When Jesus Exhales Series

When Jesus Exhales

John 20:21:22

Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

Most of us have seen or heard of the movie Waiting to Exhale that starred Whitney Houston, Angela Basset, Wesley Snipes and an all black cast of stars. This movies was based on the book by author Terri McMillian and it focused on a woman who had reached at point in her life, where she felt she wanted and needed a male companion. She wanted a husband. She wanted children. She wanted a family that she could call her own. She had reached a point where she was ready to exhale. Ready to get to the next phase of living. Ready to exhale the bondage of loneliness. Ready to exhale the entrapment of not having a love life. Ready to exhale all of the problems that are associated with dating and looking for that special someone. And many of us in here, both male and female, have at one time or another, reached that point in our lives where we felt like we needed to exhale. Have I got a witness?

We needed to take a deep breath and then just exhale all of our worries and cares out with that deep breath. And we need to understand tonight that exhaling is all about letting something out. It’s about getting rid of something that’s on the inside of you.

When you exhale you let out all of the air that’s contained within your lungs. But with that exhale, you also get rid of some germs. You get rid of some virus bugs. You get ride of all of the nasty little nuisances that build up and attack your immune system. And if you breath on somebody else they will inhale all of the germs that you exhale. They will pick up all of the stuff that you are dropping off. And if they are not careful, they’ll find themselves with your virus. ….with your flu bug….with your germs.

And my brothers and sisters, we have to be careful about who is exhaling on us. Am I right about it? Some folk will exhale all of their problems on you. They will breathe problem after problem on you and will make every efffort to bury you in problems that they should be dealing with. They will exhale their bills on you. They will exhale their bad credit on you. They will exhale their unemployment on you. They will exhale their homelessness on you. And if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself burdened down with somebody else’s burden all because they decided to exhale on you. Have I got a witness?

But I know a man who will exhale something good on you. For in our passage of scripture tonight, we find that the disciples of Jesus had assembled together behind closed doors for fear of the Jews. The had fear for their lives because they felt like the Jews would also come after them to take away their very lives. But the Bible tells us that it was while these disciples were assembled together, while the doors were still closed and locked, Jesus showed up. Have I got a witness?

And how many of you know tonight that if you are rooted and grounded on the Word of God, when you find yourself in a position where fear is trying to overtake your life, Jesus will show up. When you’ve locked yourself up tightly and securely and won’t let anybody else in, Jesus will show up. When you don’t know whether to go right or to go left, whether to run or to hide, you better know tonight that JESUS will show up.

And it will be as if He has risen from the dead a second time. Because it doesn’t matter if you’ve reached the point where you think that he is dead in your life, He will still show up. And in this 20th Chapter of the Book of John, Jesus does just that. He shows up. He appears to his disciples after he had risen from the dead.

And can’t you imagine how startled the disciples must have been when he showed up? Here they are behind locked doors. The roll call had already been taken. Everyone except Thomas was present and accounted for. But all of a sudden there appears someone out of no where. But it was not just anyone that showed up. But it was their friend….it was their teacher…..it was their confidante whom they had buried on the Friday before. Oh can’t you imagine heap of black folk, locked in a room, and a dead man shows up? I think that would be enough not only to startle some folk, but also to scare the living stew out of some others. Am I right about it?