Just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.

John 20 for the read John in July challenge

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already removed from the tomb. ² So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they have put Him.” ³ So Peter and the other disciple left, and they were going to the tomb. ⁴ The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead, faster than Peter, and came to the tomb first; ⁵ and he stooped to look in, and saw the linen wrappings lying there; however he did not go in. ⁶ So Simon Peter also came, following him, and he entered the tomb; and he looked at the linen wrappings lying there, ⁷ and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings but folded up in a place by itself. ⁸ So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb also entered then, and he saw and believed. ⁹ For they did not yet understand the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead. ¹⁰ So the disciples went away again to their own homes.

¹¹ But Mary was standing outside the tomb, weeping; so as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb; ¹² and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. ¹³ And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they put Him.” ¹⁴ When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and yet she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Thinking that He was the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you put Him, and I will take Him away.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). ¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” ¹⁸ Mary Magdalene came and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.

¹⁹ Now when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were together due to fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, “Peace be to you.” ²⁰ And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹ So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be to you; just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” ²² And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

²⁴ But Thomas, one of the twelve, who was called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵ So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

²⁶ Eight days later His disciples were again inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be to you.” ²⁷ Then He said to Thomas, “Place your finger here, and see My hands; and take your hand and put it into My side; and do not continue in disbelief, but be a believer.” ²⁸ Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹ Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you now believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

³⁰ So then, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹ but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that by believing you may have life in His name.

In today’s text Jesus says:  “Peace be to you; just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”  If we have been sent as Jesus was sent by the Father, we need to recognize what we are sent for. We are not sent to be anyone’s savior or redeemer. In yesterday’s meditation we saw that in John 19:30 Jesus said: “It is finished!” The work of redemption was fully accomplished in the cross.  As we saw yesterday, so is our healing and every promise of God for us fully accomplished in the finished work of the cross. What then does Jesus send us to do? In the beginning of His ministry, in Luke 4:16-21 it says:  He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him. And He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,Because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” And He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all the people in the synagogue were intently directed at Him. Now He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  In Matthew 4:17 it says:  From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  That too is what Jesus sends us to do, to bring good news, to proclaim release to the captives of sin and set free those who are oppressed. Jesus said the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him. In today’s text He says: “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  Jesus sends us with the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 1:8 He says: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.”  In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus says:  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  In Mark 16:15-18 He says: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but the one who has not believed will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”   We have been sent with the authority of Christ; with the power of the Holy Spirit and with the promise that He will be with us. Mark 16 continues saying:  So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.  In John 14:12-14 Jesus says: “Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”  If we would do the works that Jesus did, if we would see miracles and signs, we need to do what Jesus sent us to do.  James 4:17 says:   So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin.

Today’s text ends saying: So then, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that by believing you may have life in His name.  John 21:25 says:  There are also many other things which Jesus did, which, if they were written in detail, I expect that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.  2 Corinthians 3:2-3 says:  You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.  The books of the miracles and the works of Christ is still being written today. Day by day as we respond to the commission of Christ, we have the privilege of adding a page or a chapter to His story.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, as You have sent me, I go, empowered by the Spirit and emboldened by Your presence may I be Your witness to the world.  Amen.