Category Archives: Wednesday Bible Study

Today we are at the bottom of John 4 and Jesus has finished His work with the people of Sychar. We left off last week with the scripture telling us “Many more believed because of His word” (John 4:41). It is telling that with our Savior doing the work of the Father, many but not all believed, because of His word. Darkness lives in the hearts of men. We see it every day in our society. It is the same now as it was back then. And we have the unparalleled luxury of having a complete Bible that we can read and know what God wants of us.

For most of our history man could not read, or if he could, the Bible was available only to the Church. The Church at the time was Catholic and they didn’t want you to read the bible. In fact they would quite often burn you at the stake for preaching what the Bible actually said and did so with great regularity. This started in the early 11th century when 1022 people who were considered heretics, were burned at the stake. This continued until the late 1700’s when they switched over to hanging people. The Catholic church is still not a fan of you actually reading the bible.

My point in this is, we have it so easy to know what God wants of us. Most everybody can read and has a Bible in their possession. Nobody is burning you at the stake for your Faith. We live in a golden age of wealth, comparatively, and knowledge and up until the last 2 months, mostly free of persecution for that faith. 

The people of Sychar had none of those things. They came with the knowledge of their ancestors, which turned out to be mostly wrong, but came to the well to hear a man who turned out to be God, and many of them listened and believed. Not all, but many. God wants none to be lost but knows the darkness that lives in men’s hearts. Jesus, when He was here, said the path is narrow and few find it. (Matthew 7:1) Therefore work out your salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12) Don’t be content with sitting in your pew and letting salvation slip away from you. Many people have spent their whole adult lives going to church, most of the time, happy to let the preacher say what they say, but never doing anything about it themselves. Faith without works of the Spirit is a dead Faith. (James 2:26)

After 2 days, Jesus leaves the people of Sychar and heads to Galilee. (John 4:43) The Galileans receive him, not for what He has said, but because they have seen what He did, for they were at the Jerusalem Passover Feast. (John 4:43)

 From Matthew Poole’s Commentary, we get this insight: 

When he came not to Nazareth, but to some parts of Galilee, the Galilaeans entertained him hospitably; and this they did because of those miracles they had seen wrought by him at the passover feast, where Christ was, John 2:1-25. For these Galilaeans, though they lived at a great distance from Jerusalem, yet were observant of the law which commanded all the males of the Jews to be present at that solemnity. The Samaritans saw no miracle, but believed Christ upon his word. The Galilaeans also received Christ, but their seeing of his miracles at the feast is given as the cause of their receiving him; their faith was not so noble as that of the Samaritans. Blessed (saith our Saviour) are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.

The people of Sychar never saw what the Galileans did, but believed. These Galileans politely accepted this Rabbi into their midst, but mostly out of respect for His entertainment value. Everybody loves to see a miracle happen before them. It will give them something to talk about for days. These Jews had head knowledge of what Jesus had done, but their cultural arrogance of them being descendants of Abraham, kept that knowledge from getting to their heart. Pride of self and arrogance of who you belonged to. Look at the news and see the same thing.

Jesus testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. (John 4:45) The Samaritans had accepted Him as Lord. His own people, the Jews, tolerated Him as an entertainment venue. 

Jesus travels on to Cana of Galilee, where His first miracle occurred. We know it as the wedding where the water got changed into wine. Here we find a royal official had heard that Jesus was in the area and went to seek him out. This royal official had a son who was sick in Capernaum. (John 4:46)

The map gives you a pretty good reference as to where Samaria, Cana and Capernaum are in relation to each other. Lots of walking but not that far apart. 

Here we find God working out His Providence in a Jew, who if everything had been going fine, would not have bothered much to seek out Jesus. Most of us would think of somebody who we know and has a sick kid, we feel sorry for him, but are kinda glad it is him not us. His bad luck to have to have a sick kid. And if we are the incurious type, that’s as far as it goes. Some of us would ponder what did this guy do to have this kind of bad luck? A sort of karma type thing. This is how the secular world works. We don’t acknowledge God working in our lives and some of us might have entertained thoughts of not being real happy at a God that would let bad things happen in this world. I’ve got news for you, God is not real happy with you and your disbelief. 

The way things work is this: God, through Providence, Grace and Mercy will test us. James says this, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

A very good example of testing comes from Genesis. After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Genesis 22:1-24)

Another example of something that just happened to a friend of ours back in Kansas. This friend had a lovely wife who was a believer. She went to sleep one night and never woke up again. She was in her late 30’s and left a family and friends in shock with the sudden realization that none of us knows the span of our days. Why God chose this woman and this time, we do not know. But we do know that God works out all things for His Glory and our good. She was called home and we are left with a hard lesson of where God is in our lives and how we would use this hard lesson to further our faith, convict us of where we have strayed, and strengthen us in our Love of the Lord. Live each day like it could very well be your last and then ponder on how that would change how you live.

This royal official had a son that was sick. Because of the love for his son, he sought out the only person that would have the effect he was looking for. (John 4:47) Love conquers all, including this Jew’s reluctance to consider Jesus as the Messiah. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Jesus gives the royal official a firm lesson, for He knows the hearts of men. “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” (John 4:48) Another test and at this point the royal official is ready to take his head knowledge and apply it to his heart. He tells Jesus to come before my son dies. (John 4:49). As Jesus sees into men’s hearts and sees the change that occurred and knows that this guy’s heart is now involved, He does what only Jesus could do, He heals his son. “Go; your son is alive.”

And the man believed and left to go back home and see his son. As he was going home, he met slaves that told him his son lives. (John 4:51) He inquires at what time did my son recover? They told him “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” (John 4:52) His heart knew that when Jesus said “Your Son Lives” it did indeed happen at that moment and he believed as did his entire household. (John 4:53)

This was the second sign that Jesus performed when He had come from Judea into Galilee. (John 4:54)

So, what did we learn from this lesson? God will test you, to see if you are wheat or weed. Sometimes this test comes at a cost to you, would you learn the lesson needed any other way? If it takes a test, and it did with me, I pray that you will be tested mightily, so that you would truly believe. Remember what was said in Revelation 3:16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.

I do not want you to be spit out of God’s mouth. I want you to get off the dime and truly enjoy the Grace and Mercy of God’s Love and not let your salvation slip past you by inaction and not totally accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. The Joy of Salvation is worth the cost. You’ll have to trust me on that. Now go out and serve your King!

All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ

This week, we are still dealing with the after effects of the Woman at the well’s encounter with Jesus. She and all her people had been walking in darkness and this was not a recent problem, it was one of the reasons that her people had been carried off by the Assyrians in 732 BC. You can read about it in 2 Kings 17.

Notice verses 9 to 12 of the chapter mentioned above, “The Israelis practiced secret things that were not right, offending the Lord their God. In addition, they built high places for use by all their towns, watchtowers, and fortified cities. They set up pillars and Asherim on every high hill and in the shade of every green tree, where they made offerings on all the high places, as did the nations whom the Lord had expelled before them. They also practiced other wickedness, provoking the Lord to become angry, and they served idols, a practice that the Lord had warned them, ‘You are not to do this.’”

The Lord had told them quite explicitly “You are not to do this”, and while they had ears, they were no longer listening. Sure they had prophets giving them the lowdown on how they strayed from the path. Amos (Amos 1:1) was a sheep herdsman, and prophet that foretold the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel. He was known as a prophet of doom, mostly because he was given a hard message from God to deliver. But who wants to listen to some sheep herder coming in from the hinterlands and giving you the bad news? Amos 5:4 “For this is what the Lord says to the house of Israel: “Seek Me so that you may live.” For a people told this and rejecting it, well, there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

In fact they had not been listening for a long time. We could go back to Joshua, (Joshua 1:1-9) who had been chosen by God to lead the people after Moses had been given unto Heaven. One of his first tasks was to deal with Jericho, which was a favorite story of mine from Sunday School. Just before the walls of Jericho came down, we find in Joshua 7:1 that “The sons of Israel acted unfaithfully regarding the things designated for destruction”. The tribe of Judah kept some things that God had said to destroy. While not one of the specific tribes of Israel that were eventually carried off to Assyria, bad friends make bad company. You learn from those you surround yourself with. The whole chapter of Joshua 7 is fascinating, I encourage you to pursue it.

