Easter - Do Not Be Afraid!

I have an answer for that.

C. But do you think maybe the women felt like they were in some kind of a black hole when they made their way to the tomb on that Easter morn? And how about the apostles who were hiding behind locked doors? They had invested their lives. They had believed with all their heart that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the one they should follow.

They had believed in His cause so completely that they left homes & families & security to follow Him. Then suddenly the black hole had come & Jesus was taken from them.

And the word that describes the emotion that gripped them is the word "fear." "Will I be next? Will they come after me, too? What happens tomorrow? With Jesus gone, what do I do, where do I go?"

APPL. Maybe some of you are experiencing a black hole this morning. Maybe it has taken away a loved one, a spouse, or a child, or a parent. Or maybe it has taken away your job & your security, & you’re not sure what you’re going to do next. So you wonder, "Why continue on?"

But the message of Easter is that even if a black hole comes into our lives, there is a something more wonderful beyond it.

PROP. And the passage that I read from Revelation gives 4 reasons why Christians need not be afraid. So if you’re a Christian this morning, if Jesus Christ is your Lord & Savior, then this passage says that you do not need to be afraid. And here are the reasons.

I. POWER OF THE GENTLE TOUCH

A. #1, you do not need to be afraid because of the power of the gentle touch of Jesus. Let me read vs. 17 again. John says, "When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead."

Now you need to remember that one day all of us are going to see what John saw. One day, maybe not too long from now, you & I will stand & look into the face of the Lord. And that will be such an awesome sight that I’m convinced we’ll react in the same way John reacted.

Then notice what happens. John says that while he was lying before Him as a dead person, "He placed His right hand on me & said: `Do not be afraid.’"

That’s awesome power clothed in gentleness. We’re not used to seeing power like that. We see power as being harsh. We see dictators & rulers misusing power & abusing & manipulating people. But in Him we see unlimited power clothed in gentleness. So He reaches down & touches the trembling John & He says, "Do not be afraid."

B. As we look at the New Testament, time & time again it shows Jesus with people who are lonely & tired & rejected, people who are depressed & stressed out in life. He looks at them & sees them as sheep without a shepherd, & it tells us that He reached out & touched them. There is something about His touch that brought assurance & erased fear.

Sometimes He touched those whom no one else would dare touch. Mark tells us in his gospel that one time a leper came to Jesus. Lepers were untouchable. But Jesus touched him.

I’ve always felt it was His touch as much as the power that flowed from Him that healed the leper. Just to be touched for the first time in weeks or months by another person, to know that someone cared enough to reach out & touch a person branded "untouchable" must have been healing in itself.

Suddenly the leper is well & his skin is whole again. He stands tall & straight again because of the power of the gentle touch.

SUM. So, if you’re