Sunday LinkUp – 07April2024 – GRACE COMMUNION JAMAICA

CALL TO WORSHIP

OPENING PRAYER

WELCOME and THANKS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Changes to our Sunday LinkUp … Starting today … we’re making some

The new format will be less like a church service … and more like a Sunday School — with music …
in two parts/stages … 1) for adults and 2) for children
the focus will be more on equipping (for disciplemaking) than on worshipping.
- - Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
  - 2 Timothy 2:1-2 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. ²And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
  - Ephesians 4: 11-12 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,

2. Monday Preverb … Starting tomorrow evening … we’ll be changing from Monday Reverb to , using that Bible study to equip members as they prepare for the next Sunday meeting.

3. Meeting today … right after our Sunday LinkUp … to discuss a framework for a discipleship program for the Sunday church.

OPENING COMMENTS

Today is the second Sunday of the Easter season (which, FYI, lasts until Pentecost Sunday).
The theme for this week is the blessing of peace and joy.
We’re still thinking about the resurrection … so our two opening songs will reflect that …

OPENING SONGS

FIRST MESSAGE

Life in a Handful of Dust
Greg Williams

From the PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT …

John starts his gospel work “In the beginning.” Later Jesus creates sight for a blind man with a handful of dust. After his resurrection, he meets Mary in a garden on Easter morning. In the Upper Room, he breathes on his apostles. Notice John’s words:

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

John 20:21-22 (ESV)

Throughout the gospels, most vividly in John, we see the familiar images of dust, gardens, and breath. History started this way, in the garden, where God first breathed life into Adam. Here at the start of the New Testament church, Jesus begins the whole process again, by breathing the Spirit into us.

There’s that Hebrew word for breath — ruach — the word for Spirit.

Instead of destroying us for our rebellion and for turning from him, instead of starting over with a scorched earth policy from the ground up, God came here himself to re-create. These echoes of creation remind us that God always kept a remnant — Noah, the Exodus, the people brought back from exile. And then he brought forth his Son from one family, one woman, one womb.

He kept the remnant because that was his plan all along. He is the God who re-creates. He takes the dust and waste that sin has turned the world into and starts his kingdom here and says, “It is good.”

Has he breathed life into the dust of your life? Has he taken what is lifeless and dry and made it live? Think of the addict who is healed and goes on to support other addicts. Think of a mother who was hurt and abused as a child, but was then given her own children to cherish and break that cycle of pain.

We live in a world of death and resurrection with a God who, over and over, breathes life into a handful of dust. How is he breathing life into you?

I’m Greg Williams Speaking of Life.

FIRST READING

21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! 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, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” .

24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” .

30 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

WHAT DID YOU HEAR?
- - What about the passage stands out for you?
WHAT ELSE CAN WE HEAR?
- - What else could God be telling us?

INTERACTIVE SERMON

Despite the doors being locked, Jesus comes and stands ‘in their midst’, a phrase which has a curious parallel with the vision in Revelation 1 of the Son of Man ‘in the midst’ of the lamp stands (Rev 1.13).
In this passage, Jesus is both clearly corporeal (bodily) but in a transformed way so that he is unconstrained by the limits of the physical world, and can come and go as he pleases.

As in the parallel account in Luke 24.36, Jesus greets them and shows them his wounds; in that gospel, this everyday greeting becomes part of Luke’s interest in the theme of the peace of the gospel. But in the Fourth Gospel, the language of peace specifically reminds us of the Last Supper discourse, in which Jesus offers peace in contrast with the ‘trouble’ his disciples will have in the world (John 14:27, 16:33).
On saying this, he immediately shows them not his ‘hands and feet’ as in Luke, but his ‘hands and side’. This confirms that it is the same Jesus they knew before, but also that it is these wounds that bring about the peace that he has promised.
The springs of living water that Ezekiel anticipated flowing from the side of the renewed temple (Ezekiel 47:1) actually flowed from the side of Jesus (John 19:34), who is the true temple (John 2:19–21), in fulfilment of Jesus’ own teaching (John 7:38). Joy comes to the disciples as they begin to recognise who Jesus really is, and what his death and resurrection really mean.

