Gospel of John [20:19]. Christ's Resurrection, part 6 (fellowship with Christ and the Father).Taitle: Gospel of John [20:19]. Christ's Resurrection, part 6 (fellowship with Christ and the Father).
Announcements/opening prayer:
Joh 20:19 When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you."
Their fear will turn to joy and their ignorance of the application of OT scripture to Him will turn to wisdom.
There are differences between all of them, but one thing they have in common right now is fear and ignorance and Christ is going to change that.
The disciples are still in fear of arrest from the religious leaders. Fear is the result of ignorance of all Christ has accomplished.
When Christ appears their fear is turned to joy. For this reason, I want to return to an aspect of the resurrection that we studied over the Easter holiday and that was fellowship with a living Lord.
1Jo 1:1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life —
1Jo 1:2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us —
1Jo 1:3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us [of the same kind as us]; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
John does not desire that they have fellowship with him but that they will have fellowship with Christ and the Father as he does.
The apostle writes to the Christians in the Church at large, that he has in his gospel reported the things which he heard Jesus say and which he saw Jesus do, and this, in order that they might have fellowship with him, namely joint-participation with John in the knowledge of the things Jesus said and did.
John tells them that he wishes to share the things that Jesus said and did while with them so that they may become partakers in common of the same mind as God and Christ (fellowship) and the blessings that come from that.
When he says, "Truly, our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ," he desires to pass on the means of that same fellowship to all in the church.
Like in the room when Christ appeared, this fellowship with Him will turn all fears into rejoicing.
This shows us that fellowship is based upon what Christ says and does and our understanding of those things so that we may jointly participate in them. Confess, acknowledging, and agreeing with God about sin is necessary for us to return to the joint participation so that we may think like Him, act like Him, and hear Him, i.e partake in common His mind.
1Jo 1:4 And these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.
His joy is based upon others enjoying the fellowship with God as he has.
1Jo 1:5 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
1Jo 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
2Pe 1:4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers [koinonos = one who fellowships] of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
1Jo 1:3 John desires that we experience the same fellowship as he did with Christ and the Father. He uses the noun koinonia meaning fellowship. 2Pe1:4 Peter states that through God's precious and magnificent promises in His word that we can be those who fellowship, using the noun koinonos - one who fellowships, with the divine nature that we now are in Christ.
God and His child have things in common. We have a divine nature and so participating in that nature we have the same likes and dislikes as God - love holiness; hate sin and evil.
Then "if we (who profess to be Christians) say that we have fellowship with him (have things in common with Him), and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth". That is, the things possessed in common here are a like nature, and thus the same likes and dislikes. But to be a partaker of the divine nature, to love holiness and hate sin, makes impossible a life lived in a lifestyle of darkness of sin.
This is not any form of legalism nor is it a call to focus on sin or make sin the issue. It is a call to fellowship, to joint participation in the mind and works of Christ.
I cannot simultaneously walk with Christ by means of the Spirit and simultaneously walk in the darkness of the Adamic nature. The two Adams are mutually exclusive.
Rom 5:17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
Rom 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Rom 6:12-13 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
The Lord is going to tell the disciples in Joh 20:21-23 that He is sending them into the world as He was sent by the Father, a Father that they now share in common and then He is going to breathe upon them, giving them the Holy Spirit. They cannot fulfill their mission without a spiritual life empowered by God the Holy Spirit. They cannot live in a lifestyle of darkness and accomplish this. No believer can accomplish and realize the fulfillment of the plan of God for His life and not fellowship; being partakers in common of the same mind as God the Father and Christ.
1Jo 1:7 but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
The thing possessed in common here by both God and the saint is light. In the case of God, He is as to His essence, light. In the case of the believer, he lives in the sphere of the light which God is.
In order to further understand this we will study a section of Eph 5.
Eph 5:3 But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints;
Immorality [porneia] - illicit sexual intercourse in general.