The entire Jewish people had been prone to hard headedness and rebellion from the very word go. We see we are not all that different today as way back then. America’s spirit of Individualism can be seen biblically as rebellion. Does that make us Jews in spirit? Does it even make you wonder?

I bring up the Joshua story here to illustrate the rebellion of people and also because we have another very important person in the Jericho story. Another harlot, Rahab. No, I don’t have a thing for harlots, God uses the downtrodden, the hopeless, the weak. Jesus said in Mark 2:7 “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” 

She did the very opposite of the woman at the well, she turned from her idolatrous people, to faith in the Lord. Such a faith that she saved her family while risking her life for these Jews and also became a mother in the line of David. Boaz was her son, and Boaz married Ruth (Ruth 2) and that’s where I enter into this story. Ruth was my very first Bible Study about a year and a half ago. Interesting to me, but a big yawn from you who are wondering where I am going with this. 

These Samaritans that had turned out for Jesus on the words of a harlot, were Gentiles that had been put in this land when the 10 tribes of Israel were carried off. They are known as the lost tribes of Israel because they were never granted a right of return from God. Judah was also carried off to Babylon but Daniel had read the scripture that stated 70 years of exile were almost up. He prayed diligently to God and was answered by an angel. (Daniel 9:20-22) We know from Ezra and Nehemiah how that went. 

We’ve had a nice trip through the Old Testament and now we come back to these people called the Samaritans. Certain people from the nation of Israel stayed behind when the rest were carried off into Assyria in 732 BC. These people intermarried with the Assyrians, Gentiles introduced to the land to replace those that were carried off, producing the Samaritans. The Samaritans had their own temple, their own copy of the Torah – the first five books of the Old Testament – and their own religious system. There was an issue among the Jews and Samaritans as to where the proper place of worship was. The following exchange took place between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. (John 4:19-23) And now we are just about back where we started. The Bible states that many from the city believed in Him because of the word of the woman. (John 4:39) They asked Jesus to stay with them and He did for 2 days. (John 4:40) Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One truly is the Savior of the world.” (John 4:41-42)

They came because the woman at the well had told them something of herself and the man she had talked to. They more than likely knew that she was a harlot, but she posed the question that these men of the city felt they had to judge for themselves. And when they came, they stepped out of that haze of darkness that had hung on them for generations and entered into the light. And many believed; not all, but many. We find this in 2 Peter 3:3-9 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue just as they were from the beginning of creation.” For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed by being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly people. 

But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.

God wants none to be lost, but He knows the darkness of men’s hearts. Jesus knew those that came to him at the well came with willing hearts. It is likely that some, hearing back from those that had been to the well and the good news they had heard there, some did not believe. Considering it foolish talk or not willing to betray their long held beliefs of their countrymen. It is not said why but the Bible tells us why. Jesus said it in Matthew 7:13-14: Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Are you on that wide path? Taking life as it comes, looking out for number 1? None of us knows the span of our days. Jesus told us to be disciples and to make disciples. Specifically “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20) Yes, he was talking to His disciples, but were his disciples to do all the work? They have been gone for some 2000 years and yet raise your eyes and observe the fields, that they are still white for harvest. (John 4:35) It is our job, as this book was written for us to read and obey. Listen to Christ Jesus and find someone to come alongside and encourage. Hospitality and fellowship is a good start. Surely this is something that even the aged and infirm can do. 2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

Let the Holy Spirit lead you as to what you can do. And have Faith that God is above and loves you. Go forth and serve your King.

All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ

At the end of last week’s study, Jesus had told the Woman at the well that I am He. In fact, He had given her, in that short time together, knowledge of everything she needed to be saved. These are in verses 10 and 13 of John 4. They boil down to one thing, belief in Him. It really is that simple. Belief in Christ, that He was sacrificed for our sins and rose again from the dead to sit on a throne on the right hand of the Father. Confirmation of this is found in Luke 22:69, Romans 8:34 and many other places in the Bible, both in the old and new Testament. Jesus Himself told Matthew “But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Mat 26:4) God prophesying to His Disciple of what is to come.

Those are all things you can trust in, believe in with all your heart. We let so many things get in our way of belief. The secular world insists that we believe their “Experts”. Evolution, The big bang theory of the start of the universe, Vaccines to cure what has so panicked the whole world that nobody in a position of authority is able to think with any shred of common sense. You’ve only to listen to the news to verify that. Christ is our only truth. (John 14:6) And belief in Him will let you, after your last breath, stand before our Savior and bask in His radiant Love and Glory. (Revelation 7:17) I bet you don’t hear that on the news. The prince of this world (satan) wants you to believe in this world, not the One that created it.

Let us continue with our lesson.

The disciples show up, coming back from buying food in town, and find their Rabbi talking to a woman. Jesus had picked these guys from whatever they had been doing in the world. And they came to Him with all their prejudices and preconceptions. Meaning they were men of the world. Keep in mind that men and women of that day did not act in the way that we do today. The two genders, yes there are only 2, (Genesis 1:27) if they were not married or family, were kept at arm’s length. This came from the Old Testament patriarchs who knew that only trouble came from unrestrained access to females. We seem to have forgotten that bit of common sense. 

So finding your teacher, the Messiah, talking to a woman might have raised some eyebrows. I grew up as a blue collar working man and worked among similar men. If I and my buddies had come upon that scene, we would have said something, but these disciples did not. The bible states that they had been amazed that he was speaking with this woman, yet no one said, “What are You seeking?” or, “Why are You speaking with her?” (John 4:27) Here we find that in just that little bit of time spent with Jesus, they had been changed. If you seek the Lord, He will let you find Him, Deuteronomy 4:29, but don’t expect to remain the same old sinner you were. You were walking in darkness, and now this brilliant light is shining upon you. We see this in the previous lesson when Jesus told the woman to “Go, call your husband and come here” and the woman said “I have no husband.” She didn’t have to do that. I am sure she was used to lying to conceal her shame. But now, she was standing in the Light and she could no longer conceal her shame from the One who knew all. (John 4:16-18) It is the same with us. Churches that say Christ loves you just the way you are have either not read the bible or choose to interpret the bible in a very unbiblical way. They have in fact opened their doors to darkness. (John 1:5) Your soul is at peril if you believe that stuff. 

We continue…

The woman, this harlot that had stood in the Light, again John 1:4, left her water jug and went off to her village to speak to her people. She wanted to share the Good news. I feel the same thing. I want to share the Good News. What I find curious is people that say they are Christians have spent a good portion of their adult lives going to church most every Sunday, and feel no compunction to share the Good News. They seem content to go to church and leave the rest of that stuff to the preacher. First let me direct you to Matthew 7:14 where Christ, Him crucified for our sins said “For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Then we go to James 2:18-20 “But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’  You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.  But are you willing to acknowledge, you foolish person, that faith without works is useless?” What is this works that James is talking about? Surely not just sitting in the pew, letting the Pastor do all the heavy lifting. If you are currently going to a church that is content to let you just sit there, you are going to have to pick up the bible, blow the dust off and read it. Then find a bible preaching church. Your soul is at peril.

The woman at the well went to her people and told them “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is He?” (John 4:29) I have heard it said, you can talk to a man, but you can’t tell him anything. There is some truth to that. This woman, who I am sure all knew as a harlot, used her own shame to make them listen to what she said. Clever girl. Most times you are not going to credit a woman of shame telling you anything of worth. But when the Holy Spirit is involved, you listen. And they did, the bible states “They left the city and were coming to Him.” (John 4:30) Jesus was sent to save the lost. The Jews, for the most part, weren’t having it, but this village of Samaritans were coming to him on the say so of this harlot. 

