This blog is based on the chapter “Jesus Tells the Disciples, ‘Peace Be with You’” first published in 2004 in my book Hoping in the LORD, at pages 319-320.

On the evening of the first Easter, “the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear” (John 20:19). The disciples were afraid that the same leaders of the Power of Money, the Power of Religion, and the Power of Politics who crucified Jesus might decide to “finish the job” by crucifying the closest followers of Jesus.

Our fears today will differ from the fears of the disciples that first Easter evening. But each of us has rooms of our hearts that we lock because we are afraid of something. Perhaps we fear other people laughing at us or insulting us. Perhaps we fear losing our jobs. Perhaps we fear sickness. Perhaps we fear death.

We can’t overcome such fears merely by hearing about Jesus. To overcome such fears, we must personally meet the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember. The disciples already knew a great deal about Jesus. For three years they’d heard him teach. They’d eaten meals with him. And, by the evening of that first Easter, they’d already heard that Jesus was risen from the dead.

Yet still they feared.

Indeed, those first stories about the empty tomb and the risen Jesus may only have increased their fears. Was Jesus a ghost, haunting them? Were other people losing their minds, imagining that Jesus had risen from the dead? What was it all about?

So whether it’s that first Easter or today, there are always fears that beset our lives. Fears that keep us from hoping in the LORD.

We must conquer these fears by having faith in the promise Jesus gave us: “I am come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

We must conquer these fears in order to establish the Work of our hands by blessing all peoples in the Promised Land.

Fortunately, Jesus always comes into the locked rooms of our heart.

He doesn’t come the same way at every time and to every person.

He certainly doesn’t come to us the exact way he came that first Easter evening. “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you’” (John 20:19).

But one way or another, Jesus always comes to us and says, “Peace be with you!”

We may have to wait much longer than we want. Those first disciples waited through the horror of Jesus’ trial, torture and crucifixion. Then they waited for days while Jesus lay in the tomb.

But—in God’s good time and in God’s good way—Jesus comes. He gives us new hope—no matter how securely the rooms of our heart are locked by our fears.

Because that is how Jesus carries us across oceans of fears until we reach the Promised Land.

At the moment that Jesus comes to us, we will experience the same hope in the LORD that followers of the risen Lord Jesus Christ have experienced ever since that first Easter—the hope that came at the moment “[t]he disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20).

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When I talk about the Promised Land, I am not talking about a geographic concept. I am talking about a spiritual concept—a “Promised Land” where “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). I used this spiritual concept in all my books, most notably The Promised Land and Healing the Promised Land.

To read why I believe Jesus rose from the dead, please read the chapters “Caiaphas and Pilate Ensure No One Can Steal Jesus’ Body” and “God the Father Resurrects His Son, Jesus Christ” in my book Hoping in the LORD, at pages 297-308.

To read about the effect of the Resurrection of Jesus on his followers, please read my blogs “Overcoming Oceans of Despair” and “Overcoming Oceans of Hopeless Confusion”, and the chapters “As Mary Cries, Jesus Comes and Calls Her by Name”, “A Healthy Jesus Walks to Emmaus”, “Jesus Tells the Disciples, ‘Peace Be with You!’”, “Jesus Overcomes the Doubts of Doubting Thomas”, and “Jesus Encourages Peter to Take Care of His Sheep” in my book Hoping in the LORD, at pages 309-333.