When Jesus Shows Up at Church

What do you think it would be like if you came to church Sunday and Jesus showed up?

I don’t mean figuratively, but literally.

I don’t mean spiritually, but physically.

What if right in the middle of the service, He walked in and announced Himself?

“Hello, my name is Jesus.”

How could you be sure it was Him?

How would you feel?

What would you say to him?

Would you ask for His autograph?

More importantly, what do you think He would say?

Well, we don’t have to wonder what He would say, because He did walk into the first Sunday Gathering of the believers and His message was short, but massive in impact.

So, Sunday we are going to open the Scriptures and read Jesus’ Sunday Sermon–His post resurrection sermon.

By the way, He’s going to be there.

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If you’re here this morning, do not have a Bible with you, slip up your hand. We want to put a Bible in your hand. I would think (I don’t have any statistics to prove this) the gospel of John is the most familiar book in the Bible to people. I think people have read John probably more than any other book. I know when I was in college and I took John, part of the requirement was at least three times all the way through the semester you had to read the entire book at one sitting. It doesn’t take nearly as long as you might think it would. You can do it easy way under an hour.

What I think sometimes we do in John (because we’re so familiar with it)…we tend to text it. We tend to just pull sentences and phrases out of it instead of gathering the big narratives of it. Last week we started in chapter 20, and up on the top of your sheet there, there are seven sections just in case you want to catch the timeline here. Because what John does is he timestamps these next two chapters. So he wants us to understand and think through this in a day-week kind of chronology.

The first big section there is Sunday morning. It starts early Sunday morning way before dawn. The primary character there is a lady named Mary. Not Mary the mother of Jesus; Mary Magdalene, the person in whom Jesus had cast out seven demons. This is a woman who many would say her background was a prostitute. This is a checkered-past woman.

It’s kind of hard to figure out exactly (because there are actually 50-something verses in the gospels in whom the name Mary is involved), but there are some who would argue (I think) very logically this is the same Mary who was part of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. She is the one who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair. The defining moment in that event is where she hears Jesus call her name. It’s really important. Up until that point she really doesn’t recognize who Jesus is through her tears. It is sometimes incredibly difficult to see God’s work in our difficulties.

Now beginning in verse 19 (you see that?), “That Sunday evening…” (John 20:19) Now the word that is used there is it’s late evening. It’s night. So we’re entering into this understanding that this has been a long day. You know what a long day is? You know those days where, man, you feel like they’re a week long, like they never stop? There was really no way these guys could not have gotten back together. Too much has happened.

What they’re doing in this upper room (and most likely it’s the same upper room where they had that Last Supper), they’re really comparing notes to what has happened because a number of things have happened. Jesus has appeared to a couple of the disciples walking out of Jerusalem in the book of Luke. Numbers of things have happened there. So there is a gathering there, and where we’re going to spend our time this morning is that conversation in that late evening. That goes down through verse 23.

Then in verse 24 and 25 is a conversation post-Sunday night gathering with Thomas who wasn’t at the service that day. There are a lot of things to learn about what happens when you miss church. I couldn’t resist that. I’m sorry. Actually I think I preached a sermon one time out of this passage and called it What Happens When You Miss Church. I’m not sure I didn’t twist that passage just a little bit, but it’s on the Internet somewhere. You can probably find it. You be your own judge.

Then the fourth section begins in verse 26. This is eight days later. Eight days later. This is where Thomas has this incredible encounter with Jesus. Look carefully at that verse 28 where he declares, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28) Do you see that? Now if you read the other gospels, John is unique in his just-right-smack-in-your-face declarations of Jesus’ deity.

The other disciples (Matthew, Mark, and Luke)…there is a progressive understanding because Jesus doesn’t just walk up one day to the disciples and say, “I’m Yahweh. Get used to it.” That’s not how it worked. When they come up to him they start thinking, You’re the Lamb of God. You’re the Messiah. You’re a leader. You’re a miracle-worker. You’re a teacher. It is an ongoing understanding of who Jesus really is.

Just in terms of encouragement with you and our friends when we’re trying to bring people to an understanding of Jesus, too many times it’s just all or nothing right away. Sometimes what we really need to do is that model Jesus did. If somebody says to you, “You know, I believe Jesus was a really good teacher, but I don’t believe He was divine,” our natural reaction is to go, “Well then you’re going to hell.” You know what? It’s a much more effective and actually biblical approach to say, “You think He was a really good teacher. Would you like to sit down with me and look at some of the things He taught?” Can you say amen to that?

