Address—C. Hendricks
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Please turn with me to John's Gospel chapter 20, verse one. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher. Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have.
Him.
Peter therefore went forth in that other disciple and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together.
And the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre, and he's stooping down, and looking in saw the linen clothes lying, Yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulcher, and he saw.
And believed, for as yet they knew not the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary stood without it, the sepulchre weeping.
And as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher, And seeth 2 angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, Why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing.
And knew not that it was Jesus.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, Why weepest thou Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Raboni, which is to say, Master.
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father.
But go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father.
And your father, and to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord.
And that he had spoken these things unto her.
Then the same day at evening being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews.
Came Jesus.
And stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace.
Be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands.
And his side then were the disciples, glad when they saw the Lord.
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, even soul send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained.
Now keep your place here. We'll just come right back here and just, but just for a verse or two to look, turn to Luke 8.
Luke 8, verse 2.
And certain women which had been healed.
Of evil spirits and infirmities Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod, Stewart, and Susanna, and many others which ministered unto him. Of their substance. Here we have these women named. The first one is the one that we've read about in John 20, Mary Magdalene.
Out of whom he had cast 7 demons. It says these women ministered unto him.
Of their substance They were evidently women of means, and they were privileged to minister to the blessed Lord of their substance when He was down here. Now going back to John 20, we read of this dear St. of God the first day of the week.
The previous chapter we have his death. We have the foundation of all blessing.
The first of the seven feasts of Jehovah in Leviticus 23. The feast of the Passover, the death of Christ.
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And then the feast of unleavened bread, and then the third feast was the first fruits, the sheaf of first fruits, the resurrection. And that's what we have in John 20.
We have the resurrection.
Mary is not one that is.
Characterized by great intelligence in the mind of God, but rather by great affection.
Great affection. It was her love for him that brought her to the only place that she knew to go, the last place that she had seen him placed there in the sepulcher. And so she goes to where she had last seen him. She has no thought, no idea of the resurrection at this time.
In her history, it wasn't intelligence as to the resurrection that brought her there.
But it was rather she wanted to be near him.
She wanted to be where he had been last placed.
And so she comes to the sepulchre when it was yet dark, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. There was evidently enough light for her to see that.
And immediately she wants to communicate that something had happened. So she runs and comes to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved. Now that we know that was John, that was the one who wrote this gospel five times. He speaks of himself in this gospel as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He hides himself under that beautiful.
Description The disciple whom Jesus loved.
He is the one that lay on His bosom. He is the one that tells us that Jesus dwelt in the divine bosom, the bosom of the Father.
From them for all eternity. Where did he learn that? Well, he may have learned it on the bosom of his Master.
But he is referred to here not as John, but the disciple whom Jesus loved. Peter is characterized by his love for the Lord. Though all deny thee, yet will not I. And he says in his epistle, still along that line, Whom having not seen ye love, and whom, though now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
But John.
He dwells on the love of the Lord for him, the disciple whom Jesus loved.
And so she comes to these two apostles, and she saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Now who that they were, I don't believe she knew. She had no idea someone had come.
You see, there's no thought of resurrection here. She didn't know that he was risen, she said. Someone took away, took away the stone and took away.
The Lord. Notice she refers to him as the Lord because he was their Lord as well as her Lord.
And so she says to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth and that other disciple and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together, and the other disciple did outrun Peter and came first to the to the sepulchre. I find that very instructive and very beautiful that the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Not the one who boasted in his love for Jesus, but.
The disciple whom Jesus loved outruns Peter and comes first to the sepulcher.
And he is stooping down and looking in saw the linen clothes lying yet when he not in.
Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
Then went in also that other disciple, that was John, the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Which came first to the Sepulcher? Sepulcher. And he saw and believed what he saw.
Was compelling evidence that Jesus.
Had risen from the dead.
Compelling evidence. What did they see when they looked into the sepulcher?
They saw the linen clothes lying and the napkin that was about his head taken off.
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No evidence of haste, no evidence of hurry, no evidence that someone had come in and they had quickly.
Taken the body away. They couldn't have done it quickly because had he not risen, they would have to have unwrapped those linen clothes which were wrappings, wrappings, wrappings around the body and with the embalming fluid.
That they had buried him with.
Well, what they saw was a cocoon like shape where the body had lain.
And the napkin that was about his head taken off and placed in a separate place.
All by itself. Now let's just to see the difference between this was true resurrection from among the dead and what we have in John 11. Now we know that chapter about Lazarus, let's just look at a few of the verses. We won't read it all because we know the story well.
John 11 will begin by reading at verse 38. Jesus therefore, again groaning in himself, cometh to the grave.
It was a cave and a stone lay upon it, very similar to where the Lord was buried in the sepulchre, and the stone had been placed over its entrance.
And here was a cave with a stone upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone.
Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead 4 days. Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God. Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid now in order for Lazarus to get out.
He was still there in the very body in which he had died 4 days previously. This body, just like you and I are in a body of flesh and blood. He had died and he was placed there and in order for him to come out, they had to remove the stone. He couldn't get through that stone entrance or he couldn't get through any part of The Cave. This body can't do that.
The Lord Jesus resurrection body could. The stone was not removed to let him out. Not the Lord Jesus, He was already gone. The stone was removed so that those that came could look in and see that he wasn't there.
But here Lazarus, in order to come out the stone, had to be rolled away. He, his is His, is not a true resurrection. His was a resuscitation of this natural body.
The Lords was he was the first fruits. He was the one that was the first to rise.
In a body of power body, resurrection body. But notice the difference here. Then they took away the stone. Verse 41 from the place where the dead was laid, and Jesus lifting up his highs, and said, Father, I thank Thee that thou hast heard me, and I knew that thou hearest me always. But because of the people which stand by I said it, they they may believe that thou hast sent me.
And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice. Lazarus.
Come forth and he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes. That body could not rise out of the wrappings that had wrapped his body as the Lord Jesus body did. That body came forth with all the wrappings of death still upon him. And we read.
His face was bound about with a napkin. It was still on him.
It hadn't been taken off and laid in another place. He hadn't risen out of those clothes. He was still bound by them.
Jesus saith unto them, Loose him and let him go. That's a resuscitation of the natural body, but not what we have here in John 20. In John 20 they looked and they saw.
His linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head. Verse 7 of John 20 now.
Not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself, they saw the very shape of where the body had been encased in those linen clothes. But the body wasn't there. He had risen out of it. He didn't go out with the evidence of death and those clothes upon him. Wages of sin is death. He had borne the judgment. He had put away the sin. Now he rises out of.
Leaves it all behind the evidence that death was conquered.
In the mighty power of the one who could say I am the resurrection and the life, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And he did. He raised it up from the dead. And when they saw that evidence.
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It was compelling, it says then, when it also that other disciple which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw.
And believed. And then we read a very astounding statement. The Lord had told him over and over and over again that he would suffer, he would die, and he would rise again from the dead. The third day, as Jonas was 3 days and three nights in the whale's belly, Even so shall the Son of Man be 3 days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
He would rise again and they didn't understand it. It was hidden from them.
You know how it is when we have preconceived thoughts.
I think the hardest thing for someone to enter into is the is a new truth that God is bringing out here, founded upon the Lord's death and resurrection. That didn't fit in with their understanding, these Jews, their understanding of the Old Testament Scriptures. The truth of it was in the Old Testament, Isaiah 53 spoke of the sufferings of the Messiah.
Psalm 22, Psalm 69, Psalm 102, all Speaking of the sufferings of the Messiah.
Other portions Speaking of his resurrection was all there, and yet that was hidden from them.
They were more concerned with the Messiah that would come in power and glory and set them free from the yoke and ******* of the Romans.
And this present period of time they knew nothing about.
Absolutely nothing. It was a mystery, hidden God.
They should have known that their Messiah would be rejected. They should have known that, but somehow it was hid from them and when the Lord spoke of his resurrection, it didn't fit in with their.
Understanding, you remember in Acts 1, even after all these instructions that he has in the Gospel of John has given to them.
That he would go back to the Father, and that he would send down the Holy Spirit. They asked him in resurrection in Acts One they said, wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel? They were still thinking of their.
Their self interests setting Israel free. Their national interests as Jews setting Israel free from that awful.
Roman Yoke and he said it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the father is put in his own power.
But ye will receive power after that. The Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.
That in one verse is a little capsule of the whole book of Acts.
Gospel going out, starting at Jerusalem and spreading out to the whole world.
But they knew nothing of this.
And it says in verse 9, For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the day.
How many times?
You may have read a scripture over.
And over and over, all of a sudden you read it again and you see it.
How many times have you ever labored with a soul and they said, I don't understand, I can't see it. And all of a sudden God says let there be light and there's light.
I see it. How could I have not seen it? They say once they see it.
But they didn't understand. Mary didn't understand that Peter and John didn't understand. But John is now brought to faith, but said it says in the next verse. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. They had a home here. We all have homes here.
Mary didn't to her, having lost her beloved.
This whole world was nothing but a graveyard.
It had no attraction for her whatsoever.
We're not told that she came back. As soon as she saw the stone taken away. She ran and she took Peter and told Peter and John they've taken away the Lord. She knew it wasn't the disciples. She found them all together. It wasn't they that had done it. Somewhat has come and done it, and we know not where they've laid him. But Mary came back, followed them back.
And there she is, the only place she could be. That was her home. We have a plaque at our house. I don't know where it is right now, but I remember the first line. Home is where the heart is. You have often heard it said. Home is where the songbirds sing their sweetest overhead. Home is where the heart is. It's that first part.
