First Words from the Empty Tomb ~ Go!

So far, all of the first words of Jesus after his resurrection have been for his disciples. Jesus revealed himself to them and opened their hearts and minds to God’s truth. Jesus offered the disciples peace by giving them strength and courage to overcome their problems and by offering them forgiveness for the failures and sin. While all of these words had implications for the world around them, the words were really given for the benefit of the disciples and the reason was because they needed them. Their lives had been crushed and their worlds torn upside down by the death of Jesus and these first words helped to rebuild their lives and faith. They do the same for us. These words of Jesus help strengthen our lives and faith because Jesus still reveals himself to us, forgives our sin and gives us a peace which helps us overcome our problems, but Jesus also makes it clear that his mission and the work of the disciples was not finished.


In each of the 4 gospels and the book of Acts there is a common theme that appears. Jesus is clear that the mission and purpose of his disciples is not over and that they need to GO and continue the work God began. Let’s look at each of these passages.
Matthew 28:19-20
Mark 16:15-16
Luke 24:47-48
Acts 1:8b
John 20:17, 20
John 21:15-17

Jesus makes it clear that his followers are not to remain still or silent – they need to go and share what they have seen and heard and experienced in Jesus and that is still the mission of the church today. We are to go and share what we have learned, seen, heard and experienced of Jesus with the entire world.

This first word helps the disciples understand that in many ways, nothing has changed. The mission that Jesus called them to three years earlier had not changed. When Jesus first called Peter, Andrew, James and John he said to them, “come follow me and I will make you fishers of men and women.” In other words, Jesus was calling them to work with him to call people into the kingdom of God. They were going to go into their communities and talk about repentance and forgiveness and the values of God’s kingdom and together they were going to share God’s love and grace and call people to live their lives differently. That was the work Jesus called them to when he started and Jesus makes clear in this first word that their mission hasn’t changed. They were still called to go into their community and even beyond their community to carry on this work of Jesus - nothing changed. The death and resurrection of Jesus had not changed the mission and purpose of their lives.

Today we can’t let anything change this mission. It is still our purpose as followers of Jesus to go into our community and world to share the love of God and help people see and experience for themselves the power of God’s kingdom. We cannot change our mission – if we do, the church will die. When I was in Altoona, I was helping oversee a small church that was struggling with its future. They didn’t have a lot of people or money and they didn’t know what to do. One year the leaders came into their annual church conference with this mission statement: “We will keep our doors open as long as we can, and when we run out of money or people – we will close them.” I honestly could not believe what I was reading. They had forgotten this first word of Jesus. They lost their sense of mission to go into the community and into the world with the love of God. They had no sense being the church for anyone other than themselves. Within the year, their doors were closed. When we stop hearing this word of Jesus to go, we are finished because this is our primary mission.

Compare that church with another one I worked with in Altoona. They were also struggling to keep their doors open. They were also an older congregation and didn’t have a lot of money or people and they didn’t know what the future held for them. Unlike the church that lost their sense of mission and purpose, this church did not. They clearly heard God tell them to go into their community with the love of God and help bring God’s kingdom into this world. They sold their church building and as the church – the body of Christ – those faithful people joined another congregation so that together the church was stronger, more unified and better equipped to meet the needs of their community. The church they helped to strengthen and revive was Second Avenue and they have made a significant impact in the Altoona community and beyond. Young people from that church are currently in seminary, mission teams have been all over the world and none of that would have happened if a small group of disciples had not obeyed the call of God to go.

As a church we can never lose sight of our primary purpose, which is to go into our community and world and share the truth, love, power and grace of God. Whether it is in our personal life or together in the life of the church, there are three primary questions we need to answer when we hear this call from God. They are the three questions that I am sure the disciples asked when they heard this first word.
1. Where do we need to go?
2. Who do we need to go to?
3. What are we supposed to do when we get there?

Let’s answer the last question first. What are we supposed to do when we get there? In Matthew we are told our mission is to go and make disciples. In Mark we are to proclaim the good news, in Luke and Acts we are to be witnesses to all God has done and in John we to forgive and bring God’s peace. In other words we are to go and in whatever way we can we are to share with others the kingdom of God. We are to live in such a way that people see Jesus in us. We are to love and forgive in such powerful ways that people stop and say, “Wow, there is something different about that person!” We are to give and reach out to people in ways that inspire and call others to God. We are to teach and share with others all that Jesus said and did in hopes that they will want to learn more and experience more of God. We are to invite people to come and experience the fullness of God and the fullness of life by opening themselves up to God and the presence and person of Jesus.

How each of us will do this will be radically different and depend on the gifts and graces God has given us. Some people are outstanding teachers so God will use you one way while others might be really good with their hands and God will use you a different way. After Hurricane Katrina, I helped organize a trip of 100 people from the Lewisburg area to go to Mississippi to clean up and help people begin to rebuild. While I was there the only real physical labor I did was cut one piece of dry wall into two pieces. That was it. My job was to organize all the transportation and logistics for our teams. I spent most of my time making sure people got to the job sites and had the resources they needed to do their jobs. How I served that week was very different than those who put on roofs, rewired homes, plastered walls and painted. We were all part of the same mission, sharing God’s love and power with others, but we all served in different ways.

Last week during Serving Our Seniors, I saw a picture of Rex Mattern working on a porch.

 If I had been there, I would have been no help at all. I can’t nail things very straight, but I can clean and as Paul Neff found out when we went to South Dakota, I can paint, but that’s about it. The work we will do will be different, but the mission we have is the same – share God’s love and grace with others.

There is one part of this mission of making disciples that we all have to take part in and that is to invite people to check out Jesus. In our own we way we have to invite people to at least think about God and take time to consider Jesus Christ. Maybe that means inviting people to worship with us, or inviting our family and friends to Sunday School and their children to VBS. Maybe it means just sharing with others all that God has done to make a difference in our lives with the hopes that they might consider what God can do to help improve their lives. We can all invite and give witness to God in those ways and it is something we need to learn to do.

