Christmas and Easter have come and gone.  Winter is over, Spring has sprung, summer has officially started.  We’ve searched for bunnies, eaten our Easter eggs, some of us have even had holidays.  So now what?
 
During this course we have studied the Gospel written by Jesus’ close disciple and eyewitness John and have come to the last chapter.  Jesus of Nazareth has appeared on the scene in 1st century Palestine and done many amazing things to convince John and his colleagues that He is the Son of God Who gives eternal life to all who trust in Him.  The authorities killed Him as He predicted but He has returned from the dead and presented Himself to His followers.  So now what?  What are they, and we, to do now?
 
In his closing chapter John records Jesus giving us three things, an invitation to renewal, a gentle reminder and a gracious recommission.
 
Observe first an invitation to renewal.  It might be the end of John’s Gospel but it’s only the beginning of the adventure, a journey of discovery, learning and growing and serving with our crucified but risen Lord.  It’s not over, it’s a new beginning, just like Jesus spoke about with Nicodemus back in ch 3.  That’s why He meets His fishermen disciples here in Galilee where it all began.  This is familiar territory, this is home ground.  There is something reassuring and comforting about the boat and the nets and breakfast on the shore.
 
They had the last supper and would never forget it.  But Jesus is alive and victorious over evil and death.  This is the first breakfast of a new resurrection era!  Our homes and our world can never be the same again!
 
Things will be different now, as Jesus has been explaining.  He won’t be with us physically any more, he will be in us spiritually by the presence of the Holy Spirit, but no less real for that!  We are not alone, never rejected or abandoned.  He Who lives and reigns forever lives in our hearts, so we must welcome Him and seek to make our hearts and lives a suitable home for our Shepherd, Master, King.
 
If it seems at times we’re going in circles, or that we’re back where we started or that the Lord has in some way brought us to the end of ourselves, He may in fact be inviting us to a new beginning, a deeper understanding, a more committed obedience, a more fruitful serving.  Let’s be open to our risen, living Lord doing new things in us!
 
Another thing we find here in John 21 is a gentle reminder, a reminder of why the cross was necessary. 
 
This is poignant, painful even, but necessary.  Much as we celebrate Jesus’ life and triumph over the grave, we must never forget the cross, and our sin that required His sacrifice there.  Three times He asks for our love, a gentle, loving way to help Peter face the uncomfortable truth of his triple denial on the night of Jesus’ arrest.  It’s a reminder for all of us of the countless times we have acted like we don’t know Him by choosing comfort or selfish pleasure over doing our duty and what is right.
 
This reminds us that sin is always personal.  It is not just technically breaking rules, it is spoiling relationship, offending our Maker, grieving our generous Father in heaven.
 
These days if we speed on the motorway it is impersonal.  Cold and distant.  A robot photographs our license plate and we get an automatic fine through the post.  But Jesus takes us for breakfast, looks us in the eye and asks, ‘Do you love me?’  With Him, it’s always personal.
 
This is a reminder of our many sins, but it is a gentle reminder.  Uncomfortable as it is initially, we shall be glad of it, as it not only corrects us but brings us closer to the One Who is full of loving mercy.  His Spirit’s conviction is the necessary, sweet piercing of our souls, bringing us to confession, repentance, forgiveness, thankfulness and fresh joy!
 
Sanctification then, is us becoming holy in practise, not by laboriously practising rules like the Pharisees, but by responding with love and grateful obedience to the One Who showed such love to us at Calvary.  This is the work of the Holy Spirit, changing us powerfully but gently, through the love of our Saviour.
 
And now we are ready for service again!  For after renewal and reminder comes recommission.  Peter, who had failed so dismally, is once more entrusted with leadership in the Lord’s precious Church.  Amazingly we are given responsibility again.  Jesus not only forgives us but trusts us to assist Him, like junior shepherds to the great Shepherd, helping in the care of His growing ‘flock’.
 
He instructs us to ‘feed His lambs’.  We are to share the love we have received.  We are to evangelise, share His invitation of grace with the world, this genuine ‘soul food’ of forgiveness, healing, restoration and life in His name.  We are to protect, nurture and encourage those He entrusts to our company and influence.
 
Despite the indifference, mockery or even violent opposition we may face we must share His truth and overcome evil with His forgiving love.  Love that recommissioned Peter, that converted persecutor Saul of Tarsus, love that brings all nations to the table in fellowship and peace. 
 
This risen Lord Jesus stands at the door still today and knocks.  Still willing to join us and eat with us.  Still powerful to renew us.
 
Let us welcome Him in and love as He does.
 
Until He comes.
 
Amen.
 
 

​This month’s cover of ‘the Presbyterian Herald’ bears the slogan, ‘Easter Changes Everything’.  Nice slogan, but could we really believe it?
 
On the surface things look pretty much the same.  The environment seems in serious crisis.  Around the globe as one conflict ends another begins.  Technology advances but millions remain hungry.  As if famines and floods weren’t trouble enough, some human beings practise the most appalling cruelty.  Such things make optimism appear shallow and naïve.  The more understandable option seems the common cynical despair.
 
