John’s Gospel – Lesson 11

It is the Spirit who constantly directed the timing of Jesus' ministry. Even His family would try to provoke Him. Those of you who had brothers probably know the best ways to provoke your brothers and they probably know the best ways to provoke you. Fortunately, our Savior was and is perfect. Because of His perfection, even in His humanity, He could not be provoked into acting outside the will of God.

John 7:1-9

After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, "Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world." For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come." After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

As it turns out, it is just after the Feast of Booths right now. This year it runs from September 23^rd to October 1^st. It is a time of worship in which you are supposed to go up to Jerusalem. Jesus' siblings (brothers may include sisters here) wanted Him to make a big entrance. They didn't believe at this point but Jesus wouldn't move until it was His time. This was also a harvest festival, a remembrance of the Exodus, and a time of joy. You were required to build and live in a hut to keep the remembrance. The agricultural roots meant that you celebrated harvest and God's provision and it was a command to be happy and joyful. Worship and Scripture were central parts of the celebration.

You were expected to wave 4 plants as you worshiped; 1) the fronds of a date palm, 2) the branchs of a myrtle tree, 3) the branches of a willow, and 4) the fruit of a citron tree. This is to be obedient to Scripture (Leviticus instructions for Sukkot) while reciting Psalms 113 through Psalm 118. These plants reflected both fruit and water. One fruit tree (date palm), one fruit (citron), and two tree branches (willow and myrtle) were used. The fragrance would likely have been the most striking thing about the practice. You can speculate on why those particular plants were chosen, but at least the citron and myrtle would have had an aroma and with everyone carrying them and waving them it must have been a very pleasant smell. We don't worry about smell so much in worship and maybe we should.

John 7:10-13

But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, "Where is he?" And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, "He is a good man," others said, "No, he is leading the people astray." Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.

This was not yet Jesus time for sacrifice but He did attend privately. He did not make an entrance because he had until spring before the Cross.

John 7:14-24

About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, "How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?" So Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?" The crowd answered, "You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?" Jesus answered them, "I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment."

We don't know exactly what portion of Scripture was in view during this discussion but if Scripture was influencing the discussion then it was likely Psalm 113 to Psalm 118. Here are some excerpts from the portions of Scripture typically read during Sukkot or the Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles).

Psalm 116:8-11

For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. I believed, even when I spoke, "I am greatly afflicted"; I said in my alarm, "All mankind are liars."

Psalm 118:5-9

Out of my distress I called on the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me free. The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The LORD is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.

Psalm 118:22-24

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

I think in the entire Hallel (these praise verses) you can see a teaching in which Jesus would ask, like He did in other places, who is the Psalmist talking about? Is it himself or someone else? It makes sense to think that Jesus was teaching the full Hallel (Psalm 113 to 118) and His authoritative teaching was striking to those who heard what He said. He knows what the authorities are thinking as well as the people of Jerusalem and they are angry with His healing on the Sabbath. He was being judged for violating the Sabbath by healing. So it makes perfect sense to show that circumcision would break the Sabbath because it had to be on the 8^th day after the birth of a boy and contrast it with their objection to healing on the Sabbath.

His command is "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment" and this people as a whole will not obey that command.

We are much less oriented toward religious festivals than the 1^st century Jews were. However, I'd challenge to you at least incorporate the spiritual aspects of Sukkot with Thanksgiving this year. The Festival of Booths celebrates the Exodus. So you can, in this Thanksgiving year focus on God's redeeming love in separating you from bondage to darkness, His faithfulness in guiding and keeping you as a shepherd, and thank Him for the hope of heaven. See how that parallels the Exodus. We seem to have holidays that are not holy days and we can at least pull some back and Thanksgiving is a great opportunity.

John 7:25-31

Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, "Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from." So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, "You know me, and you know where I come from? But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me." So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, "When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?"

Word of the authorities' plans to kill Jesus had leaked out. A general ignorance and presumed familiarity with the facts had led the people astray. They thought it was authoritative that the Messiah would just appear. Of course the fundamental problem with that line of reasoning is that you'd lose your imputed righteousness. Jesus couldn't just appear and die. He lived a perfect life that for the believers is imputed to them. The false conception of Jesus' origin is corrected by Jesus. He didn't come as an infant because that was the only way to come to earth. He came as an infant, grew up, ministered to His mother and brothers in the absence of His father, and lived a life of perfection in action and thought for your salvation.

Jesus hour had not yet come. He still had the winter to minister before the Cross.

John 7:32-36

The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. Jesus then said, "I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come." The Jews said to one another, "Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, 'You will seek me and you will not find me,' and, 'Where I am you cannot come'?"

