This is the same exact passage I preached from last week, but I'm focusing on verses 21, 22, and 23 today. Listen as I read. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you. And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side, and the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so, I am sending 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 anyone, they are forgiven. If you withhold the forgiveness from anyone, it is with hell. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated.
As we look at this passage, this ultimately is what I want you to know. Our God is ascending God. He is a God who sins. He sent His prophets, He sent His Son, He sent the apostles, and He sends us until He sends His Son again. I want you to hear that. Our God is ascending God. He sent the prophets, He sent His Son, He sent the disciples, the apostles, and He sends us until He sends His Son again. Jesus again miraculously shows up in this room where the apostles are hiding. They're scared to death. They're scared out of their mind that what has happened to their Savior, their friend, their leader may indeed happen to them. And so they're hiding, listening for noise outside the door, the door is locked. When suddenly Jesus appears, he's just in the room. And when Jesus is in the room, he says to them, peace, be with you. And I'm sure they needed it. They were frightened and suddenly have Jesus in their presence. The one they saw killed. The one they knew had been placed in this tomb. Now he's with him and you know they're terrified. They have abandoned Christ and now he's with him. Shame, fear, but we do know the text says they're glad to see him. He then says to them again, peace be with you. Two times he says that. It's more than a greeting. It's his peace. But then he does something very interesting. I think it's fascinating. He reminds them of why he can. In one sentence, he says in verse 21, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me even so, I am sending you. As the Father has sent me even so, I am sending you. What does that mean? Jesus, up on his first appearance to the group in that room, is saying what's most important for you to know is my peace. And now you need to know my mission. Remember what I've said from the very first time I called you. Come follow me. I will make you fishers of men. I am sending you out. The purpose for which I came across the resurrection has been accomplished. And now the mission of the church being built is going forward. It wasn't stopped by the crucifixion. It's all part of the divine story. I am sending you just as I was sent. And here's what I want to do. And I'm going to tell you right now some of you are going to be bored. Is that good communication technique? We're going to tear through about eight chapters of the gospel of John. Why? Because they understood as followers of Christ what it meant when he said I have been sent. Just as I have been sent, I want us to see from God's word. What did he mean? I want you to lean in. I'm going to be reading a lot of scripture. I want you to lean in because it's powerful. What you're going to see is that on every page as you walk through the gospel of John, you'll see the word sinned or sent or called. I'm not making it up. And I'm only highlighting several parts of it. There's so much more. So take your Bible or the blue one in front of you and turn it to page 886, the gospel of John chapter one. Here it begins with John recording the reality of John the Baptist, the prophet. Again, prophets were sent. So I want to begin in verse 6 of chapter 1 of John. John says there was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light but came to bear witness about the light. The true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world. In other words, the true light was being sent into the world. That's why this morning this choir gathers and they're singing appropriately of the light of the world. Jesus is that light that's being sent into the darkness. Now look with me at verse 14. And the word, it's capitalized. It means Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his gory. Gory is of the only son from the father full of grace and truth. So Jesus came flesh 100% God 100% man born on this earth that he might walk on this earth and that he might save. Go not of verse 32. And John bore witness, John the Baptist. He said, I saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him. I myself did not know him but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the spirit descend and remain. This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have born witness that this is the son of God. You see the Holy Spirit. We've been in this series haven't we're still in it. He is present just as Jesus is breathing the Holy Spirit on the apostles as he's commissioning them. They're in that room. He's reminding them of what happened to him the spirit upon him. Now turn the page and go to John 316, a very familiar passage. The verse of follows is the first time Jesus references himself being sent. Here's what it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Verse 17, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. Why was Jesus sent to save the world? Do you see it there? It's very clear, Jesus's own words. Now Jesus in chapter 4 is with a woman. This is a woman who is coming to a well, simply going through the task of getting water for her friends, family, neighbors, whoever. And as she's there, she encounters Jesus, the living God. She doesn't know who he is. She just thinks he's a normal man. Verse 13, Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, willing