WEBVTT

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 Now, I'm going to ask Steve Willis to come and read for us. So, we'll hear, first of all,

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 from John chapter 16, and then in John 20. Thanks, Steve.

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 So, John chapter 16, verses 12 to 24.

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 I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes,

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 he will guide you in all truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears,

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 and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine

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 and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said,

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 the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. In a little while, you will see me

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 no more, and then after a little while, you will see me. Some of his disciples said to one another,

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 what does he mean by saying, in a little while, you will see me no more, and then after a little

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 while, you will see me, and because I am going to the Father? They kept asking, what does he mean by

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 a little while? We don't understand what he is saying. Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about

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 this, so he said to them, are you asking one another what I meant when I said, in a little while,

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 you will see me no more, and then after a little while, you will see me. I tell you the truth, you will

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 weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving

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 birth to a child has pain because her time has come, but when her baby is born, she forgets the

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 anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you, now is your time of

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 grief, but I will see you again, and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. In that day,

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 you will no longer ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask

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 in my name. Until now, you have not asked for anything, my name. Ask, and you will receive,

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 and your joy will be complete. Verse 33, I have told you these things so that you may have peace.

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 In this world, you will have trouble. Take, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

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 And chapter 20, verses 19 to 23. On the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were

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 together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said,

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 Peace be with you. After he said this, he showed them his hands and sighed. The disciples were overjoyed

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 when they saw the Lord. Again, Jesus said, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending

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 you. And with that, he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his

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 sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. This is God's word.

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 Thanks, Steve. So we'll be in John chapter 20, looking at the heart of the risen Christ for his

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 followers. But let's begin with the idea that there are certain pieces of information that we

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 discover, we think that they are too good to be true. Maybe you've had that news that comes in and

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 you just can't quite believe that it could possibly be true. It seems to happen every now and again

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 for a national football team. The squad is about to be announced and somebody is getting a call up to

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 the national team and they'll report in the newspaper. We presumed it was a windup, one of our mates having a

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 joke until it was all confirmed. Spare a thought for a man by the name of Hiroo Onada. He was a

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 Japanese soldier in the Second World War, fighting in the jungle of the Philippines. War broke out,

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 peace broke out rather, in 1945. But Onada didn't believe it and he kept on fighting guerrilla warfare

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 in the jungle of the Philippines until 1979. Thirty years refusing to believe peace had come. If we're not

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 convinced of a particular truth, then while the reality has changed, our hearts don't. Our expectations don't.

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 And what we see in this first Easter Sunday evening is that kind of disconnect. So we have this most glorious

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 news of all that the Lord Jesus has risen, that he has conquered death, but we find the disciples

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 locked behind closed doors in fear. Peter and John have been to the empty tomb. They've seen there is no

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 body there. They've seen the grave clothes laid to one side. Jesus doesn't need them anymore because

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 he's risen. They've heard the message of Mary Magdalene, I have seen the Lord. And that message,

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 that Jesus gave, I am sending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. But still we find

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 them fearful. It seems to them too good to be true. But then everything changes, doesn't it? As we read,

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 the risen Lord Jesus comes and they discover he is both so good and so true. And he comes bringing gifts

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 to these disciples to the church that I want us to see and then to apply in our own life and

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 circumstances. The first gift that we see is that Jesus brings the gift of peace to their fearful

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 hearts. So have a look at verse 19 with me. And there we read again, on the evening of that first day of

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 the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders,

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 Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. So the disciples are in their own

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 self-imposed lockdown because of fear. Fear because they are opposed. There are opponents. Those who had

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 been the enemies of Jesus have now crucified Jesus and they figure that now they will continue to be

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 intent on destruction and they might be the next target. So there is fear. There is also fear, no doubt,

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 because now they find themselves alone. Because remember who Jesus was to them. Jesus was their

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 master and their teacher and their friend. He was their savior. He was the one that they declared was

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 the Christ, the son of the living God. And now Jesus is no longer with them.

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 Perhaps fear also because of uncertainty. For the last three years, they had a very clear direction to

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 their life. Jesus was their master. They were following him on his mission. But what direction

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 should their life take now? We can see reasons for fear. So Jesus was risen in victory that Easter Sunday

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 morning. But to them, it seemed too good to be true. And so their hearts were still dominated by fear.

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 And before we look at Jesus' response to that, I think it'd be helpful for us to think about our own

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 lockdown experiences and the fact that for many of us, our fears have increased and heightened.

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 Maybe for some, it's because we feel a sense of opposition, that government policies and restrictions

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 are making it hard for ourselves or our families or our businesses to live life as we would expect.

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 And we are finding messages that are increasingly polarized. People are in camps and we can feel

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 a sense of opposition perhaps. Or maybe we identify with the disciples in their lockdown loneliness

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 that is now really taking root in our society. According to our recent survey, 8%, nearly 5 million

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 in our population would identify as feeling a significant level of loneliness on a consistent basis

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 because of isolation and separation.

