Triumph Over Fear

Introduction

Let me begin by asking you a question. What is your greatest fear?

Is it fear of a terrorist attack? Is it fear of dying?

Some of you know that my sabbatical period begins tomorrow. In the seventh year of being on the pastoral staff at JPC you have a three month sabbatical, which is both a biblical principle and very nice, but not a holiday as David reminds us! So can I thank you now for the opportunity. On my sabbatical I have the privilege of being able to visit some of our missionaries around the world. In doing so I’m going to be making quite a few flights. Now I do not have a fear of flying but I would value your prayers when on some internal flights in one or two countries! As the leader of the largest church in the world once said, “You will die when God wants you to, neither sooner nor later. So you don’t need to worry about flying.” God is sovereign. He is in control. Jesus said in Matthew 10:29-31:

“ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

The risen Jesus says in Revelation 1:18:

“ I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.’

Yes Jesus is risen. He is alive. We see that here in John 20:19 – Jesus came and stood among them. He has won the victory over sin and death. And if we put our faith in him then we share in that victory and need not fear death.

You may have seen Iraqi Muslim insurgents on the news last night saying that they don’t fear dying for the cause, for they think they’re going to heaven. But it’s only through faith in Christ that we can have eternal life – there is no other way. Jesus said: “No-one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15: “Thanks be to God. He gives us the victory [over sin, death and the grave] through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Perhaps you’re not yet a Christian but you fear death, well why not trust Jesus with your life and with your death?

You see there is a living hope. As 1 Peter says, In his great mercy God has given to those who trust in Christ, new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you. And if we know this love of God in our lives, John says in his first letter, then ‘we can have confidence on the day of judgement.’ For if we belong to Jesus we know that we will go to eternal life and not to eternal punishment in hell. As John continues: ‘There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.’(1 John 4:17-18)

We have been sent to share this hope, this good news with the world. The resurrection is the vindication of the life and death of Jesus as the one in whom God, in person, entered our world that salvation might be won for every tribe, people and nation. But one of the greatest fears of many Christians is evangelism. The other fear many Christians have is linked and that is standing up for Christ at work – going against the grain for him. Here in John 20 the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews. They feared for their lives as those who were identified with Jesus. Are we fearful of being identified as a follower of Jesus at school, college, work or at home?

It has been observed that there is one thing that Christians and non-Christians both dislike about Christianity and that is evangelism. But the word evangelism simply means telling good news! Now not all of us have the gift of evangelism but we are all called to be his witnesses, ready to explain the hope that is within us with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). Jesus commands us to go and make disciples not just converts - whether God calls us to stay here or to go overseas. But many of us are quite fearful about going and making disciples. We're perhaps unsure of what to say or of what others might think of us or what others might do to us. I'm always encouraged by the words of John Chapman, the Australian evangelist who led two missions here in the 1990’s, including one on ‘The nightclub Boat on the Tyne’. He admits this in his helpful book, ‘Know and Tell the Gospel’:

For many years I was not able to admit to anyone how really difficult I found it to try to speak to people about Jesus. I thought there must be something wrong with me and sometimes I even doubted whether I was a Christian because of this fear. This spark of doubt would flare up into a flame whenever I was challenged with a question like, 'How many people have you led to Christ?' It was a long time before I discovered that almost all Christians were like I was. All Christians are tempted to be ashamed of the gospel.

Jesus said it wouldn't be easy. When he sent out the 12 in Matthew 10 he told his disciples that he was sending them out like sheep among wolves and that some wouldn't welcome the gospel message. There would also be suffering for the gospel. But we don't go on our own. Jesus sent his disciples out in twos. We are sent as the church, as the body of Christ as here in John 20. And we are sent and accompanied by the sender. Jesus promises to be with us always as we go in his name. And he has sent the Holy Spirit to empower us for the task. It is he who gives us the words we need, who convicts people of their sin and need of Christ and who brings them to new birth in Christ. So we need not be paralysed by fear of evangelism. God is with us and it is his work. Which brings me to the first of four brief points from these verses.