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Where was her heart? What brought her to the sepulchre she wanted to be near?
Where he was. Some of you may have lost a loved 1. You know they're gone.
Even with the Christian knowledge that we have and yet something takes you to the graveyard, something takes you to where they are buried under the ground and and you want to be there. You want to be just next to.
Your loved one, that's we Mary was. She didn't have any idea of the resurrection.
But it was her affection for Christ.
That was going to make her the recipient of the most wonderful truth.
It's ever been presented to man. She was going to be the first one to whom the Lord opened up.
The truth of the new order of things that he was about to introduce, founded on his death and resurrection.
She was the one.
Because she loved him. She didn't go to her home. She didn't have one. He was her home. She lost him.
She's lost the one that meant everything to her.
She stood without at the sepulcher, weeping. Verse 11 and as she wept.
She stooped down and looked into the sepulchre. Now she looks in and she sees something that James that Peter and John didn't see.
She saw 2 angels in white sitting.
The one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. They were sitting there. They marked out the very place which where where her beloved had been.
They don't fill her with fear. As in so many cases that we read in Scripture, when man gets in the presence of angels, they're struck with fear.
The intensity of her sorrow was such that presence of angels.
Had no effect on her. She talks to them as she would talk to any of us.
They say unto her, Woman, Why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away.
Notice the change, not the Lord this time, my Lord.
And I know not where they have laid him.
Still no thought of the resurrection. He's not there. The angels are there, but she talks to them as she would talk to you or to me.
They asked her one question. Woman, why weep is thou? They have taken away, my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. Oh, that we might have more. What? Mary had such an affection for his person.
There was number self-interest in her like the disciples showed.
Remember the two on the way to Emmaus and they were talking to the Lord and didn't realize it? We had thought that it was He that would have redeemed Israel.
How selfish we are.
We relate everything to ourselves, but to her everything was related to him.
They have taken away, my Lord. We know not where they have laid Him. I know not where they have laid Him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. It said it was dark when she came the first time. Then she ran and got Peter and John. They came, and she followed them back. It may have still been dark.
She was weeping. The tears were blurring her vision. She didn't recognize him.
She knew not that it was Jesus.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? The very same question the angels put to her. But he adds something.
Whom seekest thou?
A person.
He knew who she knew, why she was there, and whom she was seeking.
But she answers now she's supposing him to be the gardener. Saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away three times. Him who is him.
She doesn't have to.
Tell this gardener who the hymn was. There's only one hymn to her heart. There was only one. It's like the bride in the Song of Solomon. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.
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It's only what?
Tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. That would have been some feat for a woman to take that body away.
But her love was so strong.
That she meant it with all her being.
Oh, she wanted that body. That precious body.
She had lost him. She had lost everything.
Jesus saith unto her.
Mary. Mary, he calls her by name, immediately hearing his voice and her name pronounced by him. She knows who it is and she.
Turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni.
Which is to say, master.
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not immediately she rushes forward, and would have laid hold upon him.
I'll not lose you again, I'll not lose you again. I lost you once. I'll not lose you again. And then he stops her. It says in our translation, Touch me not it's literally handled. Or as Mr. Kelly gives it.
Giving the force of the tense of the verb and the meaning of the word he's saying to Mary. Mary, don't cling to me. Don't cling to me.
She was a Jewess. She wanted him back as her Messiah.
To Israel and he says you can't have me.
That way, any longer I am going to bring you into something infinitely better. Mary, you are going to know me in an altogether new relationship. And the meaning of these words that follow we have in doctrinal form in 2nd Corinthians 5, and I'll read you those verses.
We know them well. Two Corinthians, chapter 5.
Verse 15 And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves.
But unto him which died for them, and rose again.
Wherefore henceforth know we no man?
After the flesh, yeah, though we have known Christ after the flesh. Now, that's stated by the apostle Paul, who was a Jew, and he could say that I can't say that none of us who are Gentiles can say that we knew Christ after the flesh, but the Jews did. He says, yeah, though we have known Christ after the flesh. That's the way Mary had known him. She wanted him back in that way.
Yet now henceforth know we him no more.
We don't know Him now after the flesh. He has to learn that the relationship that she was now going to be brought into with respect to Him was not one after the flesh. It was after the Spirit. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. There's a new creation. This is something altogether new. All things are passed away. The old things of Judaism passed away. Behold all things.
Have become new, going back to John 20. Now, he says to Mary. Touch me, not don't cling to me, Mary.
For I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren.
And tell them, I ascend unto my father, and to your Father, to my God, and to your God.
What a revelation.
Next verse 18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples.
Two things she told the disciples she had seen the Lord.
She had seen the Lord. He's risen. And the second thing.
That He had spoken these things unto her. What did he say? What had he said to her? He said, Mary, you go to my brethren, and she comes to them, and she says.
