So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace to you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. John 20:19-20.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Do you know what the first thing My Son said to the room full of hopeful disciples the evening of the day I raised Him from the dead with all your sins gone—the judgment paid and your sentence satisfied? SHALOM.
And that was the opening to a glorious conversation with your Lord of Glory.
It is My everlasting Covenant of Shalom confirmed in a complete restatement of the original, filled with the promises of the Old fulfilled in the New in a glorious pledge of resurrection to eternal life!
“For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of SHALOM peace will not be shaken,” Says the LORD who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:10.
My Covenant is forever sealed in the Blood of My Son. HE MADE PEACE (SHALOM) THROUGH THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS. Colossians 1:20. He reconciled everything in creation to Me in the blessing and rest of SHALOM.
Surely our sickness He Himself bore, and our pains He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our SHALOM fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Isaiah 53:4-6.
Yes, it is everlasting and it will never be shaken.
And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12 26-29.
Why was “Shalom” the first Word Jesus spoke to His disciples when I raised Him from the dead? Because it is My plan for your life and He had just guaranteed it to you.
“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans for SHALOM and not for evil to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11.
The word shalom in Hebrew (שָׁלוֹם) means completeness, soundness, welfare, peace, prosperity—in other words, it is the whole pie of life without even one slice missing. It is good physical, mental, and emotional health, prosperity, good relationships and family, it is nothing missing, nothing broken, and no one alone. It is the Covenant benefits of Psalm 103 all in one beautiful word that sums up My plans for you now and forever.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; He pardons all your iniquities, He heals all your diseases; He redeems your life from the pit, He surrounds and crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; He fills and satisfies your days with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. Psalm 103:1-5.
I will complete the good work I have begun in you. In Jesus you are made complete.
Shalom was My plan since before the world began. Man was conceived in Me on the eve of Shabbat and was birthed forth into the earth when I had entered the rest. He was birthed on the eighth day that was the new beginning from My rest. My Shabbat Shalom. Just as I raised Jesus on the first day of the week, which is the eighth day for Shabbat is the seventh day, so too that was the day I formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed My breath into Him and He was born a new creation. But he left that shalom peace for the strife of the world and the life of empty show that allows no rest, like the tossing waves of the sea. But in Jesus I have brought you back into My rest in a new beginning on the eighth day, the first day of the new creation. You are no longer condemned to the dust from which you were made, you are birthed to the pledge of a glorious heavenly body that never will undergo corruption or see death.
But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57.
But this is the Covenant I make with you. It is the plan in a unification that cannot be broken now that you are sealed in Jesus by My Spirit as a pledge of the redemption of possession. In Him you possess eternal life. In Him you are heir of the world and of the Kingdom of Heaven.
It all began after Adam walked away from Shalom for evil and lost the future (acharith (אַחֲרִית): the after-part, a good end and thereafter) and a hope (Tikvah (תִּקְוָה), the connecting cord). I was after getting you back into My rest and the only way I could get My shalom into the world was for those who would join with Me in My everlasting covenant of love. And so it began with Noah, and the sign of peace and not evil was the rainbow, which is still around My throne inviting you into My rest in the Holy of Holies at the throne of grace. And Jesus, the High Priest of your confession, is the way into that place of rest. And that was the celebration on the day of His resurrection from the dead. The Covenant made new for you in Him forever. The same Covenant of Shalom with all the promises of the Old joined with the better promises of the new. Now complete in all it provisions, glory and splendor.
“For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of SHALOM peace will not be shaken,” Says the LORD who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:10.
Do you understand? It is yours. Peace on earth and good will towards men. All in Jesus. All and all in Me.
So now let us go to that upper room on the eighth day, that is, the first day of the week and join in becoming a new creation in Christ. Let Him breathe the Spirit into you.
When it was evening on that day glorious day of fulfillment of faithful covenant love, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace (SHALOM) to you.” John 20:19.
And how did He prove that reconciliation had been won and the enmity and strife between us were over? Gone as far as the east from the west, so far had I put your sins from you.
And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. John 20:20.
Why did He show them that for verifying SHALOM to them? You know:
But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our SHALOM fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. Isaiah 53:5.
