(1) When failure strikes, where do you go to regroup? I asked that question to several persons this week and here is what some of them said:
(1A) One of them offered several different groups of people but ultimately said, “I drop to my knees, and pour my pain before the throne of God, and ask for His protection, strength, and Power! For God NEVER uses what I tell him against me, and He’s always there with the answer I need!”
(1B) Another one said, “You regroup by expecting the unexpected.”
Where do you go to regroup when failure strikes?
Now before I continue, here is what I have felt led to preach on from now until the first Sunday in June when it is Pentecost Sunday. For this week and next, I will be preaching on selected passages from the gospels’ final chapters as well as the opening chapter of Acts to help us understand the importance and significance of what happened after the Resurrection and prior to Pentecost.
In May, I will preach for two weeks on family life. My Mother’s Day sermon will be entitled, “Lessons I Have Learned from My Mother.” The week after that I will be preaching a sermon that I have definitely felt led to preach entitled, “Parents, Stop Beating Yourselves Up!” (What’s that about? You will just have to come and find out!)
Then, for Memorial Day Sunday we will begin what I am calling a ‘Week of Remembering.’ I will tell you more about that week as it draws closer. However, it will be a week during which you will be encouraged to remember not only fallen heroes but two additional groups of people. Those who currently serve our nation and those who have been a faith influence on you as we think about Pentecost Sunday. Invite a veteran or a member of one of our law enforcement units and/or fire departments or someone that has served as an example to you of faith and service to come with you that Memorial Day Sunday.
We will conclude that week on June 4th with communion and a solo by Lindsey Helmer who has graciously agreed to come and sing a wonderful song of remembrance entitled ‘I Remember You.’ (She would have done so on Memorial Day Sunday, but she will be returning from the West Coast that day.) Again, I encourage you to invite someone to come that Sunday.
(2) So, where do you go to regroup when failure strikes?
(2A) Others said.. When I feel lost or defeated I turn to prayer
(2B) I don’t have a ’place’ or a ’person’ that I go to.... I guess I go to a place inside myself. Never really thought about it.
(3) ‘If you are talking about the people I go to talk to, that would be my support group. Family and friends! If you are talking about a specific place it would be...the family farm… That is my favorite place ever to go relax and just feel like I’m miles away from everything.
(4) Another one said, “I go home to regroup; sometimes to Chain O’Lakes State Park or Pokagon...I visit family or colleagues. I try to be around people who will give me some support;”
(5) Finally another person said, “Personally, I don’t believe in failing. I think every opportunity is a learning experience and always take something positive from each experience. I like the book of Philippians, especially chapter 4.”
Now in addition to our main text for this morning, there is another text that I want to read, also from John’s gospel. It immediately follows our text with John 20:24 and concludes with verse 29: “One of the disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”
Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed. Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who haven’t seen me and believe anyway.”
Do you notice a common theme in these two passages? Let’s look again at verse 19 “That evening, on the first day of the week, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders,” Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! And also verse 26, “Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them.”
What do you notice? I notice two things. (6A) First, I noticed that when failure struck, the disciples ran to a safe spot to regroup.
Now, we do not know where they were but we know two things. First, that on the very day that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, 9 of the remaining disciples (Thomas was not present and Judas was dead) were behind locked doors, in a location they assumed was a safe one, and they were there because second, they were afraid of the Jewish leaders… and what they might do to them.
Now Matthew’s post-resurrection account, found in Matthew 28:11-15, gives some plausibility to this argument. “As the women were on their way into the city, some of the men who had been guarding the tomb went to the leading priests and told them what had happened. A meeting of all the religious leaders was called, and they decided to bribe the soldiers.
They told the soldiers, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’ If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you and everything will be all right.” So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say.”
Most likely then the remaining disciples were marked men because they had been with Jesus and were considered dangerous because of their knowledge and experience and because they were accused (wrongly from Matthew’s account) of stealing Jesus’ body. They were probably strong candidates for arrest and trial, maybe even death.
I have heard that when there have been various political coups around the world, those closest to the deposed leaders, especially family and advisers, are often the first to be arrested or worse. So for the authorities, political and religious, to insure that Jesus is forgotten, the disciples are probable targets of arrest.
But not only were they fearful for their lives because of their connection to Jesus they were also disheartened and discouraged because Jesus was dead even though they had heard reports that He was alive. Their dream of Jesus truly liberating them was dead and they were grieving not just His death but the death of their hopes and dreams they had for Him.
Can you relate to the disciples? I can. I have had moments, and you have had them too, when a dream has died a sudden death.
We have had relational dreams shattered by rejection and divorce. We have had occupational dreams shattered by layoffs and sudden terminations. We have had very personal dreams shattered by episodes and choices that have cut deep.
