When Jesus Comes to You- April 27, 2025

Thank you so much. Well, good morning and welcome to the First Presbyterian Ian Church of Mount Dora. It is so good to see you all as we bask in the glow of Easter. It is wonderful to be able to worship the Lord together. I'd like to begin by thanking Pat Peters for serving as our liturgist this morning. Thank you so much, Pat. And uh I would also like to encourage you if you have not already done so. Many of you know the drill, but if you will take the friendship pads

that are either on the inside of each pew or perhaps even on the middle of the row, the red pads, and sign your name, make sure that your up-to-date information is on there so that we can stay in touch with you and let you know about the many wonderful activities that are taking place in our church. Many of which I would like to draw to your attention are on the back of your bulletin. So, please uh take this with you so that you can mark your calendars when you get home. This week is going to be once again another very full week. Uh

we're going to have the Presbyterian Women's Lunchon at end of the year lunchon. Always a wonderful time. Wednesday we have our brand new program called Shiitakqua Chapel Lunch and Learn where we are certainly tapping into the wealth of experience that we have in this congregation individuals who are willing to share with us some some tips and tricks and new knowledge for us while we're sharing lunch. Uh this coming Wednesday, Alberto Montes is going to be sharing with us how to take a great picture. Many of you saw his

photographs that we had displayed down in our multi-purpose room last year, and Alberto is going to help us with that. And then uh next month, uh Emily Lewis, who many of you don't know is a nationally awardwinning pie baker. I know. And it is just so wonderful that we have her talent in this congregation. Emily is going to make a few pies to share, which should mean that everybody signs up. And uh we are going to learn tips and tricks to baking an award-winning pie. Doesn't that sound like fun? So, you can sign up

for the Shiitaka lunch and learn at the concierge desk at the entrance of the sanctuary. I must tell you there is a slight correction which you will love. Uh we thought that we were going to charge $15 for lunch, but after ordering the food first time this last Friday, we are lowering the price to $10. How often do you get to hear that? So $10 for a wonderful lunch and you'll get to pick up a new skill as well. I hope that you will join us for that. Um Thursday is the National Day of Prayer and as we did

on Good Friday. We are opening up our chapel for guided prayer. There is a sheet, a prayer sheet to guide you through a time of prayer with the Lord. So, if you would like to come and between 12 and 3 and spend some time with the Lord, uh please feel free to do so. Our chapel will be open. Um I would like to see, do we have someone here from our men's fellowship group? Oh, Bob, you're here again. and he spoke at the nine o'clock. Would you like to share with these good folks? I'm here replacing Dave Rockmiss who is out of

town. He would have wanted to do this, but they're off at Wheaten College for the weekend. So, um I'm here to introduce those of you that are not familiar with the men's group that's been meeting for the last 15 years or so. Uh it's men's Bible study. We call it that. and we meet twice a month on the first and third Tuesdays. Next Tuesday, this coming Tuesday, that is two days from now, we'll meet again at 8 o'clock here at the church. Wanted to talk about this to let those that are not as familiar know more

about it and to share what a what a wonderful group it is. Uh we we do one book at a time, one book in the Bible at a time. And right now we're doing the book of Mark. We have these study guides. They're question questions. There's no right answer to these questions. They're discussion questions to motivate uh you know an open dialogue. So what makes this group so special is that this is a group of men who get together who really care about each other. We grow in friendship and faith every time we're together. And

we've been doing this for 15 years. It's remarkable the energy, the the trust and the respect in that room. you have to be there to appreciate it. Um, so we wanted to welcome others who are not involved and and please come. You you are so welcome and I think you'll feel welcome from the first moment that you're there. For the ladies, I'm sorry. I can't invite you. That's just not going to happen. But I do have a request for the ladies. If you have a man in your life who is who might be good to think about this to

consider it, maybe a little discussion or encouragement, you know that listening to your to your best friend is sometimes a good thing. So if you have questions, I I can answer them. Fred Lip is a is an active member. Barry Long is an active member. There are others. Uh so uh please come if you can. Thank you so much, Bob. I was I was just thinking on that a minute. Are you saying that if you have a woman in your life, she's the one that tells you what to do? Oh, okay. I'm not going to pursue that any

