Today, we’re going to be continuing in our Ministry of Jesus series. And so over the last two weeks, we’ve been studying out events that have happened on the day that Jesus rose. So Jesus is on a I’m back tour. So he’s appearing to different people, and he’s proving the fact that, hey, you remember what I said about dying? And I want you to see that what I said about rising has happened. This is him. He’s here physically. And so to summarize what we walked through the past two weeks of these post-resurrection encounters so far, today, we’re actually going to be working on and studying out the third. But the first scenario, we saw Jesus appear to Mary Magdalene. We saw an example there of sorrow turned to joy. And then in the second scenario, he appears to men on the road to a town called Emmaus. And that’s an example of doubt, these men doubting, but then coming to a place where they have belief that they believe. And so today we’re going to be looking at a circumstance of people moving from fear to peace. But then when that peace is understood and that peace is grasped, what does that propel you towards?
What does that propel them towards? So we’re going to be spending most of our time in John 20, so you can join me there today. And if you don’t have a Bible, are you? No worries. We’re going to have the passage up here on the screen. So we’ll start off in John 20:19. Verse 19 says this, 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. ‘ So on the evening of this inaugural Resurrection Sunday, a group of disciples are gathered in a home with their doors locked. They’re in fear of the fact that the Jewish leaders are probably going to come to them and give them pretty much the same fate that they just saw their rabbi suffer, the fact that he was arrested, that he was tortured, and ultimately put to death on a cross. And so even within in that gloomy circumstance, I find it encouraging that they were still together at a time like this. They aren’t convinced at this point that Jesus has risen from the dead, but their relationships to one another has grown to a place that even in a time where their rabbi is gone, they were still willing to be together looking out for each other.
The latter portion of this verse, we see Jesus arrives among them. The doors are locked, and yet he still is among them. He arrives. Now, we get no indication of Jesus knocking at the door. We don’t see anything that’s like, Hey, he got in through a window or through a back door. So I’m not exactly sure how all this happened, but I do know his body is different now that he’s resurrected. He’s both supernatural and natural. So he’s natural enough that they can touch him, that they can see him. But he’s also supernatural in a way where he’s able to just appear. He was just spending time with the guys on the road to Emmaus. He spent some time with them, and then he just disappears from their sight. So again, I don’t know exactly how it happened here, but his body does not have the same properties as our earthly bodies. We can’t just say, Okay, after church, I’m home. That’s not how that’s happening. But Jesus probably could have done that. I’m done with this meal in Emmaus. I’m out of here. So he appears in this room and the doors are locked.
And we also get to see in the account in the Book of Luke, in Luke Chapter 24, it shows that Jesus appears. When he appears and says, Hey, peace be with you, that actually startles the men that are there. So they’re already afraid of the Jewish leaders, and they’re afraid because they have that little temple police. These are the guys that came with clubs, swords, all that stuff to arrest their rabbi. So they’re already in fear of those men. And so now their fear has pretty much evolved from, wow, men are coming to maybe cause harm to us. And now we have a ghost here. I’m already stressed. And now what is happening with a ghost appears appearing within this living area. So they’re already gripped with this fear. And I want you to capture the first words out of Jesus’s mouth as he appears to them. Christ could have said anything. Jesus lived and sacrificed much to serve these men. He loved them. He taught them, protected them, and invested in them. And we know what they did in terms of repaying Jesus with them abandoning him. Jesus had the chance to retaliate. His first words could have been immediately to rebuke them, to explain how they’re not loyal, how he needed them so much in that time, and they just ran away.
