(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 04/30/06) 

INTRODUCTION:

A little faith could have made a big difference.  Can’t you see Peter, James and John and the other eight disciples gathered together on the Sunday after Jesus died, smiles on their faces, light lunch and drinks set out for everyone, eyes glued to their watches, spiritually high as a kite, thinking, “It has all come true during our lifetimes!  God planned to rescue all sinners by accepting the sacrifice of one sinless person in their place.  The one sinless person was our dear friend Jesus, and this weekend he did what he came to do.  He willingly laid down his life for us just like he said he would.  A few people have already seen him alive again, which is exactly what he told us would happen, so…  He should be here any minute now.  It’s going to be so good to see him.”

Then Jesus appears in the room and they all mob around him and say, “What took you so long?  We’ve been waiting here for you.  You did it, just like you said!  Congratulations!  Way to go!”

Instead, there was a prevailing atmosphere of fear, fear for their lives since the Jews wanted to quash the Jesus Movement, fear for their souls since they had thought Jesus was the Messiah sent to save their souls and now they figured they had no Savior at all, and finally fear over seeing Jesus because they superstitiously thought he was a ghost, returned from the spirit world to torment them for their wretched behavior.  This couldn’t be the man who preached to them the Sermon on the Mount, who blessed the children, who carried the cross!  Jesus’ disciples were afraid the way people are afraid when war breaks out, or when they’ve just felt and witnessed an earthquake bring down a hotel they stayed in the previous night. 

Jesus did take them to task for it.  “Why are you so scared and why in all the world do you not believe that I have risen?  I told you all this.  Again and again I told you these things.  But here you sit.  You’re scared out of your wits.  You’re not doing anything productive cooped up behind these locked doors.  Things would have gone so very differently for you if you had trusted what I told you.”  But it’s hard to trust someone who terrifies you.

Does Jesus somehow terrify you?

Somehow he must because if we had taken him at his word with everything he’s told us, we wouldn’t be worried about or afraid of anything.  We’d be the happiest people on earth.  We’d have to be.  But I don’t think we are.  We must have sailed right past some of the things he’s said, because look at the list of fears we deal with: 

“If I don’t do this I’m going to be in so much trouble”—fear of the consequences. “I don’t want to die.” – fear of death.  “What if someone finds out?”— fear of disclosure.  “I don’t want to do this.” — fear of failure.  “What am I going to do now?”— fear of the future.  “Well what if I do this and then…?” —fear of the potential.  “I feel awful.”— fear of knowing how God ought to treat me.  “I feel hopeless” – fear that God hasn’t forgiven me.  “I feel worthless” – fear that God doesn’t love me.  God’s not amused when by our fears we tell him he’s not trustworthy?  Is Jesus dead?  Is there no hope?  Have we holed up in our houses with doors locked for fear of dealing with life or dealing with God?  Then…

It’s Time For A Change

Jesus Christ shows up in this room alive as ever when the gospel lesson is read and he says, “Peace be with you.  You have nothing to fear.”  And a little faith makes a huge difference.  Or even better: a living Jesus makes a huge difference.

It’s time to see and believe that faithless, fearful living is a way of life that can be forgotten.  Everything God promised over the course of 3500 years has come true in Jesus.  He’s the scapegoat that carried our sins away from the presence of God.  He’s the Passover lamb who was slaughtered – faith looks to his blood and death passes over.  He is every commandment kept, every sin punished.  Now he’s alive forever, never to die again.  When he returned to life, his disciples heard his announcement of peace, saw and felt the hands/feet that were pierced to pay for sins, watched him as he ate.  The eternal Son of God is your living, eating, breathing human brother.  The Redeemer of the world shares your flesh and blood, knows you by name, and loves you forever.

It’s time for a change and the change is this: to move farther and farther away from the fearful mode of existence that the disciples were in before Jesus showed up in that room and to move closer and closer to Christ and the confidence he creates when he says, “Peace be with you.  Look at my hands and feet.  Do you have something here to eat?”  I have a living Savior who loves me and I have nothing to worry about, nothing to fear.  Can we get there?

When we meet here week after week for church services, it’s easy to think that one of these weeks, something’s going to be said or something’s going to be offered that’s so new and cutting edge and holds so much promise that all of a sudden, we’re just going to be able to walk out of here saying, “Incredible!  This is great!  My life will never be the same.”  I’m pretty sure that I don’t have that to offer today.

But you have to know that what takes you out of that Easter Sunday locked room of fear and gloom and guilt and endlessly beating up on yourself is something that’s found on the pages of a book you own, the one we’re reading from today.  “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures.”   If we leave that book closed all week, we’re going to be driving in reverse.  A Savior who suffered for us, a Savior who rose, a God who changes our minds about our sin and gladdens our hearts by telling us that he’s gotten rid of it – it’s in the book.  Go home this week and read about the living Jesus on the pages of your bible.

I doubt that this will be the most memorable sermon you’ve ever heard, but it’s not about the way I say things to you.  It’s about the way God does things for you.  He does it with plain words.  “Why are you troubled?  Why do doubts rise in your mind?  Look at Jesus, put to death once to pay for sin but now alive from the grave on Easter Sunday.  Look at those nail marks.  You have forgiveness.  You have peace.  You have nothing to fear.”  Leave the room of worry and fear behind and, energized by power that’s not from within but from on high, go find someone who’s still locked up in a room like that and show them Jesus and let them out. 

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