What is visible in our testimony that tells the world we are followers of Jesus? It is a supernatural peace we experience in times of suffering that cannot be explained and makes no sense to an unrenewed mind. This kind of peace can only be experienced by a follower of Jesus who has the Spirit living inside them. All other forms of “peace” will fail in life’s most critical moments. 

The context of John 20 details the resurrection of Jesus and His post-resurrection appearance to His disciples. When Jesus spoke to the disciples whose world had just been turned upside down, He offered them peace. 

Jesus repeated His offering of peace once again to His shaken and fearful disciples. This time “He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). Never before in human history had someone been born again. These first disciples became new creations. The language used to describe their newness indicates something that had never occurred before in history. The first disciples were forerunners for millions who would follow their example.

Earlier in the book of John, before Jesus breathed the Spirit into the disciples, He said regarding the Spirit, “He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him because he lives with you now and later will be in you” (John 14:17). 

For three years the Spirit had been “with” the disciples but now He would be “in” them after the Lord breathed the Spirit into the disciples in John 20. Adam, Abraham, Joseph, David, Daniel, Esther, and all the others recorded in Scripture who followed the Lord, had the Spirit with them in their exploits. They did not have the forever-abiding presence of the Spirit within them. Any infilling of the Spirit would be temporary to help them to accomplish a particular mission The abiding presence of the Spirit would only happen for those who were born again after the death and resurrection of Jesus. These first disciples would model a new kind of temple, a flesh and blood temple molded by the hands of God and filled with His Spirit.

Along with choosing to love our enemies, the ability to be at peace when our world is turned upside down is profound. It is a strong and appealing witness at a time when the world appears to be devolving into deeper forms of confusion and chaos. This is not an absence or a denial of pain and suffering. It is the ability to overcome that pain and suffering “Because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world” (I John 4:4).