Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20; John 14:25-27; Acts 4:23-31
Theme: Assurances in the Midst of Uncertainty
Title: Victorious Living in the Midst of Uncertainty
This sermon is about how to live victoriously in a time of uncertainty. How can we live a victorious life in the midst of living in a pandemic, racial inequality, social injustice, financial instability and a growing tenor of violence and anger? God gives us three assurances that can not only help us but enable us to transform the narrative; the atmosphere around us.
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
I want to share with you today some of God’s Assurances. I want to share with you some of God’s Assurances that we as Christ followers can hold on to during these uncertain times in which we live.
And we do live in uncertain times. We find ourselves still living in the midst of a global pandemic. We live in the midst of racial inequality. We live in the midst of economic insecurity. We live in the midst of a world increasingly filled with anger and violence. We find ourselves living in the midst of a world that seems to be spinning out of control.
As Christ followers do we hide?
Do we ignore what is going on around us like it is not happening?
Do we lash out with an equal force of anger and violence?
Or do we lean into some of God’s Assurances this morning?
I believe if we will lean into God’s Assurances then we will find ourselves being able to victoriously navigate our lives during these uncertain and precarious times. I believe in the midst of all the uncertainty that surrounds us, all the confusion and all the propaganda we can find a peace that the Bible says:
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:7
I don’t know about you, but I believe that all around us there are people that very much need to lean into the grace of peace that only Jesus can give. They need the grace of peace that can not only bring a supernatural stability and calmness into their lives but will enable them to create an environment of peace around them. We do as well.
We all know that the Apostle Paul had the ability to be at peace in the midst of chaos. Like us, Paul lived in very uncertain and perilous times. In fact, it could be said that Paul’s times were far worse than the ones we find ourselves in this morning.
He lived in a time when there was constant financial uncertainty, political upheaval and social unrest. He lived in a time when at a moment’s notice a person could find themselves arrested, beaten and placed into prison or even worse be stoned, beheaded or crucified.
And yet, as we read the Apostle Paul’s story and the stories of other Early Christ followers, we find that that they were filled with this peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. They were constantly being filled with supernatural strength and courage. They were able to stand tall in the midst of all the pain and suffering that they had to endure.
So, how did they did they live so victoriously?
How did they keep their life boats afloat in the midst of all the turbulent waters?
What enabled them to not only be able to withstand the storms of life but become overcomers?
Let’s take a few moments and look at three assurances that I believe they committed their hearts, the minds and their spirits too that enabled them to enjoy victory.
I. They leaned into Jesus’ Assurance that He would always be with them as their Resurrected Lord
Those early Christ followers believed Jesus when He told them that He would be with them until the end of the age. They took Jesus’ words literally. They held His words close to their hearts. Each day they lived with the assurance that in some way they would be able to experience Jesus’ presence, power and peace.
Some of them had actually seen Jesus after His Resurrection. They had watched Him, touched Him, eaten with Him and listened to His words. They had heard Jesus’ assurances with their own ears.
Some of them had seen Jesus as He ascended into heaven. They had seen the heavens open up and receive their Him as the Son of God. They had heard the words of the angels who told them:
“This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11).
But the majority of Early Church did not see any of those things. They had to put their faith into what they heard from the Apostle and other Christ followers. They had to open up their hearts, their minds and their spirits to trust and believe that Jesus was the Risen Lord. They had to live by faith and believe that Jesus would be with them each and every day.
This is how it has been for Christ followers every since. Today, we must lean into Jesus’ assurances. We must put our faith and trust in Jesus’ words. We must put our faith into what we read in the Bible. We must put our faith in the belief that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
We must put our faith in the Resurrection. We must put our faith in the belief that on the third day after Jesus was crucified that He came out of the tomb alive. But not just alive but transformed. We must believe that the Jesus that came out of the tomb was not the same Jesus that entered the tomb or that walked around with His disciples while He was here on this earth.
While the Son of God (Jesus) lived on this earth, He did so as a normal human being.
