You Are Sent: How Jesus Unlocks Our Fear and Gives Us the Power to Witness

Morning, good morning.

Alright, before we do anything this morning, I want everyone to do something with me.

Okay?

I want you to take a deep breath.

Okay, just follow my lead.

We're gonna take a deep breath.

Ready?

And hold it.

Hold it.

Don't let it go yet.

Okay, you can let it go.

Now, some of you I know held it way longer, way too long, maybe.

Maybe some of you start turning a little purple, I don't know.

Um you've probably done that more than 20,000 times since this time yesterday.

You did it while you were asleep, you did it driving down the highway, you did it yelling at your kids, scrolling on your phone at one in the morning, breathing.

And you don't think about it.

And you didn't earn a single one of those breaths.

You didn't make the air, you didn't design and build your lungs, you didn't earn any of those breaths.

Every breath you've taken was given to you.

Breath is a gift.

Every single one.

Now we're in week three of our series, Who's Your One?

Two weeks ago, we saw Heaven throw a party over one lost sheep coming home.

Last week, we saw Paul, Paul showed us a heart that breaks for the lost, or really understanding the lostness of the lost and what it means to pray for the lost people around us.

And a lot of you wrote a name on a tag, and that tag is on that tree.

It's hung on that tree.

That tree out in the lobby, it is filling up with names, and it is beautiful, church.

It is a beautiful thing to see.

Just keep adding names to that tree.

Because we're gonna keep praying for those people.

We're gonna pray every Sunday morning before the service for those people because we care about those people.

Now, this morning, we're gonna be in the Gospel of John, John chapter 20, verses 19 through 22.

John 20:19–22

Now, we've been spending the past couple of weeks talking about the lost ones.

This morning, I want to talk about who you are.

You see, because every one of us answers to more than one name.

Some of you are a mom, some of you are a dad or a grandparent, some of you are a teacher, a project manager, a nurse, wealth managers.

Some of you run your own company, you're a son, you're a daughter, you're you're a husband, a wife, a father, a mother.

All of those aspects of you are true.

They're true of who you are.

And if you belong to Jesus, you are a child of God.

In fact, that's your main identity.

If someone comes to you and asks you, who are you?

Your main identity is, I am a child of God.

That's who you are.

But there's another name that's that's part of your identity as a child of God.

And it is true of every Christian in this room.

Whether you got saved last month or if you've been a Christian for 50 years, it is true for all of you.

John chapter 20, verse 21.

John 20:21

Again, Jesus said, Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

I am sending you.

Your other name, the other part of your identity, is sent.

Now, look, that's a big word.

And I want you to understand, I really want you to understand that that is a big word.

In fact, in John's gospel, over and over, Jesus describes himself as the sent one.

He is the one God the Father sent.

He says, the Father who sent me.

The idea of being sent, it shows up around 60 times in this one book, in John's Gospel.

Jesus is the sent one.

The Father sent the Son out of love into a world that didn't want him to show us what God is like and to provide a rescue plan for his people and for his world.

And now, in the context of this gospel, we have Jesus, he's standing in a room on the night that he rose from the dead, so this is after his crucifixion, he's now in a resurrected state.

Jesus takes his commission as the sent one, and he puts it on his people.

I mean, imagine for a moment.

Imagine Jesus standing in front of his disciples with scars in his hands, telling them, as the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

And this mission, it didn't end with his first disciples.

Jesus has given his church the calling to make him known to the world.

And I want you to pay attention to how he says this, right?

He doesn't hold auditions.

He doesn't say, you know, get a little bit better and then maybe I'll send you.

No, he says, I am sending you.

He says it like a fact.

Because it is one.

You see, some of you, maybe you've been told your whole life what you're not.

Not smart enough.

You're not clean enough.

You're not perfect enough.

You're not in the right place.

Maybe you got the wrong papers, you got the wrong accent, maybe you come from the wrong family.

