Peace in the One Who Has Been Commissioned (John 20:19-23)
Good evening everyone. It’s good to see everyone tonight. So, the title of today’s message is, “Peace in the One Who Has Been Commissioned.” We have all been commissioned by God, then we are people of God. If we have been commissioned, then as people of God, we have a different purpose in life. As we live our lives, sometimes we are afraid, even as people of God, but why are we afraid?
Many people in the world, especially unbelievers, determine happiness based on their own definitions. Many people believe happiness is money or success, some people believe happiness is just the emotion of happiness wherever you are, and it seems in today’s age, money and success aren’t enough. So, because that’s not enough, people have to find a different kind of happiness, they have to put their standards even higher than money or success. When you think about it, these days, there are many ways to earn money and be successful, and these days, many people can get a doctorate. But right now, as many people go through these stages, there must be something else.
People are clearly realizing that success and money aren’t enough; there has to be something else. That’s why we enter into the age of transcendental meditation, which is very popular among very influential people. Because it’s so popular, there’s even research about the benefits of transcendental meditation. Now, it is scientifically backed so everyone does it. People feel iffy about religion, but when we talk about meditation, you don’t have to talk about God, but you’re just emptying yourself.
Looking at it, there’s this meditation where people strive for success or money, and it’s ultimately to be happy. People live in fear because they don’t want to be unhappy; they want to find something that could make them happy. So, even when people strive to do something, when parents really implement this idea of success, they do it because they want their child to be successful.
They fear death, they fear failure, because if you’re not successful, you’ll have a bad reputation and your life won’t be good. Everybody lives in this kind of fear of being unhappy. So, when you think about it, even for other religions, they talk about ways to overcome fear. But we really have to understand where fear comes from, because the Bible clearly states the origins of fear and how it manifests today.
This is my testimony and my experiences this past week, but everybody has fear: graduate students live in fear, so if we want to live a life without fear, then how do we find that solution? We just go to the very source, so how do we solve that fear? We simply must be with God. In Genesis 3:10, after God tells Adam to not eat the fruit, what’s the first thing that happens? The first thing to happen to Adam is an emotional experience: they realize, “God is calling us,” so they hid, and the feeling of shame entered into them. Honestly, I think Adam expressed his embarrassment, but he was also in fear.
So, the moment we’re separated from God, we begin to experience fear, and there’s a reason for that. The moment we’re separated from God, sin separates us from God, and sin means I don’t believe in God, so what must I believe in instead? I must believe in myself, my success, money, we have to start believing the words of influential people because only then, when we rely on that, will we feel that we are living, that we will be something meaningful. Only then can we feel like we can be happy in this world.
Sin isn’t just not believing in God, but it’s believing in yourself, and when you believe in yourself, you have a lot of responsibility over your life, right? Like I explained before, there’s so many things you must do to live a good life, but the only way to solve that problem is by being with God. Then, how can I be with God? Because right now, we’re building our own standards of happiness, then we have to do so much to reach that happiness.
So of course, you’ll be living in fear, because if you don’t have any money or success, you’ll be afraid since your standard is that success = happiness. Middle school kids find their social interactions are very important, so for them, friends = happiness. If they don’t have any friends, then it really affects their self-esteem, their sense of value in this world. So, if their standard of happiness is having lots of friends, what will they put their focus on? It’s going to be their friends, so if they don’t have any friends, they’ll be unhappy, so they have to go to social outings and do this and that. The core of all this is fear, fear of not belonging, of having no friends, fear of being alone.
Fear comes from something: it stems from sin, because we believe that we are our own gods, I believe that happiness is having lots of friends. So, if I believe that having lots of friends makes me happy, then it’s no longer “what does God want for me” but it’s about what I can do for myself. Even as believers, if we don’t believe that God is the Master of our lives, then we will live in fear because our self centeredness is our center, and not God.
Proverbs 3:5 says, “Lean not on your own understanding,” because the result is fear. The Bible clearly states that the method to have no fear is by not relying on yourself. For me, this week, I’ve been working on my dissertation, and also if I’m losing hold of God’s Word, this dissertation becomes my burden because I feel like I have to do so much, because I feel like it’s my responsibility, I have to make sure I get this right.
But looking at Proverbs 3:5, I realized I was relying on myself to do well, to make sure I’m getting it right, but because I have that standard, I now live in fear, “Am I going to succeed? Am I going to fail?” So, I really must set this aside and have a time to focus on God’s Word. Also, this happens constantly, it’s not that I just pray once and it solves my problems. It’s not that I pray once and I’m no longer in fear over my dissertation. It’s a continuous process where I’m continuously praying, opening up God’s Word, and this is my opportunity. This is the problem that God has allowed me to have.
