John 5:28-30 - Do not be amazed

5:28

The Jewish leaders were outraged at Jesus’ claims, and the man in the street doesn’t expect Jesus to actually be God, but Jesus tells us not to be amazed at what He is saying. Yet it does seem amazing to us, why is this? It is because we have sinned against God. Right back in Genesis we read that we were created in the image of God, male and female. It is because we do not appreciate the wonderful purpose with which God created us, and we do not appreciate the utterly devastating effects that sin has had. Most of us think that there are some people who are utterly evil, but most of us aren’t that bad really. We only think that because we don’t appreciate what we would be like if we had not sinned.

But in Christ the work of sin is undone. Again, I would take “in their graves” metaphorically, referring to those who are dead in sin. The voice of Jesus has gone out and the dead hear it and are raised to life.

5:29

This verse is very interesting. Let’s look at it (and therefore obviously at the preceding verse as well as it is part of the same sentence!) in two ways.

First let’s look at it as referring to the resurrection at the end of time. It then says two very important things. First all will be raised. It is not just believers who are raised from the dead, this is something we often forget. The difference is what we are raised to, which is the second point: judgement. Those who have done good will rise to live, those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. Now we know from the rest of Scripture that this cannot be teaching a salvation by works. However, the notion that you can do what you like, believe in Jesus and still go to heaven is equally unbiblical. If we believe in Jesus (and this also involves repentance) we are born again and a work of transformation begins in our lives.

Now let’s look at it figuratively as speaking of those who are spiritually dead. Then this is referring to the response of people to the good news. Those who “do good” are then those who repent and believe. If we do this we will rise to live. We start to truly live the moment we first believe. This continues throughout our Christian life, and is brought to fulfilment at the last day when we will be either raised from the dead or, if we are still alive, transformed in the twinkling of an eye. If we reject the good news then we stand condemned (3:18). So under this interpretation doing good is believing the gospel, doing evil is rejecting it. Remember that Jesus was speaking to the Jewish leaders at this point, and they were heading down the “doing evil” route.

5:30

Jesus has just made several audacious claims about Himself, having the gift of life, being the judge of all etc. Now He adds vital words about all this being in submission to the Father. “By myself I can do nothing”. His judgements are based purely on what the Father says and does, so all His judgements will be just. As an aside, people frequently speak about Jesus saying do not judge others. This is true, but Jesus also speaks much about judgement, and judgement is a key attribute and function of Jesus. Jesus then says He lives and acts to please His Father, the one who sent Him.

Jesus is the perfect human being, and remember that we were all created in the image of God. Jesus shows us what we are meant to be like, and what we are meant to be. In our rebellion against God we seek to act and live independently. We will decide what is right and wrong without any reference to what God says, we say we don’t need God at all. And so all the consequences of sin follow. We need to live in perfect harmony with God, in perfect trust and obedience to Him.

John 5:25-27 - the dead will hear

5:25

We now get yet another “truly, truly”. Jesus tells us that a time is coming, and is indeed now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and live. I think we have to take this as referring to the spiritually dead, which includes everyone! Jesus did raise some people from the dead, most notably Lazarus, but he was only raised back to his normal life and died again later. And the resurrection will happen at the end of time. Conversely, spiritually dead people did hear and respond to the words of Jesus and began a new life. Zacheus is one example. They heard, believed and were changed. And this has been going on throughout the globe ever since.

We need to listen to the voice of the Son of God. Remember also that at the transfiguration God told them listen to Jesus (Matt 17:5). John’s gospel is different in form from the synoptic gospels, but its content is entirely consistent with the other gospels.

5:26

Scientists have studied the origin of life. You may have heard of the “primordial soup”. It is now widely recognised that we haven’t got a clue how life began. Periodically we hear of reports on the news of a planet or planets having been discovered that are similar to earth, with the implication that they may contain life. These reports actually just show how desperate we are. We do not know how life began, we do not know what the probability of life being created is. So the notion that if a planet is similar to earth then it might contain life is nothing more than hopeful guesswork.

There is One who is the source of life, the giver of life, and that is God Himself. The Father has life in Himself. He is the starting point, the fundamental truth. All the verses we have had so far have expressed how the Father has shared all things with the Son, and so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. That is why if we listen and believe Him we receive life. Remember that in Genesis God created by His word. The word of God is powerful.