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 Now that can happen physically, but maybe in the church we're also experiencing that spiritually.

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 That we find it hard when we're separate from one another and maybe God feels distant in this season for us.

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 Perhaps like the disciples, we too feel a sense of anxiety or uncertainty. What direction is my life going to take

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 when the future looks so unclear? Maybe we like to have the five-year plan and it's hard to have the five-day plan

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 with the way things are. So perhaps we can identify in their fear because we understand that times and seasons

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 change, but hearts don't and fears remain. But for our purposes, we want to think, how does Jesus respond to that?

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 And we see the loving heart of the risen Lord Jesus, first of all, most basically because

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 He came to them. He didn't leave them alone in their fear.

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 Perhaps you've asked yourself the question, why does John mention the locked doors? Interesting when those

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 extra details are added. Why mention the locked doors? Well, certainly it highlights the fact that they are

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 fearful, but doesn't it also highlight for us the miracle of what's just happened? That the risen Lord Jesus has

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 appeared in the room with them in a physical resurrected body. Jesus' response to their fear is to be present

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 in power with them and for them. Jesus had also said in verse 19 and in verse 21,

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 peace be with you. The loving Lord Jesus wants to give us peace. It was a promise that He'd made

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 to His troubled disciples before the cross. So Steve read for us, John 16, 33,

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 I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble,

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 but take heart. I have overcome the world. And then also in John 14, verse 27, peace I leave with you,

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 my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled

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 and do not be afraid. Who speaks this message of peace? It's Jesus, the one who is identified as

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 the prince of peace, the one who has come into this world to secure our peace, our peace with God by

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 going to the cross to die for our sins and then rising to give us eternal life so that we might be

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 reconciled to our God. This is Jesus who has established the kingdom of God and one of the essential marks

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 of that kingdom is it's a kingdom of peace. Which isn't just the ending of war, the idea of a whole

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 life flourishing principally because things are right between us and God when our faith is in Jesus.

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 Peace is good news, isn't it? How can you and I enjoy Jesus' peace in our fears?

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 Well, in the first instance, we must believe in him. And one of the reasons that we don't have peace

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 is because by nature as people we are hostile to God, that we are rebels against God. We see that in

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 our pride where we want to rely on ourselves rather than depend on God. We see it in the idols that we

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 set up, other people, other things that take God's place in our lives, good things that become too

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 important to us. We see it in our breaking of God's law. So many ways in which we by nature live at war

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 with God and we cannot bring peace ourselves. We need Jesus to be the peacemaker. And he comes and by his

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 blood on the cross, there is reconciliation between sinful people like us and a holy God through faith in

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 Jesus. So we must believe in him to enjoy this peace that he speaks of. But we must also trust that our union

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 with Christ is something that is real. If we are followers of Jesus, that we wouldn't think this is something

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 that's too good to be true. But to recognize Jesus is with us, wants to bring his presence to be felt in our

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 day-to-day life. We need to bring together two essential messages from the Easter story in our

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 own experience. The fact that Jesus on the cross said, it is finished, meaning he has completed the

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 work of salvation to deal with our sin, to bring us to God, and this message, peace be with you. With the

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 result that, we can live with peace with God and enjoy the presence of the God of peace in our lives.

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 That we can enjoy friendship with the Lord Jesus. And that's a great comfort as we find ourselves so

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 often perhaps more isolated than we would like to be. And of course, that sting of loneliness can't be

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 removed entirely. We know things are not the way they're supposed to be when we can't enjoy

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 friendship or we can't enjoy fellowship as we ought to, but here is Jesus extending the peace of his deep

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 and meaningful friendship to have someone who's always with us. So that we would learn to turn our

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 solitude to prayer. And as we pray, to recognize we are in the presence of our Father through the Son, by

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 the Spirit. That we would learn from the experience of the disciples this Easter Sunday,

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 as we come up to Christmas. And I'm really confusing everyone with days. But to recognize

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 there are no barriers stopping the presence bringing Lord Jesus, the peacemaking Lord Jesus being with us

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 in our trouble, in our fear, in our need. Rather, the risen Lord Jesus would come to us

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 and say, peace be with you because I am with you. So that's the gift of peace for fearful hearts.

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 But then we also need to think about verse 20 and the gift of joy for despairing hearts.

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 Because we recognize the fear, the sense of despair and loss the disciples were living in.

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 But verse 20 says, after Jesus had said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were

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 overjoyed when they saw the Lord. So there's a cause and effect going on here. Jesus shows them his

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 hands and his side. And the significance of the hands and the side, that's the unique wounds that Jesus

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 bears from the crucifixion. And when they know it's the risen Lord Jesus, that's when the joy comes.

