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“Life
in His Name”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: John 20:19-31
“But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the
Messiah, the Son of God, and through believing you may have life in his
name.”
DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS, the meaning of our lives is found in what we
desire and want; our choices and decisions; our actions and what we do.
On the evening of the first day of Easter, and a week later, as
is today, the first disciples and apostles of Christ were encountered by
Him in his resurrected life. This
changed the meaning of their life, in that it moved their faith and
their vocations forward. I
pray that we may hear more of what it means that our life is in his name
too. The true meaning of our lives is in the name of Jesus Christ.
And for our lives to be in his name, this means that our lives
are with him in his life. We
are together!
John wrote these holy, sacred, inspired words to help build our faith.
One aspect of our faith is what we believe about Jesus, based on
our thoughts. Another
aspect of our faith is what we experience when Christ encounters us in
our lives and what we feel about it.
And then we behave on our faith.
One more aspect of faith, which I want to reach this morning, is
the idea that Christ shares his own faith with us in our souls.
Obviously, the disciples, in one sense experienced Christ in a way that
we do not. We do not get to see or touch him as they did.
One of the aspects of their being called apostles was that the
apostles were actually defined by those people who saw and talked to
Christ after his resurrection.
Yes, it is fascinating to read about Jesus appearing in a room where the
door was locked, and still they were able to touch him.
As I said last week, I certainly cannot explain this
scientifically. Still, I believe it and I am amazed by it.
To this truth we may all say “YES!”
However, something that hit me this time as I read this story, and
actually amazed me just as much—because we very well may have this
experience—it was that when Jesus came back to the room a week later,
to meet Thomas, Jesus said to him, “Put your finger here and see my
hands. Reach out your hand
and put it in my side.” Not
only did Jesus show up in the room again, this time he knew exactly what
Thomas had said. He knew
what Thomas needed and what Thomas wanted.
This is John’s Pentecost in that Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit upon
them. Jesus knew what
Thomas thought he needed and wanted because Jesus was always with Thomas
in that he was with him, in his soul.
The Spirit of Christ is with you, in your soul.
He knows where you are in your faith and exactly what it is that
you need to grow in your faith. A
major part of his showing up in our lives is his revealing to us how
much he already knows us. “Blessed are those who have not seen and
yet have come to believe.” We
who have not literally seen the resurrected Jesus are blessed because we
do believe based on what he has done with us, within our souls.
Yes, you are the soul of your body.
And Jesus is with you in your soul, speaking the same words he
spoke here, “Peace be with you.”
He spoke these words three times in these verses.
And of course, we need to hear them and feel them many times in
our lives. We are not
always at peace, even with the truth that Christ is always with us, in
our souls; we certainly go through trials, struggles, sufferings, where
for much of the time we may not feel the peace of Christ within us.
What are we to do in times like these?
One thing we may tell ourselves, is what we have come to believe.
Yes, whatever it might mean that Christ is within us, in our
souls, breathing the Holy Spirit upon us and continually speaking the
words, “Peace be with you,” we may affirm what it is that we believe
by speaking these truths to ourselves.
And then we can walk out into the day of our lives trusting that
God is going to show this to us.
We have wills, wants, and desires.
We make choices. And we therefore, have actions.
We are not merely to spend all our time opening our eyes, hoping
to see Christ, seeking to feel the Holy Spirit, and then hear him share
his peace. We are also to
take actions where we follow the commandments of Christ.
Christ has told us, that we are to hear his words and do his
commandments, which all boil down to one meaning, reaching out and
loving other human beings, other persons, in such a way that we share
with them the love of God in Jesus Christ.
We have also just heard it recorded that Jesus said, “As the Father
has sent me, so I send you.”
And the words, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Yes, these last words about forgiveness are tough to understand.
This is because it is difficult for us at times to accept our own
forgiveness. But, the point
is, we have access to the Holy Spirit who really knows us.
And since Jesus is sending us just as the Father sent him, we may
apply this as Jesus did. Jesus
did not retain the sins of anyone; he took all sin upon himself to
forgive all sins.
If I were to ask you about the gospel, what would you say?
What does gospel mean? “Gospel”
means good news or good message. Reading
The Gospel According the John, we know “that God so loved
the world that he sent his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes
in him will have eternal life.”
If we were to put the good news in our own words we might says it
like this, “Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
He died on the cross for our sins, as an application of God’s
forgiveness. We believe in
him. And through this faith
we experience the eternal life of God.” If we felt like we really needed to expand it, we might
simply think about and recite The Apostle’s Creed.
You know I love to share new thoughts with you.
I hope this is a new one and an amazing one you.
Do you know part of what is the gospel?
YOU! You are the
gospel. You are the good
news of God to other people who need to have faith in Christ.
Just as the Father sent Jesus, his Son, so Christ is sending you and me. Christ, through the Holy Spirit is with you and in you.
We are to hear this, believe this, desire to share with Christ in
his relationship with God the Father and make choices to go out into
this world and love people. As
you act out of God’s love in you, people will see the truth of Christ
being in you.
Is this astonishing, or what? We
too, are the good news of God. You
and I, and each and every one of us are being sent by God, with God, and
God in us, to share in God’s love for others.
This is what it means to have life in the name of Christ.
He is the good news of God, and because He is in you and knows
every single thing about you, and loves you with God the Father, you too
are the good news of God in this world.
Let us pray…
Amen
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