RESURECTION PEACE
JOHN 20:19-31
APRIL 7, 2002
INTRODUCTION: The Call to Worship had just been pronounced starting Easter Sunday Morning service in an East Texas church. The choir started its processional, singing "Up from the Grave He Arose" as they marched in perfect step down the center aisle to the front of the church. The last lady was wearing shoes with very slender heels. Without a thought for her fancy heels, she marched toward the grating that covered that hot air register in the middle of the aisle. Suddenly the heel of one shoe sank into the hole in the register grate. In a flash she realized her predicament. Not wishing to hold up the whole processional, without missing a step, she slipped her foot out of her shoe and continued marching down the aisle. There wasn’t a hitch. The processional moved with clock-like precision. The first man after her spotted the situation and without losing a step, reached down and pulled up her shoe, but the entire grate came with it! Surprised, but still singing, the man kept on going down the aisle, holding in his hand the grate with the shoe attached. Everything still moved like clockwork. Still in tune and still in step, the next man in line stepped into the open register and disappeared from sight. The service took on a special meaning that Sunday, for just as the choir ended with "Allelujah! Christ arose!" a voice was heard under the church shouting..."I hope all of you are out of the way ’cause I’m coming out now!" The little girl closest to the aisle shouted, "Come on, Jesus! We’ll stay out of the way."
TRANSITION THOUGHT: Our text this morning speaks to us of the power of community created by the risen Christ! It explains to us the difference the resurrection can make in the life of one who accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior. It is the reality of the power of God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. And Just like the little girl in the story, we must shout, “Come on Jesus! We’ll stay out of the way.” We actually, we just need to shout, “Come on Jesus! Change us by the power of your resurrection!”
THESIS SENTENCE: Because Jesus has risen from the dead, we can be people who experience the power of the resurrection!
SO WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE TO BE THE PEOPLE OF THE RESURRECTED JESUS CHRIST?
WE BECOME…
I. A PEOPLE OF EXPERIENCED PEACE (VV. 19 & 21)
A. Peace is the immediate need
1. The disciples had failed! They were supposed to be the ones walking confidently out into the world, full of the Holy Spirit, announcing the Easter triumph of God. Had Jesus not foretold what would happen, did they not know that He would rise from the dead, had they not heard??
2. Look at the posture of the disciples. “The doors are locked for fear of the Jews, ... (vv. 19)” They were hunkered down, cowering, hoping that nobody in town will know that they are there. TOM LONG STATES THAT THIS IS A CHURCH AT ITS WORST “SCARRED, DISHEARTENED, AND DEFENSIVE.”
3. What does the church look like today: around the world, in America, and here at CHWC?
4. Do we look or act like a church that is living in the power of the Resurrection?
B. Peace is the word spoken
1. “Peace be with you.” What does it mean? How would you have expected Jesus to respond to those who deserted Him in His most painful moments of life? To those who had not paid attention to His words? Jesus didn’t come with a rebuke or to scold!!!!!!!!!! HE DID NOT FEEL THE NEED TO DEAL WITH PAST ACTIONS, HE WAS CONCERNED WITH THE DAY AT HAND!!
2. “Peace be with you.” What does it mean? Was Jesus speaking an accustomed greeting? Was this just a Judaen “Howdy?” Why these words? Jesus spoke words of absolution! Jesus spoke words of forgiveness!! Jesus spoke words of Healing!!
C. What is our posture, where does Jesus find us?
1. Are we enjoying the peace that Christ offers or are we timid and afraid, consumed by our failures, believing that if we met Jesus today, He would chew us up one side and then down the other? Are we locked behind closed doors thinking that Jesus can’t find us??
2. WE ARE TO BE A PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED HIS PEACE!! A peace that can only come by the PRESENCE of Jesus Himself in our midst. Jesus makes all the difference in the world. He offer Peace in the midst of all the fears of life!!!!
ILLUSTRATION: William Willimon writes, “If you want to see us, stripped of our sacred trappings, our pretenses peeled away, then look here in this twentieth chapter of John -- a pitiful huddle of timid souls hanging on to one another behind our locked doors. Without the presence, the presence which makes our human gatherings the church of God, this is about all we are. And the good news is that it was to This church, which was hardly church at all, that the living Christ came saying, “PEACE BE WITH YOU.” Into this busy, buzzing void, there was a voice, a presence, a peace not of our devising. You might have thought the Christ would come like the Methodist bishops. When a church has failed to pay its full apportionment’s from the general church, they send down the District Superintendent to lean on them saying, “Shame on you all!! You call yourselves a Church!!” No. The Risen Christ comes and he says, “Peace be with you,” showing them his pierced hands and feet. Then, He says again, in case we failed to get the point, “Peace be with you.”
WE BECOME…
II. A PEOPLE INSPIRED BY HIS COMMISSION (VV. 21)
A. The Task Given!
1. They, us, disciples of Christ, are to be followers of the Example He set. He says to us, do as I have done, follow my lead, not only what you heard me say, but what you saw me do!!
2. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
3. With the same power and authority that Jesus had ministered under, He sends His disciples. This is not of their own agenda, but on the AGENDA OF GOD, THE FATHER.
B. The response Expected!
1. The message must get out!!
2. 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 makes this clear, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are there fore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us...”
3. Regardless of the response of the outside world, “Reality” and though it Bites, we are expected to go out. The world will not come to us, but we must go to them as Jesus did. We must not be afraid to touch the lepers of the world or to speak the healing power of the gospel to those caught in adultery, or to mingle with politicians, everything that Jesus was about, we must be about, setting Christ before the world as His Ambassadors, offering Absolution to a world of Hurt who have never met the living Christ!!!
