Father, even as we stand here or sit, as the case might be,
some of us struggle with disbelief.
Maybe some of us have no faith at all,
and some of us, Father, believe, but we struggle with disbelief.
And some of us maybe believe quite well and deeply.
You know our hearts.
You know the different ways, Father,
that we feed disbelief and lack of trust in you.
And you know the different ways that we are feeding our belief and trust in you.
We ask, Father, this morning,
that the Holy Spirit would fall with gentle and deep power
and bring this, your word, home deeply to our heart.
And as you bring your word deeply to our heart,
we ask that you would grip us with the gospel
and reveal to us, Father, the ways that we feed disbelief
and create within us a desire,
a greater and greater desire to feed belief and trust in Jesus.
And this we ask in Jesus' name, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
In my family with the grandkids,
the grandchildren call me Papa,
and they call my wife Nana.
And this Monday, true story,
this Monday, Easter Monday,
a little three-year-old granddaughter of mine,
they came to our house.
I had been out because I went to a Starbucks
to begin to work on my sermon for this week for a little bit.
And I come back in the house,
and as I come in the house, Sarah announces with a loud voice,
Nana, your father is home.
And so there you go.
I'm Louise's dad.
I always knew she looked a lot younger than I do.
So this doesn't really have anything to do with the sermon text,
other than the fact that we're going to be looking at John 20, verse 19,
and we're going to have the first event,
first time that Jesus appears to all of the apostles,
or at least to the disciples.
And it says they're glad.
And you know what?
I mean, some of them, I don't know,
some of them were probably gobsmacked.
They probably weren't just sitting down and saying,
oh my, look at that.
Jesus is here.
Like it was probably not like that.
Some of them were probably jumping up and down,
punching the air.
There was probably lots of laughter, hilarious.
Maybe one of the things that will happen to us in heaven
is that we'll actually get to sort of relive
or see what it was like when the apostles saw Jesus for the first time.
And that would probably be a very, very wonderful thing to be able to do.
So we're looking at this text,
John 20, verse 19.
Please turn with me in your Bibles to this first appearance.
And as I said just a few minutes ago,
whenever I talk to non-Christians about these things,
I tell them I have a bit of a difficulty.
I'm a bit of a handicap.
If you came to see me,
I probably wouldn't have my Bible with me
when I was just talking to them.
I said, you get a Bible in a store.
Like in mine, it has this really, really expensive paper.
And you folks from there can maybe see
originally there was some type of gold type of stuff on the edge,
not real gold or it would be expensive,
but like some type of gold.
And it looks very fancy.
And that's like there's an appropriateness to it.
But really what I tell them is really what you're looking at
is an ancient biography of Jesus
that was written by an eyewitness
who knew eyewitnesses
and who wrote it at a time
when lots and lots of eyewitnesses were alive
and what we're reading is a biography of Jesus.
And it's an ancient biography of Jesus.
It's one of four of them.
And it's not a fantasy book
or a myth or anything like that.
He wrote it as a biography.
He wrote it to explain who Jesus is,
what he accomplished,
and why he's really important.
And that's what we're going to be looking at right now.
And so what's happened is
the way that John is told the biography of Jesus
is if you go back and read chapter 19,
it talks about how Jesus is sentenced to death
and how Jesus dies on the cross
and how the body of Jesus is taken
and put in a tomb after it's been embalmed.
And then just before this,
we hear about the stone that was covering
the tomb entrance has been removed
and Mary's shocked
and Peter and John go in
and they see the grave cloths
and the napkins set aside
and it's all neat and tidy,
not the way grave robbers
or people involved in skullduggery.
I just wanted to put the word skullduggery
into a sermon.
That's why I said it.
It's a word that is not used enough
in average language probably.
If they were looking for skullduggery,
they would have taken everything
including the grave cloths
and John has some type of belief right away
and then the apostles go
and then Mary is there
and she meets Jesus
and now the story continues
later on that day.
And here we are,
verse 19,
it goes like this.
On the evening of that day,
that's the same day
that they discover the tomb is empty
and that Mary has seen Jesus.
On the evening of that day,
the first day of the week,
the doors being locked
where the disciples were
for fear of the Jewish leaders,
Jesus came and stood among them
and said to them,
peace be with you.
And just sort of pause there
as we're reading this text.
You know,
it's really, really interesting
the way they described the apostles,
even though they have now
probably been told by Mary
and maybe by some other women
that they've seen Jesus.
But what characterizes their life
here right now
is that what's characterizing their life
is not faith.