So Jesus said to them again, “Peace (SHALOM) to you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” John 20:21.
I sent Him to seek out and save the lost. I sent Him to undo the works of the devil. I sent Him as a witness to the truth that sets you free. I sent Him as the Light of the world. And so He sends you.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16.
Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life. Philippians 2:14-16.
And how did He send them? He breathed into their born again spirits the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 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 20:22-23.
Jesus has released you from your sins by His blood and by His Word you have been born again from above as a new creation in Christ. The seed in you is no longer the perishable seed of Adam, which is the lies of the devil—lies are perishable they cannot stand up forever. But now you have been born again back to life in the birth canal of My Word. Once the imperishable seed of My Word plants in your heart you cannot perish for you have eternity as the plan in that seed of truth. Cultivate and grow it in the same way that I told Joshua—meditate on it night and day, do not veer off it to the right or the left, speak it with your mouth and store it in your heart.
But there is an amazing promise here. First you receive the Holy Spirit into your born again living spirit, for a dead spirit cannot join with My Spirit, unless you are born again you cannot enter or even see My Kingdom for it is of the Spirit. And once you receive Him you are given the great privilege and responsibility of releasing or retaining sins. Remember the scribes and Pharisees were astounded, but also offended, when Jesus forgave sins, but as I sent Him so He sends you.
Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? 1 Corinthians 6:1-3.
Jesus forgave and asked Me to forgive those who crucified and blasphemed Him and I did by His merits. Jesus paid the ransom for all. Every sin is paid for and forgiven. Whether or not you receive that gift and let Me complete it in you is up to each one of you. A gift is not complete until received by the donee thereof. But the price has been paid and the gift is there for all of you. For all who will receive Him.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13.
But let us go back to that first day of the week in the evening in that upper room. They had the doors locked but Jesus walked right in. Locked doors, locked prison gates, huge stones covering the entrance to graves are no hindrance to heavenly bodies.
Luke adds a few more details to that first encounter after the crucifixion between Jesus and the disciples.
The two disciples that had returned from their encounter with Jesus, the risen Christ, on their journey to Emmaus had returned and were sharing the experience and while they were telling these things, Jesus Himself Himself stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be to you.” But even though they were hearing about His being alive from the experience of those such as the women at the tomb in the morning and the disciples on the Road to Emmaus and Peter, they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. So Jesus said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?” Luke 24:38. And I ask you the same, it has been about 2,000 years since I raised Jesus from the dead and you have the Holy Spirit in you and can hear from Me constantly and yet many of you every time something out of the ordinary happens are thrown into fear, doubt, and even despair. But consider what He told them to reassure them of His love for and presence with them in showing the wounds to them that had purchased their shalom.
“See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; and He took it and ate it before them. Luke 24:39-43.
And then He told them and you where to find My joy that I give to you, which is your strength. You find it in My Word. Just as the disciples on the Road to Emmaus had done, Jesus by explaining My Word to them led them from the despair of cold, fearful hearts to burning hearts of fearless love by revealing Himself to them in all the books of the Bible. Let Me open your mind to understand the Scriptures. Remember My Son told the Pharisees and Chief Priests that their problem was they failed to understand Scriptures and My power.
So Jesus continued speaking to the doubting disciples in the upper room and their hearts too began to burn with My love:
Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:44-49.
Clothed with power from on high. I have given you the garments of Salvation, the robe of righteousness, My armor of light, and the mantle of power. Remember Elijah’s mantle of the prophet? He rolled it up and struck the river and it parted. And when Elisha saw Elijah go up in the whirlwind in the chariot of fire drawn by the fiery horses of the Heavenly Host, the mantle of the anointing fell on him and he did the works Elijah did and greater. The double portion of the first born. On Pentecost, the mantle of the Holy Spirit fell on you after Jesus went up before the eyes of the disciples and now that same mantle empowers you to do the works He did and greater in His Name. He promised you that. John 14:12. Joint heirs with Him who is the firstborn you also have the double portion. You are clothed with power from on High.
I love you. Isn’t it time you stepped out of strife into the double Shalom blessing of the first born? It is My Covenant with you.
“For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of SHALOM peace will not be shaken,” Says the LORD who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:10.