Fears Calmed And Steel Installed - [John 20:19-23]

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Lesser-Known Historical Events as an Illustration

Well I have this morning 10 interesting�I�m not going to read all 10 of them for the sake of time�but 10 interesting but lesser-known events from history. I like this one because it�s a military thing.

Switzerland attacked its neighbor country, Liechtenstein, three times in history, and every single time was by accident. I don�t know how that happens. How do you do that? How about this one? In 1904, the first Olympics, the men�s marathon first-place finisher completed the race in a car and was disqualified.

Second-place finisher was carried to the finish line by his trainers, and the fourth-place finisher took a detour to eat during the race. They weren�t quite as serious about it, I guess, in those days.

I like this one, mostly because I hardly ever say nice things about cats, so here�s one. In the 1960s, the CIA spent $20 million to train cats to be spies. Known as the Acoustic Kitty Project, the first mission was sabotaged when the cat was allegedly killed by a taxi.

Sad. Well, I like to say nice things, you know. This one�s serious. In 1889, inspired by Jules Verne�s Around the World in 80 Days, Nellie Bly, a young woman, was the first to attempt traveling around the world.

She completed her journey in only 72 days and even met Jules Verne, the author of the book, himself. So those are some lesser-known events from history. And this morning, we�re going to look at two, I�m going to say, lesser-talked-about, maybe lesser-known events, in John chapter 20, so turn your Bibles there.

The Resurrection as the Precursor to the Great Commission

You know, we have the Great Commission in Matthew 28. This is, we�ll see the precursor to that, I guess you could call it the Really Good Commission, the Pre-Great Commission. And we also have a Pentecost preview this morning.

So a lot going on. John chapter 20, verses 19 to 23. Now, two weeks ago, we looked at the first appearance of the resurrected Lord to one of his disciples, and that was Mary Magdalene, if you remember.

She was looking for the body of Jesus, having set out that morning to finish the preparations for the burial of his body. And after talking briefly with two angels, Mary comes face-to-face with the risen Jesus.

She did not recognize him at first, and then when she did, she didn�t want to let him go. But he needed to ascend to the Father, and that permanent ascension would not take place for 40 days on Pentecost, or just before Pentecost.

And the ascension would mean two things for his followers. Number one, he would be their mediator. And number two, that he would send the Holy Spirit, as it says, Holy Spirit, as he said in John 16, 7.

But by simply saying Mary's name, Miriam, in the Aramaic, Jesus changed her entire focus. He told her to go and tell the disciples that she had seen him, and he gave her a message. He said, �Tell my brothers, if you recall, that I'm going to ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.

So then I talked about the eternal sonship of Jesus Christ, and the difference between the relationship we have in Christ with the Father, being adopted children of God, and Jesus as the only begotten Son of God.

Well, this morning, it would be easy to look at this passage and give you like three easy ways to lose your fear, or how to wait on the Lord even when a door is locked, or how to forgive others. But that's not what this passage is about.

Instead, we're going to see this morning, really a focus on the deity of Christ, and the centrality of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ to Christianity. And as we walk through this story this morning, I have three steps, three steps to this story as we go through it.

The Disciples in the Fog of Fear

Step number one, the disciples were in the fog of fear. If you're afraid, you often get confused and can't think rightly. We saw that even with Mary, and we're going to see it again today. Let me read our text, John chapter 20, verses 19 to 23.

�On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them 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 when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, �Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending 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 withhold the forgiveness for many, it is withheld. And even as we read that, you can think, okay, what does that mean? Well, that's what we're going to unpack this morning.

First, the disciples were in the fog of fear. Back to verse 19. �On the evening of that day, the first day of the week. Now, I can't, I just can't let that pass because it's still Sunday. Sunday evening.

Think about what an eventful day this was, right? First day of the week, the women get up and they're going to go anoint the body. They're going to go finish wrapping the body of Jesus. And yet, the tomb has been disturbed and all that goes on that morning.

And so we're still on the same day. This is Sunday evening and it's important. He could have just said the evening of that day or he could have just said in the evening, but he wants to emphasize it's Sunday.

He says it twice. �On the evening of that day, the first day of the week. Like, don't forget this is Sunday. That phrase, the first day of the week, appears in our English Bibles eight times in the New Testament.

