Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20060917.htm

JOHN: TRUSTING JESUS AS MESSIAH AND GOD
Part XLV: Biblical Christianity's Validity Seen In Christ's Resurrection
C. Relying On Christ's Resurrection Power For The Angelic Conflict
(John 20:19-23)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

In recent months, we have faced a number of angelic conflicts, events where Satanic activity was involved:

(1) On September 4th, I heard a radio talk show host describe how a political film has come out tying the President to "evangelicals" where people who "actually believe in Jesus" were termed "those people" in a bad way. The host was appalled, noting that everyone has a right to be respected, EVEN one "who believes in Jesus Christ"!

(2) The angelic conflict has often hit us in our own Church body. However, to edify, I dare not refer to actual events, but illustrate using a hypothetical event, and give applicable Scriptures (as follows):

Believer "A" enters the Fellowship Hall after a morning worship service and picks up two brownies from a serving dish, placing them on a paper plate. Suddenly, a child nearby falls and starts to cry, so he quickly, temporarily puts his plate down beside the unused coffee cups and goes over to help the fallen child.

Just then, Believer "B" enters the Fellowship Hall and sees the plate of brownies by the unused coffee cups, and thinks: "It's so disorderly and such a bad testimony to visitors for people to put personal plates down by the unused cups!" The more he thinks about this, the more agitated he becomes (Eph. 4:26-27), so he moves the paper plate with the brownies over to the conference table.

When Believer "A" returns from helping the fallen child only to find his plate of brownies missing, he is annoyed, but gets another paper plate, intending to select more brownies from the serving dish. By now there are no more brownies there, so he settles for cookies!

Holding his plate of cookies, Believer "A" keeps stewing over the matter (Eph. 4:26-27), and talks about his annoyance to Believer "C", noting that he had to settle for the cookies instead of the brownies. However, as Believer "C" had baked the cookies, she thinks Believer "A"'s remark means her cookies are bad! As a new believer, she thinks other believers will reject her because she is a bad cook (1 Tim. 3:7), so, she pulls out of the Fellowship Hall ministry altogether!

Worse, Unbeliever "D" visiting that day with Believer "C" is so repulsed by it all, he thinks Nepaug Church's Christian faith is false!

So, in VIEW of the spiritual war we face, HOW are we to SHOW that our Christian faith is REAL, and to THINK and ACT?

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . .)

