“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” – John 20:21

Fear gripped the disciples as they huddled behind locked doors on that first resurrection evening. Their leader had been crucified, the tomb was mysteriously empty, and rumors swirled that they might be next. Into this atmosphere of terror and confusion, Jesus suddenly appeared with a greeting that would transform not just their evening, but their entire purpose: “Peace be with you.”

But Jesus didn’t stop with comfort. He immediately commissioned them with words that echo through the centuries to every believer today: “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

More Than a Reunion

This wasn’t merely a joyful reunion between teacher and students. When Jesus showed them His pierced hands and wounded side, He was establishing continuity between His suffering and their future mission. The same Jesus who conquered death was now sending them into the world with the same purpose for which He had been sent.

Think about the weight of that statement. Jesus is essentially saying, “The mission I came to accomplish? It’s now yours to continue.”

Understanding How Jesus Was Sent

To grasp what it means to be sent as Jesus was sent, we need to understand His mission. Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus repeatedly explains why He came:

He came to save, not condemn. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17). How often do we forget this? We sometimes act as if our job is to condemn the world, but Jesus came on a rescue mission. We’re called to participate in that same saving work.

He came to do the Father’s will, not His own. “I can do nothing on My own initiative… I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 5:30). This is perhaps the most challenging aspect of being sent. We’re not creating our own mission or pursuing our own glory. We’re submitting to God’s will, even when our ideas seem better to us.

He came to testify to the truth. When Pilate questioned Him, Jesus declared, “For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth” (John 18:37). In an age of relative truth and personal narratives, we’re called to be bearers of absolute truth—not our truth, but God’s truth.

The Power to Fulfill the Mission

Recognizing the weight of this commission, Jesus didn’t send them empty-handed. He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This quiet moment echoes Genesis 2, when God breathed life into humanity. Something new was beginning—a new creation empowered by the Spirit.

Then Jesus gave them remarkable authority: “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained” (John 20:23). This isn’t about individual Christians having the power to absolve sins through religious rituals. Rather, it’s the stunning reality that when we proclaim the gospel and people believe, their sins are truly forgiven. When they reject it, their sins remain.

Think about that: Our proclamation of the gospel has eternal consequences. We’re not just sharing nice ideas or religious opinions. We’re participating in God’s redemptive work that determines eternal destinies.

From Doubt to Declaration

Not everyone found faith easy. Thomas, absent during Jesus’s first appearance, refused to believe his friends’ testimony. “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails… I will not believe,” he insisted. We often judge “Doubting Thomas” harshly, but aren’t we all Thomas sometimes? We believe certain things about Jesus but struggle with others. We want proof, signs, experiences.

A week later, Jesus appeared again, this time with Thomas present. Without rebuke, Jesus invited Thomas to touch His wounds. The result? One of the most powerful declarations in Scripture: “My Lord and my God!” Thomas’s doubt melted into worship.

But then Jesus said something meant for us: “Blessed are they who did not see and yet believed” (John 20:29). That’s us—every Christian who has believed the testimony of others without seeing the risen Christ physically. We’re not second-class believers because we didn’t see. We’re blessed.

Living the Sent Life Today

So what does this mean for us today? How do we live as people sent by Jesus just as He was sent by the Father?

1. We prioritize God’s mission over our agenda. How many ideas do we have about what would be good for the church, for our spiritual life, for reaching the world? But being sent means asking, “What has God already said? What has He commanded?” Faithfulness trumps creativity.
2. We teach what we’ve received, not what we’ve invented. The world doesn’t need new spiritual ideas. It needs the ancient truth of the gospel. As one wise pastor observed, revivals continue as long as people preach Jesus, but they end when followers start preaching the revivalists instead of Christ.
3. We accept that rejection is part of the mission. Jesus warned that the world hated Him and would hate His followers too. If we’re truly living sent lives, proclaiming truth in a world that loves darkness, we’ll face opposition. But remember His first words to the fearful disciples: “Peace be with you.”
4. We recognize we’re part of something bigger. We’re entering into labor others began and others will continue after us. The mission to redeem people from every tribe, tongue, and nation has been unfolding for thousands of years. We didn’t start it, and unless Christ returns in our lifetime, we won’t finish it. But we get to participate in it.

The Purpose of It All

John tells us why he wrote his Gospel: “These have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). Not just information. Not just theology. But life—real, abundant, eternal life found only in Jesus.

This is our message. This is why we’re sent. Not to impress people with our wisdom or win arguments about religion, but to point people to the risen Christ who conquered death and offers forgiveness to all who believe.

The locked doors of fear couldn’t keep Jesus out that first resurrection evening. Neither can the locked doors of our comfort zones, our fear of rejection, or our feelings of inadequacy keep Him from sending us into the world with His message.

The question isn’t whether we’re sent—if we’re believers, we are. The question is whether we’re living as sent ones, participating in Christ’s mission to seek and save the lost, or whether we’re still hiding behind locked doors.

Jesus still speaks to His fearful, doubting, hesitant followers today: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

Will you embrace your sent life?

---