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19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them 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. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (John 20:19-23)
The disciples of Jesus met behind locked doors for fear of the Jews on the evening of the first day of His resurrection. Thomas, who was brooding over his doubts about the resurrection, was not present. The post resurrection experience has been reported by all the gospel writers in similar but slightly different forms where He gives the great commission
The Great Commision
They met behind locked doors for fear of the Jews on the evening of the first day of His resurrection. Thomas, who was brooding over his doubts about the resurrection, was not present. The mission is summed up in John 20:21, where Jesus says, “… as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
If we think that we feel inadequate for this huge undertaking, it is only natural. How can one person possibly go out into this world just as the Father sent Jesus into this world? Jesus was God in human flesh; I am not. Jesus never sinned; I often sin. Jesus walked in unbroken, intimate fellowship with the Father; I do not. Jesus never made mistakes; I make them all the time. So with the apostle Paul, it is natural to often feel (2 Cor. 2:16), “And who is adequate for these things?”
But in our text, our Lord turns mission impossible into mission possible by giving them peace, purposer and power. Paul followed up his feelings of inadequacy with the triumphant explanation (2 Cor. 3:5), “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.”
Because the risen Savior has called and equipped us, we can confidently proclaim the gospel to all people.
The Risen Lord Gives Us Peace
Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you.” (John 20:19). Then after He showed them His hands and side, He repeated “Peace be with you.” (John 20:21),
“Peace be with you” was a common Jewish greeting wishing overall well-being on the other person. But in the context here it surely means far more than just a perfunctory greeting. These men were in hiding behind locked doors because of fear of the Jewish leaders who had just crucified their Lord. It was not far-fetched to think that they might be next. They may have been discussing how they could sneak out of Jerusalem without being arrested.
Suddenly, with no knock at the door or no one opening the door, the risen Lord Jesus stood in their midst. While His resurrection body is a physical body, it also has the ability to appear or disappear at will. You can imagine how startling it would be to have the risen Lord suddenly appear in a locked room where you were already afraid! Luke (24:37) says that they were frightened and thought that they were seeing a ghost. John (20:20) reports the outcome after Jesus showed them His hands and His side, “The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.”
Keep in mind that these were men who all had fled in fear for their own lives when Jesus was arrested. Peter had denied the Lord three times. They all had doubted the initial reports of Jesus’ resurrection (Luke 24:11). It would certainly be understandable if Jesus had greeted them with rebukes. But rather than rebuking them, the Lord graciously extended His peace to them. The peace that He offers includes peace with God, with ourselves and with one another.
Peace with God is foundational for your mission for Him. You can’t begin to serve the Lord unless you first are reconciled to Him through the peace that Christ accomplished on the cross. Before you believe in Christ, your sins alienate you from God (Rom. 8:7-8). But when you trust in Christ, you enter into a new relationship of peace with God (Rom. 5:1). Then and only then does God appoint us as ambassadors of His mission of reconciliation with this world that is hostile toward Him (2 Cor. 5:18).
Not only does Christ give us peace with God through His blood, but He also gives us the peace of God through His abiding presence with us as we seek to accomplish the gospel mission. As Jesus concluded the Great Commission (in Matt. 28:20), He gave the assurance, “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Note, “I am with you always”! As we proclaim the gospel to this hostile world, the Lord’s presence gives us “the peace of God, which surpasses understanding” (Phil. 4:7). The peace that Jesus gives is not like the peace the world gives. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (John 14:27).
The peace that the Lord gives will enable to have peace with one another. Peace of God extends to our relationships with one another. One of the main reasons missionaries come home early from the field is conflict with their fellow workers. And when churches get into internal conflicts, they sabotage their witness to the watching world. That’s why many passages in the New Testament exhort us to work for peaceful relationships. The risen Christ is the basis for resolving relational conflicts. As Paul said with reference to the deep divide between the Jews and the Gentiles (Eph. 2:14), “For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall ….” Christ has given us peace with God, the peace of God, and peace with one another, so that we can carry out His mission.
The Risen Christ gives us Purpose
The risen Savior has given us a great purpose (John 20:21). Though discouraged by the setbacks in life, the disciples were now imparted with a great purpose for their future. They proved it by going beyond the geographic walls to the 'ends of the world' literally. John 20:21: “So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” This applies Jesus’ prayer in John 17:18 to the disciples, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” John’s Gospel frequently emphasizes the theme of Jesus being sent by the Father. He was sent to do the Father’s will (John 4:34; 6:38-39); to speak the Father’s words (John 3:34; 12:49); and to perform the Father’s works (John 4:34; 5:36). He was sent to bring salvation to the world (John 3:17). In John 18:37, Jesus told Pilate, “For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth.” In Luke 19:10, Jesus said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” The apostle Paul put it (1 Tim. 1:15), “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.”
Jesus taught us to pray (Matt. 6:10), “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” He came to establish the Father’s kingdom by bringing people under His lordship to do His will. By sending us in the same way that He was sent, His purpose becomes our purpose. We should live in obedience to Christ and teach others to do the same (Matt. 28:19-20).
But so often the church collectively and we as individuals lose sight of our purpose. We get distracted with other things. A few years ago, I read about Sohan Singh, a grocery store owner in England, who banned customers from his store. He said that he had to take such drastic action because of people’s bad manners. First he banned smoking, then crude language, baby strollers, pets, and finally the customers themselves. Shoppers had to look through the window to spot items they want, then ring a small bell to be served through a small hatch in the door. “I have lost business, but I cannot say how much,” Singh said. “I am a man of principles, and I stand by my decision.” That’s pretty silly for a storekeeper to ban customers in order to stand by his principles!
