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Now, here's today's message from Pastor Skip. It's what he promised back in John 14, verse 27. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives. Let not your heart be troubled.
Neither let it be afraid. That's the peace. Because the living Saviour Has granted it to them.
Now look in verse 20. Then Then The disciples were glad when they saw The Lord.
So they go. From fear. To joy. Because the living Savior promises them peace. God promises you peace.
Jesus offers you today peace. and your fears cannot lock him out.
So rather than cower in the corner and be immobilized and do nothing. Jesus would say to you, Peace. Confidence. One of the greatest reasons that people do not open their mouths and share the gospel with people is fear. It's the biggest one.
It's probably the biggest one. The Billy Graham Association, of course, Billy Graham has been preaching crusades for his whole life, his whole career. He had an associate evangelist by the name of Leighton Ford who would travel with him, an associate evangelist who would sometimes preach, but also teach. And Leighton Ford would sometimes teach these things called Christian Life and Witness courses. And before a crusade, he's telling people how to do it.
But he would always ask the question to his audience. What's your biggest hindrance? in witnessing to people. And he would write down the findings. He took a survey, basically, of his audience.
This is what he discovered. Typically, About 9% of his audience. said the biggest hindrance to me witnessing Is that I forget to do it. I'm just so busy, I honestly forget to do it. It's a small percentage.
That is, people kind of go through their lives and they sort of forget, oh, yeah, I'm a Christian. And oh, yeah, I have a task, but they're just so busy. 9% said, I just don't think about it. 12% said, my life doesn't speak like it should speak, therefore, I lack that authority. Twenty-eight percent of the crowd typically will say, I don't think I have the right information.
When I'm asked a question. But fifty-one percent Fifty-one per cent said. My greatest hindrance to sharing my faith is I'm just afraid of their reaction once I tell them. I'm afraid.
So The first is the expression of peace. Jesus promises them peace, confidence. Don't cower behind the doors in fear. Peace to you. Look at the very next phrase, and it's the next division of the text.
It's the experience of purpose. Verse 21, Jesus said to them, Again, peace to you. Here it is. As the Father has sent me. I also Send you.
He didn't just offer them peace, he now offers them purpose. I've been sent on a mission. From God. I'm sending you on a mission. As the Father sent me, so I send you.
Now I want to dispel a myth. The myth is that evangelism is to be done by the professionals.
Well, if you're an evangelist or a pastor or you're on staff, those are the people that we pay to do it.
So go do it. The problem with that theory is when Jesus said, as the Father sent me, so send I you. The people in that room, you know what? They weren't just apostles. They weren't just apostles.
Apostles were there. Ten of them were there. Judas, he's out of the picture. Thomas is absent when Jesus showed up the first time.
So he's not there. Other disciples, just run of the mill followers, two on the road to Emmaus that Jesus spoke to, Clopas was one of them. They were in that room, according to Luke, and there were the women who visited the tomb early that day. They were also in the room.
So you got. All sorts of people who have followed Jesus in some capacity, not just official ones, that Jesus says to. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Moreover, They had failed the Lord, these apostles. They had failed the Lord.
They had run away. They had fled. Peter denied.
So here is Jesus turning to failed workers saying, I'm giving you a do-over. A ministry do-over. I know you've blown it. You have not been great witnesses. You're kind of like behind closed doors.
You're scared, but. Those days are over. Peace to you, as the Father has sent me, so I send you. Every single believer is given the wonderful mandate responsibility. to bear the message to the world.
Think of it this way. We Take me. Christ's place in this world. We're called the body of Christ. Jesus was here, commissioned us, left, and he gave the job to us.
We represent him. We are then the continuation of his ministry. When Luke wrote Volume 2, the book of Acts, this is how he began. He says, The former treatise that I wrote to you, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus. began both to do and to teach until the day he was taken up.
In other words, A Theophilus, when I wrote to you the Gospel of Luke, I was writing to you about what Jesus started.
Now, I'm writing to you about what Jesus continues to do and to teach. How does he do and teach it? How does he do and teach it? If he's not here, how does he do it? Through us.
What he started, he continues through the people.
Now, I want you to think of something. This is noteworthy. Maybe it's a revelation for some of you. Did you know that never once. In the scripture, did Jesus ever tell?
unbelievers to go to church. He never stood out to the crowd and said, Oh, and by the way, You better go to church. Never tells them that. Never tells any worldly person to go to church, not once. But boy did he tell the church to go to the world.
It's called the Great Commission. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That's our wonderful Mandate. and responsibility. One Christian leader noted that Christians are like a lot of people with colds sitting around sneezing at one another.
And nobody gets it because we've already got it. That's just a great picture. A sad but gray picture. We get together and we're in our little Christian cubicle on our Christian island. We sneeze at each other and sneeze at each other.
