Shortly after 3 p.m. on this sunny Sunday afternoon. The temps aren't bad right now, but later this week, we're expecting 90s... 🥵🥵 I was telling Mike earlier that, as much as I don't like to use AC, I'm going to turn it on tonight and leave it on all week!! Last time, it was already hot by the time I used it, so it didn't make a lot of difference. This time, it should.

Not much else to share this week other than the fact that Mike FINALLY got his latest prescription on Friday. It's doing okay for him, so far. He actually slept 4 hrs. in a row the other night, which is rare for him, so Praise God!! Continued prayers for full healing of his ears, neck, and shoulder.

On Saturday, the USA will be celebrating our 250th Birthday!! I will be borrowing Carissa's car to take my parents and uncle to this year's Family Reunion. This requires that I pick mom and dad up a few blocks from here, get on the highway heading north for about 40 minutes, then come south again and take secondary roads for another hour. Rinse and repeat in the opposite direction a few hours later... and there are possible thunderstorms predicted that morning. Pray for good weather, safe travel, and calm attitudes...

While I was just about back from my walk earlier this afternoon, I shifted my thinking to this Message Intro.. The best thing I could come up with was the story of Oliver Twist, from Shakespeare. Due to his dissatisfaction in the orphanage work house, Oliver runs away, trusting to his own wisdom and resourcefulness to survive as opposed to being grateful for the predictability of the work houses. As a result, he ends up in a street gang, led by a major London thief. This shows how much worse the results of making our own way in the world can be rather than trusting in God and the identity and purposes He has for us.

Today's Scripture is found in John 20. Turn there, if you will, and we'll explore together...

John 20:19-23

New International Version

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

¹⁹ On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

²¹ Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ²² And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A short piece today, but nonetheless powerful in its message.

Pastor Matt's opening thought this morning, as he introduced the final message in this series, was that, as we join Jesus in His work, it both shapes us and informs our decisions.

The challenge and invitation of our lives as Believers is to see where God is at work and join Him in it. This provides us with our takeaway thought for the day. As we consider this, we should realize that this releases us from the struggle of trying to find our own identity and purpose in life, like Oliver Twist in my intro. above. A Christian's life becomes inextricably linked to God, and in that, we find that He provides us with a new spiritual identity in Him, and defined purpose in sharing His love to a love-starved world, as we link back to our core theme for this series.

In relation to these ideas of identity and purpose, Pastor Matt drew once again, on his experience as a little boy of just 7 yrs. old whose father died suddenly. Well-meaning adults in his life began to tell him, "You're the man of the house now, so be good and take care of your mother.". (Which, actually doesn't make sense being that Matt has 2 older brothers.) Regardless, it was these ideas that shaped and informed Matt's mindset and approach to life. He was essentially alone and had to figure things out for himself. Even though he was growing up in church, he didn't feel that God could help much with daily tasks. One thing that he set out to do in this new role was to mow the lawn. Literally all he knew about running the lawn mower was that you had to pull things. He was at a complete loss when that didn't work.

The relatable point to this story in light of today's message is that God isn't just "watching from the window", so to speak, and cheering us on as we "mow the lawn" as we go through life. Rather, He is the Father who is already outside, and inviting us over to help.*

As we started to explore our passage above, Pastor Matt pointed out that John's use of the phrase, "first day of the week", here was highly significant. Not only does it confirm the actual time of events, but Jesus' timing of His post-resurrection visit was meant to put them in mind of His having risen on that day. At the same time, it takes them (and us) back to Creation. Genesis specifically says, "on the first day, God created light". This was the first day of the original Creation, as we have it recorded.* What Jesus and John were both emphasizing here was that Jesus' Resurrection was the first day of NEW Creation. The story above shows that the Kingdom of God breaks into places of fear, darkness, and bondage.

The next thing about verse 19 that bears looking at is the fact that Jesus' first words to His Disciples were, "peace be with you". Although there are other places in the Gospels where this can be seen*, Pastor Matt's immediate reference was to last week's message when Jesus instructed the 72 in greeting people this way and responding according to the reaction they received. Our key observation here is that the Kingdom of God always comes with a prounouncement of peace.

In verse 20, we have the core of the Gospel. Everything about our Salvation rests in the fact that Jesus was crucified and resurrected. The holes seen in his wrists and ankles bore physical evidence to this truth. This, as Pastor Matt said, is the very nature of God's love.

He also expounded for a minute on the fact that healing doesn't mean the hurt never happened. It means that we find a way forward with the scars of what was real at some time before.* This, in relation to Jesus' Sacrifice, is sometimes known as the "cruciform life". As Jesus secured the victory over sin and death on the Cross and in the grave, we need only to trust in Him and lead our lives according to His examples of love and forgiveness. (Possibly even to the point of death, if neccessary.) And to be perfectly clear here, Pastor Matt explained that this doesn't mean that we can Save anyone, or provide the forgiveness that covers for other people's sins. Rather, we are simply the purveyors of it, or, as mentioned in last week's message, we are ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. In doing this, we show the mission of Jesus.

Looking to verse 21, we discover the paralells between how Jesus was sending His followers and how He was sent from the Father. In exlpaining this, Pastor Matt called our attention to Mark 1:9-11. This is one of the 3 narratives of Jesus' Baptism, leading into His Temptations in the Desert.

