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And Lord, as we now come to your word, we only come as beggars who need to be fed. And so we ask that you would feed us and nourish us with your word. We know that your word does not return void to you. that it indeed endures forever, that it will never be irrelevant, that it will never not be important, but that it is always relevant, and it is always profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. And so we pray, O Lord, that you would feed us, that you would train us for works of righteousness as we come to your word, all for the glory of Christ. In His name we pray, Amen. If you have your Bibles with you, please turn to John chapter 20. We'll be looking at John chapter 20 verses 22 and 23 today as we continue our study in John. I believe next week Jordan, Pastor Jordan is going to be preaching. He's going to be starting a new series on the Ten Commandments. I think that'll be something that will bless you, something that you will enjoy. Of course, there's always the possibility that there will be snow in Caelum next week. So there is the possibility that he won't be here next week. But that is the plan at this point that Jordan will be preaching next week. The week after that will be in Psalm 56. But today we are in John chapter 20, verses 22 and 23. These are two very short verses, but there is a lot of doctrine that's really important in these two verses. And the importance of the doctrine that we find here, in my mind, is kind of underscored by the loss of a friend, in my case. About 10 years ago, I was still fairly new here to this area. You know, I've been here a little over 12 years now, but The guy who was my college roommate, he lived just a few minutes away in Mill Creek. He was still talking to me at that point. He was actually a Roman Catholic, is a Roman Catholic, and I was a Protestant. But we had always kind of worked past our differences and gotten along fairly well for the most part. But as I look back, I have a better understanding now of why he stopped talking to me. In the final phone conversation that I had with him, he asked me to pray him into heaven, which at the time seemed like just the craziest, the most bizarre, and not to mention the most unbiblical thing I had ever heard of. So I told him, you know, I can't do that. I can't pray you into heaven. Yes, you can, he insisted. And he told me that I was his only chance, me praying him into heaven was his only chance of him going to heaven. So I explained the gospel to him backwards and forwards, telling him of the urgency that he personally, savingly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, for there's no other name given under heaven by which men must be saved. And he said that wouldn't be enough. he needed more he needed me to pray him into heaven which again seemed like a crazy idea but we're going to see as we go through this passage today where he got that idea so this went on for about half an hour we went around in circles for about half an hour before he finally got frustrated and angry and offended with me, and we ended the conversation. I had no idea at the time why he was so upset with me, and it wasn't long after that that he unfriended me on Facebook, but over time I came to realize that the reason that I didn't understand why he was so upset with me was because I didn't fully understand the Roman Catholic doctrine of priesthood. And I believe that he viewed me essentially as being the equivalent of a Catholic priest with all these special duties and special privileges before God that the common person doesn't have. So the reason that he believed that I was capable, that I had the right or the ability to pray him into heaven, I believe, has everything to do with this passage that we come to today. It's truly, amazing when you really consider how important some passages of Scripture are. And this is an extremely important passage of Scripture. See, a person who takes the Roman Catholic understanding, or misunderstanding, of this passage would feel like a priest is condemning him to hell if the priest refuses to pray him into heaven. I'm fairly certain that's how my old college roommate interpreted my refusal to participate in that, unfortunately. But the passage that we come to today, when you're talking about the difference between Roman Catholics and Protestant Christianity, this is one of the most controversial passages in history. It's one of those passages where you see that there is an absolutely enormous difference between Roman Catholicism and Protestant Christianity. Before we begin, I do think it's worth noting that we do share much in common with Roman Catholicism. which is just to say that there is much that we agree on. In fact, I would say that we have a lot more in common with Roman Catholics than we do with woke Christianity or liberal progressive Christianity. James Montgomery Boyce, one of the great voices of the previous century, he wrote of the similarities of Protestant Christianity and Roman Catholicism, writing, quote, both believe in the Trinity with its corresponding assertion of the full deity of both the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Both believe in the virgin birth, works of healing, Jesus's resurrection, other miracles, and