“Peace Be With You”

A sermon based upon John 20: 19-23

Preached by Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, 

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

19^th Sunday After Pentecost, October 29th,    (Series:  THE MISSIONARY CHURCH)

Twice, in today’s text, the risen Christ greets his disciples with the word, “Peace”.   This is unusual, because up to this point, the earthly Jesus has never used this greeting in any of the gospels.   While Jesus had instructed his disciples on their mission to say “Peace to this house” (Lk. 10:5), here we can clearly see that ‘peace’ was a unique priority of the risen Christ. 

Doesn’t this mean that ‘peace’ should be the priority of the church too?  When the apostle Paul was writing his magnum opus to the Romans, he made special emphasis of the ‘peace’ Christ gives to those who trust him:  “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…. (Rom. 5:1ff).  The kind of ‘peace’ Paul means is the kind only a risen Lord can give.   It is a ‘peace’ that gives us direct access to God’s grace ‘by faith’.    Listen to how Paul puts it in unmistakable terms to the Romans: “God has poured his love into our hearts by his Holy Spirit….” (Rom. 5: 5). “Christ died for the ungodly” (5:6).   “Even while we were sinners, Christ died for us…” (5:8). “We have been justified by his blood…. [We] will be saved…from God’s wrath” [9], “We were reconciled to God…” [10].  

Did you catch the verb tense of the language here? “We have been…We will be….We were…”?    All ‘three verb tenses’ of our salvation are represented: the past-what God has already accomplished; justification and reconciliation which carries into the present as righteousness and sanctification (Rom. 6.9).  Then Paul speaks of the future-what God will one day complete—our full redemption and glorification (8:17-30).  But there is even ‘more’ (v. 10) being said here, which Paul calls “much more”.  Consider verse 10 in its entirety: “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, MUCH MORE SURELY, having been reconciled, WILL WE BE SAVED BY HIS LIFE.”    Jesus not only saves us by his death on the cross, but Jesus will save us by the ‘life’ he lived.    It’s not either or, but both and.  It is not only Christ’s ‘death’ that saves, but salvation is not complete until we join in living a Christ-centered ‘life’ which promises more life to come.    What kind of ‘life’ is this?  How does life ‘in Christ’ bring us the peace and promise of more life?

PEACE BE WITH YOU (v.19)

Our text has the disciples meeting the risen Christ for the first time.   Peter and John had witnessed the empty tomb and the neatly rolled up grave clothes, but Jesus wasn’t there.   A weeping Mary Magdalene had informed Peter about the empty tomb, but only later did she report having ‘seen the Lord’ (18), but it was not until that first Easter Sunday evening, John says, that Jesus finally appeared among his disciples.  They were all together, except Thomas, but were hiding behind ‘lock doors’ (19).  They were still hiding because of their ‘fear of the Jews’ who had crucified Jesus.   But it was through all that ‘fear’ and even through those ‘locked doors’ too, that the risen Jesus came wishing them ‘peace’.

This ‘peace’ became real, not merely by seeing Jesus, but when ‘he showed them his hands and his side’ (20).  In other words, God’s peace is passed to them through the ‘stigmata’; the sign of the crucified Christ.   As Paul said, ‘we have been justified by his blood…(Rom 5:9) and ‘we were reconciled…through the death of his Son….(Rom. 5:10).  What Jesus was ‘showing’ them was ‘proof’ of their reconciliation with God.  Now, through the risen Christ, God offers them the peace and power they need to transcend their situation.  They didn’t need to fear the ‘Jews,’ nor do they have to ‘fear’ the ‘wrath of God’ (Rom. 5:9).   The ‘hands’ and ‘side’ of the crucified one ‘proves God’s love’ and gives peace (Rom. 5:8).  