They're not all sitting around
singing praise songs,
plotting their evangelistic strategy
to spread the gospel
to the ends of the earth.
No, they're afraid.
They're sitting there afraid.
And so because they're afraid,
the doors are locked,
the windows are locked,
everything is shut.
They're in a dark, dark room
being quiet
because they're afraid.
And if you go and look in my blog,
which I wrote this week,
that's in the bulletin,
I have a little bit of a talk
about how Jesus might have appeared
into a locked room,
but they're afraid.
And the very, very first words
that Jesus says to them
is very, very significant.
If you think about it,
I mean, people have talked
about this many times.
I'm not being particularly unique.
He didn't say,
in the words of Donald Trump,
you're fired,
which he could have said.
You're fired.
You failed the belief test.
You failed the courage test.
You failed listening
to the woman test.
Three strikes.
You're fired.
He could have said,
you bums.
He could have said,
do you know how much you hurt me?
Like he could have said
all sorts of things to them.
He doesn't say any of these things.
He announces to them,
peace be with you.
And just so we know,
now obviously it's so funny
because he says,
peace be with you.
So they've gone from
being very, very afraid.
All of a sudden,
Jesus is standing in front of them,
even though all the windows
and doors are locked.
He's all of a sudden
in front of them.
He catches them by surprise.
We're going to read in a moment
that they're really glad
that they see Jesus.
And he says, peace.
So probably what they're not experiencing
is what we think of as peace.
So this is just an important thing
for us to understand
is most of the time
when you see the word peace
in the New Testament
and in fact in the Bible,
the Old Testament as well,
is it's not usually talking
about an emotion.
And it's not usually talking
about the fact
that there was a big fight
and now they've stopped fighting.
Although it has that aspect,
obviously,
if it's talking about a war
or something.
But the main thing is
we North Americans,
when we hear words like this,
we think of it usually
in emotional terms.
And Jesus is referring
to something
which is more structural,
so to speak.
Sounds really boring.
But it would be as if,
you know how the ancients
figured out that without mortar,
they were able to build an arch.
You know,
they were able to cut stones
in a particular way
and sort of hold things up.
But eventually,
when all of the stones
were put in the arch
and if they were cut the right way,
the gravity would actually
help the whole thing to stand.
And then you could go on top of it
or you could build a wall
or a roof on top of it
if there was an arch.
And so in a sense,
when you see the word peace,
you can imagine as if
some of the rocks
have been pushed out
and the whole thing
has collapsed
and now somebody has come
and put all of the rocks
back in place
so that the arch is in balance.
The rocks are all
in their proper place.
Everything's held together.
It would be a way of,
another way to think of it
would be as if,
not just as if an instrument
is put into tune,
but imagine that there's an orchestra
with lots and lots of instruments
and every one of the instruments
has now been not only tuned,
but tuned to each other.
And when you have an orchestra
where every instrument is tuned
and all of the instruments
are tuned to each other,
that's peace.
It's balance.
It's structurally fixed
so that it's ordered
correctly and in harmony.
That's what Jesus
is talking about.
And out of that,
if you think about it
for a second,
out of that might come
a feeling of peace
at different times.
But it might not be.
Out of it sometimes
might come unbelievable joy,
like I'm fixed.
Sometimes when we understand
that that peace is there,
it might cause within us
embarrassment or shame.
And we might say to ourselves,
you mean that Jesus
took that rock in my life?
He put his hands
in that embarrassing,
shameful part of my life
and put it in order?
Or if we're using the analogy
of the instrument,
does he,
did Jesus actually know
what I did to that instrument
and why it's out of tune
and why it's broken?
And he put his hands on that?
He put his lips on that,
so to speak,
to tune it?
And so sometimes
when the knowledge
of this peace
that God is,
that Christ has won for us
comes to us,
it might be thankfulness,
it might be embarrassment,
it might be conviction of sin,
it might be peace,
it might be joy.
But the main thing is
he's not saying
all of a sudden
you feel peaceful.
That's not what's happening.
He's announcing
that something has happened.
It's a little bit like
just about a month or so ago
I finally watched
the Pacific,
that series of DVD videos
done by Spielberg
and Tom Hanks.
I've watched
the Band of Brothers
several times
which talks about
a platoon,
I don't know if I have
the right military term,
a group of guys,
a band of brothers
who fight a whole series
of battles
throughout the Second World War
in Europe
and then a few years later
they did another one
in the Pacific.
And in both of them,
whether it's the Pacific
or in the Band of Brothers,
the day when the war
is over
and it is announced
there is great rejoicing.
