Indelible Image

God’s people would take their
Bibles and turn back once again to John chapter 20. John chapter
20 is where we find ourselves. And Jesus Christ is discovered
as risen from the tomb. He has already revealed himself
to one godly woman. And we come into a series of
uh… revelations these post-resurrection
uh… appearances that christ makes
in the forty days following his resurrection jesus appeared to
a great many people the scriptures record it not only in the gospels
but in paul’s epistle to the corinthians he mentions uh…
in a segment there in first corinthians fifteen a series of appearances
that Christ made that were at that point historical record
that Paul could look back to and cite and know that these
were verified appearances by Christ. Listen just briefly. It’s in the context where Paul
is discussing so passionately the gospel when he says I delivered
to you as a first importance what I also received that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he appeared
to Cephas a pardon me Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures that he was buried and that he was raised on the
third day according to the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas
and then to the 12. After that, he appeared to more
than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now,
but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then
to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born,
he appeared to me also. And so Paul gives us a verifiable
list. There are some questions embedded
in that list and prompted by that list. But on the third day,
that would be Sunday, when Jesus was raised from the tomb, some
women went to the tomb, and that’s where we begin to pick up in
John’s gospel. They go to the tomb to anoint
Christ’s body. And we know that Mary Magdalene
was one of them. Mary, the mother of James and
John was another. Salome, Joanna, wife of Cusa,
part of Herod’s own household. And we know that it just says
other women. There was a host of women that
went to do service to Christ, to his body that Sunday, that
resurrection day. But as we discovered, as they
drew near to the tomb, Mary Magdalene sees the open tomb and she takes
off running towards town to tell Peter and John. The rest of the
women, as we saw, press on towards the tomb and encounter the open
tomb. And as the other gospel writers
tell us, they encounter angels which Luke records, the angel
said to the women, do not be afraid for I know that you’re
looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, he
is risen, just as he said, come, see the place where he is lying
and go tell his disciples. And so the rest of the women
standing there at the tomb come face to face with angels and
they are dispatched. They’re told to go tell the disciples. And they’re told to go tell the
disciples, but Mark adds explicitly, go tell Peter. Go tell the disciples and Peter
that Jesus is risen from the dead. And I take that to mean
that the word disciple here is being used much more broadly.
It isn’t just talking about the apostles, it’s talking about
the followers of Christ. Luke says that the women at the
tomb go to tell the eleven and all the rest. And that doesn’t
mean that they were all gathered, because as we’ll see in a moment,
I don’t believe that they were. Perhaps as they went through
town, they knocked on doors. Perhaps as they saw people in
the street, they began to tell them that Jesus is risen. Jesus
is alive. We saw angels. You can only imagine
the report of this probably 10 women filtering through town
telling the disciples of Christ. Meanwhile, as we saw Mary Magdalene
is in the city telling Peter and John about the open tomb. Peter and John take off running
for the tomb and by the time they get there these women, this
gathering of women, they’re gone. Peter and John see the tomb open,
each draws their own conclusions, and they leave headed for home. And so we saw that the first
appearance, the first appearance to Christ was to Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene is alone, left at this empty tomb, and after
a brief exchange with these angels, Jesus reveals himself first to
her. It’s an amazing scene as we took
it in. Jesus dispatches her to go tell
his brethren. And as Luke indicates in his
gospel, they all seem to gather. They returned from the tomb and
reported all these things to the 11 and to the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene,
Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and also the other women with
them. They filtered through town telling everybody they could
think of, but especially the 11, especially Peter. And while
the women told all 11 apostles, we believe, not all of them joined
the gathering that follows. And I’ll tell you why in just
a few moments. The women do what they’re told.
They tell Peter, they tell all 11 apostles, they tell the disciples,
and all of a sudden, almost naturally, a gathering begins to form. Luke
24, 11 adds, these words at first appeared to some as nonsense.
They didn’t believe it. Nevertheless, a great reunion
follows that now includes the women at the tomb, some of the
apostles, at least Peter, and possibly the apostle John, because
he records this scene. Other disciples are also there,
and our friend Mary Magdalene, who was the first to see Christ.
