The Resurrected Lord-God | Sermon 04/21/2023

Like Pastor Andrew said, we're going to be going over biblical marriage this

Wednesday night. So if you've been married 50 years, 30 years, 20 years, 10 years, 5 years, if you've never been married, if you're single, if you're seeking marriage, or you're a young person, 18, and you just want to know what biblical marriage is about, this

Wednesday at 6 p .m. at Mission, we're going to talk about what biblical marriage is.

We're going to define it from Genesis 2. We're going to talk about conflict, conflict resolution, intimacy, things like that.

That's at the same night that we're doing our REACH Kids. So the kids will be in the other room learning their creation study, and we're going to be going over marriage.

So I'll be teaching that. Be sure to come to that if you're interested. But for now, if you would, please turn with me to the

Gospel according to John. We're going to be in chapter 20, verses 11 through 29.

We only have, I believe, three to four more sermons in the whole Gospel of John.

And I've told several of you I'm for sure now going to go to a topic that I really want to discuss, but then we're going to be in the book of Ruth in the

Old Testament for possibly four to six weeks. It's only four chapters, but we're going to go over the book of Ruth.

Very exciting. And then Lord willing, I'm thinking after that, we're going to be going to First Corinthians, the letter to the

Corinthians. So anyways, please be in prayer for all my study and preparation for those books.

Read Ruth. That's going to be next. Get ready for that. It's just a wonderful story of the

Redeemer. Okay, the title of the sermon today is The Resurrected Lord God.

It's hyphenated there, The Resurrected Lord God. That'll make sense very soon here.

So starting in verse 11 of the Gospel according to John, chapter 20.

Hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true God. But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping.

And so as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying.

And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? And she said to them, Because they have taken away my

Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. When she had said this, she turned around and saw

Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her,

Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? And supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him,

Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.

Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher.

Jesus said to her, Stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren and say to them,

I ascend to my Father and your Father, and my God, your God. Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples,

I have seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her. 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, 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 to them,

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. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called

Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples were saying to him,

We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see his hands, the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side,

I will not believe. After eight days, his disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them.

Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, Peace be with you.

Then he said to Thomas, Reach here with your finger and see my hands. Reach here with your hand and put it into my side.

And do not be unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and my

God. Jesus said to him, Because you have seen me, have you believed?

Blessed are they who did not see and yet believed.

Thus ends the reading of God's glorious and magnificent word.

Let's pray once more as a church body. God, we ask that you would reveal your word to us today, that you would,

God, edify us through it, that you would show your goodness and your grace through it, Lord, that you would encourage your people today.

Those who need to be encouraged, encourage them. Those who need to be uplifted, uplift them.

Lord, those who need to be humbled, humble them. And Lord, exalt the lowly and do a transformation in the hearts and minds of your people today with your glorious word.

I ask you that you would fill me with your spirit, and you would equip me to exposit this word before your people today.

Lord, we praise you. We give you all the glory. We thank you for this blessed resurrection. We pray this in Jesus name.

Amen. Well, church, it has been since Easter Sunday, but we are back in the gospel according to John.

We got to see the details of the scourging and the crucifixion of Christ leading up to his death.

And there were so many symbols in the various aspects of his humiliation, not to mention numerous moments of the fulfillment of scripture.

What Jesus performed demonstrated he is the actualization of prophecy and not just prophecy, but he is the climax of redemption and goodness of God in all history.

You see, Jesus bore that wrath, the wrath of God on that cross at Golgotha.

And if you remember, he declared, it is finished to tell us that it is finished. But I told you, even though Jesus said that, things weren't over yet.

He hasn't ascended yet. And so he did many great signs in his earthly ministry.

And Jesus said, though, if you remember in John chapter 2, that he would one day perform his greatest sign.

He said that he would destroy this temple and in three days raise it up, speaking of his own body.

And so we saw in divine resurrection power, he rose again. We talked about how he would have simply come out of his grave clothes.

He would have come out of those tightly wrapped linen wrappings. He just came through them.

Those things constrain other people. Those things constrain other people who are buried in the grave, but not

Jesus. He came through them. They were lying there perfectly. Everything was set away perfectly.

All of it was undisturbed. Even his face veil, his face covering was rolled up and set aside.

Mary Magdalene came that morning and she saw the tomb door rolled away. She assumed what?

She assumed a grave robbing. Someone's desecrated the temple of my Lord. They took his body.

They took Jesus and John and Peter. Then what? They ran out of the city and they came racing to the tomb and they saw the tomb door rolled away.

And it said that John believed, but he didn't understand everything. But Peter went away unsure.

He went away unsure of what to make of all these things. And so two things were certain that day.

Number one, Jesus's body was not taken.

They resolved that in their mind. Mary came and said someone's stolen his body. And I think what we gathered was at least

John and Peter thought, no. No one's taken his body and the wrappings are too perfect.

They're undisturbed. They would have had to been ripped open. And why would anyone transport a dead body with taking the wrappings off when it's been several days of decay?

And so they knew no one took his body. But the other thing they knew was his body is actually gone though.

We know no one took him. But we know that his body is gone.

Something has happened. Is he no longer dead? That's the question.

And so as you have seen, we have a rather large section of Scripture today. I'm going to try to condense this down, okay?

What we're going to look at is three appearances. Keep that in mind. Three appearances, three blocks of text, three appearances of the resurrected

Christ. The first appearance is with Mary Magdalene in the garden by the tomb.

That's the first one, okay? The second appearance of the resurrected Christ will be in a room with the disciples minus two of them, okay?

