When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit!And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit:
12 sermons cite this verse
… As the Father has sent me, I also send 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 any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Spirit of the living God, I need you. I've got you. Stir up the gift of God that's on the inside of me. I have seen sides of your face that I have never been exposed to. Thank you for showing yourself to me. God, I now ask that you would give me wisdom, insight, prophecy to release the word that you have given me, to release the vision that you have shown me to the extent that these, your sons and daughters that their lives will be touched, changed, and transformed. That they would have an encounter with you that convicts them, transforms them, and places them spiritually and physically where they are meant to be. Have your way in this room as only you can do, God. …
… but don't get too worried about the fact that you don't know if you can do this or not, because with that, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit, the advocate. I'm not sending you in your own strength. I am not sending you in your own power. I am not sending you in your own wisdom. I am not sending you with your own resources. I'm not sending you counting on you. I'm sending you with the power and the help of the advocate who is the Holy Spirit, who is God. And that's the only way that I would send any of you. We left camp the way we've done at conference so many different times. And I just want to make sure we see it today as we close this picture. This is the picture today. This is really what God is wanting to say to you and say to me today. it wasn't just his plan to get us in the building today. Well, we made it to the building. Well, we've got people at multiple buildings today. We've got people in D.C. in a building. We've got people in Cumberland in a building. We've got people in their living room in a building. We've got people at Trillith in a building. This building is full of people. But that wasn't the goal. Let's just see how many people we can get in the building. That wasn't the goal. Can you be my helper? Just hold that for me. …
… a grand story. But then listen to his last words at this gathering after the resurrection. And with that, Jesus breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. And that's ultimately the hinge point of today. It's God coming into your world, into your algorithmic world and saying to you, receive the Holy Spirit. Receive the Holy Spirit. Yes, we understand the breadth of our salvation that once we put our faith in Christ and been brought from death to life in him, that the Spirit of God lives in us through Christ. We're now indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God. But there's an actualization of that, an activation of that that comes when we say, I want you, Holy Spirit. I welcome you into my life. I am opening my mind, my heart, my spirit in everything I am to you. I want to receive you into my life. Now, they never knew about receiving the Holy Spirit. As Paul went and preached, he would preach the gospel, and then he would preach, receive the Holy Spirit. They're like, who is the Holy Spirit? He would explain the Holy Spirit. But we're living in another age and another time. Some of you may not know who the Holy Spirit is. Some of you may have heard of him through your upbringing of faith. Some of you may be slightly acquainted, but today, please hear, he's the advocate of God, the power of God. He is God here to help us live out the Christian life. …
our pastor Reverend Dr. Frederick Douglas Haynes III. Come on give God praise for the word of God. John chapter 2019 through 23 a breath of fresh air. There might be someone here tonight you've heard the word of God and you want to receive that breath of fresh air. The word of God is that on the other side of your experience of pain and panic if you let him into the locked the locked spaces of your life he will give you peace and that peace will connect you to purpose and the power necessary to live out that purpose day in and day out if you're here in the sanctuary we want to connect with you we want to invite you to join and to be a part of this family of faith the same for those of you who are watching us online if you're in the sanctuary though we've got ministers down front with hands extended that say guess what your place of purpose is right here at Friendship West that you can connect with us today. …
… And the book lets us know Jesus shows up, offers them some peace, and then blows my mind. The book says that he breathed on them and told them, I'm sending you just like my daddy sent me. He breathed on them. And when he breathed on them, I love it. The text says they received the Holy Ghost. They received the Holy Spirit. It was a Pentecost preview. And all I came to say on Pentecost Sunday is I want a fresh God. I want God afresh to breathe on us. Because when God breathes on us, something happens. As a matter of fact, it's a breath. of fresh air. A breath of fresh air. I have to admit that this wasn't going to be my subject. I was getting ready to fly from L.A. here last night on the red. I got in 5 o'clock this morning, and I'm wrestling with this text, and I got everything worked out except the subject. And so Albany asked me, so what about this for a subject? …
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. May you have a seat. so if you remember um so if you remember there uh the second sunday of easter was the divine mercy sunday and on that sunday we heard this exact gospel we heard the gospel of how jesus had given the holy spirit to the apostles to be able to forgive sins retain sins and so the invitation or the uh yeah invitation to make a commitment to go to confession every two to four weeks as we go through the Easter season, as we go into summer, was kind of put out there. I put that out there. And so hopefully in the last seven or so weeks, you've been to confession a couple times. But here's the thing. That's not to make you feel guilty if you haven't gone. But it is, A, a reminder. And B, there's something about when we go to confession, what do we confess? Oftentimes we confess our sins, but also we confess the near occasion of sin. And so maybe you've heard that phrase before, the near occasion of sin. So what is the near occasion of sin? It's Basically, what are those people, places, and things that they're not of themselves? …
… Jesus, the night of the resurrection, sees the disciples, says to them, shalom. And then strangely and beautifully, it says he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. That's it, everybody. the risen Jesus, to this day, continuing to breathe into his church, the Holy Spirit, the power that they can't control. But if we surrender to it and we accept this obligation of fiery speech, we continue the work that began on the day of Pentecost. And God bless you.