Great gathering, Jesus appears for the second time. Matthew
is the only one that records this particular gathering. Matthew 28, verses nine and 10. Behold, Jesus met them and greeted
them and they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped
him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go take my
word to my brethren and leave for Galilee and there they will
see me. We’ve already noted that this
encounter does not include all of the apostles. This gathering
included an unnamed group of disciples, followers of Jesus,
including the women who had gone to the tomb, now having returned
after the encounter with the angels and The Apostle Peter
is there. And this accounts for Paul’s
list in 1 Corinthians 15 when it says that he appeared to Cephas. There are some people that seem
to be bewildered at when this occasion might have been that
he appeared to Cephas individually. It doesn’t say that he appeared
to Cephas individually. It just indicates here that he
appeared to Cephas prominently. He was a prominent guest in this
meeting. The scripture says that Jesus
revealed himself to the one disciple who most desperately needed to
see him. Lonely, broken, devastated Peter. And then there’s a third
appearance. I’m heading towards the gospel
of John, you understand. There’s a third appearance, and
the third appearance is to Cleopas, a man named Cleopas and his friend
on the road to Emmaus. You know the story. Two Emmaus
road travelers come to tell the apostles of their encounter with
Jesus, and they end up saying the Lord has really risen and
appeared to Simon. And so, in a sense, they report
on Simon. These men, of course, were speaking
about that second appearance, the meeting with Peter and the
others as recorded in Matthew. Had Simon already tried to tell
his fellow apostles that he had seen the risen Christ and they
didn’t believe him? Certainly possible. We’re not
told. Or were these disciples, these
two Emmaus Road individuals, were they breaking the news live?
And in a sense, I mean, you can imagine that scene, Peter holding
that secret from the rest of the apostles. It could very well
be that they were informing others. But then they’re all about to
see the risen Christ. In time, all 11 will see Him. But first, there is this fourth
encounter, the fourth example of the resurrected Christ. It
brings us to our passage this morning, Jesus’ fourth appearance,
which is also recorded in Luke. And we’ll have a little bit of
interplay this morning. But if you would, I want to just
take you to those few verses in the Gospel of John, beginning
in verse 19. John chapter 20 beginning in
verse 19. So when it was evening on that
day, the first day of the week when the doors were shut and
the disciples were for fear of the Jews, when 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 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. And when he had said this, he
breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. Now there’s a slight problem
as you begin to try to interlace this account with Luke’s gospel.
If we conclude, and as it seems most likely, that the appearance
of Jesus recorded in Luke’s gospel is the same recorded here in
John’s gospel, there are a couple of difficulties that develop.
In Luke’s account he mentions that the Emmaus disciples found
the 11, that is the 11 apostles. The problem is that in the parallel
account here in John 20, Thomas is famously missing. Now it could
be, you talk about an inopportune errand, it could be that at some
point in the evening in the gathering Thomas ducks out to take care
of some business it could be that also that the word 11 is
just being used in a very technical sense like reference to the 12
if we said the 12 we’d all know who we were talking about reference
to the apostles that’s a I think a plausible explanation because
Even in this passage in John 20, 24, Thomas, one of the 12,
is referenced even though Judas is long gone. Well, Jesus presents himself
on this occasion. We’ll see and we’ll interact
with Luke’s gospel because I do believe that it’s a parallel
account here. But instead of just a brief glimpse
of Christ, that’s perhaps what Mary Magdalene felt. She felt
like she had caught a glimpse of Christ, took hold of his ankles,
was in the process of worshiping him, and he made her set him
free and told her that this was a temporary greeting, that he
must ascend to his father. And it must have just gripped
her how temporary this was. And no wonder in Matthew 28 when
she sees him again, she was probably part of the crowd that again
rushed at his feet to take hold of him in worship. But I want
to suggest to you this morning that there is an indelible image