Judas Iscariot is gone. So there's 11, but one of them is not there, okay?

And the last one, the last appearance of Christ today will be with the one who doubted, the

Apostle Thomas who wasn't there that day. So let's take a look right now. Verses 11 and 12.

But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping. And so as she wept, she stooped, and she looked into the tomb.

And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying.

So at some point after alerting John and Peter, Mary had made her way back out of Jerusalem to the garden tomb area of her

Lord. We don't know why. It doesn't say why she came back. I would assume that she had a sense of grief and loss.

And that drove her to at least come back to the area where she had last saw him.

She possibly participated in the wrapping of his body, or at least observing it, and weeping and seeing him laid in that tomb.

And so she goes to the last place she saw Jesus. And so Mary is weeping, and she sees it opened as she reported to them, and she stoops down and she looks in.

She wants to see where he last was. And two angels are there. Two angels are right there, sitting in white clothing, one on each end of where Jesus used to lay.

And so in this dark tomb, there are these dazzling angels. They stand out in this dark tomb with brilliance.

Matthew 28 reports the angels moved the tomb door and later spoke with the women. Matthew said their appearance was like lightning.

So that gives you an image. Mark 16 says that there was a man with a bright robe.

Luke 24 records two men suddenly appeared at the tomb in dazzling clothing.

This is the common theme in all four Gospels. There are angels here in bright white clothing.

That bright white clothing is characteristic of the garments of angels. So you white shirt people, you look great today.

Okay, so I don't do white well, all right, you know. But anyways, this is the garments of heaven, so to speak.

At least the garments of angels so often do we see in the

Bible are wearing this white. And what we understand these two to be are visitors from the heavenly realm.

I think how amazing would it be if God Almighty is like, okay, I need two angels to go to the resurrection, to go to the tomb.

And I don't really think God was like, who is willing to go? And like all these angels put their hand up.

I don't think that happened. I think God appointed two angels. We don't know who they were, but I'm excited to meet them.

You should be excited to meet the two angels who were there at the resurrection. It's going to be wonderful. But you can see this is such an honor.

These two angels here in this moment. Angelic visitors are recorded quite a bit in the

Old Testament. And they're recorded quite a bit also, especially in the incarnation of Christ when he was born.

Or at least when he was being conceived and born. And what we need to understand is these messengers are from God.

The explanation of where Jesus is does not lie with the

Romans. The explanation of where Jesus is does not lie with the

Jews. The explanation of where Jesus is doesn't lie with humans. It lies with the heavenly realm.

That's what we see with these angels. It lies with God. This is something heavenly has happened here.

Something supernatural. Not anything the Romans or the Jews did. Now why does

John make a mention of where each angel was sitting? This is really important. Listen to this.

Why did John mention where each angel was sitting? I believe what

John was trying to do and what the angels were doing sitting on each side was they made a living ark of the covenant.

Do you remember in the instructions in Exodus when Moses was to build this ark of the covenant that there would be an angel on each side of that ark?

There would be two cherubim angels. And in the center would be the mercy seat, which is the very presence of God.

The presence of God was symbolized there in the ark of the covenant in the center. And so here in this tomb you have two angels, one on each side, just like the ark of the covenant.

And this makes sense. Because when you think about it, also the ark of the covenant is where sacrifice would take place, where atonement would take place, where the blood would be shaken of the spotless lamb.

So what's the angels doing there? They're symbolizing that ark of the covenant. Exodus 37 says that then they would bring fragrant incenses and spices to the ark of the covenant.

And what was on Jesus' body when he was buried? Fragrances, spices, incenses.

The ark was to be in the inner chamber of the tabernacle, covered by the veil.

It was to be in the Holy of Holies. It was to be in the interior of the tabernacle.

And we even see angels are depicted on the tabernacle veils.

They're often in the threads. They're in the weaving, angels. And so Jesus is in the interior of the earth.

He's in the deeper part of the earth, the interior, like the Holy of Holies.

We even see with that veil that separates the

Holy of Holies or the most holy place, Jesus had a veil too. What did it say when we looked at this three weeks ago?

It said that his veil, his facial veil, was removed. His facial veil was rolled up.

It was taken away. It was gone. And so what we have is an image of Jesus is the one who tabernacled among us.

That was John chapter 1. The fullness of deity dwells in him in bodily form.

That is to say the angels here show us that Jesus is no mere human.

But he is truly God and truly man. Jesus is the very presence of God.

Okay? Verse 13, And the angel said to her,

Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, And I do not know where they have laid him.

So again, This is basically the mercy symbolizes the Ark of the Covenant, the throne of grace, so to speak, where the death of another atones for others.

That's what happened with Jesus. This is where God's presence is. And Mary is looking at this scene with grief.

The angels aren't trying to get information out of Mary that they don't know, that they want to know.

Why are you weeping? As if they're curious and she'll reveal something to them about her weeping.

It's a gentle rebuke. Why would you weep at this sight, woman?

Why would you cry now? This is no occasion for weeping,

Mary. The perfectly maintained grave clothes, the empty tomb, the presence of angels, the symbolizing of the

Ark of the Covenant, and Mary Magdalene still doesn't get it. She doesn't see it.

In fact, we see that in her response. She doesn't say to them, Oh, you're right. It's empty.

He's risen. She goes, Because they've taken my Lord's body. I don't know where they've laid him.

She's speaking to angels. But she's still thinking about these things.

She repeats almost verbatim what she told the disciples earlier, verses 14 and 15.

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? And supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him,

Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.

