Bulletins - New Life Church of the Nazarene Boswell

Because He Lives
- - Acts 2:22–32NKJV
He Hideth My Soul
- - 1 Peter 1:3–9NKJV
He Is Lord
John 20:19–31 NKJV
19 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.” 20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” 24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” 26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 30 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
When Fear Meets Peace
The doors were locked.
Shut. Made sure nobody could open them from the outside.
Because when we’re afraid… we don’t always just step away from something… we lock it out. Close the doors. Maintain control over what we can. Keep our distance from whatever we think might scare us.
Which is where we find the disciples in John 20.
We’re not on Easter morning anymore. The initial shock has worn off. They’ve reported the empty tomb. Mary says she saw the Lord. But it hasn’t quite sunk in… yet. Hope is starting to rise—but fear is speaking louder.
John tells us why they locked the doors: “for fear of the Jews.”
They’re afraid of what might happen to them.
Afraid that what happened to Jesus will now happen to them too.
Afraid that the thing they sacrificed everything for just came crashing down—and now they’re vulnerable.
If we’re being honest… that moment isn’t as far from us as we’d like to admit.
Fear likes to lock doors for us too.
Sometimes it’s literal. Sometimes it’s emotional.
We lock people out of our lives because we’ve been hurt in the past.
We keep relationships at surface level because diving any deeper feels too risky.
Sometimes it’s spiritual.
We show up. We go through the routine. But there are areas of our lives we’ve casually locked Jesus out of and said, “Okay Lord, You can have this part of my life… but not that other part.”
Sometimes it’s internal.
We run the same scenarios over and over in our heads: What if this falls apart? What if I mess up? What if things don’t get better?
Pretty soon fear starts dictating our lives—dictating what we say yes to. What we avoid. Who we allow into our lives.
Fear likes to confine us. To close down where we live.
But here’s the thing, these disciples are not weak followers.
These are the guys who dropped everything and FOLLOWED Jesus.
Who walked WITH Him.
Watched Him perform miracles.
Listened to Him teach.
And yet… here they are. Huddled together in fear. Locked in a room.
If it happened to them… there’s a chance it can happen to us.
Jesus came and stood in the midst.”
No knocking.
No announcement.
No one opening the door for Him.
“The doors were locked… and Jesus just showed up.”
Literally. Appears.
Which means whatever we lock down on our end… doesn’t stay locked on His.
And do you know the first thing He says to them?
He doesn’t start with criticism.
He doesn’t begin with disappointment.
He doesn’t say, “You’re still afraid? !”
Jesus says, “Peace be with you.”
And in that moment, it all changes.
Because when we walk in fear… Jesus doesn’t come to shame us.
When we lock down doors… Jesus doesn’t lecture us on how faithless we’ve been.
He meets us with peace.
Not the peace that comes from things working out.
Not the fake peace we tell ourselves when everything is falling apart.
But real peace.
The kind of peace that enters the room before everything is resolved.
The kind of peace that Jesus brings into the middle of our fear.
So if some of us are in a locked room this morning. If the doors aren’t all the way open for us… know that He comes in anyway.
Jesus walks into our fear… and says the same thing:
Peace.
Peace That Calms Our Fear Sermon
John 20:19–20 “19 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.” 20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.”
The disciples have fled.
Jesus is crucified.
Jerusalem is in chaos.
Peter has denied Him three times.
And now they aren’t alone anymore.
The religious leaders have put the guards outside Jesus’ tomb.
They’ve posted lookouts.
The doors are locked.
Everything they feared has come true.
Nothing about their current situation says “peace.”
But here’s what Jesus does…
He shows up.
Not outside the door.
Not from a distance.
He walks right into the room where they are hiding.
“These are His hands and His side.”
Jesus understands fear.
He came to Earth and walked this life as one of us.
He knows what it feels like to be afraid.
Because He was tempted in every way that we are.
So when they are terrified, He doesn’t rebuke them…
He speaks peace.
“Peace be with you.”
But watch how John describes this moment.
“When He came and stood in their midst…”
That’s the phrase.
He came.
He stood.
In the midst.
Right into the middle.
But notice what happens next.
The disciples were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Don’t miss this…
Right before they see Jesus.
They think they’re seeing a ghost.
When fear hits…
It makes us feel like we’ve lost our minds.
Like we can’t trust our own eyes.
Jesus knows our fear.
But there’s something radical about how Jesus responds to them.
The disciples are afraid.
He doesn’t yell at them.
He doesn’t correct them.
He doesn’t tell them they shouldn’t be afraid.
Instead,
