This sermon was preached at Wesley United Methodist Church on Sunday, May 7, 2023.

In the video below, the sermon begins at minute marker 36:34.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11; John 21:1-14

Jesus Appearances

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). And he wasn’t joking. After Easter morn, when Jesus was raised from the dead, raised imperishable as the firstfruits of the resurrection and given a new, glorified, transformed, immortal body, he appeared to the disciples several times over the next 40 days (Acts 1:3). The first times were in Jerusalem, because they had all gone to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival with Jesus. Little did the disciples know that during that festival Jesus would be betrayed, arrested, beaten, prosecuted, persecuted, and executed. They stayed in Jerusalem for a time and Jesus appeared to them there, but eventually they went back home…up north to Galilee. And Jesus appeared to them in Galilee as well. But at some point, the disciples end up going back to Jerusalem from Galilee, as Luke tells us that on one occasion when Jesus appeared to them in Jerusalem that he told them to remain there in Jerusalem and wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon them.

So, in the Gospels, there are Jerusalem appearances. There are Galilee appearances. There are even Emmaus Road appearances for Cleopas and that other unnamed disciple. And last of all, there was a Damascus Road appearance later for the apostle Paul recorded in Acts.

So, the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus in the Gospels go from Jerusalem to Galilee back to Jerusalem. Matthew records in his Gospel that Jesus gave the disciples the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations during one of the Galilee appearances. And our passage this morning from John’s Gospel tells of the other Galilee appearance which is recorded in the Gospels.

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we read about how Jesus appeared to the disciples after Easter, some of which are recorded in the Gospels and others of which are not. Paul says, “[Christ] appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born” (1 Cor 15:5-8).

The many accounts in the New Testament of Jesus’ appearances don’t all align as perfectly as we modern readers might like. And that’s okay. It’s as if everyone had their own story to tell about how Jesus appeared to them, when Jesus showed up in their lives. I think the reason why not all of these post-resurrection appearances align is because everybody wanted to get their own risen Jesus appearance encounter told and heard and recorded in Scripture. Everyone has their own story to tell. At the end of John, John says that Jesus did and taught many other things and, “If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25). I love that verse!

So, I think that it’s safe to say that Jesus appeared to his disciples many other times. They just didn’t have enough ink to get it down on paper, and there isn’t enough paper in the world to hold all the stories that could and should be told about how Jesus showed up.

Has Jesus Appeared to You?

But the fact of the matter is that wherever the disciples went after Easter, Jesus kept appearing to them. He kept showing up in their lives. So, my question for us this morning is this: has the risen Jesus appeared to you? Not in the same way that he did to the apostles, but have you seen Jesus in your life? Has Jesus appeared all of a sudden, maybe in a difficult time, and made things right in your life before? Has he come through and pulled through in crucial moments? In transition moments? When has Jesus shown up for you?

Many of the times when he has shown up in my life in powerful ways have been in transition moments. We’re celebrating our graduates this morning, and most of them are in a transition period right now. The disciples, after Easter, were in a transition period. Their Lord and teacher had died and been resurrected. Their heads were spinning. All of this was new. They hadn’t yet received the Holy Spirit. They’re about to graduate one phase of discipleship—three years of walking and living with Jesus. Now they are about to go with Jesus in another, different way, because he would be leaving them and ascending to the right hand of God, and he would be with them in a different way through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit. This is a graduation of sorts for them; certainly a transition time from one way of doing things to another way.

I want to testify this morning about some moments where Jesus appeared to me and showed up in my life at one of these transition moments.

