Chapter Fourteen: Heart Trouble (John 13:36–14:31)
The End of the Feast: Division ()
The last day of the feast would be the seventh day, a very special day on which the priests would march seven times around the altar, chanting . It would be the last time they would draw the water and pour it out. No doubt just as they were pouring out the water, symbolic of the water Moses drew from the rock, Jesus stood and shouted His great invitation to thirsty sinners.
It has been pointed out that this “great day,” the twenty-first of the seventh month, is the same date on which the Prophet Haggai made a special prediction about the temple (). While the ultimate fulfillment must await the return of Christ to this earth, certainly there was a partial fulfillment when Jesus came to the temple. is quoted in as applying to the return of the Lord.
Jesus was referring to the experience of Israel recorded in . That water was but a picture of the Spirit of God. Believers would not only drink the living water, but they would become channels of living water to bless a thirsty world! The “artesian well” that He promised in has now become a flowing river! While there are no specific prophetic Scriptures that indicate “rivers of water” flowing from the believer, there are a number of verses that parallel this thought: ; 15; ; ; and ; and . Note that speaks about the future Feast of Tabernacles, when the Lord is King.
Water for drinking is one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit in the Bible. (Water for washing is a symbol of the Word of God; see and .) Just as water satisfies thirst and produces fruitfulness, so the Spirit of God satisfies the inner person and enables us to bear fruit. At the feast, the Jews were reenacting a tradition that could never satisfy the heart. Jesus offered them living water and eternal satisfaction!
What was the result of this declaration and invitation? The people were divided: some defended Him and some wanted to arrest Him. Is He a “good man” or “a deceiver”? () Is He “the Christ”? () Is He the promised “Prophet”? (; ) If only they had honestly examined the evidence, they would have discovered that, indeed, He was the Christ, the Son of God. They identified Jesus with Galilee (; ) when in reality He was born in Bethlehem (see for similar reasoning).
The temple officers returned to the Jewish council meeting empty-handed. It certainly should have been relatively easy for them to arrest Jesus, yet they failed to do so. What stopped them? “Never man spoke like this Man!” was their defense. In other words, “This Jesus is more than a man! No mere man speaks as He does!” They were “arrested” by the Word of God, spoken by the Son of God.
Again, the leaders refused to face facts honestly but passed judgment on the basis of their prejudices and their superficial examination of the facts. It is much easier to label people (and libel people!) than to listen to the facts they present. “So some of the people have believed on Jesus! So what? These common people know nothing about the Law anyway! Have any important people—like ourselves—believed on Him? Of course not!” They would use a similar argument to try to discredit the witness of the blind man that Jesus healed ().
We should not be surprised when “the intelligentsia” refuses to trust Jesus Christ, or when religious leaders reject Him. God has hidden His truth from “the wise and prudent” and revealed it to “spiritual babes,” the humble people who will yield to Him (). Paul was a very intelligent rabbi when God saved him, yet he had to be “knocked down” before he would acknowledge that Jesus Christ was the resurrected Son of God. Read to learn Paul’s explanation for the difficulty of winning “smart religious people” to the Saviour.
No doubt the rulers would have sent the guard out again, but Nicodemus spoke up. This man is found three times in John’s Gospel, and each time he is identified as the one “who came to Jesus by night” (see ; ). No doubt Nicodemus had been doing a great deal of thinking and studying since that first interview with Jesus, and he was not afraid to take his stand for truth.
Nicodemus was sure that the council was not giving Jesus an honest hearing. The rulers had already passed judgment and were trying to arrest Him before He had even been given a fair and lawful trial! Perhaps Nicodemus had in mind such Old Testament Scriptures as and ; .
What did Nicodemus want them to consider about Jesus? His Word and His works. It was Jesus the Teacher and the miracle worker who had attracted Nicodemus’ interest in the first place (). In fact, Jesus had pointed to His works as proof of His deity (); and He repeatedly urged the people to pay attention to His words. The two go together, for the miracles point to the messages, and the messages interpret the spiritual meaning of the miracles.
You can hear the sarcasm and disdain in the reply of the rulers: “Are you a lowly and despised Galilean too?” They refused to admit that Nicodemus was right in asking for a fair trial, but the only way they could answer him was by means of ridicule. This is an ancient debate trick: when you cannot answer the argument, attack the speaker.
They challenged Nicodemus to search the prophecies to see if he could find any statement that a prophet would come out of Galilee. Of course, Jonah was from Galilee; and Jesus said that Jonah was a picture of Himself in death, burial, and resurrection (). Perhaps Nicodemus read (see ) and began to trace the great messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. If he did, then he became convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was the very Son of God.
You cannot help but feel sorry for the people described in this chapter, people who responded to Jesus in the wrong ways. His half brothers responded with disbelief; various people responded with debate; and the result was division. Had they willingly received the truth, and had they acted with sincere obedience, they would have ended up at the feet of Jesus, confessing Him as Messiah and Son of God.
But people today commit the same blunder and permit their prejudices and superficial evaluations to blind them to the truth.
Don’t let it happen to you!
John 8
Is the story of the woman taken in adultery a part of Scripture? If it is, where does it belong in the Gospel record? John 7:53–8:11 is not found in some of the ancient manuscripts; where it is found, it is not always in this location in John’s Gospel. Most scholars seem to agree that the passage is a part of inspired Scripture (“a fragment of authentic Gospel material,” says Dr. F.F. Bruce) regardless of where it is placed.
To many of us, the story fits right here! In fact, the development of the entire chapter can easily be seen to grow out of this striking event in the temple. Our Lord’s declaration on His being the Light of the world () certainly fits, and so do His words about true and false judgment (, ). The repeated phrase “die in your sins” (, ) would clearly relate to the judgment of the woman; and the fact that the chapter ends with an attempt to stone Jesus shows a perfect parallel to the opening story. The transition from to would be too abrupt without a transitional section.
Our Lord found Himself again in conflict with the Jewish religious leaders; but this time, they set a trap, hoping to get enough evidence to arrest Jesus and get Him out of the way. However, their plot failed; but a controversy followed. In this chapter we see a series of contrasts that reveal the graciousness of Christ and the wickedness of man.
The Feast of Tabernacles had ended, but Jesus took advantage of the opportunity to minister to the pilgrims in the temple. During the feast, word had quickly spread that Jesus was not only attending but openly teaching in the temple (see ). He taught in the court of the women at the place where the treasury was situated (). The scribes and Pharisees knew where He would be, so they hatched their plot together.
They would not be likely to catch a couple in the “very act” of adultery; so we wonder if the man (who never was indicted!) was part of the scheme. The Law required that both guilty parties be stoned (; ) and not just the woman. It does seem suspicious that the man went free. The scribes and Pharisees handled the matter in a brutal fashion, even in the way they interrupted the Lord’s teaching and pushed the woman into the midst of the crowd.
The Jewish leaders, of course, were trying to pin Jesus on the horns of a dilemma. If He said, “Yes, the woman must be stoned!” then what would happen to His reputation as the “friend of publicans and sinners”? The common people would no doubt have abandoned Him and would never have accepted His gracious message of forgiveness.
But, if He said, “No, the woman should not be stoned!” then He was openly breaking the Law and subject to arrest. On more than one occasion, the religious leaders had tried to pit Jesus against Moses, and now they seemed to have the perfect challenge (see ; ; ).
Instead of passing judgment on the woman, Jesus passed judgment on the judges! No doubt He was indignant at the way they treated the woman. He was also concerned that such hypocrites should condemn another person and not judge themselves. We do not know what He wrote on the dirt floor of the temple. Was He simply reminding them that the Ten Commandments had been originally written “by the finger of God” (), and that He is God? Or was He perhaps reminding them of the warning in ?
It was required by Jewish Law that the accusers cast the first stones (). Jesus was not asking that sinless men judge the woman, for He was the only sinless Person present. If our judges today had to be perfect, judicial benches would be empty. He was referring to the particular sin of the woman, a sin that can be committed in the heart as well as with the body (). Convicted by their own consciences, the accusers quietly left the scene, and Jesus was left alone with the woman. He forgave her and warned her to sin no more ().
We must not misinterpret this event to mean that Jesus was “easy on sin” or that He contradicted the Law. For Jesus to forgive this woman meant that He had to one day die for her sins. Forgiveness is free but it is not cheap. Furthermore, Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law so that no one could justly accuse Him of opposing its teachings or weakening its power. By applying the Law to the woman and not to themselves, the Jewish leaders were violating both the letter and the spirit of the Law—and they thought they were defending Moses!
The Law was given to reveal sin (), and we must be condemned by the Law before we can be cleansed by God’s grace. Law and grace do not compete with each other; they complement each other. Nobody was ever saved by keeping the Law, but nobody was ever saved by grace who was not first indicted by the Law. There must be conviction before there can be conversion.
Nor is Christ’s gracious forgiveness an excuse to sin. “Go, and sin no more!” was our Lord’s counsel. “But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared” (). Certainly the experience of gracious forgiveness would motivate the penitent sinner to live a holy and obedient life to the glory of God.
This second great I AM statement certainly fits into the context of the first eleven verses of John 8. Perhaps the sun was then appearing () so that Jesus was comparing Himself to the rising sun. But this would mean He was once again claiming to be God, for to the Jew, the sun was a symbol of Jehovah God (; ). There is, for our universe, only one sun; and it is the center and the source of life. So there is but one God who is the center of all and the source of all life (). “God is light” (); and wherever the light shines, it reveals man’s wickedness ().
Our Lord’s I AM statement was also related to the Feast of Tabernacles, during which the huge candelabra were lighted in the temple at night to remind the people of the pillar of fire that had guided Israel in their wilderness journey. In fact, John has combined three “wilderness images”: the manna (John 6), the water from the rock (John 7), and the pillar of fire (John 8).
To “follow” the Lord Jesus means to believe on Him, to trust Him; and the results are life and light for the believer. The unsaved are walking in darkness because they love darkness (). One of the major messages in this Gospel is that the spiritual light is now shining, but people cannot comprehend it—and they try to put it out ().
Not all of the Jewish leaders had left the group, and others had no doubt come along after the woman left. As usual, they debated with Jesus. This time, they accused Him of bearing witness to Himself by claiming to be the Light of the world; and Jewish courts would not permit a person to bear witness to himself.
But light has to bear witness to itself! The only people who cannot see the light are blind people!
I recall the first time I flew at night. I was fascinated by the changing textures of colored lights in the cities below me. When our plane left the New York area and headed out into the night, I was amazed that I could see pinpoints of light miles away. Then I understood why it was necessary to have blackouts during the war; for the enemy pilots could see the smallest evidence of light and thus find the target. Light bears witness to itself; it tells you it is there.
Perhaps the Pharisees were quoting our Lord’s own words (see ); but He quickly refuted their argument. One of the key words in this section is witness; it is used seven times. Jesus made it clear that their witness was not dependable because their judgment was faulty. They judged on the basis of externals, mere human judgment, but He judged on the basis of spiritual knowledge. The way they judged the woman taken in adultery proved that they neither understood the Law nor their own sinful hearts.
Since they wanted to use the Law to condemn the woman and trap the Saviour, Jesus also used the Law to answer them. He quoted a principle found in and , as well as , that the testimony of two men was required to validate a judgment. Jesus had those two testimonies: He gave witness and so did His Father. We have seen from that the witness of the Father is found in the Word of God.
How tragic that these experts in the Law did not even know their own Messiah as He stood before them! They claimed to know the Law of God, but they did not know the God of the Law. They did not have His Word abiding in their hearts (), nor did they experience His love (). They did not know the Father, and therefore did not know the Son.
Jesus never really answered their question, “Where is Thy Father?” The word father is used twenty-one times in this chapter, so Jesus did not avoid the issue but faced it honestly. He knew that their “father” was not God—but the devil! These men were religious, and yet they were the children of the devil!
Their further attempts to arrest Jesus were again thwarted by the Father, for it was not yet our Lord’s hour when He should give His life. When the servant of God is in the will of God, he can have courage and peace as he does his duty.
Jesus had already mentioned His leaving them (), but the Jews had misunderstood what He said. Once again, He warned them: He would leave them, they would not be able to follow Him, and they would die in their sins! They were wasting their God-given opportunities by arguing with Him instead of trusting Him; and one day soon, their opportunities would end.
Once again, the people misunderstood His teaching. They thought He was planning to kill Himself! Suicide was an abhorrent thing to a Jew, for the Jews were taught to honor all life. If Jesus committed suicide, then He would go to a place of judgment; and this, they reasoned, was why they could not follow Him.
Actually, just the opposite was true: it was they who were going to the place of judgment! Jesus was returning to His Father in heaven, and nobody can go there who has not trusted the Saviour. The reason Jesus and the Jewish leaders were going to different destinations was because they had different origins: Jesus came from heaven, but they belonged to the earth. Jesus was in the world, but He did not belong to the world (see ).
The true believer has his citizenship in heaven (; ). His affection and attention are fixed heavenward. But the unsaved belong to this world; in fact, Jesus called them “the children of this world” (). Since they have not trusted Christ and had their sins forgiven, their destiny is to die in their sins. The Christian dies “in the Lord” because he lives “in the Lord” (); but the unbeliever dies in his sins because he lives in his sins.
It seems incredible that these religious “experts” should ask, “Who are You?” He had given them every evidence that He is the Son of God, yet they had deliberately rejected the evidence. Our Lord’s reply may be expressed, “I am exactly what I said!” In other words, “Why should I teach you new things, or give you new proof, when you have not honestly considered the witness I have already given?”
Jesus boldly made several claims to deity (). He said He would judge, and judgment (to the Jews) belonged only to God. He claimed to be sent by God, and He claimed to have heard from God the things that He taught. How did the religious leaders respond to these clear affirmations of deity? They did not understand! God reveals His truth to the “babes” and not to the “wise and prudent” ().
Now Jesus spoke about His own death, when He would be “lifted up” on the cross (; ). The word translated “lifted up” has a dual meaning: “lifted up in crucifixion,” and “lifted up in exaltation and glorification.” Jesus often combined the two, for He saw His crucifixion in terms of glory and not just suffering (; ; ). This same combination of “suffering and glory” is repeated in Peter’s first letter.
It would be in His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension that Jesus would be revealed to the Jewish nation. This was the message Peter preached at Pentecost (Acts 2), not only the death of Jesus but also His resurrection and exaltation to glory. Even a Roman soldier, beholding the events at Golgotha would confess, “Truly this Man was the Son of God” (). The early church, following the example of their Lord (), would show from the Old Testament prophecies both the sufferings and the glory of the Messiah.
