From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, we walked through the journey of Jesus from Bethany, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, to the Garden of Gethsemane, to the trial with the religious leaders & Pilate, to His cross, His death, burial, and finally His resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Jesus was resurrected early in the morning and appeared to Mary Magdalene outside the tomb and tells her to go tell the disciples that He is alive and would soon be ascending to His Father. In this same chapter, John records the multiple appearances of the literal physical resurrected Jesus. Why is the resurrection so critical to the Christian faith? Because His physical resurrection gives us the guarantee of our own bodily resurrection. Jesus’ victory over sin and death is our victory over sin and death, His future is our future, and His inheritance is now our inheritance. Today, we are looking at what happened right after Jesus’ resurrection.
John 20:19-22 NASB
19 Now when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were together due to fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and *said to them, “Peace be to you.” 20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be to you; just 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, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
In these post resurrection encounters with the disciples, Jesus gives the disciples His:
Assurance
Mission
Spirit
1. Assurance
After Jesus was seen by the women in the morning, we know from Luke's account (24:13) that later in the afternoon, Jesus met two disciples (not the apostles) on the road going towards the town of Emmaus. The journey was about 11 kilometers from Jerusalem to Emmaus and along the way these two disciples were in an intense discussion about Jesus. As they were talking, Jesus walked up to them and casually asked them what they were talking about. They were amazed that this traveler from Jerusalem had not heard about the things that just took place and Jesus asks, “What things?”
They began explaining to Jesus everything that had just happened to Him - how He was unjustly arrested, crucified and was now dead but how they had hoped He was the Messiah. They told Jesus that some of the women told them that they went to the tomb earlier in the morning and found it empty and were told by angels that Jesus is alive. As they are relaying the events, Jesus responds by saying, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures.” In other words, He was saying to them, “you are selective hearers, you only listen to what you want to hear, not what God is actually saying. Jesus then explains God’s prophetic plan from Genesis onward, how the Messiah had to suffer for the sin of the world to make salvation possible.
He walked with them for quite some time and as they were getting close to Emmaus and He acted like He would continue on; the men urged Him to stay with them. We are not sure why they hadn’t recognized Him the whole way, but some speculate that Jesus was in His glorified physical form and that is why. But once He sat down with them, broke bread, and spoke a blessing over it, God opened their eyes - and then just as they recognized Him, He vanished.
Now everything from the OT began to make sense and they got up and immediately went back to Jerusalem to tell the 11 disciples (even though there were only 10 present) what had happened. So far on the day He was resurrected - Mary had seen Him, the other women at the tomb had seen Him, Peter, and now these two disciples had seen Him. Here in John 20:19, it is the evening of that same day and when these two disciples meet the apostles and other disciples who heard about these sightings of Jesus, but still didn’t believe He was raised from the dead. When the two got back to Jerusalem, the rest were hiding in fear behind locked doors and while the two are telling them about how Jesus showed up in front of them, Jesus is suddenly standing there in the room with them.
Wouldn’t we be shocked? The disciples thought Jesus was a ghost, but the first thing He said to them was, “Peace be with you!” He didn’t say, “shame on you for doubting Me,” or “Hey you cowards, where were you when I was dying on the cross!” Instead, He showed them His hands and His side - proof that it was really Him. Jesus was saying - “Look at me, I am real, I am risen, just like I said I would be.” His first words to these anxious, fearful disciples were words of peace, assuring them of who He is.
Jesus wasn’t just speaking to the apostles but to a whole room of disciples. This is who Jesus is to every child of God. He knows there are times we live in fear and anxiety about the future, and how we doubt His character and nature and whether or not He’s going to come through. But He wants to assure each one of us again and again about who He is, what He has accomplished for us, and assure us that our faith in Him is never in vain. Though we know and believe God had the power to raise Christ from the dead and has shown Himself to be faithful, we still doubt that He has the power to transform our own or others’ lives, to heal, to bring solutions to our situations, answer our prayers and provide for our needs and the needs of the church. We are at times selective hearers.
A group of us was sharing the gospel at the train station and met a very kind individual from Indonesia. We had asked him what he believes, and he began to tell us about his personal belief in a universal God. When he finished explaining his worldview, I asked him, “how do you know that what you believe is true? Wouldn’t you want to know?” He said to us, “I don’t want to know.” In other words, he had no personal assurance that what he believed was true and he didn’t want to find out whether he was right or wrong. But that is not the case for us as believers. Jesus wants us to know what we believe and why, He wants us to know our purpose for being on this earth, He wants to assure our hearts of the reality of His resurrection and that one day we will also experience a resurrection.
The Apostle Paul had to remind the church in Corinth about the Good News of how Christ died, was buried, and was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He wrote to them about how Jesus was seen by Peter, then by the 12, and then by more than 500 of his followers at one time, then by James, and then lastly by himself in 1 Cor 15. Paul was telling them that there would be a resurrection of the dead for all who believe. He was quite surprised to hear that there were some in the church who did not believe in the resurrection or didn’t see it as important. Paul responds by saying:
If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain [useless, amounting to nothing], and your faith is also vain [imaginary, unfounded, devoid of value and benefit--not based on truth]. …. and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless and powerless [mere delusion]; you are still in your sins [and under the control and penalty of sin]. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If we who are [abiding] in Christ have hoped only in this life [and this is all there is], then we are of all people most miserable and to be pitied (1 Cor 15:14-19).