Because I have this problem, it’s an opportunity for me to constantly seek God’s Word. As I was seeking God’s Word, God’s Word was given to me, and I’ll talk about it towards the end, but I want to share about how I live in fear, but I have to turn to Christ, but I realized that I want to consistently live my life as a witness of the resurrected Christ. To do that, it’s not about just waking up one morning and saying I’m a child of God, but really, inside my problems, do I remember God? Because if God says He is Life, then this dissertation, these problems won’t be problems but they are opportunities for me to grow within God’s Word.
That’s why when I do my work, when I’m talking to professors or writing this gigantic paper, God is constantly showing me that He is the Master of my life, and that this work actually belongs to God, and that this work exists to glorify God. So, as I’m working and praying about this, this becomes something exciting, because it becomes something to glorify God, so I don’t have to worry anymore about whether it’s good or bad because it belongs to God. When I rely on the Lord, not on myself, and I do this work with God’s power, then it doesn’t matter: it will be used for eternal things.
That’s the grace I’m constantly receiving. Through this problem, it’s like the thorn in my side as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, but it’s a blessing because I’m constantly focusing on God. In 1 John 4:16-18, it says God is love and this perfect love casts out fear. My life’s purpose is not to be successful in the world, but it is to know God and to be with God, living my life to glorify God. So, when you really think about that, it’s not burdensome at all, because living for God isn’t something I do with my strength. It’s the Holy Spirit moving me and guiding me, because if my heart is for the Lord, God will see that and give me the power of the Holy Spirit.
So, God gives me the power to do the work that He designed for me to do. If I’m not believing in God, then I have to use my power, I have to do what I can to succeed, but when the Lord God is the Master of my life, then I don’t need my own strength; I have God-given strength, so it is honestly a life free of burdens, and this is the message I’m eating every day, because I can just say it, but when I say it, I don’t confess, “My life is free of problems,” but I must eat this every day. Because I’m eating this every day, God is constantly giving me answers, allowing me to be a witness in my field.
My week is very hectic, I meet with a lot of parents and kids, and sometimes, I have to accommodate their schedules because they have such hectic lives. As a child therapist, I serve these families. If a parent says, “We can’t do this time, we have to do that time,” I have to accommodate them. So, sometimes I think about it and conclude, “Man, I wish I didn’t have to do it like this,” because I want to do other things like work on my dissertation or sit down and rest. I want to do other things, but I realize that when I think about that, that’s a thought coming from my sinful nature because I’m here to serve; I’m not here to make money or be successful. Those are important things, but those aren’t my life’s goal.
God has called me to go and make disciples of all nations, so as a result, I have to lay down my life for the service of others, for world evangelization. So, if it means that I accommodate, then I will accommodate. I have to serve. And you know what? I realized that this has become a skill. One thing my office compliments me about is my flexibility. They say, “Lois is very flexible,” many parents say, “Lois, thank you so much for being so flexible,” and I say, “You’re welcome,” but in my mind, I’m thinking, “Of course, I have to.” But I realize, “Hm, this is something that many parents see this positive aspect in me, and when I’m so flexible, they feel comfortable with me. As a result, they really open up. I realize that this is the skill that God uses through me.
I realize then, that when I’m no longer prioritizing myself but God becomes the priority, all of this becomes God’s way of preaching the gospel through me, so it’s really interesting how God works through me, that when I lay my life down and serve Him, He is the One who guides me and leads me. With that, I want to look at Romans 8:15 and this is the verse I’ve been thinking about throughout the past week.
Romans 8:15 “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” ” People live in this world with fear, I lived with fear, I’m afraid of many things, but that fear stems from my self-centeredness. Every time I struggle with my fear or self-centeredness, I first realize that I’m being deceived, stemming from my self-centeredness, but I realize that this Word is what God has given to me. I have received the Holy Spirit, I shouldn’t deserve forgiveness, but the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins and resurrected, and that itself is life. As a result of that life, I get to live a new life, no longer the old, but as a new creation, a child of God.
When I was a slave to sin, the spirit of God, the spirit of the resurrected Jesus Christ enables me to no longer be a slave, so I don’t have to live in fear again. Rather, I am a child of God who has been bought through sonship. Through Jesus Christ, I become a child of God, and I love this last part: “By Him, we cry out Abba, Father” because of that, I get to call God my Abba, Father. The Word of God is amazing, but this verse was a consistent theme for all my life, really, but it was a consistent theme for this stage of my life because I live in fear, but God continues to give me this Word.