From Greenville to Asbury

One of the biggest transitions in my life where the Lord showed up and made a way when there seemed to be no way was when I transferred colleges from Greenville College down in southern Illinois to Asbury College in central Kentucky. Now this wasn’t the only transition happening at the time. Paige and I were about to get married then too. So, we needed a place to live. We needed jobs to support ourselves—all those bare necessities of life. It was Spring of 2009. Paige had just graduated from Asbury with her BA in Christian Ministries. But I was still enrolled at Greenville and had one year left. So, we searched and searched for places to live but couldn’t find any in Greenville. We looked for jobs in the area but couldn’t find any. At every point we turned in Greenville, doors were slammed in our face. It’s not that hard to find a job and a place to live. But no doors were opening for us as we were planning to move there after we got married, so that I could finish my BA in Pastoral Ministry. I only had about 20 credits left to earn my degree. So, as all of these doors kept shutting, we prayed fervently for God’s direction. Where do you want us to go? Where are we supposed to work? Where are we supposed to live? God, are you there, because nothing seems to be working out here? What’s going on?

So as we prayed and sought the direction of the Lord, things started coming together. In the midst of all this, I had applied to Asbury College where Paige got her degree and I was considering transferring, because I wanted a degree in the Bible and Greenville didn’t have one. I had always wanted to go to Asbury. The first time I visited Paige on the campus I just felt God’s presence so strongly there, and I wanted to go there, but I was at Greenville. In high school, I wasn’t a good student. Even my first year of college wasn’t all that great. But the admissions department at Asbury used to send me recruitment things in the mail all the time, and it said on it, “Are you an Asburian?” And I would get frustrated with that, because I said, “No, I’m not an Asburian, because there’s no way you would ever let me in because of my poor grades and ACT scores from high school.” So, I had always wanted to go to Asbury, but never thought I’d ever be admitted.

Long story short, the week of our wedding, we drove to Indianapolis for me to interview for a Youth Pastor job in Wilmore, KY, where Asbury is located. The interview went so well. It was a match made in heaven. Their elder board met that night and unanimously voted to hire me and offered me the job the next day. I accepted and then we found a place to live, a little two-bedroom apartment that we could afford off of my $800 per month Youth Pastor job. Job? Check. Apartment? Check. Asbury? You guessed it. Check. I was accepted into Asbury that same week of our wedding. Boom. Boom. Boom. And then we got married! Kaboom.

Jesus showed up. He made a way where there was no way. Doors kept closing in Greenville. But we kept knocking until he opened the right one, which was somewhere else.

Like the disciples that went fishing all night and caught nothing, we were looking in the wrong place. Then Jesus shows up and tells these expert fishermen how to fish—“throw your net on the [other] side of the boat” (John 21:6)—and they come away with a miraculous catch. 153 huge fish! So much abundance that they couldn’t even haul it in. Peter had to briefly become Samson from the OT for a moment so that he could haul in the net himself, even though the other 6 couldn’t do it with their combined strength.

But that’s what the risen Lord has done for me. Jesus showed up and told us to throw our nets on the other side, somewhere else, and we had a miraculous catch. Everything aligned. Everything worked out. Sure, I had to take a senior year and super senior year at Asbury, and it took me five years to complete my undergrad, but that’s where we were supposed to go and that’s what we were supposed to do. He showed up at that crucial, pivotal, transitional moment and aligned everything and gave us such clear direction and provided through it all, just like he did for the disciples.

If you’re in one of those moments, seek the Lord. Ask. Seek. Knock. And the door will be opened to you. If nothing is working out, ask Jesus and maybe he’ll tell you to throw your nets on the other side.

Autumn Rose

But Jesus has appeared to me and my family in several other ways too, not just in transition moments. I wish I had an hour or two to tell about all the ways that he’s provided and come through for us, stories of his faithfulness, love, and provision. But I’m going to stick with just one more, one that happened this week.

