We Must Obey God

19 So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

26 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

The first question from Christians unfamiliar with Lectionaries is - why do we have these? We’re Christians.

Well, the answer is, Lectionaries are of ancient origins. Second Temple Judaism was a liturgical religion, although to the unfamiliar it seems a little like a madness or confusion. You read through your prayerbook, usually as fast as you can. Some people who read Hebrew faster than others race ahead, then have to wait for everyone to catch up. So some people are reading one prayer, others reading two pages ahead. After that, the reading of the word was done from Torah Scrolls. The first five books of moses were read on a yearly cycle, with excerpts from the prophets and the writings. For those unable to attend, smaller scrolls were available. During post-second temple Judaism, the use of codexes or books came into use - they last longer if you bind them. A Torah Scroll is about a year’s wages, and collecting all the other scrolls of the prophets and the writings would take the average family three years’ wages. Think of a Bible being hand written, no chapter or verse numbers, bulky, and costing about $120,000

Yes, like that. So they made lower cost books that combined all of the yearly readings into one volume or book, with a cover so it would last generations. A much better value, and think of spending a fifth of the price to buy one. So people would gather at the Rabbi’s house, where the wealthier town members would commission a Chumash - which is what one of these lectionaries would be called.

When Gentiles began joining the churches, they kept the tradition, but added readings from the New Testament in as well. We’ve used lectionaries since essentially the time of Daniel.

This church won’t do the weekly Lectionary cycle, but I wanted to do a few weeks of it to give everyone an appreciation and familiarity with the Jewish roots of the church.

While we have only a short section to discuss, there is a lot here theologically.

Most of Jesus’s appearances after His Resurrection were on the first day of the week. Those who obsess about a seventh day Sabbath gloss over this fact. the Reformers were unanimous on the Sunday Sabbath, the first day of the week.

The first Sabbath was indeed the seventh day, celebrating the Lord’s resting on the Seventh day to enjoy what He had created. However, this creation will be undone at the end of the Millennium, and we will enter the Eschaton, or the eternity.

The Lord’s Day is a herald of this, a looking forward to our eternal rest in the Kingdom. a New Heaven and a New Earth is what we look forward to, dwelling with Christ living amongst us.

The Seventh Day Sabbath was cast about and bound with restrictions. The Lord’s day is not - merely that we sanctify the day. It is a day given to hearing the word, to prayer, to praise and worship.

On the seventh day, you could not light a fire or carry a burden in or out of your house. On the first day of the week, the only commands are that we sanctify the day, forsake not the assembling of ourselves, collect offerings and attend the public reading of the word of God.

We are commanded to observe the ordinances of the church. Some of our Reformed brothers call them sacraments - we show charity in what is after all only a name. As Reformed Baptists, we seek to observe these as memorials, and to look past them to the founder of our faith, the living God Himself, Jesus Christ.

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 2

13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of bour great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

At the time that Jesus appeared to His disciples, they were in hiding for fear. Fear of discovery, fear of arrest, fear of death.

Something happened that transformed these men from fearful to courageous, from the fear of death to the willingness to die for the Gospel.

This is the event. Jesus comes into their midst into a locked room, appearing to them except for Thomas. It doesn’t take a whole lot of convincing and argument for them to believe when Jesus - who they watched die on the cross and be buried - appears to them in the middle of a room whose door is locked.

εἰρήνη ὑμῖν - peace be unto you. This is the Greek version of Shalom Aleychem. It’s a common enough Jewish greeting, but if we stop to exposit this, we’ll be here for hours so...

In case you’re wondering when the twelve disciples become the twelve apostles, this is the scene. The word for “Sent one” in Hebrew is Shluchim שלחים, in Greek it is ἀποστέλλω. John 17:18 “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” is the promise or commission, and now they are actually sent. Another way of reading this is that they were sent in John 17, this builds on that and reinforces or is the actual sending. I don’t see in the text any hint that this is a, “I sent you, why haven’t you gone?”

John MacArthur has some interesting points on the next passage. We’ll put off discussion of the Holy Spirit for a later day, because the more important section is the next one.

The Roman church uses the next verse to show the power of Auricular Confession to priests and their authority to forgive sins based upon confession and penance.

This is a gross misunderstanding of the text, and certainly it’s a case of misuse when you advocate tradition over Scripture to then use Scripture when it’s convenient. Rome champions the use of allegorical interpretation over literal - except when it’s convenient. As Reform Christians, we adhere to the principles of the Reformation - Post Tenebres Lux, from Darkness into light, Ad Fontes, to the original languages and to Scripture, and Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone.

It’s a very worthwhile endeavor to study church history - it lets you see how the Christian church deviated slowly into error, until the Reformation brought the church out of darkness. Sometime soon I’ll get to the principles of the Reformation, and we’ll go over the five Solas.

When we teach a new convert that their sins are forgiven we are fulfilling John 20:23. If we teach an impenitent sinner that they remain in their sins, we fulfill John 20:23.

A believer in Christ can boldly proclaim to the world that Christ died for their sins. And this is the most obvious reason for this verse being here.

“Peace be unto you. As my Father sent Me, so Send I you - teach the world if they believe their sins are forgiven.”

One of the biggest problems in the modern church is fortune cookie Scripture. We read verses on bumper stickers and agree. We hear a verse spoken out of context and we praise God. Yet the modern Christian church has by and large forgotten that these verses were written as part of a larger context. They have a home within a larger unit of thought. This is called a pericope, a unit of thought. Scripture is written within pericopes. John 3:16 cannot be read and interpret apart from its context, which is the entire pericope of Jesus speaking to Nicodemus at night. The Bible nerd within me wants to tell you that Nicodemus was probably pronounced Nakdimon, but we’d get derailed into a lengthy lesson on pronouncing Bible names and why anyone who says Haggai as Hag-ee-ai should probably be hanged by their thumbs outside the sanctuary until they repent. But as usual, I’d be digressing.

If you read the verses in their context you see Jesus greet the apostles - shalom aleychem or Eirene, depending on language - commission their sending out, and then the message they are to give. It’s not a disjointed collection of sayings on multiple subjects - nobody speaks like that intentionally unless they’re indulging in excessive caffeinated sports drinks.

This brings me - quickly - to the last of the points today in Acts 5:17-32 and our other Scriptures, that the Apostles went out and preached this very message - there is now forgiveness of sins.

Acts 5:31 “He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.”

Christ is the prince, the savior, the king, and the judge. To the believer He is a redeemer, the king who fights our battles, the wise teacher, the law bringer, and our sin offering, our passover sacrifice.

To the unbeliever, He is the judge, the avenger of blood, the one who brings the curses and plagues of Egypt. He is the one who condemns the reprobate to eternal punishment, and we see Him in this role speaking to the church in Revelation 1:4-18.

Lastly, there is a theme of teaching the Gospel as well. Acts 5:27-29 “When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.”

This is the call to the modern church - resist the pressure from society, from the culture, from Bible teachers who want us to preach a socially acceptable message . The only message worth preaching is Christ and Him Crucified, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection of the dead, and the judgment of the living and the dead.

Lord, we ask you to strengthen these truths in our hearts. Help us to remain faithful to the message in your word, to preach Christ and the forgiveness of sins, and the judgment to come. Send us forth to proclaim your word Lord, and keep us, your sheep, close to You, our shepherd. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’”

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