Sermon 04-19-2020

Rev. Arturo Mendez

John 20: 19-30

Peace and grace from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be whit you always 

     Jesus Appears to His Disciples

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

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

I can't imagine the fear of Jesus' disciples after known that he had been crucified,  for they, too were in danger with the same fate, for they were being persecuted, the Disciples were gathered on Sunday the first day of the week, behind closed doors. They were present alone ten of the disciples of Jesus . Judas the Iscariot and Tomas were not with them, suddenly Jesus appears in their midst and imparts is Blessing of peace to them.

This first lets us know that Christ Jesus is omnipresent that He is not subject to any human limitation of barriers, like walls, doors, windows etc., as we human beings are limited by our bodies, here Jesus shows us that He has power over everything and over his body himself, His Glorified body is not limited to one place; He can be present anywhere in the Universe, so We Christians  believe that Christ is present with us, bodily in our celebrations of the sacraments, The Holy Baptism, The Confession and Absolution, The Holy Supper and in The Word which is Proclaimed to all believers and non-believers.

Jesus has not come to condemn his disciples for his lack of faith, but rather comes to tare upon them his forgiveness and his peace. His first words are a blessing of peace, Jesus had promised to give him his peace and blessing in john 14,27 peace I leave with you; my peace I give you I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

 And John 16;33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” 

that promise of Jesus now becomes reality. The peace that Jesus brings is the same peace of which the apostle Paul speaks in Philippians 4:7 "Peace that passes over all understanding. 

for the none believer’s peace consists in the absence of enemies, threats and dangers, there can be peace when all enemies leave and leave it quietly to one. but Christ offers us a peace that we can enjoy even if we are surrounded by enemies. The Jews who persecuted Jesus still posed a threat to the disciples, but despite the dangers of the death, "Jesus tells you Peace" Psalm 23:5 David sing of that same peace when he said, "You prepare a table before me in the precense of my enemies." The peace that Jesus offers us is in the forgiveness of our sins, in the fact that the God the Father has declared us without guilt on the basis of the sacrifice offered by Jesus on the Cross. "Justified, therefore, by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1) although this does not mean that God's wrath rests upon us by the dangers of persecution of death, etc. or that we have somehow been abandoned by the Father; It is all contrary Since Jesus has given us  His Peace, we know that nothing and no one can separate us from the love of God and his kingdom.

Jesus, have given them the greeting of Peace and his blessing, shows their sides to the disciples what does this mean ?

according to Martin Luther shows this to tell them from where and from whom that peace came by taught them his hands, feet and ribs or side, Jesus shows them this to indicate that he was crucified by us and that he shed his blood for our reconciliation, in order to save us from the sin and wrath of God the Father, and at the same tender time the Lord Jesus combs us that He is the one, who is risen from the dead and that He, is not someone else who is risen from the dead,  but our Lord and Savior Jesus. What beautiful prove we have that He has Risen.

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

    in each of the four Gospels and Acts we find the Great Commission that Christ has entrusted to his Church here on earth. although in each of the Gospels assumes a different form. the four Gospels are complemented and read together to enrich them in their content here in this Gospel we find in John 20:23 the  Form of the Great Commission, that is, the office of the keys.

So Jesus sends us his Disciples to make the Great Commission, we also have the opportunity to share with someone else what Christ has done for us and what he can do for the other people who still don’t know him, and to be able to show them the gift of salvation in Christ Jesus, but Our tendency is always to do the wrong thing before The eyes of God for Omission and By Treatment We Forget the Task of that He has commanded us to do, Every believer of Jesus is a disciple  by Vocation, whether you are Mom , sister, Mechanic, Engineer Architect.  Etc.. you always have the Opportunity to share with your friends or family the good news of the Gospel in Christ Jesus, He is the one who gives us the Ability to do it, let us remember that he is the one who gives us strength (the Dinamo) the Power that boils through the Holy Spirit, and gives us that Peace that comes from the Father who has been given to us through His Risen Son Jesus Christ.

