Where Is the Limit? Psalm 148 NIV

Where Is the Limit?

Ps 148 NIV

Purpose:     To reinforce the trust in the Only trustworthy, unfailing, and faithful person in the   entire world: God.                                                                         

¹ Praise the Lord.^[a]

Praise the Lord from the heavens;
    praise him in the heights above.
² Praise him, all his angels;
    praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
³ Praise him, sun and moon;
    praise him, all you shining stars.
⁴ Praise him, you highest heavens
    and you waters above the skies.

⁵ Let them praise the name of the Lord,
    for at his command they were created,
⁶ and he established them for ever and ever—
    he issued a decree that will never pass away.

⁷ Praise the Lord from the earth,
    you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
⁸ lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
    stormy winds that do his bidding,
⁹ you mountains and all hills,
    fruit trees and all cedars,
¹⁰ wild animals and all cattle,
    small creatures and flying birds,
¹¹ kings of the earth and all nations,
    you princes and all rulers on earth,
¹² young men and women,
    old men and children.

¹³ Let them praise the name of the Lord,
    for his name alone is exalted;
    his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
¹⁴ And he has raised up for his people a horn,^[b]
    the praise of all his faithful servants,
    of Israel, the people close to his heart.

Praise the Lord.

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 148:1 Hebrew Hallelu Yah; also in verse 14

     2.      Psalm 148:14 Horn here symbolizes strength.

This is the Word of God

For the People of God.

Praise be to God.

Amen.

Where Is the Limit?

Ps 148 NIV

Purpose:     To reinforce the trust in the Only trustworthy, unfailing, and faithful person in the   entire world: God.                                                                         

       This week God directed me to study the Psalms. We need to remember that the Bible is a book of theology, a collections of books that talk about the divinity and holiness of God. Of course, in reading of the Bible, we will find archeological and historical indications and signs of some of the events that the Bible contains. God allows this to happen because it is an evidence of the authenticity of the dealing of God with humanity. As I have said, it is very difficult or impossible to argue against facts. With that said, the Psalms are compositions that talk about God’s character and deliverance of the people when they are in distress. Some of the Psalms are prayers for liturgy when the Israelites were in exile.

        Have you ever been out of our country, America? I need to clarify something; I am not referring to go on vacations overseas or to Canada or to other countries in the continent. Have you left your country because it is hard to live in it? For example, Mexico is a very corrupt country and the society reinforces the biased or unfair treatment of women and the poor. That is, for some people, circumstances force them to leave their mother country and become exiles. It is also the case that for other people the government, the authorities have forced them to leave their mother land for political persecution. And for others, as in the case of the Israelites, they had to leave their country because they were conquered ----- the best educated and rich, the priests were included - were taken away from their land to the Babylonian exile. Before the exile happened, the prophet Jeremiah had urged the last Davidic king to surrender to Babylon because God was using Babylon as a tool for His judgment. The people had gone astray from God’s will and they were greatly sinning, doing just what was displeasing God. The king refused to surrender to Babylon. When the Babylonians came to take them, after they killed the king’s sons and made him blind, he, the king, was led to Babylon in chains as Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and burned the temple.[1]

       Can you imagine losing your home, losing your church, losing your job, losing your country, and losing your independence? They lost everything material and their identity. They were lost in a foreign country. They also assumed that God had left them alone to their horrible fate. It is difficult to lose everything, but the most difficult to lose in one’s identity. It is very, very painful and hard to lose one’s identity because one needs to redefine, to re-evaluate, and to rediscover oneself. It is a radical change of oneself.  It is difficult because once one has understood who one is and we think that we have figured out about life, here come unexpected life events and mess with our identity and lives. One’s identity is very closed tied to one’s beliefs, because what we believe makes us who we are. So, when something has jeopardized our identity, we need to find it again; if not, we are nobody. When we don’t know our identity, we don’t know who we are. Have you ever experienced an exile of the soul? This happens when we are confused with God about the events in our lives or when we see that our plans and projects in our lives are not taking the direction that we expect or we want. What about when tragedy surprises us in our lives, and fears and questions take over our minds and attitudes? But there is something very peculiar about tragedy and hard times in our lives. Are you familiar with the saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention”?