The Corinthian church needed to be assured of the veracity of the gospel, the veracity of God’s promises which had been written down by the prophets. He promised them that everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life and then raised from the dead.
Who doesn’t need to be constantly assured in their hearts that what they believe is true and not some delusion? It’s a supernatural promise and if the supposedly super disciples needed assurance, so will we. Here was a group of followers who probably felt like failures, who wanted to hide and go back to life as it was before Jesus, but then Jesus showed up right in front of them and spoke to them face-to-face. No walls or locked doors could keep Him out. His personal presence and His words gave them assurance and after they had seen the Lord and heard His words, they were full of joy. They had hope. But Jesus didn’t want them to keep this hope behind closed doors, they needed to tell others. Jesus gave them His:
2. Mission
In v. 21 Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me so I send you.” What did God send Jesus to do? To conquer? To condemn? To control the human race? No, Jesus came to seek and to save the lost - to make peace possible between God and us. Jesus did what the Father sent Him to - to accomplish a mission. What is Jesus asking us to do is to make His mission our mission. D. A. Carson said:
Christ’s mission included healing the sick, helping the needy and preaching the gospel to the poor (Lk. 4:18,19; 7:22), our mission must do no less.
Expanding the tent means taking Jesus beyond these walls, reaching the lost and people in need with the love and light of Christ outside of the church. To be Jesus’ hands and feet. That is what happened this past Easter Sunday - we reached out to our neighborhood. This is what will happen with the donations from today's fellowship table – it will help to reach displaced Ukrainians fleeing to western Ukraine and for the soldiers on the front line with the gospel.
We are taking the gospel beyond these walls every other Saturday with evangelism at the Hauptbahnhof, street evangelism with Stefan Höfler, and this summer with church in the park. Christ’s mission is the great commission, which is more than sharing just the gospel, it's about equipping and helping people become mature followers of Jesus. This is what happens every Sunday at church, with Sunday school, youth connect, every Wednesday with the women's Bible studies, at the men’s breakfasts, in the life groups. We have the privilege of proclaiming God’s salvation to those who are in desperate need of it. We have the privilege as a church to equip and prepare people for the mission that Jesus has for them. Don’t miss out on the great privilege God has given you as His ambassador, and don’t minimize the important role that the local church plays in His plan of redemption and in maturing your faith.
Never underestimate the significance of your mission. Part of your mission may be to walk with someone who is hurting, spend time loving your spouse as Jesus has loved you. It may be spending quality time with your family. This work requires a supernatural commission and supernatural empowerment from the Lord. Because without Him it would be mission impossible. This is why Jesus gives us..
.
3. His Spirit
Jesus had told the disciples much already about what their mission would entail, and what the Spirit will do for them and through them in the course of their mission to the world. V. 22 says, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This was written in the aorist active imperative – Jesus was speaking of the logical sequence, event or promised blessing that will follow after He was glorified.
In Gen 2:7 it says, After God formed man, He breathed life into him, and he became a living being. Just as God breathed life into Adam, so after Jesus is glorified He would send the Holy Spirit to His disciples on Pentecost - breathing new life into them and fulfilling the promise He made in John 14. The Holy Spirit would continue to teach them all things and remind them of everything He told them. This same Spirit that filled Jesus in His humanity is promised to all those who believe. Only with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God can we cultivate a deeper spiritual life, in our families, and our church. Being empowered by the Holy Spirit and God’s Word will result in a more authentic life and biblically sound message so that God's kingdom may be advanced in this world.
It is in the context that verse 23 makes sense. Jesus said:
If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.
Jesus is saying that when someone shares the gospel and the recipient receives it, the person sharing has the authority to tell them what God has promised through His Word. That he or she has the assurance that their sin is forgiven by God. We can assure others of this because God keeps His promises, and the Holy Spirit gives us this assurance in our own hearts.
On the other hand, if anyone hears the good news and rejects the Lord’s gift of salvation, if anyone thinks there is another way to heaven, we can also tell them that according to God’s Word their sin is not forgiven and without Jesus and that they have no assurance of heaven. There is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which he must be saved and that is Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). We have Christ’s assurance of salvation and that He says who He says He is. We have the mission as He told His disciples - just as the Father sent Him, He sends us. He has equipped us with His Spirit as His sent ones, and we have a glorious purpose.
We will be traveling to Ukraine with two cars and a trailer on the 28th of April. So far there is €6,700 in the Ukrainian account because of people’s incredibly generous support for this effort. We will be purchasing canned foods, soap, shampoo, diapers, etc., and putting together gifts for the Sunday school kids to take with us.
Jesus is assuring us that He is true to His Word, has given us a mission, and has equipped us for it. Let Him use your life for His glory.