He told me to say that you are now his brethren.
He told me that you are now in a new relationship with respect to himself. He now owns you as my brethren. And he said more than that. He said his Father is your father, his God is your God. And if I heard that, I would have said, what did you say?
This is more than I can understand.
He calls us his brethren. His Father is our Father.
The one that he has always addressed as man when he was here below my father.
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My father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Hundreds of times, many times he speaks of him as my father. And now he, he says my father is your father and my God is your God. The only time we read that he addressed him is my God.
Was at the end of the three hours of darkness on the cross. Then it couldn't be my father.
The term of intimacy and communion and relationship. Then it was my God. My God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Then it was God and all that he is as God judging sin.
Who forsook that man?
Now he tells us in resurrection, You are now my brethren, my Father is your Father, my God is your God. And the epistles from this point on never speak to never speak of God as as heavenly Father. I know many Christians still use the expression, but the Lord taught his Jewish disciples to pray our Father, which art in heaven hallowed be thy name, and so on.
That was an advance, Heavenly Father. That was an advance over what they had known. They had known God as Jehovah.
The Most High as the Eternal, as the Almighty, as the I Am. But they never had known Him as Father.
And when the Jews heard the blessed Lord speak of him as my Father.
They said you are blaspheming, you are making yourself equal with God and they understood what he was doing.
And that Blessed One now is our Father. So what do we?
Read in the epistles, Blessed be the God and Father.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What he was to him as a man.
As God He is to you and to me, as God what He was to him in manhood as Father.
He is to you and to me. We've been brought into that same nearness of relationship, never anything higher. This was communicated. To whom? Not to Peter, not to John. They went to their own home. They had a place where they they could call their home. But the Lord Jesus the the dear Mary Magdalene, she didn't have. So she had to stay. It was her love for Him. And now He opens up to her soul.
A message that was so wonderful.
And what does it do? Well, it gathers them together on the very same.
Resurrection Day This was the first resurrection day. Verse 19 Now then the same day at evening being the first day of the week.
That that's the first resurrection day. First she had come in the early morning when it was dark.
And now it's the evening of that same day, the disciples are gathered together. What gathered them together? Why her testimony? I seen the Lord, and this is what He's told me to tell you. You are now in a new relationship with respect to Himself. You're now in a new relationship with respect to God, his Father.
They are together now. Then the same day at evening being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst. They didn't have to open the door to let Him in. He just appeared in His resurrection body. Just as He escaped from the tomb in his resurrection body without the stone being moved. It was moved later to show that He was gone.
And the evidence that they saw inside the very way that the linen clothes were lying and the napkin rolled together and put in a separate place by itself was.
Compelling evidence he was risking.
Had they unwrapped that body and stolen it away, they would have never been able to wrap it together again in the form that they saw it in, as it had enclosed that blessed body. Now he appears. Here's a picture of the assembly before the assembly existed, 50 days before it existed. This is the third feast.
Of Leviticus 23, the 4th feast is the day of Pentecost.
50 days later, 7 Sabbath's plus a day, and that's when the Holy Spirit was given to form the church, to baptize all believers into one body, to inhabit the house, to dwell, to make the Saints the habitation of God by the Spirit. This hadn't taken place yet here, but here we have a picture of it, a beautiful picture of what the assembly would be once it was formed.
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But here we have the head of it.
The risen Christ now appearing in the midst.
Of the assembled disciples assembled on the strength and foundation of the truth that he's risen.
And that you are now his brethren. His Father is your father.
His God is your God.
Came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them.
Peace be unto you the first thing that he proclaims to them. The risen Christ, as he stands in their midst, is the peace that He had won for them by the blood of His cross. He made peace by the blood of His cross. Romans 51 Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so he proclaims that peace. That's the fruit of his work.
The work which has atoned for our sins, which has put them away and glorified God as to the whole sin question. Now he appears and proclaims, Peace be unto you. Here's this company assembled around himself in peace. Now knowing this in question has been settled once and for all, Peace is ours to enjoy.
They had more to enjoy. He was there himself, His person in the midst, and this is a picture of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. He was still here, but.
A picture of what it would be after he had gone back to heaven and sent down the Holy Spirit. Jesus in the midst. And then he shows them his hands and his side, the hand Speaking of the work that he had accomplished. And he had cried and pronounced in the 19th chapter upon his own work. It is finished, he had said.
And then the soldier with the insulting spear piercing his side, and the answer of God to that.
Last thrust of hatred.
The spear that pierced thy very side drew forth the blood to say.
And what was the effect of seeing his hands in his side?
Then were the disciples glad, filled with joy, joy unspeakable and full of glory, as Peter says.
When they saw the Lord, peace the fruit of His work, joy the result of knowing.
That he is there.
Verse 21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you.