        Old Testament scholar Dr. Mark Throntveit recognizes, “This was the most productive period of Israel’s history; it fostered the birth of Judaism. . . Without a king, Israel remembered that Yahweh had always been their true king”[2] Have you noticed that in the hardest part of our lives, our real character comes alive or doesn’t come at all. It is when we discover of what we are made of, if we are weak or strong people. If we endure the circumstances facing them or we run away trying to hide or deny that such thing is happening to us.  When hardship happens in our lives, one of two attitudes happens: either we become closer to God or we distance ourselves from Him. That is when we try to find the solution asking God for answers and guidance or we blame Him and don’t take responsibility for our own actions. Do you know that through the exile most of the Old Testament was written, compiled, or edited?[3]

       The time of adversity is when we grow the most. It is when we reflect the most. It is when we have the opportunity to change fear for boldness. In other words, the time of misfortune is when the real change and building of character in our lives take place.

         In this psalm, the author is commanding the entire creation to praise God, to recognize who He is, to acknowledge that God is bigger than any problem, circumstance, or condition in life. The psalmist is inspiring us to embrace adversity. The psalmist is telling us that deliverance is part of the character of God. God is not going to leave us or abandon us in the middle of the problem! That is why He needs to be praised, because again we can start focusing on the solution instead of focusing on the problem. The first step is recognizing that the Only One who can help us is God; praise Him.

       For some it may sound silly, for others maybe it sound like a waste of time, for real Christians, it sounds hard and scary. It sounds scary because we don’t want to hear what we have done wrong. However, I have discovered that if we cannot stop, if we cannot control, if we cannot avoid, if we cannot skip, ignore, or scape adversity, then the obvious thing to do is the contrary. The contrary is to embrace it. I am not saying that we have to look for adversity or create adversity in our lives. No, that would be the aim or the purpose of a psychopath, a disordered mind. I am saying that sooner or later, adversity and serious problems are part of any human life. So what do we do, how do we approach them? The farther we are from God, the more difficult is to resolve them, because we are going to try to resolve them on the basis on our own efforts and our own knowledge, trying to guess what is the best move to make in such situations. And we are going to finish just weary, angry, and more confused than in the beginning.

       The best action, the best attitude to approach adversity, is to accept it. We should accept the adversity in our lives instead of running around the problem trying to find the whys. We should accept it in the knowledge of our Christian identity. With the strong belief that God is now and here for us, we will be able to rest and to place the heavy burden in God’s Hands. We will be able to witness and fully experience God’s deliverance. We will be aware of our growing, of how we become mature Christians and better human beings. We become better people through these adversities. Through the divine deliverance that God does in our lives, we become closer to Him and better equipped for the next round of problems in life. Again, I am not preaching that we have to create problems. I am saying that hard situations in life are out of our control and are inevitable.

Many times, we cannot even see them coming. We cannot prevent or stop them. But we can face them with the assurance that the divine and strong presence of God is with us each step of the hard road, telling us what direction to take. Then we will be able to even appreciate them because for the authentic believer, everything works according to God’s Will which is perfect and good. 

Let us pray,

Good Father

       Thank You for Your presence in every easy, happy, and hard situation in our lives. Help us to accept adversity when it comes to our encounter. Help us to rest in Your good will for our lives. And help us to develop an authentic Christian identity which is going to help us to build a strong and healthy Christian character.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.

Amen.   

---

[1] https://www.enterthebible.org/periods.aspx?rid=907 (Accessed on 4/21/2016).

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

I Got Your Back, John 20: 19-31 NIV

I Got Your Back

John 20: 19-31 NIV

Purpose:         To trust in Jesus when He commands us to do something

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^[a]), 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!”

