Peter Brandon emphasizes the transformative power of the cross and resurrection, illustrating how Jesus turned the disciples' fear into peace and joy. He recounts the moments after Jesus' resurrection when He appeared to the disciples, offering them peace and commissioning them to spread the Gospel. Brandon highlights the significance of Jesus breathing the Holy Spirit into them, empowering them for their mission. He contrasts the divine power of the resurrection with the human weakness of fear, urging believers to embrace the freedom that comes from Christ. Ultimately, he calls for a revival of joy and the fullness of the Spirit among Christians today.

The cross and the resurrection. Shall we try and combine those two together? Let's read from John chapter 20 and we'll read from verse 9. Then the same day of evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you. As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them. And whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. But Thomas, one of the twelve called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. There are 11 resurrection appearances and every appearance had a transforming effect. You remember that Mary came to the sepulcher weeping and he changed weeping. You remember two on the road to Emmaus were totally confused. We thought, we thought. And he opened their eyes, warmed their hearts, opened the scriptures and then he was made known to them and he then disappeared from their view. He changed understanding from all that confusion. Again the disciples were barren. They had toiled all night and caught nothing. One word from the risen Christ, Cast thine head on the right side and ye shall find. And he changed barrenness into fruitfulness. We're going to see this morning how he changed fear into wonderful comfort. The first word that the Lord said on the occasion of his resurrection was, woman. Isn't that lovely. The word means out of man of a high degree. When Adam was found, the Lord found him a wife, he was called Ishmael. A man of a high degree. He then was complete with his other half. Now here was a woman when the Lord first met her who had seven demons. And someone with seven demons has lost all traces of the dignity of womanhood. That woman was gloriously converted, amazingly exorcised and she was released. And there she is, the first person to be at his feet and he said, out of man of a high degree. What a little picture and yet a beautiful picture of the coming of the Lord Jesus. When the whole church has been before the femur, the judgment seat of Christ. When the Lord has rewarded all his people for their faithfulness, he will look upon us and say, woman. We're going to be presented to him without spot, without glimpse, without a wrinkle. So the first word the Lord said was woman and praise God for that. Then those resurrection appearances, I believe there were four or five on the first day, took place all through that day until the evening. Darkness was coming and the people in that upper room were totally confused and full of fear for the scripture tells us they were shut in because of fear. Now the Lord Jesus is going to come and therefore now we see two opposites. In the empty tomb it is the epitome of divine power. In that closed door it's the epitome or if you like a better word, the summary of human weakness. Now can you see the contrast? In the resurrection of the Lord Jesus it was the greatest demonstration of divine power. Romans one makes it quite clear he was raised from the dead and he was raised from the dead with power and it was the spirit of holiness that raised him. That meant two things. Because the Lord Jesus was totally without sin it necessitated his resurrection and it was the spirit of holiness that raised him from among the dead. And not only that it was the same glorious holy spirit that took him back to heaven. And there is in heaven now a glorified man and in that man are all the prophecies of God. And through that man there's going to be the coming of the Lord Jesus for his church when he completes it. Through that man at God's right hand there's going to be a millennium when he will reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But more than that through that man there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth where in dwells righteousness when death will be swallowed up in victory. And that's what we see in the empty tomb. The epitome of real power. It's all in that risen man. But look at that door shut in for fear. Quite frankly if we look through the lattice if we could lift it those shutters that they had put down as you know they didn't have windows in those days like we have. And if you saw those men there and someone said to you see that group of yes it's going to shake the whole Roman world you would say you must be joking. They were there in abstract fear. Shut in with fear. Now if you look at the psychology of fear it always does that. Spiritual claustrophobia. How many times would a brother like to stand to his feet and worship the Lord but he can't because of fear. How many times would some of our sisters love to be a brazen witness for the Lord Jesus. They're shut in because of fear. And therefore if you look at fear it always closes us in. But the scripture says if the sun shall make you free you shall be free indeed. Therefore how is the Lord going to liberate those people. Now can I share something with you from my heart. I think in the Western world we Christians are all shut in and we've got to be liberated. We've got to be set free so that no longer do we have monastic evangelism. But we are free to spread the word around. You see we need that wonderful liberation. Now how is the Lord going to do it. Well first of all he came through a closed door. When I was thinking of that when one of our brethren raised a little expression. This came to my mind in power and forgive me I had a little laugh inside me. He came through a closed door. That's new but more. He came through the grave closed without the grave closed being disturbed. That's new. He came out of a sepulcher without the stone being removed. For it was the angel that removed the stone to let the disciples in not to let the Lord Jesus out. He was out before they rolled away the stone. Then would you believe it. He moves in such a wonderful direction without the door being opened. He came through a closed door and even more than that. He went through gravity without the power of rocketry. You see now he is the irrepressible Christ. He is the inescapable Christ. He has dealt with sin, dealt with death, dealt with the devil. He is raised from the dead. He has all power and all authority and therefore there are no obstacles at all as far as his concern. He is the risen Lord and he comes into their midst and immediately he came into their midst. There's not one word of rebuke. They all failed him. They all let him down. Even the leader with a few nasty swear words. And yet the Lord stands among them and he gives them the Jewish salutation. Peace be unto you. And then they saw the Lord in a new way. They had often seen him in the midst healing. We were hearing that this morning. They had often seen him in the midst preaching. They had often seen him in the midst in confrontation with the Pharisees. They had often seen him in the midst when he was doing teaching especially for them. They've even seen him in the midst on the center cross. But look at the difference. Here he is in the power of an endless life. Praise God. Here he is with all his foes of his faith. Wonderful. Here he is saying to them if I may paraphrase divine language. I am he that lives and became dead and behold I am alive forevermore. And have the keys of death and hate. They had never seen him like that before. Beloved that's how he stands amongst us. In all the glory of his resurrection. Death behind him. Life in all its glory manifested. And he wants to breathe into us that glorious Then we read. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Now brethren I love my authorised but it's tame there. It means they were very happy but that's very tame. It means they were jubilantly happy. Now because of certain things that are happening in the modern evangelical world I'm almost afraid to give you its real meaning. We must never become fan swingers and things like that. We've got to be very careful today. But you see it means they were filled with holy joy. Beloved when we are filled with the spirit and when we see the risen of the Lord here make us happy. And here give us a joy that's unspeakable. We need a revival of that. They were filled with joy. Then the Lord gave them the second peace be unto you. Now what is this? Is it the Jewish salutation? No. You see when Peter writes his epistle it's peace be multiplied. That means literally peace, peace, peace, peace again and again and again and again. Non-ending peace. Why? It's peace through the blood. You see he shows them his hands and his side. He is risen from the dead. He stands among them in his resurrection power and then he shows them the evidence of Calvary. And therefore it's peace through the blood. And that means peace perpetually. Isn't it wonderful? Peace, perfect peace. In this dark world of sin the blood of Jesus whispers peace. With it what assurance? Peace. Then he gives them the commission. But no before the commission he does something that's totally unique. He breathed on them and said receive ye the Holy Ghost. Now as far as we can tell from scripture he only breathed twice. You remember when he made Adam in good shape and form but let's face it what shape and form without life? You see we can have a perfectly good shape and form evangelically but what shape and form without life? It's a corpse. So he breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of lives. And he became a living being. Now why does he breathe in him the breath of lives? Because in Adam is the federal head of the whole of the human family. And through his disobedience we all fell. And therefore all of us immediately we are born we have the seeds of depravity within us because we come from that one man. Now here is the last Adam and he's going to build a new generation. Entirely different from the Adamic generation. So that there are two distinct families. There's the family under the headship of Adam. There's the family under the headship of Christ. The family under the headship of Adam is under the domain of the devil. The family under the headship of Christ is under Christ and it's the ecclesia of God, the church of God. And so he breathed but more than that. He not only breathed life but he breathed power. Now my dear friends I must make this clear this afternoon. Some people challenged me on Friday and rightly so to make clear what I mean by the fullness of the spirit. And I'm going to do that this afternoon. But may I say this. If ever we need to get back to the upper room and note the word I'm using and regain the power that we've lost. And if we can recapture the power that we have lost in the glory of the Holy Spirit. God can still mightily use it. Now brothers and sisters it's so easy to teach this. It's so difficult to explain it and to experience it. Now I'm going to open my heart to you. I not only want to speak about the fullness of the spirit. I would love to be among a group of people who took this realistically and being among them as an expression of the body of Christ. Experienced again the infilling of the Holy Ghost. And I believe that could be a beginning for all. And God could move us mightily if we were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Then immediately he breathes on them and says receive ye the Holy Ghost. He gives them their commission. Whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted to them. And whosoever sins ye retain they are retained. Does it mean that they had the authority to forgive sins? No. Now let's make it quite clear. There's only one person that can forgive sins that's God. And God will only forgive sins through the blood of the Lord Jesus. Not in the blood but through the blood. Now that is perfectly clear. So what does he mean? When we are preaching the gospel and when we are preaching the gospel of forgiveness sometimes people will stay behind. And they will say something like this. I would love to be forgiven of all my sins. And they feel so guilty. And they kneel down before God. They thank the Lord Jesus for dying for them. They ask the Lord to forgive them because he died for them. And they have the assurance because of the blood and the word of God that their sins are forgiven. And therefore I can say to that couple that they are saved. I don't save them. But I confirm the work that God has done in them. Or if someone rejects the forgiveness of sins I have the authority to say I'm sorry you're still in your sin. You see we confirm the work that God does in the souls of those who are penitent and in the souls of those who reject the Lord. But all the forgiveness is the responsibility of the almighty God and he forgives only through the blood of Christ. But there was a little complication and with this I close. But there was a little complication and with this I close. But Thomas one of the twelve called Didymus was not with them. I was looking at the word Didymus the other day and to my surprise I discovered that it means twin. So what was he saying? Well there will only be one Thomas but there will be hundreds of people just like him. Can I prove it to you? Five hundred saw the Lord Jesus on the occasion of his resurrection. Only a hundred and twenty in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came. Where were the three fifty or the three eighty? We don't know but he came. What is the lesson? During this week let's pray that we might all be there and that the Lord will have a dealing with us all including the poor preacher. And this week might be a milestone in our experience when we look back and say God's met with us and blessed us. Then were the disciples glad and if God blesses us we too will be full of joy. May he do it for his name's sake. Amen.