John 20:21-23

John 20:21

The Christian Mission

I. These words were addressed in the first instance to the apostles then present. But they are likewise addressed, and with no less force, to every one who finds joy in the presence of his Saviour. All such persons does Christ send to work His work upon earth. As He came to work the work of His heavenly Father, so all who are made partakers in His salvation are sent by Him to work the same work, each according to his calling and to the gift that he may have received. To all Christ gives the same charge; He sends all to work the work of God. This is His commandment. He sends them to work the work of God, as children of God, with the peaceful feeling of being reconciled to God and received into His family; to find their chief pleasure in working that work, with no constraint upon them, except the blessed constraint of love.

II. Thus we see on what a glorious mission every Christian is sent; we see what a blessing he bears with him, so long as he endeavours to fulfil that mission. Still, so weak and frail and mean-spirited is man that, notwithstanding the glory of the work, notwithstanding the blessing it brings with it, he shrinks from it; he cannot summon heart for so mighty an enterprise; he cannot rise out of the mire of his carnal nature, but sinks into it again. There are a host of excuses that people are wont to bring forward for shrinking from the work Christ sends them to do. To all, however, our Lord gives a complete answer; one and all He cuts off in the text. For when He had given His charge to the disciples, when He had sent them on the same mission on which He had been sent by His Father, "He breathed on them and said to them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." He gave them the Holy Ghost to strengthen them, to enlighten them, to breathe life into their words and power into their arguments. And the same Holy Spirit is granted richly to all who have received Christ into their hearts as their Saviour, and have given themselves up to God to work their Master's work. They receive the Holy Ghost, not only to dwell in them and sanctify them, but also to strengthen and enlighten them for the work on which Christ sends them, and to help and prosper them in that work.

J. C. Hare, Sermons in Herstmonceux Church,p. 208.

References: John 20:21. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iv., p. 85.John 20:22. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xvi., p. 45.John 20:22; John 20:23. Ibid.,vol. x., p. 164.John 20:24. H. Melvill, Voices of the Year,vol. ii., p. 347; Christian World Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 267.