John 20:21

The second part of Christs scope and errand in appearing, is, to confirme and renew their calling to the Apostleship and work of the Ministry, who had just cause to be much shaken with the remembrance of their faint-heartednesse in his late sufferings. It containeth three particulars; In the first whereof, (in this verse) after a preface, wherein he reneweth his allowance of peace unto them, He doth in general commissionate and send them to the work of the Ministry, as the Father sent him. Whence learn, 1. Disciples are so often essayed and opposed in their enjoying of Christs allowed peace, that they need to have the sense thereof, and their right thereunto, often renewed and repeated unto them by Christ; Therefore he said unto them again, (after that v. 19.) peace be unto you. 2. The summe of the employment of the Ministers of the Gospel, is peace, as being sent to publish the glad tidings of the Gospel of peace, and the scope of their work being to bring people to enjoy sound and solid peace in the due order: Therefore also doth he say, Peace be unto you, in reference to their Commission and emploiment. 3. Preachers of the Gospel of peace have much need of Christs peace, both to support them under the tribulation they will meet with, in discharge of their trust, and to enable them experimentally to preach that peace unto others; Therefore, further doth he say, Peace be unto you, to qualifie and encourage them for this work, and that they, having received this peace, might be fit preachers of it. 4. It pleased the Father to send his own Son into the world, cloathed with a Commission, that hereby he might give a proof of his great love unto lost man; for, my Father hath sent me, saith he. 5. Christ did not leave his Church destitute when his own Ministry was ended, but hath substituted a Ministry in his Name, till the end of the world; for, saith he, I send you, which was true of them and their successours to the end of the world, Mat. 28.19, 20. 6. Ministers are of Christs sending and employing by his soveraign authority, as his Courts and Ministers, do, ministerially in his Name, send them out; they must not run unsent; they who want them, and would have them blessed to them, should seek them of him; They who are lawfully called are to act in his Name and Authority, which is to be acknowledged by people in their discharge of their trust; and such messengers are to be looked on as a great and special gift bestowed on the Church by her exalted Lord. All this is imported in this, I send you, now when he is risen from the dead, in his begun exaltation. See Eph. 4.8. — 11. 7. This proportion and comparison institute betwixt Christs sending and theirs, As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you, is not to be understood universally, as to all the works and ends for which Christ was sent, for he was sent to satisfie divine justice, and to do the work of Redemption, which they were not: But it is to be understood of the work of the Ministry and preaching of the Gospel. Nor yet is there an equality to be urged here, but the proportion and distance is still to be observed and kept betwixt the Lord and his servants, and the Bridegroom and his friends. Nor is the resemblance only in this, that as Christ was immediately sent by the Father, so were they (as Apostles) immediately sent by him. But Christs being sent by his Father, and their being sent by him, do agree, 1. In the strictnesse of the Commission, that as Christ did alwayes the Will of the Father, so they must not dispense with what is committed to their trust, nor be the servants of men. 2. They agree in having the same promise of successe & blessing in their labours, as the Apostles richly found. 3. They do agree in the matter of their authority, so far as, however he be the Lord, and they servants, yet they come cloathed with the same authority, being in Christs stead to the people of God, 2 Cor. 5.20. and Christ, and God in Christ, being despised in the affronts put upon them in the exercise of their Ministry, Matth. 10.42.