Let's turn to our Bibles now, John 20. John 20, verses 19 through 23. Now remember, Jesus is risen from the dead. Let's give it roughly 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Jesus rose from the dead. And then, about 6 p.m. that evening, He comes to His disciples. This is the Sunday evening service that we're about to read about. So let's all stand together and hear John 20, 19. Here's God's word. Now listen. Then the same day and evening, being the first day of the week when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands in his side, and then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, peace to you. 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. Amen. Let's pray for a moment. Father in heaven, we pray for the attendance of your spirit to the preaching of the word. Father, it's not in the words, not in the speaking. We don't need more words, more human speaking. What we need is the power of the spirit working now through your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. This is the most critical 48-hour period in the history of the world. 48 hours. There were a number of chapters that feed the story. So we get everything from chapter 26 and 27 through 28 in Matthew, and then back to 19, 20, and 21 in John. But these are the developments of the most critical 48-hour period in all of human history. Remember, Christ died on Friday, roughly three o'clock in the afternoon. He was buried. He rose again about 36 hours later at 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning. So remember, it's Friday night, we go through a Saturday, then Sunday morning, Jesus rises from the dead. And then, Jesus comes and commissions his disciples at 6 p.m. on Sunday. What does this mean? What does this tell us? Well, I think what it tells us is Jesus is getting it done. Jesus is active. We call this His active and His passive obedience. But Christ is engaging the purpose for which He came. He died, He rose again, and He comes to commission His disciples. He's getting the kingdom going. So this is the initiation of His kingdom. He won the battle, now He's broadcasting the victory. So that's it. That's what's going on in 48 hours. And He doesn't pause. He goes right to it, 6 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, comes to His disciples and He says, alright, ready, set, go. I died. I rose again. The kingdom is here. The kingdom is now. Let's get the message out there. That's what's happening in this 48-hour period. Now, verse 19, you're going to see something of the situation. The disciples have all gathered together in a room somewhere hiding out from the Jews. They're afraid of the Jews. So now there's a vast difference of what happens 40 days later. We're not there yet But here they are huddled together in a room hiding out from the Jews on a Sunday evening Directly after the death of Jesus the crucifixion of Christ at the hands of the Romans and the Jews So they're hiding out Fear they're afraid Once again, we're back to this problem of fear. Fear is the great inhibitor, it's the great paralyzer. And there is so much anxiety and fear in the world, and sometimes even within the church. You can see it in the world, you see it in their faces, you see it in their habits. Basically, fear is what animates, fear is what directs, fear is what directs the way they're going to react to situations. You can see it in the constant tendency to escape into entertainment and drugs. It is fear that motivates. People are fearful. They don't want to face reality. And so there's this constant attempt to redefine reality by various fantasies. And that's why, for the most part, novels, that's why the movies, that's why drugs, that's why the 1,000 exit ramps off the highway of reality. People are afraid. And this is the very definition of the world under the control of Satan. But praise God, Jesus came. Hebrews 2 says, Jesus came to destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. This is what defines the world. I go into airports or we go into the supermarkets and we walk around. What do you see? What do you see? Who are these people? What characterizes them? What is their disposition? I was talking to my son last night. Before you go to work, before you go into the marketplace, before you head out to the airport, before you sit next to somebody in the airplane, you need to be thinking about the reality of God, the reality of judgment, the reality of Jesus, the reality of their sins, and the reality of who these people are. You sit next to a tattooed Mexican cartel tough guy. and he's just got that stone face. I was next to somebody like that on a flight this last week, or it doesn't matter who it is, the atheist university professor, the Buddhist monk, the billionaire heading up a tech company, they're all in the grip of fear. They're afraid, they're deathly afraid. This is who they are. This is what the world is all about. It's fear. People are afraid. They may act like they're not, but they're deathly afraid, in the grip of that cold, controlling fear in heart and mind. As we read Hebrews 2, they're in the bondage of fear. The fear of total ruin. the inevitable sinking feeling of an imminent and total disaster. It's a horrible condition. It's a continual controlling state of paralysis and fear, a fear of getting sick, a fear of dying, a fear of condemnation, a fear of torment, a fear of losing. Losing what? Losing everything. This is who people are. They're afraid of losing their job. They're afraid of losing their money. They're afraid of losing their health. They're afraid of losing their life. People are afraid all around us. It's the sinking feeling of endless hopelessness. Think for a moment the premonition of somebody, and this is a man by nature, he is constantly under the sense that he will be sentenced to endless hopelessness forever and ever. Life without God, life without any possibility of redemption, ultimate death, but eternal death. There is no peace, saith my God, for the wicked. All right, so Jesus comes. I set this out so you understand where man is by nature, but here are the disciples huddled