John 9:1-12. The Role of the Church

The game of ‘bowls’ is played with bowls that have an internal bias that swings the ball away from the straight line. Churches also have a tendency to deviate from the path they were set on by their Lord. Some become preoccupied with theological issues, as if adherence to their understanding of correct theology is the main purpose of the church. Such churches tend to be inward looking and are renowned for their ability to see what is wrong with everybody else.

John Wesley was visiting one of his Methodist groups in Norfolk. He enquired of the leader,

“Pray tell me, Sir, what special talent hast the Lord endowed you with?”

“Sir,” he replied, “I consider I have the talent of seeing what is wrong in others.”

“That, Sir, is a talent that I am sure the Lord would have you bury!”

There are many denominations that have crashed on that rock. Others have the priority to help people with their physical and social needs and fail to stress the emphasis Jesus has on helping people to be saved for eternity. Our world needs to be taught the whole Word of God.

This story addresses these issues. It emphasises that churches must, above everything else, focus on Jesus.

“As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’” John 9:1-2

False doctrine

The disciples seem interested in the theology of illness and suffering. It is possible that this was also an issue in the early church in Ephesus and John is using this story to help resolve the issue. Jesus refutes the doctrine that illness is the direct result of sin in a person or their parents.

This week I was phoned by a lady whose children have seemingly incurable psychiatric and physical problems and she enquired whether this could be because of something she had done wrong in the past. A leader in the church she used to attend had expressed the view that her problems were the result of some undisclosed sin and that prayer for deliverance and healing would change everything. It didn’t! The Bible makes it clear that we live in a fallen world where suffering and death are part of the fall.

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in his way death came to all men, because all sinned.” Romans 5:12

“I consider our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay . . .” Romans 8:18-20

Jesus brushes aside popular theology. Sin is the cause of sickness and disability as a whole, but this is not true for individuals. Jesus replied,

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened that the work of God might be displayed in his life.’” John 9:3

What does Jesus mean when he says,

“. . . that the work of God might be displayed in his life”?

A little earlier Jesus had said,

“The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:29

There is a special urgency in performing the work of God (in the Greek the word ‘work’ is in the plural). Jesus says,

“As long as it is day, we must do the work(s) of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no-one can work.” John 9:4-5

Note that Jesus uses the word ‘we’, the works of God includes the work of his disciples. The darkness could refer to the time of his execution, when the disciples hid away in the upper room out of fear for their safety, or other times of oppression. Death, another form of darkness, will also bring an end to any possibility for evangelism.

It was only when the Holy Spirit of God engulfed the Christians that they were enabled to do these ‘works’ of God and many were faithful in doing this.

False emphasis

A headmaster told the sixth form pupils in his school,

“The point of life is to discover the point of life and then make that the point of your life.”

The Bible teaches that the point of life is to discover who Jesus is and then follow him, whatever our circumstances. This is surely the focus of this story. The blind man is a wonderfully real character. He repeatedly says things to those interrogating him just as they are, without fudging.

It is all too easy for churches to make the social and physical needs of people their priority. Jesus passionately longs to heal people of physical and psychological problems but he always keeps to his priority. When he was inundated with people wanting to be healed, he prayed and then declared,

“Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so that I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” Mark 1:38

Two marvellous things happen in this story, the first is physical but the main point is spiritual.

Physical

This man had been blind since birth. This makes the miracle even more astounding as his brain had never been trained to perceive and interpret images from his retina. Yet immediately he can see. The man himself emphasises this when he is later interrogated by the Pharisees,

“Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.” John 9:32

Jesus has just said that he is ‘the light of the world’ and he demonstrates this by giving the man born blind his sight.

Jesus made a mud pack by mixing his saliva with mud from the ground. He then applied this paste to the man’s eyes. Such mud eye packs were used in the Roman world to treat conditions such as conjunctivitis. The ‘salve’ mentioned in Revelation 3:18 refers to ‘little rolls’ or bars of a dried out silky mud found near Hierapolis that were widely exported. The bars would be ground up with water and applied to the eyes. Jesus didn’t ask the man to use his own saliva to make the mud. The initiative all came from Jesus.

Whatever the explanation for the mud, the significance of the next action is clear. The man is told to go and wash the mud from his face in the Pool of Siloam and John interprets this for his readers,

“Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (this word means ‘sent’).” John 9:7

The significance is clear. Jesus himself is the ‘sent one’. Later, immediately after his resurrection, Jesus says to his disciples,

“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” John 20:21

The blind man must recognise that Jesus is ‘the sent one’ and therefore, as a believer, he must also be ‘sent’ to share the gospel with others.

The man obeyed Jesus, washed in the ‘sent one’ and left seeing to start a life of service.

Spiritual

Yet this chapter gives particular emphasis to a greater miracle than the physical healing. The blind man came to see who Jesus is and he became a believer. Look on to the end of the story, where Jesus seeks out the man to talk with him,

“’Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked. Tell me so that I may believe in him.’

Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact he is the one speaking with you.’

Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped him.” John 9:35-38

This episode makes it clear that the title ‘Son of Man’ was recognised as a title for the Messiah that the Jews were expecting to come and save them. ‘Worship’ is a strong word and it was forbidden for a Jew to worship anyone but God, yet this man ‘worships’ Jesus. John’s inference is clear.

As we read the story, John describes a steady progression in the man’s understanding. Most people who eventually become believers in Jesus take some time before they grasp the truth. Notice the gradual evolution in his understanding,

“He replied, ‘The man they call Jesus . . .” John 9:11

Subsequently he says,

“He is a prophet.” John 9:17

Then finally he understands,

“ . . . and he worshipped him.” John 9:38

The Context

This is most important. John uses this account to reinforce what Jesus has been saying in the previous chapter where the key verse is,

“Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

The darkness Jesus referred to could either mean the darkness of despair or the darkness of ignorance. People who have not discovered a solid reason and purpose for their life, that will stand even when they are dying, are in the dark, however much success they have in their prime.

This claim of Jesus, made in the brightly lit Court of Women in the temple of Jerusalem was hotly contested by the Jewish authorities, yet Jesus sticks to his claim and robustly defends it.

“I am the light of the world.” John 9:5

In this story light shines on one man who needs his eyes to be opened.

The work of God

Jesus has stressed that this man’s blindness is not because of his or his parents sin but emphasises that his healing was to enable people to understand the work of God that he had been sent to do. This sharing of the good news about Jesus still symbolises the work of God.

When Paul was on trial before King Agrippa and Festus, the Roman Governor, he recounted what the Jesus had said to him when he met him on his journey to Damascus. Jesus had said,

“Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. . . I am sending you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are being sanctified by faith in me.” Acts 26:16-18

This was the apostolic ministry that has been passed on to us in his church. We are not primarily here to heal but to open people’s eyes to the truth. The opening of people’s eyes is symbolic of letting people see the truth about Jesus.

Professor Barratt, in his famous commentary on John’s Gospel says the following,

“This short chapter expresses perhaps more vividly and completely than any other John’s conception of the work of Christ. On one hand he is the giver of benefits to humanity that apart from him is in a state of complete hopelessness. The illumination presented is not primarily intellectual but the direct bestowal of life or salvation.”

This is the work that God wants all of us to be involved in, to bring friends and family to hear this message so that God may open their eyes. The difficulties are immense for the following reasons, yet that is what we have been called to do.

Man’s plight is hopeless

This man had been ‘blind since birth’. He could see nothing. The significance of this is clear to all who have tried to win friends for Jesus. They are blind and this can fill us with despair. When Jesus’ disciple, Peter, came to see who Jesus was and confessed him to be the Christ, Jesus said,

“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” Matthew 16:17

Jesus is saying that Simon Peter could never have understood this through his own intellect. Although the evidence is impressive, there is a moral aspect to Christian conversion. God has to open our hearts so that we are willing for him to be in charge of our lives. It is much, much more that an intellectual decision. If our heavenly Father hasn’t opened our eyes we will never submit to Jesus. Paul said something similar,

“The man without the Spirit does not accept things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14

Some years ago, a man was standing on a soap box at Hyde Park Corner, trying to ridicule the Christian message. “People tell me God exists, but I cannot see him. People tell me that that there is life after death—but I cannot see it. People tell me there is a judgment to come—but I cannot see it. People tell me there is a heaven and a hell—but I can’t see them.”

There was a slight ripple of applause as he climbed down. Another man then struggled up on to the soap box and said, ‘People tell me there is green grass around—but I cannot see it. People tell me there is a blue sky above but I cannot see it. People tell me there are trees nearby but I cannot see them; it is because I am blind!’

This is the diagnosis that the Bible makes.

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4.

This is why so many cannot understand. Its because they are blind, not because the gospel is untrue.

There are parts of the modern church that seem to be saying that if only people could hear more and more arguments about the creator God who really entered this world as Jesus Christ, then people will come to believe. This is untrue because we are naturally blind. Elsewhere the Bible says that we are ‘dead’. There is ‘no life in us’.

“As for you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins . . . But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with christ even when we were dead in transgression – it is by grace that you have been saved.” Ephesians 2:1-5

For several generations there has been enormous optimism about man with unlimited hopes about what advances we can make, both scientifically and politically. But now there is increasing scepticism. No-one has the ability to make this world into an Utopia since the raw material is people just like you and me, selfish people at heart. The Bible says that we are naturally incapable of living together and we are incapable of living with God. We all need the grace of God to change us. It is so easy to be discouraged if we have not come to terms with the fact that man is without hope - we are dead.

This is why we must all cry out to God to save us and our families and friends. How we need his Spirit to change us, to empower us, to equip us to do the work of God but then to go before us to prepare people for the message we share with them. Unless God is working, through his spirit, there is no hope for us.

Our hope is not in great evangelists but in God alone. Unless he is at work no-one will want to come to hear the gospel explained and they will reject Jesus when they hear about his claims.

Significantly this story doesn’t even mention the faith of the blind man or why Jesus picked him out. It is entirely God, in his mercy who steps into people’s lives so that we may see and believe. Our role is to respond gratefully when the message of God’s grace is explained to us.

BVP

John 9:35-41. Decision Needed

This section summarises what the apostle John wants us to learn from the miracle of the man born blind who was healed.

Today there are some who doubt the miracles of Jesus because if they did occur it is clear that he is someone exceptional. The healing of the man born blind is one of the best attested miracles. It was independently scrutinised by a group of religious sceptics who were antagonistic to the claims of Jesus and they confirm that the miracle did occur. It was not just a miracle of restored sight. This man had never seen, so the capacity of his nervous system to receive and interpret images also had to be restored. The miracle means that everyone should take notice of Jesus.

John makes it clear that this miracle is also a parable about Christian conversion. The blind man represents those who are inwardly or spiritually blind. Christian conversion, the discovery of who Jesus really is, is having our eyes opened to the truth.

This summary occurs in three sections.

Jesus finds and speaks to the man born blind and asks a question

John makes it clear that it is not we who find Christ but Christ who seeks and saves us.

“Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him . . .” John 9:35

If Christ hadn’t sought out this man, after he had gone to the Pool of Siloam to wash the mud from his eyes so he could see, he would never have become a disciple of Jesus. It is the same for all of us. Although we have to make a decision about Jesus, it is always he who first initiates our concern and interest. We are all, naturally, spiritually dead and on the run from God – just as Adam and Eve tried to hide from God in the Garden of Eden after they had rebelled against him. We are frightened of God, we want to hide and don’t want to be found.

Jesus found the healed man and, as any good personal worker does, he asked a direct question.

“Do you believe in the Son of Man?” John 9:35

The emphasis in the original Greek is on the personal pronoun ‘you’,

“Do YOU believe in the Son of Man?”

There is some debate as to whether this should read ‘Son of Man’ or ‘Son of God’. There are different manuscripts using both terms. However the two oldest manuscripts have ‘Son of Man’, so this is the most likely original text. Furthermore if the original was ‘Son of God’ there would be no incentive to change to ‘Son of Man’. The term ‘Son of Man’ was first used for the Messiah by the prophet Daniel. He wrote,

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him.” Daniel 7:13-14

Jesus called himself the ‘Son of Man’ eighty times in the gospels. Jesus used the two terms ‘Son of God’ and ‘Son of Man’ interchangeably. Jesus had said earlier that the title ‘The Son of Man’ emphasises the humanity of the ‘Son of God’.

“I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Godand those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. John 5:25-27

What does it mean to hear the voice of the Son of God? I was talking with a lady and asked her whether she was involved with a church.

“I’m a Roman Catholic,” she replied.

“Yes, but are you a Christian, someone who is personally committed to Jesus.”

“No, I’m not!”

A Christian is not someone who has been through the initiatory rites of a church, such as baptism, confirmation or even ordination, a Christian is someone who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and is committed to living as his representative in this world.

The man’s response

Jesus challenged the healed man with that essential question,

“Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

He challenges each of us similarly. Clearly the man genuinely wants to understand and he responds with a genuine question,

“‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked, ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’” John 9:36

He clearly knew that there was a creator God and knew enough of the Scriptures to know that God’s Messiah would come to earth to save people. The word ‘believe’ is a massive word. It means nothing less than to worship Jesus as our creator God. It is all too easy to outwardly bow before someone without having our hearts dedicated to them. Our word ‘believe’ is related to the Old English word ‘lieben’ which means to love. In German this original meaning is seen in their word ‘geleibt’ meaning ‘loved one’ or ‘leibling’ meaning ‘darling’.

In Shakespeares play, Richard II, Bolingbroke kneels before the king, but it is apparent that in his heart ‘he is not really his servant’ Jesus explained that the only type of worship God accepts is genuine devotion to him and his Son. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman,

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24

This woman understood that such worship would involve the Messiah so she said,

“I know that the Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.” John 4:25-26

When talking with the healed man Jesus again makes his nature clear.

“‘Who is the Son of Man?’ . . . ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” John 9:37

John clearly teaches us that there is no worship of God without the worship of Jesus. When some Greeks came to Jerusalem ‘to worship God’ they approached Philip with the request,

“Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” John 12:21

The healed man in our story understood what true belief meant. He said to Jesus,

“‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped him.” John 9:38

There is no doubt therefore that this man worshipped Jesus as God. Saving belief is such commitment to Christ as God. It should not be an impulsive emotional response but the result of a painstaking search for truth. It is certainly not a leap in the dark but a thought-out step into the light.

‘Worship’ mean ‘worthship’. Becoming a Christian is the response to recognising the worth of Jesus – who he is and what he has done for me and all humanity. When his worth is recognised no price is too high. Isn’t this why Jesus told the parable about a merchant looking for fine pearls?

“When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:45-46

For the healed man in this account the consequences of his new faith were far from easy. He was ‘thrown out’ or excommunicated. They all knew that this would happen to those who became believers in Jesus.

“. . . for already the Jews had decided that that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.” John 9:22

Saving faith is never easy because all Christians are called on to openly confess Christ. We are called to love all people which must include sharing with them the way of salvation.

One Way

V. J. Menon was raised in a loving Hindu home in India, but when he moved to London he heard the gospel for the first time and recognised the worth of Jesus, he also turned to Christ and worshipped him. He later became a member of the General Synod of the Church of England. On one occasion another Synod member said to him,

“Hinduism is a way to God as much as Christianity.”

What an awful statement to make to V.J. Menon, who had himself been brought into the light of Jesus from Hinduism. Doesn’t the Bible make it absolutely clear that Jesus is the only way to become right with God? Jesus said,

“I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

“I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved.” John 10:9

Peter and John told the Sanhedrin who had had them arrested,

“Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

Without a relationship with Christ we all remain responsible for our own sin.

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3:36

Jesus and the onlookers

Jesus now turns from talking with the healed man to address the onlookers. He makes a memorable statement:

“For judgment I have come into this world, so the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” John 9:33

We tend to think of judgment as coming in the future when we die and come face to face with God. The Bible certainly does speak in such terms but here Jesus is saying that the verdict is being made today by our reaction to him. Those who turn to him as their Saviour have passed God’s judgment of our sin over to Jesus. Then the spiritually blind will see what life is all about and make living for God their priority in life. However those who are satisfied with their own enlightenment, who are proud of their own insight into the world and its problems will turn out to be blind. Those who recognise their spiritual blindness long to see but those who are self-dependent will never see.

Note that Jesus says this message is for the whole world and not just for the Jews. He came for those in all walks of society, for people from all nations. Everyone is being judged according to their response to Jesus now. We are either on the road to life or the road to destruction, there is no other road. This is one of the horrific separations that Jesus describes in the gospels.

Jesus and the Religious

The Pharisees were most upset and shaken by what Jesus was saying and reply sarcastically,

“What? Are we blind too?” John 9:40

From what Jesus has already said you would expect the answer, ‘Yes!’ However Jesus replies in an unexpected way that again makes people think.

“If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” John 9:41

Jesus reminds us all that God is fair. If a person is ignorant and uninstructed, has never had any light, if no-one had ever taught them, if the sun has never shone, then obviously their sin is very different from those who had the light and teaching but rejected it.

Yet in our world today there are many who were ‘blind’ who are coming to see the light of Jesus. In Communist China and Iran the church is growing very fast. In South America many are coming to put their faith in Jesus. In such areas the judgment of God is bringing life.

Yet those who claim to see are becoming blind. It is striking that in countries with much formal religion there are problems. Religion whether Judaism, Roman Catholicism or Anglicanism has little appeal unless the leaders focus on teaching the people the Bible and encourage a personal faith in Jesus.

It is significant that some organisations, claiming to be ‘Christian’, invite sceptics and agnostics to become their teachers and leaders. How many organisations that had a Christian foundation have drifted. Many notable universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge, Harvard, Yale and Princeton were originally based on the Christian gospel. Many aid organisations started with Christian teaching but most, over time, have moved away from promoting Jesus Christ as the hope of the world. Those who see have become blind. Many bishops and clergymen today have turned away from the teaching of Jesus and his apostles. They do not agree that Jesus is the only way to God and have rejected the authority of Scripture over their lives. Radical theologians have infiltrated into our seminaries and have poisoned the minds of many future church ministers so they have little to say to others. Surveys have shown that many ministers now deny the unique deity of Jesus Christ, they deny his virgin birth, they deny the unique salvation that he alone can give, they deny that on that cross the only full sacrificial atonement for our sins was made, they deny the authority of Scripture, they deny his physical resurrection and his return they call an ‘unhistorical event’. Yet such people are appointed as church leaders!

Jesus was scathing about the role of the religious teachers of his day. He said,

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites . . .” Matthew 23:13-39

These blind guides looked at externals and not at what God really required. He describes such leaders in vivid terms,

“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell. Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers . . .” Matthew 23:33-34

Jesus is saying that he will raise up others who will teach the Word of God to his people and to the world.

Ludovic Kennedy was a brilliant journalist, an outspoken atheist, who was invited into universities and schools with Christian foundations to talk about his atheism. He was dogmatically sure there was no God and yet so-called Christians in authority encouraged him to promote his views! This was in spite of all the evidence that there has to be a creator and that Jesus is his embodiment. He received prestigious invitations to pass on his blindness though he had no truth to share, no purpose to invigorate people and no power to offer them. The Bible says that any man, however brilliant, who does not believe in God is a fool – a blind fool.

“In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.” Psalm 10:4

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Psalm 14:1

The Jews had all the advantages of having the Scriptures. These clearly teach the response God expects from all people. The religious Jews claimed they could see but shut their eyes to the light. They followed their own interpretation of Scripture but had rejected what it teaches about the holiness God requires and the Saviour who was to enter this world to pay the ultimate price for their sin. The Pharisees were determined to reject the evidence both of Scripture and of their own eyes – they were blind.

The Pharisees claimed they could see but Jesus is saying that they are in fact blind guides and their guilt remains. They claimed to be teachers but they opposed God’s Messiah and those who believe in the Christ.

What a contrast there is between this blind man who came to see the truth about Jesus and the religious leaders who became blind to the truth about him.

The question God wants all of us to answer is still,

“Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

BVP

John 9:24-34. A Changed Man

John chapter 9 recounts the story of a man whose life was radically changed through meeting Jesus. He had been born blind but Jesus had miraculously healed him. This healing was not just physical but was associated with a spiritual healing. His eyes were opened so that he came to see the truth about who Jesus was and he then began to worship him.

Which miracle was more important – the physical or the spiritual ‘opening of his eyes’? Jesus said to his followers,

“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12

Jesus is clearly not referring to miraculous miracles as nobody can or ever will supersede Jesus on that score. He must be referring to the greatest work, when people come out of the fog of unbelief into the clear light of the knowledge of God’s truth.

This nameless blind man is such an admirable character, but what is best is the work God did in him. As we study this story two features stand out, features that God’s spirit gives to all who turn to him.

Growing wisdom

This man was blind since birth. Although primary education amongst Jews at this time was good, this man could not join in. however it is clear that he had ‘native wit’ in abundance. As the story is read, did you notice how he grows in his understanding about Jesus.

v. 11 ‘The man they call Jesus’

v. 17 ‘He is a prophet’

v. 35 ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ This was a well recognised title for the Messiah

v. 38 ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped him.

He now had no doubt about Jesus and had committed himself to Jesus as God. It was utter blasphemy for a Jew to worship anyone other than God. The process of conversion to Christ is often prolonged but a time comes when we bow before Jesus Christ and acknowledge him to be our Saviour and our Lord. Without such personal surrender to Christ a person may be religious but they are not yet a Christian.

There was apparently a long build up before Saul became a Christian on the Damascus road. He must have been stronglyaffected as he witnessed the speech and martyrdom of Stephen. Here was a man who gradually came to understand the truth and who committed himself to Jesus and his service. It is most uncommon for people to immediately commit themselves to Christ when they first hear about him.

The ‘Parable of the Sower’ discourages us from celebrating too early when someone makes a profession of faith. They may be like seed sown on a path, when they very quickly fall away, or like seed sown on rocky places where they survive only a short time. They may keep going longer still but then find that ‘the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word’ (Mark 4:1-20).

Spurious conversions, that don’t last, are all too common.

However a personal commitment to Christ is essential for salvation. Church membership is not enough, we must worship Jesus Christ personally.

In the early years of the last century, Bishop Taylor Smith was preaching in a large English Cathedral. He was emphasising this need of all people to make a new start with God on His terms. He told the story of the upright Jewish leader, Nicodemus, who came to meet Jesus one night and was told:

“I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying , ‘You must be born again’ ” John 3 v. 5-7

The bishop continued, “Even that undoubtedly good man needed to turn towards his Saviour and make a fresh start, before he could become a subject of the kingdom of God - one of God’s people. My dear people, do not substitute anything for the new birth. You may be a member of a church, but church membership is not new birth, for ‘except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God’ ” (John 3:3).

On his left sat the Archdeacon in his stall, dressed in all his official robes. Pointing directly at him, the bishop said, “You may even be an Archdeacon, like my friend in his stall, and not be ‘born again’, for ‘except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God’ ”, and continued with his sermon.

A day or so later, the bishop received a note from the archdeacon: “You have found me out. I have been a clergyman for over thirty years but I have never known anything of the joy that Christians speak of. I never could understand. Mine has been a hard legal service. I did not know what the matter was with me, but , when you pointed directly at me - and said, ‘You might even be an Archdeacon and not be born again, I realised in a moment what the trouble was, I had never known anything of the new birth.”

You can imagine the delight of that bishop when they met up the following day and he was able to explain to the Archdeacon the simple truths of what God has done for us and what He requires of us. That it is not our attempts at righteousness nor our adherence to a code of behaviour that is sufficient, but our utter dependence on a Saviour who wants us to rely on him. The Archdeacon prayed and acknowledged his own need for a Saviour, and invited the Lord into his life to take charge.

The healed man in this story understood that a personal commitment to Christ was vital. When interrogated by the Pharisees, for the second time, he was asked to reply to their questions under solemn oath,

“‘Give glory to God . . . We know this man is a sinner.’ He replied, ‘Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see.’” John 9:24-25

How ironic. The healed man is asking the religious people to see things clearly. The fact that an impossible miracle has been performed by Jesus means that he is an extraordinary person. Either he is of the devil or of God. How else could the ‘Laws of Nature’, or better the ‘Laws of God’ have been broken. There is no other explanation. The Jews wanted to prove that he was from Satan, they already thought this likely because he had deliberately broken the Jewish ‘Sabbath Laws’. If his powers were of God, surely he would keep to God’s laws! What they had failed to realise was that their literal interpretation of the law was not what God intended.

The healed man was dealing with religious experts who were supposed to be sincere. However he now begins to understand that they were not men of integrity. He could see a clear difference between the way they were behaving and speaking with that of Jesus. They don’t want to know the evidence, they didn’t want to face the facts and indeed used every possible means to avoid facing the facts and their consequences. There is an old saying,

“Convince a man against his will,

He’s of the same opinion still.”

There was clearly no point in continuing to discuss what has happened with such biased interrogators. Jesus faced the same problem when he was brought before Herod by Pontius Pilate.

“When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle. He plied him with questions, but Jesus gave him no answer.’ Luke 23:8-9

Godly Silence

We must not misinterpret the silence of God. There are many who say they have prayed to God over some problem, perhaps the illness of someone very close, but God has not answered as they have requested. They say this is why they are unbelievers. They have taken the silence of God to suggest he is disinterested. However the silence of God can mean that he doesn’t think it worthwhile to give an answer. God is not at our ‘beck and call’. He won’t give conviction to those who don’t want it. God doesn’t present the facts to those who are unwilling to face them. God refuses to discuss issues with those who have already made up their minds to reject him.

Godly Wisdom

Silence does not mean that God has not given us ample evidence about the claims of Jesus. Look at this man’s reasoning, his logic is impressive. His starting point was that a miracle had been performed.

“The man answered, ‘Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.’” John 9:30

“Nobody ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.” John 9:32

He then teaches the Jewish leaders a fact they should have known from reading the Scriptures,

“‘We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will.’” John 9:31

His deduction is that what has happened to him is exceptional, so Jesus must be very special. God has listened to Jesus, therefore Jesus cannot be blatantly sinful. Therefore he must come from God. This is clear sharp and cohesive reasoning. Doubtless the lovely caring character of Jesus also contributed to his reasoning. He is an intelligent man.

John loves to include hints and asides in his writings. The man’s parents were clearly scared of the Jewish authorities. When they were interrogated by the sceptical Jews, who did not believe it was possible for a man born blind to see, they were asked,

“Is this your son?” . . . “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?” John 9:19

The Jews’ theory was that this whole story was somehow a fabrication, a political scheme to enhance Jesus reputation. They were suggesting that the parents were lying. The parents didn’t want to get involved in this debate about Jesus so wisely ‘passed the buck’. They must have known that their son was ‘savvy’ and would be able to deal with the authorities. They just confirm the facts but add,

“But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” John 9:21

The man’s brilliant reply to the authorities may have been the inspiration of God. God does open people’s mouths in difficult situations so that they say just the right words. Didn’t Jesus say to his disciples,

“When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.” Luke 12:11-12

Emotionalism

There are some Christian groups that are high on emotional stimulation and excitement but low of use of the mind. A visitor to such a church meeting said that it was as if there was a notice as you enter,

‘Kindly leave your mind at the door and collect it on the way out!’

For a young Christian it is wise to say simply,

“One thing I know. Once I was blind but now I see.” John 9:25

However after a few years such a position should be untenable. We should be able to say more than what happened when we first began the Christian life. A young Christian should be growing in the faith. They should be coming to an increasing understanding and knowledge of Scripture and be learning to verbalise coherently why they have accepted that Jesus is the Saviour of the world. Peter wrote later,

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” 1 Peter 3:15

When we were at school we had to do ‘prep’ or homework to be ready for the tests to come. So disciples of Christ must be committed to doing our ‘prep’ or homework to prepare us for witnessing coherently about why we have turned to Christ.

One of the marks of a person becoming a Christian is that they want to understand more. When Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones gave up a career in medicine to teach people the Bible, his first job was in a small chapel in South Wales. His wife wrote a book about their ministry there, working amongst miners where the unemployment rate was high. There was very little education. An elderly man who couldn’t read at all was wonderfully converted. Mrs Lloyd-Jones offered to teach him to read. She started by using a reading primer she had used to help her five year old daughter - ‘The Little Red Hen’. Simple words keep being repeated as the ‘hen’ that was ‘red’ meets a ‘pig’. However this poor man made very little progress at all. After some weeks he said,

‘I don’t want to read that book. Could you try me on the Bible?’

They went to John chapter 10 and he immediately made progress slowly reading with his finger on the line.

