What Most Christians Do Not Know
(Rev. Barry Johnson and Rev. Rodney Johnson)
NOTE: New Light Faith Ministries and Barry Johnson Ministries, founded by Rodney V. Johnson and Barry O. Johnson, respectively, are partnering to offer Bible studies for Christians who are seeking to grow in their relationship with Jesus. This is a Bible study lesson, not a sermon. The Bible studies teach foundational truth that are designed to challenge, encourage and, most importantly, flame the fire of hunger in the Christian who wants to learn more about who they have become in Christ Jesus. The Bible studies you find on this site contains the written version of the lesson. However, these lessons also include a video and an audio file of the study, a PDF version of the lesson and a sheet for note taking. If you would like any of the additional resources for these studies, please email us at newlightfaithministries@gmail.com or bjteachingltr@gmail.com for more information or contact us at the email provided on both of our Sermon Central pages. Please visit our YouTube Channel (Barry Johnson Ministries; New Light Faith Ministries, Inc.) to watch or listen to these lessons as well as other available sermons. Be blessed.
Introduction
The topic of our lesson in September was “What It Means To Be Born Again.” In that lesson, we discussed the reasons why a person needs to be born again (why the person needs to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior), God’s plan for redemption, and the definition of the phrase “born again”, which literally means “born from above”. We are now God’s offspring (children) with His spiritual life on the inside of us. When we were born into this world the first time, we were born with spiritual death inside of us called the “sin nature.” If you have not watched that lesson or listened to it, we encourage you to do so because it provides a foundation for what we are going to study in this lesson. For us, the natural follow-up to that lesson is the topic that we believe doesn’t get nearly the attention and focus that it deserves and that is “What Most Christians Don’t Know”. You see, it’s not enough just to accept Jesus and be born again. We need to know what it means for us in a practical way and that’s the focus of this lesson.
Some years ago, a person posted a video of a gentleman singing “Trouble In My Way” on Facebook – a song that both of us sang in church many years ago. One of the lyrics goes something like this: “Trouble in my way, I've got to cry sometimes. I can't sleep at night, but that's all right. I know that Jesus, He will fix it after a while.” While there is some truth in this song, it is an incomplete truth. Jesus can fix things, but He cannot fix things without us. While this song speaks to what we naturally do based on our fleshly emotions, it is not what we “have” to do. What you will hear in this lesson is how we have been empowered because we are born again and therefore our responses to our troubles can change. This is why Philippians 4:6-7 tells us “(6) Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; (7) and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” If we walk in the truth of Philippians 4:6-7 then we will find ourselves turning to God when troubles come and experiencing peace versus the losing sleep and crying. The difference is that we make the choice to turn to God and then His peace comes. If we did not take an action to first turn to Him, then that song would be 100% accurate for us because we would be losing sleep and staying up all night crying. This will be the focus of our lesson today – understanding who we have become and what we have access to because Jesus lives on the inside of us.
Ultimately, we will be looking at our role in helping Jesus fix things. You may be thinking that what I just said is not true. You also may be thinking that Jesus doesn’t need our help. But according to Scripture, Jesus needs us to partner with Him to deal with the situations that we face in life. And truly believing this comes with knowing and understanding who you have become now that you are born again and the importance of understanding the reason why you now have the same spiritual life and nature inside of you that is inside of Jesus.
We Have Access to God’s Grace in Times of Trouble
Do you remember the record about Paul’s thorn in the flesh in Second Corinthians chapter twelve? Let’s pick the record up with verse seven. “(7) And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. (8) Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.” (Second Corinthians 12:7-8) There is some disagreement as to what specifically was Paul’s thorn in the flesh.
Many scholars believe it was severe chronic ophthalmia from when he saw Jesus on Demascus road. Based on this teaching, many walk away believing that God gave Paul a physical illness to keep him humble and therefore we should sometimes view our sickness as God teaching us to be dependent on Him. Whatever this “thorn” was, we believe that Satan had sent his top gun with the assignment to do whatever was necessary to stop Paul from teaching the Gospel. So Paul’s thorn in the flesh could have been physical but that does not remove us from the thought that it was a demonic attack sent from Satan to stop Paul from doing God’s work.