This time it wasn't for themselves. This time it was that they might be the emissaries, the messengers of peace to a lost world. As my Father hath sent me, Even so send I you. That applies to the whole Christian company. This is a picture. Now, verse 19, the disciples. It's not the apostles. They were there, of course, but they weren't the only ones that were there. It's the disciples. It's the Christian assembly in picture.
The first thing that he imparts to them is peace.
And then the joy of this person, his presence, and then he gives them. He commissioned them to go forth now.
To a lost, perishing world with a message of peace. Peace be unto you. As my Father had sent me. Even so send I you.
Now in the power of what life are we to be in the enjoyment of this peace?
Intervene the enjoyment of our new relationship with God the Father to be the in the enjoyment of being His brethren.
In the power of what life? His risen life?
And that's why we have verse 22.
And when he had said this, he breathed on them or into them.
And saith unto them, Receive you, the Holy Ghost. Now, in order to understand this, we can turn back, if you will, to Genesis chapter 2.
This is the only other instance of the inbreeding of God.
It's the first creation.
Genesis chapter 2, verse 7.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.
And he breathed into his nostrils.
The breath of life.
And man became a living soul.
Now we have other living souls mentioned. The animals, living creatures or souls are mentioned in the chapter.
But they didn't receive this living soul.
By the in breathing of God, only man did. Man became a living soul, a soul that will never die. We would say an immortal soul. And that's why the message of the gospel is so important.
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Man is not going to die. His spirit and soul doesn't die. Death is merely.
The death of this body, it's when the spirit leaves the body, the soul leaves the body. But man has a living soul. How did he receive it? By the in breathing of God. None of the animals received it that way. Man is not an exalted ape.
He's completely different. He stands in unique and special relationship with his creator.
God, Jehovah breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, natural life.
But unique in that it's a life that came from God Himself.
A living soul.
Intimate. And now we have that same person in John 20.
That same Jehovah, not as Jehovah, but as the risen man.
As one who had become a man gone into death suffered the awful death of the Cross.
Now is risen from the dead, and now he communicates his resurrection life to them.
In the power of the Holy Spirit, when He had said this, He breathed on them.
And saith unto them, Receive ye, the Holy Ghost. Now the Holy Ghost. The article is there, but it shouldn't be. It's not there in the original.
He says Receive ye Holy Spirit, it's the Spirit as the power.
Of resurrection life that he communicates to them. Here the Spirit wasn't given till 50 days later on the day of Pentecost, another first day of the week when the Spirit was given in Acts 2 to indwell them and to unite them into one body and to become the habitation of God by the Spirit God dwelling in His church.
By the Spirit. But here we have the power of life, that which characterizes the life that we have. You know, this is so important.
I want to dwell a little bit on verse 22, If Christians understood the character of the life that they have, the life of Christ, not before he died.
And rose again. But after his death and resurrection, the death has put away all that which pertained to nature, all that which stood against us, our sins.
And as Paul says in two Corinthians 5, the verse that we read, even for the Jews that had a natural relationship, a relationship with Messiah after the flesh, they say, he says, though we have known Christ after the flesh, we know and thus no longer. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, in Christ risen, whenever you read in Scripture, in Christ we meet, it means in Christ the risen man.
Any man be in Christ, there's a new creation. All things are passed away, all things are become new, a new life. Life in the power of resurrection, energized and characterized by the Holy Spirit.
If you look at Romans 8, we don't have time for that tonight, but the first, I think it's the first 12 verses, we have the Spirit as life.
Characterizing the life that we have in Christ.
The Spirit.
And that's what characterizes Christianity. It's not just life. The man in Romans 7 had life.
He had divine desires. He wanted to do what was right, but he always did what was wrong. He found the flesh was stronger.
Than the divine life that he possessed, but in Romans 8.
He's delivered.
From that sinful power of evil that is within everyone of us.
And he says in verse 2 for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Has set me free from the law of sin and death.
That's the Spirit as life, as the power of life, delivering us from that evil flesh and sinful principle that is within each one of us.
And that's what we have here in picture. Receive ye Holy Ghost, His own resurrection life in the power.
In the energy of the Spirit of God. So all of this truth is to be enjoyed.
As those who now have part with Christ the Victorious One in resurrection.
Resurrection conditions were now brought into.
To enjoy all the fruit of his work.
I used to ponder verse 23 and never could understand its connection.
And the Lord has opened it up to me of late, and let's look at it. Why is it there?
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Having said all this, he says, whosoever sins, ye remit.
They are remitted unto them, and whosoever seems ye retain, they are retained.
I've heard many preachers expound that verse. Never heard one right.
It's probably the most misunderstood verse in all the Bible. One of them anyway.
What is he talking about? Well, God has never entrusted to men.
The power to remit sins eternally or judicially.
That's God's prerogative, but this is an administrative function that he commits.