Living in God’s peace is the priority of the risen Jesus.   So, “If God is for us, who can be against us”? (Rom. 8:31), Paul wrote.   It is not simply the words of Jesus, but it is also God’s work in Jesus that peace comes.   Jesus overcame ‘sin and death’ (Rom 8:2) and now his disciples will gain ‘life and peace’ (Rom. 8:6) because they can overcome any situation.   The risen Jesus comes with this new kind of ‘peace’.   It is the ‘peace’ that ‘the world cannot give’.   As Jesus told them, ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give as the world gives.  Don’t let your hearts, be troubled….do not let them be afraid….’ (Jn. 14.27), ‘I have overcome (or conquered) the world! (Jn. 16:33).   Thus, this is not mere Sunday greeting of peace, but this is the ‘greeting’ for a whole new way to look at life and death.

Recently, I visited one of my cousins in Statesville, who lost her husband last year.  I had not been able to get to the funeral home, and this was the first time I’d seen her since his death.   She told me about his passing.  He had been released from the hospital and he was sitting in his chair.   He felt hot.  He wanted me to fan him.  Then, he made a loud noise.  Just like that, she said, he was gone.  When I called 911, they told me to try to do CPR.   I couldn’t get him on the floor.  Then, when EMS arrived, they also tried to revive him.  But it was too late.  He had already died right in his chair.

We all could live in ‘fear’ of what might happen, what will happen, or what has already happened.   Because of what ‘happens’ to us in life, we could live the rest of our lives behind ‘locked doors’.   But the Risen Christ walks through ‘locked doors’ to bring us ‘peace’.   He comes not just to bring us peace in death, but also peace for life.    He does ‘not give as the world gives’, but he gives us His peace is a unique life-giving way.   Can you see it?

AS THE FATHER HAS SENT ME, SO SEND I YOU (21).

Jesus gives his ‘disciples’ peace not by taking all their ‘fears’ or ‘frustrations’ away, but Jesus puts a greater purpose into their lives:  “As the Father has sent me, so I send you….”  Rather than taking away all their fears, Jesus replaces and displaces them with resolution and determination.   Jesus ‘sends’ them into the world on God’s mission. 

But what Kind of peace can come from this?  In another place Jesus told his disciples, “I’m sending you as sheep among wolves… (Matt. 10:16, 10:3).   This is definitely not an ‘easy’ mission.   Jesus has spoken of ‘persecution’, and even ‘peril or sword’ (Rom 8.35).    This is not some kind of refreshing ‘holiday’ or ‘vacation’ volunteer mission trip experience.   This is to be the ‘way’ and the ‘future’ of the rest of their lives.   Being sent on mission is the way of God’s ‘peace’, that is not ‘as the world gives’.   This is ‘my peace’, Jesus says.  It is God’s peace—which is a peace the world can’t give or guarantee.  It is the kind of peace that comes from the purpose in life that only God’s work and purpose can give.  

Do you recall that crazy cult classic movie ‘The Blues Brothers’?  They constantly said throughout the movie, ‘We’re on a mission from God’.   They wanted to put their ‘Blues Brothers’ band back together:  “For me and the Lord,”  the John Belushi character said, “we’ve got an understanding.  We’re on a mission from God….   This bigger than any domestic problem you’ve got…this is a holy thing….We’re on a mission from God…. There’ not gonna catch us… We’re on a mission from God….  The Lord works in mysterious ways….Yeap!    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4YrCFz0Kfc      Now this was just a ‘movie’, but the language they were using is the language of the Bible, and the language of mission, which brings ‘peace’ through answering the call to mission, no matter how difficult or the cost.

Jesus came not calm the storm, but he came to give us the kind of peace comes even while we are in the storm.   Jesus told Peter that the church is to intentionally cause a storm by ‘storming’ the gates of Hades and Hell with the saving truth of Jesus Christ (Matt. 16: 18).   “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades (Hell) will not prevail against it.”  This text is not simply saying church cannot die, but it is saying something much more dramatic.  It is saying, as one translation puts it, that “The gates of the underworld won’t be able to stand against it’ (CEB).  It is ‘death’ and ‘hell’ are to live in fear, not the church that is on the mission of God in the world.  Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the victory over death and hell has already been accomplished.

This is exactly the kind of peace my cousin found, after she lost her life-long husband.  This is the kind of peace that keeps her meeting with friends, being faithful in church, loving her children, and talking about her grandchildren, included the one is currently on a full scholarship to study political science at Wake Forest, and is currently working for a Semester in Washington D.C.   She has found the peace to remain involved by trusting, healing, hoping, and moving on in Jesus’ name.   Death did not overtake her, but she overcame death.   

