19 “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’” John 20:19-23.
Take note that it is only in John and Luke (see Luke 24:39) that we are told that Jesus was nailed to the cross by his hands and feet, and it is only here in John that Jesus grants peace and joy that had been promised in chapter 14:27 “27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” And now versus commissions them, or sends them, too go out and spread the Gospel. Jesus breathes one them in the same way God breathed on Adam when He gave Adam life. The life Jesus now gives the disciples is the Life of the holy Spirit. Clearly Jesus is re-creating them with the Holy Spirit. Immediately following the resurrection there is is a new creation for all. So the Holy Spirit is given not just at Pentecost, but immediately following the resurrection when the church’s mission is clarified to go out into the entire world and spread the Gospel. The gift of the Holy Spirit is an invisible gift that flows from the glorification of Jesus upon His resurrection and later after His return to His Father. So the holy Spirit is given on the night of the resurrection. Luke points out that the Holy Spirit is given for the forgiveness of sins. “Jesus said, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high’”
Luke 24:47-49. Only with the gift of the Holy Spirit is “repentance and forgiveness of sins…to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” Luke 24:47.
So today I invite you to pray for the continued gift of the Holy Spirit in your life. Pray for the Spirit so that You may share and spread the Gospel in your life, and that you may have the power to repent and be forgiven of your sins.
The two are obviously connected, in that you need to repent and be forgiven in order to share the Gospel. This is a powerful connection that came immediately; y with the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living G od, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words”
Romans 8:26.
“And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”
Acts 2:38.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you”
John 14;15-17.
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” John 16:13.
“And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness” Luke 4:1.
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