There was no general understanding of the incarnation. They didn't understand where He came from or why He came or where He was going. It was truly a mystery to them. In Scripture a mystery is something that God has revealed. You have the privilege, as a result of God's blessing, of being able to know where Jesus came from, why He came, and where He went. The Holy Spirit in His power and purpose has done that in your life. You aren't smarter than a 1^st Century Jew but you are more blessed that a 1^st Century Jew. It is easy to think about sitting in the grass and listening to Jesus and eating bread and fish but I wouldn't trade what God has caused me to see for a chance to listen to the Sermon on the Mount because I'm a natural born sinner saved by Grace and I'm not giving that up for any great experience. Right now, today, I know God's forgiveness for my sinful nature and the righteousness of Christ imputed to me. I wouldn't trade the grace in which I stand for any other time or place.

John’s Gospel – Lesson 10

We are still in Chapter 6 of John and we continue in a very theologically dense section of the gospel. Jesus is explaining things that you can write books about and each time He uses only a few words.

John 6:48-51

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

Here is the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. In a spiritual sense, we must trust our life to be maintained spiritually by the work in which Christ gave himself for "the life of the world." His crucifixion draws (yes it is the same word) all men unto Him (John 12:32) by the Holy Spirit as God the Father glorifies the Son. Preaching the Cross brings redemption. When we drift away from the Cross, the Blood, and the Atonement we no longer attract the redeemed and those who are being redeemed. Some churches comfort the perishing without preaching the redeemer.

All that Jesus teaches here was foreshadowed in the Law and Prophets. What Jesus teaches in these verses should be more shocking to a modern individual than to a 1^st century Jew. All of the animal sacrifices should have prepared living hearts to hear and understand what was being said. They were never to think that the blood of bulls and sheep could atone apart from the Grace of God pointing to the Messiah. But rituals can become dead and their meanings lost on all those whose hearts are far from God. This was a hard saying but this was not a saying without precedence in the Law and Prophets. As we've said before, the atonement is pointed to throughout the Old Testament and the need for a savior was the whole point. The hearts of most of the people were so far from God that they only wanted to be saved from the Romans. The Romans were not the big problem. The big problem was God. Who was going to save them from God? They were in a treasonous rebellion against the God of the Universe. Who cares what Caesar thinks?

Mankind is in a similar situation today. Ultimately "self" is on the throne and unless we have the Grace of conviction we don't think we have a problem with God. We can focus on God's love and forget that He is Holy and Just. Emerson was the one who was on his death bed and was asked by a friend if he had made his peace with God. Emerson is supposed to have said, "I don't know that we've ever had a quarrel". Never forget that you were born quarreling with God and that you must have the Messiah to settle your debt for treason.

John 6:52-59

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

We throw terms like "seeker sensitive" around in the Church these days. These teachings are not what we think of as seeker sensitive. We have some churches that are rejecting substitutionary atonement. At that point, you either must have a different way of finding justification or you simply don't believe you need a savoir or that God is Holy.

Both Baptism and Communion teach us that the only way to live and not be destroyed is in Christ. They are physical testimonies of our utter dependence on the work of Jesus and not one little bit of dependence on our own righteousness.

John 6:60-71

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil." He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.

The Spirit gives life. The Holy Spirit is resurrecting those dry bones. As with Lazarus, the Spirit is working and we get to watch and do what God tells us to do through the Holy Spirit. The flesh is no help at all and by "no help" Jesus didn't mean to indicate that it is a little help. It is no help because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Pardon the KJV.

Jesus explains that our assurance of salvation is found in our response to salvation. If you think that you are a Christian because you figured out that Christianity was the best religion then you are wrong and there is no assurance of salvation there. Even worse, if you simply think you're a Christian because your parents were or because you were born in the United States then you are wrong. Jesus is saying that if you find His words to be Spirit and Life then it is because the Father has forcefully taken you for the Son by the Holy Spirit and the Son will never let you go or lose you. Jesus is telling you these things for your comfort. It is not to upset you. These things are the basis of your confidence in your salvation. He wants you to see salvation and evangelism first and foremost as God's work and not something you accomplish by yourself separate from God.

A lack of understanding of the depth of our fall and the mercy of God is part of the noetic effects of sin. We don't reason well and make many logical errors. For example, here Jesus is saying that if we are so dense that we've had animal sacrifice for over a thousand of years and yet we haven't understood what it was all about then what will be think when the Messiah after paying the sacrifice that we don't recognize as our debt is raised from the dead and glorified? What will He be glorified for? How slow can be be? He told us for a thousand years what would happen and then when He stands before them they can't see past the human to the divine. So what will happen and how will a sinner deal with His glorification for being the propitiation or payment for the sins of the redeemed? It won't make any sense. You'll not have any framework for understanding what has happened. You'll wake up in the middle of a movie with no understanding of the characters or plot.

It is the Spirit who gives life. The understanding of Christ and His work that you possess (if He is your Savior) is produced by the life giving Holy Spirit. That should give you peace of mind. He told you that no one could come to Him unless it is a result of a move of God so that you would not rely on your flesh but rather rely on the Holy Spirit.