Meanwhile back at the well, the disciples are telling Jesus “Rabbi, eat something.” (John 4:31) But He tells them “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” The disciples were puzzled at this, bumbling around like the innocent sheep they had become, asking if He had been fed by somebody else? (John 4:33) Jesus sets them down and gives them a lesson in the Fruit of the Spirit. 

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.  Do you not say, ‘There are still four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I tell you, raise your eyes and observe the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have come into their labor.” 

Raise your eyes and observe the fields. The fields in our day are still white for harvest and there you are sitting in your pew, or maybe not even going to church at all, because the government has said it’s scary out there. Who you are going to believe, the government or Christ? We do not have a timid God, so why are you timid? Repent your sins, (Acts 3:19) read your bible, (Joshua 1:8) and then get out there and serve your King. (Revelation 19:13, 16).

All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ

We’ve come to chapter 4 of John’s epistle where Jesus has caught the attention of the Pharisees. It became known to them that Jesus was baptizing more people than John the baptist. We find in John 4:2 a clarification that Jesus was not actually baptising people, but his disciples were. This may cause some of us confusion, because of our assumptions of what the bible says. Always use your bible as the authority of God’s word if you have questions. 

There are a couple of reasons why Jesus would not actually baptise people, but let his disciples handle that task. 

1. By not doing so He presented baptism as being apart from Him. 
2. People were less likely to put salvation into the meaning of water baptism, as many people have done down through time, including today, and have been misled as to their eternal status. To be saved, one must exercise faith alone in Christ alone, not rely upon some outward act.
3. Christ demonstrated that baptism is not the chief end of the Christian experience.

Jesus had decided to move from Judea in the South, to Galilee in the North. (John 4:3) Making this move, He had chosen to travel through Samaria, which is what most if not all Jews traveling that way would not do. Jews and Samaritans were not friendly to each other. Samaritans were known as half breed Jews and that caused the authentic full blooded Jews to look down on them and travel way out of their way to avoid setting foot in their land. 
These half Jew half Gentiles were actually descendants of the Northern Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, who survived the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) by the Assyrians in 722 BC. 

Jesus had none of His people’s prejudices, so took the shorter path and for good reason, He had a woman to talk to. I do not believe that there are any Old Testament prophecies concerning the woman at the well, but God’s plans are His plans. 

Jesus and His disciples had traveled through Samaria and stopped at a well near a town named Sychar. (John 4:6) It is in the lower middle of the map, to the right of Mt. Gerizim. This place is full of history. Mt. Gerizim is where God blessed His people in Deuteronomy 11:29 and the well that they had stopped at was Jacob’s well. Known universally as Bir Ya`qub, the well of Jacob. This is only mentioned in John’s gospel and not in the Old Testament. The traditional site of Jacob’s well cannot be located by finding Sychar, as that city is no longer in existence. However, the site thought to be the biblical Shechem, called Tel Balata by archaeologists, is near a well. This is important because the Bible says Jacob bought land from Shechem and lived at that place for a long time (Genesis 33:19). He would have required a well, and it is perfectly reasonable that he dug one. 

Jesus is hot and tired and since it’s around noon or the sixth hour in the land of Samaria, He decides to stop near a well. (John 4:6) His disciples went off to town to buy food, while Jesus rested by the well. A woman approached the well to draw water and Jesus said to her “Give Me a drink.” (John 4:8) Reading this, 2000 years later, we would think nothing of this, other than Jesus was sorta abrupt with His request for water. Couple of things here; first, the English language quite often gives us a poor understanding of what the bible is actually telling us, and two, our morality is not anywhere close to what it was 2000 years ago. A woman coming to a well is no big thing. Nobody had indoor plumbing back then and since it was the task of women to get water, yes, men and women had different roles to play back then, the reputable women all went together, in the morning, to get water. Here we have a single woman, at noon, coming to draw water. Why she did it then and not with her fellow sisters in the morning will soon be evident. The important thing here is God knew why she was coming for water at noon, just like God knows you and what you do. (Psalm 139:1-24) Is this troubling to you or reassuring?

As for why Jesus was there alone, while His disciples went to get food, God knew that a sinner would be there, a sinner who would accept the conviction of her life and would listen with an open heart. His disciples still had their prejudices and would probably be an interference rather than silent observers. 

The main thing here is, you search for God, God will let you find Him (Proverbs 8:17) and don’t expect to be unchanged, to keep living in sin, once you’ve found what was never lost. This woman had a need for salvation and on some level, knew it. After all she’s in the bible and talking to Christ.

This woman, who was asked for a drink, must have wondered if this man had been in the sun too long. Surely He must be aware that she is a Samaritan and He is a Jew. (John 4:10) Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter. “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)

Here she starts the negotiations, I am thinking. Sure she’s a woman coming for water at noon and all that that means, but she’s not stupid. She’d like to know where this gift of Living Water is coming from and is talking to Him in a way that a man and a woman that are not family or married, would talk. Pointing out the obvious, (John 4:11) some name dropping and reference to an important person in Samaritain lives, (John 4:12) all this is dancing around what I think she is drawn to. Jesus knows this, after all, it is why He made the trip. He answers her in His very direct way, as there is no need for artifice when talking about salvation. “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again;  but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

Have you ever heard something so astounding, so good that it can’t possibly be true, but you really want it to be? In every other situation it would be too good to be true, but not when God comes calling. She is in this very position, (John 4:15) she asks Him to give her this water, for practical reasons, but as I said, she’s not stupid, I think she is probably tingling with “It can’t be true, but it might” at this point. However there is a condition to this Living Water. This would be the C portion of the ABC’s of salvation. If you’ve not heard, spreading the Good News of Christ can be hard for some people. They claim they don’t know what to say. Funny, prophets of old never seemed to have that problem. If you can’t do it, let the Lord do it through you. Works every time. Somebody somewhere came up with something easy to remember. ABC:
A. Accept Christ as your Savior.
B. Believe that He was crucified, dead and raised again for our sins.
C. Confess your sins.

So, as I said, she was stuck briefly at C. However, a true heart is willing to confess its sins. Jesus asked her to call her husband and come back here. (John 4:16) She confessed to Him that she had no husband. 

I ask you, do you speak the truth? Would you confess to something that was your shame as a matter of course or would you have to think about it? We have such deceitful hearts, we lie even when we are trying to tell the truth. This is what it means to be fallen. She spoke the truth to her Savior.

I think Jesus was pleased with her response. “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this which you have said is true.” (John 4:16-17)

Because of all He has told her, she perceives Him to be a prophet and because prophets know things she asks Him where is the correct place to worship. We worship here at Mt. Gerizim, but your Jews say Jerusalem is where you should worship. I think she is trying to sort some things out in her mind and her cultural mindset is showing that. We worship here, you worship there, what is true? Jesus clears up her thinking and tells her that her people worship what they do not know. (John 4:22) “But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)

This must have rocked her world. Being told that her people are worshiping what they do not know and salvation is from the Jews. That had to be unhappy news. But a time is coming, even now when the Father will be worshiped in our hearts, not in a place. (Ezekiel 36:26)

I think one of the more interesting things about this dialog between God and His creation is that this harlot had more than conversational knowledge of worship practices and prophecies. Could we say the same of ourselves? If you are one that says you could never give the Good News to somebody because you don’t know what to say, that pretty much says you would not be able to do what this woman had done. Read your bible, all your answers are there, so when the time comes, you will be able to do what your Lord wants of you.

The woman said she knew a Messiah was coming and He would declare all things to us. (John 4:25) Jesus tells her “I am He.” (John 4:26)

There could be no better news. She is standing before her Messiah, as he declared, with a willing and contrite heart. Someday we too will be standing before our Lord and what a glorious day that will be. My wish for you is to take your salvation seriously. Study your bible, for how else will you know how to obey God? This book was not written to be gathering dust on a shelf. It is our users manual, treat it as such. Will you measure up as this harlot did? We can hope so. Go forth and serve your King!