Jesus made two more stupendous claims: not only was He sent by the Father, but the Father was with Him because He always did what pleased the Father (). No doubt, His enemies reacted violently to these words: but some of the listeners put their faith in Him. Whether this was true saving faith or not (see ), we cannot tell; but our Lord’s words to them would indicate that they knew what they were doing.
Salvation is a matter of life or death. People who live in their sins and reject the Saviour must die in their sins. There is no alternative. We either receive salvation by grace or experience condemnation under God’s Law. We either walk in the light and have eternal life, or walk in the darkness and experience eternal death. There is a fourth contrast.
What listeners are represented by the pronoun “they” in ? In the previous verses, Jesus addressed the “believers” mentioned in , and He warned them that continuance in the Word—discipleship—was proof of true salvation. When we obey His Word, we grow in spiritual knowledge; and as we grow in spiritual knowledge, we grow in freedom from sin. Life leads to learning, and learning leads to liberty.
It is not likely that the pronoun they refers to these new believers, for they would probably not argue with their Saviour! If is any guide, “they” probably refers to the same unbelieving Jewish leaders who had opposed Jesus throughout this conversation (, , , ). As before, they did not understand His message. Jesus was speaking about true spiritual freedom, freedom from sin, but they were thinking about political freedom.
Their claim that Abraham’s descendants had never been in bondage was certainly a false one that was refuted by the very record in the Old Testament Scriptures. The Jews had been enslaved by seven mighty nations, as recorded in the Book of Judges. The ten Northern tribes had been carried away captive by Assyria, and the two Southern tribes had gone into seventy years of captivity in Babylon. And at that very hour, the Jews were under the iron heel of Rome! How difficult it is for proud religious people to admit their failings and their needs!
Jesus explained that the difference between spiritual freedom and bondage is a matter of whether one is a son or a servant. The servant may live in the house, but he is not a part of the family; and he cannot be guaranteed a future. (Jesus may have had Isaac and Ishmael in mind here; see Gen. 21.) “Whosoever keeps on practicing sin [literal translation] is the servant of sin.” These religious leaders would not only die in their sins (, ), but they were right then living in bondage to sin!
How can slaves of sin be set free? Only by the Son. How does He do it? Through the power of His Word. Note the emphasis on the Word in , and He had already told them, “The truth shall make you free” (). They would not “make room” for His Word in their hearts.
In the rest of this section, you see the debate centering around the word father. Jesus identified Himself with the Father in heaven, but He identified them with the father from hell, Satan. Of course, the Jews claimed Abraham as their father (), but Jesus made a careful distinction between “Abraham’s seed” (physical descendants) and “Abraham’s children” (spiritual descendants because of personal faith; ).
These Jewish leaders, who claimed to belong to Abraham, were very unlike Abraham. For one thing, they wanted to kill Jesus; Abraham was the “friend of God” and fellowshipped with Him in love (). Abraham listened to God’s truth and obeyed it, but these religious leaders rejected the truth.
Nature is determined by birth, and birth is determined by paternity. If God is your Father, then you share God’s nature (); but if Satan is your father, then you share in his evil nature. Our Lord did not say that every lost sinner is a “child of the devil,” though every lost sinner is certainly a child of wrath and disobedience (). Both here and in the Parable of the Tares (, ), Jesus said that the Pharisees and other “counterfeit” believers were the children of the devil. Satan is an imitator (), and he gives his children a false righteousness that can never gain them entrance into heaven ().
What were the characteristics of these religious leaders who belonged to the devil? For one thing, they rejected the truth () and tried to kill Jesus because He spoke the truth. They did not love God () nor could they understand what Jesus taught (, ). Satan’s children may be well versed in their religious traditions, but they have no understanding of the Word of God.
Satan is a liar and a murderer. He lied to our first parents (“Yea, hath God said?”) and engineered their deaths. Cain was a child of the devil (), for he was both a liar and a murderer. He killed his brother Abel and then lied about it (Gen. 4). Is it any wonder that these religious leaders lied about Jesus, hired false witnesses, and then had Him killed?
The worst bondage is the kind that the prisoner himself does not recognize. He thinks he is free, yet he is really a slave. The Pharisees and other religious leaders thought that they were free, but they were actually enslaved in terrible spiritual bondage to sin and Satan. They would not face the truth, and yet it was the truth alone that could set them free.
The leaders could not refute our Lord’s statements, so they attacked His person. Some students think that the leaders’ statement in —“We are not born of fornication”—was a slur on our Lord’s own birth and character. After all, Mary was with child before she and Joseph were married. But the personal attacks in are quite obvious. For a Jew to be called a Samaritan was the grossest of insults, and then to be called a demon-possessed person only added further insult.
Note that Jesus did not even dignify the racial slur with an answer. (No doubt there was also in this the suggestion that, like the Samaritans, Jesus was a heretic.) They were dishonoring Him, but He was honoring the Father. You will recall that He made it clear that it was impossible to honor the Father without honoring the Son (). They were seeking their own glory (see ), but He was seeking the glory that belongs to God alone. Tradition-centered religion, without Christ, is often a “mutual admiration society” for people who want the praise of men.
Jesus had warned them that they would die in their sins because of their unbelief, and now He invited them to trust His Word and “never see death” (). He had said this before in His synagogue sermon (, , ). Once again, the leaders lacked the spiritual insight to understand what He was saying. Abraham was dead, yet he was a godly man; and the faithful prophets were also dead. This kind of talk only convinced them the more that He had a demon! ()
By claiming to be the Lord of death, He was claiming to be God (). This was not an honor He made for Himself; the Father gave it to Him. In fact, Abraham (whom they claimed as their father) saw His day and rejoiced! Instead of rejoicing, they were revolting and trying to kill Him.
How did Abraham “see” our Lord’s day, that is, His life and ministry on earth? The same way he saw the future city: by faith (, ). God did not give Abraham some special vision of our Lord’s life and ministry, but He did give him the spiritual perception to “see” these future events. Certainly Abraham saw the birth of the Messiah in the miraculous birth of his own son, Isaac. He certainly saw Calvary when he offered Isaac to God (Gen. 22). In the priestly ministry of Melchizedek (), Abraham could see the heavenly priesthood of the Lord. In the marriage of Isaac, Abraham could see a picture of the marriage of the Lamb (Gen. 24).
His statement found in can be translated, “Before Abraham came into being, I AM.” Again, this was another affirmation of His divine sonship; and the Jewish leaders received it as such. He had once again made Himself equal with God (), and this was the sin of blasphemy, worthy of death (). Jesus was divinely protected and simply walked away. His hour had not yet come. We cannot help but admire His courage as He presented the truth and invited blind religious men to trust Him and be set free.
The most difficult people to win to the Saviour are those who do not realize that they have a need. They are under the condemnation of God, yet they trust their religion to save them. They are walking in the darkness and not following the light of life. They are sharing a “living death” because of their bondage to sin; and, in spite of their religious deeds, they are dishonoring the Father and the Son. These are the people who crucified Jesus Christ, and Jesus called them the children of the devil.
Whose child are you? Is God your Father because you have received Jesus Christ into your life? () Or is Satan your father because you are depending on a counterfeit righteousness, a “works righteousness,” not the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ?
If God is your Father, then heaven is your home. If He is not your Father, then hell is your destiny.
It is truly a matter of life or death!
John 9
Our Lord performed miracles in order to meet human needs. But He also used those miracles as a “launching pad” for a message conveying spiritual truth. Finally, His miracles were His “credentials” to prove that He was indeed the Messiah. “The blind receive their sight” was one such messianic miracle (), and we see it demonstrated in this chapter. Jesus used this miracle as the basis for a short sermon on spiritual blindness () and a longer sermon on true and false shepherds ().
I am told that in the United States somebody goes blind every twenty minutes. The man we meet in this chapter was born blind; he had never seen the beauty of God’s creation or the faces of his loved ones. When Jesus arrived on the scene, everything changed, and the man was made to see. However, the greatest miracle was not the opening of his eyes but the opening of his heart to the Saviour. It cost him everything to confess Jesus as the Son of God, but he was willing to do it.
The easiest way to grasp the message of this chapter is to note the stages in this man’s growing understanding of who Jesus is.
About the only thing a blind man could do in that day was beg, and that is what this man was doing when Jesus passed by (). No doubt there were many blind people who would have rejoiced to be healed, but Jesus selected this man (see ). Apparently the man and his parents were well known in the community. It was on the Sabbath when Jesus healed the man (), so that once again He was upsetting and deliberately challenging the religious leaders ().
The disciples did not look at the man as an object of mercy but rather as a subject for a theological discussion. It is much easier to discuss an abstract subject like “sin” than it is to minister to a concrete need in the life of a person. The disciples were sure that the man’s congenital blindness was caused by sin, either his own or his parents’, but Jesus disagreed with them.
In the final analysis, all physical problems are the result of our fall in Adam, for his disobedience brought sin and death into the world (). But afterward, to blame a specific disability on a specific sin committed by specific persons is certainly beyond any man’s ability or authority. Only God knows why babies are born with handicaps, and only God can turn those handicaps into something that will bring good to the people and glory to His name.
Certainly both the man and his parents had at some time committed sin, but Jesus did not see their sin as the cause of the man’s blindness. Nor did He suggest that God deliberately made the man blind so that, years later, Jesus could perform a miracle. Since there is no punctuation in the original manuscripts, we are free to read this way:
Neither has this man sinned nor his parents. But that the works of God should be made manifest in him, I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day.
Our Lord’s method of healing was unique: He put clay on the man’s eyes and told him to go wash. Once Jesus healed two blind men by merely touching their eyes (), and He healed another blind man by putting spittle on his eyes (). Though the healing power was the same, our Lord varied His methods lest people focus on the manner of healing and miss the message in the healing.
There were at least two reasons for our Lord’s use of the clay. For one thing, it was a picture of the Incarnation. God made the first man out of the dust, and God sent His Son as a real Man. Note the emphasis on the meaning of “Siloam”—“sent.” And relate this to , “The works of Him that sent Me” (see also , ; ; ; , ). Jesus gave a little illustration of His own coming to earth, sent by the Father.
The second reason for the clay was irritation; it encouraged the man to believe and obey! If you have ever had an irritation in your eyes, you know how quickly you seek irrigation to cleanse it out! You might compare this “irritation” to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit as He uses God’s Law to bring the lost sinner under judgment.
But the illumination now led to a problem in identification: was this really the blind beggar, and who caused him to see? Throughout the rest of John 9, a growing conflict takes place around these two questions. The religious leaders did not want to face the fact that Jesus had healed the man, or even that the man had been healed!
Four times in this chapter people asked, “How were you healed?” (, , , ) First the neighbors asked the man, and then the Pharisees asked him. Not satisfied with his reply, the Pharisees then asked the man’s parents and then gave the son one final interrogation. All of this looked very official and efficient, but it was really a most evasive maneuver on the part of both the people and the leaders. The Pharisees wanted to get rid of the evidence, and the people were afraid to speak the truth!
They were all asking the wrong question! They should not have asked “How?” but “Who?” (Simply rearrange the letters!) But we are so prone to ask “How?” We want to understand the mechanics of a miracle instead of simply trusting the Saviour, who alone can perform the miracle. Nicodemus wanted to know how he could reenter his mother’s womb (, ). “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” () Understanding the process, even if we could, is no guarantee that we have experienced the miracle.
When asked to describe his experience, the man simply told what had happened. All he knew about the person who had done the miracle was that He was “a man called Jesus.” He had not seen our Lord, of course; but he had heard His voice. Not only was the beggar ignorant of Jesus’ identity, but he did not know where Jesus had gone. At this point, the man has been healed, but he has not been saved. The light had dawned, but it would grow brighter until he saw the face of the Lord and worshiped Him (see ).
At least twelve times in the Gospel of John, Jesus is called “a man” (see ; ; ; , ; ; , ; , , ; ). John’s emphasis is that Jesus Christ is God, but the apostle balances it beautifully by reminding us that Jesus is also true man. The Incarnation was not an illusion ().
Since the Pharisees were the custodians of the faith, it was right that the healed man be brought to them for investigation. The fact that they studied this miracle in such detail is only further proof that Jesus did indeed heal the man. Since the man was born blind, the miracle was even greater, for blindness caused by sickness or injury might suddenly go away. Our Lord’s miracles can bear careful scrutiny by His enemies.
But Jesus’ act of deliberately healing the man on the Sabbath Day caused the Pharisees great concern. It was illegal to work on the Sabbath; and by making the clay, applying the clay, and healing the man, Jesus had performed three unlawful “works.” The Pharisees should have been praising God for a miracle; instead, they sought evidence to prosecute Jesus.
When people refuse to face evidence honestly, but in fear evade the issue (see ), then it is impossible to come to a united conclusion. Once again, Jesus was the cause of division (; also see , ). The religious leaders were judging on the basis of one thing: nobody who breaks the Sabbath could possibly be a true prophet of God. They were “one-issue” thinkers, not unlike some religious people today. The Pharisees did not realize that Jesus was offering the people something greater than the Sabbath—the true spiritual rest that comes from God ().
But the beggar was not intimidated by the threats of the Pharisees. When asked who he thought Jesus was, the man boldly said, “He is a prophet!” (note for a parallel.) Some of the Old Testament prophets, such as Moses, Elijah, and Elisha, did perform miracles. The Jewish people would look on their prophets as men of God who could do wonderful things by the power of God.
But the religious leaders did not want to see Jesus given that kind of high designation. “This man is not of God!” () Perhaps they could discredit the miracle. If so, then they could convince the people that Jesus had plotted the whole thing and was really deceiving the people. He had craftily “switched” beggars so that the sighted man was not the man who had been known as the blind beggar.
The best way to get that kind of evidence would be to interrogate the parents of the beggar, so they called them in and asked them two questions: (1) “Is this your son?” And (2) “If he is, how does he now see?” If they refused to answer either question, they were in trouble; or if they answered with replies contrary to what the leaders wanted, they were in trouble. What a dilemma!
They answered the first question honestly: he was their son and he had been born blind. They answered the second question evasively: they did not know how he was healed or who healed him. They then used the old-fashioned tactic called “passing the buck” by suggesting that the Pharisees ask the man himself. After all, he was of age!
What lay behind all of this questioning and these furtive replies? The fear of people. We met it at the Feast of Tabernacles (), and we shall meet it again at our Lord’s last Passover (). These people were seeking the honor of men and not the honor that comes from God (). To be sure, it was a serious thing to be excommunicated from the synagogue, but it was far more serious to reject the truth and be lost forever. “The fear of man brings a snare” (,NASB). The Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus, and the parents were trying to avoid a trap; but all of them were only ensnaring themselves! The parents should have heeded the counsel of and .