5:27

As well as giving the Son the right to give life the Father has also given Him the right to judge. Too often we take a purely one dimensional view of Jesus, the world when it talks about Jesus focuses purely on His love and compassion. But Jesus is also about judgement. This is not just found in John’s gospel, Jesus talked a lot about judgement and hell in the synoptic gospels.

Here Jesus says that the reason the Father gave Him authority to judge was because He is the Son of Man. This is pointing back to Daniel 7:13,14. Prior to these verses in Daniel there has been the dream of the four beasts. These various beasts represent rebellion against God. Then Daniel sees a vision of a son of man “coming in the clouds from heaven”. The “Ancient of Days” (ie God) gave Him authority, glory and sovereign power. His kingdom was everlasting and is eternal. Jesus is this Son of Man.

As an aside, notice that the Father is always giving authority and power to others. He gives it to the Son, He also gave man authority over the earth. We rebelled and so lost authority, but we will reign with Jesus. The world speaks of God as being one holding onto power for His own sake, this is a lie of the devil, the truth is that God is a giving God.

John 5:23,24 - He who believes has life

5:23

Jesus continues with His provocative statements: “so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father”. Now just consider how blasphemous this statement would be if Jesus is not the Son of God, is not equal with the Father! The deity of Christ is not founded on a few obscure texts, but is the only sensible explanation of what the gospels tell us, and indeed of Jesus’ own words.

Moreover, if someone does not honour Jesus then they are not honouring the Father. Now this means that Jews who do not believe in Christ are not honouring God, no matter how devout they may be in other respects. And remember that the Pharisees were nothing if not devout. It is impossible to over-emphasise the importance of Jesus Christ.

5:24

Let’s just recap on what is going on here. Doing a book verse by verse is good, but the danger is that we look at each verse on its own, forgetting how it fits into the whole. So back in verse 18 Jesus was accused of making Himself equal with God. He was also accused of breaking the Sabbath, but that equality with God is now the big issue.

Jesus’ response was to say yes He is equal with the Father and to go on to expand on how He is equal with the Father. He does only what He sees the Father do. So He is equal but also submits to the Father. As an aside there is an important point about submission. Some people get very het up about wives submitting to husbands thinking it means wives are inferior. It does not. Submission does not imply inferiority. The Father loves the Son and shows Him all things, and this is only going to get greater.The Son gives life, just as the Father gives life. All judgement has been entrusted by the Father to the Son, and if we are going to honour the Father we must honour the Son.

Now we come to the implication of all this for us, and we get another “truly, truly”. If we hear the words of Christ and believe “Him who sent Me” then we have eternal life. Note that believing Jesus means believing the Father, the two are one and the same. If we do this we will not be judged and have passed from death to life.

This is amazing stuff. Jesus is the word of God and we had better listen to Him. If we reject Christ then we reject God.

John 5:21,22 - Given to the Son

5:21

This verse probably points to the raising of Lazarus, and later to the Son giving life to all who believe in Him. Now at this point there hadn’t been too much raising of the dead. There are one or two incidents in the Old Testament, but not many. The implication in this verse is that the Father gives life to whom He will. He is the source of life. In the same way the Son will give life to whom He will. The raising of Lazarus, and one or two other incidents, are examples of this, but they all point to the eternal life that Jesus gives. And it is Jesus who decides who gets this life. So often men argue as if God should be listening to us and taking our advice on the matter of who gets life. This is arrogant and stupid to the extreme.

5:22

This was a radical challenge to traditional Jewish teaching. They believed that the Father would judge everyone. Before we look more at what Jesus says here let’s just dwell on the fact that God is the judge of the whole world. A unique feature of the Old Testament is that God is the God of all the earth, He created all things, and everyone is accountable to Him. He was not a regional god, not a god for some people or certain aspects of life (eg fertility). He is Lord of all. Today we speak of something being “true for you”, or we see Christianity as just one religion among many. A favourite phrase of some atheists is that they believe in one less god than we do. This demonstrates a serious misunderstanding. The Lord is Lord of All, He is the One creator God.

Now back to what Jesus was saying. He challenged the traditional Jewish thinking in claiming that the Father has entrusted all judgement to the Son. When seeking to argue about the deity of Christ people will often look for “proof texts”, and this is all well and good. However, we should also look at the whole tenor of the New Testament. If Jesus was just a man, ie a man and nothing more, then how could the Father entrust all judgement to Him?