1. PEACE BE WITH YOU v19-21

"Peace be with you", says Jesus as he came and stood among the disciples in v19 and as he commissioned them in v.21. Shalom says Jesus. Why? Two of the disciples had seen that Jesus' tomb was empty on that first Easter Sunday. They'd heard reports that Jesus was alive. That he'd appeared to Mary, Simon and to the two on the road to Emmaus. In Luke's account they then say "It is true the Lord is risen!" But they are still rather bewildered and fearful. Look at v19. "…the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews." They feared for their lives. Then suddenly and significantly through the locked doors Jesus came and stood among them - the risen Lord was with them. It is true. He is alive. He has risen. Yes the reason the doors were locked was for fear of the Jews, but the function of the locked doors here is to stress the miraculous nature of Jesus' appearance. He is risen. Do not fear. We can pass on this eye witness account to others. He stood among them and calmed their fears with a word of greeting - Shalom! Peace be with you! Now shalom means more than an absence of stress. It means well being. It means life at its best under the gracious hand of God. So here, after the death and resurrection of Jesus, is the first true use of that word as the victory has been won. So "Jesus' Shalom is the complement of his ‘It is finished’ on the cross. For the peace of reconciliation and life from God is now imparted. Not surprisingly shalom is included along with grace in every greeting of every letter of Paul in the NT."

So as the risen Jesus stands among them and as he commissions them he says, ‘Peace be with you.’ He’s telling them not to be afraid, he has risen - sin and death have been defeated, peace with God is now possible and the peace of God will be with you. We are not to be paralysed by fear.

And Jesus further reassures his disciples then and now that it really is him - risen and alive and not a ghost (v20) - by showing them his hands and his side, where the nails and the spear had been. How important it is for our needy and hurting generation that Jesus is recognised by his scars. How important it is that we preach Christ crucified and risen.

The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. As with Mary Magdalene in the previous verses, the risen Jesus' coming banished their fear and confusion. He began to transform their fear into courage, their confusion into conviction and bestow true peace. And because of the resurrection we can meet Jesus today through his Spirit and by faith. He can transform our fear into courage and give us peace. Some one has said that ‘courage is fear at prayer.’ Jesus is alive and with us as we go, which leads us on to my second point from these verses.

2. AS THE FATHER HAS SENT ME, I AM SENDING YOU v21

Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." (v21)

This commissioning echoed his prayer for his disciples in John 17:18:

Father, as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world".

And Jesus says to his disciples today - to his disciples here tonight – to you and me through his word:

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

What a commission! Just think about Jesus' words again - "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." Well this commissioning or sending by Jesus tells us four things about the mission of the church.

First it tells us that mission is of vital importance. If Jesus sends us as the Father has sent him then mission must have the same importance for us and for the church as it had for Jesus. So exactly how important was and is mission to the Godhead? In John's Gospel Jesus describes himself as the sent one 6 times and the Father is described as the Sender 12 times. So the Godhead is defined in terms of mission. "The challenge for us is evident. As Jesus is defined by the mission of the Father, so the church is defined by its mission to the world". And if God is a missionary God and we are to be like him then the extent to which we and the church are committed to proclaiming the gospel will be a measure of how godly we are. How godly are we? Do we see the crowds as Jesus does - harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd? Jesus prays for us in John 17 - that the Father's love may be in us and that we may be one - which is so important for mission. Are we praying for the lost and for workers to be sent into the harvest field? Are we spending time with those who are not yet Christians? Or are we ‘rabbit hole’ Christians?

Many believers are "rabbit hole" Christians. In the morning they pop out of their safe Christian homes, hold their breath at work, scurry home to their families and then off to their Bible studies, and finally end the day praying for the unbelievers they safely avoided all day.

Years ago when I was counselling at a Billy Graham crusade, a businessman came forward one night and received Christ as his Saviour. The next Sunday he went to a church he sometimes attended. After the service, he walked up to one of the leading elders in this church and said, "I was at the Billy Graham meeting last week. I went forward and received Christ." "I heard about it," the elder replied, "and I’m delighted." Then the businessman said, "How long have you and I been associated in business?" "About 23 years, I think," the elder answered. "Have you known Christ as your Saviour all that time?" the businessman asked. "Yes, I have," he answered. "Well, I don't remember you ever speaking to me about Christ during those years," the businessman said, "and I thought so highly of you. In fact, I thought so highly of you that I felt if anyone could be as fine a man as you and not be a Christian, then I didn't have to be a Christian either." Both words & deeds are vital. George Whitfield, one of the great preachers of the eighteenth century, said: “God forbid that I should travel with anybody a quarter of an hour without speaking of Christ to them.” Which I find challenging for my upcoming travels.