Now let’s look at the second questions, who do we need to go to? Jesus helps answer this for us in Luke 24:47, repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed. If repentance and forgiveness is to be proclaimed then some of the people we need to go to must be sinners. We need to be bold and share God’s love and grace with those who need it. When the church only focuses on the people of the church, when we only reach out to our members and people like us who already believe – we have lost the mission and purpose of Jesus. Jesus was criticized because he spent too much time with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus associated and socialized with non-religious people and notorious sinners, and we need to as well, but it’s not just sinners we need to go to, Jesus takes it further.

Look at Acts 1:8b. What Jesus is saying here is that we have to be willing to reach out not only to sinners, but to our enemies and those we might really dislike. In Jesus day, good religious people avoided Samaria at all costs. Take a look at this map.

Good Jewish people would take an extra day to avoid travelling through Samaria on their way from Galilee to Jerusalem because the people of Israel had a long standing feud with the people who lived in Samaria. When Jesus says that his followers were to go to Samaria he was saying that they needed to go to their enemy, to those people they really struggled with and might really dislike.

We need to do the same thing today. We need to not only forgive, love, give witness to, invite and inspire people who are like us, but we need to move beyond what is comfortable and reach out to sinners, our enemies and all those people who challenge our comfort zones. So that is who we go to, now let’s look at the first question. Where do we need to go? Again, Jesus helps answer this for us.

Let’s go back to the map for a second. Here is Jerusalem and here is the region known as Samaria. When Jesus calls his disciples to go to all nations and to all people he gives them a strategic plan on how to do this – look at Acts 1:8b.

Jesus says go first to Jerusalem, then to Samaria and then to all nations or the ends of the earth. Where were the disciples when they got these instructions? They were in Jerusalem. What Jesus is saying is that we need to start our mission and live out our purpose right where we are. We need to start living for God and sharing the love of Jesus with our family and friends. We need to be forgiving and invite people to experience the grace of God where we work and in our neighborhoods. We need to reach out proclaim that God’s kingdom is available here and now in our own community and county. It starts here, but it doesn’t end here – it moves out – from Jerusalem to Samaria.

Now Samaria wasn’t just the region where many of their enemies lived, it was also just the next larger region. So when Jesus says we have to go to Samaria he isn’t just saying need to go to people we struggle with, he is also saying we have to geographically move beyond our own communities. How can we have an impact in our region or state? One of the blessings we have at Faith Church are connections to our state through people like Kerry Benninghoff and Jake Corman. They connect us to a larger region. If we hear God calling us to go to Samaria – they can help us because they are already there.

I have to say that both Kerry and Jake have helped support us when we have needed it, but we need to think about how to help and support them as well. As part of the church, we send them out and we need to support then as they go. They don’t know I’m going to do this, but I want to ask you to commit to praying for them this week. What I’d really love to do is ask different people to partner to pray for them so that they are being prayed for each and every week. Maybe that is your next step in putting this sermon into action.

From Samaria we need to go to the world. For some of us, this might mean actually going to different parts of the world to serve God. For a while I thought this was God’s plan for my life. After college I thought a lot about being in overseas missions and even applied to a ministry in Far East Asia, but that wasn’t God’s plan. After the tsunami about 5 years ago I really wanted to go and help the relief efforts and again seriously thought about going when one Sunday morning as I was getting ready for worship I heard on the radio a mission worker say, “please don’t come here. We can’t take care of you, instead just send us resources, particularly money.” Again, God made it clear to me that I was not to go myself, but to help the church send resources and a times people to go.

That is part of what it means for me to go – to raise resources of both money and people to go to all the world. As we try to answer this questions of where do we need to go, I want to share with you a vision and desire I have for us at Faith Church. Through our connection as the United Methodist Church we have the opportunity to partner with other UM church around the world. We have been looking at a partnership with the UMC in Sierra Leone.

I have to be honest and say that we have hit some road blocks along the way, but I still believe God is calling us to go. I would love to see us not only partner with a church but with a community in Sierra Leone and begin to make a significance difference there.

We have heard about a community called Pa Loko in the freetown area of Sierra Leone.

We would start going there by partnering with a church but then we might have the opportunity to help them build a fish hatchery. Think about what a great partnership this could be. We have a fish hatchery here and we could help build and support a fish hatchery there. I love the idea and the sense of connection, but here is why I am really passionate about it.

When this first came up as an idea I talked to a member of our church who worked at the fish hatchery – Chris Ramish – and asked him if he would be interested in going to Sierra Leone to help them with the fish hatchery. His response was that he would be terrified to go, but maybe that was part of what God wanted him to do. Chris died unexpected last year and never got a chance to go, but I still hear this first word of Jesus saying “GO” and I wonder if this is where we are supposed to go. We can make disciples, help proclaim the kingdom of God by building churches, schools and fish hatchery. What an awesome thing for us do since we are part of a thriving church whose members are active in schools, a universities and even a fish hatchery.

I would like to ask you to pray as we ask God to give direction to this vision. It has not been easy to establish this partnership and sometimes it seems like God might want us to look in other directions, but this week I thought about the disciples in these days and weeks after the resurrection. It wasn’t easy for them to figure things out and they also didn’t know where to go when Jesus said go and everywhere they turned there were obstacles in their way. But Jesus made it clear that the mission hadn’t changed and that they needed to work through the struggles and go. We cannot let road blocks and obstacles stand in our way. God has called us to go. Go to Jerusalem and Samaria and all nations and make disciples. So we need to go. We need to go to our homes in Bellefonte and Zion and make disciples. We need to go to our jobs in State College and Harrisburg and work for and proclaim the good news of Jesus. We need to go to Pa Loko and all nations to work for and give witness to the power of God’s kingdom, a power that will flow in us and through us as we go.

 

Next Steps
First Words from an Empty Tomb ~ Go

1. What can you do this week to serve and love God
At Home:
At Work:
In the Community:
Around the world:

2. Pray for our church members who serve the people of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg? Contact the church office if you are willing to be part of this ongoing ministry.

3. Pray for the ministry of Faith Church around the world. This week include the Heffners and McCurdy School.

4. Where and how is God calling you to go into the world?

First Words from the Empty Tomb ~ Forgive

Forgiveness is fundamental and foundational to the Christian faith. We cannot be followers of Jesus if we are not willing to ask for and offer forgiveness. Jesus taught us this when he taught us to pray forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. To follow Jesus means we ask God and others to forgive us as well as offering forgiveness to others.


