John’s Gospel – Lesson 14

Last week we ended with Jesus' proclamation that He was the Great "I am" – or ego emmi – and this week we will start with a theological question from the disciples about a blind man.

 

John 9:1-7

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

 

The disciples were caught in the logical fallacy of a false dilemma. They asked if it was the blind man or his parents without considering that there may be other possible explainations. Jesus doesn't mean to indicate that misfortune is never the result of sin. We see in Scripture that it is sometimes the result of sin and, for example, in the case of David with Bathsheba, their son died as a result of their sin. So it wasn't a dumb question it was just poorly formulated. Next time you find yourself about to point out that a person asked a dumb question then just say it was "poorly formulated".

 

We should never fall in the trap of thinking that all suffering is divine punishment for sin. We live in a fallen world and all sorts of bad things happen as a result of living in a fallen world but not every bad thing that happens to each individual is the product of their individual sin. God is sovereign and in control and He will lead you throughout your life but that way may be hard.

 

One key thing that we learn from the book of Job is that we can't associate a cause and effect with a person's relative physical prosperity or physical suffering. In fact, to do so in the life of one of God's loved ones is risky. Job had to pray for his "comforters" so that God would not judge them for the lies they told about Job. Elihu was an exception and did not need a prayer of mediation because he had not said wrong things about Job. God's primary message in Job – if we reduce it to the bare bones – is that we are not smart enough to understand why bad things happen but we are smart enough to trust God and not say wrong things about Him in the midst of our trials. We need to pray through until we can agree with Paul who said, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18)."

 

The picture here is that this particular man was there to be healed for the glory of God. Jesus says that it is daytime and that He is the light and that they must do what God directs while it is spiritually daytime and before spiritual nightfall.

 

Jesus methods here are remarkable and I imagine that people have been asking why he made mud from His saliva and put it in this guy's eyes for 2000 years now. It is a good question. If Jesus could raise Lazarus just by calling him then why stick mud on someone's face. Well, John Calvin says not to speculate beyond the text and so I'll only speculate a little bit beyond the text. Lets read the next few verses.

 

John 9:8-12

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?" Some said, "It is he." Others said, "No, but he is like him." He kept saying, "I am the man." So they said to him, "Then how were your eyes opened?" He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' So I went and washed and received my sight." They said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I do not know."

 

It is possible that this blind man suffered from anophthalmia or, in other words, was born without eyes. His neighbors had trouble recognizing him and argued about whether it was really him or not. He used the term "εγω ειμι" to say "I am who I am". If he didn't have eyes and Jesus chose to make mud to make him new eyes then he would be hard to recognize. That would explain why the neighbors had arguments about him. If there were no changes in his face then they shouldn't really have had much trouble recognizing him. So maybe that is why Jesus made mud.

 

The more important picture here is of those who, like we were, are spiritually blind but are given light by the work of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Notice that the question in verse 12 does qualify as a dumb question. They were asking a man born blind who had just received his sight at the Pool of Siloam if he knew where the guy was who healed him. He couldn't have picked Jesus out of a lineup.

 

I think John intends these verses to be a little bit funny. They are sad but funny too. Remember the last healing on the Sabbath of the lame person who didn't support Jesus and didn't care to argue with the authorities. The blind man is a different sort of person and one of the first converts to Christ.

 

John 9:13-17

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, "He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see." Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" And there was a division among them. So they said again to the blind man, "What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet."

