Peace be with You!

Our fear is not just our weakness. Our fears in this world is our misplaced trust. It's our hearts that cling to something other than a God who clings to us for safety and identity and life. We fear losing what we think we can't live without. Because in those moments, we're not trusting the one we cannot live without. But the good news is your courage doesn't come from inside of you. It doesn't come from your willpower. It doesn't come from trying harder next time. Because if it depends on you, the door's gonna stay locked. But it comes from Christ. [00:14:14] (36 seconds)  #CourageFromChrist

Yet into that locked room, Jesus comes. He comes not because all of a sudden the disciples have figured out how to fix themselves and get their lives in order and somehow make themselves worthy. Jesus comes not because they've proven themselves and they promise to do better next next time, so give them another chance. They don't come. Jesus doesn't come because because they're really, really sorry, and they feel really, really bad for what they did. And so Jesus is just gonna have to show up because they feel so bad for their sin. No. He just comes. [00:03:00] (39 seconds)  #JesusJustComes

And there in this locked upper room to fearful, scared, worried disciples, he says peace and all of a sudden that peace is there for them. And it's there for you today too, friends. Peace be with you because your sins are forgiven. Peace because the cross was enough. Peace because death has been defeated. Jesus then shows the wounds, the nails in his hands, his feet, the spear mark in his side to those disciples in that locked upper room. And those very wounds that should condemn them because they didn't prevent them become the very wounds that are proof that they are forgiven. [00:05:55] (54 seconds)  #ForgivenByWounds

Fear makes you quiet when you should speak. Fear makes you compromise when you should stand. Fear locks doors. And if we're honest, those locked doors aren't just in the gospel of John, they're in us. We lock the door when we think faith might cost us socially. Speaking truth might might cost us at work or at school. Following Christ might cost us personally in our in our neighborhood or in a relationship. So we stay quiet. We stay safe, so we think, because we're locked in. [00:01:08] (40 seconds)  #FearLocksDoors

Not because you have all the answers, not because you have it all figured out, but because you have me, my peace, and my peace will be with you. So I send you out, not fearfully but as witnesses, not silently but as proclaimers. The message continues to the places that God has perfectly positioned them. As we heard Bella read from Acts, they went into the temple, into house to house, proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ. From fear to fearless witness, not because of their strength, but because Christ is risen. And that changes everything. Your sins are forgiven. Your death is defeated. Your future is secure. Hallelujah. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. [00:19:05] (60 seconds)  #FearlessWitness

The same Jesus Christ who walked into that locked room walks into your fear. Not when you've overcome it, not when you've figured it out, not when you've proven your faith, but it walks right into the middle of it, right into the silence, right into the hesitation, right into your failure, and right into your fear. And he does not come with a voice of condemnation. He doesn't come over you and say, why didn't you try harder? Why didn't you speak up? Why'd you give in again? He comes and speaks the words we desperately need to hear. Peace be with you. [00:14:50] (47 seconds)  #JesusMeetsYourFear

That peace is not the peace the world gives, which is a lack of conflict or violence or terror. It's a peace that passes understanding. Paul writes about it in his letter to the Philippian church and he says it this way. I love it. He says, don't worry about anything. But in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God. He wants to hear them. But know this, the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. A peace that passes all understanding. It doesn't it doesn't make sense. But just because it doesn't make sense doesn't mean it's not very, very real. [00:15:37] (57 seconds)  #PeaceThatPasses

See Jesus doesn't always remove the situation that causes fear, but he does always enter it. And his presence changes everything Because his peace is not fragile, it is anchored in the cross, proven in the resurrection, delivered to you personally. So when fear rises and it will, don't look inward, Look to Christ. Let him hear you. Let him hear again his words to you. Peace be with you. And that peace begins to open locked doors. And it sends you out into a world where you are perfectly positioned to share that peace that passes understanding. It's what Jesus did to his disciples that day in that locked up a room. [00:17:58] (54 seconds)  #PeaceOpensDoors

A living hope. Not wishful thinking, not a fragile optimism that things will get better, but a hope grounded in the resurrection of Jesus. A hope that means your future is secure. Your faith is not in vain. Your suffering is not meaningless. Even if for now, for a little while you suffer, you can rejoice because that does not change the fact of the matter that Christ, that Jesus lives. Hallelujah. Christ is risen. [00:11:09] (35 seconds)  #LivingHope

He just comes. The doors are locked. The disciples are afraid. Their hearts are a mess, and still Jesus stands among them. And he doesn't ask them, why have you abandoned me? He doesn't ask them, alright. You better have a really good explanation for what you said, Peter, outside there. I know what you said out there, Peter. I know where you were going to. But he doesn't say anything like that. Instead, the first divine word out of the mouth of the resurrection Christ is peace be with you. [00:03:36] (37 seconds)  #PeaceFirst

