“Remembering the Risen Christ”
Text:
John 20:19-21 *read*
According to verse 19, the church of Jesus Christ started with a group of men in
a locked room who were scared out of their minds.
With a little imagination we can picture these Jesus-taught and trained men
totally speechless. Even though they had lived with Jesus for three years, even
though they had witnessed powerful miracles over and over, they were now so
afraid they were in hiding. They didn’t know what to do or what to even say to
each other.
Some may have peeked out the window to try to see what might be coming. Some
stared at the wall, some looked blankly at the floor, and all of them were
undoubtedly examining themselves to try to figure out what went wrong.
They probably thought about all the things that had happened the last three
years and now it was all gone. They thought of promises they had made to Jesus
but had not kept. They reflected on what happened that previous Thursday night
when they all ran away and abandoned Jesus. They thought back to that meal they
had with Jesus that now seemed to be meaningless. They remembered that it was
just one week ago that the crowds hailed Jesus as King, but now He was dead and
gone and their hope was gone.
We aren’t sure where the disciples went when they left Jesus in the Garden of
Gethsemane, but we do know they took with them memories of this man who called
Himself the Son of God. They couldn’t get Him out of their minds. They would
never be able to forget Him and how He had transformed their lives. As they
roamed the streets of Jerusalem on Friday and Saturday, if they saw a leper,
they remembered Jesus’ compassion. If they saw a storm, which they did on
Friday afternoon, they remembered when Jesus silenced one. (The storm is
recorded for us in Matthew 27:45) If they saw a lamb being carried to the temple
for sacrifice, they remembered that John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world. (We see this in John 1:29, 36)
The disciples could never forget Jesus, so they came back to the place they had
last spent time with Him. They went back to the upper room and sat in fear
wondering what was going to happen to them now.
Unfortunately things haven’t changed much in the last 2,000 plus years. Too
many Christians, too many followers of Jesus, find themselves huddled together
in the upper rooms they call churches, afraid to go out. The doors might not be
locked when they gather, but they might as well be.
Max Lucado calls these huddled together churches, “…congregations that have just
enough religion to come together, but not enough passion to go out…Upper room
futility.”
Too many huddled together churches sound like this:
“Sure, we’re doing our part to reach the world. Why, just last year we mailed
ten correspondence courses. We’re anticipating a response any day now.”
“You bet we care that the world is reached! We send $150 a month to…uh,
well…ol’ what’s-his-name down there in…uh, well, oh, I forget the place, but…we
pray for it often.”
“World hunger? Why that’s high on our priority list! In fact, we have plans to
plan a planning session. At least, that is what we are planning to do.”
Churches are full of good people with lots of good ideas and plenty of good
intentions. Churches have budgets, meetings, words, promises, commitments, but
while all the business of doing church goes on, the doors remain locked and the
story that can change and transform lives stays a well-kept secret.
Churches are full of people who don’t turn their backs on Christ, but the people
don’t turn toward Him either. We don’t curse His name, but we don’t live lives
that praise His name either. We know we need to do something, but we aren’t
sure what that something is. We know we need to keep coming together, but we
aren’t sure why we need to come together. We just do it out of habit.
It’s upper room futility.
It’s confused followers behind locked doors.
So, what will it take to unlock the doors? What will it take to re-ignite the
fire? What will it take to restore the book of Acts passion? What will it take
before we start running out of the church ready to live out God’s call on a
daily basis?
Maybe we need more training, or better strategies, a great world vision, more
money, a greater dependence on the Holy Spirit. Yes, we need all of these
things, but there is one more thing we need. This one thing is what got the
disciples out of that locked room and it is what we need to get us out also.
Let’s go back again to that upper room on that Sunday evening. Let’s picture
the scene. Peter, John, James and the others. They had all come back to that
upper room. They had heard rumors that Jesus had come back to life. Some had
seen the empty tomb that morning. So, with a glimmer of hope, they gathered in
that room longing for a word, a plan, some direction. But nothing comes, just
silence. And then just as someone mumbles, “It’s no use…,” they hear a voice
say: “Peace be with you!”
All those downturned heads jerk up. All those sad eyes turn toward the voice.
Every mouth drops open. Someone looked at the door. It was still locked.
It was a moment those disciples would never forget. It was a story they would
never get tired of telling. The stone could not keep Him in the tomb. The
locked door was not enough to keep Him out. He was alive!
Even though they had betrayed Him, He came back to them. And He didn’t say:
“What a bunch of cowards you are! Where were you when I needed you?” No, He
said: “Peace be with you!”
The very thing they came to that upper room looking for is the very thing the
resurrected Jesus offered them: Peace!
The fact that Jesus was alive was too good to be true. In Matthew 28:16 we see
that even after seeing Him several times, when they gathered on the mountain
where Jesus had told them to go, they worshipped Him but some still doubted it
was Him.
But, they overcame their doubt. In Luke 24:52, 53 we see that after Jesus
ascended, the disciples “returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they stayed
continually at the temple praising God.”
