When Jesus Met His Disciples After Resurrection

Amen.

Good morning to all of you.

I think I know everybody in this room.

My name's Russ.

If I don't know you, and it's great for you to be here at 8 15, the few and the proud uh we're here.

If I haven't met you, it is so good to have you with us here.

If it's your first time or second time, third time, we're excited that you're here.

Um and our heart's desire is that you would number one experience the presence of Jesus, and number two, that you experience the warmth of community in the in the uh in the community of faith, Jesus' church.

Um in 2001, I was a youth pastor in Cobb County, and I was working on my seminary degree while I was doing youth ministry, and we all know what happened, or most of us in this room know what happened on September 11th, 2001, and it was shortly after that attack, that evil attack on the United States, um, after those bad people um flew those planes um into buildings and towers and and and heroes saved a plane and and and ditched it in Pennsylvania.

Um I was in a church planting class with Dr.

Ed Stetzer.

Now, Dr.

Ed Stetzer probably doesn't mean anything to you, but Dr.

Stetzer has become um literally an authority on culture, on church planting and evangelism.

Um, I mean, since that day, um still speaking um into the life of believers in the church, doing a lot of research.

Um, and so he is now at Wheaton College, and I'll never forget being in that class and experiencing his passion for the gospel, the passion he had for sending people on mission and for what uh and for all of us in the church, all of us, every one of us.

You don't have to have a reverend, you don't have to be ordained for every one of us to understand what it would be like to live our life on mission.

Take responsibility for our place in the mission field.

And as it was after 9-11, and the world was in a turbulent crisis, turmoil, panic, uncertainty, a very hard time for our nation.

Some of us remember what that felt like.

And there's there's some that are too young in this room to know what it feels like.

But let me tell you what it probably you know what it feels like because you've experienced the same thing the last few years.

Different circumstances, different circumstances, but there's turmoil, there's panic, sickness, death, division inside our country, outside our country, crazy things happening.

And so the question we must ask is how do we as followers of Jesus respond in moments of history like this?

How do we respond in cultural, what some writers literally call cultural convulsion?

Some historians would say it's just natural.

It's a natural rhythm that every 60 years or so our nation goes through a cultural convulsion.

You know, the sexual revolution, the first sexual revolution in the 1960s.

You you can you can you can just look through the pattern uh uh uh throughout history, world wars and and and other types of uh situations and circumstances, and it seems to have sped up.

I'll never forget what Dr.

Stetzer shared during that class.

He was passionate about all of us, young ministers, learning to take responsibility ourselves, not to put it on the church first, for us first to take responsibility to get the faith of Jesus out to people.

He was from New York and he shared personally, this was so personal for him because he had family in the fire department of New York City.

He had family in the New York Police Department.

And so his passion was clear as he taught us and he shared this statement.

Here's what his statement is our big idea.

He said, the moment we're in does not pause the mission we're on.

The moment we're in does not pause the mission we're on.

Can you just say it with me?

Let's say it together.

The moment we're in does not pause the mission we're on.

And so I believe this idea and this the time that we are in, it fits appropriately to this passage.

We're at the end of this series called When Jesus Met, and we're looking at this different encounters that Jesus has.

Primarily, it's been with individuals.

Um people like Zacchaeus, or last week the rich young ruler who remained nameless.

But today, it's about a group of disciples.

When Jesus met his disciples post-resurrection, after the resurrection, I'm gonna ask you to do something we don't do very often.

Would you stand up for the reading of God's word?

I'll read it.

Let's just stand for a second.

The whole passage.

John 20, 19 through 22.

It says, That Sunday evening, which was Resurrection Sunday, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.

Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them.

Peace be with you, he said.

As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side.

They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord.

Again he said, Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.

Then he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

You can have a seat.

So the disciples are behind locked doors.

Why?

Why are they behind locked doors?

One word, fear.

They're afraid.

Their only reason they're behind locked doors is they're afraid.

Uncertainty.

Turmoil.

So here's a few truths I want to share with you that I think apply from that time to our time.

And the first one is this is that fear is always in opposition to faith.

Fear is always in opposition to faith.

Fear is always in opposition to faith.

That Sunday evening, uh, verse 19, the disciples were meeting, listen, behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.

And then suddenly Jesus was standing there among them.

Peace be with you, he said.

That's Easter Sunday.

It's Easter Sunday.

Why are the disciples behind closed doors?

Because they had not been at the empty tomb.

