John 20:19-23 "EASTER PEACE"

John 20:19-23 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.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then 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 any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” Theme: EASTER PEACE - Peace with God - Peace for the troubled conscience - Peace to be proclaimed Dear fellow redeemed in Christ Jesus, who rejoice to hear that the Lord is risen indeed, peace to you in His name, Peace is an interesting thing, isn’t it. It’s something that just about everyone wants, but it is so hard to attain. We want peace within our homes, peace with our relatives, peace with our neighbors, peace within our borders, and peace with other countries. And why is that? Why do so many people want peace? Peace at home means not arguing with your teenage kids and your kids not fighting with one another. Peace at school means everyone gets along with everyone else. Peace between nations means no more sending our sons and daughters off to war. Isn’t it because we feel that when there is peace life is better? Simply put, when there is peace life is better. So if everybody wants peace so much, why does it seem that there is so little peace in the world and in our lives? Simply put, sin prevents there from being peace in the world. Sinful pride, sinful greed, sinful hunger for power and possessions destroys any hope for true and lasting peace in this world. It is sinful pride that causes arguments between spouses and nations. Greed for power and possessions causes strife between neighbors and nations. However, Easter tells us a much different story, doesn’t it. While we see so much unrest in the world around us, on Easter we see peace. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead brings with it real peace, lasting peace. Peace between us and God. Peace for our troubled consciences. And peace that Jesus wants us to proclaim throughout the world. So let us consider this morning, “Easter Peace.” PEACE WITH GOD As our text begins, we find the disciples, along with the two Emmaus disciples, and more than likely some of the women, together in a locked house. Already it doesn’t sound like a very peaceful setting. There was confusion and unrest among the disciples. That morning some of the women and Mary Magdalene had come and told the disciples that the tomb was empty. John and Peter had raced to the tomb and found it empty. Mary Magdalene told the disciples that she had seen the risen Lord. And now two other disciples reported that they walked, talked, and ate with the risen Jesus as they were on the road to Emmaus. Among the disciples there seemed to be a great deal of confusion, distrust, and fear. We would describe the scene as anything but peaceful. The men did not trust the report of the women. Luke reports that they seemed to them like idle tales. They were also afraid of the unbelieving Jews coming after them, as they came after Jesus. So they locked themselves in as they tried to sort out the days events. But then Jesus suddenly appeared. With His resurrected and glorified body, He makes full use of His divine powers. He is able to appear and disappear as He pleases. Locked doors cannot keep the Son of God out of a room - He needs no doors to enter. And the risen Lord says, “Peace be with you.” While this would have been a pretty common greeting between Jews in those days, on this day it took on special meeting. The risen Lord came bringing them peace. First of all, peace with God. There was once perfect, tranquil peace between God and man. In the Garden of Eden, God created man and woman in perfect harmony and peace with Him. There was peace all around. God had a peace-filled, harmonious relationship with man. Adam and Eve had a peace-filled marriage. There was no hostility between man and woman, or mankind and any creature. All was well. It truly was paradise. What happened to this peaceful paradise? When Adam and Eve chose to disobey the commandment of their Creator and ate from the forbidden fruit, sin entered the world and destroyed the peaceful relationship that had once existed between God and man. Now Adam and Eve tried to hide from God. They were afraid of Him. No longer did they have a peaceful Father/child relationship, but they hid from Him as though He were an angry judge. The same continued for all the descendants of Adam. Because of sin there is enmity or hostility between God and man. This is why Jesus came. Jesus came to reclaim for man the peace that we had forfeited because of our sin. He came to reconcile us unto God. But in order to give us a right relationship with God, Jesus had to remove that which had ruined our relationship with God. Jesus did just that by taking the sin of the world on Himself. Jesus “wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (Col 2:14) Everything that had separated us from God, or sin, our iniquity, our rebellion, Jesus took on Himself and had it nailed to the cross with Him. And there on the cross every mark that was against us died with Jesus on the cross. When Jesus rose on Easter day it was God’s declaration of peace between us and Him. Paul writes to the Romans that Christ “was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.” (Rom 4:25) Jesus was raised from the dead because God was declaring us “not guilty” in His sight. And if His resurrection means we have been declared not guilty, that means we are at peace with God. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” (2 Cor 5:19) The sin that had once separated us from God has been removed forever. This is Easter peace, we are at peace with God. PEACE FOR TROUBLED CONSCIENCES We certainly rejoice over this peace with God that Jesus secured for us by His death and resurrection. A peace that cannot be undone, because Jesus lives never to die again. A peace which surpasses all understanding. And yet, there still is a peace we struggle with, isn’t there. An inner peace. Peace for our trouble consciences. Though we know that Jesus died for our sins, though we know that Jesus resurrection from the dead means we are at peace with God, still we have trouble convincing our hearts of this, don’t we? Our conscience regularly accuses us and reminds us of past sins which we have committed. After David committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranged for the murder of her husband, a repentant David wrote in Psalm 51 (v.3), “My sin is always before me.” Any time he looked at Bathsheba or looked at the grave of his dead child, he was reminded of the sins of adultery and murder which he had committed. His conscience troubled him about his sin. Maybe you know well the feeling David had. Maybe some sin you committed in the past is always before you. Maybe you’ve even confessed it to God, repented of it, and been assured of your forgiveness - yet there is no peace for your trouble conscience. Maybe it is some sin that your conscience tells you is too great to be forgiven. When your conscience troubles you and you doubt your relationship with God, return in your heart to Easter and hear these words of Jesus, “Peace be with you.” When Jesus suddenly appeared in their midst Easter evening and they had trouble understanding what was going on, what did Jesus do? He showed them His hands and side and John reports that then they were filled with joy. What a fitting thing to do when we are troubled - look the hands and side of the risen Jesus! There we find Easter peace. His hands show the nail prints which prove that our sins were paid for. His side shows the mark of the spear proving that He really did die for our sins. The fact that He is able to show them to His disciples prove that He rose bodily from the grave. This is the Jesus that says to our troubled conscience, “Peace be with you!” Repent of your sins and rejoice that all I have suffered and died for them all. My resurrection proves that you do not need to be troubled by them any more. Easter peace for our troubled conscience is this, “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Ps 103:12) Jesus removed our sins so far from us that they can no longer be found. Also the prophet Micah speaks of Easter peace when he writes, “You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19) When Jesus was dead and buried our sins were buried with Him, never to be seen again. The LORD Himself gives peace to our trouble conscience when He says in Isaiah, “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.” (Is 43:25) The God who knows all things and remembers all things, has forgotten only one thing - our sins. All this is assured to us when the risen Savior Jesus shows us His hands and His side. That is Easter peace for our trouble conscience. PEACE TO BE PROCLAIMED Maybe you’re old enough to remember or maybe you’ve seen the black and white pictures from the 1940's of Navy sailors kissing random women in New York City’s Times Square as confetti fills the air. Do you remember why they were kissing and why there was confetti filling the streets of New York City? It was V-E Day, the day victory was proclaimed in Europe. It was a reason to celebrate and throw parties, because World War II was nearing an end. I imagine the day that Germany and then Japan surrendered everyone was talking about the peace that had broken out. People couldn’t wait to tell their relatives, neighbors, and friends. “The strife is o’er! The battle done!” If that is what they did when victory was declared in Europe and Japan, what should be our reaction to even greater news that PEACE was declared when Jesus rose from the dead? This is peace that is to be proclaimed throughout the world. Jesus said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” The Father had sent His Son to secure peace by His suffering, death, and resurrection. Jesus now sends us to proclaim that Easter peace throughout the world. We proclaim Easter peace through the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins. In verse 21 Jesus gives His Church some very powerful keys. The keys to the kingdom of heaven. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” These keys unlock heaven to the repentant sinner by announcing to them that their sins are forgiven for Jesus sake. But these keys also lock the way to heaven when we tell an impenitent or unrepentant sinner that forgiveness his withheld or retained for him. These are the keys Jesus sends us out with. He gives us the peculiar authority to forgive and retain sins. This is what Jesus earned by His death and resurrection - forgiveness. And this Easter peace is what Jesus commissions us to proclaim throughout the world! Peace. The world is looking for it, but it is looking for it in all the wrong places. True peace, lasting peace cannot be found apart from Jesus’ death and resurrection - because only Jesus death and resurrection removes that which hinders peace - sin. This Easter peace is the peace which Paul speaks of, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:7) The extent of this peace of God is greater than we can even begin to understand. Yet this Easter peace guards our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. This is the peace of Easter. Peace between God and us. Peace for our troubled conscience. And peace that we want to proclaim throughout all the world. Praise be to Jesus for securing peace for us through His death and resurrection! Amen!