I think we’re often much too quick to shut the conversation down because are they correct? No, they’re not correct. That’s the problem. They need exposure to Scripture because either we believe the Bible is powerful or we don’t, you know? If you walk into my house and say, “I’m going to burn your house down,” and I say, “Excuse me, but I don’t think that’s a good idea because I have a gun.” You say to me, “I don’t believe that’s a real gun.” Now the truth is in my house there isn’t a gun. There are guns. There are not only guns; there are knives. There are swords. Some of them hang right on the wall.

Now if I say, “You know what? I’d really rather not kill you over burning the house down, but I am going to cut you real hard. I have this sword here, so I’m going to cut your hand a little bit just so you know.” You say, “I don’t believe that’s a real sword. That doesn’t look like a real sword to me. I think it’s a plastic sword. I don’t think it’s real at all.” I’m not going to sit here and argue with you. “Yes it really is a sword. I’m going to just cut you and blood is going to come out your hand.” “Oh, that really is a sword.”

You know what the Bible says? The Bible says the Bible is quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword. Right? Amen? So if somebody says, “I don’t believe the Bible at all. I don’t believe anything in it,” the best thing you can do is say, “Look, it’s a really big book. There has to be something you believe in it. It’s impossible there is nothing in it, in that whole book. This is like thousands of words. Let’s do this together. Let’s just go on this journey to see if there is anything you believe. Let’s try that for two weeks.” Because do you know what will happen? They’ll read the Bible and they’ll go, “Hmm. I believe that.” That’s what’ll happen to them. That’s not the sermon, though.

So you have John’s purpose statement (verse 30), “The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe…” (John 20: 30) Believe in, lean into, trust in. Pisteuo is the word there. You believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that by believing in Him you will have…look at that word. This is actually where we started when we started this study. It’s life. It’s zoe. It’s not bios. It’s not just physical life. It is eternal life.

Then you have this whole section in chapter 21. See that first verse? “Later…” (John 21:1) So you have sometime later. Then you have a summary statement in verse 25. “Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:25)

So you have those sections there. You have post-resurrection statements there. If you have a red-letter edition you’ll see it. There is, “Why are you crying?” (John 20:15) “Who are you looking for?” (John 20:15) “Mary, go find my brothers and tell them…” (John 20:17) Verse 19: “Peace be with you” (John 20:19) “I am sending you” (John 20:21) “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:22)

Let’s start into that verse 19. Look at this. “That Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors…” (John 20:19) Now that’s pretty important because this ‘locked doors’ is not just, “I locked the door because I don’t want somebody to come in.” Literally the passageways are locked. Everything is shut down. They are literally in hiding. We don’t have to guess why. We’re told very clearly why: because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. They’re thinking they might be the next one hauled off.

“Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them!” (John 20:19) Now I want you to think with me. Enter into the narrative. Let’s say you were in the room. All the passageways are blocked off. The dresser is in front of the window. Everything is completely shut down. All of a sudden Jesus walks in and stands right in the middle of the room. Now then, tell me honestly how you would feel. It would terrify me. It would absolutely scare me. It wouldn’t be like, “Oh what joy divine.” I’d be going, “Oh my goodness. Are we dead?”

Jesus walks in, stands among them. Notice what He says. “Peace be with you.” (John 20:19) Now obviously He says that for a reason because they’re not peaceful. If you grew up in the ’60s you recognize that. Peace. This means much more than it meant in the ’60s. The ’60s idea of peace was just an absence of war, an absence of conflict.

When the word peace is used in the Hebrew, it is shalom. It is more than the absence of; it’s the presence of. It’s the presence of wholeness, of wellbeing. The word really is a kingdom word. When the Hebrews use the word peace, it’s the state of where things are when they are as they should be. Shalom is where things are made right as they were created to be.

I have a truck. It’s 10 years old. It’s a beautiful truck. I like my truck, but it’s not what it was. It’s still a nice truck, but it has a lid on the back. You push the button; it doesn’t go down. At one time this was like the most expensive truck in the world. It was built by Lincoln. They saw the luxury trucks coming and the Escalade and all that stuff. They panicked and they took an F-150 and threw everything they had at it. So it really is. It’s an F-150 and please understand…you know that program Pimp My Ride? That’s what Lincoln did. They just took, threw everything they had at an F-150.

