John 20:19-31

He Lives— to Provide Me Proof & Peace!

¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

²¹Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ²²And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

²⁴Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”

²⁶A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

²⁸Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

²⁹Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

³⁰Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (NIV1984)

Dear fellow worshipers of our living Lord and Savior,

He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Our lives are full of either/or moments— moments where we face an unavoidable choice between two alternatives.  Some of those moments are relatively insignificant:  either I have the chicken or the fish.  Other times our choices can shape the course of our life:  either I accept this new job offer or I keep my current job for who knows how long; either I accept/extend this marriage proposal or… well, let’s just say that some either/or situations are bigger than others.

Here is the biggest, the most important and the most impactful either/or event of them all:  either Jesus is still dead, or Jesus physically rose from His grave.  One might ask, how is this the biggest, most important, and most impactful either/or event of all?  Look at it this way— Jesus claimed to be the Son of God and this world’s only Savior from sin.  Jesus said that He would prove that His claim is true by rising from the dead, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teacher of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise from the dead” (Mark 8:31).  If Jesus did not fulfill these words, if Jesus is still dead then He is both a failure and a fraud.  However, if Jesus did rise from the dead then He proves that He is who He claims to be— the Son of God and this world’s only Savior from sin!

As we continue to bask in the warmth and the joy of Easter we are going to follow a sermon series entitled:  He Lives!  On each of the Sundays after Easter we are going to focus our attention on what Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead means for us and for our daily lives.  Today we begin this series by looking at this truth:  He Lives— to Provide Me Proof & Peace!

John begins by taking us back to the evening of that first Easter Sunday.  He writes, “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’  After he said this, he showed them his hands and side.  The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.”

As one who was there in that locked room on that first Easter Sunday, John knew firsthand the “fear” that had filled the hearts and minds of Jesus’ disciples.  He speaks of that “fear” by describing it as “fear of the Jews.”  Jesus’ disciples were literally afraid for their lives!  They were afraid that the religious leaders of God’s people would do to them what they had already done to Jesus!  (Pointing to the cross)  But have you ever wondered if maybe there was also another aspect to their fear?  The moment that “Jesus came and stood among them” was there any fear that Jesus might be angry with His disciples?  They undoubtedly remembered that when they were with Jesus in the Upper Room Jesus told them that they would all desert Him— and they did!  Scripture tells us that when Jesus predicted that Peter would deny even knowing who Jesus is, “Peter declared, ‘Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.’  And all the other disciples said the same” (Matthew 26:35).  In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus said to Peter, James, and John, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.  Stay here and keep watch” (Mark 14:34).  And what did they do?  They fell asleep— three times!  Even after the faithful woman came back and told the disciples that they had seen the Lord— they didn’t believe the women, “because their words seemed to them like nonsense” (Luke 24:11).  Now, “Jesus came and stood among them.”  If there was any fear at suddenly seeing Jesus alive, if there was any fear of how Jesus would react to their complete and utter failure— Jesus instantly took it away by providing them with proof and with peace! John tells us that even before the disciples could collect themselves enough to say, “I’m so sorry, Lord!” Jesus spoke first!  He said, “Peace be with you!”  And to prove to them that He is the same Jesus who died on the cross, “He showed them his hands and side.”

What fills our hearts with fear, my friends?  Is it the fear of death?  Is it the fear that some sin we have done our best to keep hidden from others might be uncovered by our parents, our spouses or our children.  Is it the fear of crime?  Is it the fear of losing our job?  Is it the fear of failing a class?  While there is no shortage of things that can fill our hearts with fear, as Christians one of our greatest fears is that we might follow in the footsteps of Jesus’ first disciples.  How might we do this?  We know what Jesus has done for us.  (Pointing to the cross)  We know that Jesus’ love for us is so amazing that He was willing to die— in our place— to pay the punishment that we deserved—for all of eternity!  And yet, our words, our actions, our goals, our priorities all too often fail to measure up to the love and the dedication Jesus deserves to receive from us.  All too often we— like Jesus’ first disciples— are a complete and utter failure as Christians.  That’s why the next portion of our text is so very important to us!

Look at what John records for us in verses 21-23, “Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you!  As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’  And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.’”

We often times think of Pentecost as the time when Jesus gave to His disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit— but this is Easter Sunday!  Jesus appeared in that locked room to not only prove to His disciples that He had fulfilled His promise to physically rise from the dead,  to not only prove to His disciples that all of their sins are completely forgiven by showing them the Stigmata, the marks of crucifixion that are still present in His physical body, but Jesus appeared in that locked room to empower His disciples to proclaim the peace of forgiveness to others— including you and me!

