When Jesus Comes In The Midst Series

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

ENGAGE

On February 16, 1972, my dad took us to see the Phoenix Suns basketball game. You might be asking how I remember that exact date. To be honest I didn’t, but it was pretty easy for me to find out what the date was because what I do remember is that on that night, the great Wilt Chamberlain scored his 30,000th career point, something that he accomplished faster than any other player in NBA history, including Michael Jordan.

I also remember that when he entered the arena that night, how Wilt’s presence in the midst of that arena captivated everyone’s attention, because of the anticipation that he would be the first NBA player to reach that milestone.

TENSION

And perhaps you’ve experienced something similar in your life. You’ve been somewhere when a certain person enters into the midst of a group of people and immediately captures everyone’s attention. But my guess is that after that moment passed, nothing had really changed permanently in your life. That was certainly true for me that night in Phoenix. I was glad that I got to experience that, but the fact that Wilt Chamberlain scored his 30,000th career point that night had no lasting impact on my life.

But there is someone who does change our lives when He comes into our midst, or at least He ought to – Jesus. And since we know that Jesus is in our midst this morning because He has promised that where even two or three gather in His name, He is present, that means that Jesus wants to change your life in some way today. And it might very well be that the changes He wants to make in in your life are exactly the same ones He made when He came into the midst of His disciples the evening after He rose from the dead.

TRUTH

This morning is the third message in our current series – 40 Days with Jesus – in which we are taking a look at the encounters Jesus had in the 40 days between His resurrection and His ascension to the Father. So far, we’ve covered His appearance to Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb early in the morning after His resurrection, and His encounter with two disciples on the road to Emmaus later that day.

This morning, we’ll look at His third recorded appearance after His resurrection. We were introduced to that event last week in Luke 24, but today we’re going to look at John’s account of that encounter.

[Read John 20:19-29]

I want to focus our attention this morning on a phrase that appears in both verse 19 and again in verse 26:

…Jesus came and stood among them…

In spite of the evidence of the empty tomb and the witness of Mary and the other women to the words of the angel that Jesus was alive and apparently even an appearance of Jesus to Peter some time that day, the disciples are hiding behind locked doors because they are afraid of the Jewish officials.

And while they are cowering in fear, Jesus appears right in their midst. He doesn’t toy around with them by knocking on the door or calling out to them through the wall. He knows that their faith is wavering and He passionately wants them to see Him and believe in Him because that is the only way they are going to be enabled to carry out His mission for them.

And in the space of a little over a week, we see one of the most significant transformations in history because Jesus came and stood among them. Not only does He overcome their fear and their sense of defeat, but He sets them on a course to go and change the world in the name of the risen Christ. And here in this passage we find a pattern for how Jesus wants to come into our midst and change us so that He can then send us out to change the world.

Here is how we’re going to summarize that transformation:

When Jesus comes in the midst

He gives peace, purpose and power

I’m going to tell you right up front that verses 22 and 23 present some challenges and there are obviously different ideas about exactly what they mean. While I’m not going to claim that I have them completely figured out, I will share my understanding of Jesus’ actions and words there. And I’ll also address a couple of common misunderstandings and explain why they can’t possibly be what Jesus had in mind here.