Yet Christians stubbornly refuse to stop practising this thing called hope.  True, Friday was the very definition of ‘atrocity’, the finest man who ever lived jealously slandered and executed.  Yesterday was bleak, prospects reduced to zero.
 
But this is Sunday, the Lord’s Day.  The day on which disciples of Jesus went to the tomb and found it empty, the day on which Mary Magdalene heard a familiar voice speak her name, the day on which the God-given Saviour for the world rose from the dead!
 
In time they all saw Him, witnessed His scarred hands and side, heard His words of reassurance and instruction.
 
This is Sunday, the day the Lord has made his own, the day He demonstrated victory over death and we will rejoice and praise His name!  He is the winner.  He is Lord and we who follow Him will not be denied this celebration!
 
For why?  Let’s note from Scripture the implications of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  We read here of peace, of joy, the forgiveness of sins and the promise of life.
 
He greets His followers with ‘Shalom!’ but it’s more than a common greeting.  It literally means, ‘May the peace of God be with you!’  Through His atoning death, and because he is risen and ever lives to pray for us as our great High Priest, believers in Jesus have peace with God.  We are reconciled to our Maker, the Holy Judge.  We can call Him ‘our Father’ and trust Him to provide all our needs.
 
The next generation would see no let up in opposition as the powers of hell tried in vain to stop the spread of this good news.  Across the empire Christians would be brutally persecuted as we see happening again today.  The world resents the Church for our exclusive claim that Jesus is the only way to God, and for His moral teaching.  They may ridicule us or worse but they cannot rob us of our peace, the peace of a soul stilled by the love of God, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb!
 
With this peace comes joy, the disciples were overjoyed when they saw Jesus alive again.  They were still in danger, they could never return to their former lives and careers.  The short term future still held much uncertainty but right there and then they didn’t mind.  Their Master had defeated death.  This opened a whole new perspective.  They had rejoiced previously to see the lame walk, the blind see, the hungry fed and the oppressed delivered but this took things to a whole new level.  Not even death can separate us from the love of God in Christ our Saviour!
 
So we grieve, naturally.  We grieve having to say goodbye to a loved one but now we know the separation is temporary.  We grieve over the suffering in this present world, but the Lord is returning soon to make all things new.  We grieve over the spiritual blindness and lostness of our fellow human beings but not as those who have no hope!  We rejoice in a crucified but risen Lord Who holds the future in His strong but gentle, love-scarred hands!
 
Fundamental to this peace and joy is something we cannot gloss over, the forgiveness of sins.  Many would like to ignore this part.  The world hates this truth.  We resent having to acknowledge we’re wrong or have failed.  We employ distraction, brushing personal faults under the carpet.  We criticise others, the government, foreigners, paedophiles.  Meanwhile we change the law and pretend evil things are good and acceptable.  We demand freedom to sin as a human right.  And look where it gets us – witness the sad, selfish, violent and rapacious society we are becoming!  We can try to hide it but no amount of shopping or entertainment can take away our disobedience before God!
 
The world makes a joke of sin, but it’s not a light hearted thing to the Lord.  On this first Easter Sunday Jesus authorises His disciples to declare forgiveness of sins to all who trust in Him.  God hates sin.  It’s not allowed into heaven.  Be warned - those who refuse to repent remain unforgiven and condemned!  But God so loves the sinners of this world He gave Jesus to be the offering of atonement that whosoever humbly believes in Him will not perish in their sin but have everlasting life!
 
Of course good news only helps us if we are willing to accept it.  Those who do are assured of life, in all its fulness and forever.  So writes eyewitness John as he comes towards the end of his Gospel.  This is why he has written it, to persuade us that Jesus is the Son of God, the Saviour so desperately needed by the world.
‘These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ’ he writes, ‘and that by believing you may have life in His name.’  Those who trust in Jesus are filled with the Holy Spirit, reborn inside to live like Him and for Him until one day we are blessed to meet Him face to face.
 
Easter Sunday, this is a good day, the day Jesus rose.  But another day is coming, the day of His return.  ‘The Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God ‘and we, who trust in Him will rise too.
 
So we don’t practise glib, ill-founded optimism, nor do we grieve like others with no light of comfort.  We encourage each other with these words of God.
 
We are Christians.  We practise hope.
 
Amen

How might we picture the ‘glory’ of God?
 
We might think of him as the Creator of all things and see something of His splendour in the wonders of this vast and intricate universe, the farthest galaxy, the complexity of DNA, the colour and musicality of nature, the faithfulness of the seasons, the clearly observable laws of physics.  These all reflect something of the genius and character of the One responsible for the things we can see and touch and measure.
 
The Bible also gives glimpses of One Who sits enthroned in spectacular majesty to rule and to judge, an ultimate authority Who decides what is right and wrong, before Whom every person who’s ever lived is accountable for every thought, word and action.
 
