Study Notes 8-5-12

August 4, 2012August 11, 2012 ~ pjwenzel ~ Leave a comment

I have re-adjusted this text to include only my notes for verse 45, as that is all we covered last week. Enjoy!

John 6:45

6:45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—

There are really two parts to this verse, or at least two ideas that I think are important. One corresponds with salvation, the other with sanctification. First I will deal with that which is dealing with salvation and then move onto the upshot of the salvific teaching (sanctification), which is driven by several passages in the Old Testament.

Teaching = Drawing

As we see in verse 44, there’s a sine qua non (a necessary precondition) involved in the act of coming to God. That precondition is that He first “draw” us to Himself. In the previous section, I mentioned the “why” as well as the overarching “how” as it pertains to the mode of operation in the drawing process. Now, with this verse before us, I want to get into more specifics of the “how” operation of the spirit in our lives, and some of the distinctions we need to make to understand this process more accurately. I think we all want to know “what happened to me?” as John Piper puts it. We all want to know what it is that God did to change our lives and bring us into His everlasting kingdom.

In the context of this verse, what does it mean to be “taught by God”? Well the “teaching” that John refers to here is in direct connection to the “drawing” that He mentioned in verse 44 (see also 1 Cor. 2:13, 1 Thess. 4:9, and 1 John 2:20). As John Piper says, “So the connection between drawing and teaching is clear. The drawn are the taught. They are drawn by being taught.”

Thus the thrust of verse 45 is that Jesus is explaining more of the how of this drawing. How does He do that? Well, Jesus seems to indicate that not only is this teaching in coordination with the drawing, but that the teaching of God is effective – it can’t fail.

Piper’s longer explanation for this is as follows:

The answer John gives to how the Father draws people to the Son is by teaching them. “No one can come unless the Father draws him…It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’” So the connection between drawing and teaching is clear. The drawn are the taught. They are drawn by being taught.

And the connection between being taught and coming to Christ is unbreakable. No one is taught and then decides not to come. The teaching produces the coming. You see that most clearly in the second half of verse 45.

Verse 45 says, “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” (This is why I said this verse confirms our understanding of John 12:32.) Not some of them come. All of them come. So Jesus uses at least three phrases to describe how the Father draws people to Jesus. He calls it “being taught,” and he calls it “hearing from” God, and he calls it “learning from” God. “‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.”

Beale and Carson agree with Piper that there is a strong link between the “drawing” in verse 44 and the “teaching” in verse 45, “In light of the Jews’ largely negative response to his message, Jesus points out that while his ministry in fact fulfills the prophetic vision that one day – which has now arrived – all people will be taught by God, this applies only to those who are drawn by the Father (vs. 44), the sender of Jesus and who subsequently come to believe in him as the Messiah.”

Leon Morris mentions that liberal theologian Rudolph Bultmann got it wrong when he said, “any man is free to be among those drawn by the Father.” The statement itself sounds so ridiculous that it almost need not be refuted. But this is, in effect, what Armenians hold to, when they hold to the complete dominion of man over his fate. Surely the very thrust of the text here is quite the opposite of Bultmann’s conclusion. Such is the fate of errant theologians who come to Scripture in an eisegetical (so to speak) fashion.

Calvin agrees, “It is a false and profane assertion, therefore, that none are drawn but those who are willing to be drawn, as if man made himself obedient to God by his own efforts; for the willingness with which men follow God is what they already have from himself, who has formed their hearts to obey him.”

The Old Testament Connection and Fulfillment

In teaching us, the Holy Spirit is “implanting” (as MacArthur says) a new desire and a new understanding of the ways and law of God. This is why Christ says to us that it is “written in the prophets.” He is saying that in Isaiah and Jeremiah and others, we are promised to one day have the law of God written on our hearts. As Piper says, “Both Isaiah and Jeremiah explicitly promise the day when the God’s teaching will no longer merely be external on tablets of stone, but will be internal written on the heart. God will teach us in the New Covenant first by sending Christ as the sum of all truth, the fulfillment of the law, and then by making that truth real to hour hearts.”

Interestingly, MacArthur notes that, “Jesus’ statement was also a subtle rebuke of His Jewish opponents, who prided themselves on their knowledge of Scripture. But had they truly understood the Old Testament, they would have eagerly embraced Him (5:39).”

The passage Christ quotes is from Isaiah 54:13 and says:

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.

This also holds a close connections with Jeremiah 31:33-34 which says:

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Carson and Beale paraphrase Young by noting that “the greatest spiritual wealth that Isaiah is able to imagine for God’s people is that all their children ‘will be taught by [literally “become disciples of”] the Lord.”

Note especially that Jeremiah says that “they shall all know me”, why? Because “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” And therefore, “no longer shall each one teach his neighbor” – because, as Isaiah says, “all your children will be taught by the Lord.”

So the inward work of the Spirit will help people “know” the Lord. Calvin says, “The way of teaching, of which the prophet speaks, does not consist merely in the external voice, but likewise in the secret operation of the Holy Spirit.”

What does this mean? What does it mean to “know” the Lord? To understand this, we must look at the close ties between knowing the Lord, and knowing His law (since Christ is quoting the Old Testament here, we do well to draw our conclusions by first looking at the context in which Isaiah and other wrote). The law was an outward guide and revelation to the holiness of God. It showed us His standard of perfection, as well as our own sinfulness. In other words, it showed us who we were in comparison to who God was, and in that way made us aware inwardly of a need to repent and rely completely on God. Once under the new covenant, we no longer needed to be taught by men, because we had an inward law – one written on our hearts. The law, which was a schoolmaster (or “guardian”) to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24), was now implanted on the hearts of those who are quickened by the Holy Spirit (John 16:13).

The reason I mentioned 1 Corinthians 2:13 earlier as a reference is because it so excellently reminds us that the great truths of Christ are only able to be discerned by us with the help of the Holy Spirit. It says, “And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.”

As He’s wrapping up the discourse here, as we’ll see later, Christ explains why they can’t understand what He’s talking about. He says in verses 63-65, “‘It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe. (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)’ And he said, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.’”

If by now you cannot see the sovereignty of God in salvation then you must not be reading or listening to the Words of Christ – you must not have “ears to hear”, for Christ is saying again and again that from the beginning of time through the end of time, He and the Father have chosen a people, and elect group of people, for themselves. They have not only determined who these people will be, but have seen to it that by their power, and theirs alone, these people are brought to a saving knowledge of themselves (the trinity). The operation of salvation is synergistic only in the sense that it is carried out by the three members of the Trinity acting in full knowledge and power, for their own purposes and glory and enjoyment. The Godhead does not share power for salvation with man.

Conformity

Now I want to look at this inward work of the Spirit as it pertains to being continually “taught” by the Spirit of God and how we were all “taught” of God for a purposes.

As I mentioned earlier, the Old Testament prophecy that is connected with being “taught” by God has to do with His law being written on our hearts. Galatians tells us the law “was added because of transgression” (Gal. 3:19) to keep the people of Israel in constant remembrance of the character and standards of their God, that they might conform their lives to His standard (a sort of Old Testament sanctification process minus the Spirit’s help, of course). Now we have that law written on our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, and we also have His help to guide us and conform us to Christ’s mind and complete image. This is significant, and ought to lead us to understand how Christ would want us to act, and live. That is part of the Spirit’s grand work in us to conform us to the image of Christ until that day when this work is complete (in heaven).

Taught for a Purpose

Remember, we have been saved not only from something (Hell), but for something (good works and conformity to the image of Christ). As Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Now, as you can see, not only is Christ explaining how we were first quickened and “taught” of God and our deficit before Him, but He is also explaining how we are taught of God continually for the purpose of growth in grace and truth. You were saved for a reason, to become holy. You aren’t saved so that you can simply enjoy the fact that you aren’t going to Hell. You aren’t saved simply so that you can enjoy heaven with Christ (although that is certainly a part of it – see John 17), but rather you are saved so that you can be made holy. Why? So that you can glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Christians today have lost a focus on practical holiness. We don’t wake up in the morning thinking, “how can I be more holy today?” We have no driving desire to be “taught” of God. Instead we have minds full of trivial and temporary desires. We need to refocus our attention as Christians back onto the process and goal of sanctification, and becoming a holy people.

Jerry Bridges says, “But here is a basic truth: We will not grow unless we see our need to grown, we will not pursue holiness unless we see how much we are still unholy, and we will not see our unholiness unless we look at the holiness of God instead of what we perceive to be the unholiness of our neighbor. This is why we must face up to the sinfulness of our sin.”

We also need to remember that when Christ was raised from the dead and was going to go back to heaven, He says to Mary, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (Jon 20:17b). Therefore we now have been included in His family, and must be made fit for the family. We must be made ready to enjoy this blessing in its fullness.

“Everyone”

In the last part of verse 45 Christ says, “everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” Note that He purposefully uses the word “everyone” to establish the fact that in the “teaching” or “drawing” of people, God the Father does not fail to bring to fruition that which He planted in the hearts of His elect.

As J.C. Ryle says, “The words do not mean that under the Gospel all mankind, or all members of the professing Christian Church, shall be ‘taught of God.’ It rather means that all who are God’s children, and come to Christ under the Gospel, shall be taught of God.”

Note also that Christ says “the Father” instead of the Spirit, and that is because while it is the Spirit doing the “drawing”, He acts on the eternal unchangeable will of the Father. From the first, God had intended to “teach” certain people about Himself, and here we learn that “everyone” who is taught of God comes to Christ. Not one of His pupils fails to come to Christ. We’ve already talked briefly about why this is, but it doesn’t hurt to go over it again.

God is effective in all that He sets out to do because He is God and His purposes cannot fail. When He teaches men of Himself (they have “heard” and “learned” of Him) they always come to Christ. What is He teaching them? The gospel. He is teaching them of a (new) covenant (Jeremiah 31) that He is making with them, that if they believe on His Son Jesus Christ, they will be saved. That is why Christ goes on to say in verse 47 that, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.” This fact comes with a promise – if they believe, they will be saved and will also (an added benefit) have “eternal life.”

The heart which “hears” this message from God cannot refuse it. It is irresistible! It is so not because God has cajoled them into belief, but because the sweetness of it is such that they flee to the cross. Of course there are two elements to learning of the gospel of God. It is not simply that a man learns of the benefit of eternal life, but that he also learns of his own sinfulness in light of the cross. This is what inevitably happens when we are taught by God, we learn who He is and who we are in light of His holiness. This is what happened to Isaiah in chapter 6 of his book. We see that not only did he learn about who God was and what His surroundings looked like, but he immediately realized who he was in light of who God is.

