Father, as we come to your word, we ask that you would nourish our souls with it. We ask that we would hear the voice of our Shepherd calling out to us. We pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit working within us, that we would not only hear, but that we would understand, and not only understand, but that we would see how this applies to our lives. Oh God, please, please prevent us from being merely hearers of Your Word. We pray that You would teach us, indeed cause us to be more than hearers of Your Word, but to be doers of Your Word. That Christ's love would be seen in our lives, and that we would live for His glory in all that we do. So use your word to accomplish your purposes in our lives, to make us holy, to conform us to the image of Christ, and to teach us your will. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, if you have your Bible with you, please turn to the book of John, chapter 20. Today we'll be looking at John chapter 20 verses 19 to 21. I believe this message included we have seven more lessons in the book of John. We've been in John for four and a half years now, which is quite a long time. We will be starting a study in 1st and 2nd Samuel when we conclude this study. But I believe there are seven more lessons in the gospel of John. Today we'll be looking at John chapter 20 verses 19 to 21. This past week I received a very interesting email. At least it was an email that I found very interesting. It was, I believe, written by a woman, although the name could belong to either a woman or a man, so I'm a little bit unclear on that. So I'm gonna assume that it was a woman, but if it's not a woman, if it's a man, please accept my sincerest apologies if I'm mistaken. Anyway, she wrote to tell me, quote, I work at Meadowdale Middle School. Today at 2.30 p.m., there were a few individuals with microphones and signs. If you don't know, she's referring to our street evangelists, some of the people who attend our church who preach open air on the streets and who evangelize openly out on the streets. And she goes on to complain that they were prophesying, although I think she meant proselytizing, doing the work that we refer to as evangelism. And so she goes on to note that she even heard one of the street evangelists tell some students that if they are not in Christ, they will end up in hell. And that in her words, their message wasn't received well. She added that the students were tearing up the tracts that were handed to them, and they were making obscene hand gestures at the evangelists. She made sure that I understood that she herself has what she referred to as a very strong faith, but she felt that preaching the gospel did not, quote, display God's love and that approach will never bring people closer to him, end quote. I wasn't exactly sure how to reply to her. I wasn't sure how to respond, so I didn't respond. All I could think was that she claims to have a very strong faith, and yet she made every effort to protect the children from hearing the one thing that can save their souls from an eternal state of misery in hell. In the words of Penn Jillette, anybody know who Penn and Teller are? You guys know who those guys are? They're magicians, right? And comedians. Penn Gillette, he's a staunch atheist. He said this, he said, quote, how much do you have to hate someone to not proselytize? And he was being serious. How much then does this woman, have to hate those little children that she wants to protect from hearing the gospel. See, even Penn Jillette, who absolutely hates Christianity, make no mistake about it, he hates the Christian faith. Even he could appreciate the fact that somebody would evangelize to him after one of his shows by giving him a Bible because that person who gave him the Bible believed that he, that Penn, was in harm's way and that he was on the broad road that leads to everlasting destruction in hell. He respected a person who could do that. Because if a person really believes that, that's what they should do. They should evangelize. They should proselytize. So I'm convinced that anything that I would have said back to this person, this woman in response, would not have been received well. And that, you know, it would have come across as me proselytizing her. And besides, I already knew that our street evangelists had been out there. I had seen camera footage of some of the things that happened out there that day. Some of our street evangelists actually being physically assaulted. threatened. So I wonder how she would have scolded Paul, who was literally beaten to death for openly preaching the gospel, and the fact that his gospel presentation wasn't well received. I wonder how she would have shook her head at Peter, who was crucified upside down for preaching the gospel. Maybe she would have just sat there muttering under her breath, you know, if only he would have preached the gospel in a way that would have been well received. Even Jesus was crucified for preaching a message that wasn't received well, in fact, is never received well by the unregenerate. I'm sure she would have had some words for him as well. So why do our street evangelists do it? Why do they put themselves out there in harm's way the way that they do? Why do they risk being on the receiving end of a mob's scorn? And the answer is, for the same reason that Paul did. For the same reason that Peter did. For the same reason that all of the