Peace Be With You

Just like last week we get a glimpse to the resurrected body. We see Jesus walk through walls so their are not earthly limitations on his body. Could we possible be capable of walking through walls in eternity?

Fear…Peace Be With You

The disciples were hiding out of fear. They had Jesus, their leader killed, what may they think of them? Also they may have been afraid of being accused of stealing Jesus body. They were not peaceful, but fearful of the world. As believers we should not be going through this world fearful.

Remember the nail holes and stripes Jesus has. They all represent victory, through his death. With his death fear was defeated. Fear is not meant to control us.

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV

for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

What is greater than Jesus? Nothing. What is more powerful than Jesus? Nothing. Why are you fearful then?

Their are three categories in here tonight:

The Fearful Lost- Some of you are terrified of death and life. You are terrified of wasting your life. Terrified of loneliness. And as long as you don’t have Christ in your life, fear to some extent will run rampant in your life.

The Fearful Believer- Some of you do have a relationship with Christ, but you have things going on in your life that should not be there. You may have unconfessed sin that you are fearful of being exposed. You may not be getting in the word of God causing him to grow blurry to you and bringing clarity to monsters causing you to be fearful.

The Fearless- A small group is fearless. A group of you do truly have a relationship with Christ and are whole hearted pursuing him. When you do this you can live boldly and fearless.

Action…Peace Be With You

Jesus with this second peace be with you informs them they are to go into the world to be a vessel of his glory to all. Jesus knows he was going to be here on earth for forty days before ascending and that he was in a sense passing the torch to them to spread His glory.

So there is peace in living our faith out. You don’t get peace just confessing Jesus as savior. You get peace by truly surrendering and living your faith out.

We see several things here:

We are sent. Not just some of us but all believers. If you attempt to stay stationary your peace is going to escape you.

The Holy Spirit is with us. We are not just going on our own, but with the presence of God indwelling us.

We are to be the vessel of God’s glory going into the world.

Forgiveness, if you cannot forgive people, your joy is going to be sucked out of you. We as Christians are not to be bitter people, but gracious and forgiving. Reflect on our Old Testament study and God’s graciousness. You go well I am not God. You are not but he indwells you.

Believe…Peace Be With You

This last peace be with you is said to Thomas. Doubting Thomas, which I prefer Inquisitive Thomas.

Thomas was not with them the first time Jesus appeared and refused to believe unless he saw Jesus himself.

Jesus does not straight out rebuke him, but tells him the special blessing of those who believe Jesus without witnessing his body.

Tonight Jesus is giving you the same statement he gave Thomas, “Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

Tonight Jesus is calling you to call Him, “My Lord and my God.”

My Lord- he is the ruler and master of your life. You recognize his lordship and submit to it.

My God- realize He is creator. Realize the spiritual aspect to life. That the spiritual realm exist and has everything to do with life.

Decision Time

Do you have peace? If not what have we talked tonight about that is stealing your peace?

To quote a mentor of mine, “Only two things you got to do in life. One you got to die. Two you got to stand before God.” Those are two undeniable facts. Two things you will not escape. You don’t have to go to your deathbed in fear. You do not have to stand before God by your own power. Know though you may not have walked physically with Jesus during his time on earth, but you have His breathe and word. You don’t lack belief because you have not seen Jesus perform miracles, you lack belief because you refuse to listen to God, because you refuse to look at the miracle in front of you. Tonight is the night for a decision to be made.

Decisions to be made:

Salvation- some of you need to accept Christ as Savior. Some of you need to pray tonight. "Dear Jesus, I admit that I am a sinner and I need your forgiveness. I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead. I ask you to come into my life and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for your grace and mercy. Amen."

Baptism- Some of you are lacking an amount of spiritual boldness because you have yet to follow Christ in obedience in believers baptism. Baptism does not save you but it is an act of obedience thus not doing it is an act of disobedience. Baptism is symbolic of the change in your life and also symbolic of what happened on the cross

Re-dedication- Some of you are believers and know that you need to make some changes in your life to get back where you need to be. You have backslid and know you are far from where you should be. Stop talking about changes you need to make and start tonight making changes.