here by the presentation of Christ, by the revelation of Christ,
by his appearance here in this room, and that he leaves four
distinct blessings, abiding blessings of the resurrection. The first
of which is divine peace, divine peace. Look at verse 19. When
it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, 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. We know that it’s evening. This
is after the Emmaus Road encounter, the Emmaus Road disciples rush
in. Evidently the hour is quite late
because they’ve returned and it was already evening when they
left Emmaus. So it’s well after sunset, maybe
eight or nine o’clock and the doors are shut and not just shut,
but that word, that Greek word can be translated locked. and it’s a gathering of the disciples,
which indicates that it’s more than just the 11 apostles, minus
one whenever Thomas ducks out. This word is broad enough to
include anybody who was a follower of Christ. Luke’s gospel tells us here in
this particular passage that the two men of Emmaus got up
that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, and were found gathered together,
the 11 and those who were with them. And so this is a large
meeting, and it’s somewhat private and secret, for reasons we’ll
see in a moment. But the Emmaus disciples come
in, and they come in with great news. The doors are shut. The disciples are gathered. And
the cause of the gathering of the disciples is really pretty
evident. The apostles had received word
from a number of different witnesses that Jesus Christ had risen from
the dead. That is striking news. Alarming news, even. And even
if those, for those who hadn’t seen the risen Christ, there
would have been great interest at hearing this. And so they
gather, but they’re gathering in fear. They’re gathering in
fear because of the Jews, because of what they’d already seen the
Jews do to their master. They had seen the Jews not only
threaten them with removal from the synagogue, but Jesus had
already told them that if he were going to suffer, they too
would suffer. Natural fears began to kick in.
And then when they saw their own master crucified, and they
saw news and heard rumors not unlike even Herod and the Roman
guards heard, Matthew records one of these, While they were
on their way, some of the guard came into the city, Matthew 28,
11, reported to the chief priests all that had happened. And when
they’d assembled with the elders and consulted together, they
gave a large sum of money to the soldiers and said, here,
say his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were
asleep. And so they’re already trying
to cover their tracks. But that meant that they would
have been incensed at the apostles. They don’t know who has the body.
They just know that the body is missing and for them that
is a problem. So it’s only natural that they
would be fearful of the Jews. They didn’t want to be put out
of the synagogue. They certainly didn’t want to face persecution
or even death. But as long as they’re cowering
in an upper room, As long as they’re behind locked doors,
they’re not going to be able to serve the Lord in the capacity
that He has for them. This is in the face of the fact
that Jesus Christ had told them He will build His church. But some of these people maybe
even feared the extermination of Christianity itself. And that
if these Jews get to us, if these hateful men who hated our Savior,
if they get to us, we’re doomed. And so is Christianity. And so
for fear of the door, the fear of the Jews, the doors were shut
and locked. And in that context, When the
doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus
came and stood in their midst. Now there certainly is this sense
by the way that it’s written and presented to us in John’s
gospel that there is a sense of the miraculous here. That here are these doors, these
locked doors, and suddenly Christ is in their midst. Now, I grew up in the 60s, you
know, Star Trek and all that where, you know, a person would
materialize with so many little pixels and suddenly then eventually,
you know, you’d see the figure of a person and then eventually
you’d see the actual person appear. And I think that’s the idea that
many come away with this passage, that Jesus suddenly just materialized
in their presence. It doesn’t say that. It doesn’t
say that Jesus caused locked doors to suddenly fly open, that’s
another great theory, or that Jesus somehow miraculously passed
through the doors or that he materialized. The most absurd
suggestion of all was that Jesus was hiding somewhere in the room
and then suddenly popped out. In the parallel account of Luke’s
gospel, there is the same suddenness But the scene is not as striking
as what John records. Luke says it this way, 2436.