Now, with this new identity now, I no longer live my life for myself. When I look at my imprints, of course, it’s still about doing what I want, it’s about going back to my old self again, being the master of my life, but one thing I’ve come to realize is, every time I do that, I will live in fear again because the root of my fear is when I live for myself. Then, every time I focus on God, centered on Jesus Christ, I don’t live in fear, so if I don’t want to live in fear, I’m not going to be centered on myself, but to consistently be one in Christ.
If I want to consistently be one with Christ, I must be consistent in worship and prayer, not as a behavioral thing, like some people say, “I have to worship now so I can be seen as a good Christian.” In my heart, I don’t pray every day because I want to be seen as a good person, but I really have to do this because this is really the only way to help me escape from fear. Only when I really do this and constantly meditate, like, eating God’s Word, then I won’t be afraid.
With the new identity as a child of God, it’s no longer about living for myself. I also realized that a lot of people who become new Christians have this goal of wanting to go to heaven, but I realize that’s not our end goal; we don’t live so that we can go to heaven. We live to constantly live for the Kingdom of God . We’ve already achieved success and happiness, we already have the Kingdom of God as our background, so our goal isn’t about going to heaven. We already have that. But our goal is to live for what God desires.
It’s about already being one with God. If you’re a child of God, then that’s it. When I’m a child of God, it’s about knowing God more, it’s about constantly knowing what He wants. What he wants is for his kingdom, his people to come alive, people to listen to His Word, then that is what we live for. And that is my goal. Not to go to heaven, but to do what God desires.
Even for the church as well, the church is a place for God’s Kingdom, and there are people in the church who are servants of God and this church is connected to God’s desire, so then my goal is also to live for this church. If I see someone who is struggling, rather than criticizing them, then I raise them up in prayer, because they are connected to God’s desire. It’s the same for my family. Rather than fighting with my mom and pointing out her imprints and spiritual problems, it’s about praying for her and lifting her up, because if our family is connected to what God desires, then this becomes my goal as well.
So, when my heart is there to serve the Lord, then that’s it; that’s life. I realize that for many people who are new believers, they want something, they’re seeking something, but to no longer live for myself, but to live for God, that’s crazy talk because you want to live for yourself, not for something else. People come to church because they want more money, fame, or success, or because they want to go to heaven. But to say that you want to live for God, to say that my identity as a child of God is for world evangelization, that comes from the Holy Spirit.
When we have this heart to save lives through the gospel, God will constantly pour out His Holy Spirit. So, that’s why even for this dissertation that I’m working on, when it’s for the Kingdom of God, it’s no longer a burden, so I’m constantly eating God’s Word so I’m not lost within fear. As I’m constantly eating God’s Word, my spirit constantly grows, and I’m constantly receiving healing and constantly living life in excitement.
One way I know whether I’m spiritually strengthened or not is based on my mood. For example, I’m really strengthened on Sunday evenings because I received God’s Word, so the next day on Monday, I’m excited to go to work and do things, but throughout the week, when my spirit is low, I’m not excited to go to work at all. I think about what happened at work, about that one person who hurt my feelings, but when that happens, it becomes a sign for me to go into God’s word.
So I’m really grateful so that I can catch myself because in the past, I would just live life without praying, I would just get upset and go to sleep, but I guess that’s how I’m in the process of healing, now I’m thinking about, when I’m feeling this way, this is God’s way for me to come to Him. In that way, I get to constantly enjoy Christ.
Until I graduate, I will continuously do this work, and I used to say things like, “When I graduate, I want to do this and that,” that’s how I used to think. But I realized that, in this problem I have right now, this is how God is constantly molding me. In this present time, and as I am working with this problem and struggles and constantly battling with God’s Word, this is the time where God is constantly molding me, so that’s the blessing I received this past week, and I want to continuously live a life glorifying God, not for myself but for world evangelization.
If my heart is there, God constantly gives me the power of the Holy Spirit. I’m just excited, so let’s pray.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we just want to thank you so much for giving us this time, for allowing us to come before You and to receive Your Word. You have called us as people to be commissioned to glorify You. You have given us the power, this answer of Christ. Father, You have allowed us to go into the field and to hear Your Word. We pray, Father, that You will continue to imprint the peace that comes from Jesus Christ. In all circumstances, allow us to constantly seek You. We love You so much and thank You, in Jesus Christ’s name we pray, amen.