April 15, 2007
John 20:19-31
Obstacles to Faithfilledness
Last Sunday in my Easter Sunday message I spoke on Luke’s account of that first resurrection morning.
Early in the morning the ladies went to Jesus’ tomb carrying burial spices to anoint a dead Jesus. But when they arrived they didn’t find Jesus lying in the tomb, but instead found an empty tomb. Jesus wasn’t there. His body gone.
And Luke says they "wondered" about this. The word I used to describe these ladies was faithful. They were faithful.
From the moment Jesus entered into their lives, arriving in their village and teaching at the Temple, these women were faithful. With him and supporting him. They were alone with him at the cross when everyone else had fled.
These women were faithful.
They were loyal, dependable.
And yet in their faithfulness they failed to grasp, understand or believe a repeated teaching and saying of Jesus’. A saying he said in one form or another 7 times. "The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and one the third day be raised again."
Their faithfulness, I am led to believe, caused them to not hear anything Jesus said beyond the word "crucified". They didn’t hear the "raised again" part or didn’t understand it. But would you?
And so I pointed out that they came carrying burial spices to the tomb that day expecting to find a dead Jesus rather than balloons, expecting to find a living Jesus.
Though they had heard Jesus’ words and his prophecy that this would happen. Their behavior and their actions demonstrated a lack of faith that things truly would. They were faithful - yes-but faithfilled? No. But neither were the men - neither were the disciples. The men quite honestly hadn’t even been faithful - each of them
Running from the cross
Running from the table
Or denying knowing Jesus completely
And so when the women tell them that Jesus wasn’t in his tomb, Luke writes, "They did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense." (Luke 24:11)
Faithful? No not really at all. And faithfilled? Not one bit. Jesus followers both men and women were not expecting
Were not anticipating
Were not awaiting Jesus to venture back into their lives.
Their Jesus was dead and would always be dead.
The picture Luke paints about Jesus’ followers isn’t the greatest. If this were a movie about Jesus’ followers, it would not have a happy ending. When we look at the lives of those nearest to Jesus those in whom the Son of God had taught his ways and demonstrated his love, we would have expected more of them.
And yet when we look at our own lives with Jesus, are we much different?
If I had been there that morning, I’m pretty certain I’d been carrying burial spices and not balloons. How about you?
Faithful? Yes.
Faithfilled? That’s a lot harder.
It preached well last Sunday, I would preach it again if given the opportunity but for me anyway there is a big space
A large chasm quite often between faithfulness and faithfilledness.
"Lord I’ll stick to what I know, what you have proven to be true. I’ll be faithful in small things but filled with faith about everything else - Ah Lord, that’s asking a lot."
Yes, I’m faithful, but faithfilled, adjusting my life, entrusting every aspect of my life, surrendering all things. O Lord I’m not so fast.
Yes?
And yet these men and women who were not faithfilled at the end of Luke’s Gospel in the book of Acts, Luke’s second book, become people who are so filled with faith they literally turn the world upside down.
These men and women do make the leap.
Do take the faithfilled journey.
Healing, teaching, evangelizing, speaking, explaining and eventually crying for the sake of Jesus.
What this tells me and gives me is hope.
That though they were slow.
Though they weren’t the most expectant, they did become faithfilled.
But it didn’t look so good at the beginning.
In our text for today, John described for us 2 scenes, on two different days.
The first scene happened on the day Jesus resurrected, Easter Sunday.
The second scene happened eight days afterwards.
In each of these scenes there is an emotion present. An emotion that is an obstacle for the disciples to become faithfilled.
In the 2 scenes that John tells us about on the day Jesus resurrected and 8 days later, Jesus’ closest followers have something that must be overcome and dealt with in order for them to be faithfilled.
On Friday morning, our family got in the car to visit Vancouver. Once we were in, Ben our 4-year-old son volunteered to pray for our trip. "Lord, may there not be ice on the road, so we don’t go in the ditch."
In order for Ben to have a peace about the journey ahead of us that day, he let God know about a potential obstacle ahead of us, snow and ice.
In John’s account the obstacle wasn’t snow and ice. The obstacle was fear. And the second was doubt. These were the emotions that kept them from becoming faithfilled. And quite often these are the same two emotions that keep me from being faithfilled. You?
Scene 1 - Fear - John 20:19-23
The disciples according to John were filled with fear at this news that Jesus was alive. They feared because the same people who had put Jesus to death might now come after them. John writes, "The disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews" (John 20:19). The disciples feared that the Jewish Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling authorities might come after them. Might suspect them of doing something sinister.
Perhaps they feared because Jesus had told them that they would receive the world’s hatred because of him
(John 15:18, 20 - if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. 16:2 - They will put you out of the synagogue. 17:14)
This fear that they had held them captive.
This fear locked them in a room.
This fear caused them to be not free, but limited.
Or as Pastor Erwin McManus says in the quote at the tope of your bulletin, "What you fear establishes the boundaries of your freedom."