And some of you, when you hear this word sent, something in you says, whoa, not me.

Now there's others of you, you've got a great resume.

You've got a resume that opens doors all over the city.

I mean, you've built things, impressive things, you lead teams of people.

But when it comes to talking about Jesus, that's the one thing you've never put on that resume.

Maybe because you're afraid.

You're afraid of what it might do to your career or your social life.

Or maybe it's because you're the kind of person that you won't do anything unless you know with a hundred percent confidence that you'll do it well.

Well, Jesus says to over both of you types of people, sent.

You are sent.

But now what does that actually mean?

What is a sent person actually do?

Well, Acts chapter 1, verse 8, Jesus tells us.

Acts 1:8

He says, You will be my witnesses.

And look, a witness, don't overcomplicate it.

A witness is way simpler than most people think.

I mean, say you're on you're on Southern Boulevard and you see a car crash, somebody runs the red light and slams into a pickup.

Cop pulls up, walks over to you, says, ma'am, what did you see?

Now he doesn't ask if you're a mechanic.

He he doesn't care if you went to law school.

He doesn't pull up your driving record.

He wants to know one thing.

What did you see?

That's a witness.

A witness tells what they saw.

You don't have to win the argument.

You don't have to know every answer.

You just tell them what you've seen Jesus do.

And church, if you belong to him, you have seen something.

You've seen him forgive you.

You've seen him pull you out of the pit.

You've seen him keep you clean one more day.

But you've seen even more than that.

You've seen him answer a prayer that you stop praying.

You've seen him put food on your table and a roof over your head.

You've seen him open a door that nobody else could open.

You've seen him bring your child back home.

You've seen him give a church family that loves you.

You've seen him put a new song in your mouth on a Sunday morning.

You've seen him give you joy that you cannot explain.

You've seen him take a mess in your life and turn it into a message.

You have seen Jesus do something.

But listen, at the center of it, at the center of our witness, it's not about my story.

It's about his story.

Jesus lived the life you and I could not live.

He died the death you deserved.

He took the penalty for our sin, for your sin against a holy God.

And they buried him.

And on the third day he got up, he was raised from the dead.

And right now he is seated at the right hand of the Father.

Church, that is not good advice.

That is good news.

And that is the good news we as his people are sent to tell.

You are a witness.

You are a sent people.

In fact, turn to the person next to you.

Turn to the person next to you.

Look them right in the eye and tell them, you are sent.

Come on, people, like you mean it.

You are sent.

Tell them.

You are sent.

But now if that's true, if every Christian in this room is sent, then a lot of us are a sent people sitting behind a locked door.

Because if we're honest, when we hear you're sent, maybe the first thing that comes up is a question.

Maybe the same question that Moses asked God at the burning bush.

Who am I to be sent?

Let's hop back up to verse 19.

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders.

Actually, let's let's stop there, actually.

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders.

Okay, it is Sunday night, right?

Just days earlier, these men watched the authorities arrest Jesus, beat him, and nail him to a cross.

And they knew.

They knew that the people who killed their teacher could come after his followers next.

So what do they do?

They're hiding.

Doors locked.

Every footstep out in the streets makes their hearts jump.

But it's not only what's outside the room, it's what's inside it too.

See, these are the men who ran.

These people walked with Jesus and they ran, every one of them.

When the soldiers came for Jesus in the garden, yeah, Peter pulled up a sword and swung it, but the second Jesus let them arrest him, every one of them scattered and ran.

And Peter, the one who said, I would die for you, denied knowing Jesus three times.

And that very morning when Jesus rose from the grave, Mary Magdalene had come to them and said, I have seen the Lord.

So the disciples, they heard the news and they locked the doors anyway.

Church, those fearful disciples, that's us.

These aren't unbelievers.

They love Jesus.

They've heard the good news and they're still hiding.

You see, for a lot of us, that lock is fear.

Fear of rejection.

