Easter Service with Pastor Felipe Hernanadez

The first thing I want to do is thank all of you for your prayers.

A few months ago, Pastor Allen was visiting our church, and

it was a great blessing for our church.

I believe you probably know him better than I do.

I didn't imagine the transformation that he has been through.

To be seated here, calm and quiet, and now

to be here preaching, it's a great

blessing for me and our church.

I want to say something on behalf of my church.

Thank you.

Thank you for loaning us this dear brother.

For him to come and bless our church in Mexico.

I want to say something else.

The first time I was invited to come and preach the Word in the United States

was in the city of Port Arthur in Texas.

Pastor Jonathan Murdock, whom you all know, said, come here and preach

here.

I said, I don't have anything to tell them.

You guys have really good teachers there, better teachers.

I don't have anything to say.

His answer humbled me very much.

You are right.

You don't have anything, but the Word does.

We all need to understand that.

It's not about a Mexican coming here to preach in the United States.

It's the Word of God by means of the Word.

I will pay attention to the one who is humble in spirit and

trembles at my Word.

It's not me, it's His Word.

I invite you to open the Word of God.

We're going to look first at Luke 24,

and we're going to look at from Luke

24, 13 through 35.

We have here the story of one of the appearances of Christ after His resurrection.

Jesus was crucified on Friday.

Jerusalem was in an uproar.

And now it's Sunday afternoon, and Cleopas and another brother are walking.

It's about seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus,

and it's time enough to have a good chat.

I want us to look at that atmosphere of

emotion that you see here.

They're a good example of what the other disciples were all experiencing.

We

were hoping that He was the one who was going to redeem

Israel.

And this was a deception on their part.

They were under disillusionment.

They weren't even looking for a resurrection.

It's pretty obvious that none of the apostles were actually hoping for

a resurrection.

And since they weren't looking for that, they had to be convinced.

They should have been convinced.

There's no intending.

Oh, there are many who say they

invented the resurrection.

But they weren't actually hoping for it.

That's interesting.

And so we're going to look at these people who are walking along.

They're walking along with three emotions, feelings.

They were insecure.

They were sad.

And they were bitter.

They hadn't even taken the time to bother to go look at the sepulcher.

And so they're walking along and someone else walks up beside them.

But their vision was obscured.

They didn't recognize Jesus walking with them.

And he makes them an interesting question.

What are you talking about and why are you so sad?

He knew that their sadness had no real foundation.

They are walking along with the God of consolation.

They are talking to the great high priest who has already passed.

He had presented before his father his own blood.

And he brings reconciliation with the father.

He is a good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.

I am going to prepare a place, a home for you in the heavens.

And so they're walking along with the God of the universe, all power in

him.

It's ironic what we see here.

Why are they sad?

How often ourselves are we blinded by our own circumstance?

When our feelings blind us.

When we don't appreciate who it is that's walking with us.

It's almost funny the way Luke presents this before us.

And so Cleopas says to Jesus,

Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem that hasn't known what's going on these days?

We have the omniscient God being

judged like someone who is ignorant.

And he shows us his patience.

So we need to recognize Jesus for his patience with us.

What Jesus does is marvelous.

He begins to teach them about himself by means of his word.

Now let's look at John chapter 20.

We're going to look at three principal points in this passage.

The first thing we see is the fear of the disciples.

In verse 19 it says this,.

Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were

assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them,

Peace be with you.

So this had been a Sunday of a lot of emotion.

Firstly we learn about Mary Magdalene.

And so she went out early, went with some of the other ladies and they went to the tomb.

What a shock because the stone is rolled away and the sepulcher

is empty.

And so they go running to the disciples.

Someone has taken the body of our Lord.

And so Peter and John come running to the tomb.

And so they come in and they look inside and here are the linen

wrappings there and the kerchief apart on one side.

And it says that John believed.

But once again Peter arrives late.

And then Mary returns and she encounters two angels.

And then she sees the Lord.

But she thinks it's the gardener.

Then when he says her name, she hugs him.

And he sends her to the disciples.

And go and give them the news that I've raised from the dead.

What happens with Peter?