There are churches that ban certain types or groups of peope, or makes them feel unwelcome because they contaminate the church. Some church church members even cut off all contact with certain section of people. We’ve had families pull their kids out of Sunday school or the church youth group because worldly kids have attended those activities. There are families who are afraid that their kids might pick up bad language or be enticed to join the sinful activities of the other kids.
Gib Martin, a pastor was led to Christ when he was a 27-year-old atheist by a man named Charlie. Charlie had been an alcoholic carpenter for many years before he met Christ. After he got saved, he had a burden for the men who were just like he had been. So every day after work, he would stop at the bar where Gib also went after work. Charlie would drink coffee and share his life with those who would listen. Eventually, that’s how Gib came to faith in Christ.
But the sad part of the story is that none of the local churches would allow Charlie to associate with them because he went to the bar every day. Even though he wasn’t getting drunk—he wasn’t even having a beer—they didn’t like what he was doing. Even the church where Charlie directed Gib to go after his conversion wouldn’t allow Charlie to join (from A Theology of Personal Ministry, by Lawrence Richards and Gib Martin [Zondervan], pp 44-45).
But if our Savior was known as a friend of sinners, and He said (Luke 5:32), “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance,” shouldn’t we be hanging out with sinners to befriend them and tell them about the Savior? If Jesus’ purpose was to seek and save the lost, shouldn’t that be our purpose? To tell people the good news about eternal life is the greatest purpose that anyone can have, because that was our Savior’s purpose.
The Risen Christ Gives us Power
The risen Savior has given us great power (John 20:22). “And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” To attempt to serve the Lord in any capacity, but especially in proclaiming the gospel to the lost, without relying on the power of the Holy Spirit would be futile. As Zechariah 4:6 reminds us, ‘“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
But scholars wrestle with the exact meaning of verse 22 in light of the subsequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. As I understand it, it could mean one of two things or possibly both. Some (D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John [Eerdmans/Apollos], pp. 648-655) argue that this was a symbolic action on Jesus’ part that anticipated the imminent outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. They argue that if the disciples actually received the Spirit when Jesus breathed on them here, the results are disappointing. They did not begin preaching the gospel with power until after the Day of Pentecost. In fact, they went back to fishing (John 21). So they see this as a symbolic provision of the Spirit that is still yet to come.
Others would agree that this is obviously a symbolic gesture on Jesus’ part. His breathing on the disciples reflects God’s breathing life into Adam so that he became a living being (Gen. 2:7). Also, it pictures Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones, where God told him to prophesy to the breath (the word also means “spirit”) so that the corpses would come to life.
But beyond the merely symbolic gesture pointing ahead to Pentecost, Jesus’ action here would also seem to be an imparting of the Holy Spirit to strengthen the disciples during the 40 days of Jesus’ time with them so that they could understand and remember His teaching, which some later recorded in the New Testament. It also served to revive the disciples after their failure. In Acts 1:14, we find the disciples gathered together with one mind, devoting themselves to prayer, and eagerly waiting for the promised Holy Spirit to come. That unity and fervent prayer may be attributed to this temporary imparting of the Holy Spirit.
Just before Jesus ascended, He directly linked the power of the coming Spirit to the disciples’ future witness (Acts 1:8): “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” The Bible never commands us to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, because that is a one-time action that takes place at the moment of salvation (1 Cor. 12:13). But it does command us to be continually filled with the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit (Eph. 5:18; Gal. 5:16). Since the Spirit of God must open blind eyes and impart new life to sinners when they hear the gospel (2 Cor. 4:4-6; John 6:63), we must especially rely on the Spirit when we talk to people about the Lord.
A sobbing little girl stood near a small church from which she had been turned away because it "was too crowded." "I can’t go to Sunday School," she sobbed to the pastor as he walked by. Seeing her shabby, unkempt appearance, the pastor guessed the reason. Taking her by the hand, he took her inside and found a place for her in the Sunday School class. The child was so touched that she went to bed that night thinking of the children who have no place to worship Jesus.
Some two years later, this child lay dead in one of the poor tenement buildings and the parents called for the kind-hearted pastor, who had befriended their daughter, to handle the final arrangements. As her poor little body was being moved, a worn and crumpled purse was found which seemed to have been rummaged from some trash dump. Inside was found 57 cents and a note scribbled in childish handwriting. It read, "This is to help build the little church bigger so more children can go to Sunday school." For two years she had saved for this offering of love. When the pastor tearfully read that note, he knew instantly what he would. Carrying this note and the cracked, red pocketbook to the pulpit, he told the story of her unselfish love and devotion. He challenged his deacons to get busy and raise enough money for the larger building. But the story does not end there! A newspaper learned of the story and published it. It was read by a realtor who offered them a parcel of land worth many thousands. When told that the church could not pay so much, he offered it for a selling price of 57 cents.
Church members made large subscriptions. Checks came from far and wide. Within five years the little girl’s gift had increased to $250,000.00 - a huge sum for that time (near the turn of the century). Her unselfish love had paid large dividends. When you are in the city of Philadelphia, look up Temple Baptist Church, with a seating capacity of 3,300, and Temple University, where hundreds of students are trained. Have a look, too, at the Good Samaritan Hospital, and at a Sunday School building which houses hundreds of Sunday scholars, so that no child in the area will ever need to be left outside during Sunday school time.
In one of the rooms of this building may be seen the picture of the sweet face of the little girl whose 57 cents, so sacrificially saved, made such remarkable history. Alongside of it is a portrait of her kind pastor, Dr. Russell H. Conwell, author of the book Acres of Diamonds. This story tells us of a real life experience of the power of the Holy Spirit that comes up on people, regardless of their age or background. The risen Savior will equip anyone to proclaime the gospel by giving great peace, great proof, great purpose, and great power through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
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