This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. I want to welcome you to day three of our look together through John chapter 20 in daily drive time devotions, the chapter of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As we look at verses 17 to 23 today, we're following up on what we've talked about the last couple of days, the truth that the resurrection is real, it is the most real event in all of human history, but you and I need to see it as real. How do we know that the resurrection is real? There's so much evidence for it. Jesus was on the earth in his resurrected body for 40 days after the resurrection. And how many people saw the resurrected Jesus Christ? More than 500 people saw the resurrected Jesus Christ. The post resurrection, after the resurrection, appearances of Jesus Christ include these. He appeared to Mary Magdalene, which we're looking at here today. He appeared to the women who were returning from the tomb. He appeared later in the day to Peter in a private meeting with Peter. He appeared to some disciples going along the road to Emmaus that evening. He appeared to the disciples, the apostles that evening, except for Thomas. A week later, he came and appeared to the apostles and Thomas was present. He appears at Galilee to seven of the followers of Jesus Christ by the lake of Tiberias. On a mountainside in Galilee, he appears not only to the disciples of Jesus, but to 500 of the followers at once. At Jerusalem and Bethany, he appears again to James. At Olivet, he appears at the Ascension. And then even after the Ascension, he appears to Paul at Damascus, to Stephen outside Jerusalem, to Paul in the temple, to John on Patmos. Again and again and again, people see the resurrected body of the Lord Jesus Christ. In these last few days, we've been talking about you and I seeing this. Evidence for our mind, answers for our heart, relationship for our soul. And now we turn to what Jesus taught in these first few meetings with his followers after the resurrection and what he taught in John 20 verses 17 to 23. There's some powerful phrases in here, but many times we miss the power in these phrases because of the questions we have about these verses. So I want to deal with the questions in these verses after I read them and then also look together at the power in these verses. John 20 verses 17 to 23. Jesus said to Mary, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. " Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news, "I have seen the Lord. " And she told them that he had said these things to her. On the evening of that first day of the week when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you. " After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 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 his sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. " Now as I read through these verses, if you were listening, there are three big questions that people have in these verses. Why couldn't Mary touch Jesus? He says, "Don't touch me. Don't hold on to me. " What is that about? Question number two is, why did Jesus breathe on them? In verse 22, he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. " And question number three, what in the world does Jesus mean by, "If you forgive someone's sins, they're forgiven? " Let's just walk through these questions one at a time. First of all, why couldn't Mary touch him? It's important to understand the idea of the Greek word here. Jesus said, "Don't touch me. I have not yet ascended my father. " And most of us, when we first read that, it sounds like some weird spiritual thing is going on here. Like Jesus isn't spiritually complete yet, and if Mary touches him, she's going to ruin the resurrection. Now that's not what's going on here at all. When Jesus says, "Don't touch me," he uses a form of the Greek word there, Greek verb there, which means, "Don't keep on touching me. " So as we just read in NIV translation, "Don't hold on to me. " He's saying, "I've got some things for you to do, so quit holding on to me, giving me this hug right now. You can let go of me, Mary, because I want you to go and tell the disciples what had happened. " And then he says, "I haven't yet ascended to my father. " Some think that means she couldn't touch him because he hadn't ascended to the father, but that's obviously not true. Later in this chapter, we're going to see that Jesus invites Thomas to touch his hands inside. So there's no problem with him being touched. What he's saying here is, "I haven't ascended to the father yet. I'm still going to be here for a while. So don't hold on to me. I'm going to be here for a while. Go tell the disciples we're going to see each other again. " Now, that's the answer to the question, but as we have these questions, I don't want to miss some of the deep truths that are in this passage. And don't miss that when Mary is challenged by Jesus to go tell the disciples, Jesus calls his disciples something he's never called them before, something he can now call them because of the resurrection. He says, "Go tell my brothers. You and I as followers of Jesus Christ are brothers and sisters because of the resurrection. We are adopted into God's family because of the resurrection. " In John 15, Jesus had called his followers his friends. Here he says, "They're my brothers. They're part of the family. They have the same inheritance. God is the father of us all. We are adopted. " Don't miss that truth. It's a simple phrase, but can you imagine the joy of Jesus as he was able to say that? This is the moment he was waiting for. Go tell my brothers. We're his brothers, his sisters. We're in God's family because of what he did on the cross and because of what happened at the resurrection. The first question is, "What is this about Mary holding on to Jesus? " And hopefully that answers that question. The second question is a little more difficult. Why did Jesus breathe on them? The Bible says he breathed on them and he