 from church. The children have gotten out of their Easter outfits of what have you. Everybody's relaxed. What do you do the day after resurrection? And rightly we should because it's obviously a momentous event in the lives of all believers. This is where our faith is based off of. But the issue is or the question is what next? Well, if we go to the Bible and we look at what happens next for the disciples, we can see some things that we can glean from them and then also see what they did and apply it to our lives. So if we go to John 20, verse 19, we see that so when it was evening on that day, that Sunday, that evening, which for the Jews that there's the changing from that day to going to the next day, the evening, the day of the first week. And when the doors were shut, whether the disciples were for fear of the Jews, let's stop there for a second, says they were in a place with the door shut wide for fear of the Jews. Well, what just happened? There was persecution, obviously of the person they were following Jesus. Now, they've been told about Jesus. They're waiting on Jesus. And so here they are. They're shut up. They're concerned. They're worried. And let's see what happens. Here comes Jesus. Jesus came in and stood in their midst and said, peace be with you. Well, why the peace be with you? Well, because they're nervous. They're afraid. They're scared. There's a lot going on. If they'll do this to Jesus, what would they do to us? Now, we have this idea that these men were brave and strong and ready to die. Of course, they just said that as well, but that was just talk. But Jesus has to come in and offer these are the first words he says to him in a way of comforting them. He says, peace be with you. And he said this. He showed them both his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoice when they saw the Lord. Obviously, let's make sure that this is him or he wants to make sure to them that he is who he says he is. Here's my hands, guys. This is me. Do not be afraid. Have peace. In other words, calm down. I'm here. And so going back to it, he says again to them. So when he said, I said this to them again, peace be with you as the father has sent me. I also send you. And that can be a little bit, a little bit discouraging, a little bit scary, a little bit puzzling. Wait a second. As the father sent you, now you're sending us. Well, you were just crucified. That can be a little bit bothersome for them. I would imagine. And so he says to kind of comfort that, to kind of alleviate that. When he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. Now, something I want to go ahead and clear up before we, it's not a big, big issue for this particular point that I'm making here, but I just want to go ahead and throw this out here in verse 43. He says, if you forgive sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained. And if you notice, we have what's called in Greek the perfect tense, meaning this is a completed action in the past. And so it's not saying that they have the power to forgive sins or to retain sins to, to not forgive them. It's saying, it's stating that they will understand what heaven has already done, kind of like when he says that you, that whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. He's only declaring to them, whatever they bound will have already been bound and whatever they lose will have already been loose. Same thing here. That's always, I just wanted to cover that so that wouldn't confuse him. Going back up to verse 22, he says, and when he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. He's almost kind of, now he's projecting the future. They don't receive the Holy Spirit at this moment. He is letting them know that they're going to receive the Holy Spirit. Now, how do they know that? Did they fully understand that? Not totally sure, but we do know they did not receive the Holy Spirit at that moment. Why do we know that? Because Jesus told them before in John 15, 14, 15 and 16, telling them at his death that he's going, but the Holy Spirit is going to come. And when he comes, what is he going to do? He is going to testify of not the Holy Spirit, not of God in a generic sense, not of the power of the Holy Spirit, the ability to heal and things like that. No, he's going to testify the Holy Spirit in you or in them. Same with us. He's going to testify of Jesus. So that's what he's going to do. Now, how do we know that's what they're going to do? Well, we'll read another passage in the Gospels, but think about what he says to them when he sees them in Acts, Acts 1-8. He says that you shall receive the Holy Spirit and then you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. So he says you're going to receive the Holy Spirit, meaning that they have not received the Holy Spirit yet. So he's speaking and grammarians will let us know that he's really speaking in a forward-looking sense. He's telling them that they're going to receive the Holy Spirit. Well, why is that? They are nervous. They're obviously, they're happy to see Jesus, but they are nervous. They're afraid. They talk one way when they were all together. Well, isn't that what we as Christians do? We talk one way when we're together, but when we're by ourselves or there's a large crowd of non-believers or there's some possible persecution coming, our tune tends to change sometimes. And that was the case with them. Now I want to go back for just a little bit and look at something that happened when Jesus was found, or I'm sorry, when the ladies visited the tomb after Jesus' resurrection. When they go in, they see the angel. The angel tells them to, one, that Jesus is not here, he's risen, but then in verse seven of chapter 16 of Mark, he says, but go tell the disciples and Peter. So he distinguishes from all the other disciples, the other 10 plus Peter. We're missing one because obviously Judas is not included in this number. So go tell the disciples and Peter about Jesus. He is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him just as he told them, which is where we picked up in John, but go and tell Peter. Why Peter? Why focus on Peter? Well, there's a reason why, and we're going to see something, we're going to learn something about Peter, as well as us. And so if we go to John, I'm sorry, Luke 22, 34, he says, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like we. Well, that's pretty scary for Jesus to tell him that, or maybe it would be comforting for Jesus to say that because it's Jesus saying it. But then Jesus didn't really give the answer or the response that I'm pretty sure Peter or anyone else would have liked to hear. He said, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like we. Jesus says, I'm going to stop him. I'm going to make sure that the devil doesn't have any, he can't, he can't do anything to you. No, that's not what he said. Instead, Jesus gives the response, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Well, okay, first of all, Jesus, why pray for me? You literally have the ability to stop him. I'm going to be your servant. You know, I'm, you know, I'm with you. No matter what, I'm here for you, Lord. Why won't you stop him? Jesus doesn't. He says, I have prayed for you, which also indicates something about the power of prayer and the need of prayer. But look what he says. He says something pretty interesting. He says, I pray for you that your faith may not fail. Well, wait a second, we know that his faith does fail. At least from our standpoint, as a matter of fact, in our graphic sense, this is Peter