Monday, March 18, 2024

John 8:30-36, Abiding in Jesus’ Word

We concluded our previous post asking, “what do you think of Jesus?”  Today’s passage seems to be answering the question, “what would Jesus say to you if you were to profess faith in Him?  John says many believed in Him“ (v30), and then Jesus addressed those among “the Jews” who “believed Him” (v30).  We have explained that the term “Jews” refers to the leadership (see Day 4 on John 7:11-18). 

Perhaps this was the time when Nicodemus believed in Jesus.  He had argued about the treatment of Jesus and been reproved wrongly by his fellow Jews (Jn. 7:50-52).  Perhaps Joseph of Arimathea was in this group.  He was the member of the Jewish ruling council whose tomb was borrowed for three days, after the crucifixion of Jesus (Mk. 15:43; Lk. 23:50).  Until the time he asked to bury the body of Jesus he had remained secret about his faith “for fear of the Jews” (Jn.19:38).  As Jesus’ ministry continued there came to be many among the leaders in this category.  Note this passage from John 12:42-43:

42 Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

Why did Jesus challenge these believers at this point?  There are many who see the issue to be, was their faith genuine?  If their faith was not genuine then they would not experience the freedom Jesus offered.  Jesus made public confession of Him a critical issue in what it means to be in a relationship with Him (Matt. 10:32-33).  One brother put it like this:

They were just converted – converted under a single sermon.  They had had no time to test their faith.  Jesus assures them that if their faith should abide the test, if it should produce obedience to his commandments and a holy life, it would be proof that their faith was genuine, for the tree is known by its fruit. (Albert Barnes)

But one difficulty with this view is that we are told, “many believed in Him” (v30).  In John 1:12 and 3:16 and elsewhere we are promised that all who believe in Him have eternal life.  Perhaps this is why Jesus challenged these particular believers here.  The goal of a believer in Christ is to grow and mature in His faith.  In other words, he needs to be a follower or disciple of Christ.  Jesus challenged them to become “disciples indeed” by abiding (remaining) in His word.  John, both in his Gospel (John 15) and his letters (1 and 2 John) uses the word “abide” to refer to our ongoing “union and communion” with Christ.  Without this the believer will not experience the freedom Jesus offers in this life.

Jesus didn’t really raise the question as to whether their faith was genuine.  But He did, clearly, exhort them, and us, to continue on in our relationship with Him.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Psalm 139

This Psalm is a favorite for many.  God’s knowledge of His people is an immense encouragement to many.  The third stanza is often quoted in pro-life settings for what it says about the unborn child.  The closing verses are often quoted in prayer and are worth memorization.

We referred to God’s knowledge of His people.  This Psalm is about God’s deep and intimate knowledge of us; but note that it is very personal.  It applies to each individual in the corporate body of Israel or the Church.  David writes this and fills it with “You” (he is speaking directly to God) and “me” (he refers to God’s knowledge of him).  So this is not simply a Hymn about God’s omniscience.  It is God’s omniscience in the context of His full and complete knowledge of the individual.  God knows the universe and eternity.  But what is amazing is that the same God knows me.

The overall thoughts are not hard to understand, in my view.  Our need is to take time to meditate on these things.

·         The fact of this knowledge God has for me, v1-6.  God knows because He has searched us (v1), as spies searched out the land before Israel crossed the Jordan (always connotes a diligent and difficult probing); and because He has winnowed (root word is pitchfork used to toss the stalks at harvest to separate them so they can dry) my path and my lying down.  Two things we might do without thinking: walk a familiar path and lay down for a rest; but God knows intimately what we take for granted.  He understands (v2) my thought, meaning He has insight, not just knowing my thought but why I have these thoughts and where they are leading me.  He is acquainted (v3) with my ways (choices), meaning he is familiar with them.  He encloses (hedges) us in, in back and in front.  Spurgeon understood the imagery to be that God walks behind observing our faults and dispensing His grace and walks in front providing our needs according to His foreknowledge on the path He has ordained for us to walk (Eph. 2:10).  Truly this knowledge God has for us is too wonderful to fully appreciate.

·         The inescapability of this knowledge, v7-12.  There is no place in the universe nor time of day (or night) when I am outside the knowledge of God.

·         The extent of this knowledge, v13-16.  Even before I left my mother’s womb, yea even before I entered my mother’s womb, God knew me!

