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The Living Water Throughout Time

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Living Water, Throughout Time

© 2022 C. O. Bishop

John 7:37-39 (compare Jeremiah 2:12, 13; Ezekiel 47:1-12; Psalm 46:4; John 4:14)

Introduction

We have talked about this subject, before: probably five years ago, but we need to address it again. There is a rather “obscure” concept brought up several times in the Old Testament, without much explanation. It is sometimes used in such a context that it seems it could have no particular spiritual interpretation.

In its most common usage, the literal meaning of the Old Testament phrase “living water,” is just “flowing water.” (In other words, a stream; not a stagnant pool, a bucket of water, or, as stated in Jeremiah 2:13, a cistern.) Often the people were told to wash something in living water, or to do some ritual “over living water.” In those cases, it seems the context would make “flowing water” the correct understanding. But how about in Jeremiah 2:12, 13?

12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. 13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

God says it was a “two-part” sin that Israel was committing. They turned away from God, who was the source of “living water.” And, they made for themselves cisterns…and (ironically,) the cisterns were cracked, and couldn’t even hold water! What is the comparison he is making?

“Living Water” or Cracked Cisterns?

The water in a cistern might have begun as clean rainwater, but it was caught on a roof, perhaps, and we funneled into that tank we call a cistern. Whatever debris was on the roof will hopefully be washed off before we begin channeling the water into the cistern, but traces will still be there. And, with time, whatever impurities were included will build up. If any of them were biological impurities, (bird-droppings, insects,bacteria, etc.,) they will multiply. That tank of water will be pretty unwholesome, and probably pretty unappealing.

So, when Jeremiah makes that comparison, he may only be saying that the LORD is a source of constantly replaced and completely healthful flowing water. In contrast, whatever is in the cistern is questionable at best. And, of course, even in that context, it is clear that He is not talking about ordinary “water,” but something of spiritual significance. Because of what we see in the rest of the Bible, it also seems that there must be a much deeper, much more significant meaning to the phrase “living water.” But whatever God is offering, it is far to be preferred over whatever they have stored up for themselves in their cracked cisterns.

The Power and Limitations of Living Water

In Ezekiel 47:1-12, (read it!) we see the vision Ezekiel was given regarding the temple in the Millennial kingdom. Water is flowing from under the altar, and one stream heads off to the east, toward the Dead Sea. On the way there, it cleanses everything it touches, and it produces Life everywhere it goes. The places that are not touched by this water remain lifeless and sterile, and remain a source of salt, but will not support life. But the Living Water flows all the way to the Dead Sea, and the Dead Sea is no longer Dead!  

What was once literally dead, with virtually nothing surviving there, is to be healed by these living waters, and not only will it be made “livable,” but it will swarm with life! It will be commercially fishable! So, a “picture” is beginning to appear, regarding the power and the limitations of “living water.”

Every piece of ground it touched was cleansed and began to produce life. Plants and trees grew all along the banks of this water. Fish could live where that water flowed. The water was clean and healthy to drink. But anywhere the water was not allowed to touch, that land remained unfruitful and dead.

So, what else do we know about that River coming out of Jerusalem?

The River From the Altar

Psalm 46:4 “There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.”

There is no question that this passage refers to the Temple. Probably the first thing to observe, then, is that, currently, there is no River flowing out of the Temple Mount. But, as we will see elsewhere, there will be such a river!

There is, however, a brook, off to the east, called the “Brook Kidron.” The name “Kidron” means “Turbid: thick with roiled sediment.” (Even the particular word translated “brook” means a choked creek in a narrow ravine…not a “pretty little stream, running across a lovely, sunny meadow.”) So, we have a tight little ravine, with a muddy creek running in the bottom of it, whose waters are “turbid: thick with roiled sediment.”

There is also a tributary to the Kidron, draining the valley of Hinnom, to the south of the city…which used to be the city garbage dump. It was the place they threw the carcasses of criminals and of unclean animals. That place was so foul that it became the “mental image of Hell,” to the Hebrew imagination. The place was called Gehenna, because everything about it was a picture of the eternal lostness of the unrighteous dead.

The Current Path of the Brook Kidron

So, the Brook Kidron flowed from somewhere between the Mount of Olives and Jerusalem, through a nasty, narrow ravine, down to the southeast corner of the old city, and it was joined there by whatever water drained Gehenna. Then it turned left and flowed pretty much straight to the Dead Sea, across salt-flats, marshes, and desert, but never producing much in the way of life. And, of course, once it reached the Dead Sea, there was no further life at all. The Dead sea has no outlets. Once the waters reached the Dead Sea, there was no way out of that “end-result.” I hope you are starting to see some “pictures,” here.

Throughout the Old Testament, we see that when the priests cleansed the temple, they threw the filth into the “brook Kidron.” When they broke down the idols, they threw the pieces into the brook Kidron. The Kidron seems to be a kind of  “Condemnation Creek;” it is joined by the drainage of their idea of hell: Gehenna, and then it winds its way across the desert, down to Eternal Death. In short, it is beginning to look a great deal like the condition of the Lost Human soul!

How does any of this apply to the question of Living Water?

Jesus offered the “Spring of Living Water”

In John 4:14, Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the City well, outside Sychar. He offered her a Spring; a source of Living Water, which He said, if she drank from it, would “well up unto eternal life.”

Initially, she was thoroughly confused by His offer. She wanted that water, but had no idea how to get it. But eventually, she believed in Him and found that she had drunk from that well. Does it say that, specifically? No; it says that she wanted to “drink from that well,” but she did not know what He meant. Afterward, it says that she and many others “believed on Jesus:” they placed their dependance on Him as their Messiah. And, here in John chapter seven, we are going to see what He meant.

“Come unto me and Drink”

In John 7:37-39, Jesus made a very public offer to “anyone who thirsts,” to come and drink.

“37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, {Pentecost! What a great connection!] Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Jesus said, “as the scripture hath said…” He may have been referring to Isaiah 58:11, where God promised that the people would be “like a well-watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” Or He could have meant the passage in Proverbs 10:11, saying that the “mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life.”

But He pulled together all the Old references to Living Water, in this verse, and was kind enough to let us know exactly what He meant, so that we are not coming up with “Human-tainted explanations” of all kinds. It says that he spoke regarding the Holy Spirit, “…which they that believe on Him should receive.”

How does this apply to the Old Testament Prophecies?

Two weeks ago, during Bible Study, we saw that the “best commentary on the Word of God is the Word of God.” In this case, in spite of the “etymological fact” that (in the Old Testament) the phrase“Living water” possibly “just means ‘flowing water’,” we can see that “flowing water” cannot possibly be what Jesus meant, here in John 7, nor in John 4, because He said it would result in a flowing spring from within the person, providing eternal life. (Plain old “flowing water” can’t do that!)

Possibly even the water in Ezekiel 47 has some special properties, though it does not specifically say so. Flowing from under the altar would seem to hint that it might, at least. And the fact that “everything lives, when touched by that water” seems to hint that way, too. That River will be flowing out of Jerusalem, during the Millennial Kingdom, fulfilling Psalm 46:4.

We also see, here in John 7:39, that Jesus was specifically referring to the indwelling Holy Spirit. That relationship between the Believer and the Holy Spirit did not begin as a “normal” state of affairs until the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. With that explanatory note, let’s go back and look at the other passages again:

Looking Back

In Jeremiah 2:13, if God is the only source of spiritual life, namely, via the Holy Spirit having an effect, even on the lives of Old Testament Believers, then “storing up spirituality” was an exercise in futility. There is no “vessel”, certainly not a cracked cistern, which can hold a store of the Holy Spirit, nor even the effect that He has on a life. It has to be renewed daily! Turning away from the true source of life to find some sort of man-made self-sufficiency, is a pretty terrible idea. But people still do it today!

If the stream in Ezekiel 47, coming out of Jerusalem, is a “picture” of the “Living water” of the Indwelling Holy Spirit, then both Psalm 46:4 and Ezekiel 47:1-12 make a different kind of sense than we first understood (just knowing that there will be a physical river flowing out of Jerusalem.) What if those passages, too, are in some way linked to the living water of John 7:36-39? What if they, too are at least a “picture” of something far beyond just “Physical water?”

Back to the Riverbank

We saw in Ezekiel 47, that the water went from ankle deep, just 500 yards outside Jerusalem, to swimming depth in less than a half mile. And then we see that Ezekiel was taken back to the riverbank on dry ground, to consider what he had seen.

A Living Timeline

I would like to take the liberty of seeing a “picture,” here: when we first became believers, although we already were indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we were also very immature: we were only “ankle-deep” in the Stream of Life being offered to us.

Time passed: and, as we grew, and learned to walk with the Lord, the stream reached our knees, possibly pointing to our prayer-life, or our heartfelt worship of the Living God.

More time passed, and it says the water reached the loins. (Some translations render this as “hips, or waist…and the Hebrew word is mothnayim, which probably does just mean “hips or waist.”) But I like to think of it as how we begin to reproduce as believers: That we are created to bear permanent fruit, in leading others to Christ. (Remember, there is only a “picture,” here: perhaps I am not seeing things clearly.)

Sometime later… “Afterward”

But the next thing we know, at so,me point in our growth, the water is over our depth: we can no longer “wade” in this water: we have to swim. And usually, when a person is swimming, only their head is visible. They are fully suspended in the water they swim in.

Now, I fully recognize that I am “taking liberty” with the text. I don’t often do such things, and I don’t want to cause any confusion. But I would like to observe a few more things, tracking the idea that somehow, this River may be a picture of the Holy Spirit’s work in the life of a believer.

Final Observations

The first thing to see is that the angelic messenger took Ezekiel back out of the flow and stood him on the riverbank. It is always possible to become a “castaway;” still saved, still indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but in terms of service, “set on the shelf.” Standing on the riverbank, looking out across the vastness of God’s Work and His love, and wondering why we feel so dry!

The next thing to see is the result of the free flow of that water. We see that it cleaned out the Kidron, because it provided a new source: a new headwater! It washed away the vile flow from Gehenna, and, though it still turned and flowed toward the Dead Sea, it produced life all the way there, only missing the places where it was not allowed to flow, and the end result was that instead of the eternal death of the Dead Sea, the Dead Sea was brought to life, and Eternal life and Eternal value was produced in its place. Death has lost its sting!

What about Us?

This is what is supposed to happen in the believer’s life! We have a new Head (Jesus!)…a new source of life (Jesus!) And that life should overflow through all of our old life-course, transforming it into a fruitful garden for God, producing new life at every turn, offering sustenance and healing to everyone around us. The places in our lives where we “hold back,” not allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us, will simply remain dead and unfruitful. But the end result, regardless of all else, will be the eternal life that Jesus promised. That is where the River is Going!

Jesus gives a River of Living Water. How we choose to use it will depend upon the individual. Some press deeper, feeding on the Word and growing in Love and Faith. Others “dabble around in the shallows,” never really desiring to become more like Jesus: never truly desiring to be transformed by His Grace, His Word, His power. And many of us are in between, vacillating between zeal and apathy. We run at a fitful pace, sometimes sprinting ahead, then being frustrated when it turns out that the Lord was going a different way. Sometimes we lag behind, and then we are prone to attack by spiritual predators.

Results

But Jesus said that River of life, that Spring of Living Water was supposed to change us, springing up unto Eternal life. If that isn’t happening, then we need to examine ourselves to find out why.

If you have received the Lord as your Savior, then His Living Water should be flowing out of you to all those around you. And the Flow of that Living Water in your own life should be cleansing and renewing life in all parts of your life.

What changes us?

God says His Word, by the Holy Spirit, is the one agent guaranteed to change our lives. He also commands that “as newborn babes,” we are to “desire the sincere milk of the word,” that we may grow thereby.”

Many of you have already seen the Word and the Spirit transforming your lives or the lives of those around you. None of us are finished with that process. We are called to press on, get off the Riverbank, and get into deeper water…quit wading, and learn to swim!

Lord Jesus, draw us along in your path, following closer to you, and learning to walk as You walk. Transform our lives into Your likeness, and teach us to thirst for your presence, the only source of the Living Water.

