About this sermon
On the evening of the first resurrection Sunday, Jesus stands among his frightened disciples and says, ‘Peace be with you.’ He shows them his hands and his side, proof that he rose bodily from the dead. His appearances on the first day of the week mark the Lord’s Day, the Christian Sabbath, as the day his church gathers for worship. He breathes on them, gives them the Spirit, and sends them out with authority to declare the forgiveness of sins to all who repent and believe.
Sermon transcript
of God’s Word as we consider my sermon text for this evening, which is a continuation of the text this morning. Tonight, I’ll be preaching from the Gospel of John. John chapter 20, verses 19 through 23. John 20, verses 19 through 23. Jesus, this is the resurrection Sunday. Sunday in which our Lord Jesus had risen from the dead. So the tomb is empty. Jesus has risen. And that brings us to our text for this evening. Let us hear God’s holy word. 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. And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side.
The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, I also send you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for God to bless the proclamation of his word this evening. Oh, Heavenly Father, we rejoice that the tomb is empty, that the Savior is risen and that you have given us life and hope. We pray, Heavenly Father, that by your Holy Spirit, you would once again illuminate our minds and our hearts this evening, help us to perceive wondrous things from your word.
And once again, we ask that you would set a guard over my lips, that I might speak only that which is faithful. Only that which brings glory to your name and is in accord with this passage that we are considering. We ask that you would edify us, build us up, strengthen us in our faith this evening and deepen our joy in Christ, our resurrected Lord. For we pray all of these things in Jesus name and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. If you’re helped by listening for key words, there’s only three this evening. The words, risen, peace, and Christ. Well, dear ones, on the cross, our Lord Jesus had proclaimed, according to John 19, verse 30, it is finished. It is finished. Christ has accomplished the work of redemption. The work that the Father had given Him to do.
The work that He had been sent to this earth to accomplish. On the third day, He rose from the dead. The tomb is now empty and the resurrected Lord has begun to appear to His disciples. Now friends, our passage for this Lord’s Day evening records a very significant resurrection appearance of Christ to His disciples as Jesus appears to His disciples on the evening of this Resurrection Sunday. As we consider our text for this Lord’s Day evening, let us first consider the significance of our Lord’s appearance to His disciples on the first day of the week. What is the nature of our Lord’s post-resurrection appearance on this occasion, and indeed on all the occasions when He appears to His disciples? Well, Christ appeared to His disciples in His resurrection body in physical form. It says again, verses 19 and 20, 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, the disciples here, they’re fearful.
They’re fearful. They’ve seen what has been done to their Master. And they perhaps fear that the similar fate awaits them. So they are behind locked doors, hiding for fear of the Jews. And John’s use of that term, the Jews, is often used to refer to the Jewish authorities who were hostile to Jesus. But here they are, huddled behind locked doors, anxious, afraid. And who should come and stand in their midst? It says, Jesus came and stood in their midst. And what does He say to them? They might expect from Him words of rebuke. After all, they had all abandoned Him. Peter had denied Him three times. And all but the Apostle John had abandoned Him. But He does not come to scold them. He does not come to upbraid them. He says, peace be with you.
Peace be with you. He has secured our peace on the cross. He has appeared to them proclaiming peace. And when He had said this, what does He do? He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. The resurrected Lord Jesus Christ was not a ghost. He was not a hallucination. He was not a figment of the disciples imagination. He was there in his resurrection body. The fact that He showed them His hands and His side, which still bore the marks of the nail prints and the spear thrust, and still even today in heavenly glory, our resurrected Lord Jesus’ body still has those marks and will for all eternity. All of this indicates that our Lord’s resurrection from the dead involved the raising of His body from the dead.
That same body that had been placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, that same body that had been so brutalized and crucified, that same body has been glorified now. Physically, bodily, supernaturally, miraculously raised from the dead. Some of a more liberal or modernist persuasion will say things like, well, of course I believe in the resurrection of Jesus. Or they like to talk about, yeah, I hold an Easter faith. But they don’t really mean what the Bible means or what historic Christianity teaches. They don’t really believe that the body of Jesus came up from the dead. They simply believe that this is a symbol, a metaphor for the renewal of hope, the resurrection of new hope. But there would be no resurrection or renewal of hope in the hearts and lives of the disciples if their Master was still rotting in the grave.
