4/16/23 John 20:19-31 “My Lord and My God!”

14 Apr 4/16/23 John 20:19-31 “My Lord and My God!”

4/16/23     John 20:19-31      “My Lord and My God!”

I would like to begin today with a question.  Does anyone here like scary movies?  There are a few of you and that is ok.  Personally, I don’t like any kind of scary movie.  If I’m going to invest a couple of hours of my time, it won’t be on a scary movie which I won’t like before it even starts.  I don’t like to be scared.  I try to avoid being scared at all costs if it is possible.  The great humorist, Dave Barry, once said, “All of us are born with a set of instinctive fears- fear of falling, fear of the dark, fear of lobsters, fear of falling on lobsters in the dark, or fear of speaking before a Rotary Club and of course, fear of the words ‘some assembly required.’  We all have fears.  This is the way we were built.  Healthy rational fears help us to stay safe.  We try not to venture into dangerous situations.  In today’s reading we have fear.  Let’s see if we can find a way to curb our fears or at least make them manageable.

I’m going to tell you a little story that I don’t tell very often because it happened when I was at UND and this is definite NDSU country.  One has to be careful!  I lived in Smith Hall and I had two roommates.  One of the roommates and I had gone to our homes for the weekend leaving the other roommate on his own.  Anyway, I came back about 8 PM on Sunday evening.  I opened the door to the room and there were no lights on except one very small desk lamp.  Immediately, someone yelled out, “Don’t turn on the lights!”  Inside this dark room was my roommate who had stayed for the weekend and two of his friends, all huddled in the darkness.  It seems that they had gotten into some sort of fight over the weekend and they weren’t too proud of it or of the black eyes and assorted other injuries that they had.  Shortly after this my other roommate came back and we got the lights on and these guys scattered.  Maybe there is a lesson here on the darkness and the light.  But I will never forget that scene.  These grown men were all huddled in near darkness because they were fearful and ashamed.

The reason that I bring this up is that I think that a very similar situation existed in our reading today.  On that evening of the first day of the week, we read, the disciples were gathered in a room and they had locked the door.  This would have been on that first Sunday night if I read this right.  This scene is very similar to the one I came upon at UND over 50 years ago but there were some real differences.  The disciples were truly afraid for their lives.  For the most part, you didn’t mess around with the Romans and live.  So they are afraid for their lives.

They are also in deep mourning.  Their leader, their best friend had been taken from them in a very violent manner.  One of their own had betrayed not only Jesus but all of them.  Our narrative doesn’t tell us much here but I would guess that they would be shedding tears of mourning one minute and having total anger at Judas and the Romans the next.  This anger would be just as natural as their sadness.  These people were riding the whole spectrum of grief.  It would be no different than some of the deaths that we have experienced.  The disciples were people who were in grief.

Then we have Jesus entering this room through a locked door somehow.  Jesus had appeared or disappeared suddenly like this several times in His ministry.  Remember when they were going to stone Him and He just sort of disappeared.  There was the time on the Sea of Galilee where the storm stopped and suddenly they were on the other side of the sea.  This is the same thing.  Suddenly He appeared to them even though there was physically no way for Him to get inside.  No matter what happened here, it was a miracle.  There is no other way to put it.  But then again we are dealing with Jesus and anything is possible.

I want to move on to what Jesus tells them.  He says, “Peace be with you!”  He says this 3 times in our passage today.  Therefore, this is important.  First of all, just think about this for a minute.  Jesus wasn’t just betrayed by Judas but all of them had betrayed Him.  Along this same line, all of us have betrayed Jesus.  We betray Him every time we sin.  Keep that in mind the next time you go off the path.  Anyway, the disciples had left Him.  They had scattered.  They hadn’t believed what He had told them or maybe they didn’t understand.  They were now in hiding and scared.

Now we all know and love Jesus.  We know how He operates in certain situations.  He doesn’t respond in the ways of the world.  Jesus came into their midst and said, “Peace be with you!”  He said this to the bunch that had fallen asleep when He prayed.  They had betrayed and denied Him.  They disappeared at the first sign of trouble.  One would almost think that Jesus would come in saying, “Why did you do all these things?” or “What in the world were you thinking?”  The world would think that Jesus would be upset at the disciples.  He had plenty of cause for disappointment and even anger.

But this isn’t the way of Jesus. He knows how badly they feel.  He knows they are scared.  He comes to them bringing peace.  Often times we get so caught up with the miracle of Him just being there that we fail to see that He is bringing peace to this beleaguered group.

This is something that we need to remember all the time.  Jesus Christ wants to bring peace into your life.  We try to do this every week.  Generally, when I’m doing a service in person, I will say ‘Pass the peace’ at the beginning of the service.  We want to extend the peace of Jesus to all who are here.  We don’t know what kind of week they have been having.  Many times this is the only positive feelings people get all week.  Remember that as we tell all we meet, “Peace be with you!”

This is why I always tell you that you will have a better life with Jesus.  Sometimes you may think that I get a little on the feel good side of preaching.  If you think about it, I will usually give you something to think about that isn’t so good.  However, our concentration needs to be on this peace that Jesus brings.  We should focus on all the good that comes from knowing Jesus as our personal Savior.  I try to focus on this as much as possible without watering down the reasons that we need a Savior.

The next thing that Jesus is telling them is that they will be like Jesus in that they are being sent into the world to spread the message.  And what a job they did!  Christianity spread like a wild fire on a windy day on our North Dakota prairie.  It went everywhere.  And the really neat thing about this is that it spread by word of mouth and the actions of the disciples.  They preached the Gospel of Jesus; they talked about Jesus and they healed and helped people in the name of Jesus.