As many of you know, my family had a pretty, big scare this week. I was at Youth Group Wednesday night. We were playing dodgeball (here) in the gym, and all of a sudden I notice that my phone is buzzing like crazy in my pocket. I took a quick glance and it said, “Ambulance has taken Autumn and Paige to Graham.” Fear and confusion hit me all at once. Did they get in a car accident on the way home from church? Was there a house fire? What about Addie? Did a tree limb fall on them? We just had a huge branch fall on the front of the house a couple days before. I had no idea. It was just one of those worst fears moments. I call. Paige answers, thank God. She says that Autumn was unresponsive and that I need to get to the ER right away. I was shocked. I called Shalom. He came right over and covered me at Youth Group, bear hugged me and said a quick prayer, and I bolted to the ER. I got there to find Paige and Autumn surrounded by a whole medical team. So much was happening at once, but there was my precious Autumn alive and breathing and that gave me some peace of mind. Paige filled me in on what happened as the nurses, technicians, EMTs, and doctors cared for Autumn.

Paige told me that Autumn woke up from napping on her. She was really fussy for a few minutes, and then she filled her diaper and kind of gag-vomited at the same time, but nothing came up. She made that gagging sound a second and third time and then she just went limp and all of her color went away. She went unconscious and was unresponsive. So, Paige immediately called 911. The EMTs said that she looked really bad when they got there. Grandpa got there the same time as the EMTs, because he was bringing Asher and Ayla home from church. He said that she looked white as a ghost and thought she was gone. Paige thought that we were losing her, but she eventually came to. She started blinking really slowly and ended up recovered on her own. They took her to the ER by ambulance to monitor her and run tests. Nothing was really found that night, because she was just better. She still had a fever. She had been sick with a cold earlier in the week and earlier that day she got her 6 month shots. But she was here with us and we got to take our baby home that night. I wasn’t so sure that I’d get to do that when I left Youth Group Wednesday night.

The next day we went to our pediatrician first thing in the morning, and we got some medical answers about what happened. She either had a febrile seizure from her temperature spiking too quickly from the combination of her cold and 6-month vaccinations or she passed out from hitting her vagal nerve when she got sick. Both scenarios, we found out, are rare and harmless and most likely won’t happen again…and super scary for parents and everyone involved.

And friends, Jesus appeared to us in this scary moment this week. He appeared to us in the 911 dispatcher who helped calm Paige down and helped her see that Autumn was still breathing and had her count the breaths. Jesus appeared to us in the first responders, the EMTs, the doctors, nurses, and technicians at Graham. He appeared to us in Pastor Shalom’s visit in the ER that night. Jesus appeared to us in all the people who came by and reached out to offer help and prayers when they found out about what happened. Jesus appeared to us this week in you all. We want to say thank you to all of you who helped, reached out, thought about us, and prayed for us. We cried out to him that night. I cried out to him when I got that text message, and boy, did he appear to me. I saw his hand of mercy through all of it and felt his presence near even though I had a lot of fear.

Jesus Can Show up through You

So, I want to close this morning by encouraging you, that you can be the one through whom Jesus appears to others. You can be Jesus to someone else. I saw Jesus in all those people this week. You can be one of those people too. Not only can you see and testify to what God has done in your life, you can be the hands and feet of Jesus to someone else. Jesus can appear to others through you. That’s what happened to my family this week. He appeared through the help and hands and love of so many around us that night and the days since. Friends, go and be the light of the world to those around you. You might be the only Jesus that someone sees today or tomorrow or this week or month. May Jesus shine his light through us, so that all may know the power and love of our risen Lord. Let’s pray.

Prayer

Lord, we serve you, our risen Savior. You’re in the world today. We know that you are living, whatever foes may say. We see your hands of mercy. We hear your voice of cheer. And just the time we need you, you’re always near. Be near to us. Walk with us. Talk with us along life’s narrow way. And use us to be your hands and feet, to be your light in people’s darkness, to be sunshine on people’s cloudy days, to be obedient and faithful in response to how faithful you’ve been to us. Thank you, Lord, for all that you do, all that you’ve done, and all that you have planned to do in our lives. We surrender to you, put our hopes and trust in you, and say Yes to you and your will and your plans and your kingdom. In Jesus’ name. Amen.