To this Christian company, those that are gathered together around the wonderful truth that he owns them as his brethren. God. His is their God and the Father is their Father. They they're a company that has peace imparted to them and they're sent forth with the message of peace to a lost world. They've been given His own resurrection life in the power of the Spirit, and now He gives them the responsibility.
To remit and to retain sins administratively.
This isn't just to the apostles, it's to all the disciples. Now let's look at some passages in Acts.
To bring out the force of this Acts Chapter 8.
Acts Chapter 8.
Verse 5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them, And the people with 1 accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
For unclean spirits crying with loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them and many taken with palsies and that were lame and healed. That was great joy in that city. This was the power of God working now through the apostles. And Philip wasn't even an apostle. He was he was one of the deacons, I believe, and and he had this power.
But there was a certain man called Simon.
Which before time in the same city used sorcery, he used another power, power of evil, power of Satan. And he bewitched the people of Samaria, given out then himself with some great one, To whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest saying, This man is the great power of God. But now he was awed by seeing a power that was greater than what he had been exercising. To whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard because that of long time.
He had bewitched them with sorceries, but when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
And Simon views all this. And then Simon himself believed also. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done, he continued with Phillip. He now comes among the Christian company. Administratively he is accepted, His sins are remitted. The kind of life that he had lived, they administratively remit them. He's among them, He comes among them, he continues with.
He is baptized. He is identified with them, it says. He believed. Was he real? No, he wasn't.
Well, how Can you believe and not be real? You can believe with an intellect, you can believe by seeing the miracles and signs and be outwardly convinced. But it's not belief in the heart. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. There was no heart belief in Simon. We'll see that in a moment.
And when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, the same 2 That we just read of, that had gone to the sepulcher, who when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles hands, the Holy Ghost was given.
He offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands.
He may receive the Holy Ghost. He had been in a very lucrative business, that of sorcery, deceiving people, getting paid for it. Now he sees a power so great, he says, I want that.
His sinful, covetous, wicked heart hadn't changed one bit. And so he offers them money. He wants to buy this power.
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But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee.
Because thou has thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money, thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter.
For thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.
Peter tells Simon you pray.
Simon Says Peter, you pray for me.
He wasn't even in a state so that he could himself pray. That's how far he was. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which thou has spoken come upon me. We can see many things about individuals that seem to indicate that they were real, but they're not real.
This man was a wicked man. He's exposed for what he was.
He had been received. His sins had been administratively remitted. He had been admitted into the company. He was baptized.
But now that he's exposed, of course he was excluded from their company.
Turn to the next chapter, where we have just the opposite case, Saul of Tarsus, who had been the most vehement opposer persecutor of the Christians. We know the the account, so we'll start.
At verse.
25 Then the disciples took him well. Verse 24 they were laying awake, was known of Saul, and they watched the gates day and night to kill him.
The Jews did, and then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket. And when Saul was come.
To Jerusalem He has said to join Himself to the disciples, but they were all afraid of Him, and believe not that He was a disciple. They did not receive him. They retained administratively his sins upon him.
They didn't remit them, not yet. We don't know how long, how much time took place between verse 26 and verse 27. But whatever period of time Barnabas comes forward now when he saw the saw the unwillingness of the disciples at Jerusalem to accept Paul.
And Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way.
And that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus, and when they realized that God had done a work and saved that wicked man.
That man that had so hated the Christians.
And then it says in verse 28 now they remit his sins administratively and he was with them.
Coming in and going out at Jerusalem. And he spake boldly.
In the name of the Lord, Jesus disputed with the Grecians, but they went about to slay him. He is now one of them I'll never forget.
Umm, I got saved through my optometrist, Dr. Wood.
And he witnessed to me, he witnessed everyone that came there. He was fearless.
And I started to read the Bible.
I remember I got into, oh, I think it was Samuel. I don't know how I ever got through Leviticus, but I waded through it, didn't understand what I was reading, started in Genesis, read those first two chapters and said, oh, that's where the story of Adam and Eve is. I always heard about Adam and Eve. I didn't know that was in the Bible, that I was 19 years old. That's how ignorant I was of the word of God.
Are there others like that in this country? Millions of them? Millions of them.
And then I went to Doctor Wood once and I said, well, tell me I want to read. I want to read. What's something for me?
He said, well, read the New Testament and then I got into the New Testament. I don't know how many years passed before I got back into the old after I had stopped because I was in the new, in the new, in the new, Couldn't, I couldn't take it in fast enough.
And he saw my growth, and he used to always refer to me as Mr. Hendricks. I'd come into his office at night and he'd say just a minute, he'd go into his grinding room, flip, flip, flip, turn all the switches off, turn all the equipment off, get his Bible out, sit down with me, and we'd have two or three hours together over the Word.
Always referred to me as Mr. Hendricks.
I'll never forget the thrill that went through my soul when one night he said brother Hendrix.