Jesus goes further and says that we really can’t be children reconciled to God if forgiveness is not part of our lives, look at Matthew 6:14-15. That last line is harsh. If we do not forgive others then God will not forgive us. We can’t be reconciled to God if we are not willing to allow forgiveness to be part of our lives. We have to ask others to forgive us and we need to be willing to forgive others. That this flow of forgiveness is really important is made clear when Jesus makes it two of his final words from the cross and three of his first words from the empty tomb.

The first of Jesus final words from the cross was, Father forgive them, for the do not know what they are doing. By making it his first proclamation from the cross – Jesus is making a statement to all who listen to him, trust him and want to follow him – you have to be willing to forgive. If we believe in Jesus and desire to live a life that reflects God’s love, power and grace then we need to take seriously this call to forgive. But Jesus doesn’t leave it there; after he rises from the dead and leaves behind the empty tomb he shows us and teaches again that forgiveness is part of what it means to be part of his family but here he shows us and teaches us what forgiveness is really all about. Let’s look at John 21:15-19.

To really understand this passage we need to remember what happened the night before Jesus was crucified. While Jesus was celebrating the Passover meal with his disciples he said that they were all going to fail him and let him down. Peter said to Jesus, no way. Even if everyone else fails you, Jesus, I will not. I never will. But then a few hours later Peter was standing in the courtyard after Jesus was arrested and when he was asked if he was a follower of Jesus, Peter said no. He denied he was a follower of Jesus and went on to vehemently deny that he even knew Jesus. Three times Peter failed Jesus, three times he betrayed Jesus. Three times Peter sinned against him.

In the hours and days to come, Peter had to face the reality of his failure. Watching Jesus beaten and crucified knowing that he had failed must have been hard and when Jesus died and was laid in the tomb Peter thought his failure and sin could never be forgiven or overcome. When Jesus rose from the dead, however Peter is given the opportunity to come to Jesus and find forgiveness and that is what we believe is taking place in John 21. This is a scene of forgiveness. The three times that Jesus says to Peter, do you love me what we are hearing Jesus say is, Peter are you sorry for your failure and sin. And the three times that Peter says, yes Lord you know that I love you, we are hearing Peter say, Jesus, I am sorry. So if this is a scene of forgiveness and reconciliation, then what does it teach us about forgiveness and reconciliation?

The first thing it teaches us is that forgiveness needs to be personal. Jesus comes directly to Peter and says, Peter, do you love me. Jesus addresses Peter personally and directly because Peter failed Jesus personally. After stating that he would never deny Jesus and never fail him – he did, not once or twice but three times so not once or twice but three times Jesus comes to Peter personally to open the door of forgiveness. So forgiveness has to be personal and this is one of the things that makes forgiveness so hard for us.

None of us like to admit that we are wrong and none of us likes to admit it personally and directly. It is not easy to sit down and look someone in the eye and say, I’m sorry I failed you or I’m sorry I hurt you. It is uncomfortable because we make ourselves vulnerable. We don’t know how the other person is going to respond, but there is no forgiveness without it being personal. We can’t just issue a blanket statement of apology and trust that it is good enough. If we have offended and hurt people personally then we need personally ask those we have offended to forgive us and seek to restore a healthy relationship.

As relationships in our culture become more and more impersonal as we communicate and connect with friends through social media, we can’t let go of the power there is in a personal apology. Email, cards, letters and notes are nice and maybe they open the door with people or break the ice – but what Jesus shows us here is that when it comes to forgiveness we need personal communication and personal connections. We need to look someone in the eye, take them by the hand and say to them – I’m sorry and I would like you to forgive me.

Not only does forgiveness need to be direct and personal but it needs to be sincere. Jesus asks Peter three times, do you love me and with each question he is pushing Peter to dig a little deeper into his emotions. Jesus wants Peter to come to terms with what he has done and acknowledge the pain and sorrow that it caused. Asking people to forgive us can’t come from the surface of our lives; it has to come from the soul. In other words, forgiveness has to come from a truly broken heart which is full of remorse. Psalm 51:17 says a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. True forgiveness only comes when our hearts are broken because of what we have done and our lives are ready to seek reconciliation. I wonder when it dawned on Peter that Jesus asked him three times if he loved him because three times he had had failed him? I wonder if it was that third time when Peter stopped and thought, three times, wait, I failed you three times, I denied you three times. Jesus, I am so sorry, yes I really do love you.

Words alone don’t mean anything. The words I’m sorry don’t mean anything if our hearts are not full of sorrow and our lives aren’t ready to work on reconciliation. Jesus asks Peter three times do you love me, do you really love me, are you sure you love me and this leads Peter to a place of remorse that allows there to be true forgiveness and reconciliation.

As we go to others and ask them to forgive us, we need to ask ourselves if we are truly sorry and remorseful. If we aren’t, then we need to ask God to open our eyes so that we might see the pain and hurt that our words and actions may have caused. That was the situation with King David. He had failed miserably and sinned greatly against God and others. He had committed adultery and then in an effort to hide his sin he conspired to murder and then he wasn’t willing to see the real hurt that he had caused. It wasn’t until a friend of his, the prophet Nathan, came to him and put his sin into perspective that David really understood what he had done. It was in that moment of self realization that he was able to ask God to truly forgive him.

To ask others to forgive us means we have to be truly sorry and broken hearted by what we have done. It’s not enough to just go through the motions and say the right words, forgiveness is more an attitude of the heart then the actions of the mouth so we need to dig deep into our hearts and souls and ask God to show us the pain and hurt we have caused so we can confess that when we ask others to forgive us.

So forgiveness needs to be personal and it needs to be heartfelt and sincere, but it also has to come with actions. It’s interesting that this conversations isn’t just, hey Peter are you sorry? And then Peter’s response, yes, Lord you know that I am sorry. And then they simply go back to fishing. There is more. Jesus goes on and says, then feed my lambs and tend my sheep. Forgiveness is not just expressed through words; it needs to be backed up and expressed through actions. Words alone cannot heal wounds and restore relationships, sometimes forgiveness needs something more.