“He said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’”
Peace that Calms our Fear
“Peace be with you… He showed them His hands and His side.”
The doors are still locked.
Nothing about their situation has changed.
The threat is still real.
The unknown is still looming.
The questions are still unanswered.
And yet—Jesus is standing in the middle of the room.
Not outside, knocking.
Not waiting for them to get it together.
Not asking them to come find Him.
He comes to them.
Right into the middle of their fear.
And the first thing He says is not what we would expect.
He doesn’t say,
“Why are you hiding?”
“Didn’t I tell you this would happen?”
“Where is your faith?”
He says,
“Peace be with you.”
That word—peace—is deeper than surface level calm.
It’s not, “Relax, everything’s going to be okay.”
It’s not, “Don’t worry about it.”
This is shalom.
Complete wholeness.
Perfect restoration.
All things made right again.
And here’s what’s so unique—He speaks peace before anything in their circumstances have changed.
The doors are still locked.
The world around them is still crumbling.
Their questions are still unanswered.
Which means that the peace of Jesus isn’t dependent on what’s happening around them…
It’s completely rooted in who is standing among them.
And then John lets us in on something great.
“When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side.”
He doesn’t simply speak peace…
He shows them the scars.
The very wounds that caused their fear.
The very things that killed Him.
Are now the evidence of their peace.
Friends,
The nails didn’t magically vanish.
The scars weren’t healed.
Jesus didn’t resurrect pretending that the cross didn’t happen.
He carried the wounds with Him.
Why?
Because those wounds are now the proof that everything needed for THEIR peace had already been accomplished.
And Jesus talks about doors one other place in Scripture.
Jesus said in Revelation 3:20,
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in…”
There’s an old painting floating around of that scene.
If you look closely…
you’ll see there’s no handle on the outside of that door.
It can only be opened from the inside.
Which tells us that in that moment—
Jesus is not bursting through that door.
He’s inviting Himself in.
He’s waiting for them to let Him come inside.
He’s knocking.
But rewind to John 20…
Jesus finds the disciples behind locked doors too.
Only this time—
Jesus doesn’t knock.
If you were looking for Him outside that door,
you’d never find Him.
He doesn’t wait.
He doesn’t listen for the perfect amount of silence.
He simply comes in.
Sometimes Jesus waits for us to invite Him…
but other times, Jesus loves us too much to stay out.
Because some doors in our lives are closed because we pushed them.
But some of our doors are closed because we’re too afraid…
to open them ourselves.
And when that happens…
Jesus doesn’t wait for you to have it all together.
He doesn’t wait until you say the right words.
He doesn’t wait for you to “open up.”
Instead…
He walks right into the room where you are afraid to come out.
And when Jesus says,
“Peace be with you…”
He’s not speaking peace from the outside porch.
He walks right through the door
that you were too afraid to open.
We want peace when we can rationalize it.
“God, if You would just tell me why…”
“If I could understand what’s happening…”
“If I could just see this through…”
But peace with Jesus doesn’t start with understanding.
It starts with revelation.
“Look at My hands.”
You see, fear asks a question deeper than “What’s going to happen?”
Fear asks,
“Am I safe?”
“Can I trust what’s coming?”
“Is it going to be okay?”
And when we ask Jesus those questions,
He doesn’t reply with a plan…
He points us to the proof of His wounds.
Because the cross sets something in stone.
If Jesus has already faced sin and death and separation and
EVERYTHING that could ultimately kill us…
If Jesus has already ventured to the worst place on Earth
and made it out on the other side…
Then whatever we face in this life… is not the end story.
“When Jesus therefore had spoken unto them, He breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost…” John 20:22
They go from scared to celebrating.
John 20:20 says, “Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.”
Did anything change?
Were the disciples suddenly relieved that Jesus had risen?
They were ecstatic because they saw Jesus.
So maybe this is where it hits home for us.
We wait for the storms to pass before we experience peace.
We wait until things are making sense before we can settle.
We wait until life can make sense before we let down our guard and breathe again.
But peace with Jesus doesn’t wait until life makes sense.
He showed up while the doors were still locked.
So the question isn’t:
“What if things don’t change?”
The question is…
“Have you seen Jesus in the middle of it?”
Because not only does the peace of Jesus settle us…
It sends us out into the world changed.
John 20:19 ends with this… “They became glad when they saw the Lord.”
These disciples that hid behind locked doors
Jesus breathed on and commissioned to go and declare
that Jesus has RISEN FROM THE DEAD!
Are about to leave that room and be sent out into
…the very thing they were trying to escape.