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Ye shall seek me and Not Find Me

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Ye shall seek me and Not Find Me

© 2022 C. O. Bishop

John 7:31-36

Introduction:

Last week we examined Jesus’s disclaimer that “My doctrine is not Mine but His that sent me.” We were able to see that the doctrine we are assigned to teach is also not ours, but His (Christ’s) who sent us. John 20:21 says, “Peace be unto you: As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you!” And, in Matthew 28:19-20, we see that the command is given in a self-perpetuating form. The Apostles were to teach their students (us) to do exactly as Jesus assigned them.

In spite of the crowd’s general response to His teaching that He was the Son of God (They attempted to “nab” him) some were actually beginning to absorb His message, and look at His miraculous works, and believe Him!

Some Believed!

31 And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?

These who believed were asking the others, in effect, “What would it take to convince you??” They were satisfied in their own minds that this “Jesus” was fulfilling the prophecies, and that He very likely was the “real deal!” And, whether openly or secretly, it says that many believed His message… they believed in Him as their Messiah.

Some sought to silence Him!

But that sort of talk spreads! It quickly got back to the ears of the Pharisees and Chief Priests. They were not interested in investigating His claim. They wanted Him silenced. So, they sent officers to arrest Jesus. (Now, is it possible, that, at this time, that this is how they might have begun an investigation? Theoretically, perhaps it is possible.

But they proved, a little later, that it was never their intent to honestly investigate His claim that He was truly the Messiah. They wanted Him silenced! How do I know? Because when He publicly raised the dead, in John 11, those same enemies were there, and their response (in John 12) to a “bona fide” raising to life of an unquestionably dead man, was that they conspired to kill both Jesus and Lazarus!)

 32 The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him.

Remember, we already saw, last week, the result of sending those officers. They went back empty handed. But, in the few verses immediately following lasts week’s message, we see Jesus perplexing the crowd once again:

33 Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. 34 Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come.

Ye shall seek Me and not Find me!

How would we have taken this remark, today? There have been numerous people in our times, who simply “dropped out of sight:” They disappeared for many years, in some cases, and were thought to be dead. But they were later discovered in another place, living under a different name. Perhaps we would have thought that to be the case, here. All someone has to do today, is abandon their identity, get on a bus, hitchhike, walk, etc., and put down roots elsewhere. To do it permanently, of course, requires some illegal measures to assume the identity of someone else.

But, in those days, travel was not easy, cheap, or fast. There were no identity cards, and no computers, so, there were no “magic tricks” needed, in order to change names. The problem was that travel was slow, and dangerous…and there was always someone who would recall having “seen someone,” and put the pursuers back on the trail again.

So, the Jews had legitimate questions as to how Jesus intended to “disappear.”

35 Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? 36 What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come?

It is interesting that, the very next day, He was teaching almost the same things, and they were asking similar questions, and getting a little closer to the correct answer, thinking that somehow He was predicting His own death.

In John 8:20-24, it says, “20 These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come. 21 Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come.

Deaf Ears and Blind eyes

Jesus once again informed the people that He was about to leave, and that they would not be able to follow. The previous day, they supposed that perhaps He was going to travel to the Jews in the dispersion among the Gentile nations….and that they simply would not be willing to follow. But they have had time to think it over, and have realized “that can’t be it.”

However, they seem to have ignored what He had plainly told them!  He said, “Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me!” He told them where He was going! They utterly ignored that part of what He said! They were so committed to the opinion that He was Not “God in the Flesh,” that His clear statements as to His origin and destination fell on deaf ears!

Remember, several times, in the last few weeks, we mentioned that it is possible to become “judicially blind” if we disregard the Light of God’s Word. It is also entirely possible to become “judicially deaf,” if we ignore His Voice long enough. God calls, constantly, and the human race has either ignored His voice or fled from His presence. In John 10: 27, 28 Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish!”

How can we recognize those who “hear His voice?” John 1:12 says they “received Him.” They accepted Him for what He said He was. They took His Word for the things He taught. They heard His voice, and they followed Him.

John 3:19-21 “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”

So, the Light of Christ is shining in the World, and some turn to that light. Others flee the light. Those who respond favorably to the Light of God’s Truth become increasingly sensitive to light, and they begin to seek more light; stronger light, so that they can better see the path before them. Those who hate the light, and reject it, eventually deny that it exists: they prefer to hear echoes of their own hearts, rather than hear answers from the heart of God.

Hearing Echoes of Our Own Hearts

I remember reading of an exchange that happened on a golf course, outside the clubhouse. A wealthy, self-important golfer was asking the resident “Golf Pro” for advice about his swing. The Pro initially tried to give honest, clear answers, but the man kept arguing, saying, “No, I think the problem is (…something else.)” (Whatever it was…)

Another golfer was listening, nearby, and noticed the change, when the Golf Pro began to agree with the wealthy patron, that his self-analysis was correct. Eventually the wealthy golfer walked away, satisfied. Then the second golfer privately questioned the Pro: “Why did you agree with him? Everything he said was wrong, and you knew it!” The Golf Pro replied, “Mister, I learned a long time ago to not give ‘answers’ to someone who is only looking for ‘echoes.’ He didn’t want correction; he wanted confirmation! So that’s what I gave him!”

In Romans 10:3, we see what the problem was: “For they, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” They were so intent on establishing their own “rightness,” that they were blind to the overwhelming “Rightness” of the Son of God!

Jesus had told them where He was going, but they were already blind to His Deity, and blind to the evidence that He was the true Messiah. So, He warned them that where He was going, they could not follow. To his disciples, in John 13:36, He said, “…you cannot come now, but you will come later!” But to these unbelieving Jews, he flatly told them that they could not come.

John 8:22-24

22 Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. 23 And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”

The next day, in answer to the same question, He told them that He was not of this World, but that they were of this world. And He clearly warned them that if they failed to believe that He was who He claimed to be, they would die in their sins!

What does the Future Hold?

In 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18 we see that something is coming, which we call the “Rapture.” We speculate about the different possible responses the World may have to the disappearance of millions of people. But what we know, (from 2nd Thessalonians 2:11, 12) is that (future tense) God will send the World a strong delusion, so that they will believe a lie.

They will not recognize the truth and “believe,” after having seen the rapture, though I have heard people say, “Oh, if I see that, I will believe!” No, they won’t! The only ones who will believe during the Tribulation are those who either did not hear or did not understand the Gospel, before the rapture. A careful reading finds that the (future tense) strong delusion, is directed to them who (past tense) “…did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

This is why the Jews were warned, “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins!” They had the most powerful witness to the truth of God in the history of the World: And they were blind to it!

What About Us?

We don’t want to be blind to the provision of God in our lives, nor to His correction, as He uses His Word to convict our hearts and to change us into His likeness. We don’t want to be deaf to His pleading, as He attempts to lead us in the paths of righteousness. All through the Bible, we see the warning that there will come a time when God allows us to “go our own way,” and we, like Samson, will reap the consequences of our sin. (Remember, Samson was a believer!)

Among the groups to whom He spoke, some of the people actually believed. We will meet them someday, as they eventually became the early Church. But others, in every generation, have rejected everything He said, and hated Him for saying it!

We see that today, as well, as we try to share our faith with others. But, Jesus said, “If the World hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” (John 15:18)

Left Behind, and Lost

Jesus was about to go back to His Father, and He warned the unbelievers that they would not only be “left behind,” but that they would “die in their sins!” I’m not sure that we can fully grasp the hopelessness of one who “waits too long,” and “sees the door close,” so to speak, knowing that God is no longer extending His mercy, and only eternal judgment remains.

That is not a comfortable message, but it is the “Ultimate bad news” making the “Ultimate Good News” of the Cross to be Good News at all! If it were not for the enormity of our sin, and our lost estate before God, then the Salvation He offers would seem of lesser importance, and His death would seem tragic instead of being the greatest act of heroism the universe has ever seen.

Once we realize our lostness, and see Jesus as our only Hope, then the Gospel of Christ becomes the center of our lives.

May God help us to focus on the Person of Christ, and see ourselves reflected in His face, not seeking our own way, but truly seeking His!

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To Whom would we go?

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To Whom would we go?

© 2022 C. O. Bishop

John 6:67-71

Introduction:

We looked at a sad story last week, where many (possibly the majority) of Jesus’s disciples left off following Him and went back to their old lives. We saw that not all of those who remained were believers, and we concluded that very possibly some of those who walked away truly were believers.

We ultimately concluded that all the “dividing” lines that we try to establish, saying, well, “so and so must not be a believer” are not necessarily dependable…that we can only examine out own hearts and ask, “Have I actually received Christ as my Savior? Have I placed my dependance on His blood as my only hope for salvation?” That is where the true dividing line exists, and it is invisible to our eyes.

I can’t see your heart, and you can’t see mine. In the long run, we can get a pretty clear idea, if the person confesses that they are a sinner, and that Jesus died for them…and we then see their actions and words matching that profession of faith. But the only one about whom we can be sure is ourselves. God says He wants us to know that we have eternal life.

What about those who stayed with Him?

66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

We are not told what percentage walked away. What we do see is that Jesus addressed His twelve chosen disciples, chosen to be apostles, and asked them where they stood.

67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? 68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. 69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

Peter’s Reply: “To whom shall we go?”

 There are three points to mention here, in Peter’s answer:

  • Lord, to whom shall we go? Peter felt that he had no other options. I recall having that same thought, as a new believer. Someone asked me “Why Christianity? Out of all the World Religions, what makes you think that Christianity is right, and the others are wrong?” I thought for a moment and finally replied, “I don’t know about all the other religions. Maybe the others are OK too… I’m not comparing. I only know that this is where I get off the bus! This one is my ‘stop!’ This is where I stand.” In subsequent years, God continually has confirmed that my decision was correct, and wise.

    Years later, having been asked to sing in a wedding in Colorado, I had to “get off a bus” at a deserted bus stop in the middle of the night, in a snowstorm in Granby, Colorado. I knew this was the stop I where was told to get off, but there was no one there to meet me. All the buildings were closed, and there was no shelter. But I got off the bus, believing that this was my stop. Everyone else on the bus went on without me, and I stood there alone with my bag, in the dark and the blowing snow.

    As it turned out, the bus had been much delayed by the road conditions, and I had arrived very late. The people waiting for me had gone back home briefly, but they were on their way back. In about fifteen minutes, they came sweeping into the parking lot in a large, heated four-wheel-drive truck, and we all drove off to safety, and a warm house.

    But I had some time, there in the parking lot, to reflect on the nature of faith: I had nowhere else to turn. Had I stayed on the bus, and gotten off at a “safer” place, my friends would have had no way to find me. (This was long before cell phones existed!) Peter knew he had nowhere else to turn as well. This was his “stop,” too!
  • Thou hast the Words of Eternal Life! Peter knew there was something different about the teachings of Jesus. He had already come to believe that Jesus was The source of Eternal Life. How? Perhaps from the sermons he heard in Sychar, where Jesus led many Samaritans to faith. Perhaps seeing Jesus walk on water, and getting to take a very short stroll on the waves, himself. Perhaps taking part in the feeding of the Five Thousand, the day before. But, somehow, in the course of all the teachings and miracles, Peter had come to a personal faith in Jesus as the Messiah…the Christ.

    More specifically, he knew that the Words Jesus spoke were the key to his salvation: He believed in Jesus for the Words He had preached, which matched up with the Works He had done, and were born out by His gracious, loving behavior as their teacher and friend. Had there been any doubt about it, the doubts had probably been removed by Jesus’s comments immediately before, in verse 63: “…the Words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life.” Peter had caught on: He knew Jesus was the source of life!
  • And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God! That is quite a confession of faith! I’m not sure how Peter came to that conclusion. Somewhere along the line, he had come to the correct conclusion that Jesus was the Messiah. It probably started back in John 1:41, 42, when his brother Andrew told Peter that Jesus was the Messiah. Maybe even earlier, when John the Baptist declared that Jesus was the Lamb of God, who would take away the sin of the World…but I don’t know for certain that Peter heard that comment.

    It is even possible that Peter had overheard the conversation with Nicodemus, where it was declared that He had come into the World to save the people, and that he came as God’s Son, with that mission in mind. If he did, then that would explain the conclusion that he and all but one of the other disciples had drawn. But as I read the exchange in John chapter 3, it rather sounds as though the conversation with Nicodemus might have been in private…or maybe not. We aren’t told.