The Pharisees could present a “good case” for their position. After all, they did have the Law of Moses as well as centuries of Jewish tradition. What they failed to understand was that Jesus Christ had fulfilled all of this ceremonial law and was now bringing in something new. In Moses, you have preparation; but in Jesus Christ, you have consummation (see ).
Anxious to settle the case, the Pharisees did call the man in; and this time, they put him under oath. “Give God the praise” is a form of Jewish “swearing in” at court (see ).
But the “judges” prejudiced everybody from the start! “We know that this Man is a sinner!” They were warning the witness that he had better cooperate with the court, or he might be excommunicated. But the beggar was made of sturdier stuff than to be intimidated. He had experienced a miracle, and he was not afraid to tell them what had happened.
He did not debate the character of Jesus Christ, because that was beyond his knowledge and experience. But one thing he did know: now he could see. His testimony () reminds me of Psalm 27. Read that psalm in the light of this chapter, from the viewpoint of the healed beggar, and see how meaningful it becomes.
For the fourth time, the question is asked, “How did He open your eyes?” (see , , , and ) I can imagine the man getting quite impatient at this point. After all, he had been blind all his life, and there was so much now to see. He certainly did not want to spend much longer in a synagogue court, looking at angry faces and answering the same questions!
We admire the boldness of the man in asking those irate Pharisees if they wanted to follow Jesus! The man expected a negative answer, but he was courageous even to ask it. Unable to refute the evidence, the judges began to revile the witness; and once again Moses is brought into the picture (). The Pharisees were cautious men who would consider themselves conservatives, when in reality they were “preservatives.” A true conservative takes the best of the past and uses it, but he is also aware of the new things that God is doing. The new grows out of the old (). A “preservative” simply embalms the past and preserves it. He is against change and resists the new things that God is doing. Had the Pharisees really understood Moses, they would have known who Jesus was and what He was doing.
The leaders were sure about Moses, but they were not sure about Jesus. They did not know where He came from. He had already told them that He had come from heaven, sent by the Father (, , , ). They were sure that He was the natural son of Mary and Joseph, and that He was from the city of Nazareth (; ). They were judging “after the flesh” () and not exercising spiritual discernment.
It seemed incredible to the healed man that the Pharisees would not know this Man who had opened his eyes! How many people were going around Jerusalem, opening the eyes of blind people? Instead of investigating the miracle, these religious leaders should have been investigating the One who did the miracle and learning from Him. The “experts” were rejecting the Stone that was sent to them ().
The beggar then gave the “experts” a lesson in practical theology. Perhaps he had in mind: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” The leaders called Jesus a sinner (), yet Jesus was used of God to open the blind man’s eyes.
He added another telling argument: Jesus healed a man born blind. Never, to their knowledge, had this occurred before. So, God not only heard Jesus, but He enabled Him to give the man sight. How, then, could Jesus be a sinner?
Religious bigots do not want to face either evidence or logic. Their minds are made up. Had the Pharisees honestly considered the facts, they would have seen that Jesus is the Son of God, and they could have trusted Him and been saved.
Again, the leaders reviled the man and told him he was born in sin. However, he would not die in his sins (see , ); because before this chapter ends, the beggar will come to faith in Jesus Christ. All of us are born in sin (), but we need not live in sin () or die in our sins. Faith in Jesus Christ redeems us from sin and gives us a life of joyful liberty.
The religious leaders officially excommunicated this man from the local synagogue. This meant that the man was cut off from friends and family and looked on by the Jews as a “publican and sinner.” But Jesus came for the “outcasts” and never let them down.
The Good Shepherd always cares for His sheep. Jesus knew that the man had been excommunicated, so He found him and revealed Himself to him. Remember, the man knew our Lord’s voice, but he had never seen His face.
The man now reached the climax of his knowledge of Jesus Christ and his faith in Him. It is not enough to believe that He is “a man called Jesus,” or even “a prophet” or “a man of God.” “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (). John wrote his Gospel to prove that Jesus is the Son of God, and to present to his readers the testimonies of people who met Jesus and affirmed that He is God’s Son. This beggar is one such witness.
Jesus identified Himself as the Son of God (see ; also ), and the beggar believed and was saved (). “My sheep hear My voice” (). He did not “see and believe”; he heard and believed. Not only did he trust the Saviour, but he worshiped Him. If Jesus Christ is not God, then why did He accept worship? Peter, Paul, and Barnabas certainly didn’t accept worship (see ; ).
John the Baptist affirmed that Jesus is the Son of God () and so did Nathanael (). Jesus stated that He is the Son of God (; ), and Peter also affirmed it (). Now the healed blind beggar has joined this group of witnesses.
Wherever Jesus went, some of the Pharisees tried to be present so they could catch Him in something He said or did. Seeing them, Jesus closed this episode by preaching a brief but penetrating sermon on spiritual blindness.
does not contradict . The reason for our Lord’s coming was salvation, but the result of His coming was condemnation of those who would not believe. The same sun that brings beauty out of the seeds also exposes the vermin hiding under the rocks. The religious leaders were blind and would not admit it; therefore, the light of truth only made them blinder. The beggar admitted his need, and he received both physical and spiritual sight. No one is so blind as he who will not see, the one who thinks he has “all truth” and there is nothing more for him to learn (, ).
The listening Pharisees heard what Jesus said and it disturbed them. “Are we blind also?” they asked, expecting a negative answer. Jesus had already called them “blind leaders of the blind” (), so they had their answer. They were blinded by their pride, their self-righteousness, their tradition, and their false interpretation of the Word of God.
Our Lord’s reply was a paradox. “If you were blind, you would be better off. But you claim to see. Therefore, you are guilty!” Blindness would at least be an excuse for not knowing what was going on. But they did know what was going on. Jesus had performed many miracles and the religious leaders ignored the evidence to make a right decision.
Jesus is the Light of the world (; ). The only people who cannot see the light are blind people and those who refuse to look, those who make themselves blind. The beggar was physically blind and spiritually blind, yet both his eyes and his heart were opened. Why? Because he listened to the Word, believed it, obeyed, and experienced the grace of God. The Pharisees had good physical vision, but they were blind spiritually. Had they listened to the Word and sincerely considered the evidence, they too would have believed on Jesus Christ and been born again.
In what sense did the Pharisees “see”? They saw the change in the blind beggar and could not deny that he had been healed. They saw the mighty works that Jesus performed. Even Nicodemus, one of their number, was impressed with the Lord’s miracles (). If they had examined the evidence with honesty, they would have seen the truth clearly. “If any man wills to do His [God’s] will, he shall know of the doctrine” (, literal translation). “And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life” ().
John 10 is actually a continuation of our Lord’s ministry to the Pharisees. The healing of the blind beggar is the background (). In fact, the word translated “cast out” in is translated “puts forth” in . The beggar was cast out of the synagogue but taken by the Good Shepherd and added to His flock! The emphasis in John 10 is on Jesus Christ, the Good and True Shepherd, as opposed to the Pharisees who were false shepherds.
We never meet this healed beggar again, but surely the man followed Jesus closely and was among those who witnessed for Him. We hope that he was able to win his fearful parents to the Lord. While being excommunicated from the synagogue was certainly a painful experience for him, he certainly found in his fellowship with Jesus Christ much more spiritual help and encouragement than he could ever have found in the Jewish traditions.
Even today, there are people who must choose between Christ and family, or Christ and their traditional religion.
This blind beggar made the right choice, even though the cost was great.
“The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” ().
John 10
Perhaps you remember the “Candid Camera” TV program that took place at an exclusive prep school where all of the students were well above average. The “Candid Camera” people posed as career consultants who were going to advise these brilliant young men concerning the careers that would be best suited to them, on the basis of “tests” and “interviews” that seemed (to the students) quite authentic.
One young man eagerly awaited the “counselor’s” verdict. Surely the adviser would tell the boy to be a college president or a bank president, or perhaps a research scientist. But, no, the “counselor” had other ideas. You should have seen the look on the boy’s face when the “counselor” said:
“Son, after evaluating your tests and interview, I’ve decided that the best job for you is—a shepherd.”
The student did not know whether to laugh or cry. After all, who in his right mind would want to be a shepherd? Why devote your life to “stupid sheep” who do not seem to have sense enough to find their way home?
John 10 focuses on the image of sheep, sheepfolds, and shepherds. It is a rural and Eastern image, to be sure; but it is an image that can say a great deal to us today, even in our urban industrialized world. Paul used this image when admonishing the spiritual leaders in the church at Ephesus (). The truths that cluster around the image of the shepherd and the sheep are found throughout the Bible, and they are important to us today. The symbols that Jesus used help us understand who He is and what He wants to do for us.
Perhaps the easiest way to approach this somewhat complex chapter of John’s Gospel is to note the three declarations that Jesus made about Himself.
This sermon grew out of our Lord’s confrontation with Jewish leaders, following the excommunication of the beggar (John 9). He had briefly spoken to them about light and darkness, but now He changed the image to that of the shepherd and the sheep. Why? Because to the Jewish mind, a “shepherd” was any kind of leader, spiritual or political. People looked on the king and prophets as shepherds. Israel was privileged to be “the flock of the Lord” (). For background, read ; ; ; Ezekiel 34; and Zechariah 11.
Jesus opened His sermon with a familiar illustration (), one that every listener would understand. The sheepfold was usually an enclosure made of rocks, with an opening for the door. The shepherd (or a porter) would guard the flock, or flocks, at night by lying across the opening. It was not unusual for several flocks to be sheltered together in the same fold. In the morning, the shepherds would come, call their sheep, and assemble their own flocks. Each sheep recognized his own master’s voice.
The true shepherd comes in through the door, and the porter recognizes him. The thieves and robbers could never enter through the door, so they have to climb over the wall and enter the fold through deception. But even if they did get in, they would never get the sheep to follow them, for the sheep follow only the voice of their own shepherd. The false shepherds can never lead the sheep, so they must steal them away.
It is clear that the listeners did not understand what Jesus said or why He said it. (The word translated “parable” means “a dark saying, a proverb.” Our Lord’s teaching in John 10 is not like the parables recorded in the other Gospels.) The occasion for this lesson was the excommunication of the beggar from the synagogue (). The false shepherds did not care for this man; instead, they mistreated him and threw him out. But Jesus, the Shepherd, came to him and took him in ().
It is unfortunate that is often used to teach that the sheepfold is heaven, and that those who try to get in by any way other than Christ are destined to fail. While the teaching is true (), it is not based on this verse. Jesus made it clear that the fold is the nation of Israel (). The Gentiles are the “other sheep” not of the fold of Israel.
When Jesus came to the nation of Israel, He came the appointed way, just as the Scriptures promised. Every true shepherd must be called of God and sent by God. If he truly speaks God’s Word, the sheep will “hear his voice” and not be afraid to follow him. The true shepherd will love the sheep and care for them.
Since the people did not understand His symbolic language, Jesus followed the illustration with an application (). Twice He said, “I am the Door.” He is the Door of the sheepfold and makes it possible for the sheep to leave the fold (the religion of Judaism) and to enter His flock. The Pharisees threw the beggar out of the synagogue, but Jesus led him out of Judaism and into the flock of God!
But the Shepherd does not stop with leading the sheep out; He also leads them in. They become a part of the “one flock” (not “fold”) which is His church. He is the Door of salvation (). Those who trust Him enter into the Lord’s flock and fold, and they have the wonderful privilege of going “in and out” and finding pasture. When you keep in mind that the shepherd actually was the “door” of the fold, this image becomes very real.
As the Door, Jesus delivers sinners from bondage and leads them into freedom. They have salvation! This word “saved” means “delivered safe and sound.” It was used to say that a person had recovered from severe illness, come through a bad storm, survived a war, or was acquitted at court. Some modern preachers want to do away with an “old-fashioned” word like “saved,” but Jesus used it!
Jesus was referring primarily to the religious leaders of that day (). He was not condemning every prophet or servant of God who ever ministered before He came to earth. The statement “are thieves and robbers” (not “were”) makes it clear that He had the present religious leaders in mind. They were not true shepherds nor did they have the approval of God on their ministry. They did not love the sheep, but instead exploited them and abused them. The beggar was a good example of what the “thieves and robbers” could do.
It is clear in the Gospel record that the religious rulers of Israel were interested only in providing for themselves and protecting themselves. The Pharisees were coveteous () and even took advantage of the poor widows (). They turned God’s temple into a den of thieves (), and they plotted to kill Jesus so that Rome would not take away their privileges ().
The True Shepherd came to save the sheep, but the false shepherds take advantage of the sheep and exploit them. Behind these false shepherds is “the thief” (), probably a reference to Satan. The thief wants to steal the sheep from the fold, slaughter them, and destroy them. We shall see later that the sheep are safe in the hands of the Shepherd and the Father ().
When you go through “the Door,” you receive life and you are saved. As you go “in and out,” you enjoy abundant life in the rich pastures of the Lord. His sheep enjoy fullness and freedom. Jesus not only gave His life for us, but He gives His life to us right now!
The emphasis in this first section is on “the door.” Our Lord then shifted the emphasis to “the shepherd” and made a second declaration.
This is the fourth of our Lord’s I AM statements in John’s Gospel (; ; ). Certainly in making this statement, He is contrasting Himself to the false shepherds who were in charge of the Jewish religion of that day. He had already called them “thieves and robbers,” and now He would describe them as “hirelings.”
The word translated “good” means “intrinsically good, beautiful, fair.” It describes that which is the ideal, the model that others may safely imitate. Our Lord’s goodness was inherent in His nature. To call Him “good” is the same as calling Him “God” ().
Some of the greatest people named in the Bible were shepherds by occupation: Abel, the patriarchs, Moses, and David, to name a few. Even today in the Holy Land, you may see shepherds leading flocks and revealing how intimately they know each sheep, its individual traits, and its special needs. Keep in mind that Jewish shepherds did not tend the sheep in order to slaughter them, unless they were used for sacrifice. Shepherds tended them that the sheep might give wool, milk, and lambs.
Jesus pointed out four special ministries that He performs as the Good Shepherd.
He dies for the sheep (vv. ). Under the old dispensation, the sheep died for the shepherd; but now the Good Shepherd dies for the sheep! Five times in this sermon, Jesus clearly affirmed the sacrificial nature of His death (, , ). He did not die as a martyr, killed by men; He died as a substitute, willingly laying down His life for us.
The fact that Jesus said that He died “for the sheep” must not be isolated from the rest of biblical teaching about the Cross. He also died for the nation Israel () and for the world (). While the blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient for the salvation of the world, it is efficient only for those who will believe.