He could have led the Jewish leaders right to where they were. You’re looking for those men? This is the spot. I know exactly where they are. And while they’re being arrested in a similar fashion, Jesus could be like, So remember what you did when I was going through that? You walked away. Now watch me do the same. Jesus could have done these things, but Rather than retaliation, rather than shaming them for their actions, he powerfully states, ‘Peace be with you. You, the man, the men that have abandoned me. ‘ ‘Peace be with you. ‘ Now, peace means a lot of different things to different people. It depends on what circumstance you’re in. So if you’re in a circumstance of conflict, then peace is, okay, we’re done fighting, and we actually have worked it out. We’re good. We’re not stuck there anymore. Or those living hectic lives, maybe peace is you get a vacation. You’re able to fly to an island and just enjoy that. Or if you have a troubled mind, peace is like, now my brain is not running or thinking about a bunch of things. Now I can finally fall asleep. Maybe those are different elements of inner tranquility that bring you peace.
But the Greek term for this word in this passage is this. It’s ‘I, rene’, can you say that? ‘I, rene’, I like that. So the word could be used for a greeting, but it can also be used for a farewell. So it means to be in a state of tranquility. It means peace between individuals. So Jesus, as usual, is right on time with a calming word of encouragement to his disciples. The compassion that he shows knowing the emotional roller coaster that these men have been on the last few weeks. They’ve watched a great friend of theirs, their rabbi, be arrested, though he did no wrong. They watched as he was brutally tortured and eventually died on a cross, a gruesome death. And now in fear that that’s going to happen to them. This is terrible. But he knows the toll that it’s had on them, and he’s there for them. And I feel comforted knowing that this is also what Jesus does with us. I think about the passage in Hebrews where it speaks about how nothing is hidden before God. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the one that we need to give account to.
And so I usually think about my sin in that, and that’s true. But I also am comforted knowing that he sees the difficulty that all of us are going through. He sees that, and And it’s something that he cares about more than you care about it. He cares about it more than your family, more than your spouse. He cares about that deeper than anybody can. And I’m comforted to see that example here with these men. His word is full of reminders that he is faithful and working out the good of those who love him and that he sees what we’re going through. But as we continue in verse 20, it says, After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Lord. So shortly after these encouraging words, Jesus begins to do some more to help them be ushered towards the peace that he’s speaking of. But he does that with his actions. He provided them evidence that it’s really him. It’s him in the flesh. He’s not some ghost. It’s not some apparition, and their eyes are not deceiving them. So he provides credentials to prove that he’s physically among them.
So he shows them where the nails pierced his hands, as well as where that Roman soldier stabbed him on to make sure or to confirm that Jesus was dead. We learn from the account in Luke that he also shows his nail pierced feet, and he also eats some broiled fish with them to show further proof that he’s physically resurrected. How gracious of him, of Christ, to provide concrete evidence. That’s amazing. All to show his followers how hard… I’m sorry, all to show his followers who had a hard time believing that he has actually risen from the dead, that he indeed has conquered death. After the disciples witnessed the proofs that only Jesus could supply, they finally come to believe this is really him. And the disciples are overjoyed. My first time reading this, I read overjoyed like just calm. I’m just reading through a story of overjoyed. But that idea can be glossed over. But this is like to explode with joy. So I don’t know why, but when I think about I’m exploding with joy. I just think about sports. So I think about a lot of us here are heat fans, right? If you are a heat fan?
All right, cool. A little less than I thought. All right, no worries. So I remember the heat, game six against the Spurs. What happened? They were supposed to lose. If you go back and look at that highlight and you look at the crowd, you’re seeing people that have spent a lot of money like, wow. We’re going to lose like this. We have LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Ray. And then Ray hits that shot that no one was expecting him to hit. And you see immediately that whole arena, people all over South Florida of people all over the place overjoyed, overjoyed. And you know what that looks like. That’s not a, oh, my. Yay. That’s not what’s happening here. There is extreme excitement. Or for other examples, I remember whenever I first started, when I asked my wife to be my girlfriend, we’re at FIU, we’re at a little, I don’t know, it’s a bungalow or whatever that thing is called. It was by a lake. But she says yes, and I was like, Give me a second. And I turn around. I’m not going to yell here because I got a mic, and that’s not good. But I turn around and I’m like, Let’s go.