We know that Peter's soul had been put through the ringer.

He had to be humbled.

He had said I would never deny you love.

If I have to give my life, I'll give my life for you.

And three times he denied the Lord.

We haven't heard a word about Peter since Friday until this

morning.

And so he's looking more like Judas at this point.

Remember what Jesus said to him.

Once you have been converted, you will help your brothers.

Even though he has seen the empty tomb, he's still not convinced.

He needed a personal encounter with Christ.

We don't know how that happened, but we know it did from the word.

In Luke 24, that's what we read there, that he had

appeared to Peter.

And we see also in 1 Corinthians 15, how

Paul says that the Lord was seen by Cephas.

And it's very possible that it's Peter who's called all the disciples together there.

Because after seeing Christ, his heart was changed.

He went from pride, well firstly to shame.

But this Peter, by grace and grace alone, he

was brought from shame to faith.

Do you know this Christ that transforms lives?

Have you been changed, transformed by the resurrected Christ?

Would anybody notice in your life that this transformation has taken place?

It's almost unbelievable to see Peter in the book of Acts.

We have this before and after view of Peter when you come to the book of Acts.

And it's possible for you to have the person you were before Christ,.

The person you are after Christ.

And a person who is merely religious does not have a before and after.

And a moralist doesn't have a before and after.

But a person who truly knows

Christ has a before.

It's called regeneration.

What happens to those other disciples that Sunday evening?

Well the women had come and given testimony.

They didn't believe them.

And even Peter's testimony doesn't sound very convincing.

And so we have a Christian assembly there that evening.

They're trembling, they're in fear, they're uncertain.

But they're expecting something.

They're all full of fear, but they're together.

They're like us.

They're fragile, they're weak, men and women like you and me.

But all of a sudden the Lord Jesus shows himself to them.

In the midst of their fragility and weakness.

They're not deaf.

They're not abandoned.

And he enriches and empowers his church.

It's not our ability, our strength.

It's not by our intelligence or our wisdom.

All that we have and all that we know, it doesn't make us strong.

It's the presence of Christ.

It's the only thing they have.

But it was all they needed.

We are enriched and strengthened by the power of Christ who reigns

forever.

These disciples, they were in fear of the Jews.

They had the door barred.

They had a good reason for their fear.

The Lord had warned them that the Jews might kill them.

In their way, they were thinking that they were serving God and killing.

He had told them the world's going to hate you.

They crucified our Lord and now they're coming for us.

So they closed the door and they put the bar down to keep them out.

Their fear was real.

Look at what Jesus says to them in verses 19 and 20.

Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the

disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said

to them, peace be with you.

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Then the disciples were glad.

It wasn't just a mere greeting.

Peace be with you.

It was the one thing they really needed.

Remember what the angels sang when the Lord was born?

Peace on earth.

In fact, Zechariah says that he will come in the way of peace.

We see in John 14, verse 27.

My peace I leave with you.

My peace I give to you.

Isn't that strange then that he would come to them with words of peace?

And he comes before them and they look at him.

They're still not really convinced.

They think it's a ghost.

And we're convinced because of what he says next.

In verse 38.

If we look back at Luke 24.

Sorry, I was in the wrong chapter.

Verse 38.

And he said to them, why are you troubled?

Why do doubts arise in your hearts?

Behold my hands and my feet.

It is I myself.

Handle me and see.

For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.

And so this is the way the Lord He

invites them to come up here.

Touch me.

Can you imagine the joy after such?

I can imagine the cries that they made.

It's real.

It's him.

Wow.

Do you have anything to eat?

And so they offer him fish and honey.

And he eats right in front of them.

He rose with a real body.

Now they're convinced.

And so it changes the whole environment around them.

Think about this a minute.

Had anything changed outside the door?

The Jews still hated them and would like to kill them.

Nothing had changed outside that door.

But what was happening inside the door changes everything.

Because Christ is alive, that's what changes everything.

He changes my weakness into strength.

He changes my fear into joy.

He changes my desperation to peace.

He changes my uncertainness to hope.

If Christ is alive, it changes everything.

Because that convinces us that he defeated death.

