Peace for the Troubled (John 20:19-29)
Below is the manuscript for my Easter sermon. You can also listen to it soon on our sermons page or watch it on Youtube here.
Well, we’ll jump back into Galatians next week. But here, on Easter Sunday, I want us to look at this snapshot in John.
It’s been a hard year. It’s felt like our worlds have been turned upside-down. And in many ways torn apart. Perhaps you, like me, have been struggling. You’ve been wrestling. With how to work through it all. With how to get back on your feet again.
Today, I want you to hear the words of Jesus, repeated three times in what we just heard. Apparently, Jesus wanted them - and us - to hear them. He says to us, “Peace be with you.”
The disciples are working through the death of their Lord. And with it, all their hopes and dreams. Just days earlier, Jesus had hung on the cross.
Now they’re in a place quite familiar to us over the past year. Behind closed doors. Hiding in fear. Jesus had just been killed - and in the cruelest way possible. Perhaps they’d be next. They’re taking no chances.
And that’s when Jesus comes in. With the doors locked. He just appears. The Lord. He’s there. Standing right in front of them. And He’s alive! And He says these words, “Peace be with you!”
Suddenly, their fear is gone. It turns into gladness, verse 20 tells us. They’re filled with that peace. And that’s my desire for me and for you today - that we’d hear these words right here, right now, for ourselves. And that our troubles would be washed away by His peace.
“Peace be with you.”
What His Peace Brings: Renewal and Rest
I want you to think with me what Christ’s peace really means - what He offers to us - a couple of things. First, total personal renewal and rest. His resurrection brings new life - one filled with peace.
The Bible explains, in Ephesians 2, that we’re dead in our sins. And how our hearts are far from Him. But also how the Father graciously makes us alive in Christ. Our souls are reawakened. There is a spiritual resurrection that happens for those who are in Christ. We see this renewal begin to happen in the hearts of the disciples.
But there is also a physical resurrection to look forward to. This renewal is total. It was sin that led to death in the first place. 1 Corinthians 15 calls Jesus the “firstfruits” of those resurrected. One day a great resurrection is coming. Christ here appears to His disciples in a renewed physical body. One that can be seen and touched. And that’s our hope, as well. No more weakness, sickness, aging, death. Perfect bodies forever.
So Christ stands there - before them and before us. He says, “Peace be with you.” Through His resurrection from the dead, He demonstrates that His payment on the cross went through. Our sins are forgiven. New spiritual life for us has come. We’re no longer separated from God if we believe. We have peace with Him. And we’re brought near to our Father again. And there, in His care, we find rest.
And what’s more, we don’t have to fear death anymore. That cruel master can no longer torment us and hold us captive. Coronavirus, cancer - whatever may come - we can have peace knowing that the death of this body won’t be the end.
So Jesus says to us today, “Peace be with you.” In Him, we find personal renewal and rest.
To the desperate mom who can’t stop snapping at her children. “Peace be with you.
To the discouraged husband who’s watching his marriage falling apart. “Peace be with you.”
To the depressed teenager who feels like she has no one or nothing to live for. “Peace be with you.”
To the lonely student who throws his body at partner after partner, seeking to be loved. “Peace be with you.”
To the distressed daughter who lost her father and mother - both from COVID - this year. “Peace be with you.”
To the jobless parent who can’t seem to pay the rent or buy groceries, no matter how hard he tries. “Peace be with you.”
Let me tell you, this last year has been really hard for me and my family. The virus making me fear for our lives - and livelihood. My wife’s cancer shaking up our world, driving us to our knees. In a great time of darkness, the sun has still come up. And given us glimpses of His peace.
Before His death, Jesus spoke these words to His disciples, back in chapter 14 and very 27. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
Hear me today, church. For the troubled, peace has come. In Jesus Christ, if we’re believers in Him, we can find personal renewal and rest.
What About All This Trouble?
Now you might be thinking, “You want me to experience peace? All I can see around me is trouble. And I can see no signs of relief.”
Well, as we’ve already seen, the truth of the resurrection goes as deep as our hearts. But I want to take things wider. And to do that, we need to think more deeply about what peace means, along with what His resurrection accomplished.
What His Peace Brings: Restoration and Justice
Christ’s resurrection brings, first, personal renewal and rest. But second, it brings cosmic restoration and justice. His resurrection brings a new world - and one filled with peace.
Again, Jesus says three times, to His disciples, “Peace be with you.” Now this would have been a standard greeting for the Jews. Often also a farewell. And it still is today. He no doubt repeated it, because He wanted them to grasp this truth. In Him, shalom is coming.
Maybe you’ve heard that word. Shalom. It’s a Hebrew world. It’s everything wrong in this world being made right again. It goes far deeper and wider than the way we throw around the word “peace” in our days. It’s this vision of complete wholeness and healing. It’s what things were meant to be like back in the garden. That peace, that shalom, is found in His resurrection.
