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Sunday Sermons
5-11-08, Pentecost
Pastor Phil Lee
Title: "A Mission Template"
Text: John 20:19-23
Theme: by the power of the Spirit: bring peace and joy and forgiveness
Introduction
There are two great Church celebrations for many people these days: Christmas and Easter.
But, historically, there are three: at Christmas we celebrate the Incarnation of God in the birth of Jesus, our Lord and Savior; at Easter we celebrate the resurrection of the crucified Christ and his victory over sin and death; and at Pentecost we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the Christian Church.
Today is Pentecost Sunday, and today’s Gospel – Jn.20 – gives us a unique glimpse of what Pentecost is all about.
Point
(v.19) On the day of his resurrection from the dead, Jesus came to the disciples, who were fearfully hiding behind locked doors. This is a picture of the Gospel –in Jesus, God breaks down the barriers of our fears and locked doors and comes to us – Immanuel (God with us).
And when He comes to us, God transforms our lives in a way that we cannot do for ourselves. Jesus greets his disciples with a conventional Hebrew greeting – “Peace…” However, “peace” is not just a greeting, but a reality, because God has the power to accomplish peace in our lives.
(v.20) Jesus reassured his disciples by showing them his hands and his side. It’s as if he is telling them: “Yes, I died on the cross. But, here I am, alive and well!” And they respond with joy.
(v.21) Joy and peace are two of the blessed consequences of the presence of the living Christ in our lives. But, there is more. We are given a command to go out into the world in the peace and joy that we have in knowing Jesus is our Lord and Savior – “I send you,” Jesus says.
And we are sent into the world “as” Jesus was sent (humility, obedience, love – ref. Phil.2:5-8).
(v.22) We go into the world as Jesus commanded us to go, but we don’t go on our own, with our own resources and by our own strength. We go in the power of the Holy Spirit.
(v.23) The disciples are authorized to forgive and retain sins. “Forgive” means to let go of something or even to send it away (like being released from prison). “Retain” means to hang on to something or prevent it from going away (like being kept in prison).
This Gospel is about breaking down barriers of fear and alienation with the peace and joy of the risen Christ. This is a mission template for us, because we, too, are called to participate in making Christ known as we are sent into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Problem
We all know there is plenty of fear and alienation in our world. We are living in a world where even the criminals are scared. An old New Yorker cartoon shows a very scared, masked burglar trying to awaken a sleeping couple. The caption reads: “Wake up! There’s a noise downstairs and it’s not me!”
We live in a world of fear – fear of others, fear of failure, fear of death, fear of injury, fear of sickness, fear of destruction, fear of the unknown, fear of the unseen.
Pastor Jaime Potter-Miller tells a story from her visit to the Soviet Union in 1991, where she was invited to preach and sing to a crowded Methodist congregation. In order to make her way across the crowded church to sing her solo, she had to exit the building to re-enter it on the correct side. Outside the church door she ran into a young man who introduced himself as Patrick.
She tells this story: “I invited him to come in, but he shook his head. ‘You are a believer?’ he asked me. I nodded. The vodka on his breath stung my eyes. His jacket revealed red flag pins embossed with the face of Vladimir Lenin. If he was not a Communist, he certainly wanted to look like one. In excellent English he spit out the words, ‘You are a believer! Show me your Holy Spirit! I cannot believe what I cannot see! Where is it? What does it look like? Where can I touch it? It’s all a fantasy! A child’s game!’
“I took his hand and led him to the door...I said, ‘Patrick, I will show you the Holy Spirit if you will show me the wind.’ We watched out on the street as blossoms and leaves blew around and flags flapped. He began to describe what he was seeing. I said, ‘No, Patrick, you’re telling what the wind does. Show me the wind. For I, too, can show you what the Holy Spirit does. But I cannot show you the Spirit any more than you can show me the wind.’
“Patrick became very quiet. Now I’ve been around enough to know that just because you’ve silenced someone doesn’t mean you’ve won. So I continued…I cupped his face in my hands…and I spoke his name, ‘Patrick, if you are right and there is no God, then I have lost nothing by believing. But if I am right and you are wrong, then you have lost everything.’
“Patrick’s eyes filled with tears and he ran out the door as I assured him that every time he felt the wind blow, he would remember that there was a Christian in America praying for him.” (Jaime Potter-Miller, “A Question of Questions,” Circuit Rider, 5-92)
Power
Today, our fears and doubts are confronted by the risen Lord Jesus Christ, who empowers his believing followers with the Holy Spirit.
This Gospel gives us a mission template, as we follow our risen Lord, Jesus Christ:
In the power of the Holy Spirit, we are to break down the barriers of fear and the locked doors. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we bring peace and joy as be bear witness to the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. In the power of the Holy Spirit, our work is to forgive and proclaim forgiveness.
Retention of sins is the proclamation of the Church to those who don’t repent.
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, but if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1Jn.1:8-9)
Forgiveness of sins is the proclamation of the Church to those who do repent .
“In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake, God forgives us all our sins. To those who believe in Jesus Christ He gives the power to become children of God, and bestows on them the Holy Spirit.” (LBW, p.77)
But, forgiveness is also an action for every Christian to practice – it is the act of letting go, releasing our hurt and anger at any offense done to us by another person and refusing to continue to hold it against the other person (it is not synonymous with forgetting).
The opposite of forgiving is retaining the sin by continuing to hold it against the other person (that doesn’t keep the other person in prison, it keeps us in the prison of our own hurt, anger, resentment, and bitterness).
Martin Luther, in summarizing the Gospel, once said: “Where there is forgiveness there is life and salvation.” And where there is assurance of forgiveness, life and salvation, then people are set free from fear, free to live in peace and joy.
Conclusion
There is an old saying: Some people bring joy wherever they go, other people bring joy whenever they go. Do you bring joy wherever you go or whenever you go?
Today is Pentecost Sunday, a day when we celebrate the peace and joy of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ, a day when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, and a day when we remember that we are sent into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit to make Christ known.
Wherever we go, let’s go with joy! Amen.
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