up to eternal life. Now that's weird language. She is listening, thinking he means something practically like real physical water. She then says, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here and draw water. Jesus is speaking at a different level. He then begins to reveal to her through her own sin being essentially shown that he's not a normal man. Verse 25, the woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. He was called Christ. How does she know? Because God sent prophets. He sent prophets. I know that Messiah is coming. The one who was called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. Look at what Jesus has been doing about her own life, telling her all things. And then Jesus says in verse 26, I who speak to you am He. I am that Messiah. I am the Christ. I am the one who was sent. I am here. Now the disciples are dense. They are. They just don't quite get it yet. It took them a long time. So being encouraged, God's faithful and patient. Verse 31. Meanwhile, the disciples, they've come up on the scene. They were urging him. And this is kind of sweet. They're worried about him. Rabbi eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. When he says that, you know what they do, they begin to look around. Like, where's the food? He has to eat. Did you give him any food? I wonder if somebody else gave him food. They don't realize what Jesus is saying. What Jesus is about to tell them is that there's something deep in him. A calling deep in him that's so great. Well, listen to how he describes it. He says, Verse 34. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you see that? Do you not say there are yet four months then comes the harvest? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. Okay, turn to Bible. Page chapter five. Listen to what Jesus says about his authority in this work. Look at verse 30. He says, I can do nothing on my own as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who, what's it say, sent me. Then again, in verse 38. But the, verse 36. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the words that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I'm doing. Bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. So page after page after page of the gospel of John, you see Christ saying, I've been sent. I've been sent to save the world. I've been sent for this purpose. Even earlier in chapter five, verse 24, Jesus is truly, truly. I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Then in chapter six, Jesus begins to speak of himself as the bread of life. Look with me at verse 28. Then they said to him, what must we do to be doing the good works of God? And Jesus answered them. This is the work of God that you believe in him who he has sent. And then in verse 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have sent me and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me. But raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father that everyone who looks on the sun and believes in him should have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day. Jesus is speaking of his mission. He is speaking of what it means to have been sent. God sends the prophets. He sent his son and he's sending the apostles. Now I want you to flip forward. We can continue to do this chapter after chapter after chapter to John 17. In John 17, we have what's called the high priestly prayer. Christ is our prophet, our priest, our king. Here is Jesus' prayer. We are listening to the very prayer of God the son praying to God the Father. Now I want you to listen to what he prays. I'm not going to read the whole thing. I'm going to read about the first nine verses and then one other verse. Listen to this idea of being sent. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and he said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son. The son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have, what's it say, sent. I glorified you on earth having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. Verse six, I have manifested your name to the people who you gave me out of the world. Yours they were and you gave them to me. And they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me and they have received them and have come to know, listen to this, in truth that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. He's speaking of the disciples as people. Now go down to verse 16 and see the connection from this prayer to Jesus's entrance into that room where the apostles are hiding. Verse 16, still Jesus is prayer. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world. sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. That's Jesus's prayer. You see the connection. After this prayer, after the cross, after he has risen from the dead, Jesus is back in that room. He comes to them and says peace. And then he says, just as I was sent by the Father, I am sending you. God is a sending God. He sent the prophets. He sent his son. He sends the apostles. But it's interesting what he says to the apostles. If you're a careful reader of Scripture, then verse 22 and 23 has to be a little bit perplexing. Look with me. When he had said these things, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. Then, in verse 23, if you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is with hell. Now you know what? If you read that passage and it's just at face value, you might think that Jesus is saying to the disciples, you have the authority to walk down the streets. And as you walk down the streets, you can simply look at someone and say, you are forgiven. I forgive you. And you, you're not forgiven. And