 

John’s Gospel – Lesson 9

Last week we ended after the disciples had left the east side of the Sea of Galilee and headed for Capernaum on the northwest side. They made the trip via boat at night (perhaps 8 miles) and Jesus met them in the middle of the lake. The crowd that Jesus had fed was left on the other side of the lake.

John 6:22-24

On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

The people were looking for Jesus but not for the right reasons. It was a miracle that they didn't take Him by force earlier. They were expending a great deal of effort seeking a savior after their own design. They had nationalist motives and needed a leader that could deliver God's blessing.

John 6:25-34

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' " Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always."

Rather than respond to their question about how Jesus got to Capernaum, Jesus begins to explain to them that they have a root problem that they haven't dealt with. At this point it becomes obvious that these people didn't even see the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 as a sign of Jesus being the Christ. They saw the sign but they didn't accept it as a sign. So they didn't realize the implications of declaring that Jesus was The Prophet. They were hearing the words being spoken but without any enlightenment because they were spiritually dead. They say they want a sign so they can do what Jesus commanded.

    Jesus is moving the discussion to a spiritual dimension and they can't follow the logic. They need spiritual and eternal food but all they ask for is physical and temporary food. They even misattribute manna to Moses rather than God. They are looking for a leader and not a savior and don't see how serious their position is.

John 6:35-40

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."

We'll see 7 "I AM" statements as we move on through John. This is the first. In Greek it is "εγω
ειμι". It is a claim to divinity. The Jews of the 1^st Century perceived it as a claim of divinity. Sometimes it is hard for us to see why the reactions were so strong because we don't hear link to the Old Testament name for God.

Notice that this is Jesus stating the doctrine of Specific Atonement (sometimes called Limited Atonement). Jesus did not lay down His life wondering if anyone would get saved or just hoping it would all work out. Here we find Jesus affirming that He knew that He was dying for the Church (Old and New Testament Believers). This Body of Believers would be given to Him by the Father through the action of the Holy Spirit.

There are no preconditions are placed on those who are saved. Jesus simply says that "all that the Father gives me will come to me". So the blessing of Grace is without condition. It is unconditional. This is known as Unconditional Election. God has reasons for what He does. I'm not saying that God is capricious or random but His reasons for His grace are not found in you. He didn't need your skill set to make up the "A-Team" and Scripture tells us the opposite is true.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

Notice also that if it were not for God the Father acting first through the Holy Spirit we wouldn't come to God. Some folks say that God changes your "want to" and as long as you realize that means you were moved from death to life spiritually then it is a fine way to think of it. God acted first in your salvation, regardless of how it "felt", and it is known as a monergistic or one worker start to your new life. This is also known as the doctrine of Effectual Calling (or Irresistible Grace) but keep in mind that you always choose according to your strongest inclination at the moment but God makes your heart of stone into a heart of flesh and you look on the Son and believe in Him. This completes your justification before God and you can't add anything to Christ's work. Walking out your salvation is synergistic or a working together of you with God by the Holy Spirit bringing glory to Christ. This is your sanctification.

In fact, Jesus also teaches the doctrine of the Preservation of the Saints (sometimes called the Perseverance of the Saints). Jesus knew that He would also keep the Church and raise it up on the last day. This is a promise to each individual and it is not just a general group from various populations.

Although Paul and other portions of Scripture reiterate and explain these doctrines, it is wonderful to see our Savoir teaching Specific Atonement, Unconditional Election, Effectual Calling, and the Preservation of the Saints. We are love gifts of the Father to the Son by the Holy Spirit and the Son will not lose any part of His gift and it is the Father's will that everyone who looks on the Son and believes will have eternal life and be raised up on the last day. That is really good news.

John 6:41-47

So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

Remember that Jesus was teaching in Capernaum. This region, because of a presumed familiarity, was a hard hearted place. Their hearts of stone were condemned by Jesus in Matthew 11:23. They said that they were rejecting the teaching of Jesus because they didn't think the incarnation could occur by a birth. In reality their sin was keeping them in rebellion. Here Jesus touches on our sin nature.

This doctrine is known as Radical Corruption (or Total Depravity). Our sin goes to the core of our being. Scripture says that we were by nature the children of wrath and God must move us into the Kingdom of the Son. Jesus says it in a very clear way. He says "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him".

Our inability stems from our radical fall into sin and the "enmity" against God that it generates. In Romans Chapter 8, Scripture teaches that our minds, before salvation, are opposed to God for they are not subject to the laws of God and cannot be subject to the law of God. We can't want what we don't want and we are therefore in bondage to our own wills. Our wills are the problem not the solution. But God in His mercy (see what Jesus says) sent Jesus and draws us. That word for draw isn't a sweetly and tenderly luring of us. It is the same word in the Greek that is used when Paul and Silas were seized and dragged into the marketplace before the rulers (Acts 16:19).