Through His holy Word and through His holy Sacraments the living Lord still provides us sinners today with proof that through Jesus we are at peace with the one and only living God!  Through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism He takes a child who was conceived and born in sin (Psalm 51:5), washes them clean of all their sins, and dresses them in the robe of perfect righteousness that He won for them on the cross to prove that they are now a dearly beloved adopted child of the heavenly Father.  Through the Sacrament of Holy Communion Jesus comes to us with His true body and His true blood in, with and under bread and wine to provide us with proof that through faith in Him we can “Depart in peace— the peace that comes from knowing that all of our sins are completely forgiven.”  And, of course, through His holy Word Jesus comes to us to take away our fears with promise after promise of His love and His forgiveness.

But fear is not the only danger that we face as Christians, is it.  We all know the second portion of our text very well.  Thomas was not with the disciples on that first Easter Sunday.  Even after the disciples shared with Thomas the glorious news of Easter, “We have seen the Lord!” Thomas refused to believe them!  That’s why to this day he is often known as “Doubting Thomas.”  But the risen Lord never gave up on Thomas!  After giving Thomas an entire week of seeing and hearing the joy of Easter in the lives and the words of the other disciples, the risen Christ came to Thomas with proof and peace, “Peace be with you!  Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side.  Stop doubting and believe.”  To which Thomas replied, “My Lord and my God!”

We understand Thomas, don’t we.  We believe that Jesus died to pay for our sins.  (Pointing to the cross)  We believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead to prove that we have been “Justified”— “Declared:  Not Guilty!” by God Himself.  We believe that Jesus has prepared a “room” for us in our heavenly Father’s Home and that someday He will come back for us so that we can live with Him forever!  We believe all this— and so much more!

Then we or someone love ends up in the hospital.  Then all the plans that we have been making for our retirement begin to crumble.  Then we start hearing that there may be a recession coming sometimes this year.  Then the price of just about everything keeps going up and up and up— but our wages do not.  Then Satan takes the oldest trick in his playbook and uses it against us:  doubt.  Do we really believe that because my Redeemer lives He will grant me rich supply and guide me with His eye?  Do we really believe that because my Redeemer lives He will silence all my fears and wipe away all my tears?  Do we really believe that He will do this— today, tomorrow and even next Thursday?  Satan is so good at planting seeds of doubt in our hearts and in our minds that we shouldn’t be surprised when we look into the mirror and say, “Thomas, is that you?”  Thankfully, our risen Lord and Savior had more to say on that Sunday after Easter!  With us in mind Jesus said to Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The risen Lord took away Thomas’ doubts and gave him proof and peace by allowing Thomas to put his finger into the nail wounds in Jesus’ hand and put his hand into the wound in Jesus’ side.  How does our risen Lord do the same for you and for me?  John addresses that specific question when he says in the closing verses of our text, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Do you know why Satan has leveled such fierce attacks against the Bible?  Do you know why he has worked so hard to convince people— and even entire churches— that the Bible cannot be trusted because the Bible has been edited and re-edited over the course of time?  Do you know why Satan is elated when someone says, “While the Bible may contain the word of God, we should never say that the Bible is the Word of God”?  Because Satan knows!  He knows that the Bible has the power to chase away our fears!  He knows that the Bible has the power to overcome our doubts!  He knows that the Bible has the power to bring us close to our Savior so that we can hear Him say to us, “Peace be with you!”  He knows that the Bible has the power to create and sustain the gift of saving faith in our hearts— the faith that guarantees us “eternal life”!

Over the course of our lives we are going to encounter countless either/or situations— some serious and some not so serious.  Easter is the biggest, the most important and the most impactful either/or event of all!  Either Jesus fulfilled His promise to physically rise from the dead on the third day or Jesus is a liar and a fraud.  As the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (I Corinthians 15:17).  Praise God that Jesus fulfilled His promise!  Praise God that Jesus appeared to His disciples there in that locked room— twice!— to give them and us proof that He is risen and to give them and us the peace that comes from the forgiveness He secured for us on the cross!  (Pointing to the cross)  Praise God that Jesus still comes to us through the power of His holy Word and His holy Sacraments to give us the joy and the confidence to say:

He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

To God be the glory!

Amen