So Mary is stooping down. She's looking into a dark tomb. There's a garden behind her.

And she's looking in and she says, I don't know where they've taken my Lord. And the angels are like, Why are you weeping?

And then all of a sudden it's as if she, maybe she feels something behind her and she turns around and it's

Jesus. She turns around and it's Jesus. Maybe the person behind me has the answer to the question that I'm longing to have answered.

Where is Jesus? And so she turns and the ironic thing is it's Jesus himself. It's Jesus.

It's pure irony. But she didn't recognize him. This is very similar.

Maybe you've read in Luke chapter 24 verse 16 on the road to Emmaus after Jesus resurrected.

It said that the disciples were shielded from basically seeing that that was

Jesus. They couldn't recognize him on the road to Emmaus. And then later on they're like didn't our hearts burn within us?

Wasn't there something different about that man who talked to us on the road to Emmaus? So they didn't recognize him. They didn't identify him.

This is the same thing going on here. But not only that, I would argue that there's something different about the resurrected

Jesus. There's something different about him now. He still bears the marks of the nail holes in his hands and in his feet.

He still has the spear wound in his side. And we'll even see that he can cook fish and he eats it.

But he rose through his grave clothes. He can appear in locked rooms.

He can materialize and wield himself and wield creation with power as God himself.

And Paul speaks of something that you and I will be a little bit different too. Not even a little bit, quite a bit different.

Paul says our bodies will be sown into the ground one way and are raised another.

We will be different. We will be sown perishable, raised imperishable.

He said buried in dishonor, raised in honor, raised in glory, raised in power, sown into the ground with a natural body, but raised, he says, with a spiritual body.

And that's what's interesting. Paul says something like an oxymoron.

Spiritual body. Interesting. We won't just be spirit.

Spiritual and body. Now Jesus' body is different than when he first entered the tomb.

In a way that is likely unique to us, he's God. But still, something's different about him.

And so Jesus, standing there, gently asks her, Woman, why are you weeping?

Whom are you seeking? And the first question is like the angels. No tears are needed at the blessed resurrection.

And the second question is an invitation for her to consider if she is looking for a dead man, or is she looking for a living man?

Whom are you seeking? Are you looking for someone who's dead? Are you looking for someone who's alive,

Mary? Despite her great devotion to Jesus, her views of him are not that great.

They're not grand enough. Mary doesn't think rightly of Jesus enough yet.

Her views are too small of him. And so she's supposed him to be the gardener.

He's tending the garden. And that's interesting. Tending the garden.

For her to consider him to be the gardener, I think he had to look as if he was tending the garden in some capacity.

What that looked like, I don't know. You see, there has been a theme being established of gardens since chapter 18.

In the Garden of Gethsemane is where Jesus prayed to his father and he accepted the cup given to him.

He did not choose his own humanly will, but the divine will. And when you think about it, Adam, when

Adam was in the Garden of Eden, he did the opposite. He rejected God's will and chose his own.

In the Garden of Eden is where sin and death came into the world, but here in this garden is where sin and death were facing down defeat.

Adam was to keep and tend the garden, to guard it, but failed against the serpent.

Here in this garden is where Jesus keeps and tends and guards. He protects. The fact that he lives and stands here right in front of Mary means death has lost.

Death has lost. And he's taking us, church, he's taking us to the eternal garden.

Jesus was God who walked in the garden of the cool of the day in Genesis, and here he is again bringing us back into the presence of God.

You see what I'm saying? John has been trying to establish this for 20 chapters. Jesus is

Genesis. Jesus is our Genesis. He is our exodus from sin and slavery.

Jesus is the priest and the atoning lamb from the book of Numbers.

Jesus is our guide through the wilderness of this life in the book of Numbers.

He will take us to the garden. He will guide us there, and Jesus is Deuteronomy. He is the word that was given in that book that we would have the living word established for us.

Jesus is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. John has been trying to show this this whole time.

Jesus is the gardener of his garden. Okay? Now Mary is so distraught she demands

Jesus, whom she cannot recognize, to tell her where Jesus' body is.

Jesus, can you, no, she doesn't say Jesus, but can you tell me where Jesus' body is to Jesus?

Where has it been laid? What does she want to do? Mary wants to bury him again.

Okay? She thinks Jesus' body has been desecrated, and she believes that she has to take him, maybe to a new grave, but that won't do.

The grave won't keep him. It can't hold him. That's not where he's supposed to go.

So verse 16, Jesus then said to her, Mary. I wonder how he said it.

Mary. And she turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher.

You see, the good shepherd knows his sheep by name. Mary. And he calls to her.

And she, according to John 10, knows the shepherd's voice, and so she comes to him.

Or should we say she finally comes to? She recognizes Christ, and she calls him by what she so endearingly called him for all of his ministry previously,

Rabboni, teacher. It's her way of speaking with affection, Rabboni, teacher.

It is significant that John mentioned earlier she turned toward Jesus supposing him to be the gardener, so she was stooped in, looking into the room, looking at the angels, and then it says she turned toward a gardener, and she was face to face with Jesus, not knowing it, but what's interesting is

John says the same word again. It says she turned to Jesus.

The first time she turned to him as a gardener, the second time she didn't move herself at all.

She wasn't, she didn't have her back to Jesus. She turned to him. She turned to him as Savior and Lord this time.

Not just a gardener. Not just a man. And it's personal.

She turns to her Lord. This turning signifies something that has happened to all of us.

Turning to Christ. Seeing him as Savior and Lord. Seeing with regenerated eyes.