Maybe you bring up Jesus and and your unbelieving mom says something to you like, you know, what, so you you think you're better than us now?

Maybe your family back home, you think they might stop talking to you or might stop calling you.

Or maybe at work you're gonna be known as the religious guy that nobody wants to have lunch with anymore.

And underneath that fear, listen, there's something deeper going on.

Their approval matters more to us than God.

But now for some of us, your lock is shame.

You think, well, they know what I used to be like.

And yeah, maybe they do.

The guys at your job remember, your family remembers, your classmates remember, and you think, Who am I to talk about Jesus?

I mean, they have seen me at my worst.

You know what your issue is?

You still believe that your past defines you.

But now for others, your lock might be competence.

I mean, I know this is one that I struggle with.

You don't want to sound stupid.

You don't want to get hit with a question you can't answer.

And if you're not sure you can do it well, well, you know, you'd rather not try.

Because looking smart and capable matters more to you than being obedient.

Different locks, same door, and all of them are whispering the same thing.

What Jesus can do through me depends on what I bring to the table.

You know who is familiar with this?

Moses.

Guy at the burning bush.

He knew those locks.

God shows up to him in a burning bush and says, I'm sending you.

And Moses says, Who am I?

I mean, what if they don't believe me?

I'm not a good speaker.

And then finally, in Exodus 4, he says, Please send someone else.

I mean, Moses was 80 years old and he's asking, Who am I?

And look, who am I can sound humble, but actually, it's still all about me.

We're making it about me.

And look, I I've got a locked door on my, yeah, I've got a lock on my door too.

I was on a plane recently and I got stuck in the middle seats.

And I gotta tell you, I can't stand the middle seats.

I'm an aisle guy.

I want my freedom.

I want to be able to walk up and down the aisle as freely as I want to, you know, and whenever I want to.

I don't want to be climbing over a stranger and their pretzels.

And when I fly, I've got a system.

Either I'm I'm reading a physical book or I'm listening to a podcast.

But either way, I've got my AirPods in.

Why?

So that I don't have to talk to the person next to me.

I know.

I said it.

I know it's shocking that a pastor would say something like that, right?

But on this flight, I left them out.

I think God was probably convicting me.

Maybe because I'm, you know, I knew in advance that I was going to be preaching a series like this.

That's that's probably what happened.

God was convicting me and correcting me in that moment.

So I'm reading this book by Tim Keller called The Reason for God.

And there was a woman sitting next to me, and I caught a glance that she glanced over and saw the book and then turns away.

And I thought for a moment, thinking, should I say something?

You know, is this a moment for me to strike up a conversation?

But I wasn't sure.

You know, is she is she interested or is she hostile?

I I don't know.

She looked at the book about God and turned away, so I'm not really sure.

You know, and I thought, you know, maybe I should.

I started creating this whole narrative in my head.

Maybe I shouldn't talk to anything.

This isn't the moment right now.

Church, I want you to understand something.

I've been sent to India.

I have trained pastors in North Africa who hold services literally in the mountains to stay safe from violent persecution.

And I sat in the middle seat at 30,000 feet and I couldn't open my mouth to a woman sitting next to me with one armrest between us.

See, it wasn't about her, it was about me.

I locked my door.

Just like the disciples, they locked the doors.

They were afraid.

But Jesus, he came in.

Read with me.

I'm gonna read the whole thing through now.

Starting in verse 19, you can follow along on the screen.

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.

After he said this, he showed them his hands and side.

The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again, Jesus said, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

And with that, he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

Jesus came in.

Locked doors and all, Jesus came and stood right in the middle of these guys.

They didn't open the door, they didn't go, you know, go looking for him out there in the streets.

He shows up and comes to them.

He came to the men who ran away.

He came to Peter who denied him.

And the very first thing he does, he doesn't scold them or reprimand them.

He stands among them.

And in fact, before he gives them a job to do, he gives them himself.

And church, that's how God has always done it.

