American Loon

Last week we left off with Jesus talking to the Pharisees in the very direct manner that he used when talking to these men. Never hostile, but confronting them with the unbelief of their hearts, which for men with ears to hear but never hearing had to be direct. Isaiah spoke of this in Isaiah 6:9, Mark also spoke of this, Mark 4:12. These Jews heard what Jesus said but did not hear.

We are the same it seems. We’ve gone to church, hopefully, and listened to the parables and lessons given out in the sermon. This is making the not always valid assumption that you’ve gone to a church that preaches the whole counsel of God. Not many do these days, and therein lies the problem. If you listen to someone that you’re not all that interested in, speaking something bland and non-committal, what they have said will go in one ear and out the other.

And because of that, our everyday conversations end up going something like this: you’re talking to somebody and they’ve mentioned they’re slightly irritated with themselves for not resisting whatever has been tempting them, but they can’t help themselves. Or, with all that’s going on in the world these days, your friend says that they worry about many things. They know they should not worry, but again, they can’t help it, they just do. And this one I’ve heard a lot of lately, “I have faith, but…” You may be confused by this, it may be something that you yourself have said. What’s the big deal?

The big deal is God knows what you need before you need it. (Matthew 6:8) Temptations are quite often a test of your willingness to trust in God. It is not a sin to be tempted, but to succumb to it is. Eve was tempted by satan, you’ll recall. (Genesis 3:1-7) Her trust in God was not what it should have been and we all are affected by her decision. Remember that Jesus was also tempted by satan, (Matthew 4:1-11) so He knows what we go through and can help you when you’re sorely tempted. Turn to Him who is our mediator, our High Priest, our King. (Hebrews 4:14-16) The rest of it comes down to trust in God to handle those things that you worry about. Why would you not? He created all, and what can you change by worry? Your Creator is handling the details and knows what is best for you. Trust, it all comes down to trust. If you truly trust in God, there would be no worry, no “but” after Faith.

So you see, this is a common problem with man’s interaction with his Creator. Back when God spoke to his people through His chosen prophet, the people spoke with their mouths that yes, they agreed with God’s commands and would follow them, but a very short time later, they requested a golden calf to worship because Moses had been gone too long, (Exodus 32:1-4) or there was no water, or they didn’t like the food, or the desert was too harsh. (Exodus 15:22, 17:16). Moses was a favorite of God (Deuteronomy 34:10–12) and yet the people rebelled. Jesus is much greater than Moses (Hebrews 3:1-6) and they were seeking to kill him, for what they perceived as blasphemy, claiming to be the Son of God, forgiving of sins, performing signs and wonders on the sabbath and the most grievous of all, telling them they were not righteous, but sinners, much like those they looked down upon.

(Mk 2:5-7; also Mt 9:2-3 and Lk 5:20-21) spoke of Moses being a great prophet, but Christ here speaks of John the Baptist, foretold so long ago by Isaiah 40:3–5, and Malachi 3:1, 4:5 and these prophecies were fulfilled in Matthew 3:1–3; Mark 1:1–3; Luke 1:76; 3:1–6; John 1:22–23. Jesus tells them that they asked John the Baptist if he was the Christ, and he testified to the truth and they accepted that. (John 5:33) But He, Jesus, says that His testimony does not come from man, here’s the whole verse: But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. (John 5:34). I find that verse 34 needs to be looked at carefully so let’s look at Ellicott’s Commentary for clarification.

(34) But I receive not testimony . . .—There is no reason for changing the word. The substantive, and verbs from John 5:31, have been rendered by “witness,” and it is better to keep it here. The English also fails to give the article, and is therefore misleading. He did receive witness from men—had received witness from John—but this was not the witness upon which all was based. Its purpose was to lead them to Christ Himself, and He now refers to it, to show them it’s true position, that that purpose might be fulfilled.
But these things I say, that ye might be saved.—The emphasis of the clause should be placed upon the pronoun “ye.” The thought is, that our Lord does not refer to John’s witness for His own sake, but in order that they might be saved. He had a greater witness than that of John, but this they were not yet prepared to receive. They had received John for a season, and had rejoiced in his light. He refers to him now that that light may lead them to the true Source of Light. Some of those who had sent to the Baptist may now understand his words in a deeper sense than any which had come to them before, and may find in them words leading to salvation.

Hopefully that helped. The English language is not always the best way to understand the Bible. The people had rejoiced for a season and were now in better shape to understand what Jesus was saying and receive salvation.

However, now we come to the hard part. Hard for the Pharisees, hard for the Jews, and sometimes hard for some of us. Jesus tells them that His testimony is greater than John’s… “for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me. And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.” (John 5:36-38).

As I said, the hard part. They did not believe Him whom He sent. Do you believe, truly believe? Trust enough to let go and let God provide your daily bread without worry? Trust Him enough to accept that every good thing you have comes from above? (James 1:17)

Here’s the rest of the hard part. Read it with your heart involved.

