“A Resurrection Pledge and Proclamation”
John 20:19-23
Resurrection Sunday, the day that Jesus rose from the dead, is often quickly forgotten, and so are the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost. Over the next 6 weeks we are going to study “The Forgotten Fifty Days”, that period of Jesus Resurrection Ministry, appearing for 40 days to hundreds of people, culminating in His Ascension back into Heaven, and ten days later, the arrival of His Omnipresent Holy Spirit.
Today we look at John 20:19-20: “On the evening of that first day of the week, (the same day that Jesus arose) when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, (the disciples were afraid that the Jews would arrest them and bring charges against them that would bring them the same results to them that Jesus had endured, so they were scared and hidden in LOCK-DOWN!) And “Jesus came and stood among them (He just appeared!) and said, "Peace be with you!" 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.”
1. The Positive Proof of Peace in the Person
FEAR GRIPPED the disciples, and you could hardly blame them: They had witnessed how quickly the tide of public opinion had done a complete turn-around, how the same King Jesus who had ridden into Jerusalem amid CHEERS had been railroaded to the cross amid JEERS. He was crucified and buried, and according to the other Gospels, on this same day Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene, to the two men on the road to Emmaus, and now behind locked doors, He suddenly appears before other disciples, but He is in a NEW resurrected body which bore the VISIBLE scars of His wounded hands and side: He gave POSITIVE PROOF of God’s Peace in His own PERSON, that the “God with us”, INCARNATE MESSIAH, PRINCE of PEACE, was INDEED RISEN and that HE IS the King of Peace, the God of Peace. He was not a ghost but the resurrected person of Jesus.
This greeting of Jesus became an everyday expression among Greek Christians (the word is Eirene: i-ray'-nay) but the same greeting had been used for centuries among the Jews. It was “Shalom!” Peace be to you! How welcome were those open arms and wounded hands to the disciples who had abandoned Jesus in His greatest time of need! How assuring were the words: “Peace be to you!”
We read that the disciples were “overjoyed” (CHAIRO) to see Jesus! They REJOICED, filled to overflowing with joy. Pouring over. Remember the word for rejoice, CHAIRO, is associated with the word CHARA (joy), CHARIS (grace), and EUCHARISTEO (give thanks). If Jesus had NOT risen, we would not know that we had Peace with God. The PROOF of PEACE with God is in the very Person of the RISEN REDEEMER, the Lord Jesus Christ. The altar of Christ’s Cross, where the Son of God bled and died became the fulfillment of the Old Testament name of Gideon’s altar back in Judges 6:24: “THE LORD IS PEACE!” The angel’s declaration in the heavens at Jesus’ birth (Glory to God in the highest AND PEACE on earth in whom He is well-pleased.”) has been fulfilled in Jesus’ Reappearance after His resurrection. His Kingdom is alive and well because THE KING OF PEACE LIVES! Glory to HIS Name!
It is why the greetings to believers in the epistles is this: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” Sin and death have been conquered by the King and so the greeting of Jesus is: The Peace of God be with you! I have made peace with God For You through my sacrifice, and MY resurrection is the PROOF!
2. The Pledge of His Constant, Powerful and Peaceful Presence
Look at John 20:21: “AGAIN Jesus said, "Peace be with you! (Jesus gives the greeting again to doubly assure His disciples and US that God’s peace is with those who believe in Him.) As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Now, don’t be shortsighted or nearsighted here; Jesus is certainly giving the Pledge of His Constant, Powerful and Peaceful Presence, but do you recognize the PURPOSE for this peace of God and the Power of His Spirit. It is not only so that you will be without fear of God’s wrath against sin. It is not only so that you will feel safe in a fearful world. He is not only the protection that you feel BEHIND closed doors but He is the OPEN DOOR to the Father. In the same way that the Son was sent into the world with the Message of the GOSPEL to a dying world, YOU are being sent into the world with the same message.
When Jesus “breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”, they were not yet FILLED with the PENTECOST FILLING. The word for “Breathed” is used only once by the Septuagint translators in Gen 2:7 where God breathed on Adam and he became a living soul and also here in John 20. The WORD TO US is this: Just as the original creation was completed by an act of God and His Spirit of Life, SO TO, the new creation is completed by an act from the Head of the new creation.