Isaiah did not see the holy majesty of God and respond by saying “well, since I have free will to choose whether or not to believe in you, and since you seem to have laid out all the proper facts about things, I will make the choice now to believe what you have to say.” No indeed. His response was compelled – not forced by God – but he was compelled I say to do the obvious thing, and that was to repent of his utter sinfulness and throw himself on the mercy of God. This is what happens when men and women are “taught” of God. They do the obvious thing when their eyes are opened to His holiness, they repent and run quickly to the cross! This happens without exception, and that is why it is that Christ can use the word “everyone.”

Study Notes 7-22-12

July 22, 2012July 22, 2012 ~ pjwenzel ~ Leave a comment

6:36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

I think that what we have here is a perfect example of people seeing, hearing, and yet not believing the very words of Christ (the outward presentation of the Gospel message from the Monogenes Himself). How can this be? We often ask ourselves the same thing. How can I present the gospel in any clearer terms? Why won’t these people respond to this? The reason is because they are still spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1) and that your talk is complete foolishness to them (1 Cor. 2:14).
Why could they not believe? Jesus is about to explain that they don’t believe because they haven’t been called – “draw” is the word He uses here. They can’t come to Him because “no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” So this verse is a setup for what Jesus is about to tell them.
The lesson is this: God is completely sovereign over salvation. When He calls someone with the inward call of the Holy Spirit that is when a man begins to see the light. Until then, we are preaching foolishness, but it’s a foolishness we will continue to preach because it has the power of life, and God is pleased to use this foolish preaching of ours as the outward call that informs the inward call.

6:37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

What a magnificent statement by our Lord. He says that even though these people won’t come to him (vs. 36), those who do come He will accept with open arms – “I will never cast out.” The Savior is saying that for those who believe in Him, He will embrace them as His own.
For those who might have grown up in a culture or a church that taught that eternal security is not possible, this verse stands diametrically opposed to that kind of false teaching. The Roman Catholic Church not only says that (due to mortal sins) salvation can be lost, but that to think of our eternal state as secure is puffed up and arrogant. However, according to Christ, nothing could be further from the truth. He will never cast out any who come to Him.
John Calvin puts it this way, “In the first place, he says, that all whom the Father giveth him come to him; by which words he means, that faith is not a thing which depends on the will of men, so that this man and that man indiscriminately and at random believe, but that God elects those whom he hands over, as it were, to his Son; for when he says, that whatever is given cometh, we infer from it, that all do not come. Again, we infer, that God works in his elect by such an efficacy of the Holy Spirit, that not one of them falls away; for the word give has the same meaning as if Christ had said, ‘Those whom the Father hath chosen he regenerates, and gives to me, that they may obey the Gospel.’”
Also, the word here “come”, as I detail elsewhere, is equivalent with “believe.” John MacArthur puts it this way, “To come to Christ is to forsake the old life of sin and rebellion and submit to Him as Lord. Though John does not use the term ‘repentance’ in his gospel, the concept is clearly implied in the idea of coming to Christ.”
MacArthur cites a great Spurgeon quote to back up his statement, “You and your sins must separate, or you and your God will never come together.”

6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Christ is one with the Father. His will is one with the Father – we have talked about this before. And looking ahead to chapter 10, and Christ’s discourse on His role as the Good Shepherd, we see Him saying something similar, but even more explicit:

10:26-30 “…but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. [27] My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. [28] I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. [29] My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. [30] I and the Father are one.”

It’s important to remember that at this saying, the Jews began to pick up stones to kill Jesus. This was a highly offensive statement. Now, Christ didn’t get stoned here, for as radical as this statement it, He’s about to rock the minds of these men and women all the more…

6:39-40 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. [40] For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Why is it that you will never lose your salvation? Because Christ will lose nothing! Why is it that Christ will lose nothing? Because that is the will of the Father.
Whether or not you commit a so-called “mortal” sin or not, the Lord Jesus Christ will not allow one person to slip from His hands. What has been alive by the Holy Spirit cannot be made dead by a human being. By the power of God the Almighty Creator of the Universe, you will be Christ’s adopted brethren for eternity, not by your will or effort, by the power of God.
You see, when God wills something it happens. All forces of creation, both spiritual and physical, bow to his wishes. He opens His mouth and the nations tremble. By His words Satan is thrown down and bound. By His will you are kept safe. No one can cross His sovereign will. What an amazing and comforting thought.
This verse also gives us a preview of the resurrection. Jesus says that not only will He keep you safely in His hands, but that He will raise you up “on the last day.” On the last day, we will see the final consummation of His power over the grave and of death and will realize the power of the resurrection – this time in our own bodies. On that day, God will complete the work He has begun, and the saying that what is perishable will be raised imperishable will realize its completion. He will be redeeming more than your souls, friends. He will be redeeming your bodies. Paul talks about this at length in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians:

15:20-23 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. [21] For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. [22] For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. [23] But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

Commenting upon Jesus’ power and plan from election to glorification Calvin says this:

Besides, as the election of God, by an indissoluble bond, draws his calling along with it, so when God has effectually called us to faith in Christ, let this have as much weight with us as if he had engraven his seal to ratify his decree concerning our salvation. For the testimony of the Holy Spirit is nothing else than the sealing of our adoption, (Romans 8:15.) To every man, therefore, his faith is a sufficient attestation of the eternal predestination of God, so that it would be a shocking sacrilege to carry the inquiry farther; for that man offers an aggravated insult to the Holy Spirit, who refuses to assent to his simple testimony.

Therefore, when Christ says in verse 40 that, “I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” He is saying that from beginning to end, from predestination, to calling and justification to adoption and resurrection to glorification, He will loose nothing, nor will the “will” of the Father be interrupted by the schemes of the Devil, the world – and/or even our own flesh!

6:41-43 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” [42] They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” [43] Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.

These Jews did not like Christ equating Himself with bread from heaven. Christ was to them a stumbling block. For they seemed to know from where Jesus came, and who His earthly parents were. This made it all the more difficult to believe Him when He said that He had “come down from heaven.”
The word “grumble” here has definite parallels with the grumbling of the people of Israel in the Old Testament. They were provided great manna from heaven, yet they still complained. Here Christ has just explained that He is the bread from heaven that will forever satisfy them. Like their ancient forefathers, they grumble. The reason was the same: unbelief. When we don’t believe the words of God we grumble. Grumbling is the outward fruit of unbelief.
That is why we must never grumble, but always set our hope firmly on the work and purposes of God. This whole passage is about deeper things. Deep things that we can’t fully understand, and such is our life, we run up against many things we can’t understand. But let us not grumble in unbelief. Let us let go of our unbelief and place our full trust upon Him who is able to sustain us until the last day.

6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

In verse 37 He had just said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me”, and in verse 36 He had said that, “you have seen me and yet do not believe.” But now He’s saying WHY they won’t believe, and why they won’t come to Him. They won’t believe because “no one can come to (Him) unless the Father who sent me draws him.”
The Father had not drawn these people to Christ, and therefore they were unable to come to Him. Christ is enumerating an important spiritual principle, not just for these Jews, but for us as well. For what He is saying here is in the general sense. His words are “no one” and “all” and so on. So He’s not limiting His discussion to simply Jews, but is giving a discourse about a universal spiritual principle.
To further affirm this, John Piper reminds us that we need to realize the full implications of what Christ is saying here. He’s about to talk about how – in particular – God draws people to Himself. But in doing so, Christ it known that He will not be limiting His kingdom to the Jews, or any one group of people. He is not a “tribal deity” as Piper says. And to emphasize the point, Piper reminds us that John stresses the wide call of Christ in this Gospel (of John) to all men (John 3:16, 3:18, 3:36, 5:24, 6:35, 6:37, 6:47, 6:58, 7:38, 12:46, etc.).
Here are all the reference and what they look like to show what I mean, and what Piper was getting at:
- “Whoever believes in him will have eternal life” (John 3:15).
- “Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
- “Whoever believes in him is not condemned” (John 3:18).
- “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36).
- “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life” (John 5:24).
- “Whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
- “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37).
- “Whoever believes has eternal life” (John 6:47).
- “Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever” (John 6:58).
- “Whoever believes in me, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:38).
- “Whoever believes in me will not remain in darkness” (John 12:46).
- It is obvious that this verse is talking about God’s methodology in calling and saving us for all eternity. But while we talk about God’s work in the lives of particular men and women – in you and men – we need to remember the role we play in spreading that gospel to all men – not ones we choose, but ones HE chooses. John Piper reminds us of this when he says the following:

It is an awesome thing that we are sent to the whole world with the greatest news in the world—with a free offer for all who believe. And it is an awesome thing that as many as are appointed to eternal life believe (Acts 13:48). It is an awesome thing that God commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). And it is an awesome thing that God grants repentance to whom he will (2 Timothy 2:25). It is an awesome thing that God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). And it is an awesome thing he acts decisively to draw particular people to the truth (John 6:44).

When John says the Father “draws” men, the Greek word he’s using is helkō, which literally means to “drag off.” This is important because when we hear the word “draw” I think that our minds tend to think of the word differently than that. We think the natural synonym might be “ compel” or something like that, when the sense of the word is nothing of the sort. Here John is talking about a powerful “dragging” force. The Father isn’t just wooing people to come to Christ, He is making sure they come by grabbing a hold of them, and bringing them all the way home.

Irresistible Grace

We call this the doctrine of Irresistible Grace. The idea behind the doctrine is not to teach us that God “drags us” kicking and screaming into heaven, but rather that in His sovereign will, He creates within us a desire that we never had before. That desire is for Himself. Once our desires have changed, we begin to see the irresistible nature of His love for us. Our eyes are opened to the magnificence of His love and plan for us – the fact that He is working on our hearts ought to be enough proof that He loves us, but then He reveals the mysteries of His will in Christ Jesus, and the truth of what Christ has done is so amazing, so profound, so audacious, and so ludicrous, that we can’t help but want to run to the cross and embrace Christ as Lord. That is what God does by drawing us.
The point is that this “drawing” is active and not passive. John Piper says it’s “decisive” and says, “When you chose Christ—when you awakened spiritually to the compelling truth and worth of Christ—it was because God gave you eyes to see. God awakened you. God gave you eyes to see the irresistible greatness of Jesus.”
Calvin puts it magnificently:

Christ declares that the doctrine of the Gospel, though it is preached to all without exception, cannot be embraced by all, but that a new understanding and a new perception are requisite; and, therefore, that faith does not depend on the will of men, but that it is God who gives it.

