Jesus the Door, Jesus the Shepherd, ...

“The Door and the Good Shepherd”

(John 10:1-21, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 31, 2009)

John 10:1-21 See page 896 in your pew Bibles.

Q: How is Jesus the good Shepherd of His flock?

A: The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. (John 10:11)

God’s Sheepfold (1-5)

God has a plan. In that plan, Jesus has all the preeminence. If this were a play, Jesus would be playing more than one part. When God tells a story about what He is doing, it is not surprising that Jesus shows up everywhere. In John 10, we are the sheep, and Jesus is the Door to the place of safety, but he is also the Good Shepherd who leads us home.

Before we look at each of these ideas more carefully, it might help us to remember that this is all happening in God’s sheepfold. The sheepfold is the place where the sheep belong. You belong to God in a special way. There are those who would try to keep you from God. They would lead you in some other direction. They pretend to be shepherds of God’s sheep, but they are no such thing. They are thieves and robbers. They will not go into God’s sheepfold through the door of Jesus Christ, nor are they willing to suffer for the sheep. They are not genuine sheep themselves, and they are certainly not the one Good Shepherd of the sheep.

When we get to the final gathering place for God’s sheep, there will be no false Messiahs, false sheep, or troublers of the church there. Christ, through His final ascension into heaven, has been fully received into that place by God. He will open the gate for us, and we will be there with this Good Shepherd. We will hear His voice perfectly, and He will know us perfectly. He will call you by your name like He called Mary in the garden by name after His resurrection. He said, “Mary.” Then she knew Him. She said, “Rabboni,” which means “Teacher.” This is what it will be like for you. He will be your complete safety. You will not follow the voice of some false teacher there. You will know that all is well forever, and He will lead you in the right pathway.

It does not always feel that way right now. We are too easily swayed by an impressive voice, an overpowering intellect, an entertaining remark, or a winning personality. Any shepherd who would distract us from Christ and toward himself is not safe to follow. We need those who are continually bring us back to a voice better than their own, to a heart and a mind that is smarter and more faithful than any other, and to a person who is entirely true.

The Door of the Sheep (6-10)

This way of explaining spiritual truths by talking about a sheepfold, a door, and a shepherd is not that difficult for us to understand as readers of the New Testament, but when Jesus first teaches like this, the people listening are confused about what He is saying to them. Jesus goes on to explain these matters further, starting with why it is that He is the door of the sheep. It is through Christ that we enter into the place of safety and fruitful service. When we enter through the door of the Son of God, we are brought near to Him who can take us in and out, like sheep who are brought out to the place of nourishing food, and are brought in again for their security. The sheepfold door is a figure of speech to refer to the entryway into the salvation that is ours in Christ.

This picture of salvation is further developed because of the contrast of the danger of those who would enter by some other door, some false door. With the door of Jesus we have the fullness of life for which we were created. With some other door, like that represented by the Pharisees or by false Messiahs, we are too near to those who steal, kill, and destroy sheep. Jesus is the true door of the sheep.

The Shepherd of the Sheep (11-15)

Jesus is also the Shepherd of the sheep. We do not think of a door speaking, but a shepherd has a voice, a voice that is recognized by the sheep. The true sheep will listen to the Shepherd. But the Good Shepherd is more than a voice. His is a life that is laid down for the sheep. Jesus is ultimately referring to the cross here, but this laying down of His life for us is about more than His final act of obedience. Everything that Christ does in becoming man, and all of His suffering and humiliation is a laying down of His life for us. A hired hand would have quit long before the cross. As soon as he sees the wolf coming he runs away. The most substantial danger that is coming against us is the just anger of God because of our sin. Jesus sees that danger coming against us, and He puts His own life in the way in order to save us from the wrath of God.

He lays down His life for those He knows. Jesus says here, “I know my own and my own know me.” He is not just speaking of his original disciples and friends. He is talking about you. If you are his own child, then He knows you, and you know Him. We may feel that we know nothing of Christ, but if we are the sheep of the risen Lord, then He knows us, and we shall know Him. There will be this relationship of knowing between Jesus and His followers, just as there is a relationship of knowing between God the Father and God the Son.