Regardless, the battle was so fierce that Paul begged the Lord three times to step in and do something to stop the demonic attack. Now, look at how the Lord responds to Paul in verse nine. “And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (Second Corinthians 12:9) The Lord tells Paul, “Everything that you need to deal with this demonic attack is found in My grace. Access My grace, Paul. It’s all the strength and power you need to defeat this attack.” Three times Paul pleads with the Lord to “fix” his problem. Now what I am about to say is important: the Lord couldn’t “fix” Paul’s problem until Paul gave Him the means to do so. Paul had to yield his authority by accessing His grace. The Lord tells Paul to access His grace and that will release His “fixing” power in his situation. The Bible does not tell us if Paul was ever delivered from this “thorn” in the flesh, but it does tell us how he responded to it after the word from the Lord. He did not complain again and leaned on the Lord. The lesson here for us is that when we are faced with difficult situations, whether emotional, physical, or spiritual, our first response will determine how we walk through them. Going back to the song, “Trouble in My Way”, we could yield to the worry and staying up all night crying, or we can immediately turn our face to God.
Do you remember the story of King Jehoshaphat when Israel was attacked? He knew they were outnumbered and he could have worried and lost a whole lot of sleep. But he chose to turn to the Lord. Second Chronicles 20:1-4 records, “(1) It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat. (2) Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, "A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar" (which is En Gedi). (3) And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. (4) So Judah gathered together to ask help from the LORD; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.” God could not intervene until they made the decision to seek Him.
Accessing God’s Grace
Now, the question I am sure some of you are asking is, “How do I access God’s grace?” We find the answer in Ephesians 2. We’re going to read verse eight. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8) Barry, we see two things in operation in this verse. First, we see that grace is what God offers us and second, we see that our faith is what enables us to accept God’s offer. Our faith gives us access to God’s grace so that “the power of Christ may rest upon us.” (Second Corinthians 12:9) The word power is dunamis in the Greek and it means “inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth.” When we yield ourselves to God through faith, the power that resides in Jesus rests upon us. The word rest means to “overshadow or cover as a tent, or tabernacle.” In other words, when we access God’s grace through our faith, it releases the power of Jesus to provide shelter for us in the situations we face. God’s grace releases the power of Jesus to provide protection for us in the situations we face.
God’s grace releases the power of Jesus to provide safety for us in the situations we face. And, God’s grace releases the power of Jesus to give us rest in the situations we face. But, it is up to each one of us to access God’s grace with our faith. We know that some teach that grace is only about God forgiving us or overlooking our shortcomings. But as we have shared with you before, grace is a whole lot more than that! Titus 2:11-12 tells us, “(11) For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, (12) teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.” The first act of grace is salvation – we have a heart change when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Now once we are saved through grace, grace begins to work within us. Paul wrote that grace teaches (instructs, trains and disciplines) us to deny (reject in all forms) ungodliness (wickedness) and worldly lusts. One last point I want to make about grace. Paul wrote in Second Corinthians 9:8, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” Paul wrote that God would ensure that we have “all grace” in order to do what? All grace so that we will always have whatever we need in a given situation to handle our business – or better said, to handle His business.
Are We Waiting on God or is God Waiting on Us?
Rodney, we have not been taught who we are and what we are capable of as God’s sons and daughters. We have been taught to believe that if things are going to change in our lives, then we must wait for God to change them for us. For example, a person who smokes may say if God wants me to stop smoking, He will take the urge to smoke away from me. Or the person who drinks alcoholic beverages may say if God wants me to stop, he will make me stop. But according to what we just read in Second Corinthians 12:7-9, God doesn’t operate that way. He does not sovereignly move in our lives against our will to make us do anything. We must invite Him into our lives. We must yield to Him. We must access His grace if we are going to see change in our lives.