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:39-47)

Believe and Trust with your whole heart. Repent, for we sin every day and you are held accountable once you know the Good News. Accept that your Creator knows what is best for you, even before you know it. And place no conditions to the Faith you have. Live the life that you have been called to. You may not think that you have been called, but you have. You’ve been called by God, that is what saving Grace is. A calling that has lifted you from death to life, brought you into the light. The Greek word from which the English word “church” is always translated is εκκλησια which renders as call/calling/called. Jesus in Matt 16:18, “…upon this, the rock, I will be building of me the εκκλησια, and gates of hades will not be prevailing…”

We are the Called who have been chosen by God for salvation, (Ephesians 1:4-5) plucked out of our headlong path to damnation, for the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23) What the church then becomes is not a building, but we the Called coming together to worship He who has called us, who then go out and do His will in obedience to our Calling.

Having now knowledge of this, go forth and serve your King and give glory to Him in all that you do, for you are among the Called. As you ponder this lesson, and I pray that you do, may the Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)

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

Last week we left off with Jesus healing a man at the Pool of Bethesda. That man was experiencing the joy of being able to walk for the first time in a very long time. He didn’t even know the name of his benefactor who had freed him from his disability. The scripture states that Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. (John 5:13) Jesus had told him to pick up his palette and walk and that was just what he was doing. If you are wondering what a palette is, Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary states that it’s a small and mean bed; a bed of straw. Probably straw in a linen covering. Could be rolled up and carried like a sleeping bag.

The joy of this man and the fact that he is carrying around a smelly bag of straw immediately catches the eyes of some Jews who stop him and tell him he can’t do that. Probably had to tell him more than once as the healed man was not paying attention to much more than walking around and feeling great, I imagine. However, it was the Sabbath and you can’t be walking around with your sleeping apparatus because it is not permitted.
It makes you wonder a bit on why they, the Jews, made a rule on not being able to carry your palette around on the Sabbath. Was there a lot of that going on and it looked unseemly to those in charge? And who were these Jews with rules anyway?

Pharisees is who they were. A small sect of rule-bound and ultra righteous, in their own mind, people that were constantly on the lookout for some infraction to correct. God gave Moses the law and you can find that in Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. Basically the 10 commandments that we all know and much of civil government today was used for the basis of our laws. These Pharisees added 613 commandments that included “positive commandments”, to perform an act (mitzvot aseh), and “negative commandments”, to abstain from certain acts (mitzvot lo taaseh). I would guess that carrying around your bed would be in the negative area of these extra commandments.

There were around 6000 of these Jews at the time of Jesus and although they knew the scripture, they were so sure of their interpretation of what the scripture said that anybody telling them differently would be discounted. Certainly somebody healing someone else on the Sabbath was against their rules. We see a lot of that today, laws that run counter to common sense. Of course since we live in a “Post Truth” era and nobody can agree on what common sense is, we’ve got some problems to work through. God is the same now as He was back then. And we know Him to be a rational and Loving God. Do you think that He stops working on Sunday? Or would He prevent somebody from being healed on that day? Christ told them “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” (John 5:17) Yet, these Jews did not believe it and would not permit it. The next verse in this book shows how corrupt in their hearts that they were: “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” (John 5:18)

They wanted to kill him because He broke their Sabbath laws and also because He called God his Father. We all do the same when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. (Matthew 6:9-13)

Jesus seeks to realign their coal-like hearts: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” (John 5:)

All authority has been given to the Son, and yet they wanted to kill Him. In their mind, they were the authority. Anyone claiming to have God as their Father or to be the Son of God was talking foolishness, dangerous foolishness. My question to you is, have you encountered anyone that has said God’s word is foolishness? And if you have, how did you respond to it?

We know from Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. As a Christian, you possess every spiritual resource you need to fulfill God’s will for your life, so in answer to how does a person respond to a nonbeliever? You have everything you need, the Bible, the Holy Spirit, God’s love. The people of Jesus’s time had only what scripture they had been taught, keep in mind they did not have what we have today, a complete Bible. Until the Messiah walked among them, they only had what they had been taught and Faith. These Pharisees had been taught the same things but had no faith in anyone but themselves.

Also how they chose to interpret what they had learned brings the parable of the sower into play. (Matthew 13:3-9) The deceiver is ever ready to gobble up the seeds sown of wisdom and understanding and the opening of the heart. Their seeds had been sown on to the road, or the rocky place or even into the weeds. Even today we have a hard time understanding why family or friends that had at one time been excited over God’s word, have now pulled away and refuted it all. The scripture speaks to these things, yet that book of God’s instruction and wisdom is gathering dust on a shelf, never consulted. Remember you have been made complete and lack nothing spiritually.

Jesus stated: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” He was telling the Pharisees and He is telling you now, He who believes in Him has eternal life.(John 5:24) They, the Pharisees, rejected that concept. Some of your family or friends may have also rejected what Christ has said. Christ prayed for those that wished to kill him and I think a time is coming where all that we knew and was easy, will not be so easy. Take that dusty book from the shelf and open your heart to its message.

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true. (John 5:25-31)

What did we learn from this? The Truth is the same today as it was back then. It walks among us, yet many refute it. Judge not lest you be judged. The Pharisees were judging Jesus and found him unacceptable as a Messiah. Christ told them, those that reject me, also reject the Father. (John 5:23) and for that they were willing to kill him. Take not your own counsel, (Proverbs 12:15) but that of the Lord’s. And to do that, open the book, seeking the Lord’s will in all you do. The clock’s ticking and none of us knows the span of our days. Best get busy and may the Lord Bless you and Keep you.