·         The value of this knowledge, v17-18.  To a person walking in wickedness this knowledge might be and should be frightening.  But to David, to the righteous who fear God and trust Him, this knowledge is unimaginably precious.  For one thing, God’s knowledge is not just static; it’s not that He is merely reading the newspaper of my life.  From His knowledge come thoughts,  thoughts to me.  How marvelous: God knows my thoughts (v2, desires, intentions) and then He formulates His own thoughts Because of this David brings two requests to God.

·         Slay the wicked, O God, v19-22.  If God be for us (His very thoughts are for us) who can be against us (Rom. 8:31).

·         Search me, O God, v23-24.  God has already searched David (v1) and David can never escape God’s eye.  Why would he need to make this prayer?  It is David’s way of acknowledging his faith.  He is saying, O LORD, continue to search me until all wickedness is gone and I am on the everlasting path. 

The word for everlasting is olam.  God is the Everlasting God (Gen. 21:33).  For I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever (Ps. 23:6).  As with us (2 Cor. 4:16-18) so David is focused on things eternal.  God doesn’t need our permission to search us.  But when we give our permission, no, when we plead for God’s searching, then we are one with the Everlasting God.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

John 8:12-30, Jesus: The Light of the World (1)

We believe that this declaration by Christ indicates it was still the “last day, that great day of the feast” (7:37).  That would mean the story of the woman caught in adultery was not part of the original text.

One reason for believing this has to do with Jesus’ words in 8:12. Each evening during Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) four large lamps in the Court of the Women were lit to illuminate the temple area.  It is believed they reminded Israel of how God led them in the wilderness at night, with the light of His glory.  These lights would not have been burning when Jesus said, I am the light of the world, but He could have been in that area and used the lamps to illustrate His point.  Remember that Sukkot was the main feast of Israel that was open to Gentiles.  The Messiah, according to the OT, was not only a light for Israel but was also “a light for revelation to the Gentiles” (Isa. 49:5-6; Luke 2:32).  Jesus announced that those who follow Him would “have the light of life.”  This is what we need: a light for our pathway in life that truly shows the way.  Jesus claimed to be that Light!

What follows from this are three “give-and-takes” with the Pharisees.

·       8:13-18: “I stand with the Father.”  The leaders refused to accept Jesus’ claim because there was no corroborating witness.  But Jesus says that His Father was with Him.  He had addressed this issue previously (John 5:37-38).  But they were not listening because they were not willing to know the truth (Jn. 7:16-17).

·       8:19-20: “If you knew Me, you would have known My Father also.”  In these words Jesus was claiming Oneness with the Father.  This theme will carry us through to the end of John 8, when they tried to stone Jesus for blasphemy.  For now, John just says Jesus was not arrested because His hour had not yet come.

·       8:21-30: “I am the One I claim to be.”  Jesus did not back down from His strong words.  First, in v21-23, He explained why the Pharisees did not see eye-to-eye with Him: You are from beneath; I am from above.  You are of this world; I am not of this world.  This is why He told them they would die in their sins.  Forgiveness is only found through faith in Christ.  As Messiah, He is the Savior that God has sent into the world.  The bottom line is that these men who were questioning and denying Jesus would not really know who He was until they “lift up the Son of Man,” referring to His crucifixion (John 3:14-15; 12:32). 

What do you think of Jesus as He engages the Jewish leaders?  Many in the crowd believed in Him that day.  But the leaders were so opposed to Jesus that they would not be able to bow before Him in faith, not until they succeeded in putting Him to death.  Are you evaluating Jesus with “righteous judgment?”  Are you hearing His claims?  He has made it clear that there is no salvation, no right standing with God, apart from Him.  Is your heart open to Him?

Friday, March 15, 2024

John 7:53-8:11, A Woman Caught in Adultery

Depending on your English translation, today’s passage might be in brackets with a note that the story is not in the most ancient manuscripts.  Here are a few thoughts on the reliability of this passage.

o   The oldest manuscripts do not contain it.  The later and greater number of manuscripts do contain it.  The oldest Latin translations do not contain it.

o   2nd century commentators did not comment on it, although Papias, a disciple of John in the early 2nd century, did expound on it.

o   Some believe the story fits well in the context, although I personally do not.  As we will note in the next post, John 8:12 seems to be a continuation of 7:52. 

o   Christ as well as the leaders are “in character.” 

o   Augustine claimed it was removed by certain individuals for fear that women would use it as an excuse for their adultery.