… At their ordination, at the Last Supper, they would have received the Holy Spirit. When Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, when he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit, those who sins you forgive are forgiven. They've already received the Holy Spirit. So is it really a necessary goodbye? And I guess the answer would be this, is Jesus saying, no, but I want more for you. I want you to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And this is the key for the apostles. This is the key for us. Jesus wants more for them. And because of that, this is a necessary goodbye. You say, well, why? there's a clinical psychologist out of Canada who once pointed this out he said that Freud once said no one becomes a man until his father dies Young added to that and said that the death can be symbolic but the idea that no one becomes a man until the father dies. Until this, until the relationship changes. …
… Because Jesus said so. In John chapter 21, Jesus is making those men the first priests and saying, no, you actually have my power. You have my ability to bring mercy to the world, to forgive sins. If you don't, they're retained. If you do, they're gone. That's why I'm going to say that today, your next confession is the exercise that your soul and my soul needs. that your next confession is the exercise that your soul and my soul needs. And I mean this for everyone. From the person who is convinced that they're beyond God's reach to the person who is absolutely convinced they're a genuinely, quote unquote, good person. Because that's maybe a lot of us. We're like, no, but I'm okay. Like, why would I have to go to confession? Like, I go to mass. Like, I help. Like, if you're back at your parish. Like, at Easter, I was back home for Easter and like, they knew I was there. So like, hey, get back up, you know. …
… He said to them, Peace be with you. when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Now, there you see it. There's the juxtaposition. The risen Jesus invariably shows his wounds and offers peace together. Now, why the showing of the wounds? The wounds are the sign of our sin. It's very important now. We don't just rush to the joy of the resurrection, but we see it's precisely the crucified Jesus who is risen from the dead. Why does he bear wounds? Because we killed him. I've said to you before, in all the passion narratives, it's as though the whole world is conspiring against him. It's as though the sin of the world, cruelty, hatred, violence, treachery, betrayal, injustice, you know, all of it, all of it comes out to meet him. It's our sin that wounded him. Notice something, please, in the spiritual life. It's very interesting to me, very important. Notice precisely when and how Jesus aggravates you. Hey, Jesus, what do you mean? …
… as the father has sent me I send you and when he said this he breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit so the 11 disciples remaining disciples received the Holy Spirit in John chapter 20. the indwelling born again experience was made available to the disciples in John 20 he breathed on them and he said receive the holy spirit he's not doing a symbolic act everything he did was very calculated and intentional in Luke chapter 24 before Jesus ascended to heaven for the final time before Pentecost he said in verse 49 behold I send the promise of my father upon you but tarry or wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. What's the point? They received the Holy Spirit in John 20 but before Jesus ascended to the Father he told the guys stay in Jerusalem until you're clothed with power. There was the indwelling but there was the clothing. There was the baptism. biblically they can happen at the same time but the initial revelation was there are two distinct experiences when jesus was raised from the dead he appeared to his disciples he actually appeared and reappeared for a period of 40 days the word pentecost means 50 so from the resurrection of christ to the day of pentecost is 50 days for 40 of those days jesus appeared and reappeared giving final instructions to his disciples one of the first things he did when he first appeared to them he walked into a …
… his disciples. Watch this. Jesus said to them, peace be with you as the father has sent me. Even so I'm sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. That's Genesis 2. God in the flesh is now breathing new life by His Spirit into a new humanity. Are you serious? The Holy Spirit of God, the Holy Presence of God, is going to dwell inside all who trust in Jesus? For what purpose? For this purpose, 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 17. The Lord is the Spirit. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. and we are all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit to all who believe in Jesus you have the Holy Spirit in you and you are free from the penalty of sin in your life you are free from the power of sin in your life you are free to be transformed into the image of Jesus from one degree of glory to another This is the Christian life, becoming more and more and more like Jesus every single day. …