Again as an aside. We (including myself) often refer to God doing this or God doing that. Here in John we see much more of the Father doing this or doing that, the Son doing this or that, the Spirit doing this or that. There is relationship within the Godhead, God is personal, and this three times over! Maybe we need to dwell on this a bit more.

In the particular aspect here we see that God will judge the world, but it is carried out by the Father entrusting the judgement to the Son.

John 5:19,20 - Doing what the Father does

5:19

So many religious leaders today seem to equivocate when faced with a controversial issue. Jesus was not one of them, instead He proclaimed the truth all the more clearly. We see this pattern in several places in John’s gospel. an issue arises that upsets the Pharisees, Jesus responds by going even further down the line that they don’t like.

Here Jesus expands on His relationship with the Father. The importance and veracity of what He is about to say is emphasised by the “truly, truly”. Jesus can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing.

Jesus and the Father are one. They are distinct, but are completely united, working and living in perfect harmony. We get a taste of this in a good marriage, or whenever two or more people work together as one. Each is unique and distinct, but working together in harmony.

5:20

The Father and the Son are perfectly open with each other. The Father shows the Son all that He does. This is a demonstration or outworking of the love that the Father has for the Son. Later on in John we will see that the Father and the Son want to be one with us as they are with each other. The intended model for the relationship between God and us is one of openness. In Genesis we see that we were made in His image, there was fellowship between the God and man. Sin broke this relationship, from that point on we would rather hide from God, He is now seen as someone to fear (in the wrong way). But God’s plan has always been to restore that relationship. Later on He calls Abraham His friend and reveals His plans to Him (Gen 18:17).

The miracles that Jesus had already done were only the beginning. Greater things would happen. This could refer to later miracles, such as the feeding of the five thousand and the raising of Lazarus, and supremely to the resurrection.

John 5:16-18 - A time to work

5:16

The Jewish leaders were only focused on the “breaking of the Sabbath”, totally ignoring the miraculous healing. The things that Jesus “was doing” are the healing itself and telling the man to carry his mat and walk. Under the man made rules for the Sabbath you weren’t allowed to carry something “from one domain to another domain”. The nature of the persecution at this point is not made known, but we know where it ended up.

5:17

Jesus gave them an answer that was guaranteed to get Him into more trouble. “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I too am working”. There are two important aspects to this statement: one is the relationship between Jesus and God, and the other is the nature of the Sabbath. Jesus is calling God His Father, and is claiming a unique relationship with Him. Then in saying “I too am working” He is comparing Himself directly with the Father. So Jesus is very clearly saying that He is equal with the Father, that He is God.  In fact, it is a feature of John’s gospel that the relationship between Jesus and the Father is made most clear.

The Jews would not have used the term “My Father”, though they might have said “Our Father”. My Father indicated an intimacy that they felt was not right to claim, and indeed it would have been misleading for them to claim it, for they did not have that intimacy. Jesus could speak of that intimacy.

Now consider the “My Father is at work”. In Genesis 2:1,2 it says that God had completed His work and rested from His labours. So what are we to make of this phrase here? Pawson says that in the first six days God worked for Himself, and is now working for us. So He rested from working for Himself. Must admit I am not convinced by that argument. Rather I think it is a warning against taking things over literally. For what it is worth, I fall more into the old earth creationist/intelligent design camp in terms of my views on creation. Some young earth creationists argue that unless we take the days in Genesis 1 as 24 hour days we are somehow not taking the Bible seriously. I think this sort of thinking is without foundation.

So what are we to make of the fact that Jesus is working on the Sabbath? Well there are two key lessons. One is that the Sabbath is a day for healing and setting people free. The other, and the one brought out in this exchange, is that Jesus is God so He can do what He likes!

5:18

Verse 18 just makes it plain that it was a combination of the Sabbath issue and making Himself equal with God that was the reason for the Jews seeking to kill Him. In fact it says, “all the more to kill Him”. They were never keen on Jesus. Why was this? Jesus was good, and He did good. Those were the very reasons why they hated Him. His goodness exposed their sinfulness. In fact anyone who encounters Jesus will have their own sinfulness exposed. At that point we have a choice. We can seek to resist Jesus, or to run away from Him, as the religious leaders did. To do so is futile. Or we can humble ourselves and repent before the Lord. If we do that then we receive forgiveness and restoration.