Each of them after the resurrection. That's not that big of a surprise, but each of them after the resurrection. All of them either emphasizing the resurrection itself or the gathering of the church. In many ways, this evening was the first meeting of the church of Jerusalem.

Was it formally known as such? Did they have a charter? Did they have a compact? No. But as we keep moving through this, if you keep listening, I think you'll see that I think this was really a church meeting.

Now, secondly, notice the locked door. Verse 19, second part of it. �The doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. Now, should the disciples have been afraid? I think I have two answers for this, unsurprisingly.

I like true-false, right? This is kind of a yes or no. Should they have been afraid? On the yes side, well, Jesus had been arrested. Jesus had been wrongly tried in these sham trials. Jesus had been crucified.

It's entirely possible the Pharisees wanted to arrest the disciples. So, should they have been afraid? I think there's a good case to be made for yes. Now, let me take the opposite side. I'll debate myself.

No. There had already been several interactions with the resurrected Jesus. In fact, the one we've mentioned with Mary Magdalene, but there were also three in Luke 24. One with several women, one with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and a separate one with Peter.

On balance, I have to say I think no is the better answer. After all, Jesus had risen from the dead, just as he said. Just some of the predictions of Jesus. John 2, 19. Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, talking about his body, and in three days I will raise it up.

Mark 8, 31. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and listen, and after three days rise again.

You'd think they would have remembered this by now, especially with Peter, with the disciples, with Mary, all coming in with this report that they'd seen the resurrected Jesus. And if you recall, even after he was dead, his enemies had understood what was going on.

So how is it possible they didn't, his disciples didn't know? In Matthew chapter 27, verses 62 to 64, when they're looking for witnesses, or actually they're just trying to secure the grave of Jesus, we read this,.

The next day, that is, after the day of preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, Sir, we remember that how that imposter said while he was still alive, After three days I will arise.

Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead. And the last fraud will be worse than the first.

So if they understood what he said, and he taught it to the disciples on multiple occasions, how come they didn't know? It's not clear. But in any event, the church, the small gathering of disciples, including not just the 11 minus Thomas, but other disciples as well, including Mary Magdalene.

We don't know everybody who's there. They're all gathered together that evening on the Lord's day. I think there's something to be said for that. They needed comfort. They needed fellowship, and they had questions for one another.

They gathered together in Luke 24, verses 33 to 34. We read this, and they, which is Cleopas and the other disciple, rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the 11. We read in John that Thomas isn't there for this, at the beginning of this meeting anyway.

And those who were with them gathered together. We don't know who were with them. We just know there were others there. Saying, the Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. So again, we see that they're gathered together on Sunday evening.

And we're not told exactly how many are there, but we just know they've gathered. So now the Lord disturbs them. The Lord disturbs them again. Verse 19, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you.

Now, this would not be extraordinary. If you just read the text in John, you just say, okay, Jesus came and stood with them. Well, of course there are two issues. Number one, Jesus had been dead 12 hours earlier or so.

And secondly, of course, as we just read, the doors were locked. So how did Jesus come in? The resurrected Jesus? There are a lot of suggestions. I told the guys yesterday, I probably wouldn't say this, but I have to.

The one I like the best, I mean, because it made me laugh. Every time I think about it, it makes me laugh. What do liberals have to do? Liberals have to undermine the supernatural, right? So how do they explain Jesus getting into this locked room?

He hid in the room. And I'm like, okay, that's just, that's just so dumb. They will do anything to like minimize the supernatural. Somebody says now on a more serious basis, maybe, well, you know, Jesus is God.

He's on my presence. So it was easy for him to appear right there in that room. Well, there are a few problems with that. One is the grammar. And we'll get to that in just a second. But in his humanity, we, we need to focus on that in his humanity.

Jesus is not omnipresent in his deities omnipresent, but this is the human, the man, Jesus, his physical body. So that doesn't get us out of it. This idea of omnipresence, but that verb there, this just translated came is to just physical movement, not just popping in, but actually passing through the door.

So how did he do that? Well, you could say it was a miracle and maybe we don't know exactly, but here's what we do know that a resurrected body has different properties than our bodies do. In fact, in first Corinthians chapter 15, you know, when you think about the resurrection, I think that maybe the greatest single chapter about resurrection generally is first Corinthians 15.