Jesus contrasted Himself to the hireling who watches over the sheep only because he is paid to do so. But when there is danger, the hireling runs away, while the true shepherd stays and cares for the flock. The key phrase is “whose own the sheep are not.” The Good Shepherd purchases the sheep and they are His because He died for them. They belong to Him, and He cares for them. By nature, sheep are stupid and prone to get into danger; and they need a shepherd to care for them.
Throughout the Bible, God’s people are compared to sheep; and the comparison is a good one. Sheep are clean animals, unlike pigs and dogs (). They are defenseless and need the care of the shepherd (Ps. 23). They are, to use Wesley’s phrase, “prone to wander,” and must often be searched for and brought back to the fold (). Sheep are peaceful animals, useful to the shepherd. In these, and other ways, they picture those who have trusted Jesus Christ and are a part of God’s flock.
The Pharisees, in contrast to good shepherds, had no loving concern for the beggar, so they put him out of the synagogue. Jesus found him and cared for him.
He knows His sheep (vv. ). In the Gospel of John, the word know means much more than intellectual awareness. It speaks of an intimate relationship between God and His people (see ). The Eastern shepherd knows his sheep personally and therefore knows best how to minister to them.
To begin with, our Lord knows our names (see ). He knew Simon () and even gave him a new name. He called Zaccheus by name (); and when He spoke Mary’s name in the garden, she recognized her Shepherd (). If you have ever had your identity “lost” in a maze of computer operations, then you can appreciate the comforting fact that the Good Shepherd knows each of His sheep by name.
He also knows our natures. While all sheep are alike in their essential nature, each sheep has its own distinctive characteristics; and the loving shepherd recognizes these traits. One sheep may be afraid of high places, another of dark shadows. A faithful shepherd will consider these special needs as he tends the flock.
Have you ever noticed how different the 12 Apostles were from one another? Peter was impulsive and outspoken, while Thomas was hesitant and doubting. Andrew was a “people person” who was always bringing somebody to Jesus, while Judas wanted to “use” people in order to get their money for himself. Jesus knew each of the men personally, and He knew exactly how to deal with them.
Because He knows our natures, He also knows our needs. Often, we do not even know our own needs! Psalm 23 is a beautiful poetic description of how the Good Shepherd cares for His sheep. In the pastures, by the waters, and even through the valleys, the sheep need not fear, because the shepherd is caring for them and meeting their needs. If you connect and , you get the main theme of the poem: “I shall not want … all the days of my life.”
As the shepherd cares for the sheep, the sheep get to know their shepherd better. The Good Shepherd knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. They get to know Him better by listening to His voice (the Word) and experiencing His daily care. As the sheep follow the Shepherd, they learn to love and to trust Him. He loves “His own” () and He shows that love in the way He cares for them.
The Good Shepherd brings other sheep into the flock (v. ). The “fold” is Judaism (), but there is another fold—the Gentiles who are outside the covenants of Israel (). In our Lord’s early ministry, He concentrated on the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” (; ). The people converted at Pentecost were Jews and Jewish proselytes (, ), but the church was not to remain a “Jewish flock.” Peter took the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 10–11), and Paul carried the message to the Gentiles in the far reaches of the Roman Empire ().
The phrase “one fold” should read “one flock.” There is but one flock, the people of God who belong to the Good Shepherd. God has His people all over this world (see ), and He will call them and gather them together.
The missionary message of the Gospel of John is obvious: “For God so loved the world” (). Jesus Himself defied custom and witnessed to a Samaritan woman. He refused to defend the exclusivist approach of the Jewish religious leaders. He died for a lost world, and His desire is that His people reach a lost world with the message of eternal life.
The Good Shepherd takes up His life again (vv. ). His voluntary death was followed by His victorious resurrection. From the human point of view, it appeared that Jesus was executed; but from the divine point of view, He laid down His life willingly. When Jesus cried on the cross, “It is finished!” He then voluntarily yielded up His spirit to the Father (). Three days later, He voluntarily took up His life again and arose from the dead. The Father gave Him this authority in love.
Sometimes the Scriptures teach that it was the Father who raised the Son (; ; ). Here, the Son stated that He had authority to take up His life again. Both are true, for the Father and the Son worked together in perfect harmony (, ). In a previous sermon, Jesus had hinted that He had power to raise Himself from the dead (). Of course, this was a claim that the Jews would protest; because it was tantamount to saying “I am God!”
How did the listeners respond to this message? “There was a division therefore again among the Jews” (). Note that word again (; ). The old accusation that Jesus was a demoniac was hurled at Him again (; , ). People will do almost anything to avoid facing the truth!
Since Jesus Christ is “the Door,” we would expect a division, because a door shuts some people in and others out! He is the Good Shepherd, and the shepherd must separate the sheep from the goats. It is impossible to be neutral about Jesus Christ; for, what we believe about Him is a matter of life or death ().
His third declaration was the most starthng of all.
The events in this section occurred about two and a half months after those described in . John put them together because in both messages, Jesus used the imagery of the shepherd and the sheep.
The encounter (vv. ). The “Feast of the Dedication” (Hanukkah, “the feast of lights”) takes place in December, near the time of the Christian Christmas celebration. The feast commemorates the rededication of the temple by Judas Maccabeus in 164 B.C., after it had been desecrated by the Romans. This historical fact may bear a relationship to the words of Jesus in , for He had been set apart (dedicated) by the Father and sent into the world. The Jewish leaders were celebrating a great event in history yet passing by a great opportunity right in their own temple!
The leaders surrounded Jesus in the temple so that He had to stop and listen to them. They had decided that it was time for a “showdown” and they did not want Him to evade the issue any longer. “How long are You going to hold us in suspense?” they kept saying to Him. “Tell us plainly—are You the Messiah?”
The explanation (vv. ). Jesus reminded them of what He had already taught them. He emphasized the witness of His words (“I told you”) and His works (see , and for similar replies).
But our Lord went much deeper in His explanation this time, for He revealed to the Jewish leaders why they did not understand His words or grasp the significance of His works: they were not His sheep. From the human standpoint, we become His sheep by believing; but from the divine standpoint, we believe because we are His sheep. There is a mystery here that we cannot fathom or explain, but we can accept it and rejoice (). God has His sheep and He knows who they are. They will hear His voice and respond.
The lost sinner who hears God’s Word knows nothing about divine election. He hears only that Christ died for the sins of the world, and that he may receive the gift of eternal life by trusting the Saviour. When He trusts the Saviour, he becomes a member of God’s family and a sheep in the flock. Then he learns that he was “chosen … in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (). He also learns that each saved sinner is the Father’s “love gift” to His Son (see ; , , , , ).
In the Bible, divine election and human responsibility are perfectly balanced; and what God has joined together, we must not put asunder.
Jesus went on to explain that His sheep are secure in His hand and in the Father’s hand. “They shall never perish” is His promise (; ; ; ). The false shepherds bring destruction (, same Greek word); but the Good Shepherd sees to it that His sheep shall never perish.
The security of God’s sheep is assured here in several ways. First, by definition—we have “eternal life,” and that cannot be conditional and still be eternal. Second, this life is a gift, not something that we earn or merit. If we were not saved by our own good works, but by His grace, then we cannot be lost by our “bad works” (). But most important, Jesus gave us His promise that His sheep do not perish, and that His promise cannot be broken.
It is important to keep in mind that Jesus was talking about sheep—true believers—and not counterfeits. The dog and the pig will go back into sin (); but the sheep, being a clean animal, will follow the Shepherd into the green pastures. The false professor will talk about his faith and even his works, but he will never make it into heaven (). Most of us know people who professed to be saved and then went back into sin, but their doing so only proved that they never really trusted Christ to begin with. Jesus did not promise security to anyone but His true sheep.
As you review our Lord’s teaching about His ministry as the Good Shepherd, you note that He has a threefold relationship to His sheep. He has a loving relationship because He died for the sheep, as well as a living relationship because He cares for the sheep. It is also a lasting relationship, for He keeps His sheep and not a one is lost.
Our Lord made a statement that He knew would startle His enemies and give them more reason to oppose Him (). It was the “plain answer” that the religious leaders had asked for. “I and My Father are One” is as clear a statement of His deity as you will find anywhere in Scripture. This was even stronger than His statement that He had come down from heaven (John 6) or that He existed before Abraham ever lived ().
The word One does not suggest that the Father and the Son are identical persons. Rather, it means that they are one in essence: the Father is God and the Son is God, but the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father. He is speaking about unity, not identity. (See for similar language.)
The Jewish leaders understood clearly what He was saying! Some modern liberal theologians would water down our Lord’s statement, but the people who heard it knew exactly what He was saying: “I am God!” (note .) To speak this way, of course, was blasphemy; and according to Jewish belief, blasphemy had to be punished by being put to death (see ; ; ).
Our Lord used to refute their accusation and halt their actions. The picture in Psalm 82 is that of a court, where God has assembled the judges of the earth, to warn them that they too will one day be judged. The Hebrew word elohim can be translated as “god” or as “judges,” as in and . It is also one of the Old Testament names for God. The Jewish rulers certainly knew their own language and they knew that Jesus was speaking the truth. If God called human judges “gods,” then why should they stone Him for applying the same title to Himself?
is crucial because it gives a double affirmation of the deity of Christ. First, the Father sanctified (set apart) the Son and sent Him into the world, and second, Jesus stated boldly, “I am the Son of God” (see ). He gave them the “plain answer” they asked for, but they would not believe it!
Could they have believed? Jesus invited them, urged them, to believe, if only on the basis of His miracles (). If they would believe the miracles, then they would know the Father, and that would open the way for them to know the Son and believe on Him. It was simply a matter of examining the evidence honestly and being willing to accept the truth.
Once again, they tried to arrest Him (see ; ), but He escaped and left the area completely. He did not return to Jerusalem until “Palm Sunday,” when He presented Himself as Israel’s King.
John the Baptist had ministered at Bethabara (), but we are not sure where this was. It was on the other side of the Jordan River, perhaps eighteen to twenty miles from Jerusalem. Some maps put it almost directly across from Jerusalem, just east of Jericho.
Why did Jesus go there? For one thing, it was a safe retreat; the Jewish religious leaders were not likely to follow Him there. Also, it was a good place to prepare for His final week of public ministry when He would lay down His life for the sheep. As He remembered His own baptism by John, and all that He had experienced at that time (; ), it must have fortified Him for the suffering that He knew He must endure.
The common people continued to seek Jesus, and He continued to minister to them. It is worth noting that John the Baptist’s witness was still bearing fruit long after he was dead! His witness to Jesus Christ led many to trust the Saviour. John was not a miracle worker, but he was a faithful witness who pointed to Jesus Christ. “He must increase, but I must decrease” ().
Have you responded personally to our Lord’s three great declarations recorded in this chapter?
He is the Door. Have you “entered in” by faith so that you are saved?
He is the Good Shepherd. Have you heard His voice and trusted Him? After all, He laid down His life for you!
He is the Son of God. Do you believe that? Have you given yourself to Him and received eternal life?
Remember His stern warning: “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins” ().
John 11
The raising of Lazarus from the dead was not our Lord’s last miracle before the Cross, but it was certainly His greatest and the one that aroused the most response both from His friends and His enemies. John selected this miracle as the seventh in the series recorded in his book because it was really the climactic miracle of our Lord’s earthly ministry. He had raised others from the dead, but Lazarus had been in the grave four days. It was a miracle that could not be denied or avoided by the Jewish leaders.
If Jesus Christ can do nothing about death, then whatever else He can do amounts to nothing. “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable’ (). Death is man’s last enemy (), but Jesus Christ has defeated this horrible enemy totally and permanently.
The emphasis in John 11 is on faith; you find some form of the word believe at least eight times in this account. Another theme is “the glory of God” (, ). In what Jesus said and did, He sought to strengthen the faith of three groups of people.
We sometimes think of the disciples as “supersaints,” but such was not the case. They often failed their Lord, and He was constantly seeking to increase their faith. After all, one day He would leave them and they would have the responsibility of carrying on the ministry. If their faith was weak, their work could never be strong.
Jesus was at Bethabara, about twenty miles from Bethany (; ). One day, a messenger arrived with the sad news that our Lord’s dear friend Lazarus was sick. If the man had traveled quickly, without any delay, he could have made the trip in one day. Jesus sent him back the next day with the encouraging message recorded in . Then Jesus waited two more days before He left for Bethany; and by the time He and His disciples arrived, Lazarus had been dead for four days. This means that Lazarus had died the very day the messenger left to contact Jesus!
The schedule of events would look something like this, allowing one day for travel:
Day 1—The messenger comes to Jesus (Lazarus dies).
Day 2—The messenger returns to Bethany.
Day 3—Jesus waits another day, then departs.
Day 4—Jesus arrives in Bethany.
When the messenger arrived back home, he would find Lazarus already dead. What would his message convey to the grieving sisters now that their brother was already dead and buried? Jesus was urging them to believe His word no matter how discouraging the circumstances might appear.
No doubt the disciples were perplexed about several matters. First of all, if Jesus loved Lazarus so much, why did He permit him to get sick? Even more, why did He delay to go to the sisters? For that matter, could He not have healed Lazarus at a distance, as He did the nobleman’s son? () The record makes it clear that there was a strong love relationship between Jesus and this family (, , ); yet our Lord’s behavior seems to contradict this love.
God’s love for His own is not a pampering love; it is a perfecting love. The fact that He loves us, and we love Him is no guarantee that we will be sheltered from the problems and pains of life. After all, the Father loves His Son: and yet the Father permitted His beloved Son to drink the cup of sorrow and experience the shame and pain of the Cross. We must never think that love and suffering are incompatible. Certainly they unite in Jesus Christ.
Jesus could have prevented Lazarus’ sickness or even healed it from where He was; but He chose not to. He saw in this sickness an opportunity to glorify the Father. It is not important that we Christians are comfortable, but it is important that we glorify God in all that we do.
In their “prayer” to Jesus, the two sisters did not tell Him what to do. They simply informed Him that there was a need, and they reminded Him of His love for Lazarus. They knew that it was dangerous for Jesus to return to Judea because the Jewish leaders were out to destroy Him. Perhaps they hoped that He would “speak the word” and their brother would be restored to health.
Our Lord’s message to the sisters did not say that their brother would not die. It promised only that death would not be the ultimate result, for the ultimate result would be the glory of God. (Note that once again, Jesus called Himself “the Son of God.”) He wanted them to lay hold of this promise; in fact, He reminded Martha of this message when she balked at having the tomb opened ().