Now let me be clear, God’s forgiveness is free. We don’t earn it and we could never pay God back for the grace and mercy he shows us, but God’s forgiveness does call us to act differently. Remember the word repent does not mean to feel sorry or even say we are sorry it is to turn, to literally turn and walk in a different direction which means living a new way and acting differently. Forgiveness has to come with changed actions and behaviors. Forgiveness has to come with a new life that reflects not only our remorse but a desire for reconciliation restored relationships.

What this changed behavior looks like is different in every relationships. In marriages it might mean clear boundaries that protect the integrity and bonds of love and commitment after someone has been unfaithful. In finances it might mean cutting up credit cards and allowing someone else to manage our money and set up our budget if our debt has skyrocketed out of control. With teenagers it might mean checking in often with your parents and handing over phones in order to reestablish trust and honesty. It is never enough to simply ask for forgiveness and then move on as if nothing ever happened, it wasn’t enough for Jesus. Change and accountability is needed.

This conversation Jesus has with Peter wasn’t to figure out if Peter really did love Jesus, Jesus knew that answer, it was to help Peter be sincere and teach him that with forgiveness comes change and new life. For Peter to once again follow Jesus it was going to mean that he had to spend his life feeding, caring for and tending to the followers of Jesus. Peter couldn’t just say, hey, Jesus forgive me and let me go back to life as normal – he had to be willing to work for reconciliation which meant allowing Jesus to set the terms of the new relationships. If we have offended someone and ask them to forgive us, then we need to allow them to help set the terms of a new relationship. It’s called accountability. Those we have hurt need to share with us what it will mean to rebuild faith and trust. We can’t set those terms. We have to allow others to do that. Peter doesn’t get to set the terms of what a reconciled relationship with Jesus is going to look like - Jesus does.

So forgiveness is personal, it has to be sincere and heartfelt, it has to include not only a changed heart but changed behaviors and actions and it will take time. That is the other lesson we learn here. The process of forgiveness and reconciliation takes time. It has already taken time here. This is not the first word of Jesus from the empty tomb, in fact; this scene could have taken place weeks after the resurrection. Sometimes forgiveness takes time. Finding the courage to ask people to forgive us takes time and finding the courage to forgive others takes time. Forgiveness is a process and we have to be willing to be patient with one another through the process.

If we are waiting for someone to come and ask us to forgive them, we need to give them time. They may not be at a place where they understand the depth of their sinful actions or they may be too embarrassed and afraid to come and talk with us. It may take them time. The same is true for us. We might not be at a place to forgive someone right now, but that does not mean we are unforgiving people, it just means we might need more time to heal and more time for God to shed his grace and mercy on us.

The people of Boston might not be at a place right now to forgive the man who terrorized their community, but in time and if remorse is shown by this individual and with a change or heart and attitude, forgiveness might be offered, but not without consequences. That is what we need to remember, forgiveness does NOT mean there are no consequences. Forgiveness does NOT mean that justice does not need to run its course – it does. We don’t just let people off the hook and act as if nothing happened, there are consequences to our actions and at times we have to work through those difficult and painful times and hold people accountable. But we don’t have to hold it against people forever. Forgiveness means letting of our pain and anger so we can heal and moving forward with peace and reconciliation of people are truly sorry and willing to live a new life, but let’s also be clear – this takes time.

As much as we might want the process of forgiveness to be immediate and complete in one conversation – it won’t be. It is a process of healing. Restoring trust and rebuilding relationships takes time and we need to give God, ourselves and others this time.

Even the end of this conversation gives us a sense of the time it was going to take for Peter to be truly reconciled to Jesus. It was going to take the rest of his life. Jesus says to Peter that when he is older he is going to be led to places where he might not want to go and some believe this was a foreshadowing of Peter’s own death on a cross. A reconciled relationship with Jesus was going to mean a lifetime of service and sacrifice for Peter, but Peter loved Jesus enough to accept that challenge and even rejoice in that new life.

So we learn a lot about forgiveness from this first word of Jesus from the empty tomb. Forgiveness is personal. We have to personally ask God to forgive us, we need to personally ask others to forgive us and we need to personally reach out and offer forgiveness to those who have offended us. Forgiveness must also be sincere and heartfelt. Can we offer to God truly broken, contrite and remorseful hearts? Are we truly sorry for our sin? Do we understand just how hurtful or words and actions have been toward God and others and are we willing to own up to that hurt and ask to be forgiven?

Forgiveness must also come with actions – a changed heart and life. Will we order our lives differently to show our desire to rebuild trust and reestablish relationships? Are we willing to sacrifice what we want to offer forgiveness to those we have offended? Are we willing to accept the sacrifice others are offering to us and work with them to reconcile relationship and reestablish unity in our family and the family of God? And are we willing to bear patiently with one another and allow the process of healing and reconciliation to take place. When it comes to asking for and offering forgiveness we really do need to listen to the words of Ephesians 4:2 and be patient, bearing with one another in love.

So Jesus teaches us what forgiveness looks like both in his final words from the cross and his first words form an empty tomb. Will we put these words into practice? Will we ask God to forgive us? Will we ask others to forgive us? Will we forgive others? This really is the foundation of our faith but it is hard and at times it is messy. I want to close this morning by giving us some time to think about what this means for us. If you look at the next steps we have provided for you this week you will see three sections.

The first has to do with all those areas of our life where we know we need God’s forgiveness and grace. Can we confess to God with broken and contrite hearts and open ourselves up to God’s grace?

The second section is to name all those people we have offended or hurt and those people we might need to ask to forgive us. It’s easier for us to name those who have offended us and need to come and ask us to forgive them, but we need to first ask ourselves, who do I need to confess to? Who needs to forgive me for my actions? We need to take some time to think about those we have sinned against and actually name them, name the sin and begin to think about what a process of forgiveness and reconciliation looks like?

And then can we name those people are areas of life where we need to forgive others? We might not be at a place where we can sincerely offer that forgiveness and that is ok – remember forgiveness is a process, but just naming them can be the start of that process.

We would like to provide some time for all of us to simply reflect and maybe begin to name and write down those areas where we need to ask for and receive forgiveness and grace.