Just as the Father sent me, So He sent them to you, from Jesus we can learn what it means to be an a messenger or a Envoy,  Being sent from the Father and the Son means the following Actions and Attitudes.

a.- Give Honnor and Glory to the Sender, John 5. 23: 7,18

b.- Doing the will and works of the shipper, John 4:34; 5, 30-38; 6, 38-39; 9, 4.

c.- Proclaim the words of the one who sends us. John 3.; 34 7.16; 12.49; 14.10,24.

d.- Accountability to the one who sends us. John 17.

e.- Bear witness to the favor of the one who sent us. John 5.36;7.28- 8.26.

f.- Act as representatives of the one who sends us. John 12.44-45; 13.20; 15.18-25).

g.- Exercise the Authority that he has delegated to us. John 5.21-22,27;13.3;17.2;20.23).

h.- to know the one who has sent us, that is, to spend time with Him in His word, to have fellowship with Him. (John 7.29;8.16;15.21;17.8,25;16,31;18,29).

i.- Follow the example you sent us. (John 13:16).

     To Experience the peace He gives us is something different is the security He promises us. (Shalom in Hebrew) is the Peace that Jesus gives us his disciples, it is the peace that he has given us through the Cross and his death is now our death and his resurrection is our resurrection, the wrath of God has now been taken away from all of us who have believed in Him. He has broken that veil between the Father and us by shedding his blood for us and paying the price we deserved for our reveling against God. that Shalom is what Christ offers us. is that gift of eternal life united to Him in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus has entrusted to us his Disciples a very important task here on earth. and we are motivated by his Holy Spirit and in Love to what Christ has been done for us on the cross, moves us also to share the good news of the Gospel of peace offered in death and sacrifice for all of us sinners. let us thank God the Father for his Son Jesus Christ and his love for us his creation.    

     22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. The fact that Jesus blows reminds us of the account of the creation of the human being in (Genesis 2.7) Jesus is the Logos the Word, who was present and participated in the first creation, and also gives us a sign that tells us that we are in the creation of a new man full of the Holy Spirit of God, purified of his sins and who will now be sent to the world to fulfill his mission and salvation to all mankind by being proclaimed and shared the gospel of Salvation for the forgiveness of all our sins.

 It is important to note here the connection between Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit proceed of Christ, just as we confess in the Nicene creed: "And I believe in the Holy Spirit, Lord and giver of life, which comes from the father and the Son."  It is very important to recognize from whom proceeds the Holy Spirit, of the Son, of the Risen Jesus, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. through faith in Jesus as our Lord and savior when they are given to us in the means of grace instituted by Him, the Word, the holy Supper, and Baptism. It is there that through these gifts of grace we receive the benefits of Forgiveness and Eternal Life that only God the Father offers us through His Son  Jesus Christ, who has died on the Cross and has Risen.

23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

     According to Martin Luther, with these words Christ institutes the ministry of the keys to withhold and forgive sins.

Martin Luther affirms that the meaning of what Jesus says in John 20.23 is as follows, they will have power to proclaim the word and preach the gospel. Everyone who believes in this gospel has the forgiveness of sins, and whoever does not believe lacks forgiveness of sins. 

the key to opening the doors of the spiritual realm is forgiveness of sins or absolution. The disciples of Christ, here are given the authorization to go all over the world to pronounce Christ's acquittal to all who repent, that is to say to all who confess their sins and desire God's mercy.

     Jesus appears to Tomas

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So 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.”

