Wednesday in the Word...John 20:19-25...Where's Thomas?
Hard to believe but 53,000 gallons of water came out of that hole in a month's time. Not sure how the precision hole got there but the repair has been made and we are back in business. Home ownership, you got to love it!
We have a couple of weeks to be with family but also to recharge before heading north again to our assignment in Maine. When we get back it will be the year mark and even though COVID-19 made its appearance, God has stopped His kingdom work through His Bride, the Church.
I have also had the opportunity to connect up with 3 other IPM interim pastors who are stationed in Maine. We connect through ZOOM and it is great to talk "shop" with one another and be praying for each other. I am learning a lot from those who have done this multiple times and usually being the youngest of the group, I take a lot of notes.
Today's Wednesday in the Word is John chapter 20 and verses 19 through 25, which read,
v.19 - So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
We are now to the evening for the first day of the week, Sunday. Mary Magdalene visits the tomb very early in the morning to find it empty; she has passed the information of an empty tomb to Peter and John; Peter and John visit the empty tomb; Mary Magdalene goes back to the tomb and encounters two angels and then Jesus Himself who she thought was the gardener; and finally she delivers the message to the disciples that Jesus is alive and she has personally seen Him.
Even with this information, we find the disciples locked up in a room because they feared what happened to Jesus would also happen to them. Although the doors are secured, Jesus appears to them. He shows them something that His glorified body can do. Barricaded doors are no match for Him. He positions Himself in the midst of them and delivers this message of peace.
John chapter 14 and verses 27 through 29 record these words of Jesus which apply to this moment when Jesus now stands before His disciples after accomplishing the cross and the empty tomb.
"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. You heard that I said to you, 'I go away and I will come to you.' If you loved Me you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe."
This is a believing moment. They are fearful and troubled but Jesus has told them the plan before the plan was accomplished. Now the plan is completed and His presence before them in this manner was for them to believe everything that He has said. Jesus did go away for three days and He also came back. He will now go away again to His Father who is greater, meaning that He is in a loftier place than Jesus at this point, and the disciples are to believe and proclaim His return.
v.20 - And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus wants His disciples to know without a doubt that it was He who was standing before them. It wasn't a ghost or an angel but the One whose hands and feet were pierced with the spikes and the One whose side was pierced with the spear. This physical evidence will come into play in the next Wednesday in the Word when Thomas takes center stage.
v.21,22 - So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit."
Jesus repeats His message of peace after the disciples witness and believe it truly is Jesus in front of them by seeing His physical wounds. Jesus adds another phrase. It actually is the completion of His training of them to be fishers of men. Now it is time for them to be sent by Jesus to go out into the world with the message of the good news just as Jesus had been sent by the Father to do the same. They were receiving their commission.
Jesus had prayed to the Father about this very moment found in John chapter 17 and verse 18.
"As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world."
Just as God breathed on Adam and gave him physical life found in Genesis chapter 2, now Jesus breathes on His disciples and gives them spiritual life because they believe. The power of the Holy Spirit will come upon them on the Day of Pentecost but the presence of the Holy Spirit is within them at their conversion. I do not see this as two visits of the Holy Spirit on the believer's life but rather an awakening of what was already given to us when we were saved. What is within comes upon us to see God like things happen through us.
v,23 - "If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
v.24,25 - But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
You can almost hear the disciples relaying all Jesus' words and actions to the missing Thomas. It was probably a "wish you were here" moment. Sometimes we respond like Thomas. Instead of chiming in and rejoicing with others who experienced the great moment, we downplay the event and say things that elevate ourselves. Thomas said, "Unless I" and "put my finger" and "put my hand" and "I will not."
We will look at this more in-depth next Wednesday but we leave Thomas looking a little like a spoiled brat. He takes the focal point off of the message that Jesus is alive and puts it on himself as the one who is giving the orders or demands for his own belief. He is portraying that he is in charge. I will leave it at that and let the next passage correct Thomas in due time.
Pastor Adam
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