Mark 1:9-11

New International Version

The Baptism and Testing of Jesus

⁹ At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰ Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹ And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although baptism was meant here as a way to show one's repentance from sin, of which Jesus had none; the point being made was that He was identifying Himself with us as sinners in need of a Savior. While some Christians feel that it's important to keep a distance from the "dirty" and "marginalized" masses of the world, that's EXACTLY WHERE WE ARE MEANT TO BE. (After all, as Jesus is recorded in 3 of the Gospels saying, "it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.".*

Secondly, Jesus was sent with love and approval. As we see in verse 11 here, the voice of the Father could be heard saying, "You are My Son, whom I love. In You I am well pleased.". This shows us that love is the BEGINNING of Jesus' mission for us. We don't have to concern ourselves with being sent out on our own and performing well to gain God's approval. We already have it, Amen!!?? Just as Jesus was sent out with love an approval, in identity with both God and man, Jesus sends others, and by extension, us.* While it's not included here, we know that the next verses go on to describe the fact that the Holy Spirit LED Jesus into the desert to be tempted. It was not something Jesus simply wandered off and got caught up in. The truth is that temptation is a part of the Christian life. It doesn't mean that we're doing it wrong. It means were still human and still struggle against ourselves to live for God. (See Rom. 7) The only problem signified by temptation is if we fall to it. The question is this -- Do we trust God or do we take what we want?? That being said, as Pastor Matt mentioned here, it is entirely possible to mess up by taking the right thing in the wrong way, or at the wrong time. Once again, we are put in mind of Adam and Eve. It wasn't wrong to gain knowledge. The issue was that she disobeyed God in HOW she gained it. (Likewise, the pomegranate wasn't the problem, they're good for you. The point was that she disobeyed.)

In verse 22, we have an interesting situation. Jesus gives them the Holy Spirit simply by breathing on them.* The "hyper-link" for this is, once again, back in Genesis. The Creation narrative tells us that God breathed and produced life on Earth, including man. Verse 11 of our Mark passage has God speaking, and so this indicates that God's breath effectually blessed Jesus. Now, in our Scripture from John 20, Jesus is breathing power into His people.

Pastor Matt then directed our attention to another placee in the Old Testament where the breath of God brought things to life. Ezekiel 37:11-14 tells the story of how God revived the Dry Bones of Israel and restored her to fellowship with Him. This, along with Genesis, shows us that all life comes from God.

Finally, in verse 23, we find that another way in which the Kingdom of God breaks in is through forgiveness. This is how God is working to reconcile all things to Himself, specifically, people in this case. As with our earlier mention that our responsibility to PURVEY the message of Salvation doesn't mean that we are PROVIDING it, here, we find that we don't actually have the AUTHORITY to forgive in the way God does, we CARRY His forgiveness.* In this, we share what we have already received from God to others.

The Church is both formed and informed by the forgiveness of God. As suggested above, it's not about our ability or authority to forgive. Rather, it's about how we SHOW forgiveness, both within the Church and to those around us in our daily lives.

As Pastor Matt said, "God's forgiveness is the one thing Hell doesn't have an answer for.". Greed, pride, envy, etc... it understands well. Forgiveness simply isn't in its experience or vocabulary.* Now, if you or I were to be accused and crucified for our downfalls, that would make sense. But there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about Jesus that made Him deserve the Cross. As a human being, He could have easily fought back or spewed hatred at the Roman soldiers for their mistreatment of Him. Instead, one of the last things He said from the Cross was, "Father, forgive them...".

In closing, Pastor Matt spoke about how this might play out in our lives. He said that, while forgiveness is among the key elements of our ministry at CenterPoint, it is by no means limited to it. Rather, we are fueled by it. We are the presence of God in this world. We are part of God's New Creation. While not everyone may be free to talk about Jesus in their workplace, or family, no one can stop you from showing up with God's love, forgiveness, and peace.

Both last week's and this week's podcasts focus on this.

-- God Bless!!

Footnotes:

1. The fact that God invites us over to help rather than being a distant father who waves from the window reminded me of an analogy used at one of my former churches by a Youth Pastor who was running Vacation Bible Camp one year. He encouraged us parents to not just be a "Travel Agent", telling our kids to go to Church and live for God; but that we should be "Tour Guides", leading the way. Amen!!??

2. In relation to how the Creation Story is recorded in Genesis, those of us who have a good sense of both Scientific and Biblical truths understand that the Gap Theory is actually what happened. We recognize that there were, in fact, millions of years between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. There HAS to have been, otherwise, how would the Earth have gone back to a chaotic state after God had created it IN THE BEGINNING??

3. One other place the proclamation of peace is shown is when the angels appear to the shepherds in Luke 2, announcing Jesus' birth.

4. I actually spoke to Pastor Matt after the service earlier this afternoon about how the healing and going forward with scars relates back to the sermon from 2 weeks ago and my question about New Creation. They answered it on the podcast, so you can find more there.

5. In reference to keeping away from others who are "dirty", etc..., one of my friends from a former church understood this properly. Rather than keep her kids protected by only allowing them to have friends at church and sending them to a Christian School, she sent them to public school where they could actually do some good!!

6. Speaking to the point of identifying with both God and man, this is the basic reasoning behind my infinity cross and iris tattoo. It reminds me that I'm in Christ and He sees me through the Cross.

7. The issue of Jesus' having breathed on the Disciples to give the Holy Spirit AHEAD OF PENTECOST, was another point I asked Pastor Matt about after service today. I asked if there was difference in Jesus providing the presence of the Holy Spirit in their hearts as opposed to the evidence of Speaking in other Tongues later. He sees it as progressive steps rather than anything else. I suppose that makes some sense.

8. I recently reminded someone online that one is not required to be a Christian in order to extend forgiveness. Simply recognizing the fact that we're none of us perfect is all you really need. They conceded my point.

9. The bit about how Hell doesn't have experience with forgiveness is mine.
   

Music -- No rights!!