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^[b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Footnotes:

1. John 20:24 Thomas (Aramaic) and Didymus (Greek) both mean twin.

2.       John 20:31 Or may continue to believe

This is the Word of God

For the people of God.

Praise be to God.

Amen.                                                            

                                                        I Got Your Back

John 20: 19-31 NIV

Purpose:         To trust in Jesus when He commands us to do something

Outline 

  

I.                  Introduction

What is Obedience?

II.               Why don’t we want to obey?

III.           Explanation of the text, John 20:19-31

IV.            Conclusion[s]

V.               Prayer

                    We have learned that the death of Jesus shocked all of His disciples, friends, and followers. They were terrified that they could easily be the next in line to be executed. They were in the locked upper room. It has to be very hard to understand and to live such experiences. Their minds didn’t have enough time to process all the events. Their Master had been massacred before their eyes. It was chaos and panic in their hearts and minds. It was a very shocking period for them. After they witnessed the suffering and cruel treatment and death of Jesus, they were terrified. No one in a healthy mind wanted to suffer the same fate. Have you been so scared in your lives that you cannot function? Have you had the impression that someone is going to assault or to attack you but you cannot react or defend yourself? Or maybe you are in constant alert of your surroundings that you cannot enjoy your life. For instance, nowadays, do you live in fear that ISIS and/or terrorism is going to reach America? Or are you scared that someone is going to shoot at the schools of our children? Have we reached the point of being alert as to where our children go to school, where we go on vacations, and where we go shopping, that we have to be praying the entire time when we get in our cars, or in a plane, or in a train?

Well, the disciples and the followers of Jesus were very afraid as British Bible scholar William Barclay has pointed, “Of the bitterness of the Jews who had put Jesus to death.”[1]  Ok, they were so scared and then, Jesus came and told them, “Peace be with you.” That means, “May God give you every good thing.” Once they had recognized Jesus in their midst, they were at peace. They were in the presence of Jesus, they changed. Their fear changed into joy, their Master, their friend, and their mentor was there with them. He was alive. He didn’t remain in the tomb. Intentionally, Jesus gave them the common greeting among them, “Peace be with you.”  Have you heard the greeting of Jesus this morning? Actually, have we heard His greeting every morning of our lives? May God give you every good thing, Peace be with you Claudia, peace be with you Beth, peace be with you Addi. I know that we, this church, are serious about Jesus and His presence in our lives, but maybe sometimes we forget to continue to wish each other well. We are the living church. I want you to notice something about Jesus, He was/is so kind and loving, but He never beat around the bush. He was very clear. He demanded. He commanded. He wished. And He expected obedience from each one of His disciples.

Now the church in some way was established at this point. Everybody was gathered there and they were communicating each other their thoughts and feelings. Of course, they were praying also. Then, when Jesus appeared, he told them that He was sending them as the Father had sent Him. Someone can ask, but where was Jesus sending them? Jesus was sending them out, to the world, to our homes, to our jobs, to our schools, to our neighbors. Even when we are afraid, or tired, or frustrated, we need to go.

In this part, we need to pay attention how Jesus has chosen to depend on the earthly church to spread His kingdom because, if is not the church which spreads the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who other person or organization is in charge? And the church with no doubt has to depend on Jesus for everything. If we have to depend on Jesus for everything, then the obvious, is to obey in everything that He has commanded us to do.

Here is when things start becoming difficult and we have to be very careful to be obedient. There is a great parallel between the relationship of Jesus and the Father and Jesus and us. Jesus loved the Father in such a way that He was willing to obey in everything that Father commanded Him, because Jesus loved so much God that He knew that everything that the Father said was for His own good and for the good of others. Are our lives in this way? Is our church in this way? Do we love Jesus so much that we don’t hesitate to obey Him? Or do we doubt? And question Him? What about when we delay intentionally and we don’t want to hear what Jesus is telling us to do? What about when we are afraid of what Jesus is directing us to do, or what about when we don’t like what He is telling us to do, or what about if the actions that Jesus is commanding us are not according to our own plans, or what about when we are resisting His will? Jesus was always so competent and efficient in everything He did because His obedience was supported in His perfect and devoted love and confidence on the Father.  Do we love Jesus in this way? Do we love Jesus in such a way that we know, He has a good future already planned, and planned for the good of us?