The Charge of the Father and the Response of the Son (16-18)

This blessing of knowing Jesus and being known by Him was not something for Jewish believers alone. Jesus speaks here of “other sheep that are not of this fold.” He would bring these others into God’s sheepfold. This is what has happened over these many centuries. Through the translation of the Scriptures and the sending of those who would preach the Word, the good news of the Good Shepherd is being proclaimed in all kinds of places. Who is behind these many efforts? Jesus is. In speaking of these of these other sheep He says, “I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” He has made them all to be one flock with one Shepherd.

What is this Voice that we hear? It is not a secret word of hidden things, but a revelation of the most important love, the love of the Father for the Son in His sacrificial labors. Because the Father loves the Son in the Son’s giving up of His life for us, now we are loved by God in Him. Jesus received a charge, a call to arms, from His Father. He was charged with this sacred mission: to lay down His life in death, and then to pick it up again in resurrection. He had the authority to do this, and this is what He freely did for you.

A Division in Judaism (19-21)

These words added fuel to the fire of division among the various under-shepherds of Judaism who heard them that day. Some were incensed by the exclusive claims of Jesus, claims that they thought were outrageous, even insane. They insisted that Jesus was demon possessed. This group especially included those who were against Him for healing on the Sabbath and for His general lack of enslavement to the religious traditions of Pharisaic Judaism. These under-shepherds, claiming to represent God and Moses, would have vigorously kept people from following the one Good Shepherd of the Sheep. They hated the news that Jesus called good, the news that He would fulfill all of what the Scriptures had promised concerning the Messiah.

There were other under-shepherds there that day, even among their number. They were listening to the words of Jesus and considering the fact that He had opened the eyes of a blind man. Our passage ends with their question: “Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” Jesus was overturning works of evil everywhere. He was not on the team of Satan and His demonic host. Jesus was bringing life where there was death. Those who came to the conclusion that these words about the sheepfold, the door, and the shepherd were not the words of one who was oppressed by a demon were moving in the right direction. They were acting like true sheep, those who hear the voice of the Son of God, the Good Shepherd. Christian Judaism in the first century would have many such true shepherds, and their message would be about Jesus Christ, how He laid down His life for us, and how He picked it up again, and about what all that means for our hope of being in a place of perfect security and fruitfulness, hearing the voice of the Lamb of God, and following Him. Their conflict with Pharisaic Judaism was not a small dispute concerning ceremonial practices. They disagreed about Jesus.

Anytime someone would claim to be a minister of God, but would be unwilling to go through the door of Christ himself, or would insist on drawing people to his own voice, his own intellect, or his own personality rather than to Jesus, such a man is no minister of God at all. He is distracting people from the way of life, no matter how many interesting observations he may have about all kinds of things. Jesus is the only Good Shepherd. True under-shepherds lead people to Him. He laid down His life for us, and He picked it up again.

The way of Jesus Christ is not an evil way. It is not a self-righteous way. It is not a way of hate. It is not a way of fear. It is not a way that is first about us. It is a way that is a Door of life in a world of death. It is way of a Shepherd who knows His sheep by name. It is a way where we hear His voice in the Scriptures, we believe Him, and we follow Him. It is a way of love, love that is willing to suffer. It is a way of resurrection life, since God is not content with anything less than sharing the most pleasant place of sweet fellowship and freedom with His sheep. Every town needs at least one Door like that, a Door for those who will hear and follow the Good Shepherd.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What do we learn about Christ from the metaphors used here?

2. What does He reveal about false Christs and false teachers?

3. What are to we to understand about the agreement between the Father and the Son from these verses?

4. What are the key issues that will animate 1^st century Judaism after the death and resurrection of Jesus?

...Was Blind, But Now

“Who Sinned?”

(John 9:1-41, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 24, 2009)

John 9:1-41 See page 895 in your pew Bibles.

