Audio  The Living Lord Jesus Christ, who demonstrated His power over life and death by laying down His life on the cross and taking it up again in His resurrection, has the power to transform lives. Some of you know that from personal experience. You can sing of His amazing grace – how sweet the sound! – that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see! We see it over and over again in Scripture as well. The Risen Christ changes people’s lives! We saw it happen with Mary Magdalene in our text last Sunday. She was transformed from despair to delight by her encounter with the Living Lord. We see it again today in our text, as the disciples of Christ are transformed from fear to joy when they meet Him. The Christian life is not always a happy life. Nowhere in Scripture is perpetual happiness promised to the follower of Christ in this fallen world. Happiness is a condition of heart and mind that is to a large degree dependent on our ever-changing circumstances. Because this world and the human race have been radically corrupted by the deadly and destructive effects of sin, our happiness in this world is always somewhat fleeting and often punctuated with grief, suffering, and sorrow. There is coming a day for the child of God when there will be no more tears, death, mourning, crying, or pain, but that day is not now. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:19, “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” In other words, if the best that we have to look forward to are conditions here and now, then our faith and our hopes are hollow and bankrupt. There must be something better to come later – a happiness that is permanent and indestructible – but it is not here, and it is not now. Though happiness may often elude us in this life, there is something better which is promised to the follower of Christ here and now. We have the offer and promise of joy. Whereas happiness is dependent upon our ever-changing circumstances, joy is anchored in the unchangeable reality of our personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus. It is that deep-seated assurance that, in spite of our circumstances and every outlying external variable, within our hearts and souls, all is well. We can have unshakable joy even when life is not going as we had planned, or when sin, suffering, or sorrow break in and wreak havoc on our happiness. All is well because we rest contentedly in our relationship with God-in-Christ. If joy is the assurance that all is well, then it’s opposite is not (as some would suppose) sorrow, grief, or sadness. The unsettled suspicion that all is not well is something we call fear. Fear in a Christian’s life causes us to lose sight of the fact that we are inseparably tethered to God by faith in Christ, and that He has promised us victory, comfort, and joy. We can lose sight of the joy that is ours in the Lord when we are overcome by fear, and that is what makes fear so dangerous within the life of the Christian. It has happened to most of us, I suppose, at one time or another. And it happened to the disciples of Jesus after His crucifixion. That is how we find them in our text. Having walked with Jesus in the fullness of joy for three-plus years, their Lord and Master had been taken from them, nailed to a cross, and buried in a tomb. Three days later, we find His followers huddled together behind locked doors. Why? The Bible says, “for fear of the Jews” (v19). Why this fear? The authorities had seized and killed Jesus, so they could not help thinking that the crosshairs would fall upon Jesus’ followers next. Besides this, a story had already begun to circulate that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body (Mt 28:11-15). It is understandable that they would fear repercussions from the authorities, and that fear had put them behind multiple locked doors in isolation from the world. The Bible says that the fear of man brings a snare (Prov 29:25), and here we find t