In a very practical way this is tremendously encouraging to evangelism because the conversion of sinners depends on God and you simply need to be a willing participant. It isn't salesmanship that saves someone. Charles Finney was dead wrong and I'm afraid that is true in more than one way.

John’s Gospel – Lesson 8

Last week we stopped at John 5:29 in the middle of Jesus' legal argument with the Pharisees. They questioned his healing a man on the Sabbath. Jesus uses the fairly crazy attack on Him for healing a sick man on the Sabbath to teach about His authority. This week we begin at John 5:30 and we're hearing what can be thought of as a legal presentation. Last week Jesus explained that those who were accusing Him were accusing the "Judge".

John 5:30- 31

"I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true.

Jesus is saying that there is complete accord between the Father and Son. He is sent by the Father. Remember we said that while God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal in power, dignity, glory, and are each God. Keep in mind that they are also each in reality (not simply mode of action) distinct persons and in the "economy" or function of the Trinity, the Son is "sent" by the Father. The Son was led perfectly while fully human by the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit now works on earth to exalt the Son to the glory of God the Father.

When Jesus said "If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true" then He was making a legal statement. Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15 teach that you must have multiple witnesses to go to court, they must agree, and they must be willing to participate in the judgment that is the result of their testimony. So Jesus begins to present the witnesses to His authority.

John 5:32-40

There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

Jesus identifies 4 witnesses to His authority; 1) John (although sinful man doesn't deserve a place in this list), 2) the works (perfect in timing and execution), 3) the Father (those who are spiritually dead don't respond to the Father), and 4) Scriptures from Genesis to Malachi (those who are spiritually dead don't hear the Holy Spirit in Scripture).

John 5:41-47

I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

The first point is that Jesus does not need glory from people. So He isn't presenting His witnesses to win a "following" and establish a political career in Palestine. Jesus points out the problem with politics down through the ages that people seek to get glory from people and God goes to the back burner if He gets a burner in mankind's hearts at all. The lesson of history is that we as a people will depart from God unless He intervenes. We compare one another with each other and these Jews in the first century did the same thing. This natural tendency will cause us to depart from the doctrines of Grace. How can you believe that you need a Savior if you receive glory from one another? Eventually you'll develop a doctrine that teaches that some of you have achieved a status that causes God to owe you something.

We are each born by nature the "children of wrath" and we need a Savior to pay the price for our rebellion. Any sin is sufficient to damn us but no sin is sufficient to keep us in chains as the Holy Spirit moves. Christians do not earn merit toward salvation but rather we stand in the merit of Christ. We are either justified by the work of Christ or we are not justified at all. The work of sanctification in a Christian's life is mean to reflect the work of God in them and it does not make them saved or unsaved (Romans 8).

Moses wrote "generally" of Christ. It is true that Moses spoke pretty specifically in Deuteronomy 18:15 but the Law points to Christ is so many areas that you can't pick out just one area. The Old Testament points to Christ in every major portion. The ritual aspects of the Law in particular point to Christ but even the first animal sacrifice to cloth the nakedness of Adam and Eve to Abraham's offering of Isaac testify of the need for a Messiah.

These teachings of Jesus were in Jerusalem. After this Jesus went north again to minister and to let things cool off in Jerusalem.

John 6:1-13

After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?" He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, "Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?" Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, "Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost." So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

Jesus knew what He would do and He knew it would be another testimony or witness to His authority. The reason there was grass to sit on was because of the timing in the spring near Passover. Notice that there were 5000 men. So if you added in the women and children then you'd be guessing the numbers would climb to 10,000 or more. Barley is a grain for poor people. It doesn't make particularly good bread and it grows on poorer soils. So these five "Hostess Twinkie" sized loafs of bread along with a few fish for flavor were a very small provision. The disciples didn't see any provision. However, as Christ begins to fulfill and testify of who He is, this mirrors the manna in the wilderness. There was more left than they started with and everyone was full so the extra was saved and distributed later.

John 6:14-15

When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, "This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!" Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

The people realized that they had "The Prophet" and so it would have been perfect at the Passover to make Jesus king and reestablish the earthly kingdom. However, the Kingdom of Heaven is spiritual and not physical. Jesus wasn't tempted here anymore than He was tempted by satan in the wilderness and He withdrew to the mountain. Jesus accomplished exactly what He meant to accomplish at exactly the right time. His obedience was perfect in every aspect. His ability to withdraw and have the time apart from the crowd was miraculous. Biblical critics have a problem with feeding the crowd but I don't think I've ever heard them complain about how improbable it was that Jesus could be by Himself and pray.

