Introduction
An old man stands up in a small wooden hall in Siberia, on Good Friday, just after the Russian Revolution. Young activists have just spent half the evening shouting that God doesn't exist and that the resurrection is a fable. Thirty parishioners, heads bowed, have listened without a word. Then this old farmer asks to speak. He stands, leans on the table, and says, very calmly: "Today is Friday. But Sunday is coming." Silence. Then he says it again. And again. After half an hour, everyone is clapping along to those four words. And when the preacher looks around, the two young men who had been shouting at the back of the hall are gone.
This story, heard more than forty years ago, opens the Easter service on April 5, 2026 at Zion Church in Yokohama. The passage for the day is John 20:19-23. On the evening of the resurrection, the disciples are locked behind double-bolted doors, terrified. Jesus doesn't break down the door, and he doesn't shame anyone. He comes and stands among them, shows them his wounds, and speaks one word: "Shalom." Peace be with you. He repeats this word three times in this same passage. Three times for men who had abandoned him, three times for you too, if you recognize yourself among the locked doors and the trembling hearts.
If today feels like a Friday of grief, fear, or doubt, the Easter gospel has a very concrete message for you: Sunday is already coming. And the Risen One is coming in.
Outline of the message
1. Jesus comes to find you where you are locked away
Look closely at the scene. "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you" (John 20:19). These men don't go out to meet him. They are hiding. They're afraid of being arrested, mocked, executed in turn. And yet, it's Jesus who comes. He's the one who passes through the walls, he's the one who takes the initiative.
The preacher insists: Jesus doesn't come through the door to scold his disciples. He doesn't say, "You bunch of cowards, where were you on Friday?" He holds out his pierced hands, opens his side, and speaks a word of welcome. A word that, in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, was likely "Shalom." Even today, in Israel, people greet each other with this word from morning to night. It's not an empty formula. It's the declaration that everything, for you, can become good again.
Remember Peter. Three times, on the night of the trial, he swore he didn't know Jesus. And yet, when the Risen One enters the room, he says "Shalom" to Peter too. He doesn't push him aside. He doesn't send him to the back of the class. If he said "Shalom" to those disciples, to those deserters, to that man who denied him, then imagine what he's saying to you this morning. There isn't a single heart too locked up for Jesus not to say "Shalom" through the door.
2. A peace that doesn't look like the world's peace
The first instinct is to say, "Peace, yes, I'd like that. For everything to go well, for no one to bother me, for my life to be calm." But listen to what Jesus himself says just a few days earlier: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid" (John 14:27). And at the end of that same discourse: "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).
The peace of Jesus is not the absence of waves. It's an active, positive peace that stands firm in the middle of the waves. The preacher puts it in his own words: it's not a passive peace, it's a peace that keeps you alive, even when problems pile up like a battlefield. It's the peace that allows Joseph, in Genesis 50, to say to the brothers who sold him into slavery: "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20). It's the peace that allows Daniel to stand firm in the lions' den. It's the peace that allows the disciples, just a few weeks later, to go out and publicly preach the risen Christ, even though they had once hidden behind double-bolted doors.
This peace has a foundation. Look closely at verse 20: "When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." He doesn't just say "Shalom." He shows the scars. He shows the cross. He shows the price that was paid. The preacher puts it this way: believing in the cross alone, without the resurrection, is believing with only one hand. The cross and the resurrection cannot be separated. On the cross, Jesus paid for your sin and washed you clean. In the resurrection, he gives you a life that passes through death. The peace he offers rests on these two realities, never on how you feel when you wake up in the morning.
3. The secret: receiving the Spirit and being sent
How does this peace move from the page into your heart? The passage gives the key in verse 22: "And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22). And just before, in verse 21: "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." The peace of Jesus is not an object to collect. It is received through the Holy Spirit, and it becomes active when you are sent.
The preacher makes an observation worth pausing on. You can know the Bible by heart, have taken theology classes, have learned Hebrew and Greek, and still never have tasted this inner peace. And on the other hand, a very simple person who reads their Bible and prays with an open heart can find themselves, in the middle of the night, carried by a verse that rises up in their heart. Remember Jesus's promise: "The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14:26). The Spirit doesn't fill you with spectacular novelties. He reminds you, at just the right moment, of the word that will keep you standing.
And this inner peace always leads to a sending out. "If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld" (John 20:23). The preacher is careful to clarify: this doesn't mean you have the authority to decide who goes to heaven. It means that if you speak, if you pray, if you invite someone to come to church, Jesus will work alongside you. And if you stay silent, if you hide behind your locked doors, the Lord, in his freedom, often chooses to wait. This is a solemn word. A closed mouth can slow down a work. An open mouth can hasten it.
Key takeaways
- Jesus doesn't break down your door: he enters the locked room, shows his scars, and says "Shalom."
- His peace is not the absence of storms, it's a living peace that holds steady in the middle of the storm.
- This peace rests on the cross and the resurrection, never on just one of the two.
- The Holy Spirit is the one who, in your prayer and your reading, reminds you of the Word that lifts you up.
- The peace you receive becomes a sending: "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you."
Personal application
- What is, right now, the "locked door" in your life? What is the place where you're hiding out of fear?
- Have you ever heard Jesus say "Shalom" to you after a failure? If not, what's keeping you from receiving that word?
- Do you trust in a peace that depends on circumstances, or the one that comes from the cross and the resurrection?
- What verse has already "risen up in your heart" in a hard moment? Can you thank the Spirit for that reminder?
- Is there someone, this week, you are being sent to pray for, speak to, or simply invite?
Verses cited
FAQ
Why does Jesus repeat "Peace be with you" three times in John 20?
In verses 19, 21, and 26, Jesus speaks the same blessing, likely the Aramaic word "Shalom." The first time, he reassures the frightened disciples. The second time, he sends them out on mission. On the eighth day following, he says this same word again to Thomas, who was doubting. The peace he offers covers fear, mission, and doubt all at once.
How can I receive this peace of the Risen One today?
It isn't grasped through sheer willpower. Open the Bible, open your mouth in prayer, open your heart to the Spirit who brings the Word to mind. As Jesus says in verse 22, this peace is tied to receiving the Holy Spirit. It grows through regularly spending time with the Risen One, often on Sunday, in worship.
Is it serious to miss Sunday worship?
The preacher puts it plainly: this isn't a matter of rule keeping. Missing three or five Sundays doesn't shut you out of heaven. Jesus didn't die to threaten you. But Sunday is the day of the resurrection: it's the natural place where you find others again, where you sing, where you hear the Word, where the Spirit reminds you who you are. Depriving yourself of it for a long time means depriving yourself of what keeps you standing through the week.
to take notes and ask questions.