Praise be to God, the modernists are wrong. Jesus has risen. literally, physically, bodily risen from the dead. The only resurrection that the scriptures know is a physical bodily resurrection. And John’s gospel, as all the gospel accounts and all the scriptures bear testimony to this resurrection. So one of the important truths that we learn in this passage is that Christ appeared to his disciples in his resurrected, glorified body in physical form. At the same time, the gospel accounts would indicate that our Lord’s resurrected body seemed to have new qualities, heightened qualities, and that he seemed to be able to appear and disappear at will. Here the disciples are behind closed doors, and all of a sudden, Jesus appears to them. How did he do that? Was he hiding in the room before they knew it? Well, again, the text doesn’t directly tell us, but the impression that we get here is that he just appeared, but he didn’t appear to them as a ghost as they, I think it’s Luke’s gospel says that at first, when they saw him, they think they think he’s a ghost.
And then Jesus says, you have something to eat. I’m paraphrasing, of course, and they give him a piece of fish and he eats in their presence. Not only that here. On this particular occasion, he actually shows them his hands with the nail prints on his side. And so they rejoice. They believe because he has been raised from the dead. But again, his resurrection body has different heightened, glorified qualities to it. And that’s significant because when we are raised from the dead, we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Our bodies are glorified bodies. There will be continuity with our present bodies. They will not be new bodies. They will be resurrected bodies and yet glorified bodies with new and heightened qualities adapted to living in the new heavens and the new earth in the eschatological new creation.
A couple of takeaways from what we’ve considered so far. John emphasizes here the physical nature of our Lord’s resurrection body, and that’s very significant. One of the things that is not known by many Christians is that one of the earliest heresies that arose in the early Christian church was not a heresy that denied the deity of Christ. Christ’s Godhood, his deity was affirmed by the church from the very beginning. But one of the earliest heresies influenced by pagan Greek philosophy was a heresy that either denied or downplayed our Lord’s real humanity, his physical body. John’s emphasis on the physical nature of our Lord’s resurrection body refutes those heretics and false teachers in the early church who denied our Savior’s real incarnation and genuine humanity. You see, again, it was so important that our Lord be both God and man.
That’s the only way that he can save us from our sins. Because only God has the power to save us wretches from our sin. Sin being such a serious affront to our infinitely holy Creator. And yet, God can only save us as a man. Christ, the second Adam, the last Adam, represents us before the Father. He represents us and He takes as our sin bearer, our substitute. He takes our punishment upon Himself on the cross. He lived for us. He obeyed for us. He died for us. He rose for us in the body. Praise be to God. And this truth continues to stand today as a refutation of any heresy or false teaching that either downplays or under emphasizes the genuine and full humanity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, most heresies and cults today tend to err on the side of denying our Lord’s deity.
But sometimes in the church’s response to those heretics that deny the deity of Christ, sometimes in our response to that, we can so emphasize that the deity of Christ against those heretics that deny his deity, that we forget his humanity. We forget that he is the word made flesh who came to dwell in our midst and that he redeems us in the flesh. And so Jesus shows up, he shows himself in his resurrection body to his disciples, pronouncing his peace upon them. I think another significant lesson we can learn from this is that our Lord’s bodily resurrection from the dead dignifies the human body and gives us a foretaste of our own resurrection body. Remember, The good news of the gospel is not simply that Jesus died to save our souls. Praise God he did that.
Praise God that if you are in Christ, when your body dies, you can be assured that your soul will go to be with the Lord. But that is not the ultimate goal of your salvation, believer. Christ died not just to save your soul, but to redeem your body. And the ultimate consummation of our salvation will be on that resurrection, that final resurrection day, when Jesus returns in glory and raises us bodily from the dead and reunites our glorified souls with our glorified bodies to live forever in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein righteousness dwells. I believe, as we confess in the Apostles Creed, I believe in the resurrection of The body. Our bodies are important. God created our bodies. He created us as body souls. And our bodies will be redeemed in the end.