said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. " Now the confusion in this question is, if you've read the book of Acts, in the book the Holy Spirit's going to come upon them and the Holy Spirit's going to indwell the lives of believers. And if you've done a deeper study of the Bible, you know that that moment, that day of Pentecost, was a very important moment in our spiritual history. What happened at that moment is that instead of the Holy Spirit coming upon people from time to time to empower them from God's tasks, which you see happening all through the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit indwells people permanently. Now, when we study other books of the Bible, like Ephesians or other books, we'll go into this more. It's more than we have time to talk about today. But just be aware of the fact that what happens here in John chapter 20 ties to what's going to happen in Acts chapter 2. And for many people, they try to work out what in the world is the difference between the two. When Jesus breathed on them here and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit," was that temporary and then it became permanent in Acts chapter 2 or was that permanent for these disciples that were there and then it became permanent for the other people that were there in Acts chapter 2? When you come to the end of the story, it really doesn't make any difference. And the truth is, as you study this period in Christian history, God's Spirit is working in very new and changing ways in people's lives. And you don't want to build your theology of how the Holy Spirit works in our lives today by what happens here in John 20 or Acts chapter 2 and say, "It has to happen exactly like that for us. " For instance, when the Holy Spirit comes into our lives at the moment of salvation, we don't get tongues of fire on our head or hear a mighty rushing wind like they did in Acts chapter 2. So you don't want to take those details and make them your personal history. What's really being talked about here is what Jesus had been promising all along, that the Holy Spirit could now come into their lives because He's died and been resurrected. Jesus again is rejoicing in a moment that He's been waiting for. I can call you now, brothers and sisters, and now I can send your Spirit into my life. Do you see now why these are the first things that He does when He meets with His disciples in that upper room? These are the things that He's been waiting to do. He's been waiting to call them, brothers and sisters. He's been waiting to say, "You can now receive the Holy Spirit. " And in this question of why He breathed on them, do not miss the power that's behind that. Before that, He said, "As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you. " He breathed on them saying, "I'm giving you the power to live the new life that I'm giving you to live. " That's probably the second most difficult question in this passage. The first most difficult question is the third one. What is this about forgiveness? What does Jesus mean when He says, "Whoever you have forgiven will be forgiven and whoever you don't forgive will not be forgiven"? We all know, we read it clearly in the Bible, that only Jesus can forgive sins. You and I do not have the power to forgive sins. So what is Jesus talking about here? Is He putting into the hands of you and I, His disciples, the power to forgive someone else? No, He is not. What Jesus is talking about here, I believe, is that He is putting into our hands the message of His forgiveness. What is God's plan for getting out the message of the fact that He died on the cross and that He's resurrected, that He can forgive all of our sins because of His love? God's plan is to do that through you and I, His followers. Right after saying, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you," Jesus says, "If you don't go," in essence He's saying here, "If you don't go, people aren't going to hear the message and if they don't hear the message, they're not going to turn to Me for forgiveness. I'm putting the message of the good news into your hands as My followers. " I would encourage you in this passage. I think this is a difficult verse to understand. That's my understanding of it. It is a difficult verse to understand. I would encourage you, even in not quite understanding what this verse might mean, do not miss the tremendous importance of forgiveness in this verse. I may not completely understand this verse. It's one of the ones I've got to ask Jesus, "What totally did you mean by that when I get to heaven? " But I do completely understand this. Jesus commands me to forgive in these verses and He tells me how serious my not following that command can really be. Jesus commands me to take the message of forgiveness in these verses and He tells me how serious it is that I don't take that message. And if you needed something, someone to show you how important it is that you forgive, here it is right here, Jesus talking to you. We talked to Jesus today. Let's talk to Him together about these powerful things that He said in these verses. The first we didn't even talk about much, "Peace be with you," Jesus said. Say to Jesus Christ, "Thank you that I can have peace because of your new life. And because of the peace that I have in you, Jesus, I want to live out what you said in these verses. So send I you into the world. There are hurting people all around me and I can choose to focus on my hurts or I can choose to focus on the fact that you care about not only my hurt but the hurts of everyone around me. " Jesus helped me to live a life that is sent out, not one that caves in, but one that is sent out to make a difference in this world. And Jesus, thank you. Thank you that you have forgiven me. And your word tells me to forgive as you have forgiven me. I need strength from you to forgive. And I need strength from you to carry that message of forgiveness to everyone who needs to hear. Give me that strength, I pray, in your name, Jesus, amen.