When we are facing the unknown or taking on the world, we have the peace, the assurance, and the promise that no matter what we go through, God is at work, and that ‘all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose (Rom. 8.28).’   Did you get the ‘called according to his purpose’ part?   The peace of God is not automatic, but it is conditioned on answering the ‘call’ and ‘mission’ of God in our lives.     Like a soldier who is sent into battle, we march straight into the conflict and warfare, on this mission that helps us transcend our life and fears.   The cause of God we answer is bigger than any fear, real or imagined, which we might have.

Do you recall that powerful scene in the more sensible, true story of Desmond Doss, an Adventist Christian who answered the call to sign up and serve in World War II?   Desmond was a conscientious objector, who believed it was not God’s will for him to carry a weapon.  But Desmond still wanted to serve.   His brother had already signed up.  All his friends signed up.  However, Desmond’s father, who was a decorated War Hero from the Great War, and lost most of his friends in battle, did not want his son to go.  But Desmond had to go.  “This is something I must do….I could not live with myself if I don’t go.”  Desmond Doss, found his ‘peace’, even while serving on a battlefield, as a medic, rescuing others.   He had risked his own life over and over, caring not for his own life.  The other soldiers in his platoon, had laughed at him for not being willing to carry a gun.   But now, after Desmond had pulled many of them off of the battlefield, no one is laughing.  

In one scene, they are about to go up on the ‘hacksaw’ ridge once more.  They are commanded to go, but nobody is movie.  The colonel in charge is outraged.  “Why aren’t they going?”   The captain answers back.  “They are waiting all waiting on Desmond.”  “They are what?”   “They are waiting on Desmond to pray for them.”  They may not all believe the way Desmond believes, but they all respect the belief that Desmond has, and they want him to pray for them before they go back on that ridge and no that they will probably not return.   They did not have the ‘belief’, but they all needed the ‘peace’ that Desmond had. 

RECEIVE THE SPIRIT… FORGIVE….RETAIN SINS (22-23).

Nowhere does the risen Christ impart God’s peace, unless his disciples are participating in God’s mission.    And it is the same for us.   There is no ‘peace with God’ by only accepting what Jesus did.   We will be saved by his ‘life,’ not just his death. 

In the New Testament saving faith is never merely accepting an idea.  Saving faith, James said, ‘apart from works’, that is, apart from participating in God’s work, does not work and does not save (James 2: 18-26).   The peace God gives is imparted to us as we follow Jesus in God’s mission in the world.  Just as there is no salvation through our works (Eph 2:9), ‘faith without works’ that participate in God’s mission ‘is dead’ (James 2:26).

This is why, as Jesus sent his disciples on mission, he ‘breathed’ on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit!”     It this ‘Holy Spirit’ who not only grants peace, but who also gives the power to accomplish God’s mission.   Here, finally, John points to specific life-saving mission of the church—the power to ‘forgive’ or ‘retain’ sins (23).  

This charge is repeated twice in the gospel of Matthew with similar words and Luke’s gospel also refers to it, as the preaching of ‘repentance and remission of sins to all nations…(Luke 24:47).   Even though Mark may have been written too early to formulate this with such clarity (see Mark 16:15),  it is Mark who gave us best picture of Jesus’ daring to ‘forgive the sins’ of a man who was both physically and religiously paralyzed (Mark 2:1ff).   The religious leaders countered that ‘only God could forgive sins,’ but Jesus made his point by forgiving the man’s sins anyway, even without repentance or before God’s forgiveness was displayed on the cross. 

It is into this ‘drama’ of forgiveness that Jesus calls the church to its true mission.   This language of ‘forgiving’ and ‘retaining’ sins is a message the church cannot forget, even if it is not acceptable to the culture around us.  Barbara Brown Taylor, in her book, Speaking of Sin, tells about how her mother took her out of the Catholic Church, right after she was baptized as an 5 day old infant.  The priest spoke such terrible things about her baby, saying that the devil and sin was in her, and she needed the waters of baptism to wash it all out.  But her mother said, saying to herself that her baby was the best thing that ever happened, took Barbara out of the Catholic Church to a Methodist Church, where they never heard ‘sin’ mentioned once. 