The point is that when people are converted, God opens their minds. We begin to really think for the first time. I found this to be true for myself. When I ‘inked in’ my commitment to Christ in my first year at university I found that I wanted to understand more of the Bible, and how history, philosophy and science substantiated what the Bible taught. Questions and doubts were there to be answered. Why is there so much unbelief around today? Surely the reason is that people’s minds are closed and they don’t want to think, to investigate. The miracle of creation is all around us but people are blind to see it. Babies are born but their creator remains unrecognised.

Growing Courage

This healed man was not ashamed to say what had happened to him. He had the courage to stand up to oppressive religious interrogators and say what they needed to hear. The power of his inquisitors was significant. They could ‘excommunicate’ him which meant exclusion from the synagogue, exclusion from all trade and friends. No wonder his parents were scared,

“His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.” John 9:22

Most people in this world have no idea where they are going and are completely confused about spiritual matters. Christians soon discover that the Holy Spirit gives them a longing to share the answers God has given us as well as the courage to winsomely explain these truths. Although we are naturally apprehensive about standing up for Jesus we will begin to pray for opportunities, even if it is just to invite friends and family to come and hear about what they have learned.

There is no such thing as a secret disciple. Belief and confessing Christ go together. Paul wrote,

“That if you confess with you mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth you confess and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10

This courage comes from God. There are several simple ways to start to talk about Christ. The best is to start talking about something with religious connections but get to the point where you can say,

“I hope you don’t mind me asking but are you committed to Jesus yourself or aren’t you sure about these things?”

We must not be brash, we must always be respectful and gentle, but we must help people to think about the claims of Jesus.

It is no coincidence that immediately after his disciple acknowledge that Jesus is ‘the Christ’, the Messiah the world had been waiting for, they are told,

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” Mark 8:34-35

Today, in the west, many Christians are ashamed of Jesus and scared what others will think if they openly side with Jesus. To us Jesus says,

“If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” Mark 8:39

When Paul wrote to a middle-aged church leader he reminded him,

“So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life.” 2 Timothy 1:8-9

No Christian will ever get anywhere without this courage. We need to keep praying,

“Lord help me to understand so that I am fearless but wise for you.”

It is no good thinking that you can stand up and speak for Christ if you want everyone to love you all the time. At the end of John’s account of the life of Jesus comes the lovely story of two very senior Jews who sat on the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews that consisted of seventy people. They both came out into the open and took their stand besides Jesus.

“Later Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who had earlier visited Jesus at night.” John 19:38-39

Whatever our status or role in life Christians are called to learn more about Jesus, learn to keep asking questions about him and to boldly find ways to let others know about him.

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John 9:13-23. A False Investigation

Bobby was a young inmate of the Maze prison in Belfast. He had been convicted of sectarian murders. He became involved in the dirty cells protest, refusing to wash and dress. The only book he was given was a Bible, but he took no notice of it. He later went to see the prison chaplain and asked for something to read as the Bible made no sense to him. The chaplain, who himself had only recently come to new life in Christ, gave some powerful advice that few would emulate in such a situation,

“I’m not going to give you any literature at all. Go back to your cell, take up the Bible and read one of the gospels – I would recommend John. Because it is God’s book, I want you to ask God to teach you from it and lead you to himself.”

The lad did just that and as a result he came to a knowledge of Christ for himself. One evening, what Jesus said about himself and the need people had for him, struck home and he prayed, putting his trust in Jesus as his Lord. There was a small Bible study group in that prison, led by a doctor, that resulted in several other prisoners recognising who Jesus is and they had their lives radically changed by this knowledge.

This is why studying John’s gospel is so important. God does speak to people through His word today.

A remarkable change

This story of a blind man who receives his sight is not just to remind us of the extraordinary powers of Jesus, it is also a remarkable picture of what Christian conversion is all about. Christian conversion means,

“Once I couldn’t see it, but now I do. This is a work of God.”

Today many think the message of the church is simply ‘Try harder’. People understand the church to be saying, ‘Try to live better lives, do good to others, try to be honest, behave with integrity, try to pray, try to believe.’ Many query why they need to attend church if that is all they are going to be reminded of.

However the church’s prime message is how we can become right with God at all when we are all naturally selfish, sinful people. Sin is another concept few understand. Many think of sin as anti-social behaviour, offending against others. The Bible however is clear that sin in essentially offending against God and we are all guilty of that! Our sin separates us from God, leaving us all in a dire predicament. Some think that turning over a new leaf and trying to live a better life is sufficient but the Bible is clear that the gulf between God’s standards and our own is far too wide to be bridged by what we can do.

The Enlightenment was a movement that began in the 18th century. Fundamentally it was a pagan movement when people cast aside the faith of their fathers. In summary they said,

“Human reason is enough to discover the truth about man, the world and any god. Reason is all the power we need. There is nothing we cannot solve. Man is the centre of everything.”

The Bible stands in stark opposition to this view. It begins with the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. The one thing they were forbidden to do was to ‘eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ (Genesis 2:17). Every time they passed that tree they were reminded that they were not God but were to live in submission to him and what he said. When they rebelled and ate the fruit from that tree they were initiating the very first ‘enlightenment’. It was Satan who seduced Adam and Eve into rebelling against God, saying,

“You will not surely die . . . For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 2:4-5

The very opposite was true, they, and all humanity became blinded to their need for forgiveness. The massive scientific advances have not told us anything about why we are here, what happens when we die, what the purpose of life is, how we should regard God and our own lives. We need God to open our eyes on these matters.

Members of the IRA sincerely believed they were serving God when killing people. Members of ISIL think similarly. But they cannot be blinder. Modern knowledge cannot resolve that kind of blindness, it requires a miracle of God to change people’s hearts.

This blindness is present in many very pleasant people around us. They cannot see their need for God. This is why Christians must pray that God will open peoples’ eyes to Christ, that their hearts may warm to him. We can teach as well as we can but unless God changes hearts there will be no long term benefits.

The beginning of the Christian’s life is a miraculous divine work. My only role at this stage is to accept that I am a sinner and turn to Christ for help. When I have become a child of God by accepting Christ, then he says to me, I have chosen you to work hard for me. However it is clear that my good works can do nothing to give me new life, only Christ can do that.

The Ephesians are reminded that salvation requires a miracle

When Paul wrote to the Ephesian church he reminds them that they were spiritually dead and there was nothing they could do to get spiritual life .

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” Ephesians 2:1-2

But then Christ stepped miraculously into their lives,

“But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.” Ephesians 2:4-5

To make it abundantly clear that our good works have nothing to do with our acceptance by God and that commitment to Jesus is the only answer, Paul continues,

“For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith – and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God – not of works, so that no-one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

Even the ability to put our faith in Christ is a gift of God. Christians have nothing to gloat over, the salvation of each person is the choice of God alone.

But when we have come to Christ he both expects and empowers us to live in ways that honour him. We are no longer free to live as we would like. We are slaves of Christ who have been bought with a price paid by Christ in order to live for him. Christ makes us ‘sons by permanent adoption, with family rights and a certain hope.’

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

Titus is reminded that salvation requires a miracle

Paul’s letter to Titus stresses the same points as he made to the Ephesian church. Before conversion all people are in a desperate situation.

“At one time we were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.” Titus 3:3

But then God took the initiative and stepped into our lives. Most of us can look back at the people we met or the circumstances that drew us to consider how God regarded us.

“But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour.” Titus 3:4-6

Again Paul is stressing that the initiative is all from God. Adoption into a family is always instigated by the new parent. To be justified means to be freed from all accusation and guilt. Paul continues,

“ . . .so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying.” Titus 3:7-8

It is only because we have been adopted into God’s family, made his heirs on God’s initiative, that we have any hope of inheriting eternal life.

However we, God’s chosen People, have been chosen by God for a purpose,

“And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.” Titus 3:8

A remarkable testimony

The healed ’man born blind’ was first interrogated by his neighbours and those who had seen him begging at the gate of the temple. They could not understand how such a man could now see. Was he a double or a twin? The healed man explained what had happened to him. His enquirers then asked where this healer was and to this he simply replied,

“I don’t know.” John 9:12

This was simply beyond their understanding so they took the man to the educated in their society, the Pharisees. Peterson, in his paraphrased translation says,

“So they marched the man to the Pharisees.” John 9:13

The Pharisees were also puzzled about how ‘a man born blind’ could now see but they detected another problem, mud had been applied to the man’s eyes on the Sabbath and that was against their law. Why could they not share in the joy of this man who could now see for the first time. Why did they want to discredit this man and incriminate Jesus? The reason is that they had got their priorities wrong. They thought God wanted them to keep to the law and the law was clear that spitting on the sabbath was forbidden, let alone making mud from the spittle and applying it to someones eyes. That was three wrongs in one!

a. Formalism

This refers to those who keep the externals of religion but whose hearts are far from God. Elsewhere Jesus had referred to many of the religious of his day as ‘whitewashed tombs’ that were acceptable on the outside but were rotten or dead inside.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” Matthew 23:27-28

Jesus reserved scathing comments for religious people whose religion was just skin deep. As God said to Samuel when he was looking for a future king of Israel,

“The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

Jesus had already faced the problem of his breaking the sabbath laws when he had healed a lame man at the pool of Bethesda and had then told the man to pick up his mat (John 5:8-9). Again the religious were less interested in the supernatural healing of a man who had been paralysed for 38 years than in the peccadillo of breaking the law. They didn’t even say,

“Good to see you walking again after all those years.”

Their religious formalism had been offended so they used the sabbath laws to distance themselves from the dramatic miracle. Jesus didn’t keep the sabbath their way even though, being God’s son, he did keep the sabbath God’s way.

The great church reformer, John Calvin, suggested that Jesus performed these miracles on the sabbath deliberately. He wanted to confront the contemporary religious norm with himself. He is Lord of the sabbath, the Lord of everything.

Religious formalism cannot cope when a person’s life is turned upside down, or put better, turned the right side up if it has not occurred according to protocol. Their interest was to discredit Jesus, so they hid behind the smokescreen of religious law. The problem is that new Christians find religious formalism a real problem. The formalists cannot live as God wants yet they still put rules and regulations in people’s way. Nothing is more embarrassing for a formalist than to meet someone whose life has been turned round when they have met Jesus Christ.

b. Honest realism

When the Pharisees interrogated the healed man they wanted to know how he had received his sight. Were they really interested in understanding or were they wanting to find some fault? John’s wording is significant,

“Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked . . .”

It was the sabbath problem that bothered them. After all everybody knew that the devil could do miracles too. The simple realism of the man faced with this antagonistic interrogation is so attractive. When asked how he had received his sight the man simply replied,

“He put mud on my eyes . . . and I washed, and now I can see.” John 9:15

No unnecessary words there.

This caused a debate amongst the religious. One group concluded,

“This man is not from God, for he does not keep the sabbath.” John 9:16

Another group reasoned,

“How can a sinner do such miraculous signs.” John 9:16

Both groups assumed that religious orthodoxy was the main test of God’s involvement. They tried to resolve this question by returning to the healed man for further evidence. Their interest is now less in the miracle but in Jesus who had broken the sabbath law. They ask him,

“What have you to say about him. It was your eyes he opened?” John 9:17

The man replies simply,

“He is a prophet.” John 9:18

The Jews were still perplexed. They think that somehow they were being misled. They next approach the man’s parents and ask them for an explanation.

“Is this the son you say was born blind. How is it that now he can see.” John 9:19

They clearly appreciate what the Pharisees were trying to do so they also give an answer that is unhelpful to them,

“We know he is our son . . . and we know he was born blind. But how he can now see, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” John 9:20-21

John explains that they did know considerably more, they knew that Jesus had been involved but were scared of getting drawn into the controversies going around about Jesus. John explains,

“His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already they had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.” John 9:22

To be excommunicated from the synagogue meant being ostracised from all social and business life. Nobody would talk or trade with you. It would mean you had to move to a completely new area and hope the news of your excommunication didn’t follow you.

It is clear that people were thinking about who Jesus really was. Earlier, during the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus had not been arrested so people were asking,

“Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ?” John 5:26

Ever since the beginning there have been divisions about Jesus. Even his brothers did not believe in him at first, although that was to change after the resurrection, with Jesus’ brother James becoming the head of the young church in Jerusalem.

We must all take sides

The conflict that John describes over the identity of Jesus is the question that has divided families and societies ever since. Jesus says that it is a vital decision that each one of us must make, saying,

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:24

Refusing to join Jesus means the same as to reject him. Salvation is only given to those who believes in him.

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John 9. The Blind See, the Sighted are Blind

Reading

1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

6 After saying this, he spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

8 His neighbours and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.” 10 “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

11 He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

12 “Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said.

The Pharisees Investigate the Healing

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”

16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.

17 Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.”

18 They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19“Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”

20 “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”

25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”

28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”

30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

Spiritual Blindness

35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshipped him.

39 Jesus said “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” 40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

In a recent radio broadcast I was asked,

“Is there anything unique about Christianity?”

There is no doubt how the apostles, who wrote or authorised all the New Testament, would answer. They all considered Jesus and his message to be completely different from those of all other spiritual leaders. Jesus made this extraordinary statement and repeated it publicly,

“I am the light of the world.” John 8:12, 9:5

No-one had ever spoken with such megalomania as Jesus. He puts Mohammed Ali and his boast, “I’m the greatest!” into the shade.

The writer C.S.Lewis made a brilliant statement about humility in his book ‘Mere Christianity’. He suggested that if we were to meet a truly humble person we would never come away thinking they were humble. A person who keeps hinting that they are ‘ever so ‘umble’, like Dickens’ Uriah Heap, are really self obsessed. In contrast the truly humble man would be completely interested in the other person.

Jesus was such a person. He was genuinely concerned about the welfare of others. Yet he made the most astonishing claims about himself such as this. He claimed to be the one and only Son of God that the whole of creation had been waiting for. He proved this by performing extraordinary miracles culminating in his resurrection from the dead. But when these claims are compared with the humble manner he treated others, even social outcasts, we are faced with a unique, impossible, even supernatural paradox. No-one else has combined these two extremes in one personality.

The story given us in John chapter nine demonstrates how and why Jesus relates to different people. We are clearly meant to apply the lessons given there to ourselves.

1. THE LIGHT HAS COME

Jesus is saying,

“I am the only person in the world who understands what life is about!”

“If a person doesn’t follow me, they will never understand what life is for.”

This is staggering. He is saying, “Life is about me and following me!” In the next chapter Jesus said,

“I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.” John 10:10

In anybody else such claims would be disregarded as the ranting of a demented megalomaniac but those living closest to him concluded he really was the Son of God.

Today our society needs to ask, “What is life about?” Is it just for making money and being financially secure? Is it just to raise a well adjusted family? Is it to satisfy my sexual needs? Is it to care for others? These all have their place but Jesus says that even together they are not enough. He says that if we want to see clearly what life is about, then we need him, the creator of the universe, to be at the centre of our lives. Nothing less will do.

I have met many people whose lives have demonstrated a peace and security that is extraordinary. I used to work as a Consultant surgeon and will never forget one lovely lady who was in hospital with advanced cancer. She was very weak and was waiting to die. On a ward round which was attended by many students, junior doctors and nurses she asked,

“Mr Palmer, when am I going home?”

“Alice, you wouldn’t cope on your own at home,” I replied. She smiled,

“No. I mean to go home to be with the Lord Jesus.”

She had such peace. She had found something that money, families and satisfying jobs can never give us. She had a personal relationship with God. Her Lord had given her knowledge of what life is about.

The extraordinary story told in John chapter nine is included in order to demonstrate who Jesus is and what he offers everyone. Seven hundred years earlier the prophet Isaiah had foretold many of the features that would enable God’s Messiah to be recognised when he came to earth. He would come as a baby, he would perform remarkable miracles. He would die and then rise from the dead. Three times Isaiah mentions the miracle of his giving sight to the blind that the Messiah would do.

The man begging at the roadside had congenital blindness. He had never seen a beautiful sunset. He would have been denied an education. His life would be one of dependency on others. Then Jesus walks by and his life is never the same again. That is the way it is with Jesus. No-one can meet him and remain the same person.

Jesus’ disciples do not have the same love for people that Jesus had. Their interest in the poor man is to use him as a visual aid for a theological debate. They ask,

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents?” John 9:2

Don’t you feel sorry for this man? Have you ever been in a situation, such as a hospital ward round, where people talk about you as if you were not there? Jesus makes a definitive statement,

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned.” John 9:3

If you are a parent of a disabled child this is important and very comforting. Too many of these parents load themselves with unnecessary guilt.

Jesus has something much more important to teach all people. He repeats his claim,

“I am the light of the world.” John 9:5

To support this claim he spits onto the ground and made up some mud. This paste he applied to both eyes of the poor man. Then Jesus said,

“Go wash in the pool of Siloam.” John 9:7

John then says succinctly,

“He went and washed, and came home seeing.” John 9:7

Seldom has an event so stupendous been reported so briefly. It reminds us of Julius Caesar’s statement when he had conquered Britain,

“Veni, vidi, vici,” meaning “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

“He went and washed and came home seeing.” John 9:7

Significantly non-Christian writers, such as Josephus, reported that Jesus was widely known to have performed extraordinary miracles. Today, even with modern medical technology, we cannot do anything like this miracle. However what Moorfield’s hospital cannot do, Jesus did.

2. THE BLIND SEE

This miracle was enacted to illustrate Jesus’ claim, “I am the light of the world.” This is what he came to reveal to all of us. He wants to flood our lives with his life so that we can all say,

“Now I can see what life is about. I can see the point of life.”

This is a beautiful picture of what Christ can do for the spiritually blind. They are just as blind spiritually as this man was blind physically. Jesus really is ‘the light of the world’ for all.

What are the symptoms of being ‘spiritually blind’? People may not recognise the affliction but the essential problem is that Jesus has been moved offstage. The vital relationship with the Lord God through Christ is not pivotal in our daily thoughts. I put myself in the centre, my happiness, my reputation, my success are preeminent. In practice I play God. I set myself up as my own authority and live to please myself.

George Bernard Shaw, in his play ‘The Doctor’s dilemma’ describes the doctor with these words,

“ . . . a self-made man who worships his creator.”

A spiritually blind person does what pleases him, irrespective of others needs. I do play God. If I am not happy with my marriage I will ignore my vows to God and walk out. There are four hundred and eighty divorces every day in this country. A spiritually blind person’s self-centred life may be polished and sophisticated or terribly gross. The basic deisease is the same.

But Jesus brings great news, so we need not remain spiritually blind.

Have you met people who say they were once spiritually blind but have now seen the light and been changed? When I first went up as a fresher to university I was outwardly quite respectable. I came from a good home. Possibly I behaved better than some. However I could not see what my life was about, what its purpose was. I needed a purpose that would last into old age and terminal illness. Then I got to know some students who pointed me to Jesus as opposed to religion; school had put me off religion! I became convinced that Jesus’ claims were true and committed my life to him. He then started the business of changing my life.

What did Jesus do to give the spiritually blind ‘sight’ or perhaps better put as ‘insight’?

“He came, he died, he rose again.”

When he died on that cross God took on himself the punishment for my wrongdoing, for my putting myself centre stage, usurping God’s rightful place. He wants to wash away the dirt in my life, my sin. He does this only when I believe in him, when I open my life to him, to follow him. There is much evidence to support this message. There is strong, objective, historical evidence but in addition our instincts shout that Jesus is telling the truth.

This is the Christian message that Christians have been sent to share. Significantly ‘Siloam’, the pool where the man was sent to wash the dirt away, means ‘Sent’.

The identity of Jesus is fundamental. Who is he? If he is God’s Messiah then the entire world needs to know about him.

Unfortunately even the most convincing evidence will not change some people.

3. THE SIGHTED ARE BLIND

The story now reads like a court case with a succession of witnesses being brought in. It is apparent that some, particularly the religious, are determined not to believe in Jesus, whatever the evidence.

a. The local people

Some of the locals could not believe that the healed man really was the same person they had earlier seen begging,

“Soe claimed he was. Others said, ‘No, he only looks like him’. But he himself insisted, ‘I am the man’” John 9:9

This is extraordinary. They would not believe in spite of the evidence. Some claimed the sighted man must be a double since everyone knows that people blind from birth can never see. They think,

“This notion doesn’t fit with our understanding of the world.”

They cared little what the Scriptures had told them. The Scriptures repeated say that when the Messiah comes to free His people he will act in this very way. Even the religious accepted that God had acted supernaturally when the Jews were freed from Egypt by Moses.

b. The man himself

When he assured them that he was the same man, more aggressive questions flowed from the sceptics.

“’How then were your eyes opened?’ they demanded.” John 9:10

It did not make sense to them. The man couldn’t explain the mechanism his healing either. He simply tells them that he obeyed Jesus and as a result he can see.

c. The Pharisees

There is no way they would seriously consider Jesus’ claims.

“This man is not from. God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” John 9:16

Anyone who does miracles on the Sabbath is ungodly, Q.E.D.. Miracles constitute work, so Jesus had broken the law. Actually God only stopped his work of creation on the Sabbath; he continued to sustain all he had made even on the Sabbath. The religious were trying hard to avoid facing the key question,

“Is Jesus from God?”

It is obvious why. If Jesus did these miracles by God’s power they should listen to what he said and follow him. This they were determined not to do that.

“The Jews still did not believe that he had been born blind and had received his sight . . .” John 9:18

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say ‘would not believe.’ The same goes for many today, belief in Jesus is definitely not on their agenda.

d. The parents

The next to be interrogated were the parents,

“Is this your son? . . . Is this the one you say was born blind?” John 9:19

They affirm these two facts but the Pharisees were not content to leave it there.

“How is it that he can now see?” John 9:19

It is interesting that when faced with a difficult choice people often resort to asking questions that are impossible to answer, thinking that this lets them off the hook. They keep asking ‘How?’ as if they had witnessed a conjuring trick, knowing that nobody could answer,

“How can a sinner do such miraculous signs? John 9:16

“But how can he see now . . .?” John 9:21

“How did he open your eyes?” John 9:26

However they never ask the important questions such as ‘Who is Jesus’ or ‘Why did he do this?’

Realising the Pharisees deep antagonism against Jesus the parents back off and suggest they talk to their son. The following verse says it all, real pressure would be exerted to prevent people believing in Jesus,

“ . . . for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.” John 9:22

Excommunication was a fearful prospect. People would not talk or trade with you. You would have to move and perhaps the sentence of excommunication would follow you around. In 1997 157,000 Christians were martyred for their faith in Jesus.

In desperation they recall the healed man. The Pharisees are clearly getting rattled as they seem to be losing the battle.

“Give glory to God, we know this man is a sinner.” John 9:24

‘Give glory to God’ was a way of saying ‘Swear on oath’. Even this blatant ‘leading of the witness’ failed to work. The man does not back down under the pressure.

“One thing I know. I was blind but now I see.” John 9:25

He is a changed man and will not deny it.

People are changed by Jesus in many ways. Charles Bradlaugh was a Victorian atheist who opposed Christianity. He challenged a Christian minister to a debate. The minister, Hugh Price Hughes agreed, on one condition, that Mr Bradlaugh would bring a hundred people whose lives had been changed for the better by following atheism. Mr Hughes would bring a hundred whose lives had been changed by following Jesus. Knowing that Mr Bradlaugh could not fulfil this demand he dropped the number to fifty, then twenty, then ten, and finally one. Mr Bradlaugh had to withdraw the invitation.

4. THE CHOICE

I was speaking with a medical student about the evidence that Jesus was the Christ, the Saviour of the world. He seemed impressed so I asked if he would consider becoming a follower of Jesus. He replied,

“I admit that the evidence is strong, but, to be honest, I don’t want to change the way I live.”

Bob Dylan once sang,

“You’re going to have to serve somebody.”

When I first went to college, I knew that my Christian friends had something I needed. It took me a little time to realise that it was a relationship that I needed.

I love what comes next. The man understood what was going on. With brilliant sarcasm he asks,

“Do you want to become his disciples, too?” John 9:27

Clearly this man has been won over by Christ. “What about you?” he asks. It is a vital question for all to answer as only Jesus’ followers receive the forgiveness that is vital for acceptance into God’s kingdom. The religious respond by hurling insults. “We are the religious leaders, we follow Moses. How dare you tell us who to follow!” They did not understand that even Moses foretold about Jesus and now worships him.

The tension mounts and it is all over the identity of Jesus and his authority. There is a terrible blindness here which persists to this day. Many refuse to acknowledge that it is only a personal relationship with Jesus that will save them.

Christianity is not an ethic; it is essentially a relationship with the living God through Christ that will affect all I am and do.

It is so common for good, moral, religious people to hope that their lifestyle and activities will satisfy God. But he has said clearly that our works can never be good enough. God’s standard is absolute righteousness. Only the righteousness of Christ can gain me admission into God’s kingdom. That status of being ‘righteous’ is given as a gift only to those who follow Christ; this is what being ‘born again’ means.

Bishop Taylor-Smith was a corpulent Chaplain General to the Forces. One Sunday morning he was preaching in Salisbury Cathedral. Wanting to emphasise this necessity of the new birth he said,

“My dear people do not substitute anything for the new birth. You may be a member of a church, but church membership is not new birth. Jesus said, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’.”

On his left sat the Archdeacon in his stall. Pointing directly at him the Bishop said,

“You might even be an Archdeacon, like my friend in his stall, and not be born again. Remember, ‘Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God’.

A day or two later he received a message from the Archdeacon.

“My dear bishop, you have found me out. I have been a clergyman for over thirty years, but I have never known anything of the joy that Christians speak of. I never could understand. Mine has been a hard legal service. I did not know what the matter was with me, but when you pointed directly at me and said,

“You might even be an Archdeacon and not be born again; I knew in a moment what the trouble was. I had never known anything of the new birth.”

The next day the Archdeacon and the bishop met up and they went through the Bible together. Then the Archdeacon knelt before his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and took his place as a sinner who desperately needed Christ’s forgiveness.

It is vitally important that we don’t harden our hearts as the religious Pharisees did. They began by looking for reasons not to believe, they became more entrenched in their position, then they angrily hurl insults and this finally leads to persecution, they expel the follower of Jesus.

In contrast the blind man allowed Jesus to put mud on his eyes, he obeyed Jesus when told to go and wash. After he was healed he kept telling what he knew of the truth in spite of the antagonism of the questioners. His journey ended with him believing in Christ and speaking up for him.

All of us have to decide about Jesus, a decision with eternal consequences.

BVP

John 8:48-59. “Who do you think you are?”

Alexei Navalny, a Russian strongly opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government, served many jail sentences for organising protest rallies that have been mainly directed against government corruption. In October 2018 he was publicly challenged to a duel by Putin’s longtime Security Chief, Viktor Zolotov. This challenge was made in a video, with Zolotov appearing in full uniform with cap and epaulets when he said that, whatever weapon was chosen by Navalny, he would ‘make mincemeat of him’. Navalny accepted the challenge, but his weapon of choice was to be a live television debate. The duel has not taken place! He was subsequently poisoned with On 20 August 2020, he was poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent and only just survived. In January 2021, Navalny returned to Russia and was immediately detained on accusations of violating parole conditions while hospitalised in Germany. He died in a prison camp in Siberia.

Jesus was also considered to be a public enemy by the Jewish rulers and they wanted to find ways to get rid of him. In the passage we are studying today the Jews engage Jesus in a public debate, that had all the features of a verbal duel. Jesus had just told the Jewish authorities that the reason they do not hear God speaking to them was because they are not God’s people - they did not belong to God.

They respond very aggressively with two aggressive statements,

“Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed.” John 8:48

Jesus, without calling them names, repeats the truths he has so frequently made previously.

“’I am not possessed by a demon,’ said Jesus, ‘but I honour my Father and you dishonour me.’” John 8:49

Then they attack again,

“Now we know that you are demon possessed!” John 8:52

In response Jesus restates his divine claims but now accuses his attackers of dishonesty. The result was that the authorities wanted to stone Jesus to death there and then, but Jesus managed to slip away. There is however much to learn from the details of this dialogue which is the climax of the last two chapters.

Jesus had set the scene for what was to come when he had cried out publicly in the Court of Women of the Temple, which was bathed in light from the four massive lamps during the Feast of Tabernacles when these conversations took place.

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

Jesus claims that he alone is the key to understanding life. This theme of light shining is the basis for what John selected in his subsequent writing. Chapter 8 is a searchlight that makes the claims of Jesus abundantly clear. Then, at the beginning of chapter 9, Jesus will heal a man who had been born blind. This story is surely inserted here to highlight the blindness of the religious leaders opposed to God’s truth and that Jesus alone can enable them to see. It is all part of John’s thesis that ‘light is shining in the darkness’.