That the works of God might be displayed in him (1-12)

Much trouble has come into the world because of sin. Nonetheless, sin is not the first and highest cause of anything, even trouble. There is something bigger in the eternal purposes of God going on, something above sin, and above trouble, something that is so important that, in some sense, it necessitated sin entering into the world through Adam, and necessitated trouble coming into the world with sin. This greater intention of the Almighty is that the works of God would be displayed before the eyes of men, and that the healing power of the resurrection would take place somehow within men. Above all of this is the overwhelming greatness of God, a greatness that needs to be seen.

In John 9, one man born blind was healed. In order for a blind man to be healed by the Son of God, displaying some resurrection kingdom truths, it was necessary for there to be a blind man. In order for any kind of trouble to come into the world, including blindness, it was in some sense necessary for there to be a fall, and consequences of that fall. A son’s blindness is not first about his sin, or his parent’s sin, or even Adam’s sin. It is first about the work of God being displayed, the work of a God who intends to provide the perfect conclusion to the book of life. That book has had many chapters about brokenness and misery, but the story is not over yet. There are many things about that book that we do not understand, but we know that it has a lot to do with displaying the works of God. On that day so long ago when Jesus healed a man who was blind from birth, He displayed the work of God in that man, giving further proof for all who could see, that the Messiah was the Light of a new world that was now here in Him.

There were thousands of miracles that Jesus performed as a part of His public ministry. John picked seven of these and called them signs. These signs displayed something about Jesus, that He gives sight to the blind, and something about the kingdom, that it is a place where we finally see. We are very impressed with our own ability to create and to fix, but we cannot give sight to the blind by an act of our will. Jesus can do this, and He displayed this as a sign of His resurrection power. Even though the Lord performed these miracles with humility, the things that He did were increasingly dramatic. This was a big one. After this we have only the resurrection of His friend from the dead, and then His own resurrection from the dead. Do not be blind to the implications of these signs. They are a testimony to you. I am sure that there are great ophthalmologists who can do wonderful things to give people increased sight. There may even be those who can perform surgical procedures where a person who was born blind can actually see for the first time in his life. But no physician can make a man see by spitting on the ground, making some mud, putting it on the man’s eyes, and telling him to go and wash at a given place. To do that is an exercise of divine will. That’s what Jesus did, and there were many witnesses to the fact of this sign as we can tell from the trouble that fills this chapter. Do not allow yourself to yawn at this sign. Jesus gave sight to the blind, and that means something. What does it mean to see? Why is it such an appropriate display of the kingdom of God?

The Pharisees (13-34)

This healing was not the end of this man’s personal story. It seemed to be the beginning of controversy, and also the beginning of a progressively clearer yielding of this one man’s life to a Messiah who gives sight to the blind. When he was asked about the healing, he first said that it was the work of “the man called Jesus.” When he was later questioned by the Pharisees concerning the agent of this Sabbath healing, he said, “He is a prophet.” Finally, when he saw Jesus again at the end of the chapter, he acknowledged Him as the Messianic Son of Man, he called Him Lord, telling Him that he believed. There was a progression from spiritual blindness to spiritual sight.

The progression of the Pharisees was different. First there was the shock and disappointment that a man who did not keep their understanding of Sabbath traditions was able to do such amazing signs. Some of them seemed to entertain the possibility that Jesus might be from God, while others reacted vehemently against even the slightest consideration of such a position. Then they questioned the man’s parents, apparently hoping that this would all prove to be a false miracle, and that the man had not actually been blind before. By this point they had already agreed that anyone who confessed that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Finally they questioned him, and in something of a rage, they cast the healed man out and pronounced their own judgment upon him, that he was born in sin. Their progression was from a position of supposed spiritual sight to one of obvious spiritual blindness. They claimed to be the guides of the spiritually blind. They claimed that they had more than enough light to judge both the healed man and Jesus. They thought that they saw the right interpretation of the Law of God, and that they could settle any controversy. But they did not really see the Messiah or His kingdom at all.