the giving of the Holy Spirit to Christ's followers. We believe in Jesus's vicarious death for our sins, the inspiration and authority of Scripture, the visible return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, and other doctrines." End quote. I think that's a pretty fair assessment of how much we have in common with Roman Catholics, and yet we differ on at least two very important subjects, both of which are central to our passage today. We have, first of all, vastly different views of ecclesiology. Ecclesiology being the way that the church is governed. And we have a different view, obviously the big one, of salvation. So that is to say that while the Protestant Reformers took no issue with the Roman Catholic doctrine of God, their understanding of God and his attributes, the Protestant Reformers nevertheless took very serious issue with things like the idea that the Pope is the head of the church. Who's the head of the church? It's Christ. And anybody who claims to be the head of the church, other than Christ, is a liar and a deceiver and an antichrist. So they took very serious issue with that. They took very serious issue with the idea that tradition is equal in authority to scripture. And they took very serious issue, obviously, with Rome's entire doctrine of salvation. Those are the things that really spurred the Protestant Reformation. But the passage that we come to today is central to answering the question, what power and authority does the church possess today? Or throughout the whole age of the church, ever since Pentecost. What power and authority do we have? And this is very closely related to the Great Commission, which Jesus gave to the disciples and those who were gathered with the disciples in the previous passage. If you remember, he blessed his disciples and those who were gathered on the night of his resurrection, the evening of his resurrection, with peace, joy, and the duty of proclaiming the good news of the gospel. And so he commissioned his people, he commissioned the church to go forth into the world and to witness about him to the world. One of the doctrines that was re-established in the Protestant Reformation was the doctrine that we refer to as the priesthood of all believers. The priesthood of all believers means you have the same rights and privileges before God that a pastor does, that an elder does. You are equal to a pastor or elder. An elder doesn't have special access to God. He doesn't have magic powers that only he has. It's nothing like that. No, the priesthood of all believers affirms that because all Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, two doctrines apply to every Christian. Number one, no Christian needs another mediator. between himself or herself and Christ, such as a priest, such as Mary. And secondly, all of us, all of us, everyone who believes in Christ, everyone who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, is called into the service of the Lord Jesus in the Great Commission. That's the priesthood of all believers in a nutshell. The central point of the passage that we come to today is that the Holy Spirit is Christ's provision to the church for the purpose of establishing a new work of creation through the proclamation of the gospel. Let me say that again. The Holy Spirit is Christ's provision to the church for the purpose of establishing a new work of creation through the proclamation of the gospel. So having just told us in the previous passages about Jesus resurrecting and then Jesus giving the great commission to the disciples and those who were gathered with them, John now continues by telling us what Jesus followed that up with as we look at verse 22. In verse 22, Jesus continues. John says, and when he had said this, that is given them the great commission, And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. Now, if you're keeping count, this is the third thing that Jesus has said to his disciples as a whole after resurrecting from the grave that very morning. The first thing he said back in verse 19 and 21 was, peace be with you. And the second thing he said in verse 21 was, as the Father has sent me, I also send you. And so now we come to the third thing that he said to them right here in this text. Now it's important that we understand that this wasn't only spoken to Jesus' twelve disciples, the eleven disciples. Thomas isn't there as we'll see next week. It was said to the disciples and all the rest who were gathered there with them on that evening of the Lord's day, the first day of the week when Christ had risen from the grave. So it wasn't only the 11 disciples who received the Holy Spirit. It was all his followers, all who believed in him who were gathered together in that upper room on that evening. And Roman Catholics agree, fantastic, that all believers receive the Holy Spirit. Where we don't agree, where we part ways with Rome is when we get to the next verse, when we really get to the next verse. That's really where we part ways, where Roman Catholics think that the next command only applies to the 11 disciples and not to any of the others who were gathered with them. Now, it may seem very odd that Jesus breathes on them. But we should understand that there's some really deep significance to that. There's some really deep symbolism going on here. The scriptures tell us in the first couple verses Genesis. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. That's from Genesis 1, 1 and 2. Interestingly enough the Hebrew word for spirit, which is Ruach, It's supposed to sound like a breath, like air moving. It can either mean spirit or breath, that word. And likewise in Greek, the word for spirit, which is pneuma, can also be translated either spirit or breath. So now that you know that the Greek word for spirit and breath is the same, consider again what Jesus said to Nicodemus about the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit. When he said this back in John chapter three, verse eight, he said, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. In other words, what Jesus is saying there, what Jesus is doing is he was likening the spirit to the blowing wind, the moving air. And now that you know that the Hebrew word for breath and spirit are the same, consider again how in Genesis chapter two, verse seven, we're told that the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. In fact, when the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek, establishing what we call, what we refer to as the Septuagint, the word that they used for breathed in Genesis 2.7 was the same word that Jesus uses here in verse 22. So in Genesis 2.7, man was created, and he was created monergistically. That's a big word, it's a 50 cent word, so you get points if you know how to use it correctly. That is, what it means basically is that God is the only one who did this work. He did it by himself without help from anyone, not help from man, not help from anybody. It was a sovereign act of God alone. Why would we think that the same would not also be true in the new creation? See, you and I, we weren't born again and adopted as children of God because of our will, or because of our desire, or our participation. No, we saw that John wrote back in chapter one, that we were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. It's in verse 13 of the first chapter. And so as God was breathing and thereby imparting life monergistically in the creation account in Genesis 2.7, he now breathes and imparts new life, again, monergistically in the new creation here in John 20.22. Now it might seem odd, again, that Jesus breathed on those who were gathered there that night, as he said, receive the Holy Spirit. But hopefully you're starting to put the pieces together a little bit. When the pieces are put together in a coherent and cohesive manner, we see that this is a picture of Jesus breathing new life into all who repent and believe on him in order that they would be born again to a new relationship with God, a living relationship, a living faith with a new purpose, that being carrying forth the Great Commission by the power of the Holy Spirit. So hopefully this also helps you to see why Christians have also gathered on Sundays. We saw in our previous lesson that part of the reason that we gather for worship on Sundays instead of Saturdays is because Sunday, the Lord's day, is the day when Christ rose again and it became the day when Christ attended to his people. But here we see that the new creation began on the first day of the week. This was the institution of the new creation that would happen as the gospel was preached in the Great Commission. So there was a new pattern being established on the first day of the week, which we refer to again as the Lord's Day. Consider this, that the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, is the day that Christ rose from the dead. It's the day that he first met with the disciples in the new fellowship. It's the day that He attended to them, initially. It was on that day that He also ascended into heaven. It was on that day that, here we see, He breathes on them, signifying the institution of a new creation. It was also on the Lord's Day that the Spirit descended from heaven on Pentecost. And it was on that day that the Apostle Paul preached in Troas, Acts chapter 20. It was on that day when we're told that the body of Christ, Christians were coming together to break bread. Again, Acts chapter 20. It was also on the Lord's Day, John tells us in Revelation chapter one, that Christ appeared to the Apostle John on Patmos. Why do we gather on Sunday instead of Saturday? Well, the disciples who became the apostles, they clearly understood two things. Number one, they understood that Christ attends to his people on the first day of the week. And secondly, as a day of rest, Christ himself is our rest. The new creation begins when a person rests fully in Christ alone. When they stop trying to work for their salvation and they see that Christ is sufficient in all that He has done for them, vicariously, and so they rest in Him. And thus our week is to begin with Christ attending to us and our resting in Him. A.W. Pink, commenting on this passage, notes this, he says, quote, who then can fail to see that here in John 20, on the day of the Savior's resurrection, the new creation had begun, begun by the head of the new creation, the last Adam, acting as a quickening spirit. End quote. See friends, the Great Commission would have been incomplete if Jesus had not included this. if he had not filled us with the Holy