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 They are overjoyed when they realize he is here with them. This is none other than the Lord Jesus.

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 But it seems maybe counterintuitive. How can we have joy from the wounds of another? How do we explain

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 that biblically? That's why we read Isaiah 53, because it's so important to our faith. So in Isaiah 53,

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 we have that promise of the suffering servant and what he came to do. And we discover there,

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 among other things, that he bore our suffering. He was pierced for our transgressions. The punishment

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 that brought us peace was on him. And by his wounds, we are healed. There's the connection between

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 the wounds of Jesus and the joy of his disciples. There's healing in those wounds. There's healing

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 in his work on the cross, because Jesus has come to be our great high priest. Not to offer an animal

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 sacrifice, but to offer himself as the perfectly righteous sacrifice to cover our sin, to make

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 fellowship with God possible, to enable us to be in the presence of our God. For the disciples,

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 that meant joy. But of course, that's only half the good news. The cross is half the good news. We also

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 need the resurrection. That's why Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 will say, if Christ has not been raised,

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 your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. If only for this life we have hope in Christ,

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 we are of all people most to be pitied. The point is, for our faith, we need a risen Lord Jesus. And so,

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 these unique wounds bring joy as we recognize, as Don Carson says, the central confession of the church

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 has always been that the risen Lord Jesus is none other than the crucified Savior. Now, an illustration,

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 perhaps, to help us to see how these things connect. This week, I went to a shop. I don't tend to go to

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 shops very often, but I had a significant bill to pay, such that I couldn't just do contact lists. I had to do the

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 old chip and pin. And we have to do chip and pin. Maybe you're like me at this time of year. You have that anxious

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 wait for those few seconds. Is my card payment going to be accepted, or is it going to be declined? And

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 there's that awkward embarrassment. I have this debt to this company. Have I got enough to pay that debt?

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 Think about what's going on in the story of the gospel. The cross of the Lord Jesus is the place where

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 payment is made for the sins of His people. That's what happens on Good Friday. But then the question

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 still remains, will God accept that payment of Jesus' death on behalf of others? And that's why the

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 resurrection brings joy, because the resurrection is proof that the payment made by Jesus was accepted

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 by His Father, so that everyone who puts their faith in the risen Lord Jesus will know sin's forgiven and

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 will have eternal life. Our greatest debt is not a financial one. Our greatest debt is a moral and a

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 spiritual one. Because each and every day of our lives, because of our sin, we are robbing God of the

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 honor and glory that He deserves. We are failing to show Him and to the world the love that we ought to.

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 We fail to give God the obedience that He demands in His law. So, we have a debt that we owe to God,

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 and if we try to pay that off with our own moral performance, that card will be declined.

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 But also, if we simply push that to one side and ignore the reality of that debt,

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 the Bible is clear, if we don't trust Jesus to pay off, to cancel that debt,

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 we will stand before Jesus the judge, and we will face eternal condemnation and punishment

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 for that debt. So, we can see why joy comes in the person of the crucified and the risen Lord Jesus,

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 because He is the only way that our sins can be forgiven. He's the only way for us to know that

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 deep joy of not having to live with our guilt, of being right before God, of having the hope of

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 eternity in our hearts. And so, the risen Lord Jesus comes to us in our despair, seeking to turn it to joy

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 by offering us Himself. It's Jesus and Jesus alone, the Bible says, who provides that deep and unbreakable

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 joy that's deeper than circumstances. Maybe you've seen what some people are trying to do to now,

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 and it absolutely makes sense at one level, with Christmas. You know, we recognize there's so much

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 pain, and there's so much sadness, and there's darkness, and there's much that we're missing out on,

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 and so the tendency of some is to make Christmas bigger than ever. Let's make it brighter and

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 splashier than ever as a way to try and meet some of that need and some of that loss. But the reality is

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 that Christmas lights aren't going to be able to sort of dull the pain. They're not going to be able to

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 deal with all that's wrong in the world. But Jesus, the light of the world, can. And He's come to do

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 that for us, and to give us deep and lasting joy as we trust in Him. There's one more thing, one more

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 gift that Jesus gives to His disciples, and it's the gift of mission to the world. Maybe you can

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 identify with the feeling of having blown it in some particular experience. You've been given a

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 responsibility or a position of trust, and you've totally messed up. You've disappointed others.

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 You've failed, and you have a sense of shame or sadness, perhaps, a sense of being good for nothing.

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 Can you imagine the disciples maybe had some of those thoughts as they slept when they should have

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 been praying for Jesus, as they ran rather than standing by Jesus? Someone like Peter denied even

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 knowing Jesus. But the grace of Jesus is such that not only does He give them peace from and with God,

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 not only does He come to bring them deep and lasting joy as they see His glory and experience His presence,

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 He also sends them back on mission. Verse 21,

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 Again Jesus said, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that,

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 He breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are

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 forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. Very briefly, these verses give us helpful

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 principles for the mission of the disciples and the mission and the work of the church.

