John 20:19-23
Listen Link: http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw
Singer song writer, Jason Grey, has written a song called “The Sound of our Breathing.” I want to read you some of what he has written about why he wrote that song.
Take a breath and breathe it out. Do it again, slowly, and try to mean it. Breathing – of all things maybe we take it most for granted. Do we ever wonder why we are built this way, this soft machine of ours always pumping oxygen in and out?
In sadness, we breathe heavy sighs. In joy, our lungs feel almost like they will burst. In fear we hold our breath and have to be told to breathe slowly to help us calm down. When we’re about to do something hard, we take a deep breath to find our courage. When I think about it, breathing looks almost like a kind of praying.
I heard a teaching not long ago about the moment when Moses had the nerve to ask God what his name is. God was gracious enough to answer, and the name he gave is recorded in the original Hebrew as YHWH.
Over time we’ve arbitrarily added an “a” and an “e” in there to get YaHWeH, presumably because we have a preference for vowels. But scholars have noted that the letters YHWH represent breathing sounds, aspirated consonants that in the Hebrew alphabet would be transliterated like this:
Yod, rhymes with “rode”, which we transliterate “Y”
He, rhymes with “say”, which we transliterate “H”
Vav, like “lava”, which we transliterate “V” or “W”
He rhymes with “say”, which we transliterate “H”
A wonderful question rises to excite the imagination: what if the name of God is the sound of breathing?
This is a beautiful thought to me, especially considering that for centuries there have been those who have insisted that the name of God is so holy that we dare not speak it because of how unworthy we are. How generous of God to choose to give himself a name that we can’t help but speak every moment we’re alive. All of us, always, everywhere, waking, sleeping, with the name of God on our lips.[i]
“The letters of the name of God in Hebrew… are infrequently pronounced Yahweh. But in truth they are unutterable. This word {YHWH} is the sound of breathing.
And Rabbi Lawrence Kushner said about this, “The holiest name in the world, the Name of Creator, is the sound of your own breathing. That these letters are unpronounceable is no accident. Just as it is no accident that they are also the root letters of the Hebrew verb ‘to be’… God’s name is name of Being itself.”
In the Bible we have Gen. 2:7, which says, “Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Now think about that. The very first human being first came to life when God breathed on him and breathed life into him.
What then would be the significance if the same creator God, standing before his disciples as Jesus in the flesh, breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This is the same creative act that gave life to the first man. And these disciples in their grief had been laid low in the dust, you might say. In this moment, God raised them and breathed new and eternal life into them!
Our text says, this new, spiritual life in Christ gave them two things, authority to forgive sins, and power to go forth. It reads this way, “Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” How did the Father send Jesus? Into the world. And Jesus went willingly. So should we. Phil. 2:1-8 says, “Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
Those words really spell out in detail what it means to be sent into the world as Jesus was sent into the world. Humbly, lovingly, obediently and able to suffer for the sake of others. No Christian is exempt from this call. You might excuse yourself saying, “Oh, I’m not a minister.” That would not be a good excuse. Every born again believer has received the Holy Spirit and has been sent into the world as the Father sent Jesus. If you are alive in this world and you are a Christian by faith in Jesus Christ, you are where our heavenly Father has sent you to be. You have received a gift or gifts from the Holy Spirit. and as a servant of Christ you are a minister of the gospel in some capacity.
You might disqualify yourself because you still struggle with sin. Even some secret sin that nobody else but God knows about may make you feel unworthy to take up the cross of Christ. If you think the gospel isn’t working in your own life, it may seem pointless to try to share it with someone else. Friends, we all struggle with sin. 1 John 1:8-9 says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” This is the ministry of reconciliation at work in ourselves. As long as you agree with God that you are in this struggle against sin, you are justified by your faith in Christ, not by your perfect behavior. In fact, as a sinner, recognizing the planks in your own eyes, you are all the more qualified to minister with sympathy and compassion, that you might be able to remove splinters from other eyes.
So, fear not and tremble not that you are called to be a minister of the gospel. Whatever gift you have been given, use it to bless others and you will fulfill your calling. Just for one example, Eleanor does all this sewing to create clothes for kids around the world. She is serving the Lord and supporting the ministry of the gospel! Also, everyone who has signed up to help keep this facility clean is supporting the ministry using those gifts. The volunteers who hang out with Wayne and our guests in the warming center. Thank you for using your gifts to serve the lord! Wherever you are and whatever you do in this world, it can be used by God working in and through you.
