Continuing The Living Christ's Mission

1. Jesus seeks His fearful disciples, v. 19.

The evening of this very eventful day, the first day of the week. It has been a day of unanticipated testimonies of those who say they have seen the crucified Lord alive.

Jewish time reckoning, which follows an evening then daytime format, would have moved this into the next day (Monday), but John is using Roman time, where evening follows daytime (Sunday evening).

Here the writer of this gospel refers to the disciples (not “brethren” as in verse 17). This points to them as being representatives (“firstfruits”?) of the whole Christian community of the future, which is significant in light of vs. 21-23.

The doors where the disciples were secured tightly; the reason was that the disciples feared the Jews. They had already killed their Master; they assumed that they too would be hunted down as His followers. The irony here is stark: on the greatest day in the history of the world, a day when God defeated death itself and inaugurated the restoration of His creation, His closest followers were not celebrating but cowering in fear.

It was into the scene that “Jesus came and stood” among them. It would appear from the language used that one of the characteristics of Jesus’ resurrected body was His ability to dematerialize and materialize at will. cf. v. 7. This is the final and climactic “coming” of the Lord to His people, John 1:9

John 1:9 NASB95

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

Jesus had said, I am coming to you” John 14:18

John 14:18 NASB95

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Compare John 14:28

John 14:28 NASB95

“You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

Jesus’ appearance must have startled the disciples. Jesus then says His first words to them: “Peace be with you.” This traditional Jewish salutation was full of significance in this context. In light of the OT’s use of the term shalom, its importance in the NT and in early Christianity, it is Christ’s use of the term points to the pronouncement of blessing and that the peace of God has now been made accessible through Jesus Christ. We see this evidenced later in every epistolary greeting of Paul in the NT which includes “peace” along with “grace,” for it is “the throne of grace” (20:12) which is the place of peace.

2. Jesus calms His disciples, vs. 20-21a.

We see, as Jesus said this, that He showed that whom they saw before them was not a ghost, but really Him, marked with the evidence of His very recent crucifixion, the place where the nails had gone through His wrists; the spear pierced side of their Rabbi.

But the display of wounds is not simply an act of identification, a proof to the disciples that the man standing in their midst is Jesus. Rather, they explain the source of his peace. The peace of God was entirely dependent on these specific wounds—the scars from the crucifixion declare shalom for the world. Isaiah was speaking about this very encounter when he announced: Isa. 53:5

Isaiah 53:5 NASB95

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

The disciples’ response after seeing these evidences was that of great rejoicing, of much gladness of heart. They couldn’t believe their eyes—it is too good to be true. You see, they had seen those whom Jesus had raised from the dead, a true resuscitation where those who where revived would later die again. But this was something different. Their response is not merely in regard to His presence but also His person; He is the resurrected “Lord.” His scar-filled presence declares the defeat of both sin and death; now they are beginning to understand the fullness of His person and work. As jesus had promised in John 16:20-24

John 16:20–24 NASB95

“Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. “In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.

The transformation occurred in the transformed presence of Jesus on the evening of the first Lord’s Day; an image of heavenly worship, with believers standing around Jesus and worshipping the slain Lamb of God, Rev. 5:11-12

Revelation 5:11–12 NASB95

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”

How can they share this? Who would believe them?

Jesus once again says, “Peace be with you.” This seems to be both an affirmation of what Jesus has done for them as well as a call to listen, to calm down, to not be distracted because He has something important to share with these disciples.

3. Jesus recommissions empowered disciples, vs. 21b-23.

The comparison Jesus uses is a likeness but not a replica; i.e. Jesus’s works, including His coming, having been sent from the Father, continue with permanent effect. John 5:36

John 5:36 NASB95

“But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.

Now Jesus will send His disciples to continue the mission of Jesus, in which He is actively at work through them by the Spirit of God.

the senders may be different: the Father sends, the Son sends;

the agents are different: the Son and the Son’s disciples; but

the overall mission is identical: declaring salvation through God’s Son, Jesus.

The disciples, with Jesus’ authorization, are the Son’s successors in mission. We as the church are to continue in that participation of the mission of God, which can never come to an end. We do so by remaining in Christ and receiving the Spirit.

They are to make disciples wherever they go, baptizing them in the name of the Triune God, and continually teaching them to follow Jesus’ teachings (Matt. 28:16-20). Their labors were to start in Jerusalem and fan out into the whole world (Luke 24:44-49/Acts 1:4-8).

After this, Jesus breathed on them and said, “receive the Holy Spirit.” The same verb translated “He breathed on” occurs in the LXX of Gen. 2:7 and Ezek. 37:9:

Genesis 2:7 NASB95

Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Ezekiel 37:9 NASB95

Then 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 come to life.” ’ ”

Note that there seems to be a new creation symbolized here.

The receiving here of the Holy Spirit was not simply a symbolic dramatization of a future event (Pentecost), a partial but actual anticipation of Pentecost, or even as some have called it, the “Johannine Pentecost.”

Here the action of Jesus “was a private empowerment of the Spirit given to a limited number of disciples (at least 10 - a Jewish minyan)) for the specific purpose of discharging Jesus’ ongoing mission; as opposed to the public outpouring of the Spirit on the whole Christian community, Acts 2:1-11. This is Jesus establishing a new creation, the church, as a ministering agent in the world, and by the same Spirit Jesus is empowering this new creation to do what Adam and others failed to do-- to be God’s representatives and ministers in the world.

Here in the last verse we look at today, as God’s agents continuing Christ’s mission, if the disciples declared certain people’s sins forgiven (on the basis of their confession and belief in the gospel), God will at once declare their sins forgiven- and forgiven they shall remain. likewise, if the disciples pronounce certain people’s sins unforgiven (on the basis of their refusal to repent and believe the gospel, God will at once declare their sins unforgiven-and unforgiven they will remain. The picture in the Greek text is a human pronouncement immediately ratified by God, rather than a human declaration being a reflection of an earlier divine decree. This is like the “binding” and “loosing” of Matt. 16:19

Matthew 16:19 NASB95

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

and Matt. 18:18

Matthew 18:18 NASB95

“Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

The message of the church is the forgiveness of sins through Christ, and the mission of the church is to liberate the world from the power of sin.

Let us remember this: it is not merely the church’s words that declare the gospel but its very existence; the life of the church witnesses to the nature of forgiveness that has been embraced both within the church and extended outside the church. The resurrected presence of the Lord by the Spirit is now with his people in such a way that the church’s ministry is ultimately his ministry (see 13:20: “the one who receives the one I send receives me”), with the church serving as the God-established “embassy of salvation and eternal life” in the world.