Need: "With growing angelic conflict opposition to Christianity and the spiritual weakness in believers that Satan often exploits, how can we demonstrate our faith to be real, and effectively serve God?!"
  1. The evening of the day Christ arose, His disciples met in failure and fear due to recent angelic conflict activity, John 20:10a:
    1. John 20:19a reports the disciples met the evening of the day Jesus arose behind closed doors for fear of the religious rulers, John 18:35.
    2. Due to such fear, the disciple, Peter had denied Jesus (John 18:17, 25-27), and the other disciples had deserted Him (Mark 14:50).
    3. Now, Satan had fueled these religious leaders' actions against Jesus:
      1. Jesus claimed in John 8:44 that the religious rulers were of their father, the Devil, and that they did his work of murder and deceit.
      2. Thus, their effort to get Jesus crucified though Pilate repeatedly said He was innocent show Satan had led them, Jn. 18:38; 19:4, 12.
      3. Besides, from John 13:2, 27, we know Satan had entered Judas Iscariot to cause him to betray Jesus, leading to His crucifixion!
    4. Thus, due to Satanic activity, the fearful, spiritually defeated disciples met behind closed doors at night to hide from the evil around them!
  2. The risen Lord gave them all they needed to win in this conflict:
    1. Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples, leading them to trust Him for victory over the worst that Satan and men could do, John 20:19-20:
      1. In superiority over the religious rulers who had put Him on the cross, Jesus supernaturally passed through locked doors to announce "Peace" unto the disciples, John 20:19.
      2. In superiority over the power of Satan to keep Him dead, Jesus showed the disciples His normally lethal crucifixion wounds that did not keep Him from standing alive before them, John 20:20. He again said His "Peace" greeting to encourage them of this victory!
      3. This all had the desired effect: the disciples had their sorrow turned to great joy just as Jesus had predicted, John 20:20b with 16:20-22!
    2. Christ then assigned the disciples the task He once had, that of evangelizing the world with the Gospel, 20:21: as God the Father had sent Him into the evil world to proclaim the Gospel of life, Jesus also commissioned His disciples to leave their closed doors and enter the evil world outside with the salvation Gospel, cf. Matthew 28:19-20.
    3. Jesus gave His men the power of God's Spirit to do this, John 20:22:
      1. Scholars differ as to whether Jesus' statement on the filling of the disciples with the Holy Spirit in John 20:22 was a temporary filling at the time or if His words predicted the Acts 2 Day of Pentecost event, cf. Leon Wood, John (NICNT), p. 847.
      2. Regardless, every believer since Pentecost has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13) and gifted by Him for effective, supernatural service (1 Cor. 12:4-11; 1 Peter 4:10; 2 Tim. 1:6-7).
    4. Jesus directed the disciples to go into the world with the confidence that they went in God's authority rather than their own, John 20:23:
      1. The Roman Catholic Council of Trent claimed John 20:23 taught Jesus gave the apostles the authority to forgive or to retain the sins of laymen (Bettenson, Docs. of the Christian Church , 2nd ed., p. 372). The Roman Catholic Church still holds to this view (cf. The New American Bible, 1986, ftn. to John 20:20, 23, p. 1167).
      2. Yet, such a view is countered by the Greek New Testament:
        1. The verbs apheontai "are remitted" (KJV) or "forgiven" (NIV) and kekratayntai "are retained" (KJV) or "not forgiven" (NIV) are both perfect passives, NOT futures, U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1963, p. 409; Zondervan's Analytical Greek Lexicon, p. 61, 228.
        2. In this context, they depict PAST activity done to the subject by some party OTHER than the DISCIPLES, the effects of which are endless, J. G. Machan, N. T. Grk. for Beginners, 187-188.
        3. Thus, it was not the disciples who would forgive or not forgive sins, but GOD Who would be previously doing so; the disciples would only report GOD'S PAST, LASTING acts as GOD'S authority stood BEHIND them (Ryr. St. Bib., KJV, ftn. 20:23).
      3. Also, had Jesus meant He was giving the disciples authority to forgive or not to forgive sins as the Roman Catholic Church holds, He would have failed to meet their needs: having been intimidated by the religious leaders, the disciples did not then value their own authority, so such a delegation of authority would be meaningless!
      4. Rather, the disciples were to function in the confidence that it was not their OWN authority, but GOD'S authority that upheld them!
Application: For victory in the angelic conflict, (1) may we trust in Christ for salvation (Col. 1:12-14). Then, may we (2) (a) rely on His leadership via His Word, (b) and use His provision of the indwelling Holy Spirit's power and supernatural gifting for service (c) and His authority (d) effectively to disciple others!

Lesson: To counter defeat in the angelic conflict, the risen Lord Jesus (1) revealed His power over all evil, (2) and commissioned His disciples to disciple men effectively (3) equipped with God's power and (4) authority!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

My wife shared with me on Sunday, September 3rd, the frustration a member in our Church had expressed to her that member's dismay at problems other believers had created for the member's effort to serve the Lord. The details revealed it was an angelic conflict issue.

I have often faced such spiritual warfare on a personal level and learned to handle it by faith, but this was a new "wrinkle", to see some other believer in the Church troubled over an angelic conflict issue!

Well, I have often told you that the Lord has met my own needs in angelic conflict by focusing on the next message I am due to expound, be it the next Adult Sunday School Class, the next Sunday morning Worship sermon, the next Sunday Evening message or the next Prayer Meeting lesson. So, to address this believer's plight, I sought that September 3rd for a solution in the next passage I was due to expound, the John 20:19-23 passage we have just covered!

At first I wondered why God had pointed me so soon to a sermon passage I had not been scheduled to deliver until today, September 17th, due to the ministry of our missionaries last week, the 10th. Then I recalled that it has been my orderly practice to start preparing my messages for the Sunday of the week following the ministry of missionaries in case they might not arrive for their services.

Accordingly, in keeping with my regular practice, the Lord had on schedule pointed out the spiritual need September 3rd and then led me to its solution in the next regular passage scheduled for my exposition that was due to be written up on Tuesday, September 5th!

The risen Lord had thus made His presence just as real in my experience as if He had appeared before me behind closed doors as He had to the disciples the day He arose. He had worked to lead me to use the supernatural gift of Bible exposition with which He gifted me in the process, just as this sermon and John 20 passage teach us to do!

I use this illustration to show that the Christian faith is real, and the power for living the Christian life and for serving the Lord is just real and sufficient regardless of the angelic conflict we face.

(1) May we trust in Christ as Savior to be saved. (2) In facing the angelic conflict, may we rely on God to guide us, and in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit and His gifting to serve Christ, and then rely on the authority of God that stands behind us to serve God for spiritual blessings in an evil world.