You could have peace even in the midst of your suffering, Jesus says. A peace that that comes to you even now this morning through his word. Once again, you're hearing him declare you today, you're forgiven. You're beloved. You belong. You have been washed in the word of your baptism. You have an identity as a beloved son, a chosen daughter in whom the father is always so well pleased with you. And yes, you know your sins and you confessed them this morning. And you heard that absolution spoken over you, those weren't my words, those were Christ's words for you. [00:16:57] (38 seconds)  #BelovedAndForgiven

And as real as those fears are, they're not the real problem because the real problem goes that goes deeper. John who was there locked in that upper room, who's writing this account tells us that they are locked in that room because they're afraid of the Jews. But yet, who they really should have been afraid of is God the father. After all, they they failed his son, his only begotten son. They ran and they hid. They denied knowing him. They abandoned Jesus. [00:01:48] (34 seconds)  #FearOfManVsGod

And I know you'd like to imagine for a moment that that if you were there, you you tell a different story. You would behave different. You would be faithful. You would be unshaken, but scripture and our own experience, they say otherwise. We too would have given in. We bend. We think we're protecting ourselves. And yet beneath all this truth is that we fear what we might lose more than we trust the one who gave us life. We're afraid, but our fear reveals a heart that doesn't fully trust God. [00:02:22] (38 seconds)  #OurFearRevealsUs

Not that evening when they were in a room, not just in a room with a door that is closed. John is careful to tell us the door was locked. They're there because they're afraid. Peter who once swore allegiance to Christ saying, never Lord, never will I deny you, never will I forsake you now has has nothing left to say. The rest of the other disciples, the other nine who were there, they said that they would die with Jesus, and now they're now they're hiding. We understand why. Because if there's one thing we get in this world is we understand fear. [00:00:14] (42 seconds)  #WhenFearSilences

And sometimes and sometimes we we feel really close to that cross. But there'd be other times where we'd be clinging on to that anchor, hoping that it would keep us close because the world isn't going the way we want. Suffering isn't going the way that we want. Things are unexpected. We're worried about our future. We're worried about our finances and we're trying to cling to the rope. But when all along when we let go of the rope we realized, wait, we're not adrift. Because while we thought we were holding onto the rope, was actually Christ who was holding onto us, who was giving us that living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, was anchoring us to something firm that we can count on, that we can depend on no matter what we face. [00:13:26] (44 seconds)  #AnchoredInChrist

If we try to place our hope in the things of this world, it's like trying to it's like trying to tie your boat to a drifting object. And that was illustrated for me this week. I I don't know how many of you followed the do you follow the Artemis two thing? Any show of hands you see that landing? Some of you, you know, Artemis two was a rocket. It went up into the space where the stars are, and it went around the moon, and it came back and it splashed down. [00:11:43] (32 seconds)  #EarthlyAnchorsDrift

See, fear can do that at times. It can trap us in the wrong thinking. And perhaps nobody gets this better. Of all the apostles, all the disciples, but Peter does. We didn't look at it this week but but Peter has that miraculous restoration story on the shore of the Sea Of Galilee that John tells us about. But I appreciate his own reflection later on as he writes to the early church that's facing persecution, that's wondering why Jesus hasn't come back yet, that's wondering is faith worth it. [00:10:14] (36 seconds)  #RestoredByGrace

And they went out from the presence of Sanhedrin rejoicing that they were counted to be worthy, to be treated shamefully on behalf of the name of Jesus. Why are they rejoicing? Because they were spared suffering? Because they were proven right? Because Jesus pro showed up in a miraculous way? No. They are rejoicing because they were considered worthy to suffer by flogging, by proclaiming the name of Jesus which they wouldn't stop doing. So on your way out from church today, if you are not happy, we will have a flogging opportunity to turn that frown upside down. [00:09:27] (41 seconds)  #CountedWorthy

Yet into that locked room, Jesus comes. He comes not because all of a sudden the disciples have figured out how to fix themselves and get their lives in order and somehow make themselves worthy. Jesus comes not because they've proven themselves and they promise to do better next next time, so give them another chance. They don't come. Jesus doesn't come because because they're really, really sorry, and they feel really, really bad for what they did. And so Jesus is just gonna have to show up because they feel so bad for their sin. No. He just comes. The doors are locked. The disciples are afraid. Their hearts are a mess, and still Jesus stands among them. And he doesn't ask them, why have you abandoned me? He doesn't ask them, alright. You better have a really good explanation for what you said, Peter, outside there. I know what you said out there, Peter. I know where you were going to. But he doesn't say anything like that. Instead, the first divine word out of the mouth of the resurrection Christ is peace be with you. [00:02:59] (75 seconds)