Yet, as Barbara came of age and started going to Baptist youth group where she heard a more biblical word, she began to realize that that there were some very important things being said in church, that no one else the power or mission to say.   The law speaks of crimes; medicine speaks of sickness, which are both accurate ways of speaking; but if the church loses its voice to speak of sin, then God’s voice for salvation will be lost, and so will the world eventually lose hope to be challenged and to change.   

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus called the church’s mission to preach, teach and challenge the world’s sin, ‘the keys to the kingdom’.   Have you ever lost your keys, car keys, house keys, or safety deposit box keys?  When you misplace your car keys, you have this nice, shiny vehicle, a motor on wheels, just outside the door, but there is no way to get it going, or to go anywhere in it, until that is, you find your keys.   In the same way, when the church loses it’s primary calling and mission, it’s spiritual, saving mission to name, listen for, forgive, and even to retain sins, then the church only becomes a nice building with nice people, but going nowhere fast.  Whereas the church has many ministries, like feeding the poor, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned; it only has one mission.  This one mission is the ‘key’ to everything else we do.   If we are not confessing our sins and receiving God’s forgiveness for our sins, then we have lost the key.

Of course, to take the mission of naming sin and forgiving sins seriously, we have to name and confess our own sins first.  This is never easy to do, but this is where the mission begins, as Scripture says, ‘Judgement begins at the house of the Lord’.   I’ll never forget how this became the realization of a church in Greensboro.  We had been discussing having a consultant come and help us design a Family Life Center.  Before that, the deacons and I had spoken about how many names were on our church rolls, but most of the people where nowhere to be found.  We had over 1,000 members on roll, but less than 160 were attending our church.   I suggested that we start making calls and figure who wanted to stay on the rolls.  Many of them, where probably already passed on to glory, or had moved to Florida.  The deacons let it drop, like a lead balloon.  Later, when the consultant was figuring out how much to charge our church for his services to make a drawing of our new Family Life Center, he said that he would figure his fee based upon how many ‘resident’ members we had.  We still had over 1,000.  Everyone on the deacon board took a deep breath when they realized only 160 people, and maybe less would be paying the bill for over a 1,000 members.

This is also what will happen when the church loses the key, its voice and its only mission to speak of and forgive sins.  When we fail to pass on our mission to our children and continue to speak of sin in our culture, we are just waiting, even begging to pay the price of what will happen in our homes, our churches, our communities, in our nation and in our world.   The reason speaking of sin is so important, is not so that God can judge us, but so that we can fully receive God’s forgiveness and be changed and challenged by God’s offer of peace.   For you see, the language of sin is not the language of medicine, nor is it the language of civil law, because it goes deeper than both.   Sin is the language of the human soul that takes us back to the time when we stood ‘naked’ before God’s truth.   We can only find ‘peace’ this deep, when we go this deep, and we will only go this deep, when we confess and receive God’s forgiveness where only we and God can go.   

This is where the preaching of the gospel tries to take you each and every Lord’s day.   The preaching of sin is to take you to God’s altar, where the price of sin has already been fully paid,  and where you can find peace, not by walking away, but by continuing to confess your sins and by being sent by the Holy Spirit into the world to take this life, saving message of peace.  

Even if you are not a preacher, or a teacher, you take part in supporting this saving message, not just by saying Amen, but by getting to the point, and helping others get to the main point of all we do.  The main point is of both the crucified Jesus and the resurrected Christ is the ‘forgiveness of sins:  “God has poured his love into our hearts by his Holy Spirit….” “Christ died for the ungodly” (5:6).   “Even while we were sinners, Christ died for us…” (5:8). “We have been justified by his blood…. [We] will be saved…from God’s wrath” [9], “We were reconciled to God…” [10]  and finally, when we join in God’s mission, we gain God’s peace in a way we never thought possible.  In is only then that we realize, we are just as much being saved by participating in his ‘life’ as we have already been saved by his death.   Amen.