I like your hair. I don't like the way you looked at me. You're not forgiven. You, I like you, you are forgiven. That is not what is at play here. Jesus is not saying that the authority to forgive is merely in man. It's not. Here in the Greek is a divine passive. And what that means is that the ultimate authority still here is Christ Himself. But He's saying, my authority is on you. My authority is in you as you proclaim the message of who I am and what I've done. As you have given the gospel, FF Bruce says that the preacher's role or the disciples role here is declaratory. It is God who remits the sin. It's God who forgives the sin. But the disciples are called to proclaim it. And so as they proclaim the truth of the gospel, there will be people who reject it. And they are unforgiven. And there will be people who receive it. They are accepted. One for eternal damnation. Hell and one for eternal life. Life in heaven with Christ forever. That's what it means by that. Now there's another interesting phrase. It says here that Jesus breathed on them. And then He said receive the Holy Spirit. Commentators here debate. Something that John here is envisioning pinnacost that happens in Acts 2. I do not think that's the case. And here's why. When pinnacost came, which John in writing this gospel would have known of pinnacost, this was written years later, he or you see that there's an incredible power that takes place. When Jesus breathes on them, here it says receive the Holy Spirit. They don't have a lot of power. They're still hiding in the room even eight days later. I do not believe this is his view of pinnacost. Instead, what's happening is pinnacost is still coming. Jesus is saying wait. But as he calls them to go, as he sends them out, he's reminding them you cannot do this work on your own. This work will require the Holy Spirit. Receive the Holy Spirit. Remember the Holy Spirit has already been present. Present even in the Old Testament. But the power of the Holy Spirit that is about to come on them at pinnacost is not what's happening yet. Calvin says this is a sprinkling of the Spirit. A foreshadow is symbol of what's to come. Maybe they're already in the not yet, that you taste and know something of the Spirit's power, but just wait. Something great is coming. And it does. And when that power comes, guess what? The disciples who are cowering behind closed locked doors now will soon be persecuted. And in the midst of that persecution, Peter will be told, don't speak in the name of that Christ. And you know what Peter says? Knowing that he's going to be beaten, much like Jesus was. The same kind of nine tells. Peter says, judge for yourself whether it is right for us to obey God or men, for we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. You can't. It's too great. So Jesus says in that room, just as I've been sent, I am sending you. With just as he sends the disciples, those are commissioning is different. He also sends us. He sends us, his people, to continue the work of advancing the gospel in the world. So here's what I want to do. I want you to think this week about this question. What is it that keeps you from taking part and that glorious effort of making known the gospel of Christ? It's 12 o'clock right now. And I'm in the conclusion. But my conclusion has 10 points. Wow, you're right here. I'm going to keep you. It's worth it. I promise we won't be going another 30 minutes. Really just about 10. But I want you to hear this because it's so significant. Martin Lloyd-Jones says the most demanding or the most urgent task in the world today is to make known the gospel of Jesus Christ to men and women around the world. That is true. At the time he said it, it was true before he said it and it's true this day. If it's true, and I believe it is, then it should consume the church. It should consume our time, our talents, our resources, our gifts, but so often it doesn't. Why? I want you to ask yourself that question this week. But here's 10 reasons I'm going to give. And this is very brief. The first is this. For many people when it comes to the idea of being sent, of being a part of evangelism, of making known Christ, we simply believe first. Number one, that someone else will do it. Is that true? You know it is. God's going to save the people. God's going to save. But the means by which he does it is using other people with his word and holy spirit. He can do it anyway once, speak to the lights and using God's people. So you might say, I don't have the gift of evangelism. I know somebody who does. So I'll let them do it. They'll tell the stories that will all be neat. In fact, you might even say, I'll give money. I'll send people all over the world. China, India, Cuba, you name it. West Dallas, but me, I'm not going to do it. I want to tell you that you do not have the freedom to abdicate that responsibility. You can't. In fact, I want you to give towards mission. I want you to give more. I want to see our budget swell more and more. We're giving more and more away to organizations that will accomplish that task, which is most urgent. But along with that, I want to see you. And I want to see it in me the desire to tell people. Not to simply go, well, that person or that pastor does that. Here's why. God has put you in relationships with people that are unique to you. You may be the very one God might use with a coworker, an employer, an employer. Someone that you do carpool with or someone who tutors your child or teaches them dance. A classmate who knows God has put you in unique places. And if you simply think I'll just write a check and somebody will talk to people