In this encounter Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit in His disciples. There is a great parallel with the creation story in Genesis. When God created man and breathed on him in order to give him life (Genesis 2:7). Jesus was giving the Holy Spirit to the church.  The Holy Spirit already lives inside us. We have the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us to be obedient and surrender/submit our life to God and be obedient as individuals and as a church. Are we doing it? Are we being obedient to Jesus?

Without delay, after Jesus gives the Holy Spirit, He talks about the authority to forgive sins. We have to be careful how we understand this part of the Gospel. The meaning is NOT that man can forgive sins, only God when we have a repentant, sorrowful heart. Jesus was referring to us as the church, His church. The church has the privilege and the responsibility of carrying the message to let the world know how God can forgive sins. In other words, God has entrusted the message of salvation to us, the church, and it is going to depend on us how well we obey Him to carry this message efficiently and well. If our relationship with God is profound, serious, and honest, then our message to the world is going to be the same way. We, the messengers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, are not going to hesitate in how we present to the world the message of salvation, on how well we represent the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ in our own personal life and as a church.   

Next the text is telling us that Thomas was not there, and when he came, the rest of the disciples told him that they had seen the Lord. However, he didn’t believe. It was not a surprise that Thomas didn’t believe. After all the turmoil, chaos, and killing, of course he was not going to believe. Then, a week later, they were gathering again, and Thomas was there, the context was the same, the door was locked and Jesus appeared to them. Then He referred to Thomas and commanded him to put his finger and his hand into his hands and his side. Thomas believed. Jesus exclaimed, stop doubting and believe!

I need you to notice how things happened in this narrative. When they were together, even with fear and chaos, amazing things happened. When we gather in the church, amazing things will happen, that maybe we cannot understand if we are alone or isolated.

My dear ones when we doubt something that Jesus commands us to do, come to the church and talk about it. We are here all of us together in the good, in the bad, and in the ugly. We are no different that the first disciples. Here, in the church, we can find comfort and an honest ear that will listen to our discernment. We can find support and encouragement when we are struggling to accomplish the Will of God. And we can find peace because God always is going to let us know that the Holy Spirit is inside us guiding us.

The great challenge for each one of us today as individuals and as a church is to stop doubting and start believing.

Let us pray,

Good Father,

Thank You for being so good to us. Thank You because everything that You command us to do is for our good. Thank You for the Holy Spirit who lives inside us and helps us to understand Your will better. Help us to stop doubting and start believing.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.

Amen.

---

[1] Barclay William, The Gospel of John. Volume 2(Westminster Press. Philadelphia, PN.: 1956), 272.

This Is Real Love, John 21 1-19 NIV

This Is Real Love

John 21 1-19 NIV

Purpose:         To unify the people as one whole in the Reality of the Resurrection.

21 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee.^[a] It happened this way:

² Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus^[b]), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together.

³ “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

⁴ Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

⁵ He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”

“No,” they answered.

⁶ He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

⁷ Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water.

⁸ The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.^[c]

⁹ When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.

¹⁰ Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.”

¹¹ So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn.

¹² Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.

¹³ Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. ¹⁴ This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

¹⁵ When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

¹⁶ Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

¹⁷ The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.

¹⁸ Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”

¹⁹ Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

Footnotes:

1. John 21:1 Greek Tiberias
2. John 21:2 Thomas (Aramaic) and Didymus (Greek) both mean twin.

3.       John 21:8 Or about 90 meters

This is the Word of God

For the people of God.

Praise be to God

Amen.

