...and He breathed on them

[00:00:01] Grace, mercy, and peace be to you. From God our father and from our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. [00:00:08] This morning we're going to focus on these words from the gospel reading. [00:00:16] Jesus said to them again, peace be with you, as the Father has sent me. Even so, I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld. [00:00:40] Jesus breathes on them. [00:00:43] If you've ever read the chronicles of Narnia, the books by CS Lewis, he plays with this imagery. There are times when Aslan breeds on people, right? Aslan sort of represents Jesus. He's this big lion. [00:00:58] And particularly in the first book that he wrote, the lion, the witch in the wardrobe, there's a scene where they're in the castle of the witch and all these talking animals and people have been turned into stone, which is a good picture of what the devil does in maybe helping to solidify our hearts and fortify them against the word of God. And then Aslan comes to the castle and he breathes on them and they come back to life. [00:01:34] When he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. [00:01:43] This is supposed to recall for us the creation story. [00:01:48] God breathes into Adam the breath of life. First he forms him out of the dust of the earth, and then he breathes into him the breath of life, and he becomes a living being. [00:02:03] So why breath? [00:02:05] Well, first of all, the word in Hebrew and in Greek is the same word as spirit. So breath and spirit, it's the same word. [00:02:16] So breath. I mean, breath represents the Holy Spirit. So like we said at Pentecost, we'll see the apostles sitting in a room, and then suddenly there's a great rushing wind. [00:02:30] But then there's also just breath. God breathing into Adam the breath of life. [00:02:35] Breath is used as a picture of the Holy Spirit. Now, of course, the Holy Spirit isn't physical breath. We don't want to equate the two. Just like we talk about light as representing knowledge. You know, the sun comes up and now you can see and you're not running into things, and you. Right, light represents knowledge. But of course, knowledge isn't literally light from the sun. Right. Okay, so we're not talking about, like, some physical force that moves around like wind or that kind of thing. Right. But breath represents the Holy Spirit, like we talked about before. We need outward things to communicate spiritual realities. The Holy Spirit is invisible, just like your mind is invisible to me. I can't see what you're thinking. [00:03:27] How can you talk about growing in knowledge without using something like growing, which refers to physical things that actually grow? You see what I mean? So wind, the same thing. Wind, breath, the Holy Spirit. [00:03:46] Wind is a really interesting thing. We breathe in air. [00:03:51] We breathe it in, breathe it out. [00:03:54] And so in that sense, it gives us life. [00:03:58] You can't live without breath. [00:04:01] If you don't have breath, you're not alive after a couple minutes or whatever it is. [00:04:11] Breath also is necessary for speech. If you're going to speak, you need that breath. [00:04:21] So in creation, God speaks and things are created. [00:04:30] When you speak, first you have something you want to say, so you've got something you want to say, and then you give it voice. You voice it by using breath to push it out into the world for it to become a reality for somebody else so that they can hear it. So I want to say something to you, which is what I'm doing right now. And so I use words to express what's in my mind, and then it comes in through your ears, and you receive the thought that I had, or at least a vehicle for communicating that thought. Hopefully, you receive the thought I had. That's the goal of communication. [00:05:14] So there at creation, God creates with a word. [00:05:19] And the gospel of John starts out in the beginning, makes us think of creation. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and all things were made through him. This is just kind of a reiteration of Genesis one. So there in Genesis one, we had father, son and Holy Spirit. You could say, as God speaks his word and things are created. Now, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit was. [00:05:54] The spirit of God was hovering over the waters. The breath of God was hovering over the waters. The waters represent chaos, and God's about to bring it into order with a word, which is what words do, by the way. And we say, that's a tree. And now we can categorize it and we identify it, and it's no longer just a mass of cells or of things. You can see a jumble, it's a tree, and you understand it. It brings it into order so that all the stuff isn't just chaotic. So that's what words do anyway. But there, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God is hovering over the waters. The breath of God is, is hovering over the waters. So the word, it starts with a thought and it's expressed with a word. [00:06:44] All of this, you can't hold on to the picture and say, that's the thing. Once again, we don't want to say, we don't want to reduce the Holy Spirit to physical air or something like that. [00:06:56] But I think in Genesis, there in Genesis one, this is giving us a sense of God, a sense of the trinity. And I don't want to say this, but I'm going to say it how it works. That's a terrible way to say it. [00:07:14] All right, so back to John. [00:07:20] Peace be with you. Jesus said, as the Father has sent me, even so, I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. [00:07:34] If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld. [00:07:40] So Jesus breathes on them, the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is, well, it's related to thinking and speaking. [00:07:54] Just like God calls everything into existence and gives everything order in creation. [00:08:02] Well, that's, by the way, that's the order that we want to tap into if we want to understand what we are as human beings or how we should relate to our spouse or parents or children or friends, or how we should conduct our lives. Like the order that God called into existence, the way that he holds it together as our creator, the one