The resurrection, God's Mission, and You

The Resurrection, God’s Mission, and You

John 20:19-23

Introduction: Being a father may be one of the most intensive “vignettes” of the Christian Life. As we are called to make disciples of every nation to the glory God, that mission starts at home. With our family. With our kids. When we consider the challenges that children growing up today will face, we could easily despair.  The truth is, in Christ, you have what it takes.  Listen, living for Jesus in a fallen world is not only difficult, it would be impossible, if not for the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. The Good News of the Gospel means we have a sure hope of eternal life through faith in Christ. He died for us and rose again so there can be no doubt about who He is and what He accomplished.  As He said from the cross, “It is finished!” The debt has been paid for all who will believe and come to Him. The resurrection also has implications that can encourage us as we seek to carry out God’s mission in a dark world. Because of Him we “have what it takes” to carry out the work He has entrusted to us.

The Big Idea: Dads, the resurrection of Jesus means you have what it takes: the peace of God and the joy of His presence as we bring the message of forgiveness in the power of the Holy Spirit.

I. Because He lives we have the assurance of His Presence (19a).  The initial reports of the resurrection had been circulating since early that morning. Evening was approaching and the disciples were gathered together in a locked room.

            Notice first of all that the disciples at this moment were afraid. They were behind locked doors “for fear of the Jews.” Considering what had just happened to their Master and Teacher that is not so surprising.  The Jews had been planning to move on Jesus and get rid of Him for some time, but the opportunity had come, and they got their way. Were the disciples next?  Were their lives also in jeopardy? The doors were locked, and they were afraid.

            Jesus appeared to them there. They were hiding from the authorities, concerned that they might be in danger. They were afraid, and then Jesus appeared “in their midst.” There is no indication that He knocked at the door, the locked door simply wasn’t a barrier to Him.  Like the grave clothes and the stone on the tomb a door wouldn’t hold Him back. Whatever our circumstance we are promised that He is with us always (Matt 28:18-20), He will never leave us or forsake us (Heb 13:5).  Repeatedly, the Scriptures remind us that we do no need to be afraid, Because we are not alone: God is with us.

·        Isaiah 43:5 “Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.”

·        Jer 1:7-8   ⁷ But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.  ⁸ Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.

·        Jer 42:11  ¹¹ Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the LORD, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands.

·        Acts 18:9-10   ⁹ One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.  ¹⁰ For I am with you…

You get the idea. Yes, we live in a hostile world. We are sent to those in rebellion against God. But there is nothing to be afraid of because we are not alone. Instead of being so focused on asking God to “fix” every problem we face, maybe we would have more peace if we could just recognize His presence, and trust Him to see us through the crisis. He is with us! Are you going through a time of storm? Jesus is in the boat! Remember earlier in this Gospel, the disciples were battling a stormy sea, in jeopardy – then they see Jesus walking to them on the water. They were “terrified!” His response, “Fear not, ego eimi, “It is I” (John 6:20). His presence assures us, there is nothing to be afraid of. It is not just that someone is with us, it is I AM, the Creator, the God who spoke this universe into existence.

            The disciples were in a locked room, afraid of what the Jewish authorities would do next, and Jesus showed up. Do you have a place you go when the troubles or pressures of this world would overwhelm you? It might be a physical “get away” that you turn to. Some have a camp they can go to, others might go out on a boat ride or for a walk.  Some like to put in some ear protection and go shooting! Those can be constructive times. It may be that you simply withdraw from the activities or people that you feel put you at risk or are pulling at you. Where ever it is, if you know Jesus, you can be assured that you are not alone. We have the promise of His presence. Remember the old song, “Leaning on the everlasting arms”? Lean on Him, He is right there. Don’t despair, be Glad!  As we are raising our kids, teaching the next generation, we are not alone. Dads, the resurrection of Jesus means you have what it takes: the peace of God and the joy of His presence as we bring the message of forgiveness in the power of the Holy Spirit.

II. Because He lives we can have Peace (19b-20). God created a world that was ordered and harmonious. Sin brought disorientation and chaos into God’s creation. “Peace” in the Bible goes beyond the idea of an absence of conflict. For the New Testament writers, with the background of the Old Testament in their hearts, it speaks of the peace we experience because, by faith, we have peace with God (Rom 5:1). That means much more than merely the absence of conflict.

Peace = Greek, eivrh,nh, eirene  Hebrew, ~Alv', shalom =

“Life at its best under the gracious hand of God”

“Shalom!” was a common greeting in the first century, as it continues to be among Jews today.  Jesus had promised “peace” back in John 14:27…

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”  

Jesus had repeated the word “peace” in that context to draw attention to what He was saying, to make it clear what He was talking about. By repeating “peace”  three times here, in today’s context, Jesus draws attention to it, and calls His disciples (and the readers of the Gospel) to reflect on its meaning. This is what Jesus was talking about when He said “I am come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).  On Good Friday, Jesus cried out, “It is finished,” i.e., “The debt is paid!” That truth laid the foundation for this Word on the evening of the first day, “Peace!”  Matthew Henry wrote:

“When Christ died He left a will in which He gave His soul to His Father, His body to Joseph of Arimathea, His clothes to the soldiers, and His mother to John. But to His disciples, who had left all to follow Him, He left not silver or gold, but something far better—His PEACE!”       

