John 20 — John 20

0:00 Morning, good morning, and greetings from that frozen land up north. We had snow on Tuesday. We had snow on Monday, and we had snow on Tuesday. But we're looking forward to good weather this week. There's some dispute about whether or not I'm on, but I'll try to talk louder.

0:24 Scripture passage this morning is from the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John. John, chapter 20. Can we stand for the reading of God's Word? It's just a short it's only a few verses. It's going to be okay.

0:47 John 20, beginning in verse 19. Then the same day at evening, beginning being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, Peace be with you. And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you.

1:22 As My Father has sent Me, even so send I you. And when He said this, He breathed on them and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit. Whosoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven and whoever sins you retain, they are retained. And may the Lord bless our understanding of His Word this morning, which is inspired, inerrant, and infallible. Thank you.

1:48 We could be seated. We could be seated. Now, we're going to be high-tech this morning. We're going to be high-tech. I brought some slides here.

1:56 We'll see if this works or not. The good thing about the Word of God is it does not depend on technology. But let's see. Is that going to work? All right.

2:07 Just few things. Anyway, it's nice to be with you. Megan and the kids say hello, they are not here in part because, as I already told probably half of you, we're expecting number three. And Megan is very sick with whatever it is you catch when you have one of these. And so she's up north and the kids are up north, but they all say hi.

2:30 And we're going to try to make it down over the summertime. So you just get me this morning. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know you were looking forward to the kids most of all.

2:40 That's why you invited me to speak. You wanted to see those cute little children, but they're not here. So you get me. And you get three points to the message this morning. I always like to have a little outline, not so much to help you remember the sermon, but so that I keep on track.

2:56 There's three points, and they all start with the letter P. And I'm sure I'm not the first person who's looked at this section of verses and came up with this outline, so this is probably not original to me. But we're going to talk about peace. There's the peace. Then we're going to talk about purpose.

3:15 And then we're going to talk about the power. So there's the peace, the purpose, and the power. And I will say, by way of a disclaimer, as I'm looking at that clock back there, the first point takes up more than the other two. So I want you thinking after a few minutes here, my goodness, he's still on the first point. We're going to get out on time and I'm sure that's going to make the children and church workers happy.

4:02 The first day of the week, and it's mentioned more than once, that's always mentioned with some kind of religious observance attached to it. You say, Well, about Christmas? No, Christmas is never mentioned in the New Testament. What about Easter? Well, no, that wasn't there either.

4:16 What about Maundy Thursday? No, the only day I think I know of is the first day of the week. So we read here, It was the first day of the week. And of all the places that the disciples could have been on the first day of the week, where do we find them? They were all together.

4:33 And I think that's impressive. They were all together. They could have been anywhere. They could have been at home with their families. Could have been out fishing.

4:42 They could have been at the ballgame. They could have been anywhere. But they are all together in one place. And they are all together and they are dependent on one another. The Church is supposed to be one body, one people.

4:54 These are the kind of things I think about when I read that all the disciples were together. Well, actually, now actually, they weren't all there. Peter wasn't there. But the rest of them were all there. I've had some people say to me over the years, Well, I don't know if I really have to go to church to be a Christian, and I don't know about that.

5:17 But I do know this: If you are a Christian, it's not so much a matter of going to church, it's a matter of being the church. That's probably another sermon. I'm not going to get distracted by that. Sometimes when you're given one message, get distracted by other things that you could talk about. I'm not talking about that.

5:31 But they were all together in one place. And we're all together this morning and it's very good to be here. And where else would you want to be on Easter Sunday morning than with the people of God? With people that you love and who love you and who love the Lord? This is the best place that we could be, isn't it?

5:48 I can't think of any other place I would rather be right now than with you guys and to be here in the presence of the Lord. So, know, do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Other thing you might think about is it doesn't really matter how many of us there are. Our strength doesn't really depend on our numbers. It doesn't really matter if the church is packed out or if there's just a handful of us here praying.

6:11 The strength is not in our numbers. Remember in the Old Testament, who was it in the Old Testament who wanted to count the people? That was David, right? He wanted to take a census. He wanted to count the army and see how strong are we.

6:22 And what did God say? He said, Don't do that. No, no, no, no. Don't do that. Don't count how many people there are because your strength does not lie in your numbers.