Moses, 80 years old, terrible with words, begging God to send someone else.

Or if you were, maybe some of you remember Gideon.

Gideon, he's hiding in a wine press, terrified of his enemies, and God calls him a mighty warrior.

Mighty warrior.

He's hiding in a winepress.

Maybe God's a comedian.

I don't know.

Gideon.

Oh, or how about Paul?

How about Paul?

The man who hunted down Christians and literally dragged them off to prison.

Every single one of those people had a reason they thought they shouldn't be sent.

And every one of them discovered the same truth.

To Moses, God said, I will be with you.

To Gideon, I will be with you.

And Jesus, right before he went back to heaven, told his disciples, Surely I am with you always.

Joshua 1, 9, the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Church, God never sends you alone.

When you go out and talk to your lost one, I want you to understand this.

You have the presence of Jesus with you.

Always.

And listen, if you're 75, 80 years old this morning, I want you to hear this too.

You are not retired from being sent.

At 80, Moses, well, he was just getting started.

So you are still a sent people.

And it gets even better than that.

They're in this room, and then a few weeks later, after this locked room incident, Peter and John, they're standing in front of the very same leaders they were hiding from, and they're now preaching Jesus with boldness.

And the leaders, they can't figure it out.

We read in Act 4 when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized they were unschooled, unschooled, ordinary men.

They were astonished and they took note that these men, they had been with Jesus.

Unschooled, ordinary.

No seminary degree, no college degree.

I mean, some of you haven't finished high school and you think that disqualifies you.

And look, I'm not saying education doesn't matter or isn't helpful, but but what made the difference was never their education.

They had been with Jesus.

They had been with Jesus.

So that woman on the plane.

I finally get up to use the restroom.

I leave my book on the seat.

And when I came back, I noticed that the book had moved.

She confessed, she picked it up and said, You know, I hope you don't mind.

It's an interesting title.

I asked, Do you believe in God?

Do you follow a particular faith?

And she opened up.

She shared about how she grew up as a Catholic, but there were so many questions and confusions that she was never able to get explanations about it.

So she so she drifted and left that faith.

She tried out some different religions, Buddhism and other things.

And now, well, it seems like she's not really sure.

And then she told me about her grandson, how he's searching.

In fact, how he started a Bible study, but he's also getting confused too.

So it almost sounded like he's starting to lose heart.

So we talked about Jesus.

I gave her some books to read.

She said she loves to read, so I gave her some book recommendations.

I recommended a book for her grandson to help him understand the Bible better so that he wouldn't lose heart.

And then I, you know, out of my comfort zone, invited her and her grandson to come to Belvedere one day.

And I thought maybe they'll walk through these doors one Sunday, but I didn't know.

I didn't know.

But here's what I can't get over.

I'm sitting there thinking that she may not be interested.

I'm creating this narrative that maybe she's actually hostile.

Maybe she's got something, some issue against the book I'm reading.

I've got all these scenarios going through my head.

And meanwhile, Jesus seems to already be at work.

Already at work in the road before I ever sat down.

Perhaps Jesus was already stirring her heart.

I mean, he was already, it seemed like he was already working in his in her grandson's life.

See, I was afraid of a closed door that I put a lock on.

Meanwhile, Jesus, he's already working on the other side of it.

He's already working.

Let's go on.

I want to talk about this line.

He says, Peace be with you.

Jesus came in.

We have the presence of Jesus.

And then he says, Peace be with you.

Now look, in that day, that was a normal greeting.

It's how you said hello.

But this is no ordinary hello.

Remember, he's saying this to men who abandon him.

He doesn't bring up Friday.

He doesn't, he doesn't ask where they scattered off to.

The first word out of his mouth is peace.

And then verse 20, he shows him his hands inside.

Now he does this, he shows the scars for two reasons.

First, so that they would know it's really him.

This is the same Jesus they watched die.

This isn't a ghost, it's not an impersonator.