We will deal with it as Scripture, but because of the uncertainties will not base doctrine solely on these verses.  We will verify all teaching with the rest of Scripture, which is a solid practice with any passage.

Concerning the woman (v3-5), one question is whether she was unmarried or married?  The Law of Moses prescribed stoning as the form of execution for an unmarried woman in this situation.  But the term for “adultery” applies to a married woman.  Ezek. 23:43,44,47 indicates stoning had become the form of execution for married adulteresses.

The problem for Jesus was simple.  If He said “stone her” they would accuse Him of hypocrisy because He spent time in His ministry with “publicans and sinners” (Mark 2:6).  If He said “let her go” they would accuse Him of disregarding the Law of Moses.  What Jesus did say, as always, was to reveal the hearts of those who accused the woman, as well as to draw attention to the forgiveness He came to provide through the cross.

Jesus said two things.  First, He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.  What He wrote in the dirt seemed to disarm her accusers; they could do nothing but walk away.  There are various thoughts about what Jesus wrote: perhaps the names and sins of those in the group, or a word of warning, or (the one I like) He wrote the Ten Commandments (God wrote these on Mt. Sinai, Ex. 31:18).  But since we are not told, the answer to that question is irrelevant.  What matters is that her accusers were shamed, having no standing to accuse her.

Second, Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.  Jesus gave to her a fresh start.  He revealed the true nature of the God of Israel, Who is merciful and gracious but who does not clear the guilty.  Christ came to bear our guilt and to enable sinners to walk in newness of life.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

John 7:37-52, Are You Thirsty?

Jesus offered living water to all who believe in Him, by which He was speaking of the Holy Spirit.  What is interesting is that “many from the crowd” wondered if He was “the Prophet,” referring to one of the titles of the Messiah (from Deut. 18:15).  Others wondered if He was “the Christ” (the Greek term for Messiah).  In other words, they understood what Jesus was talking about with the “living water.”  The promise of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the people of Israel was to be fulfilled when Messiah arrived.  The OT prophets predicted this.

25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Ezek. 36:25-27; cf. also Ezek. 37:14; 39:29; Joel 2:28; Zech. 12:10)

·       7:41-42: “Will the Christ come out of Galilee?  Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”

Jesus had made a clear claim to be the Christ, the Messiah.  Many were positive about that idea.  And yet, there was still resistance or “unbelief.”  It presented itself in the form of the confusion over where He was from.  Jesus, of course, grew up in Nazareth and was headquartered in Capernaum, all in the Galilee.  Furthermore, several of the Twelve were from the Galilee.  James, John, Peter and Andrew were fishermen from Bethsaida.  Matthew was a tax collector in Capernaum.  Thomas and Nathaniel were from Cana of Galilee.  You may wonder why Jesus did not argue the point and tell them the story of His birth.  But it is actually possible this was known, and yet, He was still considered Galilean by the leadership.

The problem is that the leadership had something else at stake, other than the facts of Jesus’ birth.  Their position of power and prosperity was at stake.  You see this in the response of the Pharisees when the officers returned without arresting Jesus.  The officers were impressed by Jesus’ words.  The Pharisees respond with:

o   a charge that the officers were deceived.

o   the claim that none of the rulers (Sanhedrin) had believed in Him.

o   a charge that the crowd was accursed.

When one of the rulers, Nicodemus, raised a legal question, they justified their illegal treatment of Jesus by the “Galilee” charge.  Nicodemus was the one who came to Jesus privately (John 3:1-2) and who would eventually believe in Jesus (Jn. 19:39).  Nicodemus was judging with “righteous judgment” (Jn. 7:24).  Are we doing the same as we consider the Bible’s account of Jesus’ ministry?

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

John 7:25-39, Jesus Promises Living Water

It may be that the Jews were questioning Jesus’ claim to be “from God” (7:16-18).  That is how Jesus responded in v28-29.  This came from “some of them from Jerusalem” (v25).  They had seen Him and had exchanges with Him (including the disagreement surrounding the healing of the man by the pool of Bethesda) that Jews from the dispersion didn’t have.  Jesus challenged them, that they had heard His claims and knew exactly what He was saying, that He was the Christ, the Son of God, the One God promised to send in Gen. 3:15 and throughout the OT.  That would explain why, finally, there was an attempt to arrest Him(v30).  For whatever reason the authorities were hindered, the bottom line was that it was not “His hour” to die for sin. That would not happen at Tabernacles but at Passover in the Spring.