And this is a similar
type of thing
just as in that thing
when they said
the war is over,
we've won.
This is what Jesus
is saying.
Peace be with you.
The war is over.
I've won.
And that's his opening
announcement.
Not you're fired,
not you're bums,
not you're failures,
not I'm ashamed of you,
not I'm embarrassed of you,
not you should feel
terrible about yourselves.
His first words are,
it is over.
Peace be with you.
The battle is won.
And then he says
something more
because you see
it's important
for those people,
those people,
you know,
just,
I love this phrase.
I actually got the phrase
by the way
from one of my favorite movies
which is Black Hawk Down.
There's this wonderful scene
in Black Hawk Down
where they've caught a fellow,
one of the,
they've caught a Somali leader
and he's smoking this cigar
and he's speaking
to the general
and he says,
do you think,
you think that just because
I grew up without running water
that I'm stupid?
And he says,
I'm not.
I know history.
And it's very easy
for us to look back
at the past
and say they didn't know
anything about cell phones,
they didn't know anything
about germs,
they didn't have,
you know,
they just,
you know,
pooped in a hole.
So they must,
just because they lived
a long time ago
doesn't mean they're stupid.
They also want proof.
It matters just as much
to them as it does to us.
And so that's one of the things
which Jesus is going to be
providing for them
and that's what happens
very next.
So he says,
peace be with you.
If you go back to verse 20,
it says this,
when he,
that is Jesus had said this,
he showed them his hands
and his side.
Then the disciples were glad
when they saw the Lord.
So he takes the time
to show them
that he's real,
that he's physical,
that,
and it's,
you know,
that,
that he has the marks.
He must have lifted up
his clothes
so they could see
that there was,
I don't know if it was a scar.
Later on,
we're just going to see
that it says the word marks.
I don't know if it was a wound
or what it was,
but where the spear went in,
you can see it,
where he would have
rolled down his sleeves
and where the nails were there,
you could see that there was still
very clearly a mark
that this is the same man
who on Friday was crucified,
who's now standing in front of them
completely and utterly alive.
And what this does
is it means
Jesus is vindicated.
It means that who he said he was,
what he said he was going to do,
all of the things that he said
about life,
about sexuality,
about money,
about the meaning of life,
all of these things,
it vindicates that
what he says is true.
It is true and trustworthy.
You can stake your life on it.
And at the same time,
it vindicates that he's accomplished
what he said
that he is going to accomplish.
It vindicates
and it also,
it also,
it also connects,
as we're going to see,
especially in a moment,
it connects
this peace be with you,
this declaration
that the war is over,
there is a just peace.
He is going to vindicate,
he's going to show
that that peace
is connected
to his death.
That's why,
one of the reasons
it's so important
that he shows
that he still has
the scars
or the marks
or whatever it is
in his hands,
I guess in his ankles as well,
but he doesn't refer to it
in the side,
that what he has just gone through,
his death upon the cross
and his resurrection,
he's vindicated
and this
is going to be for us
the source of peace.
And that's what Jesus does.
He's going to make
this connection for us.
It's very clearly connected.
In fact,
if those of you,
I guess in this version
of the Bible,
if you look at a version
of the Bible,
it's very interesting.
It goes,
peace be with you.
Then he shows you the marks
and then it says,
peace be with you as well.
It's like a sandwich.
Peace be with you
and in between
is the reality
that rose from the dead
and the mark of the scars.
And now Jesus
is going to talk about
something which has caused
lots of division
in Christianity
for almost 2,000 years.
And the discussion
about this controversy
so overwhelms
our reading of the text
that we miss
all the very important things
for us that he says.
So just look at verse 21.
We'll get to this
controversial thing.
Some of you probably noticed
it when I was reading
it earlier.
21.
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.
Or they have been forgiven them.
I'll talk about this in a moment.
If you retain forgiveness
from any of them
or withhold forgiveness
from any of them,
it is retained.
That may be another way
to translate that.
And well, okay,
let's just try to unpack this.
So here's the four things.
What we see here
is Jesus says four basic things.
And the first thing is
he gives them the message.
Basically what it is,
he gives them a message.
He tells them
that they have to go.
He gives them power
and he explains to them
why it matters.
That's the four things
that he does.
He gives them the message
that they're to proclaim.
He tells them
that they have to go.
They're not just sort of
to sit on a mountaintop
and wait for people
to come to them.
He gives them the power
to do what he tells them
to proclaim.
And then he's trying
to tell them
that what I'm doing
for you right now,
what I'm telling you right now
is of eternal consequence
for people.
So you have to take it
very seriously.
