Tag Archives: Thomas

Unexpected Peace – Sermon on John 20:19-31 for the Second Sunday of Easter

John 20:19-31

Alleluia! Christ is risen! 
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

To get where we’re going, I want to pick up right where last week’s sermon left off with a little more ‘storytelling’ (true ‘storytelling’) about the day of Christ’s resurrection. Last week, we walked through the events of that first Easter morning, ending with Jesus meeting Mary Magdalene in the garden. Today’s Gospel text takes us the events of that same evening. But what happened in between?

Sometime after Jesus left the garden, He caught up with two disciples, who aren’t numbered with the Twelve, as they walked to Emmaus (Lk. 24:13-35). One was named Cleopas, but Scripture leaves the other unnamed. Emmaus was a small village, probably just a cluster of houses that were about an hour’s walk west of Jerusalem.[1] Like Mary in the garden, these two disciples didn’t recognize Jesus at first. Mark tells us He appeared to them in “another form” (Mk. 16:12). In other words, Jesus intentionally made Himself unrecognizable—at least at first.

Only when they reached Emmaus and sat down for a meal did it happen. Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened. They recognized Him, and He immediately vanished from their sight (Lk. 24:30-31). They rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the Eleven and everyone gathered with them (Lk. 24:33). It wasn’t just the Eleven. There were also the women who had been at the tomb that morning were there too, along with others. 

I also have to mention that sometime in the middle of all this, Jesus had appeared to Peter. We’re not sure when because Scripture doesn’t give any details of that meeting, but it clearly states in two separate places that it happened (Lk. 24:34; 1 Co. 15:5). As the two disciples from Emmaus are telling the others about how they had walked with Jesus, eaten with Him, and finally recognized Him “in the breaking of the bread,” suddenly Christ appears right in their midst (compare Lk. 24:36; Jn. 20:19). Jesus just popped into the room.

It shouldn’t have been possible. They had locked the doors—barricaded them, really. In those days, they didn’t have doorknobs or deadbolts like we do. Instead, they would lay a heavy beam across the door to keep it shut, but that didn’t stop the risen Jesus. He didn’t knock. He didn’t ask to be let in. He simply appeared. Unexpected, unannounced, and fullyrecognizable. He’s nothiding Himself from them. They know it’s Him.

Imagine the emotional rollercoaster they had ridden over the past 72 hours. The disciples had all vowed to follow Him even to death (Mt. 26:35; Mk. 14:31). Yet when Jesus was arrested, they all fled (Mt. 26:56; Mk. 14:50). They had abandoned Him. He had been brutally beaten, crucified, and buried. In their minds, all their hopes for salvation were buried with Jesus (Lk. 24:21). For them, it seemed that heaven was forever closed. But that morning, they heard from the women that He was alive. Raised. Resurrected. On the one hand, it seemed too good to be true (Lk. 24:41). On the other hand, it was terrifying because they knew how badly they had failed Him.

There He stood in their midst. But they didn’t know why He had come. They didn’t know what He was going to say or do to them.

Remember Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. After they ate from the tree, they sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness and shame. Then they heard the sound of God walking in the Garden that evening, and they hid (Gen. 3:7-8). They hid because when you have utterly failed someone, the last place you want to be is with that person. But God was seeking them out. He still wanted to be with them. He called out, “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9) and gave them chance after chance to repent (Gen. 3:9-13). Even though Adam and Eve didn’t repent and passed the blame around—Eve to the serpent, Adam to his wife and even to God Himself. They didn’t know that God had come to give them the promise that He would crush the serpent’s head through the Seed of the Woman (Gen. 3:15).

Here, Jesus had come to announce that crushing was done. He came to proclaim that sin, death, and Satan were defeated by His death and resurrection. So, He doesn’t wait for them to come to Him. Again, He seeks them out and steps right into the middle of their fear and failure. Christ opens His mouth, and His first words aren’t, “What happened?” or “Why did you fail so badly?” or “How could you?” Even before they can get out an, “I’m sorry,” Jesus unexpectedly says to them, “Peace be with you” (Jn. 20:19).

This isn’t just a normal greeting. This is Jesus’ full, total, complete absolution. He had come to bring peace. His words deliver the wholeness and reconciliation that He had purchased with His own Blood on the cross. The peace that the angels had announced at His birth is now fulfilled in His resurrection.

To drive the point home, Jesus shows them His hands and side (Jn. 20:20). The nail prints. The spear wound. They are still there. But they are not marks of defeat. They are badges of His victory. By those wounds you are healed (Is. 53:5). Now, seeing those wounds doesn’t cause them regret or sadness. Instead, they are changed. Terror turns to gladness. Fear gives way to joy.

Then Jesus says it again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” He breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” Just as God had breathed life into Adam at the beginning of creation (Gen. 2:7), Jesus, the Son of God and new Adam, breathes the Holy Spirit into His people that first day of the new creation (2 Co. 5:17). And He gives them—and through them His whole church—the authority to deliver forgiveness in His name.