Seeing with eyes to see and ears to hear. That's what she had. Mary, ears to hear.

Turning to him, eyes to see. She believed. Their interaction continues in verse 17.

Jesus said to her, stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren and say to them,

I ascend to my Father and your Father and my God and your God. Now I have to tell you, this verse is regarded as one of the most confusing and difficult verses in the

Gospel of John. Okay? This word, clinging, is actually just the most basic Greek word for touch.

So in the Greek New Testament here, it literally says, he told her, touch me not.

Touch me not, Mary. We can't spend a lot of time here since we have two more resurrection appearances to cover, but I will speak about this real quick.

Okay? Many get carried away with whether Mary was at Jesus' feet and she was grasping his feet and touching him, or if she was about to touch him and he said, touch me not.

If she embraced him and he said, touch me not. So many people get caught up in actually what's happening. That's not the point.

People will also get distracted by verse 27 because Jesus will invite

Thomas to touch his body. Okay? That may seem like a contradiction to this.

Jesus says, touch me not, Mary. And then in verse 27 we're going to see he says, touch me

Thomas. So what's going on? He's not yet ascended.

Some are like, does that mean he ascended in between his time of talking with Mary and Thomas?

That's not what it is. Okay? Those are the wrong things to keep in mind.

Think about the context. The context has been a disciple of Jesus, a woman named

Mary, has now three times expressed her great longing to find

Jesus' physical body. Okay? She wants to find

Jesus' physical body. Like Peter, like the disciples, like the

Jews, everyone has wanted a physical human Messiah to rule and reign on a throne made by men.

But Jesus corrects Mary to show her and every other disciple and even us how he is to be approached post -resurrection.

You see, in a sense the question is, how can the Lord be encountered now after the resurrection?

How is he to be found after he leaves? Jesus is going to leave.

How will he be found? You see, church,

Jesus is not the Jewish rabbi. He's the cosmic Christ who rules and reigns from his throne made without human hands over heaven and earth.

She doesn't need to keep looking for his body or to be consumed with his physical being staying on earth.

Who and where Christ is has to now be seen in light of his death, burial, resurrection and ascension.

You see, he said before, a time is coming when he is to go back to the

Father. He said that in chapter 14. In fact, for Jesus, we talked about this, for Jesus to be fully present with all his people, he must leave.

He says it's better for you that I go because then

Jesus' presence isn't constrained to one locality, one place.

Mary, stop clinging to me. Touch me not. Don't hold on to my body.

I won't be staying here forever. Come to me the way

I have called you to come to me, the way I call everyone to come to me, by faith.

You see, the Holy Spirit can then come and be given to each one of us so that he is with us always and that's why later when

Jesus invites Thomas to touch his body, it's for a very different category. You see, he tells

Thomas touch my scars, touch my wounds because Thomas wasn't trying to keep

Jesus' physicalness here. Thomas didn't believe and so Jesus telling

Mary, touch me not, but telling Thomas, touch me, is under the same vein. It's in pursuit of the same thing.

It's for belief. It's for faith. It's for the mission ahead. It's for the ascension.

It's for the fact that Jesus won't be just that Jewish Messiah in Judea. He'll be the

Messiah of every tongue, tribe, people, and nation over the entire globe. He must go.

He must leave. He must ascend. So Jesus prohibits

Mary to cling to his body. One commentator paraphrases this section like this, as if Jesus is saying, stop holding on to me, for I am not yet in the ascended state.

So you do not have to hang on to me as if I were about to disappear permanently yet.

You see, Jesus is going to be on the earth for 40 more days. In fact,

Hebrews 5, 7 says previously were the days of his flesh. Previously, before the resurrection, were the days of his flesh.

Not that he's no longer the God -man, but the process of ascension is beginning.

The process of leaving has started. Okay? You see, in the 40 days after the resurrection,

Jesus would appear, and then he would go away, and he would reappear multiple times, possibly going to the heavenly realm sometimes in the interim.

But the culmination of all of this, of this beginning of the ascension, will be reached at his dramatic and glorious ascension recorded in Acts chapter 1.

That's where the ascension is recorded. Acts chapter 1. So I hope you can now see

Mary and the apostles and all of us shouldn't want the physical and earthly ministry

Christ. You and I shouldn't want the physical ministry

Jesus. The earthly Jesus. We ought to want the resurrected and ascended

Christ. The one not bound to the Judean locality, but who is making himself known to people everywhere and at every time.

Okay? Now before we move on to the next verse, notice how Jesus uses my brethren.

Go to my brethren. And he calls his father their father and God their

God. You see, what was exclusively the divine right of the Son of God from eternity past has now been given to us.

It's been given to them. And brethren here, in the Greek, is meant to include both men and women.

Go to the brethren. And so this is a fulfillment of John chapter 1.

When it says, But as many as received him, to them he gave them the right to become children of God.

They're his brethren post -resurrection because they're now the children of God.

Those who have not been born of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And so verse 18,

Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord. She tells the disciples,

I've seen the Lord. And she reported everything that he told her to say to them.

John doesn't tell us how the disciples reacted, but we can assume that their faith was still very little.

The Lord is alive! And they're like, they don't believe.

They can't believe it. So that was the first post -resurrection appearance in the longest account of the three.

Now for the second, okay? Verse 19, 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. You see this exact scene paralleled in Luke 24, 36 through 42 if you want to view it from another angle, by the way.

And so it's possible that just ten men are here. You have the twelve apostles, but Judas Iscariot is long gone, and Thomas isn't here.