A couple of them had been.

A couple of them had showed up.

Who is the biggest group of people to show up at the empty tomb first?

Women.

Women.

They're always the toughest.

They're always the strongest.

They always had the most resolve, it seems.

And so the men are scared of cats.

The doors were locked for fear.

Fear of being arrested.

Fear of being killed.

Fear of suffering.

Fear of the unknown.

We have all experienced these emotions.

We have all felt this way.

We have felt this way in relationship to our culture.

We have felt this way in relationship to our family.

We felt this way in relationship to parenting.

We have felt this way in relationship to employment.

We have felt this way in relationship to the economy or our finances.

Fear of the unknown.

Fear of the Romans.

The oppression of the Roman Empire.

Fear of the Jewish leaders.

It says specifically, as John says, they're afraid of the Jewish leaders.

They had seen Jesus die.

Imagine the fear that they had experienced from Friday to Saturday, all day Saturday.

And then Sunday, those that especially had not experienced the empty tomb hiding behind locked doors.

Disappointment, uncertainty.

Sunday, he's back from the dead, and thanks to Mary and the ladies, they are aware, but even then they're gripped with fear.

And John, listen, John wants us to see this.

This is, you know, reading scripture, the older I get, the more alive it becomes.

And I just imagine reading this as John wrote it.

John is experiencing, he's writing.

This is through his eyes.

It's the Holy Spirit.

But through John, it's this mystery how he is sharing.

And so we know what fear is like.

We struggle.

Fear is a driving force.

They were afraid 2,000 years ago.

And Jesus comes to meet them at their greatest point of fear.

And can I tell you that Jesus comes to meet you at your greatest point of fear?

He comes to meet us.

He will never forsake us.

He'll never fail us.

Listen, it may feel like it, but but he will not let us down.

And our modern culture.

Fear drives us.

But fear often drives us to a dangerous place.

And our culture we live in modern day, 2022.

Fear drives us.

Where?

I've got it in my pocket.

He drives us to screens.

The enemy drives us to screens.

They didn't have screens 2,000 years ago, but in 2022 there are algorithms on our devices that can determine our desires and our fears.

And it will drive us to fear and anger and rage.

And our instinct needs to be to run to Jesus.

To run to Jesus.

Listen, if we are followers of Jesus, we should run to Jesus.

When we're experiencing fear, we're experiencing turmoil, we're experiencing difficulty, is not run to a screen, run to Jesus.

He is our Savior.

He is our Lord.

He is the one who should be discipling us.

We are his apprentices along with other people involved in the local body of Jesus Christ and the local body of Christ in our church family.

We should be discipling one another.

We should be apprenticing under one another, learning how to follow Jesus, learning how to be with Jesus, learning how to be like Jesus, learning how to do the things that Jesus did.

Learning to live in community.

But today, people are being more shaped by what they see on screens than by what they see in Scripture.

Let me say that again.

Today, people, we are being shaped more by what we see on a screen than what we see in God's Word.

Or what we experience with our Savior.

What we experience through the Holy Spirit, through the power of the Spirit.

We already have a generation of adults that have been discipled by their cable news choices.

Ouch.

Now we have a generation being discipled by their social media feeds.

How do we respond to these issues?

We respond by looking and reading and studying God's word, making that a priority, but also in our community with others.

If you are too busy to be in community with other followers of Jesus, then you are too busy.

And I let me just say it, it's a sin.

And we need to repent.

We listen to what God is saying to us, we apply it.

And so not only is fear, uh fit not only is fear always in opposition to faith.

Number two, peace should always be the response for the follower of Jesus.

Peace should always be the response to the follower of Jesus.

Let's read through this.

That Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.

Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them, and he says, Peace be with you.

Can we say that together?

Let's say it together.

And he said, Again, let's say it together.

In Jesus' day, when he would have spoken that, it would have been shalom.

But it was, it would have been a twist on shalom that was different than just the normal greeting of shalom.

It's almost like a double shalom, shalom, shalom.

Shalom, shalom.

Peace be with you.

Peace be with you.

We just kind of we kind of run over that word and we don't stop and we don't consider the depth of that, of what Jesus says.

Peace be with you.

He doesn't say it one time.

He says it two times in this passage.

They are gripped with fear.

And he's saying, Peace be with you.

World's falling apart.

Turmoil.

They're afraid.

They're behind locked doors.

We know these emotions, but Jesus says he's right here in our midst.

