LESSON: "PEACE BE UNTO YOU"- Receive ye the Holy Ghost. This is infallible proof of Christ resurrection.
KEY VERSES: John 20:21-22, "Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Re- ceive ye the Holy Ghost:"
1. INTRODUCTION:
The infallible proof of Christ's resurrection was His showing Himself alive. We have an account of His 1st appearance to His disciples, on the day on which He rose. He had sent them the tidings of his re- surrection; "Peace be unto you," to show His love, & confirm their faith in Him. He came Himself, and gave them all the assurances they could desire of the truth, so they might not have it by hearsay only, but might themselves be an eyewitnesses of His being alive, because they must attest it to the world, & build the church upon that testimony, "For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence" (Act 1:5).
II. TOPIC TO BE DISCUSS: Now observe here:
A. Christ's kingdom was to be set up among men. Immediately upon His resurrection & accordingly, we find the very day He arose, though but a day, yet the grace with those solemnities which should help to keep up a face of religion throughout all the ages of the church.
1. The first day of the week. The visit Christ made to His disciples is designed by God to put honor upon it, by ordering that they should be altogether, to receive Christ's first visit on that day.
2. The disciples met for some religious exercise. This meeting was private and the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, who would prosecute them as criminals.
a) To stole the Lord's body. That the Jews seem to believe the lie they would deceive the world with that His disciples came by night, and stole Him away.
b) For fear of the Jews. It's a real grief, but no real blame, to Christ's disciples, thus to escape.
B. The Lord's visit came among them in His own likeness of a true body. Christ came among them, and give them a specimen of the performance of his promised, "where two or three are gathered together in His name, he will be in the midst of them." He came, though the doors were shut.
1. Real human body. This doesn't at all weaken the evidence of His having a real human body after his resurrection; as the doors were shut, as formerly He had walked on the water, and yet had a body.
true
2. It is a comfort to Christ's disciples. Their solemn assemblies reduced to privacy, that no doors can shut out Christ's presence from them. We have five things in this appearance of Christ:
a) His kind and familiar salutation of His disciples. His sudden appearing in the midst of them when they were full of doubts concerning Him, & full of fears concerning themselves, could not but put them into some disorder & consternation, the noise of which waves He stills with this word, "Peace be unto you."
b) His clear and undeniable manifestation of Himself to them, (Jhn 20:20). And here observe,
b-1) The truth of His resurrection. They now saw Him alive whom many had seen Him dead before. A further proof that it was so than the scars or marks of the wounds in the body.
*First, The marks of the wounds, remained in the body of the Lord even after His resurrect- tion, that they might be demonstrations of the truth of it.
*Second, These marks he showed to His disciples, for their conviction. They had not only the satisfaction of seeing Him look with the same countenance, but they had further evidence of these peculiar marks.
b-2) The impression it made upon them, and the good it did them.
*First, They were convinced that they saw the Lord: so was their faith confirmed
*Second, Then they were glad, that which strengthened their faith raised their joy; believing they rejoice.
c) The honourable and ample commission, He gave them to be His agents in planting of His church, (Jhn 20:21). Here is,
c-1) The preface to their commission, which was a solemn repetition of salutation before: Peace be unto you. This was intended, either,
*First, To raise their attention to the commission He was about to give them. Therefore the former salutation was to still the tumult of their fear.
*Secondly, To encourage them to accept of the commission giving them. Though it would in- volve them in a great deal of trouble, yet he designed their honour and comfort. c-2) The commission, which sounds great: As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
*First, It is easy to understand how Christ sent them; He appointed them to go on with His
work upon the earth, & to lay out themselves for spreading of His gospel, & setting up of His kingdom, among men.
*Second, But how Christ sent them as the Father sent Him isn't so easily understood; certain- ly their commissions and powers were infinitely inferior to his; but,
1. Their work was of the same kind with His, and they were to go on where He left off. They weren't sent to be priests and kings, like Him, but only prophets.
2. He had power to send them to that which the Father had to send Him. Here the force of the comparison seems to lie. By the same authority that the Father sent me do I send you.
d) The qualifying for the discharge of the trust reposed in them by their commission. He breat- hed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Observe,
d-1) The sign He used to assure them of, & affect them with. Is the gift He was now about to bestow upon them. He breathed on them, not only to show them, this breath of life, that He Himself was really alive, but to signify to them the spiritual life & power which they should receive from Him for all the services that lay before them.
*First, That the Spirit is the breath of Christ. The breath of Christ signifies the power of His grace; breath of threatening's is changed into the breathings of love by the mediation of Christ.
*Secondly, That the Spirit is the gift of Christ. The apostles communicated the Holy Ghost by laying on of hands, those hands being first lifted up in prayer.
d-2) The solemn grant He made, signified by this sign, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, in part now, as an earnest of what you shall further receive "not many days hence." *Firstly, Christ hereby gives them assurance of the Spirit's aid in their future work, in the execution of the commission now given them.
*Secondly, He hereby gives them experience of the Spirit's influences in their present case. They were in danger of the Jews: "Therefore receive ye the Holy Ghost, to work courage in you."
e) One particular branch of power given them by their commission particularized (Jhn 20:23), "Whosesoever sins you remit, and whosesoever sins you retain, they are retained, & the sin- ner may be sure of it, to his sorrow."
e-1) Now this follows upon their receiving by the Holy Ghost. For, if they had not had an ex- traordinary spirit of discerning, they had not been fit to be entrusted with such an authori- ty in the strictest sense.
e-2) This is a special commission to the apostles. The first preachers of the gospel, who could distinguish who were in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity, and who were not.
III. CONCLUSION: Now this gift of the Holy Ghost thus promised, thus prophesied of, thus waited for, is that which we find the apostles received, that this promise had its full accomplishment; this was it that should come, & we look for no other; for it is here promised to be given not many days hence. The Lord doesn't tell them how many, because they must keep every day in frame fit to receive it. Other scripture speak of the gift of the HG to ordinary believers; it speaks of that particular power, by the HG, the first preachers of the gospel, & planters of the church, were endued with, enabling them infallibly to relate to that age, and record to posterity, the doctrine of Christ, and the proofs of it; so that by virtue of this promised, & the performance of it, we receive the New Testament as of divine inspiration, and venture our souls upon it.
PTLGA & TGBATG in Christ Jesus, Amen.