So if you could put up
the first point,
that would be very helpful.
So the first thing
is this message,
peace be with you.
And the problem
is not that God
is at enmity with you,
but that you
are at enmity with God.
The problem is not
that God
is at enmity with you,
but that you
are at enmity with God.
Now this is an idea
which basically
nobody in Canada believes.
And basically,
most of us
don't believe it.
We have a hard time
with it.
In Jesus' day,
when he was going
to pagan religions,
if he was to say to them,
you know,
you have done things
that have made God
your enemy,
they would probably say,
you're probably right.
I have acted in a way
that means there's now
enmity between me and God.
You're probably right.
And if you were maybe
to go to many traditional
Hindu or Buddhistic cultures
and that there's something
out of whack with you,
which means you're going
to have to be
reincarnated again,
you haven't achieved nirvana,
that there's something
fundamentally wrong with you,
probably most people
would say you're probably right.
But you say to the
average Canadian
that the problem,
the problem
that the Bible here
is addressing
with this message of peace
is not that God
is at enmity with you,
but that you're
at enmity with God.
There's a type
of a blankness
that comes over most of us.
So just think
of these examples.
If you're a guest
here this morning,
my wife's name is Louise,
and this is,
it'll help you
to understand
what I'm saying.
If I went somewhere
with Louise,
and I pretended
I did not know her,
it's a big party,
and I go with Louise,
and I pretend
I don't know her.
In fact,
if I was standing
talking to some people,
and she comes up along
to stand up beside me,
and all of a sudden
I sort of stand like this
with my back to her
to keep talking,
afterwards she would say
to people,
why does he hate me?
Why does he hate me?
If it turned out
that I found out
at work
that Louise
was in trouble,
and not only
did I continue
at work
and not go to help her,
but after work
went to a different city
for a holiday,
leaving her alone,
she would ask,
and you would understand
why she would ask,
why does he hate me?
If I just decided
after this church service
to move to a different city
because I had a new job,
and I just never actually
even email her
or talk to her,
I just go and live
a very happy life
in a different city,
she would ask
and you would ask,
why does he hate me?
If one of you
were to track me down
in that different city
and you saw
that I felt no guilt,
no sense of obligation
to even talk to her
or send her a message,
you would wonder,
what's going on?
Does he think
he's the center
of the universe?
That he can just
do whatever he wants
and not have to deal
with his wife at all?
If you then went back
and confronted me
about how I'd been
treating my wife,
and I said to you,
oh, this is so tiring.
This is the problem
with wives.
Like, listen,
I have all my friends
right here,
and, like,
we're all,
we're having fun.
Like, we're making money,
we're having fun,
and everybody here
agrees with me.
Like, what are you doing
giving me a hard time
about that?
That's the problem
with wives.
Like, leave your wife alone.
If you want to have a wife
and do all that stuff,
that's fine, you know,
but you know what?
I'm having a fine life
where I am.
That's how each one of us
is with God.
This is how,
so whether you're
Richard Dawkins,
shaking your fist
at the God
you do not believe exists,
whether you're a soccer mom
in Canada or Orleans,
whether you live
in a big fancy house
along the Rideau River
in Manitik
or in Rockcliffe
in a big mansion,
whether you spend
every night in bars
partying,
we're all united.
We've all been described
by what I just described.
We're at enmity with God.
We've turned our back on him
and life is fine without him.
And how irksome,
how irksome,
what gives him the right
to actually say
anything at all
about how I spend my money,
what I do with my sexuality,
anything at all.
Like, why on earth?
Like, that is so tiresome.
We are enmity with God.
In fact,
if you go back
thinking about this,
in Romans chapter,
if you go back
and read Romans 1, 19
or 18 and following
right through to the,
almost the end
of chapter 3,
what Romans talks about
and what's talked about
in a lot of the Bible
is that when we actually
appear before
the judgment seat of God,
we will discover
that it's,
we actively suppress
the knowledge of God.
It would be as if
you discovered
like that it's not just
that I actually
in another city
don't pay any attention
to Louise.
It might look like I don't.
I'm actually suppressing
knowledge of that.
And that's what the Bible says.
We're actually
suppressing it.
See, one of the hard parts
for us as Canadians now
and it's very present
in the church
is that the common things
that we like to say
and they're fine words.
We like to talk about
our brokenness.
We like to talk about
our shame.
But the problem is
in both of those cases
they're passive words.
It's something that
happens to us
and we don't like
the word sinner
because sinning
is something I do.
I suppress
a knowledge of what
is right and wrong.