But the Church has not taught us this truth. And this is why many Christians are not seeking change in their lives God’s way. They are waiting for God to change them. What they are essentially saying is, “If God is going to fix it, then I don’t need to do anything. I’ll just continue to do what I am doing, living the way I am living, and wait on God to take care of it.” But here’s the problem. When we live this way, we are not living the life God has designed for us to live. Let’s be clear: Jesus is the “fixer”. But the question we must answer is: what exactly did He fix in our lives? When we used our faith to access God’s grace to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we were born again. At that very moment, our brokenness was mended and our spiritual separation from God was removed. Now we are part of God’s family. Let’s see what God did for us because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. In Romans 8:32 we read the following: “He (God) who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, (and because of this) how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things (that we need in this life to live for Him)?” (Romans 8:32)
When we come to the place of that we understand and believe that our lives should be mirror images of the life that Jesus lived when He was on earth, we will begin to walk in this world the same way Jesus walked when He was here, and we will do the same things that He did. Second Corinthians 3:18 says this about us being mirror images of Jesus and we are going to read it from the Amplified Bible. “And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.” (Second Corinthians 3:18, Amplified) And we see in John 14 what Jesus said about us doing what He did. "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” (John 14:12)
Now that we are born again, we need to know more about who we have become because of that experience so let’s begin with Acts 19, one of my favorite records. Paul travels to Ephesus and meets 12 disciples who have not heard about the baptism of the Holy Ghost. “(1) And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples (2) he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" So they said to him, "We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." (3) And he said to them, "Into what then were you baptized?" So they said, "Into John's baptism." (4) Then Paul said, "John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus." (5) When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus (6) And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.” (Acts 19:1-6)
Barry, the 12 disciples only knew John’s baptism of repentance, which means they had not received Jesus into their lives and were not born again. But they had repented of their sins and had been baptized by John. However, they had yet to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, nor had they heard about also receiving the Holy Spirit. So, Paul baptizes them in the name of Jesus for salvation first and then lays hands on them to receive the Holy Ghost which manifested in their speaking in tongues and prophesizing. Afterwards, Paul stays in Asia Minor. Let’s pick up the record with verse eight. “(8) And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. (9) But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. (10) And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 19:8-10) Paul’s teaching and preaching were so powerful that the faith of the people grew so much that God is able to do special miracles through Paul that we see in verses 11 and 12. “(11) Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, (12) so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.” (Acts 19:11-12)
Barry, I want to point something out. Every day for two years and three months, Paul taught the people the Word of God. Romans 10:17 says faith comes when we hear the Word of God again, again, and again. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) Because Paul faithfully taught the Word, the faith of the people grew so much that it gave God the avenue He needed to release miracles in their midst – again, through accessing His grace! We know that it is faith that moves God. He cannot and will not move in our lives without it and we see this in the following scriptures. Hebrews 11:6 says the following: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6) In Matthew 9, we read the following in verses 27-29. “(27) When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, ‘Son of David, have mercy on us! (28) And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord.’ (29) Then He touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith let it be to you.’" (Matthew 9:27-29)
Now, I want us to see something in this passage. Before Jesus touches their eyes, He asks the blind men if they believed He could heal them. Everything we receive from God starts with believing He can do it. Remember, we read in Hebrews 11:6 “that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Then Jesus says, “Okay, since you say you have faith in Me to do this, receive your sight.” The blind men were not born again but they believed in Jesus! Our faith plays a huge role in determining what we receive or don’t receive from God. And the more of God’s Word, the Bible that we have living in us, the more we will have living faith. Rodney let’s go back to Acts 19 and read again the special, or notable miracles God performs through Paul. “(11) Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, (12) so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.” (Acts 19:11-12) Notice the last part of the verse. After Paul accesses God’s grace through his faith, God performs the special miracles and copycats try to demonstrate their power over evil spirits using the name of Jesus. The copycats we’re going to focus on are the seven sons of Sceva.
Let’s pick up the record with verse 13. “(13) Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ‘We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.’ (14) Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. (Acts 19:13-14) What happens in verse 15 is very important. “And the evil spirit answered and said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?" (verse 15) The evil spirit looks at the sons of the religious leader and says, “I know Jesus and what He can do, and I know Paul and what he has done. But you are not like Jesus or Paul. Who are you?” The evil spirit recognizes Paul in the same breath that he recognizes Jesus, but not the sons of Sceva. Here’s my point: the sons of Sceva thought that because they used the name of Jesus, the evil spirit would obey them. He didn’t and the question is why?
