Wednesday Bible Study: The Walk of John, part 9

 

Now we go into what I'm calling, "Crash course part one". While we have been going chapter by chapter, and sometimes less, until now, today we are going to take a three-chapter leap, and get back to what John saw as important.  In jumping 9, 10, and 11 in a single bound, we might skip some interesting stuff, I want to pare it down to three items:  The lessons taught, and the reaction of the Jewish leaders to them.

Lesson one involves a blind man, and the reason behind his blindness:

Joh 9:1  As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.
Joh 9:2  And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Joh 9:3  Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
Joh 9:4  We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.
Joh 9:5  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." 

Everything Jesus was doing on earth had three things in mind; the first was to display the Father's works and plan.  This led to a rather humorous exchange between the healed man, the Pharisees, and anyone else within their grasp- a story we are going to skip for the most part.  Jesus sums up what is going on at the end of the chapter, but before we go there, let's digest what happened here:

The first thing is what I boldened.  The works of God are to be put on display. But look one verse down: Jesus didn't say "I must work", but "WE must work..." Ourselves through Jesus are thus commissioned.  And we CAN do it for we are the light of the world, that people like the blind man might see.

Joh 9:35  Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
Joh 9:36  He answered, "And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?"
Joh 9:37  Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you."
Joh 9:38  He said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.
Joh 9:39  Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind."
Joh 9:40  Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, "Are we also blind?"
Joh 9:41  Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains. 

 

You see, the man had been healed, but was still blind- UNTIL he believed.  The world was about to be divided into two camps- the seeing and the blind.  The Pharisees, as much as they didn't understand because of their unbelief, knew that they were in the blind camp.  Not because they didn't know before, like the man, but because they refused to act on their knowledge.  What they were was more important than what God wanted them to be.  When you make the decision to be that kind of blind, God will keep you there.

Lesson one concludes with an overview of the "amusing story": How the Pharisees interviewed the man, and even his parents, about what happened, and HOW it happened.  It this point, the man was still among those Proverbs would call 'the simple'; the Pharisees were the "fool", who "in his heart says, There is no God".  And even the simple were smart enough to confound them:

Joh 9:28  And they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
Joh 9:29  We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from."
Joh 9:30  The man answered, "Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.
Joh 9:31  We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.
Joh 9:32  Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.
Joh 9:33  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."

Even the simple were smart enough to figure that out, because they were willing to become smart. You cannot say 'There is no God" unless you are willfully stupid.

Lesson two is the next chapter's "Good Shepherd speech".  And the crux of this teaching is this:

Joh 10:2  But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
Joh 10:3  To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
Joh 10:4  When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
Joh 10:5  A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."

Those who will be saved, they are given the ability to hear. Does this mean that some are always going to be saved, and some are always going to be damned? Some people think this, but they forget our Great God is BEYOND TIME.  He knows who will choose to listen, and smooths the road to the day of their listening.  He knows who will choose not to, and lets them stumble.  But WE make the choice, whether we realize it or not.  This isn't the lesson itself, but it leads to it:

Joh 10:14  I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
Joh 10:15  just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Joh 10:16  And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
Joh 10:17  For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
Joh 10:18  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father."

This was Jesus's second job- to lay down His mortal life on earth to raise US up.  The Pharisees, once again, go on to prove that they are not of His flock:

Joh 10:24  So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."
Joh 10:25  Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me,
Joh 10:26  but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock.

The last three lessons, now, that I have posted, they have asked this SAME question- and the last three posts, He's answered them.  Not one evidence Jesus could give them would change that.  Next, Jesus had one more lesson that He needed to teach- and He did that through the death of Lazarus.

 

Lesson three:

Joh 11:1  Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Joh 11:2  It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.
Joh 11:3  So the sisters sent to him, saying, "Lord, he whom you love is ill."
Joh 11:4  But when Jesus heard it he said, "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it."

Joh 11:14  Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus has died,
Joh 11:15  and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."

 This was Jesus's third purpose on earth- to get them to BELIEVE in Him.  But the Disciples, who hadn't had it sink in that death was His purpose, were more concerned with earthly dangers...

Joh 11:8  The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?" 

Joh 11:16  So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." 

See, they were little better off than the Pharisees- they still did not believe in the POWER of Jesus.  Martha put the disconnect best:

Joh 11:21  Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
Joh 11:22  But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."
Joh 11:23  Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
Joh 11:24  Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." 

 
Joh 11:25  Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
Joh 11:26  and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

Jesus was trying to get them to believe that death was NOT the end.  It is hard, even for us, to grasp just how much of "everything" is subject to God.  It was time for them to believe in a GREAT God.  And then Jesus brought Lazarus back to life.  Even death was subject to Him.

So Jesus came to be sight, and the disbelievers claimed proudly to be blind.  Jesus called to His sheep, and they heard; so the leaders became deafness.  And now, that Jesus had proven beyond even their doubts He was the Master of Life...

Joh 11:47  So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, "What are we to do? For this man performs many signs.
Joh 11:48  If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."
Joh 11:49  But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all.
Joh 11:50  Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish."
Joh 11:51  He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation,
Joh 11:52  and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
Joh 11:53  So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.

...they would become 'masters' of death. But even at this, they would be made fools of.  They couldn't even try Him without lying testimony; they would have to send Him to the two leaders they rejected the most (Herod and Pilate) to sentence Him; and they would have to appeal to the power of their greatest fear, Rome, to execute Him.