You have ten apostles. And we learn that it's still Easter Sunday.

It's still the day of the resurrection. It is evening now, and the apostles are likely going over all the events that have occurred the past few days since they all scattered that Thursday night in the

Garden of Gethsemane. They ran for it when the soldiers were coming. And so they're possibly going over everything that has been seen and heard, and the doors were shut, locks were turned, window curtains were drawn as they were fearing the

Jewish leaders may come after them next. We were followers of this guy.

Maybe they're coming after us. And so you have stress, you have anxiety, you have worry, you have fear, and not to mention confusion regarding that some women have come forth and said that He's alive.

It's like, what do we believe? He's alive? And fear has overwhelmed them, and all of a sudden in a locked room with the curtains drawn

Jesus materializes, appears suddenly in their midst.

It's supernatural in nature. Like He appeared or passed through the grave clothes,

He came right into a locked room, and with power and joy and love and wisdom and strength and all the wonderful things about Christ, He says literally peace to you.

I know my translation says peace be with you, but it literally says peace to you.

And this is no ordinary greeting of Shalom. Shalom, peace. This is a different kind of peace now with the resurrected

Christ. Peace be to you. That is the peace that it is finished, purchased for them and for us.

This is peace. This is eternal peace. This is not a salutation, but a declaration and an announcement of blessing.

Romans 5 1, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. This is peace that purchased heaven for you. This is real peace.

This is not just a ceasefire. This isn't just a pause on sin and death.

It's peace for you and me. And it makes sense now. You ever notice in the Pauline epistles, the letters of Paul, he often begins his letters with the combination of grace and peace.

You know, we always talk about grace so much, and grace is so important, but he says grace and peace.

That's what Jesus says. Peace be to you. Verse 20,

And when Jesus had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side, and the disciples then rejoiced when they saw the

Lord. You see, if anyone was crucified and they had wounds in their hands and in their feet, they could potentially be taken off the cross before death and healed and recovered, and they could have taken care of this person who was crucified, and the wounds could have healed over, and you would still see the scars and everything.

They could have done that with someone, but Jesus has something no one else has. He has no broken legs, and he has a spear hole in his side.

That will forever be what distinguishes Jesus from all others who are crucified.

Excuse me. Excuse me.

Anyhow, this is the risen

Lord, and their master is alive again. Jesus is forever marked on his body by his willing sacrifice, but also his body is glorified to show that he is the living

God. There is no room for sadness now. Remember what he told them the night of that walk out to the

Garden of Gethsemane? In John chapter 16, he said, Truly, truly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, and the world will rejoice.

And that's true. When Jesus was crucified, they wept, but the world rejoiced.

Oh, the troublemaker is dead. The world rejoiced, but then he said,

You will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy, and that's what's happening now. They rejoiced when they saw the

Lord. Somehow, I think the word rejoiced just doesn't do it justice.

Every worry is gone at the sight of the risen Lord. Who or what could stop the gospel of the kingdom now?

Jesus is alive. He defied death. He defied the

Romans. He defied the Jews. Jesus is alive. What can happen now?

Open those doors. Open those windows. Verse 21,

So Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.

We saw that a lot in John. Jesus said, I was sent by my Father. And he says,

I also send you now. But what this doesn't mean is that the disciples and all of us somehow replace

Jesus. We don't. Like as if he had a work to do and we're called to complete it.

We need to finish what Jesus started. No, that's not the case. Nor does this mean that just like Jesus in his mission, we are gonna do all the signs and wonders he performed, and new revelation will come through us.

It'll come through each and every believer now. And not only that, but you and I are gonna die atoning deaths.

Our death will pay for something. That's not true. That's not true. That is so offensively false, it's unreal.

We have to think about the context of John. You see, when

Jesus said he was sent by his Father, there were some connotations in there. He was first marked by his obedience to the

Father. Jesus was marked by his obedience to the Father. He also had the

Spirit on him in his baptism. And Jesus said he had the

Spirit in whom the Father gave him without measure. And most of all, what characterized

Jesus being sent, Jesus on mission, was that he possessed sacrificial love. Real love.

And so the disciples of Christ are not to be taken out of the world yet. He prayed that in John 17.

I pray that you don't remove them, but you keep them from the evil one. So we learn we're supposed to stay here while he ascends.

We're supposed to be here. We are to remain. We are to share the good news of the risen, sacrificed

Christ. But you and I can only do this by what?

The same things. By obedience to God. Faithfulness and dependence and obedience on God like Christ.

We can only do this by receiving the paraclete, the Holy Spirit, to empower us for the task.

And the motivation for us also ought to be selfless love.

Just like the Son of God. And we do this now as being given the right to be children of God.

You see, I want to tell you something. You can't ever expect to be successful in your ministry or in your sphere of your ministry and what you're doing for Christ.

You can't ever expect to be successful in any form of service to God if you are not obedient and dependent and faithful and filled with the

Holy Spirit and possessing sacrificial love. You see, this would be dead.

This wouldn't be worth anything if we didn't have that. We've got to be dependent.

We've got to be faithful. We've got to be obedient. You can't go anywhere without these things.

And so the reality is, it's never your ministry. It's not Wade's ministry.

It's not you saving people or me saving people. In other words, the church doesn't replace

Jesus' ministry or even imitates his exact ministry. We get the privilege to participate in the triune plan of God for humanity.

That's what it is. We get to participate. And that's a

Trinitarian plan, and you notice that here, the Trinity is very much present in this section. The Father, he says, sent the

Son, and then we'll see the Son sends the Spirit, verses 22 and 23. 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 have been forgiven them.

