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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated.
Hopefully, you’ve heard of the expression that fear does two things, the flight or fight syndrome that comes along with fear. In other words, when someone has fear welling up within them, they either shut down and kind of close themselves off emotionally, or they spin themselves up and get very irate. Right? All because of the stress of fear. The disciples and the apostles shut down. They gathered in that upper room with the doors locked, as the text says, for fear of the Jews. Fear of what would happen to them because of what they had just seen happen to their master. Fear does a lot of unusual things to people. And you have experienced that phenomenon within your own bosom. What fear does to you. How it either spins you up one time or shuts you down another time. But either way, fear is a great manipulator and motivator of your person. And it’s an unruly horse upon which you’re riding that you don’t have control over.
Christ knew exactly what he was doing. He knew when he appeared that first Easter night a week ago that he would not find Thomas there. He knew that Thomas would be gone and he knew that the disciples would be locked in, inside of a room for fear. And yet, who sought them out? Who found them in their weakness, their fear, their faithlessness, and for that matter, their ugliness? It was Christ. Knowing full well that Thomas would be there a week later, it was on this day, a week after the first resurrection, celebrated, albeit very, very somberly, again, they were found in the upper room. Again, the door was locked. Again, there was fear among them. And Jesus comes and finds them in their fearfulness. Jesus searches out for them in their weakness and faithlessness and finds them in their ugliness.
Thomas was trying to find and believe in the Lord Jesus by senses. He wanted to know and to prove to his mind and intellect, reason and senses, that Christ really was alive. Because fear completely suffocated his faith, not to death, but to where it was not the loudest voice within his heart, or for sure the one he was not listening unto. Thomas said, “Unless I see the nail prints in his hand and his side, I will not believe. Unless I can show my reason and my senses, I shall not believe.” And how often have you and I said, “Lord, please show me, reveal to me, answer me, give me direction, help me.” And there’s nothing. Quiet. And there we sit with fear within our hearts. And there we sit with our mind running free like a frightened horse, not having any direction or sense of direction in us, but just running. Even though we may be sitting still, we’re running.
But in spite of Thomas, and in spite of those twelve, and in spite of the fear that welled up within them, in spite of their weakness, in spite of their faithlessness, in spite of their ugliness, Christ sought them and found them faithful. As the perfect reception for His grace. Christ did not wait for these disciples to get all bold and brave. He took them as cowards and fearful. Did He find them and take them? He doesn’t look for you to be brave. He doesn’t look for you to be so full of great fight and strength. He looks for you to be cowardly. He looks for you to be fear-filled. And that’s when He finds us.
Oh, thanks be to God that he finds us in such a state, a state that we’re embarrassed of and completely humiliated by being found in such a fashion, but he rejoices like the great shepherd, placing us upon his shoulders, we who were lost, bringing us back to the flock and rejoicing. Isaiah 61 prophesied about this very thing. Isaiah wrote about the Lord Jesus saying, “The Lord Jesus is speaking, in fact. The Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. The Lord has anointed me and sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. The Lord has anointed me and sent me to proclaim liberty for the captives. The Lord has anointed me and sent me for the opening of the prison to those who are bound. The Lord has anointed me and sent me to comfort all who mourn.”
And there in that upper room, did Jesus fulfill that prophecy in Thomas’ life, in those apostles’ lives? And there in that upper room, being preached to you this morning and read to you, did He fulfill it to you here today? Finding you in the state and fashion and manner that He finds you today in. Whether you feel confident of things that God has done and is going to do, or whether you are fear-filled, at this very moment, He found you. It says, “Unlike how we feel and unlike how we think of our own self.”
You see, in this world, there are only two words being proclaimed. Every day that we leave this place, we are bombarded by the sermons of Satan. He preaches faithfully outside of this realm, and he preaches boldly, and he preaches with great confidence, and we hear it and hear it and hear it. But here, we are not. We are not. The other word that’s spoken, and the only other word in this world, is the Word of Christ. Here He preaches constantly and prolifically. Here He preaches with boldness. Here He takes brokenness and binds it up. Here He takes lostness and finds it. Here He takes ugliness and beautifies it. Because this is His mouth house. Yes, His mouth house. Here is He called to… For many years and generations, men who have proclaimed to you and to those who preceded you these faithful words of Christ, here he speaks through failed and frail men to bring to you God’s message, which is really Christ’s words, in his mouth house. Here, you can be assured, Christ preaches and not Satan.