6:30 So we see the disciples, on the first day of the week, the disciples were there, the doors being locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. They were afraid. Now, why were they afraid of the Jews? Well, it could have been something to do with the fact that the Jews had just crucified Jesus. And that's no small task.

6:54 Jesus is the one who walked on water. And Jesus is the one who said to the demon possessed man, said to the demons, Come out! And the demons came out. And Jesus said to the blind man, Receive your sight. And he received his sight.

7:11 Jesus said to the wind and the waves, Calm down. And the wind and the waves calmed down. And somehow the Jews crucified Him. And if the Jews could crucify Jesus, what chance disciples did have? Right?

7:23 If they could crucify Jesus... So, no wonder they were afraid. It says they were afraid because of the Jews. What chance did the disciples have? I don't know.

7:31 That's kind of hard for me to relate to a little bit. Don't know that I have that kind of fear. I don't know that we have that fear when we gather together. I guess we could think of our brothers and sisters in other places around the world who have to meet together in fear. I'm not sure we're really meeting together in fear here this morning.

7:48 That's kind of a foreign concept to me. I don't know. That might trouble us a little bit if we thought about that too much. Sometimes you don't want to think about things too much because it can be troubling to think about. But right now, we don't have to live in fear.

8:05 I don't know, there's always going to be people who are never going to be so associated with Jesus that when the world starts to crucify Jesus, they would also try to crucify me. Am I that connected with the Lord? I don't know. Sometimes I think that I have left myself too many escape routes, for lack of a better word. Oh yeah, you know, when I'm with you guys, I'm going to praise the Lord and I'm going to sing the songs and I'm going to say He has risen.

8:35 And am I going to do that when I get back to Michigan State? Am I going do that with my coworkers? Maybe I am trying to leave some bridges, in case this whole Jesus thing doesn't work out. Maybe I'm trying to... I want to stay in the shallow end with the Lord.

8:53 I want to stay in the... I don't know. I don't know. We're all wrestling with to what extent are going to be identified with Jesus. Christians sometimes, I think that we are very careful.

9:05 We don't want to offend people. We don't want to antagonize people. We don't want to annoy people. We want to be politically correct and so forth. Not all of us, not all of us, but one result of that is we don't have to gather in fear.

9:20 I'm not sure that sometimes Christians are a threat to anybody. I'm not so sure of that. But these disciples were in fear. And we like to gather together for joy. I like that.

9:32 And for potluck dinners. I like potluck dinners. I like to gather for those things.

9:35 I don't want to

9:35 have to gather together in fear. And right now, don't have to do that. I don't know if that's always going to be true. But right now, we do not have to gather in fear. But on the other hand, I don't have a fear of the Jews, but we do have some fears, don't we?

10:10 I'm afraid that as the years go on, I'm just going to drift into uselessness and worldliness. And I'm just going to be just so taken up by the system of the world that I'm going to lose, I'm going to be ineffective in my calling. I have fears about my children that they're just going make a shipwreck of their faith. You could say, Well, hey, hey, hey, don't be afraid. I'm afraid anyway.

10:36 I've got these fears. And I think if we were honest, we would have those fears. I have a fear that when the day comes and the doctor says to me, Hey, you better get your affairs in order, that I'm not going to have the faith to die well. We all have some fears. We all have some fears.

10:56 And then we read, The door was locked and Jesus came and stood among them. Now Jesus Himself comes and stands among them. He doesn't send a messenger. He doesn't send an angel. He comes himself and stands among them.

11:12 What do the Scriptures say? If a man loves me, then the Father and I... How does that go? If a man loves me, then the Father and I will come and make our home and live with Him. Jesus Himself has promised to come.

11:29 Even though the doors were locked. Now you say, How did He get in there? The doors were locked. How did Jesus get in there? I don't know how He got in there.

11:36 I don't know about that. We could spend some time on that, but we won't. I don't know how Jesus got in there. Does this weaken the evidence that He had a physical body after the resurrection? No.

11:46 No. He had a real body before He died and He was still able to walk on water. So the fact that he is able to come into the room even though the doors were locked does not mean that he has some kind of a spirit. You know, every Christmas time, we always watch... We watch these silly movies around Christmas time, one of the ones we like to watch is A Christmas Carol, you know, Ebenezer Scrooge and all that.