Far too often we get caught up in the medium that we use to tell the message.  We feel we need to have computer driven messages.  We feel we need to have the most modern music.  Far too often we feel that we have to put on a show for the people.  We forget that none of this is important.  It is Jesus who we are supposed to worship and not the many ways that we present the message.  I have been at far too many churches where there is no message but they sure have fine music.  We have far too many preachers telling us what we want to hear instead of what we need to hear.  Our mission is not to come here every Sunday so that we can enjoy the worship.  Our mission is to come and worship and get rejuvenated here on Sunday so that we can take this Gospel and tell everyone we see about Jesus.  My mission is to try to get you to next Sunday.  That’s all I can do.

Then we see that Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit upon them.  Many people feel that this was the birth of the church.  People who feel this way also think that Pentecost was the baptism of the church.  There are conflicting views here but John does tell us that the Holy Spirit was breathed upon the disciples at this point.  I will leave you to further study.  I will expect a report next week.

Anyway, Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit upon those gathered so that they could forgive sins.  It was radical enough for these people when Jesus forgave sins and now He is giving authority to the disciples.  This has to have the priests and temple officials fuming and pulling out their hair.  They just get rid of one trouble maker and there are dozens to take His place.  Remember that Jesus will not be stopped.  Whatever His plan, it will happen.  So my advice to you is to go along with Jesus and help.  This is all He has ever wanted from you.

I think we have some theological problems with this in modern times.  In other places in the Gospels it tells us that only Jesus can forgive sins.  This is true.  However, He has also given this power to His believers.  In the name of Jesus Christ I can forgive sins.  Many of you also have this power.  Remember that we have to do this in the name of Jesus Christ.

One of the things we forget sometimes is the power that Jesus has given us.  We have this power to forgive sins, we have the power to command Satan and there are many other powers that we have if we do them in the name of Jesus.  You see, everything that Jesus has, He wants to share with you.  You can have this power but there is one big thing that stands in your way, maybe two.

We have these things called sin and doubt.  Today we will talk about doubt.  It is now week later and Jesus meets with the disciples again.  Thomas had missed the last meeting for whatever reason.  He tells the others who were at the first meeting that He would not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead unless he was able to put his fingers in the scars where they drove in the nails.  In other words, Thomas isn’t going to believe this unless he sees it.

This is where we fall down also.  We don’t believe things unless we see them.  I don’t know how many stories I have read or people have told me where they have been in a hospital situation and a special doctor or nurse comes in and they are suddenly on the mend.  These special people have a glow about them or a special aura.  The patients start to get better right away.  These patients find out later or the next day that there has never been a doctor or nurse with that description who has ever worked in that facility.  God has been working.  The people who are healed believe in Jesus and they believe in angels especially after the healing.  Unfortunately, many people can’t believe this because it isn’t scientific or logical.

We have a problem with unbelief.  I just read an article about a famous evangelist who ran across a congregation who told him they couldn’t believe in parts of the Bible.  Now we have whole denominations that believe like this.  Anyway, this congregation was having trouble with all the miracles.  So the preacher took his well-worn Bible and tore out the pages of miracles and threw them in front of the pulpit.  He asked about the creation story and Genesis.  They had problems there too so he tore that out and threw it.  It wasn’t long before he had torn out all the pages except for the Sermon on the Mount.  Then he said, “What good is the Sermon on the Mount if you don’t believe in the rest of the story?”

You see we don’t have the luxury of being able to see Jesus in person like Thomas did.  However, you do have all the miracles that surround you every day if you just open your eyes.  We do have many expert eyewitnesses who have been mysteriously healed.  There is evidence everywhere you look.  It is not your option to pick and choose what you are going to believe in the Bible.  You can’t say you don’t believe that Jesus walked on water but you still believe in Jesus.  You can’t say that you think certain behaviors or activities are good that God deems bad just because our society tells us so and still believe in Jesus.  This is not your choice. Your choice is to believe in Jesus or not.  That’s it!

Thomas had the privilege and honor of seeing Jesus and putting his fingers on the scars.  You have the honor and privilege of seeing all the wonders of this world that Jesus has created just for you.  You have proof all around you if you could just open your eyes to see it.  Jesus worked for 3 years in His ministry and did many teachings and miracles every day.  John tells us that He did so many that all the books in the world couldn’t contain them.

Next time you see a miracle from God, tell someone about it.  There are some of you who do a great job of this.  This is what our God moments are all about.  I will grant you that sometimes God does things that you think are rather private.  But most of the time these are things you can shout about from the mountain tops.  When we have services when no one has any God moments, I know that either you don’t want to tell or you need to do some more work on noticing what a great God we have!

Thomas made one of the greatest statements in the Bible after he had seen Jesus.  He said, “My Lord and my God!”  Thomas acknowledged beyond all doubt that Jesus was God!  As you go about our week, I would like you to notice God.  Notice Him in the little things and in the big things.  Notice Him everywhere you go.  Then I would like you to say to yourself or out loud, “My Lord and my God!”  Then tell us about it.

You see, God only wants the very best for us, for you.  This always begins with acknowledging Him in everything.  The bottom line here is that Jesus loves you.  He loves all of us but He loves you in particular.  This love translates into joy for all who know Him.  Share this joy with your friends and family and praise the Lord!  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.