Classic Christianity – Book of John Part 53 (07-31-19)
Synopsis
As you read through the gospel of John, you cannot help but notice the different responses to Jesus’ actions and words. There were many Jews who believed in him and later there were thousands of Jews who came to new life in Christ at Pentecost. Fifty days after Jesus ascended to his Father in heaven, he had told the Jews to wait in Galilee to receive the Holy Spirit. When someone receives the Holy Spirit, they are saved from the consequences of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is the resurrected life of Jesus.
When someone receives the Holy Spirit, he is said to be born again, having the life of Christ in him. He is also called a new creation, having the mind of Christ. Only then is a person able to discern the things of God. That is why when you read John 12:16, the disciples could not understand what God came to do.
John 12:16
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.
They believed he was the Messiah but the truth of that was not understood. That explains why, although they saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead, and saw so many other miracles, the spiritual truth he told was not understood. That is why a few days before Pentecost, they were cowering in fear behind closed doors, for if the Jewish leaders killed Jesus they would kill them too. Yet, later, with the Spirit of God now living in them, they were quite bold. You read in Acts 2, where Peter addresses the Jewish crowd that they were the ones who had Jesus crucified, who is now both Lord and Christ. Over 3000 people believed the message of Christ and were saved for they had asked, “What must I do to be saved?” Peter replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved.”
The disciples did not understand what all that Jesus did meant. So it is today. That is why it is important not to just stop at glorifying an event but to go beneath the skin and ask what that means. There are so many people who never stop to ask what does this mean, and what does this mean to me. You do not put faith in what the bible says. You put faith in what the bible means. You cannot know what it means until you know what it says. You can know what it says but not have a clue what it means. This is where interpretation is needed. A computer knows what the bible says. An actor who studies lines knows what the bible says. The issue is, “What does it mean?”
Knowing what the bible says and knowing what it means are two different things. Now, we say we need someone to teach me what it means. So we form these seminaries and these bible schools to hear what the bible means. Do you really know what it means or do you know what the professor says it means? Do you yet know what it means or what the professor taught you what it means? You come out teaching exactly what the bible school has taught you. If you come out of the baptist seminary, you come out teaching baptist teaching. If you come out of a Methodist seminary, you come out preaching Methodist teaching. If you got Seventh Day Adventist teaching, you will be teaching that. You will preach what you have been taught by somebody to teach but you yourself do not know if it is true or not unless you do what the bible instructs.
Bob also went on to explain why there are so many interpretations and denominations in the world today. If someone is called to the pulpit, but does not have the Spirit of God in him, then what is he teaching. He is doing well just to teach what the bible says. But how can he teach what the bible means without the Spirit of God living in him? He can’t. So the only way to know something is true is for truth to be revealed to you by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God cannot reveal to you what something means unless you have been born again. That is why someone not born again does not understand the things of God. That is why you have these people in the pulpit called to preach but have never been called to Jesus. You have people who have been taught what the bible says but do not have the Spirit of God living in them. So you have people leaning on their own understanding, not acknowledging Him, not allowing Him to direct their paths, and that is how you get all these interpretations of the scripture.
There are also those who preach law today just like the Pharisees did, who killed Jesus. Jesus was a threat to their authority and position. So it is today. There are even those who you think should know better, or even do know better, but because of job security, they teach law instead of grace. The reason people are adamant about teaching law is because what good is a legalist if you are under grace. You are not needed anymore unless you want to be an evangelist, and go teach the law in order to convince people, which is what the law is for, they are a sinner so they may be saved by grace. But once they are saved, they think, “I have no purpose”. That is why they are adamant against teaching grace. They cannot control people and are left feeling of no benefit and no worth. They incorrectly think, “I am a law teacher, a law interpreter, and if you do not need an interpreter, what am I good for.”
Same thing true back then is true today. There are those today who say, “If we allow this man to keep teaching what he is teaching then I will not be able to teach my legalism anymore. I will not be able to be the authority on the law. He is teaching you do not need the law once you are saved because you are led by the Spirit of God living in you. What value do I have unless I am an interpreter of the law. So we have to get rid of this guy teaching grace or I am not going to be appreciated, and more importantly, I am not going to have a job.”
Transcript
Jesus introduced himself to the Jewish world. He announced himself as the Messiah, as God with us. There was a contradiction of responses. You had one group who was thrilled to hear because they were waiting for the Messiah. The problem is the ones waiting for the Messiah were looking for a Messiah who was going to rule. They were looking for someone to overthrow the Roman rule. They were looking for a political Messiah. Such was the case of Judas. They did not understand the Messiah that came to save the souls of man. They did not understand the spiritual. They were only focused on the outward. When Jesus announced who he was there was also a negative response to the news.