together in fear. Jesus comes in, and he comes into their midst, he comes into our midst, and Jesus is calm. Jesus is certain. Be of good cheer, he says, I have overcome the world. And he says that before Calvary. Why? Because it was as good as done. Somebody say amen. He says, don't you get it? I've already won. He's coming into the midst. It's well in hand. The victory is done. He says, I have won. I did it. I finished it. The prince of this world already came and he had nothing on me like I said. Jesus comes into their midst, and not once but twice, what does he say? Peace to you. Relax, guys. It's good, it's all good. He brings that peace of heart, that calm in every storm. He says, my peace I give you not as the world gives it to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. peace brothers and he's the one to say it why because he came as the prince of peace he came with the reconciling sacrifice because you know the ultimate problem we have is not At war with the devil, we're at war with God. We're at enmity with God. That's the problem. That's the issue. And Jesus, by His body and His blood, reconciled us to Himself. So the apostles receive the peace that passes all understanding, and they're going to run out there. You know what's going to happen. They're going to run out there and they're going to get killed. That's what happens to almost all the apostles except John. They're gonna give up their lives and their everything. So let me ask you this, which would you rather have? Total peace, God's peace, the peace of Christ, or your stuff? Which would you rather have? Total peace with God forever, or your stuff? I put it this way because I think it's obvious. But you know, what is your stuff worth? Jesus comes to them and says, it's okay. Peace, what does peace mean? Irene, what does that mean? It means it's okay. It's all gonna be okay. Has anybody ever told you that? Don't worry about it. It's all gonna be okay. Has anybody ever told you that? Now if your 14-year-old friend on Facebook says that, you're like, yeah, whatever. But Jesus is saying that. He's saying, don't worry about it. It's going to be OK. That's what He's telling them. Then he commissions them, verse 21 through 23. Let's look at the commission. He says, as the Father sent me, so I send you. This is the commission. So right away Christ is commissioning. Remember, He died on the cross for our sins, rose again on Sunday morning, Sunday evening service, He's commissioning. So boom, boom, boom. We're right there. We're going right to it. He comes and He commissions them. But he says, here's the way I'm gonna commission you. Here's how I'm gonna send you. I'm gonna send you as the Father sent me. So I wanna tear that apart just a little bit and ask the question, how did the Father send the Son? And why did the Father send the Son? What does this look like? And you'll find some passages in Romans, or John 12 and John 8. A few passages relating to the sending of the Son by the Father. John 12, and Jesus, you'll need to understand that Jesus brings in this message concerning his sending. with a warning in each case. Look at John 12, 44 through 50. I want to go over this quickly because there are references again, the book of John, to the sending of the Son. And if we are sent as the Father sent the Son, then we need to understand how the Father sent the Son. And here it is in John 12, 44. So there it is. Speaks about the Father who sent Him. And Christ refers to this throughout His ministry, how He's been sent. He didn't come on His own. He came by the authority of the Father. And here He's come. He is sent. Verse 45, He who sees Me, sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world but to save the world he who rejects me and does not receive my words has that which judges him the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day for I have not spoken on my own authority but the father who sent me gave me a command what I should say and what I should speak and I know that his command is everlasting life therefore whatever I speak just as the father's told me so I speak so that's the commission So you say, well, what's the commission for us? Well, that's the commission. And that's the warning that attends the commission, which it turns out we're gonna see a warning in a moment in John 20. It shouldn't confuse you. There's a warning in John 20. There's a warning everywhere else as well, including John 12 and John 8. Let's go to John 8 briefly again. Again, looking at the passage, it's referring to the sending of the Father. And here is the pattern for which we are sent. So you need to understand how the Father sent the Son, John 8, verse 12. John 8 and verse 12, then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. Verse 18, I am one who bears witness of myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness of me. So there's the sending again. That's why we're drawing these things in, because there's reference there to the sending of the Father. Then they said to him, where is your Father? And Jesus answered, you know neither me nor my father. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. He said to them, you are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. Therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. So what is this? Well, the Son has been sent with a message. It's interesting, Jesus is not referring to the sending of the Father for the purpose of dying on the cross. What's interesting in these passages is that Jesus was sent by the Father in order to bear a message to his people. The same thing for us, we are not sent to die. The Son does not send us to die on the cross. The Son sends us with a message. Well, it turns out we're going to have to bear a cross. That is part of it. But the real thrust of the commission is that we are sent with a message to the world as Christ himself was sent with a message to the world. It's a powerful message. It's a wonderful message. Christ has come to be the light, to bring the words of God. It's a message about himself mainly. In some respects, Jesus himself is the message. The message