Now we just talked about a resurrection that’s personal and physical. But His resurrection is bigger than that. It’s cosmic. It’s material, as well. It encompasses the totality of His creation. It’s the hope of all God made being made right again. Complete restoration.
In Colossians chapter one, the apostle Paul calls Jesus the Creator.
Col. 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Col. 1:16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
Everything we see. Everything we don’t see. He’s talking about spiritual beings there. Jesus created it all.
But Paul goes even further. He says Jesus is also the Redeemer.
Col. 1:19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
Col. 1:20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
One day, He’ll return. And Christ is going to bring all things back into right relationship with Him, just as it was intended. The curse will be lifted. Shalom will be restored. We have this hope of a new world. Of the cosmic restoration of all things.
Everything and everyone will bow before King Jesus. And in His Kingdom, there will be perfect justice. All structures and systems that tried to stand against His perfect shalom will be flattened. And there will be perfect peace under His reign, for His people, forever and ever. This is material - all of His creation. This is spiritual, as well. All heavenly beings will bow before His throne.
So Jesus says to us today, “Peace be with you.” In Him, we find cosmic restoration and justice.
To the frightened teenager who falls asleep to gunshots each night and fears being the next George Floyd. “Peace be with you.”
To the victimized woman who sees her abuser out free in the streets, while she feels trapped in her room. “Peace be with you.”
To the grieving son who lost his father to the virus and hears his “friends” mock it as a hoax. “Peace be with you.”
To the man with cancer who lacked the means to catch it in time and now stands too far back in line. “Peace be with you.”
To the daughter-turned-orphan who just lost her parents to a drunk driver. “Peace be with you.”
To the immigrant, struggling to grasp the language and fight off the angry glares. “Peace be with you.”
Let me tell you. I’ve needed this hope of shalom during this season. I’ve struggled so much as I’ve watched the news. With frustration. With deep anger. Only knowing that this justice one day will come has kept me going.
Jesus also spoke these words before His death to His followers, back in chapter 16 and very 33. “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Hear me today, church. For the troubled, peace is coming. In Jesus Christ, if we’re a part of His family, we will find cosmic restoration and justice.
Hope for Doubters and Late-Comers
Peace has come and it’s coming. But there’s even more hope to be found here. As we see this man named Thomas. He’s known as the doubter, right? Doubting Thomas. He says that he’s not going to begin to believe his friends, that Jesus is risen from the dead, until he sees it with his own eyes. And beyond that, Thom’s not going to believe it’s even real - that they’re not just seeing some ghost - until he can even touch Jesus for himself.
He famously says, in verse 25, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
Well, Jesus comes a second time, through that door without turning a knob, and approaches His friend. He tells Thomas to do exactly what he had demanded. But the disciple doesn’t seem to follow through. He just falls to his knees. He cries out, says verse 28, “My Lord and my God!’ He gives perhaps the most striking statement of Christ’s deity and lordship in all of Scripture here.
Now that gives hope to doubters - people like you and me. To those who want to believe that peace is here and is around the bend, but so often struggle to believe it’s true.
Jesus knows our hearts - just as He did Thomas’s - and He’s compassionate and kind. He gently tells us, “Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
But Christ makes another statement that sounds at first like a rebuke, but may not be that at all. Did you hear that, in verse 29? “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Have you thought about this? Maybe the issue isn’t that Thomas is an especially sinful guy. The Bible doesn’t call him “Doubting Thomas,” after all. He does miss Christ’s first appearance. But if others had missed that first appearing, they might have had their doubts, too.
Here’s something to think about. Maybe the reason these words were recorded here in John weren’t so much about Thomas as they were meant for us. Because Jesus says, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Who else missed His first appearance in that room? And the second? You and me. Jesus wants us to hear these words. We’re blessed if we walk by faith. That is, when sight isn’t a possibility - at least for now. He’s wanting us to respond like Thomas. “My Lord and my God!” Even if we can’t gaze upon His risen body or reach out and touch His wounds. There’s hope for doubters here, but also for late-comers. Will we fall down and cry out like Thomas?
Christ has risen! Peace is found in Him. Will we believe?
So You Want Me To Wait?
Now you might be thinking this, “You say peace has come. And that peace is coming. There is new life. And a new world. But what about right now? You want us just to wait?” And my answer to that is yes. And no.
We’re currently in this gap, in this overlap of two ages. We experience peace in part, but not in full. Christ’s kingdom is here. But it’s not completely here. Things won’t ever be as they could be in this fallen world. But it doesn’t mean that none of His perfect, restored world can’t or won’t be experienced here.