When we find ourselves confronted by disease, disappointment, delay, and even death, our only encouragement is the Word of God. We must live by faith and not by sight. Their situation seemed hopeless, yet the sisters knew that Jesus was the Master of every situation. The promise in finds a parallel here: “And call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.”
What about our Lord’s delay? He was not waiting for Lazarus to die, for he was already dead. Jesus lived on a divine timetable () and He was waiting for the Father to tell Him when to go to Bethany. The fact that the man had been dead four days gave greater authenticity to the miracle and greater opportunity for people to believe, including His own disciples (see ).
When our Lord announced that He was returning to Judea, His disciples were alarmed, because they knew how dangerous it would be. (Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem.) But Jesus was willing to lay down His life for His friends (). He knew that His return to Judea and the miracle of raising Lazarus would precipitate His own arrest and death.
The Lord calmed their fears by reminding them that He was on the Father’s schedule, and that nothing could harm them. As we have seen, this is an important theme in the Gospel of John (; , , ; ; ; ; ). But the disciples not only misunderstood the schedule, they also misunderstood the reason for the visit. They thought that, if Lazarus was sleeping, he was getting better! It was another example of their inability to grasp spiritual truth. “If he is sleeping, he must be improving—so let’s not bother to go to Bethany!”
Then He told them openly that Lazarus was dead. (Death for the believer is compared to sleep. See ; ; .) He did not say He was glad that His friend died, but that He was glad He had not been there; for now He could reveal to His disciples His mighty power. The result would be glory to God and the strengthening of their faith.
If Thomas’ attitude was any indication, the faith of the disciples certainly needed strengthening! The name Thomas means “twin” in the Aramaic language; the Greek equivalent is Didymus. We do not know whose twin he was, but there are times when all of us seem to be his twin when we consider our unbelief and depressed feelings! It was Thomas who demanded evidence before he would accept the truth of our Lord’s resurrection ().
Thomas was a doubting man, but we must confess that he was a devoted man: he was willing to go with Jesus into danger and risk his own life. We may not admire his faith, but we can certainly applaud his loyalty and courage.
Jesus was concerned not only about the faith of His own disciples, but also about the faith of Mary and Martha (, ). Each experience of suffering and trial ought to increase our faith, but this kind of spiritual growth is not automatic. We must respond positively to the ministry of the Word and the Spirit of God. Jesus had sent a promise to the two sisters (), and now He would discover how they had received it.
The event recorded in makes it clear that Mary and Martha were quite different in their personalities. Martha was the worker, the active one, while Mary was the contemplative one who sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to His word. Jesus did not condemn Martha’s service, but He did rebuke her for being “torn apart” by so many things. She needed to have priorities and center her activities on the things that God would approve. As an old Wesley hymn puts it, we need to have a balanced life:
Faithful to my Lord’s commands,
I still would choose the better part:
Serve with careful Martha’s hands
And loving Mary’s heart.
We would expect Martha to rush out to meet Jesus while Mary sat in the house, weeping with her friends. Since Mary later echoed Martha’s words of greeting (), it is likely that the sisters often said these words to each other as they waited for Jesus to arrive. While there may have been a tinge of disappointment in the statement, there was also evidence of faith, for nobody ever died in the presence of Jesus Christ. “If” is such a big word! How futile it is to imagine what might have been, if—!
Martha was quick to affirm her faith in Jesus Christ (), and Jesus responded to that faith by promising her that her brother would rise again. He was thinking of the immediate situation, but she interpreted His words to mean the future resurrection in the last day (; ). Here is another instance in John’s Gospel of people lacking spiritual perception and being unable to understand the words of Jesus.
Our Lord’s reply is the fifth of the I AM statements. It is important to note that Jesus did not deny what Martha said about the future resurrection. The resurrection of the human body is a cardinal doctrine in the orthodox Jewish faith. But in His great I AM statement, our Lord completely transformed the doctrine of the resurrection and, in so doing, brought great comfort to Martha’s heart.
To begin with, He brought the doctrine of the resurrection out of the shadows and into the light. The Old Testament revelation about death and resurrection is not clear or complete; it is, as it were, “in the shadows.” In fact, there are some passages in Psalms and Ecclesiastes that almost make one believe that death is the end and there is no hope beyond the grave. False teachers like to use these passages to support their heretical teachings, but they ignore (or misinterpret) the clear teachings found in the New Testament. After all, it was not David or Solomon who “brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” (), but Jesus Christ!
By His teaching, His miracles, and His own resurrection, Jesus clearly taught the resurrection of the human body. He has declared once for all that death is real, that there is life after death, and that the body will one day be raised by the power of God.
He transformed this doctrine in a second way: He took it out of a book and put it into a person, Himself. “I am the resurrection and the life”! () While we thank God for what the Bible teaches (and all Martha had was the Old Testament), we realize that we are saved by the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and not by a doctrine written in a book. When we know Him by faith, we need not fear the shadow of death.
When you are sick, you want a doctor and not a medical book or a formula. When you are being sued, you want a lawyer and not a law book. Likewise, when you face your last enemy, death, you want the Saviour and not a doctrine written in a book. In Jesus Christ, every doctrine is made personal (). When you belong to Him, you have all that you ever will need in life, death, time, or eternity!
But perhaps the greatest transformation Jesus performed was to move the doctrine of the resurrection out of the future and into the present. Martha was looking to the future, knowing that Lazarus would rise again and she would see him. Her friends were looking to the past and saying, “He could have prevented Lazarus from dying!” () But Jesus tried to center their attention on the present: wherever He is, God’s resurrection power is available now (; ; ).
Jesus affirmed that believers would one day be raised from the dead (). Then He immediately revealed the added truth that some believers would never die (and it is a double negative, “never never die!”) (). How is this possible? The answer is found in , . When Jesus Christ returns in the air to take His people home, those who are alive at His coming shall never die. They shall be changed and caught up to meet Him in the air!
Martha did not hesitate to affirm her faith. She used three different titles for Jesus: Lord, Christ (Messiah), and Son of God. The words “I believe” are in the perfect tense, indicating a fixed and settled faith. “I have believed and I will continue to believe!”
Our Lord dealt with Martha’s faith; now He had to help Mary. Why did Martha call Mary “secretly”? Possibly because of the danger involved: they knew that the Jewish leaders were out to arrest Jesus. When Mary arose to go to meet Jesus, her friends misunderstood her actions and thought she was going to the tomb to weep. They wanted to weep with her, so they followed along. Imagine their surprise when they met Jesus!
Mary is found three times in the Gospel record, and each time she is at the feet of Jesus (; ; ). She sat at His feet and listened to His word; she fell at His feet and poured out her sorrow; and she came to His feet to give Him her praise and worship. Mary’s only recorded words in the Gospels are given in , and they echo what Martha had already said ().
Mary did not say much because she was overcome with sorrow and began to weep. Her friends joined in the weeping, as Jewish people are accustomed to do. The word used means “a loud weeping, a lamentation.” Our Lord’s response was to groan within and “be moved with indignation.” At what was He indignant? At the ravages of sin in the world that He had created. Death is an enemy, and Satan uses the fear of death as a terrible weapon (). No wonder Jesus was indignant!
The mystery of our Lord’s incarnation is seen by His question in . Jesus knew that Lazarus had died (), but He had to ask where he was buried. Our Lord never used His divine powers when normal human means would suffice.
“Jesus wept” is the shortest and yet the deepest verse in Scripture. His was a silent weeping (the Greek word is used nowhere else in the New Testament) and not the loud lamentation of the mourners. But why did He weep at all? After all, He knew that He would raise Lazarus from the dead ().
Our Lord’s weeping reveals the humanity of the Saviour. He has entered into all of our experiences and knows how we feel. In fact, being the perfect God-Man, Jesus experienced these things in a deeper way than we do. His tears also assure us of His sympathy; He is indeed “a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (). Today, He is our merciful and faithful High Priest, and we may come to the throne of grace and find all the gracious help that we need ().
We see in His tears the tragedy of sin but also the glory of heaven. Perhaps Jesus was weeping for Lazarus, as well as with the sisters, because He knew He was calling His friend from heaven and back into a wicked world where he would one day have to die again. Jesus had come down from heaven; He knew what Lazarus was leaving behind.
The spectators saw in His tears an evidence of His love. But some of them said, “If Jesus loved Lazarus so much, why did He not prevent his death?” Perhaps they were thinking, “Jesus is weeping because He was unable to do anything. They are tears of deep regret.” In other words, nobody present really expected a miracle! For this reason, nobody could accuse Jesus of “plotting” this event and being in collusion with the two sisters and their friends. Even the disciples did not believe that Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead!
The one person who declared her faith was Martha (), and she failed at the last minute. “Open the tomb? By now he smells!” Jesus gently reminded her of the message He had sent at least three days before (), and He urged her to believe it. True faith relies on God’s promises and thereby releases God’s power. Martha relented, and the stone was rolled away.
The emphasis from this point on was on the faith of the spectators, the people who had come to comfort Mary and Martha. Jesus paused to pray (; also see ) and thanked the Father that the prayer had already been heard. When had He prayed? Probably when He received the message that His friend was sick (). The Father then told Him what the plan was, and Jesus obeyed the Father’s will. His prayer now was for the sake of the unbelieving spectators, that they might know that God had sent Him.
A quaint Puritan writer said that if Jesus had not named Lazarus when He shouted, He would have emptied the whole cemetery! Jesus called Lazarus and raised him from the dead. Since Lazarus was bound, he could not walk to the door of the tomb; so God’s power must have carried him along. It was an unquestioned miracle that even the most hostile spectator could not deny.
The experience of Lazarus is a good illustration of what happens to a sinner when he trusts the Saviour (). Lazarus was dead, and all sinners are dead. He was decayed, because death and decay go together. All lost people are spiritually dead, but some are more “decayed” than others. No one can be “more dead” than another.
Lazarus was raised from the dead by the power of God, and all who trust Christ have been given new life and lifted out of the graveyard of sin (see ). Lazarus was set free from the graveclothes (see ) and given new liberty. You find him seated with Christ at the table (), and all believers are “seated with Christ” in heavenly places (), enjoying spiritual food and fellowship.
Because of the great change in Lazarus, many people desired to see him; and his “living witness” was used by God to bring people to salvation (). There are no recorded words of Lazarus in the Gospels, but his daily walk is enough to convince people that Jesus is the Son of God. Because of his effective witness, Lazarus was persecuted by the religious leaders who wanted to kill him and get rid of the evidence.
As with the previous miracles, the people were divided in their response. Some did believe and on “Palm Sunday” gave witness of the miracle Jesus had performed (). But others immediately went to the religious leaders and reported what had happened in Bethany. These “informers” were so near the kingdom, yet there is no evidence that they believed. If the heart will not yield to truth, then the grace of God cannot bring salvation. These people could have experienced a spiritual resurrection in their own lives!
It was necessary that the Jewish council (Sanhedrin) meet and discuss what to do with Jesus. They were not seeking after truth; they were seeking for ways to protect their own selfish interests. If He gathered too many followers, He might get the attention of the Roman authorities; and this could hurt the Jewish cause.
The high priest, Caiaphas, was a Sadducee, not a Pharisee (); but the two factions could always get together to fight a common enemy. Unknown to himself and to the council, Caiaphas uttered a divine prophecy: Jesus would die for the nation so that the nation would not perish. “For the transgression of My people was He stricken” (). True to his vision of a worldwide family of God, John added his inspired explanation: Jesus would die not only for the Jews, but for all of God’s children who would be gathered together in one heavenly family. (note and .)
The official decision that day was that Jesus must die (see ; ; ; , , ). The leaders thought that they were in control of the situation, but it was God who was working out His predetermined plan (). Originally, they wanted to wait until after the Passover, but God had decreed otherwise.
Jesus withdrew to Ephraim, about fifteen miles north of Jerusalem; and there He remained in quiet retirement with His disciples. The crowd was gathering in Jerusalem for the Passover feast, and the pilgrims were wondering if Jesus would attend the feast even though He was in danger. He was now on the “wanted” list, because the council had made it known that anyone who knew where Jesus was must report it to the officials.
John 11 reveals the deity of Jesus Christ and the utter depravity of the human heart. The rich man in hades had argued, “If one went unto them from the dead, they will repent” (). Lazarus came back from the dead, and the officials wanted to kill him! Miracles certainly reveal the power of God, but of themselves they cannot communicate the grace of God.
The stage had been set for the greatest drama in history, during which man would do his worst and God would give His best.
John 12
John 12 records the second major crisis in the ministry of our Lord as seen by John the apostle. The first occurred when many of His disciples would no longer walk with Him (), even though He is “the way” (). In this chapter, John tells us that many would not believe in Him (), even though He is “the truth.” The third crisis will come in John 19: even though He is “the life,” the leaders crucified Him.
John opened his book by telling us that Jesus “came unto His own [world], and His own [people] received Him not” (). In the first twelve chapters, John presented one witness after another, and one proof after another, to convince us that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of God. All of this evidence was seen firsthand by the leaders of the nation, and yet they rejected His claims. Having been rejected by “His own” nation, Jesus then retired with “His own” disciples () whom He loved to the uttermost.
We see in John 12, the Lord Jesus Christ as He relates to four different groups of people, and there are lessons that we can learn as we study this section.
Our Lord knew that the Jewish leaders were out to arrest Him and kill Him (, ), but He still returned to Bethany, only two miles from the very citadel of His enemies. Why? So that He might spend a quiet time with His dear friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. True to their personalities, Martha busily served and Mary worshiped at the feet of Jesus (see ).
The account of Mary’s anointing of her Lord is found also in and . But it must not be confused with the account given in , where a former harlot anointed Jesus in the house of Simon the Pharisee. Mary was a virtuous woman, and she anointed Jesus in the house of Simon the (former) leper (). The Luke 7 event took place in Galilee, while the account we are now considering occurred in Judea. The fact that there are two “Simons” involved should not surprise us, for Simon was a common name in that day.
When you combine all three accounts, you learn that Mary anointed both His head and His feet. It was an act of pure love on her part, for she knew her Lord was about to endure suffering and death. Because she sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to Him speak, she knew what He was going to do. It is significant that Mary of Bethany was not one of the women who went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus ().
In a sense, Mary was showing her devotion to Jesus before it was too late. She was “giving the roses” while He was yet alive, and not bringing them to the funeral! Her act of love and worship was public, spontaneous, sacrificial, lavish, personal, and unembarrassed. Jesus called it “a good work” (; ) and both commended her and defended her.