John keeps telling us the story of the Risen Lord, our Lord. Jesus appeared to the disciples for the third time. He appeared to them twice in the upper room and this one on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. This time there were just a few of them: Peter, Thomas (again), Nathanael, and the sons Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. Peter went fishing and he announced it. The rest of them wanted to go with him. The story continues telling us that they didn’t catch any fish. Pay attention to how the disciples went back to their old professions when they didn’t know what to do. They needed direction. When we don’t have direction we get lost easily and to find the way out of our mess takes time and courage to ask for directions from God and to fix it. How many times do we go back to old business that is not good for us?

Time had passed and it was early morning, and Jesus was on the shore waiting for them, but the disciples didn’t recognize Jesus. After all this time being so close to Jesus, sleeping in the same house, eating at the same table, listening to His teachings, traveling with Him, they didn’t recognize Him. How many times we have failed to recognize Christ in the needy of this world, or the child or teenager who needs good advice or a hug or words of hope, or even in our own home? How many times does one member of our family need encouragement or understanding or just the assurance that we love them? Well, Jesus was before of their eyes, and they were not aware of Him.

In contrast with their lack of attention and even interest, Jesus asked if they had caught any fish. He continued giving them instructions on how to fish, not just well, but also for a lot of fish. How many times do we not pay attention when Jesus is showing us the right way to go? Notice that the disciples didn’t ask for help. Jesus came and offered free and good help for them, for us, for our own good. Always for our own good. And, then when they were pulling the net back to the boat, the disciple who Jesus loved, John, recognized Jesus. Finally, they recognized that they were in the presence of the Risen Christ. We are in the constant presence of Jesus every minute of our lives. Jesus is helping us and guiding us even when we don’t ask for help because Christ cares about each one of us. We need to care for each one other and for the people who are outside of church, family, and friends.

John continued telling us that when Peter heard that it was the Lord, he jumped into the water and swam to Him. He wanted to be the first one to greet His Lord. Are we as excited as Peter that every morning we want to be the first ones to say, “Good morning Jesus, did You have a good night?”

In the next part, John is guiding us to the climax of the chapter. When the disciples were approaching to the shore, they saw a fire of burning coals with fish and bread, Jesus was cooking. Why do you think that Jesus was cooking? We may think that because He was a caring and a good Lord, He was providing some food for His beloved disciples, and that is right, but there is something much more important. In those days, like nowadays, many, many people didn’t believe that Jesus was risen from the dead. Some people started the rumor that it was a spirit, other said that it was the imagination, other that it was a vision. The reality of a vision is important but still a vision. The rumors were to the extent of saying that Jesus was a hallucination. It was not a vision, or a spirit, or a hallucination, it was a real person with the holes in His hands and His side pierced. And do you know why Jesus had to appear as a real person? Because it was important for all His disciples and followers to witness and to understand that He really had defeat death. Jesus chose life over death when He defeated it. Even when we have problems and fears in life our way of living always should be a joyful and peaceful living because when our worries defeat our peace then death conquers life. We don’t live in this way.

Next, and almost at the end of this chapter, comes something that it has a high meaning for me, because it was the text that God used in my pastoral calling: the questioning by Jesus of Peter. He was asking Him about his love for Him. The Greek verb is Agape, it is the kind of love Jesus has for each one of us and His church, deep, serious, and devoted love. The question that Jesus asked Peter sounds simple, but it is very meaningful, and is still very important for us today. Jesus is asking us today if we love Him, if we love Him with Agape love. Pay attention how we are going to answer this question. When we answer to our Lord, Yes I love You Lord. That means we are going to care, to love, and to guard His people as we will do it for ourselves or one of our beloveds. It is caring for Christ’s flock. When we answer Jesus, Yes I love you Lord, we are going to place the gospel in our hearts and minds before anything else. When we answer Jesus, Yes, I love you, Lord, we are going to change our lives because we are going to care for others before ourselves.