The claims of Jesus

Jesus accentuates two statements in this passage that are clearly very important because they both begin with,

“I tell you the truth . . .”

They summarise the message of the whole Bible. The first is,

“I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” John 8:51

This teaches what Jesus had come to achieve although it is put in a negative form. Jesus has come that we ‘may have life and have it to the full’ (John 10:10), he came that we might never see death..

The second is,

“I tell you the truth, . . before Abraham was born, ‘I am!’” John 8:58

This teaches who Jesus claimed to be. He is saying that Abraham looked forwards to his day.

A person who understands and accepts these two statements is a Christian, they are the basis for experiencing ‘life to the full’.

Let us look at these two verses in more detail.

1. If anyone keeps my word he will never see death (John 8:51)

The word ‘death’ has three meanings in Scripture. It can mean the physical dissolution of our bodies at the end of this present life.

Death also is used to refer to that ultimate disaster when we leave this world without the forgiveness Christ offers, to meet God the judge, and be dismissed from his presence for ever.

“But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Revelation 21:8

Thirdly, death can also mean our alienation from God before we find forgiveness in Christ. Thus Paul wrote,

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins . . “ Ephesians 2:1

“When you were dead in your sins . . .” Colossians 2:13

We need to distinguish which death Jesus is talking about. In this context Jesus clearly cannot be talking about physical death as all his disciples would die physically. Later John brings the different meanings of death together when Jesus comforts Mary and Martha after the death of his friend Lazarus,

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;” John 11:25

The following verse adds another meaning, eternal death,

“. . . and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe that?’” John 11:26

Note these final words are left out in the liturgy of funeral services. As the minister walks down the aisle in front of the coffin, surrounded by people who normally would not be in church, it might be helpful if he could add these words whilst looking at everyone,

“Do you believe that?”

Their eternal destiny depends on the response.

When the great evangelist D.L.Moody was about to die, he said confidently to those around him,

“Earth is receding, heaven is approaching. This is my crowning day.”

Christian funerals should be a mixture of triumph overcoming the natural sadness – contrast their joy with the atmosphere at atheist or humanist funerals.

“Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?. . . But thanks be to God. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:55-56

Jesus is absolutely clear when talking to his opponents, if any will believe in him, follow him, let his word be their guide then they will never see death, they will never be separated from the God who made them and would die to save them.

During this discussion Jesus makes yet another claim to be the one and only son of God.

“My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.” John 8:54-55

There could be no confusion now. He is saying that his Father is the God of the Old Testament and he is adamant that this is the truth. Jesus had never and would never say anything untrue, so he throws down the gauntlet. The proof that he is God’s Son is that he always does what his heavenly Father says.

As this article was being written the television and newspapers were full of the manifestos of those who want to be the next Prime Minister. Here Jesus is putting forwards his manifesto that begins with what he longs to bring about. For him nuclear war is not the ultimate disaster, it is for us to face eternal death; to enter eternity unprepared to meet God; to die and wake up the other side knowing that there is no more hope. This is Christ’s manifesto, he wants to save us from hell for heaven, so this should be the manifesto of his church. Why are our churches so embarrassed about passing on this manifesto about heaven and hell and the only Saviour? Our message should be that any person who follows Christ, and who lives by Christ’s word, will never face the tragedy of hell.

2. Before Abraham was born, ‘I am!

Verse 58 is the other main point in Jesus’ manifesto.

“I tell you the truth, . . before Abraham was born, ‘I AM!’” John 8:51

The grammar here seems to be all wrong, ‘before Abraham was, I am!’ The answer is to be found in the Old Testament. When the Lord met Moses at the ‘burning bush’ and told Moses to be his representative in freeing the children of Israel from their captivity in Egypt, Moses asked how he was to expalin this to the Israelites

“Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your Fathers has sent me to you’ and they ask me ‘what is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?’.

God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I
AM’ has sent me to you.’” Exodus 3:13-14

Jesus is clearly referring to this account and is claiming to be the same God as the one the Jews debating with him were pretending to follow. The Jews clearly understood what Jesus was saying; it is made eloquently clear by the sentence that follows,

“At this, they picked up stones to stone him.” John 8:59

It was blasphemy for a man to claim to be God. What was missing was a fair investigation of the charge.

What is staggering is that, in spite of this immense claim by Jesus, there is a complete lack of self seeking by him.

“I am not seeking glory for myself.” John 8:50

“If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.” John 8:54

How many of the world’s politicians could honestly say that they are simply doing what God wants. How many would be willing to die for what they say they believe in? Jesus is surely the light shining in our darkness.

The message of the church

These two sentences together are a summary of the Christian message. Jesus is saying, ‘I am one with the eternal God. I have come to earth to brings this news of salvation to you. I have come to give you life, both now and in eternity. If anyone keeps my word he will never see death.’

Jesus is saying that anyone can avoid being separated from God eternally by accepting these two claims. Only if Jesus is who he says he is can he save us by taking responsibility for our sin. If he is not God he cannot be our Saviour. They must stand together.

Today many think that a Christian education is to help children to become nice, kind pleasant members of society. That is not the Christian message, it is far too limited, even though this may be a spin off. Why are we so ashamed to pass on what Jesus teaches?

People will want to know how they can change for the better and experience the power of the Spirit to change them into becoming like Jesus. Just telling people to be good will never bring about this change.

A headmaster wrote the following in his autobiography,

“I was happy in conversation with boys always to tell them what ideal behaviour was and where selfishness, cruelty and exploitation lay, but unwilling to talk of the very centre of Christianity, the meaning of the cross, because I found it at times repugnant and in part beyond belief.

With this semi-religion I was able to live with some contentment, but I knew well that it was ‘non-infectious’. That if what I believed was all Christianity amounted to, it would attract few. I knew that our Lord did not walk about Palestine beginning a world revolution, by saying,

“Come along everyone, be nice to everybody, be truthful, be honest. No he spoke of repentance, of salvation from sin, of conversion.”

How right this headmaster is. The Christian message is that the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of God, is at work. He enables individuals to recognise the rebellion against God, that is in us all, and draws us to Jesus Christ, the Saviour of any who turn to him. When we respond, his Spirit enters our life and begins the radical change in our characters. The Holy Spirit wants us to become like Jesus.

The darkness

Jesus claims that the darkness man is in is very great and John illustrates this by the reaction of the Jewish leaders. Note the characteristics of those who oppose him.

1. Anger

They lapse into irrational, vitriolic anger,

“The Jews answered him, ‘Are we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon possessed?” John 8:48

Such slurs are quoted in all four gospels. In Mark’s gospel we read,

“And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said,, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebub. By the prince of demons he is driving our demons.” Mark 3:22

On that occasion Jesus answered the irrational attack. He argues that if a king is fighting himself, he must lose! In the same way, a household in which the husband and wife are constantly fighting will be destroyed. Jesus is saying that it is irrational and absurd to think that he is driving out Satan by the power of Satan. It is darkness that is irrational and spiteful, God is recognised by truth and love.

2. Lying

Darkness is also characterised by dishonesty. Satan is the father of lies. Jesus picks this up,

“Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.” John 8:55

Those, in whom God has put his Spirit, also know God and this will be seen in the way they speak the truth with love.

3. Ignorance of God

Have you noticed how often politicians who are being interviewed and are facing a difficult question will begin their answer with,

‘Now the fact is . . .” or ‘We all know . . .’ or ‘To tell you the truth . . .

Although the Jewish leaders knew and understood so little about Jesus they said,

“Aren’t we right in saying . . .” John 8:48

Yet they were clearly wrong.

“Now we know . . .”, John 8:52

Yet they were clearly ignorant if they really thought that Jesus could conceivably be demon possessed.

Later the Jews confronted the man born blind, that Jesus had healed. We read,

“Then they hurled insults at him and said, ‘You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” John 9:28-29

The man answered using irony ,

“Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” John 9:30-33

Such understanding was met with further ridicule and opposition. They said to the man,

“‘You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!’ And they threw him out.” John 9:34

Summary

Jesus claims to be God’s light shining in the darkness, yet the darkness betrays itself in the way it reacts to the light.

The prime issue

The issue at stake is the person of Jesus. John focusses on ‘glory’ in verse 54, but the issue was not the glory of God, that was not questioned, but the ‘glory’ of Jesus, and this is what his father is trying to establish.

“I am not seeking glory for myself, but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.” John 8:50

There are many religious leaders in the world who claim that God is their God yet they also fail to glory in Jesus.

“My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.” John 5:54

The wording here is fascinating. The Jew’s authority is their claim to follow their God and yet their God excludes the true Son of God. It seems they had a different God. Their demeanour, their anger and spitefulness betray that they are not following the God of love of the Bible, who is slow to anger!

In the modern world there is a feeling that all religions are essentially similar and are there to give people an ethic to live by and a purpose to live for. We should be saying to them, as Jesus said to religious people of his day,

“You claim to worship God but are you pointing people to me?”

One of the marks of the faith the real creator God wants to see is one that he points people to Jesus, so that men may glory in him and be changed by receiving his Spirit when they turn to him. The Jewish faith looked forwards to the coming of God’s Messiah and the God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament. True religion gives people a confidence that they have been put right with God, who then empowers them to live for him in his style.

The average man, even if a church-goer, doesn’t glory in Jesus and is not being changed by him. However God seeks to glorify his son, Jesus, and so do all those who are members of the Kingdom of God.

Is there a middle way?

Can people not try to live good lives but reject Jesus? The Bible is clear, they can try to do that but it can never put them right with God. The vital point is that no-one can be good enough for God. Being sincerely religious does not impress God. We are either forgiven, and this can only be found in Jesus, or we are still responsible for our own sin. This will be apparent when we die and meet God. We are either members of the Kingdom of God or outside it – there is no middle way, as far as God is concerned. Either Jesus is demon possessed or he is the Son of God.

Too many people are willing to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher but refuse to accept his claim to be God. C. S. Lewis, wrote powerfully in his book, ‘Mere Christianity’,

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice.”

In John chapter 8 there is no thought of Jesus being a great moral teacher, it was his claim to be God that was the focus of discussion.

“Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?” John 8:53

Any who reject Jesus’ claim have to conclude, with the Jews, that somehow he is of the devil.

In 1936, Watchman Nee, the great Chinese Bible teacher and evangelist, made a similar argument in his book, ‘Normal Christian Faith’, saying that a person who claims to be God must belong to one of three categories:

“First, if he claims to be God and yet in fact is not, he has to be a madman or a lunatic.

Second, if he is neither God nor a lunatic, he has to be a liar, deceiving others by his lie.

Third, if he is neither of these, he must be God.

You can only choose one of the three possibilities.

If you do not believe that he is God, you have to consider him a madman.

If you cannot take him for either of the two, you have to take him for a liar.

There is no need for us to prove if Jesus of Nazareth is God or not. All we have to do is find out if He is a lunatic or a liar. If He is neither, He must be the Son of God.”

Who knows for certain?

Clearly there is one person who knows the truth about Jesus because he is the very definition of truth. That person is the Lord God. He revealed what he thought very clearly by raising Jesus form the dead. At Peter’s Pentecost sermon it was made clear that the cross demonstrated both what man thought of God’s Son, Jesus and the empty grave tells what God thought of his Son.

The decision we make about Jesus has immense consequences both for our lives here on earth but also for eternity.

BVP

John 8:37-47 Have I been saved?

John chapter 8 is a painful chapter as it demands that we ask ourselves some hard questions. We can easily be offended, just as the Jews were that Jesus was talking with. In the west there are still many who think that because of their background and church upbringing they imagine that all will be well between them and God. Jesus is determined to keep warning people to test themselves to ensure they really are believers as our background gives us no security.

Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1758)

Jonathan Edwards was one of America’s great preachers and theologians, being descended from Puritan immigrants. His descendants include 13 college Presidents, 65 Professors, 100 lawyers including a Dean of a prominent law school, 65 Physicians including a Dean of a Medical School, 30 judges, 80 holders of political office, 3 US Senators, 3 Mayors of large cities, one Vice President of the United States and one controller of the US Treasury. It is a remarkable family and illustrates that if you have an industrious godly ancestry, it is definitely advantageous.

However it is seldom acknowledged that the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, Aaron Burr, became one of the most infamous men of his time. He had first studied theology but then turned to law. He then became a politician rising to become Vice President of the United States under Thomas Jefferson. However he was widely held to be arrogant and self seeking and began to lose support. He then killed another prominent politician, Alexander Hamilton, in a duel, which gave rise to the charge of murder but he managed to get himself acquitted. Later he was manipulating himself into becoming President of Mexico when he was charged with treason, which he also overcame. The poet, Constance Carrier summarised what had happened,

“Eight lines of clergymen converged to meet in Aaron Burr,

Each a blood-and-thunderer.

Eight lines of clergymen conveyed, as I have said, in Burr,

And Aaron was Beelzebub in mocking miniature.”

Aaron Burr had such a godly heritage, but somehow it all went wrong. Although a strong Christian background is something to be valued it does not guarantee subsequent spiritual life. Many people in our churches today had godly parents and relatives but this is no guarantee that they are true Christians or that they will stay the course.

Religious but not God’s children

In John chapter 8 Jesus confronts Jewish people who had an outstanding religious heritage but, though they had kept the externals, knew nothing about being ‘born again’ or knowing ‘the power of God’s Spirit’ in their lives. There was obviously an increasingly antagonistic relationship between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. At the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus had publicly declared,

“I am the light of the world.” John 8:12

This implied that his listeners needed him and were in the dark without him.

“You are from below, I am from above.” John 8:23

Jesus is saying that his listeners know nothing about God’s kingdom, the kingdom that he heads.

“You are slaves of sin.” “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:34,36

This is a remarkable statement. Their slavery to Satan is proved by the fact that they want to kill the Son of God, yet still Jesus offers them hope. He alone is able and is willing to rescue them! Yet the Jews cannot see their need, replying,

“Abraham is our father.” John 8:39

Jesus is highly critical of their assumptions, they were relying on their being the physical descendants of Abraham and were in the right group, holding to orthodox doctrines, as they thought. This false belief is mentioned again and again in John’s gospel.

When in Indonesia I was chatting to an eighteen year old Muslim lad who was escorting his two sisters. We started to chat and I mentioned the problem of radical Muslims. He then said,

“There are seventy two groups in Islam and only one of those groups is going to heaven.”

I asked him which group he was in.

“The one which is going to heaven,” he confidently replied.

It is so easy for us to think that because we belong to the right church or to a group that teaches orthodox Biblical sermons, that we are safe.

Justin Martyr, born around 100AD, became an early Christian apologist wrote a book ‘Dialogue with Trypho’. In this he describes a discussion he had with Trypho, an orthodox Jew. Trypho says,

“Regardless of whether we look to God or are godless or however our lives are, the fact that we are Jews means we will share in his eternal estate.”

It was such arrogant false confidence that upset Jesus so much. Today there are many denominations and sects that teach similarly.

Evidence that they were not God’s children

They were deceived. It is the same today. There are many who think that because they have a church background, have been baptised or confirmed and believe orthodox doctrines that they consider all is well and they will join God in heaven. Jesus’ reply is,

“If you were Abraham’s children, then you would do the things Abraham did.” John 8:39

Jesus is surely referring back to the occasion, told in Genesis 18, when three visitors came to Abraham’s tent as he was resting from the heat of the day. He receives them willingly and asks his wife, Sarah, to prepare some food for their guests. It subsequently becomes clear that this was a divine visitation. As they leave Abraham is told by the Lord,

“Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed by him. Genesis 18:18

He is then shown the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that the Lord says he is about to destroy because of their godlessness. Abraham, knowing that his nephew, Lot, lived in Sodom, then pleaded that God would be merciful and that if there were just ten righteous people in the city, would he spare the city.

The important thing about this story is that Abraham received the Lord with enthusiasm. Only then does he receive the promise to be the Father of many nations. Abraham received the messenger and message of God willingly – but the Jews in Jesus’ day did not.

Jesus spells out his credentials again:

“I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence.” John 8:38

Jesus alone has seen God so they should listen to him.

“ . . . who has told you the truth that I heard from God.” John 8:40

Jesus’ words are the words of God that he has passed on.

“I came from God and now am here.” John 8:42

Jesus repeatedly underlines his credentials and gives them the evidence that they must believe him. If they were the true children of Abraham, they would believe this divine visitation just as Abraham had done. Abraham recognised the voice of God, but these Jews did not.

A person’s attitude to God is often shown by his attitude to God’s ministers. In the Old Testament true prophets were often rejected whereas false prophets that said what their listeners wanted to hear were welcomed. In the New Testament God’s ministers were again frequently rejected. But to reject the man of God who brings God’s word is serious, as it is a rejection of God himself.

Our relationship with God depends completely on our relationship with his Son.

In John 8 there are two beautiful sentences that describe people who truly belong to God’s kingdom.

“If God were your Father, you would love me.” John 8:42

This relationship is much more than respect or even honour. Love is personal.

“If I am telling you the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says.” John 8:47

These two tests are fundamental:

1. Do I love Jesus?

2. Do I listen to his word?

These are tests we can apply to ourselves. We know if our love for Jesus is genuine as it will affect all that I and my family do. Unfortunately many think that because they are pleasant, reasonable people who have had some link with church in the past they will be alright when they meet God. But this passage warns that they, like the religious Jews, are deceived if they do not love Jesus and his word.

Paul, in his letters, repeatedly addresses people who think their religion and its rituals such as circumcision, will save them. Yet he says,

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Galatians 5:6

Today we could say,

“For in Christ Jesus neither confirmation nor lack of confirmation has any value . . . or in Christ Jesus neither baptism with the right amount of water, or the lack of it, is of any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

Faith in Jesus will always result in a love for Jesus. Of course baptism and confirmation have a place, just as circumcision in the Old Testament did, but these must just be outward signs of a changed heart, otherwise they are meaningless.

Religious but the devil’s offspring

Jesus talks about the devil in a way that makes some modern churchmen embarrassed. Yet he has no hesitation in speaking in such a clear way. Jesus believed in the devil.

“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire.” John 8:44

Jesus is saying that these religious Jews were not under the influence of God but of Satan and were therefore enemies of the truth.

“Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!” John 8:45

This is ironic. Today people tend to say, ‘Convince me with evidence that the Christian story is true and I will then believe’. But here Jesus says that his listeners won’t believe, even when told the truth, because they are under the influence of Satan. These people are so opposed to Jesus and what he was teaching that they even wanted him dead.

“As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who told you the truth that I heard from God.” John 8:40

The cross of Christ indicates both the love of God for humanity and also the murderous intent of man to destroy God and remove his influence. There are many today who are determined to do away with God so they can live as they want, without bothering with his values.

This is very stark teaching, Jesus is saying that there are only two groups, saved or unsaved, black or white, truth or lies. Elsewhere he says that people are either in the light or in the dark, they are either wheat or tares, sheep or goats. There are no l-arks, wh-ares or sh-oats in Jesus’ thinking. Here there are only two families, Abraham’s family, that lives by faith in the living God, or the devil’s family, that lives on lies and deceit. If people decide to reject Jesus, they are rejecting truth, love and life.

When Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave his Templeton Prize address he said that the tragedy of the modern world was, ‘You have forgotten God’. In a subsequent interview with Bernard Levin, published in the Times, he explained that he now considered that the goal of man is ‘not happiness but spiritual growth’. He had learned this from Jesus.

But do people believe in the devil any more? When I was a student I was involved in a mission to a borstal from our church, St Helen’s, Bishopsgate. At lunch time, I was sitting with a group of inmates and we discussed whether there was a god. They weren’t sure. I then asked whether they believed in the devil. I was staggered at their response. Every one of them was utterly convinced that the devil was real. They had been involved in seances and used ouija boards and these experiences had terrified them.

We have forgotten God. The history of rock music is riddled with satanic influence. The group ‘Black Sabbath’ sang about an occult ritual and they performed a black mass on stage. ‘The Eagles’ had songs with satanic and cultic influences. A group called ‘KISS’ was an acronym for ‘Knights in Satan’s Service’. ‘Led Zeppelin’ had a guitarist who ran Britain’s largest occult bookshop. One ‘Rolling Stones’ album was recorded at a voodoo ritual. These groups do influence people in our society to turn away from God. When society moves away from God, from protecting truth and from those who are determined to live by truth, it doesn’t believe in nothing, it believes anything. Truth is no longer central to what people will believe, now it tends to be what makes us happy and satisfies our senses.

Jesus certainly makes it clear that people either belong to God or to the devil.

“You belong to your father, the devil and you want to carry on your father’s desire.” John 8:44

“He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” John 8:47

How can we be sure about where we belong. Jesus says that the answer can be found by looking at him and his godly character.

“Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? I am telling the truth.” John 8:46

People always run true to form. A thief keeps stealing. Someone hooked on pornography keeps looking. Liars keep lying. Yet no-one could even accuse Jesus of any sin. That itself should wake us all up to what Jesus is saying.

Our family, our religious affiliations and our social standing count for nothing when it comes to our acceptance by God. Only one thing counts, according to Jesus, that is our relationship with him. In the Sermon on the mount Jesus talks about religious people, who outwardly acknowledge him to be their Lord, who have spiritual gifts, yet who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus. He says their fate will be exclusion from God’s kingdom.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord,. Did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Matthew 7:21-23

Aaron Burr had every privilege but he was not personally committed to the Lord Jesus. The following account of his death was left by a clergyman, the Rev. Dr. P.J. Van Pelt, (1778–1861), a Reformed Dutch clergyman of the neighbourhood, who was often at his bedside.

Van Pelt recounts being received by Burr “with his accustomed politeness and urbanity of manner.”

He applied himself to getting Burr to renounce atheism. He reminded Burr of his “honoured and pious ancestry.” Burr’s father, a Presbyterian minister, had founded the College of New Jersey (later becoming Princeton University), and his maternal grandfather was Jonathan Edwards, the famous Bible teacher and evangelist. He wrote,

“It was then near one o’clock in the afternoon, and his mind and memory seemed perfect. I said to him,

‘In this solemn hour of your apparent dissolution, believing, as you do, in the sacred Scriptures, your accountability to God, let me ask you how you feel in view of approaching eternity; whether you have good hope, through grace, that all your sins will be pardoned, and God will, in mercy, pardon you, for the sake of the merits and righteousness of his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who in love suffered and died for us the agonizing, bitter death of the cross, by whom alone we can have the only sure hope of salvation?’

To which he said, with deep and evident emotion,

‘On that subject I am coy.’

By I this understood him to mean that, on a subject of such magnitude and momentous interest, touching the assurance of his salvation, he felt coy, cautious (as the word denotes) to express himself in full confidence.”i

Philip Vail (a pseudonym for Noel Bertram Gerson) had a much better sense of Burr’s views on religion, writing,

“They discussed theology by the hour, and Burr was always lucid, his mind quite keen as he defended his own free thinking position. He quietly resisted Dr. Van Pelt’s attempts to convert him, saying that if God knew of his existence and cared what became of him, a change of heart at the eleventh hour would not convince the Almighty that he was sincere in his abandonment of his lifelong beliefs. But he was deeply touched by the minister’s prayers for him and always thanked him for them.”ii

What will Aaron Burr say to Jesus when he meets him?

“If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you?” John 8:42-43

“If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” John 8:47

Jesus says that our eternal destiny depends upon our relationship with him. The questions everyone must answer are ‘Who is this person who speaks in such a way?’; ‘Do I have a personal relationship with him?’and ‘Am I committed to living as Jesus wants?’

Today it is possible to be a very intelligent theologian who knows much about Jesus and the Bible yet remain outside God’s kingdom. John Stott was a great Bible teacher who helped many come to faith in Jesus. He attended a conference at which there was radical theologian who disagreed with what the Bible teaches. As they were walking to breakfast together John wanted to get to the root issue so he asked the theologian a simple but far reaching question,

“May I ask you, do you worship Jesus.”

BVP

i James Parton, ‘The Life and Times of Aaron Burr, Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army of the Revolution, United States Senator, Vice-President of the United States, Etc.’ New York: Mason Brothers, 1858, pp. 679-681.

ii Philip Vail, ‘The Great American Rascal: The Turbulent Life of Aaron Burr’ New York: Hawthorn Books, 1973, p. 226

John 8:30-36. Genuine Disciples

These six verses are of major significance in the history of the church. They describe the marks by which we may know if we are genuine Christians and not false, formal religious people. Jesus warned his disciples about this in the Sermon on the Mount when he said,

“Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord,, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers!’” Matthew 7:21-23

John described the effect of Jesus’ teaching in the temple during the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem,

“Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.” John 8:30

Jesus then addresses these new believers in such a way as to test their newly expressed commitment.

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples.” John 8:31

This is a repeated theme in John’s gospel. After Jesus had cleared the temple of sheep and cattle and the money changers, the effect of his ministry was that he collected many followers.

“ . . . many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name.” John 2:23

However Jesus was concerned that this may be just a passing phase.

“But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need the man’s testimony about man for he knew what was in a man.” John 2:24-25

True Conversion

The Bible is full of warnings for those who start to live as Christians but then turn their backs on Christ and his church. The Parable of the Sower, that Jesus told (Mark 4:1-20), warns us that God’s message may appear to be developing in a persons life but then ‘trouble or persecution’ comes and they fall away. Others have all spiritual life choked from them by ‘worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things’ (Mark 4:19). It is up to us to hear the word, accept it and then go on to bear fruit. Salvation is only secure if we remain devoted to the Lord Jesus.

The great eighteenth century evangelist, George Whitefield (1714-1770), made the following comment,

“There are so many stony ground hearers who receive the Word with joy that I have determined to suspend my judgment till I know the tree by its fruits ...Do you think any farmer would have a crop of corn next year unless he plowed now? You may as well expect a crop of corn on unplowed ground as a crop of grace until the soul is convinced of its being undone without a Saviour. That is the reason we have so many mushroom converts, so many persons that are always happy! happy! happy! and never were miserable. Why? Because their stony ground is not plowed up; they have not got a conviction of the law . . . they fall away . . . That makes me so cautious now, which I was not thirty years ago, of dubbing converts too soon. Now I wait a little, and see if people bring forth fruit; for there are so many blossoms which March winds blow away that I cannot believe they are converts till I see fruit brought forth.”

It is vital to ask ourselves, ‘Does Jesus see me as a true follower or as a person who believes a few things but whose heart has not been changed?’

On this last day of the Feast of Tabernacles this is what Jesus wants to help his listeners understand. He gives three tests.

1. Is Jesus’ teaching that important to me?

“To the Jews who had believed in him Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching you are really my disciples.” John 8:31

Note that Jesus does not say, ‘If you agree with my teaching’. True Christians ‘follow Jesus’ teaching’. This is a repeated theme in the New Testament .

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.” John 14:15

“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.” John 14:23

It is incompatible for a Christian to say they disagree with what Jesus taught his disciples.

A student wondered if he was a real Christian. He had asked Jesus into his life earlier but certain sins had reappeared so he wondered where he stood with God. Should he be baptised again? His minister simply asked him to look within himself and determine whether he does love Jesus and wants to follow him. The fact that he did, confirmed that the Holy Spirit was in his life. Just as a child is in their element when swimming, cycling, or playing with friends, so a Christian is happiest when they are living as God wants. Conversely Christians are most discontented when we fail to live as our Lord wants.

Today, as in the early church, there are some churchmen who want to change the doctrines that Christ and his apostles taught. There is no doubt that in both the Old Testament and in the New, God intends that sexual activity should be restricted to marriage between a man and his female wife, so how can churchmen teach anything differently? There are some who teach that so long as a person adheres to the outward formularies of the church they are eternally safe. Yet Jesus insists that saving faith is heartfelt and not just a matter of religious activities.

Jesus said to the woman of Samaria,

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is Spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24

Modern deviations from the teaching of Jesus reflect those encountered by the early church.

a. Do good deeds contribute to our salvation?

Judaisers in the time of Jesus and the early church thought that, to some extent, their good works, their religious background and their religious activities somehow contributed to them being saved. Yet the Bible teaches that salvation is a gift and that only union with Christ is necessary for salvation. Clearly this union with Christ will result in a new way of living. In a recent study, 36% of self-identified evangelicals believed that “by the good deeds that I do, I partly contribute to earning my place in heaven”. Any belief which holds that our good deeds or efforts contribute to salvation is similar to that held by the Judaizers in the New Testament. We must all be clear,

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from ourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:8-10

“ . . . he saved us, not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” Titus 3:5

This last sentence is yet another example of the twofold aspect of salvation, we are washed of our sins because Christ took responsibility for them on that cross and we are empowered by the gift of the Holy Spirit to live lives that reflect our Lord.