 

The Pharisees were split because Jesus had healed another man on the Sabbath day. They were not allowed to kneed bread and perhaps that action was similar to making eyeballs out of spit and clay. From the point of view of the blind man it was pretty simple. It was mud, washing, and seeing. And the spiritual insight was present in this man. God didn't just give him physical eyes but He also gave him spiritual eyes. This is another part of why I think the man was born without eyes. Our sin nature results in a critical defect in that we are spiritually dead. We need to be born again. We need another birth. My mother (bless her for nothing can disturb her blessedness today) would see a deer in my backyard and get excited because when she was a girl they were not present in the southern Piedmont of the USA. She would try to show that deer to my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law is blind but my mother would keep saying look right there. See it? You need God present and acting to show something to a blind person. You need God present and acting to present the Gospel to a lost person. Like I've said before, you are not selling Amway. Getting people saved is a resurrection of the dead but God is doing it. You can't do it by yourself but you're not supposed to do it by yourself. It isn't your skill and ability that saves people but the power of God. So you can rest in the power of God as you share and expect to see things happen.

 

John 9:18

The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?" His parents answered, "We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself." (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."

 

The first "solution" for the authorities was to deny that the person with eyes really was the blind man who had been begging previously. The blind man's parents were not brave enough to stand up for Jesus in the face of the Jewish authorities and the threat of being excluded from the synagogue. They simply confirm the identity of their son and then suggest they ask him what happened. They would have been viewed as being the likely cause of their blind son. They would have likely accepted some blame down through the years and they were not ready to be excluded even further from the life of the community.

 

John 9:24-34

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, "Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner." He answered, "Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" He answered them, "I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?" And they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from." The man answered, "Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." They answered him, "You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?" And they cast him out.

 

This person may have been born without eyes but he had a quick brain and a pretty quick tongue too. He sticks to the facts and then starts to purposely annoy the authorities. He never was part of the community in the sense that his parents were so he isn't too worried about being excluded from the synagogue since he likely only had limited access to start with. I think this is also an early fulfillment of the promise found in Mark 13:11 that says, "And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit."

 

The blind man confronts them with their sinful, willful ignorance and they accuse him of being born in sin – which is true – and then cast him out. I don't think he minded to much because I suspect he had a backlog of things he wanted to go look at.

 

John 9:35-41

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He answered, "And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you." He said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him. Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind." Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, "Are we also blind?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains.

 

Jesus went and found the man that was formerly blind and asked him if he believed in the Son of Man. In essence, Jesus was asking if he believed in the Messiah. He asked Jesus – who he recognized presumably from His voice as a prophet – to tell him who the Son of Man is. When Jesus identifies Himself to this formerly blind man the man responds with belief and worship. Note that Jesus receives worship. John is repeatedly stressing the divinity of Jesus in this gospel.

 

Some of the Pharisees took offence at Jesus' statement that the blind would see and the seeing would be blind. Jesus makes a very important point. The blindness – even the spiritual death – while insurmountable in the fallen state of man by man is still a willful and guilt producing state. It really brings us around to the core of our fallen state that we don't seek God and are guilty. The logic of God's existence is sufficient and the gospel is sufficient and yet apart from a move of the Holy Spirit we chose to remain blind and argue that we see. This compounds and confirms our guilt and sin. In Matthew 5:3, Jesus says, "blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God. Poor in spirit means those who are askers or beggars. In these verses we have a blind beggar who knew he was blind and admitted it. Religion apart from Jesus consists of blindness arguing that they see. I've seen physically blind people refuse to be blind. Of course they are blind and it becomes apparent to those who can see. The lost person's need for the Savior, the Son of Man, the Son of God, and the Promised Messiah is always there and we as Christians can be the instruments God uses in prayer and in presenting the good news of the Cross.

 

Jesus said that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that no one could come to the Father except by Him (John 14:6). Other religions deny that and argue that they see clearly when in fact they blind to sin, God's holiness, and the only forgiveness for sin available.

 

 

 

 

John’s Gospel – Lesson 13

Next verses are legal arguments with the Lord of the Universe. We never change and we never learn apart from the mercy and grace of God.

 

John 8:12-13

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am₂ the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." So the Pharisees said to him, "You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true."