And in verses 42 to 44, the apostle Paul wrote this. So is it with the resurrection of the dead? What is sown is perishable. Our bodies are perishable. What is raised is imperishable. That's the body that Jesus is in an imperishable body.

It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

So what's the difference between a natural body and a spiritual body? I'd love to explain it, but I probably have to die first to be able to explain it. And then I wouldn't be able to come back and tell you.

There's a categorical difference that is not fully explained to us. We just know that the bodies are different. There's a glory to a resurrected body. There are powers that attend to it that we can't explain.

But back to our text in John chapter 20. Jesus says, Peace be with you. Well, that's a common greeting, right? Grace and peace or peace be with you. In fact, if we just think about when Jesus first appears, when his birth is announced by the angel, what does the angel say?

Peace among those with whom he, God, is pleased, right? He declares peace. Well, what is it that Jesus accomplished on the cross? Peace. Our peace. He established peace between us who were formerly estranged, formerly enemies with God and God himself.

His sacrificial death for our sin grants us peace. So this is both a greeting, but it's also a theological reality. It's now done, right? He's raised from the dead. He has established that peace with God, but the disciples are in the fog of fear.

They're trembling. They're afraid. They couldn't tell you what he said when he came in that room. That's step number one. Step number two, the prince of peace dispels the fog. In other words, he clears their minds.

He establishes a temporal peace. He reestablishes order in the room. Look at verse 20. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Now, I want you to turn for a moment to Luke chapter 24.

I read some of it a moment ago, but we're going to be referencing Luke 24 quite a bit here for a moment because these are parallel accounts, and Luke adds some detail that's very useful to us as we look at this appearance of the Lord Jesus.

In verse 37 of Luke chapter 24, listen to how he describes it. But they were startled. The disciples were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. Now, do any of you have the translation that uses ghost?

It's a King James. I like that. Why? Because it really gives us the idea of they're afraid, right? You think a ghost pops into the room. You're afraid. And he said to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts?

See my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. Luke tells us or kind of explains that the disciples knew there was no natural explanation for Jesus entering the room.

He wasn't hiding. He didn't just kind of, you know, unlock the door and walk through. He passed through it. They're terrified. Why? Because their minds can't comprehend it. They'd never seen anything like it.

It also suggests that they didn't instantly recognize him, which is understandable. Firstly, because we don't know exactly, you know, when we read about a glorified body. Well, I don't know if you're watching a movie.

He probably has a shine or an aura about him. I don't know if that's true. But when something passes through the door like that, I mean, it's kind of like when a loud bang goes off or something shocking happens.

What do you do? You don't stare at the shocking thing, the frightening thing. You turn away from it. You, how do you pull away? It's instinct. Jesus assures them that he's not a ghost. He's not a spirit and he's no threat to them.

But whatever happened to his body during this glorification process and the resurrection process, one thing is clear. The wounds remain and he shows them very graphically, right? Look at my hands, my feet.

And when we see in the Greek hands, it doesn't mean here because typically, you know, what do we think of? We, we think that maybe, you know, the, the spikes went right through his hand there. Well, they didn't, they would have gone here in the wrist area.

And the Greek word for hands includes everything from the forearm on down. So we're fine, but he shows them his hands, his feet. And as John adds his side, he'd physically risen from the grave. He had flesh and bones.

The resurrected Jesus was not an apparition. And this defeats both the liberals who say, you know what? It was only a spiritual resurrection. The body's still in the grave. It was just his, the essence, the, the kind of the knowledge of Jesus is all that really mattered.

And that inspired the, the apostles will know that's wrong. And then there are the Gnostics who say, you know what? The body is no good anyway. And he only appeared to die on the cross. He didn't actually die because he never had a body.

So both are wrong. This is actually Jesus who appears in them. And he had all the marks of the crucifixion. And that wound that John mentions in his side is critical because it's one that no one could have survived.

That you can't fake that. You can't fake that wound in your side. It would kill you. John says in verse 20, then the disciples, when they, when Jesus talks to them, then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

Listen to how Luke describes it in verse 41. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling. So much more emphatic, right? They were glad or they still disbelieve for joy and we're marveling.

That word disbelieved. When we say we want you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that verb, it's pistou. That's the Greek verb. This is a pistou. Right? It's the negation of it. And it means to not believe, to refuse to believe there.