And the text makes it clear; Jesus’ followers had no freedom early on. They were held captive, being imprisoned by fear.
Fear of other people
Has anything changed?
Could not you admit along with me that fears often control you?
Your mind
Your actions
Your behaviors
Fear of failure.
Fear of getting hurt.
Fear of financial shortfalls.
Fear of being alone.
Sick
Fear of being rejected.
Looked over
Passed by
Left out
Fear of not being smart enough
Athletic enough
Talented enough
Fear of being humiliated.
Need I go on?
These fears capture us.
Control us.
And constrained us.
They hold us captive. They are a very real obstacle for us getting on with the life God has for us. A life of faithfilledness. And though we are faithful we live safe lives, well-managed lives because we don’t want to face anything that we can’t handle on our own.
We fear.
And obstacle on the journey from faithfulness to faithfilledness is Fear.
A second obstacle is doubt.
Thomas in our text specifically - doubted.
"Unless I see the mail marks in his hands and put my finger where his nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." (20:25b)
Thomas doubted.
He was uncertain.
He wouldn’t trust the words of his friends so said; "We have seen the Lord."
He had to see and touch for himself.
He wasn’t automatically a follower.
He wasn’t automatically going to become part of the crowd. Pear pressure was not an issue for Thomas.
When all the others would nod their head in agreement with Jesus, Thomas would ask the question, "Lord we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
Thomas doubted not so much disbelieved but needed to know for certain to see for himself before he jumped in. And each one of us must at some time go through a Thomas phase.
A time of question.
Examining
Probing the facts of the faith.
In order to truly believe something
In order to truly embrace something. Thomas’ search for answers must be ours as well.
Now notice into each of these settings
Into each of these emotions, Jesus comes.
Jesus enters into his follower’s fears.
Jesus entered into his Followers doubts.
He comes announcing and granting Peace, "Peace be with you." 3x v. 19, 21, 26
Jesus first words to a group of fearfilled doubts locked away in an upper room is peace.
"Peace be with you."
Jesus doesn’t snap at them.
He doesn’t lash out.
He comes with an announcement of peace.
My paraphrase - "It’s going to be all right, I’m with you now."
Is not this one of the greatest gifts our God can give us?
When we are confused.
When we have lost perspective.
When we have shut down due to pressures.
Pain
Sickness
And uncertainty
Our God comes with his gift of peace.
"Peace be with you," he says.
But this peace that he brings to us is not one that allows us to settle down and settle in creating a bunker of safety from the world.
No - this peace that be brings is meant to get us out of our confining room and out of our locked rooms.
"As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." (v. 21)
He will not let Thomas live with his doubts.
"Put your finger her.
See my hands.
Reach out your hand and put it into my side.
Stop doubting and believe." (v. 27)
Jesus wants them to get going on the journey from their faithfulness to faithfilledness. And to make that journey fear and doubt need to be left behind. Whenever God invites us to join up with him on the journey toward being filled with faith, there are obstacles to overcome.
To be dealt with.
I was reminded of the Israelites reactions once they were finally free from the slavery of Pharaoh in Egypt. After their Exodus from that confining land Through the Red Sea as they were on the journey to living free and unencumbered lives with our God they reach a moment when they cry out to Moses. "You brought us out into this desert to starve, if only we had died in Egypt" (Exodus 16:3). They feared their uncertain life ahead of them. They doubted that God would look after them.
I heard a story this week from a chaplain working in a prison in Surrey, B.C. One of his clients was given a full release. He could leave and yet this man didn’t want to enter the world again. So he started acting crazy again and making bad decisions in order to be held captive. In order to be locked up.
Whenever we realize that just as our Savior left on Easter morning a locked and darkened cave and through his power invites us to leave behind fear and doubt or whatever other emotion you may feel, there is bound to be uneasiness and uncertainty.
But it is as we journey with the peace of the Lord as our foundation that you and I realize and come to experience the presence and power of our Lord in some pretty surprising places. "Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place. And I was not aware of it."
Let me give you some fast examples of people living this way in our church.
Heidi stopped by on Thursday. She has a co-worker asking spiritual questions. She didn’t crawl into a shell. She didn’t say, "Oh I don’t believe it." She came and talked with me and got some ideas as to how to help this person. She wasn’t filled with fear and doubt. She went to work filled with faith that God could use her to help this man.
Phyllis Boston and I talked this week. Here is a woman who has lost her brother to death recently and her sister-in-law isn’t healthy. And now she isn’t either. When I asked how I could pray for her, her response, "May the Lord’s will be done. His way is always best."
She didn’t doubt. She wasn’t filled with fear. She is committed to walking in faithfilledness.
And lastly, over the weekend our family was in Bellingham at bottom of ramp notice a homeless lunch bag by side of the road. One of you at some time gave someone one of our lunches. You didn’t doubt. You didn’t live in fear. You gave that man/women a lunch. You lived out your faith.
My wish, my prayer for you and me is that you and I would not have our faith behind a locked door but would venture out into our community trusting in the peace of God and discovering him at work in us and through us.
