Today, and for the next several weeks, I want to talk about what is next for the disciples of Jesus and for us, His followers, after Easter Sunday. But first, I want to tell you a story. It was February 2023 in College Station Texas. It was the first annual conference for the Trinity Conference of the Global Methodist church. This was a special day that had a great sign for a beautiful morning, even with a breeze, which was a bit odd in Texas in February. It was also the day that I along with over 120 others would be ordained as Deacons and Elders into the Global Methodist Church. Hundreds of hours of study had led up to this moment, and I was ready for it! I remember the day it happened. We had a great breakfast, took orientation pictures, and were finally led into the sanctuary. We sang all 17(!!) verses of A Thousand Tongues to Sing, heard a great word from Bishop Scott Jones, and I had the wonderful opportunity to have mentors in the faith, along with Rhiannon and Evan laying hands on me during the ordination moment (see below). What followed, Evan probably didn’t realize it, but asked the defining question of the Christian life after I got ordained: “I love you Dad, what’s next?!”

Following the crucifixion of Jesus, what was next was not elation, but fear. The disciples, including Mary, have been hiding in fear of the Jewish leaders. The fear, is with a mix of excitement. Peter and John responded to the fear of the women, for the women came to the tomb of Jesus to prepare his body for burial in the early morning before sunrise, only to discover his body was missing. Peter and John, we are told “returned to where they were staying” after seeing the empty tomb, but Mary lingers around. She can’t believe the body of her master is gone. Her fears are relieved when Jesus appears and calls out “Mary!”, but clearly, Jesus victory over death has an assignment with it. “Go back to my brothers, and tell them I am alive, I am returning to my God and your God!” Mary, in her excitement, runs back and tells Peter and the disciples, the teacher, our rabbi is alive! But like we would be today, they are still fearful of the authorities, and because they haven’t seen Jesus themselves yet. But then it happens, Jesus shows up, and says the number one thing a fearful person wants to hear: “Peace be with you.” The word in Hebrew is “Shalom”, and the meaning of the Hebrew word is to be restored, made whole. The disciples were fearful of the authorities and emotionally drained, but the resurrected Jesus comes to restore them, He is alive! He is there because Christ has walked out of death and into life, so that he might restore the disciples after the trauma of the cross, He wants to restore us today, he wants to dust off what chaos and sin have done to your life, and did through His cross and resurrection. Why? Let’s talk about what is next for the disciples of Jesus and for us, His followers, after Easter Sunday.

What’s next after Easter? We get the Holy Spirit of Jesus “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that, Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”-John 20:21-23. When you see words like “As the Father sent me, so I ______” as a student of the scriptures, it is important to go back and see how Jesus was sent by His Father. “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”-Matthew‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬-‭17‬. In this Easter season, it is important to know before we do anything, that God not only loves His Son, and is pleased with Him, He also loves us and is pleased with us! Paul rejoices over this Spirit believers have received after Easter: “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.”-Romans 8:11. This is great news for us. We can live, make decisions in our jobs and for our families, knowing full well we might fail, yet as His followers, the Risen Christ will always be with us.

Put another way, when the world keeps giving bad ways to live, the Spirit of Christ is our living encourager who encourages us to keep going and living like Him through His Word, in prayer, in communion, and in conversation with other believers. This brings up an interesting point: What is next for us is not a task, it’s a heart posture: Because Christ is Risen, we will never be alone again. Just as Jesus was sent with the Spirit who existed before time began and angels who ministered to Him after a bout with the devil, Jesus sends the disciples, you and me into the world and tells us “You are not alone! As the Father sent me, so I am sending you! You no longer have to fear living in a world that hates me anymore, as the Father sent me, so I am sending you with everything you need, the Spirit of the living God.”

Now, hear me clearly. Some of us today have been through seasons that we feel alone. Maybe you feel that way today. The Spirit of Christ within you does not ignore feelings of loneliness, He is there to encourage you in spite of those feelings. This includes having conversations with others, including friends and even certified counselors to help you through your season. Friends, thoughts like these are why as great as the resurrection of Jesus is, the presence of His Holy Spirit within us today is the kind of love I crave for you and me.

When I was a teacher I saw an example of the Holy Spirit being with me that I will never forget. I had just had a rough first few years in education. All I had to offer was Christ and a desire to make an impact on kids, yet something was missing. In my third year, I joined Westwood ISD to teach Careers and later 6th grade World Geography, all while maintaining my coaching responsibilities and the joys of raising a family. That whole year, I did my job, loved my family, and taught students, but something was still missing. One day, I got an email from my Principal, and he asked if I would come to the school board meeting. As a third-year teacher, still learning the ropes, I went to the meeting expecting routine updates on what the district was doing. I get there, sit through the meeting as my usual extrovert self always does, and chat with anyone who would listen before the meeting begins. Then something happened. The superintendent called me to the front, and my principal read a review of my year as a teacher. Moments later, they surprised me with the Teacher of the Month award for Westwood Junior High. Friends, that award, and another award as teacher of the month in 2012 helped me realize the secret of life: The more you let Jesus lead you to show up for your family, your job, and community, the more you realize you are never alone. Over those three years, we were cared for through Evan’s adoption by both the schools and our church. That was great, but showing up day after day, made an impression on someone at Westwood—they chose to believe in my career. I had a future! Why do you think that is friends? Did they just wake up and decide I was a good teacher? No! The Risen Christ continued to place me in opportunities to engage others, and despite all I still needed to learn, I realized I was no longer alone.

No longer alone, that is what John meant when he said “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.”-John‬ ‭20‬:‭30‬-‭31‬. ‭ We often read the Gospels as if they were written to individuals for us today, but John’s Gospel was written to a collection of first-century churches under the influence of the Apostle John. John’s Gospel was written to remind the early church and us that life didn’t peak on Easter Sunday, it was just beginning: Jesus said “I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you, because I live, you also will live.”-John 14:18-19. The you is not singular, the you is plural! In other words, Jesus is saying: “ All of you are not alone. I am alive and I have overcome death! Because you have me, you will overcome too. The Apostle Paul called this kind of presence from Jesus hope: “we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character, and character hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”-Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭3‬-5. Jesus is not only risen, He is in our hearts wherever we go. What’s next for us after Easter? We get a helper, in the Risen Christ, we are not alone, ever!

In what area of your life this week do you need to stop relying on your own strength and start relying on the company of Jesus? Hear me clearly friends: That burden you are carrying, that relationship that has you up a night, the future of your kids, grandkids, your country, those burdens and many like them, are to heavy to carry by yourself. The promise of Easter is that whatever our future holds, Jesus will be with us and wants to help us through it. To quote the hymnwriter

“Can we find a friend so faithful Who will all our sorrows share?”

The answer is, we can! His name is Jesus, He is Risen, and His Holy Spirit is with us today. That is hope and friendship that money can’t buy. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.