Category Archives: Wednesday Bible Study

We’ve entered into John 11 today. Jesus and His disciples had left Jerusalem where they had been for the Feast of the Dedication. Jews there had pestered Him with the question of Him being Christ. (John 10:24) They claimed they were interested to know if He was. Interesting to note the blind man Jesus had healed in John 9 knew He was the Christ and was kicked out of the Temple for professing that. I do believe that what these Jews were angling for was Jesus to claim the truth of what He is, so they could convict Him of blasphemy. They ended up with stones in their hands (John 10:31) but Jesus eluded their grasp (John 10:39) and traveled to the place where John the Baptist first started his ministry. The scripture states that many believed in Him there. (John 10:42)

What do you think of when you hear the name Lazarus? Does it bring you back to Sunday School? My wife and I along with Carol, Ronda and Leighton and many others of the family were at Beckville Church on Friday. A member of Cordes’ side of the family had passed away, that being Mary, who was a sister of Randy, who is our Brother in Law, and this was the day of her funeral. Paula and her family had grown up in that church and her Sister Patti took Paula down into the basement of the church and they remembered Sunday School that had been held there. It was a dark and dingy place and something you’d imagine more a home for spiders than kids learning about God. But we weren’t as prissy about things back in that day. 

Getting back to our Bible Study, there was a man named Lazarus who lived with his sisters Mary and Martha, in a place called Bethany. It is now called al-Eizarya which in Arabic, means “Place of Lazarus”. It is a couple of miles East of Jerusalem, on the road to Jericho, in the foothills of the Mount of Olives. This village could be called the Judean home of Jesus, as He appears to have preferred to lodge there rather than in Jerusalem itself. This place is also where the feast at the house of Simon the leper occurred (Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, John 12:2-8) and most notably, Christ ascended unto Heaven. (Luke 24:50) Lots of history at this place. 

Jesus was sent a message, a certain man was sick. (v. 1) As mentioned, Lazarus had two sisters, Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, (Luke 7:37-38) and Martha who worried over her sister not helping her when Jesus came to visit. (Luke 10:38-42)

The sisters had sent word to Jesus saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” (v. 3) As mentioned above, Jesus had spent time with this family, and liked to stay at their home instead of Jerusalem. This is one of those ironic circumstances where the disciple that Jesus loved is writing about a man that Jesus also loved. Love is what I think of when I think of Jesus. (John 15:9) Even when He was talking sternly to the Jews, he loved them and wanted to gather them in, like a mother hen with its chicks. (Luke 13:34) When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” (v. 4) This is very similar to John 9:3 when the disciples ask Him who had sinned. Jesus answered “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”

We were created to glorify God. The way most people act, it would appear that they have not accepted that lesson. Darkness does not understand light. (John 1:5) We live in a pagan nation, it may have not always been so, but it is so now. Do not fool yourself in thinking you can run with the pagans and not have it rub off on you. The word Holy, means separation. God told us to be Holy because He is Holy. (1 Peter 1:16) And He sent His only begotten Son down to us, to minister to us, and by us I mean man who was created by Him. Our ancestors. We, for the most part, ran with the pagans, not accepting that He was I AM. We crucified Him in spite of what He said to us and His wonders. To the pagan world’s amazement, He rose again and ascended unto heaven and His disciples, now with the Holy Spirit indwelling them, went about and created His Church. Along the way, this handy book came along that I am teaching from and trying to get you to read and obey it. It’s a lot like the old saying, “You buy ‘em books and they just chew the covers” , but I still have hope. Here’s a tip from the book, when God said be Holy for I am Holy, it wasn’t just a suggestion. Deuteronomy 11:1 Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. Also not a suggestion.

As I said, when I think of Jesus, I think of the love He had for the people. He loved Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus. (v. 5) When He heard that Lazarus was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was. (v. 6) This at first seems a bit strange and out of character for Jesus. If you are just skimming the text, you might have missed verse 4. Jesus would use this to glorify God and also to Himself as the Son of God. This once again brings to mind that we are here to glorify God. He then tells the disciples “Let us go to Judea again.” (v. 7) This was not with happiness. The disciples *said to Him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?” (v. 8) These disciples were still learning. They had been with Jesus around two and a half years and still not understanding the lessons given. Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” (vv. 9,10) 

From MacArthur’s Study Bible commentary: During the light of the sun, most people did their work safely. When darkness came, they stopped. The proverbial saying, however, has a deeper meaning. As long as the Son performed his Father’s will, this during the daylight of his ministry when he is able to work safely. The time would soon come, that being night time, when by God’s design, his Earthly work would end and he would stumble into death. Jesus was stressing that as long as he was on Earth doing God’s will even at this late date In his ministry, he would safely complete God’s purposes. 