And I said, I'm not outside anymore. I'm one of you. Well, that's this administrative forgiveness.
That we're talking about and that he entrusts to his assembly.
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They are the ones responsible to receive and to refuse.
Those that are not fit, you see, Simon wasn't fit to be among them because he didn't have resurrection life. He didn't have peace with God. He didn't have his sins forgiven. He saw the wonders and signs that were done. He said, I want that when he saw the gift of the Holy Ghost being given, I want that power. Oh, this will be a tremendous.
Source of income far better than I had in sorcery.
Covetousness.
Let's look at 1 Corinthians 5, another very important passage.
In connection with administrative forgiveness.
We know this chapter. I'll begin reading at verse 9.
I wrote unto you in an epistle.
Not to company with fornicators.
Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters. For then must he needs go out of the world.
He's making it clear your responsibility is not towards the world.
In connection with having no fellowship with them in their lifestyle, they're all living in sin.
But your responsibility is with respect to those that make a profession of faith. And he goes on to say that.
Verse 11 That now I have written unto you, not to keep company. If any man that is called a brother. Now he doesn't say if any man is a brother, but he says if he's called a brother, that's profession, that is, he makes a profession of faith. If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one know not to eat.
Our responsibility is toward those that are our brethren, those that are professedly our brethren.
Not to the world.
Our only responsibility to the world is to preach the gospel to them. It's not to refuse to eat with them if they're living in sin, because they are living in sin. But if one who is called a brother is living in sin, we're not to eat with them. If you found someone at work and you've been talking to them and you found out they were a Christian and then you found out they were living in sin.
You'd have to say to them, I can't eat with you because you're going on in sin. Maybe, maybe it's a young man and he's he's got a young woman coming to his house and living with him and they're not married. You'd have to say to him, if he's a professing Christian, you'd have to say to him, I can eat with you. But if he was just a worldling, you wouldn't have to do that. You could eat with them because our responsibility is not to the world.
In this administrative sense, but to those that are called Christians.
So he says, Now I have written unto you not to keep company. If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner with such, and one no not to eat. See what has happened today in Christendom is that Christians are.
Trying to set the world right, they're trying to impose upon the world Christian principles.
And they're not saved.
These people in the world, they can't live according to Christian principles. They need to be saved first.
They need to become, they need to come inside, they need to get inside the sphere of profession. And if they're outside, the outside, here is the world.
You don't impose Christian truth upon the world. They've got to get saved first. You preach the gospel to them.
But to try to.
Get the world to act on Christian principles, just contrary to what we have taught here.
Verse 12 For what have I to do to judge them that are without? We don't have any business with those without.
God is going to take care of them. That's not our responsibility. Do not ye judge them that are within, within the sphere of profession, the great house, those that call themselves Christians.
Simon, he took that name upon himself when he was baptized, says he believed, but he was a wicked man and he had to be excluded, put away. He had to be exposed and put away. His sins had to be retained. They had been remitted.
Now this man's sins had to be retained on him because he was called a brother.
And he had fallen into a grievous sin, so he says. What have I to do to judge them that are without even Paul? He didn't.
That was outside his sphere of authority. He had Apostolic authority, something none of us has, but he had no Apostolic authority over the world.
But it was in this sphere that names the name of Christ. That's where he had authority.
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But them that are without God judgeth. Verse 13. That's the world.
Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
Someone asked Mr. Darby, where are they put to? He said Scripture doesn't say where they're put to, says where they're put from. They're put away from among them yourselves, from among the local testimony, the local assembly where the Lord is put away from among them. And he's put away as a wicked person, not as a brother, a man. He was called a brother, but now he has to be put away as a wicked person because.
Of what he had done, and in an unrepentant state, he is that a wicked person.
But repentance changes one state.
This man was a brother, truly, but he wasn't put away as a brother. He's put away as a wicked person. That is, his sins were retained upon him administratively by the assembly at Corinth, and he was excluded from their fellowship.
But the happy ending of this story is in Two Corinthians chapter 2.
It's so beautiful to me that the the only instance that we have in an epistle of one that had to be put out because of sin is also to be received back because of repentance.
In chapter 2 verse 6, Paul says about that man they had, they had acted upon Pauls injunction to put him away, and now he had repented. He had deeply grieved over his sin, he was in sorrow over it. And Paul says sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many.
So that contrary wise, he ought rather to forgive him.
Administratively.
And comfort him.
Lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow. He showed evidence of true repentance and sorrow and grief over what he had done. And Paul recognizes that. He said forgive him. Show your love to him. Wherefore I beseech you, that you would confirm your love toward him.
A little bit farther down verse 11, he says, lest Satan should get an advantage of us.
For we're not ignorant of his devices. How does Satan get an advantage of us?
The error of 1 Corinthians was an error in acting for the holiness of God's house.