All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ

I thought, since this is the last Wednesday of the month, we should review what we have learned so far in this Book of John.

Chapter 1: The disciple that Jesus loved, introduces us to what I believe should give you a complete understanding of who Christ our Savior is. “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.” (John 1:1-3) Everything you need to know is right there in those verses.

Then we are introduced to John the Baptist, who was sent as a herald to the chosen one, and came preaching in the wilderness, found in Matthew 3:1. The word was made flesh and walked among us in John 1:14.

Christ then gathers his disciples and goes to a wedding in chapter 2. The wedding is where His mother looks upon her son and sees also her Savior. (John 2:3-5) Jesus changes the water into wine (John 2:7-9) and after that He and his disciples go to the temple for the Passover festival and He cleanses His Father’s house of commerce and corruption. (John 2:15-16) This action caused his disciples to believe (John 2:17) and the Jews to disbelieve at what He told them. (John 2:19-22)

Chapter 3, there came a man named Nicodemus, a ruler and teacher of the Jews, (John 3:1)who was told what he should have known, but found very hard to accept. (John 3:3)
And now we are at the point where we can finish out chapter 3. In my NASB bible, this part of the scripture is known as John the Baptist’s Last Testimony. Yes, John the baptist is still around, still baptizing people and telling them “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) Which is curious, why this man whose whole life was foretold in Isaiah 40:3, which is 700 years before Jesus was born. John the Baptist’s job was to herald the coming of Christ. And He did that job in Matthew 3:13.

So what’s a prophet to the coming of the Lamb of God to do once he’s done his job? This is an important lesson to us all. He continued doing what the Holy Spirit called him to do. Preach the word, continue being an example to those that see you. (1 Peter 2:21) Convict those that need conviction, come alongside those that need it. Our calling to Christ is a lifelong endeavor. (Micah 6:8) We shall be tested and refined, (1 Peter 1:7) to be more Holy as our God is Holy. (Ephesians 1:4, 2 Timothy 1:9) John the Baptist still had use, just as we still have use, those of us old, or disabled, no longer in our prime. God uses weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) so whatever we do in His name, with meekness and humility, true to His word and Law, that the unbelieving would know that it was God, not us that did this thing. This is all over the bible. Think of Noah, (Genesis 6) or Pharaoh and all the miracles performed to convince him to let Moses’ people go. (Exodus 4-12) Think of Paul, who had first persecuted the church, and ended up writing a lot of our New testament. He was said to be unimpressive in appearance, but was able to do signs and wonders (Romans 15:19) and convert many, many people. He is probably responsible for much of what we know of as Western Civilization. Not really him, but God using him. And God uses us too. (Matthew 28:19)

So John was still doing what he was born to do and still had disciples following him, as was the custom of that day. There came a dispute from John the Baptist’s disciples, pertaining to a certain Jew about purification. The Pharisees had instituted so many useless and petty rules over purification, washing hands, or do this when you do that, especially on the Sabbath, we see what happened in Matthew 12:1-2. John MacArthur put it this way, “Keeping the Sabbath was still a binding ceremonial duty for the Jews of Jesus’ day, but most of them had little idea of God’s original purpose for the day. Instead of being a day of rest, it had become a day of burden with thousands of man-made restrictions. Ironically it became harder to “rest” than to work the other six days.”

So it is no wonder that John the Baptist’s disciples had a question over purification with a certain Jew. We don’t know exactly what the question was, as the scripture does not say, but it brought up a larger issue and I think this is the whole reason for this part of the scripture. John the Baptist’s disciples I think were wondering why John was still baptizing people when He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, He also is baptizing people and all the people are coming to Him. (John 3:26)

A little jealousy perhaps, feeling maybe that they were following the wrong guy. The scripture does not say that, in so many words, but you can read between the lines pretty plainly here. John sets them straight, he tells them that a person can receive not even one thing unless it has been given to him from heaven. (John 3:27)

I want you to ponder upon that. Not one thing can come to you, unless heaven is involved, not one. Look around you and see all that you have. Then think again how this came to you. Not by your hands or work, your status in life or paycheck. Your very life was given to you by God. (Job 33:4)

Now expand your thinking out and look at our country. We have been blessed greatly and have prospered, but no longer. We have, for the most part, kicked God out of our lives. What’s more, we’ve been smooth talked by the government, them telling us that they will take care of us, give us things, and look out for our best interests. We are in the un-envious position of that frog being boiled in water. We swallowed their smooth lies, and lies they were. The next thing you know, not many of us at all believe that God takes care of us, gives us our daily bread. (Matthew 6:11) Most of us, by our willingness to listen to the government, will and have done what the government has said for us to do. Who are we serving here, God or Man? I would ask you to ask that of yourself, and please be honest, for as we know, God will know the truth of it.

Getting back to our scripture, John the Baptist told his men, well, I’ll just let John speak for himself. “You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ He who has the bride is the groom; but the friend of the groom, who stands and listens to him, rejoices greatly because of the groom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease.

He who comes from above is above all; the one who is only from the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. What He has seen and heard, of this He testifies; and no one accepts His testimony. The one who has accepted His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God sent speaks the words of God; for He does not give the Spirit sparingly. The Father loves the Son and has entrusted all things to His hand. The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:28-36)

John’s joy has been made full, because Christ must increase and he must decrease. I have found in my life, all that I was, all that I was so proud of, must and has decreased. I still fight with my pride and self sufficiency. I have not often walked with humility, so I find I am way out of practice. But I rejoice in what He has removed from me and am very grateful that I can breathe, swallow and think. For what He wants me to do, that is sufficient. Consider yourself sufficient in your current condition, to do the Lord’s work.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:9

Due to the rising panic of caseloads of Covid virus, the state of Minnesota has started once again to restrict its citizens. Their thinking that Man can control what God hath wrought is unfortunate and doomed to fail. As such, our small town of Grove City, which owns the building of South Grove, where we have our Bible study, has decided to close the building to all external activities. I do not have a problem with this as the people of South Grove are in the most vulnerable group of people affected with this virus. It means however, that until further notice, possibly until the Leaders of this state repent and accept Christ as their Lord and Savior, and thereby come to understand that God controls all, including this virus, Bible study will be offered in online form only. May the Lord be praise and Glory given to Him in all that he does.

All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ

From Westminster Shorter Catechism (written in 1647), questions 59 to 62

Q59: Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath? 

A59: From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath. 

Q60: How is the Sabbath to be sanctified? 

A60: The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy. 

Q61: What is forbidden in the Fourth Commandment? 

A61: The Fourth Commandment forbiddeth the omission or careless performance of the duties required, and the profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employments or recreations. 

Q62: What are the reasons annexed to the Fourth Commandment? 

A62: The reasons annexed to the Fourth Commandment are, God’s allowing us six days of the week for our own employments, His challenging a special propriety in the seventh, His own example, and His blessing the Sabbath-day. 

Last week, we learned of our Lord and His disciples coming to the temple to celebrate the Passover. (John 1:13) Our Lord, being fully Man and fully God, knew the hubris of Man, and when He came upon the temple that was full of commerce, (John 1:14) He then took measures to instruct these so called righteous Jews, as to how they should treat the House of the Lord. (John 1:15-16) The Jews, being kicked out of the temple, were indignant that this simple carpenter would take upon Himself to do what they should have already known. They were already convinced of their standing in God, how could this young man teach them anything?

So I ask, are we convinced of our standing before God? I have come to know people who claim to be Christians, and act nothing like what the Lord instructed us to do. The fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace and more, found in Galatians 5:22. Love, most of us have, for family and friends, but what of our neighbors? Christ told us to love our neighbors as much as ourselves. (Matthew 22:39) That conveniently gets forgotten for that one person that irritates you by stealing your parking place at a busy Walmart. Or leaves their laundry in the only available washing machine for hours when you really need to use it. Yes, we are all sinners and prone to sin. (Romans 3:23) That is why it is important for you to confess your daily sins to the Lord (1 John 1:9 ) and not let them fester inside you. But when we make a pattern of irritation or anger with people not of our family and friends, this is a problem. One that can be fixed by contrite repentance to God. 