about Jesus, you might ask this question of those you work with. Has anybody written a check for someone to come and tell them? Maybe not. Maybe God has given you that opportunity. Don't advocate the responsibility. A second reason why I think people don't share Christ is because they think God is sovereign. So why does it matter? In many ways we hide behind our theology. If God is sovereign and in control of who comes to Christ and all that, why do I need to be involved? Well, just as he's sovereign over that, he's also sovereign over the means by which people come to Christ. Which means that he likes to use us. He likes to put us in place to see his divine sovereign hand at work. So even if your person says I'm reformed and I love the sovereignty of God and talking about God's providence, you know what I'm going to tell you? Then you should be the most passionate about evangelism because in evangelism you see the sovereign hand of God at work more clearly than anywhere else because only God can save. So you should be excited about it. Don't hide behind your theology. Number three, some people say I just don't think I'm equipped to do it. And here's what they mean. I'm afraid if I start talking to someone on an airplane or someone in my office or someone that is a waiter that I see all the time that they may ask me a question that I don't know the answer to. They may bring up dinosaurs or something and I'm not sure what I'm going to say. But I want to tell you that you may not be fully equipped. But how long are you going to use that excuse? Some people have used that excuse year after year after year decade after decade and they're no more equipped now than they were 10 or 15 years ago. Get equipped, read, study, ask your questions. They, many of them, can be answered but some cannot. This is my point. Even if you got a master's of divinity if you were a scholar the knowledge that you have would never be enough. You would still always be relying up on God. He promises to give you everything you need to accomplish his task. Don't be afraid of that. For some people say, Mark, I just want to have time. Then I invite you into this conversation. What you're saying when you say I don't have time to be a part of evangelism is I don't have time as a Christian to be a part of the most urgent task in the world today. Something needs to change. There is no greater task. You might need to get off of a board. You might need to reduce the number of activities you're letting your child do. You might need to rethink your schedule of how you spend your evenings. I'm not sure what it is, but you have time. To make it even easier, I might suggest this that the very things that are consuming your time may be the things that God has put in your life where non-believers are present and you can connect those things together and begin to pray for those individuals' salvation. Brothers and sisters, it's urgent. Fifth, I don't want to offend people. I don't want to be rejected. Well, nobody does. Well, some people do. I'm not that way. Most people aren't. The gospel in itself is offensive to those who love darkness. But I have found rarely that I've been so deeply rejected that it was so painful. I think we live in a fear that is not as great as we think it is. Brothers, Jesus, sisters, Jesus told us, blessed are you when people persecute you. Don't be afraid to enter into a relationship. Those who are going to come to faith will be so grateful that you had to courage and boldness to tell them about Christ. Six, I'm moving quick. I don't really know any non-believers. Some people who've been in the church a long time will say that. Well, here, I want this one to be very clear. They're out there. And you know they're out there. And likely you're afraid of them. And that's why you have no relationship with them. Stop. Get involved. Every organization and relationship you have with people doesn't have to be a Christian. You don't have to have a Christian barber. Now, I will be honest. If it's not going well when you're evangelizing them and they're cutting your air, you might be careful. You may get a cut that you didn't want. Get involved. Be involved in people's lives that are not necessarily Christian coffee shops or Christian bookstores. Go and engage with people for the opportunity to share Christ. One great place is go with your wife or with your children to the waiting room of a hospital. Regularly, and you will see desperate people who would find joy and comfort. In your prayers. Do it in a tasteful, loving way. Prayer centered and you will see incredible things I guarantee you. God is honored by that. Seven. I haven't ever seen results because I've done what you're saying and I've never seen for it. Let me just tell you a quick story. George Mueller, that great saint who did incredible things for the sake of God's glory and bias grace and is involved with orphanages. He began to pray for five friends to come to saving faith. After he began to pray for five of these people to come to Christ, it took ten months for the first one to come to saving faith. After that, it was ten years before two others professed faith in Christ. After that, the fourth came to Christ twenty-five years after he began to pray. Twenty-five years. Finally, fifty-two years after he had been praying for the salvation of all five, the fifth professed faith in Christ. And he was already dead. George Mueller had died but God answered his prayer. Don't give up praying. Pray boldly that people would come to Christ. The last three. And the last three that I'm going to mention are the most important. Essentially, their kind of the foundation