Apostles did. All of the Protestant Reformers did. Because we are an army that has been left with very clear marching orders. We call it the Great Commission. The Great Commission is found in all four Gospels, although we normally focus on the one that's found in Matthew. But the Great Commission is found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and it's also included in the opening chapter of the book of Acts. And I don't believe that the Great Commission was something that Jesus gave only once. It seems fairly clear that he repeated it, that he reiterated it at least a few times before ascending to the right hand of the Father, which we read about at the end of Matthew or at the beginning of Acts. So today we come to John's version of the Great Commission. And the unique thing about it is that it appears not only to be the first time that the Great Commission was given, but it also makes an unmistakable connection between Christ's mission in being sent by the Father and the church's mission in being sent by Christ in the current age. We often refer to the seven things that Jesus said on the cross as being his last words, but in all truthfulness and all fairness, his truly final words were given after the crucifixion and resurrection. In fact, there are seven things that John records for us that Jesus said to his disciples before his ascension to the right hand of the Father. And these things will take us to the conclusion of John's gospel, which is in the next chapter. So today we'll be looking at the first two things that Jesus said to his disciples after the resurrection. The point of our passage today is that the Christian faith is a faith that should not drive us to hide from the culture or to disengage from the culture. Rather, it should motivate us to love our neighbors enough to share the gospel with them and to demonstrate and proclaim our joyful confidence in Christ openly. And so as such, our mission, the church's mission in this age, starting with Pentecost until today and moving into the future, it involves taking the gospel message beyond the walls of the church into the world. around us. John has told us about the resurrection of Christ in the verses leading up to our passage today. He's told us of how he had personally, John had personally inspected the tomb, the empty tomb of Christ, and how Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene But now we're going to see how he comes and speaks to the disciples. Mary Magdalene has already gone to tell the disciples that Christ has risen from the grave, just as he said. But John now advances his testimony of Christ's resurrection by telling us about what happened that evening. So let's start with verses 19 and 20 in chapter 20. We read this. 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. And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord." Isn't it interesting? that John begins this passage by making sure that we don't miss what day this happened on. He kind of repeats it, it was evening on that day. Okay, we already know what that day is, so he could just continue right there, but instead he says the first day of the week, just to make sure we're not missing when this happened. We call this the Lord's day. And one of the reasons that the church doesn't gather on the Jewish Sabbath is because a pattern starts to be developed right here in this context, this setting right here in our text. Careful study of the events that followed the bodily resurrection of Christ will discover that every time Jesus appears to or gathers with his people following his resurrection, it was on the first day of the week. Sunday, the Lord's Day. In fact, that's why we call it the Lord's Day. That's why the disciples started calling it the Lord's Day, because that was the day that the Lord would attend to his people, that he would meet with his people. And so the disciples took this as an indication that because Sunday, the first day of the week, was the day when Christ met with his people, that our corporate worship should be done on the day that Christ attended to his people, that being the Lord's Day, the first day of the week. And so as we gather to this day on the Lord's Day, Christ still attends to his sheep. This is still the day that Christ attends to his sheep. He speaks to us through the preaching of his word, and he nourishes us and strengthens us and edifies us through what you would say in Latin, the media gratiae. the ordinary means of grace, those being prayer, the ministry of the Word, and partaking of the sacraments, specifically the Lord's Supper and baptism. Luke's parallel account of this encounter with Christ, with the resurrected Christ, tells us a little more about who was actually present at this location. John tells us that the disciples were there. Luke writes that the two disciples who had encountered the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus were also there. He writes this in Luke chapter 24 verses 33 to 35, and they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, that is, after meeting with Christ, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, saying, The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon. They began to relate their experiences on the road and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread." So who are the people that Luke is referring to when he added that those who were with them, that is the disciples, were