²¹So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

Barclay: He gave them the normal everyday eastern greeting: “Peace be to you.” It means far more than: “May you be saved from trouble.” It means: “May God give you every good thing.”
Jesus has not come simply to minister to them, but to commission them to minister to others in the same way he has ministered to them. ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you’.
There are two different words used here for ‘send’, apostello and pempo respectively, but there is no sense of different meanings.

²²And 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, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Compare Genesis 2:7 and Ezekiel 37:9 with John 20:22.
We then are offered a concise ‘Johannine Pentecost’ as Jesus breathes on the disciples and invites them to ‘receive the Spirit’. I don’t think there is any easy way to resolve the chronological differences between this and Luke-Acts, but theologically the Fourth Gospel says something very similar to Luke:
- Christology: As Jesus’ breathing illustrates, Jesus is the one who dispenses the Spirit of God, a claim that thus enfolds Jesus within the Godhead.
- Missiology: their apostolic ministry, sent to continue the work that ‘Jesus began to do’ (Acts 1.1), can only be effective when empowered by the Spirit.
- Ecclesiology: the realisation of the forgiveness that comes from Jesus’ death and resurrection only takes place in the context of this Spirit-filled resurrection community.

Most commentators connect this saying with Matt 16:19, and Peter having the ‘keys’ to the kingdom. But we noted that this is about being steward of the household, rather than being the one who grants permission to enter, and both there and here the emphasis is on the power of God to forgive, not the disciples.
Mark 2:1-7 Who can forgive sins, but God?
However you read it, there is a strong focus on belonging to the community of forgiveness.

²⁴Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

The others greet Thomas just the same way Mary had greeted them ‘We have seen the Lord!’, using exactly the same words — but the effect is quite different.
Thomas’ response is not rational but emotional; it is full of repetition (nails/nails, put my finger/put my hand) and drama, as he demands to merely to touch but to ‘thrust’ (ballo) his finger and hands in the gaping wounds. What was the reason for this bitter response?
It was anger at what had happened … that he had somehow missed out.

²⁶And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!”²⁷Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

²⁸And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus’ next appearance takes place ‘after eight days’, which perhaps, by counting the days inclusively (that is, including the first and last within the number) means ‘one week later’ as many English translations have it.
This second encounter at first exactly mirrors the first: the door are locked; Jesus stands in their midst; he greets them a third time ‘Peace be with you!’
Then his attention is turned to Thomas, with three noteworthy things:
- First, Jesus knew everything that Thomas had said;
- Second, Jesus completely accepts Thomas’ demands of proof, as indicated by His invitation to Thomas;
- Third, there is nothing to suggest that Thomas took Jesus up on His offer. It seems as if seeing Jesus for himself was enough, given that Jesus said he (Thomas) believed (verse 29).
- Thomas’ was forgiven … and he was once more included into the community.

²⁹Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” .

(the second concluding statement coming in John 21.24–25).
Although Jesus is speaking to Thomas, ‘those who have not seen, yet believe’ include the first generation of readers of this gospel … and us, by extension.
Those who ‘have not seen’ are not in any sense inferior to those who ‘have seen and believed’ … because it is the shared reality of belief that matters.
- - Where Thomas had the visual evidence of the Living Word before him, we now have the evidence of the written word … and the testimony of the beloved disciple … and both are sufficient for us to place our trust in Jesus.

³⁰And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

CONCLUSION

What, for you is the MAIN TAKEAWAY?

For me, it’s the reminder that we are a sent people …

²¹So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! 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. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” .

Jesus has not come simply to minister to them, but to commission them to minister to others in the same way he has ministered to them. ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you’. There are two different words used here for ‘send’, apostello and pempo respectively, but there is no sense of different meaning.

We then are offered a concise ‘Johannine Pentecost’ as Jesus breathes on the disciples and invites them to ‘receive the Spirit’. I don’t think there is any easy way to resolve the chronological differences between this and Luke-Acts, but theologically the Fourth Gospel says something very similar to Luke:
- Christology: As Jesus’ breathing illustrates, Jesus is the one who dispenses the Spirit of God, a claim that thus enfolds Jesus within the Godhead.
- Missiology: their apostolic ministry, sent to continue the work that ‘Jesus began to do’ (Acts 1.1), can only be effective when empowered by the Spirit.
- Ecclesiology: the realisation of the forgiveness that comes from Jesus’ death and resurrection only takes place in the context of this Spirit-filled resurrection community.

CLOSING SONG

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