The first Sunday service, John 20:19-31

In today’s passage, we are continuing to look at the first day of Christ’s resurrection from the dead.  He arose early in the morning on the first day of the week, that is, of course, Sunday.  Last week we saw Mary Magdalene and John and Peter’s response to the resurrection.  But in presenting the chronology of the events on this most important of days, John does so in such a way as to teach a lesson.  He is teaching, in this last section of chapter 20, the gospel, and he does so by showcasing for us the first Sunday church service in the New Testament period.  

We meet as 21st century Christians on Sunday’s to celebrate the Lord’s Day, so named because He arose from the dead on the first day of the week.  And so John is showcasing this first church service on Sunday, and he does so by giving us a classic sermon outline, featuring five principles of the gospel, followed by a personal illustration of the gospel, and then a closing synopsis of the gospel.  

As we look at this passage, we see that the disciples are gathered together on Sunday evening, and they have locked the doors for fear of the Jews.  This is a closed door church service.  And John tells us why they have locked the doors, because of the fear of the Jews.  What that means is that the Jewish religious leaders are incensed over Jesus having risen from the tomb, they have paid off the Roman soldiers to lie about it, and they might very well have schemed to arrest or even put to death the disciples so that they might not broadcast Jesus’s resurrection. 

But I think that God has intentionally put the disciples there at such a time to set an example for generations of Christians yet to come that we might meet on Sundays to assemble together for fellowship and to worship the Lord, and to proclaim the gospel.  The gospel, by the way,  meaning simply the good news of God’s plan, the Way of life, the Way of salvation.  

Now there are as I said five principles of the gospel that are being taught here.  The first principle of the gospel being presented is the assurance of the presence of Christ.  The whole premise of the gospel is that Jesus has triumphed over death, so that we might not fear death.  He died on the cross, but He also rose from the dead.  And so as the disciples have heard testimony earlier from Mary that she had seen the Lord, and heard from Peter and John that the tomb was empty, they were certainly talking among themselves as to what to make of all of this.  And as they meet together, behind locked doors, suddenly Jesus appears in their midst.  

Luke’s gospel tells us that the disciples were alarmed.  They thought they were seeing a ghost.  And so Jesus says 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. (vs20).  

This was a direct fulfillment of the Lord’s prophesy in which He said “If you destroy this temple, in three days I will raise it up again.”  But it is also a fulfillment of the promise in Matt. 18:20 which says, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”  And while that was true for the disciples,  that is also a promise for all who believe in the gospel even today.  We believe that the Lord is with us today as we gather in His name.  He is present with us when we have Bible study on Wednesday evening.  He is present wherever and whenever we gather together as a church.  And we can be assured of that because He rose from the dead.

Much is made by theologians over the fact that Jesus appears in a locked room without having to go through a door.  They attribute this ability to the nature of His resurrection body, and offer us the hope that we too will one day have a body that can walk through doors.  But I would say such a view is shortsighted.  Jesus had power to walk through doors before His death.  The fact that He appears in such a way is just further evidence that He is Jesus.  I will say this about His resurrected body.  He does not seem immediately recognizable in any of the post resurrection appearances unless He produces some evidence of who He is.  In this case, He shows His wounds, which are unmistakably those of His crucifixion.  They are convincing proof of His resurrection and identity.  

And as modern day Christians, we are promised of His living presence with us, that He will never leave us nor forsake us.  And we can rely upon that promise because He lives, because He arose from the dead, and was witnessed alive not only by the disciples gathered there, but Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 15;6 that He was seen by 500 people at one time after His death.  The great principle of the gospel is that Jesus is alive, and He is with us, and because He lives He can assure for us the benefits and blessings of the gospel, and that one day we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is when we are resurrected even as He was.

The second principle of the gospel presented to us is that He gives us not only His presence, but His peace.  Twice Jesus says, “Peace be with you.”  Anytime you see something stated twice in scripture you can rest assured that it is a undeniable promise that will surely come about.  The first peace that Jesus gave was to quiet their fear, to calm their alarm.  The second peace is to assure them of their peace with God.  

This great promise is reiterated in  Romans 5:1 which says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Men are searching today for peace - peace of mind, peace with men, peace from strife and war.  “Peace, peace!” they cry, but there is no peace.  But Jesus said in  John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” 

How can Jesus give this peace?  Because He took the offense of our sin against God upon Himself.  He bore God’s wrath towards our sins upon His shoulders, bearing our sins upon the cross, paying the ultimate price on our behalf.  And His resurrection is evidence that God was satisfied by His sacrifice for sin, that we might be made right with God, justified by faith in Christ, so that we have peace with God. 

So we might know that if God is for us, who can be against us?  If God so loves us that He spared not His only Son, what have we to fear?  We have an Advocate with God, even Jesus Christ our Intercessor, so that we need not be afraid of anything.  God is for us.  We have peace with God.  What a great tenet of the gospel; the peace of God has been established for us through Christ.