Our Lord’s resurrection appearances to his gathered disciples on the first day of the week, Sunday, was also significant because it was understood by the disciples to sanctify the first day as the Lord’s Day, sometimes also called in our circles the Christian Sabbath. For example, if you go again at verse 19, look again at verse 19, it says, so when it was evening on that day, Why doesn’t he just stop there? He clarifies, when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week. Now go back to chapter 20, the beginning of chapter 20, verse one. where John records, as I preached this morning, John records the fact of the empty tomb. It says, now on the first day of the week, and children, that day is Sunday, what we call the Lord’s day.
On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb and so forth. And so skip ahead to verse 19. So when it was evening on that day, that first day of the week, that particular Sunday, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were for fear of the Jews and so forth. So John is emphasizing that this is the first day of the week and we see that also being emphasized a little bit later on in the chapter where it talks about the first day of the week and so forth. So what is the significance of this? Well, John uses language that places emphasis on the fact that it was on the first day of the week, Sunday, the day that Christ rose from the dead, when Jesus appeared to his gathered disciples, pronounced his peace upon them, and commissioned them to go out into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim the good news of forgiveness.
This has significance for the church, because what does Jesus do? that Lord’s Day evening, that first Lord’s Day evening, when He appears in His resurrection body to His gathered disciples. He pronounces peace upon them. He also sends them, He commissions them to go out. And he gives them at least a symbolic installment of the Holy Spirit. And again, we compare this with the next Lord’s Day as well, verse 26. It says, after eight days, his disciples were again inside and Thomas with them. Remember, Thomas was not there on this occasion that we read of in our passage for this evening. And Thomas says, unless I see him with my own eyes, Put my fingers in his nail prints and so forth. I will not believe. Well, Jesus again shows up eight days later, the next Lord’s Day, in other words, when it’s the first day of the week.
And what does he do then? The first words out of his mouth again are, peace be with you. Christ proclaims his peace to his gathered people on the first day of the week. Resurrection Day. Number of implications here. First of all, by his resurrection from the dead, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has in principle brought in a new creation. He has set in motion events that will lead to the ultimate consummated new heavens and new earth wherein righteousness dwells. The Genesis account of creation, of course, teaches that after God’s original work of creation, what does he do after his work of creation? Well, according to Genesis 2, 1 through 3, he rested on the seventh day and sanctified it as the original Sabbath day. If you go back to Genesis chapter 2, I’ll just read the first three verses of that chapter.
Genesis 2 1 through 3 it says thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts and By the seventh day, God completed his work, which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had done. Not that God was tired. This is anthropomorphic language. This is analogical language. God’s rest is compared to or analogous to, not identical to, but analogous to our rest. But he rested on the seventh day. He took satisfaction in his work. And what does it say? Verse three, then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. So God blessed the seventh day at the original creation. Well, in the divine plan, the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the week was even more significant than the first creation.
For by His resurrection from the dead, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has secured and brought about a new creation by redeeming us and securing for us the gift of the Holy Spirit and by paving the way for the ultimate consummated new heavens and new earth wherein righteousness dwells. And the Apostolic Church understood this instinctively. The Apostolic Church seemed to instinctively understand the epic making significance of our Lord’s resurrection on the first day, which is why they changed the day of worship from the last day of the week, the Jewish Sabbath or the Old Covenant Sabbath, Saturday, to the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, the Christian Sabbath, Sunday. You know, sometimes our Seventh-day Adventist friends will say, well, where does God say thou shalt change the Sabbath day from the last day of the week to the first day of the week?
The fact is that God’s word doesn’t need to say that. It’s so obvious because Jesus rose on the first day of the week. The apostles got it and by their example, they gathered the church on the first day of the week. There’s many evidences of this in scripture, but I just want to take you to a few passages that show us that the apostolic example, which is just as binding as apostolic teaching, by the apostolic example the church met for worship on the first day of the week. Consider, for example, Acts chapter 20 verse 7. We read these words. It says in Acts 20 verse 7, Paul is traveling He is in Macedonia and Greece there. It says on the first day of the week when we were gathered together to break bread. Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.