And are we clear about what is central to mission and what is central to the Son's mission? - that repentant sinners might not perish but have eternal life, that they might experience new life as the children of God and freedom from the slavery of sin through faith in Jesus Christ - centralities that we are reminded of in v23; but centralities that the wider church does not always stick to.

Second this key statement of Jesus helps us to understand the character of mission. The tenses of the two verbs in the sending are different. The second verb is present - I am sending you. The first verb is a past action continuing in the present - the Father has sent me. So there is no double mission here. It's not Jesus' mission first and then our mission afterwards. No. Rather the one mission of God has two phases - that of the Son on earth and that of the Son in his risen life through his people, through you and me. He is with us when we go and we partake of his authority. As the sent ones of Jesus we speak with his authority.

Third Jesus here tells us the cost of mission. Look at the second half of v21 again: ‘As the Father has sent me’. For Jesus this meant self-sacrifice to the hell of Calvary, to death on a cross. In principle it means the same for us. Church growth and church planting are costly.

Fourth Jesus here also points to the resources of mission. One is Jesus himself. He will continue to be the leader of the disciples. We go out under his leadership, with the inspiration of his living presence and the support of his prayers. The other major resource of mission is the Holy Spirit, which leads us on to my third point from John 20.

3. RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT v22

In spite of their many failures and their denial and desertion of Jesus the disciples were being entrusted with his Word and his work, which must be an encouragement for us today. He was sending them out to represent him, to be his ambassadors. Peter had denied him 3 times and yet in a few days Peter would preach the Word and thousands would be saved. Before that he met the resurrected Christ and was empowered by receiving the Holy Spirit. Without the filling of the Spirit they could not go out and witness effectively. Here the receiving of the Spirit at Pentecost is anticipated. The words on them are not there in the original. The Spirit had dwelt with them in the person of Christ, but now the Spirit would be in them. If we're Christians then the Spirit is in us. Without the Holy Spirit we can't evangelise either. We need to keep on being filled with the Spirit, says Ephesians 5:18. Paul wrote to Timothy to encourage him not to be ashamed to testify about the Lord Jesus and not to be ashamed of him but to instead fan into flame the gift of God, which is in him and be willing to suffer for the gospel, by the power of God. And we are to be willing to do the same. ‘For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.’ (2 Timothy 1:7) The Holy Spirit empowers us to go to people here and to the ends of the earth with the gospel. Which leads us on to my fourth and final heading:

4. THE RESULT OF THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL v23

This verse does not mean that Jesus gave the right to his disciples to forgive sins and let people into heaven. Literally this verse reads like this: "Those whose sins you forgive have already been forgiven; those whose sins you do not forgive have not been forgiven". I.e. the disciples did not provide forgiveness; they proclaimed forgiveness on the basis of the message of the gospel. "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" (Mk 2:7) All Christians can do is announce the message of forgiveness; God performs the miracle of forgiveness. If sinners will believe on Jesus Christ, we can then authoritatively declare to them that their sins have been forgiven; but we are not the ones who provide the forgiveness. So as we saw in v.21 Christian ministry is a continuation of Jesus' ministry. Through the gift of the Spirit the authority that Jesus exercises is repeated in the lives of his disciples. As one writer concludes: "There is no doubt from the context that the reference in v23 is to forgiving sins, or withholding forgiveness. But though this sounds stern and harsh, it is simply the result of the preaching of the gospel, which either brings people to repent as they hear of the ready and costly forgiveness of God, or leaves them unresponsive to the offer of forgiveness which is the gospel and so they are left in their sins". We are to go forth in the name and with the authority of the risen Lord Jesus and preach the gospel. The Holy Spirit does the rest.