ILLUSTRATION: One Sunday as they drove home from church, a little girl turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, there’s something about the preacher’s message this morning that I don’t understand." The mother said, "Oh? What is it?" The little girl replied, "Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. He said God is so big that He could hold the world in His hand. Is that true?" The mother replied, "Yes, that’s true, honey." "But Mommy, he also said that God comes to live inside of us when we believe in Jesus as our Savior. Is that true, too?" Again, the mother assured the little girl that what the pastor had said was true. With a puzzled look on her face the little girl then asked, "If God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn’t He show through?"
BUT HOW CAN WE GO?????????????
WE BECOME…
III. A PEOPLE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT (VV. 22)
A. The Holy Spirit Given
1. This is one of the most exhilarating aspects of this text!! Jesus sends out His disciples, but they are now armed and dangerous!!
2. Jesus not only entrusts us with the responsibility of proclaiming the gospel to others, He EQUIPS US!!
3. Jesus places His call to ministry in light of the call to receive the Holy Spirit. They go hand in hand. It is the In Filling Spirit which guides us and enables us to proclaim the gospel. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, we may have words to say, but there will be no fruit for our labor!!
B. The Holy Spirit Received
1. Jesus said to His disciples and to us today, “RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT.”
2. We must be willing to receive the Holy Spirit. We must be willing to say yes to Jesus for empowerment.
3. The Holy Spirit was not given to comfort, but to enable, to empower, to embolden, to SEND FORTH.
C. The Holy Spirit Explained!
1. God breathed life into dead clay and brought forth man.
2. By His breath, God breathed life into dry dead bones that Ezeckiel saw. 3. God’s breath and words create and renew. With His Breath, Jesus breathes the life of the resurrection and resuscitates His Church.
4. God longs to give new life to old dead bones!! God longs to raise His church up to offer Absolution to a world dying in the pain and decay of SIN!!
ILLUSTRATION: A fellow who had been reared in the city bought a farm and several milk cows. In the feed store one day he complained his best cow had gone dry. "Aren’t you feeding her right?" asked the store owner. "I’m feeding her what you’ve been selling me," said the man. "Are you milking her every day?" "Just about. If I need six or eight ounces of milk for breakfast, I go out and get it - I just let her save it up." The feed store owner had to explain it doesn’t work that way. With cow’s milk, like God’s presence, you take all that’s there, or you eventually have nothing.
WE BECOME…
IV. A PEOPLE WHO OFFER FORGIVENESS (VV. 23)
We have been absolved of all our sins, we have been called to go forward and proclaim Christ Glorious Gospel, We have been empowered with the Holy Spirited, SO WHAT IS LEFT? WE ARE TO BE PEOPLE WHO OFFER ABSOLUTION TO A SIN SICK WORLD.
A. The Power of offered Forgiveness
1. This is one of the most powerful text concerning US in all of Scripture! What does it mean?? Mark 2:7 states that “no one can forgive sins but God Alone.”
1. What Jesus on behalf of the Father is doing, is giving us a role to play in the work of Building the Kingdom.
2. The Role is offering Forgiveness.
B. The Reality of offered Forgiveness
The work is two fold with one basic foundation: The FOUNDATION IS THE PROCLAIMING: CHRIST OFFERS FORGIVENESS OF SIN AND ETERNAL LIFE TO ALL WHO WILL RECEIVE HIM.
1. So how do we forgive sin:
a. We proclaim the gospel to everyone,
b. If they receive the gospel and accept the forgiveness that Christ offers, we confirm that, as they have confessed their sins, Christ is faithful and just to forgive their sin and to cleanse them from all unrighteousness.
2. How do we not forgive sins:
a. We proclaim the gospel to everyone!
b. Then for those who do not confess and accept Jesus as their Savior, we must share the stark reality, TRUE REALITY, their sins are not forgiven and unless they yield to Christ in this life, they will spend an eternity in Hell, forever separated from God and all His benefits!!
3. The bottom line here is that we are called to Share the whole message of Christ.
ILLUSTRATION: One writer put it this way, “The Savior not only accepts us, commissions us, and equips us; He also motivates us. The motivation is that the world is desperately in need of the message we have. If we do not go forward some will never hear they can be set free. Some will never know the joy of Salvation. Some will never know of the Spirit’s strength in the difficult times. If we don’t tell the people we come in contact with about the Gospel... we have no right to call our selves their friend.
KEY: If I saw you headed into danger and didn’t warn you... would I be your friend? If I could help you in a difficult time but refused to do so... would I be your friend? If I could meet the deepest longing of your heart at no loss to myself but turned away... would you consider me a friend? Then how can we consider ourselves a friend if we withhold the words of life? If we do not extend the message of forgiveness… they will not be forgiven. It is as simple as that!
CONCLUSION: Really there were only two points I wanted to make today, that I feel the text speaks of completely. We are to receive the peace that Christ offers us in the midst of our failures. The peace is receiving Christ into our midst, into our lives. The second point flows from the first. If we have experienced the peace of Christ, we will want to offer that same opportunity to others. It’s all about ABSOLUTION: RECEIVING IT AND OFFERING IT TO OTHER. THIS IS WHAT WE MUST DO. Jesus is sending us as the Father Sent Him, and He is empowering us to go, just as He was empowered to go. And in the going, we must offer forgiveness to those who will receive His message of forgiveness!!
Altar Call. 1. Have you received the peace of Christ in your life, come. 2. Are you struggling with being sent, are you unwilling to go, come. 3. Do you long to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, come. 4. Are you offering forgiveness by proclaiming His Gospel, come.