Two questions seemed to be most troubling for them: the question of where Jesus came from, and the question of whether or not He was a sinner. Both of these are very serious questions to consider. Where did Jesus come from? Was Jesus a Galilean of questionable heritage, perhaps even the illegitimate child of very poor parents, or was He the Son of God made Son of Man? The Pharisees assumed the former, and Jesus knew Himself to be the latter. How about the second question: Was Jesus a sinner? If He was to fulfill His destiny, He could not sin, since to bear the weight of our sin for us He could not have any of His own sin. The Pharisees assumed that Jesus was a sinner because He did not follow their Sabbath traditions, and Jesus knew Himself to be sinless. Was the making of mud and applying it to the eyes of this man a violation of the Lord’s commandment to do no work on the Sabbath, or was it the perfect fulfillment of Sabbath, pointing to the coming eternal fullness in heaven, when the blind shall certainly see? The Pharisees took the first position and Jesus the second. If Jesus was truly the Messiah sent from heaven, then His understanding of what it meant to keep the Law of God was correct, and the traditions of the fathers concerning Sabbath-keeping and many other matters were wrong.

This healing was a new battle in an on-going war that the Pharisees very much wanted to win. Those who were firmly against Jesus were hoping to pressure the healed man to be an ally in their war against Jesus. This proved to be difficult. The man had been blind, and now he was able to see, and the reason for the change was obvious. Jesus did it. It was amazingly arrogant that the Pharisees imagined that this man would be a good witness against Jesus. They seemed to be unusually blind to such a gracious and miraculous sign of the resurrection Kingdom, as if their own wrong interpretations of the Law of God should be considered more glorious than the sight granted to Him by Jesus. They were convinced that they had the most wonderful spiritual vision as the self-authorized disciples of Moses, but they were strikingly blind to the real truths and proofs of the kingdom of God.

Take another look at what happened to the man who had been healed. (35-38)

As that battle intensifies throughout the chapter, we see more clearly the contrast between those charged with the spiritual oversight of Israel at the time of Jesus, and the Son of Man who came to save us. “Who sinned?” The Pharisees ultimately concluded that this man was born blind because he was steeped in sin from birth, that he was born in utter sin. The evidence was obvious to them, presumably because the man was born blind, and because he was not on their side. The odd thing is that they did not seem to recognize that since sin entered the world through one man, our forefather and representative Adam, all of us were born in utter sin. The Pharisees were included in this same sin-dead group. More than this, they were convinced that Jesus sinned in healing this man on the Sabbath. Jesus, the Son of Man, was clear about the fact that He had not sinned. Who has sinned? The sin-free group has only one Man in it, the God-Man Jesus Christ. The rest of the world is in the sin-dead group.

What can be done about sin? Notice how the Pharisees and Jesus treat this troubled man. They cast him out. That was their solution to the problem of sin. Did you see what Jesus did after he heard about this? He went looking for him, and he found him. He said to Him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He identified Himself as the Messiah with these words, “You have seen Him, and it is He who is speaking to you.” He heard the man’s words of faith, “Lord, I believe,” and He received the man’s worship. For the Pharisees the highest good came from people agreeing with and following their religious positions, particularly with regard to the outward matters of the Law. For Jesus, the Son of Man, the highest good came from the display of the works of God. He made the blind see, and then later received the free expression of true faith and worship from a man that He sought out and found.

Take another look at what happened to Jesus. (39-41)

The Pharisees were blind to the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. These leaders of God’s people had a surprisingly powerful hatred of His Son. With each episode in John’s gospel we are getting closer to the cross. To see the cross in all its healing power does require some spiritual vision. We need some spiritual sight to rightly answer the question of this chapter: “Who sinned?” The right answer: “I did, but Jesus did not, and that has made all the difference.” We need to see Jesus according to His Word. He has come from the Father, He is going to the Father, He has been victorious in His Messianic work, and our sins are forgiven.