12:06 This is not like Jacob Marley coming through the wall. Right? This is Jesus in a true body appearing before the disciples. And we could take... I think there's something comforting about that today.

12:18 I think we can take comfort in that, that Jesus can go where nobody else can go. And I have all these fears. Said, Well, Jesus is gonna come Himself. He can come where nobody else can go. He can go where no earthly father can go.

12:31 He can go where no doctor can go. Jesus can go where no counselor can go. He can go where no lover can go. He can go anywhere. By entering the locked room, Jesus is saying that he comes to us while we are afraid.

12:50 He is not waiting for the disciples to get their act together before He appears. He is not waiting for the disciples to come up with the faith necessary to overcome their fears. Jesus is coming to give them the faith they need to overcome fear. That's why He's there. And He is still doing this.

13:09 He comes when we cry out in fear. You know, I have probably a 100 times just prayed, Help me, Lord. That's it. Well, is a deep theological prayer. Well, that is a deep theological prayer.

13:22 I've prayed that a 100 times, Help me, Lord. He has come to help me. He has come to help me and he has answered that prayer. He has answered that prayer, Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

13:36 I will strengthen you and help you I will uphold you with My righteous hand. Now, do you think that the appearance of Jesus to those disciples immediately calmed their fears? I don't think so. Now, when we read this account in John, this is John stepping back and giving us a very calm description of these events. We were all together in one room, and we were afraid because of the Jews, and the doors were locked.

14:30 And they were startled and frightened. They were startled. We're here in fear that, Ah! There he is! There He is!

14:40 Now, why were they frightened? Now, I suppose it could have been that they were frightened. They could have just been startled. I did not expect this to happen. But I wonder if the appearance of Jesus to the disciples reminded them of the last time they had seen Jesus alive and their behavior during those hours.

15:04 And I don't want to say anything against the disciples, but they had not acted maybe as well as they could have in the hours leading up to the crucifixion. In fact, the Scripture says, All the disciples forsook Him and fled. I mean, not even one of them stood up in the Lord's defense. Not even John, the beloved disciple, who laid his head on Christ's bosom. He didn't even stand up.

15:23 Peter denied even knowing Him with cursing, it said. So they could have been thinking, We have not performed very well to our friend. In the Garden Of Gethsemane, their friend was in agony and was sweating, as it were, great drops of blood, what were the disciples doing? They were asleep. They were asleep.

15:48 So, I don't know, they were startled and frightened. They were startled and frightened. And Jesus comes to this cowardly group, this frightened group of followers and stands in the middle of them and he says, Peace be unto you. He says, Peace. Peace be unto you.

16:04 Now, doesn't say, Don't be afraid, guys. Those Jews are not going to get you. He doesn't say, You've got nothing to worry about. The Romans are never going to get you. Your life's going to be good from now on.

16:15 He is not there to solve their financial problems. He's not there to solve their family problems or their work problems. Jesus just says, Peace be unto you. Because He has taken care of the real problem. The real problem, which is our relationship with God.

16:34 The peace that Jesus offers them is based on what He accomplished on the cross. That's why it says, He says, Peace be unto you. And that's why in verse 20 it says, When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. This is to reinforce the peace, to show that He had been pierced for our transgressions, that justice had been satisfied, that from now on there is another way for God's wrath to be satisfied other than our condemnation. God makes peace with us by substituting His Son's death as the penalty for our sins.

17:10 And so, when Jesus says, Peace be unto you, this is Jesus appearing as a helper, as a loving Father, as a friend, and not as a judge. And I know this: whatever doors are in between my soul and my Lord, He can come through them. It doesn't matter how many locks are on those doors. It doesn't matter if those doors are made out of steel. If Jesus is after my heart, He's going to break through those doors.

17:41 Nothing is going to hold Him back. Not my own doubts. Not my faithlessness. Not my fears. Not my personal pain.

17:49 Not the memories of horrible things that have happened to me or that I have done to other people. Not the temptations of Satan, not the sin which continually dogs my trail, those sins which you just do not seem to be able to shake off day after day and year after year, and why aren't things getting any better? Nothing is going to keep back our Lord and Master. Here's my favorite verse of that. We're just saying that.

18:20 Here's my favorite verse: Death cannot keep his prey. Jesus, my Savior, he tore the bars away. I remember many times sitting in the breaking of bread service years ago and hearing Sam Heydad pray those very words. He tore the bars away. Jesus, my Lord.