+Jesus experienced a normal pregnancy and a normal human birth.
+He grew up as a child, then as a teen ager and finally as a young adult.
Jesus lived His life as a normal human being. He looked like one of us. He laughed. He cried. He got hot. He got cold. He got hungry, He got thirsty. He required sleep and He needed clothes and shelter. He was one of us.
He lived His life as a servant of God. He subjected Himself to all that it means to have a human nature and will. He experienced the same hardships and temptations that we all face in this life.
“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15.
However, when Jesus came out of the tomb He was not the same human being. Jesus was not resuscitated but resurrected.
Let me say that again. Jesus was not resuscitated. In other words he did not come out of a coma or have a near death experience. Jesus died. His heart no longer beat. His lungs no longer were able to draw in breath. His brain waves no longer functioned. Jesus was literally dead.
That is why they put Him in the tomb. That is why they covered Him with so many burial spices. That is why they put the stone in front of his tomb. Jesus was dead. His death on the cross was real.
But then something amazing happened on the Third Day.
When the women went to the tomb early on that third day they had come to mourn. They had come to put more spices and flowers on Jesus and around the tomb. They came to pay Jesus honor. But to their surprise they found the stone removed and tomb empty.
While they were trying to figure out exactly what had happened, two of God’s angels told them that Jesus was no longer dead. Jesus was very much alive. He had been raised from the dead.
You see, Jesus had experienced the first Resurrection. He was no longer the same but was something new. Jesus had defeated Satan. He had defeated Sin. He had defeated Hell, Death and the Grave.
Jesus was and is now the Second Adam. Jesus was and is alive forever more. He is the forerunner of what we can become through His grace, mercy and love.
Those early followers of Jesus believed what Jesus had said. They believed what the apostles said about Jesus. They believed that Jesus was alive and they believed that He would be with them as the Risen Lord. They believed that Jesus was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. They believed that Jesus was at the right hand of God making intercession for them. And they believed that Jesus was coming again.
All of this gave them a new perceptive on life. It gave them a new hope. It gave them the hope that in Christ they can live a victorious life here on this earth and an everlasting life to come one day. Their belief in Jesus enabled them to be able to see beyond this world’s struggles, trials and sufferings. It enabled them to live an Abundant Life. It enabled them to live the life of an Overcomer.
What Jesus’ resurrection did for them, it can do for us this morning. It can give us hope. It can help us during our times of struggle and pain. It can enable us to experience a peace that passes all understanding.
+The first assurance we need to lean into is the assurance that Jesus is alive and well.
+The first assurance we need to lean into is the assurance that our Jesus is alive and well and is seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us.
+The first assurance we need to lean into is that we can place our hope, our trust and our faith in the Risen Lord.
Our Risen Lord has defeated Satan, sin, death and the grave. Our Risen Lord is the Second Adam; the forerunner of everlasting life. And in our Risen Lord we can be Born Again! We can be rescued, redeemed and restored into the image of God.
II. Secondly, those Early Christ followers leaned into the Assurance that Jesus is Near
Jesus told us that He would be near to us.
Matthew writes these words in Matthew 1:21-23
“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the LORD had spoken by the prophet:
‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).”
For 33 ½ years Jesus was near his family and friends. He walked with them, talked to them and shared sacred space with then. That type of Immanuel (God with Us) nearness was but a foreshadowing of what was to become.
Jesus desired a nearness that would supersede both time and space. We can read about this desire in His High Priestly Prayer recorded in John 17 and in His commission to His disciples that we find in Acts 1:6-9.
Jesus’ death and resurrection was a game changer. Everything changed the morning that Jesus walked out of that tomb. The nearness that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit had always wanted with us was now possible. It is a nearness that even Adam and Eve never experienced.
Like us, Adam and Eve understood what it meant to walk with God. They understood what it meant to talk to God and spend time with God. They even knew what it meant to share sacred space with God.
Every day in the cool of the evening our First Parents would share time with God. The LORD would come down and they would spend time talking, walking together and sharing life. They would experience a very intimate time of Immanuel (God with us).