If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained. So these are also some of the most challenging verses in the

Gospel according to John as well. We're getting all of them today. We're getting all the fun ones. Okay?

I don't want to distract from the main aspects of this section of Scripture. This is about the crucified

Lord who has risen and he's appearing to many people before his ascension, granting belief and imparting the

Spirit to equip the church. Those for sure are the main elements of today, but let's talk about this.

Receiving the Holy Spirit from chapters 14 through 16, we saw

Jesus' accomplishment of his earthly ministry would culminate to an ascending departure and simultaneously the giving of the

Comforter, the Spirit of Truth. And both of those topics are being covered today in this text.

Okay? The Spirit and the Ascension. They're addressed by our

Lord today, but what many are confused by, what you might be confused by reading this, it says

Jesus breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. So the question has been you're thinking of Acts chapter 2, right?

The day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon them and we believe that that's the day that the

Holy Spirit was given. And you're like, wait, how does this make sense? Jesus breathed on the apostles, gave them the

Holy Spirit, but then 40 days, exactly 40 days later from this day was

Pentecost. And then the Holy Spirit manifested in them. So many people have been confused.

Is John writing something that is contrary to Acts chapter 2? Are these verses at odds?

There's a 40 day discrepancy here. Let me address this real quick, okay? Some take this to be an actual giving of the

Holy Spirit but only in part. It's a partial giving. Calvin thought that this was a sprinkling of the

Spirit, a sprinkling of the grace of the Spirit but not a full saturation of power and the

Spirit's might until Acts chapter 2. This was a preview. Of course

Calvin would be the one to say sprinkling of the Holy Spirit. But some say they were fully given the

Holy Spirit here in John 20 and Acts chapter 2 was the outward manifestation and demonstration of being filled.

Because that's what it says. It says that the Spirit descended upon them and they were filled with the

Holy Spirit. So what do I think?

What do I think about this supposed discrepancy? Well first this word for breathed on doesn't actually have the word on in the original language.

Okay? It can mean Jesus simply breathed or he blew then spoke.

And there is no object in the language for the blowing either. The word them isn't there.

Okay? It's a really odd scene but what the language tells us is this.

It literally says he blew. He blew. It doesn't say he breathed on them.

That phrase isn't there. It says he blew and said to them. So that's the first thing to consider.

Okay? That's to keep in mind. But he blew and said to them, receive the

Holy Spirit and with that in mind so many Genesis and creation and life references from John 1 to with all those in mind

Genesis and life and creation one cannot help but think of what? Genesis chapter 2 here.

Genesis 2 when God breathed or blew into the man making him a living being.

Adam. Maybe you think of Ezekiel chapter 37 and the promise in the new covenant that the breath would come.

That's what it says. The breath would come and breathe on the dry bones and they would come to life and just like the hour that Jesus kept referring to.

My hour is near. My hour is coming. My hour is not yet. When Jesus kept saying my hour we knew that to be the point of his crucifixion but we also understand that the crucifixion wasn't an exactly 60 minute episode.

When Jesus said my hour he meant the time of the crucifixion and so in the same way the giving of the spirit is not time bound.

It's not bound by time. The giving of the spirit starts in some capacity now and we will see a great outward manifestation of the spirit at Pentecost and do you get that?

They're regenerate now. They've believed in him so they need the spirit. They can't believe without the spirit and so does that make sense?

They need the spirit now and then the spirit will manifest greatly 40 days later at Pentecost.

These are not at odds with each other. The disciples need the spirit now and the fact is does the third person of the trinity not act now?

Was the spirit not with Christ this whole time? One other thing to think about is what's interesting is

Jesus being on the earth for 40 more days while the spirit was here.

They're both here at this time. The spirit is here and Jesus is here for 40 days and that would make sense that once Jesus finally physically leaves and he ascends in Acts chapter 1 that the very next chapter there would be a great manifestation of the

Holy Spirit. That something new has begun.

Something different has taken place and that spirit, the spirit, he had to come down and he manifested and these men started speaking in different languages, speaking of the glories of God, speaking the gospel.

All of that was on purpose. So you ask me Pastor Wade, but what actually happened here?

Was there a transaction that took place? What happened? Jesus blew and said, receive the

Holy Spirit. You see as one commentator said, I agree with him, he said we would understand if we were there and you got to see that, if you were in the room and you got to be a fly on the wall and you got to watch

Jesus appear before 10 apostles and he breathed and said, receive the

Holy Spirit. If you even saw that you would gain more understanding by faith rather than by sight.

This is something that is hard to comprehend. We don't know exactly what happened. Now the giving of the spirit we see is correlated to forgiveness and retention of sins.

When we think of what Jesus said in Matthew 16 verse 19, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Did you see that it said, if you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them.

If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained. So Jesus has said this sort of thing multiple times in the gospels.

Some of it has been in the context of church discipline in Matthew 18 and like any good teacher or preacher he repeats himself.

Here this relates to the mission of all Christians that Jesus commissions us with to share the good news.

This is not about being given the kind of divine power that only God has where God can grant eternal life or he can regenerate people or God judges people and sends them to hell.

You and I don't do that. The apostles don't do that. Some have said, look this is a moment where the apostles are some sort of archetypes or forefathers of the church and they have power to forgive sins.

Peter can walk up to someone and say the same way Jesus did in the gospels and Peter can say your sins are forgiven and regenerate.

That's not what this is either. They don't have that power. Only God has that power.