They didn’t go back into hiding. In fact a few weeks later we see in Acts 2:36
a transformed group of disciples standing beside Peter as he announced,
“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you
crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
There was no fear or timidity in Peter’s voice that day at the temple. And his
boldness led about 3,000 people to believe that Jesus was the Messiah they had
been waiting for.
From that point on, the transformed disciples started a movement. They followed
“The One” who had conquered death. They couldn’t say enough about Him. Christ
was their model. He was their message. They preached Jesus Christ, crucified
and risen.
So what was the one thing that got the disciples out of that upper room and into
the streets and highways and by-ways? They saw Jesus. They encountered the
Risen Christ. They believed that the very “One” who should have sent them to
hell, went to hell for them and came back to tell about it.
Over the next several years, those disciples would go through a lot for their
Risen Savior. They spent many nights on the road. They experienced hunger and
tiredness. Stones would bruise their bodies. Some were whipped and tortured
and most died at the hands of mobs because they refused to recant their belief
in their Risen Christ.
They were able to go through all the pain and suffering and horrible deaths
because Jesus came back to them alive. He didn’t come to chastise them, but to
send them out. He didn’t come back to criticize them, but to commission them to
go into all the world and share the gospel message of salvation from sin through
Jesus Christ.
Can you remember the first time you encountered the Risen Christ? Can you
remember the relief of having your sins forgiven? Can you recall the purity you
sensed in your heart?
Can you relive the passion for Christ that you once had? Can you remember your
first love with Christ?
I can remember my first encounter with the resurrected Christ. It was the
Sunday before Easter in 1962. I was six years old. I remember the Sunday
school class I was in. It was in a room above the old sanctuary of Bethany
Baptist Church in Kenmore, Washington. My teacher was Mrs. Fitch. There were
five or six of us boys in her class. I remember the quiet way she told the
story of Jesus’ death on the cross. I remember staying after class and praying
with Mrs. Fitch to accept Jesus as my Savior. I realized that day that I was a
sinner and that Jesus had died for my sin and I needed His forgiveness.
Some would say a six year old is too young for this kind of decision. I beg to
differ. I know that I didn’t know a lot about Jesus, but what I did know was
enough. And so I took Him into my heart. And no one had to tell me to be
happy. No one had to tell me to tell others about what I had done. I ran down
the stairs and into the new sanctuary and down to the front where my Mom was
playing organ music prior to the service. I said loudly, “Mom, I just accepted
Jesus into my heart” and with one hand on the keyboard still playing and the
other arm around me, she hugged me and we both cried tears of joy.
Can you remember that passion you used to have for Christ?
remember the Risen Christ coming to us.
Oh, how we need to
Max Lucado writes:
“There is a direct correlation between the accuracy of our memory and the
effectiveness of our mission. If we are not teaching people how to be saved, it
is perhaps because we have forgotten the tragedy of being lost! If we’re not
teaching the message of forgiveness, it may be because we don’t remember what it
was like to be guilty. And if we’re not preaching the cross, it could be that
we’ve subconsciously decided that – God forbid – somehow we don’t need it.”
In the last letter the Apostle Paul wrote, he begged his young friend, Timothy,
never to forget. In 2 Timothy 2:8 Paul said: “Remember Jesus Christ, raised
from the dead…” The Message puts it this way: “Fix this picture firmly in your
mind: Jesus, raised from the dead.”
Can you still remember? Are you still in love with Him? Oh how quickly we
forget Him. Life happens. Changes take place. And, somewhere we forget Him.
We don’t turn away; we just don’t take Him with us. We occasionally remember
Him on Sundays like Easter Sunday, but most of the time, we leave Him at the
church door. We let fear of tomorrow, anxiety about money and anger concerning
relationships take control of our lives. We walk out powerless when we should
go out with passion-filled resurrection power to love others to Jesus.
In many cities the church has lost its impact in the places where the people of
the church live, work, go to school and play. We can’t remember that passion we
used to have. We’ve forgotten the Risen Christ. We are powerless.
I want you to know today that even if you have forgotten, He is still there. He
hasn’t left. He’s been going with you even when you have gone off without Him.
Under all those fears and worries and faces and memories and deadlines and
financial woes, He is still there.
Please seek Him again. Go into your upper room and wait until He comes. Allow
the Risen Christ who changed your life once, to come back and change it again.
When He makes Himself known to you, imagine yourself touching His nail-scarred
hands, imagine yourself bending down and kissing His nail-scarred feet. Put
your hand on His pierced side. And look into His eyes. Look into those eyes
that melted the gates of hell. Then look at the grace and forgiveness and
unconditional love that He hungers for you to know and live in. Then unlock the
door and go out and praise Him through every day of your life. Show people your
love for Him by passionately loving them to Him. Encourage other Christians who
have forgotten Him to remember Him again. Ask them to join you in loving others
to Him.
I’m convinced that God is not done with us as individual Christians yet. And He
is not done with us as a church yet. He has not left us. We just need to
return to Him.
The Risen Christ is still alive and well on planet earth.
in and through your life?
Is He alive and well