Spirit, given us the Holy Spirit? How much power, how much success could the church throughout the ages have possibly had if she had not gone forth in the power of the Holy Spirit, but had gone forth only in the power of herself? What kind of success could the church have had if the Holy Spirit was not indwelling her? sustaining her, upholding her. We've already seen that the Holy Spirit wasn't just given to the 11 disciples, but that he was given to all who were present in the room that night, indicating that he is given to all of God's people. By the way, it's a he, not an it. The Holy Spirit is a person within the Holy Trinity. People sometimes refer to the Holy Spirit as an it. It's a he. He is a person. He indwells us. But now we see a second point that is just as important, and that is that the Holy Spirit empowers us to fulfill and remain faithful to the Great Commission. Back in John chapter 15, verses 26 and 27, Jesus had told his disciples that he would go to the Father and ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit. He said this, he said, when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me and you will testify also because you have been with me from the beginning. What we see here in our passage today then is the fulfillment of this promise that we would go forth testifying of the gospel, but only able to testify outwardly. Our words can only fall on people's ears. They cannot fall on people's hearts. And so as we proclaim the gospel outwardly, the Holy Spirit not only empowers us to go forth, but he witnesses within a person inwardly as we do. That's called the sovereign effectual calling of God. So these are the two witnesses, the Holy Spirit and the church. This would be the means by which God would institute the new creation. These are the two witnesses that God had given the world as we read about in Revelation chapter 11. It's not Moses and Elijah. It's the Holy Spirit. And it's the church. These are the two witnesses until the end of the age. See, we can preach, you and I can preach, and we can preach eloquently, we can preach persuasively, and we can do that all day long, and it will accomplish absolutely nothing if our preaching is not met with the power of the Holy Spirit who testifies to a man inwardly. We preach outwardly, the Holy Spirit must do a work and convict a man inwardly. We can do nothing of any true, eternal, lasting value or worth apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit because it is the Spirit who must impart understanding of spiritual truth to a person. And therefore, without the ministry of the Holy Spirit accompanying us, Testifying of Christ, the church is powerless to bring anyone into Christ's new creation through saving faith. And this is illustrated very, very powerfully. It's an amazing illustration that we find in Ezekiel chapter 37. In Ezekiel chapter 37, God summons Ezekiel into the valley of dry bones. Ezekiel was surrounded by the dry, brittle bones of dead men, which is illustrating something. What's it illustrating? It's giving us a picture of you and me living in a world that is filled with spiritually dead people. And Ezekiel notes that their bones weren't just dry, but that they were very dry. In other words, there were no chances, there was no possibility of them springing back to life by natural means. They are hopeless on their own. They are not only dead, but they are in such an advanced state of decomposition that nobody in their right mind would think that there was a way to bring them back to life unless God changes their condition. And so God asks Ezekiel, son of man, can these bones live? Now if this was just somebody asking Ezekiel this question, if it wasn't God, if it was just his fellow man asking him, can these bones live? The answer is absolutely not. Are you crazy? But this is God speaking to him. So you don't have to ask, what kind of crazy question is this? Because everything is possible with God. But Ezekiel knew that God was teaching him something and so his answer was really wise. He says to God, oh Lord God, you know. You know the answer. I'm not even gonna try to give you the answer because I know all things are possible with God. And indeed, God did know, and God alone had the power to change the condition of the dry, dead bones that Ezekiel was surrounded by. And so he instructed Ezekiel by saying this. He said, prophesy over these bones and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, behold, I will cause breath, to enter you that you may come to life. That's what we read in Ezekiel chapter 37 verses 1 to 5. So Ezekiel did exactly what God instructed him to do. He preached, he proclaimed to the Valley of Dry Bones, which is a picture of us when we go and preach to the unregenerate world. And as God's word went forth from Ezekiel's lips, something amazing happened. It went forth in the power of the spirit and the bones started moving and coming together once again. And so Ezekiel tells us again in chapter 37, now verse 10, he says, and the breath, same word as spirit, remember, and the breath came into them and they came to life and stood on their feet an exceedingly great army. And this is why we go forth with the Great Commission, preaching confidently, preaching boldly, preaching knowing that God's Word will