who's put all this together, who's made us. [00:08:28] That's what we want to tap into, so to speak, if we want to understand anything. [00:08:37] This is the spirit of God that Jesus breathes on his disciples often in scripture. Well, the spirit is called by different names, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit. But it's the spirit of Christ. [00:08:56] So tapping into that, let's call it participating in, in God's order, in God's word, in God's creation, right? Being who he created you to be, being his child, participating in that, it's not participating in, again, some sort of arbitrary force. So sometimes when christians talk about the Holy Spirit, it can kind of be kind of loosey goosey, like just kind of go where the wind blows, just like be ultra receptive to any ideas. And that's not what we want. To live and walk by the spirit is to live and walk by the spirit of Christ, by the spirit of God. [00:09:48] Because not all breath is equal, not all breath is right. [00:09:54] The devil is the father of lies. So we can speak lies, we can live by lies. [00:10:03] That's possible. In fact, that's what we're trying to get away from. That's what God is rescuing us from through Jesus. So in our epistle, reading, John starts out by talking about the word, right? Christ, that which we've seen from the beginning, again, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. This word of life is Christ. And that word of life is, well, has a spirit, the spirit of Christ. The spirit of life. [00:10:43] Okay? So then he goes on, and a little bit later he says, if we say, we have not sinned, so if we speak, right, if we speak words with breath, all right, if we say, we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. [00:11:01] So there's a right way to think and speak, and there's a wrong way to think and speak. And if we speak lies, then his word is not in us, you see? So it's living and walking by the spirit is not just arbitrary, sort of extreme openness and receiving whatever, and blowing where the wind blows, right? Living and walking by the spirit is walking by the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ, the spirit of life. And there's a right and wrong there. So how do we get it right? Living by faith in Jesus. Right. Jesus Christ, the spirit of Christ. [00:11:41] That's how we have the word in us. [00:11:50] So he breathes on them, his spirit. [00:11:56] And with that, you could say a way of thinking. Paul says a few times, you have the mind of Christ. [00:12:05] How do you get the mind of Christ by the Holy Spirit. [00:12:14] If he's giving you his spirit? [00:12:17] Let's just make it concrete, sort of. In baptism, by faith, he's given you his spirit. [00:12:25] If he's giving you his spirit, then, well, Paul says, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Right? And you could say his spirit lives in you, or that he lives in you by his spirit. [00:12:38] What happens is that living by faith, walking by his spirit, living by the spirit of Christ, you are thinking and speaking, but the spirit of God is thinking and speaking through you. [00:12:54] It doesn't look any different when you tell me Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia. Or when you encourage me, or when you tell me I'm wrong in love. [00:13:07] It doesn't look any different from a human perspective. [00:13:12] But when it accords with God's word, when I see that you're speaking God's word to me, oh, then I realize you're speaking, but the Holy Spirit is speaking through you. [00:13:25] Or when you're going through a difficult experience, when you're suffering in some way, and I'm talking with you about it, and you tell me. [00:13:36] You kind of think through it and you're turned toward God and giving him thanks even in the midst of suffering. [00:13:46] Then I see, wow, you're thinking and speaking, but the Holy Spirit is thinking and speaking through you. [00:13:56] And so we're actually. We're participating in God's life. We're participating in God's perspective, in his thoughts. That's why the fruits of the spirit are so wonderful. Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Those are the kinds of things that we experience. [00:14:19] Living by the spirit of God, living by the spirit of Christ. [00:14:24] Those are the things in which we participate as we participate in the life of God, as he takes us up into his own life by the spirit of Christ. [00:14:38] So living by the spirit is participating in the life of God? You could say participating in the life of Christ. [00:14:48] All right, in this context, Christ has just been crucified and spent three days in a tomb. [00:14:56] And the intention was that he would stay there, right? [00:15:02] Well, now he's out. [00:15:04] He rose from the dead. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah. He didn't stay in the tomb, and he's come to his disciples now. His disciples haven't conducted themselves that well, right? They have not won an a for their behavior in the last couple of days. In fact, they've abandoned him, which is as good as participating in his crucifixion. [00:15:32] So he comes to them, and they're behind locked doors for fear. [00:15:39] They ought to be afraid. For various reasons, Jesus comes to them and says, peace be with you. [00:15:49] This is a word of forgiveness. He says, peace be with you. And he breathes on them and he talks about forgiveness. [00:15:55] He comes to them, they who abandoned him, Peter, who denied him three times. And Peter gets special sort of forgiveness in the next chapter, in chapter 21. [00:16:06] But here he comes to them and he says, peace be with you. There's no trying to make them feel guilty. [00:16:17] Jesus doesn't feel like he has to get a really good apology out of them. [00:16:23] He just forgives them. [00:16:28] And, well, it's the life of Jesus into which we are caught up. [00:16:34] It's the life of Jesus that we participate in by his spirit, which we've received in baptism and by faith, a life of forgiveness. So we see Jesus on the cross saying to those who are killing him, father, forgive them. I guess he's talking to God, father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. That's the life in which we participate by his spirit as the spirit thinks through us and speaks through us. [00:17:07] So if you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld. [00:17:15] This is well to speak the spirit's words, right? [00:17:21] If God's forgiveness is effective being spoken through you who have the Holy Spirit. [00:17:30] If his word is effective being spoken through you, it's because it's being spoken through you. It's because it's God's word. It's because it's the Holy Spirit thinking and speaking through you. [00:17:44] And it is effective. [00:17:45] Christ promises this. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven. [00:17:54] Okay. How do you wield that power? [00:17:58] Because that's a great responsibility, and we should not take that lightly. So is the second part, and we'll talk about that in a second here. [00:18:08] How do you wield that? Well, what you want is what you ultimately want for someone, and this is important in all of your interactions with people, in your family, wherever else. Okay. But it kind of maybe just start thinking in your people you are closely related to. Okay. But others as well. [00:18:35] What you want for them is life. What you want for them is faith in Christ ultimately, right. And so as you speak with them, or just as you live life with them, okay. You can maybe see where there might be barriers. [00:18:56] If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. [00:19:00] If someone is, well, unable to accept ever that they've done anything wrong, there's a barrier there to faith. We deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Truth is not in us. Or as he says a couple sentences later, God's word is not in us. Right? We're speaking lies. [00:19:21] Well, you don't want to just say, like, ah, whatever, you're forgiven or something like that, right? You want to speak God's word to them, speak the truth to them in love. [00:19:36] And then when you see repentance and they are sorry and feeling it, then you want to say, God forgives you. You know you're forgiven. [00:19:49] So that's maybe just a simple way how that works. That's confession and absolution. That can happen outside of the Sunday morning service. That can happen outside of me. [00:20:01] On an individual level, Christ has given all his people this power by his spirit. If you have the Holy Spirit, you have the power to forgive sins and withhold sins. [00:20:13] This is just withholding sins, not forgiving sins. Oh, how could we do that? Well, it's actually just. It's about speaking reality. It's about not making God a liar. [00:20:25] So if someone is unrepentant and don't go use this lightly. Right. But if someone is unrepentant, you don't want to say to them niceties like, well, God loves you no matter what, or something like that. I mean, he does. Okay, they use that well, too, but you don't want to just say, like, eh, it doesn't matter. [00:20:48] Paul says, don't even eat lunch with somebody who is. This is from corinthians one, corinthians five. You can go look it up. Okay. But Paul says, don't even eat with people who are doing awful things and acting like they're not awful and saying everything's good. Okay. And it's for the sake of that person. It's because what you want for that person is what God wants for that person, which is faith in Christ, which involves repentance and looking to him and trusting in him and being ruled by him. [00:21:18] So this works on the individual level, and it's all about just speaking God's word. When I was and in accord with reality, right, it was either call day or, well, it must have been, or graduation. [00:21:37] I can't remember which, but one of my beloved professors at the seminary was walking by and struck up a little conversation, and, I mean, I don't remember the conversation exactly, but it was about me going out to be a pastor, which was a big deal. You know, it felt like a big deal. It is a big deal. [00:21:56] And he said to me, this is just the fruit of your baptism. [00:22:01] And it really, I mean, that stuck with me, and I hold on to that, because really, this is true for you, too. It's daunting to speak God's word, but it's not me. [00:22:16] It's not because I'm so great or something like that, that I could do that, or that you could do that. [00:22:24] This is just the fruit of your baptism. It's because you've received the Holy Spirit and faith. That's how you can do any of it. [00:22:33] So don't be afraid. [00:22:36] Sometimes maybe you don't know what you're going to say. Well, pray and ask God, right? Jesus tells his disciples, I'm sending you out. Don't be afraid. [00:22:49] God will give you the words to speak. [00:22:53] It's the same for you. Don't be afraid. Be open to what God would have you say, and that is simply to look toward God, to receive from him. Not open like go where the wind blows me or something like that, but looking to Christ seriously in faith, right, directed toward him and ready to receive. [00:23:13] I was just telling the middle schoolers, do we have any here? [00:23:18] Yeah. Yeah. I was just telling the middle schoolers the other day the importance of a question and the importance of prayer, that if you're just not ready to receive anything, you're not going to receive anything. [00:23:33] But to be receptive, to ask a question or to look to God in prayer is to open a space in which to be transformed, in which the seed of that word can grow in your life. That's all it is. It's just living by faith, looking toward God, ready to receive from him, ready to be ruled by him, so that we open our mouth, o Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. [00:24:01] God has given us his spirit, the spirit of Christ, so that Christ lives in us. [00:24:09] And by doing so, he's taken us up into his own life, so that we participate in his life, so that his thoughts become our thoughts, so that the Holy Spirit thinks and speaks and acts through us by his grace. Not perfectly right. Not. I mean, we sin daily and need to repent and receive forgiveness, repent and look to Christ. [00:24:30] But thanks be to God for his sending Christ, giving us his spirit, taking us up into his life. We pray that he would keep us in the true faith, keep us directed toward Christ and receptive of him to life everlasting. In Jesus name, amen.