All Things Become New

April 7, 1991

John 20:19 When therefore 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 therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus therefore said to them again, "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."

2 Corinthians 5:17

Introduction

The appearances of Jesus in the forty days after His resurrection, recorded in all four Gospels, are very important indeed. They are important for what Jesus said, and He said a lot! But these post-resurrection appearances are perhaps even more important for what they tell us about how we can come to know God in a new and living way through the risen Savior. Every appearance speaks of:

I. A NEW ORDER OF ACCESS

  1. From the dawn of time every tribe and every race has wanted to make contact with the Eternal. Men and women have reached out to God as best they could. The history of mankind is a history of religions.

    Just this last Thursday (4/4/91) in the Boston GLOBE was an item from the Associated Press stating that a recent poll of adult Americans indicated that the Number One concern for them was finding and maintaining a relationship to God! And that in spite of decades of anti-spiritual blitzkrieg on the part of most of the entertainment and information media.

    Christians and Jews believe that almost 4,000 years ago in a special way God reached out to call a special people to follow Him and witness to His goodness. He called a man named Abram. He made covenant with him and his descendants. He spoke through a man called Moses. He spoke through prophets and Psalmists and a sacred Scripture of Covenant came into being. And we believe this revelation was superior to anything before.

    God revealed that He cared about this world. He could be contacted, even though that contact was usually through priests and rituals. But somehow all creation waited for a better way, a fuller understanding of God. The world awaited MESSIAH!

    The writer of Hebrews, in perfect harmony with all the revelation that has gone before, likens this search for communication to a narrowing focus that finally centers in the Christ:

    God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners has in the past spoken through the prophets has in these latter days finally spoken through His Son.

    Jesus came to bring a new and better way to the Father. For thirty-three years the Son of God lived among us. For three years and more He taught, and by His very life and death and resurrection revealed His Father God. This was a quantum leap in the God-man connection! Nothing could ever be quite the same again for those who encountered the Christ.

    But access was still very limited. It was limited physically, both in terms of how many might see and hear Him, and how He might come and go to those seeking Life. It was limited in human capacity to understand the scriptures. But all that began to change the day Jesus rose again from the dead!

  2. The risen Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, comes where He is loved; where people gather in His name; where He is sought. Here behind barred doors, meeting in fear and yet in rising hope, Jesus is suddenly amongst them! he is there! Not a wishful dream, but a real, living Person! [Just as He is here just now!]
  3. This access is now a two-way street! We can come to God at any time! We have access to God by the crucified, risen Savior (Romans 5:1,2)
  4. This ACCESS is to be the NORM! Far from occasional and mystic, God intends for His people to love Him and live in His Presence! Mystery? Yes! Magic? No way! Jesus, the crucified, risen Savior, reveals Himself to you and me! This new access does not lower the place of scripture in the life of faith. Access to God through Christ is linked to scripture; each new appearance gave:

II. A NEW LIGHT ON SACRED SCRIPTURE

  1. Jesus had said it before (John 5:39): the scriptures are the means of knowing Him. He came to fulfill the scripture (Matthew 5.)
  2. But NOW Jesus reveals HIMSELF as the KEY to the Bible. Luke is more explicit. In Luke 24 the two disciples on the Emmaus Road were treated to an exposition: "Beginning with Moses and in all the scriptures (Jesus) expounded to them the things concerning Himself" Then later in that 24th chapter Luke records this appearance (that John speaks of in John 21) and Luke says that Jesus (Luke 24:45) ". . .opened their minds that they might understand the scriptures."
  3. It is out of fashion, perhaps, [in these days of deconstruction] to believe in a Bible that is divine as well as human. It is even more incredible to the natural mind to look to a Man who lived 2,000 years ago for help in understanding the Bible. And if Jesus lived and died, and that is all, then it is naive.

    But if Jesus is the risen One, and the One who comes, who breaks in where we are, then we dare say:

    Come to Jesus! Learn of Him!

    Ask Jesus to help you understand the scriptures!

    That same Emmaus-Upper Room lesson is going on still! But there is still more! It gets better! Knowing the risen Savior puts a new dimension on LIFE itself!

III. A NEW JOY IN LIVING

  1. PEACE

    The Risen Lord appeared with a benediction of peace! It was the last thing Jesus had promised before His death— it is the first thing He says as conquering Savior— more than a casual "Shalom!" this PEACE MEANS THE END TO A DIVIDED HEART!

  2. PURPOSE

    Peace does NOT exclude work; it encompasses significant labor. Jesus had a new and wonderful assignment for His people. It is OUR assignment as well:

    As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending YOU.. and YOU... and YOU!

  3. PRESENCE

    Jesus BREATHED on them and said:

    Receive YE the Holy Spirit!

    A new kind of contact with God! A new kind of LIFE! In the Creation story, we are told that God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of life, and man became a living soul! Here Jesus breathes upon His church— and a new kind of life is born!

  4. POWER

    There is mystery involved in the statement:

    The sins you forgive will be forgiven and the sins you don't will not... but suffice it for now to say that Jesus was committing to the CHURCH His own assignment of telling the world that they can draw near to God, and that God loves them, and that their sins can be forgiven!

    ... all these blessings of knowing the risen Savior are in the context of a Unity, a divine-human mystery we call the CHURCH.

Conclusion

Thomas, bless his heart, wasn't there. Neither was I! Later Jesus reassured Thomas. But then Jesus said words that (I believe) John intended as the fitting climax of his masterpiece portrait of the Savior:

Thomas— you believe now because you have seen. But even more blessed are those who will believe even though they have not seen— but simply because they know they have met Me!

Prayer:

#303 Breathe on Me, Breath of God