This is another of Jesus' seven "I am" statements. The first was the declaration that He is the "Bread of Life" in chapter 6 verses 35 and 48. Don't miss that Jesus promises that someone who faithfully follows Him will have "illumination" about the why and where of life.

 

The Pharisees objected to this statement on legal grounds. To be admissible in their courts you needed 2 witnesses who agreed. Ironically the word used by the Pharisees for "witness" gives us the root for our word "martyr" because of all those who have witnessed about Jesus and died. Just like unbelievers in our day, the Pharisees rejected what Jesus said about himself.

 

John 8:14-18

Jesus answered, "Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am₃ the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me."

Jesus statements did qualify as true because He had firsthand knowledge of these things and knew He would return. In His humanity, Jesus didn't judge anyone. He wasn't going to judge anyone simply in His human nature. However, if He had judged then his judgment would have been true because He would judge as the Father told Him to judge. The Pharisees had the "legal" requirement of two judges. The Father and the Son testified together. Keep in mind that miracles do not have the purpose of proving that God exists. God's existence is self evident from creation. Miracles were given as signs to bear witness to the truth of Jesus' teaching. Grudem says that "A miracle is a less common kind of God's activity in which he arouses people's awe and wonder and bears witness to himself." The Pharisees were ignoring the proofs that Christ and God the Father provided and asking for a legal proof.

 

John 8:19-20

They said to him therefore, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also." These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

The Pharisees were in over their heads on this one because in rejecting Christ and His witness they also rejected God the Father. When Scripture says that His "hour" had not come it is using a word that implies something like our "historic moment" concept. Jesus' "historic moment" had not yet come along so they didn't act. This is a good point to be reminded that God is sovereign and nothing that happened to Jesus was out of God's ultimate control.

 

John 8:21-24

So he said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come." So the Jews said, "Will he kill himself, since he says, 'Where I am going, you cannot come'?" He said to them, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am₄ he you will die in your sins."

This is a warning to those who were listening but they wouldn't hear it. They view Jesus as a man and not as the Messiah. Even though Jesus says plainly that they will die unless they believe that He is the messiah. This is another use of the particular phrase "εγω ειμι" or I am that I am in verse 24.

 

John 8:25-27

So they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him." They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father.

Jesus has been speaking plainly and the Holy Spirit was at work but many who were listening were simply not hearing what was being said.

 

John 8:28-30

So Jesus said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am₅ he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him." As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

Jesus points forward to the Cross and the necessity for the indwelling Holy Spirit for our understanding and growth in a knowledge of Him (εγω ειμι). There is a difference between professing faith and possessing faith. Many of these who "believed in Him" were professors but not possessors of saving faith. This becomes apparent in their responses and Jesus' statements about them.

 

John 8:31-38

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father."

This conversation is with those who professed to believe in Jesus. They professed but only if they abided in His word were they truly His disciples. At least some of them reacted to the insinuation that they were not free even though they were in bondage to sin. This strong reaction against the Word of God is produced by a sin nature in bondage to the father of sin and not God the Father.

 

Romans 8:39-41

They answered him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did." They said to him, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God."

This is an important point here. Jesus points out what Paul later writes about in the epistles. Just because you are genetically Israeli does not mean that you are a child of Abraham. I am – by the Grace of God – a child of Abraham. Abraham is my Father but He was not the father of these Jewish unbelievers. This argument about heritage is prominent in the book of Romans and some folks act like Paul invented the argument. Here Jesus explains it precisely and then what happens? They make a childish crack about His origins.

 

Romans 8:42-47

Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God."

Jesus is not wondering, "Why?" when He asks why they don't understand what He says. He is asking rhetorical questions. They don't understand because they cannot bear to hear the truth and they don't hear because they are not of God. We should never grow tired of meditating on the grace that has made us the offspring of Abraham. We saw it in Isaiah and of course in Romans but we should never get tired of it. We've been grafted in by the mercy of God and we can rest in God's nurture.

 

John 8:48-50

The Jews answered him, "Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge.