Greed [pleonexia] - a greedy desire to have more.
The position of sainthood or separation to God, in which the gospel places the Christian, is so far apart from the license of the world as to make it utterly incongruous even to speak of the deep rooted sins of a corrupt heathenism.
Eph 5:4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
Filthiness [aischrotes] - obscenity, shameless immoral conduct. Silly talk [morologia] - lack of forethought and wisdom, godless. Jesting [eutrapelia] - polished and witty speech as an instrument of sin.
Eutrapelia is an interesting word. Literally it means well turning or easily turning. That which easily turns and adapts itself to the moods and conditions of those with whom it may be dealing at the moment. From this original sense of versatility it came to be applied to morals and to speech with the accompanying notion of dissimulation or deception. The sense of the word here is polished and witty speech as the instrument of sin; refinement and versatility without the flavor of Christian grace. 'Sometimes it is lodged in a sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, in shrewd intimation, in cunningly diverting or cleverly retorting an objection: sometimes it is couched in a bold scheme of speech, in a tart irony, in a lusty hyperbole, in a startling metaphor, in a plausible reconciling of contradictions, or in acute nonsense ... Sometimes an affected simplicity, sometimes a presumptuous bluntness gives it being. Its ways are unaccountable and inexplicable, being answerable to the numberless rovings of fancy and windings of language.
This has become an art form for the American politician.
Eph 5:4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
Eph 5:5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral [pornos - sexual immorality] or impure person [unclean in thought and life] or covetous man [greedy for more], who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Paul is here referring to unbelievers who due to their fallen state and bad choices, live in the lifestyles of darkness.
Eph 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
"Vain" is the Greek word kenos, "empty, hollow." These words were empty, hollow, without the substance of truth or reality.
/The empty words were "plausible, but devoid of truth. and employed to palliate [excuse or appear less serious] heathen vices" [Vincent].\
Expositors says: "The expression is a general one, applying to all who sought by their sophistries to palliate the vices in question or make them appear to be no vices. These would be found mostly (though by no manner of necessity exclusively) among the heathen, especially among such Gentiles as heard the truth and remained unbelieving."
/Isa 5:17 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;, Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;, Who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!\
"These things" refers back to the sins mentioned in the previous verse. The word "children" is huios, "sons," a Hebraism, calling a person having a certain quality, a son of that quality.
/Paul's argument to those with the empty words is, if these things are not that serious then why would they result in the wrath of God upon them?\
Eph 5:7 Therefore do not be partakers with them;
"partakers" - summetochos = to hold with another and the prefix "with". Partaking together with one. The saints should not participate with the sons of disobedience in the vices of vv. 3-5.
Eph 5:8 for you were [emphatic] formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light
"light" - phos = not a lamp but light itself. The believer is so transformed that he is not called enlightened but actual light, and that "in the Lord."
This is a complete transformation from darkness of the sons of disobedience to light in the Lord. So then to return to a lifestyle of darkness is to abandon fellowship with the Lord, to fail to see Him, hear Him, and touch Him in life and thus fail to fulfill the mission that He has sent us into the world to accomplish, just as the Father sent Him. Think of Thomas' condition for the week following the first appearance of Christ to the disciples as a group. Because he failed to see Him and hear His message he continued in fear and doubt.
"walk" - peripateo = to order one's behavior, to conduct oneself. Present imperative - a habitual command.
Eph 5:9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
Eph 5:10 trying to learn [approving] what is pleasing to the Lord.
"trying to learn" - dokimazo = to put to the test for the purpose of approving. The will of the Lord is to be put to the test in the believer's life in order to find that it meets the specifications and therefore becomes approved.
This isn't tempting or testing the Lord but applying His will to your individual life and then realizing the quality of the fruit that is produced. With this the will of God becomes a reality and it becomes loved and thoroughly approved.
Eph 5:11 And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;
"participate" - sunkoinoneo = to become a partaker together with others. |