also gathered there on that night? Who are those others who were with them? Let's say at the very least, he probably was referring to the women who had shown up that morning at Christ's tomb and had faithfully followed Jesus through his earthly ministry. So the 11 disciples were there. The two disciples who encountered the risen Christ were also there. The faithful women who had followed Jesus were there. Mary Magdalene was probably there. Perhaps others were gathered with them as well, but this is kind of the bare bones. It's a fairly large gathering. And so as these faithful followers of Jesus gather together, we're told that they do so behind locked doors. And it's not difficult to understand why they locked the doors. John tells us it's for fear of the Jews. And we know that over the course of the past three days, they've been thinking about the cost of preaching a message that the world does not receive well, of preaching a message that actually offends the world. They all know that Jesus, their Lord, was murdered. They almost undoubtedly knew that anyone who followed Jesus was also in danger of facing the same exact consequence. They had already plotted to take Lazarus out of the picture earlier in the book. We saw back in John chapter 11. So they knew that there was danger here. And now Jesus has risen, the tomb was empty, and there was probably a sense that the Jews may be gathering the authorities to come looking for the disciples to figure out where has the body of Jesus gone. So they felt like they were in serious danger. I think it's pretty understandable that they were in fear of the Jews. So what did they do? They gathered together in an upper room somewhere and they locked the door. the same as you or I or anybody who has a sane mind would have done. But here's what I want us to see. There is this incredible danger that they are at least potentially facing in their minds, possibly even death. And nevertheless, the disciples gathered. the disciples gathered. Let's not overlook the fact that they would have been much safer if they would have scattered, as anybody who's ever played a game of tag can attest to. You scatter. That makes finding everybody much, much more difficult. But this is the first meeting of what we would refer to as the underground church. in many places around the world today. Christians are forced to gather as the underground church, that is gathering in a secret place or gathering behind locked doors because the persecution of Christ's people in that region of the world, wherever that may be, is so great that being caught gathering as the church very well could mean an automatic death sentence. If you're not aware of what Christians in North Korea face, if they are even caught with a Bible, Google it sometime. Find out what Christians in China have had to do over the course of the past five or ten years as restrictions have become more and more tight on what they can and cannot do as the church. Look up stories of how they've been beaten, how they've been imprisoned. It's really going on in the world today. So we should understand that the underground church knows what the disciples and all who were gathered in this context learned that evening of the day when Jesus rose from the dead. And it's this, this is what they learned. They learned that Jesus will not be separated from or locked out of any place where his people are in need. Nobody can stop Jesus from meeting with His people. No locked door. No tyrannical government mandates or laws. No height nor depth. Nothing can prevent Jesus from meeting with and attending to His people. So, when Luke gives us a count, he tells us that while the disciples who had encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus were telling the eleven disciples of what they had experienced, he writes, he himself, that is Jesus himself, stood in their midst and said to them, Peace be to you. That's in Luke 24, verse 36. Luke doesn't mention the locked door. That's okay. It wasn't something that he chose to emphasize. But John wants to make sure that we understand that Jesus didn't just come up and knock on the door casually and ask to have somebody let him in. Maybe this is why, in Luke's account, we're told that those who were gathered were frightened because they thought he was a spirit. So I realize that the conclusion that many people have reached on this is that Jesus was able to do this only because he had resurrected and he now had a resurrection body. Richard Phillips writes in his commentary, this would be impossible for a normal human body, but Jesus now possessed a gloriously resurrected body. Another commentator named F.B. Myers writes of Jesus and his resurrected body saying, quote, he was not subject to all the laws that govern our physical life, end quote. Let me ask you this, though, if you'll let me just push back on this just a little bit. I agree that Jesus was not subject to the laws of physics that govern our physical lives, not in any way. But was he ever? Was he ever subject to the physical laws by necessity that we're subjected to? I mean, he walked on water. What do the laws of physics say about walking on water? They say not a chance. What do they say about Jesus calming the storms on the Sea of Galilee? The laws of physics say no man can possibly do that. So did Jesus just miraculously appear? Or did He walk through the walls because He was resurrected? Or was it because