What of Joy and Peace? Last week I asked at the end of Bible Study who had anxiety? Turns out, besides Pauline, my wife and myself, everybody did, and from the sounds of it, it seems to be a permanent condition. We did mention bringing it to the Lord, or to lay your concerns at the cross, (Psalm 55:22, 1 Peter 5: 7) however to paraphrase the response, “We tried that and it didn’t work,” Hmm. I understand that being human is to be weak in how we handle things, and our time table and God’s are not anything alike. (Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 27:14) Faith is what binds us to God. Faith and belief in Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection and Him being Lord of all. (Revelation 19:16) 

I would ask you that are anxious, you that are worn down by life, those of us that are being shaken in this year where God is shaking all that can be shaken, (Hebrews 12:26-29) to come to our Lord Jesus Christ and trust in Him. Matthew 11:28 Christ said come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. You can believe that!

Today’s scripture deals with a man who found it hard to believe what our Lord had told him. A learned man, one who was drawn to the Lord, but couldn’t quite accept what Christ told him.

His name was Nicodemus and he was a ruler of the Jews. (John 3:1) A teacher and scholar in the ancient texts. He came to speak with this rabbi in the dark of the night, because his peers would look very dimly at his consorting with this carpenter with high aspirations. (John 3:2)

(A rabbi is a Jewish scholar or teacher, especially one who studies or teaches Jewish law.)

Jesus skips the pleasantries and goes to the heart of the matter. He tells Nicodemus the one thing that would confound him and cause him to reject what was said. Simply this, you must be born again to see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3) This was too much for a scholar of these ancient texts to accept. It would upend everything he believed in, everything he taught. 

Nicodemus, I think stalling for time as he rapidly tried to come to grips with what was said, responds with “How can a grown man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” (John 3:4) It is an incredulous statement because what Jesus has told him was just as incredulous. These Jews were so convinced of their understanding of the scrolls, so sure of their righteousness by being sons of Abraham, even though Christ had done miracles and signs that no mortal man could conceive of, they would not accept that He was a son of God. That thought made them tear at their hair. No way! Romans 9:6-7 tells us that just because you are a Jew does not make you a descendant of Abraham. John the Baptist was a bit more pointed when talking to the Pharisees, to the point of calling them offspring of vipers and saying that from these stones God is able to raise up children for Abraham. (Luke 3:7-9)

Jesus responds to Nicodemus saying “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”

That must have rocked Nicodemus back on his heels. He asked Jesus “How can this be?” (John 3:9) Jesus gave him no slack, telling this Ruler of the Jews “You are the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you people do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended into heaven, except He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes will have eternal life in Him.”

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.” (John 3:10-21)

So I have to ask you, those that are anxious, those that are shaken, those that say they have “faith, but,” are you in the position of Nicodemus? Knowing what you know, having gone to church, reading the bible, if you have, are you saying that you’ve done all you can, but it doesn’t seem to be working? I mean you’re still anxious aren’t you, still shaken. Are God’s arms not long enough to reach you? (Isaiah 59:1, Numbers 11:23)

Know this, that your strength lies in your weakness. The Apostle Paul, as strong as he was for the Lord, he had a thorn in his side, the bible says a messenger from satan. He could have said “Well, I tried to have faith and patience, but it didn’t work.” Could have, but didn’t. In 2 Corinthians 12 he states “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” This is where you can take heart. We are tested in our faith, by God. (1 Peter 1:7) Accept it, glorify God for His interest in you and get on with what it is that he wants you to do. Faith can move mountains, but you have to believe, truly believe. (Matthew 17:20)

I pray to the Lord for you to be granted peace, the peace and joy that I have been blessed to know and would willingly share with you and be left without. Follow what Christ has commanded us, that is to love thy neighbor as thyself and love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. In these things you can trust and believe.

All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ

From Westminster Shorter Catechism (written in 1647), questions 55 to 58

Q55: What is forbidden in the Third Commandment?
A55: The Third Commandment forbiddeth all profaning or abusing [of] anything whereby God maketh Himself known. 

Q56: What is the reason annexed to the Third Commandment?
A56: The reason annexed to the Third Commandment is, That however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape His righteous judgement. 

Q57: Which is the Fourth Commandment?
A57: The Fourth Commandment is, “Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid- servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” 

Q58: What is required in the Fourth Commandment?
A58: The Fourth Commandment requireth the keeping holy to God such set times as He appointed in His Word; expressly one whole day in seven to be a holy Sabbath to Himself. 

We continue on today with John 2, to the bottom of the chapter. Last week Jesus changed water into wine and there was much discussion as to how Jesus, who came to this world fully human and fully God (Hebrews 2:5-18) did what was asked of him; if you research this concept, there are very many references to it in the scripture. Link

Most of our conversation stemmed from my assertion that Mary, the Mother of Jesus was, at the point of her request to her Son to do something, was coming to her Savior as a supplicant and not at that time as His Mother. I will be quite free in my assertion that I might be all wrong about this, but you can go to your own bible and ask God for wisdom in this.

And an important fact to remember is when all the hubbub died down, we were all still brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s how Christian adults deal with things. If you look around, you’ll note that society as a whole has turned away from this way of dealing with each other. If you are still looking around and seeing clearly, you discern the cause of this. We as a people have for the most part, turned from God. Oh sure, our money still has “In God We Trust” and there are other remnants of an early time in which we believed more strongly, but it is like The Lord’s Prayer, read but not seen, spoken but not understood. (Mark 4:12)

When you just go through the motions, in a sense, God gives back what He receives from you. (Psalm 9:17) And quite often He turns us over to our sins. (Romans 1:18-28) Look upon this land and see a people given over to their sins. Not all, but a majority. And the rest of us are being shaken up, to see what can be shaken, and also to see what can’t be shaken and will remain. The specific verse I am talking about is Hebrews 12:26-29. This entire year has been shaken, take note of verse 27, “This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” This is saying God will remove what has been shaken. It will be interesting to see what gets removed from our lives and what will remain.

This is where we come to the scripture passage for today. 

We know from the beginning of this chapter that Jesus, his disciples and family went down to Capernaum after the wedding they had attended. (John 2:12) And now the time of Passover was here. Passover we know stems from the time when Moses confronted Pharaoh over his mistreatment of the people and wanting to leave to go worship their God. (Exodus 9:1) Pharaoh’s heart had been hardened (Exodus 9:12) and he refused to let the people go. God used Moses and Aaron to shake things up and remove that which had been shaken by cursing the land, Pharaoh and his people, which is found in Exodus 7 through 11.
Ten plagues were given unto Pharaoh and his people. They were (1) Blood (2) Frogs (3) Lice or Gnats (4) Flies (5) Death of Livestock (6) Boils (7) Hail (8) Locusts (9) Darkness and (10) Death of Every Firstborn, and it’s this last one from which we get Passover. Moses’s people were told to slaughter a lamb and rub its blood on the doorposts so an Angel of the Lord would see it and pass over their house and not kill the firstborn. Exodus 12 tells the whole story and in Jesus’s time, they were still celebrating Passover. 

Jesus went up to Jerusalem, probably with His disciples, to celebrate the Passover (John 1:13)

When He got there, He found the temple had been compromised with people selling oxen, sheep and doves, and acting as money changers. The animals were for sacrifice, remember that all the Jews were still under the sacrificial law as described in Leviticus 1-7 and all the additional laws made by the Pharisees. The money changers were probably the worst though. Jewish law required a temple tax of a half-shekel (Exodus 30:11–16), Jews and visitors from other nations came to pay their taxes when they offered their sacrifices. But foreign coins with the likeness of pagan emperors would not be accepted in God’s temple. So money changers exchanged those foreign coins for Jewish money, but they did so at an exorbitant profit.

