Jesus Said...
Receive the Holy Spirit
John 20:19-22
The most important words ever spoken were spoken by Jesus. And today’s message is essential to every believer. Whether you realize it or not, every believer is indwelt by the spirit, but Jesus wants us to be filled by the Spirit.
If you are here today and not acquainted with the part the Holy Spirit wants to play in our lives then this message will be very helpful.
John 20 records the resurrection according to John, the apostle. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. The disciples had been locked behind closed doors, not believing in the resurrection of the Lord, although they had been told of the resurrection of the Lord by Mary Magdalene and by several other of the women. They were not yet fully convinced that the Lord had risen from the dead. This is Sunday night, Easter, about 2000 years ago.
John 20:19-22
Jesus appeared to these disciples; He showed them the scars in His hands and the scar in His side from the spear. They were convinced without any doubt that it was the Lord Jesus who had died on the cross, who had been buried in the tomb, and on the third day had risen again. On the first Easter Sunday night, they were not yet convinced.
Jesus came to them to speak peace to their troubled hearts. He said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so send I you. "Can you imagine the weight of that responsibility? Can you imagine that these disciples felt a tremendous sense of inadequacy?
Because Jesus, who had died, who had risen again, was going back to the Father. And He was saying to them, "Just as God sent me in the world to be the faithful witness, I'm going back to the Father, and I'm now sending you." They must have thought in their hearts and their minds "What a terrifying thought that Jesus is leaving His ministry with us, that Jesus' plan to carry out the gospel and to preach the good news of salvation is dependent upon us."
It was that precise moment when they felt their inadequacy, when they felt their weakness, that Jesus breathed on them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Jesus was assuring them once again that they would not have to rely on their strength, they would not have to rely on their ingenuity or their abilities, but they would be empowered in the same way Jesus was empowered when He ministered on the earth, that the Holy Spirit, which had been promised by the Father, would breathe upon them, would come upon them.
They would be endued with power from on high. Jesus was looking forward to the Day of Pentecost, when the promise of the Father regarding the outpouring of the Holy Spirit would be carried out and fulfilled, when a mighty rushing wind would descend upon the disciples in this same room.
That wind would be the Spirit of God, and it would come like a tornado into that room, and they would all be filled with the Holy Spirit. They would be baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ and filled with the Spirit so that they might carry out this commission that Jesus gave to them to win the world to faith in Him.
When you look at this passage, when it says, Jesus breathed on them, the word "breathe" there is the same word as the word Holy Spirit or as the word spirit. It's the Greek word from which we get our word "pneumonia," we get our word pneumatic. The word is "pneuma." Jesus breathed on them; it comes from the root word "pneuma," and it means to breathe or to blow.
Sometimes it's presented in scripture as the wind of God blowing upon His people. Jesus breathed on them to symbolize that the breath of God would come over them, come into them. They would be empowered by the Spirit of God to carry out this great commission.So as we think about that breath of Jesus as He breathed on His disciples and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost."
Jesus later told His disciples, "Don't start a church, don't win a soul, don't give a witness, don't preach a sermon until you have received the promise of my Father." Then on the Day of Pentecost, that promise was fulfilled. Acts 2 says they were all of one accord at one place. And suddenly there came from heaven the sound of a rushing mighty wind.
It filled the house where they were sitting. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
I want to share with you the work of the Holy Spirit as He is breathed upon this world and breathed upon human kind and breathed upon the church in these last days. But I want to go further back than that.
It was the breath of God that created a world, that this is the Holy Spirit's
WORK OF CREATION
Genesis 1:2
The Holy Spirit did not begin in that upper room; the Holy Spirit did not come at Pentecost; the Holy Spirit has been at work from the very beginning. It was His work, the work of creation, that brought the world into existence.
Consider this: the second verse of the Bible has a reference to the Spirit of God hovering around the waters. This Hebrew word can be translated "brooded upon the waters." Some Bible scholars believe, and I tend to agree with them, that between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, something happened. Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." I believe it was a perfect creation.