This “breathing” by Jesus is a foreshadowing of the Spirit’s fullness which would be given to the Church in fifty days on Pentecost in Jerusalem. Maybe in the same way that the Spirit was placed upon people, this “breathing” gave the disciples a DIVINE ASSURANCE that more was coming, sort of a FIRSTFRUITS FILLING. It is another PLEDGE of the Coming of the Fullness of the Spirit to believers. They were still to wait to go out into the world, but we are no longer supposed to wait. As believers, we HAVE the peace of God because we are AT PEACE WITH God, and we have received the empowerment of His Holy Spirit when we first believed. We are entrusted with the message of John 20:23: “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
3. The Proclamation of Peace through Christ’s Redemption
This verse is often misunderstood: This is NOT about the disciples having the authority to forgive sins. Only God can forgive sins, but it is The Proclamation of Peace through Christ. It is the proclamation of the Peace through the Cross, that Redemption which is only Possible in and through THE Peace-maker. It is what Paul meant when he proclaimed Christ in Colossians 1:18
“And he (JESUS) is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. 21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-- 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.”
The Proclamation of Redemption in Christ alone was made possible in Christ alone, by Christ’s physical body and now Jesus presents His Body as LIVING proof. Now His Kingdom message will be proclaimed, not only by the evidence of HIS BROKEN body, but by Your Body; As believers, you have received HIS PEACE, the Proof of God’s prophecies concerning forgiveness fulfilled in Christ’s Body, and fulfilled in You! Our proclamation to an UNSAVED WORLD is that Jesus has come to forgive your SINS so that you can have eternal life. If you REJECT HIM, your sins will be retained.
I couldn’t help but make the application of Christ REVEALING HIS BODY BROKEN, yet healed, and that WE, His Church are called to BE His body, together growing in the Grace of our Savior, while discipling Kingdom Kids and increasing His Body with the Proclamation of Peace with God, only in and through the peacemaker, the King of Peace, the Lord Jesus. Jesus is proclaiming the message, charting the mission, and methodology of bringing the Gospel to all the world through the Body of Christ, the Church. (Remember the Greek word for church, “ekklesia”, those who are called together?)
(I read some excerpts this week from Pastor Joshua Harris’ book, “Stop Dating the Church: Fall in Love with the Family of God”. Many Christians are church shoppers and hoppers. Pastor Harris asks, “Is this God's will for our Christian communities and our lives?” No doubt that there are many hang-ups and blemishes that inhibit followers of Jesus from a greater commitment to the local church body, but I urge you as believers in Christ to see the church as God sees her: a radiant, NOT BROKEN body of the bride of Christ, whom He loves and cherishes. Despite our predisposition against commitment, the church remains the community of God's “called together committed people” whom God loved to such an extreme, that He sacrificed His Son.)
The primary message is first of all to preach the forgiveness of sins through Christ alone, by grace and faith alone, through God’s Word alone. Jesus is the Prophet to fulfill ALL prophecy, He is the only High Priest who gave HIMSELF as the offering for sin, and the only Risen King who appeared to prove that He is alive and ascended to prove that He REIGNS.
His body was broken so that His Church, His Redeemed ones would be united in Him, in His death and resurrection, in our one LORD over all, in every part of our lives, sharing one Faith in Him alone, one baptism by the Spirit through the cleansing blood of Christ.
Jesus revealed the Pledge and Proclamation in His Resurrected Bodily presence. He says, “Look! See the scars on my hands and side where I was pierced for your sins! I have made peace with God for you and I am commissioning you to represent ME, YOUR SAVIOR, with the life-giving message of the Gospel, the Good News. Receive my Spirit and BE the Body of Christ, one BODY together in this broken World.
OUTLINE
1. The Positive Proof of God’s Peace in the Person of Jesus
CHAIRO (overjoyed, rejoice), CHARA (joy), CHARIS (grace), EUCHARISTEO (give thanks).
2. The Pledge of His Constant, Powerful and Peaceful Presence
3. The Proclamation of His Peace: Redemption is ONLY Possible in and through the Peacemaker.
Jesus revealed the Pledge and Proclamation in His Body: We are His Body in the World.