Those who are able to see their own need, and can see Jesus more and more, however blind they might seem to others, are actually seeing things rightly. But those who imagine that they have peace with God through their own Sabbath observance, however scrupulous they may be in all of their religious tradition-keeping, are actually blind to the truth of God, and to the wonder of His power. They reject the Lord’s Messiah, and their guilt remains. But for those who are granted eyes to see the Christ as their only hope, their sins are forgiven, for they have believed in the One who is the Light of the world, and they see. The works of God are being displayed in them.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. Why was the man that Jesus healed born blind?

2. In what ways do we see evidence of increased spiritual sight in the man born blind?

3. How do the Pharisees display their spiritual blindness?

4. Who sinned, who did not sin, and why is the question significant?

How can we be truly free?

“Father”

(John 8:12-59, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 17, 2009)

John 8:12-59 ¹² Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." ¹³ So the Pharisees said to him, "You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true." ¹⁴ Jesus answered, "Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. ¹⁵ You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. ¹⁶ Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. ¹⁷ In your Law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. ¹⁸ I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me." ¹⁹ They said to him therefore, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also." ²⁰ These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come. ²¹ So he said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come." ²² So the Jews said, "Will he kill himself, since he says, 'Where I am going, you cannot come'?" ²³ He said to them, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. ²⁴ I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins." ²⁵ So they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. ²⁶ I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him." ²⁷ They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. ²⁸ So Jesus said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. ²⁹ And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him." ³⁰ As he was saying these things, many believed in him. ³¹ So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." ³³ They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?" ³⁴ Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵ The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷ I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. ³⁸ I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father." ³⁹ They answered him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing what Abraham did, ⁴⁰ but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. ⁴¹ You are doing what your father did." They said to him, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father- even God." ⁴² Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. ⁴³ Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. ⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. ⁴⁶ Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? ⁴⁷ Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God." ⁴⁸ The Jews answered him, "Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" ⁴⁹ Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰ Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. ⁵¹ Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." ⁵² The Jews said to him, "Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, 'If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.' ⁵³ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?" ⁵⁴ Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, 'He is our God.' ⁵⁵ But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad." ⁵⁷ So the Jews said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" ⁵⁸ Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." ⁵⁹ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

The Son of the Father (12-29)

In the previous chapter of John’s gospel, at the Feast of Tabernacles, that feast that celebrates God dwelling with His people, our Savior cried out in the temple in Jerusalem that whoever would believe in Him, out of his heart would flow rivers of living water. It is from the heavenly temple of God that a river of life flows. Jesus is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and He has promised that in Him we shall truly be the temple of the Holy Spirit, of which He is the Cornerstone. Here in John 8, Jesus says, “I am the Light of the world.” He also says that His being the Light of the world will mean something to those who are united to Him. We will walk in light, and have the light of life through our union with Him. In saying these things, Jesus identifies Himself publicly as much more than a teacher, or even a prophet. He is instructing anyone with ears to hear, that they should be spiritually united with Him, in order to share in the benefits of intimate connection with the One who is not only fully man, but also fully God.

When the Son of God came to save, He came to a world that was not universally willing to receive Him. As His claims concerning His identity became clearer to people, the antagonism of those who would not believe also became more obvious. At root, Jesus claimed to be true, and especially that He was true to the Father in the fullest meaning of those words. Those who rejected Him insisted that He was just plain false. He claimed that what He was saying was precisely what the Father would say, because these two are one. Their agreement was not a compromise by two differing parties, but the perfect eternal determination of the one voice of God. The mind of Jesus is the heavenly mind, the divine mind. He told those who were disturbed by His words, “Unless you believe that I-AM, you will die in your sins.” He also spoke of His being “lifted up,” without saying what those words meant on this occasion, though we learn exactly what they mean in John 12:32. What is clear here is that Jesus is definitively asserting that He always does the things that are pleasing to the Father. It is this sinless Son of God who would be lifted up on the cross to die for our sins. Unless you believe in Him, the perfectly obedient Servant of the Lord and the great I-AM, you will die in your sins. These are His own words, and we need to take them seriously.