Thirdly, we have through the gospel not only the presence of Christ with us, and the peace of God with us, but we are given the same purpose which God gave Christ.  Vs 21, Jesus says, “as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”  Jesus Christ came to Earth with a specific purpose; that is that He might manifest to the world the truth of God.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except by Me.”  Furthermore, He said, “I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.”  

Listen, this is what the world doesn’t understand about the gospel. The gospel is God’s plan for man, to give him life, abundant life.  It is God’s plan to restore man to the innocence of the Garden, to restore man to the joy before the fall.  It is God’s plan for man to have a life of joy and peace and all the blessings which God originally designed man to have but were taken away by man’s fall into sin.  The gospel is not just a list of what you can’t do.  It is a list of promises of what God will do, when man comes under His plan of reconciliation. 

2Cor. 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”  

This is our purpose, having been reconciled to God, we become ambassadors of Christ to the world, so that we might announce to all men the promise of reconciliation.  We are ambassadors.  We have the same ministry that Christ had.  We tell the world the truth of God, we tell the world the promise of the gospel, the hope of the gospel.  

Listen, some of you are missing out on your purpose.  And you wonder why your Christian experience seems lacking.  Perhaps it’s because you are not recognizing that just as Jesus was sent to a lost and dying world to tell them the good news, so He has sent us also.  We are not saved just so we may selfishly bask in the love of God for us, and reap all the blessings of God for ourselves, like the lepers in the OT that found the enemy camp deserted and full of food, knowing that their own people were starving.  But it is better to give than to receive. It is better to serve than to be served. There are hundreds of men and women that you come into contact with everyday, and God has sent you to them to tell them the gospel of salvation.  We have a commission to be ambassadors for Christ, to carry on His work, His ministry of reconciliation.  I hope you take that commission seriously. I hope you understand your purpose is that Christ is sending you to tell your lost family, your lost friends, your lost coworkers, your lost neighbors about the good news of the gospel. If we would all take seriously this commission, that Christ is sending you,  I think we would soon have to move to a bigger building to hold all the new converts.  

Fourthly, the principle of the gospel presented here next is the means by which we are able to fulfill this purpose, and that is the gift of the Holy Spirit.  John says in vs.22, And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  Someone once said, I think it was Alistair Begg, that the difference between the OT and the NT is that in the OT we were given the law but we couldn’t perform it, but in the NT we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit that we might do the works of God.

It’s interesting that when Jesus gives them the permanent presence of the Holy Spirit to dwell in them, He breathes on them.  There seems to be in the language a deliberate reference to Genesis 2, when God made Adam and breathed in him the breath of life, and man became a living soul.  Paul speaks of this parallel in 1Cor. 15:45, saying “So also it is written, The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”  Jesus breathed on the disciples, giving them the Spirit to dwell permanently in them. 

It’s also interesting in light of what Jesus said earlier about us being sent as He was sent, to notice the parallels between Jesus’s ministry  and the disciples’ ministry.  Jesus you will remember, after coming up from the water of His baptism which symbolized the resurrection, had the Spirit descend upon Him in the form of a dove.  And immediately He went out into the wilderness being led by the Holy Spirit and for 40 days He was tempted.  It’s interesting that the disciples receive the Spirit through Christ breathing on them, and then they will wait for 40 days before receiving power through the filling of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  So again, we have the same benefit for our ministry that Christ had in His.  After the forty days, Luke 4:14 says, “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.”  And such power is given to us as well that we might fulfill the ministry of Christ.

The last principle of the gospel presented here is that of authority.  Jesus says in vs.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.”  What Jesus is saying here is not that we have the power to forgive sins.  The Bible makes it clear in many other places that only God has the power to forgive sins.  But rather He is saying that as we fulfill our ministry of the gospel, to share the good news, that we have the authority to announce the forgiveness of sins for those that confess Jesus as Lord and have faith in Him.  

We have the authority of the gospel to say that if you confess your sins He is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. But there is also the flip side to the gospel. If you reject Jesus as your Lord and God, then we have the authority to tell them that they are still in their sins.

