John 20:21–22
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 2:3–4
They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Scripture Insights
Jesus utters the words in John 20 on the evening of that first Easter, to foreshadow what will be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.
Here, Jesus gives us our mission. Just as the Father sent Jesus to seek and save the lost, Jesus now says, “I am sending you.”
The magnitude of the mission may cause us to clasp our hands in despair and cry out to the Lord, “Who is sufficient for the task?!” That is the disposition into which his power will come. The rivers run in the valleys. Our sense of unfitness for the mission prepares us to receive the breath of the Holy Spirit.
Just as God breathed into a lifeless Adam (Genesis 2:7), and just as Ezekiel called upon the Lord’s breath to raise up dead bones into a vast army (Ezekiel 37:9–10), so the Holy Spirit will breathe into our lives this Pentecost to send us victoriously, powerfully on his mission to seek and save those who are lost!
Today’s Prayer
Thank you for entrusting us with your mission. If you can raise dead bones into a vast army, we know you are able to raise the church to fulfill your mission to seek
and save the lost.
—Stan Reeder
Director, USA/Canada Region, Church of the Nazarene