And I scream. So I scream. And then all my friends know because they were hiding, but they know, okay, she said yes, they come out and we celebrate. So the same thing happened when I proposed. So when she said yes, I didn’t turn around. I just screamed. We were on a I screamed, and my friends come out and we celebrate. But there was a situation of being overjoyed. That’s not a, oh, you want to marry me? You better. It wasn’t that. It was exciting. I think about other situations where my friends are like, Man, I’m praying for a job. Can you pray with me? I’m hoping that I land this job. I turned in my resume. I did all these different things. And when they get it, that phone call like, Bro, they called me. They hired. I have another interview. Even the interview is something that causes some overjoy. And then when they land the job, that sense of overjoyed. I think about friends that find out that they’re pregnant, and they’re able to experience that or to be approved for your first home. There is overjoyed situations or to overcome an addiction or for an illness to leave you that you’ve been dealing with for a while.
You are overcome with joy. But this moment that we’re speaking about within this text, it’s beyond all of what we’re talking about. It’s well beyond all of those those things. They’re beautiful, they’re amazing, they’re awesome. But this is so much more important. And so while they’re celebrating this much more important situation, Jesus has more to say to them. Again, Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you. He repeats his initial words, but why would he say the same thing again? When we see repetition throughout the scriptures, it’s safe to assume that God is trying to get our attention. And as we grow more and more familiar with the Bible, we see that Jesus does not waste a word. Everything he says is spoken by him with wisdom, with power and purpose. So when he repeats himself, we would do well to do our best to try to capture the reason. They are mid-celebration. They’re in mid of them being overjoyed. They’re going crazy. And rather than going on to join them, I I don’t know if they’re moshing or they’re jumping around and doing a bunch of that, but he’s like, What I just said, peace be with you.
We spoke earlier about how this word peace can mean tranquility. It can mean calmness. But another way that it can be used is also to communicate, to be complete, to be whole, to lack nothing. The disciples were familiar with the term, but Jesus having to repeat it, especially in a moment like this, it seems like they’ve missed what he intended them to understand. They missed that it’s not just about some peace or just being calm or not fearing the Jewish leaders anymore. It’s about more than that. It’s about being complete, being made whole. But this reminds me of growing When I was growing up, my parents would tell me, Clean my room. So I had this chest with a bunch of toys. I’m maybe seven years old. I had a chest, a football-looking chest, and I would dump all my toys out of it, and I would scatter it across my room. And I would make sure that my whole floor is just covered with these toys. And so I watched this movie. It’s called Iron Giant. If you haven’t seen it, it’s like a Gazilla thing. Hey, sounds good. So the Iron Giant. And so I’ll put all the toys on the ground, but then I would act like the Iron Giant, and I’ll just step on all of them as a little kid.
And so my mom or my dad comes in. It’s like, Hey, clean this up. Clean your room. And so I start just dragging all my toys into my closet. And so I’m like, All right, my room is clean. The toys aren’t on the floor here. They’re just over here. So So my mom comes in, my dad comes in. Oh, nice. You clean the room. They go straight to the closet. And they see my mess, and they’re like, Clean your room. So they told me earlier, And how I responded actually shows that I had partial understanding. And I think that’s what’s going on with the disciples. Peace be with you. It’s not just calm down. It’s more full than that. Clean your room. It’s not just get the toys off the floor and just throw them all into your closet. It’s like, make sure this is clean. And so I love that in these two times that Jesus is communicating this, he’s making sure they don’t miss what he’s saying. It’s beyond feeling tranquil. It’s beyond feeling less fear. Here, these words about peace being with you are actually like a compliment or a continuation of the words that Jesus said while he was on the cross, it is finished.
