illustration
• You get a long view of the story.
• The problem of suffering and evil is now placed in a much larger context because you trust that God is love. 
• The worst possible outcome is no longer the worst possible outcome.
• How God can change the outcome of a life! What would Billy Graham have done in his life if he had not served God? How many destined for a life of abuse became loving parents and beloved people in the community?

3. Faith changes our sense of the present.

• People now matter to us.
• We are confronted with a decision to make. Will we move forward with the truth and God or will we continue on our previous pathway?
• The Lone Ranger when the Captain realizes he has been supporting a crook. Or some other illustration
• Hebrews 3-4--Every day that is called "today," we have a choice to make. The metaphor of Israel moving toward Canaan.

Conclusion

• Joshua 24 - Choose you this day whom you will serve.