What Difference Does It Make That Jesus Is Alive?

John 20.19-20 

INTRODUCTION

What does it mean to you that Jesus is alive?

If you thought that Jesus was still in his grave, what kind of person would you be?
How would you think about yourself? How would you think about other people?

Would you still have the same interests? The same pleasures? The same concerns?

How would you spend your money if you didn’t know Jesus?

How would you face your coming death? Would you just try not to think about it?

This is Easter. Jesus is alive!—and that makes all the difference.

One of the Easter stories is recorded in John 20:19-20:

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

I. Let’s look in on the little gathering in that locked room.

A. Jesus’s disciples were disappointed, discouraged, and afraid.

The eleven chosen disciples felt terrible about how they had behaved in the garden when they had all run away, leaving Jesus in the hands of his enemies.

Peter, especially, was ashamed and embarrassed because after his act of bravado in the garden when he attacked the slave of the High Priest with his sword, he had not only run away but also denied three times that he even knew Jesus.

The One they had looked to as their Savior was gone.

For three years they had been preparing themselves to rule with Jesus in his Kingdom—and now that wasn’t going to happen because Jesus was dead.

What to do? Should they go back to their fishing and other occupations?

Was there anything they could salvage from the lost cause?

B. They were also confused because some of the women among the disciples had come with stories of having seen Jesus at the tomb. According to Luke, Cleopas and his companion had arrived with a story of meeting Jesus that afternoon on the road to Emmaus. And Peter said he had seen the Lord.

But women tend to be emotional and excitable, and maybe they were seeing things.

The stories seemed impossible. Remember, people believed in ghosts in those days.

It was very confusing. They didn’t know what to think.

II. Then Jesus showed up—he came right through the locked door—or through the wall—or maybe he just appeared in their midst.

A. Luke tells us that when the disciples saw Jesus appear before them “they were terrified and frightened and supposed that they saw a spirit.”

B. So the first thing Jesus said was, “Peace be with you!”

“Peace be with you, ” was the common greeting and farewell in those days. It served both for “Hello” and “Good bye.”

But when Jesus said “Peace be with you!” it had a deeper meaning.

The night of Jesus’s betrayal, Jesus had said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:21) 

One thing Jesus’s friends needed now was peace.

Their hearts were in turmoil; they needed peace, and Jesus was here to give them such a peace as the world can’t give and the world can’t take away.

And when Jesus says, “Peace!” it’s not just a wish; his presence makes peace. We can only imagine with what joy they greeted this announcement.

C. Then Jesus showed them the scars in his hands and side.

If there was any doubt in their minds, the sight of those wounds convinced them.

When the disciples saw those scars, they were convinced. They weren’t just seeing things. Jesus was really with them!

D. “Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.”

At that moment all the doubters were filled with joy. They had gone from despair to gladness.

Have you seen Jesus?

We don’t see Jesus with our eyes as they did, but we see can him with the eyes of faith, and when we see him, we also are filled with joy.

That’s one reason we come to church—to see Jesus. We see Jesus in each other, and we see Jesus with the eyes of faith as we read the gospels.

And I look forward to that day—not so far off when I will see Jesus face to face—and I will be glad—with a gladness unimaginable now on this earth.

Here’s a riddle: What will we see in heaven that was made on earth?

The answer: The scars in Jesus’s hands.

As a hymn has it—

“I shall know him, I shall know him,

And redeemed by his side I shall stand,

I shall know him, I shall know him

by the print of the nails in his hand.”

When we see Jesus in glory, we may be overcome by his splendor—but we will still see those marks in his hands.

Those scars that will tell us of the depths of love.

Jesus will wear them for all eternity.

ALTERNATE CONCLUSION

Heidi Newmark was pastor of a Lutheran church in the South Bronx, perhaps the poorest of all the poor neighborhoods in America.

The leaders and officers of her congregation included former addicts and undocumented aliens, the unemployed and the homeless.

During Holy Week several years ago, this congregation decided to reenact the highlights of the story of Holy Week, from Palm Sunday to Easter.

They rented a donkey and one of them played the part of Jesus, riding on the donkey.

They formed a parade—a long procession around the block of shabby storefronts and rundown apartments—shouting “Hosanna! Hosanna!”

They had got almost around the block when they ran into a street demonstration protesting police brutality. The cries of “Hosanna!” and the cries of the demonstrators mingled in a cacophony of voices.

A passer-by saw the confusion, got alarmed, and called the police.

The arrival of the police added to the color and drama.

Finally they managed to make it inside the church where they enacted the events of the trial, condemnation, and execution of Jesus.

Then they reenacted the Easter story.

The women returned from the tomb with the news: “He is risen!”

The actors playing the disciples remained true to the Bible record, pooh-poohing the women’s tale.

Then the script called for three members of the congregation to stand up and give testimony—like bearing witness in court to the truth of the resurrection. Each was to begin with “I know that he is alive…”

Angie was the first. “I know that he is alive,” she said, “because he is alive in me.” She then told how she was abused by her father, how she fell into despair and alcoholism, became HIV positive. But then she responded to the welcome of the church, started attending worship, then a Bible study, and bit-by-bit she rose from the grave of her life. Now she is a seminary student, studying to be a pastor.

“I am now alive because Jesus Christ lives in me and through me,” Angie said—her face aglow. “I am a temple of the Holy Spirit.”

The two other witnesses stood in turn, each reciting the assigned part of the script: “I know that he is alive because…” and they told their stories.

Then that portion of the play was done, and it was time to move on. But the testimony would not stop.

Others in the sanctuary began to rise spontaneously. “I know that he is alive,” they would say, “because he is alive in me.”

Homeless people, addicts now clean, stood one by one. Nothing could stop them.

“I know that he is alive,” they shouted, all giving corroborating testimony to the witness of Jesus, adding their own word to the great witness of Easter, telling the truth about what they had seen and heard.

(Adapted from Robert G. Long, Testimony: Talking Ourselves into Being Christian, pp30-31)

ALTERNATE CONCLUSION

Several weeks ago our senior-in-high-school granddaughter Hannah asked me if I had ever had an unusual proof of God.

I told her that several years ago, in the middle of the night, I felt myself suddenly to be in the presence of God. Glory seemed to be rushing toward me. I was incredibly excited. I was overwhelmed and shouted for joy. I said, “Wow! I’ll never doubt again!” The next morning I asked Charlotte whether she had heard me shout in the night. She said she hadn’t. It had been a dream.

But I told Hannah that the most convincing proof of God to me is that I had seen Jesus in the lives of several people I had known. These people may have seemed ordinary to other people, but I have seen Jesus in their lives.

I can’t explain their holiness, their love, their goodness any way except that Jesus was in their lives.

And then in December of 1948 during my freshman year at the University of Kansas, Jesus came into my life too. I had heard about Jesus all my life. I knew all the stories. But now I felt that I had met him personally. It was as if he just got up off the pages of the Gospels and began to walk through life with me.

In Korea, one night as the Chinese overran our position, I thought it might be my last night on earth—but I felt peace. I knew God was with me.

During a catastrophic illness in our family, I began to doubt God, but the faith and kindness of fellow church members got me through that experience and Jesus seemed more real than ever.

I was unemployed and worried that I wouldn’t find work to support our family, but God was with me.

Now I am old now. I have had two kinds of cancer. I know that it won’t be long before I go through that door that leads to the next world.

I don’t know how I will deal with death. I hope and pray that my faith will not falter, but that as I exit this world I will still feel the assurance that the Jesus is alive and he is still my companion, and that he is waiting to welcome me into glory.