He is God incarnate and He can do whatever He wants to, whenever He wants to? And the answer is, well, we don't know. Maybe both? We don't know. I only say that because I've seen some very wild speculation from Christians over the years about what they will be able to do or not able to do in their resurrection bodies one day. Maybe we'll be able to walk through walls. Maybe we won't. There's nothing that we can conclusively arrive at based on this passage or this incident. Whatever the case may be, Jesus appearing in their midst brings us to the first thing that Jesus said to his disciples as a group following his resurrection. Peace be with you. Peace be with you. Now, we all know that the traditional Jewish greeting is what? Shalom, right? Shalom, it means peace. And it's true that that was pretty commonly used, kind of in the same way that we would say hello, although I'd say the meaning is a little bit deeper than just hello, a little bit deeper than just peace. It's actually closer to our equivalent of God bless you, or God be with you, something like that. But we should also note that this is the first time that Jesus has said these words upon appearing to his disciples. And that's significant because it shows us that the peace that he is referring to, the peace that he is talking about here, is intricately and directly connected to what he accomplished by his death and proved in his resurrection. Jesus means peace in the same way that Paul meant it when Paul wrote Romans chapter 5 verse 1 where he wrote, This peace with God that is found in Christ is a peace that is unlike any other kind of peace. It's certainly unlike any kind of peace that the world knows. Think about it. The baby boomer generation, my parents, they made peace kind of a trendy thing back in the 60s. They're famous for having made peace kind of a trendy thing in the 60s with the hippie movement. But all of their songs and all of their aspirations, all of their drugs, all of their utopianism did nothing to actually create peace. In fact, the world has actually been at war in every single decade since the baby boomers entered into adulthood, starting with the Vietnam War in the 60s and 70s and extending to the present, to the 2020s. At best, when the world talks about there being peace, what it's referring to is just a temporary ceasefire. It means a temporary end of hostile relations. The peace that Jesus brings is not like this. The peace that Jesus brings is, in fact, totally different. For starters, it's not just temporary. It's not just temporary. The peace that He brings between God and the one who repents and believes on Jesus Christ is permanent and is everlasting. That's why we refer to it as everlasting life or eternal life. It's a peace that Paul told the Philippians surpasses all comprehension. The unregenerate man can't make any sense of it. When Jesus says, peace be with you, He means that those who have believed on Him are at peace now with God. You and I need to understand that the unregenerate man is not at peace with God. In fact, as long as he is unregenerate, as long as he is unbelieving, He's constantly at war with God. He hates God. That's why people got upset that the gospel was being preached to high school and middle school students this past week. The unregenerate man is at perpetual, constant, unceasing war with God, and God's wrath burns and builds constantly against that man. The peace that Christ speaks of here is the peace that was accomplished by Christ's death, which eternally satisfied God's wrath against the sins of His people. See, God had to be the one to take the initiative. Because man not only never would have taken the initiative, but there's nothing that we could do to satisfy God's wrath against us. And because He took the initiative, the peace that God offers through faith in Christ is on His terms. The conditions of peace, the terms and agreements, if you want to call it that, are written by God. God alone has the authority to establish those terms. No man can stand before God and say, you know God, you and I can be at peace if you'll just do this and that for me. Or, you know God, the hostility between us will continue until you meet the following terms and conditions that I have. No man has the authority to do that. Nobody. No. God will not be mocked. Peace with God must be on God's terms. And His terms are as follows. Repent and believe the Gospel. Repent and believe in Christ. Don't look to, don't trust in, have no confidence in yourself for salvation. Look by faith to God's only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom He sent to pay the cost of redemption and reconciliation with God. Pretty simple. If you look at terms and conditions for just a video game sometimes, they are pages long. Terms and conditions for being on Facebook or on Twitter are pages long. Here's a very short couple sentences maybe that God gives us. That anybody, you don't need to be a lawyer to understand them. Right Ryan? The consequence however, The consequence of refusing to accept God's terms and conditions of peace is that a person will remain on the broad road that leads to destruction. And one day they will be cast into hell for eternity if they do not repent and believe in Christ. A person must believe while they still have breath. We die once and then we're judged. The hand of God holds nobody back from believing in Christ and finding peace with God in