Lord Jesus risen, alive and loving – Hear us – Keep us – Strengthen

Take a moment, pause and contemplate. Here’s gold, can you grab it?

Consider for a moment that intervening period between the 19th chapter of John and the 20th chapter of John, where it would appear 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 war world lives on the wrong side of the resurrection and it is our task to tell the world that there are answers to all pain, suffering, sadness, and tragedy. .

The world did not want to listen to the apostles. The world would not even listen to Jesus, and they are not likely to listen to us, but it is still our task 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’s where the world is today: groping in the dark.

People are just as helpless now, as they were then, as sin and evil tower over people and cause tragedy after tragedy. Many feel completely desperate and inadequate in the face of the stark reality of sin, chaos, and man’s inhumanity to man.

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

Throughout 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 world at war broken have not changed.

We are so aware of that now that 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 power. of the Holy Spirit, all so much needed today as then.

That retired 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 emerged from this lowest despair to become men of such courage, confidence, and assurance that it was remarkable because it was supernatural – it came from God.

This is the Lord’s doing and it is wonderful in our eyes. Psalm 118 verses 23.

Feel some of the scene in that Cenacle 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? Emotions must have been about to explode when we consider the depths of his despair!

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

They had had three years of being with Jesus Christ, and within a week their world was ruined and shattered, and as far as they knew, destroyed.

“The healings, that supernatural food, the miracles that we saw, these wonderful parables, have disappeared, as well as 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. It made me feel clean!

Simon the Zealot believes that he should have stayed with his nationalist political gang. He is disappointed – maybe 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 bite his tongue. Don’t say such a thing. We are low enough without harboring bitterness. Imagine what was happening in that Upper Room.

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

What despondency and despair!

There will be those in 2021 who sob similar thoughts!

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

They were deserters, all men, and they knew it. Peter remembers how he had said that Jesus could count on him! If one of us had been by His side and with Him, if only one of us had had the courage to be with Him in His solitude!

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

The despair, the shame and the fear are there. Look at what Juan writes.

‘If you two are going to go out and look, lock the door!’ There was nervous tension in that room. Feelings tensed. Make sure to wear your face mask!

Isn’t this the condition of our world today, to varying degrees?

They would never again hear his reassuring voice, nor would they see the way he allowed the children to climb over him, nor would they see that brave and courageous hand touch the lepers, nor feed the hungry people, nor come walking on the waters. raging with life, nor see demons launching from tormented men.

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

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 the tragedy.

Ethics and morals are so confused today. John Bunyan knew what it was about 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 a pitiful cry on his lips: “What should I do?”

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

In that Cenacle we see shame. I’m not sure if we see that much of that today.

It was within the rules! The unregenerate heart of man is the root of all his problems, just as it was when Paul wrote Romans.

In Juan, we read openly about fear. Will it be our turn next? Their safety lay in a stone grave two miles away, dead! – so they thought.

For many, Jesus Christ is a historical memory, something that is mentioned in December and around March / April of the year. He’s there for emergencies, maybe, and then we can lock him up again. Of course, you cannot do that.

He has been kept as the greatest leader we have ever seen, the best teacher who has ever taught, the noblest example who set the highest standards of life, but he has been lost as God incarnate. It has been lost as God invading history, offering humanity 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 – rose from the dead.

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

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

After Pentecost, I never read about any of these emotions that we witness in the Upper Room while awaiting the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

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

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

God with us, Immanuel, God with us, forever!

“To love and live Jesus – to be with each one of us – to be with each one reading this article – You know where we are – and how we are – and why we are the way we are. Risen Christ – strengthen us. Whatever we are facing 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 dark bewildered troubled world, so help us, Lord Jesus. Amen “

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *