When God Shows Up Series

When God Shows Up

John 20:19-23

a little baptist church in Tennessee was planning to have their annual revival

"Our spring revival starts in just a week and a half," the senior pastor was saying up front. He named the evangelist who would be coming to preach and told a little about him "We sure want people to come to Christ during this series of meetings. In fact, before we start the prayer time, let's make a list of people here on the chalkboard. Who of your relatives and friends and neighbors do you want to mention?"

A middle-aged woman with dark hair near the front raised her hand. "I'm going to invite my neighbor in the next apartment. She's having lots of trouble in her life, I know. She really needs the Lord."

The pastor turned to write Lorene's neighbor on the board.

A man in a denim shirt spoke up next. "We could pray for my brother-in-law to come. He's got a drinking problem. I don't know if he'd ever show up or not. I sure wish he would."

Roy's brother-in-law was added to the list.

"Who else?" the pastor asked.

Steve Gains, a young Christian raised his hand

"Yes, Steve?" the pastor said. "Who would you like us to pray for?"

Steve knew that if God showed up, sinners would be touched and Christians would be stirred.

With all seriousness He replied, "Let's pray that God will show up at our revival." I

There was an Awkward silence. That Left Steve wondering if God was the uninvited guest in the church

Have you ever wondered when life is hard, where is God. Have you ever had those dark nights of loneliness or been struggling with unbelief and felt like your prayers weren't being hard? Have you ever cried out and asked God where are you? Then this message is for you today

because we are going to deal with these issues and show what happens from scripture when God shows up

When God showed up at the Red sea He divided the waters

When God showed up at Jericho the walls came tumbling down

When the glory of God filled the temple the priest stood in silence before the Lord

when God showed up in the earlier church they boldly proclaimed the gospel and thousands were saved

When God showed up during the great awakening revival swept across the land and countless lives were changed

I believe in a God who still wants to show up and change not only the lives of individual believers but to bring the church into a state of revival, to be a place of hope a place of power and a place were people are changed from the inside out

For the last couple of weeks we have been looking at the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ

we began chapter 20 with Mary finding the tomb empty and going to get Peter and John. We saw Peter and John examine the tomb and go back home

Last week we looked at how Mary lingered at the tomb still thinking that she was a victim of horrible circumstance because she thought that someone had come and taken the body of Jesus and then God sent the angels and told Mary she was just looking in the wrong place

“Why seek ye the living among the dead”

Then she met Jesus in the garden and went from being a victim to walking in victory

Today in this passage the scene changes we go from Mary's victory back to the disciples who are scared to death.

They are huddled together in a locked room with the exception of Thomas who has given up at this point

Then all of a sudden things change when Jesus shows up and walks into the room. At this point they were still not convinced that Jesus was resurrected. His own disciples were the greatest skeptics. I can relate to them its always been in my nature to be a skeptical person. So maybe you can relate to how the disciples felt.

They felt abandoned by Jesus. They had left everything to follow him thinking that he was going to overthrow Rome and be king and now he is gone

they were afraid that they were next because of their alliance with Jesus

This room was a hopeless, sad, scared place to be

Until God showed up and everything changed

This was the defining moment in the disciples life this is when they went from unbelief to belief from being scared to being bold from being locked up in the room to having liberty

It was so defining that John was still writing about it 50 years after it happened when he said in 1 John 1:1, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes which we looked upon and have touched with our hand concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest and we have seen it.