Jesus’s Response

So, how did Jesus respond to this confession of faith? (Ah, that’s nice! I was getting worried about you, there!) No, Jesus knew their hearts. His question had given Peter an opportunity to testify, and, possibly for the other disciples to respond as well. (Maybe they all just nodded…we aren’t told.) But Jesus spoke to address the fact that not all of them believed: He knew their hearts.

70 Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? 71 He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

What a strange reply! Part of the reason for this reply might have been to let Peter know that not all of them believed: That Peter really couldn’t speak for the whole group, though most of them might have agreed with Peter. Probably all of them would have verbally agreed at that point. But it isn’t until chapters 13 and 15 that Jesus spells out what the issue was. Judas was not a believer and never would become one.

Possibly, also it was to begin warning Judas that Jesus knew his heart. The word he used (translated “devil”) could be translated “accuser,” or “slanderer.” It could have indicated that he was a traitor… in any case, it meant that Jesus, Himself, has made a deliberate choice, specifically to fulfill prophecy. He had chosen, among His twelve closest companions, the one who would prove a traitor. So, that was out in the open. They all knew there was a traitor in the camp, but they had no way to know who it was, nor any way to defend against his eventual treachery.

Devil? Demon? Satan?

By the way, the word translated “devil,” here, is the Greek word “diabolos:” it is used 38 times in the New Testament, and 35 times, it is translated “devil,” while twice it is translated “false accuser,” and once a “slanderer.” 

(The word for “demon” is from a different Greek word, “daimonion”… and it is used 60 times, and translated “devil” all but once. It carries the idea of an evil spirit, and is sometimes applied to Satan, but usually in the context of demon possession.)

Accuser?

There are other words translated “accuser,” so we don’t want to jump to the conclusion that anyone who accuses should be called a “devil.” In fact, the “Evil One,” called “that old Serpent, and Satan, and the Devil,” is called the “accuser of the brethren.” (Revelation 12:9, 10) But it is not this same word: it is the Greek word, “kategoros:” it is used seven times, and every time it is translated “accuser”…and never in a righteous sense.

The verb form, “kategoreo” is used 21 times and almost always in a very negative sense: people falsely accusing Jesus or the disciples. In John 5:45, Jesus cautioned the people that He himself would not be accusing them before the Father…Moses would, because they rejected what Moses said. That is the only counterexample: all the rest are people accusing harshly, trying to get someone else in trouble.

So, when we are acting as accusers (and it happens!) we are behaving like the “Accuser of the Brethren.” We ought to feel quite uncomfortable with that position! It is not fitting that a follower of Jesus should behave like Satan, the Enemy of our souls. It is not fitting that we should take an adversarial stance toward other believers at all. We are to be striving toward keeping the unity of the faith…not attacking one another. Give that some thought!

What about Judas?

Jesus called him a “devil” in this passage, meaning an accuser. In another passage, Jesus referred to him as the “Son of Perdition,” the only one Jesus lost, of the twelve, and it had been planned ahead of time, to fulfil prophecy. Did Judas have a choice? Ironically, yes! I believe he did!

But In His complete foreknowledge, Jesus chose one whom He knew in advance would make this choice, and placed him in the ideal location to betray Jesus. Was it entrapment? No, Judas acted entirely of his own will, right up until he became possessed by Satan, personally. There is only one other person in Scripture called the “Son of Perdition:” it is the Antichrist, and, interestingly, he also is said to be indwelt by Satan, personally.

No one is forced to reject Christ

Each made their own choices, just as Pharaoh originally hardened his own heart against God, but there came a time when God “held him to it,” and God hardened his heart, to bring about the destruction of Egypt.

As I mentioned last week, there are some people—believers—who think Judas “lost his salvation.” But Jesus makes it clear from the very beginning, that Judas was never a believer: he was never saved; never cleansed!

Peter and the other apostles had come to the conclusion that Jesus truly was the son of God. And, when He demonstrated His authority over the physical world (walking on water, calming the storm, etc.) it terrified them, because they were only barely beginning to unserdtand His Deity.

What about Peter?

In one situation, (Matthew 16:23, Mark 8:33) Jesus addressed Peter as “Satan.” He said “…get thee behind me, Satan!” (WHY?) Peter had attempted to step in and tell Jesus not to go to the Cross. But that was the whole reason Jesus came! So…what did Jesus mean, by calling Peter “Satan?” The name “Satan” means “adversary.”

Peter was behaving as an adversary to the plan of salvation. He did not know it, because he did not understand Jesus’s plan at all. Jesus makes it clear that Peter was thinking entirely humanistic thoughts, not aligning himself with God. But he did not say that Peter was acting like the devil—he was acting like a man! The entire human race has been in opposition to God’s plans ever since the Garden of Eden!

Was Satan involved?

Did it mean that the “real” Satan was somehow involved? Not necessarily, but we can’t rule it out, either. In Acts chapter five, he stirred up two believers, Ananias and Sapphira, to lie to God. Satan can stir up believers to be adversaries against one another, and against God’s agenda.

We want to avoid that, obviously. We want to be walking closely enough with God and in close enough fellowship with one another, that it is very hard to drive a wedge between us.

Peter was simply wrong, and Jesus called him on it! It is interesting to see, though, that Peter had just been called “blessed” by Jesus, (Matthew 16:16) because he had stated, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God!”  But seven verses later, he was in trouble for shooting off his mouth in opposition to God’s plan of redemption for the whole world. Could Satan have inspired that? Maybe…but Jesus only said he was “thinking like a man!”

What about Us?

We know we have no one else to whom we could turn, and we are not looking for another. We believe that Jesus is the Only Savior, and God in the Flesh, and God’s chosen sacrifice, for our salvation. We know that he was named the “Lamb Slain from the foundation of the Earth.”

We know that 1st John 5:11-13 assures us that “…this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

Not only can we know that we have eternal life, but God says He wants us to know!

So, What Now?

Since we know all that, and we have placed our faith in Him, we need to consider how to act as though we are “On His Team.”

God is “on our side,” as we see in Romans 8:31 “If God be for us, (and He is!) who can be against?” but the question remains: Are we on His side? It is possible for us to be drawn away and behave like an accuser, or behave like an adversary! We saw that in Peter’s life and that of Ananias and Sapphira! We are warned against such behavior, throughout the New Testament, and we want to avoid that behavior, at all cost!

How do we Learn to Walk with God?

We need to deliberately steep ourselves in the Word of God, continually allowing the Holy Spirit to reshape our lives and reshape our thinking, so that our thought patterns change. We need to be sensitive to the Spirit of God, so that we are constantly in tune with Him, and at peace with one another. We need to be on the lookout every day, moment by moment, to see God’s leading and direction in our lives.

Yes, we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. So, let’s allow Him to reshape our lives to be a continual honor to His name.

We see in Psalm 119:9 that God says the only means by which we can cleanse our lives is by applying His Word to our lives. He offers no other way…and even that only works by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and by faith. We literally have co one else to whom we can turn, and He gives us only a narrow pathway in which to follow Him. We need to follow, step by step!.

Lord Jesus please use your Word, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, to transform our hearts and make us over into Your image. Cleanse our lives. Raise us up as Your ambassadors, to honor You in all things.

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Separating believers from unbelievers

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Separating believers from unbelievers

© 2022 C. O. Bishop

John 6:60-66 (context; verses 52-59); John 5:24; John 10:27, 28

Introduction:

We have come to a “crisis,” in John chapter 6: Jesus had just taught that His flesh and blood were necessary for people to have eternal life. Earlier, we explored why this was such a hard thing for the Jews to accept. But there are different options in how we respond to hard teaching. Knowing that a teaching is either true, or partly true, or false, we have to decide how to respond. We can compare against God’s Word to see if it is true. That is what the Berean believers did in Acts 17:11. But, even after we know it is absolutely true, we have to decide how to respond.

Balking at Hard Teaching

60 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? 61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? 62 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? 63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. 65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. 66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

We already read the context for this passage: the verses immediately before: That was a hard passage to understand. But, for two reasons, this is also rather hard to grasp, even for believers today: The first reason is the sadness we feel, as we read that many of Jesus’s disciples abandoned their devotion to Him. They walked no more with Him! Yes, that is sad…and it still happens today! The other thing that makes it a hard passage, is that we tend to equate salvation with discipleship, and the two are not the same.

Salvation and discipleship are not the same

This is a hard concept, but let’s consider Judas: he was a disciple, but was not a believer! Jesus pointed this out in John 13:10, 11, when He said “ye are not all clean.” And after Judas left, in John 15:3, He said to the remaining eleven “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” All twelve had heard the same words…the difference was that Judas had not believed in Jesus as his Savior.

There are others in scripture who were believers, but who were not disciples. Lot was a saved man, but did not walk with God: he did not “follow Jesus” (that is what a disciple is…a follower.) And there were many others. Why might someone fall into that category?

Other Biblical Examples

Are there Biblical examples of real believers “balking at hard teaching?” Are there Biblical examples of real believers who “ran away from God?” Sure, there are!

  • John the Baptist initially refused to baptize Jesus, saying that he himself needed to be baptized by Jesus. But he changed his mind, and he went ahead and obeyed.
  • Peter initially refused to have Jesus wash his feet…but he changed his mind and obeyed.
  • Jonah initially refused to go to Nineveh, but (with some convincing) eventually he changed his mind and went…(still in a bad frame of mind, but he went and he obeyed.)

Do you see a pattern there? These were genuine believers who stumbled over the command of God, but they repented. (That is what “repentance” is…changing your mind: turning around, going back, and doing what you should have done.)

Believers or Unbelievers?

So, as we read John 6:60-66, are we reading about believers or unbelievers? Notice that it says they were disciples. Remember that the word “disciples” only means “followers.” They were following Jesus, but their reasons for following varied wildly. He had just taught that his flesh and blood were necessary for their eternal life. That specific teaching was difficult enough that people still struggle with it, today.  But they had a choice to make:

  • They could accept it (and accept the fact that they couldn’t fully grasp His meaning),
  • They could argue about it, trying to force it to “make sense” to human minds, or
  • They could flatly reject it as unthinkable.

Some argued, and complained that it was a hard saying; difficult to grasp. But Jesus knew their hearts: He knew who believed and who did not. He also knew who would eventually betray him. If we sneak a peek at the verses ahead, we see that Judas was there, as one of the Twelve: He stayed with Jesus when others left! But he still was not a believer. So that is not necessarily the dividing line. So how did Jesus respond to their complaint that this was “a hard saying?”

Jesus had just told them that His flesh and blood (as pictured in the Passover Lamb) were absolutely necessary to their salvation, and that faith in Him was the only entrance into eternal life. They had a hard time with that statement. There are many, still today, who struggle with the concept that Jesus is the only way God offers for Salvation. They argue against it, saying “all the billions of people who do not believe in Him cannot all be wrong: they could not all be lost!”

Is there anything “wrong” with Jesus being the only way of salvation?

This is an emotionally attractive, but completely illogical reply: As far as we know there is only one “cure” for many deadly diseases. What shall we say of all the millions who have died from malaria, the plague, polio, or any other deadly disease? “Well, it just isn’t fair: there must be another way!” No, the hard truth is: they either get the medicine to save their life, or they die.

There is a new treatment available that can cure Hepatitis C: it is effective on a high percentage of people, but it is extremely expensive, so it simply will not be available to all those who suffer from that disease. (Lesser treatments can hold it at bay, but cannot cure it. But this cure is financially out of reach for most people…The Gospel is free, to all!)

Today, there is a single, “collective antivenin” which is effective for about 85 of the 140 different species of venomous creatures in Australia. The government has tried to make it as widely available as possible, so people who are bitten have a chance to get it and save their lives: but if they can’t get to where it is, or, if they refuse to accept it, they will surely die! There is no other way! That is just reality! Romans 5:12 may not sound “fair,” either, but it is a fact: “Sin came into the world through one man, and death by sin, thus death passed upon all, for all have sinned.”

The Blood of Jesus was shed, once for all, as God’s only solution for the lost state of the Human race. The Church has tried, over the years, to make that Salvation available worldwide. There are only two barriers: our reticence to share it with others, and their unwillingness to believe in it. And that’s the teaching they stumbled over, in John 6:31-51.

Jesus Tested the Character of their Faith

Jesus asked, “You think that was hard? What will you think when you see Me physically ascendback into Heaven where I came from?” Why is that a test? They already balked at the “hard teaching” that “faith in His blood is our only hope for salvation.” Now He pointed out why He was their only hope: He is God in the flesh! He was the Deity they claimed to worship.

