Peace Be With You

John 20:19-21

John 20:19–21 ESV

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

The first Easter Sunday. The apostles are hiding in a locked house. For fear of the Jews.

We talk about Peter being scared for his life and denying Christ, but we shouldn’t forget that they all abandoned Christ when he was arrested. They all were scared for their lives.

Now, we find them hiding, scared. I’m sure they felt lost, disappointed, defeated, angry, depressed, maybe even questioning their decision to follow Jesus.

They had left their jobs to follow Him.

They had traveled around the country, sometimes having no place to sleep, missing several meals, giving up a lot of comfort to follow Him. And now He was dead, so they thought.

They were gathered in a locked house, scared of the broken world outside the doors. Confused about their future, what they should do next.

I thought what would I have been doing if I was there with the apostles. Would I have been hiding in that room, feeling sorry for myself.

Truth is. When I think about it. I probably wouldn’t have made it to the room. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have got to the garden of Gethsamene to have the chance to abandon Christ.

Do you think you would have?

I can’t say for sure that I would have left my home, family, and job to follow Him in the first place. Sounds terrible, but lets be honest. How many times are we willing to give up the slightest bit of comfort for God’s will? Much less leave everything we know and love to follow Him.

And if we did leave home, how long would we have stayed with Him?

Constantly going where Jesus wanted to go, doing what Jesus wanted to do, eating or not eating, sleeping wherever you were (bed or no bed) Not getting to call our own shots, not getting to do what we wanted to do when we wanted to do it.

I mean think about it, today, if you want to do something outside of God’s will, do you do it? Do you do things that you wouldn’t do if you were with Jesus? Do you say things that you wouldn’t say around Jesus, or have attitudes that you wouldn’t want to have around Jesus? If so, you would probably be very uncomfortable spending everyday in the presence of Jesus. We might have got tired of having to oppress our feelings and desires and turned around and went home. So we could be “ourselves”

Jesus was brutally honest out of love. We don’t do well with that sort of honesty. We need our ego’s stroked and our feelings handled with care. We are offended if we are told we are wrong, or people don’t cater to our feelings. Jesus just told it like it was. He called Peter, Satan. We probably would have had our feelings hurt, been offended, started pouting and went home.

So let’s not be to judgemental of the apostles. They had believed, loved and followed Jesus this far.

Then Jesus appears in the room with them.

John 20:19–20 ESV

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

Jesus says, Peace be with you

Jesus wants them to be at peace. He wants their fears to be relieved, their anger to subside, their worry to turn to hope, to give them some certainty in uncertain times.

He shows His wounds that He suffered on the cross, as confirmation that it was indeed Him.

The apostles were “Glad”

The word used for Glad is the same word used many times to mean ‘rejoice”

Obviously, they were glad to see Jesus alive. Their teacher, the one who they had followed all around the country, had overcome death. He was standing with them.

I believe at this moment their faith became full. They finally truly understood who Jesus was and everything that He had taught, everything that He had promised.

They had been with Him during His ministry. They believed what He taught. They knew He could work miracles. But I think it is obvious that they didn’t truly understand everything He said, they didn’t really grasp what His purpose was and what that meant for each of them and all the world.

I believe in this moment, They began to truly understand it. Who He was, what He had done, what He had accomplished on the cross. That understanding gave them peace. It caused them to rejoice. And it didn’t just last for a moment. That peace and rejoicing stayed with them throughout the rest of their lives. And not just in the good times, they rejoiced always even when persecuted.

Acts 5:40–41 ESV

and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

Acts 16:23–25 ESV

And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,

Even tough times, serious persecution couldn’t stop the rejoicing of the apostles. They had an inner peace and gladness that the world couldn’t touch. Why? because they understood who Jesus was and what He had done for them. They KNEW He would fulfill every promise ever made to them.

I’m afraid a lot of us still don’t have that sort of peace and gladness. We like the apostles before the appearing of Jesus, believe but don’t truly understand what that means. We don’t truly grasp what has been done for us and what our future holds. We can’t get past our current situation to rejoice for what our future holds.

Jesus says, “Peace be with you”

He wants you to be at peace and rejoice in your salvation that He has given you. To understand that your relationship with Him is greater and better than any trouble that you face in this life, in this world.

He says, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” He wants you to have peace, and just as importantly take that peace out of your locked room and into a broken world. To rejoice for the world to see, even when we are persecuted. Even when the world and the people in it cause us trouble, whether that is physical harm, emotional harm, if we are uncomfortable,or we are insulted, whatever comes our way, we should have peace and gladness, because we still have Jesus!