It's so glorious to see the Lord Jesus Christ. They can't believe it. You know, it's like some people will say, I can't believe what my luck, which I don't like, but it's something. It's just beyond our ability to reason.

They're marveling. And when you think about it, Jesus taken away, crucified, buried. He was dead. Yes, we could say the disciples were scared. They were frightened. They, but here's the rest of it. They'd lost their friend, their master.

They were sad. From our perspective, the resurrection. True is the greatest event in history. From their perspective, from the disciples perspective, not only is it the greatest event in history, it was quite emotional as well because their best friend was back from the dead.

They were in mourning and now he's back. The impossible had happened in the history of the world. No one had ever risen from the grave. Then again, in the history of the world, the second person, the Trinity had never been put to death.

The grave could not hold him. Now, was Jesus a prophet? Did he predict this? Of course, yes, we already read it, but again, in John 16, 22, a different prophecy. Jesus said this when he was talking about his leaving, his dying.

He said, so also you have sorrow now and thinking about it, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you. That's this moment fulfilling that prophecy. So the disciples, step one, we're in the fog of fear.

Step two, the prince of peace dispels the fog and step three, the master commissions his disciples. Now, normally the first point or the second point or longer, not today. Today, number three is the winner.

The Father Sends the Son, and the Son Sends the Church

Now notice the stress on peace. He's already said, peace be with you. Look what he says in 21. Jesus said to them again, peace be with you. Now, ordinarily I'd say this is repetition. This is again, stress.

This is to make the point you have peace, but there's more than that going on here. If we just think about, I'm going to use the word the bedlam of what's going on here. Jesus appears and what happens?

Everybody shrinks back and maybe we don't know, but I mean, it wouldn't be hard to believe they're all the oxygen sucked out of the room or there's shrieking or whatever. There's pandemonium, right from that.

And then just within a matter of seconds, absolute, utter joy. So from scared to death to absolute joy. So this second greeting is kind of like, okay, you guys probably didn't hear me the first time. So let's just reset and start over.

Then notice in verse 21, what I'm calling kind of the pre-commissioned commission. As the father has sent me, even so I am sending you again. This isn't Matthew 28, but it's a similar idea. The father sent me and I'm going to send you.

We've spoken before about the functions of the Godhead, the father and the son, and the spirits are all equal in terms of power, in terms of essence, but they function differently of the father. It would be correct to say that he is unsent.

In other words, no one sends him. The spirit is sent by the father and the son, and the son is sent by the father and by the father alone. Jesus has fulfilled his commission, that the father gave him, and because he has, because he has done what the father sent him to do, he is now in essence passing the torch.

The mission goes from his mission to theirs. What he was, what he was sent to do, he has done, and so now it's their turn to carry on. The father sent the son to redeem the elect by preaching the gospel.

He sent the son to reveal the father more fully to mankind. Jesus had been sent from out of the world, from the father's side, and into the world, right? Now, Jesus is sending the disciples to redeem the elect through the preaching of the gospel, the same, and they're being sent into the world after being saved out of the world.