That is good news, so we can be glad!  Dads, the resurrection of Jesus means you have what it takes: the peace of God and the joy of His presence as we bring the message of forgiveness in the power of the Holy Spirit.

III. Because He lives we have the Power to carry out His Mission (21-23).

            First, notice that we are sent by Him (21). “…As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." Jesus uses two different words for “sent” here, but the context makes it clear they are used synonymously, they are sent on a mission.  He had anticipated this mission in His “High Priestly Prayer” in John 17:18 when He prayed, "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” Jesus was sent into a hostile, unbelieving world with a mission, to accomplish redemption for all who would believe. He laid down His life for His sheep. Now He is sending the disciples to proclaim that Good News and to call people everywhere to repentance and faith.

            Secondly notice what Jesus does, symbolically breathing the promised Holy Spirit onto them. We are empowered by His Spirit (22). “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” The word used here, “He breathed on them…” is what is called a hapax legomena, it occurs only once, here in this verse, in the Greek New Testament.  Why did John use such an unusual word? There is this phenomenon in literature called “intertextuality” which also applies to the Bible.  That’s a big word with a simple idea: the New Testament writers would often expect their readers to “hear” echoes of the Old Testament when they used certain key words. For example, we saw that in John 1:1 “In the beginning…” Without saying it, every Jewish reader would be drawn in their mind immediately back to Genesis 1:1 which began with exactly the same prepositional phrase. The earlier context would automatically “flesh out” the meaning and significance of the New Testament text. In fact in order to understand the New Testament correctly, you needed to reflect on the Old Testament passage(s) the writer intended to evoke. Here John uses an unusual word, it appears only here in the New Testament, but it is the same word, in the exact same form that appeared in two contexts in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament which was widely used and circulated in the first century A.D., it appears in Genesis 2:7…

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

Especially since John opened his gospel with an allusion to Genesis the reader would already be on the alert for other connections to the first book of the Bible. The action of Jesus was unusual enough that it already stood out. Hearing the exact same word from Jesus that was written in Genesis 2:7 would surely cause that text to echo in the ears of a hearer or reader of John.

The second use of the same word, again in exactly the same form, is in 1 Kings 17:21. It’s the story of the widow’s son who dies and is raised to life by Elijah.  Here the translators of the Septuagint (LXX) didn’t seem to know what to do with the Hebrew word, as most modern translations in English say Elijah “stretched himself” three times over the woman’s son. The LXX translated the Hebrew with the word “he breathed,” the exact same form of the word in Gen 2:7, and John 20:21. And the boy is raised to life.

     The last use of the exact same word, using the same Greek tense in just a slightly different form (it’s an imperative in this case), is in Ezekiel 37:9ff… The vision of dry bones coming to life. Notice that here it is also connected with the promise of the Holy Spirit:

^“Also He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live." ' "  ¹⁰ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath [pneuma] came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.  ¹¹ Then He said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, 'Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!'  ¹² "Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.  ¹³ "Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.  ¹⁴ "I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it," says the LORD.' "

I think it is virtually certain that Jesus (and John) had the Old Testament in mind in this scene, as Jesus “breathes” the Spirit on His disciples. As God breathed life directly into Adam, as Elijah was enabled to breathe life into the dead boy as he prayed to the Lord, as God breathed the Spirit and life into the dry bones and raised up an army, Jesus was giving life, and power to a new army that He was raising up. They were locked behind closed doors saying “Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!” Jesus breathed on them, and said “receive the Holy Spirit.” That same Spirit indwells you if you have trusted Jesus as Savior. In fact in this age, the presence of the Spirit is virtually an identifying mark of an authentic believer. Paul said in Romans 8:9, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” In Acts 1:8 the promise was “…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you…” Power to witness, to carry out Christ’s mission to the Glory of God.  

            We have the message that offers forgiveness (23). "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."  There are some parallels with the scene in Matthew 18 where the disciples are given authority to exercise church discipline. Here, the church has been given authority as we preach the Gospel of Christ. We don’t save anyone, but “…faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.” We recognize and confirm what God is doing as the gospel is preached and people hear and believe and are baptized and publically affiliated with the local church.

What is God saying to me in this passage? Be Glad! The resurrection of Jesus means He is with us and we have the peace of God as we bring the message of forgiveness and life in the power of the Holy Spirit.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? The world can be a dark and scary place. There are so many uncertainties about the future. We started off talking about fathers facing a seemingly impossible task as they lead their families and raise their kids. After all, we are responsible to shepherd our families and to raise up the next generation in the way of the Lord. But if you know Jesus, you have what it takes. You have peace with God. Jesus is with you. Always. The Holy Spirit indwells you and empowers you. Some dads don’t tap into that power and stumble along or worse, walk away. Walk with Him and you will lead the way.  The way to “peace: life at its best under the gracious hand of God.” Think about that today,  AMEN.