18:39 I don't know why that is so imprinted on my memory. Every time I hear that, I hear Sam praying those words. He tore the bars away. That's what He's going to do. He did that in the upper room.

18:48 He did that for the disciples. He's going to do that in our heart. Now, I think it's kind of fascinating here. This is just something I think is really interesting. And you've probably already had these thoughts.

18:58 In fact, everything I say to you this morning, you've probably already thought about. But here's one thing that I thought about when I was reading this. Isn't it interesting that after the resurrection, the marks of the nails and the spear are still in Jesus' body? Why? Because they are demonstrations of the truth of it all.

19:21 He says, is the evidence. He says, Look and touch. And he says that to me. He says, Abe, in your darkest moments, as much as you are able, reach out and touch the wounds. Do you know that right now...

19:38 Let's see, it's April 21. It is 11:37, 04/21/2019. Right now, Jesus is like the lamb that is slain right now before the throne of heaven, that His wounds testify to the truth of His death and resurrection. You know, when we have glorified... When we get resurrected, we're to get glorified bodies.

20:04 Right? That's one of the things we look forward to. Right? The bodies are going to be glorified. I'm not going to have this pain and this suffering, and I'm to be able to stand up straight all the time.

20:13 Right? And all these other physical ailments are going to be gone. But the marks of the nails and the spear are gonna remain. And for all of eternity, those are going to be the only wounds in heaven as the marks on Christ's hands and his side. See from his hands, his feet, his head, his hands and feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down.

20:53 This is Jesus talking. My peace I give to you. Not the kind of peace the world gives. No, no. Do not let your hearts be troubled or let them be afraid.

21:00 The blood of Christ will purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. This peace that Jesus gives us is before, and it is underneath, any of my feeble deeds. I love this little quote from John Piper. We do not initiate peace with Jesus by our actions. It's Jesus who initiates peace with us.

21:23 Were the disciples glad. It says, Then were the disciples glad. Well, no kidding. They were glad. Right?

21:29 Then were... Is it that made the disciples glad? Then were the disciples glad when they got that big promotion at work? No. Then were the disciples glad when the stock market finally rebounded?

21:43 Then were the disciples glad when their kids got all the awards at Assembly Day? No. Why were the disciples glad? They saw the Lord. That's all it takes.

21:55 What does it take for us to be glad, guys? What does it take for me to be glad? Is just seeing the Lord enough? Sometimes I think, Boy, I could use an additional dose of gladness. What would make me glad?

22:07 I was shopping in Kroger's the other day, pushing my cart through the aisle. I don't know what it is about shopping at the grocery store, it just brings out the worst in me. I don't know what it is. I'm pushing my cart down through Kroger's judging people as is my way. Judge, judge, judge.

22:21 I'm getting grumpy. And I see that all the lines are full of people and the woman's counting out the change. I thought, This is going to take me forever. And then I saw a new lane opened up. And I raced over there with my cart and I felt so happy.

22:34 That's what made me glad. I thought, That kind of stuff should not make me glad. What should make me glad? It's that I saw the Lord. That's what should make me glad.

22:42 That's all it took for the disciples. That's what it should take for us. Which brings me to the second point. I told you the first point was going be the longest. That was twenty minutes and forty seconds.

22:49 That's the longest point. The other two points were, here we go. We're in the home stretch. The purpose. Jesus said to them, Peace be with you.

22:56 As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you. Wait a minute. Now, wait a minute. I like that first thing about the peace. As the Father has sent Me, so I will send you.

23:10 Where is He sending us? Where did the Father send Jesus? That's right. To the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Well, we're being sent to the lost sheep.

23:23 As the Father sent Jesus, so now we are being sent. We're supposed to go on where He left off. He is sending us into all the world. And now, and that sounds great, but if you think of, if you really think about that for even a minute, that whole task seems impossible. As the Father sent Jesus, now He is sending us.

23:38 Now wait a minute. Wait. I am not like Jesus. I do not have His power. I don't have Jesus' connections.

23:45 I don't have His ability. And now Jesus just shows up. And he's not begging the disciples. He's not coaxing. Oh, please, please, please, pretty please.

23:54 He just says, As the Father sent me, now I send you. There you go. There's your job for the rest of your life. I'm not sure I really want to be sent. I love the joy of the Christian fellowship.