John 6:16-21

When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

This is not the same event as calming the storm but the testimony to the perfection of the Lamb of God is simply repeated. The disciples were likely moving from the north or east side over to Capernaum if Jesus went to the "other side" of the sea from Jerusalem before feeding the 5000. The Sea of Galilee (or Tiberius or Gennesaret or Chinnereth or Kinnereth) is a lake surrounded by hills and mountains that can suddenly get very scary. Getting swamped in a boat in the dark is not likely to end well and storms are often pictures of God's judgment on sin. Read the book of Jonah again if you forget that. This miracle, like the calming of the storm, is a testimony to the purity of Christ. The disciples knew that they could have died and they were unrighteous. We don't want what we deserve from God but rather we want Grace. Jesus wasn't walking on the water to show off but as a testimony to His sinlessness. Jesus can't sink beneath the waves of judgment for sin because He has no sin. Eventually, He laid down His life and went beneath the waves for your sin. 

John’s Gospel – Lesson 7

John presents us with contrasting interactions within his gospel. So far we've had Nicodemus and his self righteousness contrasted with John the Baptist's testimony of Jesus and the revival of the Samaritans. Today we have 2 healings and they are very different healings from many points of view. Remember where Jesus was. He walked due north into Samaria and the Pharisees who were opposed to His ministry stopped at the border. The Holy Spirit had gone before Him and prepared the Samaritans for revival and Jesus ministered there 2 days.

John 4:43-45

After the two days he departed for Galilee. (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.

Some folks point at this verse as the Bible contradicting itself. Scripture speaks of Jesus' place of origin as Nazareth in Galilee. So how can the Bible say that a prophet has no honor in his hometown when they welcomed Him in the next verse? Jesus received welcome but not honor for who He was. I think part of the critic's problem is that they do not stay in context. Remember the reception by the heretical Samaritans who repented and received Him as "Christ". The Samaritans honored Him. They, because of the work of the Holy Spirit, knew Him as the Messiah. John is making the point here that Jesus was welcomed but not honored in Galilee. The Galileans thought they knew Him but they didn't really know Him. They were looking for miracles like the ones they saw in Jerusalem. So this is not a contradiction in Scripture and if you think it is a contradiction then you're missing John's point.

John 4:46-54

So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." The official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." And he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

Jesus was back where He had made the water into wine. Rather than honoring Him as a prophet they were looking for more miracles. The official would likely have been a part of Herod's government in Galilee. He was in the port city of Capernaum and it was a hike to Cana but the man's son was dying. Jesus was a last resort and he was asking Jesus to do something out of desperation and not from faith. Jesus spoke a word of rebuke and the Official "took it for the team". The rebuke Jesus spoke to the official but in the rebuke the "you" was plural. In Georgia it would be "ya'll". It was a rebuke for wanting to see signs. So the Official, in a sense, was part of a crowd that wanted to see some power and not see some truth. But Capernaum was a long ways and the official asked again out of love for his child. We don't know how Jesus said, "your son will live" but the official believed. This was not a prophecy but rather was a word of power and grace going forth to heal the boy. The official headed back home and got word while he was on the road that his son was healed and as a result his entire household believed. The official got far more than he was looking for from Jesus because of God's grace.

John tells us that this was only the second sign in Cana and the worst part about the familiarity of the Galileans is this barrier they had to hearing the Word. The Samaritans turned at Christ's word while the Galileans didn't believe His words and wanted to see signs. Another "take home" message for the reader in these verses is that Jesus has the power over life and death. This will be an important part of His message to the religious leaders in Jerusalem.

John 5:1-9a

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me." Jesus said to him, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk." And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

We don't know the feast associated with this healing. This healing is almost a definition of Grace. The man didn't ask and didn't believe as far as we can tell. God, while we were yet sinners, moved in our lives too. Some manuscripts add a commentary on the stirring of the waters by an Angel and the healing that would occur as a result. The "best" texts do not include that commentary and some people speculate that it was added to explain what was going on. Scripture doesn't say that an Angel did this. It is likely that artesian well activity made the waters move and may have changed the temperature of the water. In any case, a tradition had developed that the reason the water moved was an angel and then someone got well and then the idea emerged that first person in was healed. We often view hot springs in the same way. President Roosevelt felt that way about Warm Springs, Georgia west of Atlanta. We know now that hot mineral water doesn't heal polio but it felt good.

    There has been speculation about why Jesus would start the conversation with "Do you want to be healed?" but I'm not sure how else you start a conversation with a guy sitting by a pool with a bunch of other sick people. It seems to me that walking up and gesturing to the water and saying "Do you want to be healed?" is a pretty good way to start the conversation. The sick man took it that way and explained his dilemma. The sick man indicates that this is a great way to be healed if you've got your track shoes on but he'd been sick 38 years and he still wasn't getting wet fast enough to get healed. Jesus goes right to the point and tells him to take up his bed and walk. This healing looks random to us. God isn't random. I had a statistics professor who once said, "You don't need to believe the world is random in order to find statistics to be a useful construct for understanding the world." What he was saying was that we look for patterns and random just describes our ignorance. God tells us that He has all things under control. He isn't capricious but He certainly doesn't explain everything to us. The "why" of this persons healing is one of those things. We can see the outcome and how God used it this time.