Next Steps
First Words from the Empty Tomb ~ Forgive

1. Name those things for which God has forgiven you.
• Give thanks for God’s forgiveness and grace.
• Allow that grace to give you the strength to offer and receive forgiveness from others.

2. Name the people and situations in which you need to ask for forgiveness.
• Are you truly repentant?
• Do you really “love” these people?
• Can you ask them to forgive you this week?
• What will reconciliation and restoration of these relationships look like as you seek their forgiveness?
• How can you offer to begin to set things right?

3. Name the people who have offended you that God is calling you to forgive.
• What does forgiveness and reconciliation look like in these relationships and situations?
• Who can strengthen you, love you and pray for you as you offer this forgiveness to others and work toward reconciliation and peace?

First Words from the Empty Tomb ~ Peace

In the gospel of John there is one word that Jesus uses over and over again when he first appears to his disciples after the resurrection, it is the word peace. It is, in fact, the very first word the disciples hear from Jesus after he has left behind the empty tomb. While Jesus appeared and spoke with Mary and then to some of his followers along the road to Emmaus, the first word he spoke to his actual disciples after the resurrection was the word peace. Peace be with you. To make sure that they understood that he came to offer them peace, before Jesus says anything else to them he says it again, Peace be with you. Then the next week when Jesus appeared to them again he said the same thing, Peace be with you.


The repetition here tells us that this more than a common greeting. While the phrase, Peace be with you, was a common greeting in Hebrew, because Jesus uses it again and again we believe that He is doing more here than just saying Hello. What Jesus wants his followers to experience is the fullness of God’s peace. In fact, when Jesus told his disciples he was going to be leaving them he told them that the gift he would leave them was peace. Look at John 14:27. So peace is clearly something Jesus wants us to experience so he promises it before he leaves and he offers it as one of his first words after his resurrection, but what exactly is this peace?

Most of the time when we think of peace we think of it as being the absence of war and when it was used by the Greeks in Jesus’ day that is exactly what it meant. Peace was seen as a negative, the absence or removal of something, but for Jesus peace was not the absence of something but the addition of something, it wasn’t a negative but a positive, the positive addition of God’s blessing. So when Jesus offers his disciples peace both before his death and after his resurrection he is not saying that there will be the absence of conflict and problems but that they will experience the addition of God’s blessing and presence and that is how we need to look at peace today. Peace is not the absence of problems or conflict in our lives it is the addition of God’s presence and the fullness of God’s blessing.

To understand this, let’s look at the disciples when Jesus offered them this peace. Before Jesus arrives the disciples are huddled together hiding in a house and the truth is that they are terrified. Their world has been torn upside down. Their leader has been killed, his body is no longer lying in the tomb where they thought it was and there is a lot of confusion and speculation about where he might be. Is he alive or is his dead body just missing? Honestly, things are pretty chaotic for the disciples and they are facing a lot of problems and conflict. When Jesus shows up and offers them peace, their problems don’t go away. In fact the appearance of Jesus creates more problems and confusion. They still don’t know what is going on. They don’t know if they are seeing a ghost or a resurrected Jesus. They still don’t know what the future holds for them and Jesus doesn’t stick around long enough to explain the situation to them. So the peace Jesus offers them here doesn’t mean that their problems have gone away, so peace must mean something else.

If God’s peace doesn’t make all the problems go away, what does it do? What gift does it offer? The gift or the blessing God’s peace offers is the courage to deal with the problems the disciples face. As we read on through the book of Acts and look at the history of what happened to the disciples after the resurrection of Jesus we see that the problems they faced didn’t overwhelm them, it didn’t drive them away from God but closer toward God. The disciples actually found the courage and strength to deal with all their problems one at a time and actually moved forward in their own faith and then they moved forward the entire mission and ministry of Jesus.

So the peace that God offers doesn’t mean all our problems go away. Peace is not the absence of conflict and the absence of problems it is the courage and the confidence to deal with those problems. There have been many times in my life and ministry when problems have arisen and when I prayed for God’s peace, what I wanted was an end to the problems. What I wanted was for God to simply make the problems go away – that is what most of us want, but that is not how God works. God never just makes the problems go away but what God consistently does is provide peace through courage and confidence to deal with the problems.

Think about the story of David and Goliath. God didn’t make Goliath go away He gave David the courage and confidence to stand up to him. The disciples faced many problems after Jesus rose from the dead, in fact Peter was put in prison several times for saying that Jesus was alive and when they prayed for peace God didn’t take those problems but He did give them the courage to stand up to all the religious leaders and keep preaching. While we pray for God to just make our problems away and bring us peace, what we need to do is ask God to bring His peace by giving us the courage and confidence to deal with our problems.

This is the kind of peace that families need today. Let’s face it, families are experiencing many problems today. Communication isn’t always good, we have different expectations, different hopes and dreams, different ideas on how to deal with parents or children and be involved in the community and most of the time we would love those problems to just disappear and we often pray for God to set things right, but that is not how God works. What God wants to do is bring peace to situations and relationships by giving us His courage to work through the problems and the confidence of knowing that he will work with us and fight for us when we step out in faith. If you marriage is filled with conflict, if the relationship you have with your children is filled with conflict, or teens if your relationship with your parents is filled with conflict, then understand that God wants to bring peace, but that peace is going to come through the courage and confidence to face and address the problem. Peace comes when in love and grace and faith we begin to address our difference honestly and openly.

Maybe the problem is in our finances or job and what we want is for God to just make everything go away. If God would just remove my debt or place me in another job then I would be at peace, but what God wants to do is bring peace by giving us the courage to face the problems. When I was in college I worked to get a job I thought I really wanted. Once I got myself transferred within the organization, it didn’t take me long to realize that I hated that position. I was miserable and for weeks I prayed for peace. I kept a journal that summer and went back and read how I asked God to just change my situation. Week after week I prayed for God to take the problems away, but what I finally began to understand is that peace was available because God was making available to me the courage and confidence I needed to go to my employers and talk to them. It wasn’t easy, but once I did that I was transferred back to my old position and the rest of my time with them was filled with peace.