John 5:11-15 -Stop sinning

5:11,12

The man tries to deflect the “blame”, saying that the man who healed him told him to take up his mat. Now why should the fact that Jesus had healed him be significant here? It is that it implied that this man was special, anointed by God, so he had some authority and the man was only obeying someone who had authority.

The Jewish leaders inquired as to who this man was that had healed him.  Notice that they are more interested in the fact that Jesus had told him to carry his mat than that He had healed him! We do need to be very careful that in seeking to protect the truth we do not end up sinning and so distorting the truth. It is so easy for us to do this.

5:13-15

The man had no idea who it was. Jesus had slipped away very quickly after healing the man. The man was no doubt so amazed that he could now walk that he hadn’t had time to inquire as to who Jesus was.

Later on Jesus found the man,and tells him “stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you”. Some see this as implying that the man’s condition was directly related to some particular sin, but the context doesn’t seem to really support this. When Jesus healed the paralysed man who had been lowered through a roof He contrasted saying “be healed” with forgiving sins. It seems to make more sense to take this as Jesus highlighting the really important matters. It was good that the man could now walk, but it would be no good if he just walked into hell! He needed to repent of his sins.

Now it is definitely not the case, and not Biblical, to say that all sickness are a direct result of sin. Equally it is unbiblical to say that sickness is never a direct result of sin. But today we have a tendency to venerate those who are suffering or the poor. Whether you are rich or poor, whether you are healthy or ill, you are still a sinner, and sin is your biggest problem.

The man then went and told the Jewish leaders who had healed him. Now why did Jesus act in this way? Was He trying to engineer confrontation with the Jewish leaders?

John 5:8-10 - Take up your mat and walk

5:8,9a

Jesus commanded him to get up, pick up his mat and walk. Now at one level this seems cruel. Suppose you saw a disabled person in a wheelchair and told them to get up and walk. What would others think? At best they would think you were heartless, mocking the person. At worst you might be arrested under some sort of discrimination or hate law. Jesus sometimes says the most unreasonable things to us. But what made it reasonable was that the man was immediately healed.

When Jesus spoke the words the man was immediately healed. Now it seems that the man did not demonstrate any faith at all. You  might say that he demonstrated faith in getting up and walking, but when Jesus uttered the command and he was healed I think it likely that the man would sense something happening to his body, something changing. Too often we portray having faith as an act of will in a “mind over matter” sense. This man was responding to what Jesus had done. When God speaks things change. When God speaks into our life we need to act on that change.

5:9b,10

A common theme to Jesus’ life was His conflict with the Pharisees and other religious leaders, and many of these focused on the Sabbath. In our day we have a tendency to just think the Pharisees were just a bunch of religious nuts. Now they were clearly wrong, for Jesus says they were, but let’s first try and understand their position a little. The Sabbath is clearly important. It is one of the ten commandments, the Sabbath principle is an important part of the Law, desecration of the Sabbath is frequently mentioned by the prophets. The nation had gone into exile in Babylon as a result of their complete disobedience to God. After the return from exile, and throughout the intertestamental period the Jews had slowly got the idea that they needed to be devoted to the One God. So the Pharisees were not just being daft in their consideration of the Sabbath as being important. However, in their zeal to protect and observe the Sabbath faithfully they had added all sorts of regulations, with very detailed rules on what one was and was not allowed to do on the Sabbath. In so doing they had ended up going against God! We need to be careful here, for we can go through the same process. We realise something is important to God, we then seek to protect it by our own methods, we end up adding all sorts of man-made rules with the result that we become enemies of God.

We should also look at our own attitude to the Sabbath. I think the majority of people fall into one of three camps, one have a vague sense that Sunday is important, but nothing more; some take a very legalistic approach, similar in some ways to the Pharisees; and some consider it to be no different from any other day at all. Probably the majority fall into the first of these categories. I do not believe we should take a legalistic approach to the Sabbath, but the Sabbath principle is still important.

Finally, we should note that Jesus saw the Sabbath as a day for healing people, for setting people free. If we get a right view of the Sabbath it can become a time for restoration.

John 5:5-7 - Do you want to be healed?

5:5,6

Jesus focused on one man in particular. This man had been there for thirty eight years, or at least he had been an invalid for thirty eight years, it doesn’t actually say how long he had been at the pool. However, the point is that his condition was long established and there was no natural cure for it.