not return void to him. It's because we don't go alone. We go in the power of the Spirit who has the power to impart new life and spiritual understanding to those he calls through our preaching. Verse 22 therefore shows us our source of power. Our power is that the Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus inwardly as we testify of Jesus outwardly. He's witnessing within a man as we are witnessing to his ears. While we testify of the judgment that is to come, and the danger of spending eternity in hell as a result of sin, the Holy Spirit is working to convict a man of his sin inwardly, and He presses heavily upon the man's conscience, all in order that that man will recognize his own spiritual condition, his personal need for God's grace and mercy. Friends, if I were to ask you how you came to Christ, This is the answer. Somebody shared the gospel with you. Somewhere you heard the good news. And while the good news was being shared with you, the Holy Spirit was working within you to convict you and to point you to Christ. While somebody was testifying and witnessing to your ears, the Holy Spirit was working on your heart. Trading your heart out, your heart of stone out for a heart of living flesh. That's in Ezekiel 36. So we go forth with authority, the authority of the Holy Spirit working within a person. This is how all of us came to faith. That's how anyone comes to saving faith. That's how anyone sees their need for a Savior and the all-encompassing sufficiency of Christ as that Savior. But we all go forth with this authority, not just pastors, not just elders, all of us, not just some, as Roman Catholics have tried to affirm. Let's look at verse 23. Jesus continues by saying, if you forgive the sins of any, you is plural, by the way, if you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained. Now this is a verse around which Roman Catholicism has tried to establish a doctrine of what you might call particular priesthood. That is that there's a special class of Christians called priests who have some rights and privileges that the common folk or the lay person doesn't have, which guarantees special privileges to the priest, but not to all privileges such as the authority to absolve an individual of their sin." Wow! Think about it. That's what the confession booth is all about. Why don't they go straight to God and confess their sins? Why do they go to a confession booth? Because they believe the priest has the right to absolve them of their sins. to grant them forgiveness or to, as Jesus says, or to retain their sins against them. And this is why my old college roommate apparently believed I had the authority to pray him into heaven. The Roman Catholic understanding of this verse is that a person's sins are forgiven in heaven because the person has been absolved of their sin by a priest on earth. Let me say that again, because it's important that you understand the difference between Protestant Christianity and Roman Catholicism on this issue. Roman Catholics believe that a person's sins are forgiven in heaven because a priest on earth has forgiven him of his sins. But as Protestants we believe that that is actually Backwards, we maintain that a person is first forgiven by God and that it's on the basis of God's grace having been extended toward all who repent and believe in Christ that we proclaim their forgiveness. To put this in a tangible way, just think of a horse and cart, right? Where God's grace is the horse and our proclamation of the forgiveness of sins is the cart. You can see why this just creates an enormous difference. in terms of how we as Protestants believe the church is to be governed versus how the Roman Catholic Church believes the church is to be governed. Roman Catholics in response to our position will often say that we are just, we're abusing this text, we're twisting this text. They'll say that this is a really easy text to understand if you just take it at face value. But the fact that they believe as they do proves that it's not as easy to understand as they're claiming. We believe that if we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, which is how you interpret Scripture, by the way, the clear conclusion is that Rome is very mistaken about this. That, in fact, they are putting the cart before the horse. Richard Phillips notes that these two views on this verse, quote, reveal a deep disagreement about the Bible's teaching on salvation, showing that when it comes to the way that sinners are saved, Protestants and Roman Catholics really affirm two fundamentally different religions, end quote. Roman Catholicism sees this verse establishing the authority of priests to grant salvation, whereas Protestants take this verse to mean that the church only has the authority to proclaim the forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ by believing his gospel. So there are a few really significant passages and arguments that I think prove our understanding to be absolutely accurate beyond a shadow of a doubt. First of all it starts with this principle. It starts with understanding who has the authority to forgive sins. And friends, only God has the authority to forgive. This principle is maybe most clearly taught in the second chapter of Mark, where we read of Jesus ministering