While they were telling these things, he’s talking about the
Emmaus Road disciples. They come in, they’re bringing
this report, guess what? We saw Jesus, we walked with him on
the way to Emmaus. While they were telling these
things, he himself stood in their midst. It doesn’t say he came,
it doesn’t say he knocked, it doesn’t say he entered. There
just is that same suddenness, but we’re not told how. And so
in that sense, it’s foolish to speculate. It does seem that Jesus had a
human form, but that after the resurrection, there were some
different properties to this physical body. As one characterized
it, before the resurrection, he was visible unless he willed
it otherwise. Remember, there were those two
scenes where he seemed to vanish out of people’s sight. But after
the resurrection, it would seem that he was invisible unless
he willed it otherwise. As J.C. Ryle said, our Lord’s
risen body must evidently have had a power of moving from one
place to another, of being visible or invisible as he thought fit,
after a manner that we cannot understand. It was a real material
body that could be touched and felt and seen and handled, and
yet a supernatural body. Mary Magdalene had already experienced
that, remember? She saw the Lord, conversed with
the Lord, before she even realized it was the Lord. The disciples
on the Emmaus Road had the exact same encounter. They didn’t know
it was him until he made himself known. And even to his own apostles,
Jesus remains a mystery figure. They cannot figure him out. And
all we’re told is that he came and stood in their midst. It
was sudden. And he said to them, peace be
with you. Now that is a typical Hebrew
greeting, shalom. We know that. Not in the Greek,
but in the Hebrew, it would be shalom. And it was a very common
greeting. And I suppose, you know, we could
say that that was just a common greeting and that Jesus came
into the room. What else would he say? But the interesting thing is
that his last word to them before his passion is the very first
word that he says to him after his passion, peace. Jesus Christ
came desiring to reassure his disciples, his apostles. He wanted to comfort them. He
wanted to kindle in them a confidence. He had told them in 1427, peace
I leave with you. My peace I give you, not as the
world gives, Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it
be fearful. It tells them peace. We know that the biblical word
for peace, even as it carries through to the epistles and the
greetings, so often we’re tempted to take it as just a greeting,
grace and peace, grace, mercy, and peace, as just three unimportant
words, but they’re powerful words. Because we know because of what
God has done, this peace means communion with God. There is
peace restored. Remember, in our natural state,
we are not at peace with God. There is enmity, as the scriptures
say. But as Paul says in Ephesians
2, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off have
been brought near by the blood of Christ. for he himself is
our peace. Jesus Christ came to bring peace. Romans 5, therefore having been
justified by faith, we have peace with God. But in addition to
that communion with God, that peace now that we have with a
holy God, there is also now clarity of conscience, peace in that
sense. You know the verse well, there
is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
And Jesus Christ was imparting that kind of peace, encouraging
that kind of confidence in these men on this occasion. Not only
peace with God and clarity of conscience, but a personal holiness
that there was going to be no longer this war against the flesh. It was going to be peace. And then that leads to all kinds
of other considerations, outward peace, peace with others, civil
harmony, peace within their own ranks, evangelistic harmony,
to know that they were told to go and take the message of peace
to others. I think Paul summarized it so
simply. Five little words. He himself
is our peace. It’s almost as if Jesus didn’t
even need to say it. Just his presence there would
have been a peace bringing and comforting message to these disciples. As one said, it implied that
the great battle was fought and the great victory was won over
the prince of this world. A peace with God was obtained
for man according to promise. Peace, in short, is the main
ingredient of the gospel. It is implied further that our
Lord came to his disciples with a peaceful, gracious, forgiving
spirit. No resentment for their having
forsaken him. But the disciples, Luke records,
are pretty rattled. They’re left with anything but
a peaceful feeling. Luke records that they were startled
and frightened. They thought that they were seeing
a spirit, a ghost. So Jesus repeats His message
to them. Peace be with you. There is something enduring about
that that distills down from this private secret meeting of
a gathered group impromptu group of Jesus disciples that were
comforted by those few words by their Savior that distills
down to us to this day. There is peace. There is peace
in the gospel. There is peace with God through
Christ. There is an end to the war, an
end to the enmity. for those who are in Christ.