Barry, the answer is simple. The name of Jesus, separated from faith has no power. And the name of Jesus, motivated by zeal, also has no power. I know people holding these notes just dropped them on the table and are waiting for lightning to fall and fire to burn them up. But this is the truth. Mark 16:17 and 18 state, “(17) And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; (18) they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." (Mark 16:17-18) The sons of Sceva could not cast out the evil spirit because they were not born again, and they did not have the capacity to access God’s grace for Jesus’ power. Mark 16:15-18 says you must be a child of God before you can believe in the name of Jesus and have signs follow you. “(15) And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. (16) He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. (17) And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues (18) they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." (Mark 16:15-18)
We are going to finish up Acts 19 with verse 16 and I want to draw your attention to three phrases. “Then the man in whom the evil spirit was LEAPED ON THEM, OVERPOWERED THEM, and PREVAILED AGAINST THEM, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” (Acts 19:16) In the notes we capitalized LEAPED ON THEM, OVERPOWEREED THEM, and PREVAILED AGAINST THEM. Do you remember that in verse 15 the evil spirit says, “And the evil spirit answered and said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?" What we read in verse 16 can happen to people who don’t have the life and nature of God living in them. It can happen to people who are not like Jesus, like we are. What we read in verse 16 never has to happen to the blood-washed believer! Notice I didn’t say it will not happen. I said it never has to happen if we are living like Jesus. For many Christians, the “evil spirit” – figuratively speaking – has convinced them that he doesn’t know them, when he actually does, and treats them like unbelievers because they don’t know who they are. So, Rodney, the obvious question is who are we? Our Heavenly Father tells us in the very first book of the Bible. Turn to Genesis chapter one and we’re going to read verses 26 through 28.
“(26) Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ (27) So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:26-27) In these two verses the word “image” is used three times because God is making a point – His sons and daughters are just like Him in every way except one. We are not deity. We have a beginning. Our Heavenly Father has always been. John 4:24 tells us that “God is Spirit.” The “image” that God gives us is His spirit, which is His very life and nature. Get a hold of that. The Spirit that Lucifer faced in heaven and crushed him now lives in us! So, when the evil spirit leaped on, overpowered and prevailed against the seven sons of Sceva, he was dealing with men who did not have the life of God living in them.
This should never happen to us. Again, the evil spirit was not dealing with a person who was born again, a person who was like Jesus. He was not dealing with people like us. Let’s look at one more place in Genesis. Turn to chapter two. We’re going to read verse 15. “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it (guard, protect).” Who was supposed to tend and keep the garden? Adam. God gave him the responsibility and the power and authority to do so. If God gave this to the first man, do you think He’s given His sons and daughters anything less? C’mon. Rodney, will you please close us out? Barry, we are going to close in with verses in Ephesians chapter two and Acts chapter ten. In Ephesians chapter two, verse 10, we read the following, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) The word “workmanship” indicates the work of a master. We are God’s masterpiece. We are God’s design. We are God’s craftsmanship. See the imagery. Remember Genesis 1:26 when God said, “Let Us make man”? Every creative act prior to man the Bible says, “And God said.”
God made us. Our Heavenly Father got personally involved with us! He didn’t speak us into being. He created us in Christ Jesus for good works. What good works? Let’s see it in Acts 10:38: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” Now you see why we say the evil spirit in Acts 19 is not dealing with a person like us. We were created to follow in Jesus’ footsteps – doing good and healing those the devil oppresses. This is who we are. This is why we are here. We were created to continue the work that Jesus started. We have the same life in us that Jesus has in Him. We have the power and authority to access God’s grace by faith to fix everything in our lives that the devil has broken or tries to break. And it starts with knowing who we are.
We have discussed a lot in this message but we want you to walk away with this primary thought: just because you have been born again, you still have to do something to access everything God has in place for you. Think about it like this, if I promised to prepare dinner for you and tell you what time it will be ready for you to pick it up – it is my responsibility to prepare the dinner right? Now when I prepare the dinner, whose responsibility is it to come and pick it up? It’s yours right? Now stay with me here, if I prepare your dinner and you chose or forget to come and pick it up, whose fault is it that you are hungry? Can you turn around and blame me because I did not bring the food to you? Absolutely not – but this is what we do to God. God has made provision for us but we have to take the steps necessary to secure them. We need to know who we are as a child of God and with that knowledge begin accessing everything He has in place for us. It is only when we do this will we begin to see the power of God operating in our lives. Let’s pray.