him. God's hand holds nobody back. Who holds anybody back? Man himself. That's it. Man is the one who says, no way, I won't do it. That's why Jesus says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. That word draws doesn't mean woo, by the way. It doesn't mean try to persuade. It means drag. It's an aggressive, it's a forceful word. Nobody may come to him, nobody can come to him unless the Father draws them to him and he will raise them up on the last day. But there's a second sense of the peace that Jesus offers. We're not only given peace with God, which is important enough, right? It's significant enough, but we're also given the peace of God as well. Listen closely to what Paul says to the Philippians when he writes this in Philippians 4, verses 6 and 7. He says, be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. starts with being anxious for nothing. If you look around and you see the statistics for how many people are dealing with anxiety and getting on anti-anxiety medications, you think there might be some correlation between a culture turning its back on God and the level of anxiety going up? But this is God's own sense of peace given freely to us when we bring our prayer requests to Him. This blessing of peace must have felt like an oasis of fresh, cold water for the disciples. like in the middle of the desert, struggling through, making a step or two in the middle of the desert. It must have been like a fresh oasis of cold fresh water. Think of what they had experienced over the past week. Think of all the turmoil that they had felt for the past few days. Think of how they had all scattered, how they had all abandoned Jesus in His moment of being handed over to the authorities. And the shame, and the guilt, and the regret, that would have been weighing and weighing down on their consciences. And Jesus greets them, not with a rebuke for scattering, not with a word of scorn for having left His side, not with an, I told you so, not with a, how could you guys not know, I said it so many times throughout my ministry, but with the blessing of peace. This is a peace that every Christian is granted. All who repent and believe in Jesus are at peace with God and know the peace of God experientially. This isn't a fragile truce that can be easily broken. This isn't a ceasefire that may start up again any moment. No, it's an everlasting divine peace that flows out of our confidence that Christ's substitutionary atonement for sins on our behalf satisfied God's wrath, and that by His work on Calvary, He secured God's steadfast, covenantal love for us as His adopted children, and that nothing, nothing, no height nor depth, no life nor death, nothing can separate us now or ever from God's love toward us in Christ Jesus. That is the basis of our peace. It's a peace that confidently proclaims, all my sins, past, present, future, all my sins have been forgiven, and now there's nothing that I can do to lose God's love. In times when we face trouble, like the disciples are facing trouble. In times when we face trouble or affliction, we come to know and understand this peace even more, not just intellectually, not just in an intellectual sense, but in an experiential sense, because in the midst of turmoil, in the midst of distress, in the midst of anxiety about what happened yesterday or what's happening right now or what's coming tomorrow, Jesus offers peace in the midst of all of the trials and afflictions that we endure. Peace is the first blessing. That we find in Christ here, but there's a second blessing kind of tucked away a little bit here in verse 20. You see it. Look at how the disciples responded. How did the disciples respond? Well, they thought he was a spirit. OK, so at first they were frightened, but Jesus puts them at ease by showing them his hands which were pierced and his side which was also pierced and their response was. To rejoice. To rejoice. That is to say, the second blessing that they received in this encounter with Christ was that of joy. And this marks, the marks that he had, the hands, the side, they were the basis of the peace. What he endured to receive those marks, those are the basis of the peace that he has just blessed them with. Notice how Jesus has blessed them and filled them with peace and joy and all without changing a single thing about their circumstances. The hostility between them and the Jews, the fear that they're feeling about being persecuted, at least the potential danger of them being persecuted, is still there. It just didn't matter anymore. Because Jesus lives and reigns forevermore. Because He lives and reigns, friends, you and I, we can rejoice in our sufferings and afflictions because they cannot separate us from the love of God. And they cannot steal this blessing of peace and confident joy that He has given us. They cannot take away God's promises toward us, including the promise that He's causing all things to work together for our greatest good. If God is doing that, then we can be at peace in any situation if we really believe that God is doing that. So this brings us to the third blessing that Christ has bestowed upon his people, which we see now in verse 21. John continues writing, So Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you. And this is John's account. Of the Great Commission. It's that simple, which I've noted that the Great Commission is is found in five different New Testament passages, and