Believing What We Haven’t Seen Series

A little trivia question for you old rockers out there. How many of you recognize the name Alice Cooper? Alice Cooper was a rocker from the 70s and part of the band that goes by the same name, Alice Cooper. It is hard to believe that Alice Cooper is 64 years old. I actually have a picture of him. Alice was known for what songs? “School’s Out.” What else? “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” “I’m 18.” “Welcome To My Nightmare.” Some of you may not believe that Alice Cooper is 64 and you may not believe that Pastor Chuck Gohn actually attended the Welcome To My Nightmare concert in Portland, OR in 1975. It is hard to believe. What is even harder to believe is that Alice Cooper is a born-again Christian. I didn’t believe it so I got on the internet and through You Tube he gave a nice little interview with somebody. He was very open and honest about his faith and his walk. He was raised in a Christian home. His father was a minister. His grandfather was a minister. His father-in-law was a Baptist minister. He was not shy about sharing his testimony and how his faith influenced many of his lyrics. You may struggle with some of his music but what is cool about Alice Cooper is he was definitely somebody who not just talked the talk but walked the walk. Even today, he continues to take what he believes, takes his faith and uses it in a creative way to impact his community. He has a foundation called the Solid Rock Foundation. I saw his vision statement and I thought this was cool. This is what we need to be doing in the community. Solid Rock’s primary goal is to help meet the spiritual, economical, physical, and social needs of teenagers and children in our community. He takes at-risk kids and sees their potential and sees that they have been made in God’s image. He teaches them music and the arts. He sets up these community centers all across the United States. That is just a cool thing, but it is hard to believe. You wouldn’t know that unless you did a little research.

Today, as we open our Bibles to the book of John, we find another guy who struggled with belief. Not belief whether Chuck was into heavy metal or Alice Cooper was a born-again Christian, but someone who struggled with the idea that Jesus Christ had been risen from the grave. He really struggled with that. So if you have your Bibles, please open up to John 20. You may recall that we have been going through the book of John. We are getting close to the end. We have two more weeks left. Last week if you were here, we went through the story of the resurrection. We had a few more people last Sunday. The Christmas and Easter people are long gone, so it is truly the committed people that are here today. You might recall in John 20, we went through the passage about the resurrection how Mary went off to anoint the body of Jesus and she got there and the stone had been rolled away. The disciples came and they looked in and they left. They didn’t know what to do. She sat there and cried. A man shows up who she thought was the gardener and actually turned out to be Jesus. Jesus made that very first appearance to Mary Magdalene. As we see in today’s reading, he continues to make appearances. Today, what we are going to see is he appears to the disciples who are locked up in an upper room for fear of the Jews. Once again, we are going to be reading from John 20:19. (Scripture read here.)

So the situation is that the disciples are gathered in this room in this house and it is shortly after the crucifixion. They are probably in this room feeling grief. They lost their good friend. They are feeling anxiety or confusion. They think maybe he did rise from the dead. They are obviously feeling a lot of fear because if the Jews were going to take Jesus and take him away to get crucified, it might be their turn. The Jews might come and pull them away and have them crucified. Really, what we see happening is that even though they were fearful, they were about to get a visit. They were going to get a visit by Jesus himself. We don’t know how Jesus gets in the room. The doors are locked. He shows up and what does he say? He says “Peace be with you!” There is an exclamation point with that. It says “After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.” We have a situation here where Jesus shows up and says peace be with you. You have to keep in mind when he says peace be with you, it is not from the 70s. He is talking about Shalom. It actually comes from the Hebrew word shalom, which has more of a sense of a complete tranquility of body, mind, and spirit. This is an important passage because it reminds us that when Jesus is in our midst, we can have that shalom. We can have that peace that transcends all understanding. That guards our heart and mind and soul. Jesus is amongst us and gives us that peace. Jesus told the disciples that he was there peace. In fact, he had said earlier on a few chapters back. He said the world is going to give you trouble, but I have overcome the world and I come and I bring peace. He is now demonstrating that. It says the people became overjoyed, which is also a completion of the promise. A few chapters back he said you will grieve. You will mourn, but your grief will transform to joy. That is what happens when Jesus enters into the room. Then he goes on and he says again “‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Spirit.’” He says the Father has sent me, I am sending you. The underlying Greek word that we translate sent is actually the same word that we translate apostle. Apostles are known as the sent ones. They are the ones that are sent by God. In many cases we all are like apostles. We should be sent out. We should be carrying the good news of Jesus Christ out into the world. As you know, a few chapters back again, Jesus said although I am sending you and I am going away, I am not going to leave you as orphans. I am not going to abandon you. I am going to send another person of the same essence of myself. I am going to send you the Holy Spirit. So we see the Holy Spirit coming here. We see Jesus breathing on the disciples and saying receive the Holy Spirit. Scholars aren’t exactly sure what is going on here because we will see in a few weeks when we get to Pentecost Sunday that the Holy Spirit came out in great force through fire and wind and filled the whole church. Here we see him breathing on the disciples. We think this is a partial fulfillment of the promise that he is about to give to the whole church. Some actually think that it points back to the book of Genesis where the Lord God had formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. Back then, he made him a living biological being. Here he is saying I am giving you more than the breath of life. I am giving you the spirit of God that is going to be with you as you go out into the world because you are going to need the power of the spirit living within you. What we see going on is the disciples have obviously now seen the risen Lord.