in John 12 and John 3 is effectively, you are in death, but I have come to bring everlasting life. So it's a very, very simple message. You are in death, but I am everlasting life. In John 8, you remember, the message was, again, very simple. I've come with a message, and this was the message in John 8. The Father has sent me God the Father sent me all the way down here with a message and that is you are in bondage to sin and the devil. Now by God's grace you're not turning this off right now. If Satan or the birds of the air are taking the seed right now then you're turning all of this message off and you're not listening But the Holy Spirit is working through the Word right now. As we read from John 8, Jesus says, you are in bondage to the devil. That's the condition of man by nature. And then Jesus said, if the Son will set you free, you will be free indeed. And so our response to the first message is what? When we hear, you are in bondage by nature to the devil and to your sin, what do you say? Amen. And then when you hear the next word, I have come that you will have life and have it more abundantly. I have come to set you free. The Son will set you free. You will be free indeed. Then you say what? Hallelujah. So it's, amen, yes, I've got a problem. Yes, the devil controls me. Yes, sin is dominating in my life. Amen. But Jesus has come to set me free. Hallelujah. You see, that's it. That's the reception. But he didn't get it from the Jews in John 12. And he didn't get it from the Jews in John 8. The only question is, will we receive the message? Those who say, I am not in bondage, look at me. I can do whatever I want to do. I'm not in bondage. Have not received the message. Those who say I'm not blind, I'm not dead in trespasses and sins by nature, have not received the message. So the Father has sent the Son, and the Father has one thing. And we started the entire series of messages on the Gospel of John with John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word. And we started with this. The Father has one thing to say. He sends the Son to Earth. God, the sovereign God, over all heaven and earth. God the Father sends his Son, his only begotten Son, his eternally begotten Son to the world. And he sent his Son with a message. He is a messenger. Jesus came as a messenger to speak the truth of God. And the Father has one thing to say at the Mount of Transfiguration. Remember, the voice of God, the Father comes down and says, what? This is my beloved Son. Pay attention. Hear Him. God has one thing to say to you today. Just one thing to say to you today. God has one thing to say. Listen to the sermon today. As far as we're speaking the words of Jesus today, listen to the sermon. He wants you to pay attention to the words God says, this is my beloved son, hear him, pay attention. And it comes with such an obligation. It's a drop-dead serious obligation. For the Jews, it was a terrifying obligation. There are eternal consequences for not receiving the message of the Son. And that was really the thrust of the book of Hebrews. If you go through the book of Hebrews, there's actually maybe three to four thrusts, but one of the major thrusts is this message. It starts Hebrews 1. God, who at various times in various ways did not leave the world to itself with no knowledge, no light, God would not do that. He never did that. All the way back to the fall of Adam in the garden, God would not allow us to live without a revelation from Him. Praise God. God, who at various times and various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. That is, through Jesus, God made. all of the galaxies, all of the complexities of life on earth, the globe, everything that you see around us created by Jesus. And now he has sent his son to communicate this message to us. Jesus is the revelation, the ultimate revelation, the final revelation of God. He is the speaker, he is the word, definite article, he is the word. There's no question there's a definite article there. He's not a word, he is the word. He is translated by Calvin. Calvin would say it's not quite the word, the speaker. Why? Because Jesus is the one who speaks. He's the one who calls the dead out of the grave. He says, Lazarus, come forth, and the dead walk out. He says, let there be light, and there's light. Jesus' voice somehow resonates throughout the entire universe and says, let there be galaxies, and there are galaxies. Jesus says it and it happens. He is the word. He's the speaker is the keynote of all keynotes and Now the father says hear him Listen to Hebrews 2 1 therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away again Hebrews has all of these successive warnings and to pay attention to what Jesus is saying. Don't minimize the speaker here. This is an important speaker. If you've missed some of the breakout sessions, now we have the keynote speaker. Jesus has come. He's speaking to us now. He says, now give the earnest heed, lest we drift away, for if the words spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, there in the Old Testament, how shall we escape today? if we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him." So what he's saying is, you know, all of what was said in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, don't lose that. That's critical. And then the apostles came after and brought a little bit extra icing on the cake. That whole New Testament is absolutely critical. Be sure you receive the New Testament. Respect that. That's the revelation of God. It's the final revelation of God. And then throughout the book of Hebrews again, Hebrews 3, harden not your hearts. As in the day of provocation, the wilderness take heed, lest there be a heart of unbelief. Exhort one another daily, so long as it's called the day, lest any of you be hardened with the deceitfulness of sin. I was telling my wife this this morning, it was good to talk to one of our elders last night on the phone. It just felt like my heart was softening the whole time we were exhorting each other. There was something about the body coming together, exhorting each other, softening each