Mission Continues (2)

John 20:19-31

The mission continues. Jesus gave the church an important responsibility.

This has two folds. On one hand, Christ, the head of the church, transmits his mission to the Church, his body. Paul said later in his letters about us as the body of Christ.

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.” (1 Cor. 12:12) The body has a head and the head is Christ. If you remember, we discussed this topic in length.

The other fold is that the Church needs Jesus. When I said in Armenian we are Arakyals, it means we are sent with a mission. This means we need a message. Jesus gives the message to the Church. Do we have a message in our church? What was the message of the Church those days and what is it today?

The message is simple, yet very deep. We read in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” These are Jesus’ words. This is his mission statement. The Church has one task; its mission is to find lost souls and bring them to God. In Matthew, it is called the Great Commission. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) Jesus is passing on an important responsibility to the church. Our logo for this year: “Know Christ and Make Him Known.”

-The next sentence is very important. Jesus said to his disciples, “And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’”(22).

Let us not be confused with Luke’s account in Acts 2. Yes, there was a time in history when the Holy Spirit came down like a burning fire on the 120 who were gathered in the upper room praying to receive the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of the Lord is mentioned not just in Acts, but starting from Genesis and throughout the Bible.

-The Spirit of the Lord was at work in the creation as mentioned in Genesis 1. “The Spirit of God was hovering over waters.” (Gen. 1:2)

-God breathed his Spirit on Adam (Gen. 2:7)

-We read that the Lord breathed on the dry bones and a vast army was the result. (Ezekiel 37:9)

-In the Gospel of John, we see again in the baptism of Jesus the role of the Holy Spirit in anointing Jesus for his mission: “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit” (1:33). These are the words of John the Baptist.

-Some weeks ago, I was talking about the living water experience of the Samaritan woman. There Jesus mentions the spring of living water coming and giving life, eternal life. I read in NIV commentary about this:

“In John 3:34 (Baptism of Jesus) Jesus is known as the one person whom God has given the Spirit without measure (cf. 6:27)(Food For Life topic). Above all, Jesus is described as the One in whom the Spirit flows like a living spring, a source of life and refreshment and renewal that will be offered following his glorification (4:15; 7:37 – 39; 19:30, 34).”

Jesus is glorified. He is crucified and resurrected. He is with the disciples preparing them for the coming days and years.

-According to John Jesus breathed the Spirit on his disciples. One of the explanations is that Jesus gave them the Holy Spirit. He gave them new life. This experience reminds me of Gen 2 and Ezekiel 31. John’s theology stresses life and truth. Here Jesus is giving life to his disciples, preparing them for the upper room experience.

-Luke, the author of Acts, describes the Holy Spirit as burning tongues of fire and energy, which descended over 120 faithful believers in the upper room. The Holy Spirit empowered them to go out and start the mission. Indeed, it was on same day that thousands came to Christ with a powerful preaching by his disciples. We do not see the same event in John. This does not mean they did not receive the Spirit. They did receive the Spirit.

-It gave them life to see a new future.

-It gave them courage to be prepared for the coming days.

-It gave them vision to continue the mission. We are moving step by step in their preparation for the upper room experience.

Let me tell you that the Holy Spirit does not just visit us once in our lives.

The Holy Spirit plays the role of a comforter for those who are mourning.

The Holy Spirit gives hope to the hopeless person.

The fruits of the Holy Spirit build in us a Christlike character.

-The next sentences should be read carefully and in context.

“If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (23)

These words of Jesus do not give us the authority to forgive sins. We are not God; let us remember that. This verse has often been misused by the church leaders throughout church history.

The simple explanation is that Jesus is giving us the opportunity to preach the Good News of the Gospel, which has the message of forgiveness. If people accept the message, their sins are forgiven by God, and if they reject the message, they are not forgiven.

Luke 24:46-47 says, “He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

We are entrusted the message of forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name and not our name. The result is that people will repent and turn to God and not to us or to our church denomination.

This has been my message since that I started preaching in CACC. This has been my message all over the fields I have served. Find the lost souls and bring them to God. This will be the message anywhere I will serve in the future.

Therefore, the mission is continuing and not done. Last Sunday I said I cannot finish the sermon; it will be continued next Sunday. It will be , and it will never end. Jesus finished his earthly mission. Now our job as church is to continue that mission. We are still to go to the world. We are still to go to our neighborhood. We are still to go to Armenia.

This passage ends with Thomas. He was the only disciple who was not present with the others when Jesus appeared among them. Was he not there because he was disappointed? Maybe. We know he had difficulty in believing without seeing.

Jesus did appear to him and asked him to touch him. The text does not say whether Thomas did touch, but we read he said, “My Lord, my God”. I think he came on his knees and worshiped Him.

Jesus said something that actually refers to all of us:

“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (27)

We are in this category. We have not seen and we believe. I know that the Holy Spirit does its work now within us. On one hand he helps us to see Jesus and believe in him, and other hand, he empowers us to go out and preach the Good News. The mission continues.

Amen