receiving the holy spirit

2nd Sunday of Easter – A                                                                               LSB #’s 545, 700, 922
Text – John 20:22
 
And when He had said this, He breathed on them & said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” 
 
RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT
 
 
“When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man & his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden.  So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.”  (Genesis 3:8 NLT)  “One day   Cain suggested to his brother, ‘Let’s go out into the fields.’  And while they were in the field,   Cain attacked his brother, Abel, & killed him.”  (Genesis 4:8 NLT) 
“The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, & He saw that everything they thought or imagined   was consistently & totally evil.”  (Genesis 6:5 NLT) 
“Then he began to invoke a curse on himself & to swear, ‘I do not know the man.’  And immediately the rooster crowed.  And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, ‘Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.’”  (Matthew 26:74-75a ESV) 
“Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, & place my finger into the mark of the nails, & place my hand into His side, I will never believe.”  (John 20:25b ESV)         Each & every one of us has our own stories to tell, of times & events in which we refused to receive the Holy Spirit.  That is par for the course with you & with me & with all sinful human beings. 
Those are not the sort of times & events we like to think about.  They are certainly not the things we brag about.  Yet the Word of God describes them from Genesis to Revelation.  We need to hear & take to heart the failures of mankind throughout history, because human beings have a tremendous predisposition to arrogance & independence. 
Remember these words, “Peter said to [Jesus], ‘Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!’  All the disciples said the same thing as well.”  (Matthew 26:35 NASB)    Arrogance & independence make for bad company, & that is illustrated by the shorthand that many of us know, “Pride comes before the fall.”  The full length version is at Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, & a haughty spirit   before a fall.”  (ESV)   Even as children of God, on this earth, pride & arrogance are the default attitude of mankind.  And the truth is, they always lead to death, which only God can overcome. 
To overcome death is why the heavenly Father sent Jesus.  Now, Jesus is sending His body the church to carry that victory out & into the hearts, the minds & the lives of human beings across the world.  And since the wages of sin is death, the tool given to us by Jesus is the authority to retain & forgive sins.  That is how we wage war against Satan & his demons. 
Declaring that a person’s sins are forgiven is how you & I are to spread life.   It’s how God works through us to counteract death.  As Martin Luther liked to emphasize, forgiveness brings life & salvation.  Does that seem a bit too much for us, still sinful human beings, to accomplish?  It most certainly is.  That’s why Jesus has breathed the Holy Spirit upon us. 
“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 & said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.’”  (John 20:21-23 ESV) 
Yahweh is almighty & all knowing & present everywhere.  He is more than capable of working through you & me to accomplish the salvation of the Lost.  John’s Gospel recalls for us the events of Thomas’ unbelief   in order to demonstrate the power of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead to give life to a human being who is dead.  And dead is what Thomas was. 
Up until Jesus personally appears to him, Thomas was blocking the Holy Spirit.  He was refusing to receive Him.  That unbelief was preventing Thomas from carrying the message of forgiveness out & into the hearts, the minds & the lives of people whom God desires to save.   You may already believe that God’s Son rose from the dead, but you can still block the Spirit from working through you to save others.  Arrogance & independence make for such bad company because they block the Holy Spirit.  They block the repentance that turns us   to receiving the Holy Spirit.   
The Gospel reading from John can be the Holy Spirit’s way of asking, “Today, how are you blocking Me?”  In a general way, that question should be present in every sermon & in every Bible Study.  On a personal level, all believers struggle with it,   & eventually, it could lead to losing faith in Jesus as our Savior from sin. 
In the big picture, every congregation also struggles with blocking the Holy Spirit.   As Jesus led His disciples to His own crucifixion, & they resisted the very thought of it, Jesus also leads congregations on the road of trial & suffering.   Like His disciples, we resist the very thought of it, even though Jesus promised it earlier in John’s Gospel:
“In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  (16:33 ESV)  Even though Jesus has already conquered sin, death & the devil, on a day-to-day basis God still needs to give us life.  He does that through the Holy Spirit.  As God breathed into the dust that became the living Adam, daily, He also breathes into us the Holy Spirit. 
In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus breathes into His followers & brings the Christian Church to life.  At your Baptism, God breathed the Holy Spirit into you, bestowing the unique set of talents & abilities that would be required for the calling God gave to you.  Already then, He knew what your entire life would entail, all the joys   & all the sorrows. 
A simple example is this.  When children do something wrong, they feel fear   because they are “in trouble.”  In their minds, normal family life is suspended because their parents are upset with them.  Will they get an angry lecture?  Will privileges be taken away?   Most importantly, they wonder, “When will things get back to normal?”  For all God’s children, the Good News of our forgiveness, life & salvation is normal.   In that state of grace is where Yahweh Himself has called us to live.  Likewise, the whole Christian Church on earth has been called to live in that state of grace.  Though Satan attacks us, there is peace between us & God. 
That peace is what many current unbelievers are looking for.  Since God’s Law is written in their hearts, they too are wondering if God has nothing more for them, than an angry lecture.  It’s our privilege to share with them where they can find the peace of God – in Christ Jesus.  You have authority from God to share that He is at peace with them because Jesus died & rose again. 
For those who are arrogant & independent, you have authority from God to share the news that they are in grave danger but there is still hope if they will only receive the Holy Spirit.  As any of us live in arrogance & independence, we are blocking the Holy Spirit.  That blocking of the Spirit can be temporary    & it can be eternal. 
We share the news of that grave danger, not to attack people or give them an angry lecture.   We share that news in the hope that they will see God’s grace & forgiveness at work in our own wretched lives.  Thomas, who by his own confession was not a believer in Jesus’ resurrection, upon seeing Christ alive confessed, “My Lord & my God!”  (John 20:28 ESV) 
Adam & Eve returned to God.  Cain did not.   The unbelieving world in the days of Noah perished eternally, yet Peter wept & returned to God after His denial of Christ.    Some will be saved, & others will not.  That is not where we find our hope.  Rather, as Peter wrote in the Epistle reading:
“Blessed be the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again   to a living hope   through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  (1:3 ESV)   God’s words of forgiveness assure us that we continue to be welcome in His family, the newly created human race.  The creation of that new human race began with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, & it continues today as we hear the Word of God.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen. 
 
 
 
Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast;   let us all in Thee inherit;   let us find Thy promised rest.   Take away the love of sinning; Alpha & Omega be;   end of faith, as its beginning, set our hearts at liberty.        Finish then Thy new creation,  pure & spotless let us be;   let us see Thy great salvation  perfectly restored in Thee,  changed from glory into glory,  till in heaven we take our place,  till we cast our crowns before Thee,  lost in wonder, love & praise.  Amen.  LSB 700:2, 4.