The freedom of sons (30-32)

There were some, we are told, who believed in Him as He was saying these things. His instruction to them was clear and wonderfully simple. “Abide in my Word, and you are truly my disciples.” Many people may be interested in the Word of this Man who makes such great claims of connection with the Father, but some stay with that Word, and live in that Word, they settle their lives upon that Word, and they are called disciples, learners, followers of Jesus Christ. To them, Christ made a great promise. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

We were created to be free, but sin has made us slaves, and foolish slaves at that. Foolish slaves of sin think that they have reached the height of freedom when they are perfectly autonomous, free to choose what they want. Yet when they choose sin, they are not free at all. Real freedom comes through finding our place as servants of God, and even sons of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and then in pursuing the fullest obedience to God’s commandments from a heart that has been freed by God to willingly and eagerly do what we were created to do. The Agent of such a change of life in a human being can been none other than God Himself, but He indicates here that He does this work through people coming to know the truth as they hear and even abide in the Word of Christ.

Sons of Abraham? (33-55)

It is very plain that Jesus was insisting that God was His Father. Those who rejected this Word, made two claims about themselves. They first claimed that Abraham was their Father, and then insisted that God was their Father. Both of these claims were part of a larger effort to deny the claim of Jesus, that through His Word they could become free. Their response was very direct. As children of Abraham, and even children of God, they did not need Jesus of Nazareth to make them free. They already were free without any help from Him.

The problem with this claim of freedom is that our sin is a plain fact, and the one who sins is not really free, he is living a life against the will of the Father, because He is sinning against the Father. We can call that freedom, but it leads only to God’s judgment. To be eternally judged by God is not to be free. According to the fullest understanding of freedom, there is only one Man who is free in Himself, and that Man is Jesus Christ, because Jesus did not sin. The rest of us, after the fall of mankind, are by nature slaves of sin, even though we may be the most autonomous creatures on the face of the planet. We may do whatever we want, or perhaps we dream of doing whatever we want, and we think that makes us free. Yet we sin, and we are slaves of sin. Jesus was truly free, and only in Him can we call God our Father and find the true freedom of the sons of God that we were created to be.

This free Man became the Servant of the Lord to win our true freedom. He died for sin that was not His own. But in that death, He won for us freedom in Him. Just as we are the temple of God because He is the Temple of God, and we are the light of the world because He is the Light of the world, it is in freedom Christ that we are free.

If the enemies of Christ that day were really sons and followers of Abraham, and sons of followers of God, then they would have done what Abraham did. They would have heard the Word of God and believed. They showed themselves to be sons and followers of the devil, who rebelled against the Word of God. They needed the Son of God, the One who was so radically free of sin, to become a sin offering for them, to atone for their sins, in order that they might truly be free, but they would not hear Him and believe. They could not bear to hear His Word.

I-AM (56-59)

Abraham did not hate the Messiah to come. Abraham did not resent Melchizedek, the mysterious Christ-like figure of Genesis 14, the King of Righteousness, and the King of Peace who seemed to come out of nowhere. Abraham did not reject the Voice of God when God provided a Messiah-like ram in the thicket as a substitute for His Son Isaac. Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Jesus, because He knew that the Messiah was greater than Him. He believed, and it was counted to Him as righteousness.

When our Lord said to those against Him that day, “Before Abraham was, I-AM,” He stood on the truth that He not only knew Abraham, and that He knew God His Father, but that He was and is God forever. They got the point, so they picked up stones to stone Him as a blasphemer.

We hear the Word of this Jesus, and we rejoice with Abraham. We are content to be united with Him and to honor Him forever. Because He is the Son of God, we are sons of God through Him, for He was lifted up on the cross for our transgressions, and He was raised for our justification.

1. In what sense is Jesus the Son of the Father? What does that mean for us?

2. What does it mean to abide in the Word of Jesus Christ?

3. What is the difference between complete autonomy and perfect freedom? How does sin enslave us?

4. How can we (and others) be truly free?

Too Smart to Receive?

