Mission
Thesis: Ultimately, Jesus' greatest passion was that His disciples would continue His mission of proclaiming good news of forgiveness of sin in the same manner He did.
Objective: Challenge believers to be transformed from consumers of grace to consumed by the mission of proclaiming grace.
- We must be passionate about mission (19-23).
- The mission is everything (“Jesus came and stood among them...” (19); Jesus died to provide final, ultimate atonement for sin, and was raised again to provide the ultimate victory over the same. This was what the final week was all about, and this was the first thing Jesus wanted to talk about with most of the disciples, the first day he was resurrected. In fact, He wanted to talk about it so much that He busted through locked doors to get it done!).
- We can have peace (“Peace be with you!” (19); The disciples were gathered behind locked doors out of fear. Imagine how scared they must have been when Jesus – who was supposed to be dead – appeared in their midst! And yet the first thing out of Jesus' mouth was a bid for them to have peace.).
- We have evidence (“he showed them...” (20); Jesus doesn't expect us to be on mission just because He says so. He gives us the evidence to support the reason: His alive-again body with very real wounds proves that He died for our sin and raised again to give us victory!).
- We must have overjoy (“The disciples were overjoyed” (20); When given the proof of a risen Savior and the reality of salvation from and victory over sin, we should be more than just joyful.).
- We should have peace (“Peace be with you!” (21); Having seen the proof of Jesus' identity and resurrection, they were now ecstatic. It's one thing to be excited and passionate, but if we go off the deep end, we (a) compromise credibility, (b) cripple listening, and/or (c) accomplish nothing! We need to be enthusiastic, but still have an “even keel.”).
- We're sent (“I am sending you” (21); Jesus came that night to give His disciples and us a commission. DEFINITION: commission: the authority to perform a task or certain duties, and the instruction and command to to it.).
- We're equipped (“he breathed on them and said...” (22); Even before Pentecost, Jesus distributed to them the measure of the Holy Spirit that they would need to get through the next 50 days. It wasn't the full measure that they would receive, but it was more than they had ever had before. Jesus gives us at least what we need, and often far more.).
- We must proclaim forgiveness (“If you forgive... (23); The point wasn't that we get to decide who and what is forgiven. It's that we get to pronounce the possibility of forgiveness, explaining that forgiveness is available (only) for all who will repent and receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.).
- We must be passionate, regardless (“As the Father has sent me...” (21)).
- We must persevere ignorance (How often did Jesus encounter people who had no clue! We must be willing to teach, though it may take a very long time!).
- We must endure misunderstanding (How often was Jesus misunderstood by the masses and even His disciples! We must be patient with those who don't get it!).
- We must minister (Jesus didn't come to have others wait on his needs, but to serve and meet the needs of others. We must work to meet the needs of people around us!).
- We must overcome the uncomfortable (Jesus gave up His home and endured quite a bit of sacrifice and hardship to accomplish His mission. We must get over our comfort zones.).
- We must welcome sacrifice (Jesus was ultimately willing to suffer and even die to accomplish His mission. We must be willing to suffer to proclaim forgiveness. We must be willing to die to offer restoration from sin.).
- Bottom line: We must be willing to be consumed, rather than ever aiming to be a consumer.
- Was he sent, not to be ministered to, but to minister? not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him? not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fill them up? So were they. As the Father sent him to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, so he sent them into all the world.” (Matthew Henry)
Ryrie
(19) the Jews = “the Jewish authorities”
(22) “This was a filling with the Spirit for power until the regularized relationship of the Spirit began at Pentecost.”
(23) “Since only God can forgive sins, the disciples and the church are here given the authority to declare what God does when a man either accepts or rejects His Son”
(23) This reaffirms what Jesus told Peter and the disciples in Matt 16:13-20, culminating in vs 19. “The authority to open the doors of Christendom was given to Peter, who used that authority for Jews on the Day of Pentecost and for Gentiles in the house of Cornelius.”
It's important to note that this authority is not unilateral. “Heaven, not the apostles, initiates all binding and loosing [forgiving and not forgiving], whereas the apostles announce these things.”
Henry
(19) The fact that Jesus appeared though the doors were locked “does not at all weaken the evidence of his having a real human body after his resurrection; though the doors were shut, he knew how to open them without any noise, and come in so that they might not hear him, as formerly he had walked on the water, and yet had a true body.”
(20) “The only doubt was whether this that they saw alive was the same individual body that had been seen dead; and none could desire a further proof that it was so than the scars or marks of the wounds in the body.”
“Christ's wounds were to speak on earth that it was he himself, and therefore he arose with them; they were to speak in heaven, in the intercession he must ever live to make, and therefore he ascended with them, and appeared in the midst of the throne, a Lamb as it had been slain, and bleeding afresh, Rev. v. 6.”
“It is easy to understand how Christ sent them; he appointed them to go on with his work upon earth, and to lay out themselves for the spreading of his gospel, and the setting up of his kingdom, among men.”
“As he was sent to bear witness to the truth, so were they; not to be mediators of the reconciliation, but only preachers and publishers of it.”
“Was he sent, not to be ministered to, but to minister? not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him? not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fill them up? So were they. As the Father sent him to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, so he sent them into all the world.”
“Here the force of the comparison seems to lie. By the same authority that the Father sent me do I send you.”