in the region of Capernaum. We're told in verse 2, And many were gathered there, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door. And he was speaking the word to them. So this house is completely filled up, so much so that nobody can get in. But that was not enough to discourage four men who had carried a friend of theirs, who was a paralytic, to the residence where Jesus was teaching. Where there's a will, there's a way, that's what they say, right? And these guys, in this instance, show that to be true. With no room to enter, no room to come to Jesus, no room to carry their friend in, they aren't dissuaded at all. They just climb up on the roof, they remove the roof, and lower their paralyzed friend down through the open roof. Now we aren't told that the paralytic man said anything. All we're told is that Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. It's in Mark 2.5. I have to imagine that when Jesus said these words, he was probably a little bit confused, probably a little bit shocked. That probably wasn't the first thing that he had in mind, that he was coming to have his sins forgiven. But what was more important? That he be able to walk or that his sins are forgiven? Obviously that his sins are forgiven. So Jesus shows us a priority here, but Jesus wasn't done yet. In fact, as the scene plays out, it was necessary, we see, for Jesus to do this in order to make a point. That being that He was, in fact, is, in fact, truly God. We read in verses 6 and 7 of Mark 2, But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Are they wrong? Yes and no. they're wrong about Jesus blaspheming, they're not wrong about God alone being the one who has the authority to forgive sins. So Jesus doesn't challenge what they said about God being the only one who can forgive sins, rather he challenges their charge of blasphemy by proving that he was in fact truly God. So how do you do that? by turning to the paralyzed man and instructing to him, instructing him, I say to you get up, pick up your pallet and go home. That's what we read in verse 11. See Jesus' response to this charge of blasphemy and the idea that only God has the authority to forgive sins makes absolutely no sense unless it is absolutely and unequivocally true that God, and only God by the way, has the sovereign authority to actually forgive sins. See, there were two ways that he could have defended the idea that he was, or rebuked the idea that he was blaspheming. He could have said, oh, it's not true that only God can forgive sins, or he could have proven that he was God. And he proves that he was God by healing this man. Secondly, let's remember that Jesus isn't speaking only to the 11 disciples here in John 20, verse 23. He's also speaking at least to the two unnamed disciples who encountered the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. We saw in our previous lesson that the faithful women who had followed Jesus throughout his ministry and had come to the grave that morning only to find that it was empty, they were also most likely present. If we're going to say that Jesus is only speaking to the 11 here in verse 23, then we're also going to have to say that it's only the 11 who were granted peace, joy, and the duties associated with carrying out the Great Commission in the previous passage. So is that what we wanna do? Do we wanna say that this whole thing only applies to the 11? Absolutely not, because that means we also don't have the Holy Spirit, but only the 11 were granted the Holy Spirit. So what we see here is that Jesus is addressing all who were present, and as such, he was vesting this privilege in all of them, and by extension to the entire church as a whole. This is the priesthood of all believers that we're talking about here. Thirdly, there isn't a single instance in the book of Acts or anywhere else in the New Testament in which we see the apostles, formerly the disciples, exercising an authority to forgive sins. Never once do they do what Roman Catholics say they were given the right to do. They never pardoned anyone personally. They never absolved anyone personally of sin. In other words, the apostles had the same understanding of what Jesus said as we have, as Protestants. Instead of seeing the apostles going around and saying things like, hey, I forgive you. You're granted forgiveness. Hey, I'll go ahead and absolve your sins. Oh no, I'm not gonna forgive your sins over here. Instead of stuff like that, We see Peter saying on Pentecost, therefore repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away. Acts chapter three, verse 19. Or as he says to Simon in Acts chapter eight, Simon the sorcerer, repent of this wickedness of yours and pray the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. Or to Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, verse 43, he says, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins. Do you see the difference between saying you're forgiven, you're not forgiven, and saying everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins? That's what we have the authority to do. That's what the disciples, the apostles, went on to do. So what we see then is that the apostles understood that they, like all Christians throughout this age, had the authority to proclaim the forgiveness of