It's not like, you know, when you see Elvis impersonators and think, oh, that must be really Elvis.

No, no, no.

This was Jesus.

He was proving and validating this is him in the flesh.

And second, so that they would know what the peace cost.

The prophet Isaiah wrote 700 years before it happened.

Many of you know this verse by heart, he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.

The punishment that brought peace, that brought us peace was on him.

And by his wounds we are healed.

The punishment that brought us peace was on him.

You see, every failure in that room, every denial, every time they ran, all of that, it all went into those hands and that side.

And Jesus holds up proof and says, peace be with you.

And church, that includes your failures too.

The times you've been ashamed of Jesus, the times you stayed silent when you should have spoken up, those sins can be forgiven too, because Christ died for sinners like us.

And look at how the disciples respond.

Look what happens.

It says the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

They were overjoyed.

They looked at the scars from their worst nights, and it turned out to be the best night of their lives.

And listen, if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus, this is the peace you were made for.

You were made for this kind of joy and peace with God.

It's not a feeling you you muster up on your own.

It is a peace that you received that was paid for at the cross.

Your shame, your past, the things you've done that nobody knows about.

Jesus took the punishment for all of it at the cross.

And three days later, he walked out of the grave to prove that the debt was paid in full.

And look, I want you to hear this.

There is not a single sinner in this room who is too far gone that Jesus can't save.

Not a single one.

So if that's you, this is peace, it's for you.

So receive it.

But Jesus now he says it a second time.

He says it again in verse 21.

He says, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

So the same words.

But this time they point in another direction.

You see, the first piece that Jesus says met them in their fear.

The second piece sends them out the door.

And that peace doesn't hand them a safer world.

Right?

The people who killed Jesus, well, they're still out there.

What Jesus does, and he continues to do to this day, is he gives them a deeper peace, a steady peace because they have a relationship with him.

They are children of God.

That is a peace that can never be taken away.

It can never be shaken.

You will always be a child of God when you have placed your faith in him.

So they have a deeper, steady peace, a peace only God can give right in the middle of that same dangerous world.

Right in the middle of that.

They had that peace.

Now, some of you, you may have heard me tell this uh story last year.

I think it was almost maybe one year ago exactly.

I don't know.

Well, let me share this.

I've had the privilege of training pastors in Pakistan.

A few of them had planted a church right on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

And I'm sure you can imagine the locals didn't want it there.

So what do they do?

They pulled out their guns and shot at the church doors, no joke, every single day for an entire year.

I saw the bullet dents and the bullet holes to prove it.

They shot their church doors every single day for an entire year.

Now those pastors, they could have just closed up the shop and walk away, but they held on.

Eventually, the shooting stopped.

And then those pastors did something that I will never forget.

They opened the doors and they went out.

Every week, up and down the border, sharing the gospel with Muslims and Afghan refugees.

They went every single week and at least once a week, at least once a week, one of those pastors would come home with a bullet wound, shot in the arm or shot in the leg for telling people about Jesus.

And then the next week, they went back out.

Church, our locked door is usually a text message we're scared to send.

Theirs had bullet holes in it.

They knew the peace of Jesus, not because they were safe, but because they belong to the risen Christ.

And they understood what it means to be a sent people.

They got it.

We need some of that in our American churches to understand that we are sent.

Jesus doesn't just give you his presence and his peace, he also gives you the power to go.

Verse 22.

And with that he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

Jesus breathed on the disciples.

Now that word breathe only appears once in the New Testament.

But it takes us all the way back to Genesis 2, 7.

When God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

And in Ezekiel 37, the prophet stands in the valley of dry bones, dead, hopeless bones.

And God commands him to call out the breath, come breath from the four winds, and breathe into these slain that they may live.

And Ezekiel says, breath entered them, and they came to life and stood up on their feet, a vast army.

Dry bones, then breath, then an army.

And now it is the first day of a brand new creation that is begun.

