Christ Church
Easter Day, Apr 11, 2004: 6.00pm
John 20:19-23
She'd come to them in excitement that Easter morning! She'd come saying
she'd seen the Lord. “I've seen the Lord”, she said and that the Lord
had told her to tell them that.
He was alive! Could it be true? Was he really alive? That
evening they were meeting in the 'Upper Room'- possibly that Upper Room
where they had had that last supper, that Passover meal with the Lord.
The doors were locked. They were afraid of the Jews. They didn't really
know if Jesus was around or not, but they certainly knew the Jews were
around, and already making accusations they had stolen the body of
Jesus. They might be coming for them next. So, they were there, maybe
huddled in a corner of the room, straining their ears to hear footsteps
on the steps up to the room, or to hear soldiers' voices
Then, suddenly, Jesus was there among them. No footsteps, nor
even any opening of the door. Suddenly he was there! And he said,
“Peace be with you”, the traditional greeting of the Jews “Shalom”
Of course, it was not just a polite greeting that Jesus gave.
That word 'shalom' has a lot more depth to it than the word 'peace'
that we know. The Shalom of God is not just an absence of conflict.
It's not just “May you be safe from trouble”. It's a positive word, a
dynamic word, springing from the heart of God himself, bringing us good
things, bringing us peace with him, and all because of that blood which
had been shed on Calvary. That gave the word even more content and
depth. It is because of that shed blood that we can have peace with
God. We can have harmony with him. Yes, there can be absence of
conflict with God. We are now his friends and not his enemies. It's
more though than just an absence of conflict- that needs repeating.
It's that intimate knowledge of God, that certainty that God is our
Father. Such is Shalom.
But I wonder what the reaction of the disciples was. Were they
startled- surely yes. Were they frightened- again almost surely yes.
Did they think this was a ghost come to visit them? And Jesus, just to
show that he was Jesus, the Jesus who had died on the Cross little over
forty-eight hours earlier shows them his hands, his side. There were
the marks of the nails, the mark of the sword which pierced his side;
the side from which blood and water flowed, showing he had died of a
(literally) broken heart. This really was Jesus. This was the body
which had been laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, but a body
gloriously transformed. Jesus body really had been raised from the
tomb. The real Jesus was standing there in the midst of them. This was
no illusion, no conjuring trick of God, but a glorious
resurrection of his Son from the dead.
Having proved to them that he was Jesus, he says to them again, ”Peace
be with you”. Then there's more to follow, so much more. As the Father has sent me, even so
I am sending you Some people think this is just John's version
of the Great Commission to the Church. We have the 'Great Commission'
at the end of Matthew's gospel: Go therefore into all the world and
making disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the
Father and Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all
that I have commanded you But I don't believe this can be true,
for to say this is to say we don't believe John and Matthew had their
facts right. This is Easter Evening; Matthew's is on the Mount of
Olives just before Jesus' ascension forty days later.
What Jesus is saying there is that the work He began has to be
continued. They are to be his hands, his feet, his eyes, his mouth.
They are to speak for him, to have his heart of compassion, bringing
his love and his healing. They are to bring the news from the Father,
the news of God's Kingdom, the news of forgiveness, the news of
reconciliation with God. He's saying to them: “You've got work to do.
You've got work to do for which the Father appointed you.” Had he not
said in that Upper Room, You
did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you
should go and bear fruit, and that you fruit should last Had
they not been commissioned then? Then their ears weren't really ready
for it, but now they were. They hear it from the risen and glorified
Lord Jesus Christ. As the
Father has sent me, even so I am sending you There was work to
be done, of spreading the Good News, of winning disciples. As the
Father had sent Jesus- so he was sending them. We have that combination
here of “As...even so...” When we hear that we are to understand “In
the same way; in a like manner”. No real difference.
The argument has raged in certain quarters, was this charge just
for the first disciples, the apostles. True they had the foundational
work of 'getting the Church on the road'- if you will, but surely this
charge applies to everyone who is born of God's Spirit. If Jesus work
were to continue; the work of proclaiming God's Kingdom by word and
deeds of love and compassion, surely it wasn't just for one generation.
No God's message is for all time, until the end of time.
Having given the Commission, Jesus now breathes on them and says
“Receive the Holy Spirit” What do we make of this? Many get confused
here and try to make this into John's Pentecost. But there's a world of
difference as well again as that of historical truth. This breathing of
the Spirit on Easter Day is very different to what happened fifty days
later when the Holy Spirit was poured out, and Peter preached boldly to
a crowd of thousands.
Here Jesus breathes on them and says Receive the Holy Spirit If
we go back to Genesis 2 and verse 7 we read: The Lord God formed man of
the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life, and the man became a living creature” I think this is again an
imparting of life, and that here, I would put it to you, those first
apostles were 'born again'; their spirits came a alive as the Spirit of
the Living God was infused into them.
Breathe on me breath of God
Fill me with life divine.
Without this breath of God, they could not have carried out the work
laid on them- and neither can we. Equally the way was being paved for
that greater Pentecostal outpouring. Now they were men equipped to
preach the Word of God; without God's Spirit we cannot bring a message
from the heart of God.
Jesus now follows up by saying If
you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven. If you withhold
forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld
This is not a mandate for the 'priests' of the Church to
forgive. It is a mandate to everyone who is in the 'priesthood of
believers' to give assurance of God's forgiveness. If you go into the
original Greek of this verse and its grammar, what Jesus actually said
was “if you forgive, the sin has already been forgiven-and-if you
withhold then the sin has already been retained.
And all this really by the preaching of the Word, by the witness
of the Gospel. I would go along here with the Bible Speaks Today
commentary by Bruce Milne.
The loosing and binding are the effect of the preaching of the Gospel
to the world. We go forth in the Name and with the authority of the
Risen Lord. As when he was on earth, so now, the coming of the light of
God's Word draws some to the light for salvation and confirms some in
the darkness for damnation
This may sound a hard word, and today we are drawn to a soft Gospel. I
would suggest that that is one reason why the church is in decline. We
have lost our collective nerve! We are put off maybe by political
correctness from preaching the full counsel of God. If the church, if
we, do not use our anointing then we'll lose it!
So, on the Easter Day evening let us be quiet knowing that where two or
three meet in his Name, the Lord Jesus Christ is present. Let us hear
again his words afresh
Peace be
with you.
As the
Father has sent me, even so I send you.
Receive the
Holy Spirit.
If you
forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven. If you retain anyone's sins
they are retained