To explain better to these men of His, standing there with questioning looks on their faces, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.” (v. 11) But it really did not help much: “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” (v. 12) You would think by now that they would understand what manner of speech their Rabbi was using. It should given to us, that chew the covers of this book, hope that our ignorance and rebellion would be transformed through obedience of His will and Faith in Him who was crucified so that we might live. 

Jesus ended up telling them plainly “Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.” Believing is essential, but it takes Grace to get there, Grace of the Father to draw us, and to the Son to keep us that none will be torn from His grasp. Thomas, doubting Thomas as he’s know today, also known as Didymus spoke for them all when he said “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.” (v. 16) A noble sentiment. It reminds me of my Grandmother, who from the time I could remember, said “I just want to go home with Jesus.” I do too, Grandma, I do too. 

So, where are you at in your life? Are you a doubting Thomas, or are you ready to go home to Jesus and if you are, are you sure you are ready to go home to Jesus? Meaning, have you accepted that you are a sinner, have sinned against God in thought, word and deed? Have you then repented those unfortunate facts not just once, but daily? Do you love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and are you obedient to His will and commands? Do you love your neighbor as yourself and are you at peace with all men and women? Do you accept that you are a work in progress and not a done deal? If we are truthful, of all those things mentioned, some days are better than others, but through the Grace of our Lord, we shall prevail. Now stop prevaricating about the bush and read this book, the whole thing and no cheating. How are you going to know the truth of all that listed above if you don’t read it for yourself. Get busy and no excuses.

We continue from last week’s bible study of John 10 with a reading of the scripture:

19 A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?” 21 Others were saying, “These are not the sayings of one demon-possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?”

Jesus Asserts His Deity

22 At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; 23 it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. 24 The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. 26 But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” 33 The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36 do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” 39 Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.

40 And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there. 41 Many came to Him and were saying, “While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true.” 42 Many believed in Him there.

So, what’s going on here? Verses 19 to 21 are still dealing with the ramifications of healing the blind man on the sabbath. The Pharisees had been telling people Jesus had a demon for a while now and we find this in Matthew 12:22-37.

22 Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. 23 All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”

Interesting to note that when confronted by Christ, evil spirits gave terrified testimony that Jesus was indeed God’s Son.

“And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God” (Mark 3:11).

“And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ” (Luke 4:41). 

If satanic spirits know who the Son of God is, why do the Pharisees not see this too? James would later write of this: “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19). 

Next up, verses 22 and 23 are talking about Jesus and his disciples walking around the temple of Solomon, it being The Feast of Dedication, which was once also called the Feast of the Maccabees. It was an eight-day winter festival celebrated by the Jews in the month of December or sometimes late November, depending on when it fell in the lunisolar Jewish calendar. Today, this festival is called Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights. I am sure you’ve all heard about Hanukkah but you may be wondering what a Maccabee is? The name Maccabee is often used as a synonym for the entire Hasmonean dynasty which ruled from 167 BC to 37 BC, being a fully independent kingdom from about 110 to 63 BC. They reasserted the Jewish religion, partly by forced conversion, expanded the boundaries of Judea by conquest and reduced the influence of Hellenism. They were also known to be very fierce in battle. 

Alexander the Great brought Greek, its culture and language in around 300 BC and the Maccabeeians endeavored to reverse that. Rome came in around 40 BC when the last Hasmonean kings were defeated and killed in battle. In 37 BC, Herod, a son-in-law of Hyrcanus II, was appointed King of Judea by the Romans and when Herod died, Judah came into direct Roman control.