You can pray. You can listen to people who want to talk to you about their problems. You can offer comfort and encouragement instead of judgment. You can offer hospitality. You can even sometimes get an opportunity to explain the hope that you have within you and share your faith in Jesus! You don’t even have to know all the answers. You can talk about what you do know and you can invite people to church where they can find people who can help them with their other questions. In short, you can bless people in the name of Jesus. There are nearly infinite ways that you can humbly and obediently serve the Lord, all powered by your conscious dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
When we live like this we will be exhibiting six of the healthy missional markers! Your life transforming walk with Christ will inspire you to help create transformed communities through active compassion, mercy and justice ministries. It will be part of our intentional evangelism fueled by your sacrificial and generous living and giving, all adding up to a compelling Christian community which as we celebrate new life in Christ will lead to deeper heartfelt worship!
So that’s one of the two important things that happen to us when we breathe in the life giving Spirit of the living Christ. We are sent into the world as he was sent into the world. The other thing that Jesus Christ conferred upon his disciples in that moment is the ministry of reconciliation. His actual words here again are, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Now when you first read that it might sound a little scary. You might wonder, what if you forgive someone that wasn’t supposed to get forgiven, or what if you judge someone and refuse to forgive them when God actually does want you to forgive them? Or maybe you think, wait a minute, only God can forgive sins, who am I to dare to say someone is forgiven, what if they didn’t really repent, how would I know?
But let’s put that aside. What Jesus is really talking about is the privilege of sharing with people the good news that they can be forgiven of their sins. If you care about people and want to bless them, if you listen to their stories long enough and build trust with them, they may eventually share with you their fears and doubts. There are many people you will meet who are troubled, or feeling guilty about their life choices, but they’re hiding it. They are afraid of what people would think if they found out. Or they are defiant and defending themselves. Either way, given enough time, if you will be their friend, you just might get an opportunity to tell them how much God loves them.
That’s the ministry of reconciliation. You are not actually forgiving people as if it were up to you, but because you know the gospel and understand how it works, when you hear a new believer pray the prayer of faith and ask for that forgiveness, you have been given the authority in Christ and in the Spirit, to assure the new believer that they are indeed forgiven. You get to tell them they are forgiven!
The second half of Jesus’ statement, “if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven,” ought to fill you with a holy desire to make sure you make the most of every opportunity. For some people, the only way they will ever find out that they can be forgiven is if you tell them about the gospel, and if you don’t tell them, they will not ever know the joy of forgiveness. They might never be forgiven if you don’t tell them they can be forgiven. That ought to give you an urgency to be about this business to the very best of your ability.
Jesus lived, died, and rose again to save a people who would live every day, every moment for his glory. A people who understand that the gospel permeates every aspect of their life. This begins with understanding that ministry isn’t just what pastors do on Sundays and discipleship is much more than a class or program. Instead, every believer has been called: to a life of 24/7 submission to Jesus Christ, to join with others on God’s mission as servant missionaries, to see ourselves as sent ones.
We are called and sent … into the space God has planted us to bring the experience of Jesus’ rule and reign into a dark world, proclaim the gospel, and make disciples. Imagine you being sent to this city, your neighborhood, schools and workplace to proclaim the glory of Jesus through word and gracious deed so that every man, woman, and child around you has a daily encounter with Jesus who is in you.[ii]
Receive the Holy Spirit and go to announce the good news of the gospel every chance you get so that people find out they can be forgiven of any sin, and you get to be there when new life is born in them. There’s nothing more exciting than that!
Let us pray also, for this ministry of reconciliation to function properly in our midst. If it doesn’t work among us, it will not be a ministry we can offer out there in the world. How absurd would it be for someone to think in his or her heart, sure anyone who believes this gospel can be forgiven, but I am not going to forgive that person who sits over there on the other side of the sanctuary, after what they did!
No, my friends, let us pray for the Holy Spirit to cleanse us of such hypocrisy! In fact, let us pray now for the Holy Spirit to move among us and purify our hearts afresh. I will lead us in prayer to close this message. Holy Spirit of God, you have breathed new life into us. You have assured us of forgiveness of our sins. You have promised us that you would be at work among us, faithful to complete that which you began in us. And we know Oh Lord that in order for you to use us to do the ministry you have called us to do we must regularly examine our consciences, regularly open our hearts to our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Lord, we pray that if there’s anybody in this room harboring any grudge against anybody else in this room, that this will be the time that they reconsider and say, “No. That’s wrong. I forgive. I want to bless my brothers and sisters in the Lord. We want to be, we need to be united in the Holy Spirit, united in the love for one another and Jesus said that when the world sees how much we love one another then the world will know that we are disciples of Christ and that we have a special peace to offer, a grace and forgiveness to offer that comes from you O Lord, so we pray that your Holy Spirit will prevail and rule in all of our hearts, binding us together in Christian fellowship, in love, in unity, in harmony as we work together to fulfill the mission you have given us to do together and we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.”