It is finished so peace can actually be with you. It is It is finished, so now you can be complete. It is finished. Understand what’s really being said. Peace may be actually with you now. Actual peace. The peace that Jesus came to Earth to offer all of us. The greatest degree of peace attainable is what Jesus has achieved for us. A peace that impacts not only the now of life, but also our eternity. That through his peace, through his perfect life, through his death on the cross, he brought about an opportunity for for us to have our sins forgiven, to be reconciled with God. This peace being with us is this. It’s salvation. Jesus isn’t speaking about, Hey, just have some peace. I know today was tough. It wasn’t just that. It was, Hey, have peace, even if today and tomorrow are tough, eternity will be good. Eternity will be peaceful. This is eternal peace. You can’t have your football team win a game and experience eternal peace. You can be at peace that they finally they got a W, but that’s not eternal. A peace that lasts through the trials that we face physically.
This is a peace that lasts beyond the grave. This is God showing he’s willing to work out eternal peace on our behalf and allow us to enjoy it, to enter it, and to interact with him within that. With Jesus having the power to be able to work out that peace, we’re talking eternity. That power establishes confidence in me that he can handle, he can take care of the things that are causing me some chaos now. The things that are maybe stressing me today about my family or different circumstances that I have going on personally. When I remember the eternal peace that has been set up by his death, his burial, and his resurrection, these things, if I’m confident about this, these things, they don’t hold the same weight. They don’t do the same to me. They don’t hold me down the same because this is going to end soon. This peace does not end. This piece will last forever. And so I hope that as we’re reminded that this is something for you as well. This is encouraging. These are the things when I read John 10:10, and I see that, okay, it’s life to the full, and I see how the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, I see him trying to steal our understanding of this peace.
I see him trying to kill our understanding of this piece. I see him trying to destroy it amongst each other. But as I focus more on the scriptures, I see God defending it, God making sure that we understand, Hold on to this. Don’t let this go. And there’s repetition of this piece over and over again. But God is so good. What an undeserved gift this is. But it’s a gift that was given willingly by Christ. We understand that our actions are accompanied by a wage, most of us, at least. The fact that what we reap is what we sow. The The idea of the wage of our sin is us earning death. It’s earning death, but also that we’re enemies to God. But through the death of Christ, we have the chance to no longer be enemies of God, to no longer expect that, hey, our wages of that sin will be paid with death, but for us to actually be reconciled to him, to be adopted into his family. So after Jesus repeats this peace, after repeating peace be with you, Jesus continues to address those that are in the room. And he has something profound to say.
It’s simple, it’s short, but it’s profound. Verse 21. So again, Jesus said, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. After making sure that the disciples capture the heart of what’s being communicated to them, he goes on to explain to them what being impacted by the salvation of God is connected to. With being at peace with God, with experiencing salvation, they are being given a mission. They are being sent in the same way the Father has sent him. This is the great commission in the Book of John, but this commission is being compared to how Jesus was sent. So it should get us to ask ourselves a question, why did the Father send Jesus to the world? This seems like a simple Bible Trivia question, and I ask in hopes that you would actually to give it some thought. How well we understand the answer to this question will be shown in how we go about what he has commissioned us to do. So if you understand it well, then we will act in a way that proves that. It’ll show in your love for the lost. It’ll show in how we neglect pursuing our own comforts, and instead, we choose to value the others above ourselves.
Our understanding of the fact that we have been sent not only to continue the mission of Jesus that he was sent to do, but to do it like like him. We are sent like Jesus, not just to do, hey, do one %, do our best to do what he did. But what was he sent to do? We understand that he was sent to seek and save the lost. His purpose was bringing about opportunity of restoration for all humanity to God. His purpose was to work out peace be with you for everyone. Think about the best known passage to the world. It’s probably debatable, but when you think about John 3:16, it tells us a bit about why he was sent. John 3:16 and 17, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Throughout the gospel of John, Jesus is described as sent over 30 times. That word of he, he was sent to 30 times that is being brought up.