Nobody gets infected. Because we've already got it. The danger. of even a healthy church is when the healthy church begins to turn inward and all the activities become solely for the purpose of members, like the eighty nine percent who said the purpose of the church is to meet my needs and my family's needs. I call that a bless me club.
A bless me club. Church is the only organization, it's the only outfit that exists for the benefit of non-believers. JC Ryle said. The highest form of selfishness is for a man who's content to go to heaven alone. I would agree.
You got to be really selfish if you know the world is perishing and you truly believe heaven waits for you, and you go, I just want to make sure I get there. Don't care about them.
Now, I'm not trying to heap guilt upon guilt.
So I'm gonna I want to attack it from a little different angle right now. How do we do it? How do we do evangelism? And I'm not going to say, place your right hand on the left shoulder, look in the eye, say the first name several times. Act sincere.
No, that's not it. It's more fundamental than that. We should do it like Jesus did it. After all, look again at the text: As the Father has sent me, so I send you.
So, what does that mean? means four things. Number one, take the initiative. Take the initiative. Did Jesus take the initiative?
Did he wait in heaven and say, I'm not coming down until like somebody asked for me to come down? No, God sent His Son into the world. He took the initiative. We love Him because He first loved us. He took the initiative.
We can't wait around for people to come ask us. We have to take the initiative. Number two. Open your mouth. You have to open your mouth.
I know, I know, I've heard it. Say, preach the gospel. If necessary, use words. I've heard that. It's a lame statement.
Throw it away. Here's why. You always have to use words. If you just live a wonderful life, people go, That guy's either really special or really weird. And I don't know which, and I don't know why, because he never says anything.
Use words. Open your mouth. Jesus walked up to the woman at the well of Samaria and opened his mouth and engaged in a conversation that was very meaningful, that changed her life. Jesus walked up to the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda and engaged in a conversation that eventually changed his life. Jesus walked up to the tree where Zacchaeus was hanging out, looking down, and engaged in a conversation.
that changed his life. Take the initiative. Open your mouth. Number three. What you proclaim with your lips.
Practice with your life. But you proclaim with your lips, practice with your life. Jesus' message was so compelling because Jesus Christ. was so compelling. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition.
Before we return to Skiff's teaching, Do you ever feel stuck when it comes to studying the Bible? Pastor Skip's book, How to Study the Bible and Enjoy It. shows you how to go from feeling intimidated by scripture to engaging it with joy and confidence. This helpful book is yours when you give $50 or more to help keep this Bible teaching ministry going strong around the world. Request your copy of How to Study the Bible and Enjoy It Today.
at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922. The city is a very good thing. Let's return now to today's message. Number four. Brace yourself.
Brace yourself for opposition. When you take the initiative, when you open your mouth, when you live it with your life, that's not going to make people feel. initially comfortable.
So brace yourself for opposition.
Well, what do you mean opposition? Yeah, opposition. What did they do to Jesus? They killed him. And the world, last time I checked, still hates the message of the singularity and the narrowness of the gospel.
But that's what we are called to preach. That's what we are called to do. Moreover, look at verse 23. This is really, he says, as the Father sent me, so I'm sending you. And now he explains what he wants us to do.
Verse 23: If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.
So, what does that mean? That we have power to arbitrarily walk around and go, You, I like you, you're forgiven. You, not so much, you're not forgiven. Do we have that power and authority? No.
Not arbitrarily.
So what does this mean?
Well, one Greek scholar named Julius Manti writes this. It should be translated, quote, If you forgive the sins of any, they have already been forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they have already been retained.
So This is what it means then. You and I do not have the power. We do not provide forgiveness. Remember, the leader was right. He said, who can forgive sins but God only.
That's true. Nobody can. We can't provide forgiveness, but we can. Proclaim. Forgiveness.
So that when a person says, I recognize I'm in need of God and I give my life to Jesus, and I just place my trust in Him and His finished work with all the authority of heaven, you can say to Him or her. Your sins R forgiven. You don't have to say, What? I hope they are. I don't know if they are.
I don't want to be presumptuous or prideful and say they are. You have to die and wait and see if they are. No, you can say they are forgiven. Done deal. But if a person says, Well, I don't know if I believe that message, I'm really not going to trust in Christ, then with all the authority of heaven, you can say, Your sins are not forgiven.
You don't have to say, well, I don't want to judge you. Your sins aren't forgiven. Not forgiven.
So, you and I bring the gospel. We don't provide forgiveness, but we proclaim forgiveness based upon what a person does with the message of Jesus dying, resurrecting. All that he did here.
So what do we have here?
Well, so far we have the peace of a risen Christ. that transforms fear to joy. And then we have the privilege of taking the place of Jesus in this world as his ambassador. And then we get a ministry do-over if we failed. Many times before.