They put a price of $60,000 dollars on it. You know what happened? Nobody bought them because it’s stupid. You can’t really haul anything in it. The seats are cool. It has an amazing stereo system, but you can’t put anything in the back. It’s a really ridiculous thing, but I love that truck. I paid like $15,000 for it. It sat in somebody’s garage who it was God’s telling him he had too much money. Anyway, it doesn’t work everything back right.

If you’ve ever been involved in restoring a car to mint condition, where everything actually works like it was designed to work, shalom is where you push reset and the world works as God meant it to work. You get it? That’s really important. Shalom means there are no murderers. There is no violence. There is nobody hungry. There is nobody who has cancer. Nobody is dying. There is no divorce. Nobody holds grudges against one another. Not only is there no war, there is no…Isaiah uses it so beautifully. People will study war no more. Why would we study war? Nobody is going to kill anybody. That is shalom.

This is what Jesus says. He says, “Shalom.” Look. “As He spoke, He showed them the wounds in His hands and His side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord. Again He said, ‘Shalom'” (John 20:20-21) You see that repetition here? There is a sandwich of truth in here. Shalom. Shalom. Showed the wounds. Side. They’re filled with joy. Shalom. “‘As the Father has sent Me, so I’m sending you.’ Then He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (John 20:21-23)

Now on the bottom of your sheet, I outlined those seven actions Jesus does post-resurrection. It’s really important because I don’t know if you’ve ever thought through the whole theology from post-resurrection to the ascension. What was Jesus doing? Why was He doing it? What was really going on? He does several things. He stands among them and not actually just among them.

Look over just a couple of pages into Acts, chapter 1, verse 1. “In my first book I told you, Theophilus, everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day He was taken up to heaven…” (Acts 1:1-2) That’s the ascension. You don’t hear people talk about the ascension very much. He says He began up until the ascension. “…after giving His chosen apostles further instructions [look] through the Holy Spirit.” Look at this. “During the 40 days after His crucifixion…” (Acts 1:2-3)

Now generally speaking the church spends a lot of time historically on Lent and getting ready for the crucifixion and resurrection. There are these 40 days post-resurrection. After His crucifixion He appeared to the apostles, and look at the word that is used there. “He appeared to the apostles from time to time.” (Acts 1:3) He proved to them in many ways He was actually alive. He talked to them about what? What was His conversation He kept talking to them about? The kingdom of God.

You understand this is the central theology of the Bible. This is the central theology of the Bible. This is the theology of Eden. This is what happened in Genesis 3 where mankind changed allegiance, committed treason against the Almighty. This is the central issue of Scripture. It is…To whom do you have allegiance? What kingdom are you in? Who is your king?

I’m certain most of you are aware what is going on in Libya today. There is this massive fight going on in Libya today. There is really one issue there. It’s, “Are you for Gadhafi? Are you against Gadhafi?” That’s all. That’s the only issue in Libya right now. Are you for Gadhafi? You’re against Gadhafi. It’s a battle of kingdoms.

A few weeks before that there was a battle going on in Egypt. Mubarak. Are you pro-Mubarak? Are you against Mubarak? That’s the only issue that was there. One single issue. I’ve been to Egypt a number of times. In Egypt there are three million children who live in garbage dumps. Did you know that? They eat garbage. They live in the garbage. There are three million children. Simultaneously the leadership had $52 billion in the bank. There is no way you can even imagine that kind of injustice.

Now there are all kind of site debates. What’s this other kingdom going to look like? Is it the Muslim brotherhood? Is it going to be another Iran? What’s this kingdom going to look like? Here is the central question of the Scriptures…What kingdom are you part of? Are you hungry for the kingdom of God? If you want to know what the kingdom of God looks like, it looks like Jesus.

I put it on your sheet that Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. What is your allegiance here? That’s it. Do you want this kingdom of justice, of righteousness, of forgiveness, of grace, or do you want your kingdom that is full of maggots? It’s full of mess. It’s full of anger. It’s full of deceit. It’s full of manipulation. It’s full of hatred. It’s full of envy. There is a simple choice. He talked to them about the kingdom of God.