Remember that this all started as a legal argument. Their argument has now degenerated into an "ad hominem" argument or name calling. The problem that the Pharisees have – among other problems – is that they don't have the Judge on their side. The Judge is seeking to give glory to Christ. They have managed to end up arguing against the Judge in the Judge's court. That isn't going to end well for them.

 

John 8:51-53

Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." The Jews said to him, "Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, 'If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.' Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?"

Since they didn't recognize Jesus as the Messiah – and since they had a flawed view of who the Messiah would be – they couldn't see Christ as greater than Abraham and the prophets.

 

John 8:54-56

Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, 'He is our God.' But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad."

The Old Testament saints looked forward to the Cross. They knew they needed a savior and forgiveness of sins. We can see prophecy of Jesus' coming and sacrifice throughout the Old Testament and Abraham will be in heaven with us and justified as we are justified.

 

John 8:57-59

So the Jews said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am₆." So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

Here Jesus claims to be God incarnate. This is another "εγω ειμι" but it stands alone and points back to the burning bush of Moses. What Jesus is saying was not lost on the Pharisees and they attempt to stone Jesus but it was not yet the "historic moment" and Jesus walks out of the temple.

John’s Gospel – Lesson 12

Today we pick up at the last day of the Feast of Booths. This was a harvest festival with a focus on God's blessing. The plants that were waved in worship (palm, myrtle, and willow along with a citron) were the product of water in a dry place. They showed God's blessing physically. I mentioned last time that the Psalms 113 to 118 were used in worship during this festival. Psalm 114:7-8 says, "Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.

John 7:37-39

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' " Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

The Holy Spirit does a work to make this happen. We start off with hearts of stone that are dead and then God gives us hearts of flesh that are living and can obey. Ezekiel uses this imagery.

 

Ezekiel 11:19-20

And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel 36:25-27

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.

I think we neglect the Holy Spirit. In part it is because the Holy Spirit's purpose in our age is to glorify Christ. But we can seek that move in our hearts. We can ask Him to move in our hearts and glorify Christ in all we do.

 

At the very least we can assure ourselves that we want to seek God with all our hearts and yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit to do all that He would lead us to do. He will enable us to do His will.

 

We know the problem of our hard flinty hearts but we've been made alive when we were dead in out trespasses and sins. We know that rivers of living water are supposed to flow and in working out our salvation with fear and trembling we are going to seek Him if we ever detect a lack of the move of the Holy Spirit right? Because we know, from sacred Scripture, that if there is no flow then it isn't because of a deficiency in the Father. We have seen how backsliding crept into the lives of others and we've got enough sense to hit the panic button right? Fear and trembling will make you hit the panic button when you see less than a river. If God wants a river and I've got a creek or a seep and I'm working out my salvation with fear and trembling then I simply will not ignore it or be satisfied that situation. Prayer, and even desperate prayer, will result to cry out to God for His power through the Holy Spirit so that we'll see rivers of water and have a God minister through us in whatever Grace Gifts He uses in our lives.

 

We will not be complacent. We cannot be complacent because God by His grace will stir us up and make us uncomfortable until we obey and walk in God's law and live our life carefully to please Him.

 

John 7: 40-52

When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This really is the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?" So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why did you not bring him?" The officers answered, "No one ever spoke like this man!" The Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed." Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" They replied, "Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."

There was a real confusion about where Jesus was from. How do you get a learned prophet from the hillbillies in Galilee? No consensus was achieved and they simply argued about Jesus rather than acted. I wasn't time yet. He still had the winter to work. The temple officers couldn't act because of the Holy Spirit.

 

Can you imagine walking into the Temple and approaching though an invisible Cloud of Holiness and Glory that you couldn't see toward the Perfect Lamb of God to arrest Him? They couldn't care what they authorities thought at that moment because they were confronted with the Holy and all they could do was listen. Nicodemus had a conversation with Jesus early in the Gospel of John and he speaks up but he is accused of being from Galilee simply for suggesting that someone is guilty until proven innocent.

