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Jesus Comes to the Apostles (John 20:19-23)

 The apostles weren't necessarily courageous at this time. Hiding behind locked doors is not what we think of when we think of bold leadership. Jesus appears, and gives them his peace.

When he was there with them, he showed them his wounds from the crucifixion. A few of them probably would have thought that they were hallucinating. When they saw Jesus, wounded and somehow victorious, they knew they were not imagining things.

Jesus sends the apostles out to preach his message of forgiveness of sins through faith in his name. They receive the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathes on them, and they become true ministers of Jesus and his grace.

There is something about the forgiveness of sins in Jesus that needs to be accepted, not only once, but all the time, and throughout life. For the apostles to be able to forgive sins, they must be in some sense Christ Himself.

These verses here are very similar to the verses in Matthew 16:18-19. There, Jesus promises to honor the decision of the Church regarding the forgiveness of sins, or the discipline of the members. This is all a profound mystery, but what it means is that Jesus meets us in our need. We can't just "do church" without Him.

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