Dear saints, this unexpected peace is for you too. Jesus still comes unexpectedly into our locked-up lives and spaces we barricade because of fear, guilt, and regret. He comes through every barrier you can put up because He loves you. He brings you His absolution because the price has been paid. His peace is for you. Your sin Is forgiven. The tomb is empty. Death is defeated.

Because He has given you this peace, Jesus also sends you with it. As He was sent to seek and save the lost (Lk. 19:10), so He sends you. In your homes, schools, neighborhoods, you are ambassadors of Christ’s peace (2 Co. 5:18-20). When your husband or wife, children or parents, coworker or classmate fails you, you get to deliver and speak Christ’s forgiveness.

Oakley, that brings me to you. Today you are Baptized. Jesus has placed His name upon you (Mt. 28:19) and joined you to His death and resurrection (Ro. 6:3-5). Christ has breathed His life into you and given you the Holy Spirit (Act. 2:38-39). Even when you sin and fail, Christ repeatedly comes to you bringing you the peace of His absolution.

Oakley and all you saints, keep close to Him. Hear His Word so you don’t run from Him but to Him in faith. Hear from Him again and again, “Peace be with you. I have died for you. I am risen for you. In Me, you have life both now and forever.”

Alleluia! Christ is risen! 
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Php. 4:7). Amen.

[1]Luke 24:13 (ESV) mentions that the distance from Jerusalem to Emmaus is “about seven miles.” There are four possible sites for Emmaus. The one that seems most likely is current day Mozah which is 3.5 miles from Jerusalem. It is possible that Luke calculated the round-trip distance.

The Sidewalk of Faith – Sermon on John 20:19-31 for the Second Sunday of Easter

John 20:19–31

19 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.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending 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, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” 

26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The Bible says our faith depends on Jesus’ resurrection. If it was proven that Jesus did not rise from the dead, Scripture says that you can forget everything else in the Bible. In 1 Cor. 15:14, Paul writes, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.”

The work of the Holy Spirit is not to convert reasonable, sensible people to believe wild stories. Instead, the Holy Spirit converts stubborn, obstinate hearts to believe reasonable things. The resurrection of Jesus is completely reasonable and historical. If you find it reasonable that Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet – even though you didn’t see him write it with your own eyes – there is just as much evidence that Jesus rose from the dead. If Jesus rose from the dead, which He did, then you have to take Him seriously. And if you take Jesus seriously, you have to take the entire Bible seriously because Jesus took the Bible seriously.

To demonstrate that the Holy Spirit works on stubborn hearts to believe reasonable things, consider Thomas here. Our text starts the evening of Jesus’ resurrection. The ten disciples (minus Thomas) are sitting in a locked room in Jerusalem because they were afraid (Jn. 20:19), and Jesus appears to them. He forgives them of their sinful fear by saying, “Peace be with you.” And Christ restores them by sending them out with the authority to forgive sins. Then, Jesus leaves. Thomas arrives and hears the ten tell him about seeing Jesus, but he refuses to believe. There is no reason whatsoever for the ten to lie about this, and yet Thomas refuses to believe what they tell him. Unless he can thrust his fingers and hand in Jesus’ hands and side, he’s not going to believe. Thomas was being stubborn – sinfully, hard-heartedly stubborn. He doesn’t believe what is perfectly reasonable to believe.

The same can be said about those who refuse to believe in Jesus’ resurrection today. Christ’s resurrection is one of the most verifiable historical facts. Still, some make excuses to not believe. They will say the disciples just wanted to become rich and famous. Sure, they’re famous today, but they weren’t during their lives. The disciples had nothing to gain from lying about the resurrection. In fact, their lives would have been better if they had gone back to their fishing businesses or tax collecting. Through their entire lives, they were poor, arrested, persecuted, beaten, and all of them, except John, died for preaching that Jesus had risen. You don’t die for something you know is a lie. A modern atheist philosopher has said that when you consider the disciples’ lives after the resurrection, something must have happened for them to live the way they did. I don’t know what his conclusion ultimately is, but he admits there is no doubt that they had nothing to gain for what they preached.

Some doubters will say that the Gospel accounts are too different to be reliable. One gospel says two angels are at the tomb, another only has one, another doesn’t mention any. The number and names of the women vary between the Gospels. Well, the response to that is that each Gospel was written by different individuals to different audiences for different reasons. Certain details are more important to each writer, and each author doesn’t have to mention every detail. When you consider the resurrection accounts of the four Gospels, the details all fit together. And the differences are, actually, further evidence that the accounts are not made up or fabricated. A doctor of law, who teaches lawyers how to evaluate witness testimony, says that slight differences between the four Gospels are actually further evidence to their reliability. Perfectly harmonized testimony indicates that witnesses are trying to hide or distort something. But that is not what we have in the Gospels. We have varied but consistent, compatible testimony to the resurrection.