Some years ago I was in conversation with a large group of nuns who were members of Mother Theresa’s ‘Sisters of Mercy’ order. I asked them, ‘What is the Christian gospel?’ One nun replied,

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was in prison and you came and visited me.” Matthew 25:35-36

I asked them ‘If that is true, what is the importance of Jesus and his crucifixion’? A senior nun then interjected and reminded everyone that the gospel is about Jesus, who he is and the salvation he has given us. Clearly Jesus, in this passage, is talking to people who have already become members of God’s family as they are told to come and receive ‘their inheritance’. An inheritance is not earned but is a gift, usually given to those in the family. Jesus is emphasising that evidence of the Spirit’s presence is a real care for other brethren who are also members God’s kingdom but are in trouble.

“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me,” Matthew 25:40

This heresy that our good deeds contribute to our salvation is rife in western societies today. A lady said recently,

“I live as good a life as most. I don’t need Christianity to live as I do.”

A good answer would be what the Lord said to Samuel when he was looking for a king for Israel,

“Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

b. Is the spiritual more important than the physical

The early gnostics were much more interested in spiritual notions and experiences than in living in this world for Christ. Some religious people felt it was more spiritual to be a hermit than live for God in society.

c. Is the physical is more important than the spiritual

Today there are religious people who do not think that the Christian faith is built on facts about the life of Jesus, preferring instead to spiritualise everything and infer that the only life that matters is the here and now and that social equality is the essence of Christianity. There have been some vociferous bishops who disregard the physical death and resurrection of Christ emphasising the experience people can have today of the power of God in their lives. This radically alters the apostolic faith and the Bible is clear that such changes must be rejected. Paul said,

“If anyone is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be anathema.” Galatians 1:9

The Christian faith is dependent on Jesus being a real man who was also God our creator, who entered this world to die and rise again. Christianity is nothing if Jesus Christ is not God who entered this world to pay the price for our sin and empowers us with the gift of God’s Holy Spirit.

“And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” 1 Corinthians 15:14

d. Is the Prosperity Gospel right?

The Bible promises that God’s people enjoy great privileges in the world to come. However there was a movement that troubled the early church in Corinth that is returning with a vengeance today. This quote from prosperity gospel teacher Kenneth Hagin would have been right at home with the Corinthians:

“I believe that it is the plan of God our Father that no believer should ever be sick…It is not—I state boldly—it is not the will of God my Father that we should suffer with cancer and other dread diseases which bring pain and anguish. No! It is God’s will that we be healed.”

But we all know that Christians do suffer and die. Paul taught the Corinthians that such perfection is only true in the age to come. There is no crown without a cross. This modern version of an ancient heresy is deadly. Sick and dying people expect to be miraculously healed. The poor expect to get rich if they give what little they have. It harms those who are suffering, it detracts from the gospel, and breeds cynicism when promises which God never made do not come true. Yet people too often follow those who enthusiastically lead them without asking if what is being said is the balance of Scripture.

2. Does truth matter?

A group of hospital consultants were asked, ‘What is truth.’ They were unsure, one finally suggesting that ‘truth must be consensus’. That is clearly incorrect as consensus can be manipulated by politicians and the media. Truth is an absolute concept, truth is a concept compatible with God. In science we are trying to discover God’s truths by trial and error. In medicine we search for the true cause of a person’s symptoms in order to give optimal treatment. In law barristers and juries are trying to determine the truth of what has happened and attribute blame.

Here Jesus makes a profound statement,

“If you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32

Jesus again puts himself in the centre. Truth is a concept compatible with God and here Jesus says he is truth. In other words he is saying ‘I am God’. Jesus is the truth. Later Jesus said something similar to his disciples,

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Nothing matters more in life than becoming accepted by God and then living to please him. Jesus says that there is no other way to be forgiven or empowered, outside of himself. How foolish people are to live without Jesus.

When a person becomes a Christian they receive both forgiveness of all their sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that his presence would be replaced by that of the Holy Spirit.

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever – the Spirit of truth.” John 14:16-17

Most people ask at some time, ‘Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life.” Jesus demands that we look to him to supply the answer.

Nothing matters more than entering a relationship with Jesus. One week-end in 1982, President Reagan was very concerned for the failing health of his father-in-law, a retired neuro-surgeon. Loyal Davis. He was just a few days away from dying and he was an atheist. Davis once wrote,

“I never have been able to subscribe to the divinity of Jesus Christ nor his virgin birth. I don’t believe in resurrection, or in heaven or hell as places.”

Reagan, on the other hand, believed everyone would face a day of judgment and that that of Davis was near. So the most powerful man in the world put everything else aside and took pen in hand and set out on an urgent mission, to save his father-in-law. The following letter was found in the Reagan library; it had been part of Nancy Reagan’s personal effects:

“Dear Loyal,

I hope you’ll forgive me for this, but I’ve been wanting to write you ever since we talked on the phone. i’m aware of the strain you are under and believe with all my heart there is help for that . . . It was a miracle that a young man of thirty years without credentials as a scholar or priest had more impact on the world than all the teachers, scientists, emperors, generals and admirals who ever lived, all put together. Either he was who he said he was or he was the greatest fake and charlatan who ever lived. But would a liar and a faker suffer the death he did?”

Reagan then wrote out John 3:16 for his father-in-law,

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

He then added,

“We have been promised that all we have to do is to ask God in Jesus’ name to help when we have done all we can. - when we’ve come to the end of our strength and abilities and we’ll have that help. We only have to trust and have faith in his infinite goodness and mercy.”

Did this letter have any impact? Nancy Reagan, who was with her father, Loyal Davis, when he died, and who saved this letter from his son-in-law, would later claim that her father did indeed turn to God at the very end of his life.

3. Am I a slave?

The religious Jews were annoyed with Jesus’ statement that ‘the truth will set you free’, as it suggested that they were enslaved.

“They answered him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say we shall be set free?’” John 8:33

Had the Jews forgotten that they had been captives in Egypt, of the Philistines, of the Babylonians and now of Rome? It is more likely that they were saying that inwardly they had never been slaves. They had always been an independent people. But Jesus contradicts them by saying that all people are slaves to their degenerate side. We are all selfish and ungodly and this results in a wide variety of sins, such as pride, jealousy, theft, and promiscuity. It is not only the alcoholic or drug addict who is enslaved, we all are, however respectable we are. Indeed the whole history of the world has been described as a search for freedom. People often look for this in political terms and think that political independence will provide the answers but Jesus emphasises that the real freedom we need is the freedom to do what is right, a freedom from sin. Jesus continues,

“Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” John 8:34

In ancient households, people were either part of the family or they were slaves. Jesus uses this fact to compare the plight of those who are slaves, with no rights with those who are members of the family.

“Now a slave has no permanent place in the family but a son belongs to it for ever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:35-36

Jesus is using the analogy of slavery to again make the point that the only way to be adopted into the family is to allow the Son, Jesus himself, to free you. Clearly when a person has been adopted, it is into a permanent relationship. The son in a family has all the privileges so to reject the offer of being adopted would surely be idiocy.

The Jews relied on the fact that they were physical descendants from Abraham. They accepted and tried to follow the rules of the Old Testament that Moses had passed on to them, but they had overlooked the multitude of passages in the Old Testament that the Lord wants their hearts and not just formal acknowledgment. It is astounding how easy it is to overlook passages in the Bible that make us feel uncomfortable. The prophet Joel had been very clear,

“’Even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart’ . . . ‘Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” Joel 2:12-13

The New Testament makes it clear that those who share the faith of Abraham are his true descendants. Paul explains this in the following way,

“Consider Abraham: ‘He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness’. Understand then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.” Galatians 3:6-7

The only way to be acceptable to the holy God is to be given the status of being ‘righteous’. No-one can earn this, however exemplary their life. Paul wrote,

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” Romans 1:16-17

It is by our actions that our true allegiance is demonstrated. The Jews claimed to be children of Abraham but their rejection of the embodiment of God betrayed the fact that they were not members of God’s kingdom.

“If you were members of God’s kingdom, you would do the things Abraham did. As it is you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. . . . You are doing the things your own father does.” John 8:39-41

Jesus is inferring that if their father is not God he must be Satan. As so often happens they respond with cynicism and sarcasm, referring to the doubt about whether Jesus was the legitimate son of Mary and Joseph,

“‘We are not illegitimate children,’ they protested, ‘The only Father we have is God himself.’”

Jesus wants everyone to determine which family we belong to and then to live accordingly.

BVP

John 8:21-30. ‘Who are you?’

There is one subject that is seldom preached on today as it causes offence but Jesus wants people to hear his message that he says comes from his heavenly Father:

“I have much to say in judgment of you . . .” John 8:26

This passage comes in two halves, the first is very severe but in the second half Jesus says some striking things about himself.

Words of terrible severity

21 Once more Jesus said to them,“ I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”

22 This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”

23 But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.” John 8:21-24

Many people, including the Pharisees, had been following Jesus around during the Feast of Tabernacles when Jesus had been teaching in the temple of Jerusalem. Jesus is saying that there will come a time when it will be too late for people to change direction. The people will search for him but he will not be found. These are terrifying words:

“You will look for me, and you will die in your sin.” John 8:21

The prophet Isaiah also emphasised the need for people to search out for answers to life before it is too late:

“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him . . .” Isaiah 55:6-7

Three times Jesus warns his hearers, ‘you will die in your sin’, ‘you would die in your sins’, ‘You will indeed die in you sins’. Sin, an innate rebellion against God, is the root cause of all our problems. Sin results in a wide variety of symptomatic sins which are also repugnant to God.

These words of Jesus are truly shocking. You will never see them on a tombstone. Sometimes, especially on ancient tombstones, you will see words of hope,

“Died in the Faith’ or “Trusting in his Saviour”

but you will never see,

“He died in his sins.”

These words of Jesus are a solemn warning. What can be worse than to die unforgiven by God, making admission to God’s eternal kingdom impossible?

Thomas Paine was a great intellectual who was involved in the founding the United States of America. He persuaded many that belief in God, in Christ and in the Scriptures was unintellectual. On the day he died, in 1809, he said the following words to those at his bedside,

“I would give worlds, if I had them, that ‘The Age of Reason’ had not been written. Oh Lord help me. Christ help me. Oh God, what have I done to suffer so much. But there is no God, but if there is, what is going to become of me in the hereafter? Stay with me, for God’s sake. Send even a child to stay with me for it is hell to be alone and if ever the devil had an agent, I have been one.”

Contrast these final words with those of the Christian poet, Isaac Watts who wrote the hymn, ‘Oh God, our help in ages past.’ On the day he died he said,

“It is a great mercy that I have no manner of fear or dread of death. I could, if God please, lay my head back and die without a tear this afternoon.’

That is exactly what he did!

Significantly the Pharisees, like many people today, overlook this warning of Jesus about ‘dying in your sin’ and focus instead on,

“Where I go you cannot come.” John 8:21

They seem unwilling to see their own massive problem, preferring to concentrate on a minor issue about where Jesus was going that they cannot follow. For them this was a riddle. ‘Would Jesus kill himself?’ they jibed. Suicide was regarded as a heinous sin by the Pharisees and the worst places in hell were supposed to be reserved for them. The historian, Josephus wrote,

“If someone, by their own hands, does harm to their own soul they will reside in the darkest hades and they will bring judgment on the generations that follow them.”

The Pharisees were thinking, ‘We cannot follow him to hell!’ Little did they realise that their fate will be hell, whereas Jesus is going to a much better place, back to his Father’s side. They were confirming Jesus’ words that they are in a lost state as they cannot recognise him as their Saviour. This, Jesus says, will result in an eternal separation from God.

Jesus continues to explain the reason for this separation and shares with them the remedy.

“You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.” John 8:23

Jesus is saying that he is in a completely different dimension to them. They are of this world, he is the Lord of God’s kingdom. The Greek word ‘cosmos’ translated ‘world’ comes 186 times in the New Testament and each time it refers to an evil world system that is opposed to God. Just as oil and water do not mix, so God’s kingdom is of a different quality to this world. This is the reason people of this world will want Jesus but it will be too late and they will not be able to find him.

Some, like the Pharisees will come up with excuses. In C.S. Lewis’ book, ‘The Great Divorce’, a bus-load of people are brought up from hell to heaven. They are ghostlike beings from the underworld who feel most uncomfortable in the real world of heaven. A theologian in the bus from hell gets into a discussion with an old friend who had gone to heaven. The reason is clear, one lived for this world whereas the one in heaven had lived for God. No-one can follow Jesus to heaven unless they are living for his kingdom in this world.

The Danish Christian philosopher Kierkegaard broke off his engagement because he realised his fiancee was not living in God’s world. He told her,

“I cannot marry. You are an eternity too young!”

What is the answer? It is to become part of God’s kingdom and not to live for this world. The apostle Paul emphasised this difference when he wrote,

“And God raised us up with Christ, and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:6

God’s kingdom becomes real through the work of the Holy Spirit in us. God becomes real and very important. Elsewhere Paul distinguishes these two modes of living,

“ . . . many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their God is their stomach, and they glory in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ . . .” Philippians 3:18-20

The next statement of Jesus is staggering. In the original Greek his meaning is very clear,

“I told you that you would die in your sins, if you do not believe that I AM [the one I claim to be], you will indeed die in your sins. John 8:24

The explanatory note in brackets is not is the original. When Moses met with God at the burning bush, he asked God his name. The Lord replied,

“God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. That is what you are to say to the Israelites:’ ‘I AM has sent me.’” Exodus 3:14

Jesus, by using the name of the Lord God is saying that he is equal with God. In heaven, the Bible stresses that we will be worshipping both Jesus and his Father on equal terms. This is why the doctrines of sects such as Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are so wrong. Jesus said,

“If you do not believe that ‘I AM’ (the one I claim to be), you will indeed die in your sins.” John 8:24

The phrase, ‘the one I claim to be’ is not in the original Greek and I have therefore put it in italics; translators added this to make the meaning clear. The new NIV translation adds ‘he’ instead, but this is not in the original either.

The choice is ours, just as it was the choice for those living in Jesus’ day. Recognising Jesus and therefore following him is the key to entering the real Kingdom of God.

Too often people are flippant about eternal life. They put on an act suggesting that they are not concerned. But they will be when it is too late. People joke about meeting Peter at the pearly gates but even this portrays the deep unease people have about what happens after death. But Jesus is not joking – it is no joke to die in our sins, to die without being forgiven.

This is one of the big differences between us and animals. No animal fears death as we do. We fear death because in it we face the unknown. It is our sin, our wilful rebellion against God’s rule that makes the prospect of death so worrying. Paul recognised that,

“The sting of death is sin.” I Corinthians 15:56

What a disaster it is to hear modern preachers say to congregations, especially at funerals,

“Don’t worry. You have nothing to fear, because God is a God of love.”

God is indeed merciful but it is from the lips of Jesus that this warning comes loud and clear,

“If you do not believe that I AM (the one I claim to be), you will indeed die in your sins.” John 8:24

Words about himself

Any modern preacher who speaks in such terms will inevitably face an adverse reaction,

“Who are you to speak like this?”

This is exactly the reaction Jesus faced from the religious of his day.

25 “Who are you?” they asked.

“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied.

26 “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”

27 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.

28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM (the one I claim to be) and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.

29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”

30 Even as he spoke, many believed in him.

It is impossible to go through the following chapters of John’s gospel without confronting Jesus’ astonishing claims. He has been identifying himself clearly throughout this book. It is only because he is our creator and Lord that he can be so judgemental. He was warning his hearers then, just as he warns all people of all nationalities today, that without the salvation he alone can give us we have no hope.

An infallible teacher

Jesus claims to be passing on to us the very words of his Father.

“But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him, I tell the world.” John 8:26

This message is not just for the Jews of Jesus’ day but for all of us. The prime purpose of a church is to pass on what God has revealed to us through his prophets and apostles. Bible teaching is the main function of a church. All preachers should be able to say,

“What I have heard from him, I tell to the world.” John 8:26

The reaction then, to what Jesus said, was the reaction of many today.

“They did not understand.” John 8:27

Unfortunately we are all too human and inevitably preachers mix up their opinions and prejudices with those of the Word of God. Our job as hearers is to disentangle a teacher’s ideas from those of God. We do this by getting ourselves attuned to how God speaks through repeated exposure to the Bible.

These repeated words of Jesus are remarkable,

“What I have heard from him, I tell the world.” John 8:26

“I . . . speak just what the Father has taught me.” John 8:28

Jesus is saying that he is ‘telling the truth and nothing but the truth’. He is the infallible teacher of God’s message to the world.

An infallible life

Jesus substantiates his claim about the authority of his teaching by the quality of his life.

“For I always do what pleases him.” John 8:29

Hopefully all Christians can say that we do what pleases God, but no-one other than God can say that we ‘always do what pleases him’. If anyone thinks differently they should remember what the apostle John says in his first letter,

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8

Jesus is saying that what he says is the infallible word of his Father and what he does is all at God’s direction. He claims that he always does what pleases his heavenly Father. It is remarkable that no-one presented evidence to suggest that he was lying!

Jesus’ effect on people

It would seem that it was what Jesus said that had most impact on the crowds. The effect of his teaching was striking. He had said some hard words and pulled no punches and yet many now recognised in him the answer to the judgment they knew deep down that they faced.

“Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.” John 8:30

This is so encouraging. Jesus gives us both an answer to the big questions of life and then gives us hope. Note that it was not just a few who believed but many. John loves to tell us what causes people to believe and scattered through his gospel are marvellous moments when people began a new life by trusting Jesus. John emphasises that following Jesus is the only way to escape from the consequences of our sin. Jesus said,

“If you do not believe that I am (the one I claim to be), you will indeed die in your sins.” John 8:24

A generation ago it needed to be said that holding to an orthodox doctrinal faith was no use if it was not combined with a personal trust in and commitment to the Lord Jesus. Today it needs to be said that commitment is no substitute for convictions about who Jesus is. Faith doesn’t save us, it is Jesus Christ who is our Saviour because he is God in the flesh who died as our substitute.

The Bible stresses that only “by faith” are we saved. But what does this mean? There are many kinds of faith. A glue sniffer had faith he could fly and as a result jumped out of a fourth floor window. He died.

I remember, when I was about eight years old, being taken with others down by our headmaster to a lake in the school grounds. It was mid winter, snow covered the ground and ice covered the lake. It was very cold. The headmaster, a large man, gingerly stepped onto the ice. It bore his weight. Then he invited some of the older boys to join him. Again all was well. Finally we were all invited out onto the lake. Those who were more confident went out first, but ultimately we all stepped onto the ice. We all had faith. But faith has to have an object. Clearly in this case the object was the strength of the ice. This faith was reinforced by seeing others supported by the ice.

Jesus’ death is only effective for us if he really is who he claims to be. Saving faith is a living daily relationship Jesus, the Messiah, the only Son of God.

This passage is depressing. Why are these Jewish leaders so hostile to Jesus? Why won’t they wake up? But then there is good news,

“Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.” John 8:30

How we all need to hear this message and pass it on to others.

BVP

John 8:12-20. The Light must Shine

When we become followers of Jesus his light enters us and begins to shine out from us..

The light in Jesus’ followers

“Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

Christians become the shaft of our Lord’s light. A seven year old girl from a Christian home asked her teacher to come to her church. She said she would but never came. Week after week the girl repeated the request, saying that she had missed her teacher at church. At last her teacher came and was so impressed that she attended again and again. Eventually she came to know Christ for herself. That girl was a channel. Her teacher subsequently became a great channel to draw others to Christ.

Christians do not just see the light but have the light within us. Paul wrote,

“For you once were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Ephesians 5:8

Jesus had also said to his disciples,

“You are the light of the world.” Matthew 5:14

It is a tragedy when Christians fail to invite others to learn about Jesus or talk about what he means to them. He continued to say in the Sermon on the Mount,

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone I the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds ad praise your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16

Later Jesus contrasted the destiny of the righteous who shine with the fate of those nominal followers of his who ‘do evil’; their fate is in the ‘fiery furnace’,

“The Son of Man will send out his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Matthew 13:41-42

The importance of testimony

Jesus was unashamed in the way he repeatedly makes his claim to be the incarnation of God abundantly clear,

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

It is notable that John repeatedly uses the words ‘testimony’ and ‘testify’. Right at the beginning of his book the apostle John quotes what John the Baptist states,

“And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’” John 1:19

In this section John uses the word again and again,

“Your testimony is not valid.” John 8:13

Jesus replies,

“Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid.” John 8:14

“. . . it is written that the testimony of two people is valid” John 8:17

‘I am the one who testifies for myself:” John 8:18

This is a repeated theme of both John ad the other apostles, all Christians should point others to Jesus. This is a major role of the Holy Spirit in every Christian. In the final instructions that he gives to his disciples in the upper room he said,

“When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.” John 15:26-27

George Dempster testifies

When I was a lad the following story about a unusual docker was read to a group of boys that included me, who were attending a Christian holiday camp at Walhampton School in Lymington, Hampshire. The story came from George Dempster’s book, ‘Finding Men for Christ’, that was written in 1935. George Dempster clearly had a longing to testify about Jesus.

“The Thames, flowing through London, was at low tide, causing the freighter to be anchored a distance from shore. The long plank, which led from the ship across the mud flats to the bank, suddenly began to jiggle precariously. The smallish man who was carefully pushing his barrow across the plank from the freighter to the shore lost his balance and found himself tumbling into the muddy waters. A roar of laughter erupted from the dockers and from the tall worker on board ship, who had jiggled the plank. The muddied man's instinctive reaction was anger. The fall was painful; he was dripping wet and knee deep in muck. "This is your opportunity," a voice whispered in his heart.

The victim, unknown to his tormenters, was a clergyman disguised as a docker in hopes of getting to know how the dockers felt, lived and struggled. Perhaps as he gained their confidence and made friends, he could tell them of the love of the Saviour, who died to give them new life and hope and joy. George Dempster came up laughing.

A docker made his way to where Dempster had been dislodged, dropped some empty boxes into the slush and jumped down to help him out. "You took that all right," he said as he helped Dempster clamber back to the boxes he had dropped. His accent was not that of a cockney. He was no ordinary docker. He recounted the ensuing events:

"Did I? Well, what's the use of being otherwise?" I replied and followed this by a challenge.

"You haven't been at this game long."

"Neither have you," he retorted.

"No! And I shan't be at it much longer if I can help it.

“Tell me your yarn, and I'll tell you mine."

I was watching his face as well as I could with my eyes still half full of mud. He was trying to scrape some of the slime from me and meanwhile becoming almost as filthy as I was. We agreed to exchange yarns. I therefore proposed that we should adjourn to a coffee shop nearby and over a warm drink exchange the story of our experiences, and how we came to be "down under" life's circumstances.

Along we journeyed through Wapping High Street, up Nightingale Lane to London Docks and so "To where I dossed (slept). When we reached the Alley and I indicated the door he said, "Do they let beds here?"

"Well," I replied, "I sleep here, come in and see."

"Oh! I've often passed this place but did not know they put men up here." 

We entered and I instructed that a cup of coffee and something be brought for my friend, while I disappeared without explaining to anybody exactly how I came to be so inelegantly decorated. 

Mud baths had not yet become a prescribed treatment for certain human ailments, but never could such a remedy, however well prepared or appropriately prescribed, prove so effectual as this one. It had been involuntarily taken it is true, but for like results who would not undertake even such drastic treatment daily? "His ways are higher than our ways." His permissions are all for somebody's good, and in this instance the reason for His permission was not long unrevealed. A hurried bath soon put me right. After donning my usual attire, while seeking Divine guidance I hastened to return.

"Here we are, now for our yarns," I began.

He was staring in amazement and was for a few moments lost for reply.

"This is your yarn, is it? What do you do this for?"

The first part of his question needed no reply, but I did not hesitate to answer the second.

"To find you."

He looked perplexed as we sat gazing at each other; then dropping his eyes before my enquiring look, shook his head sadly and rose as if to depart. Restraining him I said cheerily:

"Now, friend, a bargain is a bargain. Thank you for helping me out of the river and thus giving me the privilege of meeting you, but you promised, you know, and I want that story of yours. You can see mine."

He was a tall, well-built man in middle life. There were indications beyond his speech that his years had not been spent in his present conditions and surroundings. His features gave evidence of intellect, and the obvious deterioration was recent. His expression was softening even as we stood facing each other. The previous callous demeanor was giving place to something finer. I pursued the question, feeling certain now that here was the purpose of my adventure.

"Come now, tell me if I can be of help to you."

Very decisively he answered at once,

"No, you cannot."

"Why?"

"Because I've gone too far."

As I prayed silently, presently he looked me squarely in the face as if measuring whether he could trust me and confide. No words came, so I continued.

"Does it not appeal to you as a very remarkable thing," I asked, "that we should be sitting here like this if you have really gone too far?"

No answer.

"Was it an accidental thing that I happened to get a job alongside you at that particular wharf this morning? Was it mere chance that those rascals chose me for their rather cruel joke? Is it pure coincidence that of all the crowd you should be the one to fish me out? Or -- did Someone know where to find you and is even now answering someone else's prayer for you?"

From the pocket he drew hastily two photographs. "These are mine," he said, laying them gently upon the table. One was the picture of a fine-looking lady, the other bore the figures of two bonnie young girls of nearly equal age, obviously the daughters of the elder woman. I was looking closely at them when I heard a groan and then a sob as my friend again dropped his head upon his arms.

"Yours! And you here like this? Why?" It was a sad story, but, alas, only too familiar.

Bit by bit I got it from him; although several times with an almost fierce "it's too late," he would have left me. He was a fully qualified medical man with a fine record. He had married into a well-known family where there was no lack of money. Having conducted a splendid practice in the south of England, all went well for him for years. Two girls were born to them, and it was a happy home with a very wide circle of friends.

But as so frequently happens, the allurements proved too strong for the man whose gifts and natural endowments made him a popular and welcome guest wherever he went. He was too busy to continue his regular attendance at church; gradually he ceased altogether and always had plenty of excuses to offer when his wife urged him to accompany her.

The girls were sent away to school where they were educated with a view to following a medical career, but he who should have been their guide and helper failed in his obligations because he had become addicted to drink. At first this fact was hidden, but the habit grew stronger until it mastered him. His practice as well as his home and family were neglected. This naturally led to great unhappiness and depression. In spite of the loving devotion and care of his wife and daughters, he went from bad to worse and finally decided to disappear. So by a number of subterfuges he effectually vanished from the world which knew him and became a wanderer.

After years of wander in America and Canada, he returned to London. He had never been discovered; he had never communicated with his kin. Down, down he went, living the life of a casual hand, sometimes finding a job, sometimes literally begging for food. He slept out at night, often in lodging houses with those with whom he had nothing in common save a degraded and sinful way of life. When he could get drink, he took all he could obtain to drown his sorrows. Once he was lodged in the Tower Bridge Police cells but was discharged and warned. He had simply been found "drunk and incapable," and his identity had not been revealed.

Now this thing had happened, and it could not be explained away by saying it was a coincidence. There was more in it than that. "Someone" had known where to find him. Suppose those three whom he had so shamefully deserted had been all the time praying for his recovery? Recovery that he had so foolishly resisted -- so often longed for -- so often dreamed of. Suppose it were true that God was now "causing all things to work together for good to them" -- those three -- "that love Him"? Suppose that He was at this moment giving him another --possibly a last -- chance to return?

Such, he later admitted, were his thoughts, and he began to pray for himself. He had known in past days the comforts and consolations of worship. Now he began to pray very deeply and truly as he heard from a friend the old, old message. Presently he said calmly, "I see," and kneeling by the table, he and I talked with God.

Never can I forget his prayer. At first the halting, stumbling petition of a brokenhearted repentant sinner who felt acutely two things. First, his base ingratitude to a merciful God Who had not cut him off in the midst of his sins, and then the cruelty of his conduct toward those who loved him on earth. As he confessed his feelings in these ways, he seemed to become capable of clearer utterance.

How long we thus communed I do not know, but we were both much moved as we stood to shake hands. I seemed to feel again his grip on mine as I now record these happenings.

"And you will stand by me?"

"Yes," I answered, "as well as another man can."

"Then I'll prove what Christ can do."

We then fell to considering whether it would be advisable to write at once to his wife and tell her the news.