John 5:9b-18

Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed." But he answered them, "The man who healed me, that man said to me, 'Take up your bed, and walk.' " They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?" Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you." The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Jesus' healing of the sick man caused a cascade of events. Nothing was out of control but the struggle was begging to heat up. Nicodemus' visit was a night and a one on one event. God was expanding the impact and conflict with sinful man at this point. The Jews were (are) really serious about their "blue laws" and the healed man (after 38 years who could blame him) walks right into an interpretation of the Sabbath prohibition against work. I really like his explanation of why he was "working". If the Guy who heals you tells you to take up your bed and walk on the Sabbath then you take it up and walk. The Jews at this point at corrupted the law and held to their corrupt view to such a degree that they couldn't celebrate the healing of someone after 38 years.

    We know that there is no general association that makes infirmity the result of sin. We need to avoid that conclusion and Jesus warns us away from that conclusion elsewhere. However, we can't conclude the opposite either. That would be to say that infirmity is never the result of sin and Jesus warns this individual about his sin. The man's response is very odd. He runs straight to the Jews and tells them that it was Jesus that healed him and told him to "work" on the Sabbath. His action didn't surprise Jesus but it surprises me. I think John is once again drawing a contrast of first an official who had his son healed and came to faith and secondly a man sick 38 years who is healed and seems to have wandered immediately. We continue to see less faith where we expect more faith and more faith where we would expect less. We'll come back to the necessary work of the Holy Spirit in later verses.

    Jesus was ready to begin making explicit truth claims and He knew what mankind was like. He knew that, as Romans teaches, there was no one righteous, not even one, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. Also, we find Jesus expanding the Trinitarian teachings. The claims of the Jews would result in a death penalty. The word "answered" means that Jesus was giving His legal defense but it made His opponents angrier because of His claim to divinity.

John 5:19-29

So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

There are a number of Trinitarian statements in here and we'll finish up looking at these today. In the economy of the Trinity, the Son follows the Father's lead. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father and eternally in harmony with Him and acting with Him. Greater works will occur. For example, raising someone from the dead, resurrection of the Son to Glory at the right hand of the Father, the judgment of Jerusalem, and growing the Church worldwide. The Holy Spirit doesn't attract attention to Himself. Here we see that, as the Father gives life so the Son gives life to whom He will and we know that is through the working of the Holy Spirit. Within the Trinity, all judgment is delegated to the Son and all honor is due the Son. You can't honor the Father without honoring the Son. Jesus will be the one who calls us from the grave (should He tarry).

Christ has life in Himself in accord with God the Father. Within the "being" of the Trinity the Son is equal in power, glory, and being. This is the "ontological" Trinity and it is one. However, when we talk about the economy of the Trinity we are discussion the persons and roles. In this case the Father sends the Son, the Son acquires our justification, the Holy Spirit applies that justification to the elect. The Son is subordinate in the sense that He is sent. The Son doesn't send the Father. Don't miss the point here that there is a single means of salvation. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. People who reject Christ don't have the Father.

    You know what should have terrified the Jews accusing Jesus at this point. Jesus entered into a formal defense of His activity on the Sabbath just like the Father and, in this court with the Jews, Jesus pointed out that He was the Judge. Grace was in His words and in no other place and He was the righteous and holy Judge. Accusing the Judge in the highest court in the universe is not a good position to be in. That was the position of those accusing Christ.

John’s Gospel – Lesson 6

Religion is a funny thing. Martin Luther said that even after seeking God for decades and ministering His grace to others constantly he still felt the "dirt" clinging to him of a heart that wanted to do something so that God would necessarily do something in return.

    Our sin nature can result in an affinity for religion. It becomes a career and a political pursuit. In the last lesson we saw how Nicodemus working to manipulate religion and God ran into Jesus and he was stumped. He said, "How can these things be?" Nicodemus was the best that organized Judaism had to offer. But God had, and has always maintained, a people that He kept for Himself. John the Baptist was the epitome of God's work in keeping sinful man pure during the life of Jesus.

John 3:22-30

After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized (for John had not yet been put in prison). Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him." John answered, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease."

    Being a Baptist it is only right for me to stop here and comment that it strains credulity to think that Jesus and John went to a place where water was plentiful so that they could sprinkle or even baptize by effusion. I understand the cultural and historical reasons for other modes of baptism but I'm happy to be a Baptist. However, mode of baptism is not the most important thing in these verses. Look at the humility of John. The reaction of John to the increase of Jesus' ministry is remarkable because it is so contrary to human nature. It is contrary to your nature. Only a man with a deep surrender to God can rest in what he has done and leave his fate with God.

    The last of the Old Testament prophets sees the bride (the Church, those believers called by the Spirit) moving toward the bridegroom and his joy is complete. When John the Baptist puts it in those terms then we see how inappropriate it would be for John to protest or fight to retain his following. I our lives we have a real difficulty in trusting God's sovereignty when He redirects our life. For John the Baptist, God had dealt with his pride, He had a sense of calling in submission to God, He was walking as directed by God, and He trusted God with all that he was and would ever be. John was announcing the Gospel.