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 So the disciples here, they are told they are sent by Jesus. The word apostles actually means sent ones.

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 They are sent by Jesus in a unique way. We see that in the book of Acts. But the church,

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 Christians, we are also sent, we are called to be ambassadors. Jesus is our King, and we are told to

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 declare His message to the world. Jesus came, we're told, as the light of the world. And then He said to

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 the church, You are the light of the world. So we are to reflect the light of the glory of the Lord Jesus

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 so that others might be drawn to Him as the true light and find life in Him. So disciples, the church,

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 were sent by Jesus to continue the work of Jesus. And that's the language in verse 23, which maybe we

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 find a little bit striking, at least. If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven. Jesus is not

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 giving this huge amount of power to the church as institution. Rather, what He is saying is that Jesus

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 is going to continue His mission through the people of God. The power is not ours. The power is in the

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 Word of God, in the Gospel of God, all about Jesus. So that as we proclaim who Jesus is and what Jesus has

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 done, some people will believe and they will be forgiven. But others will not believe and they will not

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 be forgiven. So what Jesus is referring to there is exactly what we see in His own ministry. He is

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 faithful as a truth teller. Some people listen, some people don't. And that's where we are as a church as

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 well. We have this call to proclaim, knowing that there'll be those different responses. But we are to

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 continue the work of Jesus. And we're not to do that in our own strength. Rather, we are to do it in

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 the power of the Spirit. And that's the point of verse 22. With that, Jesus breathed on them and said,

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 receive the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is so crucial to our mission and ministry as a church.

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 So I asked Steve to read John 16 for us. In John 16, if you've got time, read it again. But there's so

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 much in there of the work of the Holy Spirit in God's people and in the world. So in verse 8,

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 it's the Holy Spirit who acts to convict people so as to convert them, to draw them to Jesus.

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 In verse 13, it's God's Spirit who guides His people into the truth to help us to speak

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 the truth of God's Word to others. In verse 14, it's the Spirit in us who seeks to glorify Jesus

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 so that we would see and delight in the glory of the Lord Jesus more and more so that our hearts and

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 lives would be filled with worship so that others would be drawn to worship Jesus too. We pray and

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 we work so that others would also see the glory of Jesus in their lives. So that's our mission. We

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 continue to point people to Jesus, to do His work with the help of the Spirit, because we recognize

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 that that's our greatest need. It's our nation's greatest need. It's our world's greatest need.

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 That's why we're making time to pray on Wednesday. So as we think about continuing mission today,

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 in the first instance, we should take heart, recognizing it's Jesus who continues to build

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 His kingdom, and He will do that through His disciples. He'll do it through people like us,

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 as we seek to depend on the Spirit. So we take heart, but we are also to trust,

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 trust in God's words and not our own wisdom, to trust in God's Spirit and not in our own competencies

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 as we seek to live out this commission that we have. So here we find this wonderful reality for

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 the disciples, that the resurrection is not something for them or for us that's too good to be true.

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 That while the disciples didn't see it coming, despite Jesus having taught them, the gracious

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 Lord Jesus came to them and changed their life forever. He brought the peace of God to them.

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 They experienced true and lasting joy through Him. And we see in the book of Acts, they would boldly go

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 on mission because they met with the risen Lord Jesus and they were empowered by the Spirit.

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 And we see them moving through the world, turning the world the right side up, bringing people back to

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 God. And you know, the loving heart of the risen Lord Jesus would love to do the same for us today.

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 He would love to give us peace in the middle of our fears. He'd love us to look to Him and to find

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 deep and lasting joy in knowing Him and His salvation. In looking to Him to equip and enable us

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 to serve others, to serve others, to draw others to Jesus, the light of the world. Because at the end of the day,

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 He is the one who are fearful and despairing and anxious nation, city, world needs to know.

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 He is and the one who is rising שא�. And so don't join us with the Lord Jesus Christ in the

00:28:44.039 --> 00:28:45.119
 realm of теперь and eternal life. And I guarantee His salvation.

00:28:53.519 --> 00:28:54.799
 And He loves receiving thousands of years. And of fact, особ a lot of life is Santana wrestler,

00:28:54.799 --> 00:29:00.299
 and which at the end of the day, every for his birth, every will reveal counsel and

00:29:00.299 --> 00:29:01.740
food the right side of His civilization will help us to do-

00:29:01.740 --> 00:29:03.159
 You know, the best friend of sovereign voyez God today.

00:29:03.159 --> 00:29:04.299
 And of course we are looking for a worldine who is alive in the middle of our mother had the

00:29:04.299 --> 00:29:06.359
 who is a world who has built peace. They are doingенс X more about the way and сказал