Sermon: When You’re Sweatin’ It John 20:19-31 April 7, 2002
I. Introduction
A. I don’t know how many of you noticed but a couple of my family members now look like a lobsters. Yes, we have just gotten back from a week’s vacation. It was wonderful but let me tell you something there is such as thing as too much closeness.
1. You see we took my parents small RV this past week. I was a little concerned before we began that it was going to be too small for us.. It is just the right size for my parents but there was five of us and I wasn’t too sure how well we would do in such a small space. As we placed the last items in the trailer and load up to leave I was quite pleased. It looked there was going to plenty of space. That is there was plenty space until people began taking their shoes off.
2. Did you know the average foot gives off a quarter cup of odoriferous, smelly, sweaty, nasty perspiration on a slow day, and as much as a full cup on a day of fancy footwork or stress. You don’t believe me? Take off one of your shoes right now and pass it to your neighbor on the left. Take a whiff. In fact your perspiration rate right now just exceeded the quarter cup quota. Now I don’t really want you to take your shoes off. I think you get the point a 1/4 cup of foot odor is a lot of odor
3. And let me tell you something else - I am not naming names or anything but there are some people in my family who sweat more than their fair share of a quarter cup of foot odor. and in a small area like my parents camper that’s a lot of smelly, stinking stench smell of sweat.
B. Sweatin’ with the Disciples
1. And if you think that’s bad, image the sweaty foot odor that must have been in the locked upper room on the evening of the first day of the week following resurrection morning.
a) here we have eleven grown men - and an untold number of disciples - who were locked in a room with the windows barred shut - and they were “sweat it”
b) they had heard the stories
(1) from Mary Magadeline and the women
(2) from Peter and the beloved disciple
(3) but could it be, was Jesus body really missing from the tomb, did someone take his body or could he, could Jesus really be alive?
c) And what about the Pharisees and Sanhedrin they had already blamed them for Jesus’ missing body, surely they would come after them. They’d have them arrested, flogged, beaten and perhaps even crucified like Jesus.
(1) The intensity in that room that night must have been overwhelming.
(2) Their fears, doubts, uncertainty and confusion had them sweat over every detail from the past week.
(3) Easter hadn’t driven away all their fears and doubts - it hadn’t been enough for them to be there just that one Sunday that year - to hear about the resurrection
(4) And then just when it seemed the space in the room was too small for all of them, it was filled by the presence of one more.
II. Turn with me to JOHN 20:19-31 - (READ)
A. The disciples were still perplexed, confused, wondering what was going to happen now. What did all this mean and they had gotten together that night behind bolted doors to try and figure it all out.
1. They were discussing the women’s reported sightings of angels, what Peter and John saw at the tomb and Mary’s astounding claim that she had seen Jesus.
2. Peter was telling them about seeing Jesus (Lk 24)- trying desperately to convince them about the truth.
3. The women had reported the angel’s words that the disciples were to go to Galilee and meet Jesus there (Matt 28:7) and yet here they still sat. For some reason instead of going to Galilee they had remained in Jerusalem paralyzed by the fear of being found by the Jewish leaders
4. The Resurrection had occurred, They had experienced Easter, had heard first person accounts, they had seen the empty tomb but still what difference did Easter really make in their lives ?
5. They were still hiding out!
B. Then without warning There are sounds of excitement and noise outside the door (Lk 24). Frantic knocking perhaps this was finally it - the authorities had found them.
1. But wait the voices are familiar, they open the door and two disciples rush in. They are breathless and excited and begin telling the group how they had met Jesus on the road to Emmaus and talked with him most of the day.
2. All these reports, all these stories must have begun to have an effect. Shock and disbelief began to be replaced with wild hope.
III. Suddenly, in the midst of their pain and suffering, in the midst of their doubt and disbelief, in the midst of their disobedience - Jesus appears to them without fanfare, without announcement and without even the benefit of a door!!!!