Beyond all that, there is evidence outside the Bible that points to the resurrection. A Roman emperor talks about how surprised he is that the first Christians all testified to Jesus’ resurrection and would rather die than deny it. A reliable Jewish historian, who wasn’t a Christian that lived shortly after Christ’s resurrection, says the same. All of this is to say that believing in the resurrection of Jesus is perfectly reasonable and sensible. Again, Christianity is not believing in myths or fairy tales. Christianity is believing that the Son of God came into human history to save and forgive sinners. If someone doesn’t believe that, it is only because of their own stubborn hard-heartedness, and the Holy Spirit must come and remove that heart of stone.

Faith in Jesus is always a work of the Holy Spirit. But what we believe is completely reasonable. The Christian faith isn’t a thoughtless dependence on something unknowable. Faith is grounded in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Another thing about this is that the Holy Spirit uses the fact of Christ’s resurrection to help us fight against sin because sin is nothing more than unbelief. Romans 14:23 says, “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”

Let’s use an analogy to get this across. When was the last time you had to concentrate to walk on a sidewalk? A normal sidewalk – clear, clean, flat, straight, no cracks or bumps. It’s three feet across – maybe wider – so it isn’t like walking on a tightrope. You’ve probably never had to think about it. You just walk straight. Almost everyone can do that successfully. Congratulations, you can all pat yourselves on the back. 

 Now, let’s change one thing. What if that sidewalk was suspended between two skyscrapers hundreds of feet in the air.[1] Everything else about that sidewalk is exactly the same. Completely firm, straight, and level. There’s no wind. (I know that’s hard to imagine living here in the Red River Valley, but the air is perfectly still.) There are still no guardrails, and you don’t have a harness that connects you to anything. If you fall off that sidewalk, you will plummet to your death. In that situation, you’d probably be stressed about taking that stroll. Your pace might be cut in half. You might be crawling on your belly. You might not be willing to take one step out on that sidewalk – even though you know you’re perfectly capable of doing it. You can walk straight, but being way up in the air like that is going to make it a completely different, terrifying experience. You would have to fight your doubts to believe you can do it because the consequences of not doing it right are fatal.

This is how it is living the Christian faith. The Holy Spirit persuades you about the truth of Jesus’ resurrection, and because Jesus is risen from the dead, everything He says is true – both Law and Gospel. What He says is sinful is sinful and separates you from God. What He promises is also true – that His death delivers you from sin, that He forgives you, that He is coming back for you. And because Jesus’ resurrection is so historically verifiable, none of that hard to believe intellectually. It’s as simple as walking on a normal sidewalk on the ground. But some still refuse to do it because the stakes are high. There are times when believing in Jesus is like walking on that sidewalk hung hundreds of feet in the air. There’s no question we can do it, but we have to fight against our fears and actually do it.

For example, you are tempted to twist the truth so your reputation isn’t ruined. You are tempted to get something without working for it and earning it. You are tempted to have an inappropriate relationship with someone who isn’t your spouse. Whatever sin it is, it doesn’t matter. In each of those moments, it’s like the sidewalk has been suspended between those skyscrapers and faith begins to waver and falter. In those moments of temptation, you realize that what the Bible says is inconvenient to what your sinful nature wants to do. You just need to keep walking straight and stay on the sidewalk. And it is precisely in those moments you need to remember that Jesus is risen, and everything He has said and done matters. And your faith needs to fight against those sinful urges and desires.

It isn’t that you need to be stronger in your own discipline and strength. Instead, you need to be stronger in your faith that Christ is risen, and the fact that Christ is risen changes everything. When you face temptations, ask yourself, “Is Jesus risen?” Because the answer is, “Yes,” you need to fight against those temptations and continue to believe that Jesus forgives you even though it is difficult. That’s when the Holy Spirit will come and continue to strengthen and encourage you to resist falling into those sins, whatever they are.

Like Thomas in this text, you have no good reason to disbelieve. Yet, our faith is often weak and shallow. To you, Jesus says what He said to Thomas, “Do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Get over yourself and believe what is obviously true. Jesus is risen from the dead and loves you. He has forgiven you of your sins and will return to bring you to Himself. And be encouraged because Jesus was thinking of you when He blessed you and spoke of you one week after His resurrection. You are in the Bible from Jesus’ own lips. Jesus says of you, “Blessed are those who have not seen,” and that’s you, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

You have everything you need to fight against the temptations that you face (1 Cor. 10:13). The Holy Spirit continues to work on you, strengthening your faith about the facts of Jesus’ resurrection. And when you sin and fail and falter, Jesus’ death and resurrection has you covered. Because of what Jesus has done, you are forgiven, redeemed, and equipped to live in a fallen, broken world. And, dear saints, through that Holy Spirit-wrought faith, you overcome the world (1 Jn. 5:4).

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] This analogy is borrowed and adapted from Pr. Jared Melius from Denver, CO.