Gathering Music – Patricia McDonald

Welcoming Guests and Announcements – Pastor Ross

Prelude – Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee ‐ Beethoven, Arr. Billingsley

Meditation:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where here is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and  here there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. ~St. Francis of Assisi

Call to Worship – Pastor Linda

Opening Hymn – He Lives – Hymnal #310

Prayer Concerns – Pastor Linda

Prayer Song – The Fragrance of Christ ‐ David Haas

Silent Prayer, Pastoral Prayer, Lord’s Prayer

Stephen Ministry Witness – Barbara Littlejohn

Anthem – Praise to the Lord, the Almighty ‐ arr. Harry Mayfield

Scripture Reading – John 20:19‐31 – Betty Stewart

Offering – Pastor Ross

Preparation Hymn – Let There Be Peace on Earth – Hymnal #431

Message – Peace Be With You

Stephen Ministers Consecration

Closing Hymn – Thine Be the Glory – Hymnal #308

Benediction – Choral Amen – by Rev. Javier Olivares

Postlude – A Festal Salutation ‐ Ritter

Jesus Appears to the Disciples

¹⁹ When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

²¹ Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

²² 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.”

Jesus and Thomas

²⁴ But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.

²⁵ So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

²⁶ A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”

²⁸ Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

²⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

The Purpose of This Book

³⁰ Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

³¹ But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

The ancient greeting “Peace be with you” begins with Jesus greeting his disciples who were afraid, hiding behind closed doors. Jesus disarms their fears saying, “Peace be with you”, a peace which he talks about in John 14, a peace different from this world. Not the absence of war but one that in the midst of conflict, we are able to live in harmony with others with God and with ourselves.