We are now up to date with where Jesus and His disciples were walking the land around in the front colonnade area of Solomon’s temple and because of the festival, many people were about. Because of John the Baptist and what Jesus had done, the healings, casting out of demons and such, this rabbi was well known to them and when  people saw Him, gathered around and started a bizarre line of questioning to Him. “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” (John 10:24) 

These Jews were not seeking merely for clarity and understanding regarding who Jesus was, but rather wanted Him to declare openly that He was Messiah in order to justify attacking Him. Jesus’ response is that He has told them and that His works confirm the truth of who He is. The problem is that they do not believe because they “are not of My sheep” (v. 26).

So these, who were not His sheep and clearly did not want to be one of His sheep, once again picked up stones to stone him with. Jesus’s response to them was one that should have caused them to pause and reflect. He basically confronts their hypocrisy by saying He has done good works from the Father, which one of those do you stone me for? He was asking them to look into their own hearts and use discernment to see what they were doing. They blew right past that with them telling Christ that they were not buying His argument. His good works were not the problem, it was His claim of being God is what made them put stones in their hands. If they would just stop and think for just a bit, at no time in the past had anyone done what this rabbi had done. Then consult with the scriptures to verify what was true. The trouble was their shepherds knew the truth but were blinded by not seeing what their lying eyes were showing them. This goes back to what Christ had said about being a Good Shepherd at the beginning of the chapter. The religious leaders had led the people down the wrong path and were looking for someone that would throw off the shackles of Rome. Their desire was contrary to what the scriptures had told them. They insisted that Jesus was just a man, but never had just a man done what this man did. In plain sight but hidden from the hearts of men.

Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’”? (v. 34) What does this mean?

From commentaires of the MacArthur Study Bible: Quoted from Psalm 82:6 where God calls some unjust judges “gods”, and pronounces calamity against them. Jesus’s argument is that this psalm proves that the word “god” can be legitimately used to refer to others than God himself. His reasoning is that there are others whom God can address as “god” or sons of the Most High, why then should the Jews object to Jesus’ statement that he is the son of God? (v. 36)

Verse 35: Christ told them “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”  He is still trying to get them to think, but as we well know, and from our current culture, you cannot tell anybody anything whose mind is made up. What we are seeing right now is everybody has their own truth and there is no absolute truth. Christ was dealing with the same thing. He had claim to the ultimate truth and they denied it, claiming their own.

Jesus did not expect to be believed merely on his own assertions. Since he did the same things as his Father does, his enemies should consider this in their evaluation of him. The implication is, however, that they were so ignorant of God that they could not recognize the works of the father or the one whom the father has sent. (v. 38)

Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp. (v.39) He went away, going to the place where John the Baptist first started baptizing, and Jesus stayed there. (v. 40) This would be a place called “Bethany beyond the Jordan”, located anywhere from 3 to 7 miles North of the Dead Sea. 

The scripture states that many came to Him, saying “While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true.” Many believed in Him there. (vv. 41,42)

I encourage you to read through this part of John 10 again on your own. There is a lot of information and history going on here, so if you missed something, it would be good to review it again.

We start this week’s study of John 10 with Christ and His disciples still in Jerusalem at the Festival of Booths, still dealing with the Pharisees over the issue of a blind beggar being healed on the sabbath. These Jews had created rules for many things, and they had also set themselves up as enforcers of those rules. These rules were beyond what Moses had collated from God’s mouth to his ears and given to the people in the books of the Pentateuch. The first time the sabbath is mentioned in the bible is Genesis 2:3
“Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” Interesting to note this passage of scripture: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:1-5) When you study the scriptures, you’ll find all of it points to Christ. Our salvation points to Christ. From Christ’s own word “No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6) As the hippies used to say, “It’s circular, man.”

God made the world and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Then God blessed the 7th day and sanctified it. This would be what the Jews called sabbath. Since the preincarnate Christ was the author of all that is, it was by his doing and authority that sabbath exists. Many millennia later, these Pharisees decide to add to the word. They had no authority to do so and are told not to do so in Deuteronomy 4:2 “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.” These Pharisees consider their new rules for the sabbath to be a protective fence around God’s Law. “Is the LORD’s arm too short?” (Numbers 11:23) Is God not able to manage His affairs that He needs the help of man to keep His laws?