 

Arrogance and pride kept the chief priests and Pharisees from changing their hearts. The Holy Spirit can break down arrogance and pride so we can run with patience the course that God has set before us.

The following verses are not in all of the early Greek manuscripts and appear in other places (like Luke) in some other texts. We don't have the original which is called the "autographa" and we believe that divine inspiration occurred at that point. Some copying errors occurred over the years but they have never been substantive with respect to doctrine or biblical history.

 

What happened with the following verses is not clear but I don't think there is any reason to doubt they are Scripture. The problem is that we aren't really sure where they are supposed to be. They fit very well where we have them in John so we'll study them here.

 

John 8

53 [[They went each to his own house, 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" 11 She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."]]

 

This was a trap for Jesus constructed by the scribes and Pharisees. The woman was likely engaged to be married since they specifically indicated that she should be stoned rather than simply be executed for adultery. Stoning was specified for being unfaithful during engagement. I hope this helps you understand Joseph's position with regard to Mary before Jesus' birth.

 

If Jesus said, "Yes. Stone her", then the Romans would react because they controlled the death penalty. If Jesus said, "No. Don't stone her", then He would be rejecting the Mosaic Law. So this activity was not motivated by a desire to be righteous and please God but rather it was motivated by a desire to accuse Jesus of unrighteousness.

 

Jesus didn't react to their accusations directly. This is the only example of Jesus writing in the Bible. It isn't that anyone would think he wasn't literate but this is the only example of Him writing. So what is going on? Well we don't know for sure. We have another example of God writing with His finger (Exodus 31:18) when He gave us the 10 commandments.

 

Many have speculated that Jesus was writing out specific sins and looking the sinner in the eye. That certainly fits with the rest of the facts. I can't think of anything more frightening that having Jesus say "let him who is without sin cast the first stone" and then stare at me and start writing specifics in the sand. I'd bail and run. He started with the older and more honored ones and worked down but pretty soon they were all gone.

 

So with all the accusers gone … there were no witnesses for a trial. This was a kangaroo court but it was still a court governed by the Mosaic Law. This is relevant in the next conversation Jesus has. No witnesses then in a trial no testimony. You must have 2 that agree to proceed.

 

12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

 

Lamps were also part of the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus promises light for our walk. If you are camping out in the dark in a Tabernacle/Booth then a lamp is a precious thing for moving around at night. Jesus promises that if we follow the lamp then we'll be able to see where to place our feet.

 

I've always liked Psalm 119:105 that says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." We get a lamp for our feet so we can see where to place the next step. Just like a flashlight in the forest. You can see where to put your feet.

 

However, the Word is also a light to our path. That is, we can see a light indicating our goal. We see the light (like the hotel commercial, "we'll leave the light on") so that we see the destination. Like a campfire in the forest. So you see the campfire and know where you are going and what your goal is but you also have the lamp for your feet so you can see where to put the next step. The problem we have is that we want floodlights on like a stadium so we can have everything clear and in view. Well you will not get the entire game plan before you get into the game. We don't like that one bit we want the entire map first. I'm heading for California in a few days. I really like having all sorts of maps. I'm thankful that God is OK with me having maps for the entire route before I start. But in life, God lets me know about today and God lets me know about my end and goal. But I really don't know about tomorrow or even how long I have until I see my goal.

 

I think that one of the strengths of knowing this is that you can rest in it. James the brother of Jesus exhorts us about this and says in James 4:13-17:

    

James 4:13-17

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

The right thing here is to rest your future in God's hands. You have today and you have eternity but you're going to need to trust God with the in between or else you'll be in sin.

 

John 8:13

Next verses are legal arguments with the Lord of the Universe. We never change and we never learn apart from the mercy and grace of God.

 

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.