The first part of the verse says, “can come”, and by this we know that the Apostle is referring to “believing” in Christ. When we “come” to Christ, we believe in Christ, we are placing our faith and truth in Him for salvation.
Calvin explains:

The statement amounts to this, that we ought not to wonder if many refuse to embrace the Gospel; because no man will ever of himself be able to come to Christ, but God must first approach him by his Spirit; and hence it follows that all are not drawn, but that God bestows this grace on those whom he has elected. True, indeed, as to the kind of drawing, it is not violent, so as to compel men by external force; but still it is a powerful impulse of the Holy Spirit, which makes men willing who formerly were unwilling and reluctant. It is a false and profane assertion, therefore, that none are drawn but those who are willing to be drawn, as if man made himself obedient to God by his own efforts; for the willingness with which men follow God is what they already have from himself, who has formed their hearts to obey him.

Sovereign Election

The verse also teaches us that God had a sovereign plan – that is the overarching theme, isn’t it? This is what is known as the doctrine of Election. That from eternity past, God chose to create a particular people for himself. I’m not just talking about Israel, but of the true Israel, which is the church, and indeed is Christ Himself. This verse teaches us is that God’s work of salvation is particular. That is to say, it is discriminating.
To discriminate means to choose some, but not others based on a desire.
1 Peter 2:9-10 tells us:

…you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. [10] Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

Radical Corruption

By necessity, Jesus is also teaching us the state of mankind. Specifically, as the ESV Study notes, “No one can come to me means “no one is able to come to me” (Gk. dynamai means “to be able”). This implies that no human being in the world, on his own, has the moral and spiritual ability to come to Christ unless God the Father draws him, that is, gives him the desire and inclination to come and the ability to place trust in Christ.”
Sproul puts it this way, “Jesus said that we are so corrupt, that our hearts have been so hardened toward the things of God, that we cannot respond to God and come to Him on our own…If the Father wants us to come to Christ, He must effectually draw us to His beloved Son.”
We are so morally and spiritually bankrupt that we can’t come to Christ on our own. We are dead in our sins. This is the doctrine known as Total Depravity. This saying of Jesus is one that men hate to accept, and you might not like hearing it either.
You might think that I’m wrong and the Bible is wrong to tear down “human character”, but as C.H. Spurgeon once said, “You cannot slander human nature, it is worse than words can paint it.”
John MacArthur points out “the Bible indicates that fallen man is unable, of his own volition, to come to Jesus Christ.” MacArthur goes on to give a lengthy list of Biblical reasons why this is the case:

Unregenerate people are dead in sin (Eph.2:1; Col. 2:13), slaves to unrighteousness (John 8:34; Rom. 6:6, 17, 20, John 8:34), alienated from God (Col. 1:21), and hostile to Him (Rom. 5:10; 8:7). They are spiritually blind (2 Cor. 4:4), captives (2 Tim 2:26), trapped in Satan’s kingdom (Col. 1:13), powerless to change their sinful natures (Jer. 13:23; Rom. 5:6), unable to please God (Rom. 8:8), incapable of understanding spiritual truth (1 Cor. 2:14; John 14:17).

Preserving Grace and Assurance of Salvation

The beauty of this passage does not lie alone in the call of the Spirit, however, but also in the preserving nature of the work of the Spirit and in the power of Jesus Christ. Sproul says, “Those who are truly saved will continue in that condition, for Jesus will not let them fall away.”
As we get deeper into the book of John, we’ll see other passages that detail the magnificent power of God’s preserving grace. In John 10:26-30 Jesus is giving a very similar discourse and says that the power He has to keep His children in grace is the same power that God the Father has (because they are “one”) – which His listeners at the time would have understood to be omnipotent. He says this:

10:26-30 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. [27] My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. [28] I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. [29] My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. [30] I and the Father are one.

Christ mentions this in order to give us assurance. In His compassion He came to give us peace. He came to give us a peace that the world couldn’t give (John 14:27).
If salvation is a monergistic work, and if He is truly sovereign over salvation, then surely there is nothing we can do to lose what we have not earned or worked for. It is all by His preserving grace that we are kept until the day of Christ’s return!

Why Me? The Pleasures of God

Perhaps the most difficult and unknowable question we come to about the nature of God’s sovereign work in salvation – at least from this particular text – is the why. Specifically, you might be asking “why does He discriminate?” or “why does He choose to ‘draw’ some and not others?”
R.C. Sproul even admits that this is “the deepest theological question that I can think of, the one for which I have no adequate answer.” Specifically, Sproul was referring to the question of “why me?”
Sproul offers the best explanation I’ve heard for a question that really can’t be answered in specifics (anyone who says they know the answer is lying):

I can’t give a single reason under heaven why God would save me other than, as the prophet Isaiah said, that the Suffering Servant of Israel should see the travail of His soul and be satisfied – that God has determined to honor His Son by giving Him adopted brothers and sisters (Is. 53:11). In the final analysis, the only reason I am a Christian is that the Father wants to honor the Son. From all eternity, He determined that the Son’s work would not be in vain and that He would be the firstborn of many brethren. Therefore, He determined not just to make salvation possible and then step back and cross His fingers, hoping that somebody would take advantage of the ministry of Jesus. No, God the Father, from all eternity, determined to make salvation certain for those whom He had determined to give to His Son.

My own explanation would simply lie in the hidden counsel of God, and the manifestation of His discriminating love for us. Ephesians 2:4-5 says that God loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses. It says…

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”

Note the “rich” mercy and the “great” love of God toward us. These are the things that compelled Him to do what He did from all eternity past. And because of this love, the Father knew from eternity past that He would have to send His only Son to be a sacrifice for us. He knew that we would fall – otherwise there would be no reason to elect anyone, for everyone would always have been in perfect harmony with God – and yet He determined by the counsel of His own will to create us in His image, and plan before hand whom to save – a particular people for Himself, as a love gift for His glorious Son, Jesus Christ.

Conflicts and Objections

Despite the heavy predestinarian overtones, some would like to strip the verse of its potency, and by doing so, find a way to enter into the salvation process some way in which man’s free will can be justified. For men, left to their own devices, will always want to preserve the notion of their freedom from God – as some have stated in this Sunday School class before, men (like you and me) like to “maintain the illusion of control” as much as possible. But they do this because they misunderstand the nature and way in which God works in the hearts of men.
The chief verse that men of this stripe use to discredit God’s sovereignty is John 12:32, where the same word for “draw” is used in the Greek, and Jesus says that when He is lifted up (on the cross) that He will “draw all people” to Himself.
Carson explains, “The context shows rather clearly, however, that 12:32 refers to ‘all men without distinction’ (i.e. not just Jews) rather than to ‘all men without exception’ (ever single human being on earth).”
Looking at this verse in context we see that it is clearly the negative expression of verse 37, which we just read. Carson explains that “the combination of vs. 37a and vs. 44 prove that this ‘drawing’ activity of the Father cannot be reduced to what theologians sometimes call ‘prevenient grace’ dispensed to ever individual, for this ‘drawing’ is selective, or else the negative note in vs. 44 is meaningless.”

NOTE: The Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms defines Prevenient Grace as follows, “The grace that ‘comes before’ any human response to God in justification or conversion. In Reformed theology, this grace is seen as irresistible. In Arminianism and Wesleyanism the view is that God’s grace is extended and persons may choose whether or not to believe in Jesus Christ. The human decisions of the faithful are responsive and enabled by God’s grace.”

John Piper seems to think that the “all” in John 12:32 is referring to “all the sheep” of Christ – all the elect. For, as Piper points out, in the Greek, there is actually no word “people” in that verse. It’s simply “all”, with no reference to “people” whatsoever. So what he argues we must do is derive the correct meaning of the word “all” from the context of the verse, and he does this by looking at several other similar passages in John’s gospel (namely John 11:50-52 and John 10:15 and 10:27). He explains:

In other words, running straight through the Gospel of John is the truth that God the Father and God the Son decisively draw people out of darkness into light. And Christ died for this. He was lifted up for this. What John 12:32 adds is that this happens today in history by pointing the whole world to the crucified Christ and preaching the good news that whoever believes on him will be saved. In that preaching of the lifted up Christ, God opens the ears of the deaf. The sheep hear his voice and follow Jesus (John 10:16, 27).

Personally I am satisfied with either of these options – both are plausible, both could be correct. But I think that to say that 12:32 somehow implies that “all” means every single human being would be to affirm universalism which runs counter the teaching we find throughout Scripture that some people die and go to Hell and others die and go to Heaven.

Study Notes 7-14-12

July 16, 2012 ~ pjwenzel ~ Leave a comment

Below are the notes from yesterday’s lesson. I’ve got a few extras in there that I didn’t have time to mention – including some notes I had found from Jonathan Edwards on the 35th verse. Enjoy!

6:22-24 On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. [23] Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. [24] So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

But the essence of what was going on here is that the next day, once everyone had been fed, and had gone home and slept (while the disciples were going through quite a trial on the Sea), they came looking to see what Jesus was up to, and what He might do and say today. Again, their motives were not entirely pure…as MacArthur says, they were “thrill seekers.”

6:25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

Sproul aptly points out that when they said “when”, they really were meaning “how.” For they had seen that Jesus had not gone out in a boat with the disciples, but rather had gone along by himself to pray (Mark 6:46). However, Jesus doesn’t answer their question…

6:26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

This is a stern rebuke – once again Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God sees right into their hearts. Earlier in chapter two, we read that, “…when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man” (John 2:23-25).
James Montgomery Boice points out that there is application here even for Christians. He asks us to closely examine our own motives as Christians when we come to Christ in prayer. “In am convinced that in our day in American Christianity there is a lamentable tendency to focus on human need rather than on God himself.” He goes on to explain what he means by that, “What is wrong (with just coming to Christ with our needs all the time) is that it is tragically possible to so focus on our needs that we are actually focusing on ourselves rather than on Jesus, and so never get to the solutions to our problems that Jesus wants to bring.”
Am I coming to Christ with my needs fully realizing that He has allowed them to come into my life in order to show me something? Perhaps something of my own sin? Perhaps He wants to show me my need for constant dependence on Him? Perhaps He wants to show me how finite I am, and use this to teach me something about Himself. Whatever the reason may be, we need to be remind ourselves that Jesus Christ wants us to come into His presence seeking His kingdom in prayer – not just in word and deed!
I am not, of course, saying that we ought not to lay our burden at the cross, or that we ought not to come to our heavenly Father with our needs. But when that becomes the sole focus of our supplication, we reveal that our desires aren’t yet fully conformed to His. For we should be constantly asking God “Lord, how can I glorify you today? How can these needs of mine be used to show me more about your character? How can my situation refine me and purge me of more of my sinful nature? Lord please use me to bring yourself glory.”
Boice concludes the thought this way, “May I say it even more strongly? I am convinced that one of the major steps to achieving good spiritual mental health is getting your mind off yourself entirely and on the Lord instead.”