So peace is not the end of our problems it is the blessing of God’s courage and confidence to address and work through the problems and the person who shows us this most clearly is Jesus. From the moment Jesus was arrested in the garden until he said his final word on the cross, Jesus displayed an incredible amount of peace. He never seems angry or upset, he calmly just endures all that takes place. He is the picture of peace, but his problems did not go away. Jesus faced an unjust trial, a savage beating and the pain of crucifixion, his problems clearly did not go away, but God gave him the courage and confidence to face those problems and in time overcome them.

So peace is not the absence of conflict and problems but the courage and confidence to deal with them. But these first words also show us that peace is also not the absence of doubt and fear but the faith and love to overcome them. Let’s look again at the disciples. John 20:19a. It says they were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid. They were afraid for the very lives. Think about it, if Jesus was arrested, tried and crucified for what he taught then they could be as well for following his teaching. Any knock on the door could have been the religious leaders or Roman authorities coming to take them away. And now that Jesus’ body is missing there is even more fear. What if the leaders accuse them of stealing the body? What if they Romans decide to put their bodies in the tomb where Jesus body should have been?

There is incredible fear that the disciples face and Jesus showing up and saying, Peace be with you doesn’t take that fear away. There is still fear of the authorities coming after them. There is still fear about what will happen to them if Jesus suddenly appears in the Temple courts or city streets. The disciples are still afraid and the peace Jesus offers doesn’t take that fear away, but it does do one thing to help them overcome their fear, it lets’ them know that Jesus still loves them and that he will be there with them.

Remember, the disciples are also dealing with the reality that they have all failed Jesus. When he needed them to stand with him, they all ran away and some of their fear is how Jesus will respond to them. Will he forgive them? Will he still want them as his disciples? Does he still love them? When Jesus appears and offers them peace he is also saying to his disciples, I still love you. Even though you are afraid and even though you have failed – I still love you. The gift of love that came through this blessing of peace was powerful for John, look at 1 John 4:18. The love that Jesus offered in this moment drove out some of John’s fear and began to bring peace. The fear didn’t instantly go away, but knowing that God’s love was there began to drive out that fear. So the peace that God offers us doesn’t take our fear away, but it does give us the love we need to begin to overcome our fear.

I have been wondering this week how it is that love casts out fear and the conclusion I came to is that many of our fears come because we feel like we are all alone. The disciples must have felt all alone in their failure, and I talk to people who often feel like they are the only ones who sin and so live in fear that there is no way God could forgive them. What love does is remind us that we are not alone. When Jesus showed up and offered the gift of peace it told the disciples – you are not alone in this; I will be with you. When we can experience the love of God and the love of others it helps us know that we are not alone in whatever it is we are facing and that helps us overcome fear. This is why sharing our love with one another is so important because it helps all of us feel less alone.

So the peace Jesus offered didn’t take the disciples fear away it gave them the love they needed to overcome the fear, it also didn’t take their doubts away. Again, think about their situation. Before Jesus appeared to them they had huge doubts and questions, like what happened to Jesus body? Did someone take him or was he really alive? What was going on? The disciples were experiencing incredible doubts when Jesus appeared and when he said Peace be with you those doubts didn’t go away in fact, their doubts just grew in intensity. How did Jesus just appear in the house – he didn’t have a key and it says they were meeting behind locked doors? Forget how he got into the house, how did Jesus rise from the dead and where has he been? What is he doing and what is going to happen to him and to all of them in the future if he is alive? Can all of this really be happening? There are lots of questions and doubts here and the peace Jesus offers doesn’t take these doubts away but it does give them some faith to help them overcome their doubts.

Seeing Jesus gave the disciples faith that their questions in time would be answered. It gave them hope that things would become clear to them as they moved forward. Jesus presence brought them faith and hope and that blessing brought them peace. The same is true for us. God’s peace doesn’t answer all our questions and take away all our doubts, many doubts and questions will linger throughout our lives. I’ll be honest, I believe in the resurrection and eternal life, I really do, but when I have to do a lot of funerals in a row I begin to wonder how it all works? I begin to wonder and question what heaven and eternal life are like and when I don’t get answers then doubts creep in, but then it is the presence of God that brings me a clear sense of assurance that there is indeed a resurrection and eternal life and that brings me peace.

So God’s peace doesn’t make our problems go away it gives us courage to face those problems, it doesn’t make our doubts go away but it gives us faith and hope to move beyond those doubts and it doesn’t make our fear go away but brings us God’s love which casts out our fear. That is what Jesus offers the disciples when he says to them, peace be with you.

But there is one last thing we need to understand about God’s peace. Jesus only makes this offer to his disciples when they are together which tells us that the fullness of God’s peace only comes when we are in solid healthy and strong relationships with one another. Think about Thomas for a moment. Thomas was not with the disciples when Jesus offered them peace, but Jesus did not go to him one on one and make him that offer. Jesus waited until they were all together again and it was only then that he appeared and offered them all peace – including Thomas. The fullness of peace only comes when we are in strong communities of faith which means we need to take our relationships seriously.

The truth is that when we are at odds with one another, there is no peace. When we hold resentments and anger toward one another, there is no peace. When we are jealous and envious of one another there is no peace which is why God talks so much about forgiving one another and bearing with one another and loving one another – so we can experience God’s peace. The fullness of God’s peace cannot be experienced on our own and apart from the people of God, we need to be connected to one another if we are going to be at peace, which means that if we are not experiencing peace then maybe we need to examine our relationships and see where grace and mercy and forgiveness are needed. By offering peace to his disciples only when they were together, Jesus tells us that the power of peace comes to us in community and when we are in healthy and strong relationships with one another.

Peace is one of the first words of Jesus after he left behind an empty tomb and by using the word over and over again, we need to take it seriously. God makes his peace available to us, but it is not the absence of problems or pain and it is not the absence of doubt or fear – it is the gift of courage, confidence, faith, hope and love and it all comes when we are gathered together and working together to reconcile relationships and restore community. So today may we experience God’s peace, a peace which passes our understanding and peace which lasts no matter what is going in our lives or in the world around us.




Next Steps
First Words from the Empty Tomb ~ Peace

1. Examine your life and identify the specific situations where peace is needed:
• Home:
• Work:
• With family:
• With friends:
• With God:

2. What would it look like for God to give you courage, faith or love in these situations?
• How might these gifts bring you peace at home or work or in your relationships?
• How might these gifts strengthen your relationship with God?