The world.
Jesus literally welcomes peace into the room,
and then He sends them out frightened disciples
back into the exact situation they just ran from.
And that my friends should tell us something…
This kind of peace doesn’t just settle us…
It redirects what we do with the rest of our lives.
Peace That Sends Us With Purpose
John 20:21–23 “21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.””
Something happens in the room.
The same disciples who were paralyzed with fear…
are now being commissioned for mission.
And how does He do it?
Jesus says again:
“Peace to you.”
Not one time.
Two times.
Because peace isn’t an event—it’s a platform.
He lets them sit in it.
He lets them soak in it.
And then—in almost one swift motion—Jesus says:
“As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
Wow.
They went from hiding…
to being sent.
From locked doors…
to unlocked lives.
From fear…
to fearless pursuing.
And if we’re being honest—we might even think it was too quick.
Because if we were telling the story—we would probably write:
“How about Jesus let them have a few weeks.”
“Let them deal with it.”
“Let them feel secure again.”
Jesus intentionally connects peace to purpose.
Because the peace of Christ isn’t meant to keep us comfortable…
It’s meant to call us to courage.
Because fear says,
“Stay where it’s safe.”
“Don’t take risks.”
“Don’t step out.”
Fear causes us to lock doors.
But peace…
peace sends us out through them.
Breathes on us…
and sends us with purpose.
“They breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”
I love that.
See, it mirrors all the way back at creation.
When God formed Adam from dust…
He breathed into him the breath of life.
Now picture this risen Jesus standing in the room with his disciples - breathing on them once again.
He’s speaking new creation over them.
“They will not die again; they will have the waters of life.”
Friends, these are no longer scared followers….
These are becoming resurrection people.
People who don’t let fear finish their story…
but allow themselves to be formed in the middle of it.
People who don’t simply receive peace…
but go out and give it away.
So Jesus says:
“As the Father has sent Me…”
Think about how Jesus was sent:
Right into the broken places of the world.
To broken people.
Into tension, not away from it.
Full of grace, truth, and healing.
Look at Him now—
looking at them—and saying:
“That’s your life now.”
Friends, I think this is where it becomes real for us.
Because we love peace…
But we don’t love what peace produces.
We want safe, secured peace.
Jesus gives us breath-filled peace that says:
“But not anymore. Now go.”
Go forgive your brother.
Go make peace with your wife.
Go tell your boss the truth in love.
Go serve someone who has it rougher than you.
Go step out into the tension God has brought you into…
Places that may still feel uncomfortable.
Because here’s the tension:
The world they’re about to step into…
was the same world they just wanted to lock themselves away from.
The missions didn’t change when Jesus breathed on them.
Their fear did.
That’s what resurrection does.
It may not always change your environment immediately…
It begins to change the people who step back into it.
“The doors may still be dangerous—but they’re no longer defining.”
Peace sends us into places our fear once told us to avoid.
So where do you need to see Jesus send you today?
His peace through your fear….
“But here’s the crazy part…
Everyone in that room didn’t step out.”
Some received His peace and stepped into purpose….
Peter wasn’t there.
His story reminds us that
Jesus meets fear with peace…
and doubt with grace.
Peace That Meets Us in Our Doubt
John 20:24–31
“Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came…”
Thomas missed the moment.
While the others were in the room… while Jesus appeared… while peace was spoken… while joy began to rise…
Thomas wasn’t there.
We don’t know why. Maybe he couldn’t bring himself to sit in that room anymore. Maybe the grief was too much. Maybe the fear had driven him somewhere else.
But whatever the reason—
He missed it.
And when the others tell him,
“We have seen the Lord…”
He doesn’t respond with excitement.
He responds with honesty.
“Unless I see… unless I touch… I will not believe.”
Now Thomas gets a reputation for this.
We call him Doubting Thomas.
But if we’re being fair…
He’s not saying anything the others didn’t already need.
They saw. They heard. They experienced.
Thomas is just asking for the same encounter.
And here’s what I love about this—
Jesus doesn’t dismiss him.
He doesn’t say, “Well, you should’ve been there.” “You missed your chance.” “Figure it out.”
No.
Eight days later…
Jesus comes back.
Same room. Same disciples. Same locked doors.
And once again—
Jesus stands in the middle.
And once again—
He says,
“Peace to you.”
But this time…
He turns directly to Thomas.
“Reach your finger here… look at My hands… do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
Do you see what’s happening?
Jesus meets Thomas exactly at the point of his doubt.
Not around it. Not over it. Not instead of it.
Right through it.
And don’t miss this:
The wounds are still there.