6:27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

The first part of this verse is a call for us to seek the Kingdom first and let God take care of the loaves and the fishes. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
The second part of the verse stresses where this imperishable food was going to come from: the Son of Man. By now, it would have been evident to these people that Jesus was referring to Himself when He said “Son of Man”, so there would have been no confusion (I don’t think at least) with His point here.
The last part of the verse says something about the Son of Man, namely that God the Father has set his seal upon Him. Carson explains, “The idea is that God has certified the Son as his own agent, authorizing him as the one who alone can bestow this food.”

6:28-29 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” [29] Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

As Carson points out, these people misunderstood the point Christ was making in verse 27. “His point was not that they should attempt some novel form of work, but that merely material notions of blessing are not worth pursuing. They respond by focusing all attention on work.”
These men had been so set on getting their material desires fulfilled that they had “missed the greater blessing” (Boice). It shows where their minds where when they immediately thought of a blessing from God as something they could earn somehow.
How true this is of today! So many people want to believe that they can do something to earn a merit badge toward heaven. We Americans are used to pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps, and we almost innately feel like there is something we need to add to God’s work.
Ryle remarks, “we should observe, for one thing, in these verses, the spiritual ignorance and unbelief of the natural man…doing, doing, doing, was their only idea of the way to heaven…there are no limits to man’s dullness, prejudice, and unbelief in spiritual matters.”
I also think the lesson here of a works-based gospel can give us Christians pause to check our viewpoints on the work of God. Why? Because we naturally want to add our own name to God’s work. We want to find someway in which we can be involved. We are indeed responsible for responding in faith, however, it is God who gives us the faith! It is God who is working in your heart to allow you to respond to that offer of the gospel. But somehow we want to claim our finite free will above the will of the most holy Sovereign! As Christians we need to learn to give this up.
But let us not miss the divine point as we simply analyze the mistakes of men. This sentence (Boice calls the “golden sentence”) is, in essence, the gospel. Jesus Christ here tells us how a man can be saved. How? To “believe in him whom he (the Father) has sent.”
These people of Galilee, like many today, want to know how to be “doing the works of God” – they want to do good things and live a good life. Christ gives them the answer this time, and in so doing, He says that the work of God is that they believe on the Son of God – the one whom He has sent. The mission of the Son is intricately caught up in the divine essence of what it means to “do the works of God.” In other words, there is but one thing that God wants us to focus our attention on firstly, and that is to believe in His Son.

As Ryle sums it up:

If any two things are put in strong contrast, in the New Testament, they are faith and words. Not working, but believing, – not of works, but through faith, – are the words familiar to all careful Bible-readers. Yet here the great Head of the Church declares that believing on Him is the highest and greatest of all “works!” It is “the work of God.”

Doubtless our Lord did not mean that there is anything meritorious in believing. Man’s faith, at the very best, is feeble and defective. Regarded as a “work”, it cannot stand the severity of God’s judgment, deserve pardon, or purchase heaven. But our Lord did mean that faith in Himself, as the only Savior, is the first act of the soul which God requires at a sinner’s hands. Till a man believes on Jesus, and rests on Jesus as a lost sinner, he is nothing. Our Lord did mean that faith in Himself is that act of the soul which specially pleases God. When the Father sees a sinner casting aside his own righteousness, and simply trusting in His dear Son, He is well pleased. Without such faith it is impossible to please God. Our Lord did mean that faith in Himself is the root of all saving religion.

6:30-31 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? [31] Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

These people might have been looking for manna from the Messiah who would “duplicate” the miracle that Moses had wrought in their midst – for such was the teachings of the Jews (see Boice). But we’ve already explored the motives of these people, and it was obviously outside of the mere religious desire to see a second Messiah come from heaven. Their desires were for their bellies!

6:32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

First, He seems to correct them on their understanding of the Old Testament account of the story, for even though they said that “He gave them bread from heaven to eat”, it seems that they thought of “He” as Moses! Jesus was eager to correct them in this misunderstanding.
Boice talks about the necessity of bread for life – especially in the days of Jesus. “Without bread, men died. If you see that, then you also see that Jesus was claiming to be the One whom men and women could not do without.”
Boice also points out that “everything before this (in the passage) has had to do with trusting Christ initially. But when a person trusts Christ as Savior this is hardly the end.” What he meant by this is that “bread should be eaten daily” as Christ should be “eaten” daily. This isn’t a call for a daily Eucharist, but rather a call to satisfy our spiritual desires every day, just as we would our physical desires everyday.

6:33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Jesus quickly makes the transition from the physical to the metaphysical, from the temporal to the eternal. This is something He does ALL the time, it is one of the hallmarks of His teaching, and we see it throughout the gospels. First He will correct misunderstanding of the meaning of an Old Testament passage, then He will elevate their minds to the eternal from the shadow of the OT, then He will conclude by leading them to Himself – as we conclude by leading people to the cross when we are sharing about Christ.
Look carefully at the word “world” here and realize that – as Steve Lawson points out – there are at least 10 different uses for that word in the Gospel of John alone. That means that we need to make sure the one that we have in mind actually fits the context of the text. In this instance, I think it’s talking about every tribe, tongue, and nation. Jew and Gentile, man and woman, servant and free man are all alike going to benefit from the Bread of God.
Lastly, when we look carefully at the Word of God, and see proclamations about the “world”, we need to more fully understand the significance of the work of Christ, and also the fact that Christianity is not secluded to one tribe or nation. Christ came to save sinners from all over the globe. An amazing thought.

6:34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Not unlike the woman at the well, they want the bread (as she wanted the water) so that they would never have to worry about providing for themselves again! Ryle even notes that, “there is a striking resemblance between the thought expressed in this verse, and the thought of the Samaritan woman, when she heard of the living water that Christ could give.”
The Galileans saw an eternal welfare state, as it were, and wanted Jesus to provide for them in this way “always.” Of course they did. Ryle confirms my own feelings on the matter when he notes, “On the case of the Jews before us, the wish seems to have been nothing more than the ‘desire of the slothful,’ and to have gone no further. Wishing and admiring are not conversion.”

6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

This is the first of the seven “I AM” sayings of Christ (if we don’t include 6:20). And as I mentioned earlier, the underlying meaning or feeling conveyed by the language here is that Jesus Christ is God, Jehovah, the great I AM of the Old Testament wrapped in human flesh.
Of the several significant points that we need to look at, the first is that Jesus is connecting the “food that endures to eternal life” from verse 27 and that He is the manna that has come down from heaven from verse 33. They are all one in the same “bread of life”, and they are all meant to point to Christ.
What is the result of eating this bread? It is that one will never thirst or hunger again. Is it not significant that the two miracles related to food in the New Testament Gospels are bread and wine? Certainly there is a sort of shadow of the coming Eucharist. Though I won’t assign too much importance or connection between the two by laying on Scripture something more than might be there. But Jonathan Edwards also says there’s a connection here between the Showbread of the Old Testament and the privilege we have of eating at “the King’s Table” today.
What is clear is that Jesus is claiming to be that which satisfies the souls of man. He is at the heart of what our hearts long for. John Piper says this about verse 35, “what it means to believe in Jesus is to experience Him as the satisfaction of my soul’s thirst and my heart’s hunger. Faith is the experience of contentment in Jesus” (Battling Unbelief, Chp. 5).
I think the practicality of this passage lies in the fact that Jesus is the ultimate satisfaction for our lives. When Augustine came onto the scene, one of the things he wanted to illuminate was the way to be truly happy. As Sproul says, this wasn’t the happiness of the Epicureans or the Stoics. This was something more substantial – it was finding true happiness in the knowledge of God. This is what Jesus was saying to these men, I am the key to true satisfaction and happiness in this life and the next. Don’t seek after what the Epicureans give you (happiness for your belly), but that which satisfies the soul.
In the margins of his notes on this chapter, Jonathan Edwards scribbled something that I thought was really good. He said that bread of heaven was “enough for all God’s people” – and he noted that there was a parallel with the feeding of the 5000 and the manna from Exodus that was more than enough for the people each day. In fact Edwards said that one of the main applications for sinners was that “this bread will save you from eternal famine” and that, unlike the manna, “it doesn’t perish.”
The last thought that Edwards pointed out, also find a connection with the feeding of the 5000, and Ryle’s description of us as God’s ministers feeding His people with the Word of God. Edwards says that we are “priests of Christ” doling out the holy Showbread of Christ (there is underlying sacrificial language/parallels there). Edwards calls on sinners to not “loathe the heavenly manna and tread it under food.”
Yet so many do loathe Christ and scoff at the satisfaction He offers. And as Christians, it is our unbelief that stops us from laying hold of the satisfaction Christ offers. When we sin, we are basically saying that we find more satisfaction in our idolatry than in Christ. We prefer our materialism (insert idol here) over Christ because we don’t believe the basic fact that Christ can be more satisfying than our sin. This is the sin of unbelief. We need to take Christ at His word and lay hold of that which is most satisfying – the Bread of Heaven.
If we truly believe Christ is what He said He is – the most satisfying thing we can lay hold of – how ought this to change our lives and spur us on? What actions would you find yourself doing if you truly set your seal to what God the Father set His seal to?

Study Notes 7-8-12: Jesus Walks on Water

July 8, 2012June 2, 2013 ~ pjwenzel ~ Leave a comment

Below are my notes for this week’s portion of John 6 (Jesus’ 5th sign – walking on water). I did not abbreviate them this week because they weren’t very long.

6:16-18 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, [17] got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. [18] The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.

In Mark’s Gospel, we learn that they had rowed well into the 4th watch of the night – that is, between 3am and 6am – so almost to dawn. They would have been tired of rowing by this time. Not only was it late, but the wind was against them, and even though several of them were experienced fishermen, the Sea of Galilee was known for its extremely dangerous winds and storms which would arise suddenly. Sproul remarks, “It sits six hundred feet below sea level, and it is situated, as it were, in a wind tunnel – gales blow off the Mediterranean and through the mountains, stirring up the lake without warning.”