The NIV says Jesus “learned” of the man’s condition, the Greek actually says Jesus “knew”. We have already seen two examples of Jesus having insight into people’s lives, with Nathanael (1:48) and the Samaritan woman, and this is probably another example. Jesus is fully human, as John’s gospel makes clear, and as John reemphasises in his first letter (1 John 4:2), but

He also exercises supernatural power. Now with the gifts of the Spirit there will be times when we too can exercise supernatural gifts.

Jesus asked the man “do you want to get well?” Some see psychological implications in this, ie did the man really want to get well or had be become so comfortable in his condition. Now this phenomena does happen often enough, but I don’t think there is much evidence that it is the case here. I think it is best just to take the question as a simple question, leading up to the fact that Jesus was going to heal him.

Now why did Jesus choose this particular man, when there were many others there. Maybe he had suffered the most, though that is pure speculation. Certainly there is no indication of faith from the man, nor of seeking Christ. If we try and find one “model” for who or how Jesus heals we are guaranteed to be wrong and to being unbiblical. On several occasions the person who gets healed seeks out Jesus, and on several occasions Jesus attributes the healing to their faith. So seeking and faith certainly can be useful, but they do not apply in every case. God is sovereign, and He will do what He will do.

5:7

The man was in a terrible predicament. Because of his condition he needed (at least by his thinking) to get into the pool when the water stirred so he could be healed, but because of his condition he was unable to get into the pool first. The so-called healing powers of the pool just mocked people. Before continuing with the main text, let’s consider for a moment,”did the pool actually heal people?”. Now we cannot answer that question with any definiteness. Given that people were still waiting by the pool it seems that there must have been something in it, or at least something that led people to believe there was something in it. If there was healing, was it godly? I suppose it might have been, but equally it might have been demonic, for it seemed to just taunt the majority of people.

Whatever the case, the man was in a situation that he seemed trapped in. When Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed the man could only see one way in which that could happen, going into the pool, and that seemed impossible. So often we find ourselves in situations where we feel trapped, our minds become blinkered, we see only one way out and that way is blocked. The prospect of a solution seems only to mock us. But when Jesus comes into the situation things change, there are other possibilities than the ones that we see. We need to our trust in Christ.

Born to rule - An sermon for election time!

A recent sermon of mine called Born to Rule

John 5:1-3(4) - Healing at the pool

5:1-3(4)

“Some time later”. We aren’t told exactly when this incident happened. It occurred in Jerusalem and at the time of “one of the Jewish festivals”. Again, we are not told which one. It was probably Passover, Pentecost or Tabernacles. The wider significance is on the length of Jesus’ ministry. There are three explicit mentions of Passover (2:13,23; 6:4 and the one towards the end of John, ef 11:55). If these are the only three that occurred during Jesus’ ministry then His ministry lasted 2-3 years, if there is a fourth then it lasted 3-4 years. I suspect John would have said it was Passover if that was indeed the festival, so Pentecost or Tabernacles is my best guess (but that is all it is!). John’s use of the phrase “Jewish festivals” implies that he expected there to be Gentiles among his readers.

Archaeological evidence of this pool has been found, and it in fact consisted of two pools. This explains why there are five colonnades: one at each side of the four sides, and one between the two pools.

It was believed that the pool had healing powers. Hence the “blind, lame and paralyzed” lay there, hoping to be healed. Christian healing meetings always attract people, as do other types of “faith healers”. Medical research always attracts a lot of financial support, herbal and alternative medicines are always popular. Some of these things do genuine good, others are at best questionable and at worst downright fraudulent. Yet we are so concerned about our health, and there are times when people have conditions about which we can do nothing. So these disabled people sought out this hope that offered.

If you look in your Bible you probably won’t find verse 4 in the main text (unless you are using KJV or NKJV), but you will find a footnote with it in. The reason is that verse 4 is not found in the best manuscripts, the earliest one it is found in dates from about 400 AD. It was probably added as an attempt to explain why people believed they could be healed. Even accepting the explanation given by verse 4, the pool was not that effective. It only “worked” from time to time, and even then only one person got healed. It is worth observing that in this whole incident Jesus only healed one person (or at least only one is recorded). Jesus did not always heal everyone, though He did often heal many.

