More reasons not to be afraid

Sermon for Easter 1

1 John 5:4-10  +  John 20:19-31

Last week we considered the question: If Jesus lives, why are you so afraid? We’re going to explore that a little further today based on the Gospel we heard from John 20. Here the Lord gives us even more reasons not to be afraid, given the fact of His resurrection from the dead.

The fact of Jesus’ resurrection is still front and center in today’s Gospel. Now, if you read the various resurrection accounts from the four Gospels, it can be a little confusing figuring out in what order things happened. All the Evangelists focus on different details. All of them summarize the events to some extent and leave many things out. Even Luke, who tells us plainly in the book of Acts that Jesus appeared on and off to His disciples for forty days after His resurrection, skips straight from Easter Sunday to the Ascension in his Gospel account. But all the Evangelists agree on the fact of the resurrection, and we have John to thank for the details you heard today.

The disciples had spent the weekend paralyzed by fear. Even on Easter Sunday, after seeing the empty tomb in the morning and hearing the report of the women who heard the angel and who saw Jesus alive, they were shut up tight in that upper room for fear of the Jews.

But finally, for the ten who were there that evening, the fact of the resurrection broke through their fear. Finally, after seeing Jesus alive, they believed. And to prove to them that they weren’t seeing a ghost, Jesus let them touch His hands and side that had been pierced, and He even ate food with them. He was alive, though He was also now exalted and glorified, so that, as we said last week, large stones can’t keep Him trapped inside a tomb, nor can shut doors keep Him from appearing inside a room. The fact of the resurrection broke through the disciples’ fear. And it should break through yours, too.

But so did what He said. He greeted them with the meaningful words, “Peace to you!” He even repeated it, “Peace to you!” That must have come as a great relief. Now, these disciples of Jesus hadn’t wanted Him dead. They hadn’t called for His crucifixion. They loved Him. They grieved over everything that had been done to Him by the unbelieving Jews. But they also had some reason to be fearful when He suddenly appeared in the room with them. Remember how they had behaved over the last few days. They swore to Jesus that they would never abandon Him, and then they did. Peter swore he would never deny Jesus, and then he did, three times. They were supposed to be comforting the rest of Jesus’ followers with His words that predicted His death and resurrection, but instead, they holed up in that upper room in disbelief and fear. Not a good example from those who had been hand-picked by Christ to speak for Him.

And yet He greeted them, “Peace to you!” “Peace to you men who ran away Me, the last time I saw you together. Peace to you, including you, Peter. The last time I saw you, I turned and looked straight at you after you had just gotten done denying Me three times. Peace to you, who refused to believe in My resurrection until now. Peace. Atonement has been made for your sins. Look, here are the marks of your reconciliation with God, the marks that show how your sin was paid for. That peace broke through their fear. And it should break through yours, too, because of what Jesus said next.

As my Father has sent me, so I also send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” There was a sending that evening, or perhaps a resending, since Jesus had already sent out these men as His apostles. But after everything that had happened, another sending was in order. Jesus had been chosen by His Father and sent on His mission to enter our flesh, to live under the Law for us, to bear our sins for us. He wasn’t sending the apostles to do any of those things. That work of redemption is “finished,” as Jesus said from the cross. But Jesus had also been sent to care for His sheep and to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins to those who repent. That work had to continue—has to continue. And so for that work Jesus sent out His apostles and added His own authority to their ministry, to forgive sins—to speak peace!—in His name to the penitent, and to deny forgiveness to the impenitent. They were to continue His work of caring for souls, preaching and teaching. They were to continue the ministry of reconciliation. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

And the work didn’t end with the apostles. As St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, Christ Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. This sending that Jesus did and still does is a vital part of His plan for the Holy Christian Church. Too many people think that religion is “between me and God. I don’t need anyone else.” That’s not the religion that Jesus established, though, is it? He instituted a ministry among men. And, granted, many ministers are false teachers. Many don’t do what Jesus commanded them to do, and many do things that Jesus never commanded them to do, and they will answer for it on the last day when they say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then He will say to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ But that doesn’t give Christians the right to despise the ministry or ignore the ministry or hide from the ministry that Christ gave. On the contrary, this is how the risen Lord Christ has chosen to interact with His sheep until He comes again, to care for them, to speak to them, to given them so many reasons not to be afraid, because He is personally seeing to it that they are cared for.

Now, that care may be close at hand. There may be a right-teaching ministry close to where you live, and we have been blessed with that and ought to give thanks to God for it every day. But in this last old age of the earth, the pure ministry of the Gospel is harder to find. You may have to travel many miles and many hours to find it, or you may have to make do, for a time, with long-distance hearing. And some do! Or the ministers may have to travel many hours to minister to Christ’s sheep who are geographically scattered, but confessionally tightly knit together in one flock with other sheep. (We’ll hear more about that next week.) Thanks be to God for sheep and for shepherds who love the Lord and His word enough to seek out and to carry out His ministry with such devotion! If Christ is seeing to it that His sheep are still cared for in this way, even as the world plunges into darkness, what reason do you have to be afraid?

Finally, we can’t end without saying something about Thomas. Thomas disbelieved the word of Jesus predicting His resurrection. Thomas disbelieved the women’s report. He disbelieved the report of the Ten who saw Jesus on Easter Sunday evening, and the report of the Emmaus disciples. He disbelieved that the empty tomb meant a risen Savior. He had believed in Jesus before. But now, he was determined to have visible, tangible proof in order to believe in Jesus as his Lord and his God. What a dangerous position to place yourself in!

But the Lord had mercy on Thomas and gave him the proofs he demanded. Put your finger here and see my hands; and put your hand here and place it into my side, and do not be unbelieving any longer, but believing. And Thomas answered in faith, My Lord and my God!

And Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed. That’s you and I, isn’t it? We haven’t seen. We haven’t seen Jesus, alive or dead, or risen from the dead. What have we seen? We’ve seen Bibles and the eyewitness testimony recorded in them. We’ve seen the Church as Christians continue to gather in faith around God’s Word. We’ve seen the Church still calling ministers in the name of Christ and we’ve seen ministers still carrying out Christ’s command to preach, to forgive the penitent and to not forgive the impenitent. We’ve seen baptismal waters, and bread and wine being consecrated and distributed and received at Jesus’ command. All of this is the testimony of the Holy Spirit: the testimony that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

You are part of that testimony. No matter how much the devil tries to distract you, no matter how much the world hates you, no matter how much your sinful flesh struggles against you and weakens you at time, you have stubbornly, defiantly refused to give in to the lie that Jesus is dead. The Holy Spirit has led you to believe that Jesus lives and reigns, not just for the universe out there, but for you right here. And as you confess Christ, you become part of His testimony to the world that the darkness cannot put out the light of Christ, that the devil has not won, that sin cannot condemn believers in Christ, that our God is trustworthy, and that His love is worth knowing, worth sharing, worth declaring before the world, because salvation is found in no one else but in the Lord Jesus Christ.

May the message of Easter, and faith in that message, continue to fill you with peace and with joy in place of fear and sadness, and with life in place of death, even as John tells us that he wrote his Gospel for this singular purpose, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, by believing, you may have life in his name. Amen.