Look at verse 4. “Once when He was eating them…” which is just an insane statement. “By the way one time when we were eating together…” Are they eating tacos? I don’t know, you know? Just how crazy. “By the way we were sitting with Jesus the other day. We were eating hummus, and I don’t know.” Just very casual in the way it’s spoken. “….He commanded them, ‘Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift He promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you are going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

So when the apostles were with Jesus they kept asking Him, ‘Lord, has the time come for You to free Israel and restore our kingdom?'” (Acts 1:4-6) Do you understand what the problem is? They still are thinking of a political kingdom. You still (even right now) have all kinds of Christians arguing about Israel, Palestine. Is this the time you’re going to restore the kingdom? You have all kinds of people arguing about prophecy. Is it premillenial? Postmillenial? Midtribulation? Listen, I’m pretribulation. Period. Period. Period. If the tribulation starts I’m going to move to mid. If it gets to mid and I’m still here, I’m going to be post.

Now if that troubles you that I don’t really know, you would be surprised how many other things I don’t know. Look at verse 7. “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times…” Look at this. “….and they are not for you to know.” (Acts 1:7) Is there any part about that that’s ambiguous? Yet we have all kinds of denominations, all kinds of Christians fighting and fussing over sequencing and timing.

Here is what we are to know: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
Here is what He doesn’t want you to be ignorant of: “I don’t want you to be ignorant about the work of the Holy Spirit. I don’t want you to be ignorant about this.” As a matter of fact, in 1 Corinthians this is exactly the words Paul uses. “Concerning the spiritual gifts, I don’t want you to be ignorant. I want you to know these things, and you will be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and the ends of the earth.”

So here you have the actions. Jesus stands among them. He calls them by name. He shows them Himself. I would like to go into 1 Corinthians 15 because verses 1 through 9 is an amazing passage. It talks about all these people who saw Him, and He says one time 500 people saw Him at one time. Now that is a lot of people to be mistaken (500 people). They see Him at one single time.

Now listen carefully because I don’t think the church works through this thoroughly or even adequately. When Jesus stood among them, He had a real body. He had real breath. He had real scars. Real. This is a real body. Now when it uses this phrase on here that He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” that word that is used for breath there…it is the single time it is used in the New Testament. It is not used anywhere else in the New Testament. The only other place it is used (actually there are two other places) is in the Septuagint, which is translated out of the Greek. It’s the word that is used in Genesis, chapter 2, verse 7 where God goes into the garden and He breathes into man the breath of life.

So do you understand? What John is telling us is this is the recreation. God is recreating humanity. This is not resuscitation. This is not, “We’re going to come out of the grave.” No, there is a contrast between Lazarus and Jesus. When Lazarus comes out of the grave, he has those grave clothes all around him. When Jesus comes out of the grave, He doesn’t come out of the grave; He comes through the grave. He isn’t just delivered from death. This isn’t a rescue operation. He comes through death. This is different. It’s very different to be rescued from something and just to kill it. Do you understand?

If a lion grabs you and somebody rescues you from the lion, there is still a lion. If you go to battle with a lion and you come out with a lion hide, there is no lion anymore. Do you understand? When Jesus comes out of the grave, the grave clothes are just lying there. He defeated death. This isn’t a rescue. This isn’t a resuscitation. This is a defeat of death. This is a recreation. This is a restoration. This is the announcement of the new creation, and Jesus does this act of breathing into His disciples. He says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

The other place it’s used is Ezekiel 37. It’s where Ezekiel is walking in a valley of dry bones. Remember that one? The dry bones. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a valley of bones, but this is a nightmare. This is not a dream; this is a nightmare.

Some of us were in Cambodia a few years ago and went down to the killing fields. In Cambodia under Pol Pot, they brought in everybody who had over a fifth-grade education into the schools. They wrapped the schools in razor wire and systematically just slaughtered everybody who had ever had any education. Doctors, lawyers, any education whatsoever. They put them on wagons. They drove them out to these fields. They hit them in the head with hoes and buried them in these mass graveyards. When you walk through those fields, literally…it’s almost a bog of blood and these bones. Pieces of clothing pop up through the dirt and the ground and the bog.

Ezekiel is standing there in this valley of dry bones. Dead, dry bones. God asked him this question: “Can these bones live?” (Ezekiel 37:3) Do you know who the bones are? The bones are the nation of Israel. Can these bones live? They’re in exile. They’ve ceased to exist as a nation. Can these bones live? Ezekiel answers the right question: “God, only You know.”