What this means is as the disciples go and share the gospel, if someone repents at the hearing of the good news from the mouths of believers their sins are forgiven.

It's a recognition and those who reject it, they are left in their sins.

When we go to Provo on Thursday night, we tell people the good news. Christ died. He lived a perfect life and He died for you, a vicarious atonement, a substitutionary atonement.

He was buried. He rose again on the third day. He has power over death and the grave. If you believe this by faith, you will have eternal life and when we say that to people if someone goes,

I believe it, then you know what I'm going to say? If you believe this, your sins are forgiven you.

I'll say that. It's not me with the power of forgiving sins and likewise on Thursday night we saw people reject the gospel.

They said, I don't believe this and they walked away angry and some will say things like I'd rather serve

Satan and I will say out loud, Sir, then you will go to hell in your sins if you don't repent.

Just like this. It's a declaration. It's a recognition. Those who don't believe now do

I always hold out hope? Yes. When someone walks away with me I have full confidence that God can save them in between now and their death.

Amen. But in that moment it's a recognition Oh, you believed your sins are forgiven.

You reject it. Your sins aren't forgiven. They are retained. That's what's happening here.

This is the duty of the church. The church gets to participate in this but it sounds like I'm judging

Pastor Wade. No. God is the ultimate judge but Jesus also said in John 17, judge with righteous judgment.

Do these things and so we are to go out and do them and again we make no eternal declarations.

I make no eternal declaration on anyone. I don't say yes, you are going to hell and I know that with certainty and I'll declare it.

We don't. There's a difference. So look, I know we've been getting into some intense details.

There's been some really obscure passages here about the giving of the Holy Spirit and the clinging to Jesus and my fault

I think as a new preacher has often been giving too many details to you and not keeping it the main things the main thing but I didn't want to leave you all with more questions than answers today so that's why

I went into that but let's finish this up okay? Let's wrap it up now.

We have seen the first appearance of the risen Lord with Mary Magdalene in the garden by the tomb and how she should desire for him to ascend and not stay.

Then we saw Jesus supernaturally appear in a locked room with ten of the apostles and they rejoiced greatly and he fulfilled his promise.

He gave them the Holy Spirit. Finally we come to the last appearance the eleventh apostle okay?

You may have identified yourself quite a bit with Peter denying

Christ acting zealous and then immediately failing when it matters most.

Maybe you've seen yourself in John a bit. The beloved disciple. The one whom

Jesus loved. Not always understanding but you love. It's possible that you have even seen yourself in a little bit of Judas Iscariot someone who has in your past rejected and betrayed

Jesus but you're not the son of perdition and now God has saved you and changed you but you remember what it was like to turn on Jesus and so now in this moment we have

Thomas Thomas verses 24 and 25 but Thomas one of the twelve called

Didumas was not with them when Jesus came so the other disciples were saying to him we have seen the

Lord but he said to them unless I see his hands the imprint of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side

I will not believe I won't audacious you think demanding we might have done the same thing so Thomas wasn't there on that Sunday night that first Sunday resurrection night but it's been eight days later

Thomas is called Didumas which literally means twin means twin in the

Greek there have been a few times that Thomas has been seen in this gospel but here he is now this man's unbelief has led way to the name you ever heard the name doubting

Thomas oh you're a doubting Thomas you don't believe and that label is often applied to people today in different ways it's kind of not fair when you think about it a little bit because the other disciples didn't believe the women the women came up and said the

Lord is risen and the disciples didn't believe them and they finally saw

Jesus alive in that room and they examined his wounds and Thomas is no different than them why

Thomas was absent from that Easter day appearance we don't know but in God's total providence this acknowledgement of Thomas and the subsequent actions by Jesus have led way to one of the most highly

Christological confessions in the entire New Testament you're going to see one of the most important texts and confessions that have ever been made in scripture right here okay verse 26 after eight days his disciples were again inside and Thomas with them

Jesus came and the doors were shut and he stood in their midst and said peace be with you so eight days have passed from that first Sunday that Sunday was included in that day so literally it is

Sunday again it is the first day of the week it is the Lord's day it's the next

Sunday after the resurrection and Jesus appears once again in power materializing in this room and declares to them peace verse 27 after this he doesn't say a word to the ten he turns to the eleventh apostle he turns right to them and says in front of everyone

Thomas reach here with your finger and see my hands reach here with your hand and put it into my side do not be unbelieving but believing in front of everyone in front of everyone

Thomas challenged their confession but now in front of everyone

Jesus answers the challenge a week later this shows them that Jesus knows what they're saying even when not physically present you see

Thomas was speaking to the apostles the other ten and said I won't believe unless this happens

Jesus wasn't there but he heard everything he knows everything do you see do you see omniscient he knows what they're saying even when not physically present that tells you something about Jesus and his nature it goes beyond the natural this is a divine attribute he knows all that you say he knows all that I say he knows all that you think he knows all that I think okay and so Jesus has four imperatives here immediately it says reach he commands reach here with your finger see my hands reach here with your hand and put it into my side he commands him four times and you know so many depictions of this scene make

Thomas the judge and Jesus is begging for him to believe oh

Thomas Thomas look look at my wounds look at the holes put your finger here oh

Thomas would you believe touch my side but that's not what's happening here this is in the command form this is supposed to be forceful

Jesus meets every one of Thomas's demands to the minute detail this is to be a shaming rebuke in front of his peers

Jesus is loving no doubt and that's why he's doing this I personally don't think

Thomas had the courage or fortitude to step forward I don't think he had to put his hands anywhere when