He is here today, right?

His promise is here.

That he is here among his people, gathered in the name of Jesus.

Shalom, shalom.

Can you just let me just ask you to do something?

Just take a deep breath.

I just want you to sit in this phone.

Jesus says peace.

Shalom.

I am with you.

I am with you.

We can choose peace.

Or we can vent on social media.

We can choose peace.

Or we can embrace stress.

We can choose peace.

The Apostle Paul says in 4 7, then you will experience God's what?

Peace.

Shalom.

This holistic, holistic well-being.

It transcends anything or anything that you would ever experience in this world.

It is a taste of heaven come to you in a moment.

Paul says, then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

This doesn't mean the absence of problems.

It doesn't mean the absence of difficulty.

It doesn't mean the absence of pain and suffering.

What it means is that God is with you when you go through it.

Paul says in Ephesians 2.14, for listen to this, he himself, who's he talking about?

Who is he?

He is Jesus.

He himself is our peace.

Jesus is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.

Jesus says in John 14, he says, do not let your hearts be troubled.

Don't let your hearts be troubled.

Should we care about our culture?

Yes.

Should we vote and take responsibility for our freedoms?

Yes.

Should we be able to speak truth in difficult situations?

Yes.

Should we sometimes be able to step into difficult conversations?

Yes.

But in the midst of all of that, it's in a spirit of peace.

Shalom, peace.

And so peace should always be the response of Jesus' followers.

But the third truth is this the cross is always at the center of our response.

It is our hope and it is our motivation.

Verse 20, Jesus says, when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.

Listen to this and listen to me.

Because this is the resurrection body of Jesus.

It is the glorified body of Jesus.

The last time they had seen Jesus, he had been beaten to a bloody pulp.

And so he's in this resurrected body.

And that's why I think they didn't recognize him.

They didn't recognize him because he's in this glorified state.

But in his glorified state, we are the only scars left on his body.

His hands, his feet, and his side.

And we often need to be reminded that the beauty of the resurrection is deeply tied to the work of the crucifixion.

The gospel, in four words, Jesus in my place.

It's the gospel.

We don't get a new leaf on life in the gospel.

We get a new life.

There's two two Greek words that are translated into time out of the Greek, into the English.

One is chronos, which is which is talking about chronological time.

It is now 856 chronologically.

But Jesus is talking about a different type of time.

It is a time that transcends time and space as we know it.

In the Greek, it's chronos.

I'm sorry, it's Kairos.

It is a moment that transcends time.

It's a moment where God steps into time, into a moment.

It's when God speaks to you.

It's when God shows up in an unusual way.

And so he says time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel.

Let's never get over the cross.

Amen?

Let's never get over the cross.

Let's never get over the resurrection.

Listen, the moment That we are in in history does not change the mission that we're on.

We need to remember that.

And so Romans 14, 8 says, if we live, it's Paul says, if we live, it's to honor the Lord.

If we die, it's to honor the Lord.

So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

We live on mission.

Because of the cross of Christ.

And so truth number four is we always go, listen, we always go because Jesus came to us.

The Great Commission.

The Great Commission in John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.

We see the Great Commission in Matthew 28, 18, 19, and 20.

He says, Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all they have observed, and I will be with you until the end of the age.

We see Acts 1.8, where he says, I will pour out my spirit on you, and you will be my witnesses here in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

We see this great commission.

We're all sent on mission just like Jesus was sent by his Father.

And finally, finally, he breathed on them and gave them the Holy Spirit.

He empowered them.

Now this is Sunday.

This is resurrection Sunday.

He breathed on them and gave them the Holy Spirit.

This is resurrection Sunday.

This isn't Pentecost.

Pentecost is 50 days away, which that word Pentecost literally means in 50 days.

And it was a Jewish festival.

It always took place exactly 50 days after the Passover.

It was a harvest celebration.

And so I was thinking of the significance of them receiving the Holy Spirit right here.

And then 50 days later, the Holy Spirit is poured out on his church.

Well, here's what I don't know if I understand the significance of that, but I can tell you this: I think those disciples needed the Holy Spirit to get them through those next few days until they could get to Pentecost.

And then the Spirit would be poured out on all of the church.

And then there would be a harvest.

Peter preached.

3,000 plus they're saved.

But the Great Commission is still applying to us.

It still applies to us.

Acts 2.17.

In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit upon all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy.

Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.