You see, so long as we see Jesus as “strictly human,” no matter what else we may attribute to Him, we will struggle with His authority, we will question His unique, exalted position, and we will resent the fact that other people are actually worshipping the Person we see as a man. I once had a pastor tell me, “I don’t want people praying to Jesus!” (Why did he say that? Evidently he did not believe Jesus was the true God, in human form.)

Can a true believer deny the deity of Christ?

Is it possible to be a believer and not know that Jesus is God in the flesh? Yes, it is, and there are many who do struggle with that concept, but it requires that one be seriously ignorant of God’s Word, to miss that point.

On the other hand, some do see that truth in Scripture: but they struggle with it, and eventually rebel against it, denying His Deity. In their case, I question the reality of their faith in Him as the Savior, since they reject the fact of His Person; the fact that He is truly God in the Flesh. Is it possible that they are really believers, and just badly deceived? Yes…I believe it is possible. But I would be very concerned about how they arrived at that point.

The Jews, who heard Him, actually should not have had a struggle with that idea: They had the prophecy from Isaiah 9:6 saying that “the Son” who was promised to them, would be called “The everlasting Father!” Give that some thought! I cannot “explain” how the Son should be called the “Everlasting Father!” But there is no argument: It is simply stated as a fact, and it is to be simply accepted! (Or…you can reject it, and walk away. And that is what many of them did.)

The Question of the Deity of Christ

The fact that Jesus truly is God is a core teaching of the Bible. (John 1:1, 3, 14, 18)

  • He was the Creator God who made all things material or immaterial. (John 1:3)
  • He was the Speaking God who walked in the Garden in the cool of the day, and spoke with Adam and Eve. (John 1:18)
  • He was the Promising God who ate Abraham’s food, and talked with him face to face.
  • He was the Judging God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. (Genesis 18, 19)
  • He was the Miracle-working God who judged Egypt and rescued the children of Israel.
  • He was the Creator of all things, the Eternal Judge of all things, and the Promised Savior. (John 1:3; 1:14; 5:22; 5:24; 10:27, 28)

Either this is all true, or the Bible is not true. Either this is all true, or Jesus is not the Savior. That is a simple fact. There are no “degrees” of truth here.

Why reject this doctrine?

All of the cults speak highly of Jesus, calling Him a Mighty Spirit Being, a Great Teacher, a Prophet, even a “lesser god,” in some cases, but they can never admit that He is literally the Sovereign, Almighty God!

You see, if they admit that Jesus is truly God, then they also have to admit that they, themselves, are not the servants of God. And they have to face the facts: they, themselves, are under His Judgment. Jesus hinted at that, by stating that they were going to see Him ascend back into heaven. And they decided that was just too much! So, they quit!

How can I know I am saved?

I have known people who apparently were genuine believers, but who abandoned their faith. Their lives reflected that loss. They were sad wrecks of what once had been a glorious reflection of God’s Grace. Are they still saved? How can we know for sure, in our own life?

If there has ever been a time in your life when you placed your hope in Jesus’s blood as your only hope for salvation, trusting in Him alone for forgiveness of sins, and eternal life, then you are saved, and you cannot be lost. (John 5:24 says If you have believed in Him, then you have eternal life, and you shall not come unto condemnation, but have crossed over from death unto life”)

1st John 5:11-13 clearly teaches that God wants you to KNOW that you have eternal life.

What happens if I don’t follow Jesus?

Even if I truly am “one of His sheep,” if I do not walk with the Shepherd, I am in constant danger of attack by my enemies and I cannot avail myself of His protection. I am “enlisted in His army,” but I am refusing to wear the armor He commanded me to put on!

Jesus said, “My Sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and I know them, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.”

“Following the Shepherd” is the normal walk for a believer. Failing to follow Him does not negate His promise of eternal life, but it does “void the warranty” on his guidance and protection.

There are consequences!

If I fail to follow Jesus, then the very least I can expect is unfruitfulness. The next thing I can expect is the absence of Joy and Peace. You see, even though I am a believer, if I am no longer walking with Jesus, then I am not benefitting from the relationship “in the here and now.”

That is what happened, here in John 6:60-66. Some of those disciples may have been true believers…but some were not. Jesus knew which were which. We do not. But we can examine our own hearts and see where we stand with God…and decide where we ought to be, and what we need to change, to get there.

Lord Jesus, open our eyes to our own condition as believers and encourage our hearts to change, to repent, to go back and follow you.

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Feeding the Whole Person on Easter

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Feeding the Whole Person on Easter

© C. O. Bishop 4/13/17 THCF 4/16/17 revised 4/14/22

1st Thessalonians 5:23

Introduction:

One thing we learn in the Bible is that every human consists of three parts… not a triune being, as God is …but tripartite. My body is not the real me…and, even my soul is only part of me. And my spirit is not meant to exist separate from a body and soul. I am a tripartite being. Three parts. God knows the difference between the soul and the spirit of Man. We believers are to be preserved complete—body, soul, and spirit—until the coming of the Lord. (1st Thessalonians 5:23   “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”)

So, though we have some confusion about the differences, God does not. He will give us new, immortal bodies, and our spirits and souls will be eternally in tune with His Spirit. We look forward to the fulfillment of these promises. But we show our current confusion about the invisible portions of a human in that we sometimes say, “follow your heart,” when God says our heart (soul) is deceitful…that it is not to be trusted. In James, where God gives us some New Testament truth about wisdom, he specifically says that the soul is not a good source for wisdom.

James 3:13-15

13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation (way of life) his works with meekness of wisdom.14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

The word translated “sensual” there, is the Greek word “psuchikos,” meaning “soulish:” coming from the soul. We are easily deceived by our own souls, even as believers. People say things like “Eat chocolate! It’s good for the soul!” when they really only mean “it makes you feel good about life.” After open-heart-surgery, the doctors gave me oxycodone—that made me “feel good about life,” too; but it was deceitful, and potentially addictive. I needed genuine healing, not just medicine that made me “feel great for a while!” As soon as I could, (just a few days) I got off that medicine; but it was hard, because, just like everyone else, I like to feel good. My body needed physical nourishment and healing, not just to “feel good.” But I am not just a body: I am also a soul, and a spirit. So, how do we feed the whole person: body, soul and spirit…especially at Easter?

Feeding the Body

Feeding the body is no great trick, but it can be done well, or it can be done badly. There are tribal people in the jungles of South America who chew certain leaves because they stave off hunger and thirst, and make them have a lot of energy. I’ll bet you can guess what those leaves are: (Yep, they are coca leaves!) Those people know they really need food, water and rest, but on a long hike through the jungle, they take those leaves along, knowing that they will “feel better” as they travel. It is a pretty mild dose of cocaine they are getting, but still not a healthy choice.

So, we make healthy choices in food as best we can, in varying degrees. Some people are simply thinking “basic food groups,” and some not even that. But with some folks, if you aren’t a trained dietician, you won’t even understand what they are doing when they plan a meal! And still others just eat whatever they like, whenever they are hungry. But we all feed our bodies. We get hungry, and we seek nourishment. This morning, for instance, we began with a “fellowship breakfast” downstairs, and everyone “fed their bodies,” and felt satisfied. But what about our souls? Perhaps our souls were being fed, too, if we actually engaged in spiritual fellowship.

Feeding the Soul

How do you feed a soul? Our souls look for peace, and happiness, and feelings of fulfillment. Fellowship with other believers can provide that. Some folks enjoy the “catharsis” of a good cry, so they watch a tear-jerker movie. Some people thrive on adrenalin, so they either take risks themselves, or watch videos of those who take such risks… they watch action movies, or horror movies, thrillers, chillers, or something similar. They like the feeling of drama, so they read books or watch plays or movies that fill them with the sensations they crave…the feelings.

Are these healthy diets for a soul? Well…depending on the subject matter or the activity, actually, yes, they could be. Engaging in sports, whether running, whitewater rafting, or skiing, could be quite healthy, physically. Making things that require skill and patience, whether in stitchery, carpentry, or other skills can “feed the soul” on the satisfaction of a job well done. Enduring the daily drama of rearing children, and seeing those children grow to be productive members of society, then feeling the satisfaction (and relief) as they mature, is a healthy sort of “drama.”

But there are unhealthy forms of drama, too, and some people feed their “desire for drama” on social conflicts, politics, and gossip, or even bullying and manipulating other people. That is bad food for the soul, and addictive, as well, as it feeds our sin nature’s desire for power.

Can we have unhealthy food for the soul in church? We could have an especially heart-rending story in a sermon, or a testimony that leaves us emotionally wrung-out, and moves us at a soul-level. That could be perfectly healthy…or not. The problem is that emotional drama is addictive, too, and we mistake it for spiritual food. On a once-in-a-while basis, there is nothing wrong with emotional drama, but as a matter of habit, it tends to take the place of healthy food, just as the coca leaves took the place of healthy food, water, and rest, for those jungle tribesmen. But they knew not to do it all the time. We don’t seem to know the limit…we look for more and more emotional highs, and hope for more “signs from God.” We want sensationalism.

But God says that such things are not necessarily from Him, at all. The false prophets in Jeremiah’s time had dreams and visions, but God says that they caused the dreams, themselves. They deceived themselves and others. He was not their source! (Jeremiah 23:25, 26)

We have all read sensational books and watched dramatic movies about Jesus, which itemized every blow, every wound, and every drop of blood during the crucifixion, and stressed the emotional impact on the lives of the disciples, as well as on Jesus himself. We agonize with Jesus at Gethsemane, and cringe at the deadly pain he endured for us. All of these things are true, and, to some extent, they are healthy soul-food, so long as we equally rejoice at the resurrection, and are galvanized to action by His ascension, His final commands, and His indwelling Holy Spirit.

But if all we want is the emotional “drama,” then, in the long run we are not much better off than the folks watching sad movies, and such. I am covered by the blood of the cross: I don’t need to continually “have my nose rubbed in it.” I remember His sacrifice, and I am still overwhelmed that He chose to die for me. I don’t see myself as someone that would even be attractive to God. But for some reason, “God so loved the World….”

You see, I don’t have to understand it…I don’t even have to “feel” it. I only have to choose to believe it by faith, and receive His gift of eternal life. My soul will be fed as I walk with Jesus. I will experience all the reasonable, valid emotions just as He did, without any false drama, or any self-induced emotional turmoil or ecstasy. But then we should ask: How do we feed the spirit?

Feeding the Spirit

When we each placed our faith, individually and personally, in Jesus’ shed blood at the Cross, as full payment for our sins, we were born again, as children of the living God. And He says, that, as His babies, we need to develop an appetite: He says we should sincerely desire… what? Not emotional upheavals and turmoil of the soul, but rather, He says, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word” of God, “that we may grow thereby.” (1st Peter 2:2)

So, what part of us does God’s Word primarily “feed?” It primarily feeds the spirit. We are born again with a new nature, and our spirits are alive to God, and hungry for His presence. Can it also feed the soul? Absolutely! As we read His word, we can be thrilled by the exquisite joy of seeing God at work. We are grieved at the hardness of the hearts of humanity. We are fearful of the judgment of God, and desire to be freed from our sins and guilt. All of that feeds the soul.

We feed our spirits by taking in God’s Word. When we consider the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, we need to apply our attention to what God actually says about it, so that our Spirits are fed: not just “how do we feel about it”, which excites the soul, but leaves the inner man un-nourished.

So, What Does the Scripture Say?

  • To begin with, it says that the entire human race fell into sin with Adam. He was our representative, and when he fell, we fell with him. (Romans 3:23; Romans 5:12)
  • Then it says that the result of sin is death: separation from God. That was our natural state…and, had we died in that position, we would have been eternally separated from Him. (Romans 6:23a)
  • But, it also says that God reached out in Love, to save the whole human race…he offered a free gift of salvation to anyone who trusts in Him. (Romans 6:23b)
  • That gift is offered in the person of His son. God says the eternal life he offers is in His son. Whoever has the Son has the life. Whoever does not have the Son, does not have life. (1st John 5:11, 12)
  • He says that Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies, and that he came specifically to do that, in the course of offering us eternal life. (Luke 24:25-26)
  • God says the good news (the Gospel) of salvation is of first importance, and that it consists of the following truths:
    • Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.
    • He was buried in fulfilment of the scriptures.
    • He rose again the third day, also in order to fulfill scripture.