“Rivers of Living Water”

(John 7:1-52, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, May 3, 2009)

John 7:1-52 See page 892 in your pew Bibles.

³⁷ On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" ³⁹ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Dwelling with God and hearing from God (1-18)

As Jesus moved toward the cross, the controversy around Him grew. A major turning point in the opinion of even many of those who had once considered themselves to be His disciples came when He told them they needed to eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to have life. This was an escalation of a conversation where people who were already offended by His statement that He came down from heaven, now frankly admitted that His difficult words were too troubling for them to remain associated with Him. Nonetheless, it was not yet time for the cross. He escaped some of the day to day dangers of being too near Jerusalem by travelling around Galilee, not because He was afraid of death, but because His time had not yet come.

One problem with avoiding Jerusalem is that Jewish adult males were commanded by God’s Law to gather at the place of God’s choosing for three major religious feasts every year. The temple was that place, and it was in Jerusalem. One of these feasts was the culmination of the annual calendar, the Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles, which is associated with the idea of God dwelling with His people in a world of perfection forever. This is the Christian hope. If the facts of the faith seem strange to our ears on occasion, it way very well be that we are thinking about the world of our current observation as everything. This is not the case, and for centuries Israelites celebrated this final feast in their annual calendar as a sign that one day we would dwell with God forever, seeing the Lord, and hearing His voice. Jesus came in order to do what was necessary to secure that great hope. He tabernacled among us, taking on the tent of our mortal flesh, and winning for us a new resurrection dwelling with God. If we ignore that fact, the fact that we have a glorious and secure eternal destiny, we ignore the Christian hope.

The feast of Tabernacles, we are told, was at hand, so as a true worshipper of the Father, He went to Jerusalem according to the Law, but not on the same schedule as His brothers. They were trying to push Him to go to the feast for another reason, to make a name for Himself, to attend with the idea that this would be a way to prominence. They did not believe in Him, or they would have trusted Him to know the pathway to the fulfillment of His mission. They thought as the world thinks. The way of Jesus and His kingdom is different than the way of the world. Jesus travelled to glory through the cross, which is itself an indictment against the sin of the world. When He eventually went to Jerusalem for the feast, He went first as a private worshipper, not to win the approval of a crowd.

There was much discussion about Him at the feast. Somewhere in the middle of the eight days of Tabernacles, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. His teaching came from His Father. In this way He was very different from celebrated rabbis who studied the opinions of other teachers from the past and showed that their understanding was based on their research and their assent to the decisions of scholarly Jews. Jesus had an immediate Word from God in His teaching, and He boldly asserted that He had no falsehood in Himself.

I come from Him and I am going to Him. (19-36)

Not only was Jesus’ teaching absolutely true and directly from the Father, He also seemed to possess an immediate understanding of the opinions and motives of those who were listening to Him. He forthrightly confronted those who would not receive His Word. They were not Law-lovers and Law-keepers as they pretended, but they were violators of God’s Law who were actually seeking to kill Him, an innocent Man, and this because of His healing people on the Sabbath. Everyone agreed that to circumcise on the Sabbath was necessary work, and yet to heal the whole man was not allowed according to the traditions of the rabbis. Though the religious leaders taught based on these traditions, they had full trust in their own opinions, even when those traditions and opinions were at complete odds with the bold teaching of One who was performing the signs of the Messiah from the Scriptures.

It is easy to imagine that this situation was not only awkward, but full of significant tension. A Man was openly teaching who was generally known to be opposed by powerful people, and yet He was not being arrested. His miracles seem to be well known to everyone, but as the people judge Jesus, some find Him lacking in some detail of what they expect to be signs of Messiah. For example some apparently expect that Messiah will come in such a way that people will not know where He came from. Others insist that He will be known to have come from Bethlehem. In addition to all this, Jesus is talking about going away to Him who sent Him, and some of them are getting the distinct impression that it is the intention of Jesus to go to other Greek-speaking parts of the Roman Empire.