who we know is going to deny him. Jesus is getting ready to tell him that, but then something else is interesting here. He says, and when, once you have returned again, or turned again, strengthen your brothers, what do you mean? Well, first of all, Peter probably still stuck on the fact that Satan's desire to sift you like we. And he says, but when you return, well, what does he mean? Well, obviously we know what he means because he says, but he said to him, Lord, this is Peter with you. I am ready to go to prison and death. Well, clearly you weren't ready. You weren't ready to even stand up to the little girl who was asking you or the people around the fire. You deny him three times. And so clearly that's not the case because we can talk a tough talk. We can talk a big game and so forth. But when the rubber meets the road, sometimes we're just not as brave, which tells us a reason why going back to when Jesus says receive the Holy Spirit. Maybe that has something to do with it. But he says, I'm ready to go to prison and to death with you. And what does Jesus say? I say to you, Peter, the rusher will not crow today until you have denied me three times that you know me, that you deny even knowing me. But when you return, meaning you're going to do this, you're going to, Peter didn't know this, Jesus does, you're going to walk away. And so when Jesus is being attacked in the courtyard, beaten, sped upon and Peter is on the other side of the courtyard, he's denying them. They literally make eye contact and Peter, after hearing the rusher crow weeps bitterly. Now I want to fast forward a little bit about eight days or so later and the disciples are speaking to Jesus and Jesus says something to Peter, but it's not just to Peter. But look what he says. We all know this famous dialogue that happens between Jesus and Peter, one Peter doesn't feel too good about. Jesus asked him in John 2115, he says, so when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Now this is the same Peter who said, I do love you more than these. I'm willing to go to prison. I'm willing to go to death with you. He said to him, yes Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend to my lambs. He said to him again, a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, yes Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, shepherd my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he asked him a third time, do you love me? And he said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, tend to my sheep. Truly I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wish. But now, but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hand and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go. Now, we said this signifying what kind of death he would glorify God. And he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. So now let's make this, let's kind of break this down. He's saying this to Peter. Peter obviously in his heart, in his mind, he feels as though he loves Jesus. He's strong. He'll follow him, but he also has in mind, I said that before. I failed. I messed up. And so Jesus makes this statement. He says, when you were young, you walked where you wish and when you're older, someone is going to gird you. And he's speaking about the death that he, he's telling Peter, Peter didn't fully get this at the time. I'm pretty sure that the death that you're going to suffer, but there's going to be something or I should say someone that's going to help you along. That's going to keep you moving. That's going to empower you for what you said. Yeah, I know you love me, Peter. As a matter of fact, I have already told you, I prayed for your faith that your faith should not fail, but it looks like, and this is how we can apply this to us. It looks like his faith did fail. I mean, he literally did what even many non-Christians have stated. I mean, many Christians who call themselves Christians, but really aren't, even those who are kind of wayward, who really aren't, or even us Christians before we became Christians. How many people have you met, not those that are just overtly out there and hostile towards Christianity and the gospel, but just your average run-of-the-mill person says that they would just deny Jesus really in this case, like Peter did to his faith. Seems like his faith fails. As a matter of fact, for a couple of days, if we judged Peter, we would not have judged him to be a solid follower of Christ, but Jesus said though, when you return, strengthen your brothers. And so he's going to use Peter. The same can be, we can glean from that in that we have these times, we struggle with the ups, the downs, the ebbs and flows and so forth, but there's one thing that Peter gets that we get. And there's one thing that we should do that Peter is also total, not to the same degree, degree that Peter is told to do, but we should do something similar. He says to tend to my sheep, feed my flock. Now, obviously Peter is going to be what's called the first among equals. He's leading, but in the same sense, we can do the same thing. Remember what he says in Matthew 28? Jesus makes this statement. He says, let's go to verse 16. He says, but the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee to the mountain, which Jesus had designated. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some were doubtful. Why were you doubtful? Well, you just saw him. You know who he is. And so again, there's something lacking there that won't be lacking in the future. Obviously, it's the Holy Spirit. And so he says, and Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the ages. So what are we to do? That very same thing. And we will receive power, the very same power that they receive, the Holy Spirit. Will it show up the same way it did in them? No, as a matter of fact, it won't show up the same way in everyone, evenly the same way. But we will have the ability, the Holy Spirit will be in us and will cause us to move one teaching and preaching exactly what he wants people to know. Primarily, his gospel is death, burial, and resurrection, that he is king, that he is risen. Now we'll say that he is risen on Easter, but of the other 364 days of the year, how often do we proclaim that he is risen? Why he is risen? What that means to us? And so we are to do just like they're told to do, go and feed the sheep, be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. You don't have to. And the one thing about this passage is as is written, this go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them. Look what he says. It's not saying to go, but it's really as as you are going, it is in a participle. So he's saying to go as you're moving on your your daily course. You don't necessarily have to know. It's fine if you decide to go out and make plans to go out and share what Jesus has done, but just as you're going, as you encounter a coworker, a family member, a friend, a neighbor, maybe even a stranger when the opportunity presents itself. And it does oftentimes let people know who who Christ is. You'll find out that many of those people are not his sheep, but you'll also find out that many of his people that you come in contact with are just don't know it yet. They will be and it might be you that God is using to bring them into the fold. So on the day after Easter, on the day after his resurrection, what do they do? What do they do? They began preparing to do the very thing that we're supposed to be doing. That is to share the gospel. This is continual nonstop until we're no longer here. Amen.