Last Week: Jesus on the Cross : It is finished.

One the Cross: push up to breath out.

Sabbath approaching: Jews didn’t want the bodies to remain on the cross so they asked Pilot to break their legs.

Had to push up to breath out.

Broken legs would cause suffocation.

Romans saw he was dead: Pierced His side: Blood and water came out.

Fluid around His heart and lungs.

(If he was alive: pumping blood and frothy pink blood. )

John 19:36 NASB95

36 For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, “Not a bone of Him shall be broken.”

Psalms 39.

Exodus and Numbers: The preparation of the Lamb who’s blood was to be put on the door post during passover.

Exodus 12:46 NASB95

46 “It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it.

The rest of chapter 19 shows us the burial of Jesus’ body.

Chapter 20 starts with the empty Tomb.

Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the risen Lord: He tells her to go tell “My brethren”

She does:

John 20:19–31 NASB95

19 So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” 24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” 26 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” 30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

Peace be with you

shlama 'allāwkhon - Aramaic

Shalom aleichem- Hebrew

alsalam ealaykum- Traditional Arabic greeting.

John 20:21 NASB95

21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

John 17:18 NASB95

18 “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

It is time to get to work: The hardest part of anything is getting started:

John 20:22 NASB95

22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

HOW TO RECONCILE THIS WITH ACTS 2. DAY OF PENTECOST.

They received the peace associated with the Holy Spirit, but not the indwelling.

The Holy Spirit partially filled them.

John is doing a story mash-up. remember Luke, who wrote the Luke and Acts but John only had the one gospel, so he is including the disciples receipt of the Holy Spirit.

John is recording Jesus’ personal promise of the Holy Spirit.

#4 seems the most plausible, given that John doesn’t say that they in fact received the Holy Spirit.

I think God allows these seeming confections in His Word for the same reason that Jesus spoke in parables: To mess with people who think they are smarter than He is.

John 20:23 NASB95

23 “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

Matthew 18:18 NASB95

18 “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

Retention of SIN:

John 8:24 NASB95

24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

John 9:41 NASB95

41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

John 15:22 NASB95

22 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

John 15:24 NASB95

24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

John 16:8–9 NASB95

8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;

John 19:11 NASB95

11 Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

The remaining of SIN whenever mentioned in John refers to unbelief in Jesus as the only begotten Son of God.

So if the retention of sin comes from the unbelief in Jesus: The forgiveness of Sin comes from Belief in HIM.

Also: This statement of them forgiving sin is connected with this symbolic bestowal of the Spirit.

Which is related to them being sent out into the world as HIS witnesses.

SO: The way the disciples forgave a person’s sin or retained their sin was to Preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ:

The effect of which is the believing it (resulting in Forgiveness) or rejecting it (resulting in retention or no forgiveness of sin)

YOU HAVE THAT SAME POWER!