further. Well, I am so glad that we are here to worship the Lord together. Certainly, our goal is to glorify God with our worship. And I'd like to begin with just a few words from for the season of Easter. This is the second Sunday of Easter. And uh there is a reading from Revelation that really summarizes it all. So I'd like to read from John the Elder from Revelation 1. He reminds us, "I am Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord. who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Grace and peace to you from

him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits from his throne and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and father. To him be all glory and power forever and ever. Amen. And amen. Let us worship the Lord. Good morning. My name is Pat and I'm blessed to be your this morning. Let's all join in the

call to worship. Happy Easter season. Today is the first day of the week. Breathe the breath of new life in your spirits. Welcome to worship this glorious day. [Music] Amen. [Music] Christmas. of praise. Walk with the bless not our friend Jesus. is our strong we shall ever shall be the same. glor. Please be seated. Let's join together in the prayer of confession. It's printed in your bulletin. The God who created us and who knows us better than we know ourselves invites us to look at ourselves and be honest about who we

have become. Let us confess the state of our lives to God and before one another. We confess to you loving creator God. We have not lived in the truth that Jesus told us. We have not chosen your before our selfish concerns. We have not become servants of others. We have not sought to lose our lives in you, but rather we have clung to the trappings of mortal existence. We have called Jesus our Lord, but we have placed all manner of people and things ahead of our service to his reign of love and justice.

Forgive us. the power of your Holy Spirit. So fill us with your love and power that we will resist the call of earthly things and seek instead that which is eternal. Amen. My friends, hear now the gospel which is the good news that the mercy of our Lord is from everlasting. He is the alpha and everlasting. He is the omega. So it is always our privilege to remind ourselves that in Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Thanks be to God. And God's people said, "Thanks be to God. [Music] and to the holy ghost as

it beginning. Please be seated. [Music] Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Hallelu. Let us praise the Lord. Hallelu. Praise the Lord. Hallelu. Praise the Lord. Hallelu. Let us praise the Lord. Praise him. Praise him with you. Everything that has [Music] everything hallelujah. Praise God. Hallelu praise. [Music] Hallelu praise. [Music] Thank you, Randy and the choir. I think that hallelujah just reminds us that that easygoing praising the Lord should be a song in our heart every

moment of every day. So, thank you for that. Beautiful. This is a special time we call the prayers of the people of God when we have the privilege, each of us, to join together in sharing our prayers of thanksgiving as well as our prayers of request, our prayers of concern and fear. and we may take them all and lay them at the foot of the cross knowing that our Lord and Savior has asked us personally to come and to pray. What a special thing that really is that we may do that. I know that every one of us has prayers in our heart

that we brought with us today. Prayers of thanksgiving as well as concerns that we hold on to. And many of you may have seen as you were coming into church today that one of our own fell out in front of the church. Karen Smith, one of our members fell and became very ill and we had to call the paramedics. They did come and so if you were um observing some of the commotion that was going on before church, they did take her to the hospital. Please keep her husband Pat in your prayers as well as Karen, we pray

that she will be okay. Um, and we pray that those who have been trained to care for her will feel God's God's hand in their care. We have so much to pray for today as we gather together. Certainly, I always turn the television on the news when I get up on Sunday morning just to see if there's something that we need to pray for. And yes, we do. It seems that um in Canada uh there was another one of those situations where someone drove their car into a crowd. And so I ask you to please uh it was a a