But before Genesis 1:2 was written, Lucifer rebelled against God. He was the Son of the Morning; He was the praise leader of heaven. In his pride, he said, "I'll be like the most high God." And a third of the angels of God followed him, thus becoming demons, evil spirits, evil angels. Because of that, Genesis 1:2 says, "Darkness was on the face of the deep.
The earth was without form and void." Lucifer's rebellion caused a cataclysmic chaotic situation. The perfect world that God made was affected by the rebellion of sin.
So in Genesis 1:2, we read that God began a new creation process. The Spirit of God hovered on the waters, hovered on the chaos. That word "hovered" is a word that means like a chicken hovers over the little chicks in her nest, a hen brooding over her chicks, or a bird brooding over her little babies in the nest, hovering about then, covering them...
What happened next is that the breath of God moved upon this world that was without form and void. The Bible gives many Old Testament references on how the Spirit of God, the breath of God, breathing upon this chaos and void, brought about a world of beauty, symmetry, and purpose. The Spirit of God blew upon that world, and a world was created.
In fact, Psalm 104:30: "When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth." Psalm 33:6: "By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry hosts by the breath of His mouth." That's the breath of God - the Spirit of God breathing upon chaos and bringing a world of beauty into existence.
Think about the beauty of the stars. A hundred and fifty years before Christ was born, a Greek philosopher estimated there were a 1022 stars.
Then two centuries after Christ, Ptolemy had the number up to a 1026 stars. It was not until Galileo's invention of the telescope that he said that there had to be millions of stars.
During 1921 an American astronomer said, "The stars are innumerable."
Now we know the farther we probe into the depths of space, the more we know there are galaxies of stars that cannot even be seen by the eye of the most powerful telescope that we have available. The Bible says that God hung every one of those stars into space. By the breath of His mouth, they were hung in space, and that God not only knows their number, but God has also named every one of the stars, and He knows their name. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in creation.
We owe our very human existence to the breath of God. Genesis 2:7: "The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground" - that's HIS PHYSICAL NATURE - "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" - that's his spiritual nature - "and man became a living soul" - that's his psychological nature, so that man is a threefold being made up of body, spirit, and soul. We owe our human existence to God.
But we also owe OUR SPIRITUAL EXISTENCE to God. Jesus told Nicodemus, "Unless a man be born again, he will not see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus inquired about the new birth. Jesus said, "The new birth is a spiritual birth. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but spirit gives birth to spirit. The spirit is like the wind: you cannot see from whence it comes; you cannot tell where it goes. But you can see the results of it. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit of God."
Think about a tornado and the damage that it does. You cannot see the wind of a tornado, but you can certainly see its effects. When you're born again, it's that way. It's an invisible thing brought about by the Spirit of God. That which is born of the spirit is spirit.
The wind of the Spirit blows conviction into your life. Then He blows conversion into your life, and you became a person of the Spirit with a divine nature given to you by the Spirit of God as He blows in your heart and life. You cannot see it when it happens with the physical eye, but you can see the results of it.
Because the drug addict becomes clean; the alcoholic becomes sober; the wife abuser becomes gentle; the sinner becomes a saint. You see in a person's life a transformation that takes place. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit of God. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in creation.
But not only did God breathe the work of creation, but the Spirit of God also composed a book. He not only created a world, He composed a book.
That's His
WORK OF REVELATION
2 Timothy 3:16
You can translate that word inspiration breath or wind. All scripture is given by the breath of God. "Holy men of God were moved as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1:20-21)
That phrase "moved by the Spirit" is a nautical word that means the sailing of a ship. It refers to the wind blowing into the sails of the ship, taking that ship to the destination.
God used DUAL AUTHORSHIP. There was the authorship of man and the authorship of God. Man was breathed-into; God breathed into his heart; God breathed into the minds of those who gave us this Bible. Today the miracle of God is we hold this Bible in our hands, a Bible that came to us because the Spirit of God blew into the hearts and minds of men, and they were carried along to write as the breath of God took them to their destination.