But here you know. You also will leave this haven, this harbor of security, and go out and be accosted by the words of Satan again, and again, and again. And here Christ fulfills His prophecy of being anointed and being sent to bring to you balm of healing. Here. Be assured this is where you were brought. Someone else was sent by God in your life, your mom and dad, your faithful brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents brought you to God’s mouth house and got you to hear Christ. Here’s where you were found in your weakness and faithlessness and fear-filledness. And here is where you have brought your loved ones. Here is where your loved ones heard and had their wounds bound up and healed. Here is where they were also found by Christ and filled with confidence and not fear. Strength and not weakness. Boldness and not cowardliness.
And here’s where you, yes you, who were sent by God to bring others, are to bring them. This is Christ’s mouth house. This is where those people in your lives, whom you wish to know this same peace, are to be brought. Invite them. Invite them. Encourage them and bring them. Introducing them to the one who speaks to you here. Preaches to you here. Feeds you here. That they may be found like you were found. That their fears may be allayed as your fears are allayed. That they, like you and Thomas, are stripped of looking for Christ in senses and reason, find Him as He has found you.
The most powerful, precise aspect of this text, where Christ finds you, is in the absolution. Sadly, so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ do not cherish these words. Scoffing at Christ, being able to forgive sins through a human being, it is sadly set aside and not cherished. But for you, for you it is different, isn’t it? As a called and ordained servant of the Word and by His authority, I forgive you all your sins. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
That is exactly what Christ gave to fear-filled apostles and disciples to give to the church. Those words are the very words that Christ gave so that the church would have something to give to others in this world. Let not the preaching of Satan turn your eyes and your heart away from this balm. This is real balm. Or Christ would never have given it to his disciples when he found them filled with fear in the upper room. Why did he give it to them? Because he wanted them who knew fear, who saw their faithlessness, who experienced their ugliness to know Christ’s great love and benevolence in their absolution. And in having received such an absolution and forgiveness, what joy and strength filled their hearts to bring it to those around them.
It is what emboldens you because you have heard those words. You have believed those words. You have that to carry on outside of these walls. Where Satan preaches prolifically, you bring light to that darkness. Where Satan wishes to fill hearts with fear, you bring confidence, boldness. And where Satan wishes to call us ugly, you bring beauty in Christ’s righteousness and forgiveness. This is the great source of the resurrection power. Let it not pass by you.
Consider this: After his resurrection, does he bring these words to his apostles and disciples? Not before. He doesn’t even talk about this on the night of his betrayal. He waits till after the resurrection. He waits till they are wrestling with fear and lack of confidence. And he finds them in their lostness. He seeks them out and does not wait for them to show him their boldness and confidence and fearlessness, but gets them when they are the worst and the most ugly and makes them his again. And then while they are still reeling from having been bound up, he feeds them and fills them with the Holy Spirit, in a sense getting them drunk on him that they may then with confidence and boldness see. Fired for the fight, leave and go forth. And the book of Acts is full of those examples.
Commercial break. Come to Bible class this morning and you’ll hear about that boldness and confidence of those apostles who were filled with fear in this text. End of commercial break. Christ’s absolution is yours. Your absolution is what you have to give to others. That is the gift of God in the midst of something that looks like we should be doing something. And Christ says, “No, no, no, no, no. I’m the one who does something to you. Only when it’s been done to you do you have something to do to someone else and not before.”
Remember, you were the one I found. Remember, you were the one filled with fear. Remember, you were the one ugly with all of your fear and all of your weakness and all of your faithlessness, and I called you mine nevertheless. This mouth house, through the mouths of these men whom you’ve called and you’ve chosen by God’s grace, death is rent asunder and life is given. Through these frail mouths that you’ve called and you’ve appointed by God’s grace, life and forgiveness is offered and bestowed, no less.
Here you come to the surgeon known as Christ, the physician of your souls, and your souls are healed through mouths of frail men speaking Christ and only Christ and what He’s done for us and how He’s found us. Here in this mouth house, did Thomas and his friends continually gather with boldness and with confidence, as the first reading from Acts talks about, and they were not fear-filled any longer.
Well, that may be all well and fine, because you and I know still that there are many Sundays that we gather here in this mouth house, and we are in complete quandary at God in our life. We are in complete confusion as to what God wishes to be done in our life. We vacillate, never being able to settle and stay still in one place for very long. But here’s where you come. Here’s where you’re patched up, dusted off, picked up, patted on the rear, and sent back out, not with fear, but with confidence.
St. Ambrose of Milan wrote this, 300 AD: “On Christ, the true bread, let us feed. Let him be to us drink indeed, and let us taste with joyfulness the Holy Spirit’s plenteousness given to you through words and through meal.” Brothers and sisters, Christ is risen! Alleluia! Be joy and be confident. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds on the risen Lord who has given you his absolution, even Christ Jesus. Amen.
