KICKSTART DEVOTIONAL

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On every Mission Discovery trip, we begin the morning together in God’s word. One speaker is chosen to give the word of the day so that everyone else can meditate on the Scripture. Our hope is that volunteers engage in group discussions throughout the day and in their small groups.

Since the way ministry is being done has shifted, our goal is to serve by creating resources that will help others focus on God throughout the day, and influence family and small group discussion.

Join us every weekday as we explore God’s word together. We will have speakers from all over the US and the world. Here is today’s Kickstart Devotional.

 

Video: Maury Buchanan // A Locked Door

 

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A Locked Door

Good morning Maury Buchanan here. It is the day after Easter. I hope you had a great weekend. I know it was great because it was certainly unique. Mine was. We had church on line like we’ve had for the last few weeks, and we had a sunrise service just four doors down in my neighbor Rick’s backyard, which was awesome as well. But it’s the day after Easter.

We’ve talked about leading up to Easter, that triumphal entry, the last supper, the crucifixion, and then yesterday we come to the resurrection. So if you read the books of Matthew and Mark, they end with the story of the resurrection. But if you look at the books of Luke and John, they continue with some detail about what happened between the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus in Acts chapter one.

But these two books detail his appearance. You’ve got Doubting Thomas who has an encounter with Jesus, and then there is that encounter on the road to Ameas. But I want to highlight an encounter this morning that happened just after the resurrection.

The disciples were in a room together, but it wasn’t just an average room. It was a room with a door. And it was a special door. The door was locked. The Scripture says they were in this locked room for fear of the Jewish leaders.

Now just imagine what’s happened the day before. The stone hasn’t been rolled back. The Roman seal has been broken and the stone was rolled back. Josh McDaniels says not for Jesus to get out but for us to see in, that the tomb was empty.

Jesus is not in the tomb. There’s all kinds of rumors about what may have happened to his body. He has resurrected and these disciples are now in fear. What have they done? With whom have they invested their life? And what will this mean to them? Does this mean that they will be killed?

They’re in fear of these Jewish leaders, when all of a sudden Jesus walks right through the wall – through the door and he is in the room.

Each one of them adds details to this encounter in this locked room. One of the descriptions says they were in fear. Not like you would be afraid of a lion coming at you, but it was like amazement fear. I liked the way it was described. But they were in fear of the Jewish leaders – of human beings.

And then Jesus walks right through that locked door. So Jesus talks about the power of the Holy Spirit. He says to wait here in the city to receive the Holy Spirit which would come later in Acts 1:8. I love this scripture. It says.

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.”.

The most important words that we lean into are the words of a dying friend, a friend who we know that these are his last words.

These are the last words of Jesus. He says to his disciples You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. I know for many of us we’ve thought about witnesses as being an active verb in the sense that we go out and we share Christ, and that is what that means.

However, I want you to consider another possibility, that we would actually get power of the Holy Spirit to go into the world and watch God use us in incredible ways, powerful ways. That we will be His witness as we will watch the power of Him in us. And that’s what happened to these disciples as they journeyed forward post-resurrection. So I have several questions for you.

Nathan has asked me to end today with one question, I couldn’t do it. I had so many. So if you’re you’re having a discussion about this, first of all, the first question is really simple: What are some good reasons to lock doors? I mean, there’s got to be some good reasons. What are some good reasons that you would lock a door?

Next question: why do you think Mark and John think it’s important to mention that the disciples were in a locked room? Why was it important that that be mentioned? Couldn’t it be that they were just in a room and they were fearful? Why? Well, I mentioned it was a locked room.

Another question: give an example of a time when you had been fearful to identify with Jesus. What was that time when you were just shy, or whatever it was, but you were fearful?

Next question: for what has God asked you to unlock the door to do in his name? For what has God asked you to unlock the door to do in his name?

And my last question if you don’t have enough is what do you think gave the disciples the courage to unlock that door?

That locked door could keep out those Jewish leaders, but no locked door can keep out the powerful, resurrected Jesus. God bless you and have a great post-Easter.

 

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