And finally, we have God's divine authority to pronounce Forgiveness. But wait, there's more! And that brings us to our third division: the enabling of power. Look at verse 22, where we close with this. And when he had said this, He breathed on them.
And said to them, Receive. The Holy Spirit. I wish I had been there. I'm imagining it, but I wish I would have been there. After he said this, he went Receive the Holy Spirit.
I read this and it reminded me of Genesis 2. Where, with the very first man, it says that God, the Lord God, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
Now, something you gotta know, both in Hebrew and in Greek, this is written in Greek, but both in Hebrew and in Greek, the word for breath. is the same word as spirit. Same word. Ruach in Hebrew, pneuma in Greek. Jesus breathed and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.
There is a correlation. The breath of God in the first creation gave physical life. The breath of Jesus to the second creation gives spiritual life. When Jesus breathed and said, Receive the Holy Spirit, you know what this is? A promise, a pledge that they're gonna be baptized, filled with the Spirit.
and enabled. Enabled to do what he has called them to do in this world. That's what it is. He's going to empower them for ministry. In Acts chapter 1, Just a few days after this.
Jesus said, Wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard from me. For John truly baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. It's one thing to have peace, it's one thing to have joy, it's one thing to have privilege, but you know what else I need? Power.
I don't know about you, but my battery goes down pretty quickly, spiritually speaking. If I'm not plugged in. To a power source outside of me. I will get burned out. And here's the real secret.
Of the Christian life. Live tomorrow. And a week from now, and a month from now, and a year from now, and a decade from now, and when you're 99 or 102 years old, whatever age you make it to, how do you consistently do it? You can't. It's impossible.
unless you are plugged into the power source of the Holy Spirit. I was reading an article in Outside Magazine. that talked about outlandish ideas that people had.
Now, I was intrigued by this, because I want you just to listen to two of these. Crazy ideas. There's a group in Tokyo, Japan, a tent manufacturing corporation. That Wants to build a synthetic mountain range.
Okay, is that weird? They want to build a synthetic mountain range. out of Teflon-coated fiberglass. 2,000 feet tall, six miles long. Western Australia.
They believe it's going to create updrafts and produce rain. That's a big idea. That's an outlandish idea, but I like that. Big thinking. Another group in Saudi Arabia under Prince Faisal.
wants to lasso And toe. A three million ton iceberg from Antarctica to Saudi Arabia. Using the melt. The water that they claim will produce. a yield of water twenty two times greater than the Nile River to Egypt.
And we'll make them Desert blossom. Huge, outlandish thinking. No less outlandish is the thinking that Jesus is going to take. A few fishermen from Galilee And spread the gospel throughout the world. Really?
He's going to use them to do it? I think. That's his plan. It's an impossible plan. Unless They have the resource, and the resource is the Holy Spirit.
That's why Jesus said to his disciples: Remember this? Do you remember this? It's to your advantage that I go away. If I don't go away, I can't send the helper. As if to say, what I'm calling you to do, this task is so outlandish, you need help.
You need power. And that power is the Holy Spirit. That's his plan. And you know what? It worked.
You and I are sitting here today as living proof that the plan worked. Those disciples took the message. Cast it down. That generation passed it down, that generation passed it down, and here we are. as proof that that plan worked.
And what he's provided for them, he'll provide for you. Listen to this. This is just a story. It's a legend. That when Jesus ascended into heaven He was met by the angel Gabriel.
And angel Gabriel said to Jesus, Oh, how'd it go? And Jesus said, It was great. Excellent. Gabriel said, Did they make you king? No?
Jesus answered. Did they crown you as prince? No? Did they worship you? Jesus said, most did not.
Well, what did they do? What happened? They crucified me. And then they crowned you as king and worshiped you, right? Nope.
So what happened? Jesus said, I left my followers. to finish the task. And Gabriel Said, ah. Really?
So what if they fail? What's your other plan? Jesus said, I have no other plan. You know what? You know what?
You and I. We're God's plan. To reach the world. And you know what? He has no other plan.
No, no other plan. We're it.
So he promises to them his peace. The resurrected Lord says peace to you, confidence for you. It turns their fear into joy. He gives them an impossible task, but he gives them the power to do it. power outside of themselves and all the authority of heaven to do it.
And now they're ready to emerge from closed doors and hit the open road. Are you? We're so glad you joined us today for Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, don't miss this chance to request how to study the Bible and enjoy it. Pastor Skip's practical guide to getting more out of every page of scripture.
It's our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help share God's Word through Connect with Skip. Call 800-922-1888. or visit connectwithgift.com slash offer. And don't forget to grab your free download of how to approach studying the Bible when you sign up for Skip's weekly devotionals. Tune in next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word.
Here on Connect the Skiff Heightsk weekend edition. Yeah. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast your burdens on his wood. Make a connection.
Connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