I know that many preachers will use this passage as an excuse for overly long sermons. Well, if Paul did it, I could do it too. But the focus here, it’s interesting. that Luke records. It’s on the first day of the week when we were gathered together to break bread. I don’t think that references simply to sharing a fellowship meal together, although sometimes that terminology of breaking bread can be used that way. But in this context, I think he’s speaking here of the Lord’s Supper. They were gathered for holy worship He doesn’t say that, well, we decided on the first day of the week to gather and break bread together. No, it all goes together on the first day of the week when we were gathered together to break bread, as if that was to be expected.
That’s what we do on the first day of the week. And what’s the significance of the first day of the week? Why the first day of the week? Because that’s the day that Jesus rose from the dead. Brothers and sisters in Christ, I know that it is common in our liturgical, in the liturgical calendar to refer to this particular Sunday as Easter Sunday. But there is a sense, and there’s nothing wrong with setting aside particular Lord’s Days to focus on particular events. I believe that’s a matter of Christian liberty. But there is a sense in which every Lord’s Day is an Easter Sunday. Because every time we gather for worship, every Sunday, Every time we do that, we are bearing witness to the resurrected Christ, our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We gather on this day because it is the day that Jesus rose from the dead and brought in the new creation.
Or consider next, 1 Corinthians 16, verses 1 and 2. As Paul is giving some closing instructions to the Corinthian church, He is concerned about the collection to benefit the impoverished saints in Judea. He says this, he gives instructions about this, 1 Corinthians 16, 1 and 2. Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week, Each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.” Why can’t they set aside their collections on the third day of the week, the fourth day of the week, the fifth day of the week? Why does he emphasize the first day of the week? The implication is this was the day when the church had the habit of gathering for holy worship.
Because again, and why did the church do that? Because that’s the day when Jesus rose from the dead. And it is this first day of the week that I believe John is referring to in Revelation chapter one. Verse 10, we read these words as John introduces his vision of the resurrected Lord Jesus and the revelation he received from Jesus. It says, I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet and so forth. John says, I was in the spirit. There’s some who suggest, well, you know, he’s in the Spirit on the day of the Lord, the final day of the Lord, as if he’s having a vision of the final day. But I believe, as many commentators do, that he’s talking about worshiping God on the first day of the week, which is called the Lord’s Day.
And the reason it is called the Lord’s Day is because it’s the day that the Lord rose from the dead and brought in the new creation. It is the Lord’s Day, the Christian Sabbath, as our Westminster Confession of Faith puts it in chapter 21, section 7. If you want to follow along, I’d invite you to turn there, the back of your Trinity Psalter hymnal, page 932. It says this in chapter 21 of our Westminster Confession, section 5. It says, I’m sorry, chapter 21, section seven, page 932, as it is the law of nature that in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God. So in his word, by a positive moral and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath to be kept holy unto him, which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week, and from the resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord’s Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath.” Dear friends, while our risen Lord Jesus It does not appear to us today in his physical form as he did to the apostles on that first resurrection Sunday.
Jesus continues to meet with us today in a special way when we gather on the Lord’s Day. The reason we gather together in church is not, you know, to earn merit with God. We can’t do that anyways. It’s not to show how pious we are. The reason we come to church is to meet together collectively, covenantally, with our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And He is present by His Holy Spirit. He has poured out His Spirit upon the church. He continues, as we gather each Lord’s Day, He continues to declare His peace to us through His Word and Spirit, through the ministry of the Word and the sacraments. Perhaps you’ve heard preachers say things like, well, What would Jesus think of our church if he showed up some Sunday? And I am, I’ve probably said this before, but I am tempted when I hear things like that, I’m tempted to respond.
Well, Jesus shows up at our church every Lord’s Day. He is here by his spirit. He has poured his spirit out upon the church, and that is emphasized in our passage for this evening as well. Well, let’s move on and next consider Beloved, let us rejoice that our risen Lord Jesus Christ pronounces his peace to us, his church. Our risen Lord Jesus Christ pronounces his peace to us, his church. Here Jesus shows up to the disciples. The disciples were gathered together And whether this just means the remaining of the 12 disciples or a broader group of disciples, there’s different views on that. But a representation of the church is gathered together on that Sunday evening. And Jesus comes and stands in their midst, and He declares peace to them. Peace be with you. And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side.