Ryle notes how strange the transition would have been for the disciples. Just a few hours before, they had witnessed and helped administer the miraculous feeding of over 15,000 people. Now, they find themselves in the middle of a near death experience. But as Ryle reminds us, “But Christ knew it, and Christ appointed it, and it was working for their good. Trial, we must distinctly understand, is part of the diet which all true Christians must expect.”

6:19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened.

They were probably already afraid because of the nature of the storm. The violence of the waves, and the wind would have made even the most experienced sailor tremble – not to mention those in the boat who were not used to being on the water.

But we see here something of a fear that is deeper than what the storm had caused. They saw Jesus walking toward them on the sea. Sproul says, “You would be nervous because of the storm, but then you would look up and see the Master walking across the sea toward you Suddenly it would hit you that Jesus could do this because He is the One who made the sea and ruled the sea. The One who is very human is also very divine. How would you react? You would react just like the disciples did. Instead of feeling relieved and saying ‘I’m glad to see you’, you would be terrified. Any human being would feel that way while watching Jesus walk across an angery sea without sinking.”

Ryle says, “That which is contrary to all natural reason was perfectly possible to Christ.”

Even though John’s gospel doesn’t record the miracle of Jesus calming the sea, Boice points out that that miracle would have already taken place by now, so they would have already seen Jesus’ power over nature in action. This made me stop and think about how these men, who had already witnessed a similar command of nature, could be so frightened once again. Mark’s gospel records that the disciples at first thought they had seen a ghost, but once they realized it was Jesus, they cried out for help.

Calvin addresses the fright of the men at a possible ghost as an example of how men, allowed to themselves and no Word from God, will come up with all sorts of imaginings! “For if he (Christ) present a simple demonstration of his divinity, we immediately fall into our imaginations, and every person forms an idol for himself instead of Christ. After we have thus wandered in our understanding, this is immediately followed by trembling and a confused terror of heart. But when he begins to speak, we then obtain from his voice clear and solid knowledge, and then also joy and delightful peace dawn upon our minds.”

Mark also records something instructive that John doesn’t mention, and that is that “He meant to pass by them,” (Mark 6:48). The ESV Study Notes say this was not so that they wouldn’t see Him, but that His deity would be made manifest to them in a similar way that Moses mentions in Exodus 33:19. There are also elusions to Job according to the ESV, “…it also echoes Job 9, where Job says that it is God who “trampled the waves of the sea” (Job 9:8; the Septuagint has peripatōn … epi thalassēs, “walking on the sea,” using the same words as Mark 6:48, peripatōn epi tēs thalassēs) and then also says, “he passes by me” (Job 9:11, Gk. parerchomai). There is an implicit claim to divinity in Jesus’ actions.

Boice points out something interesting as well. He says that it was likely that the disciples didn’t discard all of that left over bread from the feeding of the five thousand – since they had gone to such trouble to pick up the leftovers. “And in that case evidence of Jesus’ supernatural ability and power would have been under their very noses as they rowed through the tempest.” When I read this it made me think that the same is true for us. When we go through difficult times do we take a moment to look around at all the blessings of home and family? Do we thank God for the overwhelming goodness that we see in our lives?

6:20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”

When Jesus says “it is I” here, He is using the phrase (in the Greek) that literally says, “I am, I am” – almost sounding repetitive. There are two words being used, ego and eimi, both of them can mean “I am” – eimi is the Greek “to be.”

This is important to note, because Jesus is saying something more here than just repeating Himself. As Sproul deftly explains:

In order to understand what Jesus was doing, we need to look at the Greek translation of the Old Testament, where we see that the ineffable name of God, Yahweh, was translated into the Greek language by this same strange construction, ego eimi, which can be translated “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex. 3:14). Therefore, almost every commentator recognizes that when Jesus said, “I am the door,” “I am the bread of life,” and other “I am” sayings, He was using the divine name for Himself. However, when scholars enumerate the “I am” sayings in the Gospel of John, they don’t include Jesus’ statement here: “It is I; do not be afraid.” I’m not sure why, because its exactly the same structure, ego eimi. Jesus said to His disciples, “Don’t be afraid. It is I AM WHO I AM.”

It is significant to me that when Christ reassures them, He does so by first declaring to them who He is and that He is with them. In Matthew 28:20 Jesus promises to be with us always, and because we have His Spirit, we have the inner testimony of God within us reassuring us (Rom. 8:16) that He will work all things to our good (Rom. 8:28). This is quite a comfort.

Calvin notes, “We learn from them (these words) that it is in Christ’s presence alone that we have abundant grounds of confidence, so as to be calm and at ease. But this belongs exclusively to the disciples of Christ; for we shall afterwards see that wicked men were struck down by the same words, “it is I” (John 18:6). The reason of the distinction is, that he is sent as a Judge to the reprobate and unbelievers for their destruction; and, therefore, they cannot bear his presence without being immediately overwhelmed.”

I love Calvin’s distinction here. John 18:6 is that moment in the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ is about to be overtaken by Judas’ mob. But when they ask who “Jesus of Nazareth” is, and He replies “I am he”, immediately they are shaken to the core and forced to their face. This is a picture of what is to come when He returns again!

6:21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

Mark’s account says, “And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded” (Mark 6:51). I absolutely love this because it gives a little more insight into the reaction of the disciples. It also tells us that the wind completely ceased…coincidence? I think not. The holy Son of God has absolute control over all nature.

I guess there is some dispute as to whether the reference to “immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going” was describing another miracle. No one seems to say for sure whether or not the boat “immediately” being at the other shore means that it happened instantly, or whether “immediately” means that because of the fact that Christ was with them, and because of His power over the sea, they were able to get there in no time at all. To me, it seems easier to understand it as the former, that Jesus in His power simply go them instantly to the other side. However, I’m not sure it matters.

What does seem to matter though, is the change from their condition with Christ and their condition without Him. He saved them from the waves and perhaps death on the high seas. When He comes into our lives our souls become instantly secure – we reach heaven when we die, but in the meantime our souls are written in that Book of Life and can never be etched out! We are “seated with Him in the heavenly places” (Eph. 2:6) and no one will snatch us out of His hand (John 10:28) once He had jumped in our boat!

Study Notes 7-1-12

June 30, 2012June 30, 2012 ~ pjwenzel ~ Leave a comment

6:1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.

Commentators note that there is a special emphasis on this event (the feeding of the 5000) in the gospels. Carson says, “This is the only miracle during Jesus’ ministry that is recorded in all four Gospels.” This is the fourth major sign recorded for us in John’s gospel.
Some say this was not an actual miracle of Christ multiplying/creating new fish and bread. I dismiss this, as do most serious scholars. Leon Morris says that, “there are three principle ways of understanding what happened.” Those include Christ working a “miracle in people’s hearts”, thus having them share all their packed lunches with each other. This is more a miracle of ethics, rather than creation from nothing, and its strain upon the text cannot stand. A second way to look at this would be that Christ divided out the small amount of food into tiny samplings, and a kind of sacramental communion was held – of course this doesn’t square well with verse 12 which indicates that they were all “filled.” The last way in which this could be seen is the way it actually happened, which is how I believe it to be.
Sproul points out that theological liberals state that Jesus and His disciples hid food in a cave ahead of time in a sort of clandestine attempt to show a false miracle. This liberal viewpoint runs contrary to the obvious thrust and text of Scripture.
When it says “after this” the text seems to indicate some time between Jesus’ talking in chapter 5 and the event we’re about to read of. The ESV study notes say that as much as a year could have been indicated – and several other commentators indicate something similar. It all depends on whether or not the undisclosed “feast” in 5:1 was the Passover Feast. As Carson notes, “The expression is vague: it establishes sequence, but not tight chronology.”
The Sea of Tiberias was the same, as we see here, as the Sea of Galilee. It was named after Tiberias Caesar, and was a more common name among gentiles and those living several years after Christ. Tiberias was also a city on the seaside that Herrod Antipas had built (about A.D. 20).
Calvin tells us that, “the whole lake did not bear that name, but only that part of it which lay contiguous to the bank on which Tiberias was situated.”

6:2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.

It is not insignificant that John notes the motivation for the following Jesus was producing. Ryle comments, “There seems to reason to suppose that this multitude followed our Lord for any but low motives.”

6:3-4 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. [4] Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.

These verses serve to give us the context of where we are, and that it was again a time of an annual feast. And as to the location, Carson notes, “The Greek to oros does not necessarily refer to a particular mountain or hillside, but may simply mean ‘the hill country’ or ‘the high ground’, referring to the area east of the lake and well known today as the Golan Heights.”
Calvin notes (and there is agreement among others on this point) that Jesus was undoubtedly looking to sit down and rest here. But the crowds were not going to allow this to happen. Calvin says we ought to take a lesson from this, “We are therefore taught by this example to form our plans in conformity to the course of events, but in such a manner that, if the result be different from what we expected, we may not be displeased that God is above us, and regulates everything according to his pleasure.” He talks about how Christ submitted to God’s will in everything, and that here, despite wanting to rest, Christ submits to the Father’s plan for him in that moment.

6:5-6 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” [6] He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

John adds the editorial disclaimer in verse six so that we understand the deity and vast knowledge of Jesus. It is almost as if to say, “Jesus had a plan already, but He was using this as a teaching moment for Philip.”
Carson notes that the word “test” here is peirazo and is “commonly used by the Evangelists in the bad sense of ‘tempt’, to solicit to do evil. The word itself, however, is neutral, and is entirely appropriate here.”
Mark’s gospel makes it clear that Jesus had already begun teaching them and had perhaps taken a break to consider or begin to deal with feeding them.

6:7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.”

So here is Philip’s response to the “testing” of our Lord. Does he pass the test? How do you think Christ would have had him respond? I wonder if some faith would have been appropriate in the circumstances, given the number of amazing things Christ had already done. In other words, instead of just giving a mere accounting of their financial situation, it would have been better if Philip had said, “Lord, we only have 200 denarii, but with you all things are possible, what would you have us do?” Instead Philip answers by giving the accounting, and adds to it a negative inflection that what they have in money won’t be enough to satisfy the needs of all of these people. What was predominant in his words are what can’t be done, rather than what can be done. So, in my estimation, Philip failed to give a faith-filled answer (Sproul agrees with me and says he “flunked” the test).