That’s the message that Peter and the apostles had after Pentecost. They spoke with authority.  They spoke with the authority of the Holy Spirit.  They preached with the power of the Spirit, and through the authority of the Word of God.  And we have that same resource.  So many people want to focus on the apostles speaking in tongues as their manifestation of the power of the Spirit.  But I would suggest that more significant was the message of the sermon Peter preached.  Suddenly this backwoods, unlearned fisherman was preaching a message, quoting and interpreting scripture and people’s hearts were cut to the quick under conviction of their sins.  People weren’t saved by hearing someone speak in tongues, they became saved by hearing the gospel preached.  That is power.  The Holy Spirit works through the gospel, works through the scriptures, to bring men under conviction that leads to salvation.  That is edifying to the body, and not just self edification. (Romans 1:16) “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…”

So those are the five principles of the gospel that John records for us here as he really begins to finish his gospel.  And like any good preacher, he gives a personal illustration for his message;  he presents the account of Thomas, who had been missing from the first service when Jesus appeared.  And though Thomas knows well these disciples, having been with them constantly for three years or more, yet he rejects their testimony.  When they tell him that they had seen the risen Jesus, he says quite callously that unless he sees the nail prints in His hands, and actually puts his finger in them, and unless he puts his hand into the wound in His side, he will not believe that they have actually seen Jesus alive.  

Well, 8 days later, it’s once again Sunday evening.  And the disciples are having the second Sunday service, and they have locked the doors again. But this time, Thomas is with them.  And Jesus suddenly appears in the midst of them and says 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.”

Thomas is undoubtedly taken aback.  For one because he sees the risen Savior.  But also because he hears the Lord repeat back to him the things he said privately to the disciples.  And so he understands in a special way what it means to have the presence of Christ in his life.  Realizing that Jesus heard him when he said that must have had a major impact on him.  I would to God that we might realize that Jesus hears everything we say.  That He is watching us, and walking among us every day. Jesus told the Pharisees in Matt.12:36 that they would give an account on judgment day for every careless word that they spoke.  And Jesus told the 7 churches in Revelation, “I know your deeds.”  He is described as walking among the churches, watching and hearing all that they have to say and do.  If we truly understood that it would be hard for us to continue living the way we do, wouldn’t it?  We need to realize the presence of Christ 24/7, as we go through our daily lives.

Well, Thomas suddenly doesn’t want to put his finger in the nail holes.  He doesn’t want to put his hand in His side.  Instead, Thomas gives the strongest confession of any of the disciples up to that point.  He says, “My Lord and my God!”  That is the confession that John has been working towards in the gospel up to this point.  It’s to bring the reader to the point of confessing Jesus as our Lord and our God.  That we might come to the place where we are willing to accept Jesus as our Master and Lord, that He has the right to determine for us what we can or can’t do.  Because He is also God.  He is the Creator of all things.  He has formed us for His glory.  

That confession of Thomas is what is meant by believing in Jesus.  It is to declare Him as My Master, and My God.  And therefore, my allegiance and commitment is given completely to Him. And having faith in Him, we are made righteous, we have peace with God.  We are given new life by the Spirit of God.  We are a new creation.  Old things have passed away and all things have become new.  We have new life in Christ, and a new purpose in life.

Jesus accepts Thomas’s confession.  But He gives a rebuke for his lack of faith.  Jesus says, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”  Listen, we need to guard against the fleshly desire of seeking of physical verification of the Lord like that which Thomas exhibited.  We all get discouraged from time to time.  We all may have doubts from time to time.  To do so is human.  But to stubbornly seek that is carnal. It is fleshly.  It is to want special validation from God just for me, according to exactly what I think God needs to do.  Jesus was gracious to Thomas.  But that attitude is not what He desires.

A lot of Christians may feel like we are disadvantaged because we don’t have the physical validation that the early disciples had.  We don’t have the physical signs of power perhaps.  We don’t have the physical presence of the Lord.  But Jesus is saying in this statement that not having Him physically here is not a disadvantage, but it is really a blessing.  Blessed are they who did not see and yet believed.  There is a special blessing for us Christians today that don’t have the physical evidence to validate or prove our faith.  But then if we did, it wouldn’t be such great of faith would it?  And we know that God rewards and blesses great faith.  And that kind of faith is what is required.  We believe the testimony of faithful men, trustworthy witnesses and the record of the scripture. God will bless you for it.  Matt. 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

And that brings us to the conclusion, or synopsis of John’s gospel.  It comes a chapter early.  But it’s really like the conclusion of John’s gospel.  He says in vs.30, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” 

Listen, these truths have been written that you might have life in His name.  Abundant life.  Real life.  A life of joy and blessing.  Jesus did not come to teach philosophy.  He did not come to show us how to be prosperous or successful.  He didn’t come as God in the flesh to make new inventions that would make our lives easier. He didn’t die to make us more comfortable. But He came that we might believe that He has come from God, to teach us the truth of God, that we might be reconciled to God, that we may have the new life which God has designed for us to enjoy, and that we might enjoy fellowship with Him forever.  I hope that you have confessed Jesus as your Lord and your God, that you might have the life which He has died to procure for you.  If you believe in Him,  I announce to you by the authority of Christ that your sins have been forgiven you.  But if you reject Him, I must tell you that you remain dead in your sins and will face the final judgment without Him.  I pray you come to Jesus today and receive all that He has done for you.