we see that the Great Commission is something that is actually connected to indeed flows naturally from the person who has been filled with this supernatural peace and joy. In Christ. Look at how He connects His sending us. Look at how He connects the peace He gives us with the mission He gives us. You see that? How important is the Great Commission? How vital is it to our personal, individual walks with the Lord? Well, let's start with this. I think we probably all recognize, as we should, that when something is repeated in scripture, it's an indication that it's probably pretty important. It's probably something that we should pay attention to, right? If it's repeated, it's not just for the sake of repetition itself. It's there because it's repeated there because we should be paying attention to it. Think about when Jesus says, truly, truly, He could just say truly, and that would tell us, OK, what he's about to say is important, right? If he says verily, verily, or truly, truly, we recognize that this repetition is an indication of something important coming up. Of course, everything that God says is important. Don't get me wrong. All that we read in Scripture is important. But let me ask you this. How important does something have to be? In order for it to be repeated five times, It's really important. It's really important. It's not something that a Christian can just opt into or opt out of. It's important. Extremely important. And the words that Christ speaks here, we should understand, we should recognize, are a command to evangelize. a command to share the good news. These are what you might refer to as our marching orders. And a good and faithful army knows that they are to keep doing the last thing that they have been instructed to do until their commanding officer shows up and tells them to do otherwise. the mission that Christ has given the church. To proclaim the good news of reconciliation with God by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, is probably not something that most Christians would consider to be a blessing, as much as they consider it to be kind of an uncomfortable duty. I get it. And evangelism, I should note from the outset here, evangelism is gonna look different from one person to the next, depending on how you're gifted, what you're comfortable with, et cetera. For some, it does look like street evangelism, like what our street evangelists do, standing outside of sporting events and concerts and high schools, proclaiming the good news of salvation in Christ. If you don't know your church history, you might not be aware of the fact that preaching the gospel openly, publicly, open-air preaching like that has always been extremely, extremely normal. Starting with Jesus. Jesus did preach in the synagogues from time to time. But most of the preaching that we read about in the New Testament is done out in public. Where was the Sermon on the Mount preached? It wasn't in a church, it was on a hillside. It extends into the Book of Acts, where we see the disciples, the apostles, going out and preaching openly, and sometimes being beaten for it, sometimes being imprisoned for it, but doing it nonetheless. And then it's been practiced regularly for the past 2,000 years. And while it's true that this is one of the things that has led to persecution at times, just read about how George Whitefield had everything from rotten fruit to rocks thrown at him while he was preaching. While it's true that it can sometimes lead to persecution, it has also led to times of revival. It was rediscovered and became a primary means of preaching the gospel around the time of the Protestant Reformation, when most church buildings were Roman Catholic. Well, how were people going to actually hear the true gospel? These men were locked out of the Roman Catholic churches. Where else could they preach? They preached on the streets, and many of them were burned at the stake for doing that. It was rediscovered by George Whitefield just prior to the period of revival in American history, which we refer to as the Great Awakening. Charles Spurgeon encouraged public open air preaching as well, noting that it was an effective way of sharing the Gospel with people who would otherwise never hear the Gospel. If they're not going to church, how are they going to hear it? If they're not friends with any Christians, how are they going to hear it? On the streets, that's how. Now that's, this is not to say, however, that street evangelism is the only method of evangelism. In fact, I'd say the most common form of evangelism should be the type of evangelism that takes place in the home. parents to children. Parents are not only the primary disciple makers of their children, but they should regularly be talking with their children about the Lord and sharing the gospel with their children in every circumstance. Instead of just saying, you know, if you're gonna talk that way, you're gonna go to your room. Okay, send them to their room if you need to, Then how about talking about why we don't talk like that and how that could lead to the gospel. Parents, I don't know if you realize this, but this is why we want you to have your kids in church. It's because you are the primary disciple maker and coming to church is central to discipleship. It's central to the Christian life. It's here where They're learning how to listen to sermons and they're learning the value of the church loving