“by virtue of the authority given him as a Mediator, he gave authority to them, as his ministers, to act for him, and in his name, with the children of men; so that those who received them, or rejected them, received or rejected him, and him that sent him, ch. Xiii. 20.”
“Christ here seems to refer to the creation of man at first, by the breathing of the breath of life into him (Gen. ii. 7), and to intimate that he himself was the author of that work, and that the spiritual life and strength of ministers and Christians are derived from him, and depend upon him, as much as the natural life of Adam and his seed.”
“The breath of God is put for the power of his wrath (Isa. xi. 4; xxx. 33); but the breath of Christ signifies the power of his grace; the breathing of threatenings is changed into the breathings of love by the mediation of Christ.”
“They now received more of the Holy Ghost than they had yet received.” But He still did not give them everything. “Thus spiritual blessings are given gradually; to him that has shall be given.”
“What Christ gives we must receive, must submit ourselves and our whole souls to the quickening, sanctifying, influences of the blessed Spirit-receive his motions, and comply with them—receive his powers and make use of them: and those who thus obey this word as a precept shall have the benefit of it as a promise; they shall receive the Holy Ghost as the guide of their way and the earnest of their inheritance.”
“ it must be understood as a general charter to the church and her ministers, not securing an infallibility of judgment to any man or company of men in the world, but encouraging the faithful stewards of the mysteries of God to stand to the gospel they were sent to preach, for that God himself will stand to it.”
“God will never alter this rule of judgment, nor vary from it; those whom the gospel acquits shall be acquitted, and those whom the gospel condemns shall be condemned, which puts immense honour upon the ministry, and should put immense courage into ministers.”
Ministers are called to exercise the authority of forgiveness and condemnation through the exposition of sound doctrine. “They are commissioned to tell the world that salvation is to be had upon gospel terms, and no other, and they shall find God will say Amen to it; so shall their doom be.”
Ministers are called to exercise the authority of forgiveness and condemnation also by being careful who they accept into fellowship: “Whom you admit into communion with you, according to the rules of the gospel, God will admit into communion with himself; and whom you cast out of communion as impenitent, and obstinate in scandalous and infectious sins, shall be bound over to the righteous judgment of God.”
Archaeological Study Bible
(19) “'Peace be with you!' was a common Hebrew greeting.”
ESV
(19) “Some interpreters understand the doors being locked to imply that Jesus miraculously passed through the door or the walls of the room, though the text does not explicitly say this. Since Jesus clearly had a real physical body with flesh and bones after he rose from the dead (see note on v. 6 and verses mentioned there), one possibility is that the door was miraculously opened so that the physical body of Jesus could enter, which is consistent with the passage about Peter going through a locked door some time later (see Acts 12:10).”
(22-22) “These verses contain the Johannine “Great Commission,” which serves as the culmination of the entire Gospel's presentation of Jesus as the one sent from the Father (see note on 3:17). The Sent One (Jesus) has now become the Sender, commissioning his followers to serve as his messengers and representatives (cf. 17:18).”
(21-22) “All three persons of the Godhead are involved in this commissioning: as the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus sends his disciples (20:21), equipping them with the Holy Spirit (v. 22).”
(21-22) “When Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” it is best understood as a foretaste of what would happen when the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost (see Acts 2). This does not mean that the Holy Spirit had no presence in the disciples' lives prior to this point (see notes on John 7:39; 14:16–17).”
(23) “The expressions they are forgiven and it is withheld both represent perfect-tense verbs in Greek and could also be translated, “they have been forgiven” and “it has been withheld,” since the perfect gives the sense of completed past action with continuing results in the present. The idea is not that individual Christians or churches have authority on their own to forgive or not forgive people, but rather that as the church proclaims the gospel message of forgiveness of sins in the power of the Holy Spirit (see v. 22), it proclaims that those who believe in Jesus have their sins forgiven, and that those who do not believe in him do not have their sins forgiven—which simply reflects what God in heaven has already done (cf. note on Matt. 16:19).”
Reflecting God
The disciples that night probably included others besides the twelve.
(19) “Peace be with you” was “the normal Hebrew greeting. Because of their behavior the previous Friday, they may have expected rebuke and censure; but Jesus calmed their fears.”
(20) Jesus shows “where the wounds were (John does not refer to the wounds in the feet).”
(20) “According to Lk 24:37 they thought they were seeing a ghost. Jesus was clearly identifying himself.”
(21) “Jesus' mission is one of the dominant themes of this Gospel and is given as the pattern for his followers. “
(22) Jesus' bid that they receive the HS was “thus anticipating what happened 50 days later on the day of Pentecost. The disciples needed God's help to carry out the commission they had just been given.”
(23) Literally translated, this is “'Those whose sins you forgive have already been forgiven; those whose sins you do not forgive have not been forgiven.' God does not forgive people's sins because we do so, nor does he withhold forgiveness because we do. Rather, those who proclaim the gospel are in effect forgiving or not forgiving sins, depending on whether the hearers accept or reject Jesus Christ.”
- Ryrie, Charles C. Ryrie Study Bible Expanded Edition. Chicago: Moody Press, 1994.
- Barker, Kenneth, ed. Reflecting God Study Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000.
- Henry, Matthew. Commentary on the Whole Bible. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/henry/mhc6.Jam.iv.html
- The ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008.
- Archaeological Study Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: The Zondervan Corporation, 2005.