     One of the characteristics of modern culture is doubt and suspicion. modern scientists have been taught to doubt everything,  Nobody believes in anything. In our modern world.

our daily living has focused on other things, the concerns that afflict us every day, makes us forget who has control over all things, and that is our tendency as human beings does not allow us to recognize the Supplier of all things, mainly of our life, our sin makes us selfish people and only desire what we need first , and we set aside a  one God creator  and supplier, for our own disbelief.

we do not know what the causes of Tomas have been, but we know that there are many people like him in this world, people who doubt the love of Christ and the presence of God in their lives and do, what Tomas do, until seeing not believe demand unique, tangible and visible experiences of a Risen Christ, Tomas is a call of faith , and not by sight, since Faith is "the certainty of what is expected and the conviction of what is not seen" (Hebrews 11:1)

Yet Jesus allows Tomas 8 Days After experiencing what he had asked for, simply by God's mercy, and the wonderful thing about this, is that even though Tomas doubts that Christ had Risen from the dead, Jesus does not rebuke him for his faults and his disbelief or his lack of Faith,  He comes to Tomas with a greeting of Peace again as he has given to the Disciples and allows him to put his fingers on his sores and his side, Jesus only asks one thing to Tomas and at the same time to Us "don't be disbelief but a believer. 

In the Gospel of John leaves no doubt as to the identity of the Risen Christ, when we confess the Creed we affirm "I believe in the resurrection of the flesh" that is, we are confensed that we will also be Resurrected in Christ and glorified in body and will be transofrmed. the Resurrection of Christ's flesh and blood is the guarantee of Our Resurrection.

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

     With the confession of Tomas we have come to a climax, this confession although in very short words, it is very deep and complete and in a few words gives an adequate answer to the question "Who is Jesus"? Tomas' response in saying, my Lord and my God. it is a confession of faith that every Believer should say and proclaim Jesus is our Lord this confession of Faith like that of Philippians 2.6-11 reaffirms to us that Jesus will be confessed as Lord by every tongue of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth"

 Jesus is Lord and Our God we also as Tomas confess to Jesus as Lord in our liturgy, when we sing the "KYRIE" 

we also understand why Tomas confesses to Jesus as Lord at the time the Dominicius the  Emperor  considered himself to be lord, like the one with subsid authority, like the one who brought blessing to all the people, who had to receive all the Honor and Glory, and all the habitants of Asia Minor except for the Jews were obliged to burn Dominicius incense and confess him as "dominus et deus noster" our lord and god, then confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and God was an act of betrayal and denation to the emperor and the death, penalty also of being expelled by the synagogues of the Jews for confessing Jesus as a Lord because this was blasphemy let us remember that the word "KYRIE" on Greek  is Lord and is the same word that is used in the septuagint to translate the name of "YAHWE" the name of God. let us thank God that we can confess His name without the danger of persecution or danger of death, let us always confess that Christ is Our Lord and Our God.

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

     Jesus calls us Blessed to all those of us who have not seen the Lord but have believed in Him, we are not only blessed but we can trust and count on the certainty that Jesus is with us through his Holy Spirit, because He has given it to us when we have been brought into the waters of Holy Baptism, Christ has sealed us in his Baptism, in his death, and his Resurrection. and our names have been written in the book of life, when we confess before God, Our Sins and listen to the words of Absolution and forgiveness of our sins and we know that our sins have been forgiven, for the love of God through His Son Jesus Christ, that by being put in a Cross for all our transgressions the wrath of God is no longer in us , but rather we can enjoy the Grace and Justice that is in Jesus, when we partake of the Lord's Supper and receive his true body and true Blood, Christ has offered us all this as Gifts of Grace for his love and mercy, when We Hear His word when it is proclaimed and reaches our hearts , produces that faith that works in us and motivates us to continue our life in Christ, only clinging to Him is that we can continue our lives by trusting in his love and mercy to all of us, when we confess the Creed, one more time Recognize that He has Risen and that He is with us day by day Present, as well as He has  present to the disciples on that day, that is our Faith and that is Our Hope. that Christ is no longer nailed to the Cross, but rather Risen, now We proclaim a living and a Risen Christ. Believing on Him  and Share the good News of Forgiveness and Love, into the One True God and Our Lord, that all Nation may confess that Christ  is the Lord!, as well as the Apostle Peter writes to us in his Book (1 Peter 1.8-9) ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

To Christ be all Honor and Glory for ever and ever, He has Risen ! His is Risen in Deed Alleluia !!

May the peace of God that trespasses all understanding, keep your mind and heart in true faith and life everlasting Amen !!