is to why we don't do it and the others are secondary. And the first is us. We have an enemy. And our enemy hates the light. He does not with the message of Christ hoping peace to go out in the world. So all the things that I've already mentioned, those seven things, he's going to bring and amplify in your life so that you think you can't do it. You don't have to do it. Theologically, maybe you don't think you should even do it. He's going to amplify those things. You have an enemy. So pray. Secondly, we have forgotten something. And this is so important. Please lean in. We have forgotten the greatness of the good news. We have forgotten the greatness of this good news, this gospel that God sent prophets to tell us of a son he was going to send. And this son sent disciples who thousands of years later the church that he started still exist. We've forgotten the greatness of the good news that Jesus went to the cross conquered death as he rose from the dead and now lives to intercede in our behalf. And if you profess faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit as power has made that known to you, we have forgotten the greatness of the gospel. And in forgetting the greatness of the gospel, we've been distracted by so many good things, even good things in the church that keep us from the great, gazing at His glory, tasting the bread of life and then going as He calls us. We've forgotten the greatness of the good news. And like that, we have forgotten the whore or the whorefulness of hell. We don't think often enough that those who don't know Christ, according to God's word, will perish for eternity separated from Him. We need to think up on the whore of hell that those thoughts would compel us by His grace to go as He has sent us. Go in His power. Okay, final thought. In the gospel of Luke, and even in John as I read earlier, Jesus says to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest. He says the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore pray, and He says specifically, earnestly for the Lord of the harvest, to provide workers, to actually send workers. So tomorrow, who's what we're going to be doing? I am inviting you to come to our chapel if you're able at some point between six in the morning and six in the evening. At some point, 10 minutes, 20 minutes an hour, whatever you want. Come and pray specifically for people that you know need Christ. We have cards that we have created for you to write their first name on, and then to go up to the front of the chapel and pin them on a bulletin board. And all day long, the pastors and elders and others are going to gather in there simply to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest that He would bring people to Himself. Using this particular body. I want you to hear something. About a month ago, I went away for a silent prayer retreat, and I was praying specifically about this passage and the passage in Luke, thinking about the Holy Spirit's role in calling us and sustaining us in ministry. And God gave me this incredible number. I'm not a number's oriented person. You don't see me, it's something doing this, but He gave me a number that's profound. It's profound, and it's simplicity, and it's profound, and it's size. Listen to this. If we took half, or even less than half, of the membership of this church, 2,000 people, and we said if half of the membership of this church, 2,000 people would pray earnestly for the Lord of the harvest to allow them to share the gospel one time a year. And they did that one time a year for each of the five years. That means after five years, five years from today, 10,000 people would have heard the gospel. 10,000 people would have been prayed for. If we change that number from one to two, it goes to what? 20,000 people. Brothers and sisters, that's amazing. I'm not in any way suggesting that we get a bulletin board with that graph. What I am suggesting is that we consider the greatness of God, and the one who said, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest, for that type of thing. Now, I shared that a few weeks ago with the men's prayer group of Tuesday mornings. One of the men in response to that said, that's not bold enough. I'm so glad He did. I won't tell you His name. Or not even some initials. I said, let me ask you a question. I agree with you. It's not that bold. But have you shared the gospel with any one in the last year? What about the year before that? Or the year before that? Or the year before that? And the year before that? The fact that most Christians in church like ours would say, I haven't done it either, is a tragedy. The tragedy is, we have forgotten the goodness of the gospel, the greatness of the gospel. And we have forgotten the whore of hell. Brothers and sisters, let's gather to do what Christ specifically called us to do, even as He sends us out, to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest, for your neighbors, family members, friends, waiters, waitresses, grocers, butchers, the list goes on and on, and let's be obedient to a God who sends, who sent the prophets, who sent His Son, who sent the apostles, who sending us until His Son is sent to return. Father in heaven, it's for your glory that we think of such things, and it could only be done in your power. God, even today, if there's one in our midst, who upon reading and hearing these passages of eternal life, longs to have it known for the first time in life, bring them even to yourself now. God, thank you for giving us your word. Help us to seek it with integrity, all for your glory, and by your grace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.