The Gospel

The Death and Burial and Resurrection of Jesus are the core issues of the Gospel, which, being believed in, is the power of God, to save those who believe. (Romans 1:16) And it is the only way that God has ever saved anyone!

We understand the death of the Savior, that it had to happen, or we would still be in our sins; unforgiven, and hopelessly lost. We see, too, how the burial at least gave testimony that Jesus really died—he was not just “playing possum”, or in a faint. He was dead. And he spent three days and three nights in the place of the dead, fulfilling His own prediction that He would spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth: not just in the grave.

But, what about the Resurrection?

Here’s what the Apostle Paul said about it:
1st Corinthians 15: 17 “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

So, the resurrection had to happen too, or we would still be in our sins, just as surely as if he had never died for us. But he’s Alive! He is Risen! Not only He is alive, but He has ascended to the throne beside God the Father, and eternally represents us there, as our advocate.

Folks, these are facts!  I honestly don’t care whether you are “moved”, or “stirred” by these words: what is important is that you believe them! That you choose to place your dependence on Jesus’s shed blood at the Cross as full payment for your sins, personally!

Make it personal

Sometimes I ask people, “Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins?” and they reply, “Oh, I believe He died for the sins of the whole world!” So, I ask again, “But did He die for your sins, personally?” And they repeat their “creed” that he “died for the sins of the world.” Do you see the problem? They know the facts, but they’re not willing to apply those facts to their own case. Perhaps they don’t believe they need a Savior. Maybe they feel that they don’t understand it all. (Well I don’t either!) We are not required to “understand it all.” We are required to accept it by faith, apply it to our own life, and receive the gift of Eternal life. It’s that simple! That’s Faith!

 So,  here is a quote from an unknown author:

“How does the thief on the cross fit into your theology? No baptism, no communion, no confirmation, no speaking in tongues, no mission trip, no volunteerism, and no church clothes. He couldn’t even bend his knees to pray. He didn’t say the sinner’s prayer and, among other things, he was a thief! Jesus didn’t take away his pain, heal his body, or smite the scoffers. Yet it was a thief who entered Paradise the same hour as Jesus did, simply by believing. He had nothing more to offer other than his belief that Jesus was who He said he was. No “spin” from brilliant theologians. No ego or arrogance. No shiny lights, skinny jeans, or crafty words. No haze machine, donuts, or coffee in the foyer. Just a naked, dying man on a cross, unable to even fold his hands to pray.“

That is a “moving thought,” isn’t it? But, without the Resurrection, even that story would just add yet another layer of tragedy to an already hopeless-sounding story.

Without the resurrection, we are all utterly lost!

The Resurrection is God the Father’s “stamp of approval”, showing us that Jesus really was who He said he was, and that His death and burial really accomplished all that He intended. And we are resurrected with Him, by Grace, through Faith, to live our lives for God! Let’s embrace the Resurrection in our daily lives, and live because He lives! …And He is Risen!

Lord Jesus, strengthen us to do your will, and to follow you in our daily lives. Help us to embrace the full value of the Resurrection!

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What kind of Bread do we seek?

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What kind of Bread do we seek?

(What do we hope to Gain?)

© 2022 C. O. Bishop

John 6:22-27; John 6:28, 29; Colossians 2:6; 1st Peter 1:23; Ephesians 2:10; Galatians 5:16

Introduction

We have arrived at an important transition in John chapter 6. We already saw how Jesus fed the five thousand men along with their wives and children. We already saw that some of those men were so stirred up that they wanted to take Jesus by force and pronounce Him to be King. But Jesus eluded them and eventually left with His disciples. But the people caught up with him near Capernaum, and asked, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” That’s where we are today: verse 26.

26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. 27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. 28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

As we read through this (or any) passage, we do well to consider the context in which the verses are found. In this particular context, obviously, the people to whom Jesus is speaking are the ones whom, on the previous day, He had miraculously fed with the five loaves and two fishes, given by that young boy in the story. So, if all of them had caught up with Him, He again had an audience of over five thousand people. However, Jesus ignored their questions, and only pointed out why they had really come: He revealed their motives. (“You just want more free food!”)

And He reminded them of a passage from Isaiah 55:1-3, where God spoke through Isaiah to tell the people of Judah that their motives were flawed…that they were putting all their efforts toward things that had no eternal value. He told them, effectively, that they were wasting their lives! No one really likes to hear such a rebuke, even if it is given in love and gentleness, but that is what they were hearing from Jesus, in this passage, here in John’s Gospel.

Compare The Isaiah Passage:

Isaiah 55:1-3 

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. 3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

Remember two things, here:

  1. The people to whom Jesus spoke were Jews: they all were familiar with the words of Isaiah. This was not an obscure idea to them: they knew the passage to which He alluded.
  2. Jesus is the Author of the writings of Isaiah. He is the “Lord” whom Isaiah saw on the throne, in the vision of Isaiah 6:1, and whose “train filled the temple.”So, for Him to “springboard” from the Isaiah 55 passage to their time, making it directly applicable to the lives of His audience, was entirely within His authority and completely appropriate.

“What shall we do, to Work the Works of God?”

The people evidently understood that Jesus was citing that passage: So, they immediately asked, “What shall we do, to work the works of God?” They apparently assumed that they could earn God’s Favor. This is the World’s error: and the idea is prevalent in all World religions. Each religion has collections of “things a person can do to win God’s approval.” That list varies, slightly, from one religion to another, but there are usually a lot of similarities; at least in regard to how you are required to treat your fellow believer, and how you are to approach God.

Religions are NOT all the same.

From the World’s perspective, most religions are OK to live by…but from God’s perspective, they are Hell to die by! The people with the bumper stickers that call all the worlds religions to just peacefully “Co-exist” are either ignorant of (or are denying) the fact that several of those religions are mutually exclusive, and that at least one of them demands the extermination of all others who do not submit themselves to it. And the adherents of that religion are the ones called to do the extermination! So, they can’t very well just “Co-exist!” And they do not “all lead to God.”

When we examine all the world’s religions, we can see a lot of similarities in the “nice” parts of each religion, and three major groupings as to how they deal with Sin:

  1. Some claim that there is no such thing as sin: that all such ideas of “right and wrong” are strictly of human origin, and that the impersonal “Force” or “Deity,” in which they believe, has no interest in such things…we are to pursue a denial of self and ego, in order to be united with this impersonal force, or deity.
    This teaching is not at all common: it usually “rings false” to people, because we all have an inborn sense that “there is such a thing as right and wrong!” And we at least recognize it when someone has wronged us!
  2. Some religions agree that sin exists, but they claim that God is so high above, and so kindly disposed toward humans, and so loving, that he is not concerned with such things, and certainly intends no judgment of sin. He simply pleads with us to “be nice to each other,” and that we will “all get to heaven by and by.” (Along with this, they usually claim that “all paths lead to the same God,” so all will eventually be reunited with God.)
    This one is more common, but still “rings false:” We also have an inborn sense of justice, calling for retribution. We believe that sin calls for punishment; that “wrongs should be made right,” so it is difficult tor us to believe that God does not share this opinion.
  3. Far more common…(almost universal, in fact,) is the teaching that “Sin is very real, and God hates sin, so you had better do lots and lots of good things to counteract the effect of all the bad things you have done (and continue to do….)” Most religions teach this idea.
    This belief completely fits our views as humans, and is exactly where Jesus’s audience was coming from. They hoped to earn God’s favor through good works of some sort.
    But Jesus alerted them to a fourth perspective—the one belonging to the Living God:
  4. “There is such a thing as Sin, and God hates sin, and there is nothing you can do to counteract your guilt!”

25 years ago, I shared with a young man at work these four views of what to do with sin, and he listened carefully: then he asked, “So, where does ‘Jesus dying on the Cross’ come in?” (I was delighted!) I said, “I’m glad you asked that!” Then I shared with him the Gospel: the message of “Salvation by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ.” (Grace is unearned Favor.) There truly is nothing you can do to save yourself. God has to do it for you!  (Shortly thereafter, that man moved away to the east coast of the United States, so I have no idea what his ultimate response might have been. But I do know he heard and understood the Gospel: if he wants to know the Savior, he knows how to approach Him!)

And that is where Jesus found His audience: they wanted to know “how to know God.” More specifically, they wanted to know how to earn God’s approval. They asked, “What shall we do to work the works of God?”

Jesus responded with the very clear statement, that faith in the Messiah is what God wants from us: He said, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.”

Today, those of us who have already received the Lord might say, “Well that is how I was saved, yes! but how do I work the works of God after salvation? What shall I do, now?”

What shall We do?

This is where Jesus’s earlier admonition seems to fit in: He said,  “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.”

Let me assume for the moment that we already have received eternal life through the promise of Jesus (which we read in the previous chapter, in John 5:24.) Is there application, here, to the eternal aspect of the “food” we gain or the “wages” we hope for, in working according to God’s standard today? Yes! Jesus teaches that our labor for God has Eternal rewards: He is an Eternal God, who has given to us Eternal life, and has commanded us to “lay up treasure” for ourselves in Heaven…so there has to be an “Eternal value” to our works.

But, does our “faith” begin and end at the Cross? When I was a brand-new believer, I had an older Christian woman tell me, “Well, you are saved by faith, but you are kept by works!” What a crippling lie to tell a new believer! She was effectively saying, “You have been born into this family, but if you aren’t good enough, your Father will disown you!” That is a lie from the pit!

What does God say about our new birth?

He says, you were born again by faith: John 1:12, 13 promises, “But to as many as received Him, gave He power (Greek, “exousia”…authority) to become (Greek “gennesthe” …to be born) the sons (Greek “teknoi”…the offspring…literally, “born-ones”) of God, even to them that believe on His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” You are born of God! You got that way by believing in His Name! You placed your faith in Him! And as a new believer, you are His legitimate child! He will never “kick you out!” He will never disown you! He is your real Father!

1st Peter 1:23 says, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”

You were born again by the Word of God. This applies to the written and spoken Word of God, whereby you heard the Gospel and believed, (thus fulfilling John 5:24) and to the Living Word, who shed His blood for you and who lives today, in you! And it says, He lives and abides forever! So, if the One who lives in you lives forever, and abides in you forever, I’d say you are pretty secure in His promises!

But: How do we Work for Him?

Colossians 2:6 says, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.”
How did you receive Christ? By faith! That is what we just read in John 1:12 and 1st Peter 1:23. We are now called to Walk in Him by faith.

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” God prepared the works for us already: all we have to do is walk in them: Do what he leads us to do…be obedient to His Word and His Spirit. Walk by faith!

Galatians 5:16 says, “This I say, then, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh,” We have pointed out in the past that the Christian life is not “difficult:” It is impossible, apart from the Holy Spirit living through us. In John 15:5, Jesus said “Apart from me ye can do nothing!” We don’t like to hear that, because our flesh wants to believe that we can do things on our own to please God. But Jesus says we cannot.

That is exactly where these people were, whom Jesus was admonishing to change their aim in life. To stop the “self-effort treadmill,” wherein, regardless of how hard you try, no matter how well you run, you can never gain any eternal value. He wanted them to take up His yoke and serve with Him. The “yoke” in Matthew 11:29 (where Jesus said, “take my yoke upon you and learn of me”) is a yoke worn by two workers, or by two oxen. Jesus is asking us to “join Him in double harness,” and so to learn from Him. He invites us to labor with Him, and learn from Him, not just work for Him.

Ephesians 1:14; 4:29 each make it clear that we have been sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit, until the day of redemption: But the scriptures we read today ask that we serve with Him. He has work for us to do: He says so. But we have to voluntarily “show up” to do the job for which He has already chosen us. Romans 12:1, 2 makes it clear that we are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, as an act of worship. That is always a voluntary sacrifice, even though He has ordained the work for us to do before we were born.

We still have to choose to walk with Him…by faith!

Lord Jesus, we ask that by Your Word and by Your Spirit, you would turn our hearts to follow You in cheerful, faithful obedience. Transform us by the renewing of our minds, by Your Holy Spirit, to be the men and women you have called us to be.

