Risen, Alive, Loving Lord Jesus – Hear us – Keep us – Strengthen us

Take a moment, pause and contemplate. There is gold here, can you grab it?

Consider for a moment that intervening period between John chapter 19 and John chapter 20, where it would seem that man is in darkness without Christ. There is confusion, bewilderment and fear, for three days and three nights.

Man no longer needs to remain in the dark without Christ, but this broken and warring world is living on the wrong side of the resurrection and it is our job to tell the world that there are answers, for all the pain and suffering, sadness and the tragedy. .

The world would not listen to the apostles. The world wouldn’t even listen to Jesus, and it probably won’t listen to us, but it is still our job to preach, proclaim and share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The disciples groped in the dark between the cross and the resurrection and that is where the world is today, groping in the dark.

People are just as defenseless now, as they were then, as sin and evil rise above the people and cause tragedy after tragedy. Many feel completely hopeless and inadequate in the face of the grim facts of sin, chaos, and man’s inhumanity to man.

Men continue to search pathetically for some humanistic man-made solution to the various increasingly serious problems, and men are struggling in the morass of fear and confusion.

Our job is to point them to Jesus Christ, even when they don’t want to be pointed to Jesus Christ.

Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has spoken and has spoken His final Word.

Forgiveness, justice, peace, joy, freedom, and healing are available.

These eleven broken, disappointed and defeated men transformed this world, when they were anointed and equipped by the ascended Christ.

Over these last two thousand years, transformed and equipped men and women have carried this message to the world. This cannot be explained on natural or psychological grounds.

The needs of this broken world at war have not changed.

We are so aware of that right now as we hear the news that Covid-19 is devastating lives, businesses, hopes, dreams and futures and God’s answer and solution has not changed and it is the risen and risen Lord Jesus Christ and the can. of the Holy Spirit, all so needed today as then.

That withdrawn group became the nucleus of the greatest society this earth has ever seen: the Body of Christ, the Church of the Living God.

These trembling followers came out of this baser despair to become men with such courage, confidence, and assurance that it was remarkable because it was supernatural: it came from God.

This is the work of the Lord and it is wonderful in our eyes. Psalm 118 verse 23.

Feel something of the scene in that Upper Room between Calvary and the day of Resurrection. Look at their faces. Imagine their conversations, if they talked a lot? What was going through their shattered minds? The emotions must have been close to exploding when we consider the depth of his despair!

They have been where many are today, and the only answer is the risen Christ.

They had been three years with Jesus Christ, and in one week their world was ruined and shattered, and as far as they knew, destroyed.

“The healings, that supernatural feeding, the miracles that we saw, these wonderful parables, are gone, as are our businesses.”

Matthew remembers the day Jesus called him three years ago. ‘It seems like yesterday – he came and took me out of that job as a tax collector – I hated that job – fleecing people – it made me feel dirty. He made me feel clean!

Simon the Zealot believes that he should have stayed with his nationalist political gang. He feels disillusioned-perhaps Judas was right to betray him-didn’t he betray us with his notion of the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven?

John tells Simon to shut up. Don’t say such a thing. We are low enough without harboring bitterness. Imagine what was going on in that Upper Room.

Then Juan sobs: “Jesus, how can I live without you? The world for me now is shattered, and I am tired, and I will be empty for the reminder of my earthly life.”

What dejection and despair!

There will be those in 2021 sobbing similar thoughts!

Then there is the shame. They had lost courage. They had escaped. They had abandoned him, after everything she had said in this room a couple of nights ago! Only a few women had remained faithful to the painful and excruciating end on Golgotha.

They were deserters, all of them, and they knew it. Peter remembers how he had said that Jesus could count on him! If only one of us had been together with him and with him, if only one of us had had the courage to be with him in his loneliness!

You are Peter, the rock, a rock! You are the Christ!

Despair, shame and fear are there. Look what John writes.

‘If you two are going to go out and look, close that door!’ There was nervous tension in that room. Feelings were tense. Make sure to wear your face coverings!
Isn’t this the condition of our world today, to varying degrees?

Never again would they hear His reassuring voice, nor see the way He allowed children to climb on Him, nor see that brave and fearless hand that touches lepers, nor feed the hungry, nor walk on the raging waters of life, nor would they see demons cast. of tormented men.

He was dead. We weren’t even there for the funeral!

This room is like a microcosm of today’s world! People live on the wrong side of the resurrection, and we see the raw material of tragedy.

Ethics and morals are so confused today. John Bunyan knew what he was doing when on the first page of his book he described humanity with the symbol of a man with a great burden on his back and on his lips a pitiful cry: “What must I do?”

Human wisdom is bankrupt. Romans chapter 7 talks about that.

In that Upper Room we see shame. I’m not sure if we see much of that today.
It was within the rules! Man’s unregenerate heart is the root of all his problems, just as it was when Paul wrote Romans.

In John, we read openly about fear. Will it be our turn next? His safety lay in a stone tomb two miles away, dead! – That’s what they thought.

For many, Jesus Christ is a historical memory, something that is mentioned in December and around March/April. He’s there for emergencies, maybe, and then we can lock him up again. Of course, you can’t do that.
He has stood as the greatest leader we have ever seen, the greatest teacher who has ever taught, the noblest example who set the highest standards of life, but he has been lost as God incarnate. He has lost himself as God invading history-offering mankind a different Kingdom!

He has been abandoned today – yes, by much of the visible church – and just as He was then by His disciples! BUT, BUT – He came to them – risen from the dead.

He has come to us, and many are praying that He will come again and pour out His Holy Spirit in a new way.

God has spoken, and has spoken to us at various times in our lives, and we are praying for him to speak, move and rise again.

After Pentecost I never read of any of these emotions that we witness in the Upper Room as they await the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Hope – courage – light – forgiveness – fellowship – the assurance of eternal life.

The risen Christ came and appeared to them and breathed on them.

God with us – Emmanuel – God with us – forever!

“Loving and living Jesus, stay with each one of us, stay with each one of those who read this text. You know where we are, how we are and why we are the way we are. Risen Christ, strengthen us. Give us the encouragement and the ability to overcome Deepen our faith May we know that we are living on the right side of the Resurrection – Holy Spirit, keep us there – and use us, wherever you call us to serve, in this bewildered dark troubled world – so help us, Lord Jesus. Amen”