John 4:49-54 - Healed

4:49,50

The official was no doubt feeling rather dismayed about all this. Now was not the time for a theological debate, he needed action! Jesus told him to go. Go is a command that Jesus often gives to us, and we usually do not welcome it. We rather someone else went! Or that things were done in a different way. But God commands us to go, either because He has or will give us the power to achieve whatever it is that needs achieving, or because He has already taken care of the matter. In this incident it was the latter case. Jesus announced that the man’s son would live. The official took Jesus at His word and departed. In fact he had little choice. He had put his trust in Jesus so to now refuse to do what Jesus said would have denied that trust. In fact it would have meant that he no longer had any hope, for Jesus was his only hope. We can find ourselves in the same quandary. We go to God for help, then do not get the answer we want. What do we do? Like the official here we have little choice. Just do as God says. We may not be utterly convinced, but that does not matter. Faith is not always glorious!

4:51-54

So the official went on his way, and while doing so his servants came out to meet him with good news that the boy was living. Often it is only as we take the steps of faith that God’s answer comes. We often have this daft notion that we have to feel full of faith. We don’t. There are times when we feel full of faith and peace, and these times are wonderful. But there are times when faith is mixed with doubt and uncertainty. What are we to do in those times? Act on the faith not the doubt.

The official inquired as to when the boy had got better and it was at precisely the time that Jesus had spoken to him. So the official and his household all believed. So we see that Jesus’ words about the people of Galilee needed to see a sign before they would believe were proved true.

This was the second sign Jesus performed in Galilee.

John 4:46-48 - Seeing and believing

4:46,47

Jesus returned to Cana. This was where He had turned water into wine, something the people would have already heard about, or actually been there. When we read the gospel accounts we need to remember the background, both immediate and longer term. It is a mistake to read them as if they happened in a vacuum, as an isolated incident.

A royal official had a son who was ill. He would probably have been a servant of Herod. The Greek implies that the son’s condition was ongoing and not a sudden falling ill. So when the official heard that Jesus was in town he went out to Him and begged Him to come and heal his son. The official was desperate, for his son was now close to death. As mentioned earlier, the seven miraculous signs dealt with in John’s gospel are in no way intended by John to be taken as the only ones Jesus did. They are given to teach a lesson. It is apparent that Jesus already had a reputation as a healer, which is why the official went out to Him.

4:48

Jesus knew that He was about to heal the boy. However, He had stern words for the people of Galilee. They needed to see signs and wonders before they would believe. This is in stark contrast to the people in Samaria who had believed without seeing any signs, apart from the “word of knowledge”. As mentioned in an earlier post, we need to be wary of people demanding miracles, or relying on miracles. Conversely, we should expect miracles. I listen to the program Unbelievable on Premier Christian Radio, a show that usually features debates between a Christian and a non-Christian. Several times the non-Christian demands to see a sign.

We should also note that although on several occasions Jesus made remarks like these He still did the miracles. Some people seem to see the miracles as primarily a sign. I am not sure that this is true. The miracles often do serve as a sign of who Jesus is, but they are also the outworking of Christ’s compassion for humanity.

John 4:43-45 - Welcomed in Galilee

4:43-45

After two conversations, the first with Nicodemus and the second with the unnamed Samaritan woman, we are back to action and the second miraculous sign. Now the seven sign miracles in John are not the only miracles that Jesus did, they are the ones that John used to get over his message. John himself says that Jesus did numerous miracles (20:30), and has already alluded to Jesus doing miracles other than those recorded in detail (2:23; 3:2; 4:45). John chose and ordered his material carefully in order to convey a message.

Now let us remind ourselves of one of John’s overriding purposes as it will help us to appreciate the importance of this section in chapter 4. The book was written “that you may believe” (20:31). And then remember the meeting with Thomas which closes with Jesus saying “blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed” (20:29).

Now to the current section. Jesus spent two days with the Samaritans then left for Galilee. Verse 44 is an aside saying that a prophet is not welcome in his home town. Matthew contains a similar statement (Matt 13:57), as does Luke (Lk 4:24). It seems a little odd that it says it here as Jesus does find faith. Indeed in verse 45 it says that they welcomed HIm. However, the faith that is shown is faith in a miracle worker, rather than faith in a prophet. People will often welcome what Jesus does, but when He challenges our lives there can be a quite different response. We find the same thing today. In the secular world there is at least a superficial welcome of Jesus as an example of love (listen to political leaders’ Christmas messages, for instance), but do not welcome Jesus’ teaching which challenges our society. Likewise, evangelistic meetings that rely purely on miracles need to be very careful (quite apart from the questionable veracity that can sometimes be an issue!). At the same time we also need to remember that miracles most definitely were a part of Jesus’ ministry and they were a part of the apostles’ ministry. We should expect miraculous things to happen, but as with all things we need to hold to the wonderful balance that the Bible has.