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He that cometh unto Me

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He that cometh unto Me (Security of the Believer)

© 2022 by C. O. Bishop

John 6:37-47; John 10:27-29; 1st John 5:11-13; [Matthew 20:16, 22:14]; Romans 8:28-33; Ephesians 1:4; John 12:32

Introduction

We spoke some time ago about the Bread of Life, as compared to the physical food of this world. We saw that the folks Jesus miraculously fed with the loaves and fishes had followed Him to His next stop, hoping to get more of the same. But Jesus challenged their thinking, and so they began to argue with Him, in John 6:30, asking for yet another sign. We will spend some more time on that passage later, but there is a specific passage, here, which we will address this morning:

John 6:37-47

37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. 38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39 And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

 41 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. 42 And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?

43 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. 44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. 46 Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. 47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

He that cometh unto Me (v. 37)

37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Jesus added no qualifiers to this promise: In fact, He eliminated the possibility of any qualifiers: He said, “…I will in no wise cast out.” Under no circumstances will He cast out one who comes to Him in faith. Some may argue that “You can’t know that you are one of the “chosen” whom the Father has given to Jesus, the Son.” Then, perhaps, that is where we need to begin:

It is true that Jesus said, “…many are called but few are chosen.” He said it in two separate places: Matthew 20:16, and Matthew 22:14. In both cases, he was warning the unbelieving Jews that the call has gone out to the whole world, including the Jews and the Gentiles. The fact that the Jews were the “chosen people” did not mean that each of them was guaranteed a place with God in eternity. Nor, (in the Matthew 20 account,) did it the privilege of service with Him. In both cases, he pointed out the possibility of the “chosen people” losing out, even though they had seen themselves as being “privileged” and as already being “accepted with God” as a nation.

But, here, Jesus made an unqualified, unconditional promise, that “whoever comes to Him would never be cast out.” He seems to redefine who are “the chosen.” Whether in terms of salvation or service, it is possible to be “chosen”…or not chosen! In Matthew 20, the context is service, not salvation: Everyone in that passage was called for service, and they all served. But some were chosen for special treatment. God has the authority to make that choice.

So…Who are “the chosen” in terms of Salvation?

I had a young man at work—a believer—tell me, in very somber terms, that “We can accept the call of Jesus by faith. But we can’t know whether we are ‘one of the chosen’ until we die.” What a sad falsehood to teach in a church! I tried to allay his fears, by showing him from scripture how he could know today that he was “One of the Chosen.” But I’m not at all sure he accepted it.

We can see that, in Matthew 22, the question does apply to eternal life: the one “cast out” was doomed to eternal darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth! That would definitely contradict Jesus’s promise, if that person had ever been a believer. But he evidently was not: What we see in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, is that a person who approaches God in faith—believing that God’s promise is good, and that God’s chosen Sacrifice is sufficient to secure a full pardon from God—is completely safe in Him. (Remember that the sacrifices of the Old Testament were prophetic, looking forward to the sacrifice of the Messiah, at the Cross)

The example of Abraham

Abraham believed God, in Genesis 15:6, and God says that his faith was counted to him as righteousness. God calls this “Justification.” and confirms it, in Romans 4:1-4. We have had the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, by Grace, through Faith. We are eternally clothed in His righteousness.

The example of Lot

In contrast, we see Lot’s faith very dimly in Genesis 19, where he made his only known stand for righteousness, flawed and feeble though it was. And the last things we see of him are very bad indeed.  However: in 2nd Peter 2:6-8, we see that God saved Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrah, as a righteous man, whose righteous soul had been vexed daily by the filth around him! (How could Lot be called righteous? The last thing we saw him physically do was (in a drunken stupor) to impregnate both his daughters, bringing into existence two nations, the Moabites and the Ammonites. Those people are bitter enemies of Israel still today!)  According to God, the only way a person can please God is through faith. (Hebrews 11:6) Evidently Lot had that faith, though it surely was not easy to see.

The teaching of the New Testament

In Ephesians 1:1-14 Paul addressed the Ephesian believers. But all the truths listed there are true of every believer in Christ, regardless of their condition as a believer. They are all positional truths, having nothing to do with “how I am doing” in terms of faithfulness, obedience, piety, holy living, etc. They are unconditional truths. And: verse 4 says that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. But…who was called? And, How were we chosen?

Who are “The Called?” And, among them, Who are the Chosen?

In John 6:44, Jesus said, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Jesus later said, in John 12:32, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” Jesus stands as God’s invitation to an eternal relationship with God. Many (the whole world) are called. Those who respond in faith are comparatively few…Jesus said so. (Matthew 7:13, 14 says, “13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” But those few are the chosen in Christ.

God chose before the Creation to make Jesus the Sacrificial Lamb; His only Plan of Salvation. (In Revelation 13:8, Jesus is called the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth.”) He invites us (calls us) to respond in Faith: we can choose either life or death. If we choose to receive Him as our Savior, placing our faith in Him (just as the Thief on the Cross did; just as Abraham did, just as every saved person since the beginning of time has done,) then we have chosen life, and we permanently belong to Him. 1st Corinthians 12:13 says that the Holy Spirit places us into the Body of Christ, and, from that moment we are permanently in Christ. And so, collectively, we have been chosen, in Christ.

Our Daily Choice: Faith is a choice.

As believers, then, (moment by moment) we can choose either faithful service and obedience, or unbelief and disobedience… failure to serve. And the resultant rewards (or lack of rewards) will be justice…we will have reaped what we have sown. This is the Law of the Harvest. We reap what we sow. But Salvation is not a reward: it is a gift. We cannot earn it.

Jesus did all the work, there at the Cross, and we cannot add to it. He completely satisfied God’s Holiness and Righteousness through His death at the Cross. His Blood completely took away the sins of the World. But, as sinners, we can partake in His salvation only by simply believing in what HE has done as being complete and effective. Having made that choice, Romans 1:6 says we are the called according to His purpose. Ephesians 1:4 says we were chosen in Him, before the foundation of the World, that we should be Holy and without blame before Him in Love.

Jesus concluded His statements (John 6:47) saying “ Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” Notice the tense: He did not say, “He that believes on me will have everlasting life:” He said you have it now, just as He promised back in John 5:24.

But: maybe you think His promises are only “good” so long as you keep believing: You need to ask yourself, “How long is everlasting?” Jesus says that the moment you believed, you received an eternal gift: “everlasting life!” And, in John 14:16, He said that the Holy Spirit will be with you forever. Finally, over in John 10:27, 28, He said “I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.” Those are pretty solid promises! There really is no way around them!

So, Who will You Believe?

You have to decide, personally, whether to believe Jesus or to believe the arguments of the World. Whether to believe Jesus, who gave you an unconditional promise of Eternal Life, or to believe your Flesh, the old sin nature, arguing, “That can’t be right! You haven’t earned it!” (True! It can’t be earned!) Ultimately: will you believe Jesus, or will you believe the whispering voice of that ancient enemy of your soul who desires to destroy your faith, quench your love, and crush your Joy, so as to make your life fruitless in Christ?

You have to choose, day by day, and moment by moment, who you will believe.

This is why Ephesians 6:10-18 commands us to “put on the full armor of God,” so that:

  • Our loins are girded about with the Truth of God’s Word…we are secure in His Word.
  • Our feet are shod with the preparation of the good news that God will never again view us as His enemies: we are permanently at Peace with God.
  • Our hearts are protected by the Breastplate of the Righteousness of Christ which was imputed to us the moment we believed His promise.
  • Our minds are protected by the Helmet of Salvation: the secure knowledge that we are already saved for eternity.
  • And, when our Enemy attacks us with the doubts and lies and accusations that are his primary weapons, we can use the Shield of Faith to quench those “flaming darts” of guilt and fear. We choose to Believe Jesus!
  • Now we are arming ourselves daily with the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and
  • We are empowered inPrayer: We enjoy the privilege of entering into the Holy place and bringing our praises and our petitions to the Eternal, Almighty God who loves us, who accepted us in the Beloved, and who chose us in Him before the creation of the Earth.

You can Know that You have Eternal Life!

This is how you can know you are “one of the Chosen:” If you have believed the promise of Jesus, then you are in Christ, by faith! And Jesus keeps His promises! If you believe His promise, then:

  • He promised that you have eternal life now.
  • He promised that you will never again be condemned by God.
  • He promised that you have permanently crossed over from death into life.
  • He promised that the Holy Spirit would be with you forever.
  • He promised that under no circumstances will He ever cast you out!
  • He promised that His sheep (those to whom He gave eternal life) shall never perish.

God says He wants you to KNOW that you have eternal life: 1st John 5:11-13 says so!

You just need to decide who to believe.

Lord Jesus, raise us up as men and women of God who trust in you day by day, and step by step as we walk with you and serve you as lights in a dark world. Teach us to believe You in all things and to obey You as a result of our faith in you. Make us to be Your hands and Your feet, and Your voice in this dying world.

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Bread and Fishes

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Bread and Fishes

© 2022 C. O. Bishop

John 6:1-13; (compare Matthew 14:15-21, Mark 6:32-44; Luke 9:10-17)

Introduction

The sixth chapter of John has a number of very interesting exchanges: some between Jesus and the disciples, others between Jesus and the Jews in general. Some were fairly simple teaching, while others involved serious miracles. Some of the people responded favorably, some did not. Some believed His Word, others did not.

The feeding of the five thousand happened here. One of the occasions in which He walked on water is also here, as well as some very serious teaching about the nature of salvation.

Some interesting words come up, too…words which are the same in English, but different in Greek… so, let’s take a look at the first narrative in John 6.

1 After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. 2 And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. 3 And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. 4 And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. 5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?

6 And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, 9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. 12 When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. 13 Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.

The Feeding of the Five Thousand

In verses 1-4, we do not have a specific place named…in all four Gospel Accounts, it is simply called a deserted place, on the coast of the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias.)

In every account, Jesus and the disciples had attempted to get some rest, by departing in a boat, and going to a place where they expected no crowds. But the people figured out where He had gone, and they ran on foot to catch up.

The core facts are there in all four accounts: Jesus and the disciples attempted a “retreat.” It backfired, as the people followed them, because of the miracles of healing they had either seen Jesus do, or had heard about: In John it says they had seen the miracles. In Matthew, it says that Jesus was moved with compassion, and healed their sick in that place as well. In Mark, it says that Jesus felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began teaching them many things. (He didn’t waste a good teaching moment!) In Luke, it says He spoke to them regarding the Kingdom of God and healed those who needed it.

But in all four Gospels, it says the day was far spent and no one had eaten, so food became a priority. In John’s account, He asked Philip, “How are we going to feed these people?” And it says it was a test. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, the disciples pointed out the need, and wanted to send the people away to find food. But in all three of those accounts, Jesus commanded them to give the people food: “You give them something to eat!” Why did He say that?

How they came up with the five loaves and two fishes varied a bit as well: no disagreement, but, as is often the case, we have to read all four accounts, to get the whole picture. In the John account, Philip answered that two hundred denarii worth of bread (“200 pennyworth in KJV”…in either case, eight- or nine-months wages) would only buy enough for all of them to have a little. In Mark, the same number came up, as possibly a group estimate…perhaps they just agreed with Philip.

A boy’s lunch, freely offered

In all four accounts, Jesus took what they had (the five loaves and two fishes (in the John account, we see where they got it) and multiplied it to feed the crowd. There is a detail here in John that is easy to miss: These were a small barley-bread loaf—not a big loaf of Italian white bread, or any such thing. It was a boy’s lunch. (Apparently, he volunteered it, as Andrew gave him credit in John 6:9…Two small fish, and five fairly small barley loaves.)

The next thing we miss is because of the problems with translation: In translating Greek to English, it is perfectly accurate to translate “anthropous” as “Men”…but it is a non-gender specific noun, used of “men” to indicate “humans”…men as opposed to angels or animals. But there is another word used here, as well… the Greek word “andres,” specifically meaning “male adult humans.” So, when Jesus told the disciples “Make the men sit down,” He used the word “anthropous”, literally meaning, “Make the people sit down.” But after everyone had been seated John says, “there were about five thousand men:” but this time John used the word “andres,” meaning specifically men. So, If I were reading only this passage, I might guess that no women or children were there. Or I might assume that each man had a large family with him. In either case, I would be guessing or assuming, and that is a dangerous way to build understanding. So, lets turn over to the other accounts to get a clearer picture:

In Mark and Luke, all it says is “they that ate” were “about five thousand men” (again using the gender-specific term, andres.) But, in Matthew 14:21, we get a little more information: he uses the same gender specific noun to describe the five thousand men, but then points out that this was not counting the women and children. We don’t have to assume: There were women and kids present, and they all got fed! No guessing was needed! (But we don’t know how many.)