They weren't obviously in heaven at the father's side, but listen to John 17 verses 16 and 18, and he's, Jesus, when he's in his high priestly prairie, he says this, he says, they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world, as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world, and as I said earlier, more than just the apostles are in this room, so this charge is given to not just the 10, because again, Thomas isn't there, not just the 10, but to everyone in the room, and I would argue to this incipient church, to this church plant, as it were, Hendrickson wrote this, he said, every believer also has an important duty, namely, the duty of bearing witness joyfully and incessantly to what, to Jesus Christ, to him crucified, to him raised from the dead, as we think about the joy of the disciples, as they visit with the Lord Jesus Christ, as they're visited by the Lord Jesus Christ, let me ask you this, doesn't the truth of your salvation, the fact that all your sins, past, present, future are forgiven, doesn't that bring you joy, just makes me think about how Pastor Mike says, if you're joyful in the Lord, somebody needs to send a missionary to your face, because you need to reflect that, right, we need to have that joy, normally, if you're happy about something, you tell other people, if you get engaged, you shrink from putting it on Facebook, no, well, what's the greatest joy that you have, of being in Christ, I think, we tell people that we barely know, all sorts of details about us, should the salvation, the greatest thing about us, be kept some sort of, tightly guarded secrets, no, no, and again, is it for all of us, John 17 verse 20, Jesus says, I do not ask for these only, in other words, not just for his 11 disciples, but also for those who will believe in me, through their word, he's praying for all of us to be sanctified, to be set apart, and ultimately to be used for his purpose, that's you and me, that's every single believer, this is quite a mission, that he's entrusting this small band of people, they need some help, verse 22, the spirit of God, and when he had said this, when he told them, he was sending them, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit, now this, early assembly of the church of God, could not perform the mission, that Jesus was sending them, relying on their own strength, and I think for each of us, if we think about, what the Lord calls us to do, not just in evangelization, but in everything, in every aspect of our lives, if we rely on ourselves, true or false, the results are great, it's when we rely on the Lord, that things happen the way they ought to, or the way we would want them to, and again, if Jesus is sending them, which he is, he was going to empower them, by the presence of the Holy Spirit, he promised to send the Holy Spirit, when he left in John 16, and now this is not the fullness, of the Holy Spirit, which is why I call this, kind of the pre Pentecost thing, this is the inauguration, the renewal of the promise, as it were, that the Holy Spirit, is going to be with them, as they perform this mission, that he has called them to, there was much instruction, and growth that needed to take place, over the next 40 days, even if we think about, Peter, now you would think, Peter having seen the resurrected Lord, if he were in there, he would have, you know, been able to calm everybody, before Jesus even showed up, but obviously that wasn't the case, the Peter of resurrection Sunday, is not the Peter of Pentecost, there's a lot of growth, that's going to take place, in the next 40 days, by the grace, and the power of the Holy Spirit, and also notice that, he charges them, he gives them a special, I'm going to say, I'll just say authority, this church, keep in mind, he's talking about a group of believers, in this room, look at verse 23, very difficult verse, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them, if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld, again, keep in mind, that he's giving marching orders, to this infant church, what's he saying here, is he saying like Rome says, we alone, have the power, to forgive sin, is he saying that, if you go to a priest, and confess your sin, and the priest tells you to do, this many of that kind of prayer, and that many of another kind of prayer, then your sins are forgiven, is he telling them, that if they get certain indulgences, that their sins are forgiven, no, no, there are two, thoughtful suggestions, and I think both of them have merit, so I'm going to go through both of them, the first one super quickly, because this is the basis of it, if we think again, what is their commission, what are they being charged to do, they're being charged, to go out throughout the world, and preach Christ and him crucified, as the father sent me, I am sending you, right, so it has to do with the preaching of the gospel, then that's part of it, but it doesn't explain all of it, the second idea, I want you to listen carefully, the second idea, ties this to Matthew 16 19, Matthew 16 19, now listen, and see if some of this language, doesn't sound familiar, because we're going to hear it a few times, I will give you, I remember if, Matthew 16 19, Peter's just made the great profession, right, you are the Lord, son of God, then Jesus says, upon you are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell, Hades, death, will not stop me, right, then verse 19, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven, very similar, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them, if you withhold forgiveness for many, it is withheld, the parallels, the Matthew, or to John 20, are clear, if we accept this group of disciples, as essentially the beginning of a church, as I think in Matthew 16, we would see that, and I think it is good, or it is with this kind of idea, people, the elect, will respond to gospel preaching, right, they will come to places, that preach the word of God, they will come to people, who preach the word of God, so what happens, when new people come to BBC, when new people come to any place, where the gospel is preached, we must evaluate, whether or not, when they apply for membership, when they want to be baptized, we have to evaluate, whether their profession of faith, is credible, if it is credible, then what's true, their sins are forgiven, not because the church says so, but because it's been done in heaven, similarly, Matthew 18, right after the section on church discipline, right after you put somebody out of the church, right, you go to them once, you go to them with a witness, you know, you warn, warn, warn, warn, you warn, you pray, and then step four, you put them out of the church, you treat them as a tax gatherer, and an unbeliever, then Matthew 18, 18 says this, Jesus, truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven, same principle, somebody's put out of the church, they want restoration, how do you, how do you decide, whether somebody has been excommunicated, says they're repentant, can be allowed back into the body of Christ, are they repentant, who decides, is it the person who was put out of the fellowship in the first place, no, Jesus gives that power, that authority to the church, the leaders of the church, the mature, biblically saturated leaders must do so, but of course, they have to do it with kindness and grace, they can't, as Peter writes later, lord it over the people, in verse 23, the verbs of John chapter 20, the verbs forgiven, and withheld, are passive, perfect passives, what does that mean, means it's not the church doing the forgiving, or the withholding of forgiveness, but an act of God, in other words, what the church does on earth, reflects, what has already taken place in heaven, how can we know that, how can we know that what the church is doing, is what's already happening in heaven, because God has given us his manual, and as much, I mean, we are, the leaders of any church, are fallible men, but as much as they possibly can, they adhere to scripture, they adhere to the word of God, and they try to make their decisions in accordance with the word of God, now, if you ask yourself, you know, why, when somebody is asked to be an elder, why is it so weighty, and you know, our first thought is, and it's a good one, in James three, you know, let not many of you be, what, teachers, right, because there's a stricter judgment, we understand that, but how much more weighty, I mean, it's weighty to handle the word of God, but what about, handling professions of faith, professions of repentance, trying to sort out, what's really going on inside of another person, even restoring those who have strayed from the flock, that is weighty, that's the kind of thing that makes you not be able to eat, that makes you not be able to sleep, that wakes you up in the middle of the night, you know, sometimes, you wake up in the middle of the night, and you're annoyed by the fact that you've been, woken up, for whatever reason, you know, or you toss and turn all night, and you're just like, this is really annoying, let me tell you something, when something like this is on your mind, you wake up in the middle of the night, and your first thought isn't, I'm annoyed that I'm awake, your first thought is, I need to pray, for the person that's on my heart right now, it's a, it's an odd thing to wake up at two in the morning, three in the morning, and think I need to pray for, specifically one person, you know, there are churches, and I'll say it, sorry, so-called churches, that don't even offer church membership, why?

