“Fear and Doubt Transformed”

May 01, 2011

John 20:19-31 Acts 2:14a, 22-32 1 Peter 1:3-9

I like watching Westerns. Maybe it’s not just Westerns but “guy” movies. Almost any movie with John
Wayne, Arnold Swartzenegger or Clint Eastwood is probably worth an hour or two even if I’ve already
seen it four or five times. Two of these classic guy movies are “The Sons of Katie Elder” starring John
Wayne and Dean Martin and “The Outlaw Josie Wales” starring Clint Eastwood. In the Sons of Katie
Elder, the four grown sons of, you guessed, Katie Elder come to town to bury their mother and while they
are there, discover that their family farm was originally lost not because their father had lost it in a card
game as they had believed, but when their father had been murdered. What began as a trip to bury their
mother and sell some horses so their kid brother could go to college becomes instead a mission of
vengeance. While two of the brothers enter the story with questionable reputations, their intentions are
transformed because of the news that they receive when they return home. Similarly, in The Outlaw Josie
Wales, Clint Eastwood’s character, Josie Wales, is a quiet farmer trying to keep to himself and live his life
after the conclusion of the Civil War when a band of pro-Union renegades murder his family and burn his
farm while he is out working his fields. The character of Josie Wales is transformed by this single event
and he becomes a one man army as he sets out to avenge his family and hunts down the people who killed
them.

So you’re probably wondering how this anything remotely to do with the Bible, it does and I will get to
that in just a moment. Occasionally we see human lives that are transformed by events in their lives. Often
soldiers in combat are changed, for good or ill by the things that they have seen and likewise people who
survived or whose family members were lost at at Columbine High School or at 9/11 were often changed
by those events. In the Bible we see these sorts of stories as well and specifically we see this happen
within the story of Easter. I admit the disciples would probably not get a movie deal and none of them
were transformed into killers but even so, what happens to them is remarkable. (John 20:19-31)_
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.”
24
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.
25
So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were,
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were
locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put
your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

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29
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not
seen and yet have believed.”
30
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.
31
But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by
believing you may have life in his name.

When we encounter the disciples we do not find brave men who are out doing the work that Jesus started
but instead we find men who are disillusioned, lost and afraid. The man that they had spent their lives
following for the last three years was not only dead, but died in a way that was horrific and dishonorable.
We give Thomas grief and call him “doubting Thomas” but how many other disciples would have believed
if they had not been there to see Jesus themselves? The disciples were still meeting together but perhaps
only to discuss the meaning of what Mary Magdalene had seen when she said she had seen Jesus risen from
the dead. Thomas wasn’t among the disciples when Jesus first appeared to them and Matthew tells us that
Peter was to be specifically told of Jesus’ resurrection because he had already returned home and gone back
to work as a fisherman. Twice, as the disciples meet, we are told that they do so in rooms where the doors
are locked because they were living in fear of what the leaders of Jerusalem would do to them. Though the
doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

But something changes. Not only do the disciples change, they change dramatically. (Acts 2:14a, 22-32)
14
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of
you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.

22
“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles,
wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was
handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put
him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony
of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 25 David said about him:

“‘I saw the Lord always before me.

Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
26
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest in hope,
27
because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
you will not let your holy one see decay.
28
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.’
29
“Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb
is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would
place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the
Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised
this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.

Before there was a room full of people who were afraid of being found but suddenly we discover followers
of Jesus who are fearless; where before the followers of Jesus had met after dark in locked rooms, suddenly
they are preaching in the center of town in broad daylight. However we choose to describe the events of

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Easter week, in the end the followers of Jesus have been transformed from a people who are depressed,
filled with doubt, fearful and almost cowardly into bold, confident witnesses, prophets, and evangelists.
How that transformation took place is something that we will talk about again in just a few weeks, today
we are not going to examine how this happened but instead we want to discover what it meant to the people
who had been so dramatically changed.

First, we note that Jesus gives his followers two gifts and a mission. Jesus says, “Peace be with you” and
so we might say that peace is the first gift. Second, Jesus says that just as the Father sent him to earth,
Jesus is sending his followers out as well. That is a gift but today we’re going to count that as the mission.
Finally, Jesus breathes on his followers and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Now you don’t have to be a
theologian to understand that Jesus has given his followers the gift of the Holy Spirit, but knowing a little
about the language can help to bring the picture into better focus. As you read, you might wonder why
John tells us that Jesus breathed on them as he gave the gift of the Holy Spirit (I always wondered about
that) and it all has to do with word pictures. When you talk about guns, do you ever use your hands or your
fingers to make the shape of a gun? When you talk about the wind, or about animals do you ever make the
sound of the wind or the sound of that animal as you talk to embellish your story? Of course you have. In
Greek (and in Hebrew), the word for spirit is the same word that is used for wind and for breath, and so as
Jesus gives the gift of the Spirit, he makes the sound of the spirit, the sound of wind or of breath.

This is a part of what transformed the lives of the followers of Jesus and these are the things that are able to
transform the lives of Jesus’ followers still today. We are given the same gift of peace, we are given the
same gift of the Holy Spirit and we are given the same mission. To go out into the world and to do the
things that God sent Jesus to earth to do. There is one warning though. We should not fool ourselves into
believing that these gifts will make everything easy. The followers of Jesus were transformed from fearful
doubters into bold and fearless witnesses, but all of their problems did not go away. In 1 Peter 1:3-9, we
hear this…
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Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth
into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can
never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by
God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you
greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These
have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even
though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you
have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are
filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the
salvation of your souls.

In addition to peace and the Holy Spirit we have also been given new birth, a living hope and an
inheritance that is kept in heaven for us. Even so, the followers of Jesus, then and now, can expect “to
suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” Peter says that the genuineness of our faith will be “refined by fire.”
Peter says that we can fully expect that life will be difficult and full of trials. Following Jesus and
accepting his gifts is not a magic ticket that makes everything peachy and perfect but it does do something
else. Peter tells us that there is one more gift that comes with this transformation. “Though you have not
seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an
inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your
souls.”

Jesus doesn’t promise that everything will be perfect when we choose to follow him but instead promises
that if we put our faith in him, he will rescue us from death, he will call us to take on his mission on earth,

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and then he will fill us with the power of the Holy Spirit, grant us peace, and fill us with an indescribable
joy.

Everyone has trouble but it is this peace and joy that often makes the Christian stand out. Even when we
are pressed on all sides, even when we endure struggle and hardship, suffering and trials, there is often
something about the way that the followers of Jesus Christ are different than those who do not know him.
That difference is that through it all they remain filled with peace and joy.

That is the mark of a life transformed.

Isn’t that a gift worth telling your friends about?

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
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