Finally, when they picked up the baskets of fragments there were twelve basketsful of fragments of both fish and bread (Mark 6:43), left over from the meal which had started off all fitting in one basket or bag…a young boy’s lunch. Incidentally, the Greek word for “basket” here, “kophinos” means a “handbasket.” There is another word which speaks of a larger basket.

You give them Something to eat!

What was Jesus getting at when he told the disciples “You give them something to eat”? He knew they had nothing to offer. He also knew that the youngster was going to offer his food. John’s account says that the whole conversation was a test; He knew what He was about to do.

But the command was that the disciples were to feed the flock. What did they feed them with? The Bread that Jesus provided, miraculously multiplying the gift of that youngster. (I wish I could find out what became of that boy. He isn’t named, but he stepped up and offered what little he had. The disciples commented that it was “too little to matter, with such a crowd.” Jesus made it feed them all. Remember there were five thousand men, not counting women and children. So…how many? I don’t know: possibly far more than five thousand. We have no way to know whether there were many beside the men. But Jesus commanded His disciples to go feed them.

What about Us?

What “bread” do we have to offer? What has God provided us, that could be multiplied to His glory and our joy? A number of you have been gifted to feed the flock from the written Word. It is not a “comfortable” gift. It takes us “out of our comfort zone,” as the saying goes today. We may not really want to bear the responsibility. I sometimes feel pretty overwhelmed by the burden.  But this is what God has called me to do, so, I do it: Not because I get a bang out of it, but because that is the task God has given me to do!

Jeremiah was quite reluctant to do the job he was called to do. And his was a very difficult ministry. He is often called “the weeping prophet,” because he spent so much time grieving over Judah and Israel. As far as we can tell from scripture, only a couple of people actually believed him during his ministry. Ezekiel didn’t have a happy assignment, either. Nor did Daniel or Habakkuk: But all of these servants of God went ahead and obeyed and found their joy in the person of their Savior.

Use what You have been Given!

If the Lord has put some loaves and fishes in your hand, no matter how small, in terms of gifting, please don’t let it go to waste. And, if God is calling you to feed the flock, to “give them something to eat,” then look to Him to hand you the food and get moving! Where do we find “sheep food?” We find it in the Word of God. Jeremiah 15:16 says, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them: and thy word was unto me the joy and the rejoicing of mine heart, for I am called by thy name, O Lord, God of Hosts!” Every single believer is called by the name of Jesus, as we are part of His body…and we are all to feed upon His Word. 1st Peter 2:2 says, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby.”

The shepherds are still commanded to feed the flock: that is their specific task within the body. But every believer can take that command and apply it to his or her own gifts, knowing that every member of the Body of Christ has the task of reaching out to bless those around us. We do it in different ways. And that is fine. The parts of a person’s body don’t all do the same thing. But the parts of any body, including the Body of Christ, are made to work well together as a team, to carry out the desires of the Head, for the blessing of all.

What about that Boy who gave His Lunch?

What if that young fellow had believed the “general consensus,” that his gift was “not big enough to help?” Or, what if he had reasoned that “Mom gave this food to feed me! If I give it away, it will not accomplish what she wanted to happen!” You see, in reality, that was all he had! He did not offer one loaf and one fish, or four loaves and one fish: he offered it all.

Everything I have can be offered to Jesus, to be used the way He wants. And, what did the boy get out of the deal? Well, to begin with, he got what everyone else got: He got to eat his fill! (Possibly he ate more than he had actually brought: everyone else certainly did!) In the second place, and more eternally relevant, he was mentioned in the Gospel accounts, and everyone who ever reads God’s Word finds out about that youngster who gave what he had to Jesus, and the results of his offering.

But the earthshaking thing that he got out of it, is that he was privileged to be a part of one of the most famous miracles of Christ! He was an integral part of the feeding of the five thousand! In a way, he was more involved than the twelve disciples were: all they did was to distribute the food. He gave his food to Jesus and saw it multiplied to meet the needs of a multitude, including the disciples and himself.

What about you?

You have the privilege of offering the bread of life to everyone around you. Jesus bought it for all of us at the Cross. He provided Himself, as the true Bread of Life, as He points out later in this chapter. But you and I have the incredible privilege of passing on that food to others, and watching it multiply. No matter what other gifts or values you may add to the Body at large, every single one of us has this specific privilege. You can feed the hungry. You can offer the Bread of life and the Water of life to anyone willing to take it. And if they receive it, and are born again, we have the joy of seeing them grow to a point where they begin leading others to Christ as well.

What if someone else acts as though your contribution is too small to be worthwhile? Remember the boy who gave his lunch? His small contribution has had eternal results!

Whoever it was who took the trouble to lead Billy Graham to Christ has a whole lot of spiritual grandchildren today! You don’t know how far God will take your gift of love and worship and obedience to His Word. All we have is what Jesus gave us. And all we can do is offer it back to Him as an act of worship.

Lord Jesus, teach us to follow you and to make our lives a living sacrifice to you as an act of worship. Help us to see the hungry people and to feed them with your Grace.

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The Divine Witnesses

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Four Divine Witnesses

© 2022 C. O. Bishop

John 5:31-47

Introduction

Jesus listed four witnesses apart from His own testimony. He said that if His own testimony was the only one, then it would not be true: all the other witnesses, all sent from God, had to agree.

31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. 32 There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. 33 Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. 34 But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved. 35 He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. 36 But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. 37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. 38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. 39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. 41 I receive not honour from men. 42 But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. 43 I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. 44 How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. 46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

Four Witnesses

John the Baptist

There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. 33 Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. 34 But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved. 35 He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.

Jesus listed John first, as they had all listened to John, and had (at least at the beginning) seen him as a messenger from God: a prophet of some sort. Jesus confirmed that John had told the truth about Him, when he identified Jesus as “the Lamb of God” who was to take away the sin of the world, and when he said that the One who came after Him was greater than he himself; that he himself was “not worthy to carry the shoes” of Jesus, nor even to unlace them.

And truly, some had responded to John’s testimony and recognized Jesus as their Messiah. Some of John’s disciples had left John and gone to follow Jesus with John’s encouragement.

But Jesus immediately pointed out that, in spite of John’s status as a prophet, and as a burning, shining light for God, he was still a fallible human being…so Jesus went on to list three other witnesses to His identity and credentials:

The Works

36 But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.

The works that Jesus did in their presence (and continues to perform today) should have been adequate testimony to His authority. Remember that, to some it truly was sufficient. They recognized His authority through relatively small demonstrations of His power.

Nathanael recognized Him as the Son of God when all Jesus had done was to reveal that He had seen Nathanael from an impossible distance, prior to Philip’s having called him to “come and see” Jesus. And Jesus said he would see much greater works.

Nicodemus at least recognized that He was sent from God, because of the miraculous works. Others recognized him by His works as well. Later, in John 14:11, Jesus encouraged His own disciples to believe for the works’ sake if nothing else. This was when Jesus was on His way to Gethsemane, and He knew that the disciples’ faith would soon be tested to the limit. So, He reminded them of the truth that He was in the Father and that the Father was in Him, but then said, in effect, “if you are having trouble with that idea, just believe in Me because of the works you have seen Me do.”

The Father

37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. 38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.

We already saw, back in John 1:18, that “No man hath seen God at any time…” We concluded that the few times, throughout history, when God had appeared in human form, it had been God the Son. Jesus is confirming that, here: saying you have not heard His voice nor seen His shape.

But: John the Baptist at least, had heard the Father’s voice, in Matthew 3:17, at the Baptism of Jesus, and the assembled people in John 12:28-30 got to hear it but seemed to hear it differently: some thought they heard thunder, others said an Angel spoke to Him. In Matthew 17:1-8, Peter, James, and John heard the Father on the Mount of Transfiguration, too, so, evidently Jesus was telling this particular group, his antagonists, that they had never heard God’s voice.  

He went on to confirm this, observing that because God’s Word was not “abiding” in them, they were rejecting the One whom the Father had sent. (That is an interesting concept: remember, these were still under the Old Testament covenant. Did Old Testament believers have “God’s Word abiding in them?” Evidently, they must have, because Jesus seems to be saying that is what believers had in common. Today we all have the indwelling Holy Spirit, and we are told to continually receive His Word as well.)

The Scriptures

39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. 41 I receive not honour from men. 42 But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. 43 I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. 44 How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. 46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

This is the heaviest accusation: they had the testimony of Moses and the other prophets!  They were rejecting God’s Word! Today, we have the testimony of John 1:1-4, 14 that the Word is Jesus, but they did not know that yet. On the basis of the scripture they did have, Jesus made several indictments against them:

  1. Ye will not come to me that ye might have life.
  2. I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.
  3. I have come in My Father’s Name, and you have not received me.
  4. If someone else comes in their own name, you will receive him.
  5. You cannot believe, because you honor one another and seek honor from one another, rather than the honor of God.
  6. Moses will be your accuser: he wrote of Me, and you did not believe him.

Based on these indictments, Jesus concluded that they were not going to be able to believe His Word. He would receive no honor from men, because all of these indictments against them were true.

What has to change?

At some point in time a person hears the message of Jesus and becomes convinced that it is true. Or, at least, they believe some small portion of it, and then they have a choice to make: will they “Change their mind” regarding the rest of the message and admit that it is all true, or reject the portion to which they had begun to respond?

The word usually translated “repent” in scripture, is the Greek word “metanoia.” It simply means “change your mind.” If you believed that Jesus was a great teacher, but not literally God in human form, then Jesus is calling you to change your mind. If you believed that you were “doing your best” and were thereby accepted by God, Jesus is calling you to change your mind, and realize that you truly are a sinner, in need of a Savior.

  • They were not willing to Come to Jesus and receive eternal life. This is a common stance, today, too: people are not sure what they do need, but they are convinced that it is not Jesus! That will require a change of mind, before they can believe.
  • They did not have the Love of God in them. That could not change until they received Him.
  • They did not receive the One who came in the Name of the Father. Their forefathers had also rejected the prophets who came in His name.
  • He said that they would receive one who comes in his own name. This will prove to be true in the person of the antichrist, and has proven true down through the ages: Humans look for dynamic leaders, and will follow them right into destruction.
  • Because we are so focused on each other and what others think, we are trapped and unable to break free and just believe God. We may say that we want honor from God, but the reality is, we really want honor from other humans.
  • Believing the word of Moses is foundational to believing the Word of Jesus. If you don’t believe Moses, you also won’t believe Jesus. I have frequently had people tell me that they liked Jesus just fine, but they rejected the Old Testament God. Sorry… that was Jesus, too!

In our Wednesday night services we are working our way through the books of Moses. (And it is work!) It is difficult for us to keep in mind the context of the Law, and the historical context of Israel’s recent exodus from Egypt and the terribly evil practices of the people in the land they were about to enter. When we keep all those things in mind, it is easier for us to understand the Law. And when we remember that the same Jesus whom we love in the New Testament was the One giving the Law in the Old Testament, then we can more easily accept that fact that the Law was not only “necessary,” but it was Good.

We can see that, even back then, the heart-issue was faith. The people who believed God gained His approval and backing. The people who did not believe God were rejected because they rejected Him!

This idea ties in directly with the warning that Jesus gave in John 3:18 “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

The Key to Faith is the Word

So, then: what is the key to faith? Romans 10:17 says, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

There is a threshold, here, then: is there any portion of God’s Word that we accept as being unquestionably true? Or, which we see as being “From God?” If we can begin there, and recognize that the Author of that one portion is also the Author of all the rest, then perhaps we can begin to change our minds (repent) about the rest of His Word.

If we feed on His Word, as believers, it opens our hearts to believe more and to respond in faith and obedience. The people to whom Jesus was speaking were not believers: but the answer is still the same: they will either respond to the Word in faith or they will not. Did Jesus’s accusation that they did not believe the Word of Moses convict them? Then possibly they later repented and believed. Sometimes it takes that sort of self-realization before we see ourselves as a lost sinner.