God says to Ezekiel, “Prophesy over the bones.” “What?” “Prophesy over the bones.” “What do you mean, God?” “Say to the bones, ‘Bones, live. Bones, live.'” You can just imagine Ezekiel just standing there in this mess, and he’s saying, “Bones, live.” Then the worst thing happens. The bones start popping together. That’s a worse nightmare. Bones just popping together all over the place. Now you have a whole group of skeletons like that pirate movie thing.

Here is what it says, though: God breathes into the bones and sinew and muscle and skin. Here is what it says: These dry bones become a living army. Do you see what happens here? What happens is this is what Jesus is doing among this little band of terrified people. He’s breathing into them. Here is what He says, and it’s so important what He says. He says, “Shalom.” Then He shows them the scars. “Look, here are the scars. Here are the scars in my side. Look at this.” Then He repeats the same thing. He says, “You get it? Shalom. Look, scars. Shalom.”

Then He says this amazing thing that really shakes people up. He says, “Listen, anyone you forgive, they are forgiven.” The word He uses there is the same exact word that is used regarding Lazarus when He says, “Release him and let him go.” It’s the word for taking that cloth of death off of that body and letting them go. He says anybody you release, they’re released. Anybody you don’t release, they’re not released.

Do you understand God is calling us to be an army of liberators? An army of liberators first has to be liberated. If you’re not liberated yourself, you can’t liberate anybody else. “Look, look! Here are the scars. Here are my hands.” Do you know what this is echoing out of? If you’ve ever read this you’ll recognize it. It’s Isaiah 53. “All we like sheep have gone astray. All of us have turned to our wicked ways. The Father has laid on Him the iniquities of us all.”

It doesn’t stop there. It says, “He was bruised for our…” This is the word “…shalom.” (Isaiah 53:8) He was bruised for our shalom. He was beaten for our healing. Now here is the question you have to ask yourself…If you can’t find this idea of forgiveness adequate… Everybody sitting in this chair has a story. Everyone. Now understand what the disciples preached was not resuscitation. Physically, here is what the disciples taught, and this is what Jesus told them to teach: Someday those who trust Me are coming out of the graves. Real bodies. Real. Real bodies.

When I was a kid, we lived near this forest. There was this forgotten graveyard that went back to the Revolutionary War. We used to camp out in it. We did. Some of my friends were here this morning. If you don’t believe me, I can give you their cell phone. We used to go up there in the middle of this graveyard and camp out. You know what? We used to tell stories (ghost stories) up there camping out in the graveyard. Usually by the time the morning hit, everybody was gone.

I always thought, “Yeah, someday people are coming out of these graves,” but I thought they were ghosts coming out of the graves. You understand that’s not what the Bible teaches? The Bible teaches literal, physical, trans-physical, some kind of physicality that is beyond the shadow of our physicality today, is actually coming out of the grave.

Now I know some of you are thinking, That’s not actually possible. What kind of body could they come out of? What if somebody is a sailor, they fall in the ocean, and a fish eats them? Then that fish gets caught and somebody in New York eats the fish. Maybe some of you have never even thought about that, but I remember thinking about that. Now you do know that’s not a problem for God. There is a whole chapter in the Bible about this: 1 Corinthians 15. It’s a whole chapter on it. That body is coming out.

Here is what He tells us. He says, “Listen, look at these scars. These scars are for your liberation.” Now I don’t know how you think about this, but when I was growing up…this is actually Jody’s. This came from Jerusalem. This is Jesus on the cross. I never liked the idea of Jesus on the cross because He’s not on the cross, all right? He’s not on the cross. There is some sense in which the effects of the cross continue in His body today. Are you thinking about this with me? There is some sense in which the scars of Jesus, His identity with us in suffering, still continue to right now.

So here is what you have to come to the place of: You need to take whatever it is that is within you, and you need to look at Jesus and His scars and say, “I’m sorry suffering wasn’t enough. That suffering wasn’t enough for my pain. It wasn’t enough for my violation.” Listen, I know something about people. Almost everybody I know has something they’ve done they wish they hadn’t. I do. I do. This is a little thing (I’ve done a lot worse than this), but do you ever have things you think about you just wish hadn’t happened?

I remember when I was in ninth grade. I was in homeroom, and this kid (just accidentally actually) pushed my book off my desk. It was an accident, and he was actually a friend of mine. Another friend of mine says, “Make him put it back.” Now I could have easily reached down and put my book back. You know what? All of a sudden I felt this surge of I have to prove my manhood. I turned around. I said, “Pick the book up and put it back.”

