Acts 4:32-35John 20: 19-31
How many of you have a lock on your door and use
it every day? How many of you have alarms for your houses and for your cars? I’d
say a fair few of us use locks to help keep bad things out and keep good things
in. We have been raised to think that everything of value should be locked up
and kept away from prying eyes.
A few years ago I watched a show called Reba and
in it, her ex-husband decided to put an alarm on the house for her. Instead of
using a professional, he and his son in law decide that they can do it
themselves. They take a couple days to work at it and when they are ready to
test it out, they tell the youngest son to pick a password and to type it in.
Then the ex-husband said, “Now, when you pick this password you cannot tell
ANYONE what it is, this is very important, do not tell ANYONE.” The son agrees not
to tell and picks a password and types it in. Then when they go to test the
alarm, sure enough it begins to shriek and the man turns to his son and says, “Okay,
tell me what the password is.” The son refuses so the man says it again. Again,
the son refuses to tell him. The alarm continues to shriek loudly. “Why won’t
you tell me?” the man yells in frustration. The son replies, “Because you told
me to not tell ANYONE, so that means you too, Dad.”
We often try to lock away not only those things we
find valuable in this world, but ourselves too. That is where we find the
disciples in this passage of John. They are terrified because their Messiah is
dead, and they are miserable because one of them betrayed Jesus, one of them
denied him, and the others ran away when he needed them most. They are sitting
locked in a tiny room, trying not to get too upset at the way their lives have
suddenly been ruined.
They had left their jobs, their homes, and their
families to follow Jesus. And now Jesus is gone. Killed by the very Roman
Empire he was supposed to overthrow; killed by the synagogue leaders who seemed
so harmless when Jesus was preaching in their midst. The shock and anger, the
self-pity and sadness must have hung thick in the air. They probably didn’t
speak much, but when they did it was probably with sharp bursts of words before
silence reigned again. They were utterly lost and alone.
Suddenly, Jesus appeared and said into that heavy
silence, “Peace be with you”. The passage says the disciples were overjoyed to
see Jesus. That word does not seem like a big enough word to describe what they
must have felt as they saw his hands and side and realized this really was
Jesus, their Lord. How would you have felt at that moment?
They went from a moment of utter hopelessness to
the complete opposite – joy. Joy is filled with promise, excitement, laughter,
and hope. Some of them must have been overwhelmed as well as overjoyed. Not
only was Jesus standing before them, appearing suddenly in a locked room, but
then he goes on to say, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am
sending you.” Then he breathes on them and tells them he is breathing the Holy
Spirit upon them, which means if they forgive anyone’s sins, God forgives their
sins; but if they do not forgive them, God will not either.
There they were, ten men locked in a tiny room and
filled with despair, and then in one moment of revelation they have been given
the power to forgive a person’s sins. In two short paragraphs, John has created
a complete turnaround; a total transformation for these ten men. Jesus changes
everything.
This is true for our own lives as well. Some of
you have probably been Christians your whole life. Others of you came to Jesus
later on. But whether you have been a Christian since a child or an adult, we all
have experienced doubt and disbelief. We all have tried to lock ourselves away
from the world so that nothing and no one can hurt us. We try to insulate
ourselves from the rest of humanity and we wonder why we’re miserable when we
do that. We put up walls and we think awful thoughts and we judge others in an
attempt to keep ourselves safe.
What are we keeping ourselves safe from? Jesus
must have wondered the same thing when he appeared to the disciples not once
but twice in a locked room. Nothing will change or get better if we stay hidden
away. We will learn nothing if we do not step out of our comfort zones. Jesus
challenges the disciples to leave the locked room and begin a new journey.
Jesus reminds them that he did not call them to be hopeless, but he called them
to bring hope to the world. That cannot happen if they remain stationary. It
cannot happen if they remain locked into four walls.
Jesus is also calling us. I told you that last
week. Just as he gave the disciples a job, a mission, Jesus has also given us
one. We come to church for many reasons. Some of us come for a peaceful hour of
singing and companionship with fellow believers. Some of us come to worship God
and to remember that God is with us. Some of us come to remember we are not the
Messiah, Jesus will save people and our job is to point the way to Jesus. Some
come because their parents made them and now they make their children come.
Whatever reason brings you here, it is what you
leave with that matters most. The disciples came into that locked room without
a mission and without any hope in their hearts. They left that room with joy,
filled with a new purpose and a new goal. They were no longer useless or empty.
Jesus had filled up all those empty places with the Holy Spirit so that when
they came upon scary moments after Jesus ascended to heaven, they were not left
without an anchor. They left that room changed. Forever.
Do we leave church as changed people? Do we accept
the Holy Spirit into our hearts the way the disciples did? Has the Holy Spirit
transformed our lives or do we ignore that voice that speaks to us so quietly?
We may not lock ourselves into the church, but we
often lock away our hearts from others. We tell ourselves that putting money in
the offering plate is enough. We tell ourselves one hour of the week to worship
God is plenty. We tell ourselves that a prayer before bed at night is enough
communication with God. We tell ourselves a lot of things.
But what does Jesus say when we stop talking? What
has Jesus called you to do when you stop making excuses? You may not be locked
into a tiny room like the disciples were, but if you are ignoring God, then you
are locked away from Him. WE are the ones that put up the walls and we are the
ones that turn the key. God loves us so much that he took on human flesh to
save us. God has opened Himself up completely, through Jesus; God is completely
vulnerable to us.
His arms are wide open, waiting for us to receive
Him, and God has given us a choice whether to run to Him or walk away. When
Jesus calls us to spread his word and to do good works in his name, he is
asking us to accept the Holy Spirit as he once asked the disciples to accept.
Jesus is reminding us that if we are to call ourselves His followers, then we
need to remove the chains from our hearts and be open to others. Instead of
turning away, Jesus is asking us to show the world how much he cares by caring
for the world.
Will you leave this church with an open heart, or
will you leave with your heart closed?
Amen.
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