There was sin there, grievous sin, and they were indifferent as to it. And Paul has to command them. Put away from among yourselves that wicked person. You have to purge the leaven out in order that you might be a new lump as you're unleavened positionally before God, that you might bring your practical state up to that. And they were indifferent to it. So they failed in holiness, they failed in dealing with evil in the first epistle, and in the second epistle they failed in restoring.
Grace.
So he has to tell them they failed in recognizing.
The true repentance that was in the man's heart, that would now lead them to remit his sins. They had retained his sins in the first epistle and excluded him, put him away from among themselves as a wicked person. That was their responsibility. That was the assemblies responsibility. With Christ in the midst. If he hadn't entrusted administrative authority to his assembly, gathered with himself in the midst, the assembly would be.
The place where evil could go on and never be dealt with.
And the assembly ought to be the place, too, that recognizes when sin has been committed. The man is repentant of his sins to show grace and forgiveness.
So in the first epistle they fail in holiness, in the second epistle they fail in grace.
The two things that we are to uphold. Mr. Darby wrote 2 pamphlets.
They were separated by quite a few years, I don't know how many. The first pamphlet was Separation from Evil.
God's principle of unity. That's one Corinthians.
The second pamphlet is Second Corinthians, Grace, the Power of Unity and of Gathering.
And what led him to write that second pamphlet was he read over his first pamphlet, I believe.
And he said something is lacking, something is missing.
This is only half the truth. And then he brought the other half so beautifully, and we have it in these two epistles.
Well.
Let's just see what we have again in John 20, the Lord appears to Mary because.
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She would not be denied.
Nearness to himself, And he opens to her this precious truth.
He's risen, you're now my brethren. My father is your father, my God is your God imparts peace to them, peace be unto you as he showed him his hands and his side, and the disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord. And then he says, peace be unto you again, as my Father sent me, Even so send I you in the power of his risen life. He breathes into them that breath of resurrection life, saying, receive you, Holy Spirit.
And then he says, whosoever sees you remit there remitted, whosoever sins you retain, they are retained. So this this company now with Christ in the midst, the Spirit given in life as life.
Peace theirs they are to receive. Those that have that life have that peace there to remit. They're to refuse those that don't Simon fool them. Jude says that certain men have crept in among you unnoticed. It's our responsibility.
As an assembly, every true Assembly of God, that is, a true representation of Christ has a responsibility in an administrative sense of receiving and putting away, of remitting and retaining sins.
This is not done very often in the present confusion of things in Christendom. I know of one place where an announcement is made at the beginning of the breaking of bread.
Brother says these words.
If you are a Christian, it is your responsibility whether you want to remember the Lord with us or not. We leave that with you.
That is, he washed his hands as an assembly, speaking as a spokesperson for the assembly of that administrative authority, that administrative responsibility which the Lord clearly placed upon those with Himself in the midst. That's why we have that 23rd verse. It's the only way, the holiness of the table of the Lord and the grace that should be.
Manifested and displayed by the assembly can be carried out in a practical way in a world like this.
The verse that is often let's just turn to it and then we'll close First Corinthians 11.
The verse that is often quoted to justify the idea that an individual can walk into a Christian assembly a complete stranger, and announce himself a Christian and then demand to break bread. It's not his right to demand. You don't receive yourself. I don't receive myself into an assembly. Paul, the great apostle Paul, he'd been converted, He had the Holy Spirit, he'd, he'd been brought into blessing. Yet when he came to Jerusalem, they were afraid of him. They wouldn't receive him, and well they might.
Not they shouldn't have because of what his previous life had been until Barnabas told them.
Had been a change, and then they remitted his sins and admitted him. This is the verse that is so often quoted.
Verse 28 of 1 Corinthians 11 Not a man examined himself and sold enemy to that bread and drink of that cup.
And that's quoted as.
A principle of reception to the table. It's nothing of the kind.
It has nothing to do with reception to the table. He's talking in First Corinthians 11 of those who were already at the table.
But they were carrying on, in a way, at their love thief, so that they ate and drank to excess.
Some of them even were inebriated to the point where they couldn't discern the Lord's body in the loaf.
So, he says, let a man examine himself.
Judge himself.
So that when he does partake, he knows what he's doing.
And he understands it has nothing to do with reception. Reception is the responsibility of the local assembly.
Not the responsibility of the individual. This idea that an individual can come in and announce himself as a partaker at the table is totally unscriptural.
And the assembly that washes its hands of that responsibility and turns it over to an individual is clearly not being true.
To the Lord that has placed that responsibility with his own.
It was such a wonderful thing to for me to understand that 23rd verse in the light of all that had gone before the context. It all goes together. Jesus in the midst, and because he's there, evil has to be excluded. And because he's there by whom came grace and truth.
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Forgiveness ought to be extended.
To those that are truly repentant.