other's hearts to the Word, and bringing in the truth of God's Word one more time, reminding each other of the revelation of Jesus again, and then praying together. Very good. Very essential for the body that we have these connections. Otherwise, we're dead cold on a Sunday morning, and I want to be that. Hebrews 12, 25, see that you do not refuse him as speaks. So again, the whole book of Hebrews wraps up saying, hey, this is important. Don't lose it. Pay attention to the sermon. Pay attention as you're reading from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You know, be sure you catch it. If they did not escape who refused him as spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. That is, if you've ever listened to anybody, listen to Jesus. Listen to his words. How is the Son sent? That's the question I'm trying to deal with this morning. How is the Son sent? That's how we're sent. The Son is sent by the authority of God. He speaks with the authority of the Father. No one spake with authority like this man, said the Jews who heard him, much more than any of the scribes. Jesus spoke with an authority that nobody had ever heard before. It was something in his voice. It was something in his words. It was a truth value in his words, an authority in the way he brought the word, that people got it. And you read that still and you get it from his word. As we declare the message, we can't pretend for a moment that it's our message or that this comes with human authority. We can't do that. God is communicating a message to man. How much emphasis, how much gravitas is appropriate for the message that comes from God to us through the Word? It has all the authority of God behind it. I'll take an example for you. The President of Turkey was given a letter from President Donald Trump, was it two weeks ago? And the President of the United States wanted a ceasefire in Syria. Remember that? He wrote a note, and it was characteristic to President Trump's style. I had to smile a little bit as I read the letter. Sort of a cut it out. We don't need this anymore. Shut it down, big guy. You know, kind of language. I can't remember how the letter went. But the President of Turkey paid attention. Did you notice that? He paid attention. The President of the United States sent a letter to the President of Turkey. Shut it down, big guy. Listen, when Jesus speaks, it's a billion times more authority than the President of the United States. A billion times more authority. And we convey that. We must convey that. We must believe it ourselves. And then we convey it to others. God has spoken through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And now He speaks to us. And that's the commission that was given to the apostles up in that room. As the Father sent me into the world with this message, now I send you. It's a commission now. Jesus went out to tell the Jews, mostly the Jews, what's one of the differences, I believe it's that the new commission is to tell the whole world. First in Judea and then Syria and then to the outermost parts of the earth. So the message is to go to the entire world. The whole world needs to hear the message. It's the commission. Jesus said, we've won. Now tell the world we've won. Go out in the Gentile world, Jew and Gentile, Scythian and Greek, Chinese and Korean. You get out there and you tell them. We can't harness this message. It's got to get out there, you know. We've got to say it one way or the other. Just say it. Christ has won. Do not degrade the work of Jesus. You know, present the message of what Christ has done. Then verse 22, the risen Lord turns to his apostles and gives them the down payment of the Holy Spirit. So you see that there. It was just a foretaste of what would happen 40 days later. I believe He's breathing on them, giving them the Holy Spirit. It's not the full measure, it's coming later. Now you understand that my view of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is it's not just a switch, zero, one, and then add a two if you're a Pentecostal. It's just not me, it's a dimmer switch. It's a little more, a little more, and then we crank it way up for some of these Pentecostal outpourings. And you know, in terms of a presence of a person, it's not always just a zero, one, two. It's a 62.4789% at some points. And Jesus gives an initial offering of the Holy Spirit upon his men as they're huddled in that room, fearing the Jews. And I believe that this pouring out of the Spirit, which will happen later, As the Apostle Peter rushes out, and right there before the plate glass window of the Sanhedrin, he says, you guys killed the Messiah. Now, that's a little different than what we see here. Amen? Because we've got the outpouring of the Holy Spirit going on. Well, Jesus notes this in their fear. He says, peace be unto you, gives them the Holy Spirit. Right there and then. And this fear, this paralysis of fear is so unacceptable for the church. I've had an opportunity to interact with a number of different churches over the last two or three weeks, during the weekdays. I come back here on Sunday, but I've had interaction with other churches, other pastors, other leaders. Predominantly what I see in the churches, especially in America, are churches that are caught in the paralysis of fear. Oh, there's so much fear. There are exceptions. I see in some churches, one or two, that are on the streets boldly proclaiming God's Word. I see a few exceptions. I've run into some, and praise the Lord, it's amazing. Almost every church has a few exceptions. But by and large, what I see in the American church is fear. Just a lot, a lot of fear. paralyzing, horrible fear of men. Fear of condemnation, fear of the devil, fear of rejection. I don't know what they're all afraid of, but there's just too much fear around. They look a lot like the apostles huddled together in this room. That's what they look like. That's what the American church looks like. Huddled together. This fear of persecution, the fear of failure, the fear that somehow sin is going to overcome. I think it comes into my life, our lives, my family from time