Filipino group that had gotten together to celebrate the Filipino culture. And uh they do not believe it was terrorism. At least by the time I got off the news, uh, two individuals were killed and a number of people were injured very badly. They think it may have been a medical uh, situation, but we need to keep all of those people, those those families in our prayers. And certainly, we will want to remember our friends who are in the Catholic faith tradition as they said goodbye to Pope Francis this last Saturday. And for

anyone who has followed Francis, you know that he was such a wonderful example of Christ's love and care for the least of these as he would go in to serve the impoverished, the immigrants, those who needed to know that they were of value. He would go and minister to them and wash their feet and kiss their feet. and not only Christians but also people of all the other traditions that are out there to let them know that God loves them as well. We have so many things to pray about. So I invite you

now to please join me in the prayers of the people of God. Let us pray. Oh holy God, we come before you now humbly thanking you for asking us to share our thoughts, our prayers, our hopes, not only for ourselves and our family and our friends and our community. Of course, we pray for them. We pray that we all will know you and serve you. But Lord, we also bring to you those who are in need of your healing touch. We do pray for the immigrants around this world. We pray for all who face poverty and violence.

Whether it is in war as in Ukraine or Gaza, but wherever there might be violence in their lives, in their homeland or even in their homes. Dear God, we pray that you will bring those who can care for these individuals. We pray for the lonely, the downhearted, the forgotten, those who are struggling. struggling financially, struggling emotionally, those who want so desperately to be loved and to love. Help us, dear God, to be ambassadors of the great news that you love them, that you love all your

people, which is why you sent your only son, our Lord Jesus, to this world to show your love and to do so through all of us. What a privilege that is. We pray that you will give us wisdom as we live out our life that we might truly be your ambassadors. We pray for the United States of America. We pray for our president, the Congress, all who govern in this land that they might be influenced by your word and seek to serve you in all that they do. We thank you, Lord, for all of this. And we pray all of this in Christ's

name. The one who taught us how to pray by saying, "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. My friends, the world and all it contains, including everything that we have, has been given to us by Almighty God. And so, it is truly our priv

privilege and joy to be able to return to the Lord's service, a portion of the financial blessings that we have been given. So, at this time, I invite the ushers to please come forward. I feel down. How are you? Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Praise God. Praise him. We are praise him. and praise God. Will you please join me in a prayer of dedication? Let us pray. Lord God, we do thank you. How wonderful it is that we are able to participate in helping to build your kingdom. How wonderful it is that you have chosen to use each one of

us as imperfect as we are to be a part of what you are doing in this world. We thank you for this. We pray that these our tithes and our offerings will be multiplied in its service to you and the that these will be known throughout the world as our love that we are sharing coming from you. We pray this in Jesus holy name. Amen. And amen. Please be seated. Our New Testament reading once again is taken from the Gospel according to John. This is a continuation of the the message that we read last week on Easter

Sunday. You may follow along if you would like. The the uh Pew Bible page numbers are in your bulletin, page, 1546. I I ask you to hear now the word of the God. The word of God as taken from John 20:es 19-31. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were overjoyed when they

saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven. And if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. Now, Thomas, also known as Ditimus, one of the 12, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So, the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the

nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." A week later, his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here. See my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God." Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not

seen and yet have believed." Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. This ends our reading of God's holy word. May God add to our understanding and our application of its powerful truth in each of our lives. Will you join me in a prayer of preparation? Let us pray. Oh, holy God, we do thank you for

making it possible for us even in this day to be able to read these amazing words recorded in the Gospel of John. What a privilege it is for us, dear God. And even more so, Lord, to know that these have as much power for us as it did for the original hearers of this good news. So Lord, I do pray that the words of my mouth and that the meditations, the thoughts of each of our hearts will be acceptable in your sight. for you are our strength and you are our redeemer. And it is in Christ's name we pray these

things. Amen. We read when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week. That day, of course, was a day like no other in history. After the awful reality of Jesus crucifixion and burial on Friday, this Sunday had brought some really strange and very unsettling events. Just that morning, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and found that it was empty. Empty. Who could have taken Jesus' body? She ran back to tell the others. And we having read the story last week know that Peter and the disciple that Jesus loved who we believe

to be John ran back to the tomb and looked in and did not see Jesus only the linen that had been covering Jesus' body. They for whatever reason went back with the others, but Mary stayed at the tomb and was so emotionally distraught. She was weeping wildly when someone who she thought was the gardener came up to her and said, "Why are you weeping?" And and of course she said, "Tell me where you put the body. I will go get him." And then Jesus who was that person said, "Mary." And her eyes were open and she