Jesus Christ, as recorded by eyewitness John in his Gospel, teaches that while these pictures are accurate and vitally important, God’s greatest ‘glory’ was demonstrated about 2000 years ago when the Creator came to His creation, entered it, became part of it.  God the Son, Jesus, lived here among us, divine yet in human flesh.  He became one of us to rescue us from the guilt, power and penalty of our sin against our Maker.
 
John and the other disciples have already witnessed this carpenter from Nazareth doing some pretty ‘godlike’ things, walking on water and calming a storm, feeding 5000, healing the blind and disabled, even raising the dead.  Some of them are thinking if they could just get Jesus crowned king in Jerusalem everything would somehow be so much better.
 
But He’s not interested in limited, passing, earthly glory, the kind of popularity and prestige that we enjoy.  He’s building a kingdom that is spiritual, global and eternal, saving and transforming individuals and communities from the inside out with forgiveness, love and the power of God’s Holy Spirit.  And the greatest act of this divine rescue mission is about to take place the next day outside the walls of Jerusalem.  God’s glory at it’s most profound will be seen as the Son of God dies on a cross!
 
The most glorious thing about the God we Christians worship is not His almighty power or His awesome holiness and authority to judge, but His amazing grace, giving of Himself in sacrifice to redeem undeserving human beings. 
 
Now we’re not totally undeserving.  We deserve His righteous anger and punishment for, read the 10 commandments or Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and we see we have all consistently sinned, we have insulted our Maker by perverting His creation order and breaking His clear instructions.  But atonement was made for us with the sacrifice by Jesus of Himself at Calvary.  Forgiveness was paid for by His being willing to suffer on our behalf.  This is amazing grace.
 
Now many of us are familiar with these ideas but can we appreciate how difficult this must be for the disciples gathered in the upper room the night before the crucifixion?  Jesus says He’s leaving and they won’t see Him again for a time.  He has used the bread and wine as symbols of His body and blood which he says He’s about to give for them.  He has knelt like a servant and washed their feet saying He has come to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.  He has identified Judas Iscariot as a traitor and Judas has left to summon the mob and no doubt collect his thirty pieces of silver.  Upset and confused Simon Peter has piped up, don’t fret Master, you can count on me, I’m ready to die for you, but He isn’t really.  Before dawn, Jesus says, you’ll deny you even know me. 
 
In the growing gloom it’s difficult to see how anything good is going to come from all of this.  On the surface of things the next day will be a disaster, a travesty of justice followed by crowd manipulation and a brutal execution of a good and innocent man.
 
But Jesus is not surprised by any of this, he knows ahead what is going to happen and makes it plain He is not actually a helpless victim of circumstance.  He is very deliberately and lovingly laying down His life that they and we and whosoever trusts in Him can be forgiven, reconciled to God and enjoy eternal life in all its fulness.  And He knows that while there will be unspeakable grief on Friday and inconsolable loss on Saturday, there will be the greatest joy and the birth of everlasting hope on Sunday as He rises victorious over death.
 
So, despite the horror that awaits Him later this night and tomorrow, Jesus instructs and comforts His heavy hearted followers.  A little earlier he was troubled himself, distressed that Judas would betray Him, but here at the start of ch 14 the Lord tells His followers not to let trouble and sorrow overcome us.  Let’s keep our faith in God, let’s trust Jesus Who has shown us so much of God’s greatness and goodness and love in the preceding chapters.  Let’s listen as God’s Son comforts us with some wonderful promises here.
 
Don’t let grief and worry paralyse and defeat you, He says.  This is not the end.  I’m just going first.  I’m going now so you can come later.  Even though things will be tough in the short term and you won’t see me physically for a while I won’t have forgotten you.  I’ll be getting things ready so you can rest, happy when you arrive.  You will see me again, in a few days and then again when we make all things new.  There are many rooms in my Father’s house, room and welcome for anyone and everyone who wants to come, who will trust in me.
 
And these dwellings are permanent.  You’ll never have to sell up, no one will ever evict you.  You’ll be home, forever, with the Father and with me.  Grace, remember?
 
Jesus is the Way, the only way to approach God the Father.  He is our peace, our means of reconciliation.
 
Jesus is the Truth, His cross, His example, His teachings the truth we need to walk in freedom.  In Him we find liberation.
 
Jesus is the Life, by Whose Spirit we know new birth and resurrection and the promise of thriving forever in heavenly glory.
 
For now we must keep trusting, and practise.
 
Christians will one day share resurrection and eternal life in new heavens and a new earth with the Lord and with all His people.
 
Jesus gives us a new commandment, to love one another as He has loved us.  We’ll not always get this right.  For now there will be some failure and no shortage of challenges.  But He promises us all the help we need.  As we try to practise His patience, forgiveness and lovingkindness with each other we will be identifiable as His followers, we shall know His unique comfort and begin perhaps to taste a little of His glory.