"No! Not yet. Please God we'll try and improve matters before we do that. I must find out more about the position there first. There are the girls to think about. I must not spoil their careers. About now they must be in the midst of their exams. No! Please wait a while until by God's help I am a little more like a father they need not be ashamed of -- then!"

So we planned. With the aid of a friend who had influence in a certain large, well-known company, he was found a berth in the warehouse, packing drugs and chemicals, In a few weeks, the results were surprising. He was found to be so useful that a better paid job was offered him. Soon it was discovered that he knew a great deal about the contents of the packets he was handling, and when he admitted that the work of a dispenser was not strange to him, he was again  promoted.

It was then that he agreed to my suggestions to write to his wife and inform her that he was alive and well. Very carefully I wrote, telling her something of the events above recorded and suggesting that if she would like to see me on the matter I would gladly arrange to meet her.

A letter came back, breathing deep gratitude to God for His wonderful answer to prayer and for His mercy. An expression of appreciation for the human agency He had provided, and an explanation that the two daughters were facing some difficult hospital examinations. It would therefore, she thought, be best to defer any meeting until they were through. But would I please keep her informed of his progress. It was a wonderfully understanding and gracious letter considering all the circumstances.

I showed him the letter. He was deeply moved as he carefully and eagerly read it, then returning it to me he said quietly, "I must ask you to honour her wishes. Painful as delay is to me, I must submit. I deserve it and much more. Will you now pray with me that I may prove worthy of her confidence and their love?" Six months passed, each day bringing continuous evidence of the "new birth" and of his loyalty to Christ. There was no wavering or falling back. Whatever struggles he had with the enemy, no one saw the least evidence of any weakness. In every way he was proving that he was "a new creature," that "old things had passed away."

Two brief notes had come from the wife asking more details than my letters conveyed. I gladly told her all she desired to learn.  Then one day there came a letter asking me to arrange a time for her to visit me. This was soon done, and without telling either of them what I had planned, I made my own arrangements. He was not informed of the impending visit but patiently awaited developments.

In due time the day arrived, and the wife kept her appointment. I instantly recognized the lady of the photograph, and to my intense delight she had brought her elder daughter with her. Both were much affected as I told them as much as I deemed needful of the facts. I felt it would be wise to leave the husband to give his own version of affairs.

Then, at a suitable moment, I said, "Would you like to see him at once?" I had not revealed to them that I had him in an adjoining room. But when the wife and daughter said eagerly together "Yes, please," I opened the door and led them in to him.  The lady had approached her husband with a smile of welcome and had kissed him; the daughter had put her arms about her father's neck, and I heard just two words, "Dad, darling." It was no place for an outsider, so I made for my study and there lay the whole case again before the Father, asking that His will should be done. He heard and answered.

For an hour I left them alone. Then he came to fetch me. His eyes were very red, and I thought he walked with a new and firmer step. No word was said, but he looked his deep gratitude as he beckoned me to return with him. As I entered the room, the wife approached me with an eager look which spoke eloquently of the tense feelings she had. When, after a few moments, she found voice, it was to tell me that it had been arranged to await the second daughter's examinations, which were just pending. This girl did not yet know the purport of her mother's visit to London that day with the sister, who now told me on top of her own success in the exams, she was overjoyed at finding her father.

"Do dare not tell Margery yet. She is rather highly strung, and as Dad says, it might interfere with her progress. But won't she be just delighted. You know she has never ceased praying for this." So spoke the daughter, still holding her father's hand, as if unwilling to part again. It was a most affecting scene, and one felt that there was Another present, rejoicing with us. "If all goes well we shall, please God, make home again when Margery is through, and oh what a day that will be."

The mother was now feeling the stress of it all and needed rest and refreshment. A happy little meal was prepared, and thanks were given to Him Who had thus brought His promises to fulfilment. But the best was yet to be. A happy home was restored.

In a certain south coast town, a place famous for its exhilarating air and for many of its citizens who have made history, there is held every Sunday afternoon a Bible class for young men. Sixty or more of the finest young fellows in that district meet week by week. It has been the birthplace of many splendid young Christians. Some of them have entered the Civil Service and today hold important positions at Whitehall, where I have had the joy of meeting them.

Coming one day along one of the corridors in the colonial office, I met a friend who said, "I'm very glad to see you today, because I promised that the next time you came this way I would ask you to come along with me and meet a man who wants to see you. He has another friend in the home office who also wants to meet you. Have you the time to do so?"

I assented and was led to the room indicated. Here was a man holding a responsible position who, upon being introduced, said,

"I'm glad to meet you, sir, because I have an idea that you must be the gentleman of whom a very dear friend of mine often spoke. May I ask if you were acquainted with Dr. ______?"

"Yes indeed, I know him very well."

"Then I guess you are the one of whom he spoke. I owe everything in life after my own parents to Dr. ______. He was a wonderful factor in the shaping of my career and that of many others. How did you come to know him, sir, if I may so question? And do you know his gifted family?"

Of course I could not tell him under what circumstances I had first met the doctor, the beloved physician who had sat in the leader's chair of that Bible class Sunday by Sunday teaching youths the Way of Life, nor that it was he who had helped me out of the river that day when I had my involuntary mud bath.”

The Pharisees object

The Pharisees hang their disbelief of Jesus’ testimony on a technicality. The Hebrew judicial system demanded that truth had to be substantiated by two witnesses. They objected that Jesus statement alone was insufficient. They clearly overlooked the evidence of his miracles and his life. Jesus’ reply is fascinating. His first point is that he was uniquely qualified to give evidence,

“Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards. . . ” John 8:14

His second point is that there is another witness, his Father in heaven,

“. . . my decisions are right, because I am not alone. I stand with my Father who sent me. In your own law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid. I am the one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father who sent me.” John 8:16-18

The Pharisees only point of reference is the Mosaic law but Jesus is saying that he and his Father are a yet higher authority. As so often happened the Pharisees misunderstood what Jesus was saying,

“Where is your father?’ John 8:19

Jesus uses this query to again state that he and his heavenly Father are one.

“You do not know me or my Father, . . . If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” John 8:19

They are simply on a different plane. Yet there was something about the way Jesus spoke that prevented anyone seizing him - his Father was in charge,

“His time had not yet come.” John 8:20

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John 7:53 - 8:11. ‘Guilt’

This passage in John’s gospel about the woman caught in adultery presents problems as it is found in hardly any of the early Greek manuscripts, although it is found in most medieval ones. It is also missing from most of the earliest Old Latin, Syriac, Coptic and Armenian manuscripts. None of the early church Fathers include commentaries on this passage in their writings on John’s gospel, jumping from 7:52 to 8:12. No Eastern commentators refer to this passage before the 10th century. Several of the later manuscripts indicate in the text that there is doubt about the authenticity of this being in the original version when written by John. Some manuscripts place this story in Luke’s gospel or elsewhere in John which again raises doubt as to its Johannine authorship. Furthermore there are some expressions in this story that are not found elsewhere in John’s writings but are found in the other three gospels. Thus Scribes and Pharisees are frequently found together in the Synoptic gospels but nowhere else in John. Both Matthew and Luke refer to Jesus ‘sitting down’ to teach but nowhere else in John.

However there is widespread acceptance that this event did occur and that we have a faithful record, even if it was not in the original version of John’s gospel so we are right in looking at what it teaches.

The opening sentence strongly supports this being a true story.

“Then each went to his own home. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.” John 7:53

This closely tallies with details that Luke records around six months later, just before his crucifixion,

“Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.” Luke 21:37-38

The Garden of Gethsemane is on the Mount of Olives and as the Feast of Tabernacles is held in the autumn, usually October, it is understandable that during this time Jesus preferred to sleep in the open air, away from public attention. It would enable him to be back in the temple courts at dawn to teach. A large crowd then gathered around Jesus, who taught seated. These details give a ‘ring of truth’ to the story.

The Trap is Set

It would appear that early on the teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in ‘a woman caught in the act of adultery’. This strongly suggests that there had been collusion between the authorities as it must have taken some time for the plot to be thought through. They made her stand before Jesus and they asked a carefully planned question.

“Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” John 8:5

There are holes in the case they present to Jesus for judgment. No witnesses were brought forwards to support their claims and Jesus is being asked to take the word of the Pharisees, men who we know were ready to twist evidence. If this woman was caught in the act of adultery the obvious question is, ‘Where is her partner?’ Why was he not also accused? The next verse gives the answer,

“For they were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.” John 8:6

Several times earlier we have read of this prejudiced animosity against Jesus and the religious authorities determination to prevent him teaching any further. For example,

“So because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him.” John 6:16

“For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him . . .” John 6:18

“Why are you trying to kill me?” John 7:19

“At this time they tried to seize him . . .” John 7:30

“Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.” John 7:32

“Some wanted to seize him . . “ John 7:44

It would seem that Jesus’s accusers were asking a fair question until you understand that no execution by stoning for adultery had occurred in Israel for several hundred years. If they had a genuine concern both for justice and for the woman, which the law demands, they would surely have dealt with the problem in private and not paraded her in public as a showpiece. If the eradication of adultery in society was their concern then both of those involved in this affair would have been accused. If the case had been tried earlier in private, the court would have already made a judgment on the penalty so why ask Jesus, if not to try and humiliate him publicly.

The woman was made to stand in front of the crowd and was accused publicly but no evidence was brought forward.

“In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. Now what do you say?” John 7:5

The law the authorities were referring to dealt with the concern that adultery, a cancer of societies, should be discouraged in the strongest way possible. The laws they referred to were,

“If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife – with the wife of his neighbour – both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.” Leviticus 20:10

“If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.” Deuteronomy 22:22

Note that both the man and woman were to pay the ultimate penalty and the reason for this is the effect such practices have on society. Societies that fail to restrict sexual activity to that between a man and his wife have always paid a heavy price.

This concern over the impact of promiscuous sexual relations is repeated throughout the Bible. The consequences for those involved in such practices are horrendous – they will be excluded from God’s presence.

“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral not idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual . . . will inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Jesus’ Response

At first Jesus says nothing but instead does something strange,

“But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.” John 8:7

What is going on here? Some have suggested that Jesus wrote out a verse from Jeremiah.

“Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water.” Jeremiah 17:13

Others have suggested other Old Testament verses such as,

“Do not spread false reports. Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious witness.” Exodus 23:1

“Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.” Exodus 23:7

These would fit in well because the people were forsaking their Lord, were being malicious witnesses and it may have been a false charge but if these were the explanations it is strange that John does not say so. What he does emphasise is that Jesus wrote ‘with his finger’. Why didn’t he use a stick or other implement?

Could it be that the key is the word ‘finger’? In the Old Testament the ‘finger of God’ is a repeated theme. After the plague of gnats the Egyptian magicians say to Pharaoh,

“ ‘This is the finger of God.’ But Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not listen” Exodus 8:19

The two stone tablets of the law, given to Moses on Mount Sinai were:

“ . . . inscribed by the finger of God.” Exodus 31:18

When God’s judgment on the Babylonians was announced at King Belshazzar’s feast as they ‘praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone’, it was made through strange writing on the wall,

“Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall . . .” Daniel 5:5

In all these cases the ‘finger of God’ was a ‘finger of judgement’. Jesus himself used the phrase, to describe his own judgment of Satan,

“But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom has come to you.” Luke 11:20

Overall I suspect that this is why John simply says,

“Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.” John 8:7

His is the finger of judgment, his finger is the finger of God. This is what John has been saying about Jesus throughout his book.

It would appear that Jesus still said nothing in spite of the repeated questions being thrown at him. Finally he stands up straight and makes his pronouncement,

“If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” John 8:7

Hypocrisy is, in God’s eyes, a terrible sin and here Jesus is warning his accusers about this. Again Jesus,

“. . . stooped down and wrote on the ground.” John 8:8

Again we are not told what the finger of God wrote but the effect was that Jesus’ accusers drifted away, one by one.

Can you imagine the scene as Jesus then confronts the woman face to face with just the crowd looking on. Surely his face would have demonstrated the love God has for sinners.

“‘Woman, where are they? Has no-one condemned you?’ ‘No-one sir,’ she said.” John 8:11

Then comes the wonderful verdict of the eternal judge of all people,

“Then neither do I condemn you.” John 8:11

The relief that the woman experienced must have been overwhelming. Surely she must have become one of Jesus’ followers after his saving her. What a lesson for us. If we have been forgiven by Christ and have asked him to take responsibility for our sins on his cross, how can we be slack, casual and haphazard in our service of him?

Jesus came to save people and this is his priority here. John repeatedly emphasises that salvation is the ambition of God, not judgment.

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:17

There is a judgment to come but Christ longs that people should avoid this by joining his kingdom.

“As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him on that day.” John 12:47-48

In the Old Testament there is a beautiful example of this grace of God. The prophet Nathan confronted King David because of his adultery with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband Uriah. He didn’t publicly accuse him but confronted him face to face. When David confesses and repents Nathan pronounces the Lord’s forgiveness.

“The LORD has taken away your sin.” 2 Samuel 12:13

Is Grace a permit to keep sinning?

There are some who would like to box in this doctrine of full ‘forgiveness simply through faith in Christ’ because they fear it opens the door for people to keep sinning and then keep returning back for forgiveness. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus declared to the woman,

“Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8:11

When we recognise who Jesus is and accept the forgiveness he offers we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit – we are baptised in the Spirit. This is to empower us to life henceforth for Christ and with Christ, representing him in the way we think, live and speak.

If we belong to Christ we should judge ourselves and consequently behave in a way that pleases our Lord. This is to live under ‘the law of grace’. This is a much higher standard than religious law which can only control outward behaviour, the law of the spirit controls our thoughts.

Should we ever make judgements?

Some have misused this story to suggest that no-one should ever judge the actions of others. Society clearly needs magistrates and judges to keep law and order and churches need good governance from their leaders. The subtle implication of those who generalise, and say, ‘Don’t judge’ means we should never make judgments about others deeds is not what the Bible is saying. In the previous chapter Jesus has told us to make right judgments.

“Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment.” John 7:24

The challenge of this passage is the reminder that we are all guilty of sin and must therefore be very careful when we criticise others. The point must always be to restore people to godly living. Our attitude to others should be that of Jesus who embodies the nature of God.

“The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness . . .” Exodus 34:6

John Wesley, the eighteen century revivalist preacher who started Methodist communities throughout Britain went to visit one of these house-churches in Norfolk. He enquired of the leader of the group what talent he felt the Lord had especially endowed him with. The man replied,

“Sir, I consider that I have been given the gift of seeing the faults in other people.”

To this Wesley replied,

“Sir, I consider that that is one talent that the Lord would have you bury.”

Christians have been given this Spirit of God so must behave accordingly. Paul wrote,

“Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you may be tempted. Carry each others burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Galatians 5:6

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John 7:45-52. Pressures to Disbelieve

John’s gospel intersperses selected actions and words of Jesus with the responses of those who came into contact with him. There are those who think that Christians are gullible and willing to accept anything. Jesus and his apostles say that the very opposite is true and that the faith of the atheist is far from evidence-based whereas, in fact, faith in Jesus is based on strong evidence. This is why John wrote his gospel. He longs for his readers to have eternal life which overflows into how they live now. He teaches that to receive this, people must be believers and followers of Jesus, God’s Messiah, God’s chosen Son and king. For people to believe in Jesus they should be given enough evidence.

The Need for Evidence

John summarised the purpose of his book,

“Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:30-31

It is therefore naive to ask people to make a decision for Christ without presenting them with the evidence about him. John deliberately presents selected evidence but also shares the differing reactions people had to Jesus, to what he says and does.

One of the first major interviews with Jesus that John describes is with Nicodemus, a senior Pharisee, who was a member of the ruling Sanhedrin. The reason he approached Jesus was because of the clear evidence for him being someone very special.

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who comes from God. For no-one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” John 3:2

In the passage we are now looking at, the response of the temple guards who had been sent to arrest Jesus is described. These guards were Levites who were under the direct command of the High Priest. This armed group entered the temple court where Jesus was teaching but were apparently gripped by what he said and were attracted to Jesus as a person. They could see how the mass of people were responding to what he was saying and left without making an arrest.

Stephen Lungu was just 12 years old when his mother left him all alone in Zimbabwe. He joined a street gang. They were angry towards those who seemed to have the privileges in society. Eventually Stephen became leader of the gang and they decided to make a grand statement by murdering a group of these privileged people. It so happened that a South African evangelist was leading a Christian mission in a large marquee and the gang decided this would be a good easy target. On the agreed day the gang members stationed themselves around the marquee whilst Stephen went in to reconnoitre the scene. The plan was that he would then come out of the tent and give the sign to attack. However the preacher started to speak and gripped not just his audience but Stephen as well. Stephen stayed on to listen to the whole talk. At the end the evangelist asked those who wanted to live a new life to come forwards. Stephen was one of those responding. The murderous attack did not take place. He told us his story when speaking to a large group of youngsters in our home. The message about Jesus, the gospel, can have a captivating effect on people even today.

Something similar happened to the temple guard. When they reported back to the chief priests and Pharisees they were asked,

“Why didn’t you bring him in?” John 7:45

They gave an extraordinary reply which says so much about Jesus,

“No-one ever spoke the way this man does.” John 7:46

The original wording used by John is emphatic, and means ‘No human being ever spoke like this.” The guard ‘declared’; this was no sheepish apology, they were confident of their opinion.

This is strong, first-hand witness to the effect Jesus was having on people and this is given by those who were opposed to him. For permanent change people must be convinced that Jesus really is the incarnation of God.

Bishop Stephen Neil wrote one of the best books about other faiths, called “Christian Faith and Other Faiths’. The last chapter is on Christianity. He gives a clear analysis of what he calls the ‘last question’.

“Have our questioners ever really looked at Jesus Christ and tried to see him as he is? For if we take the gospels seriously, and at the same time as critically as you will, Jesus is not the least like anyone else who has ever lived. The things that he says about God are not the same as the sayings of the religious teachers. The claims that he makes for himself are not the same as those that have been made by any other religious teacher. His criticisms of human life and society are more devastating than any other man has ever made. The demands he makes on men are more searching than those put forward by any other religious teacher. . . To say all this does not necessarily say Jesus is right – it is simply a plea for plain honesty.”

The temple guard were saying something similar when they honestly reported what they had discovered.

Today there are many who say that they respect Jesus and regard him as a good teacher. This usually suggests that they have never really listened to what Jesus said. The writer and scholar, C.S. Lewis wrote in his epic book ‘Mere Christianity’,

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Anyone who has ever listened to Jesus will never say, in a patronising way, that he is a good man, a good teacher. If they listen they may get the shock of their lives. And what Jesus says is backed up by solid evidence.

Prejudice is Rife

John picks up this theme of prejudice throughout his gospel. Early in his book he recounts the conversation between Philip and his friend Nathanuel. He tells him that their Messiah has come.

“We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and of whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Nathanuel’s reply is scathing,

‘Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” John 1:45-46

Philip’s answer is as brilliant as it is simple,

“Come and see.” John 1:46

The answer to prejudice is ‘Examine the evidence, make up your own mind based on what is true - investigate.’

The Jewish leaders were also prejudiced against Jesus. They were willing to condemn him without an investigation of the evidence. Look to the end of the chapter, Nicodemus, the ruler who came to see Jesus ‘in the dark’ in chapter 3, now demands that a proper investigation is undertaken.

“Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?” John 7:51

He reminds the rulers that procedures are carefully laid down in the Old Testament and that no magistrate should go into court prejudiced. This is the oldest principle of law in all civilised societies. The Pharisees are rebuked because they were clearly prejudiced. The hallmarks of this prejudice are clear. The Pharisees were clearly very annoyed at the report of the temple guards concerning Jesus,

“’You mean he has deceived you also?’ the Pharisees retorted. ‘Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?’” John 7:47-48

The evidence of the temple guardsmen was disregarded as they were not important people. Modern methods to promote ideas can be seen in this account by John.

a. The influential don’t believe

The same prejudice is common today. The book of 2 Peter says much about the return of Christ to rule his world. A radical scholar has commented,

“No scholar today believes in the literal return of Jesus Christ to this world as judge of the living and the dead.”

Another scholar, Dr Cranfield of Durham has rejected this, saying that he does believe in the return of Jesus Christ as Lord and King. It is so easy to be overawed by such methods of propaganda. In schools you hear it said,

“Nobody who matters goes to the Christian Union!’

In business there is often the same prejudice,

“Nobody in our group bothers with church or the Bible anymore. We get along fine as we are.”

Throughout life we meet this prejudice. Bertrand Russell wrote an essay entitled ‘Why I am not a Christian.’ When I read this I expected to find clear arguments that countered the claims of Jesus and his apostles. But he couldn’t do this, instead he argued that there is no clear evidence for there being a God so Jesus couldn’t be the son of God. The journalist Lee Strobel was prejudiced against Jesus and this exploded when his wife became a Christian. He decided to investigate the evidence for her faith in order to disprove it but his prejudice withered as he confronted the evidence and eventually he committed his life to Christ.

Thank God for people such as Nicodemus who will stand up and say, ‘I’m not so sure. Let us investigate the facts.’

Intimidation is a classic way to terrorise people into rejecting Jesus. Those with a public voice say ‘People that matter, who think, who are important – they don’t believe.’ Control the media and it seems the masses follow. This is why the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Society are so keen to place their supporters in responsible positions in society.

b. What the mob thinks doesn’t matter

Bishop Ryle wisely commented,

“The multitude who followed Luther in Germany, our own Reformers in England, the leaders of Christian Revival in the last century (that is the eighteenth century) are always attacked as ignorant enthusiasts whose opinions were worth nothing. When the enemies of vital religion cannot prevent people flocking after the gospel, and cannot answer the arguments of its advocates, they often fight with the Pharisees, as in this verse. They content themselves with the cheap and easy assertion that those who do not agree with them are ignorant and know nothing and it therefore counts as nothing what they think.”

When Nicodemus has the courage to rebuke his peers for being prejudiced, they turn on him.

“Are you from Galilee too? Look into it, and you will find . . .” John 7:52

A slogan that can be shouted can be much more effective than reasoned argument. Notice how television is now full of sound-bites and slogans. They spoke with great dogmatism but had conveniently forgotten that the prophet Jonah came from Galilee. But then, for them, facts were less important that getting their own way. Anything said with conviction and dogmatically is assumed by many to be true. We must all beware of being seduced by the pleasant smiles, wit and rhetoric of people who do not base what they say on sound argument. Such people do not enjoy being questioned.

‘You will find that a prophet does not come from Galilee.’ John 7:52

Sheer prejudice! Didn’t they know what the prophet Isaiah had said or didn’t they want to know?

“In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphali, but in the future he will honour Galilee of the Gentiles.” Isaiah 9:1

We must all answer for ourselves over our reaction to Jesus. Am I prejudiced? Have I bothered to investigate the evidence? Am I willing to listen and study?

Faith is Vital

The journey of Nicodemus to faith is helpful for us today.

a. He gradually came to faith

John makes it clear that he wants people to make reasoned and lifelong commitments to Christ. He stresses how many come to faith slowly. The woman at Samaria was gradually brought to faith in Jesus as she heard him and looked at the evidence (John 4). The blind man who Jesus healed in John chapter 9 gradually comes to see the truth. Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the night. He is in the dark but has questions (John 3) . In this passage he stands up for the truth. Later, when Jesus is crucified he comes out as a Christian and stands beside Joseph of Arimathea as they collect Jesus’ body (John 19).

John knows that some people start a long way away from faith. If someone does not come from a family of faith it is unlikely, unless there is a shining light from heaven, that people will come to faith in one day. We must encourage people to think about their prejudices, to think, to look at the evidence and decide what is preventing them from taking God at his word.

Nicodemus gradually came to understand the reasonableness of Jesus Christ and how this contrasted with the unreasonable prejudice of his opponents.

Nicodemus had to have the courage to stand up for his convictions. So it is today. No-one will come to a saving faith without such courage. Isn’t this why Jesus asks his followers to be publicly baptised? That is not easy. Isn’t this why all Christians are called to ‘confess Christ’ publicly,

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and so are saved.” Romans 10:9-10

It is not enough to inwardly assent to Christian truths. There is a need for courage. We must stand up and nail our colours to the mast. Doing this will cause a reaction and as a result others will be encouraged to make a decision about Christ.

Those opposed to Jesus may shout loudly but their arguments are incredibly weak. The Temple Guards were surely right when they courageously concluded,

“No-one ever spoke like this man.” John 7:46

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John 7:32-44. “Where I am you cannot come!”

Politicians use various techniques to keep the masses from thinking about certain matters. They will want to prevent leaders from communicating with others as much as they can. The Pharisees were already concerned with what Jesus was teaching about himself. The public were beginning to become interested in what he was saying. Even before Jesus started to teach in the temple during the week-long Feast of Tabernacles, he was becoming the subject of conversation.

“Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, ‘He is a good man.’ Others replied, ‘No, he deceives the people.’” John 7:12

With Jesus now speaking openly the authorities concern would have increased. No wonder the talk was in whispers, they didn’t want the authorities to know what they were thinking. People were wondering,

“When the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs than this man?” John 7:31

Others were demanding action by the authorities and were asking what was going to be done.

“The authorities heard the crowd whispering such things about him.” John 7:32

The next phrase is striking. The Sanhedrin was composed of representatives from three separate parties, the Sadducees, who were the political proletariat and who controlled the High Priesthood, the Pharisees who were the orthodox religious party, and finally the elders of the country. The Sadducees and the Pharisees seldom saw eye to eye. Yet on this occasion they acted together; common enemies making strange bedfellows!

“Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.” John 7:32

The temple guards were composed of Levites and were used to police the whole country in those matters that disinterested the Roman authorities. Whilst their commanding officer, ‘the Captain of the Temple’ was waiting for an opportune time to make the arrest, Jesus continues to speak.

“Jesus said, ‘I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me. You will look for me but will not find me; where I am you cannot come.’” John 7:33

In the original Greek this verse begins with ‘Therefore’ which suggests that what Jesus said was in response to the approach of the Temple Guard. Whenever Jesus talked in terms of ‘his departure’ he was talking about his coming death on a cross. For him this was not the end but a return to live in the glory of his heavenly Father. Certainly those who were opposed to him then would never enter the promised land of heaven. This is still true; Jesus repeatedly affirms that the only ticket to heaven can be obtained from him.

We recently went to a funeral. During his eulogy the vicar explained that the deceased had been married in that church, although he had not attended since until that day – his funeral. He went on to explain that he had been a leading light in the golf club and other local societies and that now he had ‘gone to a better place to be welcomed by a loving Saviour.’ But the problem is that that man was known to be opposed to Jesus and what he taught. What a disaster it is if Christ’s ordained representatives teach the opposite of their Lord! In the next chapter Jesus explained what he meant,

“Once more Jesus said to them, ‘I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.’” John 8:21

As usual, when Jesus speaks in parable form, his enemies misunderstand him. Where is Jesus going to disappear off to? Will he become an exile and start to teach Gentiles?

“The Jews said one to another, ‘Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?” John 7:35-36

Perhaps it was the thought that if Jesus was about to flee from Jerusalem then the political problem would solve itself, or possibly it was because of a fear of the crowds; whatever the reason the guard returned without arresting Jesus. However, about six months later, it was the request of some Greeks to Philip saying, ‘Sir, we would like to see Jesus,” that indicated to Jesus that his death was imminent.

Jesus’ invitation

We now come to the climax of Jesus’ talk in the temple,

Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.’ John 7:37

Jesus said this in a crowded temple Court of Gentiles on the most important day of the feast of Tabernacles when the Jews remembered the hardships their ancestors had faced as they roamed for 40 years in the wilderness. They had often been hungry and thirsty. But Jesus is clearly talking not of physical thirst but of spiritual thirst. Jesus had used the same idea when talking to the Samaritan woman he met at the well.

“Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. ” John 4:14

Part of the celebration of this feast was a daily water ritual. Every day of the feast, the Levites would proceed down to the Pool of Siloam, on the other side of the city. There they would fill a golden flagon with water from the pool. The High Priest would then lead a procession through the city streets back to the temple. As the group approached the Water Gate on the south side of the temple, a Levite on the walls would issue three loud blasts on the Shophar, the ram's horn trumpet used in religious ceremonies.

Once inside the temple, the priests would carry the cup around the altar while the temple choir sang the Hallel (Psalms 113-118). When the choir began to sing the final Psalm, all the men in the crowd waved a branch in one hand and lifted a citrus fruit in the other, symbolizing the harvest. Everyone then shouted, “Give thanks to the Lord” three times, the water was then offered to God along with the regular morning offering of wine.

