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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Dr. Wes Bredenhof > The risen Christ lavishes gifts on his church | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) All songs are from the CanRC/FRCA Book of Praise Psalm 8:1,2 Psalm 19:3 (after the law of God) Psalm 8:3-5 Hymn 81 Psalm 146:1-3 Scripture reading: Genesis 2 Text: John 20:19-23 |
Beloved congregation of Christ,
Imagine the scene in that locked room. It was Easter Sunday evening and the disciples of Jesus were gathered together. Just a couple of days before their Master had been crucified. They thought it was the end of him. In their minds, all he had left behind were memories. He had given them teaching, shown them compassion in action, and courage against the corrupt religious leaders. But where was he now?
Peter and John had told them about the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene had told them that she had seen the risen Lord. Could it be true? You can just imagine the buzz and conversation going on in that room. On the one hand, everyone knew Jesus had died on that cross on Good Friday. On the other hand, there were these reports he was again alive.
Then suddenly Jesus appeared in their midst. The doors had been locked because the disciples were afraid of the Jewish religious leaders. Having put Jesus to death, maybe they were going to come after his disciples too. Or maybe the disciples were afraid because the body of Jesus was missing and the religious leaders blamed it on the disciples. Regardless of the reason, the doors were locked, but somehow Jesus appeared. We don’t know how because Scripture doesn’t tell us. All we know is that a locked door is no obstacle to the risen Lord Jesus.
By appearing to them, Christ confirmed that he was indeed risen from the dead. But he was also there to bless them and encourage them. He was there to lavish gifts upon them as their risen Saviour. These were gifts not only for them there at that moment in that room, but gifts for the church of all ages and places. These gifts are also for us. So I preach to you God’s Word and I’ve summarized the sermon with this theme: The risen Christ lavishes gifts on his church.
We’ll consider his gifts of:
- Peace and joy
- Mission and ministry
When Jesus suddenly appears, the first word he says to them is “Peace.” “Peace be with you,” he says in verse 19 and then he repeats it again in verse 21. It’s also important to notice that after saying it the first time, Christ showed them his hands and his side. All these things are connected. Let’s explore how.
The first thing we need to grasp is the biblical understanding of peace. We often think of peace merely as the absence of conflict. The biblical understanding includes that, but it is richer and deeper. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word is shalom. Shalom refers to peace in the sense of wholeness. When you have shalom, relationships are like what they were created to be. There’s healthiness in those relationships. Of course, that includes the idea of no conflict, but it goes further in a positive direction. The biblical idea of peace doesn’t leave you in a neutral zone, but it puts you in a positive relationship with others.
This is important to understand because of what had just happened with these disciples. Peter was there among them. Peter was the one who had denied Jesus three times. He had even taken God’s name in vain to deny his association with Jesus. Then there were the other disciples. They’d all abandoned Jesus. Whether denial or abandonment, whatever the disciples did had undermined their relationship with Christ. They had brought about anti-shalom, the opposite of shalom.
So when they see Jesus for the first time after his resurrection, the first word he says to them is “Peace.” This means, “Don’t be afraid that you have ruined our relationship. Our relationship is still intact. It’s not only intact, it’s also healthy and strong. There’s shalom between us.”
How is this possible? Here’s where we come back to the hands and the side. These are the wounds Christ received in his crucifixion. Nails were driven into his hands, actually right below the hand around the area of the wrist. Christ showed them his side too, where the spear of the Roman soldier had pierced him to check whether he was really dead.
Now showing them his hands and his side proved that it was really him. But it was more than that. Showing his wounds also reminded them of his love at the cross. He suffered and died there with their names on his heart. He suffered and died on the cross to pay for their sins, including their sins of denial and abandonment. Because of what he did on the cross, there could be peace, there could be shalom between Christ and his disciples. Because of what he did on the cross, there would be eternal peace, a whole and healthy relationship with Jesus into eternity.
And this gracious gift of gospel peace is extended to us today too. Perhaps you’ve denied Jesus at some point in your life. Maybe you were asked if you were a Christian and you denied it, denied any association with Christ. Or perhaps there was a time in your life when you abandoned Christ. Maybe it was just for a night, maybe it was longer. You abandoned him to indulge sin. Loved ones, when you come back to him with repentance and faith, he stands ready with his word of peace to you. Your relationship with him can be mended. It can be mended and you can have a whole and healthy communion with Christ. All because of what he did for you on the cross, because of those pierced hands and side. If you have a personal story of denial and abandonment, and you’ve repented, you can be sure that Christ says to you, “Peace be with you.”