3. What one practical step can you take this week to bring more peace into your relationship with God or others?

Prayer:
God, thank you for the gift of courage, faith and love which all brings Your peace into my life. Help me to use these gifts to overcome my problems, doubts and fear so that all my relationships may be stronger and I may experience the peace Jesus offered. Most of all, forgive my sin and help me experience Your love and presence so that I may be at peace with You. AMEN

For further study see these scriptures on peace:
Philippians 4:4-7, Colossians 3:12-17, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-25

First Words from the Empty Tomb ~ Revelation

Tom Taylor works for NASA and I want to thank him for sending me this image of our Milky Way galaxy that has highlighted for us where in the galaxy our solar system is located.

I also want to thank Tom for answering lots of questions I had about the universe. What is significant about our location is that because we are near the outer bands of the galaxy where there is less space dust, debris and light from multiple stars, we have the ability to observe not only our galaxy but galaxies beyond ours. Because we are in a relatively clean area of space we are able to get images like these of other galaxies which simply amaze me.

Some of these images were taken from satellites and space telescopes like the Hubble, but some were taken from the earth and the only reason we are able to get pictures like this from the earth is because our own atmosphere is relatively clean. Think about it, if our planet was covered with thick clouds like Saturn, we would have no idea what lies beyond us, but because we have a clear view of the world around us, just standing outside on a dark night we can observe our world.

This is an actual picture and the reason it reveals to us so many stars and planets is because our atmosphere allows us to see this. Now while some may want to say all of this is a coincidence, I’m not so sure.


Of all the billions of possible locations for God to place us, God chose a planet where we have the ability to observe the world around us. Maybe God wants us to observe the world around us because that search will awaken within us a search for meaning and purpose which will finally lead to a search for God. I think God placed us on this planet where we have the ability to search and observe because God wants us to search for him and find him. The reason we know that God wants to be found is because God doesn’t hide himself away in the dark corners of the world. If God really didn’t want to be found by us, he wouldn’t be. Let’s face it; we aren’t smart or powerful enough to find God on our own, so that we know anything about God is only because God has revealed himself to us.

The story of the Bible is really the story of God’s revelation. Through history and the pages of scripture, God reveals himself to his people. God spoke to Noah and Abraham and revealed to them not just his purpose for their lives but his purpose for the world. He also revealed to them a small part of who he was. God revealed himself to Moses and then through the law, God gave Moses and the people of Israel an even better picture of who he was. The law showed the people what was important to God and it began to reveal the heart and mind of God. Through the prophets God continued to reveal himself and God even said through the prophet Jeremiah that if we search for God we will find him. Look at Jeremiah 29:13-14a. Notice that it says here that the only reason we are able to find God is because allows himself to be found.

So God reveals himself to us and in the person of Jesus God revealed to us the fullness of his heart and life. Jesus was God in the flesh. In Colossians 1:15 it says, He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God. The fullness of God’s love and power dwelled in the person of Jesus so that when people looked at Jesus they were looking at God. This is what Jesus said in John 14:9, Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. God revealed himself fully to the world through Jesus during his life and then some of the first words of Jesus from the empty tomb continued this process of revelation. After he rose from the dead Jesus worked to reveal himself to his followers; that is what we heard from the first words of Jesus from the empty tomb in the gospel of Luke.

In Luke’s gospel, the first words of Jesus after he leaves behind an empty tomb are shared with two of his followers as they are on the road to Emmaus. As they were heading out of town, these two men were discussing all that had taken place in Jerusalem over the past week. They were talking about how Jesus came into Jerusalem to the shouts and praise of all the people and how they were all hoping Jesus was going to set up his kingdom and set them free from the oppressive political power of Rome. They talked about how Jesus took the first steps in doing this by clearing out the Temple of all the money changers which not only upset the status quo but challenged the authority of the religious leaders. They talked about how Jesus was arrested and tried and how disappointed and distraught they were when he was handed over to be crucified. They talked about his death and how some of the disciples found his tomb empty. They debated how some thought Jesus might be alive, but others couldn’t believe anything like that could actually happen.

It’s amazing to think that they were not just talking about all of this to each other but to Jesus and yet they didn’t recognize him. The reason they didn’t recognize Jesus is because they were sad, it says their faces were downcast. The death of Jesus came as a blow to them. They had hoped for a different outcome. They believed things with Jesus would be different and they were struggling to understand what was going on and where God was in all that had taken place. They had believed Jesus was from God and that God was going to do great things through him, so when everything fell apart they were left asking themselves, where is God now? How could any of this be God’s plan?

Does any of that sound familiar? Have you ever been in a place of distress and discouragement and asked yourself, “Where is God in all of this?” Look at Luke 24:21a. Have you ever said something like this? We had hoped for a different outcome. We had hoped things would have turned out differently. We had hoped, but now we have no hope. It was because they had no hope and their hearts and lives were broken that they couldn’t see Jesus standing right there with him and the same is true for us at times. When we are discouraged and in despair it is hard to see that God is with us, but he is. I want you to notice something about these first words of Jesus; they keep pushing and prodding the disciples. Jesus gets them to think and talk and reflect. Jesus doesn’t give up on them; he keeps working to reveal to these two men the truth of God.

And then comes Luke 24:25. Now this could have been the end of the conversation and Jesus could have left them behind in the doubt and despair, but he didn’t. Look at Luke 24:27. Jesus took the time to teach and instruct these two men about all God had done and was doing. Think about the context here, this is the day that Jesus rose from the dead and we might think he would have better things to do than spend his time trying to explain the scriptures and the events of the past week to these two men, but he doesn’t. Jesus walks with them and takes the time to reveal to them God’s truth and love and helps them see the fullness of God in all that is taking place.

As they walk along the road together, Jesus slowly reveals to them God’s purpose and plan and when they arrive in Emmaus they still don’t recognize Jesus but want to hear more. They are captivated by his words and presence so they invite Jesus to stay with them. Jesus agrees and at the dinner table Jesus took bread and when he blessed it, broke it and he gave it to them the actions were so familiar that they finally saw Jesus for who he was. In the blessing and breaking of the bread Jesus was fully revealed. By taking the time to walk with these men, instruct them in the ways of God and finally reveal himself to them in the blessing and breaking of the bread it shows us that God still wants to reveal himself to us. Revelation is important to God and in this story we see three important ways God still wants to reveal himself to us.