Listen Link: http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw
Singer song writer, Jason Grey, has written a song called “The Sound of our Breathing.” I want to read you some of what he has written about why he wrote that song.
Take a breath and breathe it out. Do it again, slowly, and try to mean it. Breathing – of all things maybe we take it most for granted. Do we ever wonder why we are built this way, this soft machine of ours always pumping oxygen in and out?
In sadness, we breathe heavy sighs. In joy, our lungs feel almost like they will burst. In fear we hold our breath and have to be told to breathe slowly to help us calm down. When we’re about to do something hard, we take a deep breath to find our courage. When I think about it, breathing looks almost like a kind of praying.
I heard a teaching not long ago about the moment when Moses had the nerve to ask God what his name is. God was gracious enough to answer, and the name he gave is recorded in the original Hebrew as YHWH.
Over time we’ve arbitrarily added an “a” and an “e” in there to get YaHWeH, presumably because we have a preference for vowels. But scholars have noted that the letters YHWH represent breathing sounds, aspirated consonants that in the Hebrew alphabet would be transliterated like this:
Yod, rhymes with “rode”, which we transliterate “Y”
He, rhymes with “say”, which we transliterate “H”
Vav, like “lava”, which we transliterate “V” or “W”
He rhymes with “say”, which we transliterate “H”
A wonderful question rises to excite the imagination: what if the name of God is the sound of breathing?
This is a beautiful thought to me, especially considering that for centuries there have been those who have insisted that the name of God is so holy that we dare not speak it because of how unworthy we are. How generous of God to choose to give himself a name that we can’t help but speak every moment we’re alive. All of us, always, everywhere, waking, sleeping, with the name of God on our lips.[i]
“The letters of the name of God in Hebrew… are infrequently pronounced Yahweh. But in truth they are unutterable. This word {YHWH} is the sound of breathing.
And Rabbi Lawrence Kushner said about this, “The holiest name in the world, the Name of Creator, is the sound of your own breathing. That these letters are unpronounceable is no accident. Just as it is no accident that they are also the root letters of the Hebrew verb ‘to be’… God’s name is name of Being itself.”
In the Bible we have Gen. 2:7, which says, “Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Now think about that. The very first human being first came to life when God breathed on him and breathed life into him.
What then would be the significance if the same creator God, standing before his disciples as Jesus in the flesh, breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This is the same creative act that gave life to the first man. And these disciples in their grief had been laid low in the dust, you might say. In this moment, God raised them and breathed new and eternal life into them!
Our text says, this new, spiritual life in Christ gave them two things, authority to forgive sins, and power to go forth. It reads this way, “Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” How did the Father send Jesus? Into the world. And Jesus went willingly. So should we. Phil. 2:1-8 says, “Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
Those words really spell out in detail what it means to be sent into the world as Jesus was sent into the world. Humbly, lovingly, obediently and able to suffer for the sake of others. No Christian is exempt from this call. You might excuse yourself saying, “Oh, I’m not a minister.” That would not be a good excuse. Every born again believer has received the Holy Spirit and has been sent into the world as the Father sent Jesus. If you are alive in this world and you are a Christian by faith in Jesus Christ, you are where our heavenly Father has sent you to be. You have received a gift or gifts from the Holy Spirit. and as a servant of Christ you are a minister of the gospel in some capacity.
You might disqualify yourself because you still struggle with sin. Even some secret sin that nobody else but God knows about may make you feel unworthy to take up the cross of Christ. If you think the gospel isn’t working in your own life, it may seem pointless to try to share it with someone else. Friends, we all struggle with sin. 1 John 1:8-9 says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” This is the ministry of reconciliation at work in ourselves. As long as you agree with God that you are in this struggle against sin, you are justified by your faith in Christ, not by your perfect behavior. In fact, as a sinner, recognizing the planks in your own eyes, you are all the more qualified to minister with sympathy and compassion, that you might be able to remove splinters from other eyes.
So, fear not and tremble not that you are called to be a minister of the gospel. Whatever gift you have been given, use it to bless others and you will fulfill your calling. Just for one example, Eleanor does all this sewing to create clothes for kids around the world. She is serving the Lord and supporting the ministry of the gospel! Also, everyone who has signed up to help keep this facility clean is supporting the ministry using those gifts. The volunteers who hang out with Wayne and our guests in the warming center. Thank you for using your gifts to serve the lord! Wherever you are and whatever you do in this world, it can be used by God working in and through you.