John 4:39-42 - We believe

4:39-42

Although the woman was almost certainly not highly thought of, and although she had only known Jesus a short while, and although her understanding was far from complete, many of the Samaritans believed. We do not need to have a perfect testimony in order for it to be effective. There are two things that make a testimony effective: the Holy Spirit, and the reality of God working in our lives. It was the fact that Jesus knew her that spoke to the woman.

So many Samaritans went to Jesus and asked Him to stay with them, so He did so for two days. Jesus spoke to them, though we are not told what He said to them. But whatever it was it was effective for many more believed in Him.

The Samaritans declared that they believed because they had heard directly from Jesus. All of us need a direct personal encounter with the Lord. They now knew that Jesus was the Saviour of the world. This is one of only two places (the other being 1 John 4:14) where this term is used.

In the whole incident from Jesus encountering the woman herself, and then His speaking to the other Samaritans, there is a key role of Jesus speaking personally to people. Sometimes “words of knowledge” get a bad press, and no doubt they can be misused, but a key feature of God’s dealing with people throughout the Bible is that He speaks personally to us, and genuine words of knowledge can help lead people to the Lord. Note also that the word from Jesus was effectively about her sin! Yet it was not given in a condemnatory way.

John 4:35-38 - Sowing and reaping

4:35-38

These verses contain a vital lesson on understanding the times and our place in them. It was probably some time in winter, so there was four months to go till harvesting. This would be a set conception in the disciples’ minds. However,Jesus had not come to give lessons on agriculture. They also had set conceptions on who could be saved, how people could be saved. And we all have similar fixed ideas. Jesus tells us that we need to get rid of these ideas. The Jews had written the Samaritans off, but Jesus had deliberately gone through the Samaritan territory, and people had come to believe, the very same people that the Jews had written off.

Why had this happened? Because God was doing things they knew nothing about. They had seen the compromise of the Samaritans, the rejection of Jerusalem. This was true, but God had also been doing other things. There was, as we saw with the woman, still an expectation of the Messiah, still some form of desire for God. It was hopelessly imperfect, but then that is true of all of us. Seeds had been planted, and now Jesus was reaping the harvest.

The disciples would do likewise. It is not clear what the immediate reference is in v38, but it may be the Galilean missionary trip that we read of in the synoptic gospels. However, the general point is clear. We need to realise that what we do is only a small part of a much bigger plan, and a plan that has been in operation for much longer than we have been around. And we need to appreciate the limit of our vision. Only when we realise how small we are can we do truly great things.

John 4:31-34 - Real food

4:31-33

See how the concerns of the Samaritan woman and the disciples were very similar. The woman started off by being concerned just about water, and about the division between the Jews and the Samaritans (and between men and women). The disciples were little different. They too were surprised that Jesus had been speaking to a Samaritan woman, and now we see they are concerned about food. We so easily get concerned about our daily needs. Now our daily needs do matter, but they need to have a right place in our lives, they should not be all consuming.

They had been on a long journey and the disciples were concerned about Jesus’ need for food. Similarly we can be concerned about things in the church that do matter, but are not the top priority. We need above all to worship God, to know Jesus, to know the truth, to proclaim the truth and to live the truth. Jesus tells them that He has something that they do not know about. The disciples thought it was a secret supply of food, but Jesus was talking about something much more important.

4:34

The number one priority of most of us is our daily needs. In those days it was food and clothing, in our day we just think about money. Jesus lived for something much more important, to do the will of His Father. This is what motivated Him and kept Him going. We need to be the same. All sorts of things will happen in our lives, happen to us personally, and to the nation that we live in. Our number one priority must be to love and serve the Lord, this must be what keeps us going. If we do this we will find that we are able to rise above circumstances and to get through all sorts of situations. If we are going through tough times at the moment then one of the things we should do is to focus on doing God’s will, on serving Him. I emphasise again that this does not mean our daily needs do not matter, God knows that we need, but they must not dominate our lives. Living for Jesus should dominate our lives. And when we do this we will find that our anxiety about other things strangely diminishes, and that needs somehow get met, problems somehow get overcome.

Like Jesus, we must aim to finish the work that the Lord has given us to do.