The invitation to drink was the theme of one of Isaiah’s great prophecies. There God calls people to ‘come to me’. Jesus is clearly picking up on this idea when he also says, ‘Come to me.”

1 ‘Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples.
5 Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendour.’

6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

8 ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:1-8

The elaborate water ritual every day of the feast reminded the Israelites how God provided them with water when they wandered in the desert. It was also reminded them of the prophecy of Zechariah who told of a coming ‘fountain of water’ that would purify God’s people from sin.

“On that day a fountain will be opened in the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.” Zechariah 13:1

Ezekiel also wrote of a vision he had of the end times, when a river would flow out of the temple and give life to the whole land.

“I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple towards the east . . .Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fall. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them.” Ezekiel 47:1-12

Jesus is appealing to all the people. He is calling God’s people to come and follow him. He is claiming to be the answer to their deepest needs. ‘Are you thirsty? Come and drink. Are you dissatisfied? Come and drink. Are you facing problems in life? Come and drink.’ We all have to make a decision in response to his appeal. There is something about Jesus. He is forthright and he offers to come and answer our deepest needs. We have already seen repeatedly, as we read through John’s gospel, that Jesus saw out greatest need to be our innate rebellion against God and he offers to pay the price for that and, furthermore, to give a power to live a new life. There is something eminently attractive about Jesus. His appeal is both intellectual but also personal.

When a couple are in love and decide to get married, they know some facts about their partner but not everything. They do not know what the future will hold but they do know that, in the present, that they long to live with their girlfriend or boyfriend for life. So it is in our relationship with Jesus.

Jesus continues by saying that not only will his followers be satisfied but so will many others through them.

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” John 7:38

This is again similar to what Jesus said to the woman at the well,

“Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14

So when Jesus stood up at the end of the festival, he is claiming that he can make this ‘water’ available. This water represents not only the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit, but also the power that provides for ultimate cleansing from sin, and to bring a deep satisfaction.

Jesus’ gift - the Holy Spirit

What does Jesus mean when he talks about this ‘living water’ that would flow from his people. Jesus goes on to make this abundantly clear.

“By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not been glorified.” John 7:39

We read about the coming of the Holy Spirit on all his church in Acts 2 but prior to this Jesus spent some time explaining to his disciples what the Holy Spirit would give to his people. This can be found in chapters 14 to 16 of John’s gospel. This picture of flowing water tells us that the Holy Spirit will give us understanding and fulfilment as well as enabling us to be God’s means of helping others. The prophet Joel looked forwards to the day when God’s Spirit would be given to all his people so that they can represent him. Peter quotes this prophecy in his sermon at Pentecost to explain the strange phenomena that people could see and hear.

“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.” Acts 2:17-18

The word ‘prophesy’ means to speak out God’s message and is similar to our words ‘proclaim’ and ‘preach’. When the Spirit comes, all God’s people will want to pass on God’s message, to proclaim the good news about Jesus. ‘The last days’ is a technical term that refers to the times between the first and second comings of the Lord Jesus. We are therefore living in the ‘last days’ today.

Streams of living water flow out from Christians into others lives. The Ezekiel passage quoted earlier gave the right image — the stream flows down to a great sea and this nourishes life. The Holy Spirit overflows naturally through Christians lives into the lives of others. We help others, not to win praise from them but because it is a natural consequence of Christ being in us.

With this Old Testament background of "living water", we see the Holy Spirit works within us to give understanding, satisfaction, and the capacity to be a blessing.

Jeremiah, speaking for God, also looked forward to the day when God’s Spirit would be given to all his people.

“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbour or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 30:34

The following are some of the effects the holy Spirit has in a person’s life. We should be able to go through the list and say ‘Yes’, ‘Yes’, ‘Yes’, I am beginning to see the effect of God’s Holy Spirit in my life.

1. Love for Jesus.

2. Love for God’s word.

3. Love for Christ’s people.

4. Longing for righteousness in me.

5. Longing to pray and involve the Lord in everything.

6. Longing to tell others about the gospel, to evangelise.

7. Longing for heaven.

A decision is needed

Whenever the claims of Jesus are presented people will make one of three decisions about him. Some will recognise him as being very special, a prophet of God. It falls short of what Jesus wants them to know but is a start. Others are convinced that he is God’s chosen King who will lead his people into eternity, that he is the Christ, and others will come up with excuses as to why they should not accept him. They did this in Jesus’ day and they do the same today.

“On hearing his words, some of the people said, ‘Surely this man is the Prophet.’ Others said, ‘he is the Christ.’ Still others asked, ‘How can the Christ come from Galilee? Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived. Thus the people were divided amongst themselves.”

It is concerning that their excuses are invalid - they are not true. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and was a direct descendant of King David. They could have asked if they had really wanted to know. Our motivation too often influences how and whether investigate honestly. But then God knows our hearts and motives and it is to him that we will all have to give an account.

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John 7:14-31. Jesus’ Authority

In the modern world employers are increasingly looking for paper qualifications in applicants for university or jobs. The better the GCSE or A level grades the better your chances of getting into a good university. The more prestigious the university, the higher the class of your degree, the better your chances in employment. Then, after graduating, people need to consider ‘Should I progress to get a Masters or a PhD degree as this will surely help my career’. Interviewers are always looking at candidates’ credentials.

The credentials of Jesus were also investigated. He had now travelled down to Jerusalem, after his disciples, and attended the Feast of Tabernacles. Half way through the seven day feast, Jesus entered the large Court of Gentiles in the Temple and begins to teach the crowds who collect around him. There was something about the way he taught that excited and invigorated his listeners. They said amongst themselves,

“How did this man get such learning without having studied?” John 7:15

Some had clearly been investigating his Curriculum Vitae! They knew he had been brought up in the outback, in Nazareth of Galilee, and that he had not studied under any of the prestigious professors such as Hillel or Gamaliel. They considered Jesus ‘unschooled’. It is interesting that the same criticism was later applied to his disciples as they began their teaching ministry,

“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13

The authorities were critical of Jesus for having the audacity and the affront to stand up in their temple and presume to teach when he was not even an accredited rabbi. Yet, just under twenty years earlier, this same Jesus had clearly been a child prodigy. When 12 years of age he had astounded the doctors and others who heard him discuss issues in the temple.

“Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.” Luke 2:47

Now Jesus is again in the temple and again people are amazed at his learning. Where did his wisdom and knowledge come from? Jesus replied that he was not self-taught,

“My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.” John 7:16

In the previous chapters Jesus had helped people in Galilee to ask questions about who he really is and who sent him? He made it abundantly clear then and repeats the message clearly here in Jerusalem that he has come from God God, his own Father!

Jesus’ education

There is much misunderstanding about Jesus and how he knew so much. Did the baby Jesus understand all about the laws of science and know the Scriptures? Clearly not. He had to learn just as we do. What an absurd line there is in the Christmas carol ‘No crying he makes’ - of course the baby Jesus cried out when he was hungry or needed to be changed. He had to learn just as all children do. There is an ancient heresy that Jesus’ divine nature swallowed his human nature, but there are many passages in Scripture that show this was not so. There were things that Jesus didn’t know but that his Father did. When asked about the timing of God’s judgment he said,

“No-one knows about that day, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Matthew 24:36

Jesus puts a limit to his knowledge. How did Jesus come to know the Scriptures as well as he did? He surely had to spend time and energy to both understand and memorise Scripture. There was no short cut for him, he had to slog away at his studies just as we should.

“For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15

Throughout church history, Biblical churches have acknowledged that Jesus is one person but has two natures. He is both fully man and fully God. The early church spoke of:

“Vera homo, vera Deus” - ‘truly man and truly God’.

Paul makes this doctrine about the two natures of Jesus Christ abundantly clear,

“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form . .” Colossians 2:9

“ . . . Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness . . .” Philippians 2:6-7

Jesus’ divine nature has all the attributes of God whereas his human nature has all the limitations of humanity. These can be distinguished but never separated. All of us have physical, psychological, social and spiritual sides. To separate these is fatal. When Jesus tires, is hungry or anxious he is manifesting his human nature. When he doesn’t know something he is also manifesting his human nature. But when he demonstrates a supernatural power or knowledge he is manifesting his divine nature. He knew all about Nathanael and what he had been doing although they had never met. This was enough to convince Nathanael that Jesus was the Messiah. When he heals the sick and raises the dead he demonstrates that his divine nature is above the Laws of Nature that we are all bound by. Yet, although at times there were things Jesus did not know, everything he taught and helped his disciples to pass on to us in Scripture was from his divine insight. So although Jesus is not omniscient, he is infallible.

One of the greatest arguments for the infallibility of Scripture is that Jesus has himself affirmed Scripture to be the very Words of God. Jesus affirmed,

“ . . . and the Scripture cannot be broken.” John 10:35

“Do not think I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear until everything is accomplished.” Matthew 5:17-18

This is why Jesus can so confidently affirm,

“My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.” John 7:16

The moral dimension in knowledge

It is well recognised that a person’s perspective on a subject can be prejudiced by preconceived notions. Thus those who are determined that God will have no place in their life will call themselves atheists and tend only to look at evidence that supports their view. Thus those who are biased towards the idea of a young or a flat earth will tend only look at evidence that supports their view. We are all blinkered to one degree or another. Jesus uses such reasoning when explaining why some people cannot see that what he does and says is from God.

“If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” John 7:17

Jesus is teaching that there is a moral dimension to knowledge. A person who is not committed to living for God will not be able to see that Jesus is that God and what he teaches is therefore inspired by God.

There are many religious leaders who speak very authoritatively but this is usually to gain a reputation for themselves and often to improve their bank balance. Jesus continues,

“He who speaks on his own does so to gain honour for himself, but he who works for the honour of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.” John 7:18

Jesus is clearly talking about himself. He was certainly not speaking out for his own benefit. He knew that what he was doing would result in his being executed. For him truth, which can only be defined as ‘concepts compatible with God’, was what all people desperately need.

“My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.” John 7:16

Those who want divine knowledge will listen to the only person who can give us this. If we refuse him, our motives are to be questioned.

On one occasion Jesus took Peter, James and John up a high mountain and there they saw him change into a divine figure. Even his clothes became dazzling white. Then Elijah and Moses appeared with Jesus. Finally a cloud enveloped them all and they heard a voice saying,

“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” Matthew 17:7

God himself confirms the teaching of Jesus. We must listen to him. His doctrine is true and is not tainted with any falsehoods.

Jesus certainly caused people to react one way or another to his claims. Jesus has just said that none of them keeps God’s law and this made many angry. Jesus knew that many would like to see him dead although the Ten Commandments forbid ‘murder’ and ‘bearing false witness’.

“’Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?’

‘You are demon-possessed’ the crowd answered.

‘Who is trying to kill you?’” John 7:19-20

Jesus knew their hearts.

Jesus contrasts himself to Moses

It is one thing to affirm a truth, it is also necessary to apply this and teach what this truth opposes. The religious rulers prided themselves that they followed the Mosaic Law literally. Jesus elsewhere repeatedly told them that they had misunderstood the law. On one occasion Jesus was criticised for not washing his hands before a meal. Jesus was outraged that the religious leaders were not only wrong but were misleading others away from the truth.

“Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” Luke 11:52

The key to understanding the real issues about life is Jesus himself and these ‘experts’ were trying to put the public against him! Jesus illustrates the inconsistencies of the Jewish teachers. Jesus had healed a paralysed man at the pool of Bethesda on a Sabbath and the Jews persecuted him because of this. Jesus pointed out that they also worked on the Sabbath when they circumcised a child on the Sabbath. The law stated that every child should be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. The question was therefore which law took precedence – not working on the Sabbath or circumcising on the eighth day. The rabbis had long concluded that any act of mercy could lawfully be performed on the Sabbath. Jesus affirms that the Law requires holiness on the Sabbath and that sometimes this can involve kind acts. If an animal falls into a ditch and was trapped, it was legitimate to rescue it. Elsewhere Jesus had pointed out that it was legitimate for the priests to continue to offer sacrifices in the temple on Sabbath days,

“Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and are yet innocent? I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Matthew 12:5-8

Jesus repeatedly confirms that he has the right to heal and show mercy to people any day of the week. Jesus’ argument is that if they were permitted to perform circumcisions on the Sabbath, how could it be wrong for him to miraculously heal a person with God’s power. God does not stop working one day a week!

A decision about Jesus must be made

Here were two totally opposing views. Jesus comes along claiming to be the world’s Messiah. He supports his claims by performing the type of miracles that the Old Testament said the Messiah would perform.

“Be strong, do not fear; your God will come . . . he will come to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.” Isaiah 35:4-6

Jesus fulfilled this prophecy both figuratively and literally.

Jesus was a direct physical descendent of king David, whose father was Jesse, just as the ancient Scriptures said the Messiah would be. He had been born in Bethlehem, another feature prophesied about the Messiah. He taught with an authority that all recognised as being both independent and persuasive. He explained that mankind’s greatest problem was our inherent rebellion against God’s rule in our lives. He fulfilled what Isaiah prophesied,

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD – and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his mouth he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waste.” Isaiah 11:1-5

In contrast, there were religious leaders who hated what Jesus represented.

“At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, ‘Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Here he is speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ?” John 7:25-26

The people were perplexed. Whenever there is conflicting information this will happen, even if the confusion is because some of the information they have been given is wrong. The crowd thought they knew where Jesus came from – he was, they thought, just a Galilean from Nazareth. They said,

“But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no-one will know where he is from.” John 7:27

How poorly taught they were. Ignorant ‘know-alls’ do find it hard to change their minds! Why won’t they listen to Jesus when he says,

“I am the bread that came down from heaven.” John 6:41

Why won’t they open their minds to what he says about himself and the importance of committing themselves to him?

“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:40

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3:36

Jesus made his case absolutely clear. He cried out loudly in the temple Court of Gentiles. Was he talking cynically or is he acknowledging that some have recognised that he is the Messiah sent by his Father in heaven?

“Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.” John 7:28-29

This was too much for some who wanted to arrest Jesus there and then. But for some reason they could not do so. Perhaps it was because many in the crowd had become convinced about Jesus by all he was, all he did and all he taught. God is sovereign and nothing can happen that he does not allow.

“At this time they tried to seize him, but no-one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.” John 7:30

There is always a division when the claims of Jesus are put to people; some love him and others hate him. The evidence is all there but any who are unwilling to accept God will strongly oppose Jesus and his claims to be God’s only Son.

“Still many in the crowd put their faith in him. They said, ‘When the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs than this man?’” John 7:31

People make the wrong conclusions about Jesus because their motives are wrong, but listen again to the three simple statements Jesus makes about his relationship with his heavenly Father in one short verse; Jesus ‘knows him’, Jesus ‘is from him’ and ‘he sent me’.

“I know him because I am from him and he sent me.” John 7:29

What a wonderful thing it is when people turn back from trying to achieve righteousness themselves by trying to live well but accept the righteousness that Jesus alone can give us. This ‘credited righteousness’, given as a result of our turning to be Christ centred, is the core of the gospel. Paul wrote,

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” Romans 1:16-17

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John 7:1-13. Hatred of Jesus

As John begins the second section of his gospel, Jesus is about to leave Galilee permanently to move his area of ministry down to Jerusalem. John has recorded several thumbnail sketches of people Jesus had met. Some of these came to believe in Jesus and others became his enemies. The same differing responses to Jesus are seen in this passage.

1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, ‘Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.’ 5For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

6 Therefore Jesus told them, ‘My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.’ 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.

10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, ‘Where is he?’

12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, ‘He is a good man.’

Others replied, ‘No, he deceives the people.’ 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders. John 7:1-13

Let us look at these different reactions to Jesus.

1. The Crowds

They were muddled and confused.

“Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, ‘He is a good man.’ Others replied, ‘No, he deceives the people.’” John 7:12

Some were complimentary about Jesus, they looked at his character and life and recognised that he was an admirable person. This was not enough but was a beginning.

In John chapter 6 Jesus had been clear that he had come down from heaven, that he was the Son of God and that the only way to find God was through faith in him. Some senior religious figures concluded that Jesus was deceiving people. The same is happening today. Some acknowledge Jesus to be God’s Son, but the others have either openly or quietly rejected him.

2. Jesus Brothers

“Jesus’ brothers said to him, ‘Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do.” John 7:3

At this stage they did not believe but later many of them did come to recognise that Jesus really is the Lord of Glory. This comment does sound rather cynical and sarcastic, they want to get rid of him and his claims,

Jesus hadn’t hidden his power or his claims as he wanted all people to recognise who he was. Yet the inference here is that Jesus is only acceptable to the gullible. The next sentence suggests that the only way truth can be substantiated is by widespread popular acclamation.

“No-one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” John 7:4

Did they not know that the authorities there wanted to kill him? If they did, this is very sinister.. Jesus was known to have several younger brothers and sisters. Early in his ministry Jesus had been teaching in Capernaum and the people were puzzled,

“‘Where did this man get this wisdom and miraculous powers?’ they asked. ‘Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t these his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us?’” Matthew 13:55-56

His siblings were, at first, antagonistic to his claims; on another occasion they accused him of being ‘out of his mind’ (Mark 1:21). Sometimes those brought up in the faith can refuse to believe it. It is noteworthy however that, after his resurrection, his family did come to believe. The letter of James in the New Testament was almost certainly written by the brother of Jesus who had become leader of the Council of Jerusalem in the early church. Jesus had specifically shown himself to James after his resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:7) and he and his other brothers then joined the apostolic band.

“They (the apostles) all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.” Acts 1:14

3. The Jewish Authorities

It is clear that the antagonism of the authorities against Jesus was significant. Jesus -

“ . . . purposely stayed away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life.” John 7:1

This criticism of the Jewish authorities was not anti-Semitism. Both Jesus and the apostles were Jews and they all loved the Jewish people. Jesus wept over Jerusalem simply because they were antagonistic to him, God’s only Son, and he knew the consequences of this rejection. This hatred of Jesus, to the extent that they wanted to do away with him, would not just come from Jewish people. Jesus goes on to explain why he was hated and why it would be safe for his disciples to travel down to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles,

“The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.” John 7:7

It is the whole world that hates Jesus!. Yet Jesus came for people of every nation and language. At the beginning of his book John wrote,

“The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” John 1:9

“He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him.” John 1:10

Jesus is not just the Messiah of the Jews but the creator and Lord of the whole universe. The rejection by the Jewish authorities is simply an illustration of the fact that much of the whole world has rejected Jesus.

“He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God . . .” John 1:11-12

There are several emphases in the Bible that thios passage iollustrates.

a. The world hates Jesus!

There is a general feeling that people like what Jesus stands for. This is usually because they think he came to talk about honesty, kindness and integrity. But it does not take long to realise, when reading through the gospels, that Jesus’ primary aim was not to heal people or do good social actions but to introduce himself as the only Son of God who would die on behalf of many, so that they can become acceptable to God. He taught that all people are rebels against God and his Son and we do hate being criticised.

“The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.” John 7:7

This is the Bible’s starting point.

“When they sin against you, for there is no-one who does not sin – and you become angry with them.” 1 Kings 8:46

“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:2

“But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.” Galatians 3:22

“There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have become worthless; there is no-one who does good, not even one.” Romans 3:10-12

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . .” Romans 3:23

A short while ago I attended a local church funeral of a man who had shown a total disdain for the Christian gospel throughout his life. The vicar acknowledged that the last time he had been in his local church was when he had been married there fifty years before. Yet in his eulogy the vicar explained what he had contributed to the golf club and other local groups and concluded by saying that he was now in the hands of a loving God who would surely welcome him into his presence! What a tragedy it is when the leaders of God’s church teach the opposite to that of Jesus and his apostles. The apostles insisted that there is no salvation without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Many church services in Britain seem to assume that all attending are at least sympathetic towards God and therefore on his side. This is a great mistake. We must not assume that those attending church have committed themselves to the Lord Jesus. A refusal to accept Jesus is the mark of his enemies.

In Shakespeare’s play, ‘Richard II’,

“Henry Bolingbroke kneels to King Richard and kisses his hand . . .”

However, in reality, Bolingbroke was not really the king’s servant.

The evidence that people belong to Christ is that they have his Spirit and this will be apparent because the following features are developing in them.

1. Love for Jesus.

2. Love for God’s word.

3. Love for Christ’s people.

4. Longing for righteousness.

5. Longing to pray.

6. Longing to evangelise.

7. Longing for heaven.

8. Perseverance in developing the relationship with Christ.

9. Joy and Peace in all circumstances because Christ is is control.

When people understand what Jesus is saying about himself and see him on that cross and yet reject his rule, their problem is not apathy but antagonism. They do not want him to be their Lord. In some parts of the world, especially Islamic countries, if a person becomes a Christian, life can be made very difficult indeed and some are killed. I am at present reading an account of the church in Iran. The first Persian born bishop of Iran was Hassan Dehqani-Tafti. His wife was a second cousin of my wife. When the Ayatolla and the radical muslims took over the country his son was killed and some assassins broke into his bedroom and shot at him four times as he lay in bed. Four bullet holes were found in his pillow around the area where his head was resting. People hated the person the bishop represented.

A Pakistani woman, Gulshan Esther, was crippled from infancy because of polio and for many years sought healing through Islam, but all in vain. Following her father’s death, she desperately called out to God, beginning truly to “talk to Him, not as a Muslim does, using set prayers, approaching Him across a great gulf. Driven by a vast emptiness inside I prayed as if talking to One who knew my circumstances and my need.” Her prayer led to a number of remarkable encounters. She heard a low voice saying he was Jesus son of Mary, and that she should read about him in the Qur’an. She did so, and “began to believe that what was written about Jesus was true — that he did miracles, was alive — and that he could heal [her].” She felt more and more drawn to Jesus and prayed to him repeatedly.

Very early one morning, after desperately asking Jesus to heal her or tell her if he could not, a light filled the darkened room and she became aware of the presence of twelve figures, led by another, brighter and larger than the rest. She relates the encounter as follows:

“Oh God,” I cried, and the perspiration broke out on my forehead. I bowed my head and I prayed.

“Oh God, who are these people, and how have they come here when all the windows and doors are shut?”

Suddenly a voice said, “Get up. This is the path you have been seeking. I am Jesus, Son of Mary, to whom you have been praying, and now I am standing in front of you. You get up and come to me.”
I started to weep. “Oh Jesus, I’m crippled. I can’t get up.”

He said, “Stand up and come to me. I am Jesus.”

When I hesitated he said it a second time. Then as I still doubted he said for the third time, “Stand up.”

‘And I, Gulshan Fatima, who had been crippled on my bed for nineteen years, felt new strength flowing into my wasted limbs. I put my foot on the ground and stood up. Then I ran a few paces and fell at the feet of the vision. I was bathing in the purest light and it was burning as bright as the sun and moon together. The light shone into my heart and into my mind and many things became clear to me at that moment.’

What seems very clear is she was miraculously healed and transformed. After the vision she began walking up and down in her room, reciting the Lord’s Prayer, which she had received shortly before in her illumination encounter.

The sound of her movement alarmed her aunt, who assumed someone had entered her room, as Esther couldn’t walk. Opening the door, the aunt had to come to terms with the reality of her healing. Although she and the other relatives were delighted with Esther’s physical transformation, they did not appreciate the credit she gave Jesus. Her relationship with her family deteriorated when she announced that she had become a Christian. At one point her family took her to the basement of their large house and one of its members brought out a shotgun which was put to her head. She belonged to one of the twenty-one richest families in Pakistan.

After leaving home permanently, she engaged in a ministry of testifying “to the power of God to reach people who are behind the veil of Islam.”

Such blatant hostility to Jesus may be seen in Islamic countries but it still exists under the surface in western societies, even though it may be more sophisticated and polished.

In his day, Jesus saw through the supposed arguments people gave for their unbelief. He knew the real reason for their antagonism,

“. . . it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.” John 7:7

We all instinctively know that when we have been disobedient or sinful we cannot stand in God’s presence and so we rationalise our behaviour and deny the God who put those instincts in us.

It is noticeable that when someone mentions Jesus in a conversation there is an immediate opposition; people get worried. At the beginning of his gospel John wrote about Jesus,

“In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” John 1:5

b. God’s love

It is a wonderful truth that God loves all people but this must only be taught in context of our hatred for him. The most famous verse in the Bible says,

“Fo God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

When John talks about ‘the world’ he uses the word to describe a worldly people who are in opposition to God. This makes this verse so astounding; God loves even those who are opposed to him, who hate him. That is the starting point. God is a holy, sinless God and I fall far short of his standards of thinking and behaviour. When a person first hears this they will be annoyed.

‘How rude and unloving to say that I’m not good enough for God’

‘I’m a popular member of our society. I am religious and do my best to help others.’

But it gradually dawns that the Bible is telling the truth. I am instinctively in rebellion against God and his Son. I am worldly. It is in this context that the good news comes alive. God loves the unlovely, God loves the world, God loves even those who want to kill him. This is the Christian message. Jesus has entered this antagonistic world and demonstrated his overriding love for sinners by dying to save them.

3. Our role

Some evangelists suggest that all we need to do is to pray asking to be forgiven and we are saved. But Jesus taught that it was not that easy for people to be saved. Firstly he had to pay a great price; he had to enter this world, face rejection and finally go through a horrific tortured death – that was not easy. But neither is our role. When Jesus began his teaching ministry he said,

“The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.” Mark 1:15

Repentance, a determination to live a new life with Jesus Christ in control, is far from easy but is essential. When Peter gave his first sermon at Pentecost, his listeners were very concerned to hear that Jesus was their Messiah whom God had raised from death and asked,

“What shall we do?” Acts 2:37

Peter replied,

“Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Acts 2:38

To live for Christ inwardly, to repent, is hard. It is also far from easy to be baptised, to make that public declaration of a new allegiance. This was particularly hard for the three thousand who committed their lives to Christ that day as representatives of those who had condemned Jesus to death seven weeks earlier were almost certainly looking on!

Although it is true that Jesus has won our salvation for us, our role is not insignificant. Peter concludes his sermon with the words,

“Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Acts 2:40

The implications of accepting who the Lord Jesus is and what he has done for us is life-changing; becoming a Christian is not an easy option. We must start to swim against the tides of our society that are, at root, antagonistic to a holy God. Teenagers find it so hard to be different from their peer group but they are not alone. Senior professional people are just as frightened to stand out against their peers as teenagers. The world really does hate God and the world really hates real Christianity. It doesn’t hate Christian values and Christian activities where the young and old are cared for, schools and hospitals established, but real Christianity, that puts Jesus at the centre when he demands our lives, our homes, our lips, and our priorities, the world does hate.

Summary - Two worlds in opposition

As more and more people living in Jerusalem in those early months after Pentecost became interested in Christian gospel, the Jewish authorities became very worried. They arrested Peter and John but they insisted that they must teach people about Jesus. They bravely gave their reason to the Sanhedrin, the body that had arranged for Jesus to be crucified,

“Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

After a private discussion the Sanhedrin came to a conclusion on the best way to react,

“Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.” Acts 4:18

But Peter and John immediately replied,

“Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Acts 4:19

Peter and John were clearly convinced about Jesus! After threatening the two further they let them go. They immediately went back to meet up with the local Christians who were reminded of what God had said about antagonism against him in Psalm 2.

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.” Acts 4:25-26

Psalm 2 is well worth studying because it teaches precisely what Jesus was saying. Jesus is God’s Son, his King or Messiah who is opposed. The world, and each of us, are reminded,

“Therefore you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flair up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” Psalm 2:10-12

The Bible makes it lear that we are all in one camp or the other. We are either wheat or tares, sheep or goats, in the light or in the dark, saved or unsaved. There are no other intermediate groups. Jesus has done his part. Our role is to change direction (repent) and then go public (starting by being baptised) in our commitment to serving Christ.

BVP

John 6:60-71. Hard Sayings of Jesus

This passage brings to a climax the end of the first section of John’s gospel. It combines a glorious affirmation of faith with a depressing realism, as many disciples desert Jesus. Unfortunately it is all too common for people to turn their backs on him.

Mark Twain married a Christian lady. She at first didn’t want to marry him because he was not a Christian, but later did. He, at first, went through the motions of religion with her, but later said he couldn’t keep on being a hypocrite. After some time, his wife also decided that she no longer believed in a personal God. Later, during a time of deep grief, Twain said to his wife,

“If your Christian faith will comfort you, go back to it.” She replied, “I have none.”

Jesus has just fed the five thousand and explained that he is ‘the bread of life’. In the rest of John, chapter six, he clarifies exactly what he means by this,; he explains that he is the only Son of God and to believe in him is essential if we are to be given ‘eternal life.’

