The Complexity of An Encounter

Preparation Skeleton

They had been told about Jesus but sill didn’t believe

Jesus wants you to experience him too

Even after an ecounter we can doubt

Joy and amazement can hinder your faith

Jesus will use your doubt as a connecting point for revelation

The word of God will seal the encounter. We can’t just have experience

What you have, is to be given to others. Don’t use it you’ll lose it

Peace be with you!

The fight against doubt and fear

v36 - While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

Shalom Alehkam

Why this phrase? 1. think of the currrent context of what is going on. They are afraid, hearing different things, conflicted, lost their leader, sad, scared etc. In a season like that - you only want God to come in to the room and say “Hey, peace is possible. Peace is here”

2. Peace is a person. Jesus has accomplished peace between God and man

3. In the Hebrew, especially ancient context, this phrase was used as a greeting. There was supposed to be a response. Shalom Alehkam, should be responded to with Alehkam Shalom. The disciples didn’t respond. Partly I think Jesus is also drawing out what’s really going on inside of them.

4. Jesus doesn’t use the front door. Why? Probably becasue of the climate - They wouldn’t have opened it. If they’re already in disbelief they wouldn’t have believed Jesus was at the door. It’s a moment where he doesn’t really want to give them an option but to see him - I think he wants them to be startled. He’s constantly showing them God doesn’t work in the ways they always want. He needed to shock them to disbelief. SHOCK US TO DISBELIEF God can engage with disbelief. It draws out what shouldn’t be in. Fear, unworthiness, lack of value for one self, comfort.

v37 - They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost

v38 - He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?

I wish the writer wrote down a response to this question. We have to try and fill in the dots here… Or maybe there was no reponse. 1. Maybe they knew they shouldn’t be scared, but they were and so they had nothing to say?

v39 - Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

v40 - When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.

v41 - And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”

v42 - They gave him a piece of broiled fish

v43 - and he took it and ate it in their presence

v44 - He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

v45 - He opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures

v46 - He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,

v47 - and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

v48 - You are witnesses of these things

v49 - I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Intro: Encountering God is complex. All 3 stories prior to this event involve people having encounters. Lots of things going on in our hearts and minds during times where things happen to us.

Have you ever had something happen to you that no-one truly understands? People look at you weird or say they believe you but you know they don’t.

A community where God is moving might look incredible on the surface but underneath it all it’s complicated. Maybe even chatoic. This story is a a culmination of lots of different types of encounters. You could imagine the room at this moment… Chaotic. At the beginning of time, God made the world. Genesis reveals to us that out of nothing (Scholars would say) out of chaos - God brings order and (shalom/peace) - from nothing to something. From confusion to clarity. Dark to light. A huge theme of the Bible is that our God is the God of peace. Peace is undervalued, underrated but most desired.

Shalom experienced is multidimensional, complete well-being — physical, psychological, social, and spiritual; it flows from all of one’s relationships being put right — with God, with(in) oneself, and with others.

It doesnt surprise me then that Jesus first wrods are “Peace be with you”

Sometimes God doesn’t need an inviation, announcemnet, plan, permission, to knock on the door. He just shows up. In the beginning he just shows up. In the room with the disciples he just shows up. Right now for you, God just showed up. In the midst of the chaos and complexities of following Him and doing life with people. Jesus is the peace in the middle. Peace is not a state it’s a person.

Jesus helps us navigate the complexities on encountering him through these ways: 1. Fear and Doubt are the vehicle in which his peace comes to us v38-43

- Fear = I feel threatened (physically or emotionally) by this situation. Doubt = I’m not sure this is real God can meet us in both: Fear can take us down two roads: 1) I’m threatened so I will put myself into safety 2) Self protection 3) Doubt: 1) I don’t believe this is true (Others) 2) I don’t believe this could happen through me (me) - It’s easy to count ourselves out the moment we have fear or have doubt. God doesn’t though it’s the very means of his engagement. As long we come to him in it. - Imagine one of the disciples out of their fear or doubt ran out of the room. We do that. We get scared or we get riddled with doubt that we walk away or distance ourselves from God. But this is when He wants to move in. Because he is the peace that tells you “You don’t have to be afraid, it’s okay to have your doubts.” - Jesus asks the question, why? Sometimes this is the only question God asks us. Why are you feeling or acting this way? Why, can point us to the very root of the fear or the doubt. - Again, Jesus presses in “Look at me, touch me. Let me swallow your fear and build up your faith. The moments where my faith and courage are at their peak is when I admit I’m feeling the opposite and He moves in. - But still..... can anyone relate?? Have you ever witnessed a miracle, but still... Someone get baptised, forgive that person, healed of cancer, set free from addiction, but still.... - Some of us still don’t believe. Like the disciples, it says “they did not belief, because of their joy and wonder”. Too good to be true. Their feeling trumped the word and power of God in that moment. Jesus didn’t need them to get all “OMG” on him in that moment, he needs them to have real faith and conviction about his resurrection. What he has planned for them requires them to have real faith, courage - equipped with the power of God. Two Wow’s: WOW - God is Good? WOW - Is that actually possible? - Again he wants to build their faith and he asks for food. Why? Simply a spirit/ghost cannot eat real food. So he shows them. - There’s a journey God takes on sometimes to move our doubts into faith, and our fears into courage. It doesn’t always happen straight away. Even if we witness the power of God right in front of our eyes. The Israelites literally walked through a miracle (RED SEA) and on the other side they still doubted God - and even asked to go back to Egypt where they were enslaved. There’s something about human nature

2. Open our minds to the purpose of your encounter v44-48 - Jesus had to connect the dots and explain to them that his death and resurrection is the fulfilment of all the Scriptures. As he already had told them. Obviously fear and doubt had created some mental blocakges for them to rememebr all of this. So he taught them again. - The most powerful question you can ask God is why? He will teach you. The Holy Spirit is a teacher. - If experiences in God have no substance they are like a grass fire that quickly goes up and quickly goes out. If a fire has substance like fat wooden logs it burn for hours and hours. - Your faith fizzles out because you chase an experience and not a person. You leave an encounter un anchored. Like a boat drifting through the sea. No wonder you keep stepping back and hiding - you’ve got no anchor. - In the storm where the disciples were fearing for their life, Jesus comes and says “Peace be still”. Without Jesus they probably would have died in that storm. He was their anchor. He made sense of it all. And because of that their faith increased. Although during the storm it was back and forth (Is it Jesus, is it possible) - Even the winds and waves obey him.

3. He promises to help us v49 - With the promised Holy Spirit. Called the Helper. Why? Because we need help. - The first step forward is admitting you can’t. When we admit we can’t, we are saying He can. - Jesus tells the disciples to wait for this gift to go into the world to witness. - note it’s not their testimony, miracles, the bible verse recitation in itself that is going to change the world - but the power of the Holy Spirit. - Maybe God has stopped moving in your life because your so dependant on your own strengths. What’s going to move faster. A sail boat filled with rowers using paddles to move the boat, or a sail boat with the sails up being taken by the wind? - Start aligning yourself with the Power of The Holy Spirit. How? - I’ll give you two tips tonight: 1) “Stay there” - you move to quick. Your led by your emotions (to run, or to do). Stay and listen to God - he will direct you. Don’t distract or mediacte your fear by movement and decisions. Ask God to direct and wait. If you really believe who he says he is - your light, your guide, your leader, your shepherd. 2) “Follow the peace” - peace is where Jesus is, because peace is a person.