John 4:27-30 - Come, see a man

4:27

The disciples returned. They were puzzled, perhaps even a little scandalised at what Jesus had been doing. Why did He speak to a woman, and to a Samaritan woman at that? Jesus does not fit any of our stereotypes. We must never make an image of God, be it a physical image or a mental image, for that image will be a very poor representation, and in many ways hopelessly wrong. Moreover, when we make an image we are in control, we fashion and form it. But we need God to reveal Himself to us. He is the only one who can tell us what He is really like.

4:28-30

The woman left for two reasons. One, because the disciples had returned and she would not want to be with alone with an all male group; secondly to tell people what had happened. Prior to this she may well have been something of a recluse, someone who was not respectable, but now Jesus had come into her life. When Jesus comes into our life He restores our dignity, and when His life truly takes hold of ours we want to communicate it.

The thing that had struck her most about Jesus was that He told her “all that she ever did”. Clearly Jesus had not done this in a literal sense, but He had gone to the heart of her life. She apparently didn’t feel confident enough to say that Jesus was the Messiah, or maybe she couldn’t quite believe it herself. However, the people went out to see this Jesus. People want to know about Jesus when they see the effect He has on our lives.

John 4:24-26 - The Messiah

4:24

God is spirit. We are forever trying to reduce God to the level of our human understanding. The Samaritans had reduced God to this matter of where He should be worshipped. We might think this is silly, but we so easily do exactly the same. We say He should be worshipped in this way and not that way, hymns rather than songs, this building or that building, this form of service or that form of service. There are two things that matter, the spirit of a man and the truth of the what we do. Are our hearts submitted to God? Do we humble ourselves? Are we repentance? Are we trusting God? Are we loving God? Hymns or songs is largely irrelevant, what matters is do they express the truth about God, are they glorifying to Him?

4:25

Yet again the woman is maybe trying to deflect the issue by bringing up some part-truth. She knows that the Messiah will come, but will she respond when He does, for that moment is at hand. Or is she tentatively hoping that Jesus is the Messiah, is she inviting Him to say more?

Notice the significance of “he will tell us all things”. This is precisely what Jesus is doing about her life, telling her all about herself. When we encounter Jesus He tells us the truth about ourselves. And it is so important that we do not miss the moment when Jesus encounters us.

4:26

Jesus then reveals Himself to the woman. He states quite clearly that He is the Messiah. We all have hopes, things we long for. These can be personal, they can by cultural and communal, and a mixture of the two. Things we long for in our own lives, things we long for for our country or community. Usually we cannot quite express these things clearly, we are not quite sure what we want, but we know there must be something better than what we already have. Jesus used these thoughts in the build up. There was the woman’s personal situation as something of an outcast, no doubt partly her own fault, partly the working of the community. Then there was the Samaritan hope of a Messiah, and their national feelings of being an outcast. Into all this Jesus reveals who He is, someone much greater than all their hopes, more than fulfilling all their needs, but in a radically different way to what they expected.

Note that it was Jesus who made Himself known. He reveals Himself to us.

John 4:21-23 - Worshipping in Spirit and in truth

4:21

Jesus is not to be deflected. Nor does He get involved in this controversy. When we look at Jesus' discussions and arguments with people we see that He both refuses to get involved in pointless controversies, but equally is not afraid to go ahead on into the heart of the matter.

The argument between the Jews and the Samaritans would soon be absolutely no consequence. Negatively, Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. Positively, something far greater was occurring, Jesus Himself. Note also that He talks about worshipping the Father. The woman, and so often us, talk about worship as an abstract concept. It is not abstract, it is personal. It is personal in that in involves us, but also personal in that it involves the Father.

4:22,23

Jesus has just said that soon neither worshipping in Jerusalem nor the mountain would matter at all. Now He says that salvation comes from the Jews and that the Jews worship what they do know. We would do well to keep this balance as well. There are the extremes of those who think Israel can do no wrong and think there is a special salvation for Israel, and then those who think that Israel no longer has a special place in God's plans. We would be far better advised to take the balanced view that Scripture gives. The Bible is clear that the gospel grew out of the Jews.

The woman needed to focus on what really mattered. Worshipping the Father in Spirit and in truth was what counted. Turning our hearts towards God is what counts, as is truth.

Moreover, this is what the Father is seeking. Too often we are concerned with how we think someone should worship God. The real question is how does God think we should worship Him.