recognized Jesus. And she ran toward him to throw her arms around him. And he said, "No, not yet. I have not yet ascended to my father and your father, my Lord and your Lord. Now go and tell the others what you have seen." And so certainly Mary ran back to where the others were gathered and said, "I have seen the Lord." What was going on? What was happening today? This was all so strange. The We know that the Romans had been spreading a rumor that the disciples were going to try to make it look like Jesus had been

resurrected by hiding the body someplace. Where was the body? Where was Jesus? And now Mary comes and says she has seen the Lord. They were frightened. They did not know what to do. So they decided to hunker down together, lock the doors for fear of the Jews that they might come searching for this body that was missing. There they were. Now, interesting that Jesus chose to reveal himself first to Mary and she recognized him because he called her by name just as Jesus calls each of us by name as

well. That may be a a funny thought to you. It was to me. I think Brenda is such a 1950s name. But for Jesus to say my name, to know me just He knows you better than anyone. For he created you, loves you, gave his life for you and for me. And Mary was changed. There are some scholars that say that with Mary, the church was born. So Mary went back and told the others. But it's interesting, Mary's not mentioned after this. We don't know whether the disciples in just their shock and disbelief said, "Mary, you go

home, get some rest. We're going to have a meeting here." But they were all together except for Mary in the room with locked doors out of their fear. And Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Now, there are some people uh Dr. Elizabeth Johnson who is a Lutheran pastor and professor said that there are those scholars who believe that perhaps they locked the doors maybe because of fear of the Jews yes but possibly because they were afraid of Jesus because they didn't feel so proud

of themselves in particular Peter knowing that he had denied knowing Jesus at least three times. But Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." This is the very same Jesus, you know, the the good shepherd. The good shepherd who who knows their sheep and would care for his sheep and would actually sleep at the gate and would be the door, the safety for the sheep. This this shepherd knew about doors and he knew that he could come inside and stand with his sheep and give them his gift of peace. Now, we're

told that the disciples rejoiced and that's a great thing that they rejoiced. Jesus showed them where the nails had pierced his flesh, where he had been run through with the sword in his side. possibly because they needed proof. They needed to know that this just was not a ghost or a figment of their imagination. Jesus gave them the proof that they needed and he said, "Peace." Now, this peace is translated in Hebrew as shalom. You may have heard this word before. Shalom, which means peace, is a

blessing. But it doesn't just mean tranquility kind of peace. This kind of shalom peace was a deep sense of well-being. That all was well, all was right. This kind of peace is the peace that Jesus brings to his disciples. Now, we were told in our scripture that Thomas was not there. I have to say Thomas gets a bad rap with this because he becomes known as doubting Thomas only because he says, "I'll believe you when I see the wounds myself." Thomas is no fool. He knows about what has been happening on this

very strange day. The body is missing and they're worried. They're worried about what happened. But Jesus came. Jesus came when when Thomas was with them the next week and stood there and said, "See, touch my hand. Put your hand here where the sword pierced my side." He didn't chastise Thomas and say, "Oh, ye of little faith." He didn't do that. How dare we judge Thomas? Jesus didn't. Jesus came to him understanding where he was at in his trying to make sense of this crazy day and crazy week. And Jesus

gave him what he needed to believe. And Thomas says those wonderful words, "My Lord and my God." how we sometimes are just like these disciples, aren't we? Especially these days. I mean, we're so fortunate to have such wonderful widespread instantaneous communication of everything that is going on in the world. But with that, we have all of the worry and the tragedy right in our own homes as we're watching it on television or reading about it in the newspaper. The news is enough to make you want to lock your doors, isn't

it? These economic forecasts, we all watched the stock market tank in the last week going down to um depression era levels, the predictions that is this a sign that we're into a recession? Oh yes, we're told by next fall things are going to get really tough. What does that mean? We see individuals being interviewed who are worried because their livelihoods are at stake. Businesses, farms, the people built with their families are not sure how they're going to be able to survive. And then that then let's don't get me