What that peace does is gives joy. Verse 20 says, “Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” They heard his word of peace, they saw the basis of their peace in his suffering and death, and then they rejoiced. Think of what happened with Mary Magdalene just prior to this. One moment she was weeping and then, when she recognized Jesus and knew he was alive, she rejoiced. Just like biblical peace is more than the absence of conflict, biblical joy is more than just a smile on your face. The waters of biblical joy run deep. It’s satisfaction with what God has done. It’s that profound awareness of being unconditionally loved by God. That’s what the disciples experienced in that room. Christ bestowed on them the gift of joy.
Similarly, for us too, it’s when we know the peace the cross has brought us that we can really know joy. Christ’s crucifixion was violent and deadly, but it makes for our peace with God. This is so because Christ took the violence and death we deserve. In its place, he has given us that healthy peaceful relationship with God. How can we not be joyful at this? The disciples were. They rejoiced because they saw the Lord alive and heard his word of peace to them. Today we can only see and hear from Christ through his Word and through the sacraments. For us in this age, that’s enough to bring us to rejoicing too. And the glorious day will come when we will see the Lord with our own eyes. What a gift that day will be! Then it will be said of us too, “Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.”
As we come to verse 21, we see how Christ also gives a mission to his church. He says, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” In his love, God the Father sent his Son into this world for our salvation. In his love, the Son of God agreed to go and did so. He came into this world as one of us to carry out this divine rescue mission. This was a unique and specific task. No one else ever has or will receive the same mission as Jesus.
However, Christ’s mission has become the starting point for the sending of the church. Christ is saying here in verse 21 that he was sent by the Father. He accomplished his mission. Now, having done so, he is sending his disciples, his church on their mission.
That raises a few questions. What is the church sent to do here? Who is the church being sent to? How is this mission supposed to be carried out? Let’s dig deeper into this.
One key thing to know is that this is John’s version of what we call the Great Commission. The most well-known version of the Great Commission is at the end of Matthew 28. But there are also versions of it in Mark, Luke, and Acts. All of these passages help us piece together more fully what Christ meant when he said in verse 21, “…even so I am sending you.”
Christ was sending his church to make disciples of all nations. Discipleship is the goal – seeing more and more people become believing followers of Jesus Christ. To see more disciples committed to him in faith and obedience. Christ was sending his church to baptize – seeing more and more people publicly brought into the covenant of grace. Christ was sending his church to teach them to observe everything he commanded. He was sending his church to preach the gospel to every creature, to proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. He was sending his church to be his witness throughout the world. All of this together is what the Bible calls mission. It’s the calling the church has to bring the gospel to the world.
It’s a call that remains for us today. The church is still called to go into the world with the good news of Christ. Our church is called to do this too. Some people are sent – we think of the missionaries we support. Some are sent. And some people send. Not everyone can or should go. Some have to send and support. That’s the role most of us have, at least with regard to mission in other countries. But this sending is also something we should think about in local terms. There are so many lost people in this city. Many of us have family and friends who aren’t Christians, who aren’t saved. For them too, we have a calling from our Saviour to share the gospel with them whenever and however we can. The mission of the church continues to involve you and me right here, right now. As long as there are lost people in this world, Christ’s church has a mission to spread the gospel everywhere.
Now we can look at this mission as a calling or a responsibility. But if we only look at it like that, we could end up looking at it like a burden. We could see it as something negative, something we only do begrudgingly. But then we’d be failing to see what a beautiful thing it is that we can be a part of God’s plan for the gospel. It’s a gift. It’s an honour to be able to share in this work.
Think about it like this. Imagine a great and mighty king. He has decided to extend peace to his enemies. To communicate this decision, he appoints a group of ordinary citizens. The task is daunting – who knows how the enemies will react? But at the same time, it’s an honour to be appointed to represent the king. That’s us, that’s the church of Christ. We have been entrusted with a beautiful message of gospel grace from our mighty King. He has entrusted that message to us and sent us out with it. It’s a privilege for us to be a part of it and we really need to learn how to see it that way. Because when we see it that way, it transforms our attitude towards reaching out to the lost with the gospel. It transforms our attitudes in a positive direction so we really want to do what our Lord says.
Left to ourselves, this mission would be impossible. Not only would no one ever come to Christ, but we ourselves wouldn’t have the courage or ability to speak of him. This is why we have a further gift: the Holy Spirit. He’s the one who equips the church for the work of mission and ministry.