So when you read through the Bible, you'll read again and again about the breath of God bringing the Bible into existence. It's all throughout the scripture. "Brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled which He spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas." (Acts 1:16) "But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit whom the Father sent in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything that I have told you." (John 14:26)
Did you ever wonder how did Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, how did Peter, how did James, Paul, all the rest, how did they remember all those things Jesus did? How did the gospel writers hear about the things that Jesus did, and how did they remember them?
It says right here, Jesus said, When the comforter - that is the Holy Spirit - "is come, He will bring to your mind remembrance of all the things that I did." Why did they write the things they wrote about Jesus and not other things?
John said at the end of His gospel, "If we wrote everything about Jesus, all the books in all the world could not even begin to hold the volumes of books that would be written." But they wrote certain things about the life of Jesus, because God's Holy Spirit brought those things to their mind, and they wrote them down.
That's the Holy Spirit's work of revelation. He created a world, the work of creation. He wrote a book, the WORK OF INSPIRATION. Last of all, the Holy Spirit conceived a Savior - that's the
WORK OF INCARNATION
The Holy Spirit has a special relationship to Christ. In Romans 8:9 and in other places, the Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Christ. In other places He's called the Spirit of God. But He is the Spirit of Christ. He is the Spirit of God because the Father sent Him; He is the Spirit of Christ because He comes to represent Christ to you and me.
You find the Holy Spirit active in every point in the life of Jesus. As an example, when it speaks of the birth of Jesus in Matthew 1:20, "What is conceived in (Mary) is from the Holy Spirit." Luke 1:34 is even more specific. Luke was a medical doctor, and much of what he wrote was from the perspective of medical doctor.
Luke wrote that the virgin Mary would bear the Savior. Here's how it would happen. He said the Holy Spirit came upon her. The most high God overshadowed her so that the holy thing that would be conceived in her was from God and was the Son of God.
When Jesus was born, He already had a divine nature. Jesus existed from eternity past, before the foundation of the world along with the Holy Spirit and along with the Father. But when Jesus was born humanly in the womb of Mary, when He was conceived in the womb of Mary, Jesus was given a human nature.
It was the Holy Spirit who overshadowed Mary, that means enveloped Mary. He enveloped Mary, and the Holy Spirit of God was the Father of Jesus. He had no human father; he had no human sperm, no human seed, but the egg of the mother, Mary, was fertilized miraculously by the Spirit of God, so that no human sin was passed through the genes of a man.
But He was born of the Spirit of God. Then when Jesus came to begin His ministry, He went down to the River Jordan to be baptized by John the Baptist. Again the Holy Spirit was there, active. He came down from heaven when Jesus came up out of the water, and He rested on Jesus like a dove, in the form of a dove. The sweet peaceful dove descended upon Jesus and anointed Him with power to do the miracles that He would do, to teach like He would teach, to minister like He would minister.
Then at the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, "Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit of God to be tempted by the devil." The Holy Spirit was there when Jesus came forth victoriously from that temptation. When He came forth, He was led of the Spirit; He was anointed by the Spirit as He began His ministry. Jesus said, "Nothing that I do, I do on my own. I do all things through the power of the Holy Spirit that's been given unto me."
When Jesus died on the cross, Hebrews 9:14 tells us: "How much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself unblemished to God" - the Holy Spirit of God offered Jesus on the cross. When Jesus died, He carried His blood into the tabernacle, the temple of God in heaven.
It was the Holy Spirit who sprinkled the blood of Jesus on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant in heaven to show that sin had been atoned for. It was the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead according to Romans 8:11: "He was raised from the dead by the Spirit of God," and it was the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to send and did send on the Day of Pentecost, bringing the church into existence.
The enemies of Jesus thought, "He's dead; we've conquered. He's dead; we'll be troubled by Him no more. He's in the tomb." They laughed, and the demons of hell joined in their laughter. That tomb, which was sealed doubly shut by the authority of the Roman government, there was a penalty of death to break the seal on the tomb of Jesus.
That seal could not keep back the breath of God. God breathed into the confines of that dead tomb upon the dead body of Jesus. He was raised in victory over sin and death and hell. He walked out of that tomb in victory because of the breath of God, the Holy Spirit of God.
The same power that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. The same power that brought life into the body of Jesus, the same power that transformed His body into a glorified body, dwells in you.