You can pray. You can listen to people who want to talk to you about their problems. You can offer comfort and encouragement instead of judgment. You can offer hospitality. You can even sometimes get an opportunity to explain the hope that you have within you and share your faith in Jesus! You don’t even have to know all the answers. You can talk about what you do know and you can invite people to church where they can find people who can help them with their other questions. In short, you can bless people in the name of Jesus. There are nearly infinite ways that you can humbly and obediently serve the Lord, all powered by your conscious dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
When we live like this we will be exhibiting six of the healthy missional markers! Your life transforming walk with Christ will inspire you to help create transformed communities through active compassion, mercy and justice ministries. It will be part of our intentional evangelism fueled by your sacrificial and generous living and giving, all adding up to a compelling Christian community which as we celebrate new life in Christ will lead to deeper heartfelt worship!
So that’s one of the two important things that happen to us when we breathe in the life giving Spirit of the living Christ. We are sent into the world as he was sent into the world. The other thing that Jesus Christ conferred upon his disciples in that moment is the ministry of reconciliation. His actual words here again are, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Now when you first read that it might sound a little scary. You might wonder, what if you forgive someone that wasn’t supposed to get forgiven, or what if you judge someone and refuse to forgive them when God actually does want you to forgive them? Or maybe you think, wait a minute, only God can forgive sins, who am I to dare to say someone is forgiven, what if they didn’t really repent, how would I know?
But let’s put that aside. What Jesus is really talking about is the privilege of sharing with people the good news that they can be forgiven of their sins. If you care about people and want to bless them, if you listen to their stories long enough and build trust with them, they may eventually share with you their fears and doubts. There are many people you will meet who are troubled, or feeling guilty about their life choices, but they’re hiding it. They are afraid of what people would think if they found out. Or they are defiant and defending themselves. Either way, given enough time, if you will be their friend, you just might get an opportunity to tell them how much God loves them.
That’s the ministry of reconciliation. You are not actually forgiving people as if it were up to you, but because you know the gospel and understand how it works, when you hear a new believer pray the prayer of faith and ask for that forgiveness, you have been given the authority in Christ and in the Spirit, to assure the new believer that they are indeed forgiven. You get to tell them they are forgiven!
The second half of Jesus’ statement, “if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven,” ought to fill you with a holy desire to make sure you make the most of every opportunity. For some people, the only way they will ever find out that they can be forgiven is if you tell them about the gospel, and if you don’t tell them, they will not ever know the joy of forgiveness. They might never be forgiven if you don’t tell them they can be forgiven. That ought to give you an urgency to be about this business to the very best of your ability.
Jesus lived, died, and rose again to save a people who would live every day, every moment for his glory. A people who understand that the gospel permeates every aspect of their life. This begins with understanding that ministry isn’t just what pastors do on Sundays and discipleship is much more than a class or program. Instead, every believer has been called: to a life of 24/7 submission to Jesus Christ, to join with others on God’s mission as servant missionaries, to see ourselves as sent ones.
We are called and sent … into the space God has planted us to bring the experience of Jesus’ rule and reign into a dark world, proclaim the gospel, and make disciples. Imagine you being sent to this city, your neighborhood, schools and workplace to proclaim the glory of Jesus through word and gracious deed so that every man, woman, and child around you has a daily encounter with Jesus who is in you.[ii]
Receive the Holy Spirit and go to announce the good news of the gospel every chance you get so that people find out they can be forgiven of any sin, and you get to be there when new life is born in them. There’s nothing more exciting than that!
Let us pray also, for this ministry of reconciliation to function properly in our midst. If it doesn’t work among us, it will not be a ministry we can offer out there in the world. How absurd would it be for someone to think in his or her heart, sure anyone who believes this gospel can be forgiven, but I am not going to forgive that person who sits over there on the other side of the sanctuary, after what they did!
No, my friends, let us pray for the Holy Spirit to cleanse us of such hypocrisy! In fact, let us pray now for the Holy Spirit to move among us and purify our hearts afresh. I will lead us in prayer to close this message. Holy Spirit of God, you have breathed new life into us. You have assured us of forgiveness of our sins. You have promised us that you would be at work among us, faithful to complete that which you began in us. And we know Oh Lord that in order for you to use us to do the ministry you have called us to do we must regularly examine our consciences, regularly open our hearts to our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Lord, we pray that if there’s anybody in this room harboring any grudge against anybody else in this room, that this will be the time that they reconsider and say, “No. That’s wrong. I forgive. I want to bless my brothers and sisters in the Lord. We want to be, we need to be united in the Holy Spirit, united in the love for one another and Jesus said that when the world sees how much we love one another then the world will know that we are disciples of Christ and that we have a special peace to offer, a grace and forgiveness to offer that comes from you O Lord, so we pray that your Holy Spirit will prevail and rule in all of our hearts, binding us together in Christian fellowship, in love, in unity, in harmony as we work together to fulfill the mission you have given us to do together and we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.”
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