We have no cause for fear. We have no cause for dread before
a holy God because Jesus Christ has paid our penalty. The second indelible image is
that in addition to divine peace, these abiding blessings of the
resurrection, the second one is divine happiness. Not only
divine peace, but divine happiness. Look at verse 20. When he had
said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. Then
the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. It was a means
of convincing these followers that it was really and truly
him, that it really was his body. In fact, if you remember from
our reading through the book of Revelation, the Apostle John
who was there in that room. What an incredible impression
this made upon him. You talk about an indelible image
to look and to see the risen Christ and the wounds in his
hands and in his feet as Luke adds. No wonder When John wrote the
book of Revelation years later, John saw him as a lamb that had
been slain. Luke goes even further, as I
mentioned, than does John. Luke says that Jesus said, see
my hands and my feet, that it is I myself touch and see. For a spirit does not have flesh
and bones, as you see that I have. Luke records that Jesus reached
out to these men of feeble faith, these people in this room, and
he asked them to even go so far as to touch him, to prove to
themselves. Luke goes on to record as another
proof that it was a real physical human body. He eats dinner with them. picks
a piece of fish and eats. No wonder as the disciples began
to put all this data together, it just says the disciples rejoiced
when they saw the Lord. And I take that to mean that
it was piecemeal, one at a time, slowly. It filtered through the
room and they began to realize that it really was the risen
Christ. They rejoiced. when they saw
the Lord. Up to this point they had seen
this form, they knew it was a person, they thought, they wondered if
it might even be a ghost. They didn’t know what Mary Magdalene
had seen, they didn’t know what the two men from Emmaus were
even talking about, but now he’s standing before them. It was a fulfillment of the very
promise that Jesus had made to the apostles just before his
high priestly prayer. John 16 says, truly, truly, I
say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will
rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief
will be turned to joy. Whenever a woman is in labor,
she has pain because her hour has come. But when she gives
birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because
of the joy that a child has been born into the world. Just like
that, Jesus says, you have grief now. But I will see you again
and your heart will rejoice and no one will take your joy away
from you. We sang a hymn last Lord’s Day. It is well with my soul. Love
that hymn. And I’ll never forget the most
poignant occasion that I ever sang that hymn. It was the day after we buried a man named Lou. And there sat
his wife at the back of the church singing her heart out. It is
well with my soul. Only a Christian can do that.
Only a Christian knows that kind of joy. A joy that carries you
through the trials. A joy that sustains you even
in the midst of great difficulty. And these disciples had joy and
an awareness that Jesus Christ was alive. That He would soon
be on His throne. And that distills down to us,
doesn’t it? The knowledge, the real faith,
the belief that Jesus Christ is alive, that he is on his throne,
that he is in absolute control. There is a joy that comes with
that, that no earthly happiness can supplant. But there is a
third element of this indelible image, not only divine peace,
divine happiness, but a divine commission, a divine commission. Jesus came for a purpose, and
he came to these people for a purpose. Look at verse 21. So Jesus said
to them again, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me,
so I send you. You see now they were ready to
receive it. He had talked about this before in his high priestly
prayer. Jesus said, as you sent me into
the world, I also have sent them into the world. But this very close. Combination of these two instances,
his commissioning and their commissioning, they’re very similar. They’re
very much the same. I came to do and to accomplish
a mission and now I am giving to you a mission. Jesus gave
a commissioning to his disciples and their responsibility was
going to be now to take the message of peace, to take the message
of the gospel and to proclaim it to all that they met. And it would include the announcement
that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead, that He had died on
their behalf and that forgiveness was available through Him and
through Him only. Their mission is part of His
mission. It’s His mission ultimately, but it is filtered through to
them. It is a divine commission. It
is one given by the saints to God Himself. But I would remind
you, it wasn’t just given to the apostles in that room. It was given even in that room,
there were others who weren’t apostles, including the women
who had come to the tomb. There is a divine commissioning.
And we know that that divine commission was instantly and
immediately a commissioning of the apostles, but the apostles
died. within just a few years. There
was a divine commissioning that included the perpetuating of
leadership in the church, elders and deacons. But there was a
divine commissioning in that room of all believers. All believers
are commanded to go. All believers are commanded to
go and to tell that they are sent just as Christ is sent.