6:8-9 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, [9] “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”

Similar to the response of Philip, Andrew says “what are they for so many?” What is at the heart of this? Unbelief. They were not quick in prayer and supplication, but were quick to doubt what could be done for these people.
John’s gospel is the only one to tell us that this bread was “barley.” Barley was really inexpensive bread. D.A. Carson provides more detail, “The ‘small fish’ were probably pickled fish to be eaten as a side dish with the small cakes of barley bread. Andrew’s point of course, was that this tiny meal was ludicrously inadequate to the need. John mentions it to heighten the miracle.”

6:10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.

First, we see that the grass is still green (from Mark’s account) and this tells us that it is likely the spring time (Passover connection grows stronger), before the sun had burnt the grass.
Secondly, it’s evident this number is only a count of the men. The ESV study notes say, “The men numbered about five thousand, plus women and children, totaling perhaps as many as 20,000 people.” Carson says it could have even well exceeded this number.
MacArthur brought something to my mind about what this organization must have been like – when he says “can you imagine twelve men serving 15,000 people!?” What an amazing spectacle. It also brought to mind the fact that it would have taken a long time to get everyone food. The people would have to wait on the Lord, and be patient for His provision – how much do we need to take that lesson to heart!

6:11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.

Note that the first thing Christ does is “give thanks.” Unlike the disciples, His first action is to prayer. Carson notes something that I never would have thought of before, and it’s really got me thinking about our own prayers before meals. He says, “If Jesus used the common forth of Jewish thanksgiving, He said something like this: ‘Blessed are though, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who bringest forth bread from the earth.’ Jesus ‘blesses’ God, i.e. He thanks God; He does not ‘bless’ the food.”
I can’t help but think about how much sense that makes. When we pray prior to a meal, are we asking God to somehow do something miraculous to the food by “blessing” it? I’ve often thought about what we are actually asking of God here. Are we asking Him to make sure that the food does its job? Are we so small in faith that we need to ask God that He look out for the digestive work to be done while also ensuring that all the necessary protein and vitamins get properly distributed to our bodies??? Are we not better off blessing/thanking the Lord God for His provision for us, in order that we may give glory and worship to Him for taking care of our needs? I think this may seem a small thing, but it is important that when we pray to the Lord God Almighty, that we are cognizant of our words. We must not allow ritual to replace reverence.
Note secondly that He distributed “as much as they wanted.” This is similar to the way He operated at Cana when He filled 180 gallons of wine for the wedding.
I always think of how abundant His blessings are to us. We cannot comprehend the how good Heaven is going to be – and how horrible Hell is going to be. But everything Jesus did and said was a “sign” of something even more full that was to come, I think. When He feeds 20,000 people here, and then goes on to say later that He is “the bread of life”, our thoughts immediately ought to run to what we know about Jesus and His actions here on earth. Everything points to Him going above and beyond our expectations. It reminds me of my dad growing up. There were so many times when I would ask for something, or desire something – maybe I just wanted to make a trip with Dad to the store, or go with him golfing – but what would normally happen would be his going above and beyond my expectations. It was his modus operandi to bless me beyond my limited expectations. He would always make those times just wonderful. There would always be something he’d do to go above and beyond.
That is how Jesus acted. And His actions mirror His teaching about how the Father acts toward us in comparison to our earthly fathers. Matthew 7:11 tells us that Jesus said, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Calvin says, “But as flesh solicits us to attend to its conveniences, we ought likewise to observe that Christ, of his own accord, takes care of those who neglect themselves in order to follow him.”
But not only is Jesus the great giver of good gifts, but secondly, He is also the creator of all things, and the fact that He could make something from nothing is not lost of J.C. Ryle who says, “he can call into being that which was not before, and call it out of nothing.” To Ryle this has a specific application for the gospel, and follows up by adding, “We must never despair of anyone being saved.”
Thirdly, Calvin points out that this miracle shows not only the specific power of the gospel to certain men, but in another way, it shows God’s earthly provision of food for all mankind – in theology we call this “common grace.” He notes, “we shall be compelled to discern the blessing of God in all the creatures which serve for our bodily support; but use and frequency lead us to undervalue the miracles of nature.”
Fourthly, I think this section of scripture, and this miracle in particular, show us that Christ identifies with us in our humanity, and feeds His children. He knows that they have needs, He knows that we have needs (Matt. 6:8), and He moves to fulfill them, while pointing to His even greater fulfilling power – that of the bread of life.
This leads to my fifth point, which Ryle called “the sufficiency of the Gospel for the wants of all mankind.” And what I think he is getting at is what I just mentioned above, namely that Jesus Himself is the “bread of life” (6:35) and that those who come to Him will no longer hunger. His gospel will satisfy that vacuum in your life, that longing for something better – what R.C. Sproul calls “The soul’s quest for God.” As noted above, the abundance of Christ’s blessings in salvation are evident in the blessings He showed here to these people. As Ryle puts it, “There can be no doubt that this was meant to teach the adequacy of Christ’s Gospel to supply the necessities of the whole world. Weak, and feeble, and foolish as it may seem to man, the simple story of the Cross is enough for all the children of Adam in every part of the globe. The tidings of Christ’s death for sinners, and the atonement made by that death, is able to meet the hearts and satisfy the consciences of all nations, and peoples, and kindreds, and tongues. Carried by faithful messengers, it feeds and supplies all ranks and classes.”

6:12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”

It occurs to me that John left this part of the even in the gospel account for a reason. And it is an unusual thing to remark upon, but let me try to explain why it is significant (for all scripture is significant and we can learn from each verse 2 Tim. 3:16). This verse is about stewardship. But it does beyond what we might normally apply it to. Specifically, there are two things that I think must be noted here.
First, He is reminding us by this instruction to his disciples, that we ought to always be thankful for what He has provided us, and to be good and careful stewards of His blessings so as to not seem unthankful and capriciously waste our blessings, and in a manner, show a distain for His provision and an arrogance toward God for what He has given, as if we will certainly be blessed again (this is an attitude of self-righteousness).
The second thing, and probably the most significant, is that He is showing His disciples that they are to be stewards of the men and women who He entrusts to their care here on earth. J.C. Ryle says that this is one of the main themes of this section of Scripture, in fact. He says this section shows “The role and office of a minister – to distribute the bread of Christ with no power in himself, but all from Christ.” At the heart of this role, the minister is Christ’s hands and feet to carry out His purposes and spread His gospel here on earth, “That none may be lost.” The fact that Jesus uses this phrase “none may be lost” is significant because it sets the stage for the teaching He is about to lay before them about His role as the Good Shepherd. We will see in the following verses that in this role, He loses none of His sheep.
Note also here that they were gathering “fragments” of what remained – this is significant because as part of the picture of this great miracle, Jesus is not only concerned with the whole pieces, but also the fragments which represent the sick, the needy, the sinful, those in need of salvation (Matt. 9:12). He came into this world to seek and save the lost so that no one of His children, His elect, would be lost (Luke 19:10). If this isn’t comforting to you, then you must have no feelings at all. For this is the most wonderful thing to me. Jesus Christ cares about me. He cares about the least of His children. No detail is left to chance, no small thing beyond His notice, no weak soul will be unaccounted for when the Book of Life is opened.
Now you might be thinking, “I am not a leader in the church, so this doesn’t apply to me.” But there you would be wrong. For every parent, every father, every mother is a leader in their home. We are all stewards of God’s gracious gift. We ought to always bear that in mind and act with care so that “nothing is lost.” That is our charge as careful stewards of the gifts we have been given (1 Pet. 4:10) – especially the most important gift of salvation, which we are stewards of (1 Cor. 4:1).

6:13-15 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. [14] When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” [15] Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

The reaction of the people here was perhaps different than what we ought to take from it. In fact, at first I thought about taking verses 14 and 15 separately because they both seem to have plenty to say on their own, however, I think its vital to put them together, and this is why: when the people react to the miracle in verse 14 by calling Jesus “the prophet”, it is tempting to think that they have finally got it right. They finally see Him as the Son of God and the Messiah in the full spiritual sense for which He wanted them to see Him. But our hopes are dashed by verse 15 which tells us that they wanted to make Him “king” – evidently their hearts and minds were still set on a political ruler being the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies. In other words, they still didn’t “get it.”
Calvin deftly points out that, “…they erred egregiously in taking upon themselves the liberty of making a king; for Scripture ascribes this as peculiar to God alone, as it is said, I have appointed my king on my holy hill of Zion (Ps. 2:6), again what sort of kingdom do they contrive for him? An earthly one, which is utterly inconsistent with his person.” He goes on to say that we need to learn an important lesson here, “Hence let us learn how dangerous it is, in the things of God, to neglect His word, and to contrive anything of our own opinion; for there is nothing which the foolish subtlety of our understanding does not corrupt.”
What precipitated their desire for Him to be “king”? I think it was probably a combination of what has been mentioned above, along with an understanding of the role of the Passover feast and how that would have been drumming up nationalistic fervor among them. Carson notes that, “It was a rallying point for intense, nationalistic zeal. This goes some way to explaining the fervor that tried to force Jesus to become king.” Carson goes further and explains that, “The juxtaposition of vs. 14 and vs. 15 presupposes that the people who think Jesus may well be the eschatological Prophet understand this Prophet’s role to be simultaneously kingly. If the first prophet, Moses, had led the people out of slavery to Egypt, surely the second would help them escape servitude to Rome.”
Sproul also says something similar about the nature of the Passover being like our 4^th of July, “it was the supreme celebration of national pride,” he says. “So while this frenzy was going on, stoking the people’s hopes for someone to deliver them from the yoke of Roman tyranny, the perfect political candidate appeared on the scene. He even provided that which wins political votes everywhere – a chicken in every pot, or a loaf and a fish in every lunch. It doesn’t get any better than that. The people said, ‘This is the kind of king we want – one that will care for us from the cradle to the grave.’ But Jesus read their hearts, and He knew that the kind of king they were looking for had nothing to do with the kind of kingdom He had come to inaugurate. They were looking for the kingdom of man; He came to bring the kingdom of God. It was His mission to provide His people with so much more than bread and fishes.”
The next thing we need to note here, and perhaps it seems a small thing in comparison with the large political and spiritual issues at hand in the verses prior, is that Jesus had times of solitude. This is something we often neglect in our own lives, and something we ought to keep in mind as we seek to model the behavior of Christ.
Now, you should ask, “to what end?” The end for Christ was to spend more time with the Father. In Luke 5:16 we’re told that, “…he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” We too ought to withdraw for times of solitude for the purpose of prayer. We need to free ourselves from the distractions of this world, and spend some time in prayer with our Father.