And so here, the very evening of the Resurrection, are a group of deeply wounded men, and probably women too, coming to grips with the pain that reality often gives out. But… but… (and this is the second thing that I notice) Jesus shows up! ALIVE! (6B) Now, it gets interesting!
We read, “Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he held out his hands for them to see, and he showed them his side. They were filled with joy when they saw their Lord!”
I want us to notice a couple of words in this last sentence. “They were filled with joy when they saw their Lord!” Gloom and doom changes to utter joy! YESSSS!
Their Lord, their God, their Jesus is alive! AMEN!
That’s what they had heard and now they were personally experiencing the resurrected Lord right before their eyes! AMEN!
Have you had moments when you went from discouraged to encouraged in the blink of an eye? We all have had such moments and some of those moments (perhaps many of them) were God moments because the Lord showed up!
There is something else here as well that is important for us to notice as we read in verse 22. “Then he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.””
I don’t know how many times I have read this passage until, probably 20 or so years ago, that verse caught my attention. Here is Jesus ‘breathing’ on them and giving them the Holy Spirit ahead of Pentecost Day when the Spirit would make His power and presence known in a wider and dramatic way.
(7) So, in addition to this room being a room where failure is replaced by faith in a Risen Savior it is also a room where (8) gloom and doom is overcome by joy at seeing the Risen Savior, and a room (9) where powerlessness gives way to empowerment as the Risen Savior gives them the Holy Spirit.
Now let’s look at Room number two. (10)
As with room number one, room number two is inhabited by at least one person, in this case Thomas, who has yet to believe his colleagues. His words, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side,” have been echoed down through the centuries by many. ‘I won’t believe it until I see it.’ His disbelief has coined the phrase, ‘Doubting Thomas,’ used to describe those who ‘won’t believe it until I see it.’
My sense of this passage is that the atmosphere in this room (it could have been the same room where Jesus appeared eight days earlier) is different that it was eight days ago. The doors are still locked as verse 28 indicates but there is an absence of fear noted in the narrative. For Thomas, however, there is doubt. But, as before, Jesus reveals Himself in their midst and challenges Thomas to believe.
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”.
Jesus goes on to make a point about the importance of faith. “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who haven’t seen me and believe anyway.”
Thomas and the others would not see Jesus face to face for much longer. During this time they would be given the commission ‘to go and make disciples’ and ‘to be witnesses’ throughout the world.
Their faith would have to be rooted in more than the retelling of their experiences with Jesus. They would need the power of the Holy Spirit to help them tell the Jesus story because the story is a story of transformation, a transformation of the human heart and soul. (10A) So this room is a room in which doubt leaves and faith comes in.
As I pondered these two texts this past week I thought about the rooms that we inhabit during our lives. When you live in a house long enough, the rooms have a story to tell. (11) The kitchen… is a place where we remember conversations with kids and parents and others who come in and out of our lives.
The living room is where we entertain guests and family and friends. Where first birthdays and graduation parties are celebrated.
Then, during this past Lenten season, we have seen video clips of the various shrines and holy places in Israel that indicate the movements of Christ during His earthly ministry as well as His death and Resurrection.
But why is all of this important to us today? What difference should it make to us that men were locked in a room and Jesus showed up? Here’s why.
(12) Jesus needed to appear to the remaining disciples because it validated a core belief of our faith – His Resurrection!
In his book, Ancient-Future Time, Robert E Webber writes about the season of Easter not just Easter day. He argues that Christ’s Resurrection is not just a fact to be defended but an experience of major importance and he quotes Paul in Colossians 3:1 and 3, ‘You have been raised with Christ…Your life is now hidden with Christ in God.’ He goes onto make this important claim, ‘The fact of the resurrection is that God won a victory over the powers of evil-those powers that seek to destroy God’s creation.’
Paul makes the point even sharper detail in 1 Corinthians 15 when he says, But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? (13) For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, but that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. (14) And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation for your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ have perished! And if we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world. (15) But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again.
(16) Why is all of this important? The Resurrection matters! For if we do not believe that it happened, then the forgiveness of sin that we seek, the freedom from guilt and shame that we desperately need to experience, has not taken place and there is no hope.
Do you have an Easter faith? Have you had a resurrection experience? Has the Lord brought you back to life as you have confessed your sins to God and allowed Him to break the power of sin and failure in your life?
Millions of people over the centuries have had that experience of faith all because they have heard it from someone else, who heard it from someone else, who heard it from someone else, and on and on back to a room of heartbroken men who experienced the miracle and power of a resurrected Savior who believe that He was the Son of God and the Savior of the World. What about you? Do you believe this? Amen.
Sources: Robert E Webber, Ancient-Future Time, page 144. Baker Books, 2004
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘042306svgs’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