The leaders of the Jewish people were the ones who were not thrilled of the news. This was not all the Jewish people, because on the day of Pentecost, they were all Jewish, and they believed and were saved. These Jewish leaders said, “What are we accomplishing. Before long the whole world will follow him and we will lose our position and our nation”. It was job security that killed Jesus. They were saying, “If we allow this man to keep teaching what he is teaching then I will not be able to teach my legalism anymore. I will not be able to be the authority on the law. He is teaching you do not need the law once you are saved because you are led by the Spirit of God living in you. What value do I have unless I am an interpreter of the law. So we have to get rid of this guy teaching grace or I am not going to be appreciated, and more importantly, I am not going to have a job.”
The same is true today. The reason people are adamant about teaching law is because what good is a legalist if you are under grace. You are not needed anymore unless you want to be an evangelist, and go teach the law in order to convince people, which is what the law is for, they are a sinner so they may be saved by grace. But once they are saved, they think, “I have no purpose”. That is why they are adamant against teaching grace. They cannot control people and feel they have no benefit and no worth. They incorrectly think, “I am a law teacher, a law interpreter, and if you do not need an interpreter, what am I good for.” Same thing true back then is true today.
The Lord Jesus Christ was revealed by those ready to have something different than the bondage under law and the death that comes with the law and grab a hold of truth and grace. To those people they responded by the thousands. But with that response came the rebellion by the leadership. They not only made plans to get rid of Jesus but Lazarus also. Jesus went and raised Lazarus from the dead, and now everyone is going to hear Jesus. So now they want to get rid of Lazarus too. Why? Because if we don’t we are not going to be important. How selfish humanity can be! So they made a plot to put Jesus to death. At the same time, many people put their faith in him.
John 12:9-11
9 Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, 11 for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!”
Hosanna is a Hebrew expression meaning “Save!” which became an exclamation of praise.
John 12:13
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”[Psalm 118:25,26]“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
Did the Jewish leaders like that term? The last thing they wanted Jesus to be is the king of Israel. Now they would be in worse shape than before, so they thought.
John 12:14-15
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:15
“Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”[Zechariah 9:9]
Jesus quoted from Zechariah, an Old Testament prophet.
Zechariah 9:9
9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
John 12:16-19
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
We are told these were the disciples, who lived with Jesus for three years. They saw all the miracles Jesus did, beginning with turning water into wine at Cana. They saw the blind man healed and even Lazarus raised from the dead. They saw him do all these different miracles yet they did not understand the totality of the complexity of who he was. They did not understand what this meant. That is why it is important not to just stop at glorifying an event but to go beneath the skin and ask what that means.
There are so many people who never stop to ask what does this mean, and what does this mean to me. You do not put faith in what the bible says. You put faith in what the bible means. You cannot know what it means until you know what it says. You can know what it says but not have a clue what it means. This is where interpretation is needed. A computer knows what the bible says. An actor who studies lines knows what the bible says. The issue is what does it mean.
Knowing what the bible says and knowing what it means are two different things. Now, we say we need someone to teach me what it means. So we form these seminaries and these bible schools to hear what the bible means. Do you really know what it means or do you know what the professor says it means? Do you yet know what it means or what the professor taught you what it means? You come out teaching exactly what the bible school has taught you. If you come out of the baptist seminary, you come out teaching baptist teaching. If you come out of a Methodist seminary, you come out preaching Methodist teaching. If you got Seventh Day Adventist teaching, you will be teaching that. You will preach what you have been taught by somebody to teach but you yourself do not know if it is true or not unless you do what the bible instructs.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10
9 However, as it is written:“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived” –
the things God has prepared for those who love him –10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
So the only way to know something is true is for truth to be revealed to you by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God cannot reveal to you what something means unless you have been born again. That is why someone not born again does not understand the things of God. That is why you have so many interpretations and denominations. That is why you have these people in the pulpit called to preach but have never been called to Jesus. You have people who have been taught what the bible says but do not have the Spirit of God living in them. So you have people leaning on their own understanding, not acknowledging Him, not allowing Him to direct their paths, and that is how you get all these interpretations of the scripture.
God is saying to us, “I want you to know what this means to you”. You cannot do this by understanding Greek. If the only way you can understand the bible is through studying Greek, then why can’t you find a Christian in Greece? If the understanding of what the bible means is by studying Hebrew, how come those who went to seminary to study Hebrew crucified the Son of God? You do not know the meaning of the word of God by studying the original languages because those who did not even need to study those are just as dead as you are until they come alive in Christ. You can go to all the educational facilities in the world, and nothing wrong with that because it might help you understand what it says and study what it says, but if you stop there, then you are just as dead as when you went in there.
If you do not depend on the Holy Spirit of God to reveal the meaning of the word of God to you, then you will come out of here just as dead as when you came in here. I can teach you what the Spirit of God has revealed to me, but you have to let the Spirit of God reveal it to you. The good news is you do not have to study for a hundred years to understand this bible. It does not matter what education system you had. I do not care if you never graduated from grade school but if you know how to read and you rely on the Holy Spirit of God, he will teach you what it means. Kings would pay you millions of dollars to know what you know from the Holy Spirit of God.
The disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying. They knew what he did. They knew what he said but they did not understand why. Why did they not understand? Why did they not understand then what we know today unless the Spirit of God lives in you. Had the Son of God come to live in them yet? No.
Were the disciples saved as we know salvation today? Salvation is the receiving of life. The receiving of life is when you receive the Holy Spirit. The day you received the Spirit of life you are alive spiritually. They were not alive spiritually until the day of Pentecost. How could they be alive until the Spirit of God came to live in them? When did the Spirit of God come to live in them? At the day of Pentecost is when the Spirit first came to dwell within men.
John 20:19
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
So here are the disciples hiding behind locked doors for fear of the Jewish leaders! Did they learn anything from Jesus at this time? Makes you wonder does it not? How can they understand the things of the Spirit unless the Spirit is living in them to teach them? They can’t.
John 20:19
Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
Can you imagine somebody walking through walls and saying to you, “Peace be with you”.
John 20:20
20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
This was very shortly before Pentecost. Where were the disciples who followed Jesus for 3 years? They saw Jesus raise the dead. Did they believe Jesus was the Messiah? Yes. Did they know what that meant? No. They couldn’t know what it meant. Why? The Spirit of God was not living in them yet. Unless the Spirit of God is living in you, He cannot reveal what it means. So here were the disciples in utter fear, living behind locked doors in utter fear.
Now turn to the book of Acts.
The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples. He came to live within them. Jesus has risen from the dead and has ascended to his Father. So fifty days after his ascension, the Holy Spirit came to indwell the believer, to make a brand new person that has never been created before, a person with the Holy Spirit with the total inability to ever lose that life. Why do they have permanent ability to not lose that life on the day of Pentecost? Because of the death of the cross where he took away the cause of death. Jesus took away the sins of the entire world, so the sin are never to be seen again by God. A man said, “But if Jesus took away the sins of the world, then why do I still sin?” From whose eyes did he take away the sins of the world? God’s eyes.
When Jesus died on a cross and shed the blood of God himself for our sins, he looked at the Father and the Father said propitiation has taken place, which means he is totally satisfied that justice has been served where sins are paid in full. That blood took away the sins of the world from the eyes of God forever. When God looks at you who does he see? The righteousness of Jesus. You are clothed in His righteousness. When he looks at a lost man, who does he see? A lost man, naked and in need of clothes. Until a man accepts the life of Jesus he remains lost and unclothed.
The day of Pentecost is the best day of all. We ought to be celebrating the day God came to invade his creation and give life to the dead. Prior to this time these people did not understand. After the Holy Spirit came to live in these people then they understood. Peter just a few days earlier is behind locked doors, knowing that if they killed Jesus they would kill them too. Now you see Peter raise his voice and address the crowd.
Acts 2:22-23
22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
This was the same Peter now saying this is the Jesus you killed. Does it sound like a different Peter? Is he denying the Lord before little women. Peter is now boldly proclaiming this Jesus whom you crucified.
Acts 2:24-36
24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 25 David said about him:“‘I saw the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
26
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest in hope,
27
because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
you will not let your holy one see decay.
28
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.’29 “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
35
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”’36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
Does this sound like a coward behind closed doors? What is the difference? The Holy Spirit living in him and you, your only hope of glory.
Colossians 1:27 (TLB)
He has kept this secret for centuries and generations past, but now at last it has pleased him to tell it to those who love him and live for him, and the riches and glory of his plan are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ in your hearts is your only hope of glory.
There are many people today who may be like the disciples, who heard things about Jesus. They were not capable of understanding these things. If he did have the Holy Spirit, then he is not relying on the Holy Spirit, but going on Sunday to rely on someone else to teach him. Just bring somebody on Sunday and old Bob will shoot him down. That is not the church. This room, where the body meets, is not for evangelism to take place. It is place for believers to grow by hearing truth. You go to the fields to evangelize. We have reversed it. It seems good because if you get saved here you will stay here.
If you are indwelt with the Spirit of God, you are a new creation.
2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
You had to be born by your mom and dad. That is the only way you got here. But you also have to be born again spiritually. You had a natural birth and now you need a spiritual birth. Your mom and dad cannot give you spiritual birth. Only God can create a spiritual being. Mom and dad created a natural being. Only God can create a spiritual being. God did not birth you. He created you. You were not created in the image of God when you were born into this world. You were born in the image of Adam. You are told this in Genesis.
Genesis 5:3
3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
When Adam and Eve had Seth, Seth was born in the image of his father. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. Seth was born in the image of Adam. You were not created in the image of God. You were born. You were never created until you were born again. When you were born again, you were created in the image of God. You had a spiritual birth that can only come about by the Spirit of God. Now you have someone living in you. His name is God. The Holy Spirit of God is living in you. You have the mind of Christ living in you. Why? You have God living in you. He did not come without his head.