It would have required a year’s wages from a common laborer to purchase that ointment. Like David, Mary would not give to the Lord that which cost her nothing (). Her beautiful act of worship brought a fragrance to the very house in which they were dining, and the blessing of her deed has spread around the world (; ). Little did Mary realize that night that her love for Christ would be a blessing to believers around the world for centuries to come!
When she came to the feet of Jesus, Mary took the place of a slave. When she undid her hair (something Jewish women did not do in public), she humbled herself and laid her glory at His feet (see ). Of course, she was misunderstood and criticized; but that is what usually happens when somebody gives his or her best to the Lord.
It was Judas who started the criticism, and, sad to say, the other disciples took it up. They did not know that Judas was a devil (), and they admired him for his concern for the poor. After all, he was the treasurer; and especially at Passover season, he would want to share with those who were less fortunate (see ). Until the very end, the disciples believed that Judas was a devoted follower of the Lord.
records Judas’ first words found anywhere in the four Gospels. His last words are found in . Judas was a thief and was in the habit of stealing money from the money box that he carried. (The Greek word translated “bag” meant originally a small case in which mouthpieces were kept for wind instruments. Then it came to mean any small box, and especially a money box. The Greek version of the Old Testament uses this word in for King Joash’s money chest.) No doubt Judas had already decided to abandon Jesus, and he wanted to get what he could out of what he considered a bad situation. Perhaps he had hoped that Jesus would defeat Rome and set up the kingdom; in which case, Judas would have been treasurer of the kingdom!
What Mary did was a blessing to Jesus and a blessing to her own life. She was also a blessing to the home, filling it with fragrance (see ); and today, she is a blessing to the church around the world. Her one act of devotion in the little village of Bethany still sends “ripples of blessing.”
But not so Judas! We call our daughters “Mary,” but no parent would call a son “Judas.” His very name is listed in the dictionary as a synonym for treachery. Mary and Judas are seen in contrast in —“The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot.” “A good name is better than precious ointment,” says ; and Mary had both.
gives the impression that immediately after this rebuke, Judas went to the priests and bargained to deliver Jesus into their hands. But it is likely that the events recorded in Matthew 21–25 took place first. No doubt the Lord’s rebuke of Judas at Bethany played an important part in his decision actually to betray Jesus. Also, the fact that Jesus once again openly announced His death would motivate Judas to escape while the opportunity was there.
As we look at this event, we see some “representative people” who are examples to us. Martha represents work as she served the dinner she had prepared for the Lord. This was just as much a “fragrant offering” as was Mary’s ointment (see ). Mary represents worship, and Lazarus represents witness (). People went to Bethany just to be able to see this man who had been raised from the dead!
As mentioned we have no recorded words from Lazarus in the New Testament, but his miraculous life was an effective witness for Jesus Christ. (In contrast, John the Baptist did no miracles, yet his words brought people to Jesus. See .) We today ought to “walk in newness of life” () because we have been “raised from the dead” (; ). Actually, the Christian life ought to be a beautiful balance of worship, work, and witness.
But the fact that Lazarus was a walking miracle put him into a place of danger: the Jewish leaders wanted to kill him as well as Jesus! Our Lord was right when He called them children of the devil, for they were murderers indeed (). They threw the healed blind man out of the synagogue rather than permit him to bear witness to Christ every Sabbath, and they tried to put Lazarus back into the tomb because he was leading people to faith in Christ. If you will not accept the evidence, you must try to get rid of it!
This quiet evening of fellowship—in spite of the cruel way the disciples treated Mary—must have brought special encouragement and strength to the Saviour’s heart as He faced the demands of that last week before the Cross. We should examine our own hearts and homes to ask whether we are bringing joy to His heart by our worship, work, and witness.
Jesus and the Passover Pilgrims ()
John shifted the scene from a quiet dinner in Bethany to a noisy public parade in Jerusalem. All four Gospels record this event and their accounts should be compared. This was the only “public demonstration” that our Lord allowed while He was ministering on earth. His purpose was to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy (). The result was a growing animosity on the part of the religious leaders, leading eventually to the crucifixion of the Saviour.
There were three different groups in the crowd that day: (1) the Passover visitors from outside Judea (, ); (2) the local people who had witnessed the raising of Lazarus (); and (3) the religious leaders who were greatly concerned about what Jesus might do at the feast (). At each of the different feasts, the people were in keen expectation, wondering if Jesus would be there and what He would do. It looked as though Jesus was actually seeking to incite a revolution and establish Himself as King, but that was not what He had in mind.
What did this event mean to Jesus? For one thing, it was a part of His obedience to the Father’s will. The Prophet Zechariah () prophesied that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem in that manner, and He fulfilled the prophecy. “Daughter of Zion” is another name for the city of Jerusalem (; , , ). Certainly Jesus was openly announcing to the people that He indeed is the King of Israel (), the promised Messiah. No doubt many of the pilgrims hoped that now He would defeat the Romans and set the nation of Israel free.
What did this demonstration mean to the Romans? Nothing is recorded about the Roman viewpoint, but it is certain that they kept a close watch that day. During the annual Passover feast, it was not uncommon for some of the Jewish nationalists to try to arouse the people; and perhaps they thought this parade was that kind of an event. I imagine that some of the Roman soldiers must have smiled at the “Triumphal Entry,” because it was nothing like their own “Roman triumph” celebrations in the city of Rome.
Whenever a Roman general was victorious on foreign soil, killing at least 5,000 of the enemy, and gaining new territory, he was given a “Roman triumph” when he returned to the city. It was the Roman equivalent of the American “ticker-tape parade,” only with much more splendor. The victor would be permitted to display the trophies he had won and the enemy leaders he had captured. The parade ended at the arena where some of the captives entertained the people by fighting wild beasts. Compared to a “Roman triumph,” our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem was nothing.
What did the “Triumphal Entry” mean to the people of Israel? The pilgrims welcomed Jesus, spread their garments before Him, and waved palm branches as symbols of peace and victory (). They quoted from , which is a messianic psalm; and they proclaimed Him the “King of Israel.” But while they were doing this, Jesus was weeping! ()
The name Jerusalem means “city of peace” or “foundation of peace”; and the people were hoping that Jesus would bring them the peace that they needed. However, He wept because He saw what lay ahead of the nation—war, suffering, destruction, and a scattered people. At His birth, the angels announced “peace on earth” (); but in His ministry Jesus announced “war on earth” (). It is significant that the crowds shouted “peace in heaven” (), because that is the only place where there is peace today!
The nation had wasted its opportunities; their leaders did not know the time of God’s visitation. They were ignorant of their own Scriptures. The next time Israel sees the King, the scene will be radically different! () He will come in glory, not in humility; and the armies of heaven will accompany Him. It will be a scene of victory as He comes to defeat His enemies and establish His kingdom.
It is a repeated theme in Scripture that there can be no glory unless first there is suffering. Jesus knew that He must die on the cross before He could enter into His glory (). The Jewish theologians were not clear in their minds concerning the sufferings of the Messiah and the glorious kingdom that the prophets announced. Some teachers held that there were two Messiahs, one who would suffer and one who would reign. Even our Lord’s own disciples were not clear as to what was going on (see ).
How did the Jewish leaders respond to the “Triumphal Entry” of the Lord? As they watched the great crowd gather and honor Jesus, the Pharisees were quite sure that Jesus had won the day. They were anticipating some kind of general revolt during the Passover season. Perhaps Jesus would perform a great miracle and in that way capture the minds and hearts of the restless people. How little they really understood the mind and heart of the Master! What they did not realize was that Jesus was “forcing their hand” so that the Sanhedrin would act during the feast. The Lamb of God had to give His life when the Passover lambs were being slain.
The statement, “Behold, the world is gone after Him!” () was both an exaggeration and a prophecy. In the next section, we meet some visitors from outside Israel.
Jesus and the Gentile Visitors ()
Following His entry into Jerusalem, our Lord cleansed the temple for the second time. He quoted and , “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer’? But ye have made it a den of thieves” (). Perhaps these Greeks heard that word and were encouraged by it.
One of John’s major themes is that Jesus is the Saviour of the world, not simply the Redeemer of Israel. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (). “For God so loved the world” (). The Samaritans rightly identified Him as “the Saviour of the world” (). He gave His life for the world and He gives life to the world (). He is the Light of the world (). The universal emphasis of John’s Gospel is too obvious to miss. Jesus will bring the “other sheep” who are outside the Jewish fold (; and see ).
The original text indicates that these Greeks “were accustomed to come and worship at the feast.” They were not curious visitors or one-time investigators. No doubt they were “God-fearers,” Gentiles who attended the Jewish synagogue and sought the truth, but who had not yet become proselytes. Gentiles came to see Jesus when He was a young child (Matt. 2), and now Gentiles came to see Him just before His death.
These men “kept asking” Philip for the privilege of an interview with Jesus. Philip finally told Andrew (who was often bringing people to Jesus), and Andrew gave the request to the Lord. No doubt there were many people who wanted private interviews with the Lord, but they were afraid of the Pharisees (). Being from out of the country, the Gentile visitors either did not know about the danger, or did not fear the consequences.
We can commend these Greeks for wanting to see Jesus. The Jews would say, “We would see a sign!” (; ) but these men said, “We would see [have an interview with] Jesus.” There is no record that Jesus did talk with these men, but the message that He gave in response contains truths that all of us need.
The central theme of this message is the glory of God (, ). We would have expected Jesus to say, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be crucified.” But Jesus saw beyond the cross to the glory that would follow (see ; ). In fact, the glory of God is an important theme in the remaining chapters of John’s Gospel (see ; ; , , , ).
Jesus used the image of a seed to illustrate the great spiritual truth that there can be no glory without suffering, no fruitful life without death, no victory without surrender. Of itself, a seed is weak and useless; but when it is planted, it “dies” and becomes fruitful. There is both beauty and bounty when a seed “dies” and fulfills its purpose. If a seed could talk, it would no doubt complain about being put into the cold, dark earth. But the only way it can achieve its goal is by being planted.
God’s children are like seeds. They are small and insignificant, but they have life in them, God’s life. However, that life can never be fulfilled unless we yield ourselves to God and permit Him to “plant us.” We must die to self so that we may live unto God (Rom. 6; ). The only way to have a fruitful life is to follow Jesus Christ in death, burial, and resurrection.
In these words, Jesus challenges us today to surrender our lives to Him. Note the contrasts: loneliness or fruitfulness; losing your life or keeping your life; serving self or serving Christ; pleasing self or receiving God’s honor.
I read about some Christians who visited a remote mission station to see how the ministry was going. As they watched the dedicated missionary team at work, they were impressed with their ministry, but admitted that they missed “civilization.”
“You certainly have buried yourself out here!” one of the visitors exclaimed.
“We haven’t buried ourselves,” the missionary replied. “We were planted!”
Our Lord knew that He was facing suffering and death, and His humanity responded to this ordeal. His soul was troubled, not because He was questioning the Father’s will, but because He was fully conscious of all that the Cross involved. Note that Jesus did not say, “What shall I do?” because He knew what He was ordained to do. He said, “What shall I say?” In the hour of suffering and surrender, there are only two prayers we can pray, either “Father, save me!” or “Father, glorify Thy name!”
In one of my radio messages, I made the statement, “God does not expect us to be comfortable, but He does expect us to be conformable.” No sooner had the program ended than my office phone rang and an anonymous listener wanted to argue with me about that statement.
“Conformable to what?” the voice thundered. “Haven’t you read —‘Be not conformed to this world’?”
“Sure I’ve read ,” I replied. “Have you read ? God has predestined us ‘to be conformed to the image of His Son.’ ”
After a long pause (I was glad he was paying the phone bill), he grunted and said, “OK.”
Comfortable or conformable: that is the question. If we are looking for comfortable lives, then we will protect our plans and desires, save our lives, and never be planted. But if we yield our lives and let God plant us, we will never be alone but will have the joy of being fruitful to the glory of God. “If any man [Jew or Greek] serve Me, let him follow Me.” This is the equivalent of and .
The prayer, “Father, glorify Thy name!” received a reply from heaven! God the Father spoke to His Son and gave Him a double assurance: the Son’s past life and ministry had glorified the Father, and the Son’s future suffering and death would glorify the Father. It is significant that the Father spoke to the Son at the beginning of the Son’s ministry (), as the Son began His journey to Jerusalem (), and now as the Son entered the last days before the Cross. God always gives that word of assurance to those who willingly suffer for His sake.
The people heard a sound but did not know the message that had been conveyed. Yet if the voice was for their sakes and they could not understand it, what good was it? In that the voice assured Jesus, who was to die for their sakes, the voice was for their good. They heard Him pray and they heard a sound from heaven in response to that prayer. That should have convinced them that Jesus was in touch with the Father. We might translate , “That voice came more for your sake than for Mine.”
Jesus then openly spoke about the Cross. It was an hour of judgment for the world and for Satan, the prince of the world. The death of Jesus Christ would seem like a victory for the wicked world, but it would really be a judgment of the world. On the cross, Jesus would defeat Satan and his world system (). Even though he is permitted to go to and fro on the earth, Satan is a defeated enemy. As we serve the Lord, we overcome the wicked one (). One day Satan shall be cast out of heaven (), and eventually he will be judged and imprisoned forever ().
We have met the phrase “lifted up” before (; ). Its basic meaning is crucifixion (note ), but it also carries the idea of glorification. “Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up, and greatly exalted” (,NASB). The Son of man was glorified by being crucified!
The phrase “all men” does not suggest universal salvation. It means “all people without distinction,” that is, Jews and Gentiles. He does not force them; He draws them (see ). He was “lifted up” that men might find the way (), know the truth (), and receive the life (). The cross reminds us that God loves a whole world and that the task of the church is to take the Gospel to the whole world.
The people did not understand what He was teaching. They knew that “Son of man” was a title for Messiah, but they could not understand why Messiah would be crucified! Did not the Old Testament teach that the Messiah would live forever? (See ; ; ; .)
But that was no time to be discussing the fine points of theology! It was an hour of crisis (see , where the Greek word krisis means judgment) and an hour of opportunity. The light was shining and they had better take advantage of their opportunity to be saved! We have met this image of light and darkness before (; ; ; ). By a simple step of faith, these people could have passed out of spiritual darkness and into the light of salvation.
This marked the end of our Lord’s public ministry as far as John’s record is concerned. Jesus departed and hid Himself. It was judgment on the nation that saw His miracles, heard His messages, and scrutinized His ministry, and yet refused to believe on Him.
The key word in this section is believe; it is used eight times. First, John explained the unbelief of the people. They would not believe (, with a quotation from ); they could not believe (); and they should not believe (, with a quotation from ).