And so we have a hard time
understanding
this analogy
of Jesus being,
making our peace
with God.
If you could put up
the next point
that would be very helpful.
Jesus did everything.
See, when Jesus says
peace be with you,
when the message
that we are to pronounce
is that the problem
is not that God
is at enmity with you
because God is love.
He never stopped loving you.
He never did anything
wrong to you.
Anybody,
it doesn't matter
if they have five PhDs,
can speak 15 languages
and maybe they're
an archbishop
or a bishop,
anybody who talks about
how we have to learn
how to forgive God
is not talking biblically.
If they talk about
how we have to learn
how to forgive ourselves,
it doesn't matter
if they're a bishop.
They're not speaking
biblically.
They're not speaking
Christianly.
Those are wrong ideas.
They're not biblical ideas.
The problem is not
that God is at enmity
with you and me,
but that you and I
are at enmity with God.
And Jesus does
everything needed
for you to enter
into a real,
just peace
with God.
Jesus did
everything needed
for you
and for me
to enter
into a real,
just peace
with God.
You see,
that's why
this is one of the
great proclamations
in the Bible.
If you go back
and you read John
all the way
from the beginning
to the end,
I've talked about this
three times in a row.
I'll say it a few more times
because we're coming
to the end of the book
and it's just important
for us to understand,
is that John
begins the gospel
describing how
everything came to be
before human beings
became at enmity
with God.
And John reveals
that all things
that exist
are a result
of light,
life,
and love.
All things
that exist
are a result
of light,
life,
and love.
John 1,
verse 1-5.
In the beginning
was the Word
and the Word
was with God
and that with God
is a relational word.
It's an affectionate word.
It's as if you talk
about Louise
is with me
and we love each other.
You know,
you're with your friend
and you care for each other.
It's a relational word.
And so it says,
in the beginning
was the Word
and the Word
was with God
and the Word
was God.
He was with God
in the beginning.
All things
were made through him
and without him
nothing was made
that was made.
In him was light
and the light
is the life
of the world.
See,
the Bible describes
that all things
ultimately come about
as a result of light,
life,
light,
life,
and love.
And what happens
when we turn our back
on light?
When you turn your back
on light,
it means you're walking
towards darkness
and in darkness.
When you turn your back
on life,
it means you are walking
in sickness
and in death
towards sickness
and death.
And when you turn your back
on love,
it means that you're walking
in indifference
and hate
towards indifference
and hate.
And God saw that
and God so loved
the world
that he sent
his one and only son
to the end
that whoever believes
in him
will not perish
but have eternal
life.
And so you go all
through the gospel
of John
and how is Jesus
described?
He is the light
of the world.
He is the life
of the world.
He is bread and life.
He is the one
who gives living waters.
He is the way,
the truth,
and the life.
All the way
through the gospel,
it describes who Jesus
is in terms of
these categories
upon which we have
separated ourselves
from light.
We have separated
ourselves from life
and from love.
And we live
at enmity with God
and Jesus is described
as God himself
coming to rescue us
and when he dies
on the cross,
as he dies
upon the cross,
he bears in himself
our darkness.
He bears in himself
our indifference
and hatred.
He bears in himself
our sickness
and death.
And he does
everything that has
to be done
that I cannot
possibly do
for myself
to make me
right with God,
at peace with God.
not only to remove
the darkness,
the indifference,
the hatred,
but to actually give us
those realities
in the already not yet.
it's as if to use
the analogy that
what,
from a heavenly
point of view,
if every one of us
is like an orchestra
with lots of different
things,
musical instruments,
is that Jesus
not only
deals with
the punishment
and all that
for having broken
and wrecked
and trampled
and done all those
types of things,
but he actually
repairs every instrument.
He gives us
instruments
that we didn't even
have that we were
lacking
and he tunes
everyone
and he tunes
them to each other
and he does it all.
And we now stand
in a new relationship
with him
in a new way
and he's done it all.
And that's the message.
Peace
be with you.
And then,
so,
look here at verse 21.
Peace be with you.
That's the message.
And then he says,
as the Father
has sent me,
even so,
I am sending you.
We often think
of a church
as a building
and there's something
appropriate for that
but we need to see here
it's always a problem
because buildings
just sit there.
If a building moves,
that's bad,
generally speaking,
unless it's
a little house
that they put on a
pickup
and put on a trailer
to move somewhere else.
If the building moves,
it's because there's a flood.
If the building moves,
it's because there's
an earthquake
or something like that
or a sinkhole.
They're not supposed
to move.
They're supposed
to stand there.
