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We see the prophet reminding the people of all the blessings that they received. Our Lord was fulfilling the blessings in their very presence. He was casting out the evil spirits. He was healing them and yet they vexed His Holy Spirit and He was forced the prophet said then to become their enemy. We know that came to pass when our Lord said that blaspheming against the Holy Ghost cannot be forgiven in this world or the next. It came about when they took His blood upon themselves and He said that there would now be woe unto them because of what they had done, not because of what they had done to the Son of man, but because of what they had done to the Holy Spirit. He was foretelling them, and it is the same message for us today, and we have to be careful that we always consider the blessings of God, that we never ever vex His Holy Spirit. When our Lord came from the grave He entered through locked doors and He gave a new role to this Holy Spirit for the future church. He said to His disciples, ‘Peace be unto thee.’ Now there would be peace between man and God. He breathed on all them and He said- ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sin ye retain, they are retained.’

We see the Holy Spirit has been given this power and it is the only power to forgive our sins. No man, no other being, no angel can have this power. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that our sins can be forgiven. We now begin to see the message that our Lord gave to the Scribes and Pharisees on that day, that if we blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, that is if we do not accept it from God, in fact if we say that it is an evil nature that is doing these things, and this Holy Spirit is the power that can forgive our sins then we have wiped our hands of the power that can forgive our sins, and in doing so Christ’s words will be fulfilled that we cannot receive forgiveness in this world or in the next. We see the great blessing that came to us out of this condemnation of our Lord, a blessing that we can receive and a blessing that we can use. We can confess our sins and the Holy Spirit will intercede before Christ. Christ is our High Priest forever. He has the right and is the only one who can go before the throne of God and intercede on our behalf, and the Holy Spirit then can grant us forgiveness of those sins and ultimately the remission thereof. It is a great blessing that is given to the church and we must treasure it at all times. That is why we continue in the church with the third Sacrament, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, for it reminds us that this spirit must become alive within us, for it is this spirit that will gain our soul salvation and it is through this spirit that we will gain the Kingdom of God. We know that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ascended to heaven and this power was sent.  The Holy Spirit is like the wind, it cannot be seen but it can be felt. We cannot witness the Holy Spirit to come and provide the forgiveness and the peace that we need within our souls. Our Lord has provided a means for that. He has provided a way within the world for this to take place. That way was described by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians in II Corinthians Chapter 5 verse 18 – 20 “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
The Apostle Paul has taught us that a ministry has been put in place to be in Christ’s stead and to give to the people that same message that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ gave while He was on this earth reconciling mankind to God. This ministry’s message must be the same as Christ’s – ‘Be ye reconciled to God.’ This message is granted unto us as we have heard through ambassadors of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ which then extends to the ministries within the church. They are given the obligation from Christ to proclaim this blessing. It is not an instruction, ‘Be ye reconciled to God,’ it is a blessing that must be proclaimed. As Christ proclaimed, ‘Peace be unto thee: the ministry then must proclaim, Be ye reconciled to God, Peace be unto thee.’ We see therefore the importance also of the ministry within the church, the ambassadors of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who must proclaim this message to go throughout the whole world to be able to reconcile and bring peace between man and God.
Perhaps we have allowed the blessedness of this reconciliation to become a habit for us. Let us consider once again what it means to be reconciled to God through Christ.