started on global warming if you don't believe that. I mean, I never thought I would see floods in Oklahoma and fires in North Carolina. We knew they happened in California, but they're popping up everywhere. Tornadoes, devastating places. Yes, the Midwest where we expect them, but every as well. And we're worried about Medicare and Medicaid and deported immigrants. What is going on? And then we find out about Ukraine and the bombing in Kev. It's just everywhere. If you are not worried, I don't think you've been tuning in to the

news. When Michael and I finish watching the news before bed, which is not a good time to watch the news, I might say, we always together pray. And the very first prayer is, Lord God, we can't handle this ourselves. Only you can help this world that is in such need. We need you to help us. Help those who have been victims of disaster. Help those who are immigrants. Help those who are concerned about Medicare and Medicaid. Help our nation's leaders to be good leaders caring for the least of these. Oh Lord, please help us not to

worry. And Jesus puts us to sleep with a feeling of peace. My child, this peace I leave with you, not as the world leaves with you. Do we realize that no matter what we are struggling with and I know people in this congregation who are facing some very difficult times, I know some who have family members in hospice. I understand my aunt is in hospice. I know some of you who have family who have faced cancer or are facing cancer treatments. I understand. God understands. We all need to understand

one another because it can be very difficult in this world. But we we who belong to the Lord, we do not need to cower in shame or or fear. We don't need to lock the doors because our Lord Jesus is right here, right there with you. We were told that Jesus was going to send the Holy Spirit, the advocate, which means the advocate of truth, the true meaning of life. that God was going to send the pariclete, the Holy Spirit, who is going to walk alongside of you. Not just in this moment, but when you leave

here and every day of this of your life, you will have the Holy Spirit of Almighty God, the creator of the universe. Do you get that? Almighty God, the Alpha and the Omega, who is, who was, and who ever will be. The Lord Almighty, your creator, who loves you with a neverending love, who loved this world so much that he sent his only son, our Lord Jesus, to pay the price of our sin, so that we might live a life free from worry, free and rejoicing, that we might become ambassadors of this great news. And then

Jesus breathed on them. This is reminiscent of Genesis 2 verse 7 when it says that God breathed life into the man. Jesus turned to his disciples and breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. go out into the world and share this great news with all the people that come to you. And then it goes on and says something that I think is very much misunderstood. That is those whose sins are forgiven are forgiven and those who are not are [Music] not. I always felt so strange. It's like where do I get the power to do that?

What we have to understand is how sins was interpreted in the gospel of John. It wasn't so much moral failing kinds of sin. In this case, it was those who recognize that Jesus is the son of God, the Messiah, their sins will be forgiven. And those of us, the onus comes back to us. Now those of us who fail to go out and share the good news of Jesus with others, their sins will not be forgiven because they will not know that Jesus is the son of God. This has huge implications for what we have been called to do at this point.

Jesus goes with us through our life and we should be ready and willing to share the good news of the cross and God's love with everyone that we meet. These are the messages of this passage that Jesus is with us now and will always be. My friends, may God lead you, guide you, give you hope, give you a reason to rejoice in his name, and may you share that great news with everyone that you meet in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Lord God, we do thank you for having such faith in us that we will respond to your

leading that we might forever be thankful for your place in our lives and for adopting us as your children. Forgive us our sins, Lord, and guide us. Help us to be faithful in sharing this great news with everyone that we meet. For we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. And amen. [Music] Christ. Happy Christ the son of God by the glory. All you glory to die. We are save Glorious with me. So shall the sun. [Music] I look out at all of you and I am so thankful that God has brought us together that we might serve the Lord

together. So let us as we leave this pray place today know that we do not go alone. We have almighty God's holy spirit guiding us. We have friends in the faith supporting us, praying for us. Let us share this wonderful joy and the peace of Christ go with you all this day and forever more. In the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit.