Here He Was.

Jesus is alive... Jesus lives. The man who had his birth at Bethlehem, the birth that we celebrate every year on December 25^th is currently alive. The One who suffered death on a cross after being tortured by a garrison of Roman soldiers, was able, around the year 30 A.D. This is who we worship. I wonder if you have met him. I wonder if you know him.

What does it mean that we say we gather in the name of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ!

What does it mean when we exchange the: “the Lord be with you... And also with you.”?

It means that when our heart truly belongs to God, when we truly seek first the kingdom of God as a follower of the Risen One and when we gather with other believers then Jesus promises that he will be present with us.

I wonder...are there two or three here this morning who are followers of Jesus Christ. I wonder are there two or three who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. I wonder are there two or three here his morning who has put all their faith in the Lord Jesus the Messiah. If there is say Amen.

Jesus is here with us this morning my friends!

He is alive!

He is alive and is seated at the right had of the Father.

He is seated at right hand of the father and is present in our gathering today. The ever-present, all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the universe is here to listen to you praise Him. God is present to hear your prayers. God is here to comfort and to inspire. To convict and to console. To love and to forgive.

Jesus is alive. I know he is alive because he is here.

He is here because he loves you. And he is going out ahead of you preparing work for you. So we are going to have to go out to meet him.

You see we always know where he has been because people that encounter the living Lord can't help but tell about it.

Where he was. We know that he was in Bethlehem. In Nazareth ,by the sea of Galilee. In capernaum. In Samaritan villages and in Bethany He has in the Jordan river in the wilderness. In a garden in the Kidron valley, and we know that he was in Jerusalem in the temple. We also know that he was Just outside Jerusalem on a hill called Golgotha, and we know that he was in a garden tomb... for a little while. We know that he has walked on the road to Emmaus that he was on the shore of the sea of Galilee preparing breakfast for his friends over a charcoal fire. These are places Jesus has been. We can see them for our selves. But He has been there all along. Not in bodily form as Jesus but God has always been there, interacting with people

That is what the bible is. It is a record of God's interactions with people. And then the people wrote their experiences down. Sometimes the accounts were written generations after the event. Sometimes the writings are an understanding of Gods will as understood by the writer, such as in Paul's letters. The Christian faith makes no claim that God dictated the words of scripture or that the Bible came to us by Supernatural means. Holy Scriptures, inspired and authoritative as they are came through the filter of human experience. And I am glad that it did. I have yet to find a manuscript of God's words laying around for me to find. I Have, however experienced God's presence. I have known others who have experienced the presence of God and written about it, they share it and have changed the direction of their life because of it.

The Bible is an inspired book and record of how God has interacted with people. We can an many people do go to the places mentioned in Holy Scriptures. We can tour the places where Jesus taught and performed miracles. We can go and see the places where the apostle Paul went on is missionary journeys through out the Mediterranean Sea. We can read and learn from the writings of those who came and went before us about how they had a relationship with God and it is very informative and very inspiring. But I don't think that was Jesus point in coming.

Fast forward to the contemporary church: You and me. The model of church that we and millions and millions of Christians follow is one that says, “we have a building where we worship God.” People should just know to come here. But Jesus says, “Go! make disciples. Tell people to turn away from a life without god and turn toward God. Jesus says Go! Do the the will of my father.

It's not about a list of rules or behaviors that you have to adopt when you join a church. It's about developing a connection to the Living Lord Jesus Christ. Its about listening for his voice. It is about seeing the world through His eyes and letting him use your hands to do the work that needs to be done. When you look at the world through Jesus' eyes you see the hurt and the brokenness in this world and you feel compelled to do something about it. Some people get so caught up in fixing one particular thing in this world that is broken that they forget to love God and to love people. It happens. Christians are not perfect. We get distracted just like everybody else but just because we fall once and a while doesn't mean that we are defined by our failures. We are defined and designated as adopted children of God. As a follower of Jesus Christ our mission is that same as his mission: To proclaim the Good news of the Kingdom of heaven. Its good news that says that That God loves us. That he is willing to sacrifice himself for us. We need only trust him and submit our will to his, and we will have life in abundance.

The Point is this: We know where Jesus has been! But it is his instructions about what comes next that is most important right now. Knowing where Jesus has been is important because that is how we come to believe. But once we believe...well then we need to stop being religious tourists and we need to meet Jesus where he said he would be.

In the Gospel Lesson this morning the two Marys and Salome went to the tomb of Jesus with their spices they bought after sundown some 11 hours before to anoint the dead body of their beloved Jesus. He wasn't there. There was a young man who pointed out where Jesus was. That was vital information in that they had to understand that he was no longer there. But the most important information came next. He said, “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”

Jesus is going ahead of you to meet you just as he told you. Now Peter and the other disciples were fortunate that they were able to see Jesus again after his death and resurrection and before his ascension to heaven. They saw and spoke with Jesus. We speak with Jesus and have communication with him by means of the Holy Spirit empowering us with knowledge and wisdom for the task at hand. But indeed Jesus Goes ahead of us. Yes he wants us to understand and believe what he did for us for our salvation. Jesus wants us to understand the enormity of the sacrifice he made for us. But if all we do is understand, well then that's like hearing a story about how you were nurtured as a baby then ignoring those who loved you. Our parents our grandparents who loved and nurtured us not only want to continue to nurture us but they want to love us and want to be loved back. The relationship with have with God is not one that ends with our understanding of what God has done for us, but rather that is precisely where it begins.

We were saved not to remain the same. We were saved to be God's people. To love God. To be obedient to God's will. To be Holy as He is Holy.

So How is it with you on this most Holy day? You can point to many places in your life and in the lives of those you know and say Here God was. You can read scripture and recognize where God was. But are you looking to the place where God said to Go. The place where God is going ahead of you. The place where He will meet you?

May you clearly hear the voice of the Lord Jesus. May you seek first His Kingdom. May you allow God to make you better than you have ever been before.