Because it's so old-fashioned, they figure if you show up, and you participate, and you give, then you are a member, will the leaders of a church like that, lie awake at night, tormented over the sin of one of their non-members, I doubt it, because of the importance of proclaiming the gospel, preaching the word, tending to the souls of those sheep, that the Lord adds to the local body, the disciples, this incipient church is promised the Holy Spirit, and he will come, Jesus will send him, the Holy Spirit will give the insights, he will help the church pray, and intercede for them, when their prayers are inadequate, two weeks ago, we saw Mary, go from mess to messenger, this morning we see the disciples, go from fearful, to really turn into fearsome weapons, as I put in the title, steel put in their spines, that's what he's doing, he's strengthening them, by appearing to them, by giving them this charge, telling them, this is what you're going to do, and you're going to do it, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he does this, because he is Jesus Christ, second person of the Trinity, the risen Savior, Machen said this, he said, the Christian religion, is rooted in the resurrection, if that, if the resurrection, really took place, as the Bible says it did, then the Christian religion is true, right, that's an undeniable fact, he goes on, he says, if it did not take place, then the Christian religion is false, and a church that professes it, is merely an empty shell, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the hinge of salvation history, without it, there is no salvation from sin, so my question for you this morning is, do you believe in the resurrection, do you believe in the risen Christ, let me just add this, there is no logical reason, for Christianity to exist, apart from the resurrected Lord, if this group of believers, on the first Sunday after the resurrection, gathered together, and there's nothing to talk about, eventually they're going to go their own separate ways, if there's no appearance of Jesus Christ, then why do they march forward, if there's no resurrection of Jesus Christ, then why do they suffer so much, for something that never happened, if there's no resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, why would Paul have abandoned Judaism, and become such a fierce defender, and proclaimer of the Christian gospel, why did he suffer so much for it, have you believed what the Bible teaches about Jesus, if the answer is no, I urge you to talk to me, talk to one of the other saints here, do not leave here, wondering about the resurrection, wondering or unsure, if you trust the Lord Jesus Christ, let's pray, our father, we thank you for the marvel of the resurrection, we thank you for the truthfulness of it, we thank you that you have preserved this word for us, that we might know, that Jesus Christ, rose from the dead, that though many will attack the resurrection, and try to decry it, try to make it humorous, mock it, it is the central focus of all of history, we look back to that tomb, and we know that it is empty, we thank you for raising the Lord Jesus Christ, from the grave, and we thank you for, causing us to believe this truth, father I pray for each one here, that we might leave here more assured, more convinced, and more convicted of our need to share, the truth that Jesus Christ is alive, and it's in the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.