“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:40

This section has a sad ending,

“From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” John 6:66

It is clear that by this stage the number of Jesus’ disciples was very large. They were not just listening crowds, they were people who would say they were his followers, his disciples. However, many were now drifting away from him; they were becoming disappointed as it was not working out as they wanted it to. Clearly the personal cost of following Jesus was going to be significant. It was what Jesus taught that seemed to be the main problem:

“On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” John 6:60

This probably refers to the extraordinary claims that Jesus was now publicly making about who he really was,.For example Jesus said:

“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:40

“I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life.” John 6:47-48

Jesus made all-embracing claims on men and women. He never watered these down or tried to accommodate those who opposed him. He was adamant that he was the only Son of God who had entered this world to save people in it.

People’s understanding

How often people misunderstand Jesus today. Some may temporarily become enthusiastic about the gospel and become actively involved in their local church. However, as the implications of what commitment to Christ means and as the counter attraction of careers, hobbies and romances become more influential, they drift away from Christ. The temptation is then for church leaders to dilute their message and change the focus of their sermons away from passing on what Jesus and his apostles taught.

A bishop once wrote a paper wishing that Christians and Jews could be united, as they both believe in one God. Jesus would not concur with such a suggestion. Jesus does not want people to go back to the legalism of Judaism but to follow him and live to please him. He taught that the only way to know God is to know his Son. If we follow him we must acknowledge his exclusive claims.

“No-one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.” John 6:46

In his 1950 essay, “What Are We to Make of Jesus?” the famous scholar and author C.S. Lewis discusses some of Jesus’s startling claims about himself. He insists that no-one can conclude that he was simply a “great moral teacher.” Lewis suggests that Jesus’ sayings are those of a “megalomanic.”

“In my opinion, the only person who can say that sort of thing is either God or a complete lunatic suffering from that form of delusion, which undermines the whole mind of man. If you think you are a poached egg, when you are not looking for a piece of toast to suit you, you may be sane, but if you think you are God, there is no chance for you. We may note in passing that He was never regarded as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met him. He produced mainly three effects — Hatred — Terror — Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild approval.”

John emphasises the divine omniscience of Jesus:

“For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and would betray him.” John 6:64

Jesus never trusted men and women, he recognised how fickle we all are and that unless God does a work in us we will drift away from him. Yet it is we who need Jesus. After Jesus had cleared out his temple of the cattle, sheep, doves and those who were selling them there, many people began to follow Jesus but he knew their motives and their hearts.

“ . . . many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in man.” John 2:23-25

We cannot tell Jesus anything he doesn’t know; he knows our hearts.

Jesus recognises that for many our involvement with him is essentially for selfish motives. Jesus keeps asking us the question that he asked the crowds in his day,

“”You do not want to leave too, do you?” John 6:67

Jesus knows that some of us will drift away from him. Just as a marriage requires faithfulness from both partners for life, so all Christians need to develop a similar faithful mindset so that, whatever happens, we will not shift from our commitment to Christ. Jesus does not want his people to be ‘of the world’ but does want us to live in it for him.

C. S. Lewis wrote in his article “God in the Dock,”

“‘What are we to make of Jesus Christ?’ This is a question, which has, in a sense, a frantically comic side. For the real question is not what are we to make of Christ, but what is He to make of us? The picture of a fly sitting deciding what it is going to make of an elephant has comic elements about it. But perhaps the questioner meant what are we to make of Him in the sense of ‘How are we to solve the historical problem set us by the recorded sayings and acts of this Man?’ This problem is to reconcile two things. On the one hand you have got the almost generally admitted depth and sanity of His moral teaching, which is not very seriously questioned, even by those who are opposed to Christianity. In fact, I find when I am arguing with very anti-God people that they rather make a point of saying, ‘I am entirely in favour of the moral teaching of Christianity’ — and there seems to be a general agreement that in the teaching of this Man and of His immediate followers, moral truth is exhibited at its purest and best. It is not sloppy idealism; it is full of wisdom and shrewdness. The whole thing is realistic, fresh to the highest degree, the product of a sane mind. That is one phenomenon.

The other phenomenon is the quite appalling nature of this Man’s theological remarks. You all know what I mean, and I want rather to stress the point that the appalling claim, which this Man seems to be making, is not merely made at one moment of His career. There is, of course, the one moment, which led to His execution. The moment at which the High Priest said to Him, ‘Who are you?’ ‘I am the Anointed, the Son of the uncreated God, and you shall see me appearing at the end of all history as the judge of the universe.’ But that claim, in fact, does not rest on this one dramatic moment. When you look into his conversation you will find this sort of claim running throughout the whole thing. For instance, He went about saying to people, ‘I forgive your sins’. . . On one occasion this Man is sitting looking down on Jerusalem from the hill about it and suddenly in comes an extraordinary remark — ‘I keep on sending you prophets and wise men.’ Nobody comments on it. And yet, quite suddenly, almost incidentally, He is claiming to be the power that all through the centuries is sending wise men and leaders into the world. . . Sometimes the statements put forward the assumption that He, the Speaker, is completely without sin or fault. This is always the attitude. ‘You, to whom I am talking, are all sinners,’ and He never remotely suggests that this same reproach can be brought against Him. He says again, ‘I am the begotten of the One God, before Abraham was, I am,’ And remember what the words ‘I am’ were in Hebrew. They were the name of God, which must not be spoken by any human being, the name which it was death to utter.

Well, that is the other side. On the one side clear, definite moral teaching. On the other, claims which, if not true, are those of a megalomaniac, compared with whom Hitler was the most same and humble of men. There is no halfway house and there is no parallel in other religions.”

All of us have surely begun to waver at some point or other, but Jesus keeps asking,

“You do not want to leave too, do you?” John 6:67

So many church leaders today have become embarrassed with what Jesus teaches. Although Jesus emphasises his origin, his kingdom and the salvation he alone brings, there has been a tendency in sermons to move away from this to an emphasis on what we should all do to better our society!

Peter’s understanding

1. No alternative

Peter’s response to Jesus is worth studying in detail. He has begun to realise that there is no alternative to Jesus,

“Lord, to whom shall we go?” John 6:68

Professor Paul Vitz, a Christian Professor of Psychology in the United States, wrote the book, ‘Psychology is Religion – the Cult of Self-Worship’. It is a trenchant analysis of modern psychology. Professor Vitz maintains that psychology has become a religion, a secular cult of self-love, that is now part of the problem of modern life. In the last chapter he writes perceptively about the beliefs of those in the post war baby bulge. He looked at:

“. . . all the banners that that generation has followed and all of them proved false.”

He describes how the great ‘Cult of Sex’ has become more strident as it loses its hold on its followers; as a result pornographers have become increasingly extreme, macabre and violent. He says that ‘it looks as if they are losing their grip.’ At the end of the book he concludes,

“In another ten years, millions of people will be bored with the cult of self and looking for a new life. The uncertainty is not the existence of this coming wave of returning prodigals, but whether their Father’s house, the true faith, will be there to welcome them.”

People will start to look for sustainable answers that are more real than alcohol, drugs, careers and sex, but will the church be robust enough to give them God’s answer and tell them that the solution to life lies with Jesus Christ? There are many false religions around.

The son of Ron Hubbard, the founder of ‘Scientology’, renounced his father’s religion and became a Christian. He has been very critical of this ‘pseudo-faith’, saying that the ideas did not come from years of study, but were largely written off the top of his head, usually when he was under the influence of drugs. He added that some other ideas were plagiarised from Alistair Crowley the Black Magic Satanist. He said that his father was addicted to cocaine and Mescaline, that he had a long history of venereal disease, sexual perversion and mental illness. Critiques can also be made of such new religions as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses and Transcendental Meditation. It is incredible that people will leave the Lord Jesus to follow such religions, yet they still do.

Peter understood that nothing compared to the Lord Jesus,

“Lord, to whom shall we go?” John 6:68

2. Eternal life

The reason there is no alternative to Jesus Christ is now given by Peter,

“You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:68

Note that eternal life is given to those who hear the words that God says, it is not found through involvement in rituals and sacraments. John is constantly speaking against a ‘false sacramentalism’ that was creeping into the churches. Some have misunderstood the meaning of Jesus’ words,

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever.” John 6:51

“I tell you the truth, unless you can eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” John 6:53

Some sacramentalists take this literally and claim that salvation is found by receiving the elements in the Eucharist. Strangely in many such churches only what they call ‘the body of Christ’ is shared, whilst ‘the blood’ is restricted. In contrast Jesus insists that he is speaking about spiritual matters, about belief in him, and makes this abundantly clear when he explains,

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” John 6:63

The Holy Spirit applies the words of Jesus to our hearts. It is when these words, his teaching, are received and positively responded to that eternal life is given. It is only a personal commitment to Jesus that results in us being given eternal salvation. All Christians can say with Peter, ‘Yes, we have felt the power as Jesus speaks. As we sit under and accept Jesus’ words we experience a power to change and save us.’ The disciples understood this,

“You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:68

We Christians can all say that we have come to understand that Jesus is the only person who can give us eternal life; it is a gift to all who turn to follow Jesus Christ personally.

3. Knowledge

Peter speaks up for all the disciples and for all Christians when he says,

“We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:69

This is a remarkable statement. The world today says that ‘faith’ and ‘knowledge’ are opposed. Peter says the opposite. If, as the Bible teaches, God is behind the creation of this world, then there can be no conflict between science, the discovery of the ‘laws of nature’ and a reasonable faith that God is as he has revealed himself to us. Modern science was able to develop because people believed in a rational God who had made a rational world. How were the scientific constants of the universe all precisely right for our world to develop? Who composed the new meaningful DNA codes that enabled new species and genera to form – this language can’t have been random. But more important than these arguments is the fact that without Jesus Christ we cannot find answers to the real questions of life such as,

1. What is the purpose of my life?

2. Can I know God now?

3. Can I be forgiven for the wrongs I have done?

4. Can I be sure of eternal life?

5. How should I live now?

Some say that there are no ultimate answers to such questions and that we have to just get on with life as best we can on our own. They would call themselves ‘agnostic’. It is significant that this word has the same origin as ‘ignorant’! Answers are there to be found, but only by looking in the right place, where God has revealed them in His Son. Faith in Jesus is the basis of all life.

Summary

This powerful section asks us all the following questions,

1. Am I a true disciple or could I drift away?

2. Am I convinced that there is no alternative to Christ. Have I discovered that alternative ‘gods’ do not satisfy?

3. Have I come to realise that it is in hearing the words of Jesus that I can experience God’s power. It is as his words enter my mind, my heart and my conscience that I begin to change into the person God wants me to be.

4. Am I convinced about Jesus, do I love him and long to serve him? Jesus was holy, set apart to live for his Father. If I have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, I will have this very same longing.

BVP

John 6:51-59. Real Communion

“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” Charles Kingsley

“A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder - a waif, a nothing, a no man. Have a purpose in life, and, having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you.” Thomas Carlyle

The Core Christian Message

So may people are unsure what life is really for, it is a mystery to them. Yet the core of the Christian message is,

“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27

The apostle Paul had no doubt what his purpose was,

“For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21

When you read through John’s gospel one word keeps recurring - ‘believe’. Take a concordance and look up the word ‘believe’ in just John’s gospel and the purpose of his book becomes abundantly clear. The reason he wrote about Jesus was that all might believe in him and so receive eternal life. For example,

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:18

John summarises the purpose of his gospel in these terms,

“These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:31

There is now so much misunderstanding about what ‘belief’ means; is it just an intellectual acceptance or is it more? I had a patient come to my clinic who was wearing a beautiful silver cross round her neck. After chatting a while I said,

“That a beautiful cross. Excuse me asking but does that mean you are a Christian?”

“Yes,” she said hesitantly, ‘but it depends what you mean by a Christian.”

“Surely it is someone who is sold out to the Lord Jesus.”

“Oh, then I’m not.”

To be sold out to Jesus means to have communion with him throughout our lives – we feed on him. Yet today there is much confusion about how people ‘feed on Christ’ and it largely comes from a misunderstanding of this passage in John chapter 6.

Wherever Jesus’ teaching is discussed either arguments develop or people retreat and hide from the subject. It happened then and it happens now. Jesus had just made a profound statement:

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” John 6:51

The response of most of the Jews was utter disbelief and arguments started:

“Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” John 6:52

Jesus often used figurative language about himself that sometimes his listeners fail to understand. Thus when Jesus told the eminent Jewish leader, Nicodemus, that he must be ‘born again’, the Senior cleric replied,

“How can someone be born when they are old? . . . Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born.” John 3:4-5

Jesus explained that he was talking spiritually, about a new start that centres on living with and for him! In this passage Jesus repeats and summarises his essential message.

1. Jesus alone offers real food to all

Jesus continues with a food analogy,

“For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” John 6:55

Jesus now begins increasingly to use adjectives or adverbs to stress that what he is saying is unique. Thus later he says,

“I am the true vine.” John 15:1

What Jesus is offering is both true and substantial. He really does satisfy those who take him in. He contrasts what he has come to deliver with the temporary benefits of the Old Covenant.

“This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live for ever.” John 6:58

There are many blessings offered to God’s people in the Old Testament but these pale into insignificance when God’s Messiah appears on earth. Jesus is trying to wean them away from the Old Covenant and show them that all the promises given to a few in the past are now available to everyone. Here Jesus is not speaking symbolically but is offering a substantial experience to everyone who comes to God on his terms. Jesus is saying that they ate manna and died, but that now all people can eat and live. What a disaster it is for people to rely on their religion and not on Christ.

To understand what Jesus is saying is a real turning point. This supernatural food, this bread, will give us life in a new dimension in life, both now and in the world to come.

If this is true, then the main purpose of the church is to offer this bread to the world; it is real spiritual food. Of course the world needs physical food and drink too. It is ironic that there are butter and beef mountains whilst millions are physically starving just as the church has the information whilst people are spiritually starving. The church’s main priority cannot be just to alleviate physical and social needs. It must be the same as that of Jesus, the salvation of souls.

It is so easy for church groups to move away from gospel priorities and focus on humanitarian projects instead of what Jesus focussed on. A new Christian in our church volunteered to work in a local Food Bank. She was talking with a lonely widow and mentioned the help she had received from our church and gave her the details. This conversation was overheard by a supervisor who later reprimanded her volunteer in strong terms.

‘Talking about religion is not what we are here for. Don’t do it again!’

‘But I was only sharing with her how I have found to help. How can that be wrong?’

This example is particularly upsetting as the Trussell Trust began as a Christian organisation, an organisation that should be offering the ‘bread of life’.

Although some church leaders move their churches away from addressing man’s spiritual need, the presence of this need is increasingly obvious. Some years ago a chain letter was being passed around Russia announcing that God had appeared to a twelve year old boy announcing the end of the world. The Kremlin authorities became concerned, which is extraordinary; why worry about something so quaint. An announcement was made,

“The Soviet press has expressed growing alarm lately over the appeal of religious belief amongst Russians, especially the young.”

Young people were turning to religion because,

‘They found consolation and understanding in the church that are absent from state institutions.”

In other words they are saying that in spite of all these years of communist domination they haven’t been able to offer any bread to feed the soul and give hope for the future. No wonder the authorities are worried when the young turn for sustenance to the church. Their churches may not be very alive but there are crumbs even in the deadest of churches. They offer more than the bleak meal found outside.

Some years ago a group from St Helen’s Church, Bishopsgate went to spend a weekend working in a boys’ borstal. At one meal time there was an open discussion at the dining table about whether God existed. Most were unsure. Then the subject turned to whether the Devil existed. Everyone at the table was certain, he did really exist. They had all experimented with spiritualism, ouija boards and the like and they were terrified.

There is an astonishing growth in Black Magic in our society today. Mail order companies have up to three thousand different books on Black Magic on their shelves. One of those running such a company openly call herself a witch. One company claims to have 20,000 customers on their books. This is a serious problem if people are turning in to black magic to find satisfaction. Are the churches not making it abundantly clear that Jesus offers both truth and real, permanent, edifying satisfaction?

What a joy it is to go to some churches that are packed out with young people, coming to learn from the Bible what God wants us to understand. If true bread is offered, young people want to know about it. Jesus does offer real food, but it must be obvious in Christians’ lives that we have been changed by eating this food ourselves.

Jesus must die for this real food to be available

Jesus teaches that his flesh is the bread that we must rely on.

“This bread is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world.” John 6:51

When Jesus talks about his ‘flesh; he is talking about his ‘death’ allegorically.

It is significant that when Jesus’ listeners become antagonistic he moves to teaching in parables. This may be because direct talk could result in an angry revolt. There is also a graciousness in doing so as it enables troubled listeners to both remember and later digest the implications of what he is saying. He is talking to those who are later going to accuse him and cause his crucifixion so he explains this key teaching about his death in the vivid language of flesh and blood.

‘Flesh and blood’ when combined means ‘full of life’. ‘Flesh’ and ‘blood’ when separated indicates ‘death’. If someone talks about a person’s blood being shed they are indicating a violent death. When someone talks about the flesh of a person or animal it invariably means they are dead. This is surely why, when we take communion we take the bread, representing Christ’s flesh, separately from the wine, representing his blood. It is symbolically saying that we must partake of the death of Jesus if we are to enjoy life for our souls.

This is startling teaching. It is the total opposite of current ideas that mystical experiences or transcendental meditation can ever put us right with a holy, omnipotent God. ‘India’ is a book by Mrs Indira Gandhi. It has many photos of religious Indians, some are meditating, some in a Yoga poise sitting with their legs crossed, and others are washing in the river Ganges. Jesus cuts across such mystical notions. There is no road to eternal life through endless washings in a river or meditation; the only way is through the bloody death of Jesus on Calvary. Jesus has no sympathy to the thinking of ancient worlds or much of the world today.

This is an uncomfortable thought, flesh must be sacrificed and blood poured out in agony if the world is to have the chance of life. The bloody sacrifices of animals throughout the ancient world taught this lesson – all these sacrifices look forwards to the death of God’s one Messiah, the Lord Jesus. The death of an animal is only a picture of what Christ will achieve, of themselves they can only act as reminders of our need for forgiveness. Jesus’ death is pertinent for all time. This is why there is no place for sacrifices today, either in other religions or in churches. As Peter says,

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” 1 Peter 3:18

Jesus is saying that he offers all people real food, but this sustenance is only available through his death and resurrection. Jesus wants to give the benefits of his death to all who will accept him as their Lord and Saviour.

The emphasis in this chapter is on the role of God’s activity in an individuals’ salvation. Unless God moves and wakes us up to both the problem of our sin and the importance of Jesus death for us, no-one will turn to Christ. All of us are too wrapped up in ourselves and our sin to be interested in God. They may enjoy the company of Christians for a while but this will pass unless there is real supernatural work of God in a person’s heart.

But this chapter also emphasises, emphatically, that each human is also responsible for their own salvation.

“Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never go thirsty.” John 6:35

“ . . . whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” John 6:37

“ . . . that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life.” John 6:40

“Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.” John 6:45

We must listen to God and act on what he says if we are to be saved. If we cannot be bothered to learn we will never find eternal life. Jesus emphasised our responsibility when he said,

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7

There is far too much passivity in Christians’ lives today. An ancient Chinese proverb that is relevant:

“Man stand long time with mouth wide open, waiting for roast duck to fly in!”

Christian belief is not passive. It is not enough to say, ‘Oh, I believe that”; it is vital that we go on ‘eating’, which means go on being sustained by Christ in our day to day lives.

This is the warning given in the parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-20). Many will hear the gospel, some will respond for a while but only a minority will go on with Christ to produce fruit for him.

The Meaning of Communion

In the early church some people were beginning to have the idea that eating the bread and wine in a communion service automatically gave people salvation, quite apart from the recipients’ spiritual understanding and condition. When John wrote his gospel he clearly had such people in mind. People have always misunderstood what Jesus meant by eating his flesh and blood.

“Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh?” John 6:52

At first sight it does appear that Jesus could be talking literally but clearly ‘cannibalism’ was not in his mind. The teaching that the bread and wine changes its substance into the body and blood of Christ when it is blessed during a communion service, is taken from a literal understanding of this passage. This is called is called ‘transubstantiation’. However Jesus makes his meaning clear later when he explains that he is speaking spiritually,

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you – they are full of Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” John 6:63-64

John is not talking about a church service but about a commitment to follow and live for the Lord Jesus. The whole of John’s gospel is about the necessity of having a real faith in Jesus if we are to be saved. John wants people to enjoy a saving relationship with Jesus and not to think that church rituals can save anybody.

The Bible teaches that Christ’s body ascended into heaven, which is where he now lives. We will see him there. Archbishop Cranmer was clear that Jesus cannot be both in heaven and earth at the same time. Christ’s body cannot be both in heaven and on a Holy Table. It cannot therefore be Jesus’ meaning that ‘eating his body’ is meant to be understood literally. It is symbolic language that refers to the reality that Christ died for us, to give us salvation.

Some have argued that this language in John 6 is symbolic and refers to the Lord’s supper. But the Lord’s supper is itself symbolic and points to the death of Christ for us. So how could this be symbolic of another form of symbolism? The clear answer is that both John 6 and the Lord’s supper both refer to the reality of Christ dying on that cross as our substitute. There he took responsibility for our sin.

If this passage is understood literally, that in the Lord’s supper we are given Christ’s flesh and blood, then the following verse would be saying that everybody who has shared in the ‘communion’ has eternal life.

“Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” John 6:53

Such a doctrine goes against everything Jesus teaches about the necessity of having a new birth and a new heart. Surely the truth is that John is warning us not to rely on eating bread and wine in the Lord’s supper as a means of salvation. Jesus is referring to his own sacrificial death for us.

It is highly significant that John omits to record any account of the bread and wine in the Last Supper. Instead he gives us four chapters on what Jesus taught during the last supper. This must be deliberate, he wants to redress the false emphasis on the necessity of the regular receiving of eucharist for salvation that was beginning to be taught in some churches. The whole point is to focus on who Jesus is and therefore on what he won for us on that cross.

John wants us all to ask ourselves, ‘Have I taken myself to Calvary?’ ‘Have I knelt at the foot of the cross and turned back from my rebellion against God and his Son?’ or am I still hiding behind the petticoats of the church. John spiritualises both baptism and the Lord’s supper. He doesn’t abolish these but makes it plain that going through the waters of baptism of itself does not give anybody eternal life. As John explained to Nicodemus, in John chapter 3, a new birth is necessary, our religion, however virtuous and sincere we are, cannot save us. The new birth occurs when we believe in Jesus. Taking the bread and wine of itself gives us nothing unless it signifies that we have turned to Christ and are dependent on his death for us.

The English word ‘eucharist’ is derived from a Greek work meaning ‘to thank’. As we remember what Christ has done for us on that cross we should be full of thankfulness. When Jesus instituted the Communion Service he said,

“ . . . do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19

We cannot re-enact that sacrifice in our church services but we must remember it. Peter wrote,

“Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” 1 Peter 3:18

Application

Most young people are ‘looking for life.’ No-one should wait until they are elderly to discover that the world cannot give it. Jesus Christ came to give us life and give it abundantly,

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10

All of John’s gospel is saying the same thing. Jesus is the source of life – he is the real ‘bread’. If anyone wants life, Jesus is where it can be found. No-one should believe the devils lies that life can be found without Christ and it cannot be found in religion either.

This passage has much to say to communicant church members. John would warn us against excessive veneration of the bread and wine and excessive dependence on repetitive communion services. The number of services a person attends does not reflect their devotion to Jesus. The great Bible teacher Dick Lucas, when a youngster, was brought up to attend communion services devoutly. But at the time he understood nothing of what it symbolised and pointing him to. The communion service was an end in itself, the focus was on the service and not on the Saviour and his death.

Hans Christian Andersen tells the story of a king who had, what he thought to be, a marvellous suit of clothes made of invisible thread. He marches through the town showing it off to everybody around. The people bowed down and said how wonderful the king looked. But then a child looked out of a window and said,

“Mother, he hasn’t got anything on!”

Sometimes in life we can wake up to the fact that we’ve been churchgoers but actually we are wearing nothing. We have not yet found the reality. The Bible teaches that this reality is in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and him crucified. We can each discover this if we come, look, learn, believe and eat – of which the Lord’s supper is a wonderful picture and symbol.

BVP

John 6:41-51. Phobic or Genuine Concern?

Today there is much confusion over the difference between a phobia and a concern. It is surely reasonable to be concerned about extra-marital sexual relationships yet this can be interpreted as a phobia. It is reasonable to be critical of bad behaviour of a particular person who happens to be Jewish but that is not necessarily anti-Semitic.

A Bishop of Birmingham once made this mistake when he said,

‘Much of the New Testament is anti-Semitic’

Jesus, himself a Jew, was critical of the wrong thinking of many Jews in authority; he repeatedly said they were wrong, yet that is not the same as being anti- Semitic. As Jesus is explicit as to who he really is, opposition increased markedly. He has just fed the five thousand miraculously and then, in the synagogue at Capernaum Jesus explains what it is that God primarily wants in all people,

“The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:29

The crowd clearly understood what Jesus was saying,

“What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?” John 6:30

Jesus continues to put himself right at the centre, using the name of God for himself.

“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35

Jesus emphasises why this decision to become one of his followers is essential,

“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:40

This is similar to what Jesus had said in Jerusalem,

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:24

I remember being told by a school teacher that Jesus never claimed to be God. That teacher cannot have read John’s gospel!

Reactions

What Jesus taught and did caused a division amongst his hearers, who all had the same evidence. Some followed him but others became increasingly antagonistic.

“At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They said, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I came down from heaven”?’ ‘Stop grumbling among yourselves,’ Jesus answered.” John 6:42-43

John here uses the word ‘grumble’ deliberately as this was the exactly the reaction the Children of Israel had against God’s appointed leaders, when they were troubled in the wilderness.

“All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron . . .” Numbers 14:2

“ But the whole assembly talked about stoning them.” Numbers 14:10

“The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: ‘How long will this wicked people grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.” Numbers 14:26-27

Now this same grumbling was against Jesus, because he claimed not just to be a prophet but to be the Son of God.

The Jews were saying that, as Jews, they followed Moses but Jesus turned this round and is in practice asking,

‘Did you follow Moses? Clearly not, as you grumbled against him all the time. You never stopped grumbling against God’s appointed leader and now you are repeating this all over again.’

Much of the Old Testament is about the unbelief of the Jews. That is not anti-Semitism, which is an ugly thing, but a true appraisal of the facts. In the past many societies have been blatantly anti-Semitic and have ruthlessly persecuted Jews simply for being Jewish. This culminated in the holocaust produced by the neo-paganism of Nazi Germany, but it does still continue in certain groups both in the UK and throughout the world. Anti-semitism can be so subtle. When I was a boy I used to enjoy reading the ‘short stories of Sapper’. The author, Cyril McNeile, had been a British soldier and during the First World War he wrote short stories based on his experiences in the trenches with the Royal Engineers. These were first published in the Daily Mail under the pseudonym ‘Sapper’ and later as books. Even these have a streak of anti-semitism as the majority of those who were Sapper’s enemies and those he mocked had Jewish names.

The Bible however is not anti-Semitic, God is criticising people, whether they be Jews or not, and these criticisms are valid. The New Testament is just as critical of people in the young Christian churches who have turned their backs on God. People of all nations have been inclined to murmur against Jesus, just as the Jews murmured against both Moses and Jesus.

Jeremiah constantly rebuked his own countrymen, so much so that they thought he was unpatriotic.

Stephen in Acts 7, just before he is martyred, reviews the whole history of the Jewish people, emphasising that they repeatedly rejected the prophets that God has sent to them. He did not do this to gloat but to warn the Jewish leaders that they were on the same destructive road if they reject Jesus. Stephen was stoned to death!

Paul’s usual approach was to go to the synagogue in the towns he visited in order to show, from the Jewish Scriptures, that Jesus is their true Messiah. Some believed the evidence he presented about Jesus but many violently rejected him and his message. It was this reaction that forced Paul to share the message with Gentiles and any who would listen. However when Paul talks about his fellow Jews, it is nearly always with tears in his eyes. He is Jewish and loves his own people and longs that they should recognise their Messiah and the righteousness he could give them ‘as a gift’. However many persisted in seeking to establish their own righteousness by keeping to their religious laws! There was much plain speaking, with sorrow, but never triumphalistic pleasure.

John chapter 6 is not anti-Semitic but about people being anti-Christ; Jesus was a problem for some in Israel, just as he is in our world today.