to time as well. My wife and I have had some of these conversations recently. The fear that somehow Satan is too powerful in a family, in our church. That somehow Satan has just got the upper hand. This fixation on the power of evil, the power of sin, this fear that somehow I get out there and witness, or we get out there and preach, or teach, or encourage, or admonish in the church, and people are not going to be saved. This fear that somehow Jesus is a failure. I'm telling you, friends, it's a lie of the devil. Amen, isn't it? A lie of the devil. You know, Jesus failed. Now get out there and tell everybody. What kind of message is that? This negativity, this hopelessness concerning people in your family getting saved, or people in your church getting saved, or your neighbors or friends. This perspective is demonic and shameful. It's negative, it's wrong. It's not Holy Spirit filled. The Spirit is not of God. The Holy Spirit is power, love, and a sound mind. I wish everybody here would be crying out for this Holy Spirit. I wish everybody would see our need for this. Oh, we need it, amen? Don't we need this? How many of you want the spirit of fear? You just, oh yeah, give me the spirit of fear. No, we don't want the spirit of fear, we want the spirit of love and power and a sound mind. to just let us loose and help us to engage these edifying conversations, these hope-filled, gospel-saturated conversations. Amen. Does that sound attractive to anybody here? Yeah, sign me up. Sign me up. Only one guy and his wife. Anybody say, sign me up for the Holy Spirit of God and the love and power and a sound mind. Yeah! Amen, we need more of that. The Holy Spirit renders courage, a holy boldness, an active love, not a tentative love, an enthusiastic, courageous, power-filled, love-filled interaction with others. And I just can't get over David Wilkerson on those streets. When Nicky Cruciate cuts you into a thousand pieces, man, he says, you cut me into a thousand pieces, every piece of my body is gonna be shouting I love you and preaching the gospel to you. Wouldn't you like that spirit of love and power and a sound mind? Amen, hallelujah. Bring it on, Jesus, bring it on to us. Breathe on us now, Jesus. Father, we ask you for the Holy Spirit. We just so desire the Holy Spirit of God to fill us with love, courageous love, courageous faith, hope-filled gospel preaching everywhere. Holy Spirit of God, come on us now. We plead with You. Father, send us Your Spirit in full measure upon this church today. Oh God, we pray and we wait for your salvation. In Jesus' name, amen. Our Lord Jesus gives His men the message in verse 23. We'll wrap up here. Take a look at verse 23. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. What does this mean? This is the message. I love our Lord always bringing it to the trunk, the essentials. Don't get all wrapped up in the leaves when you don't have the trunk down straight. What is this message? What is it all about? It's about the forgiveness of sins. It's about ephemi. It's a Greek word, ephemi. That's the word used. The ephemia of sins, sometimes translated remission, sometimes translated liberty, sometimes translated forgiveness. It's got a lot of translations to it because it's got a fairly broad connotation to it. Ephemia is very important because of the message. So, you all wanna know what the gospel message is? Ephemia. That's it. What is ephemia? Ephemia is to cast it away. To throw it away. to get it away from you. That's what it is. How many of you would like sin gotten away from you? That's it. That's what it is. That's a thing, and the reason I have to translate it in a broad sense to include the sending away, the getting rid of, the releasing of a debt or an obligation It's all of that. It's the whole thing. It's because what you see in the opposite, you see the second part of the verses, if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. The idea of retain is to grab onto and to hold onto or to seize onto. So either you're casting away the sins or you're holding onto them or grabbing them on and retaining them. It's a very strange verse. It's one of the strangest verses in the Bible. It's also one of the most important verses in the Bible. And so, I'm going to spend just a few moments on it before we're done today. What Jesus is saying here, if you cast away, get rid of, release from the bondage of, and release from the debt incurred of any and all sins, they will be cast away, gotten rid of, and folks will be released from the bondage of these sins and the debt obligation of those sins. But if you grab onto any of these sins, they will be held onto. That's what he's saying there. That's the translation, as best as I can give it to you. Now, if you turn to Acts 13, you're going to see how Paul takes up this message in Acts 13, especially as he brings this to the Jews. He's preaching to the Jews in Acts 13. The message is not going over very well. I'm not sure what was going on. Frowny face, tomatoes, eggs, rotten eggs. I don't know. the feedback on Twitter was not happening in a positive direction in Acts 13. So that's what's going on. But Paul speaks to the Jews and he speaks of Jesus who has come, the seed of David. He's died on the cross for our sins, rose again, and now on the right hand of the Father. And then speaking to the Jews in verse 36, Paul says, in this message, in this sermon, he says, for David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption. He's referring to, I believe it's Psalm 16, where it says that the Holy One will not see corruption. He said David actually saw corruption. So he was not speaking of himself, but he must have been speaking of Jesus, that's what Paul says. And then verse 37, He, that is Jesus, whom God raised up, saw no corruption. Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. So there it is, the ephemi of sins. By the way, if you back up to Luke 4 in verse 18, I didn't mention this, but I think it's important. When Jesus came out to speak the message that he came to bring from the Father to the Jews, In his ministry, his opening message to the Jews in Nazareth, remember what it was, in Luke 4, 18, in that synagogue, Jesus said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he's reading from Isaiah, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives. That word liberty is ephemi. That's pretty critical that you get that. The word is liberty, or ephemi. It's the forgiveness. It's the same word for forgiveness, or remission. Same thing. Again, very broad word. To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. To set at liberty those, that's the word of fame again, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, etc. So that's the proclamation of the gospel. Jesus says, I've come to set the captives free. To loose the captives. To take off their handcuffs so they can sing the song. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee, no longer captive to my lust, to my discontentment, and my pride, and my envy, and my lying, and my stealing, and my inability to love at all, except this big selfish piggishness that so constituted who I was. I was locked into the cage of my sin, but Jesus Christ has set me free! Hallelujah! He sets the captives free! This is the message of the Gospel, and this is the message that Paul brings in Acts 13 to the Jews. It's such a glorious message to the hell-bound, corrupted, wicked sinners like us. Amen? What a message. What a message. Can anybody think of a better message? We're set free from our sin and the fear of death and the consequences of sin. God does not hold our sins against us. God doesn't hold our sins against us. Has anybody held anything against you before? For 28 years out of your life? What about God holding something against you? for a billion years. God is not holding those sins against us anymore. He doesn't condemn us. And for this reason, He doesn't want Satan to condemn you either. He doesn't want anybody else to condemn you. Because who is He that condemned? It's Christ that died. Who is He that condemned? It was God that was offended. Who is He that condemned? It's God's Son that died and fixed the problem. Somebody say, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen! Who is he that condemns? I say this rather loudly, I know. But I get the voices in my head too. Does anybody else? Have you ever been condemned in your head? Yes. You need to maybe say it a little louder. Who is he that condemns? It was God who was offended. It was Christ that died. So tell the devil to get over it and get out. I'm starting to feel this running in my blood now. Think about this, the highest authority in the universe, the standard of all holiness and justice, the source of all law has cast away our sins and the condemnation of it forever. Who is he that can condemn us if God won't? Is that powerful? Is that amazing? The devil's gonna condemn you? Who's he? Other church members are going to condemn you? I saw this somewhere recently that somebody in the church was concerned that people are condemning them. They're feeling judged. I don't know. I don't have any name or anything. It was just something came by, like a note fell down through the sky or something, and I got this impression somehow that somebody felt condemned in this church. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died. God won't condemn me. I don't have to worry about anybody else. He's forgiven our sins. He's imputed Christ's righteousness to our account. He's created a new man, a new creature in us. He's released us from the iron grip that sin had on our lives. We don't have to sin anymore. Isn't that beautiful? We don't have to sin anymore. I'm not forced to envy my brother. I don't have to be covetous. I don't have to lust after some woman. I don't have to do that. Hallelujah! Thank you. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Sin no longer has dominion over you. Reckon yourself to be dead to sin, alive to righteousness, because you're in Christ. The fear of guilt is gone. These are all the blessings. Think about all the blessings. What a glorious message. Can you think of better news to share with anybody? I don't have to feel the weight of my sin ever anymore, forever and ever. I'm set free from my sin. I don't have to sin anymore. The fear of guilt is gone. The fear of death is gone. The fear of condemnation is gone. I don't have to walk in the church going, oh, I hope somebody doesn't condemn me. Oh, it's going to be devastating. If somebody on Facebook condemns me, oh, if somebody condemns me on Twitter, what am I going to do? You know what I'm saying? I don't have to do that. I just don't have to worry about the condemnation of others anymore. The fear of condemnation is gone. There's no more need for constant self-justifications. No need to keep up hypocrisies, the endless whitewashings, the blame-shiftings. You know, getting these debates with your wife over, you know, who left the keys to the vacation cottage 600 miles east of here. We don't have to blame shift anymore. We don't have to feel so guilty that we have to shift the guilt onto other people anymore. Praise God, isn't that a relief? That's a relief. Praise God, that's a relief. Yeah, I don't want that anymore. No more despair, no more depression, no more of the weak attempts to self-atonement, the masochism, the sadism. This is how the world tries to take care of their guilt, by harming themselves or harming others. Most of the violence in the world, I'm convinced, most of the violence is attempts to self-atone by masochism and sadism. But we don't have to do that. Jesus atoned for us. We're set free from all this weird, guilty, condemnation behavior that the world is always stuck into. We're released from all of that. There's no more need for a constant, habitual, critical, judgmental spirit towards others as another weak attempt to deflect attention from your own impoverished condition. Wow, that's a relief. How many of you do not want to sit around judging others for the rest of your life? Boy, that's for sure. That's a weight gone. That's a weight gone. There's no more need to fake it by sitting around with lame men by the pool of Bethesda, day in and day out, waiting for a miracle. There's