The same wounds that calmed fear… are now addressing doubt.
Because doubt is really just another form of the same question:
“Can I trust this?”
“Is this real?”
“Is this enough to stake my life on?”
And Jesus doesn’t answer Thomas with an argument.
He answers him with an invitation.
“Come closer.”
And everything shifts.
Thomas responds:
“My Lord and my God!”
That’s one of the clearest declarations of who Jesus is in the entire Gospel.
And it comes from the one who doubted.
Which means doubt doesn’t disqualify you.
It can actually become the doorway to deeper faith—
if you bring it honestly to Jesus.
And then Jesus says something that reaches beyond Thomas… all the way to us:
“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
That’s us.
We weren’t in the room. We didn’t see the wounds. We didn’t hear the voice firsthand.
And yet—
We are invited into the same peace.
“Jesus will step back into the room just to meet one honest doubt.”
Because here’s the truth:
Some of us are in fear.
Some of us are in purpose.
And some of us… if we’re honest… are in doubt.
We believe—but we struggle. We trust—but we question. We follow—but we wrestle.
And the good news of the resurrection is this:
Jesus doesn’t avoid people like that.
He moves toward them.
He is not intimidated by your questions. He is not frustrated by your struggle. He is not standing at a distance waiting for you to figure it out.
He steps into the room.
He speaks peace.
And He says:
“Come closer.”
So now we’ve seen it…
Fear met with peace. Peace leading to purpose. Doubt met with grace.
And all of it happening in the same room…
with the same Jesus…
still speaking the same word.
When Fear Meets Peace
The doors were locked.
That’s where this story started.
Fear had closed them. Uncertainty had sealed them. The disciples were doing what all of us do when life feels unstable—
They pulled back. They stayed inside. They tried to protect what was left.
And maybe if we’re honest…
That’s where some of us are right now.
There are doors in your life that are still shut.
Doors of fear about what’s coming next
Doors of hurt that you’ve learned not to reopen
Doors of uncertainty where you don’t know how things are going to turn out
Maybe even doors of doubt that you’ve kept quiet because you’re not sure how to say it out loud
And here’s what we tend to do—
We wait.
We wait for clarity. We wait for things to settle. We wait for the fear to go away.
We tell ourselves, “When things calm down… then I’ll have peace.”
But that’s not how this story works.
Because in John 20…
The doors never opened first.
Jesus showed up first.
He came into the room while it was still locked.
He stood in the middle of their fear.
And He spoke one word over everything they were carrying:
“Peace.”
And that peace did three things:
It calmed their fear It sent them with purpose It met them in their doubt
Which means this isn’t just their story.
This is our story.
Because resurrection people are not people who never feel fear.
They are people who have learned what happens when fear meets the peace of Jesus.
So here’s the question this morning:
Where is the locked door in your life?
Where has fear been shaping your decisions? Where have you been holding back? Where have you been waiting for something to change before you can move forward?
And maybe even deeper:
Where has doubt quietly taken root? Where have you been saying, “I want to believe… but I’m struggling here”?
Because the invitation today is not:
“Go open every door yourself.”
That’s not the pressure.
The invitation is this:
Recognize that Jesus is already in the room.
He is not standing outside waiting for you to fix everything.
He is not waiting for your fear to disappear.
He is not waiting for your faith to be perfect.
He is already here.
And He is still speaking the same word:
Peace.
So maybe the response today is simple.
Not dramatic. Not complicated.
Just honest.
Maybe it’s:
“Jesus, this is where I’m afraid.” “Jesus, this is where I’ve been holding back.” “Jesus, this is where I’m struggling to believe.”
And instead of trying to resolve everything…
You let Him meet you there.
“The doors may still be locked… but Jesus is already in the room.”
“Wherever you are—fear, purpose, or doubt— let His peace meet you right there.”
“Right where you are… I just want to invite you to do something simple.
If you’re comfortable, just open your hands in front of you.
You don’t have to come forward. You don’t have to say anything out loud. Just open your hands.”
(pause)
“Because open hands are a way of saying, ‘Jesus, I’m not holding this so tightly anymore.’ ‘Jesus, I’m ready to receive what You want to give.’”
(pause)
“And wherever you find yourself today— whether it’s fear… whether it’s a step of obedience you’ve been avoiding… or even honest doubt…
Just let His words settle over you again.”
(slow this down)
“Peace… be with you.”
(longer pause)
“Wherever you are—fear, purpose, or doubt— let His peace meet you right there.”
- - John 20:19–31NKJV
Far Away in the Depths

Acts 2:22–32NKJV

1 Peter 1:3–9NKJV

When Fear Meets Peace

Peace That Calms Our Fear Sermon

Peace That Sends Us With Purpose

Peace That Meets Us in Our Doubt

When Fear Meets Peace

John 20:19–31NKJV