Contempt

As the crowd listened to Jesus, some became contemptuous,

“They said, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven?’’” John 6:42

Because they thought they knew about Jesus’ background they concluded that Jesus’ claims were ridiculous. ‘They knew!!’ Similar dogmatism is rife today. Astounding arrogance persists, people saying such silly statements as,

“We now understand science, so we don’t need God.”

What we have come to understand is a little of the way the world works, the laws of nature, but we know very little about how these laws came into being and how they are all precisely right so that our world can exist as it does. There is no evidence for rejecting the role of God, it is also contemptuous wishful thinking.

God’s Role

It is astounding to hear the excuses people still make today as to why they won’t even consider the claims of Jesus. Many Christians become discouraged when they invite friends to come and hear the gospel explained, meeting with ridicule and scepticism. Jesus has two interesting things to say to us as we face this difficult dilemma,

“No-one can come to me unless the Father draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.” John 6:44-45

Verse 44 gives the negative,

“No-one can come to me unless the Father draws them.”

Verse 45 gives the positive,

“They will all be taught by God.”

John has written this so that it applies universally, in all times and in all places. “No-one” clearly means not only Jews but all people. ‘Everyone’ applies to the whole world. The good news, or gospel, about Jesus Christ is good news for everybody.

Jesus is stressing a very important point here. No one will come to and remain in Christ by their own will, true conversion is always initiated by God. Many churches have used great music and psychological means to draw people in but only those in whom a true work of God has happened will stay the course. There has to be a movement of God’s grace in a person before they can truly come to Christ.

In the New Testament, every time that the word ‘draw’ is used it is in the context of ‘drawing’ something that is resisting. We humans naturally resist the rule of God, we are spiritually dead and without God working in us - none has any hope of salvation.

Some have inferred that there is little they need do in speaking to others about Christ because this passage insists that it is God’s initiative that counts. Jesus did not intend for it to be taken this way. Just as God called Paul, a rebel against God’s Christ, so he can call those who are contemptuous and resistant today. All people need to hear the message about who Jesus is so we need to share the news. However there is not a single Christian who has not been drawn by the Father against their natural resistance. There is no other way that stubborn hearts will permanently turn to Jesus Christ.

The clear implication of this is that if we want to see our churches grow and our friends and families turn to Christ and so be saved, we have a duty to pray and keep praying that God will work. Private prayer and church prayer meetings that are not imploring God to apply what we have said and done to themselves and their need for forgiveness and a relationship with God are a charade. God is concerned more about saving people thatn Aunt Maud’s bad knee!

The next verse teaches the same truth; it is an extraordinary statement.

“It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.” John 6:45

Jesus is quoting from the prophet Isaiah, where the prophet talks about the future glory of God’s people,

“All your children will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their peace. In righteousness you will be established: tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear.” Isaiah 54:13-14

Jesus explains this passage by emphasising that this new status, of being one of God’s people, is open to ‘everyone’ who hears God speak to them. The effect will be that they will turn to Jesus, God’s only Son.

In the Old Testament very few people had direct access, to hear from God or to be given revelations by God. People would have to go to Shiloh or to the home of one of God’s ordained prophets. Under the New Covenant, that Jesus introduced, not only would all Christians receive the Spirit of God but all would be directly taught by God : God would speak to their hearts.

In the New Testament there is obviously external teaching being given continuously through sermons, Bible Studies and discussions but, although these may be stimulating, they are inadequate to make a person a child of God. There must be an inward working of the Holy Spirit who applies these words to our hearts and causes us to respond to them. When God is speaking to people’s hearts they will want to turn to Jesus, that is the clear teaching here. How irritating it is to hear people say that you can make the Bible mean anything; in contrast these words are blatantly clear,

“Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.” John 6:45

This cannot mean anything else. Everyone who has heard the true God will become a Christian. Jesus is saying that God only points people to himself, so this would exclude such groups as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. Later Jesus made this abundantly clear when he said,

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7

The Jewish authorities clearly understood what Jesus was saying when he said,

“I and the Father are one.” John 10:30

They picked up stones to stone him and they gave their reason,

“We are not stoning you for any good work, but for blasphemy because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” John 10:33

The Problem

If all people are by nature resistant to God and all are ignorant of God, what chance do we have to lead them to Christ? Nagging won’t work, constantly repeating Bible verses won’t change people. The simple answer is that we cannot change people; only God can turn people’s hearts. We can entertain them, draw them into our churches by our activities and music, but only God can permanently turn people’s hearts to him. This is why, as the Parable of the Sower reminds us, many will hear the word of God, some will respond for a while but most will then fall away. Just a few keep going to produce ‘fruit’ for God.

This is why the Bible stresses the need for prayer. If all Christians supported their sharing and teaching about Christ with real believing prayer to the Father, who is able to turn people to himself, then perhaps we would see more responding to Christ’s gospel! We must keep going to our heavenly Father and say,

“Lord, my friends are so resistant, they are so hard, they are blind, please change their hearts.”

They may be delightful in every other way, just like the Jews in the first century. It is ultimately only God who draws people to himself and it is God who teaches.

A Warning

In the next verse John suggests that there were some going around the early churches suggesting that either they have seen God or that they have a direct line to God. They were purporting to be special and to have been taught directly by God! They might say, ‘I’ve had a vision of God and he said to me . . .!”

“No-one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.” John 6:46

We must not believe such people who claim to have a hotline to God. Only the incarnate Jesus has this and he permitted his apostles to record for all time what he taught them. God now speaks to us through his Word – the Bible. We may have good ideas and initiatives but these must always be tested both against Scripture and with others of God’s people. No-one should be seduced into following any in churches who claim to have had a direct illumination from God. Anyone who says, ‘The Lord has told me . . .’ must be treated with great suspicion. All true teaching about God is from Jesus Christ who alone came from him; only he has seen the Father. No wonder Jesus can say as he does in the next verse,

“I tell you the truth . . .,” or ‘Very truly I tell you. . . ” John 6:47

Jesus alone is the truth. This is why the prime purpose of a church is to teach people the Word of God and encourage them to live by what it teaches. To understand and believe what God has said is vital,

“ . . . the one who believes has everlasting life.”

Christ is central

In the following verses Jesus yet again places himself in the centre.

“I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’ John 6:48-51

Jesus is saying that he alone is the ‘bread of life’. The Greek is very emphatic, ‘I and I alone’ can give you this bread. Jesus is claiming the name by which God introduced himself to Moses at the Burning Bush when Moses asks God his name,

“God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM This is what you are to say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.” Exodus 3:14

By using God’s holy name in the way he does Jesus is saying, that he is the same God.

Test

This passage reminds us that we can all know whether God has taught us and whether he is doing a saving work in us.

1. We will recognise who Jesus is and where he comes from.

This divides all people. Some give their own explanations and excuses why they will not to submit to him,

‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven?’ John 6:42

“Then the Jews began to argue sharply amongst themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ John 6:52

This contrasts with what Jesus has said and with what all true Christians accept,

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” John 6:51

Christians recognise that Jesus has come both from Nazareth and from heaven.

2. We will recognise what Jesus can therefore give us.

Manna was ordinary food that perished if kept for long, but there is a ‘bread’ anyone can ‘eat’ and never die. Eternal life is what Jesus can give us when we commit ourselves to him.

“No-one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:44

A true Christian can look back and see that the Father has drawn them to Jesus Christ. He is both my Saviour and King. He is holding me to himself, even though, of myself, I could not remain faithful for even 24 hours. I know that he will raise me on the last day. I am thrilled that God has chosen me and drawn me into Christ’s eternal kingdom and I want to live in a way that honours him.

Elsewhere Jesus’ disciples were beginning to understand and asked him,

“Who then will be saved?”

Jesus looked at them and said,

‘With man this is impossible but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

our only hope is to throw ourselves on God’s mercy that is available in Christ.

BVP

John 6:35-40. ‘Bread’ – God’s or Ours?

Jesus had just fed five thousand with five loaves and two fish and the following day he is speaking in the Capernaum synagogue and says,

“I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35

Why does Jesus identify himself as bread?

1. Bread is an essential constituent of life.

In Jesus’ time many ordinary people in Israel could spend three quarters of their income on food. Starvation was often used as a weapon then to force people into surrender, just as Russia has used it to compel people into subjection today. In 1932-33 Stalin ordered his troops to raid villages in Ukraine, the ‘bread-basket of Russia’, and remove their food supplies. By the end of 1933 nearly 25 per cent of the Ukrainian people had starved to death, including 3 million children. Stalin’s largely unknown genocide, repeated in Kazakstan, has only recently been publicised. Without bread people cannot live.

What did Jesus mean when he taught his disciples to pray,

“Give us today our daily bread’ Matthew 6:11

Was he just talking about our physical needs? This phrase is placed in the context of our spiritual lives. Just before this comes the prayer about establishing God’s kingdom on earth,

“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10

In the next phrase, the emphasis is also on spiritual issues,

“Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matthew 6:12

Could Jesus’ reference to ‘daily bread’ be talking about our need for a fresh daily relationship with him and not just basic physical food?

This reliance on Jesus and his death as a substitute for our sins was also the focus at the Last Supper when Jesus introduced the communion service.

“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.” Matthew 26:26

When Jesus says, ‘I am the bread of life’, he is surely saying that we must live lives that centre on him if we are to be given eternal life. Those who live in Christ will also be deeply satisfied whatever this life throws at us.

2. Ask most people today if they have enough ‘bread’ and they will think you are referring to money.

This association has been present since the 1930s. Similarly the word ‘dough’, the precursor of bread, has been linked to money since the mid 1800s. Money is what many have as their goal in life even though it does not satisfy and love of it is repeatedly warned against in Scripture. Potential church leaders must be screened,

“ . . . not a lover of money . . “ 1 Timothy 3:3

“For the love of money is the root of all evil.” I Timothy 6:10

When people reject the rule of God, their symptoms will be clear,

“People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful . . .” 2 Timothy 3:2

The sense of satisfaction comes only from a trust and reliance in a heavenly Father.

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

It is too easy today to make our goal ‘home-made bread’, and try to achieve our own ambitions even though these can never fully satisfy.

In 1967 George Harrison, of the Beatles, was tiring of ‘Beatlemania’ when his wife saw an advertisement placed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his Spiritual Regeneration Movement. The Beatles had come to the conclusion that L.S.D. didn’t hold the answers they were looking for, so they went to a camp in Bangor run by Maharishi Yogi and were impressed. The Beatles told him,

“Even from an early age we have been seeking a highly spiritual existence. We tried drugs and that didn’t work.”

Subsequently all the Beatles went to ‘study’ with Maharishi Yogi at his ashram in India. Others there at the time included their families, Mia Farrow and her sister, the folk singer Donovan, and Mike Love of the Beech Boys. They went with idealistic intentions and were due to stay ten weeks but they all left early with various degrees of disillusionment. Paul McCartney said,

“Basically it was just eating, sleeping and spiritual refreshment – with the occasional little lecture by the Maharishi.”

The ashram was far too rudimentary for Ringo Starr and his wife. They detested the spicy food and the flies.

The Beetles left separately, John Lennon leaving within ten days and Paul McCartney only staying one month. There were ugly rumours concerning Maharishi’s sexual misdemeanours and financial greed. This trip was the beginning of the Beatles group fracturing and each going their separate ways. They still had not found real answers to life. Paul McCartney said,

“There was a feeling of, ‘Its great to be famous, its great to be rich – but what is it all for?”

The Maharishi asked John Lennon why he was leaving so early. John replied,

‘If you’re so cosmic, you know why.”

After this visit the unsettled John Lennon wrote a song, originally entitled ‘Maharishi’, but subsequently calling him ‘Sexy Sadie’. It includes the lines,

“Sexy Sadie (or Maharishi), what have you done. You made a fool of everyone.”

The Beatles were clearly seeking the wrong sort of ‘bread’. Today the ashram is a decaying empty relic of the past.

3. People look for satisfaction in so many areas of life.

For some their bread is their status.

T.E.Lawrence, who was later to become famous for leading Bedouin tribes in a successful revolt against their Turkish oppressors during World War 1, was earlier a junior aircraftsman. He was a great friend of Thomas Hardy, the writer, and used often to ride his Brough Superior motorbike to \Hardy’s home in Dorchester. On one occasion this coincided with a visit from the Mayoress of Dorchester. She was a terrible snob and said to her hostess, in French,

“I’ve never sat down at tea with a private soldier before.”

T.E.Lawrence leant forwards and said in perfect French,

“Would you like me to act as interpreter, as Mrs Hardy does not speak French.”

Over time all other breads go stale.

4. Jesus is the bread of life

Jesus is saying that we cannot live without him – an extraordinary claim which John has described so clearly in chapters 5 and 6 of his gospel. John says that Jesus is the embodiment of God who came to satisfy us.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness his first test was to do with bread.

“The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, go tell these stones to become bread.’” Matthew 4:3

This temptation was to do with Jesus’ physical hunger. However Jesus replies by quoting the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy (8:3), saying that man’s real need is spiritual and that the remedy for this need is to be found in what God says in Scripture,

“Jesus answered, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’’” Matthew 4:4

Just as bread is essential for life, so Jesus is the only real answer to life. Jesus is the answer to Isaiah’s question,

“Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy. Listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fair.” Isaiah 55:2

5. Salvation – Who is responsible?

A question often asked is, ‘If God is sovereign and has chosen his people, where does freewill and our responsibility come in. In the following passage we have reached, both divine sovereignty and human responsibility co-exist.

35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life and I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:35-40

Here there are sentences about our human responsibility to chose the right path,

“Whoever comes to me . . . whoever believes in me.” John 6:35

“ . . . still you do not believe.” John 6:36

“ . . . whoever comes to me . . .” John 6:37b

“ . . . everyone who looks to the Son . . “ John 6:40

Interspersed between these lines about our responsibility come lines emphasising God’s sovereignty.

“ All those the Father gives me will come to me . .” John 6:37

“ . . that I shall lose none of all those he has given me . . .” John 6:39

Clearly Jesus understands that both are true. God is sovereign yet we have responsibilities for our own salvation. This is called an ‘antinomy’. An antinomy is where two seemingly irreconcilable truths are accepted side by side. We see these in physics where light can be proved to be both a wave and particles. Similarly quantum physics has revealed some seemingly irreconcilable facts. The whole Bible is clear that God controls everything yet at the same time man is responsible for the choices he makes.

The temptation is to reject one side or the other.

Some overemphasise human responsibility and consequently everything depends on us to secure converts for Christ. We develop techniques that will attract people to our churches and groups. It leads to certain styles of emotional evangelism. Results are everything so that even what is taught may alter accordingly. Promises of healing, wealth or happiness will abound as these are so attractive to many and draw the crowds.

Others overemphasise divine responsibility and as a consequence are often not very active in evangelism, even if they give lip service to it. William Carey (1761 – 1834) is known as the "father of modern missions." His essay, ‘An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens’, led to the founding of, first, the Baptist Missionary Society and then many others. However he faced much opposition. When he presented his ideas of establishing such a society to reach the world with the gospel, at a Baptist Ministers fraternal, the chairman reportedly said,

“Sit down, young man. When God is pleased to convert the heathen he will do it without your help or mine!”

The Chairman did have some things right. It is only God who saves people. God’s work will continue with or without our help; God is not dependent on us. However the Chairman had forgotten the clear Bible teaching that God’s way of saving people is to send out his servants to tell others the gospel. Christ’s clear command is that we should all be devoting our energies, time and resources to the task of making the gospel about him known to every possible person (such as taught in Matthew 28:19-20).

We must hold to both doctrines strongly for that is the Biblical position. The great Victorian Bible teacher C.H. Spurgeon was once asked, “How do you reconcile the concept of divine sovereignty with human responsibility?” He wisely replied,

“You don’t have to reconcile friends.”

Just as we don’t know how God created the universe or wrote the specific DNA of different species, so there are many things that are God’s secrets that he has neither revealed to us or enabled us to discover.

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children for ever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” Deuteronomy 29:29

There are several other clear antinomies in Scripture.

At the last supper Jesus explained that his death was both pre-ordained but was also the responsibility of Judas Iscariot, there is both divine sovereignty and human responsibility.

“The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.” Luke 22:22

Similarly in Peter’s first sermon at Pentecost he said about Jesus,

“This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead . . .” Acts 2:23-24

God planned that his Son should enter this world and die by crucifixion. Details of his birth, life and death by crucifixion were foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures: the Lord ordained all this for us.

However man is still responsible for the wrongs we do, just as Judas was.

Jesus often stressed this antinomy, that we are both chosen by God but still have to make the decision to come to Christ for ourselves.

“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No-one knows the Son except the Father, and no-one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal himself.

Come to me, all you who are heavy weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me . . .” Matthew 11:27-29

This is why Jesus has given the Great Commission to all his people,

“Therefore, go, and make disciples of all nations . . . and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 29:19-20

It is Satan who doesn’t want us to comply with our Lord’s wishes. Jim Packer in his wonderful book, ‘Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God’ says,

“The sovereignty of God in grace does not affect anything we have said about the nature and duty of evangelism.”

We have to obey what God has revealed to us even if we cannot fully understand his secret will. God’s way of saving sinners is for them to be invited by God’s servants to come to him.

The book of Acts makes it clear that this is how the apostles understood Jesus’ command. At great cost to themselves they went out into the world to tell people all about Jesus. Jesus himself told a story about the heavenly banquet that will be populated because of the activity of his servants.

1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. Matthew 22:1-10

The responsibility for proclaiming the good news about Jesus to others lies in our hands. Paul understood this responsibility very clearly,

“I have become all things to all men so that, by all possible means, I might save some.” 1 Corinthians 9:22

However the responsibility for their salvation ultimately lies in their own hands. Every person must take action, all must repent and turn back to God if we are to be saved. Jesus said,

“Unless you repent, you too will perish.’ Luke 13:5

We cannot know who will respond to our message about Jesus. The apostle Paul didn’t know either but his solution was simple,

“We proclaim him (Jesus), admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom . . .” Colossians 1:28

Christians pray individually and corporately because we believe in God’s sovereignty. We desperately need his Spirit to be at work if the people we talk to are to turn to Christ.

Why do we find it so hard to hold both these related doctrines together? Is it a reluctance to hold to Scripture or an elevation of human logic saying ‘If I cannot understand it I won’t accept it.”

We cannot fully understand how an infinite God became a sinless man, just as we cannot understand our creation from nothing, yet it doesn’t change the fact that both have clearly happened.

BVP

John 6:25-35. Life to the Full

In the 1930s William Somerset Maugham appeared to have everything. He was a famous novelist and playwright and was extremely well off from the royalties. He had a luxury villa on the Riviera with eleven servants. He received on average three hundred fan letters a week. He was feted by royalty and film stars who loved his witty carefree company. He claimed to be an atheist which he thought gave him a moral freedom to behave promiscuously. He wrote about his looking forward to oblivion after death. But this was far from the reality. In the April 9th 1978 edition of ‘The Times’ there was an article written by his nephew Robin Maugham who had visited his uncle shortly before his death, aged 91 years.

“I looked around the drawing room at the immensely valuable furniture and pictures that Willie’s success had enabled him to acquire. I remember that the villa itself and the wonderful garden I could see through the windows, a fabulous setting on the edge of the Mediterranean were worth some £600,000. . . He dined on silver plates, waited on by Marius, his butler, and Henri, his footman. But it no longer meant anything to him.

The following afternoon I found willie reclining on a sofa, peering through his spectacles at a Bible which had very large print. He looked terribly wizened and his face was grim.

‘I’ve been reading the Bible you gave me . . . and I came across a quotation, ‘What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul.’* I must tell you my dear Robin that that text used to stand opposite my bed when I was a child . . Of course it’s all a load of bunk. But the thought is quite interesting all the same.’

That evening in the drawing room after supper Willie flung himself down onto the sofa.

‘Oh, Robin, I’m so tired.’

He gave a gulp and buried his head in his hands.

‘I’ve been a failure the whole way through life. I made mistake after mistake. I’ve made a hash of everything.’ . . . ‘I wish I had never written a single word . . It’s brought me nothing but misery. Everyone who has got to know me well has ended up hating me. My whole life has been a failure and now it is too late to change. It is too late.’

Willie looked up and he tightened his grip on my hand. He was staring toward the floor. His face was contorted with fear and he was trembling violently. His face was ashen as he stared in horror in front of him. Suddenly he began to shriek,

‘Go away! I’m not ready. I’m not dead yet. I’m not dead yet , I tell you!’

His high-pitched, terror struck voice seemed to echo from wall to wall. I looked around but the room was empty.

This story about the most famous, wealthy, well-connected man of his generation reminds us that there is more to life than externals. At the eve of his life, Willie Somerset Maugham’s life was inwardly empty, and he was afraid to die.

Jesus has much to say about what God wants to see in each of us.

26 Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.’

28 Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’

29 Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’

30 So they asked him, ‘What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”’

32 Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’

34 ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘always give us this bread.’

35 Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6:26-35

Jesus uses the crowd’s desire to be given more ‘miracle food’, to teach them they must ‘work for food that endures to eternal life’. The food Jesus is talking about is ‘eternal life’ which is a gift yet Jesus say that they must work . . for food that endures to eternal life’(v. 27). Elsewhere Jesus said,

“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.” Luke 13:24

“Seek and you shall find” Matthew 7:7

Jesus stresses that we all have a responsibility to try to enter God’s kingdom, and yet the final prize is a gift, that we cannot earn. No-one drifts into God’s kingdom, salvation comes to those who seek Christ and then remain committed to him. As the prophet Jeremiah said,

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you.” Jeremiah 29:29

Jesus Christ will never give his salvation to those who do not take him seriously, to those who are not ‘in earnest’ about their commitment to him (Revelation 3:19).

We have learned how popular Jesus had become. Massive crowds followed him and he has just fed 5000 men and their families supernaturally. He sent his disciples away to the other side of the lake by boat, whilst he went alone into the mountains. There was a fierce storm and the disciples in the boat were scared. Then they saw Jesus coming to them, walking on the water. When they came to the other side they thought they had finally managed to avoid the crowds - but they had boats too. The next morning Jesus and his disciples were rediscovered by the crowd. They then asked a question as if they thought they owned him,

“Rabbi, when did you get here?”

In fact the opposite was true, Jesus had created and therefore owned them. However they clearly did like Jesus, but this was primarily because of what he could give them. Can this be true of churches today? Can we be in our churches because of the like-minded friends and other benefits. Some preachers can be there because they enjoy being a ‘somebody.’ What this crowd had failed to understand was that Jesus had primarily come to satisfy their spiritual needs.

What must we do?

Jesus replies with some plain talking. The people needed to hear the truth, even if it made them feel uncomfortable.

“I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” John 6:26

The warning then given to the crowd is just as relevant to us today,

“Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life.” John 6:27

Jesus is not advocating that we should not be working but that our prime focus must be on living to please God, who alone can give us eternal life. There are, in essence, two goals in life. The ‘material goals’ have to do with this world, with money, pensions, relationships, fame, popularity or the ‘easy life’. Jesus urges us to make it our goal to please him! Religious people can all too easily forget Jesus and focus on social affairs thinking that our good works will somehow impress God. The Bible is clear that without Christ nothing satisfies God.

A Christian who was working as a volunteer in a local food bank was chatting to a lonely lady who saw no way out of her problems. During the conversation the Christian mentioned her church which she had found very helpful. A senior administrator happened to overhear this conversation and strongly reprimanded the Christian.

“You are not permitted to talk about such things here!”

This is worrying as the Thrussell Trust, which started the Food Banks was originally set up on a Christian basis. Any Christian organisation must have as its aim the honouring of the Lord Jesus by helping others recognise him through what they do. Yet how easily they can drift away from this Christian goal, take for example Christian Aid, YMCA and even some churches. Many of the major universities in the world, such as Oxford, Cambridge, Yale and Harvard were established to promote Christ, many hospitals both in this country and abroad were established as mission hospitals to promote Christ, St. Thomas’, St. Bartholomew’s being examples. How easy it is for churches and organisations to drift away from existing for Christ. Living with and for Christ is ‘spiritual food’, it is the road to receiving eternal life.

In 1844 a man named George Williams started a Bible study for displaced young men on the streets of London. These Bible studies became a movement known as the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). At the outset its mission was to share the gospel with young men. However, over the years the YMCA substituted its mission for one of its means: fitness centres.

One of Harvard University’s founding documents states:

“To … consider well that the main end of your life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ.”

Harvard’s purpose, at the outset, was to equip their students to share the gospel. They have now drifted a long way from this position.

Peter Greer and Chris Horst in their award-winning book ‘Mission Drift: The Unspoken Crisis Facing Leaders, Charities, and Churches’ have written about this tendency. They say,

“Too often, as Christian organisations grow, the Gospel often becomes cursory, expendable, or even forgotten. Again and again, leaders have watched their ministries, businesses, and nonprofits professionalize, expand, and lose sight of their original goals. Even churches can stray from their calling.”

Just as groceries perish, so will all that we cherish and live for, if it is not for God. Many people have a defective view of what life is all about, Jesus longs for them to ‘lift up their eyes’ - they were stooping much too low in their ambitions.

Some in the crowd were beginning to understand what Jesus was saying and they wisely ask him,

“What must we do to do the works God requires?” John 6:28

Jesus replies without hesitation. His answer is what everyone needs to understand. It is so profound,

“The work of God is to believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:27

Wow!! Jesus is saying that to be committed to him, to trust him and follow what he teaches is the most important thing in a person’s life. Nothing is more important. What must we do to be given the ‘bread that endures to eternal life’? We must ‘commit ourselves to Jesus Christ’, nothing could be clearer. John has already made this clear earlier in his gospel,

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3:36

Scepticism

The scene has now shifted to the synagogue in Capernaum (John 6:39) where Jesus is teaching. The crowd are clearly beginning to grasp what Jesus is saying and they don’t like it. The implications on their private lives are too great. So they demand more evidence!

“What miraculous sign will you give that we may see it and believe in you? What will you do?” John 6:30

This is extraordinary as they had just witnessed the feeding of the 5000! There is evidence that learned Jews expected that when the Messiah came he would convince people by a repetition of the miracle Moses had performed, when he produced ‘manna’ for the children of Israel as they travelled through the wilderness. They had been given manna six days a week for 40 years. The Jewish apocryphal book called 2 Baruch, which was probably written around 100AD, confirms the belief that Jeremiah had hidden manna and that this would be revealed when the Messiah came,

“And it will happen at that time that the treasury of manna will come down again from on high, and they will eat of it in those years because these are they who will have arrived at the consummation of time.” 2 Baruch 29:8

John also alludes to this manna, but this is given to believers in Christ who ‘overcome’. The church in Pergamon was compromising with the world, eating worldly food:

“To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna.” Revelation 1:17

The word ‘manna’ originally meant ‘What is it’. Just as the Children of Israel were in the dark about the nature of this original ‘Bread from heaven’ so they now failed to recognise the ultimate ‘Bread from heaven’ standing before them. They were demanding more signs but a lack of evidence was not their problem. Their problem was their stubborn wills. Jesus again suggests that they should recognise the source of this ‘bread from heaven’, God himself and his Son. Why think about ‘manna’ when its giver was with them and he can give them something far better – eternal life.

“I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who 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.” John 6:32-33

What a disaster it is that people will flock to churches where it is purported that healing miracles are being performed regularly. People are so ready to seek the wrong food. Instead we should be seeking to know and love the Lord Jesus for his own sake. New miracles are constantly required, yesterdays miracle is not enough. Jesus was scathing about pseudo-faith that centres on our keeping religious rules but not on living with and for himself. Quoting Isaiah he says,

“These people honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but the rules of men.” Matthew 15:7 and Isaiah 29:13

The crowd realise something is missing in their experience and they ask Jesus for this.

“Sir, from now on give us this bread.”

What were they asking for – a daily ration of some magic potion that would satisfy them into eternity? What satisfies is a relationship with Jesus himself. Jesus declares to us all,

“I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I have told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.” John 6:35-36

‘I am the bread of life’ is such a poignant statement. He was born in Bethlehem, which means ‘House of Bread’.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John 1:14

We can only be fed spiritually by taking him in, into our lives. We do not ‘believe’ until we submit to his rule. A faith that is just intellectual and moral but that does not involve a love for Jesus is, according to the Bible, not a saving faith, it is not Christian belief. It will certainly not lead to a full satisfying life here and will not lead to eternal life with the Lord.

BVP

* Mark 8:36 KJV