John 3:31-36

He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Here is John the Baptist preaching the Gospel. Just as Jesus would later tell Peter that "flesh and blood" had not produced the revelation of the person and work of Jesus, it is also true in this case that John the Baptist had this revelation by the Holy Spirit. These verses pair with what Jesus said earlier in the chapter. Jesus said, "whoever believes" and John says "whoever receives" but John also points out that the testimony of Jesus was not received. Many people were interested in the preaching and miracles but only those the Father gives the Son by the Spirit respond. John knew that and knew he served by the grace of God.

    There has been some question about the "He" who gives the Spirit without measure. Some have said that it means that God gives Christ the Spirit without measure. Some say Christ gives the Spirit without measure. In context it seems clear to me that Christ utters the words of God as the Word of God perfectly because God the Father sends God the Spirit to God the Son without measure. The verse that follows teaches that God the Father loves God the Son and gives all things into His hand. John the Baptist also teaches that Jesus is the only way to peace with God and eternal life. We are naturally in rebellion against God and are by nature Children of Wrath. Prior to salvation, we are in treason against our creator.

    Even in various religions we work to develop a "quid pro quo" for our purposes. We look for a force we can manipulate. We want a benefit for our devotion. This is just more sin heaped up against us for the Day of Judgment. So the just wrath of God doesn't come as a result of not obeying the Son. The wrath is there already as a result of your sin even before rejecting Christ. After the Jew Nicodemus stumbles and the Jew John the Baptist testifies faithfully to Christ then we turn to a person who was a heretic along with having "issues" in her life. Jews considered the Samaritans unclean because they didn't follow the law faithfully and had heretical beliefs about worship. They were generally lost but they claimed Abraham as father just like the Jews.

John 4:1-9

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

The heat from the Pharisees would not extend to Samaria. In fact they would cross to the other side of the Jordan and avoid Samaria. The strange part for the woman at the well was not that Jesus would speak to her (although that was odd enough) but that he would drink from her vessel. It would be viewed as ritually unclean. Notice also that Jesus was tired. It seems like a small thing to realize that Jesus, fully God and fully man would be tired. However, for folks who have the false teaching that Jesus was God and only appeared to be a man then this verse hurts. You'd need to believe that Jesus was pretending to be tired. Jesus was tired. His human body got tired, thirsty, and hungry just like yours does.

John 4:10-26

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."

Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he."

Jesus is that gift for the forgiveness of sins. The woman spars a bit and actually does better than Nicodemus did but she has some humility. She was probably there at noon to avoid the other women. Living or moving water was considered a sign of God's provision (Jer. 2:13; Zech. 14:8). From her point of view he needed a vessel and hers would be viewed as unclean. She was not ashamed of being a Samaritan and had a sort of pride in the historic well that she used each day. She goes at the core of the separation between Jew and Samaritan by arguing against Jerusalem. She was wrong but Jesus deals quickly with that dispute and goes at the deeper problem that no one worships in spirit and truth unless the Holy Spirit is within and that the Holy Spirit will enable that worship soon.

    Knowing that she was speaking to a prophet, she points to the expected Messiah who could come and speak with authority and Jesus simply says that He is that prophet. Even the Samaritans understood what "Messiah" and "Christ" would be. So she takes off to tell people about who she found out at the well.

John 4:27-38

Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

Jesus was ministering where the Holy Spirit was working. When a harvest is ready you don't wait. Here the Holy Spirit (the sower) and the Son (the reaper) are rejoicing together. The disciples were going to participate in this same harvest soon. Jesus was ministering to those groups of people coming out of Sychar and for the joy of the harvest was not eating.

John 4:39-45

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me all that I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world."

After the two days he departed for Galilee. (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.

There was revival in Samaria in this town of Sychar and the Holy Spirit made real disciples there. I imagine that the Pharisees would have found it a scandal that Jesus was even in Samaria but Jesus stayed with them and taught them. They learned enough to say that He was Messiah and the Savior of the world. Galilee would be tougher because of a presumed familiarity and that assumption, like Nicodemus, that they were right with God. They were blind to the Messiah, would argue with Him, and reject Him.

John’s Gospel – Lesson 5

I've heard many sermons on the Pharisee named Nicodemus. He was a religious man, a teacher, and a leader. But religion is a funny thing. Our sin nature can result in an affinity for religion. It becomes a career and a political pursuit. The politics of religion in most historical eras was the center of power and leadership. We like the separation of church and state but in many ages they have been intertwined. Nicodemus ruled and he taught and he was accustomed to verbal contests. However, he had no idea how far out of his league he was when he went to negotiate and make initial contact with the "Rabbi".

