‘Joyful Disciples’ - John 20:19-23

‘Joyful Disciples’ - John 20:19-23
Basil Howlett — Carey Baptist Church — 8 October 2006

The disciples were desperately sad. Their dearly loved master and teacher whom they had followed for three wonderful years had been put to death the previous Friday and the bottom had fallen out of their lives. On top of that, they were terrified that the Jewish rulers would arrest them and hound them to death. So they had locked themselves away in a room in Jerusalem. They had heard from Mary Magdalene and others that the tomb where Jesus had been laid was empty, and they had heard rumours that Jesus had risen but they regarded them as ‘nonsense and didn’t believe them’ (Luke 24:11). Suddenly Jesus came and stood among them. It wasn’t an apparition. It wasn’t a ghost. They actually saw his scarred hands and side.

A. The risen Lord gives his disciples joy (verse 20).

They couldn’t understand how he’d got into that room with the doors locked and nor can we. All we can say is that Jesus’ resurrection body was real, the same basic body that had been laid in the grave but as a glorified body it had some differences(1 Corinthians 15:44).

The fact that he has risen gives us joy and peace because it:

1. Proves to us that he really is the Son of God ( See Romans 1:4).
2. Assures us beyond all doubt that he has dealt with our sin.
3. Demonstrates to us that he must be more powerful than all His enemies.
4. Means that he is with us.
5. Reminds us that one day we will rise from the dead.

B. The risen Lord gives his disciples a commission (verse 21).

We must not keep the gospel, and the joy and peace it gives, to ourselves. The risen Lord sent these disciples to tell others. God the Father sent him into this lost world to die and rise again that we might have pardon and peace and eternal joy. The Lord Jesus Christ sends us out to a lost world to share the good news with others. It was one of his repeated commands following his resurrection (Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:47. John 20:21).

This commission must have shaken the disciples. They had spend most, if not all of their lives, in and around Galilee with the occasional visit to Jerusalem but now Jesus was sending them to tell the rest of the world! That must have been scary. But thankfully we come to our third heading.

C. The risen Lord gives his disciples the Holy Spirit (verse 22).

This is crucial statement in discussions about the Holy Spirit. When Jesus ‘breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”’ did anything actually happen there and then? It is an important question because some Christians say that these disciples knew nothing about the Holy Spirit coming to them until the Day of Pentecost. The obvious question to put to such people is, what then happened in John 20:22. The answer frequently given is that our Lord’s action in breathing on them and his words, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ were just prophetic. He was just saying, ‘You will receive the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.’ But the Greek text has the sense of something happening there and then on Easter Day. (That has implications for our understanding of what happened later on the Day of Pentecost!). But the main point in John 20:22 is that the risen Saviour does not send us out alone to make known the gospel. He has given us the Holy Spirit.

D. The risen Lord gives his disciples an absolute assurance that if they forgive anyone’s sins they will definitely be forgiven (verse 23).

This is another controversial verse. The Roman Catholic church (and others) claims that the Pope and the priests have power to forgive sins and they appeal to this verse to support their belief. Their argument is that the Lord gave these apostles the power to forgive sins and that power has been passed on to all popes and through them to the priests. That cannot be the meaning of this verse for these 3 reasons:

1. Because the rest of the Bible teaches that God alone can forgive sins against God. (Mark 2:7, Daniel 9:9, Psalm 103:3). Jesus can forgive because he is God.

2. Because a basic truth of the gospel is that Jesus Christ in the one mediator. Some people would say, ‘We agree that only God can forgive sins but in order to get that forgiveness you must go to the priest. You can’t go to God directly, he’s too awesome so you must go through the priest.’ That is a total denial of 1 Timothy 2:5, and John 4:6.

3. To give a man the power to forgive sins is the high road to pride and all manner of corruption.
The key to understanding verse 23 is in the Old Testament. When a prophet was sent to declare that God would do something, the prophet himself was said to do it. For instance, when Jeremiah (1:10) was told by God to warn the nations that they would be overthrown, God said to him, ‘I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and pull down.’ Jeremiah himself couldn’t throw down a single nation or root up any kingdom. God .alone could do that, but the thing proclaimed by Jeremiah was so certain to be done by God that it was expressed as though Jeremiah were doing it there and then. That’s the kind of thing Jesus is saying here. The apostles’ duty and our duty is to go to sinful men and women and tell them, with all the authority of God, that if they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and confess their sin to him then all their sin will be forgiven. It will happen!

But there’s a solemn side too. If you reject the Lord Jesus Christ and dismiss the gospel then, we have the solemn duty of warning you, with all the authority of God, that you are will remain hopelessly lost and that all your sins will remain recorded against you in the heavenly records. That will be the case!