But the nearness that we can now experience with the LORD is a nearness that supersedes the nearness that Adam and Eve experienced. It’s a nearness that supersedes the nearness that was experienced by Noah, Moses, Hannah, the Apostle Pau and even Mary the mother of Jesus.
For it is nearness that is supersedes time and space. It is anearness that the Bible calls a Oneness. Listen to Jesus’ words:
“All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” – John 17:10-11
“that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” – John 17:21
This nearness or oneness is open to all of us. It has been made possible through the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit. Whereas Immanuel once meant the LORD talking, walking and sharing space alongside human beings, it now means something radically and intimately different.
That difference at first may sound impossible. How can we share Oneness with the LORD God Almighty? How can we share Oneness with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
And yet, we see this happening on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came to do more than anoint and rest upon the disciples that day. Anointing and resting on people had happened before. It had happened to Moses, to David and to many others.
But now, the way had been made for the Holy Spirit to do more than just rest on people. The way had been made for the Holy Spirit to be able to be One with people’s minds, hearts and spirits. The way had been made for the Holy Spirit to co-exist, co-mingle and become One with a person.
There are really no great words or illustrations to explain this supernatural reality. We can point to the oneness that happens in marriage. Or we could point to the oneness that happens in synergy. But even those fail to capture the depths or the heights of what it means to be One with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
It is something that can only be experienced.
When Moses was at the burning bush and asked God to share who He was, the answer he received from God was a rather curious answer; I AM that I AM. In other words, to know who I AM is, you must experience I AM. That is to say, you can only know God through having a relationship with God.
And when you experience the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY it’s like a great veil is pulled back. When you experience the infilling presence of His Holy Spirit in your life it is like for the first time you are able to see, able to hear and able to understand.
The Apostle Paul understood this as he wrote such passages as:
“For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting truths to those are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” – 1 Corinthians 2:11-14
This morning we can lean into the nearness that is made possible through the Power and Presence of God’s Holy Spirit. We can experience a nearness with God that can only be described as a Oneness with God.
Jesus died so that we could experience that depth of relationship. Jesus sent His Holy Spirit so that we could experience the joy, the peace and the love that comes through that relationship.
The difference Christ makes in our lives is beyond being rescued and redeemed. The difference Christ makes in our lives is the ability to co-existing with His Holy Spirit. The difference is that we and God can become One – He living in us and we living in Him.
It was and still is this Oneness, this nearness that enabled the Early Church to thrive in those uncertain days. They didn’t just regurgitate ritual prayers and follow ceremonial forms of worship. They experienced God first hand. God was active and alive in their hearts, minds and souls.
God spoke to them through His Word. God spoke to them through other disciples and church leaders. God spoke to them through dreams and visions. God spoke to them through their own minds, hearts and souls. God spoke to them through creation.
God wasn’t just up there in Heaven somewhere. God was here in their hearts and lives. They could feel Him and experience Him. The Holy Spirit was active all around them, in them and through them.
In the same way this nearness of God, this Oneness with God can make all the difference in our lives. We are more than regurgitated ritual prayers. We are more than ceremonial worship. We can be One with God. We can feel God. We can experience God first hand in our everyday lives.
It is this Oneness that enables us to be able to lean into something amazing this morning. Something that can not only change our lives but the very atmosphere in which we live.
III. Those Early Christ followers learned how to leaned into God’s Peace
Following the Risen Lord can transform your life. The Lord will teach you how to live a life of joy, peace and love.
Leaning into God’s Nearness and Oneness will change your life. You will become One with God; heart, mind and soul.
Leaning into God’s Nearness and Oneness will bring a spirit of Peace into your life and into the atmosphere in which you live. You will not only experience peace yourselves but you will be the bearer of peace to all those around you. Your peace can bring an atmosphere of peace wherever you go.