Joel 2, 28 and 29 is where that prophecy comes from in the Old Testament.

So what does this mean?

What does this mean for us?

So let's we're going to take the next few minutes, and I want to just talk about the application of what this means for us.

When Jesus met the disciples after the resurrection, it began a journey that would lead to the birth of the church that would continue a work 2,000 plus years later, where we would be here in November of 2022 with the same mission that Jesus gave his church and his disciples.

Tough circumstances, shalom, shalom.

Peace be with you.

Peace be with you.

Peace be with you.

I want you to see yourself.

You are commissioned to be a missionary.

One of my prayers when planted this church is that everyone would take responsibility for their area where they lived.

And I know a lot of you live in subdivisions or neighborhoods, and some of you need to be the chief missionaries in that subdivision or neighborhood.

Jill and I always said, hey, we've got, we are living in a village.

We live in a village with 109 huts in it.

And those are our huts.

We're the chief missionaries.

Some of you don't live in in subdivisions.

You live out on a road somewhere.

And so your circle, wherever your circle, you claim it.

You claim it.

It may be a school, it may be a ball field, it may be a ballet class, it may be, it may, it may be whatever area.

It might be Kroger.

It might be Starbucks.

God help you.

You need to quit going to Starbucks and give to the church.

And you need to be like Jonah.

Drink cheap coffee.

Somebody ruins you with the pour overs, buddy.

Loving people, serving people, being the hands and feet of Jesus so that they will experience Jesus.

God's called us to plant new churches.

He's called us to live on mission.

There's a community just out to the east of Monroe.

It's called Good Hope.

And it's a tiny little town, but neighborhoods are popping up all over the place.

And we have seen that as a place where God is leading us to plant a church.

God has raised up a couple who has opened their home.

There has already been meetings.

There are three churches partnering together, or four, that are saying, hey, we'll devote people, we'll devote resources and money.

And so what I'm asking for you to do is to pray.

Hey, pray.

Could God send me out?

Be a part of a fresh work?

And say, well, man, I love it here.

I love how we sing and how we worship.

I'm telling you, God has so much more for you if you follow Him in obedience than what you would have if you stay here.

Listen, I can't, I can't tell you how afraid it fell often 17 years ago.

When I left a good salary, I had insurance.

Can I emphasize that I had good insurance?

And I had three kids.

And people told me I was crazy.

And to look back and see what God has done.

What He's done.

And so who knows if you would step out in faith, join this couple who lives out in the Good Hope area that's opened their home and a few other families that have already said, hey, we'll go and help.

I want you to pray about that.

Pray about that.

Pray about that.

Some of us have never stepped out and been on a mission trip outside of the area that we're comfortable in.

And so listen, next year, next year, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador, listen, we're in talks about multiple opportunities for you to step out of comfort zone and step into a different culture.

And when you step back into where you are now, you will never be the same.

As the Father has sent me, Jesus says, so I am sending you.

That's an opportunity to connect.

We've got a couple of ministries that are seasonal coming up.

Operation Christmas Child, you take the shoeboxes and fill them up.

And it's amazing what that ministry has done in taking the gospel to places and changing the lives of children.

And the shop with a hero, first Saturday of December, December 3rd, that Saturday morning, we'll invest in the lives of children.

We'll invest in the lives of heroes, law enforcement, firefighters, EMTs, first responders.

And the goal is to invest in them, but the goal is to share Jesus with them and to be a part of that.

We're with Jesus on mission.

The last thing in the world is for you to walk out of here.

And just pretend that we didn't meet with Jesus.

Nothing has changed.

So I want to ask you to bow your heads, pray with me.

Because I know.

I know it's as we bow our heads and pray.

Man, if we step out, that means we're going to be uncomfortable.

Or it's going to be new.

It's going to be unfamiliar.

Can I tell you that Jesus meets you at your very point of fear, discomfort, he even will meet you in your passive indifference.

And he'll say, I love you exactly like you are.

And I'm going to just simply politely keep knocking on the door of your heart until you can respond.

Say yes to me.

Receive my mission.

And as the Father has sent me, I will send you.

And in the middle of all that, in the middle of all that, may we be a people that are being discipled by God's word rather than the elements in our culture.

Shalom, shalom.

Peace be with you.

Peace be with you.

Father, would you work?

Would you speak to us as we close this time?

God, would you use it as a time to cement maybe what you're trying to speak to us and what you're trying to say?

So in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.