each other and serving one another. And you might not believe it, but they are listening. They might look like they're coloring. They might look like they're just squirming around in their seats right now. I guarantee you they're listening. If I were to ask a silly little rhetorical question, one of them might even give an answer. We've seen that happen in here. We saw last week that one of the kids raised their hands when I asked a rhetorical question, why? They're listening. They're listening. As young as a year or two years old, they are paying attention to what's going on around them, even if they look like they are not. Another way of evangelizing is to talk to your friends and your co-workers about your faith. This is just something that should naturally happen. We talk about things that we are excited about. We talk about things that we love. We talk about things that are important to us. Is our faith not important to us? Should it not come up in one way or another in dialogue? Now listen, you don't have to have all the answers to every possible question when you share your faith with a friend or coworker. If you get a question that you don't know the answer to, praise the Lord, because there's no shame in saying, you know what, I don't know, let me think about it, or let me talk to my pastor or one of my elders and see if they know. In fact, if you do that, you've not only shown that you are not a know-it-all, but more importantly, you've already opened the door for a second conversation about the gospel. That door is already wide open for next week talking about the gospel. So you not only don't have to have an answer to every possible objection or question, but you also don't have to be confrontational. At least not entirely. The gospel does confront man, yes. But it doesn't have to be entirely confrontational. You could just ask a simple question like, do you know what Christians believe about Jesus? Or do you know what Christians believe about heaven, or do you think animals go to heaven, or what do you think the Bible means when it says, and fill in the blank with whatever. And let them just run with it. Let them give you an answer, what they think the answer might be. Show yourself to be willing to listen. and engage. And finally, and do note that this isn't an exhaustive list of course, one easy way to evangelize is to leave a path of tracts in your wake. Tracts are something that you can leave with a generous tip at a restaurant. Don't be the type of person that leaves a tract that looks like a $10 bill and not leave anything else for your waiter or waitress. That's not the way to make friends and influence people. Leave it with a generous tip. Leave it in the New Age section at your favorite bricks and mortar bookstore. I mean, the possibilities are really endless for ways to leave tracks for people where they will find them and possibly read them. Maybe not. That's between them and the Lord. It's not your business whether they actually read it or not. how they respond to the gospel, how people respond to the gospel is not our responsibility. That is between them and the Lord. Our job is to try to just share the gospel, plant a seed, and to do so without unnecessarily offending. But the point that I want to make is simply That there are so many ways to evangelize. Whatever it looks like for you, you should know that it is a blessed responsibility. It is a blessing for us to have this responsibility. And every Christian has been given this responsibility. This isn't something that we can just pass like a hot potato to a missionary. as if writing a check is our way of evangelizing. We support missions financially here at our church, but we have to be willing to do more than just write a check and sign our names on a check once a month. Notice here in the text the key words in John's recording of the Great Commission are as and also. He says as the Father has sent me I also send you. That you is plural by the way. It wasn't only given to the disciples. It wasn't given just to those who were gathered. By extension, it's given to every Christian. What Jesus is saying here is that our mission in bringing the good news of Jesus and reconciliation with God to the world is to be patterned the same way that Christ's mission was patterned. That is to say that as he was sent into the world by the Father, you and I are sent into the world by the Son. Jesus made this clear back in his high priestly prayer in chapter 17, where he said as he prayed to the Father, as you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. That's in verse 18. So just as Jesus came into the world and engaged with sinners, so too you and I are also called to be actively involved in the world, but without being involved in the world's sin. Friends, I know that the times that we're in right now, these are difficult times to be a Christian. I know that the culture is hostile toward Christianity. I know that it is difficult to share the gospel confidently with joy. I know that the flesh would incline us to be completely separated from the world and to just have nothing to do with it. to lock ourselves behind closed doors. But that is not the Christian way. In fact, it has never been God's way. But let's say that you understand that this instruction is for you, but you struggle to see yourself evangelizing. Consider what we can learn from Jonah's story. The book of Jonah begins with God