My dear ones, true Agape love, to try to love as Jesus loved is the greatest privilege in the world, but it brings the greatest responsibility. It brought Peter a cross. Actually, Jesus told him, the day will come when you are going to go when you don’t want to go and where you didn’t choose. Sure enough, the day came when, in Rome, Peter died for His Lord; he, too, went to the Cross, and he asked nailed to it head downwards, for he said that he was not worthy to die as his Lord had died.

Love always involves responsibility, and it involves sacrifice. Here is where we can follow in the steps of Peter. We don’t have to be biblical scholars or great missionaries, we have to be ourselves and each one of us in our own way can guard someone from going astray to a path of destruction and pain. Each one of us can feed the lambs of Christ with the food of the word of God.

Let us pray,

Dear Father

Thank You so much for the great privilege that is to love someone in the way You have loved us. Help us to feed Your sheep and care for them. Help us never to give up or ignore a person who needs Your love, Agape love.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.

Amen. 

We Are Hypocrites. Praise God!!!

John 20:1-18 NIV

Purpose: To empty ourselves to let God fulfill us with His presence

20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

² So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

³ So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.

⁴ Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there,

⁷ as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.

⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

⁹ (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) ¹⁰ Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

¹¹ Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb

¹² and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

¹³ They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

¹⁴ At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

¹⁵ He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

¹⁷ Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

This is the Word of God

for the people of God.

Praise be to God.

Amen

We Are Hypocrites. Praise God!!!

John 20:1-18 NIV 

Purpose: To empty ourselves to let God fulfill us with His presence

Outline

I.                   Introduction

II.                 Are we Christians hypocrites??? 

III.              Explanation of the biblical text, John 20:1-18 NIV

Answer why are we or aren’t we Christians hypocrites

IV.              Conclusion[s]

V.                Prayer

            I remember my years of being hypocrite. The worst part is that I didn’t know I was being hypocrite. For example, if one person didn’t agree with one of my moral or ethical points of view, then I used to listen to the point that this person was making and I just said, “Oh, yes, yes. I agree with you.” Of course, the friend in turn used to smile and be very, very polite to me, then he/she proceeded to ignore me kindly, and to become suspicious through the rest of the conversation. If a third person was there, and this other friend knew me, the reaction was disappointment, a little movement of the head, and a face that was saying, “Really, Claudia, I didn’t know that you agreed with such and such thinking.” Of course, the third person didn’t take my comment seriously either. In the case of my poor children, they were trapped, because I was their authority. They used to say to people, “Oh, no my mother is not in this way. She is different when we are at home. Tell them mom.” Obviously, the expression on my face toward my children was, “Wait until we get home. I am going to squish you like a bug!!!” I didn’t understand that I was being hypocritical when I didn’t stand for what I believed. I tried to please people at all costs. I wanted to be loved, accepted, and praised. Have you been a people pleaser??? Have you wanted to be loved and accepted by others???

Truthfully speaking, it feels good when others agree with us. It empowers us. It gives us the opportunity to have a voice, to be heard, even to feel important, because we have the attention through the common agreement of moral and ethics and ideas. On the other hand, being people pleasers doesn’t give us peace. It doesn’t give us joy. It doesn’t give us assurance of one self. It doesn’t give us authority. It doesn’t give us credibility and it doesn’t give us self-respect and respect in general. It doesn’t give us anything good.

Being people pleasers divides us and confuses us because, like any other deceitful and dishonest attitude, it is going to take us to the land of the unknown self. We are going to be lost in our deceptions and lies. Have you been lost??? It is not a very pleasant experience to be lost. The sense of not having direction and purpose in one’s life is sad and depressing. The sense of lack of fulfillment gives us the impression that we are just existing instead of living!!!