24:05 I love the joy and the happiness. I like the blessings. I like the good times. But that's not the deal. That's not the deal.

24:11 Remember Isaiah? Prophet Isaiah, he overhears the Lord speaking. I heard the verse of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send and who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here I am, send me! Here I am, send me!' That's what our response ought to be. But for how long, O Lord?

24:25 Is this just that I can help people for a little while? Or, I'm going to wait till I have more free time. I'm going to wait till my kids are off in college. Then I'll be able to help people. Well, how long should I do this?

24:37 Until the cities are laid waste without inhabitant and the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate. Until there's nothing left to give. That's how I'm being sent out. This is not some part time job. See, I wanna be laid back and enjoy the prospects of a coming glory.

25:01 And sometimes I make decisions for my family. Now this is very convicting. You know how it is when you write a sermon, you get yourself more convicted than anybody else. How many of the decisions have I made in the last few years? How many of those decisions did I think?

25:20 How will this affect my mission? I don't know. I bought a house out in the suburbs. I talked to my neighbor once in a while over a fence. That's not a bad thing.

25:32 How's that affecting my mission? I carefully monitor the people that my children spend time with. That's not a bad thing. I'm thinking to myself, why should I send my kids to? Now I don't want to step on anybody's toes here.

25:46 Don't want to step on anybody's toes. I'll just tell you, Megan and I think about where we're to send our kids to school. Are we going send them to public school? Are we going send them to Christian school? Should I home school them?

25:55 And when I make these decisions, to what extent am I considering will the result of this decision affect the mission that I am on? That's all I'm going to say about that. And it's not that those are bad things. We don't pursue bad things. Most of the time, sin in my life is not the pursuit of bad things.

26:14 It's the over pursuit of good things. And sometimes I overly pursue good things to the point where I wonder, Wow, as Father sent Jesus, now He sends me. What am I doing about this? What about being sent? There was an old song, He Left the Splendor of Heaven.

26:29 Do you know that song? I think that was Elvis Presley that sang that song. We could sing, He left the splendor of Heaven, knowing his destiny. What was his destiny? It was the lonely hill of Golgotha.

26:42 That's what his destiny was. There was another old song I used to like. We sang this song, Ivory Palaces. Out of the ivory palaces into the world of woe, only his great eternal love made my Savior go. That's how God sent Jesus.

26:59 Here's another one. This is Old Song Day here. This is So I Send You. To labor unrewarded, to serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown, to bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing, so I send you to toil for Me alone. So send I you to leave your life's ambitions, to die to dear desire, self will resign, to labor long and love where men revile you.

27:23 So send I you to lose your life in Mine. I don't know. Maybe these are old ideas. The idea that Jesus sends us out to labor unrewarded, unpaid, unsought, unknown, to leave my life's ambition. Are you kidding me?

27:42 To leave my life's ambition? I don't know. I do not know. Here's just something that would even make us feel worse about this mission. Is this: If I am reconciled to God, that means I'm also reconciled to all other believers.

28:01 There's no animosity vertically, and there's not allowed to be any animosity horizontally either. There is no Jew, nor Greek, or slave, or free, nor male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. So that means there's no racism, ethnocentrism is not allowed, Sexism is not allowed. Classism is not allowed. And I say to myself, just when I'm feeling overwhelmed with this mission and I think this is just impossible.

28:51 In fact, don't even know if I want to do it. And He says, Receive the Holy Spirit. It's not going to be my power that gets the job done. So Jesus gives me both the mission and He gives me the power to accomplish the mission. He says, Receive the Holy Spirit.

29:07 Now, some people think that the disciples received the Holy Spirit right at that moment. But I do not think that is true. And I would be willing to be corrected on this. But I do not think that when He breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. I don't think they received the Holy Spirit immediately.

29:21 Part of this is because We have other verses. John chapter seven and in John 16, I believe, he makes reference to the fact that the Holy Spirit cannot come until Jesus has gone away. And furthermore, we have this amazing scene at Pentecost where the Holy Spirit comes down. But then, you know, the other reason I don't think they got the Holy Spirit right away is because, what's the next thing all the disciples do together? They go fishing.

29:53 You just receive the Holy Spirit and you go fishing? I know. I mean, I like fishing. I like fishing. I had my little boy, I had little Paul David out there fishing last week.