I have known people who had been in church for years, happily attending, giving, praying, singing, etc.: but they suddenly came to the realization that they had circumvented the Cross: They had never trusted Jesus’s sacrifice as their own substitute. They had never placed themselves under His blood to escape the judgment of a righteous, Holy God. They were not yet a believer, because they had omitted the first step of faith: confessing that “I am a sinner, in need of a Savior!” 1st John 1:10 points out that if we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and His Word is not in us! And that is where they found themselves.

But, when they saw that, they repented! They did not continue to deny their sin. Romans 3:25 says, speaking of Jesus, “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.” That is what God requires. So, when they placed their trust in His blood as full payment for their own sin , they were born again, and they began eternal life in Him that very moment.

The woman I am thinking of was 78 years old, and had been in church her whole life, but had never heard that she needed to be born again. Since then, she has gone on to be with her Savior, but she left these lessons for us to learn:

  • Going to church cannot save us!
  • Earnest service and religious works cannot save us!
  • Years of good behavior cannot save us!
  • Faith in Jesus’s Word, and His shed blood, alone, is the only response God will accept.

Keep this in mind when you share your faith with others: Jesus is who they need: not the church, not good works, nor becoming a follower of some human teacher. They need Jesus! Give them Jesus!

Lord Jesus, help us to see you clearly, and to follow you faithfully. Give us the heart of love and compassion that will enable us to offer your Love to others and to share your Grace with them.

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Why Two Resurrections?

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Why are there Two Resurrections taught in the Bible?

© 2022 C. O. Bishop

John 5:28-30; 1st John 2:2; 1st Corinthians 3:10-15;

Introduction:

Last week, we touched on the fact that there are two resurrections, and that the resurrection of the believers is prior to that of the unbelievers.

8 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. 30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

So, while most of us may simply accept the Divine Order as just being “how it will all work out,” perhaps the question might arise as to why there are two resurrections as opposed to just a general resurrection wherein all the “sorting” can happen at once. Perhaps the best way to begin would be to address the various “judgments” in the scriptures. In Hebrews 9:27, it says that “It is appointed unto Man once to die, but after this the judgment.” So, we need to think that through, and ask, “What judgment is in view?”

How many Judgments?

  1. The Judgment of Sin (the sin of the whole Human Race) was carried out at the Cross.
  2. The Judgment seat of Christ, where the works of believers are in view, will be carried out after the rapture, but before the physical return of Jesus.
  3. The Judgment of the Living Nations (the survivors of the tribulation) will be carried out at the physical return of Christ, at the beginning of the Kingdom age.
  4. The Final Judgment (of all the unrighteous dead of all time) will be carried out at the Great White Throne, after the Kingdom age, after the destruction of this earth, and immediately before the revealing of the new Heaven and new Earth.

Judgment of Sin

As we have learned in the past, all the blood sacrifices of the Old Testament from Genesis 3:21 onward, were all “looking forward to” the one all-sufficient sacrifice Jesus made at the Cross. Since He became sin for us, dying as a substitute for every human who would ever live, His blood literally satisfied God’s judgment upon the sin of the whole human race. (1st John 2:2)

In John 3:18, Jesus said that those who believed in His Name (placing their trust in His finished work) would not be condemned, but that those who did not trust Him as the substitute for their own life, and their own sins, were not “going to be condemned,” but are already condemned. So, as a rebellious young atheist, I was already condemned, and effectively “on death row:” I was headed for Hell, and without hope, until I became convinced that I was lost, and that I needed a Savior. Finally, I placed my trust in Him, and was permanently placed under His blood. I have no other offering…there is nothing to be added to His Grace.

Judgment of our Works: The Judgment Seat of Christ

(Only Believers are at this Judgment.)

Works have zero effect on salvation, but they have great effect on our ongoing relationship with God in this life, and our reward in the next. 1st Corinthians 3:10–15 tells us how God will “grade” our works: our works will be judged “by fire.”

Anything showing “eternal value” by surviving that “Refiner’s Fire” will result in reward. All the works that “looked good,” during our lifetimes, but turned out to just be something we did on our own initiative, and which did not originate with the Spirit of God, will be consumed in that flame, but the believers will not be harmed. They will simply be “as one escaping through the flames.” They will have lost what they thought they had gained, but they themselves are safe.

What are the Rewards?

I really don’t know. There are five different “crowns” (Greek, “stephanos”…victor’s wreaths) which are named, but not clearly described. There are also places where a reward is described as “ruling over a city.” So, that would evidently be a reward of authority and responsibility. But the conclusion I would have to call the “bottom line,” is what Paul said: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what the Father hath in store for them that love Him.” (That’s it! He says we don’t know! So, I’m going to drop it right there.)

Judgment of the Living Nations:

(Living Believers and unbelievers: “What did you do with Jesus and His Family?”)

This Judgment is described in Matthew 25:31, ff.  This is the one where, immediately after the Tribulation, and Jesus’s physical return, His throne is set up on earth, and all the living nations (Gentile nations) are brought before him for judgment. The Judgment seems to be based upon how they treated the Jews and the Gentile believers during the tribulation.

One could make the mistake of thinking that this describes a works-based salvation: But what we are seeing, here, is proof that “works are the result of faith.” They all acted upon their beliefs:

  • Those who denied Jesus’s authority and who despised His Grace, and sought to destroy His people are revealed by their works as being unbelievers.
  • Those who took the risk of either siding with, or at least helping those persecuted people of God, are also revealed by their works, as being believers.

The result of this judgment is peculiar, in that, since the people being judged are not dead, the passage in Hebrews 9:27 is not directly applicable. Those who were judged to have been believers, as revealed by their works, are admitted into the Kingdom age (along with the remnant of the Jews, and the believing Gentiles who survived the purges of the tribulation.)

Those who were judged to have rejected the Savior, as revealed by their works, are sent into the place of the dead, (called “Sheol” in the Old Testament: “Hades” in the New Testament, (mostly translated “hell,” in both Testaments.) All it says in Matthew is “everlasting punishment.” (The reason we know that it is not the Lake of Fire, is that Revelation 20:11-15 tells us about that specific judgment, and hell will be cast into the Lake of Fire.)

The Final Judgment: The Great White Throne

(Only unbelievers are at this Judgment.)

This judgment occurs at the very end of the Kingdom age, after a final rebellion has been put down by God the Father. The old “heaven and earth” have just been destroyed, as seen in 2nd Peter 3:10, 11. A Great White Throne appears in space…it says, “heaven and earth flee away from the Face of Him who sits on the throne.”

The old Heaven and Earth are evidently destroyed in this moment. All the remaining dead stand before the Judge. (The righteous dead are already eternally with the Lord.) Who is the Judge? In John 5:22 we see that it is Jesus! We have a hard time with this: We have been taught to think of Jesus as such a tender, forgiving person that it is difficult to imagine Him in this role. But He is the only Judge, and always has been!

All the dead are seen as being checked in God’s Records (the “books are opened”…) and they are judged accordingly…and all of them end up in the lake of fire. Are there “degrees of punishment?” Evidently there are: Jesus said so! How does that work? I really don’t know. Different writers have hypothesized at different times, sometimes quite famously (e.g. Inferno, by Dante Alighieri, in 1320.) But God does not explain this at all, except to say that it is so.

Why Different Resurrections?

Given the huge difference in destination, it seems pretty sensible to me to arrange the resurrection in two waves. In 1st Thessalonians 4:11-18 (along with 1st Corinthians 15:51, 52) we see that the resurrection of believers (their dead bodies being restored to life) will come at the same time as the Rapture. The dead believers will receive their bodies back, immortal, and in the next instant, we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds, as it says in 1st Thessalonians.

All of them, together, receive their “resurrected” or “transformed” bodies at that time. The “Awards ceremonies” as we might consider the “Judgment Seat of Christ” to be, will happen after that point, but before His physical return to Earth. However, there is another group, in Revelation 20:4, who were beheaded during the Tribulation for the sake of Christ. They will be resurrected at the end of the Tribulation or beginning of the Kingdom age, and will reign with Christ for the duration of the Kingdom: 1,000 years. Together, this group with the ones resurrected at the rapture, seem to comprise the “first Resurrection.” (Revelation 20:5, 6)

After the First Resurrection:

The Judgment of the living nations, at the end of the Tribulation, doesn’t involve a resurrection at all: they are all living people, who either will live on the restored earth for the next 1,000 years, or will be summarily dropped into Hades, to await the resurrection of the lost.

Finally, after the Kingdom age, and the crushing defeat of Satan and his army, the only people left to be resurrected and judged are the unbelieving dead. We may feel that “They weren’t all bad,” but Jeremiah 17:9 says that the human heart is “desperately wicked.”  God’s view of their hearts is the standard by which they will be judged, not our opinions.

What follows is the Final Judgment of the unrighteous dead. Some had just recently died by fire in the rebellion which had just been crushed. Some had died in the wars during the tribulation. Others had been dead for thousands of years, just awaiting final judgment. In either case, we need to remember that Our Savior, Jesus, the Messiah…is the One seated on that Great White Throne. Jesus has never misjudged anyone. And He never will.

Time Lapse Between the Resurrections

According to Revelation 20:5 there is a 1,000-year span between the end of the first resurrection and the beginning of the second. Also, (apparently) time ends right then. The eternal state has begun and there is no further need to measure time. (We saw in Genesis 1:14 that the reason for the Sun, Moon and stars was partly to give light, but primarily to tell time. And the sun and moon will be gone, in the new heaven and earth!)

So, how long do the judgements take? I don’t know. God is sovereign, and omniscient (all-knowing) so, He could complete it all in an instant, and it will have been done perfectly. Or, He could carry on individual conversations simultaneously with every single person who ever lived! (No waiting!) But, since He doesn’t tell us any details, we must choose to be satisfied with His Word, and trust His perfect character, wisdom, and justice. No one will be misjudged.

No Confusion Needed

It would be easy to be confused by the account in Matthew, revealing the Judgment of the Living Nations: we have not had much teaching along those lines, so we tend to think of this as being the final judgment. But it’s not! This is the judgment of living people: Some (the righteous) will enter the Kingdom (not heaven) in their natural bodies, in whatever shape they are in after surviving the Tribulation. They will live in that glorious world in peace, for 1,000 years, where Jesus is ruling, in person.

The rest, who are condemned in that judgment, will join those already in the place of the unrighteous dead (not the lake of fire), and wait for the second resurrection. In Revelation 20:14, at the culmination of the Great White Throne Judgment, we see death and hell (Hades) will be cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the final Judgment—the Second Death.

Separation:

God has moved to keep His people separate from the lost, throughout the ages. During our lifetimes, we are only separated spiritually: he sends us among them as ambassadors, as lights in the darkness of this world. But, once we are released from this world, we are separated permanently.

So, the only Judgment in which the saved and lost are together and being separated, is the Judgment of the Living Nations in Matthew 25. All those who have died are kept entirely separate. There is no more mingling after that point. So, the final reason for two separate resurrections is the completion of our eternal separation from sin. The resurrection of the believers is past: all the righteous dead of all ages are finally home with God, and in their eternal, glorified bodies.

There is no further outreach to those who have rejected God’s offer of Grace. That door is closed. If we remember the Ark, in the Genesis Flood, we recall that the building of the Ark evidently took 120 years. During that time, God says Noah was a preacher of righteousness. But the day came when God closed the door to the Ark. The Flood came and all outside the Ark were swept away.

The Deadline is Coming:

Jesus reminded his hearers of that account, in Matthew 24:37-39. He was using it to warn of a different “deadline,” but the principle is the same: the day is coming when God will close the door. After that time, no further decisions will be offered or accepted. Those in the second resurrection, the resurrection of damnation, will be eternally separated from God and from us. That is the bad news: The Good News is that there is still time for us to offer God’s Grace to anyone who will hear.

Jesus is still in the business of reaching out to the Lost, and offering them eternal life. And He only does so through His people: It always requires that we take the time (and risk) of sharing His Grace with others. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by Hearing, and Hearing by the Word of God.” You may be the only source of light in someone else’s darkness: Don’t deny them that light! Open your heart to care enough to open your mouth and offer them the Grace of God and eternal life, through the Gospel.

Lord Jesus, open our hearts to allow Your compassion to flow through us to the people around  in our lives. Give us the compassion to care and the courage and conviction to speak. Fill us with Your Spirit and allow us to serve.

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