In spite of all the clear evidence that was presented to them, the nation would not believe. The “arm of the Lord” had been revealed to them in great power, yet they closed their eyes to the truth. They had heard the message (“report”) and seen the miracles, and yet would not believe.
When a person starts to resist the light, something begins to change within him; and he comes to the place where he cannot believe. There is “judicial blindness” that God permits to come over the eyes of people who do not take the truth seriously. (This quotation is found in a number of places in the New Testament. See ; ; ; ; .) It is a serious thing to treat God’s truth lightly, for a person could well miss his opportunity to be saved. “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near” ().
There were those who would not believe, and there were those who would not openly confess Christ even though they had believed (). Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea belonged to this group initially, but eventually came out openly in their confession of Christ (). In the early church, there were numbers of Pharisees () and even priests (). It was the old struggle between the glory of God and the praise of men (). It was a costly thing to be excommunicated (), and these “secret believers” wanted the best of both worlds. note in this regard.
In we have our Lord’s last message before He “hid Himself” from the people. Again, the emphasis was on faith. A number of the basic themes in John’s Gospel run through this message: God sent the Son; to see the Son means to see the Father; Jesus is the Light of the world; His words are the very words of God; faith in Him brings salvation; to reject Him is to face eternal judgment. In fact, the very Word that He spoke will judge those who have rejected it and Him!
It is an awesome thought that the unbeliever will face at the judgment every bit of Scripture he has ever read or heard. The very Word that he rejects becomes his judge! Why? Because the written Word points to the Living Word, Jesus Christ ().
Many people reject the truth simply because of the fear of man (). Among those who will be in hell are “the fearful” (). Better to fear God and go to heaven than to fear men and go to hell!
The word judge is repeated four times in the closing words of this message, and a solemn word it is. Jesus did not come to judge; He came to save (; ). But if the sinner will not trust the Saviour, the Saviour must become the Judge. The sinner is actually passing judgment on himself, not on the Lord!
As you have studied these twelve chapters of the Gospel of John, you have seen Jesus Christ in His life, His ministry, His miracles, His message, and His desire to save lost sinners.
You have considered the evidence. Have you come to the conviction that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God, the Saviour of the world?
Have you trusted Him and received everlasting life?
“While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light” (, NKJV).
Three times in my ministry I have had to deliver “farewell messages” to congregations I had served, and it is not an easy thing to do. I may not have succeeded, but my purpose was always to prepare them for the future. This included warning as well as instruction. They would call a new pastor and enter into a new phase of ministry, and I wanted them to be at their best.
John 13–17 is our Lord’s “farewell message” to His beloved disciples, climaxing with His intercessory prayer for them and for us. Other farewell addresses in Scripture were delivered by Moses (Deut. 31–33), Joshua (Josh. 23–24), and Paul (Acts 20). However, Jesus added a significant “action section” to His message when He washed His disciples’ feet. It was an object lesson they would never forget.
In this passage, we see our Lord in a fourfold relationship: to His Heavenly Father (), to Simon Peter (), to all of the disciples (), and to Judas (). In each of these sections of John’s Gospel, you will discover a special message, a spiritual truth to help you in your own Christian life.
Humility: Jesus and the Father ()
Jesus had entered Jerusalem on Sunday, and on Monday had cleansed the temple. Tuesday was a day of conflict as the religious leaders sought to trip Him up and get evidence to arrest Him. These events are recorded in Matthew 21–25. Wednesday was probably a day of rest, but on Thursday He met in the Upper Room with His disciples in order to observe Passover.
The emphasis in is on what our Lord knew, and in on what our Lord did.
Jesus knew that “His hour was come.” More than any of the Gospel writers, John emphasized the fact that Jesus lived on a “heavenly timetable” as He did the Father’s will. Note the development of this theme:
—“The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified.”
—“Jesus knew that His hour was come.”
What was this divinely appointed “hour”? It was the time when He would be glorified through His death, resurrection, and ascension. From the human point of view, it meant suffering; but from the divine point of view, it meant glory. He would soon leave this world and return to the Father who sent Him, Jesus having finished His work on earth (). When the servant of God is in the will of God, he is immortal until his work is done. They could not even arrest Jesus, let alone kill Him, until the right hour had arrived.
Jesus also knew that Judas would betray Him. Judas is mentioned eight times in John’s Gospel, more than in any of the other Gospels. Satan had entered into Judas (), and now he would give him the necessary thought to bring about the arrest and crucifixion of the Son of God. The word translated “put” in literally means “to throw.” It reminds us of the fiery darts of the wicked one (). Judas was an unbeliever (), so he did not have a “shield of faith” to use to ward off Satan’s attacks.
Finally, Jesus knew that the Father had given Him all things (). This statement parallels , and it also reminds us of . Even in His humiliation, our Lord had all things through His Father. He was poor and yet He was rich. Because Jesus knew who He was, where He came from, what He had, and where He was going, He was complete master of the situation. You and I as believers know that we have been born of God, that we are one day going to God, and that in Christ we have all things; therefore, we ought to be able to follow our Lord’s example and serve others.
What Jesus knew helped determine what Jesus did (). The disciples must have been shocked when they saw their Master rise from supper, lay aside His outer garments, wrap a towel around His waist, take a basin of water, and wash their feet. Jewish servants did not wash their masters’ feet, though Gentile slaves might do it. It was a menial task, and yet Jesus did it! As a special mark of affection, a host or hostess might wash a guest’s feet, but it was not standard operating procedure in most homes.
Jesus knew that there was a competitive spirit in the hearts of His disciples. In fact, within a few minutes, the men were disputing over which of them was the greatest (). He gave them an unforgettable lesson in humility, and by His actions rebuked their selfishness and pride. The more you think about this scene, the more profound it becomes. It is certainly an illustration of what Paul wrote years later in . Peter must have recalled the event when he wrote his first epistle and urged his readers to “be clothed with humility” ().
Too often we confuse “the poor in spirit” () with the “poor-spirited,” and true humility with timidity and inferiority. The British literary giant Samuel Johnson was once asked to prepare a funeral sermon for a girl who had died, and he asked what her special virtues were. He was told that she was kind to her inferiors. Johnson replied that this was commendable, but that it would be difficult to determine who her inferiors were!
The Father had put all things into the Son’s hands, yet Jesus picked up a towel and a basin! His humility was not born of poverty, but of riches. He was rich, yet He became poor (). A Malay proverb says, “The fuller the ear is of rice-grain, the lower it bends.”
It is remarkable how the Gospel of John reveals the humility of our Lord even while magnifying His deity: “The Son can do nothing of Himself” (, ). “For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will” (). “My doctrine is not Mine” (). “And I seek not Mine own glory” (). “The word which ye hear is not Mine” (). His ultimate expression of humility was His death on the cross.
Jesus was the Sovereign, yet He took the place of a servant. He had all things in His hands, yet He picked up a towel. He was Lord and Master, yet He served His followers. It has well been said that humility is not thinking meanly of yourself; it is simply not thinking of yourself at all. True humility grows out of our relationship with the Father. If our desire is to know and do the Father’s will so that we might glorify His name, then we will experience the joy of following Christ’s example and serving others.
We today, just like the disciples that night, desperately need this lesson on humility. The church is filled with a worldly spirit of competition and criticism as believers vie with one another to see who is the greatest. We are growing in knowledge, but not in grace (see ). “Humility is the only soil in which the graces root,” wrote Andrew Murray. “The lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure.”
Jesus served His disciples because of His humility and because of His love. Contrast with and : Jesus came “unto His own [world], and His own [people] received him not.” “For God so loved the world.” In the Upper Room, Jesus ministered in love to His own disciples, and they received Him and what He had to say. The Greek text says, “He loved them to the uttermost.”
As Peter watched the Lord wash his friends’ feet, he became more and more disturbed and could not understand what He was doing. As you read the life of Christ in the Gospels, you cannot help but notice how Peter often spoke impulsively out of his ignorance and had to be corrected by Jesus. Peter opposed Jesus going to the cross (), and he tried to manage our Lord’s affairs at the Transfiguration (). He expressed the faith of the disciples () without realizing that one of the number was a traitor.
The word translated “wash” in , , , and is nipto and means “to wash a part of the body.” But the word translated “washed” in is louo and means “to bathe all over.” The distinction is important, for Jesus was trying to teach His disciples the importance of a holy walk.
When the sinner trusts the Saviour, he is “bathed all over” and his sins are washed away and forgiven (see ; ; and ). “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (). However, as the believer walks in this world, it is easy to become defiled. He does not need to be bathed all over again; he simply needs to have that defilement cleansed away. God promises to cleanse us when we confess our sins to Him ().
But why is it so important that we “keep our feet clean”? Because if we are defiled, we cannot have communion with our Lord. “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me” (). The word translated “part” is meros, and it carries the meaning here of “participation, having a share in someone or something.” When God “bathes us all over” in salvation, He brings about our union with Christ; and that is a settled relationship that cannot change. (The verb wash in is in the perfect tense. It is settled once and for all.) However, our communion with Christ depends on our keeping ourselves “unspotted from the world” (). If we permit unconfessed sin in our lives, we hinder our walk with the Lord; and that is when we need to have our feet washed.
This basic truth of Christian living is beautifully illustrated in the Old Testament priesthood. When the priest was consecrated, he was bathed all over (), and that experience was never repeated. However, during his daily ministry, he became defiled; so it was necessary that he wash his hands and feet at the brass laver in the courtyard (). Only then could he enter the holy place and trim the lamps, eat the holy bread, or burn the incense.
The Lord cleanses us through the blood of Christ, that is, His work on the cross (), and through the application of His Word to our lives (; ; ). The “water of the Word” can keep our hearts and minds clean so that we will avoid the pollutions of this world. But if we do sin, we have a loving Advocate in glory who will hear our prayers of confession and forgive us ().
Peter did not understand what his Lord was doing; but instead of waiting for an explanation, he impulsively tried to tell the Lord what to do. There is a strong double negative in . The Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest translated Peter’s statement, “You shall by no means wash my feet, no, never” (WUEST). Peter really meant it! Then when he discovered that to refuse the Lord would mean to lose the Lord’s fellowship, he went in the opposite direction and asked for a complete bath!
We can learn an important lesson from Peter: don’t question the Lord’s will or work, and don’t try to change it. He knows what He is doing. Peter had a difficult time accepting Christ’s ministry to him because Peter was not yet ready to minister to the other disciples. It takes humility and grace to serve others, but it also takes humility and grace to allow others to serve us. The beautiful thing about a submissive spirit is that it can both give and receive to the glory of God.
John was careful to point out that Peter and Judas were in a different relationship with Jesus. Yes, Jesus washed Judas’ feet! But it did Judas no good because he had not been bathed all over. Some people teach that Judas was a saved man who sinned away his salvation, but that is not what Jesus said. Our Lord made it very clear that Judas had never been cleansed from his sins and was an unbeliever ().
It is a wonderful thing to deepen your fellowship with the Lord. The important thing is to be honest with Him and with ourselves and keep our feet clean.
Happiness: Jesus and the Disciples ()
is the key—“If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” The sequence is important: humbleness, holiness, then happiness. Aristotle defined happiness as “good fortune joined to virtue … a life that is both agreeable and secure.” That might do for a philosopher, but it will never do for a Christian believer! Happiness is the by-product of a life that is lived in the will of God. When we humbly serve others, walk in God’s paths of holiness, and do what He tells us, then we will enjoy happiness.
Jesus asked the disciples if they understood what He had done, and it is not likely that they did. So, He explained it: He had given them a lesson in humble service, an example for them to follow. The world thinks that happiness is the result of others serving us, but real joy comes when we serve others in the name of Christ. The world is constantly pursuing happiness, but that is like chasing a shadow: it is always just beyond your reach.
Jesus was their Master, so He had every right to command their service. Instead, He served them! He gave them an example of true Christian ministry. On more than one occasion during the previous three years, He had taught them lessons about humility and service; but now He had demonstrated the lesson to them. Perhaps the disciples remembered His lesson about the child (), or the rebuke He gave James and John when they asked for thrones (). Now it was all starting to fall into place.
The servant (slave) is not greater than his master; so, if the master becomes a slave, where does that put the slave? On the same level as the master! By becoming a servant, our Lord did not push us down: He lifted us up! He dignified sacrifice and service. You must keep in mind that the Romans had no use for humility, and the Greeks despised manual labor. Jesus combined these two when He washed the disciples’ feet.
The world asks, “How many people work for you?” but the Lord asks, “For how many people do you work?” When I was ministering at a conference in Kenya, an African believer shared one of their proverbs with me: “The chief is servant of all.” How true it is that we need leaders who will serve and servants who will lead. G.K. Chesterton said that a really great man is one who makes others feel great, and Jesus did this with His disciples by teaching them to serve.
However, it is not enough just to know this truth; we must put it into practice. makes it clear that the blessing comes in the doing of the Word, not the hearing. Wuest translates the last phrase in , “This man shall be prospered spiritually in his doing.” Even studying this section in John’s Gospel can stir us emotionally or enlighten us intellectually; but it cannot bless us spiritually until we do what Jesus told us to do. This is the only way to lasting happiness.
Be sure to keep these lessons in their proper sequence: humbleness, holiness, happiness. Submit to the Father, keep your life clean, and serve others. This is God’s formula for true spiritual joy.
A dark shadow now fell across the scene as Jesus dealt with Judas, the traitor. It is important to note that Judas was not a true believer; he was a hypocrite. He had never believed in Jesus (), he had not been bathed all over (), and he had not been among the chosen ones whom the Father gave to the Son ( and ). How close a person can come to salvation and yet be lost forever! Judas was even the treasurer of the group () and was certainly held in high regard by his fellow disciples.
At that hour, Jesus had two great concerns: to fulfill the Word of God () and to magnify the glory of God ().
The Scripture Jesus quoted was —“Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.” When David wrote the psalm, he was probably referring to his counselor Ahithophel, who turned traitor and joined Absalom’s rebellion (see 2 Sam. 15–17). It is significant that both Judas and Ahithophel committed suicide by hanging themselves (; ; ). However, Judas did not commit suicide in order to fulfill biblical prophecy, for that would make God the author of his sin. Judas was responsible for his own decisions, and those decisions fulfilled God’s Word.
Jesus was concerned that Judas’ treachery would not weaken His disciples’ faith. This is why He related it to the Word of God: when the disciples saw all of this fulfilled, it would make their faith stronger (see ). Judas had been disloyal, but He expected them to be loyal to Him and His cause. After all, He was God the Son sent by God the Father. They were Christ’s chosen representatives; to receive them would be the same as receiving the Father and the Son. What a privilege, to be ambassadors of the King!
