Prelude
Call to Worship Genesis 2:7
Hymn JBC # 232 On the cross of Calvary
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 240
Offering
Scripture John 20:19~23
Prayer
Sermon “Receive the Holy Spirit”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 241 The day of resurrection!
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude
Today we dedicate this Easter service to commemorate and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus bore the sins of mankind and died on the cross to forgive them.
This was very severe and painful for the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Some say, “Since Jesus was the Son of God and He knew He would die and be resurrected, He didn’t need to be afraid of being crucified.”
But I do not see it that way. Certainly, Jesus foretold to His disciples that He would be arrested, crucified, die, and that He would then be resurrected.
Even so, Jesus prayed desperately in the place called Gethsemane before He was taken captive. As depicted in Mark 14:32-42, Jesus prays the following:
“Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)
Jesus is God who became human. Jesus was God, but He also became fully human. This is a mysterious event that we humans cannot fully understand, but it is true.
As such, since Jesus was both God and fully man, His task to bear the sins of all people (a pure person with no sin experiencing the burden of sin) must have been an experience more difficult, painful, sad, and heavy than we can imagine.
Jesus fulfilled that task assigned to Him, and on the cross He breathed His last, saying, “It is finished (NIV).” (John 19:30)
The Bible clearly tells us about the event of Jesus being cruelly killed on the cross. The Christian church, right up to the present day, has always held up the cross as an expression of our faith.
This is so that we may always remember our faith, that through the work of redemption and forgiveness of our sins that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross, we have been forgiven and made alive.
Jesus was crucified on Friday. Three days later on Sunday morning, the Lord Jesus was resurrected.
Today we remember the resurrection of Jesus in our hearts, and by the power and hope of the resurrection, we hope to receive the experience of being made newly alive.
Today's passage was about the evening of the third day after Jesus’ death on the cross. It says that the disciples were afraid of the Jewish leaders, so they stayed inside and locked the doors.
They were afraid of the Jewish leaders because Jesus, whom they had followed as their teacher, had been executed by crucifixion. They were probably in fear that they would be caught too.
How afraid were they? They were in fear that their very lives might be taken away.
They were also in shock of having everything they had believed in be completely shattered. Physical death is terrible, but I believe that the death of a cherished belief or ideal is also a terrible thing.
They believed in Jesus’ teachings, and they put everything (including their lives) on the line for what He would eventually bring them (and what they believed in so).
And what they believed was that Jesus would eventually use His overwhelming power to overthrow the Roman Empire that ruled over the Jewish people and establish the Kingdom of God, and that at that time, those who had followed Him would be raised to high positions.
But all that they had believed had been shattered, and there was no longer any hope left for them.
“What in the world have we been believing in all this time? What are we going to do now?” At a loss, they gathered together, locked their doors, and probably could do nothing but stay inside their houses in fear.
And the way they had locked their doors I believe also represents the closed state of their hearts.
The doors of their hearts were completely closed with such thoughts as, “I can't believe in anything anymore,” or “I don't want to believe in anything.”
How about us now? Are our hearts open as we gather here in the church? Are our hearts open to the Lord and to each other as we gather together?
It is our hope that that is the case. How can we open our hearts to God and to others?
It is possible by believing in the Risen Lord Jesus Christ and welcoming Him into our midst. How will we welcome Jesus?
In today's scripture verses, Jesus came and stood in the middle of the disciples who had closed the doors.
The doors were closed, but after His resurrection, Jesus would have been able to act without being limited by the physical obstacles of this world because He had been resurrected to an entirely new body.
Jesus stood in the middle of them. God does not force His way into our hearts to urge us to believe and have faith.
In Revelation 3:20, we read about how Jesus is standing at the door and knocking.
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
Jesus stands at the door of our hearts, knocking on the door, waiting for us to open it from the inside. He does not force His way into our hearts.
It is up to us to choose whether to live believing that Christ died for us or to live rejecting that truth. God does not force us to make that choice.
However, on the evening of the day of His resurrection, Jesus forcibly, so to speak, passed through the door that the disciples had locked and appeared in front of them in His resurrected form.
It was to clearly show that the Lord's resurrection was by God's design, totally beyond the imagination of the disciples and people.
Jesus appeared to the disciples, passed a closed door, to show them that something completely new begins with the resurrection of the Lord and that it begins by God's initiative.
Standing in the middle of the disciples, Jesus said, “Peace be with you!” Jesus’ resurrection was to give peace to His disciples and to us.
Peace means that broken relationships are restored (repaired). It means we are welcomed back into a rich relationship, where hearts are joined together in a strong bond.
The Bible tells us that man was separated from God because of the sin committed by the first humans, Adam and Eve. We all carry that sin, which is called the original sin.
However, God did not want people to live carrying the original sin, always being separated from Him.
God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save us, even at the cost of His Son's life.
That is something I will have to keep telling you over and over again, as a pastor and a Christian, for the rest of my life.
And it is my hope that even I, weak and lacking as I am, will strive to do so, so that I can live in response to God's incredible love, even if only in a small way. I am sure that all of you who are Christians share this desire.
And we hope that those who do not yet believe in Jesus as Lord will eventually be led to a confession of faith in Him, and to the belief, “I have the life I have today because Jesus died on the cross for me.”
The resurrected Jesus has given us peace. The peace of entering once again into a relationship with God who we were separated (broken away) from.
Another thing the resurrected Jesus has given us is joy.
Jesus showed His disciples His hands and side. There must have been painful scars from the nails and spear. By those scars, the disciples knew that He was indeed their Lord.
The disciples were convinced by the fresh wounds on His hands and side that the Lord, who had died (been killed) cruelly on the cross, had indeed risen in the flesh.
The disciples were shown by this that, although people killed Jesus (including themselves), no one can truly take His life!
From there great and true joy was given to the disciples. They were filled with joy because no one could take the life of the Lord, and no one could take the life of those who believe in the Lord.
We can share in that joy today through faith.
Jesus breathed on His disciples and said:
“Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus breathed on them, indicating that new life had been breathed into them.
When man was first created by God in Genesis, he became a living being when God breathed His breath on him. (Genesis 2:7)
The resurrected Jesus also gave the disciples the breath of life, the Holy Spirit, giving them new life.
We, too, can always receive the Holy Spirit, the breath of God and the breath of life, through faith with the Lord Jesus Christ in the center.
The Lord has risen. And those who live believing in His resurrection will eventually be resurrected with Him.
This is not just an unattainable dream, but based on that hope, we have the power that allows us to live the raw reality, the harsh reality of our lives here on earth now, to the fullest.
The Lord Jesus Christ has risen. No amount of evil thoughts or evil power of man could completely eliminate the Lord.
We worship every Sunday, the Sunday of the Lord's resurrection. Today is a special Easter service, but every Sunday of every week is a special time when we can share in the resurrection of the Lord.
Through our worship together, we hope to open our hearts to the Lord and also to our family of faith and to our neighbors.
Let us believe in the Risen Lord and always welcome the Risen Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts and into the midst of this worship service.
And let us believe that the words Jesus gave to His disciples, “Peace be with you,” are also directed to us today. Let us pray and ask that the peace of the Lord be realized among us and in our society and world.
Jesus did not abandon the truly weak and cowardly disciples who had once completely betrayed Him, but appeared to them again, gave them the Holy Spirit to make them alive again, and made them His messengers to announce His forgiveness.
We, too, are called and sent as modern-day messengers to proclaim the Lord's work of forgiveness and the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the world. Let us respond to that calling with joy.
Happy Easter! Thank you, Jesus!