And though Christ is not physically present with us here, he continues to show us through the preaching of the word and the reading of the scriptures. He continues to reveal, to show himself to us in his word revelation in the scriptures as the spirit and the spirit helps us to understand these truths. The spirit illuminates us. And Jesus says to them again in verse 21, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you. Because of our sinful and rebellious condition, we were at war with God. But now, Christ has gone to the cross. He has paid the penalty for sin. He has risen from the dead. He has won for us forgiveness and by his substitutionary atonement on the cross, he has secured for us peace with God and a standing in grace as the Apostle Paul writes in that beautiful passage in Romans 5, 1 and 2.
Let me just get there. Paul writes, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That Lord Jesus Christ, that risen Lord Jesus Christ who pronounced peace upon His disciples. He has brought about peace. He has caused us to be at peace with God. by what he has done. Verse two, through whom, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exalt in hope of the glory of God. All those who have received the gift of justification and peace with God are to take this to heart. And as those brothers and sisters, you who trust Christ for salvation from sin, As you and I have received this free gift of peace with God, let us strive to be at peace with each other and let us strive to be peacemakers.
But finally, understand in this passage that we have here the anticipation of Pentecost and the commissioning of the church. We have here an anticipation of Pentecost and the commissioning of the church. Look again at verses 21 and 22. for emphasis, after He has shown them His hands and His side. Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you. Christ, the sent one, is now the sending one. This is the Johannine Great Commission, if you will. Jesus sends us, His church, His disciples, as He was sent by the Father to proclaim good news. And to be the good news, we are sent to proclaim the good news of the resurrected Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to a lost and dying world. And then, but what is going to equip his disciples to do this?
We don’t have the power or the strength to do this in ourselves. Well, notice next what Jesus says in verse 22, when he had said this, when he had commissioned them, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. This symbolic action was probably intended to anticipate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which would take place at Pentecost. And it’s interesting, Jesus breathes on them and says, receive the Holy Spirit. In the Bible, there is a close connection between breath and spirit. The same word can be translated either way. And so this is a symbolic action by which Jesus promises his church the presence of the Holy Spirit to strengthen the church for its commission. And then Jesus says, if you forgive the sins of any their sins have been forgiven them.
If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” Now, in saying this, is Jesus giving his apostles the authority to actually forgive sins? Well, brothers and sisters, I know this is a controversial verse. It has been twisted and it’s been used in some traditions within the historic church to support the practice of private absolution by a priest or priestly absolution. But that is not what Jesus is speaking to here. I believe that what Jesus is saying here is best understood as another way of talking about the keys of the kingdom. It’s not speaking of private absolution. It’s speaking to the authority of the church to declare the forgiveness of sins to all those who believe and repent. And also the authority to declare that those who refuse to repent and believe that they are still in their sins.
This is not speaking, again, of private absolution. The forgiving and retaining should probably be understood in connection to the preaching of the gospel and also the exercise of church discipline. Our Lord’s words could be translated here as if you forgive the sins of any, they have been forgiven. In other words, they’ve already been forgiven. If you retain them, they have been retained depending on the response to the gospel message. And indeed, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as I as I declared this morning when I in the declaration of pardon, I don’t have the power to forgive your sins. I am but a mere man. But I do have authority to declare officially on the basis of God’s Word that if you are repentant for your sins and are trusting Christ for your salvation from sin, God’s Word indeed says your sins are forgiven.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the kind of declarative authority that our Lord is giving to his church as the church proclaims the good news of forgiveness through the death and resurrection of Christ and. As Christ has promised the Holy Spirit to equip his church with the Holy Spirit and empower his church to take the peace of Christ to others, to declare peace to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Once again, in the name of Christ, I declare to you. That if you repent of your sins and trust in Christ alone for your salvation, God’s word says your sins are forgiven. That’s the good news. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. God’s word says it. Don’t take my word for it. Take God’s word for it. Trust in him as your risen and reigning Lord and Savior.
Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you and praise you, God. for the good news that our sins have been forgiven, that we have peace with you, O God, Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and that by His merit and sacrifice, we have a standing in grace both now and forever. Give us grace, Lord, to embrace this truth and to live in the light of it out of gratitude for your amazing gift of salvation. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen. Dear friends, as we close our time of worship, let’s rise and sing together from the Psalter hymnal number 364. Alleluia. Alleluia. 364.
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