And that convinces me that, for me, redemption was accomplished.

He defeated sin

and death, the world, and the devil himself.

If Christ is alive and he's victorious,

we have his victory.

If Jesus is alive, it changes everything.

See, he's alive.

If he's alive and he's defeated death,

Is there anything we need to be afraid of if we're with him?

No.

We have seen how he changes fear into joy and peace.

What does this Christ, resurrected Christ, want to do with his church?

When he gives his church joy and peace.

Let's look at verse 21 in John 20.

John 20, 21 to 23.

21 to 23.

So Jesus said to them again, Peace to you.

As the Father has sent me, I also send you.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.

If you retain the same sins of any, they are retained.

So the story doesn't end with just the mere joys of

the resurrection.

He wants something now of his church.

We're going to divide this last point in five sub points.

We're going to talk about the mission that Christ wants to accomplish by means of his church.

We're going to talk about the attitude in that mission.

The message of that mission.

The authority of this mission.

And so we're going to talk about the attitude in the mission.

And so Jesus says again to them, Peace to you.

But in this case, his petition is different.

He wanted them tranquil in that peace so that they could hear the message.

It had been this big joyful celebration.

He wants to calm them down.

Now you need to listen to this.

As the Father has sent me, I also send you.

You could compare this to Matthew 28.

He says in Matthew 28, 18, that all power is given unto me.

You can be at peace, calm down, I have all

power.

You have everything you need.

All the recourses of heaven are at your disposal for this mission.

They should have confidence in their mission.

It's not going to be brought forward by their abilities,

but by the ability of Christ.

So we'll talk about that message of the mission.

As the Father has sent me, I also send you.

And so how was Jesus sent?

He was sent to give testimony of the kingdom of God.

His message was repentance.

Believe in my name.

And so the gospel was the focus of the mission.

Because Jesus came to die for sinners.

He came with a focus on the greatest need of the

person.

Oh, there are many who want to preach a message of prosperity today.

Come to Christ and you'll be prosperous.

There's others that say that they come to Christ for miracles and health.

Oh, come to Christ and you'll have a happy family.

It's possible that some of those things might happen to real Christians.

But the message of Christ is for the greatest need in the heart of man.

And it's our sin that separates us from a holy God.

This is the sin that will take us to an eternity in hell.

Money might be able to buy you a few things here on earth, but it

can't do anything in eternity.

And health might be of some use temporarily here on earth,

but it's the sin that would take us to hell.

And it is eternal in suffering, in fire and sulfur.

And so he wants to solve our bigger problem.

And so he wanted them to be giving their lives for the proclamation

of the gospel.

And some might say, well, that was the responsibility of the disciples.

We weren't disciples.

Do you remember John 17?

It's our Lord praying to his Father.

He says in verse 20, I do

not pray for these alone, but

also for those who will believe in me through their word.

He even says in verse 18, before that, as you sent me into the world, I also

have sent them into the world.

And so we are included in that prayer.

The Lord Jesus prayed for us.

And if we are included in that prayer, so

we are also part of that same calling.

And so we are called to proclaim the gospel

of faith in Christ and forgiveness of sins.

It is the responsibility of all believers to proclaim that gospel.

Paul says, I believed, therefore I spoke.

And so the Lord hopes and desires for

disciples to make more disciples of all the nations.

I want to ask you something.

When did you last share the gospel with some other person?

Has it been a day, two or three days?

Has it been in the last week?

How about during the last month?

Do you even remember when you last shared the gospel with someone?

A lot of times we are embarrassed and scandalized by sins that have occurred

inside churches.

But nobody seems to be embarrassed that we haven't fulfilled this command.

And we think it's a small thing to be irresponsible regarding this calling.

I come to church.

I give in the offering.

I sing praises.

What's the matter with that?

Are you sharing the gospel with others?

If you're not doing that,

you are saying to Christ, I don't care what you say.

Have you thought of it in that way?

A horrible sin to disobey him.

These disciples ended up having a huge impact on their world.

Because they were obedient.

But in the Americas, the Christian church is actually diminishing in

size.