We’re commanded to live lives that testify of Christ. We’re
commanded to testify of Christ with our lips. We are commanded
to go. We’re commanded to tell. There’s a fourth abiding blessing of the resurrection. It’s an indelible image that
Jesus Christ leaves on this room full of people. And when I mean
indelible, it means not only did it impress them throughout
their days, it sustained down to ours. And until Jesus Christ
returns, the abiding blessings of the resurrection were divine
peace, divine happiness, divine commission, and fourthly, divine
enablement. Look at verse 22, when he said
this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy
Spirit. If you receive the sins of any, their sins have been
forgiven. Pardon me, if you forgive the sins of any, their sins have
been forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any,
they have been retained. The exact same verb here for
the writers of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the
Old Testament. It uses the same exact verb for
Genesis 2-7. Genesis 2-7 reads like this. The Lord God formed man of the
dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life. And the image here is that the
same God who breathed life into a lifeless lump of clay breathes
spiritual life into lumps of humanity that were equally lifeless
without the Spirit of God. Jesus Christ, when he says, receive
the Holy Spirit, isn’t talking about these men receiving the
Holy Spirit for the first time. This isn’t a mini Pentecost,
as would happen some 40 days later. This isn’t an advanced
bestowal of the Holy Spirit on just these select few, 15 to
20, in this room. I would suggest that it’s, as
one put it, it’s an anticipation and earnest of the Pentecost.
They still had 40 days to go. Remember we are in a period of
transition here. We’re in a period where in the
Old Testament the Spirit came, the Spirit was bestowed, and
the Spirit was, Psalm 51, at times retracted. You think of
Saul, King Saul. And so men were equipped for
a season with special measures of God’s divine enablement. And I would suggest that that
is the most likely scenario here, is that these men received a
measure of the Spirit to get them through these 40 days, to
begin to advance to them almost like a down payment. That the
Spirit was going to be given them and given them in full measure. Receive the Holy Spirit. Now
this last portion, verse 23, If you’ve forgiven the sins of
any and their sins have been forgiven them, if you retain
the sins of any, they have been retained. Most of you know that
I was raised Roman Catholic. And the Roman Catholics have
done a doozy with this verse. They basically speak of it as
absolution or remission where they have the power to either
retain the sins upon a sinner or to remove them themselves. And we know from scripture that
only God can forgive sins. Only God can forgive sins. And
so what is the significance of these verses? What is Jesus telling
these people, not just his apostles? He’s telling them that go and
take the gospel. The gospel is always going to
free sinners. It’s always going to be an offer
to sinners of salvation. And for those who reject the
gospel, for those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ offered
in the gospel, their sins are retained. And when we go, it’s
by proclamation of the gospel that sinners are freed. And when
we go, it’s by rejection of that same gospel that some sinners
have their sins retained. Jesus wasn’t giving these apostles,
he wasn’t giving this group in this room special powers to either,
yay or nay, indiscriminately, you know, capriciously forgive
or not forgive sinners based on their own preference. I mean,
that’s a sinful, horrible thought. What he was doing to them right
then was commissioning them with the advance of the gospel in
this divine enablement, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to one day
face all humanity with the cause of Christ, to proclaim the gospel. It was a divine enablement. It
was the Holy Spirit living and dwelling in them, but it wasn’t
just for them. We know that some 40 days later,
on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was given, and now
believers in a new age, in a new period, now we receive the Holy
Spirit when we place our faith in Jesus Christ, and the Holy
Spirit is never removed. It’s never removed from us. Not
like in the case of the Old Testament, We have been divinely enabled. The Holy Spirit has been poured
out in full measure and now we are indwelled by the Spirit of
God. Do you understand that? That
if you have placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you
go out in His power to fulfill His divine commission with divine happiness and divine
peace. Would you rejoice before his
throne? Our merciful God, we rejoice
in the privilege that we have to serve you. As was, the fire
was lit even that very evening in that room with a largely unnamed
group of people. that saw and heard and in some
cases even felt the risen Savior. And Lord, their peace is our
peace. Their encouragement is our encouragement. Their commissioning was our commissioning. And their enablement is our enablement. Lord God, what a glorious truth
is ours as believers. And Lord, we know that if there
are any in this room who do not know Jesus Christ, they have
not been commissioned, and they have no peace. They have no joy. They have no enablement. Salvation is through Jesus Christ
alone. And for all who place their faith
in Him, He comes and He brings peace, peace with the Holy God.
And He gives joy, happiness that never fades. And the most exciting
commissioning the world has ever known. Indwelled by His own Holy Spirit. What a joy is believers. We rejoice before you in Jesus’
name. Amen.