But you see,
really,
Christians aren't
supposed to be like churches.
We're supposed
to be more like boats
in motion.
We're to be like boats
in motion.
And so,
Jesus says,
I'm sending you.
In other words,
you have to go
and you have to proclaim
peace be with you.
And then,
in verse 22,
when he said this,
he breathed on them
and said to them,
receive the Holy Spirit.
And this is a bit
of a forerunner
for what's going
to happen
in the book of Acts.
It's a really important thing
to show that,
you know,
it's not as if
we Christians
can say,
okay,
well,
you know,
there's those people here,
like we're Acts 2 Christians
because we're all
about the Holy Spirit.
And others of us
say,
no,
no.
Like,
we're like Paul type
of Christians.
We're all about
the crucifixion.
And other Christians
say,
no,
no.
We're like all
about God the Father
types of Christians.
It's that one of the things
that the Gospels
are trying to show us
is that,
first of all,
Jesus is the one
who reveals
who God is.
It's through Jesus
that all of our faults
and culturally
contaminated notions
of who God is
are going to be
corrected about him.
That whenever we even
talk to somebody else,
we have to try
to always remember,
okay,
one,
one moment.
We're time out.
We're both using
the word God,
but I have a feeling
we mean somebody
completely and utterly
different,
even though we're
using the same word.
I think you're using
God as if he's
some abstract,
distant type of person
who's often
very,
very mean,
but you need to
understand that
when I talk about God,
I'm talking about
God as revealed
by Jesus,
and that means
it's a God
who ends up
dying on a cross
because he loves you.
We're talking
about different gods,
okay?
And so,
what the Gospel
here is showing
is it's all
this one act
of revelation,
it's all this
one act of giving,
that the Father
sends Jesus,
and Jesus willingly
comes as God,
the Son of God,
he comes,
and it's the Father
who sends the Son
and the Son
who sends the Holy Spirit,
and there's this
one unbroken moment,
and you don't choose
between like Genesis 1
type of Christian
and a John 1 Christian
or an Acts 2 Christian,
it's one act,
it's one God,
and Jesus is giving us
the power to proclaim
the message
as we go.
And then this final
complicated bit,
which I'm only going to say
something very briefly
about,
that's verse 23,
if you forgive
the sins of any,
they are forgiven them,
if you withhold
or withhold forgiveness
than from any,
it is retained.
Just a couple of
basic things.
As you're going to see now
in a moment,
generally speaking,
I don't like to critique
other churches.
We have enough crap
in our own church,
we can critique ourselves,
and the Anglican way,
but I tell people
when they tell,
like you can't make up stuff
about how bad
the Anglican church is often.
Like,
you don't need to make it up,
just follow the news.
Like it's,
so I don't need to make fun of,
so I'm not making fun of things,
but the Roman Catholic doctrine
of the priest having the power
to bind and lock and loose,
and it's connected to this
in Matthew 16 and 18,
and I just,
it's not right.
It's wrong.
And if what you had
was just verse 23
and nothing else in the Bible,
then the Roman Catholic position
on this would have to be correct.
But you don't just have this verse.
Have it in a context.
You have it in a whole book.
And it,
the idea that Jesus gives
an institution power
to give them power
that I can say,
Ken,
sucks to be you,
not forgiven.
Dick,
I like you.
Two thumbs up,
forgiven.
Like,
if you think that comes
from the text,
it makes no sense.
Now,
it's complicated
because of the fact
that in the Greek,
it's a passive,
which means it's,
when it's in the passive tense
in a context like this,
it means that we're not doing something
or human beings not doing something,
God's doing something.
And it's in the perfect tense
and it's aspectual.
I think I pronounced that correctly,
which means it's a completed act,
a completed act in the past.
Sorry,
a Greek,
sorry,
I've lost all of you,
a little grammar moment.
The bottom line is,
if you look at it
within its whole context,
everything is about us believing
to receive forgiveness of sins.
Jesus has done everything
to make me at peace with God
and I need to receive that.
It's not something I do,
not something I accomplish.
And so what the Bible text here,
complicated by Greek,
complicated by church history,
and what it's fundamentally saying is this,
you need to go,
I am going to tell you this right now,
disciples,
I have done everything
that has to be done
for you to be at peace with God.
It's connected to this right here.
It's connected to the fact
that I stand before you alive.
I have accomplished everything
for you to be made
as unworthy as you are.
I love you.
I've done everything
so you may be right with God.
And so I am sending you
like the Father has sent you.
You need to go
to every people group.
You need to go
throughout the city of Ottawa.