A. Jesus, their friend, teacher, Lord and Master - miraculously appears in their midst behind closed, locked doors. It looks like him, sounds like him but in his altered glorified resurrected form he transcends all physical barriers and limitations of this body
1. The disciples are startled and frightened thinking they have seen a ghost.
2. But Jesus convinces them that his physical touchable body, scars and all, is with them.
3. John 16:16 “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me…you will grieve but your grief will turn to joy.
a) “the little while” was over, joy had replaced grief and no one was going to take the disciples joy away again
B. Peace, Peace be with you!
1. Not peace will be with you, not some day I will give you peace
2. declaratively, emphatically Peace IS with you!!!
3. in the midst of your lostness, doubt, questions, fears Jesus comes and gives you peace that surpasses all understanding. Peace that is beyond physical human comprehension.
4. Peace that can change your grief into joy!
C. The end of verse 21 And “As the Father has sent me, so I send you. When He had said this, he breathed on them and said to them “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
1. The hour of glorification has reached its climax, Jesus places the Spirit that is within him in to the disciples.
a) He breathes on them to fulfil his promise: John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans I will come to you. Before long the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me Because I live, you also will live, On that day you will realized that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you!!!”
b) And in his breath is the resemblance of Genesis 2:7 “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being.”
c) There is life, abundant life worth living, in the breath of God. And in that breath of life given through Jesus Christ a living being is transformed by the holy spirit into a spiritual being - into a child of God and there is life - real life
2. Then Jesus commissions them “As the father sent me so I send you”
a) Send you to bust out of these locked doors into life, to bust free of the isolation that has them locked away in church, to bust out of the superficiality of life in this world to a great life, a life fulfilled through the building of his kingdom.
3. VERSE 23 - “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them, if you retain the sins of any the are retained.”
a) not in the sense that the disciple or you and I have the power to forgive sins- only God can forgive sins - but Jesus gave them the privilege of telling new believers that their sins have been forgiven because they can accept Jesus’ message as true, authentic..
b) All believers have this same privilege. We can announce the forgiveness of sin with certainty when we ourselves repent and believe. Those who don’t believe will not experience the forgiveness of sins and their sins will be retained - they will be unforgiven.
IV. The disciples experienced overwhelming glory as the spirit touched and transformed them - as the spirit became part of them - now don’t misunderstand this takes nothing away from Pentecost - this building of this spirit, this transforming of the disciples lives, the transforming of our lives all begins with Easter - but the question is still “What difference does Easter make?”
A. The difference is your not alone anymore - in the midst of your trials and tribulations, in the midst of your breakups and confusions, in the midst of your suffering and shame God is with you in the son through the Holy Spirit
B. And he is offering PEACE - peace that this world doesn’t understand - peace that doesn’t always change the circumstances of your life but peace that offers you the same WILD hope that the disciples must of experienced that first night in the upper room
1. peace that gives you what you need to face life
2. peace that changes you
3. peace that transforms you
4. peace that empowers you to stand up against the adversities of this world
5. peace that allows you to accept the forgiveness that he offers - totally and completely
C. And the difference is you have a job to do
1. a job and responsibility to follow the ways of God
2. a job and responsibility to listen to the holy spirit
3. a job and responsibility to accept forgiveness
4. a job and responsibility to tell others about Jesus Christ
a) As the father sent I so I send you!
5. a job and responsibility to live life and live it abundantly in the face of this world - as proof of that the Easter story really does make a difference
A year or so back two unlikely megastars headlined a gig together: Bob Dylan and the Pope. It was a Catholic youth event and Dylan was schedule to play three of his best-known songs. The two men shook hands and exchanged a few words, the pope stepped up to the microphone and took the singer to the theological cleaners.
"You say the answer is blowing in the wind, my friend,so it is.” The pope said, “But it is not the wind that blows things away, it is the wind that is the breath and life of the Holy Spirit, the voice that calls and says, ’Come!’"
The pope continued in a style that would not have disgraced even the finest TV evangelist: "You ask me, how many roads must a man walk down before he becomes a man? I answer: One! There is only one road for man, and it is the road of Jesus Christ, who said I am the Way and the Life."
