Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us reason to rejoice! It reminds us that we have joy, and peace, and purpose in life. It doesn’t matter what trial you’re going through. It doesn’t matter what sorry you just experienced. The disciples had just experienced the greatest sorrow, they thought their Master was dead and defeated. But the message of Christ’s resurrection is that God’s not dead, no, He is alive!

And because Christ lives, we, too may live. And we have purpose in life because our Savior lives, and gives us His purpose.

Read John 20:1, 19-23

One time when Abby and I were snorkeling in the ocean, we weren’t seeing many fish. So we decided to lure some fish to us. I loaded my pockets with cornflakes, and as soon as we got back into the water, hundreds of fairly large fish swarmed around me. Now, I’m not afraid of fish, in fact I really enjoy snorkeling, but when hundreds of fish rushed towards me to get a bite of something I stuffed my pockets full of, I got a little panicked! I couldn’t even look down into the water anymore because I was paralyzed with fear. I got the cornflakes out of my pockets as fast as I could while Abby helped me to swim away from that spot, and I was so glad when Abby said I was safe, because I was still too scared to see for myself.

Have you ever gotten so shaken up about something that you just felt paralyzed? That’s how most of the disciples felt the days after the Jesus’ crucifixion. They were afraid of the Jews, because the Jews had just killed Jesus, and they were afraid that the Jews would next want to extinguish this movement that followed Jesus. They were afraid for themselves, what they should do next, because they’d followed Jesus for three years, and now life just seemed so empty. And now they had heard the reports of the empty tomb, but they didn’t know how to handle this information. Was it true? What did it mean?

Knowing His disciples were afraid, Jesus first wanted to calm their hearts with His peace (v. 19). Then Jesus repeated Himself (v. 21a). Jesus really does bring us peace! We need those reminders. Imagine yourself in that room, and you can almost feel the fear disappearing and being replaced by a calmness that can come only from Jesus. Because Christ rose from the grave, we have peace. We have peace with God. We have peace in the midst of trials. We have peace overflowing with gladness, because our Savior lives! (v. 20) Knowing that our Savior lives, we ought to be glad like the disciples were.

I don’t think this was a fleeting gladness. We often base so much of our emotions of circumstances. When things are going well, we’re happy. And when things aren’t going so well, we’re sorrowful. And I’m not saying we need to always paste a fake smile on our faces when we’re going through rough times. “I just lost my job! It’s that great!” “My dog just died, I’m so happy!” No, we don’t have to be like that. God gave us a full range of emotions, and it’s okay to mourn. But let’s never forget that since Jesus rose, He’s alive today, and He’s with us, strengthening us to not only endure tough times, but to come out of them victorious, just has He was victorious over the grave! So I’m sure the disciples were happy to see Jesus, but this gladness lasted more than a moment. It was an enduring joy that stayed with them for the rest of their lives. It allowed them to have peace in the midst of suffering. It caused them to stand up and be bold in the faith even when it could cost them their lives. And they did this not with fear, but with gladness, because they had life in their living Savior!

You see, Christ sends us on a mission: the same mission that His Father sent Him on (v. 21b). Obviously, it’s not a 1 to 1 comparison. Jesus was completely unique in His mission. He and the Father are one. He came to do what we could never do: to die for our sin. He came and died so that when we place our faith in Him, He would make us righteous in Him. We can’t do that for ourselves, and we can’t do that for anyone else. So Christ was unique in His mission.

Yet we are sent. We’re sent to continue Christ’s mission to seek and save the lost. We have a message to share. God is holy, and we are not. We’re sinful. We’re dead in our trespasses and sins. But Christ came and died for our sin, so that anyone who would believe and repent of their sin would be made alive in Christ. This is a message we must not only embrace, but share with a lost world.

What we do with this message has eternal consequences (v. 23). If we offer the gospel to the lost, and they embrace it, they’ll be forgiven! If we withhold the gospel from the lost, they will not be forgiven. Forgiveness only comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ. There’s no other name by which we must be saved.

It seems like such a huge task. Such a daunting task. There are so many things to fear along the way. “What if they reject me?” “What if I fail?” “How can I possibly make a difference?” So with so many things to fear, we might become paralyzed before we even get started.

But there’s good news: we’re not on this mission alone (v. 22). The Spirit of Almighty God is with us. He’s in us, He’s working through us, and He’s powerful! Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world! The power of God that raised Jesus from the dead is working in us and through us to give us boldness to carry out this mission.

I was reading yesterday from this Huff family kin book that my parents gave me. I’m learning so much about my family that I’ve never known before. I actually found out that I’m not the first Baptist minister in my family. Well, he wasn’t a Huff exactly. It was my grandfather’s sister’s father-in-law, but there’s still a relation. Kind of. But anyway, there’s a story in here about relative of mine who died in the Civil War.

His name was George Huff, and he was my Great Grandfather’s Uncle. He was in Company E of the 5th Missouri Calvary, with the Confederate Army. What happened was the Yankies were gathering for a battle, and George and a few men in his unit were squatting down behind some bushes with their guns ready. When the Yankies began to charge, George yells, “Let’s give ’em heck, boys!” He stands up to fire and was immediately shot in the mouth and killed instantly.

Here’s the thing, we need to see our mission like my Great Grandfather’s Uncle saw his mission. We might be surrounded and in danger, but we need to wake up every morning with a boldness that says, “Let’s give ’em heck, boys!” Let’s give our mission everything we have. Let’s be willing to stand up in the face of opposition, and know that whether or not we get the results we want, we’re going to be faithful to the mission.

Christ was faithful to His mission. And Christ rose victoriously from the grave, and now calls us to join Him on mission. Will you go?