You need to tell people
this spectacular news
that Christ,
that Jesus,
has come from the Father
to make you right with God
when you cannot make peace
with God yourself.
And I've given you
the Holy Spirit
to have the power
to do that
because you can't do it
on your own strength.
And it matters
because you see,
when you proclaim this
and people receive it,
their sins are forgiven
and they are at peace with God.
And when you proclaim it
and they do not accept it,
their guilt is retained.
And they are not at peace with God.
And that has eternal consequences.
And that's the flow of the argument.
It's the flow of the argument.
It's the flow of the book.
I just want to wrap up
with some really, really,
the following,
the story that follows this
is such an important addition to this.
It's so wonderful
that not only that Jesus did it,
but that John wrote it
so we could know it.
And so if you just look,
it's a famous story
of Jesus appearing to Thomas.
And it begins at verse 24.
Now Thomas,
one of the 12,
called the twin.
And John is,
John's making a little bit
of fun of Thomas here.
He's,
he has a,
probably when he was writing this,
way, way back
with his whatever,
however he wrote it,
he probably had a bit of a smile
and maybe even chuckled about it.
He just,
earlier on,
if you go back in the gospel,
earlier on,
Thomas is introduced as the twin.
I'm assuming it means
that he had an identical twin brother.
Okay?
Because of what's going to happen next.
And so John's just remembering,
a bit of a smile.
Oh,
Thomas.
So now,
verse 24,
now Thomas,
one of the 12,
called the twin,
was not with them.
We discovered there's only 10 people there
when that happened,
when Jesus came.
So the disciples,
verse 25,
said,
we have seen the Lord.
But he said to them,
unless I see
in his hands
the mark of the nails
and place my fingers
into the mark of the nails
and place my hand
into his side,
I will not believe.
In other words,
maybe Jesus had a twin
who didn't die.
Or maybe Jesus had somebody
who just really looked like Jesus.
And he's fooling them.
A little bit of a mark,
a little bit of red stuff
over here,
a little bit of red over here.
It's just a lookalike.
He's playing a bit of a joke.
So,
you can just,
it's just like
the identical twin
to think maybe Jesus
had an unknown
identical twin
that was fooling everybody.
But it's also going ahead
and show this,
you know,
these guys aren't stupid.
They're not just going to go believe
that Jesus rose from the dead.
Even with the empty tomb
and all of that complication,
he knows there needs to be
more than just the empty tomb.
He needs to actually see Jesus.
And verse 26,
eight days later,
his disciples were inside.
That's Jesus' disciples again.
And Thomas,
this time,
was with them.
He spent at least a couple of days,
maybe a whole week,
because it's a week later.
They're all now filled with joy
that Jesus is alive.
But Thomas says,
I think you guys are smoking
substances that used to be illegal,
but now are legal in Canada.
And that's why you're so happy,
because unless I see it,
I'm not going to believe it.
And then in verse 26,
although the doors were locked,
Jesus came and stood among them
and said,
not Thomas,
you dumb,
peace be with you.
Then he said to Thomas,
put your fingers here.
He knows what Thomas said,
because he's God,
the son of God.
Put your finger here
and see my hands
and put out your hand
and place it in my side.
Do not disbelieve,
but believe.
Let's talk about that
just a moment.
But Thomas answered him,
my Lord and my God.
This is the very clear declaration
that the one who created all things
and sustains all things by his power
is standing,
resurrected,
physical,
in front of Thomas.
And here's this wonderful word.
Jesus said to him,
have you believed
because you have seen,
have seen me?
Here he is.
Every single one of us here
who is a Christian,
this is what Jesus says
to you this morning.
Those of you who are beat up,
those of you who are depressed,
those of you who are happy,
those of you filled with faith,
those of doubts,
he says to each one of us
who have put our trust in Jesus,
sitting or standing here today,
blessed are those who have not seen
and yet have believed.
That's what he says to you.
That's not me.
That's what Jesus says.
Blessed are you.
If you could put up the third point.
If you notice again here
what Jesus says to Thomas
at the end of verse 27,
do not disbelieve but believe.
It's actually two commands.
The first one is,
and I put the way to write it,
I put it in a prayer.
What has been going on with Thomas
is that he's been feeding
disbelief and lack of trust in Jesus.
He's feeding it.
If you think about it,
and maybe most of us
don't think about it,
there are things that we do
in our week
or don't do in our week
that feeds not trusting Jesus,
not believing the gospel,
not believing what he said.
It's the same thing
with any type of relationship.
You know, a husband can do something
throughout the week
that feeds him not thinking well
of his wife.
