John 20:19-23, 30-31 1 Missional Insufflation John 20:19-23, 30-31 Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins Graves Memorial Presbyterian Church April 19, 2020 So, what do we do with the message of Easter? Easter has come and gone, as it does every year. Granted, it was strangely different this year, as we weren’t able to gather together physically to mark the anniversary of the resurrection of our Lord. But the basic pattern on our calendar wasn’t any different from years past. We went through Lent, with a slow, deliberate 40-day journey toward the cross; at the end of Lent we experienced the fast-paced intense spiritual roller coaster ride through Holy Week with Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. Every year there’s this build-up to Easter, culminating in the glorious proclamation of the victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death, and the eternal implications that his resurrection has for us. But now, what? What do we do with the Easter message? Jesus is risen from the dead. Now, what? Don’t you get the sense that there’s some unfinished business that needs our attention? If you read through all four gospels, you will notice that none of them ends at the empty tomb. Every gospel (even the traditional short ending of the Gospel According to Mark) has some aspect of sending forth of those first witnesses to the resurrection, to proclaim what they had seen. All four gospels remind us that the resurrection of Jesus is not just good news for us to experience; indeed, with the privilege of witnessing and embracing the resurrection comes the responsibility of passing on the Good News to the rest of the world. All four of the gospels contain some form of commissioning of the first witnesses to proclaim the Gospel of the resurrection to the ends of the earth. In John’s gospel lesson before us this morning, the commission comes to us in two brief sentences, with a word of empowerment sandwiched in between: The commission is, as John relates it to us, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you… If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”1 As the Father has sent me, so I send you… Jesus has given us a job, a mission. Our mission is to go out and tell the whole world the central message that we celebrate at Easter – about God’s love for the world, and how through Jesus Christ God has forgiven our sins and granted us eternal life. The mission that Jesus has given us is to proclaim the Good News. Our mission is to engage in evangelism. The New Testament notion of evangelism comes from the Greek word euangelizo. Literally, it means “to proclaim good news.” Our mission is to take THE Good News of Jesus Christ and proclaim it to the world. Presbyterians sometimes are shy about evangelism. Maybe it’s because we don’t want to offend others who may not have the same belief we have. Maybe it’s because we don’t 1 John 20:21, 23 John 20:19-23, 30-31 2 think we know enough about the Bible to teach it to others. Maybe it’s because we feel like we don’t know all the ins and outs of doctrine and theology. I don’t know why, but we just don’t seem to be as bold in sharing the Good News as other traditions and denominations in the body of Christ. But evangelism isn’t about imposing our beliefs (though it does entail sharing our beliefs). Nor is it about being an expert in the Bible (though the truth of the Gospel only comes to us through the Bible). Nor is evangelism about knowing everything about doctrine and theology (though doctrine and theology are vital aids to our faith). Evangelism, as Jesus commissions his disciples in the Upper Room, is about being sent into the world to proclaim forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ. John Calvin said it beautifully in his commentary on the Gospel According to John, when he speaks of the call for us to proclaim the forgiveness of sins: “Here without a doubt our Lord has encapsulated the whole Gospel… The chief purpose of the Gospel is that people may be reconciled to God...” (Then he goes on to describe how all other Christian teachings must arise from the foundation of the forgiveness of sins. We have to start with forgiveness of sins in order to move toward things like godly living, sanctification, and the like): “Thus the whole doctrine of godliness and the spiritual building of the church rest upon this foundation – that God has acquitted us of all sins and adopts us as his children by free grace.”2 Of course, we have to be able to talk about Christian living. Of course, we have to know what is expected of us when we believe in Jesus. But it doesn’t do any good to tell someone how to live as a child of God if you haven’t told them how we become children of God in the first place. That’s why, if you read through Paul’s letters to the churches, he follows the same pattern. He starts off by telling us first what God has done for us in Jesus Christ – by grace, you are saved, through faith. And only after that does Paul tell us how to live in response to the Gospel. Our mission starts with forgiveness of sins. It’s not Gospel proclamation if we don’t address God’s solution to our sin. There is a flip side to the word of forgiveness that we often want to overlook. Jesus says that if we forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if we retain the sins of any, they are retained. Jesus is referring here to those who refuse to embrace or accept the forgiveness he offers. It’s understandably disturbing that we don’t want to proclaim hellfire and damnation. But we cannot with integrity proclaim forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ, without also pointing out the consequences of unbelief. As Dale Bruner points out, “If we do not warn unbelief, we do unbelievers a great disservice, and we disobey Jesus’ full mandate here. Warning and discipline are parts of Jesus’ Mission Mandate in John’s Gospel, 2 John Calvin, John. The Crossway Classic Commentaries, Alister McGrath and J.I. Packer, eds. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1994), p. 455. John 20:19-23, 30-31 3 and the faithful Church will learn how, graciously, to incorporate Jesus’ warning and discipline into her message.”3 There is a problem, though with the mission Jesus sends us to carry out. What Jesus sends us to do, we cannot accomplish by ourselves, on our own efforts. In human terms it is impossible for us to represent Christ and his Gospel to the world. Again, I turn to John Calvin to make this clear: “No mortal is qualified to discharge such a difficult office, and so Christ prepares the apostles by the grace of his Spirit. And, indeed, to govern the church of God, to carry the embassy of eternal salvation, to build the kingdom of God on earth, and to raise people to heaven is far beyond human capacity.”4 For us to be successful in that which the risen Lord sends us to do is beyond human capacity. But thanks be to God, that our Lord does not call us to any task for which he does not also equip us. So nested in the middle of Jesus’ words of commission is the act of empowerment. As John tells us, Jesus breathed on his disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”5 It sounds rather un-dramatic, doesn’t it? Jesus just breathed on them, nothing more. But don’t be fooled by the simplicity of the act, for what Jesus does here is life-giving and empowering. I think back on other times in the Bible when the breath of God demonstrated God’s life-giving power. I think back to creation, when God breathed into the dust to create the man and to give life to the man. I think back to Ezekiel and his vision of the valley of dry bones, when “the Sovereign Lord [said], ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these [dry bones] that they may live.’ ...and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army.”6 This is the same breath Jesus breathes into his disciples and into us. The breath that Jesus breathes into the disciples is the life-giving and empowering Holy Spirit, the Advocate whom Jesus had promised just days earlier. Jesus calls the disciples gathered in the Upper Room – and he calls us, as well – to the impossible task of proclaiming the Gospel. But with the call, comes the Gift, the Holy Spirit. And I love how one scholar translated the verse, not simply as “receive the Holy Spirit,” but “Welcome the Holy Spirit.” You see, Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit as his gift to empower, guide, equip, and comfort us. But there is still the element that we are to embrace the gift as our own, to welcome the Spirit into our hearts and surrender our lives to the influence of the Spirit.