sins for all who repent and believe on Christ, but that we don't have the authority to pronounce or to grant the forgiveness of sins. Throughout the New Testament, we don't see one instance of them absolving someone of sins. What we see is the preaching of the gospel. The good news that by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, a person is washed clean of all their sins. Fourth and finally, Jesus' words here in verse 23 include the verbs forgiven and withheld in the perfect tense. And in some translations, that's exactly how it's translated. But in our translation, in the NASB, they're translated, have been forgiven and have been withheld. And that's not without good reason. They're written in the present tense. The present tense indicates a present state or condition based on a previous action. That is to say that Jesus is saying that the church has the authority to declare a person forgiven, that's their present condition, only if God has already forgiven that person, a chronologically previous action. And so thus John Calvin comments, quote, when Christ enjoins the apostles to forgive sins, he does not convey to them what is peculiar to himself or something that he alone has the right to do. It belongs to him to forgive sins. He only enjoins them in his name to proclaim the forgiveness of sins, end quote. Now, it was almost two years ago, I think, when we added a corporate confession of sin and what we call an assurance or a declaration of pardon to our weekly worship services. You have hopefully noticed that I never once say, I grant you forgiveness, or I absolve you of your sins, or I don't grant you forgiveness, or I don't absolve you of your sins. I've never done that. That's the kind of thing that a Roman Catholic priest thinks he has the right to do or to say to his parishioners. But what we do here is we simply declare what the scriptures declare. Listen, when you declare what the scriptures declare, you can't be wrong. And you have the same authority that the Scriptures have, because the Scripture has authority. So if you say, if you simply say what the Scriptures say, it carries Scripture's authority in your words. So what we do here is we simply declare what the Scriptures declare, that all who have truly confessed their sin and have repented and savingly believed on the Lord Jesus Christ have been cleansed of their sin. We declare what the scriptures declare. That as Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 7 and 8, all who have savingly believed on Christ have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us. Or as John writes in his first epistle, 1st John chapter 1 verse 9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Or as John writes in the next chapter, 1st John chapter 2 verses 1 and 2, if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins. That's what we proclaim, because that's what the Scriptures proclaim. We declare only what the Scriptures declare, and no more. Because when we declare what the Scriptures declare, what we say carries Scripture's authority, because Scripture is the highest authority. And because we declare what the Scriptures declare, It is to be received as if Christ himself were speaking to you. It is as if Christ himself were saying it. That's what Thomas Watson meant when he wrote of the faithful proclamation of the scriptures saying, know that in every sermon preached, God calls to you. And to refuse the message we bring is to refuse God himself. End quote. Spoken as only Thomas Watson could. Thus Paul could say with authority to the Corinthians, as they struggled against the lusts of the flesh, such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11. They weren't washed or sanctified or justified because Paul pronounced it. But because God, throughout the New Testament Scriptures, promised and proclaimed these things for all who believe in Jesus. That you will be washed, that you will be sanctified, and that you will be justified. It's His promise, not the promise of any man but Christ. It's important to note that while the authority to proclaim what the scriptures have proclaimed is a privilege that's granted to every single Christian, make sure you get that, it's also true that God designed the church to have certain positions, officers, who are granted the authority to do things like govern the finances of the church and execute church discipline. But we should see that withholding or revoking church membership is not the same as withholding or revoking the forgiveness of sins. Tares aren't the only class of people, unfortunately, who fall under church discipline. Sometimes the wheat does too. Sometimes legitimate Christians do too. And this is actually clearly seen in 1 Corinthians 5, where Paul instructs the Corinthian church to enforce church discipline on a man who absolutely refused to turn away from his sin. And he says this in verse five, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. With that said, when church discipline is exercised, it should be done only, only in accordance with God's Word. We don't have permission to be creative with what we do in the church. We govern according to what we understand the scriptures to be saying. And while it's not pronouncing eternal judgment against a person who falls under church