It is not by accident that when Jesus first appeared to His disciples post Resurrection He spoke peace into them. He filled the room with peace. It is not by accident that Jesus said these words:
“’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.’” – John 20:21-22
God’s Peace; the peace that comes with the indwelling presence of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives can transform not only our lives but the lives of others around us.
In my family, my siblings and I seldom had to worry about anything because we knew our father and my mother would watch over us. We were able to enjoy a childhood full of laughter, joy and peace. My parents made that possible.
They watched over us. They provided for us. They spent time with us. They sheltered us. They gave themselves to us. They loved us.
All of that enabled all of us to live peaceful childhoods.
In the same way, if we allow God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit into our lives, they can fill us with a peace that surpasses all understanding.
When the Early Church was being harassed by the Temple authorities they had to make a major decision. They were at an early cross road in their journey. They knew that Jesus had been raised from the dead. They knew that He was the Savior and LORD and they had been infilled with His Holy Spirit.
And yet, they found themselves in Acts 4 wondering about their future. Peter and John had been arrested by the Sanhedrin. They had been questioned and released with a caution. That caution was to no longer heal or speak in the name of Jesus. If they didn’t abide by that caution then they would receive further punishment.
All of this was happening just weeks after the Resurrection and Pentecost. The Early Church was a fledgling but it was growing quickly. It was forming a new community and new identity centered on Jesus being the Messiah, the Savior of the World.
But the Devil attacked the Early Church head on. He knew if he could create an atmosphere of fear, doubt and dread then he could kill the church in its infancy. And so he attacked the Early Church leaders hoping to catch them unaware and overwhelm them.
What they did in response changed their destiny. It changed the Church forever. Instead of meeting behind closed doors because they were afraid they met to have a prayer meeting.
They knew that the only power they possessed had to come from God. They knew that if they didn’t do something in a matter of weeks their movement would lose steam, be overcome with fear and doubt and perhaps even die.
And so they didn’t hide. They didn’t ignore the Sanhedrin’s warnings. They didn’t argue among themselves and complain. They didn’t respond with violence. Instead, they gathered together for a season of prayer.
They prayed for divine direction. They prayed for wisdom and understanding. They prayed for supernatural courage. They prayed for the power and presence of God’s Holy Spirit. They prayed to be even more effective in the ministries of salvation and healing.
And the Bible tells us that when they prayed; when they open up their hearts, minds and souls to the LORD that the Holy Spirit came in a mighty way. The place that they were gathered together was shaken. They were shaken. And then they were filled with peace, with courage, with power, understanding, wisdom and love.
They received a new infilling and presence of God’s Holy Spirit.
Throughout the rest of the book of Acts we see this happening again and again. Stephen in facing his death does not complain nor is he afraid. Instead he is able to rejoice in seeing Jesus and in forgiving those who were stoning him. Paul, Silas, Timothy, Barnabas, Priscilla and Aquila and others do the same thing. Each time they are faced with persecution, sufferings or trials they receive strength, courage and peace from the Holy Spirit.
When all around them people are being swayed this way or that way they are able to stand fast. They are able to be people of peace. They are able to be calm and resolute in their witness.
In these uncertain days this is exactly what we need as Christ followers. It is what the world needs to see from the Church of Jesus Christ.
As Christ followers we are different than those in the world. We are different than those who are not Born Again. We have been rescued from sin. We have been rescued from the power and penalty of sin. We have been redeemed. We have been Born Again. And we have been infilled with the Holy Spirit. We have been given the opportunity to be One with God. We have been given the opportunity to be continually filled with His peace, with His love and with His joy.
This morning, is that where you find yourself?
During these unsettling times are you at peace?
Do you know the joy of salvation?
Have you allowed Jesus to rescue you and redeem you?
Have you allowed His Holy Spirit to infill you and transform you into a person of peace, a person of courage and power?
This morning, we want to give you an opportunity to receive Jesus as Your Savior and LORD. We want to give you an opportunity to receive the infilling presence of His Holy Spirit. We want to give you an opportunity to receive a peace that passes all understanding.
Altar invitation/Song of Blessing/Prayer of Blessing