Study Notes 6-24-12

June 25, 2012 ~ pjwenzel ~ Leave a comment

Well – not to be lazy here, but instead of bullet pointing the entire note section of my lesson, I have just given you all my notes in full form here. Of course this may mean that there’s extra bonus material that I didn’t have time to bring up in class! Feel free to skim and enjoy!

5:31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.

I think there are two things He could be saying here. At first, I thought of this purely as a legal qualification Jesus was pointing out to from Deuteronomy (Deut. 19:15). Not only that, but we know it makes common sense as well, because if someone says something extraordinary about himself or herself and there is no witness to verify their claims, then we have to simply believe what they said or not believe it. The veracity of their statement is wholly based on whether they can be trusted. Jesus is not surrendering to the idea that He is not trustworthy (as MacArthur also points out), rather He is surrendering the right to be His own witness for the time being. As Calvin puts it, “Now we know that what any man asserts about himself is not reckoned to be true and authentic, although in other respects he speak truth, because no man is a competent witness in his own cause. Though it would be unjust to reduce the Son of God to this rank, yet he prefers to surrender his right, that he may convince his enemies by the authority of God.”

But, there is also a secondary thing that I think Jesus is saying here, and I picked it up from something MacArthur seems to see in the text. He seems to almost be saying sarcastically, “you don’t seem to want to believe my word, so if I bear witness about myself I doubt you’ll believe what I have to say.” In light of that, He offers them several other witnesses that can verify His claims to deity.

5:32-34 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. [34] Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.

Jesus is saying that they went and asked John what he thought of Jesus and John verified His claims and testified about who Jesus was/is. Now, Jesus clarifies His statement by saying that John’s role was as a witness to Him (John 1:29-34), but it wasn’t as though Jesus needed any witness at all, but for the sake of the weakness of the flesh He is providing that in John the Baptist. Obviously these men had already checked out John the Baptist, and many seemed to believe that he was a prophet from God, even if they didn’t like or listen to the essence of his message (John 1:19-27).

Because He spoke these words in the past tense about John, many commentators seem to think this indicated that John was either already in prison or had died. Noting the honor that Christ bestows on His faithful servants, Ryle says of the Baptist, “…this murdered disciple was not forgotten by his Divine Master. If no one else remembered him, Jesus did. He had honored Christ, and Christ honored him.” I find this personally significant because it has always been my desire to leave a legacy for those around me that signaled my love of Christ. I want so badly for those at my funeral to note how I was faithful to God, and what I did for Him and for others on His behalf. However, Ryle’s points struck a chord with me because in death there will be only one voice whose words of commendation I will care about: those of Jesus Christ. This being the case, shouldn’t I ought to act as though this were the case now?

Lastly, turning to the end of the verse we see that He nurtures our small seed of faith until we are strong in faith. This is why He says it was “so that you may be saved.” This mission statement matches John’s mission statement near the end of the gospel as well (John 20:31).

5:35-36 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

I love the use of the light vs. dark here. It is a common theme in Christ’s teachings, and one that John loves to highlight. And in this verse there is a neat thing that MacArthur points out in a sermon on this passage. He mentioned that John here is the lamp – not the light itself. The word for lamp here is luchnos, which is a small portable oil lamp. The word for light that is used to describe Christ and is used in at the end of verse 35 is phos, and is used to describe the essence of what John shown (Christ to the world).

Jesus rebukes them by speaking of their temporary and fading zeal (for a while). John MacArthur uses some Aristotelian thought when he says he thinks of these people like “moths to a flame” and that flame was John the Baptist. When the fire got too hot though, they faded away from the light and went on their way. They didn’t want to repent and change their lives, after all. All they wanted was to see something novel.

Jesus goes on to put together a logical argument of progression “if x then y” – if you rejoiced in the light of John, then you should rejoice all the more in the light that I am bringing into the world.

Jesus sets Himself apart from John by claiming superiority of (1) works, and superiority of (2) testimony as well as a (3) better witness of His work (from the Father). Those are the three ways in which I see Christ as being superior to John here.

5:36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.

Jesus is giving us the second witness – his works. His works were greater than John’s works. I can’t image anyone disputing that the man who calmed the seas and healed so many people, did not have a superior witness in this way!

Surely no one could have done the works that Jesus did if they weren’t from God. Nicodemus said in John 3:2 that, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

I don’t think that anyone who was around Jesus could have denied the amazing nature of the works He was doing during His ministry.

Sproul has a great reminder to us about the nature of miracles in the witness of Christ:

Many people today look at the biblical miracles and say, “The miracles in the Bible prove the existence of God.” No, they don’t. The existence of God is established before a single miracle takes place. For a miracle to be recognized as a miracle presupposes the existence of God, because a miracle, technically and correctly defined, is a work that only God can do, such as bringing something out of nothing or bringing life our of death. For this reason, I please with you to fall into thinking that Satan can do actual miracles. He can perform tricks, but he can’t do what God can do.

5:37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen,

It is tempting to take 37 and 38 together, but I want to point out that 38 says some distinctly deep things separate from 37. In 37 we see that Jesus is putting the finally cap on the fact that it is the Father that is His witness. This is the third witness that Christ gives as proof that what He is saying is right. It doesn’t matter that no one as ever “seen” the Father, or even “heard” the Father up until this point in history; for no man can see Him in His full radiant splendor and live (Ex. 33:11). But for our sake, He provided times (recorded in the gospels) where He was heard audibly to witness about His beloved Son (Matt. 3:17, 17:5 – 2 Peter 1:17).

Then Jesus goes on to say something even more difficult…

5:38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

Wow – so this is the judgment here. They don’t have the word of God abiding in them, for they don’t love God. We’ll see more of this reiterated in Jesus’ discourse with the Pharisees in the temple in chapter 8. But we’ve already heard Christ talk about this in those crucial verses in 3:19-21. This would have been such a stern rebuke that from here onward the conversation must have been highly uncomfortable for the listeners.

This is a good reminder that in our flesh we don’t love God, and we don’t receive the testimony of His son because we don’t have the ability to (we’re dead – Eph. 2:1), and because we’re dead we don’t have His word abiding in us prior to quickening. We really don’t want to love Christ prior to what God does supernaturally in our hearts. Christ is telling these people that they don’t get it. They aren’t receiving Him because they are not from God (John 8) and don’t have His word abiding in them. These are harsh, but important words; I’m sure they were swallowed with difficulty.

Incidentally, this is one way that we know Christians are Christians – they have the word of the Lord abiding in them and they show a love for Jesus Christ and for one another (1 John 3:10-11,17, 23-24, 4:8, 12, 15-16 etc.).

5:39-40 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, [40] yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

This is very clearly the problem the Jews had then and many of them have now. They look through Scriptures but don’t want to recognize that the entirety of the Bible in the OT points forward to Christ. This is also the fourth witness Christ calls against them in this passage. The Son of God, the fulfillment of all they had ever known or been taught was standing before them, yet they were too daft to realize this. They were too dead to come forward and receive eternal life.

And what is probably most interesting for me in this passage is the words “you think” – Jesus is basically catching fools in their folly. He’s saying “you’re zeal for knowledge has left you spiritually bankrupt. You search for eternal life in vain unless you come to me.” MacArthur notes, “The Bible cannot be properly understood apart from the Holy Spirit’s illumination or a transformed mind.”

Herein Christ demonstrates that they needed help, they needed to be saved by the power of God. Despite their great learning, despite His presence, many still refused to “come to him” to have life. This ought to refute the notion that some have that “if we had only been there to see Christ in person, we would believe.” These people were students of the scriptures and they walked and talked with the Son of God and still didn’t come to believe!

5:41 I do not receive glory from people.

Christ never desired to receive praise or glory from humans during His ministry on earth. He only sought to glorify His Father. We are to imitate Him in this and seek only to glorify God. Too often we get caught up in worrying about pleasing people instead of pleasing God. We think too much about what others might think about us.

5:42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

This is His most powerful statement yet. Again, Christ is very straightforward about the condition of these people’s souls. He is confrontational with them, and doesn’t let them off the hook easily.

The same is true today. You may want to think that Jesus is all loving (and indeed He is), but He is more than that. He doesn’t accept your idolatry, and won’t accept anyone who thinks they can reject Him and still somehow make it to heaven. That simply isn’t the case.

The specific accusation here mirrors what He said in vs. 38 – I’m assuming that “love” and “word” are different but have the same end (the acceptance of Christ’s claims). The love of God in our hearts is not something we can manufacture. Christ isn’t saying here “you just haven’t tried hard at all. You need to do better at having the love of God!” No. He’s pointing out that they have a deficiency. They thought they had salvation squared away because they were Jews. In America we have a similar problem. Many Americans think they are Christians simply because they are Americans. Jesus is abolishing that idea. He’s saying that they have a deficiency of love, and that He is the only one who can give it to them.

Romans 5:5 says, “…hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” It is God who pours His love into us. It isn’t self-manufactured.

5:43 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.

This pointed accusation is connected to the fact that these people are not spiritual but are sons of disobedience (Eph. 2:1-2). The reason they will reject Christ is because He is spiritual and they are dead spiritually, and the reason they will accept another (the implication is a false prophet) is because they are fleshly and that false prophet would be fleshly as well and would make his appeal to the flesh. MacArthur and Morris both point out that, to their best historical reckoning, there have been some 64 false messianic claims since Christ came.

5:44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

Now, as proof that they are not spiritual, Jesus says that their actions are fleshly in that they seek their own glory. This is the antithesis of faith and of true spirituality.

John Piper says this; “Itching for glory from other people makes faith impossible. Why? Because faith is being satisfied with all that God is for you in Jesus; and if you are bent on getting the satisfaction of your itch from the scratch of others’ acclaim, you will turn away from Jesus.”

5:45-47 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. [46] For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. [47] But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

He goes brings the argument full circle now and says that not only are they not truly spiritual, not only are they not accepting Him, not only do they not have the love of God in their hearts, but they also do not truly understand what Moses said about Him (cf. 39).

MacArthur tries to show just how shocking this statement would have been: “The Lord stunned them by identifying that accuser as Moses – the very one in whom they had set their hope. It is difficult to imagine how profoundly shocked and outraged the Jewish leaders must have been by Jesus’ statement. In their minds, it was utterly incomprehensible to think that Moses – whom they proudly affirmed as their leader and teacher (Matt. 23:3) – would one day accuse them before God.”