These Jews were furious with this Rabbi who violated their rules. Rules instituted by them to fence in He who sanctified that day. Jesus as the Word, and the Light, has dominion over what these Pharisees are claiming. And they refuse to listen to anything but themselves. This is clear in the scripture where the once blind man and now healed is confronted by these Jews, and tells them ‘If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?”’ (John 9:33) These Jews then turned from this man to Christ and asked “Are we blind too?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

Christ continues trying to teach them, with a parable. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” (John 10:1-5)

The scripture tells us “This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.” (v. 6) What Jesus had told them probably stems from Ezekiel 34: “Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated them. They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill; My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them.”’”

As religious authorities, they had failed their flock, and enriched themselves. They were judging Christ by the same standard that they had judged the man Jesus had healed. “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?”

We continue: “So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (vv. 7-10)

This part gave me some trouble and from what I have discerned, many other people too. Verse 1 is easy to understand. Christ is the door, as in the Word, the Light and the Living Water of Life. (John 1:1, 5, John 4:13-15) Verse 2 had me wondering. I immediately thought of Abraham, Moses and the prophets. They were men of God and not thieves, so what did this mean? When I get stuck, I go old school. I find the writings of men of the past that had greater wisdom in the scriptures than I do. We turn to Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers, written around 1878. I have used him in the past, he can be a bit wordy at times, but they all were as I’ve found. This is what he wrote on John 10:8:

What, then, do the words mean? Their force seems to be all-inclusive; and yet they cannot contradict Christ’s own words, which have excluded Abraham, Moses, the prophets, John the Baptist, from any possibility of such thoughts. (See John 4:22; John 5:33; John 5:39; John 5:45; John 7:19.) They cannot, on the other hand, be limited to false Christs, who did not come before but after our Lord. (Note on John 5:43.) Here, as often, the true meaning seems for the most part to have been overlooked because men have sought it elsewhere than in the words themselves, and in their place among other words. The thought which precedes and which follows is that Jesus is Himself “the door.” “All that ever came before Me” is in immediate contrast to this thought, and the sense is, “all professing to be themselves the door, to be the means by which men enter the fold, to be the Mediator between man and God.” The Old Testament teachers cannot be meant, because they witnessed to the true door. But there had been growing up since the return from the Captivity, and the close of the Old Testament canon, a priestly caste in the place of the prophetic schools, and these men had been in practice, if not in word, claiming for themselves the position of door to the kingdom of God.

I don’t know about you but that cleared it up for me. This priestly class, claiming to be the door. Abraham, Moses and others all looked to Christ as the door and that is clear scripture. Pride in themselves had corrupted them. Also this was prophesied to happen. (Isaiah 53:3, Luke 22:37) I go back again to John 1. The word was with God and the word was God. All knowing, all powerful, El Shaddai. The creator of all, then as in now. Put your whole trust in Him. Your concerns go to the cross. Know that your daily bread and any other good thing comes from above. Pray to Him daily, hourly is better even still. Repent your sins, live in obedience, and reap the blessings from our loving God.

I leave with little something from William Tyndale, who was a priest, scholar and translator and lived in the early 1500’s. William was, at this time of his life, a tutor to the small children of Sir John and Lady Anne Walsh. The story goes as follows:
Tyndale was engaged in a conversation with a fellow priest concerning the need for the Scriptures to be in the English language. At that time, because of the Oxford Constitutions enacted in the previous century, it was not permissible to own a copy of the Bible in the English language. Tyndale’s companion was not convinced of the need for the Scriptures in English. He is reported to have said that as long as people had the Bishop of Rome’s laws, the Scriptures were not needed.

To this Tyndale replied, “I defy the Pope and all his laws, if God spare my life, I will make a boy that driveth the plough know more of the Scripture than thou dost.”

What’s known as Tyndale’s Ploughboy is this.
Also you see the two things are required to be a Christian man. The first is a steadfast faith and trust in the almighty God, to obtain all Mercy that he hath promised us, through the deserving and merits of Christ’s blood only, without all respect to our own works. And the other is, that we forsake evil and turn to God, to keep his laws and to fight against ourselves and our corrupt nature perpetually, that we may do the will of God every day better and better.

William Tyndale was strangled and burnt at the stake in October 1536 for the heresy of translating the Lord’s words into English so that all might know what God wanted us to know.

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May His face shine upon you and give you peace.

For a great understanding into the sabbath laws and do they have any impact on us today:
https://www.gty.org/library/questions/QA135/are-the-sabbath-laws-binding-on-christians-today