no need to sit outside the temple begging for alms because there's gonna be somebody coming in front of the church and they're gonna say it again, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And y'all are gonna get up and you're gonna walk, sin's forgiven, heart's cleansed, now able to praise God with lifted hands, no longer bound by Satan. Praise the Lord. No more need to fake it. Because Jesus won, he killed sin, he hushed the law's loud thunder. Declare it, preach it, just say it. By the authority of Almighty God, in the name of Jesus, we say, your sins are forgiven, your sins are wiped away, forgiven, cleansed, you are set free from your sins. That's the gospel. That's it. You heard it just now. You heard it. It was proclaimed. It was said, we just said it. I don't know, was the rhetoric presented rightly? It doesn't matter, you see? Let's get Nathaniel to bring you up here to say it. I'm kidding, brother. I'm not going to put the pressure on you this morning. But he could say it. Couldn't Nathaniel say this? Your sins are forgiven. Our sins are forgiven. Jesus has won. He beat sin at the cross. It's for us to believe it and to receive it and to say amen to it. This is the heart of the gospel. He has come to forgive us our sins and to cast them away forever. Amen. Hear the words of Jesus one more time. I love these words. I just love to say them. Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. How's that feel? Huh, how's that feel? Feels good. These are the words of Jesus. And He's in the place to say it. Why? Because He took care of our sins. He atoned with His own blood. And He has the absolute right and the authority before Almighty God to stand before you this morning and say these words. Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Now let's end. with this one controversial and difficult element in verse 23. Is Jesus saying, go out there and forgive people of their sins? Why does Jesus appear to be giving the apostles the power to forgive sins or not to forgive sins? Okay, that's a question in people's minds. I read that this morning. I'm sure you're asking yourself the question. Now, the best way to understand this is by, again, following up with what the apostles said and how the apostles took this. We interpret Scripture with Scripture. The only reasonable explanation to this is this, now listen, our Lord Jesus is speaking to the power of the declarative word. See, I know there are people in the world who say, oh, some guy stood up this morning in Reformation Church, and he said, with the authority of God, your sins are forgiven. And they don't respect it. But that's what Jesus is saying. They're not going to respect it. They didn't respect it when I said it in John 8 and John 12, and they're not going to respect it when you say it. Yeah, the world will not respect it. See, there's a power in the Spirit-filled plain declaration of the statement of the gospel. Paul talks about the power of just those words again and again. In 1 Thessalonians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 2, you get it again and again, all the way through there. And then I'll give you an example of this, of how this works out in the apostles' ministry. Paul realized that his message in Acts 13 with the Jews was not going well. Too many tomatoes, too many eggs flying through the air, and so Paul ends the passage. He backs off, he says, okay, okay, I'm not gonna give you the gospel. He backs off and he says, Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come before you. Behold, you despisers, marvel and perish. For I work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you. And then verse 44, listen to what happens. The Jews heard the whole message about the forgiveness of sins. And they said, huh, so what? Paul says, here's the warning. You're going to hell for this one. So he warned them harsh. And then in verse 44, On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy. There's the envy thing again. And contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. And Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first. But since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. What he's saying is a curse. will remain upon you because you rejected the best news in the whole universe. Withholding the word from those who refuse to say amen and hallelujah is the way that sins are retained. And as Jesus said, they will die in their sins. The problem, of course, is not everybody receives the message or appreciates the message. Your sins are forgiven. Your sins are wiped away. They hear the message and some will not dance. Some will not say, oh, my burden's falling off. Some will not receive it, some won't believe it. That's just what Jesus is telling his disciples here. They're going to hear these words, perhaps every Sunday morning, you're forgiven, we're forgiven of our sins by the death of Jesus. And they'll go, so what? Who cares? I don't need this. This is Yon City, baby. Who needs the forgiveness of sin? Certainly I don't. And when people respond that way, they seal their condemnation. But why would anybody refuse the forgiveness of sins? This is what blows my mind. Why would anybody say, I don't need the forgiveness of sins? This is the greatest message in the world. Why does anybody just say, I don't need this? It kind of blows my mind for a moment. But realize who we are by nature. We're just proud people. People are proud. They don't think they're that bad off. They think they can save themselves. And they really do love their sins. That's why they don't need the forgiveness of Jesus. The greatest deception in the world is the idea that you're not that bad off. That's the greatest lie in the world. I don't think there's any bigger lie. I'm not that bad off. I'm a pretty good guy. And if I need to be forgiven, that means that I'm a bad dude. And I don't want to be called a bad dude by God or anybody else. Because I'm a really good guy. I don't need forgiveness because I never did anything wrong. See, that's the mentality. Brothers and sisters, that's not us. Amen? Anybody here ever done anything wrong? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. We are in deep waters. 80 foot waves all around us. There is no word to describe the horror of sin. Think about all the psychoses, all the neuroses, all of the people in mental institutes screaming and crying and suffering mentally. All of the psychoses in the world, all of the neuroses, the fears and the horrors have failed to rightly grasp the trouble that people are in. I'm telling you that people in the worst possible condition in psychotic hospitals around the world don't even come close to how bad it really is. It's really bad. The horror is far worse than anything they could ever configure in their sick minds. The psychiatrists are hired to tell them it's not that bad. But we're here to say it is that bad and far worse. And that's why God had to come down here to save you. Thanks be to God there's a Savior. Thanks be to God there's a fix to the problem of sin and condemnation. Now it's not for us to neglect so great a salvation. Receive these words from the only one that can say it because he took care of it himself. Your sins are forgiven you. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we're so thankful. We're so thankful. Father, we have caught a glimpse of the horror of our sin. Oh, it's happened to me thousands of times. Oh, what a sinner I am. God, what a sinner I am, how I am such a rebel, how I have violated your laws so many times. Father, we are sinners. We are lost in our sins, but for your salvation. So God, we raise our hands up and just simply say, please save us, oh God, and by the grace of Christ, by the promises, by the work of Jesus, save us today. Father, we receive this word. Our sins are forgiven us by the only one who could say it with authority, because He took care of it. And that is Your Son, there on that cross. Praise be to God for His unspeakable gift. And all of us said, Amen. We praise the love of Jesus, the grace of Jesus, and the peace of Christ that passes all understanding. And I want to focus on that as we prepare for the table. I'm gonna tie it in the table in just a moment. But are you at peace this morning in your hearts? Are you at peace this morning? Jesus comes in as he did 2,000 years ago. He says, peace be unto you, twice. Peace be unto you. But when things are not right with our jobs, our neighbors, our spouses, our children, our children's spiritual condition, perhaps our health, a thousand other things, you can become unsettled. Can people relate to that? We become unsettled, don't we? We're not always at peace. We have times of unsettledness in our lives. Let me give you a scenario here. What if your whole family turned against you? What if this whole church turned against you? Believing some false report, or maybe it's a right report, but they all turn against you. Your whole church turned against you. All of your neighbors, all of your family members, they all turn against you. What if the whole world turned against you? All seven billion people tweeting, Facebooking, blogging against you. CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, BBC, their cameras in your front yard reporting on you. The whole world against you. There is only one thing to say, if God before us, who can be against us? Amen. There's only one thing to say. Who cares what the world says? If God be for me, who can be against me? That's our response. That's our response. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died. In the light of this, brothers and sisters, everything else kind of fades away. What was the problem at your work? What was the problem with your clients? What was the problem with your spouse and with your family and with certain people of your church? And what were those? Everything fades away. If God be for us, who can be against us? all other troubles are negligible. If you are right with God, by faith in His Savior, Jesus, holding strongly to His promises. Let me read from Colossians 119, and then we'll come to the table. I love this passage. Listen carefully. For it pleased the Father that in Him, that as in Jesus, all the fullness should dwell, and by Him, that is by Jesus, to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, and you, and you, and you, and me, and you, and you, and you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled, now listen, in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight. Now, what is he saying? He's saying that we had the greatest problem with God. We were enemies against God, but he fixed the problem through the blood and through the flesh of Jesus. By the sword that went through Jesus's flesh, the ripping apart of Jesus's flesh, the pouring out of his blood in that sacrifice, Jesus made us friends with God. by his tortures, by the bloodletting, by his stripes, they all shout to God, don't hold this against these people. Don't hold their sins against them. It happened in the flesh of Jesus, in the blood of Jesus, sacrificed on the cross. It was the great reconciling and the atonement that we needed. So now, As we take this, as we take this, this symbolizes the body of Jesus that reconciled us to God. This symbolizes the blood of Jesus that reconciles us to God. As you take these things, say, thank you, Jesus, you made me a friend to God. And now I say, if God before me, who can be against me? Amen. Let's pray. Our Father, as we approach the table this morning, we're amazed at Your grace, amazing love. How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? The very blood of God shed for us to make us friends to You, Father, to solve that big problem of guilt. That condemnation that was on us, there's no question it was on us, but solved, taken care of, no more condemnation, because Jesus bled on that cross for us. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Praise you, Jesus. That's all we can say this morning. Praise you, Jesus. Thank you, God, that we are reconciled to you through the blood and the body of Jesus. Ah, we thank you. We needed that love more than anything else. We needed your grace. We needed that reconciliation big time. Thank you, Jesus. In your name, amen.