 

John 3:1-8

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Nicodemus knew that Jesus was influential enough that He would need to be dealt with but he didn't want to be seen with Him so he went in the night. He didn't want to be seen with Him during the day because he was a ruler of the Jews. He didn't want his career messed up by association with a controversial rabbi. I think sometimes there should have been the hiss of an arrow in flight and the thud as it hits the mark when Jesus spoke. I've been hit by some of those. Here Jesus doesn't do the seeker friendly thing. He tells Nicodemus that it is impossible for him to enter into the Kingdom of God.

 

You can't decide to be born again any more than you decided to be born the first time. Remember that John told us earlier in the Gospel that (1:12-13) all who received Jesus, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God? However, remember that John went on to stress that we are not born as a result of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. Here the Gospel is driving it home again and making the point with someone who had the blood, he had the will of the flesh, and he had all the support of man that anyone could hope for. All he really had was three strikes against him.

 

Nicodemus had a very rude reply. Argumentation was part of his work and he jumped on what he perceived as a ridiculous statement by Jesus. The response from Jesus is very calm but it has some portions that are not isn't easy to fully understand. Jesus said you needed to be born of water and Spirit to see the Kingdom of Heaven. There are a few ways to interpret this statement but you know I like simple when simple will do the job.

 

One simple explanation is that Jesus meant a natural birth (water) and supernatural birth (Spirit). That is possible but that means Jesus was stating the obvious since you need to be born naturally just to be. So the person who isn't born naturally doesn't have a problem because they don't exist. However, it does parallel the second statement of that "which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Well maybe it does and maybe it doesn't. Because born of the flesh is flesh. That is your problem. You need to be of another kind and that kind is born of the Spirit. I think the most likely exegesis (and profitable line of study for these verses) is that "water and spirit" are an Old Testament link to purification and rebirth. The Old Testament prophets would have been the subtext to everything Jesus and Nicodemus would have said.

 

The Old Testament prophets always pointed out the problem of impurity and spiritual death. Israel was dirty and dead.

 

For example,

Isaiah 32:15-17

until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.

Isaiah 44:3-5

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, 'I am the LORD's,' another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, 'The LORD's,' and name himself by the name of Israel."

Ezekiel 36:24-27

I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Given the context and the speaker's common background in the scriptures it seems reasonable to think that this is what Jesus was referring to. So perhaps Jesus was drawing from these verses to stress purification and a new birth that is a birth of a different kind. Keep in mind that we are heading to a "Living Water" verse very soon. It seems to me that the light is going on in Nicodemus and he realizes that he was wrong. Maybe he began to remember verses that he should have remembered faster. He can in thinking that he needed to talk to a poorly schooled fringe rabbi and found instead the Lord of Glory.

 

John 3:9-15

Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Nicodemus admits ignorance at last and Jesus is right to criticize Nicodemus as a teacher because this is Old Testament revelation. These really are things that a teacher of Israel should have known. It is significant that Nicodemus started the conversation speaking as "we" and now Jesus moves to the "we" and I think it is a point back at the prophets here.

 

Nicodemus comes in with the "we" of a few of the current teachers of Israel and Jesus finishes up with the "we" of God's Word. The walls should have vibrated when Jesus said "we".

 

The prophets, and Jesus here, spoke of what they knew, and gave witness to what they had seen, but Nicodemus had failed to receive the testimony. So if he fails on earthly things then who is he going to believe heavenly things? Here is the Son of Man, the Messiah, standing in front of the best that organized first century Judaism had to offer and that man didn't recognize the Messiah. They waited 400 years, had John the Baptist to give them the heads up, and missed the boat. Sin goes right to the core and blinds us.

 

Jesus again foreshadows His crucifixion by comparing himself to the serpent lifted up in the wilderness. Remember that in that story everyone was dying until they looked up to the serpent lifted up in the wilderness.

 

John 3:16-21

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."

These are famous verses. When we read the entire passage we would never fall into the error of universalism. We see that God loved the world and gave His only Son. Then we see that whoever believes has eternal life. We don't see (yet) who that whoever will be. We don't see it here but we will in the rest of the Gospel. God saves the world means that God saves from all nations and not just Israel by making Israel of all nations. But some are not going to believe and are condemned already.

 

The condemnation is the result of a sacrificial love for darkness. It isn't a rational thing to reject God but it is produced by a sin nature that the Holy Spirit must conquer. As we pray for the lost we pray that God will purify and resurrect. Unlike Nicodemus, and thanks to God's Grace, we know the way these things can be. It is as a result of God the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:24-27) taking the unsaved from the nations and gathering from all countries and bringing us into an inheritance of grace.

 

He cleans us from all our sins and from all our idols. And He gives new hearts, and puts a new spirit within us. He removes the heart of stone from your flesh and gives us hearts of flesh.
He is the one who puts His Spirit within us and causes us to walk in His statutes and be careful to obey His rules. All glory to Christ our Savior and God our Father. Amen.