30:04 I just don't know if the disciples would have been doing this if they had just been filled with the Holy Spirit. Little Paul, I give you a disclaimer here. There was no actual bait on the end of his line. In fact, truth be told, there was no hook on the end of the line either. I was trying to teach him how to cast the rod and I wanted to do that without the risk of a fish hook to my eyeball.

30:26 So I had put this little plastic weighted fish on the end of it, which would allow the line to fly. But the dumbest fish was not going to be taken up by that. But he didn't know this. And so he'd fish in one place for, I don't know, thirty seconds. And when he wouldn't get a bite, he'd say, We've to go someplace else, Dad.

30:46 And we'd make our way around the pond. And I'm thinking, You're not going to get a bite, period. Why don't we just stay here? But he said to me, No, we've got to move. We've got to move to the next spot because isn't the point of fishing to catch fish?

31:01 You got something there. In fact, now that there's probably a whole another sermon in that someplace, Isn't the point of fishing to catch fish? Boy, tell you what, out of the mouth of a bait.

31:11 We're not going to

31:11 go down that road either. I don't know how I got off on that other than to say, I do not think they received the Holy Spirit at that time. Maybe this is some kind of if you want to put it in this way, this is like an acted out parable to them. He is saying, I want you to realize something, that my breath, my life, my word will be in the Holy Spirit. He's not saying you're going to get the Holy Spirit right now.

31:34 But he's talking about a connection here. They did get the Holy Spirit later. They got the Holy Spirit later at Pentecost. And that's the Holy Spirit that qualifies us to do our work. I cannot do the work of God in my own strength.

31:47 In fact, I can't even be a Christian in my own strength, let alone do this mission that God has sent me on. So we need the Holy Spirit. And that's why, without Pentecost, Easter is not the full story. That's a little incomplete. Without Pentecost, Easter is just a memorial to some events that happened a long time ago.

32:09 And they're very, very important events. But it's just a memorial. It's the Holy Spirit that makes things real. For the Christian, the coming of the Holy Spirit is what seals me as a true Christian. The true Christian is not one who is trying to do things in his own strength.

32:23 The true Christian is not one who puts on some kind of a false front and you look good and you say the right things and I say the right things in the parking lot and I know all these Christian buzzwords and that's not the true Christian. The true Christian is the one who is true internally, in the deepest part of their very being. A number of years ago, Ringling Brothers Circus got into some trouble. I don't know. Some people take the circus seriously.

32:46 When I think of anything related to circus, think it must just be for fun. But people took them seriously. They got in trouble because they claimed that they had a unicorn. And people said, there aren't any unicorns in the circuit. We have a unicorn.

32:59 Why you come see? I got a picture of this unicorn. There it is. That's the unicorn. And the Humane Society got very upset about this.

33:07 And so they got some doctors and some biologists to come in. They... Because this kind of looks like a goat, doesn't it, with a horn stuck on its head? Yeah. So they got these high powered veterinarians to check out this unicorn at the circus.

33:20 You know what they found out? It was a goat with a horn stuck on its head. Yeah. Wasn't a real... Hey, I don't know if this comes as a shock to you.

33:29 It was not a real unicorn. Right? It was a goat with a horn stuck on top of its head. And I thought, Wow. That's how some people are going through life.

33:40 That's like they're trying to imitate the Holy Spirit being stuck on us. It's like it's some external thing that is stuck on their head. And they're going to go through the next... And as the years go by, it gets harder and harder to maintain that facade. And they put more and more energy into the appearance and doing the right church things.

33:58 But that's not going to work out. Because the true Christian isn't one who's got the horn stuck on his head like a goat. The true believer is one who has been changed internally. Holy Spirit, you know, the Holy Spirit doesn't depend on my talent. It doesn't depend on my financial resources and so forth.

34:18 I can give and give and give and I can be oh so talented and I can do all these things for the Church. The Holy Spirit doesn't need that. I don't know if that makes you depressed or not. God doesn't need you. Right?

34:29 He doesn't need our money. He doesn't need our talents. Now He wants them. He wants you to enjoy that part of his ministry. But he doesn't need us.

34:36 Holy Spirit. So we have the Holy Spirit. We're thankful for that. And what does the Lord want? If my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray.

