DAY THREE
Peace be
with you . . .

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
JOHN 20:19

THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST began with a group of frightened men in a second-floor room in Jerusalem.

Though trained and taught, they didn’t know what to say. Though they’d marched with him for three years, they now sat . . . afraid. They were timid soldiers, reluctant warriors, speechless messengers.

Their most courageous act was to get up and lock the door.

Some looked out the window, some looked at the wall, some looked at the floor, but all looked inside themselves.

And well they should, for it was an hour of self-examination. All their efforts seemed so futile. Nagging their memories were the promises they’d made but not kept. When the Roman soldiers took Jesus, Jesus’ followers took off. With the very wine of the covenant on their breath and the bread of his sacrifice in their bellies, they fled.

All those boasts of bravado? All those declarations of devotion? They lay broken and shattered at the gate of Gethsemane’s garden.

1. The Lord was betrayed by one of his own. What deal did Judas broker in Matthew 26:14–16?

I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.
MATTHEW 26:31

2. Jesus was denied by the very one who’d been swiftest to his defense. What were Peter’s words in Matthew 26:73–74?

3. When faced with the multitude, what did the disciples do, according to Matthew 26:55–56?

When times get hard, remember Jesus. When people don’t listen, remember Jesus. When tears come, remember Jesus. When disappointment is your bed partner, remember Jesus. When fear pitches his tent in your front yard. When death looms, when anger singes, when shame weighs heavily. Remember Jesus.
SIX HOURS ONE FRIDAY

We don’t know where the disciples went when they fled the garden, but we do know what they took: a memory. They took a heart-stopping memory of a man who called himself no less than God in the flesh. And they couldn’t get him out of their minds. Try as they might to lose him in the crowd, they couldn’t forget him. If they saw a leper, they thought of his compassion. If they heard a storm, they would remember the day he silenced one. If they saw a child, they would think of the day he held one. And if they saw a lamb being carried to the temple, they would remember his face streaked with blood and his eyes flooded with love.

No, they couldn’t forget him. As a result, they came back. And, as a result, the church of our Lord began with a group of frightened men in an upper room.

Just as someone mumbles, “It’s no use,” they hear a noise. They hear a voice.

“Peace be with you” (John 20:19 NIV).

4.What is God’s relationship to peace, according to 1 Corinthians 14:33?

You don’t turn your back on Christ, but you don’t turn toward him either. You don’t curse his name, but neither do you praise it. You know you should do something, but you’re not sure what. You know you should come together, but you’re not sure why. Upper-room futility.
SIX HOURS ONE FRIDAY

5. The disciples sorely needed peace, and the God of peace—Peace itself—walked through the door. Match up the following passages with their messages about peace.

___ Isaiah 26:12	a. Live in peace.
___ Romans 5:1	b. Pursue the things that make for peace.
___ Romans 14:19	c. The Lord establishes peace.
___ Romans 15:33	d. God is the God of peace.
___ 2 Corinthians 13:11	e. Christ is our peace.
___ Ephesians 2:13-14	f. We have peace with God through Jesus.
___ Colossians 1:20	g. Peace was made through the blood of his cross.

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.
ISAIAH 26:3

6. What assurance can we receive from the words of Christ in John 16:33?

7. In John 14:27 we have a similar promise. What does Jesus leave to us?

Every head lifted. Every eye turned. Every mouth dropped open. Someone looked at the door.

It was still locked.

It was a moment the apostles would never forget, a story they would never cease to tell. The stone of the tomb was not enough to keep him in. The walls of the room were not enough to keep him out.

The one betrayed sought his betrayers. What did he say to them? Not “What a bunch of flops!” Not “I told you so.” No “Where-were-you-when-I-needed-you?” speeches. But simply one phrase: “Peace be with you.” The very thing they didn’t have was the very thing he offered: peace.

It was too good to be true! So amazing was the appearance that some were saying, “Pinch me; I’m dreaming” even at the ascension. No wonder they returned to Jerusalem with great joy! No wonder they were always in the temple praising God!

A transformed group stood beside a transformed Peter as he announced some weeks later: “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36 NIV).

No timidity in his words. No reluctance. About three thousand people believed his message.

The apostles sparked a movement. The people became followers of the death-conqueror. They couldn’t hear enough or say enough about him. People began to call them “Christians.” Christ was their model, their message. They preached “Jesus Christ and him crucified,” not for the lack of another topic, but because they couldn’t exhaust this one (1 Corinthians 2:2 NIV).

What unlocked the doors of the apostles’ hearts?

Simple. They saw Jesus. They encountered the Christ. Their sins collided with their Savior, and their Savior won! What lit the boiler of the apostles was a red-hot conviction that the very one who should have sent them to hell went to hell for them and came back to tell about it.