The first way Jesus worked to reveal himself here was through his word. It says that Jesus interpreted to them the scriptures. In other words Jesus is having a small group Bible study with these two men and the reason Jesus chose to do this on the day of his resurrection is because he knows that the revelation of God still takes place primarily through God’s word. If we want to know about God we need to read God’s word and encounter God in the scriptures. In the book of Hebrews it says that God’s word is living and active, sharper than a doubled edged sword. And it says that our hearts and minds and lives are laid bare before God when we read God’s word. In other word God’s word reveals to us the power and truth and glory of God.

God’s word reveals God to us. We see God as we read about his relationship with his people in the Old Testament. We see God as we learn about what is important to God through the law and the prophets. We see God as we see Jesus and hear his words. Nowhere is God more clearly seen than in his word which is why some of the first words of Jesus from an empty tomb were given at a bible study.

If we want to know more about God then His word is the place for us to start. We need to read God’s word and hear His voice and encounter God’s presence in the scriptures but we also need to study God’s word and work to understand it. If you aren’t involved in Bible Study either personally or in a small group – I can’t encourage it enough. It was through a small group bible study that I began to understand see God and we all need to see God through his word and find in it fresh and relevant insight for our lives.

But it wasn’t just through Bible Study that Jesus revealed himself to these two men, it was also through the breaking of bread. In fact it was the act of Jesus blessing, breaking and giving them bread that their eyes were finally opened. Today this act is part of our worship and so worship is another place where God reveals himself to us. In times of praise, prayer, communion and silence God reveals himself to us. God speaks to us in worship. God’s presence is felt in worship and through simple and sometimes powerful ways God makes it known that he is with us

I will never forget leading a worship service in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a beautiful Sunday morning in an outdoor amphitheater that looked out over the Rocky Mountains and as I was preaching two large deer entered the back of the seating area and slowly walked to the front. I stopped talking. People grabbed their cameras and the deer just walked through our sanctuary and then down the hill. When they were gone everyone looked back at me and all I could say was, “well, I don’t need to say anything more because God has just shown up.” We prayed, sang a song and gave thanks that God revealed himself to us in a time of worship.

God’s presence may not be that evident in every worship service, but God is always here. His presence might come to us through a moment of silence. It might come through a word of scripture or the note of a song. It might come through the smiles of the choir or the laughter of a child. It might come through an unexpected moment or being struck how a common routine like taking up the offering or sharing in communion suddenly takes on new meaning. There are countless ways God reveals himself during worship; I just know he does because the first words of Jesus on the day of his resurrection shows us that he does.

But there is one more way Jesus reveals himself to these two men on the road to Emmaus. He walks with them. Now what is really interesting about this is that at first these two men are walking in the wrong direction. The men are leaving Jerusalem which is where all the disciples have gathered together. Everyone is in Jerusalem and they are there to figure out what is going on. These two men had heard that Jesus might be alive but they are still leaving Jerusalem. It’s like they have given up or given in to what they believe is a hopeless situation. So they are leaving Jerusalem, headed in the wrong direction when Jesus appears to them which tells us that Jesus comes to us even when we are headed in the wrong direction. Even when we are making wrong choices – God is still with us and he works to reveal his goodness and love. So Jesus walks with them for the entire day, going in the wrong direction and then he spends time with them at dinner in Emmaus and once they see Jesus for who he is look at what they do – the immediately return to Jerusalem, the walk in the right direction.

I love this part of the story because it tells me that Jesus walks with us even when we are going in the wrong direction with the hopes of getting us to walk in the right direction. One of the things I love about the word of God is that at times it comes alive in our lives. I realized something this week I have never realized before, this story of the men on the road to Emmaus is my story. When I went to MSU as a freshman I wanted to experience the… let’s just say…wild side of college. I remember praying as I was riding to MSU in September, “God I want to be on a real party floor and experience all that college has to offer.” Well, God heard that prayer and answered. My first room was in an all male dorm on an all freshman floor. It didn’t get much wilder than that. God walked with me in the wrong direction, but also worked to reveal himself to me and lead me into the right direction.

While I was on a real party floor, God also led me to a Bible study where I began to learn about Jesus and through that study I began to understand more about God and actually saw in people and in God’s word the fullness of Jesus Christ. By the beginning of my sophomore year, I was walking in a different direction – God’s direction. So God walked with me in the wrong direction, led me in Bible study and through that time revealed himself to me which finally led me to walk with God in the right direction. This resurrection story is my story.

What direction are you walking today? Are you walking away from God? Like these men on the road to Emmaus are you walking away from the people of God? Are you walking in darkness and pain and sadness? Are you walking with your head’s downcast saying to yourself, I had hoped things would have been different? If you are then you need to know that God is still with you and he is working to reveal himself to you. God is by your side today and he is inviting you to turn and walk with him.

Whatever direction you are headed today, God is with you and he is working to reveal himself to you – that’s the message we hear from this first word from an empty tomb. God is all about revelation. We live in a world where we can observe and search for God because God wants to reveal himself to us. God’s revelation may not come through the stars,

but it will come through his word and through worship and through our walk of faith with Jesus and with one another.



Next Steps

First Words from an Empty Tomb ~ Revelation

On the day of his resurrection, Jesus revealed himself to his followers through the word, worship and walking together. God still reveals himself through His word, worship and walking with us.

1. Word. God reveals Himself through His word, but we need to search for Him in it.
• Take time each day to search for God in his word. This week read about the first words of Jesus found in Luke 24.
• Take time each week to gather with others to study God’s word. Join a Sunday School Class, Bible Study or small group. Stop at the connection table to get more information on available groups.

2. Worship. God reveals Himself through worship, but we have to commit ourselves to being there.
• Commit to being in worship for the First Words series during April.
• Set aside time every day to worship God through prayer, praise or silence.

3. Walking. God reveals Himself by walking with us.
• Thank God for walking with you during times of doubt, fear and disillusionment.
• Walk with others in service by giving your time to the Serving Our Seniors day of ministry.