34:48 Pray. That is, that's the kind of work. You want to talk about mission. You say, I'm not, I don't know, I feel called to go overseas and serve as a missionary. That's okay.

34:59 There's different kinds of mission. And one of the most important kinds of mission is the mission of prayer. Every missionary needs a support team. Every missionary needs that kind of support. Then we have the breath of God.

35:16 The breath of God. There's another time that Christ's breath is mentioned in the Bible. And this is right at the very beginning. When he breathes into Adam the breath of life. Remember that?

35:28 He breathed into Adam the breath of life and the man became a living being. This indicates that Jesus himself is the author of that work. That life itself depends on Him. And now we have this John 20 passage that spiritual life of human beings come from Him and depend on Him. And just as the breath of God gave life to man in the old world, now Jesus, now the breath of the Savior begins a new world.

35:58 That's what is happening here. He is breathing the new world into them. And in Job, The Spirit of God has made me. The breath of the Almighty gives me life. And I was feeling really good about this sermon.

36:13 And then there was just this last little verse here. And this just troubled me because I had it all together. I said, Oh man, I got it. I got my three points? Thank you, Lord.

36:53 Remember the guys who lowered their friend down on the mat? The paralyzed guy, they lower him down through the roof and they expect Jesus to heal him. What does Jesus say to him? He says, Man, your sins are forgiven. And the whole crowd says, Wait, wait a minute!

37:07 Only God can forgive sins! Which is true, right? Only God can forgive sins. Now what they missed was the fact that, well, they missed the whole point, didn't they? Only God can forgive sins.

37:17 Yeah, yeah, no kidding, right. That's right. And it is true that only God can forgive sins. But Christ forgave sins because He had the Spirit, because He was one with the Spirit. And in this passage, Jesus is saying now the Spirit of God is going to be extended to the people of God, to us, the Church.

37:37 And with the coming of the Spirit comes both the power and the responsibility to pronounce the forgiveness that God has extended. Now, apparently we can also withhold this pronouncement of forgiveness. But since we, in the Lord's Prayer, we pray, Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us, I don't know that withholding is such a wise plan. I do not think that's not such a good idea to do that. No.

38:04 But this is the commissioning of the Church. I'm not saying that the Church claims an equal role with Jesus in the plan of salvation. I'm not saying that we can pronounce forgiveness outside of God. I am saying that when we extend the assurance of pardon, of forgiveness, to one another, you can believe that it's true that sin is really forgiven. As long as we are abiding in the Holy Spirit, we can rest assured that the forgiveness that God extends, well, we can rest assured and we have a responsibility to declare that to each other.

38:49 I think that what's happening here is Christ is commissioning the church. He's commissioning us to continue the work of Jesus. And this is one more example of what I sometimes think is wonderful and sometimes think it's a ridiculous plan of God. To do His work through people, through the church. You know, when you declare the Gospel to somebody, you know what I take from this verse?

39:17 When you declare the Gospel, heaven stands behind you. That Jesus Himself is backing you up. And when you preach the Word, when you are witnessing in the anointing of the Spirit, and when people react to that preaching, they aren't just reacting to you, they're reacting to Jesus. And we are being commissioned to tell the world that salvation is on Gospel terms. It's about the forgiveness of sin.

39:43 That's what salvation is about. And no other. It's the Gospel or nothing. Jesus comes and gives us this peace of God and He gives us purpose. As the Father sent me, so send I you.

39:56 And then He gives us the power. Power to do things that I could not do by myself, like not be so selfish. The power to love other people. The power to treasure Christ above everything. To go into all the world and proclaim the message that Jesus is alive and He is coming again.

40:17 Because he said, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. We're not just playing for fun, guys. You talk about sin, you talk about forgiving sins and remitting sins, uh-uh, we're playing for keeps. And we've people's souls in the balance. And thank God, it's not up to us.

40:41 It is the power of the Spirit to convict sins. But we're being sent. Let's pray. Father, thank You that we're here on Easter morning and that Jesus has made peace. We're thankful that You have given us a purpose to go into all the world and proclaim the message of Jesus Christ that there is forgiveness of sins that there is everlasting life.

41:19 And thank You, Father, that You give us the power of Your Holy Spirit to accomplish this work until that day when we stand before You. And may we all hear those words, Well done, good and faithful servants. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.