Alive - by Dave Smith

To fulfil this new purpose, we must receive the Holy Spirit – a real,
unseen person who comes to fill us with the presence and power of
God. Many years ago, I unknowingly filled up my wife’s diesel car
with petrol. It wasn’t until I tried to leave the forecourt that I realised
there was a problem. The ensuing cost and disruption of getting a
mechanic out to drain the tank (and the lively conversation when I got
home) taught me a valuable lesson! Just as we need enough – and
the right kind of – fuel to drive our cars, so we need the right kind of
power to fulfil our life purpose. We see this in Jesus’ encounter with
his disciples. Having commissioned them, He immediately ‘breathed
on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”’ (v22).
We have come to the crux of what it means to be fully alive: which
is to be filled with the presence of the fully alive Jesus, through the
power of the Holy Spirit. Firstly, this involves us experiencing new life
through a new birth – something John already emphasised earlier in
his Gospel (see John 3:3–7). Secondly, this involves a new power to
take this new life to those around us. Central to this is sharing a
message that involves the forgiveness of sins: ‘If you forgive anyone’s
sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not
forgiven’ (John 20:23). As we can see from the parallel text in Luke
24, the role of the Church is not focused on deciding who will and
who won’t be forgiven, but rather to go and preach the good news,
which includes the promise of forgiveness of sins. To those who
repent and believe, there is forgiveness. Yet those who reject the
good news will sadly stay in their sins and therefore not be forgiven:
a fact that only highlights the importance of the task ahead.
FAITH: THE KEY TO INCREASING
PEACE AND WELLBEING