You might imagine how Jesus, fully human and fully God, felt when He saw the temple defiled as it was, as it is the House of God. Our Savior made a whip of cords and drove these people out of the temple area. He drove out the beast and tipped over the money changers’ tables, pouring out all the coins. (John 2:15) You can picture the money changers on their hands and knees, scrabbling around for all those loose coins like so many rats chasing crumbs.

To those who sold doves, He told them to “Take these things away!” They were informed by Christ in righteous anger to stop making His Father’s house a place of business. (John 2:16)

His disciples, who probably had witnessed the whole event with open mouths, then remembered Psalm 69:9 “Zeal for Your house will consume me.” (John 2:17)

The Jews were pretty put out by all the bedlam that this simple carpenter had wrought. They asked him for a sign as to the authority He had for doing what He had done.(John 2:18) Jesus gave them an answer they could not accept. (John 2:19) And here we have a classic ‘forest for the trees’ effect going on. These Jews knew the ancient texts, the scrolls that they studied and debated back and forth as to what it means. They should have known what this “sign” meant. Jesus told them “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Of course the Jews took this as a literal event, and it was, (Matthew 27:32-56, 1 Corinthians 15:20) however not in the way that they imagined. Christ spoke to what they understood, knowing mankind as He did, and also to what the righteous would understand.

The Jews had so much pride in their knowledge of scripture and their Temple. They were incredulous that anybody could rebuild this temple in such a short time. “3 days? It took 46 years and you say 3 days?” (John 2:20) And yet it was an empty pride as God no longer resided in the temple as He once did. Ezekiel 10 describes God leaving the temple and later when Nehemiah asks his king to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and temple, (Nehemiah 1) God did not return to reside there in the temple, not until Christ walked among them.

So of course our Lord was not talking about earthly things. He was speaking of the temple of His body, that which we are to remember when we have the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:14-22). (John 2:21) 

Speaking of Temples, we find this in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” I have always wondered about that with tattoos and piercings and such. The scripture does say that you are not your own, yet when this gets brought up in conversation with pagans, quite often on the topic of abortion. My body, my choice is what they tell us. That very thing is codified in our law to our dishonor. This from John MacArthur “Through God’s book of wisdom it’s easy for any believer to analyze the world. People who have no biblical background find it difficult to resolve controversial issues like capital punishment, abortion, or homosexuality. But the Bible has clear answers for those seemingly complex issues: If you take a life, you should die (Gen. 9:6); the life within the womb is a person made by God (Ps. 139:13); and homosexuality is not an alternate lifestyle but a damning sexual sin like adultery or fornication (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Rom. 1:26-27)” 

Now after all that, we come to the part where I question the vaunted thought of free will. This whole storyline of John 2 speaks of things known in the past and happening in the here and now of Jesus’s time. Prophecy. God works in mysterious ways and that truly is good enough for me, but where does us working through the will of God, doing His will according to His will, end and Providence begin? The more I learn the more I wonder, and so did the disciples. When Christ was raised from the dead, the disciples believed what the scripture had said and which Jesus had spoken. (John 2:22)

And here we find the reason for all of this, written so long ago. Many observed His signs and came to believe. (John 2:23) But Jesus did not entrust Himself to them because He knew all people (John 2:24) and did not need anyone to testify about mankind, for He Himself knew what was in mankind. (John 2:25)

It may be disconcerting to you that Christ knows your thoughts and what’s in your heart, even before you do, as per the scripture. (Psalm 139:4) For those believing in the free will and the autonomous nature of man, that would be troubling I suppose.(John 15:5, Colossians 1:18, Philippians 2:13) Pro Tip, there is only one autonomous being in this whole creation, that being YHWH. You can get onboard with that or go cry in the truck. (Rodeo reference.)

I take comfort with my Savior knowing me, all of me. The more I study the scripture, the more I trust in my Lord to lead me into those green pastures (Psalm 23) and restore my soul. And when I stray from His will, He will discipline me (Hebrews 12:4-12). All part of a loving relationship of a Father to His son. When I repent, I am brought back into His loving embrace. (Matthew 3:8) Read your bible and call upon your Lord, often. And give glory to the Father in all things. Know that 2020 is being shaken by God and it is all part of His will. Find your rock of salvation (Psalm 62) and cling to it so that you will not be shaken but comforted. May the Grace of the Lord be upon you, and may He grant you peace.

All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ

From Westminster Shorter Catechism, questions 51 to 54:

Q51: What is forbidden in the Second Commandment?
A51: The Second Commandment forbiddeth the worshipping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in His Word. 

Q52: What are the reasons annexed to the Second Commandment?
A52: The reasons annexed to the Second Commandment are, God’s sovereignty over us, and the zeal He hath to His own worship. 

Q53: Which is the Third Commandment?
A53: The Third Commandment is, “thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.” 

Q54: What is required in the Third Commandment?
A54: The Third Commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God’s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, Word, and works.

Today we will look at starting a new chapter in John’s epistle and John 2 is where we will begin. An interesting chapter in that it is one we all know so well and therein lies the problem. The old saying “familiarity breeds contempt” describes the issue, but with our knowing this scripture as well as we do, we become blase about it. Incurious, even lazy in our understanding of it. Which I believe is as bad in God’s eyes as contempt. 

I grew up in the Lutheran church and found early on that Lutherans are very good at bringing things to every service in which the average pew sitter just repeats whatever is asked of them, without attaching any understanding or meaning to it. I am talking about the Liturgy, Creeds, The Divine Service, which I found in my Mother’s well used Lutheran Hymn book, and the Lord’s Prayer. All of these things are good but when repeated without thought, you’ve got a problem. And problems are a specialty of people. You cut them some slack, serve them some milk, meaning your Pastor only preaches of Love, Joy and Inclusiveness, basically Arminianism with a healthy dollop of Universalism, and they begin to like and expect that kind of thing. In fact, the congregation will get surly and unaccepting when presented with the full weight of God’s word in their Sunday sermon. The Apostle Paul knew of this so well. Here he is talking to the Corinthians: “But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

A lot of “natural people” go to church I am thinking. 

So let’s look at the second chapter in John: 

“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.” (John 2:1-2)

In researching this, the first thing that stood out in my mind was nobody is quite sure where Cana of Galilee is. They know it was approximately 8-9 miles north of Nazareth, but in 2000 years, things change. The important thing to remember is that God does not change. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” (Isaiah 40:8) 

That passage of scripture is in answer to a statement made to me by various people throughout my life. That being “The world has changed, so it is understandable that the church would change too.” If you believe that, you’ve been served milk too often at church. Read your bible! (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Moving on…

Jesus’s Mother was there. Weddings in those days were big deals. Long  drawn out affairs. A Jewish wedding; sometimes they lasted seven to fourteen days. It was a very festive occasion. The simple statement that Jesus’s Mother was there may indicate that she was helping out, possibly friends of the family. No corroboration in the scripture and it doesn’t really matter to the story, but a possibility. Then it states that Jesus and His disciples were also there. More thought that this might be friends of the family. And friends bring friends. 

Verse 1 speaks of the third day in Jesus’ gathering of His disciples. Those disciples were Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip, Nathanael and John who is the author of this scripture. (John 1) It was a prominent wedding, the guests as well would be people who were upper-middle class to upper class as far as financial standing in the community went. Carpenters would fall into that category in those days and so would fishermen who owned their own boats. Both occupations were honorable. 

We continue…

When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” (John 2:3) This is where your casual understanding of the story will cause you to miss the importance of this statement. Mary comes to Jesus, her first born son and says “They have no more wine.” Now in a Jewish wedding, something like that would have caused the guests to have an unfavorable view of the couple, which could change their whole life together. It could even lead to a divorce, it was that serious. Also in the normal course of life back in that day, what good would it do to tell your son that the wine ran out? Wine takes time to make and it would also take time and money to get more of by buying it. 1st century carpenters were not known to have lots of walking around money or influence in finagling deals for liquor. 