We find him mentioned by Jesus in verse 22. It says that Jesus breathed on his disciples and then said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This is really interesting. It’s interesting because you might ask whether the disciples had the Holy Spirit prior to this moment. To answer that, you have to ask yourself whether they believed prior to this moment. They did. Their faith in Christ was often weak, but it was there. So how did they get this faith? How did anyone in the Old Testament believe? The only way anyone at any time has ever believed is through the power of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who has always regenerated hearts so they believe in Christ. No one has ever believed on their own steam. Where there’s faith, there’s always the Holy Spirit. So this verse doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit was absent from the lives of the disciples prior to this.
You might also ask whether this is a sort of Pentecost before Pentecost. Wasn’t Pentecost when Christ poured out his Spirit on the church? So why do we hear about the Holy Spirit here on Easter Sunday? What’s going on here?
At this moment here in John 20, Christ is encouraging his disciples in connection with their mission. He wants to stress to them that they’re not going alone. They have the Holy Spirit who will empower and embolden them.
The language Christ uses here is the same as the language used to describe God’s creation of humanity in Genesis 2. In Genesis 2, God created man from the dust and then he breathed life into him. The Holy Spirit made Adam come alive. We see a similar picture in Ezekiel 37 with the valley of dry bones. The bones come together and flesh comes on to the bones, but they don’t come to life until the Spirit blows upon them. Similarly, here in John 20, we’re to think of the church as Christ’s new creation. This new creation is being sent out into the world with his mission and in order to do this work, it needs to be alive. It needs the Holy Spirit to give it life. He is the Lord and giver of life, as we confess in the Nicene Creed. With this powerful Holy Spirit life in them, the believers can go out confidently and boldly with the gospel.
What Christ says and does here is an encouragement for us too. We’re part of the post-Pentecost church. The Holy Spirit has been poured out on us. That means he’s with us in abundance. With him, we need not be afraid of the world. With him, we needn’t be worried about what people might say or do to us when we share the gospel with them. Should we have those kinds of fears, what we have to do is bring them to God in prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to fill you with his peace and confidence so you can share the gospel with people. Loved ones, ask and you shall receive. Earnestly ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to help you play your part in the church’s mission.
There’s one more thing Jesus says. This is about the ministry of the church. Verse 23, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” There are various ways of understanding these words. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Christ here gave the apostles, and therefore the church, he gave the right to forgive or withhold forgiveness. So, in that way of thinking, the church actually forgives sins. This is reflected in the Roman Catholic practice of confession. When you go to a priest to confess your sins, he will forgive you. After hearing your confession, he will say, “I absolve you from your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
However, the Bible is clear that only God can forgive sins. So what Christ is saying here in verse 23 can’t contradict that. What verse 23 means is that the church declares the forgiveness that has already been granted by God through Christ. The church proclaims the gospel of forgiveness, announcing that everyone who repents and believes in Christ can be sure that their sins have been removed as far as the east is from the west.
So, in Roman Catholic thinking, the church actually does forgive and you need the church’s involvement. Forgiveness always comes through the church, its priests, and the sacrament of penance. But in biblical thinking, God forgives directly. You don’t need the church to be forgiven by God. However, the church does announce or declare God’s forgiveness to encourage Christians. We do this in the preaching, but every Sunday morning we also do this with the Assurance of Pardon. The minister doesn’t forgive sins – he can’t – but he announces or declares it.
This also works on the flip side. The church also has the responsibility to announce or declare that if someone has not repented from their sins and believed in Christ, they remain under God’s wrath and condemnation. The church itself doesn’t withhold forgiveness – that’s what God does toward the unrepentant and unbelieving. But the church does proclaim what God’s Word says. The church does that out of love to warn unrepentant sinners of the wrath to come and point them to Christ as the way out.
2000 years ago, the risen Lord appeared to his church and gave them peace and joy. He gave them the honour of participating in his mission and ministry. 2000 years later, we’re still blessed with the same peace and joy. We’re still privileged to take part in God’s work in this world. And it will be this way to the end of the age. AMEN.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus in heaven,
We’re thankful for your wounded hands and side. Through your cross, we have peace. Through your cross, we have forgiveness. Through you, we have joy. We worship you for all of this. Thank you also for including us in your plan to spread the gospel everywhere in this dark world. We’re glad that we can be a part of your church gathering work here in our country, and overseas. Lord, please bless those who have been sent and also bless us who are sending. Bless us also in our own context here with all the lost people we know. You encouraged your disciples with the Holy Spirit back then, and we pray that today you would continue to encourage your disciples with your Spirit. Let him be our strength, let him be our courage, let him be our wisdom. We pray that your Spirit would fill us and guide us all to be faithful witnesses for the gospel. Lord, please let us be instruments in your hand to see many more souls won for you.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Dr. Wes Bredenhof, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
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