discipline, We're not saying that person is going to hell. It's a temporal judgment nonetheless that God has instructed us to carry out as a means of bringing a person to repentance and ultimately restoration within the fellowship, which is actually something that we see in 2 Corinthians. That's what happened with this man. So that's not something that we have the permission to do on our own. We do it only as scripture instructs us. So for the person who falls under church discipline, understand that we're doing so in accordance with what the scriptures say. It would be wise. it would be very wise for them to tremble before the Lord and to repent, knowing that what is bound and loosed on earth is a reflection of heaven's divine authority. And so when all is said and done, What we must understand is that there are no special classes of Christians. There are no distinctions among Christians in terms of rights and privileges before God, including the carrying forth of the Great Commission. That's not a responsibility that only lies on the shoulders of the church's governing elders, but it's a duty given to all of us. We affirm therefore the priesthood of all believers. So understand this, there's nothing special about me. I can't pray you into heaven. But what I can do is say this, and I can promise you this, if you repent and believe in Jesus. You will be saved. You will be saved. You will be forgiven. Jesus alone is our prophet, priest, and king. And yet, friends, in a lesser sense, we are also to function in these same capacities to the world. We are to function as prophets in the sense that we speak for God, proclaiming only what His Word declares. We are to function as priests in the sense that we serve God with our lives, we pray for others, and we lead and we call others to worship the one true living God. And we are to function as kings in the sense that we rule well and wisely and righteously over our own members and wage war against the lusts of our flesh. And we are to take every thought captive. and make it obedient to Christ. Further, we're to reflect God's goodness and righteousness in how we not only rule over ourselves, but how we rule over those for whom we are responsible, dads, fathers, husbands. We affirm the priesthood of all believers. You have many blessed privileges that come with that position. But you also have the responsibility to faithfully participate in the Great Commission by sharing the gospel, the good news of reconciliation with God for all who believe on Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is Christ's provision to the church for the purpose of establishing a new work of creation through the faithful proclamation, the faithful preaching, sharing of the gospel. But that shouldn't be taken to mean that our message will be well received, by the way. It often, in fact normally, won't be well received. But we are nevertheless to be faithful. We're not surprised when it's not well received, but we are expected to be faithful, to plant seeds of the gospel, and to simply trust the results in God's hands. His word will not return void to him. And so I urge you, friends, to receive the charge to carry out this responsibility of participating in the Great Commission, not because it's my will, but because it's God's will. He's the one who has called you. He's the one who has imparted new life to you in Jesus Christ. And he has called you into his service. And the ministry of the Holy Spirit goes with you, both empowering your ministry and ensuring the success of the Great Commission. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, the way that it instructs us, the way that it confronts us, the way that it shakes us out of our comfort zone. Lord, we recognize how futile it would be for us to go forth in our own power, to preach in our own power, to share the gospel in our own power. So we recognize what a precious gift it is that you've sent the Holy Spirit, who not only empowers us, but who goes before us and who brings the preached word from the ear to the heart. We recognize that without him, apart from him and his ministry, there's nothing that we could do to bring anyone into the new creation that Christ has instituted. So we pray, Lord, for opportunities to share the gospel Give us confidence in your promise that your word will not return void to you. Give us confidence and boldness to preach a message that most of the time isn't received well. And give us grace for times when we shy away from preaching as boldly as we should, from sharing the gospel as confidently as we should. We thank you for forgiving every sin of our own. And we pray that you would fill us with love, not only for Christ, but for our neighbors, that we may have the boldness to preach to them, knowing their condition as well and their need for a Savior. And we pray that by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, all those whom you called from eternity past will be brought into the fold of the Good Shepherd. In His name and for His glory, we pray. Amen.
The Power & Authority of the Church
Series The Gospel According to John
Sermon ID | 2192322344766 |
Duration | 53:58 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | John 20:22-23 |
Language | English |
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