And here we come to a division. Between a Mother and a Son. You remember that Jesus had been recently baptised, “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 3:13-17) So whose son is He now? And I do believe that Mary was aware of this. She was His Mother after all. And in the back of her mind, it is most likely that she was recalling the time an Angel came to her with incredible news, “The angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.’” (Luke 1:35) 

But what else did she know? The scripture has no mention of other miracles by Jesus before this. But where did her idea come from that her son could be of help in this particular time? This, my friends, is the very definition of faith, “things hoped for, a proof of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Since the scripture does not tell us, we will have to go with faith.

Next up, Jesus informs her of something I again think she already knew, a change in relationship and a change in status. “What business do you have with Me, woman? My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:4)

In Christ’s reply to his mother there was no disrespect. He used the same word when speaking to her with affection from the cross; “So when Jesus saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own household.” (John 19:26-27) And also to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection. (John 20:15)

It was an act of distancing Himself from His Mother. Whether she knew from previous experience or simply through Faith, she had made this request to Him. We can learn from this. When the world beats us down, when we have no hope, Christ said to us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) We trust in Him when Christ tells us, “Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away.” (John 6:37) Faith moves mountains. (Mark 11:23) Faith in the Lord will give you a place in Heaven (John 14:2-3), where there are no tears or pain.(Revelation 21:4) I recommend that you read 1 Peter 1 for more information on Hope, Faith and Salvation. It will do your heart good.

Onward…

Christ tells her that My time is not now, and yet He did not deny her. Perhaps the wine was not yet entirely exhausted. The wine had begun to fail, but he would not work a miracle until it was entirely gone, that the miracle might be free from all possibility of suspicion. It does not mean that the proper time for his working a miracle, or entering on his public work had not come, but that the proper time for his interposing there had not arrived. Why else had Jesus come to this wedding? The Holy Spirit had drawn Him to the desert, to be tempted by satan. Did the same thing happen here?

Her faith in this man who had been her son was such that she told the servants “Whatever He tells you, do it.”(John 2:5) And so they did.

The Messiah makes water into wine…

“Now there were six stone waterpots standing there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing two or three measures each. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the waterpots with water.’ So they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, ‘Draw some out now and take it to the head waiter.’ And they took it to him. Now when the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the head waiter called the groom, and said to him, ‘Every man serves the good wine first, and when the guests are drunk, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.’” (John 2:6-10)

A firkin is nine gallons. These water pots held from eighteen to twenty-seven gallons each. There were somewhere between 108 gallons and 162 gallons of water here. This had to be for a large group of people. The pots were made of stone because stone was more impervious than earthenware and did not contract uncleanness. The washings or ablutions had extended to such an incredulous extent that they were continuously washing for one reason or the other, and these six firkins of water were standing by for them to carry on these ceremonial washings. This was from the Pharisees adding many more of their ideas of righteousness to God’s law which ultimately just burdened everybody but themselves. (Matt 23:1-12)

The head waiter had no idea God was in the house and complimented the groom on being smarter than the average Jew. The servants knew and that is how Christ works. The privileged ones quite often had a hard time believing, think of a camel passing through the eye of a needle in Matthew 19:24, but the serving class were very willing to trust and believe in the Lord. They were down trodden and looking for a High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-16) and Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5) to get themselves out from under the thumb of the Pharisees.

And we finish out verses 11 and 12.
“This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother, and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days.” (John 2:11-12)

This is a story of Faith and the Glory of Christ which should be in our lives every day.
Those things hoped for, but not seen. How our Daily Bread shows up, money for food and rent, that car payment, and everything else we need in this life. You are the beneficiaries of these gifts from our Loving God. Give Glory unto Him in all that you do.

All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ

From Westminster Shorter Catechism, questions 47 to 50:

Q47: What is forbidden in the First Commandment?
A47: The First Commandment forbiddeth the denying, or not worshipping and glorifying the true God, as God, [and our God,] and the giving of that worship and glory to any other which is due to Him alone.

Q48: What are we specially taught by these words, “before me” in the First Commandment?
A48: These words “before me” in the First Commandment, teach us, That God who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other God.

Q49: Which is the Second Commandment?
A49: The Second Commandment is, “thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth, thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep my commandments.”

Q50: What is required in the Second Commandment?
A50: The Second Commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in His Word.

Today we will come back to John 1 and continue where we left off. Christ has been gathering His disciples. In verse 37 of John’s epistle, Andrew and another had encountered Christ, by John the Baptist proclaiming “Behold, the Lamb of God!” as Jesus walked by. They were immediately drawn to the One True Light: “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” (John 8:12)

And they were drawn to him as a moth would be to a flame, an irresistible force to be reckoned with. When God places His focus on you, all you can do is submit, for we are his creation: “For we are his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we may walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

I bring this up because of confusion in many people’s minds as to how to deal with this year of 2020. I remind you that He who created you, also created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). So when your anxious mind dwells upon whatever trouble you have chosen to worry about, ask yourself, who created all you see?

If you have read the whole bible, not just easy parts or a passage here or there, you will know that David, a man after God’s own heart, had many a day of anxious thoughts: “How long will I store up anxious concerns within me, agony in my mind every day? How long will my enemy dominate me?” (Psalm 13:2)

David knew that anxious thoughts are the result of sin: “So I confess my guilt; I am anxious because of my sin.” (Psalm 38:18)
But David also knew this: “When my anxious inner thoughts become overwhelming, your comfort encourages me.” (Psalm 94:19)

God’s comfort encourages him. So to keep that comfort coming, and remember, Obey God and you’re blessed, disobey God and you are cursed (Duet 28), David asked God to keep an eye on him: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts;” (Psalm 139:23)

And just because those around you act like they have no faith in any other but man, (Psalm 146:3–4) David’s son Solomon gave this advice: “Don’t be anxious about those who practice evil, and don’t be envious of the wicked.” (Proverbs 24:19)

Remember, Solomon was blessed to be the smartest man in the world (1 Kings 4-29), so good advice to listen to. Proverbs as a whole are very interesting, so give it a read and ponder upon it.

You may be puzzled as to why I am going through this little stroll through the old testament. The bible, the Living Word of God (Hebrews 4:12): “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

This book gives us the tools we need to handle troubled times. We learn from those that came before us, standing on the shoulders of righteous men. Learn to handle your troubles by going to God and reading what he wanted us to read. Isn’t that better than wringing your hands and not sleeping at night? Why would you choose misery over comfort, that comes from Faith, that was provided by Grace, by He who has created all? You are not too old to learn, you may be too stubborn, but that’s a topic of another bible study.

So David and Solomon knew, from instruction from their God, our God, and they put down those thoughts, at the behest of the Holy Spirit, and these boys who had been following John the Baptist around and studied those words, probably scrolls that resided in a temple, and Jews were very good at teaching these things to young minds. Funny that while teachers taught what they did, most of them didn’t see the forest for the trees, because they missed the most important point, that the Messiah was coming to serve, not conquer (Isaiah 53) and He was now in their midst. John the Baptist was sent to proclaim His coming, (Acts 13:24) and now He is walking around and gathering in His disciples: “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” (John 15:16)

Know that as these men were chosen, so are we:
“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love” (Ephesians 1:4)

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

All of these texts demonstrate God’s love for us and His expectation that we will be obedient to His word. How are you going to know that if you don’t study the scripture? Obey God (Romans 6:16) and gather His blessing.

Now onto the scripture for this bible study:

John 1:43-51
43 The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He *found Philip. And Jesus *said to him, “Follow Me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.

45 Philip *found Nathanael and *said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

46 Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip *said to him, “Come and see.”

47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and *said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”

48 Nathanael *said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

49 Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.”