The tomb is empty, and the risen Jesus stands in a room filled with frightened, ashamed men.

And he breathes on them.

Church, he's not giving them a pep talk.

He is breathing new life into them.

The God who breathed life into Adam, the God who raised dry bones into an army, the risen Jesus now breathes on the disciples and says, Receive the Holy Spirit.

And if you remember, weeks later at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit would come upon the people in power.

But what Jesus is doing, he's already showing us the source of their mission.

They are not going out in their own strength, they will go in the power of his spirit.

That is the power.

Church, you are never sent on your own breath.

Moses didn't have it in him, Gideon didn't have it.

Peter definitely didn't have it.

And neither do you.

And that's the good news.

You don't have the power within you.

Jesus gives you his power.

In fact, why don't we try this again?

Take a deep breath again.

Take a deep breath with me.

Ready?

Breathe in and out.

Now remember, when you breathe in and out, remember whose spirit lives in you.

You are a sent people with Holy Spirit power.

Every Christian in this room carries the breath of the risen Jesus, the Holy Spirit of God.

The same spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now lives in you.

You are a sent one with his peace, with his presence, and with his power.

And listen again, I appeal to you even again, if you don't know him yet, Jesus has one word for you this morning.

Receive.

Receive.

Your faith is a lot like breathing in.

You don't make the air, you receive it.

Maybe you've been holding your breath, trying to get your just to get your life together on your own first.

Let it go.

Turn from your sin.

Turn to Jesus.

Breathe him in.

Receive his peace.

Receive his life and receive him.

Look, if you're ready to trust Jesus today, or if you've got questions about what it even means, like Ray mentioned earlier, come talk to me or one of our leaders after the service.

I would love to have those types of conversations with you.

Church, we know this.

We know only Jesus saves.

We know only God raises the dead.

But he sends his people to speak about him.

I mean, one conversation with your lost one may be the moments God uses to bring somebody back to life.

So seize those moments.

I was sent to North Africa.

I was sent to the Middle East.

I was sent to Pakistan.

And now I am sent to West Palm Beach.

And church, so are you.

Whether it's the job site at six in the morning, or the laundromat on Belvedere Road, or the recovery meeting on a Tuesday night, or to your cousin, or to your brother, or to your parents, or to the sideline at your kids' soccer game, or to the your grandkid at your dining table, to the nurses station, to the office on Flagler Drive, to the boardroom, to the island, wherever it is, you are a sent people to West Palm Beach.

And their names hanging on that tree outside in the lobby right now.

Hundreds of people who need Jesus, who need the hope and light and life of a resurrected Christ.

They need him.

And church, the risen Jesus has never once been stopped by a locked door.

I don't know about you guys, but this gets me excited.

That we are sent people to go out into a lost world and be his witnesses.

It gets me excited because West Palm Beach is about to meet people that Jesus has breathed upon.

That's you.

That is you.

So church, here's what I want you to do this week.

That one person, the name you wrote on the tag, reach out to them.

Send the text message.

Make the phone call.

Invite them to coffee.

And ask God to open a door for you to talk about Jesus.

And before you do that, take a breath.

Remember, you have his peace, you have his presence, you have his power.

You don't go alone.

He is with you wherever you go.

Let's pray.

Father, I thank you this morning that by your love you sent the one.

You sent Jesus on a rescue plan to save us from the penalty of our sin against you.

What Jesus accomplished at the cross to rescue his people, to rescue us, and to begin the restoration of this world.

God, we thank you.

Lord, help us as you gave Jesus the commission.

And as Jesus gave the commission to his disciples, as the Father sent me, I am sending you.

Give us the boldness and confidence to know that we are sent people to be witnesses to a lost world.

A world that lacks hope.

A world that lacks peace.

A world that is lacking joy.

Because they are now receiving it from the true source of all those things.

You, God.

We thank you, we praise you, we worship you.

Amen.