"Since the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He will also quicken - He will also make alive, He will also energize - your mortal bodies." (Romans 8:11)
That means when I grow cold and indifferent, I can be raised from the dead. That means when I grow weary and tired, I can have new life infused into my body as the wind of God's Spirit blows upon my body and my mind and my spirit. I can receive a new anointing and a new energy and a new filling for every task in my life.
When the news comes to me of death, God can breathe upon my life. Even though it may be a loved one who is dear to my heart, I can sing in victory, "Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?" because the Spirit of God quickens the truth, makes alive the truth of the resurrection and eternal life in me.
That same Spirit dwells in us, and He wants to breathe upon us with that same power with which He breathed upon Jesus and raise us from the dead and free us from the shackles and chains of human weakness and human ability and do what only He can do in our life.
I love Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones. God showed Ezekiel, the prophet, a valley of dry bones that represented Israel, the people of God. There were bones everywhere, and the bones were not connected. There might be a skull over here and a foot bone over there and a leg bone over here. God said, "Son of Man, can these dry bones ever live?"
Ezekiel shrugged and said, "I don't know, God; you know." "Some men prophesy that these bones will live." Ezekiel began to prophesy about the resurrection of Israel, the resurrection of the people of God. The head bone joined up with the neck bone, and all the bones were joined together. Then they were just skeletons lying around, bleaching in the hot sun.
Ezekiel continued to prophesy, and the sinew, the muscle, came on the body, and the sinew and flesh came upon the body so that now these were a bunch of corpses. A bunch of corpses are not much good; they're still dead. They may have flesh; they may have sinew; they may look like they're just asleep. But they're dead; they can do nothing.
So in Ezekiel 37:9, then came the words, "Oh breath, breathe unto these bones that they may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath entered into them, and they came to life, and they stood on their feet - a vast army."
That's what God can do in every life here. We can pray, and say, "Oh, breath of God, breathe upon my life afresh and anew. Without you, Holy Spirit, I'm a corpse. I have no ability to live. You are my life; you are my all. I'm depending on you, oh Spirit of God." We have to do this daily. Paul said, "I die daily. I'm crucified with Christ - that is, I'm dead. Nevertheless, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. So it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me."
We were just a body with a mind. We had a soul, but we had no spirit. God breathed into us, and we became a living soul; we became a living spirit.
Our spirit became alive to God.
Like Israel, sometimes we get away from the Lord, and sometimes we disobey God. Although the Spirit of God is in our life, He's dormant, not dominant. We have to pray, "Oh God, breathe on this dead, cold life of mine, and give me the power that I once had; give me the joy I once had; give me the victory I once had.
Lord, I know I'm saved; I know you live within me. But God, I'm about as helpful to you as a dead person. I don't have that ministry of prayer anymore; tears don't come to my eyes anymore; I don't have that urgency about telling people about Jesus. Oh God, breathe on me." God will do that. You can have the fresh wind of God in your life. Just as the Spirit blew into that upper room in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost, God's Spirit can blow into this room, in this very place, in this very room. Because at Pentecost that happened for them happened for us.
When the Spirit was poured out, He was poured out for all of the last days. Joel said, "And I'll pour my Spirit out upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And it will come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
The breath of God awaits for us to pray that prayer, for us to cry that from the depths of our heart, to say, "Oh God, we've been crucified with Christ, but we want to live through the faith of the Son of God, who loves us and gave Himself for us." The old hymn says,
Holy Spirit, breathe on me
Until my heart is clean.
Let sunshine fill my inmost part
With not a cloud between.
Holy Spirit, breathe on me.
My stubborn will subdue.
Teach me in words of living flame
What Christ would have me do.
Holy Spirit, breathe on me.
Fill me with power divine.
Kindle a flame of love and zeal
Within this heart of mine.
Holy Spirit, breathe on me
'Til I am all thine own.
Until my will is lost in thine
To live for thee alone.
Breathe on me, breathe on me,
Holy Spirit, breathe on me.
Take thou my heart, cleanse every part.
Holy Spirit, breathe on me.
And Jesus breathed upon them, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost."