Christ points out that they have a misunderstanding of what/who Moses was pointing forward to. They didn’t fully understand Deut. 18:15-18 which states:

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

And this is just once prophecy. Ryle is right to say, “every part of our Bibles is meant to teach us about Christ. Christ is not merely in the gospels and epistles. Christ is to be found directly and indirectly in the Law, the Psalms, and the prophets. In the promises to Adam, Abraham, Moses, and David, in the types and emblems of the ceremonial law, in the predictions of Isaiah and the other prophets, Jesus the messiah, is everywhere to be found in the Old Testament.”

The last thing that really came to my mind when studying this passage is the parallel to Luke 16 where Abraham says to the rich man in torment who has begged Abraham to send messengers to his family of what awaits them, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” I want to take this seriously and remember the plight of those who are not saved, and who will one day deal forever with this torment and anguish. I want to remember that just because someone claims to “know what Christianity is all about” doesn’t mean they are saved. I need to keep the Gospel foremost on my lips so that God might use me – even if unwittingly – to save someone who hadn’t heard the truth and repented before the throne of Jesus Christ.

Study Notes 5-14-12

May 14, 2012 ~ pjwenzel ~ Leave a comment

4:25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”

The Samaritans knew of the teaching of the Messiah, even though they didn’t hold any of the Jewish prophetic books to be part of their cannon, they had the Pentateuch, and that was surely enough to recognize that there would be a Messiah. For Moses even said, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen” (Deut. 18:15).
The Samaritans viewed the Messiah through the eyes on the first five books of the Bible because they rejected all the other books. Kostenberger points out that they actually saw the Messiah as a teacher, and someone who would reveal to them “all things” in the spirit of Deut. 18:18.
The Jews, of course, saw the Messiah as a political savior who would liberate them from the oppression of the Romans etc. Calvin says, “Although the religion among the Samaritans was corrupted and mixed up with many errors, yet some principles taken from the law were impressed on their minds, such as that which related to the Messiah.”

4:26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Nowhere else in Scripture (to my knowledge) does Jesus so clearly state “I am the Messiah.” This is a magnificent verse that ought to serve as a sort of highlight to the entire chapter.
First He lays out the excellency of the gift He has to offer, then He reveals to her that He is the Savior of the World! Ryle says, “There is no heart satisfaction in this world, until we believe on Christ. Jesus alone can fill up the empty places of our inward man. Jesus alone can give solid, lasting, enduring happiness. The peace that He imparts is a fountain, which, once set flowing within the soul, flows on to all eternity.”
What amazes me is that here, to a foreigner, to a sinner, He reveals the nature of His person. Amazing. Paul certainly felt the same thing, that as the “chief of sinners” He felt the weightiness of this reality. That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had revealed Himself to him, seemed too much to be grasped. It was too good. Such is Christ, and is a mark of His character.
One of the things that ought to be mentioned here that Boice brings up is that Jesus uses the phrase “I am” to describe himself. The English version of the Bible adds the word “he” in there to modify the phrase so that it points back to the title Messiah, however, it also should indicate something deeper to this woman. Namely, the phrase or name “I am” is the name for God – Jehovah. On the mountain top when Moses asked God who he should tell the people of Israel that sent him, God replied “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Ex. 3:14).
By saying “I am” Jesus was, at least in a veiled way, asserting His deity.

4:27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”

They marveled, but they didn’t say anything. They were speechless. Carson points out that there was sexism among the Jews to the points that Rabbis who talked with women were thought to have been wasting their time – time that could have been spent studying the Torah.

4:28-30 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, [29] “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” [30] They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Note the influence of this woman. Certainly God was using her. Before she was shunned, now she is a herald of good news. Isaiah says, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’” (Is. 52:7). Sproul says, “…she was so excited by her conversation with Jesus, that she left her water pot and hurried away. We have no record that she ever filled it. She couldn’t wait to get into town, to go to that very city where she was a despised outcast, to tell of her experience.” This reminds me of when Jesus was calling disciples and urged the to leave the dead to bury the dead. When He calls us, we don’t want to resist, we want to accept Him.
This is why we talk about the doctrine of “irresistible grace” because when God the Holy Spirit quickens us to life we suddenly see ourselves for who we are and the offer of living water for what it is! We drop our water pot and go tell everyone we know – no matter how shameful they may see us – about the gift we just received.
You see, when we see God’s grace for what it is, suddenly our shame doesn’t mean anything. Paul says, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Romans 8:33-34).
So when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the beauty and beneficence of what Jesus did and who we are (condemned men) we naturally grasp onto Jesus with all of our might! Some foolish men who haven’t studied the nature of regeneration proclaim that Calvinists believe God “drags men into heaven kicking and screaming.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Every so-called Calvinist I know believes and understands that when the dead man is made alive by the Spirit of God, they don’t get dragged into heaven, they go sprinting into heaven! They run quickly to the cross and embrace their Salvation!
Lastly, this ought to show us, more than anything else, that God can use anyone to spread the gospel.

4:31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

They had just come back from their trip to get Him food, so naturally they wanted to make sure that He had something to eat.
Ironic that they address Him as “Rabbi” in front of the Samaritan who now suspected He was the Supreme Teacher, the Messiah. I wonder if this saying further confirmed in her mind what she just heard in her heart.

4:32-34 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” [33] So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” [34] Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

This is the second time in just a short while that Jesus has taken advantage of an opportunity to share the gospel or teach a parable. He was always looking to turn conversations into teaching opportunities. That shows you where His head was at. We know that He must have been at least a little hungry after His journey, for we know that He was thirsty. Yet, He still is intentional about His mission. I must admit that when I’m tired, thirsty, and hungry, the last thing I’m often thinking about is how to spread the gospel or teach anyone anything. Calvin also recognized this and said, “…his anxiety about the present business urges him so strongly, and absorbs his whole mind, so that it gives him no uneasiness to despise food…and thus he shows, by his example, that the kingdom of God ought to be preferred to all the comforts of the body.” I absolutely love that phrase and think that Calvin captures the essence of Christ’s mind – fully absorbed with expanding the kingdom. I want to have that mind as well.
Carson points out that Jesus must surely have been using this as an opportunity to teach His disciples “something of His priorities.” And further says that Jesus must certainly been thinking of Deuteronomy 8:3, which says: “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”
Another thing that we need to realize here is how well this response from Jesus ties into His affirmation of deity AND his messianic role. The passage most people think of when they think of the Old Testament prophecy of Messiah is Deut. 18:15-19. In verse 18 it says, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.” In other words, Jesus was speaking for the Father and not of His own initiative.

4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.

Why was Jesus always sharing and looking for these opportunities? Because He viewed the world in a way that we do not, He saw the harvest and no laborers. He came to recruit laborers. And as I mentioned earlier, he was so fully “absorbed” in this work that he dominated His mind. He was always looking to expand the kingdom of God and here He urges His disciples to see the need and necessity of doing so.

4:36-38 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. [37] For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ [38] I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

Kostenberger says that the “others” who have labored are Jesus and the prophets who came before Him (notably John the Baptist etc).
Jesus wants His disciples to take a step back and realize that they are entering into a time in redemptive history that was brand new. A new age was about to dawn and Jesus Christ was the One ushering that age in. Jesus came to usher in the harvest. This was a time many others in history had longed to see (Matthew 13:17), and now these farmers and fishermen got to witness it and be a part of it (Luke 10:2). This harvest continues until today, and we are all called to be a part of it as well. Amazing.

How do we teach this to our children? Here’s an example: Today we learned about how Jesus revealed to a Samaritan woman that He was the Messiah. “Messiah” is a name for Jesus, and it means, “anointed one.” To be “anointed” is to be chosen for a certain task. What was the task of Jesus? (To save the world) When Jesus’ disciples saw that he had shared with this Samaritan woman they were amazed because the Jews and the Samaritans didn’t get along. But Jesus taught them that He was bringing eternal life to people from all nations, colors, races, or ethnic backgrounds. That’s what it means in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world.” Heaven will be made up of people from all corners of the earth and it is our responsibility and joy to share in the work of spreading the good news (gospel) about Jesus. That’s why Jesus said we are to “enter into the harvest” with him.

Sproul and Begg on Taking Sin Seriously

May 2, 2012 ~ pjwenzel ~ Leave a comment

Ligioner posted this video about taking our sin seriously. Alistair Begg talks in the short clip about how we, as Christ followers, need to be preaching the gospel to ourselves regularly – something I know you’ve heard me say over and over again in class and at Bible study. Watch the video and take some time to reflect on this and your attitude toward your sin: are you taking it seriously enough?

Summer Reading Group

May 1, 2012 ~ pjwenzel ~ Leave a comment

A few weeks ago while I was at the Ligonier National Conference, it was suggested that several of us start reading and discussing Steven Lawson’s Pillars of Grace. So I have put together a summer reading and discussion program for whoever wants to be involved. Parris Payden will be launching our discussion site (likely to just be a Facebook page) here in the coming weeks. In the meantime, take a look Pillars of Grace Syllabus, and investigate more about the book here.

WHEN: The “class” begins the first week of June and goes through the end of August.

RSVP: Please let PJ know if you’re interested in joining the group for this study and we’ll get you signed up and pass along more information: pjwenzel@gmail.com

The Amazon summary is this:

The doctrines of grace are often known as the five points of Calvinism, but they were not the invention of John Calvin or his reforming cohorts of the sixteenth century. Rather, they are biblical doctrines, as Dr. Steven J. Lawson demonstrated in his book Foundations of Grace (2006). Now, in Pillars of Grace, Dr. Lawson shows that the doctrines of grace have been understood and taught sometimes in embryonic form, sometimes with great clarity throughout church history. From the time of the early church fathers to the years of the Reformers, there have been key men in the church, pillars as it were, who stood on the foundation of Scripture and upheld the truth of God’s sovereign role in salvation.

In Pillars of Grace, Dr. Lawson walks readers through the ups and downs of church history, profiling these voices for the truth. The inescapable conclusion is that the doctrines of grace are no innovation, but the consistent witness of some of the greatest men of the church.

Visual Theology: Reformed Theology

May 1, 2012 ~ pjwenzel ~ Leave a comment

Pastor Tim Challies has continued his series of visual theology helps for those looking to understand more about theology while appreciating a creative approach. I really enjoy these, and think they are helpful. For those who don’t know what “reformed theology” is, take a look at his link, or read RC Sproul’s book on it here.

Enjoy!

PJW

PJ Wenzel

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R.C. Sproul