The Father sent Jesus for gospel and evangelistic purposes. The Son was sent into the world to save sinners, to give them eternal peace. So you, if you have been a recipient, then you should be one who is also a broker of peace. If you’ve received that eternal peace, then you should be one that’s not like, Hey, I’m gatekeeping. I’m going to hold on to this. You should be someone that’s spreading that. You should be someone that’s having conversations to try to help people understand it and not be one that’s, Hey, it didn’t work out that time. I’m done. But a continuation because it probably didn’t land that fast on you. Whenever you found out about the opportunity to embrace a piece of God, you probably didn’t drop everything in that moment. It took some time. It took some time. But being willing to do that for other people. This is expected by God. It’s expected that, okay, we’ve been impacted, but now we go on and we impact. It’s a theme. It’s an emphasis. And Jesus sets the example. Continuing in verse 22, it says, And with that, he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy spirit.
‘ The words here, and with that, give us a link between the commission and receiving the spirit. Those things are together. The call to go into the world and be on the same mission that Jesus was on and do it in a way that truly emulates him is impossible for us to do on our own volition. It’s impossible. The task that’s been given is a challenging one, one that Jesus knows we need much help with. So he gives us the perfect advocate in the Holy spirit. After the commission, he breathes on them and says, receive the Holy spirit. Does that remind you of any other passages that you’ve read in the Bible? What are you thinking about? Genesis. Genesis 2, God breathing the breath of life into Adam. I also think about Ezequiel 37, where God tells Ezequiel to breathe on these dry bones, and they begin to come to life. Jesus here is breathing the new breath into his followers, breathing the spirit on them so they become empowered to do his will. The breath of God is the source of the power. The spirit is what gives us the power necessary to truly participate in what we’re being sent to do.
We can’t do this mission that the Father has sent Jesus to do without the Holy spirit. We’re commissioned by the Prince of peace, but then we are given the spirit of peace. The passage of scripture has been such a… This passage has been such an encouragement for me to study out, seeing the compassion of Jesus towards these men that have had a really, really rough time. His commitment to those trying to follow him, his willingness to sacrifice so much and give us peace that transcends all understanding, to trust us with the mission he was entrusted with, to equip us properly for it, not just to say, Hey, go out to figure it out, and not give us the correct means to actually accomplish that. I pray that through whatever trials you may be feeling or be going through, whatever may be impacting you over the course of this season, that this reminder of eternal peace remains through everything. And I hope that it be a source of encouragement to you, that Jesus has been faithful in doing what he said he would do, and that we have a beautiful duty to be brokers of peace because of it.
As we wrap up here, I just wanted to read one more passage. It’s in Philippians 2, if you wanted to join me there. Philippians 2, it says, Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, having the same love, being one in spirit and one of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ, Jesus, who being In very nature, God rather… Who being in very nature, God, rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in an appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exaltet him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
And every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. Church, I pray that we be encouraged to live in that peace. And if we haven’t discovered that peace that we search for it and that we get the help that we need here. Let’s go, God and pray. Thank you. Father, thank you again for your scriptures. I thank you for how many details are described to us and how different conversations have happened and how we can relate so much to what goes on in these situations. God, I pray that we be people. If we’ve experienced this peace, this peace of salvation, that we would be people that take it seriously, be brokers of it. God, and if we haven’t, that people here can be able to seek that peace with you. But God, I’m ultimately impacted so much by the compassion that you had. God, for you not to retaliate, I just see how much of a difference there is between you and me. God, I could imagine if I had the opportunity to be in your shoes and go through all of that and have the power that your son had.
And I see how I wouldn’t handle things exactly the same. But God, thank you that even though I can have those temptations or have those kinds of thoughts, God, you look at me and say, peace be with you. God, and when I don’t understand it, you say it again, peace be with you. God, I pray that we continue to grow in our appreciation of the way that you repeat yourself and help us. Your grace, your ability to be patient with us. God, help us to keep taking steps towards you. Lord, we love you. We pray that you guard us from the evil one. Help us to know that you are trying to protect the peace that you give us. You are trying to protect us, but help us to grow and being able to protect ourselves and our friends as well. God, I love you. Thank you. See you’m seeing your sons, then we pray. Amen.