50 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”

51 And He *said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Here we see men who knew the words that had been taught to them, but until they met the Messiah, it was just head knowledge. It was brought to their hearts when Christ spoke to them. Learn from this. Take that head knowledge, learned in Sunday School, or by a preacher or wherever, and bring it to your heart. Then thank God for the blessings and daily bread (1 Thessalonians 5:18) that is yours though His Grace and Mercy: “He said, ‘I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.’” (John 6:35)

And know also in these trying days, there is one who listens to you, stands by you, loves you and will not abandon you. And as a loving Father, He will discipline those that He loves (Hebrews 12:4-11). Accept it, learn from it and know that it is part of the process of sanctification, which will bring you closer to righteousness. Love God, fear God and love thy neighbor as thyself. Do these things and accept the Joy of Salvation that is yours. The year 2020 is not frightening when you put it into perspective. He who created all, our Father, has you within His loving grasp that none can tear you from. (John 10:28)

Go forth and act like children of El Shaddai, which is translated from Hebrew as God Almighty.

All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ

From Westminster Shorter Catechism, questions 43 to 46:

Q43. What is the preface to the Ten Commandments?
A43. The preface to the Ten Commandments is in these words, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house OF SLAVERY.” 

Q44. What doth the preface to the Ten Commandments teach us?
A44. The preface to the Ten Commandments teacheth us, That because God is The Lord, and our God, and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all His commandments. 

Q45: Which is the First Commandment?
A45: The First Commandment is, “thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” 

Q46: What is required in the First Commandment?
A46: The First Commandment requireth us to know and acknowledge God to be only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify Him accordingly. 

Today we will diverge from our study of John 1 and spend a bit of time in Luke 10. Our Lord Christ is being tested by a lawyer, who had sat there with Christ and listened to the report of the 70 that had been sent out.

Luke 10:1
Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.

And if you apply any of the curiosity that the Good Lord has blessed you with you would naturally wonder what “after this” means. Luke has been a favorite of mine and chapter 9 of his epistle is jammed packed with the works of our Lord. A few of the highlights were His sending the 12 out and them coming back amazed that even the demons obey them through Christ’s name. Meaning that they knew it was not their power but Christ’s. 

And then there was the feeding of 5000 and the Transfiguration and on and on. I will let you read chapter 9 in detail on your own. 

So the Lord had sent these 70 out to proclaim the good news and do what the 12 did. 

Luke 10:2-12
And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. 3 Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house. 8 Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; 9 and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.

We’ve all heard this story, head knowledge, but we need to apply it to our heart. The harvest is plenty but the laborers are few. Do you consider yourself to be a laborer for the Lord? That’s a valid question for you to ask yourself. And if you don’t consider yourself to be laborer for the Lord, why not? I mean what are you doing with your time? You might think “Oh, I’m too old or I’m disabled or I don’t know what to say,” the list of excuses are endless really. If you are not serving the Lord, if you are content to let Pastors do all the heavy lifting while you sit comfortably in your pew, then you are serving the prince of this world, satan. That’s how Jesus views things. You either obey God, serve him with your obedience and doing His will and by that be blessed, or you serve man, by being passive, sitting there in your pew and letting others do the work of the spirit. Not changing how you go about your day to day life, even when you know what God wants from you. And by serving man, by not participating, you are serving satan. The bible was written by God so that we might know Him and His will, how to live. 

These 70 were commissioned by Christ to do his will and they did. They went out as lambs, in the midst of wolves, going to houses of men who were obeying God and let these boys stay and fed them. And Peace was blessed upon that house. There were instructions also on how to deal with those not obeying God. As Christians, we are told to not consort with unsavory types:

1 Corinthians 15:33
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

Proverbs 13:20
Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

1 Corinthians 5:11
But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

He told them to shake the dust off their feet when encountering such a place or people, in disobedience to God. It comes down to this passage:

Luke 10:16 “The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

The 70 came back with good news:

Luke 10:17-20
The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” 18 And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. 20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”

When God sends you out, He sends you out with the tools to get the job done. This is why your excuse that you can’t, for whatever reason, is not true. Jesus sent a helper to the apostles and that helper is indwelling you, if you are truly a believer. The Holy Spirit will give you the courage and the words to say.(Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.) I am not saying you will have the courage of a lion, just enough courage to do the job. Doubting this, is troubling. 

At hearing the report from the 70, Christ praised the Father:

Luke 10:21-22
21 At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. 22 All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

I hope you noticed that Christ rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit. That very same Holy Spirit that you doubt when you say you can’t.

Luke 10:23
Turning to the disciples, He said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, 24 for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them.”

Now we are at the point where a lawyer steps up and wants to test Christ. Who do you think he was serving?

Luke 10:25-29
And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” 29 But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Who really is my neighbor? It is interesting to me and should be to you as to how God works things out for us. This is called Providence. I see Providence happening all the time. I had it happen last Sunday, or really last Tuesday when I created the graphic to the bulletin for the church. You see, I am the secretary in charge of making the bulletin and I research the bible and come up with some image that will fit with it. I chose John 15:16-17
16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17 This I command you, that you love one another.

I stuck that on the front page of the bulletin and thought no more about it. Sunday comes around and as we go to church, about a block from the church, we passed what I initially thought was a mannequin and pointed out to my wife, but as we drove, I reviewed it in my mind and found it probably was real because I also saw a sign that read “Anything will help.” It was 26 degrees at the time and my mind was burdened by this. I get in the building and my normal routine is to set up my iPad to start a Zoom session and get the video camera rolling. However, I made a beeline to my Brother in Law, Leighton, and asked him if he had seen the homeless guy on the road. Now I know Leighton well, he and God are why I am doing all this. This is called discipleship. And I know that Leighton would be concerned if I said there was a homeless guy a block from the church. Except he wasn’t. “Nope” he said “didn’t see him” and that was that. I am now really bothered, because of the homeless guy and Leighton’s response. I get everything set up and sit down by my wife. We discuss the homeless guy and then look up and around and notice that Pastor Aaron is not around. He should be very evident at this time. I asked my wife if she had seen him. No, she had not. I asked her what the bible verse for the sermon today is. Luke 10:25-37. I opened my bible and started to read and stopped. 

God has blessed me with an active and curious mind. One that can see patterns and sometimes put 2 and 2 together. I looked up and told my wife the homeless guy is Aaron. Then I got up and found Leighton and asked him if Aaron was the homeless guy. My Brother in Law got a brief moment of surprised panic in his eyes and nodded yes. My stomach dropped and what came out of my mouth was “I am convicted!” This was worse than a random homeless guy. I had just about been ready to get back in the car and convince the homeless guy to come back to the warm church. Just about, but not quite. Good intentions don’t count when doing the Lord’s work. I found out something else about myself. ALS will give you the shakes now and then, but it breaks the knob off at the 11 mark when under stress. I confess to being a tad stressed while wobbling back to my seat. I picked up the bulletin and looked at the bible verse on the front page, the one I put there. “This I command you, that you love one another.” This is where Providence left its mark. I was convicted, I did not do what my Lord had commanded me. And it hurt, bad. I spent the rest of the service shaking and repenting. It made for a good combination of contrition.

Pastor Aaron had been calling for testimonies from the congregation for the last month. So of course the homeless man had made it to the church and of course the homeless man slowly walked up and gave his testimony. And it was a killer one too. And then said homeless man took off his long wig and became our strong Shepard again and told of the Good Samaritan story.

Luke 10:30-37
30 Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. 31 And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, 34 and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ 36 Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” 37 And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

Go and do the same, and I did not. My wife reminded me that we are forgiven, and I said yes, I know, but that does not make it any easier that I have failed my Lord, for I knew what I should have done.

While we are forgiven, we are still sinners and as such, our Father expects us to repent our sins and learn from them. 

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Matthew 6:14
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,

Disappointing our Lord should be painful and was. Accept the conviction, repent and forsake the sin, and learn the lesson so that you may not sin like that again. We have a merciful and forgiving Lord. That is the best part of this lesson.

My Mother in Law who was also at church, asked me on her way out the door “Was it you that gave him (homeless guy) your coat?”. No I said, but it should have been.