A wife can do things
throughout the week
that feeds,
that nurtures,
that nourishes
a resentment
or a lack of love
or trust of her husband.
And we can do those same things
with the Lord.
And at the same time,
there are things that
a husband can do
throughout the week
that nourishes his love
for his wife.
And a wife can do things
throughout the week
that will nourish
and nurture
her love for her husband.
And there's the same thing
in terms of our relationship
with Jesus.
And so part of it,
this moment,
I'm not going to give you
a whole sermon on it.
It's just to ask the question,
Lord,
what am I doing?
What habits do I have
that nurture distrust
of you and your word?
And Lord,
could you please reveal them
to me and then help me
to put them to death?
Why?
Because Lord,
please help me,
please grip me
with the gospel
so that I will stop
habits of feeding disbelief
and lack of trust in you.
And if you cover up
the next point,
that would be great.
And Lord,
please grip me
with the gospel
so that I will grow habits
that feed belief
and trust in you.
And ask the Lord,
Lord,
what can I be doing this week?
If you're going to help me
to stop doing those things
that feed disbelief
and lack of trust
and lack of belief
in your word,
Lord,
I don't want to just be,
I want to,
I know I need to keep eating.
I need to feed.
By nature,
I seek nourishment.
So Lord,
help me to understand
what I can be doing
that nourish belief.
See,
that's one of the reasons
why small groups
are so important
for so many people.
that not only
that you spend time,
it's out of that time
you build relationships
so that when you're really
having a hard time
you can go say,
you can say,
you know,
Bob,
can I have a beer with you?
I just need to talk
about some things
that are going on.
It's how you do life
with each other.
It's,
whether it's a small group
or through a men's ministry
or a woman's ministry
or relationships
or whatever it is,
one of the,
those things can be
so important
on top of our devotions
and other types of things.
But the main thing is,
Lord,
show me what I can do,
what I am able to do,
what I must do
that I will feed
and nourish
and nurture belief in you
and the gospel
and what you said,
that your words are true
and trustworthy and wise,
even if they go against
all of the glitz
and all of the world,
whatever the world says
is right
with all of its glitz
and all of its authority
and all of its self-confidence
and it goes against your word.
Lord,
I just want to believe you
and what you said,
that it's wise
in the face of this
which wants to crush me
into its own mold.
I want to be molded
by the gospel,
by this wonderful word,
Jesus,
that I am blessed
because I believe in you
without having seen.
And that's why
this whole book is written.
Look at verse 30 and 31.
Now,
Jesus did many other signs
in the presence of the disciples
which are not written
in this book,
but these are written
so that you may believe
that Jesus
is the Christ,
the Son of God
and that by believing
you may have
life
in his name.
Please stand.
Just bow our heads in prayer.
If there are any here
who have not yet
believed
or trust in Jesus,
there's no better time
than right now
to just call out to him
and say,
it might even be,
Lord,
I believe,
help my unbelief.
That's a biblical prayer.
One I am very familiar
with in my own life.
Lord,
I want to be yours.
I want to be,
I want to trust
that you are my Savior
and my Lord
and I turn to you,
I give myself to you,
I acknowledge
that I have been
in enmity with you
and I want,
that you have made
my peace with God
and I want that.
I want to be at peace
with you, Lord.
And so,
Jesus,
be my Savior and Lord.
Use your own words,
but you can call out
to him right now
that that would be
the new story
of your life
and then say,
Lord,
please feed my,
feed,
help me to,
help me to know
how to feed belief
and help me to know
how to starve disbelief
and for all of us here,
those are prayers
for us to pray.
So let's pray.
Father,
you know right now
the different ways
that each of us here
nourishes disbelief
and distrust.
Father,
every one of us
has them.
None of us
is better than the other
in terms of
that never happens to us.
Father,
you know that some of us
do it,
we're just blind to it.
We actually think
maybe it's wisdom
when it's actually
just starving belief
and feeding disbelief.
So,
Father,
we ask for a wonderful work
of your Holy Spirit
that you would convict us
of those ways
that we are nourishing
disbelief and distrust
in your Son
and his word.
And,
Father,
help us to put that
to death
to no longer go there.
And,
Father,
we ask that you would,
by your Holy Spirit,
you would convict us
once again
of those things
that we can do
that build belief
and trust in you.
Father,
pour out the Holy Spirit
upon us
and lead us
to develop these habits.
Habits,
Father,
ultimately of grace
and mercy
that come from you.
Father,
help us to do that.
We ask these things
in the name of Jesus
and all God's people said,
Amen.