·       7:31-32: question #4, “When Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?”  Many people were beginning to have a positive attitude toward Jesus, even to believe in Him.  So, the Pharisees and chief priests sent officers to arrest Jesus. 

Jesus’ response was to say something that showed He knew where this story was going.   He would die for the sins of the world, and then return to God, the One who sent Him.  Jesus would repeat these same words to the Twelve in the Upper Room on the night of His betrayal and arrest (Jn. 13:33). 

·       7:35: question #5, “Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him?” 

Again, there was confusion among the people.  They thought maybe He was going to go to the Dispersion, to the Jews scattered around the Roman Empire.  But that is not what Jesus was saying.  He was going to return to the Father who sent Him.  This leads to Jesus’ amazing words in 7:37-39.

It was the last day of the week-long Feast of Tabernacles.  The first and last days were special holy days (Lev. 23:35-36).  The Jews had a ritual on each day of the feast.  One of the priests would take a golden pitcher and descend from the temple mount to the Pool of Siloam, a pool noted for its refreshing water, because it was filled from the great Gihon Spring, the primary water source for Jerusalem.  The priest would fill the pitcher and bring the water to the Temple where it would be poured into a bowl.  This was accompanied by the blowing of the shofar (trumpet).  It was a joyful celebration, tied to Isa. 12:3: Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Jesus used this event to make His own promise of salvation.  He called anyone who “thirsts” to believe in Him.  They would receive the Holy Spirit who would be like a river of refreshing water to those who would come to Him.  The offer of salvation is available to this day, to all who will come to Christ, believing in Him.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

John 7:19-31, Jesus Is Not What You Think He Is

In Jesus’ conversations, He was never satisfied with just declaring Himself.  He also wanted to reveal the hearts of people.  Jesus answered the previous question, that His teaching was from God.  But now Jesus asks the next question: “Why do you seek to kill Me?”  This question is an indication that the people already were not interested in seeking the will of God because they were not even obeying Moses whose teaching they believed had come from God. 

The initial response was from the people.  “Who is trying to kill you?”  The leaders knew they were wanting to kill Jesus but were likely surprised when Jesus mentioned this.  It went back to John 5:1-15, when, on the Sabbath, Jesus healed the man at the Pool of Bethesda.  For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath (5:16). 

The people weren’t privy to the plotting of the leaders.  They accused Jesus of being demon-possessed.  How else could they, being at the feast to fulfill their obligation to Moses, be accused by Jesus of disobeying Moses?  Jesus explained powerfully, reminding them of the Sabbath healing, but also revealing the hypocrisy of the situation.  They held that it was lawful to circumcise on the Sabbath but unlawful to make a man completely well on the Sabbath.  Jesus’ doctrine was true; the doctrine of the Jews was inconsistent with the truth. 

·       7:25-27: question #3, “Is this not He whom they seek to kill?”  This question was asked by Jews from Jerusalem (Judaist Jews) rather than Jews from the Dispersion (from elsewhere in the Roman Empire, Hellenistic Jews).  The local Jews would have been on the scene when the man by the pool was healed. 

The fact that no one had arrested Jesus led into another question: “Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ?”  This question was quickly answered by those who raised it. “Jesus cannot be the Messiah because we know where Jesus is from, and no one will know where the Messiah is from when He really comes.”  We are assuming they thought Jesus was from Galilee, where He was currently living and where His earthly family resided.  One wonders why they said this, since the Jews knew the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem (Jn. 7:40-42; Matt. 2:1-8), fulfilling Micah 5:2.  Perhaps the Jewish leadership was just scrambling to come up with Biblical proof that this Jesus was not the Christ. 

We will pick this up in the next post.  But let me say something else.  You should be aware that some or even much of what you know about Jesus may not be true.  Like the Jewish leaders, people’s view of Jesus is often skewed.  It may be based on something they heard someone say or imagined or assumed.  As you read John’s account, my hope is that you will do as Jesus said: Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.