My friend looked at me like, “Who are you?” I said, “Put the book back or I’ll throw you through the window.” My other “friend” said, “That’s the way to do it. Show him who’s boss.” You know what? I did. I shamed the kid right there. I still hate it. I do. I have gotten in a lot of fights I’m not ashamed of, but I’ve never (as far as I know) on purpose humiliated someone just because I could. It bothers me. It bothers me to this day.

Now I’m going to tell you something. There is worse stuff I’m just not willing to tell you, okay? So I’m not trying to act like that’s the worst thing I’ve ever done. I’ve done lots worse than that, stuff I could go to jail for (still when I was in high school) if it was known. The reality is everybody here…we have stuff. We have junk. We have baggage. But here is the question you have to ask yourself…Was it or was it not enough? Was it or was it not enough?

“Oh no, we’re past resurrection.” Well there is some reason Jesus says, “Shalom! Scars. Shalom! Wounds. Shalom! Do you want to be restored, or do you want to live where you are?” He breathed on them and He said, “New creation. New creation. Restoration. New life.”

Now there is another peace to this. This is the peace not only where we sense and find our own liberation; it is the place where we grant liberation. There are some of you who have somebody you’ve been holding so hard for so many years, and you will not let them go. Here is what you need to do. You need to look at the hands of Jesus and say, “Jesus, that’s not enough. I’m going to hold on to them. I’m going to keep them. I have to keep them. There is not enough suffering yet.”

“Shalom! Look at the scars. Shalom! Look at the wounds.” By His stripes we are healed. By His bruising we are made shalom. That’s the word that’s used in Isaiah 53. By His bruising we have found shalom. God has called us to be an army of liberated liberators. Shalom.

Let’s pray: I don’t know where you are this morning or what your needs are, but here is what I just want to take a moment with you to do. If you’re here this morning and you have not entered into the forgiveness and liberation that is found in Jesus Christ’s suffering, death, burial, and resurrection; if you are sitting there and you’re saying, “You know what? I have not experienced that liberation and this morning I really want to receive that gift. I want to put my hand in the hand that was scarred for me. I want liberation for me this morning. I need that liberation. I want you to pray for me,” just slip up that hand.

God bless you. Amen. I see you. God bless you. I see you. I need that liberation. Amen. All over the house. All over the house. Now here is what I want you to do. If you are one of those people…everybody else I want you to keep your head bowed, eyes closed. Look at me if you are one of those people who need that liberation.

Listen, here is what I want to say to you. Instead, in the place of Jesus Christ, I have been breathed upon. I have been liberated. I have been sent to liberate you. So by the power invested in me and the gospel and the church of the resurrected, living Lord, listen. Look at me if this is who you are. I declare you’re free. You’re liberated. Not because I have any power but because the cross has all the power that is necessary. The resurrected Lord and Savior liberated you, and there is nothing you can do to earn it. It is an absolutely free act of grace, period.

You know what? He will not force it on you. You have to receive that gift. If you’re in that situation this morning, listen. I want to encourage you. In a moment Aaron is going to lead us in prayer. Go over to this prayer room on my right. Somebody will pray with you.

There is another place I want us to go this morning. If you’re holding on to someone…we’re going to dig deeper into this, the Holy Spirit piece of this and the liberation part of this. Listen carefully. If you’re holding on to something, I want you to go to one of two places this morning. One place I want you to go is I just want you to tell Jesus, “I’m sorry the suffering is not enough, and I’m not going to forgive. Suffering is just not enough. I’m not going to forgive, and I don’t think You suffered enough to pay for this. I’m not going to let them off the hook.”

Or I want you to say to Jesus this morning, “I believe Your suffering was adequate. More than adequate, I think it was sufficient. I am going to let that person who has wronged me, violated me, whatever it is, taken from me…I’m going to liberate them. I’m going to unwind them just like Lazarus, and I’m going to let them go. I’m going to let them go.”

If you need prayer this morning (particularly if you need prayer this morning), Aaron is going to come and lead us in something, but you know what you can do? This will happen. If you’ll just stand up wherever you are, somebody will come back and pray with you. People here know how to pray. During this first song if you just need somebody to pray with you, you just stand up. Somebody will come back and pray for you.