The remarkable thing is that the others at the table with Jesus did not know that Judas was an unbeliever and a traitor. Up to the very hour of his treachery, Judas was protected by the Saviour whom he betrayed. Had Jesus openly revealed what He knew about Judas, it is likely that the men would have turned on him. Remember what Peter did to Malchus when soldiers came to take Jesus!
From the very beginning, Jesus knew what Judas would do (), but He did not compel him to do it. Judas was exposed to the same spiritual privileges as the other disciples, yet they did him no good. The same sun that melts the ice only hardens the clay. In spite of all that our Lord said about money, and all of His warning about covetousness, Judas continued to be a thief and steal from the treasury. In spite of all our Lord’s warning about unbelief, Judas persisted in his rejection. Jesus even washed Judas’ feet! Yet his hard heart did not yield.
Jesus had spoken before about a traitor (), but the disciples did not take it to heart. Now when He spoke openly about it at the table, His disciples were perplexed.
Peter signaled to John, who was the closest to Jesus at the table, and asked him to find out who the traitor was. The Lord’s reply to John was certainly not heard by all the men; in fact, they were carrying on discussions among themselves about who the traitor might be (). When Jesus gave the bread to Judas, it was interpreted as an act of love and honor. In fact, Judas was seated at the place of honor, so our Lord’s actions were seen in that light: He was bestowing a special honor on Judas. No wonder, after Judas left the room, the disciples got into an argument over who was the greatest ().
John was no doubt stunned by this revelation, but before he could say or do anything, Jesus had sent Judas on his way. Even though Satan had entered Judas, it was Jesus who was in charge. He lived on the timetable given to Him by the Father, and He wanted to fulfill what was written in the Word. Since Judas was the treasurer, it was logical for the disciples to conclude that he had been sent on a special mission by the Lord. Judas had hypocritically expressed an interest in the poor (), so perhaps he was on an errand of mercy to help the poor.
Keep in mind that Judas knew what he was doing and that he did it deliberately. He had already met with the Jewish religious leaders and agreed to lead them to Jesus in such a way that there would not be any public disturbance (Luke 21:37–22:6). He heard Jesus say, “Woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It had been good for that man if he had not been born!” () Yet, he persisted in his unbelief and treachery.
John’s little phrase “and it was night” carries a tremendous impact when you remember that light and darkness are important spiritual images in his Gospel. Jesus is the Light of the world (), but Judas rejected Jesus and went out into darkness; and for Judas, it is still night! Those who do evil hate the light (). Our Lord’s warning in went unheeded by Judas—and it goes unheeded by lost sinners today, people who will go where Judas went unless they repent and trust the Saviour.
The instant Judas was gone, the atmosphere was cleared, and Jesus began to instruct His disciples and prepare them for His crucifixion and His ultimate return to heaven. It was after Judas’ departure that He instituted the Lord’s Supper, something that Judas as an unbeliever certainly could not share. Judas was out in the night, controlled by the prince of darkness, Satan; but Jesus was in the light, sharing love and truth with His beloved disciples. What a contrast!
The theme now changes to the glory of God (). From the human perspective, the death of Christ was a dastardly deed involving unspeakable suffering and humiliation; but from the divine perspective it was the revelation of the glory of God. “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified” (). Twelve times in this Gospel, the title “Son of man” appears, and this one in is the final instance. identifies this title as messianic, and Jesus sometimes used it this way ().
What did it mean for Jesus to glorify the Father? He tells us in His prayer: “I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do” (). This is the way all of us glorify God, by faithfully doing what He calls us to do. In our Lord’s case, the Father’s will was that the Son die for lost sinners, be raised from the dead, and then ascend to heaven. The Son glorified the Father and the Father glorified the Son (, ).
There would come a time when the Son would be glorified in these disciples (), but they could not follow Him at that time. Peter boasted that he would follow the Lord even to death (), but unfortunately ended up denying Him three times.
Jesus had said to the Jews on two occasions that they would seek Him but not be able to find Him or follow Him (; ). Note that He did not tell His disciples that they would not be able to find Him, but He did say that to the unbelieving Jews. One day the believing disciples would go to be with Him (), and they would also see Him after His resurrection. But during this time of His suffering and death, it was important that they not try to follow Him.
I have heard eloquent sermons about the sin of Peter who “followed afar off” (), and the emphasis was that he should have followed nearer. The simple fact is that he should not have followed at all! The statement in is proof enough, and when you add (quoted from ) and our Lord’s words in , the evidence is conclusive. Because Peter disregarded this warning, he got into trouble.
The disciples’ responsibility was to love one another just as Christ had loved them. They would certainly need this love in the hours to follow, when their Master would be taken from them and their brave spokesman, Peter, would fail Him and them. In fact, all of them would fail, and the only thing that would bring them together would be their love for Christ and for each other.
The word love is used only twelve times in John 1–12, but in John 13–21 it is used forty-four times! It is a key word in Christ’s farewell sermon to His disciples, as well as a burden in His High Priestly Prayer (). The word new does not mean “new in time,” because love has been important to God’s people even from Old Testament times (see ). It means “new in experience, fresh.” It is the opposite of “worn out.” Love would take on a new meaning and power because of the death of Christ on the cross (). With the coming of the Holy Spirit, love would have a new power in their lives.
This section begins and ends with love: Jesus’ love for His own () and the disciples’ love for one another. It is love that is the true evidence that we belong to Jesus Christ. The church leader Tertullian (A.D. 155–220) quoted the pagans as saying of the Christians, “See how they love one another?” And how do we evidence that love? By doing what Jesus did: laying down our lives for the brethren (). And the way to start is by getting down and washing one another’s feet in sacrificial service.
John 13:36–14:31
This section opens and closes with our Lord’s loving admonition, “Let not your heart be troubled” (, ). We are not surprised that the Apostles were troubled. After all, Jesus had announced that one of them was a traitor, and then He warned Peter that he was going to deny his Lord three times. Self-confident Peter was certain that he could not only follow his Lord, but even die with Him and for Him. Alas, Peter did not know his own heart, nor do we really know our hearts, except for one thing: our hearts easily become troubled.
Perhaps the heaviest blow of all was the realization that Jesus was going to leave them (). Where was He going? Could they go with Him? How could they get where He was going? These were some of the perplexing questions that tumbled around in their minds and hearts and were tossed back and forth in their conversation at the table.
How did Jesus calm their troubled hearts? By giving them six wonderful assurances to lay hold of, assurances that we today may claim and thus enjoy untroubled hearts. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you may claim every single one of these assurances.
You Are Going to Heaven (John 13:36–14:6)
Jesus did not rebuke Peter for asking Him where He was going, but His reply was somewhat cryptic. One day Peter would “follow” Jesus to the cross (; ), and then he would follow Him to heaven. Tradition tells us that Peter was crucified, though he asked to be crucified head-downward because he did not feel worthy to die as his Master died.
Just as Peter was beginning to feel like a hero, Jesus announced that he himself would soon become a casualty. The message not only shocked Peter, but it also stunned the rest of the disciples. After all, if brave Peter denied the Lord, what hope was there for the rest of them? It was then that Jesus gave His message to calm their troubled hearts.
According to Jesus, heaven is a real place. It is not a product of religious imagination or the result of a psyched-up mentality, looking for “pie in the sky by and by.” Heaven is the place where God dwells and where Jesus sits today at the right hand of the Father. Heaven is described as a kingdom (), an inheritance (), a country (), a city (), and a home ().
The word Father is used fifty-three times in John 13–17. Heaven is “My Father’s house,” according to the Son of God. It is “home” for God’s children! Some years ago, a London newspaper held a contest to determine the best definition of “home.” The winning entry was, “Home is the place where you are treated the best and complain the most.” The poet Robert Frost said that home is the place that, when you arrive there, they have to take you in. A good definition!
The Greek word mone is translated “mansions” in and “abode” in . It simply means “rooms, abiding places,” so we must not think in terms of manor houses. It is unfortunate that some unbiblical songs have perpetuated the error that faithful Christians will have lovely mansions in glory, while worldly saints will have to be content with little cottages or even shacks. Jesus Christ is now preparing places for all true believers, and each place will be beautiful. When He was here on earth, Jesus was a carpenter (). Now that He has returned to glory, He is building a church on earth and a home for that church in heaven.
is a clear promise of our Lord’s return for His people. Some will go to heaven through the valley of the shadow of death, but those who are alive when Jesus returns will never see death (). They will be changed to be like Christ and will go to heaven ().
Since heaven is the Father’s house, it must be a place of love and joy. When the Apostle John tried to describe heaven, he almost ran out of symbols and comparisons! (Rev. 21–22) Finally, he listed the things that would not be there: death, sorrow, crying, pain, night, etc. What a wonderful home it will be—and we will enjoy it forever!
Thomas’ question revealed his keen desire to be with Jesus (see ), and this meant that he had to know where the Master was going and how he himself would get there. The Lord made it clear that He was going to the Father, and that He was the only way to the Father. Heaven is a real place, a loving place, and an exclusive place. Not everybody is going to heaven, but rather only those who have trusted Jesus Christ (see ; ).
Jesus does not simply teach the way or point the way; He is the way. In fact, “the Way” was one of the early names for the Christian faith (; , ; ; , ). Our Lord’s statement, “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,” wipes away any other proposed way to heaven—good works, religious ceremonies, costly gifts, etc. There is only one way, and that way is Jesus Christ.
How would this assurance of going to heaven help to calm the disciples’ troubled hearts? Dr. James M. Gray put it beautifully in a song he wrote years ago: “Who could mind the journey, when the road leads home?” The assurance of a heavenly home at the end of life’s road enables us to bear joyfully with the obstacles and battles along the way. It was this assurance that even encouraged our Lord, “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross” (). Paul had this truth in mind when he wrote, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” ().
You Know the Father Right Now ()
We do not have to wait until we enter heaven to get to know the Father. We can know Him today and receive from Him the spiritual resources we need to keep going when the days are difficult.
What does it mean to “know the Father”? The word know is used 141 times in John’s Gospel, but it does not always carry the same meaning. In fact, there are four different “levels” of knowing according to John. The lowest level is simply knowing a fact. The next level is to understand the truth behind that fact. However, you can know the fact and know the truth behind it and still be lost in your sins. The third level introduces relationship; “to know” means “to believe in a person and become related to him or her.” This is the way “know” is used in . In fact, in Scripture, “to know” is used of the most intimate relationship between man and wife ().
The fourth use of “know” means “to have a deeper relationship with a person, a deeper communion.” It was this level Paul was referring to when he wrote, “That I may know Him” (). Jesus will describe this deeper relationship in , so we will save any further comment until we deal with that section.
When Jesus said that knowing Him and seeing Him was the same as knowing and seeing the Father, He was claiming to be God. From now on, they would understand more and more about the Father, even though Jesus was leaving them.
I appreciate Philip’s desire to know the Father. He had come a long way since that day Jesus found him and called him (). The burning desire of every believer ought to be to know God better. We read and study the Word of God so that we might better know the God of the Word.
The Greek construction of the question in indicates that the Lord expected a yes answer from Philip: he did believe that Jesus was in the Father and the Father in Him. That being the case, Philip should have realized that the words of Jesus, as well as His works, came from the Father and revealed the Father. Believers today have not seen the Lord Jesus in the flesh (), but we do see Him and His works in the Word. The emphasis throughout John’s Gospel is that you cannot separate Christ’s words and works, for both come from the Father and reveal the Father.
The “believe” in is singular, for Jesus was addressing Philip; but in , it is plural and He addresses all of the disciples. The tense of both is “go on believing.” Let your faith grow!
Four hundred years before Christ was born, the Greek philosopher Plato wrote, “To find out the Father and Maker of all this universe is a hard task, and when we have found Him, to speak of Him to all men is impossible.” But Plato was wrong! We can know the Father and Maker of the universe, for Jesus Christ revealed Him to us. Why should our hearts be troubled when the Creator and Governor of the universe is our own Father?
The very Lord of heaven and earth is our Father (). There is no need for us to have troubled hearts, for He is in control.
You Have the Privilege of Prayer ()
“Why pray when you can worry?” asks a plaque that I have seen in many homes. One of the best remedies for a troubled heart is prayer.
“O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear;
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer.”
However, if God is going to answer our prayers and give us peace in our hearts, there are certain conditions that we must meet. In fact, the meeting of these conditions is a blessing in itself!
We must pray in faith (v. ). This is a promise for us to claim, and the claiming of it demands faith. The double “verily” assures us that this is a solemn announcement. The fact that Jesus did return to the Father is an encouragement, for there He is interceding for us. He will have more to say about this intercessory work later in His discourse.
The “greater works [things]” would apply initially to the Apostles who were given the power to perform special miracles as the credentials of their office (; ). These miracles were not greater in quality, for “the servant is not greater than his lord” (), but rather in scope and quantity. Peter preached one sermon and 3,000 sinners were converted in one day! The fact that ordinary people performed these signs made them even more wonderful and brought great glory to God ().
Of course, it is not the believer himself who does these “greater things”; it is God working in and through the believer: “The Lord working with them” (). “For it is God which worketh in you” (). Faith and works must always go together, for it is faith that releases the power of God in our lives.
Both love and obedience are part of effective prayer. “If I regard [see and approve] iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” ().
We do not obey the Lord simply because we want our prayers answered, somewhat like the attitude of a child just before Christmas. We obey Him because we love Him; and the more we obey Him, the more we experience His love. To “keep” His commandments means to value them, treasure them, guard them, and do them. “I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” ().
Believing prayer is wonderful medicine to soothe a troubled heart. Meditate on —and then put it into practice!
We must pray in Christ’s name (vv. ). This is not a “magic formula” that we automatically attach to our prayer requests, guaranteeing that God will answer. To ask anything of the Father, in the name of Jesus, means that we ask what Jesus would ask, what would please Him, and what would bring Him glory by furthering His work. When a friend says to you, “You may use my name!” he is handing you a great privilege as well as a tremendous responsibility.
The “whatsoever” in is qualified by all that God has revealed in His Word about prayer; likewise, the “anything” in . God is not giving us carte blanche; “in My name” is the controlling element. To know God’s name means to know His nature, what He is, and what He wants to do. God answers prayer in order to honor His name; therefore, prayer must be in His will (). The first request in “The Lord’s Prayer” is, “Hallowed be Thy name” (). Any request that does not glorify God’s name should not be asked in His name.
We must pray in loving obedience (v. ). When you love someone, you honor his or her name; and you would never use that name in a demeaning manner. Love is an important theme in the Gospel of John; it is used as a verb or noun a total of fifty-six times.