Read: 2 Samuel 18:1-19:10, John 20:1-31, Psalm 119:153-176, Proverbs 16:14-15

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.
Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 
As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side.
They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said,
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”
John 20:19-21

Relate: There is a classic song on the resurrection by the Gaithers that says: Because He lives, I can face tomorrow / Because He lives, all fear is gone; / Because I know He holds the future / And life is worth the living / Just because He lives! This song has proven true for so many people through the ages. For example…

When called by God to translate the Bible into English, William Tyndale faced fierce opposition both from the Catholic Church and the English Crown. When it became clear that he would not survive to complete the task in England, he crossed the channel. His translation of the New Testament was completed in 1525 and he immediately began working on the Old Testament. But this work was hampered by Tyndale constantly being on the move while being chased down by agents of Henry VIII. Ultimately, a friend took the reward and betrayed him. In 1535 he was caught and brought back to England where, the next year he was tried, strangled, and then his body burned at the stake. While on the run in Europe, Tyndale wrote to a friend in England, “I understand that I am not alone, nor am I forsaken, for I know that Christ is with me, and he will raise me up at the last day.” Later, while in prison and awaiting trial, he wrote to John Frith, “I shall desire you, in the Lord, to pray that God will strengthen me that I may abide to the end, that I may fight a good fight and finish my course, that I may obtain the reward of eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be praise and glory for ever. Amen.” Even when awaiting his immanent death, he could sing with Bill Gaither, “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.”

In 1841, David Livingstone left England as a medical missionary with the London Missionary Society. He worked for a dozen years in Botswana, but his growing conviction was that he push onward. He believed that if the slave trade was to end and the gospel proclaimed throughout the continent, then the interior must be opened to the three c’s: Christ, commerce, and civilization. For the next twenty years, Livingstone set about that goal living as an explorer, doctor, and a true frontier missionary going to place after place where no white man had ever been and where Christianity had never been preached. He wrote in his journal, “I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward… I would go to the end of the earth if it were to carry the Word of God, and I have no fear, for the eternal life in Christ is a sure thing.” Ultimately, he died in what is modern day Zambia. Local African friends transported his body to the coast so that it could be transported back to England. But his heart was buried in Africa. I could picture him singing as he paddled down the Zambezi River, “Because He lives, all fear is gone.”

Florence Nightingale, nurse among the British army in Crimea wrote, “he Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of character, which means that Christ was born to show us what human character can be in its fullest expression, and that he died to break the power of evil, and rose again to show us the ultimate triumph of goodness.” Elizabeth Elliot was one of the missionary wives who went and lived among the Waorani peoples who killed their husbands. She wrote of this choice, “If Christ has died for us, then our deaths are not the end, but the beginning. He has vanquished death. What we lose here, we gain hereafter.” Corrie Ten Boom, who suffered through a Nazi concentration camp because of her Christian convictions famously said, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” These women join a host of others in singing, “Because I know He holds the future. I know this life is worth the living just because He lives.”

React: We see in the gospel of John how the resurrection changed the apostles from cowards to courageous. The resurrection has been doing the same thing to millions of believers down through the ages. It has inspired more acts of courage, bravery, and sacrifice than any other single event in history. What great thing can you do for Christ if you truly believed that He lives?

In about seven weeks time, I will be getting on a plane to head to Kyiv. It is not my first time doing something like this, and I am not by any stretch the only one to do so. Even still, the most common question my students, their parents, and my coworkers have asked me is some variation of, “Are you scared?” Nobody ever believes me when I say no, so I’ve learned to jokingly add that what scares me the most is raising triple the budget I needed for the Philippines. But in reality, there is no fear. Why not? Because He lives.

Respond:

Dear God,
Because You live, our faith makes sense. Because You live, we have purpose. Because You live, we are not to be pitied more then all men. Your death purifies past sins, and Your resurrection provides purpose for the present as well as promise for tomorrow. I ask that You would help the reality of Your resurrection sink deep into our hearts and overflow into actions of faith and words of healing wherever we go.
Amen