commissioning Jonah to go and to preach to the city of Nineveh. We read in Jonah 1, verse 2, God says to Jonah, Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. Now, the Ninevites, we know, were enemies of the Jews. They were enemies of God. They were wicked in all of their ways. And so Jonah decided that he was just gonna go ahead and take a pass on this, as if God was just making an optional request of him. And so he ends up on a boat going in the opposite direction of Nineveh, thinking that he could just take it or leave it, that he could just get away from what God had called him and instructed him to do. But God caused a great storm to come upon the seas, and Jonah ends up being thrown overboard for the sake of appeasing God's wrath and calming the storm. By the way, there's a great foreshadowing of Christ in that. Under normal circumstances, Jonah being thrown overboard would have meant sure death for him. Nobody could swim to shore from out in the middle of the sea, but God sent forth a great fish to swallow Jonah so that he wouldn't die. And it was in the belly of this fish that Jonah finally comes to his senses and repents with joyful proclamation, salvation is from the Lord. That's what he says in chapter 2, verse 9. He had realized his stubborn sin and he had repented of it and he had turned to God in faith. And so God had the great fish spit Jonah out onto dry land, all in such a way that it was actually, again, a foreshadowing of Christ, what Christ would do in the resurrection. And realizing that salvation belongs to the Lord, Jonah now obeyed God. And it's almost like the book starts over again when you get to chapter three, where we read in verses one and two, Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh the great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you." And if you do a careful comparison between this second commission and the first commission, you'll see that there was actually a difference between the two. In the first one, he was instructed to go and to simply cry out against the Ninevites. In the second, he was instructed to proclaim or to preach to it. See, anyone can cry out against sin. Just look at social media. But only those who have experienced peace with God and salvation from His wrath can proclaim, can preach to sinners in the power of God's abiding power and grace. Friends, is your heart gripped? with awe and wonder that God would call you to Himself? That He would forgive someone like you in Christ? Is your heart gripped with awe and wonder about that? Are you at peace with God, filled with the joy that Christ has given to His people, knowing that He lives and reigns forevermore? I pray that your answer to these questions is yes. If your answer to these questions is no, or something other than yes, something is off. How much do you have to hate your neighbor to not share the news with them that can save their souls? Have you forgotten that he who is forgiven little loves little? And are you so ignorant of your condition that you think that you've been forgiven only a little? Does the love of Christ not compel you to share the good news with those who are perishing? But if your answer is yes, if you are gripped by God's grace and filled with wonder that He would call you and save you, if you are filled with confident and joyful peace in Christ, then you must go forth and proclaim that peace with God is found by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. That every sin can be forgiven and indeed will be for all who believe in Jesus. Friends, the Christian faith shouldn't drive us to hide or disengage from the culture. It should motivate us to love our neighbors enough to share the gospel with them and to demonstrate and proclaim our joyful confidence in Christ openly. Jesus was telling them they couldn't stay locked in that room forever. The good news needed to go beyond the four walls of the room that they were in, and it must go beyond our walls as well. So, go with the joyful confidence that God's will cannot be thwarted, that His word accomplishes His work, and that the message we bring is the best news ever. And the world needs it. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the way that it not only comforts us, but for the way that it convicts us. Thank You for drawing us to Christ. Thank you for opening our eyes and giving us ears to hear the glorious truths of the gospel that Jesus paid once and for all for the sins of all who believe on Him. And that reconciliation is found by grace alone, through faith alone, in Him alone. We thank you that you have changed out our hearts of stone and given us hearts of flesh that will respond to you, causing us to walk in obedience to your precepts, putting your spirit within us to make us more like Jesus. Oh God, teach us to be humble. Indeed, cause us to be humble, that we may live our lives in obedience to the instruction to take this message to the world. We do pray that our lives will speak of your goodness and of your glory and of your power to save the most vile and wretched of sinners. But we also pray that you will give us confidence to speak the words that are necessary to be spoken, to share the good news that salvation is in Christ. Oh God, please open doors of opportunity for us to share the gospel and strengthen us and teach us to rely more fully on you as we do so. All for the glory of Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.