Jesus appeared before them the Lord turned to Thomas right away locked eyes and he told him do not be a pissed off unbelieving but be pissed off believing and I think that reverent fear and awe washed over Thomas he received the

Holy Spirit as well in that moment he couldn't have said the following words without him I think the old has passed away and the new has come

Thomas will never be the same again I think it's possible that when he saw

Jesus appear right there and Jesus challenged him to the minute detail I think

Peter must have lost his strength fallen to his feet and became prostrate because this is what he says next verse 28 one of the most amazing confessions in the entire

New Testament Thomas answered and said to Jesus my Lord and my

God my Lord and my God you see in John 11

Thomas thought Jesus was going to be taken captive by the Jews and killed and Thomas goes

Jesus is leaving he's going back he's going to Bethany he's going to be with arms reach of the murderous

Jews let's go die with him in John 11 Thomas is like the end is here

Jesus is about to die he has no faith but what really what Jesus was doing was he was about to raise

Lazarus in chapter 11 then in John 14 Thomas had not understood after all this time that Jesus was the

I am he was the way to heaven and Thomas asked the question to Jesus when

Jesus says I'm going to go away to my father Thomas turns to him and says how do we get there where are the directions and Jesus then turns to him and says

I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father but through me and now in one split second

Jesus appears and Thomas Thomas has faith and belief has flooded this man he sees

Jesus and he could have said Lord curiou curiou which really means like master master rabboni but what

Thomas says is curios lord and he says theos

God theos this is why this is so important curios is often used of God the father but especially theos theos is often always used for the father and what

Thomas says towards Jesus as he falls down and he worships and he says to Jesus my

Lord and my God and I really think that John included this to be the conclusion of the prologue in chapter 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was

God Thomas says my Lord and my God and what is that Jesus is the Lord Jesus Christ but he's also

God you see the two natures even in that statement you see distinction and yet you see a oneness in being what did you see in John 1

Jesus was the word he was with God and he was God distinction and oneness my

Lord my God distinction and oneness and the resurrection reveals Jesus is who he has always said he is

Jesus is curios he is theos and the important thing to make notice of all this is what

Jesus receives church Jesus does not rebuke

Thomas he does not correct him he doesn't repel those words you see if Jesus wasn't

God if he wasn't theos if there wasn't a trinity God one in being three in persons then

Jesus would be accepting blasphemy then Jesus would be sinning my

Lord and my God who gets that praise who gets that kind of worship

God alone who is Jesus he is God he does not reject it he accepts it our

Lord affirms Thomas' confession and therefore affirms his deity and therefore he affirms the trinity every single

I am statement just came to life for these men well I will conclude this sermon on our final verse this morning this will be my conclusion now

I am going to use verse 29 with it verse 29 our last verse Jesus said to him because you have seen me have you believed blessed are they who did not see and yet believed you know

I said earlier that it was possibly unfair for Thomas since he was absent from that first resurrection appearance before the other apostles but the reality is he didn't believe the witness and testimony of his fellow disciples 10 men whom he's loved for years now in the ministry of Jesus told him

Jesus is alive and he did not believe and after Jesus ascends in just 30 days from this point 30 days from this

Sunday that we see in our text all anyone will have are the eyewitnesses account then the eyewitness accounts will be put in holy scripture and this is the account of the resurrected

Lord Jesus Christ and God makes it alive by his spirit and that's what we have today that's what you and I have after Jesus gives a gentle rebuke to Thomas he declares this beautiful beatitude he says blessed are they who did not see and yet believed you see many could have boasted and said

I saw the risen Lord I saw the risen Lord and you didn't but that's the whole point this is why it is better that Mary not cling to him and that he ascend to the father you see church for all the times that you've ever wished that you could see

Jesus walk the earth if only I could have been there in the first century if only I could have seen

Jesus do these miracles how amazing would it have been to be there with Jesus in the first century and walk with Jesus and hear him speak but he says here blessed are you who have not seen and believed blessed are you you see we don't have an inferior faith to the apostles

Peter puts it this way in first Peter 1 8 through 9 listen to this read first Peter 1 incredible and though you have not seen him you love him and though you do not see him now you believe and you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls you see something has happened here at this resurrection and this proceeding ascension and it was all intentional what happened in the tiniest spot on the face of the earth has covered the entire corner of the earth now what happened on this small planet called earth has affected the universe don't you see

God has made himself accessible to man in a way that we could have never thought possible this is the

God of the universe and he has revealed himself to us Jesus is the way,

Jesus is the bridge, he's the ladder to heaven Jesus brings heaven down to earth he made it so God would be in our hearts and the reality is the merge of earth and heaven is only growing greater with every new believer and that will consummate at the return of Christ church

Jesus is the gardener and we're going back to a garden no longer in Eden, no longer with sin but a garden that covers the entire globe in the presence of God once again that's where we'll be we'll be with our

God forever let's pray heavenly father we thank you for this moment we thank you

Lord for your word God we thank you for allowing us to see these three resurrection appearances we needed the same thing, we needed you to show yourself to us and you have you've done it by your spirit, you've done it by your word we believe these records we believe this living word it is all true, it is all real and we have faith,

Lord thank you for showing us we don't have an inferior faith because we didn't see you in the risen state but what we know to be true

Lord Jesus is that we will see you, we will see you, we aren't going to stay on this earth without you the

Holy Spirit is with us, God is with us but we will see you one day face to face and God may we fall down on our feet like Thomas and proclaim my

Lord and my God because you deserve it you are worthy we love you we pray this all in the name of your son