The Prince of Peace Brings Trouble
Recently singers Leigh Nash and Ruby Amanfu collaborated to record a song about racial injustice called “Good Trouble.” They sing these words:
But there's a love that's still turning over tables
And a love making blinded eyes see
There's a healing that's waiting in the water
That's still making saints out of rebels
My God is still making good trouble
They sing their sorrow and air their frustration that we’ve not made more progress. And they remind themselves - and us - that Jesus cares and still acts even today through His people. They share their hope. This Prince of Peace still makes good trouble.
Think about those Jesus loved. He was always to be found around the least, the last, the lost. The lepers, the promiscuous, the tax collectors and sinners - all those hated or forgotten or marginalized - He drew near to them and them to Him. He ate and drank with them - to the point that Christ got accused of being a drunkard.
Think also, about those Jesus condemned. The Pharisees, right? He hated their empty, vain religiosity and their lack of walk that backed up their talk. He called out the way they led people astray - their pride, their self-righteousness.
And remember that time where He does go into the temple, back in John 2. He sees this place of worship, a place of prayer, being turned into a way for people to line their pockets and grow their bottom line. And He grabs a whip and starts driving people out. He flips over their tables. He flings around their coins.
This same Jesus, the Prince of Peace, says elsewhere, in Matthew 10, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” Yeah, He did come to bring peace. But in another sense, He came to bring trouble. And He’s still bringing that kind of good trouble today, by His Spirit and through His people.
Trouble for the Peaceful
Earlier, I said, For the troubled, peace is coming. But there’s something else you have to hear. For the peaceful, trouble is coming.
Now that sounds harsh, right? You didn’t come on Easter Sunday to hear about God’s judgment. But it makes sense. If Christ is coming to bring perfect shalom. If He is gonna see to it that this world is turned right-side up once again. It means some will be lifted up, while others will be pushed down. The unjust, the greedy, the abusive, the unkind - all those with their legs kicked up, experiencing a shallow kind of “peace” - they will be judged. And that will bring relief to all those that they have abused.
Hope for Scoffers and Rebels
Earlier, I shared that there is hope for doubters and late-comers, for people like Thomas, for people like us. But for scoffers, for rebels, there will be nothing but despair. They may experience peace now, but later there will be nothing but trouble as Jesus comes down from the clouds and makes all things right again. The just One will bring justice, and there will be no place to hide.
The Jewish teachers and the Roman leaders had conspired to kill Him. They had nailed Jesus to that cross. They had refused to fall down and recognize Him as King. And they began immediately trying to deny and cover up Christ’s resurrection.
They wouldn’t say, with Thomas and the disciples, “My Lord and my God!” They clung to their peaceful, easy life. But trouble soon came, and it will one day finally come.
We can’t stay where Thomas was. Denying His resurrection. Demanding God for proof. It’s just a cover-up for maintaining control of our lives. And it lead us to no where but despair.
He is God. We’re not. He is Lord. He deserves our worship and service. So, I appeal to you, bow with me, before the Resurrected One, before the one who makes peace, but also trouble. Perfect rest is coming, but also judgment.
Trusting and Bringing Shalom
I want to close this morning with a couple of points of application. We have seen that first, Jesus brings personal renewal and rest. He second brings cosmic restoration and justice. His peace is here. His peace is coming. A new life. A new world. This brings hope for doubters who believe and sorrow for scoffers who won’t. What do we do with this?
First, listen and believe. Trust that peace is only found in Him. Peace in your heart. Peace on this earth. Worship Him, with Thomas, and millions throughout history and around the world. Turn from things that will never give that peace, that only bring you trouble. Come to Jesus, the Resurrected One, in faith.
Second, go and proclaim. Leave this lawn and tell this city and this world of this resurrection - of the soul, of the body, and of all things we see in Jesus. Share this good news.
But also go out and make some of that “good trouble.” It’s not easy. We have to be careful. We’re not perfect like Jesus. But when we speak up for the voiceless, when we stand up for the defenseless, when we fight against injustice, we look like our King, and we bring a bit of His Kingdom, in part, into the here and now.
In verses 21 and 22, Jesus says, “As the Father sent me, even so I am sending you.” He then gives His disciples a foretaste of His Spirit. He sends us, proclaiming peace, in His power, until He comes, risen, on the clouds, to bring perfect, never-ending shalom.
Jesus doesn’t want peacekeepers in this troubled world. He wants peacemakers. It won’t be easy. We’ll make friends, but also enemies. But it’s His purpose for us. Like our Lord, we’ll comfort the afflicted and, at times, afflict the comfortable. Let’s embrace that calling.
Yes, this year has been so tough. But there is hope, friends - to get through tomorrow. But hope also of a perfect world void of pain. Let us go out, as the early church was accused of, and turn the world-upside down, or rather right-side up, believing in and proclaiming passionately His peace. Let’s pray.