In an odd way, all this talk about where Jesus came from and where He is going is so appropriate for the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. Where does the Messiah dwell? When He comes, where does He come from? When He goes away, where will He go to? What role will the Messiah have in making it so that we can live in God’s house? Jesus is at the center of our every longing for the greatest home. Without Jesus and the cross, there could never have been any peace in that home. We needed Him to come to take away the danger of our being near a holy God. This could only have been accomplished through His death. Jesus came from heaven, and He was returning to heaven with the good news that we would now be able to dwell with God forever.

Jesus and the giving of the Spirit (37-39)

In the midst of all of this, on the last day of the Feast, Jesus stood up and cried out one of the most dramatic and meaningful sayings of His entire ministry. “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” We are told by the gospel writer that Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, whom those who would believe in Him were to receive.

The story of a healing river that is connected with the dwelling place of God is a story that starts in Eden, and finds its perfectly secure fulfillment in the new heavens and the new earth, described at the very end of the Bible. Along the way, the prophet Ezekiel is given a vision of what has to be a heavenly temple where God dwells. Proceeding out from under that temple is a healing river. (Read Ezekiel 47:1-12 and Revelation 21:22-22:7) Jesus is the Temple of God, and those who believe in Him are united with Him in His designation as the temple of the Holy Spirit. This heavenly hope is what Tabernacles was all about, and Jesus is saying to all who would hear, “If you want the glory of the life to come, come to me and drink. Not only will you get heaven’s river, that river will proceed from you, for you will be the temple of the Holy Spirit, together with all the church, of which I am the Cornerstone.”

Do you see the importance of what our Lord is saying here, and what the gospel-writer is teaching us? John tells us without any doubt that Jesus is speaking about the Holy Spirit, the Spirit which will be given to the church when the Son of Man is glorified at the right hand of the Father. Jesus is saying, not only that we will be given this heavenly gift, this river that proceeds from the Son of God, the Temple of the Holy Spirit. He says something in addition to this. For the one who believes in Jesus, as the Scripture has taught us about a future river of heaven that flows out of the heavenly temple, out of the believers’ hearts will flow rivers of living water. Here now, and in the life to come, believers will be used by God as the source of healing fruitfulness for others. This is part of what it means that not only is Jesus the Temple of the Holy Spirit, but that we also have the privilege of that designation in Him.

This was a very appropriate declaration by just the right Man, at just the right time, in just the right setting. It happens to be great news. Though we can hardly understand what it could all mean, we know that it is deeply good, that we are not only to be observers of the glory of God, but somehow participants in God’s glorious eternal work. This is what we want. We want peace, and we have it. We want life, and we have that too. But we also want to be useful, to be valuable, to be agents of blessedness, and it turns out that this is what we shall be.

Jesus’ declaration did not take away all of the trouble that was already swirling around His Name. Instead it caused the conflict to grow, since it was a conflict that could only end at the cross. Eventually His time would really come, the time of His atoning death for us, the time for His resurrection from the dead, the time for His ascension into heaven, where from the right hand of the Father, the Spirit of God would be poured out upon the church, and the New Testament temple of believing people would be born and would grow. This growth of the temple would happen with still more controversy.

There would continue to be men like Nicodemus who would question the rightness of persecuting the innocent, and there would continue to be those who would be ready to hurl curses and insults at anyone who showed any weakness in the direction of faith. Above all of them, there would be the true Rock of our salvation who will not be moved. He is an ever-determined Source of life-giving waters to His people. Do not lose sight of the spiritual life that Jesus gives to us. Do not abandon the Christian hope just to seem intelligent to men who believe a very unintelligent thing, that their own thinking is more reliable than the Bible. Consider the healing rivers of heaven. Remember that God will dwell with us forever. Remember that heaven is real.

This is the Christ. (40-52)

1. Why did Jesus not agree to go up to the Feast of Tabernacles according the plan of His brothers?

2. What is the point of the Feast of Tabernacles, and how is it fulfilled in Christ?

3. How does that help us to understand the statement that Jesus cried out at the end of the feast?

4. What is the spiritual life that Jesus gives?