Sadly, the deception of the mind and the lack of fulfillment of one’s heart is equal to the emptiness of one’s life. This is very common reality in so many people and Christians have been affected too. That is why Christians have been called hypocrites. We confess that we are Christians because we know that God expects this from us, but it is difficult to stop pleasing people. What does happen here, when we have been people pleasers? We turn around and do the opposite that what God wants us to think, to say, and to do. So at the end of the day, when we should have a truthful and honest conversation with God, we just finish thinking that we are tired and ready to go to bed. We don’t want to have a conversation with God because we know that we are not on honest and good terms with Him. And it is because of us that we are not on good terms. God is in perfect disposition to talk. As a result, we don’t want to think and we don’t want to hear if we said or did the Will of God. Sadly, we become Christians by name, not by commitment.

On the other hand, we have to recognize that there are some serious and loyal Christians, Christians who really desire and try to do the Will of God, Christians who have let the Holy Spirit change them. It is a dramatic change. The change that we have experienced is from doubt to assurance, from anxiety to peace, from emptiness to fulfillment. Then people who are not committed Christians or who are not Christians at all think that all of us are hypocrites.

Here is Mary Magdalene, who came very early to the tomb and she sees that the stone has been removed from the entrance. She runs and tells the others disciples that the tomb was empty. The tomb was empty. Just imagine Mary Magdalene, that she was so desperate that she was screaming, we don’t know where they have put Him!!! Can you imagine, for example, leaving your child in a place such as the school and coming back to pick him/her up and not finding him/her?!!! It has to be a situation of almost becoming irrational and crazy. Jesus was everything for them, as He should be for us. Have you felt in this way? Have you felt unwanted, misplaced, or rejected??? Have you been confused? Well, Mary Magdalene was confused, afraid, lost, and felt unwanted and empty. She thought that the center of her life was being stolen, when in reality, no one could steal Jesus. But in this moment, she didn’t understand. She just felt lost and empty.

My dear ones, Mary Magdalene and the disciples found an empty tomb. How many times have we been empty? Actually, in order to be fulfilled, we need to be empty first. Mary Magdalene recognized that Jesus was there the entire time. He didn’t go anywhere but she didn’t pay attention. She thought that someone had stolen Jesus’ body because her attention was on the surroundings. Jesus was there the entire time!!! She even confused Him with the gardener. Jesus was next to her the entire time. He has not gone anywhere. How many times we don’t recognize Jesus in our lives???

Human nature has not changed since the beginning of time. When we don’t have Jesus, we don’t have anything that permanently can fulfill us. Sure enough, Mary was empty. Mary was confused. Before Jesus’ resurrection, I am sure that Mary became a people pleaser, because the resource of her fulfillment had died. But, wait a minute, the good news, the very good news is that Jesus didn’t remain dead. Jesus is alive and lives inside our hearts, when we decide to say, “Yes, Jesus, please come and dwell in my heart. Fulfill me.”

Jesus is next to you, to us, the entire time. He has not gone anywhere. However, like the empty tomb, we need to let go old business, our old nature, our old resentments, painful memories, regrets, frustrations, and failures, you name it. The old in us has died and today we are resurrected with Him as new creations, fresh, joyful, and strong. The emptiness of our lives is going to be filled with Him. The Only, everlasting, and faithful Jesus. He wants to fill our emptiness. He wants to give us purpose in life. He wants to change our hearts. No matter how nasty our lives have been in the past or even in the present, He is the Only One who can give forgiveness and fix our brokenness. Today is the day that we have a new life in Jesus. Our old lives are behind in the empty tomb.

So, my dear ones, when Jesus comes to our hearts and changes us, obviously, we are not going to be the same anymore. People who have met us one way now have to get to know us in another very different way. Now we are able to experience fulfillment, clarity of mind, peace in our lives, and natural joy, because to be committed Christians means a way of living. We are not people pleasers anymore. And if this drives people to call us hypocrites, praise God for our change and hypocrisy!!!

Let us pray,

Dear Jesus

Thank You so much for Your willing sacrifice to die and to rise for us.

Thank You so much for the empty tomb. Help us to empty ourselves in order to give You the entire place of our hearts and minds. 

Thank You so much for changing our old human nature to please people for pleasing You.

Help us to keep persevering in our relationship with You.

In Your name we pray.

Amen.