We have made ourselves comfortable in our little holy bubble.

Then we talk about the power for this mission.

I'd like to follow Christ and obey him, but I don't know how.

Well, this is for us.

Because the Lord says, in verse 22,.

I can tell.

And when he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit.

And so this is like a foresight of what's

coming the day of Pentecost.

And so he does it in a symbolic manner.

And so he breathes on them and says, receive the Holy Spirit.

It makes me think of Genesis.

In the same way that the Lord gives the breath of life to that mud

named Adam.

And so we are looking at here that moment of regeneration by the Holy

Spirit.

And it's the Holy Spirit who gives us the ability to obey.

It's the same thing that he says in Luke 24, 49.

24, 49, behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but

tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power.

From on high.

This is the power that they would receive that would make them able to obey

and carry out that command.

And so the Holy Spirit would confirm the work of Christ in them

first.

And also the Spirit would do the work in the hearts of those who would hear.

In these days, the church around us has terrible teaching

regarding the work of the Holy Spirit.

There are people who talk about, oh, there was a great movement of the Spirit.

Because people fall down and laugh out loud and

do all that sort of thing.

But the greatest work of the Spirit is seen

giving life to a dead sinner,

bringing him to repentance and giving him faith to believe.

And then he brings forth fruit out of that person that gives evidence of that

faith.

Love, joy, peace, patience.

When there's an actual movement of the Spirit in a church,

a real movement, a genuine movement of the Spirit, there

will be a transformation of life.

There will be sinners coming to faith.

And there will be those saved sinners going out to bring others.

Now that's a movement of the Spirit of God.

And that is a real revival.

We could spend months here praying and singing and yet not have a revival.

And so a real revival is transformation and obedience.

And so we're going to talk about the authority in this mission.

We have a few more minutes here in conclusion.

In verse 23 it says this, if you forgive the sins of any, they're forgiven them.

If you retain the sins of any, they're retained.

You know, in the Roman church, they teach that it's the priest that has the ability

to forgive sin.

But according to the Word of God, he

is the only one who can forgive sin.

In Daniel 9, 9, sorry.

I prefer to preach in Spanish if you want to know the truth.

So it's hard for me to use this other language.

Daniel 9, 9.

Thank you.

Sorry, I'm trying to find it, brother.

I'm almost there.

Daniel 9, 9 says what?

We read there and turn one more page.

To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness,

though we have rebelled against him.

And so in what way is the Lord giving authority to his disciples

there in John 20?

It is, I believe it's easy to understand.

And any believer can declare this.

If a person truly repents and

puts their faith in Christ, their sins are forgiven.

And the person rejecting Christ and dies in their sins,

their sins will be

retained to condemnation.

We see the same thing in Matthew 18 when it talks about discipline within the church.

The church is authorized to

declare something like this.

If you prefer to hug on, hang on to your sin

and not repent before Christ,

we have the right to treat you as though you are an unconverted person.

That's through Christian discipline.

And we're authorized by Christ to exercise that within the context of the church.

And so this is the authority for our mission.

And so we have seen by means of the resurrection,

we have been brought from inability and fear to

peace and joy.

This is what our resurrected Savior has given us.

But the results of that will be our

work in his mission.

And what we will carry out in the proclamation of his gospel

by means of the Holy Spirit who works in us

and who works in the world bringing repentance and faith.

And so the resurrection has for us a responsibility.

It's a day of great joy.

Jesus is alive.

And so we are responsible to tell others in the world about it.

Oremos.

Heavenly Father, we thank you.

We thank you for the resurrection of Christ.

Thank you, Father, that we can have new life because of that resurrection.

Father, we are sorry before you that we have not obeyed as we

ought.

We have not proclaimed the gospel with boldness as we ought.

Father, forgive us for our foolishness and our fear and

frankly, our disobedience at times.

Father, may we go forth today to proclaim more boldly

your gospel.

And O Lord, that your Holy Spirit would work in us to that effect and that your Holy Spirit

would convince others of sin and righteousness and judgment.

O Lord, may you do a mighty work here in Perryville and in Tuxtla.

Lord, we love you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen.