Gooding, David: 1 - On the Road with Jesus

And now a very good evening to you all. It is exceedingly stimulating to me to see so many of you here this evening, the more particularly when I remember the rigorous and unmannerly conditions that I laid down in the leaflets. I feel tempted to believe that you weren't given sight of the leaflets, you'll see, but, uh, you are welcome anyhow, uh, delighted to see you. Let me just explain what I, for my part, hope to be doing in these sessions. I shall not be attempting to preach sermons from the gospel by John. Not that I have anything against sermons, I wish I could preach them myself as they ought to be preached. But you will have heard in the past many sermons, and doubtless you will hear many sermons based on this gospel in the future. And sermons are, of course, the cutting edge, are they not, towards the Christian and the non-Christian public. What I want to do rather is not to take sundry passages of the gospel and make up a sermon of my own. What I want to do is to make some contribution to your studies when you are studying the Gospel of John, to help us all come that little bit nearer to understanding what the Holy Spirit himself is saying in the Gospel of John. So, for it is when we have understood what the Holy Spirit himself is contending, is intending to convey, that we are in a position to relay his words to our public and to teach what he intended to be taught. I shall not, of course, be able to comment in detail on the whole of the gospel, but as I proceed, perhaps I may be able to show some of you some ways and means of arriving at the meaning that the Holy Spirit himself intended in his word. As I say that, I am conscious, of course, that the gospel of John, like any other book of inspired scripture, is of infinite significance. So let me say at once, I do not suppose that I shall say the last word on the interpretation of this gospel. I shall scarcely say the first word. But it is, if you will have it so, a contribution to, uh, your studies. Now, originally, uh, I said that I would undertake three of these sessions to see if there were an interest in the kind of study that we shall be doing. I shall therefore proceed as I intended, at least for the first two or three evenings. If you find that what I have to say is less than twenty percent helpful, perhaps you will make a vigorous, uh, protest, uh, dulce. The stewards on the door or anybody else you can get hold of, or if you can't stamp hard with your feet or let it be known that what is being said is not particularly helpful to you in your circumstance, and that what you would like is this or that or the other. Do understand that I am here to try and be your servant and to help you in what you particularly need. But for the time being, the main thrust of the studies then will be to examine the Gospel of John and to try to decide what the Holy Spirit himself is saying therein. What do I mean when I draw a distinction between a sermon, uh, that we make up ourselves and what the Holy Spirit himself may be saying in a passage. As a little illustration of that, let me take a topic that we shall have to come back to this evening. We'll read one story, then I'll have a go at preaching a sermon from it, and then I'll let you decide whether that sermon is exactly what the Holy Spirit was intending to say. The story is in chapter two of John's Gospel, beginning at verse thirteen. John's Gospel, chapter two, verse thirteen. And the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changes of the money sitting. And he made a scourge of courts and cast all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen, and he poured out the changes money and overthrew their tables. And to them that sold the doves he said, take these things hence, make not my father's house a house of merchandise. His disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house shall eat me up. The Jews therefore answered and said unto him, what sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews therefore said, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he spoke this, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. And there for you is John's story of the cleansing of the temple. Other gospel writers tell us that our Lord cleansed the temple at the end of his public ministry, a week or so before he was crucified. John, as you'll see, tells us that our Lord cleansed the temple at the beginning of his ministry. It is possible that John has taken the story that happened at the end and put it at the beginning for certain reasons. It is far more likely that our Lord cleansed the temple twice, once at the beginning of his ministry and once at its end. Of that historical question, I don't propose to speak more here this evening. But here's me, and I've got to preach tomorrow, do you see? And I'm casting around for a sermon, do you see? I expect you'll never like that. You know what you're going to speak about a month before. But, uh, sometimes, uh, there was Sunday school class, you never know, or is it to the women's tea meeting next our Friday afternoon, or perhaps a Sunday morning or a Sunday evening sermon, and here you are trying to think what to do. Well, here's me. And I thought, well, what about now? What about a, a, a, a, ah, you know what? The cleansing of the temple, you'll see. Jesus cleansed the temple. And so I've read the passage now, and I'm now going to begin. Now, dear friends, do you see one of the prominent things our Lord did when he was here on earth? He cleansed the temple. See the scene, you'll see, and I, I, I picture it to get the audience i- interest, you'll see, like all good preachers should, I believe. A- a- a- and you, you, I paint the scene, and you'll see here was the beautiful temple and the golden portals and the priests in their white robes. When our Lord came in, he found them, the, the people there selling doves and oxen, those filthy beasts, and you know what animals will do if they're given half a chance? All over the temple court, you never saw such a fearful mess. And in indignation, the Lord made a scourge of whips, and he said, take these filthy beasts out of here. And, uh, kicking over the tables, he they, he made them take the animals away. So I told the story, as you'll see, rather in my own words than in the words of scripture. Anyway, now comes the application, because any preacher worth his salt wants to see, doesn't he, and or or you'll see, or if you're talking to your Sunday school class, you tell the story, but you need to know in advance what the point of the story is, don't you? So as when the time comes, you can apply the point of the story. See, my own, uh, friends in this particular church have me well trained. They're always telling me, be practical, you see, so that rings in my ears every time I preach, be practical, by which they mean, of course, uh, now what is the point of the story, and how would you apply the story? So I told the story, uh, Jesus said, take these filthy animals out of here. Now I'm going to apply it. Now what shall I do? So, ah, I got an idea. Temple, temple. Perhaps I even got out the concordance and found, why yes, our bodies, if we are believers, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Ah, that's it, you see. And now, my good brethren, my dear sisters, my ancient friends, or whoever they are you're talking to, they'll say, now, now here comes the point for us. Our bodies, if we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, are temples of the Holy Spirit and are meant to be spotlessly pure. Then from time to time, we allow the evil beasts of jealousy and anger and envy and foolish pride to come in and defile the bodies which are temples of the Holy Spirit. We this morning must examine our hearts in the eyes of the Lord Jesus. Just imagine him there with his eyes aglow with righteous holiness and indignation, and the scourge lift up in his hands, driving out those unclean things. And imagine it, my good friend, as the Lord stands over your life, the whip of his word in his hand, by the power of his spirit bid you clean out of your lives all that is unclean and offensive to his holiness. And having said that, it is a serious sermon, isn't it? Don't find too fault with, much fault with me, I shall get discouraged. That is a real and necessary sermon, isn't it? And the truth and the lesson I have tried to convey is true. Our Lord cleansed the temple historically. Um, the bel- uh, bodies of believers are temple. We must perfect holiness of the flesh and spirit in the fear of God. We must not defile the temple of God. What is true of our human bodies is also true of any Christian church, for there is another sense, is there not, according to one Corinthians chapter three, in which the church is the temple of God. But when I said that, I haven't really expounded the story, have I? Do you notice how my paraphrase missed the point? Our Lord didn't say, take these filthy beasts hence. What did he say? Well, he said, take these things hence, make not my father's house a house of... merchandise. I, in my sermon, said it was about cleansing the temple of filthy beasts and ridding our hearts of jealousy and envy and spite and so forth. But what our Lord was saying is, don't make my father's house a house of merchandise, of business. So while my sermon was true, I haven't quite got the point that our Lord was making, have I? And then, of course, practically half the story I haven't told you at all. And that's what I mean now when I say it is quite good to to take a story and lift something out of it and make a sermon on it, so long as your sermon is consistent with the truth of God elsewhere. That's a different thing from first taking the trouble to find out what the Holy Spirit is saying in the story. Now, please, let me say here, and I shall say it many times, I hope, I am not criticizing anybody who does that kind of thing, who takes a story and takes one part of it and, uh, joins it up with other scriptures and then preaches a sermon. God has blessed it many, many times. If that that's your way of preaching or teaching, well, pray carry on with you. It's been enough many times for thousands and millions of preachers, hasn't it, to take just one verse. John three sixteen is the shining example, and some preachers have preached it, and God has blessed their preaching. They've understood at least John three sixteen, even if they couldn't tell you what John three fifteen said, nor know what John three seventeen was at. They knew John three sixteen and they preached it with all their worth, and because it's God's word, God honored it to the spiritual blessing of multitudes. And if that's your way of preaching, carry on. My, what I am about to say is not a criticism of anybody's way of preaching, but I hold it out as an incentive to my own heart to try and, uh, see now in this story and in others, what is the Holy Spirit saying? So one of the things I should do if I myself were studying this passage would be to try to put the story in its context. And for that, I should study the structure of the book. So let me introduce that, uh, gently, that idea of the structure of a book that will help us to put each individual, uh, uh, item in its place. That's not really a difficult idea, is it? You'll th- you've, uh, decided to sell up your stately mansion, and you're going to retire to a bungalow, you'll see. And the bungalow is, uh, two-thirds finished, and you think I should be interested in your bungalow. Well, of course I would be, you see. So you invite me along to the bungalow, and when we've stumbled over the cement mixer and a pile of bricks, uh, and, uh, and various other things, we eventually somehow hop into a gap in the wall, and I say, what on earth is this? Uh, you'll say, i- i- i- i- is this the, uh, the lounge? You say, no, no, no, now let me show, show you now. Now this bit here, ah, you'll see, this is the kitchen. Oh, I see, yes. That's why some holes in there to let the water out, I suppose, yes. And, and, and, and, and this here? Oh, well, this is the dining area, you see. Oh, I thought you said it was the kitchen. No, this bit's the kitchen, that bit is the dining area. Oh, I see. Does it make a lot of difference which is which? Well, you say it will do when it's finished. Oh, I see. And what is this thing here? Somebody's bedroom, I suppose. No, that's his lordship's study. He demands to have a study. We've made it as small as we can. And then there's the bedroom over here, you'll see, uh, uh, and the Ministry of Works around the corner, you'll see. You know all about structure? Huh. And when it came to a house, you wouldn't confuse the bedroom with the kitchen, now would you? Of course you wouldn't. You know all about structure. And when it comes to a book of scripture, of course, the inspired writers don't just write higgledy-piggledy. They both tell the narrative as the narrative happened, but they order their narrative in structures, so as we may de- better be able to comprehend the whole building and see the function of each part and the relation of one part to another. Yes? For instance, why do you have the kitchen near the dining room? Well, he wouldn't know, of course. A lot of these, uh, uh, you know, the young gentlemen wouldn't know, but I've learned it, so I, I, I boast my knowledge. You have the dining room near the kitchen, because you see, functionally that's important. You don't want the dear lady to have to carry the Yorkshire pudding a half a mile from the kitchen to the dining room. You, you, you, you want the two to be near because, well, that's their function, you'll see. What do you suppose John five is doing next door to John six? What's the function of it? So anyway, let's start off, uh, our study by looking then at the structure of the Gospel of John, and if you'll be so kind as to take your Bibles in hand, we start at chapter two. and I'm going to be very arbitrary. I'm going to leave the introduction because the learned scholars disagree about where the introduction ends and where the first major section begins. So I'm going to ask you now to look at chapter two. Notice, first of all, verse eleven: This beginning of his signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested his glory, and he believed on him. Do you see that that's by way of being a final comment, a summary comment on the story that John has just told you, the story of the turning of the water into wine. And as he finishes, he says, this is the beginning of his sign, and its significance was this, our Lord manifested his glory, and his disciples believed. End of that story. Now look at verse twelve, if you will. And after this he went down to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and there they stayed not many days. Notice that verse now, if you please, what kind of a verse it is. It is telling you something, isn't it? He went to Capernaum. It is telling you that he stayed there, but what he did and what he said, uh, it just doesn't tell you. It's by way of being a general remark. That is a technique, we shall find others later on, that is a technique that ancient writers used, not only biblical writers, but other writers, for dividing up their narrative. In those early days, when they wrote a book, they didn't divide it into chapters as we do. They didn't have chapter headings and chapter titles, but they did have ways of dividing their narrative so their reader would know when they came to an end of one bit, uh, before they begin another. One of those devices are, is this kind of general statement. After this he went down to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brethren and his disciples, and there they stayed not many days. And now we begin, what, if you believe me, is section one of the gospel. And we're all eyes to see how it begins. And the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Passover being the first of the great yearly religious festivals that were held in Jerusalem. And the pilgrims would come up from all over the inhabited world, if they were Jews, and the locals were required to go to at least three of these yearly festivals. So there it is, and the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And John is about to tell you he cleansed the temple. But now look at verse twenty three, if you will. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, uh, you won't forget, will you? He he he he's gone up to Jerusalem. He he's in Jerusalem at the Passover, all right? Yes, good. Good to remember it. Anyway, many believed on his name, uh, beholding his signs which he did, but Jesus didn't trust himself to them. But, says chapter three, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And here is one occasion, uh, in John's gospel where the term Jew means somebody who lives in Jerusalem or Judea, as distinct from Samaritans and people of Galilee. So when our Lord was down at the feast in Jerusalem, it was very natural that the ruler of the Jews should come and talk to him. And our Lord had with him that famous conversation, pointing out the necessity of the new birth. And when it was all over, look at verse twenty two of chapter three. And after these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea. That is, he had been in the capital, Jerusalem. Now he is leaving the capital and going out into the surrounding countryside. He's out in Judea. John tells you what happened then. Look now at chapter four. When therefore the Lord knew how that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, verse three, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee. You, you, of course, you haven't forgotten, so there's no need to tell you, but he has been down to Jerusalem, you'll see, at the Passover, and he's been to the city, then he went into the surrounding countryside, and now begins the journey back home from Judea to Galilee, and he must go through Samaria. So through Samaria he goes. Eventually he stays two days, says chapter four and verse forty, in Samaria, you'll see. Then verse forty three of chapter four tells us, and after the two days he went forth from thence into Galilee, for Jesus himself testified that a prophet hath no honor in his own country. So when he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went up unto the feast. You couldn't miss it, could you? Not even if you tried, if you were reading it with one eye open and the other asleep in bed, you, you, you'd notice that now he has in fact been up to Jerusalem, you'll see, so have a lot of other people. And now he's on his way back, and he's arriving into Galilee. Verse forty seven: when a certain nobleman heard that, oh, here we are again, Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, came and asked him to heal his servant, which our Lord did. Not content with that. Here comes verse fifty four, a summary verse indicating that we've come to the end of this particular story. This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee. You couldn't miss it if you tried to miss it. John has been telling you how our Lord went down to Jerusalem on the occasion of a feast, and then worked his way back north, and what he did when he got back north. And the journey thus completed, John brings in that final general comment. And, uh, what will the next story be? Well, let's look. First, chapter five, verse one: after these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went down to Jerusalem. Oh, that's going to be a little bit the same as it was before. Well, so it is, and chapter five is what happened when our Lord went down to this feast in Jerusalem. And then in chapter six, we are told that after these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. So now, once more, our Lord has been down to Jerusalem, had a feast, chapter five. Now he's come back to Galilee, chapter six, and John tells you what shall happen there. And chapter six being complete, how will the story now go on? Well, verse one of chapter seven says, and after these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him. Now, the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, depart hence and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest, you'll say. But our Lord replied that his time wasn't yet come. Uh, he said, verse eight, go you up unto the feast. I go not up yet unto this feast because my time is not yet fulfilled. And having said these things unto them, he abode still in Galilee. But when his brethren were gone up unto the feast, then went he also up, not publicly, but as it were in secret. And in fact, now chapter seven, chapter eight, chapter nine, and chapter ten, as far as we know, are describing things that happened when our Lord on this third occasion went up to Jerusalem, ah, at one of the national religious festivals. Actually, he went up to the Feast of Tabernacles. Ten twenty two tells us that there was a feast of dedication at Jerusalem. That happened some weeks after the Feast of Tabernacles. Whether our Lord went away and then came back to that feast of dedication, we're not told. We are told, verse forty of chapter ten, that eventually he went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John was at first baptizing, and there he stayed. And many came unto him, and they said, John indeed did no sign, but all things whatsoever John spoke of this man were true, and many believed on him there. For the third time then, John is telling us of a journey that our Lord made to Jerusalem at a feast, a couple of feasts this time, and then how he went away. The pattern has repeated itself, has it not? John seems to be interested almost entirely in certain visits that our Lord made to Jerusalem on the occasion of feast, and what he did when he came back. You will say, but, uh, Mr. Lecturer, sir, your pattern is broken in chapter eleven. Looks like it, doesn't it? For in chapter eleven he doesn't go up to a feast, but goes to Bethany and raises Lazarus from the dead. Ah, but then you'll see the point of the resurrection. For after the resurrection of Lazarus, the Jews sought to kill him, so he walked no more openly. This is eleven fifty four. Walked no more openly among the Jews, but departed thence into the country to near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there he tarried with the disciples. Now, now the Passover of the Jews has happened. And many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover to purify themselves. And they sought for Jesus. Of course they did. As the later verses will explain, they'd heard that he'd done this colossal miracle. And the pilgrims that were coming up in advance of the feast to purify themselves stood around. You can see them, can't you? There was Auntie, Auntie Mildred, and there was Zephaniah, her husband, we'll say, and they were all talking, have you heard the news? What this prophet in, in Galilee did, this Jesus, he raised the dead. I don't believe it, says Simon from Patagonia. He did. Oh, well, do you think he'll come to the feast? Jerusalem was agog this time, waiting his coming to the feast. This was to be the coming when he came officially riding on the donkey, claiming thereby to be Israel's king, of whom Zechariah had prophesied. But mark how John, uh, uh, uh, underlines his theme. Twelve one: Jesus therefore, six days before the Passover came to Bethany. Verse twelve: on the morrow a great multitude that had come to the feast. Verse twenty. now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast, you'll see. Chapter thirteen, verse one. now before the feast of the Passover. Chapter, uh, 17, sorry, chapter eighteen. you'll see, verse twenty eight. they, the high priests, lead Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the palace, and it was early. And they themselves entered not into the palace that they might be defiled, but might eat, they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover. And of course, verse fourteen, chapter nineteen fourteen, verse thirty one, and again verse forty two mention the precise point in that great Passover festival at which these momentous events happen. I said enough to show that at the very basic simple lesson, the Gospel according to John is John's account of four or five visits that our Lord Jesus made to Jerusalem and back again on occasions of the Jewish religious festivals. And you say, so what? Hurry up and get beyond that, Mr. Preacher. It's nice just for about a half hour to look around a half-made bungalow, but goodness me, it isn't very pleasant. Uh, get on, uh, uh, something useful, practical. Oh, but here's number one principle. The structures that inspired writers use in order to organize their material are rarely arbitrary. They are part of the message. Huh. And you'll remember that when you teach, teach and preach it, won't you? It's not enough to tell a congregation about structure. It bore most of them to tears. Whether it was Passover or the Feast of Dedication or the Feast of Tabernacles or whatever. He went up on the occasion of the festival. What lovely occasions they were, and that's why you were asked for your homework for this preparation meeting to read the Old Testament details about these religious festivals, at least the details that are given in Leviticus twenty three. These were the great national celebrations, and to the major festivals there came not only the locals from Galilee, but all the Jews, a lot of Jews from the dispersion round the Roman Empire and beyond. For some of them, it was a journey of a lifetime, like Muslims going to Mecca at least once in a lifetime, to be able to come up to the great festival of Jerusalem and take part with the nation, standing in the holy city, standing in the glorious temple of God, and joining in the wonderful service and praise and worship of God in the temple. Oh, what occasions they were. We have psalms in our psalters that apparently were sung by the pilgrims as they used to go up, you'll see. We can imagine the excitement of somebody that was doing it for the first time. In the words of the psalm, when they eventually got into Jerusalem, our feet shall stand, our feet are standing in thy streets. Oh, Jerusalem. Marvelous, wasn't it? Of course, it wasn't just a religious festival, it was a kind of a holiday, you'll see. Marvelous. They had sent the Galileans from the north, Mrs. Zedekiah and her husband and two or three sons, you'll see, and they got down to Jerusalem, and there was Hephzibah. Now, she had gone off as a young girl, uh, off to Italy, you'll see, married well and done well. Her husband owned five or six arenas, and uh, and uh, uh, she got done very well, and and she was coming, and uh, you found out what hotel she was staying in, and there was the moment, you see, when you met them, you'd never seen them before in all your life, and that's Hepzibah and her children. Was that your husband, Zid? Yeah. And the local kids were saying, what a funny language they speak, and all that kind of thing, you'll see. Great moments, weren't they? But supremely the time when, with solemn heart, great crowds gathered before and in the temple court, and the Mount of Olives on some occasions packed black with perhaps near a million pilgrims. And to hear them chanting their chant and singing the praise of the Lord would be wonderful, wouldn't it? And there was the Lord Jesus. Here's a party, you'll see, setting out from Galilee, you'll see, all in their Sabbath best, of course, and going up, and for the kids it's great excitement. They've got the tents, or they'll stay in a caravanserai, and uh, uh, at night time they'll light a fire, you'll see, and they'll be singing with the old um, harps. They didn't have, you'll see, uh, uh, these other things in those days. Some say mercifully. A- and there they were around the, around the fire singing Dulce. My Lord. And as they're going up, John gives you a nudge in the ribs and says, you see that man there? Yes. Who's he? Well, actually, they don't know it, but that's God incarnate. That's the God whom they believe presents as himself in the temple. And they're going up to worship God. There he is, look. What's he doing? Well, he's coming up to inspect their worship, of course, and their service. Ah. So here, when he gets to the temple, on the famous occasion you'll see in chapter seven, and on that occasion the priests would every day have taken a golden pitcher, filled it with water of the brook of Siloam, brought it up and poured it at the base of the altar. On the last great day of the feast, they did it twice and twice they poured the water around the base of the altar. And the crowds lifted up their palm branches, their lulabs, as they call them, and they cried with full hearts and throats, uh, save now, O Lord, we beseech thee. And when the noise subsided, there was heard a voice over the heads of the crowd crying, if any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. It was the voice of our Lord. What was he saying? For my dear people, you have the symbol. Marvelous symbols, rich symbols, with many a memory of God's gracious work in the past. Many a promise of what God will do in the future. Now you've had the symbol. But my dear friend, have you got the reality? I've come to give you the reality of which this was but a symbol. And you'll see, very often the, the result was electric. For some of these people, yes, had their eyes open, but these symbols were but symbols. They pointed to a deeper reality. They allowed the Lord Jesus to lead them into that deeper reality. Having seen the literal water poured at the altar, they came to the Lord Jesus, and after his resurrection, by his spirit, he filled them and satisfied their thirst. But all too often, he came, he found the symbols an empty performance. Take the first time. It was Passover. Passover was the memorial of the occasion when Israel had been delivered from Egypt, and you'll remember the story, won't you? Uh, how that, uh, the Israelites were redeemed from the wrath of God by the blood of the Passover lamb, and they were then delivered from the power of Pharaoh by God's great miracle at the Red Sea, and then they were set on their way to their great inheritance. And it was so wonderful that when God proposed to come and dwell among them and invited them to build him a tabernacle so that he might dwell among them, eventually, not without a hiccup or two, the people agreed, you see, and they brought the money, and they brought the gold, and they brought the silver, and they brought everything they had for building this house of God, this temple of the Lord, this tabernacle in the wilderness. They brought so much stuff. But Moses had to get up and tell them, please stop giving. That'll be a day in the church, won't it, when you have to tell, when you have to tell the church stop giving. Wow. But that's what happened. So full were they of the wonder of redemption and the meaning of the Passover and the glorious inheritance that awaited them. They gave and gave and gave. There was more than enough to, uh, build a temple, tabernacle. And John tells us there was a feast of the Jews, the Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to the temple. And he found in the temple? There's a good sister of me here in the front. Well, he found Zechariah having a word with Zedekiah. My brother, good to see you on this occasion. You'll see, isn't it marvelous to be able to come aside from business and to remember together the marvels of God's redemption of his people all those centuries ago. Isn't it marvelous, Zedekiah? You'll see the outstretched hand of God, his power, you'll see. And Zephaniah standing by said, yes, oh, uh, it'd be marvelous if we could have that kind of experience today, wouldn't it really? And Zedekiah replied, but you can, my boy. Do you know the same God of Israel is with us today? That's what we're celebrating. Isn't it marvelous to know the power of God in your life, li- redeeming you, liberating you from the tyrant. For our own experience of the great supernatural power of God. Is that what he found? No, he didn't find people giving so much that they had to be restrained. Found a lot of people using the feast of Passover to make a lot of money for themselves. And he drove them out. And then they came around indignantly. And they said, what do you think you're doing? Joel said, yo, this beautiful building here, forty six years in building. It costs a lot of upkeep money. Joel said, money doesn't grow on trees, young man. So he went down the road and he had a word with the rabbi, the, the theologian, the theologian. His name was Nicodem. And he talked to him about that great miracle of God's power being born again. And the theologian hadn't got a clue what he was talking about, not a clue. Had all the ceremony, had all the history, but as to any personal experience, few of them had any understanding or experience at all. And you know, at last, when our Lord had made his comments to the crowd and to individuals in the, in and around the temple, they got so exasperated by what he had to say that they said, look here, we've had enough of you. And they took him outside and crucified him on a cross, and then they went back to worship God in their temple. And God gave them time to repent. About forty years later, he allowed the Romans to destroy the temple till one stone was not left on another. The very structure of the Gospel of John is pointing us to an exceedingly important and practical thing. And of course, it contains its lessons for us, doesn't it? We want a place to jump off, to apply it to us today, and not just to lambaste the Jews of ancient time. We ought to remember that, uh, we in Christendom, we too have certain feast days or festivals, don't we? Christendom does anyway. And people keep Christmas, be it the right date or not. And others Good Friday. And others Easter. Some people used to keep Whitsunday. The majority have forgotten what it was all about, but never mind. But how many of those people who keep the festivals... know the reality of which they speak? Oh, you preachers, there's a sermon or two, isn't there, what? Coming straight out of the structure of John. And you'll see it will be one of our exercises, and if it isn't, then it may be a thing you'll be interested to find out in your own study. If you take the various festivals to which our Lord, uh, went and inquire about what they stood for, and you then read what our Lord did and said on those occasions. You will find, of course, there is an enormous relevance between what he said and did and what the festivals were supposed to stand for. I can only give one hint at this t- moment, and that is to go back to, uh, chapter seven and chapter eight. It was the Feast of Tabernacles, and during the Feast of Tabernacles, it was the custom of the priests in those days to, uh, light very powerful lamps in the court of the people, which would be burning throughout the nights of the festival, casting a lovely light up upon the sky and and around the hills of Jerusalem. It was against that background, those lights burning near the, uh, treasury and the court of women, that our Lord announced to the crowd, I am the light of the world. But I must leave that for tonight. We're still at basics. We've done something with structure. Now what we're going to do is to take one of the rooms in John's bungalow, so to speak, if I may use such a term of John's writing, one of the rooms in John's gospel, and compile a list of the contents, you will see, and see what that will do to help us. So let's start forthwith. We go back to chapter two and verse, uh, thirteen for the first story in the first major section. And we're going to compile a list of the contents of this particular section, so that then we can ask whether they've got anything to do with each other or not. But now it's a simple exercise, here comes, uh, the news. And number one story, cleansing of temple. Cleansing of the temple. That, as you see, goes from chapter two verse thirteen down to verse twenty two. Fencing of temple. Number two, story. I just put up conversation, conversation with Nicodemus. Now, how far that extends, the, uh, scholars disagree, don't they? So that for the moment, I shan't try to divide it up and leave it as it stands. Conversation starts chapter three, verse one. Some say it goes down to verse fifteen, some say it goes down to verse seventeen, Uh, some say at that point John, the gospel writer, adds his own comments. We'll leave that undecided for a moment and talk in broad terms, chapter three, verses one to twenty one. After that, verse twenty two to thirty six, Number three, John plus disciples. Again, scholars dispute how much are the words of John Baptist and how much are the additional comments of the gospel writer himself. We shan't stay to decide that at the moment. We take verses twenty two to thirty six. Jesus and his disciples came into Judea. John was baptizing there. Verse twenty five: there rose therefore a question on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purifying John and his disciples. You'll know what I mean then. And when that is over, we come to chapter four. And four is a conversation with Samaria. That is a very, very well-known story indeed. Then the woman eventually went off. Verse twenty six, she went off. Uh, sorry, uh, there was a little, uh, overlap. The disciples came, verse twenty seven, upon this came his disciples, and they were marveling that he was speaking with a woman, yet no man said, what seekest thou, or why speakest thou with her? So the woman left her water pot and went away into the city and says to the men, come see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Verse thirty one, In the meanwhile, the disciples praised him. Master E. So it is Jesus plus disciples, and they have a long discussion with our Lord. Eventually, the Samaritans come out from the city, verse thirty nine, and join them. And then they invite him back into the city. We take the story down to verse forty two, And finally now, when he had got back into Galilee, verse forty three to the end of the chapter, he got back to Galilee, there is the story of the nobleman's son. So that's a little table of contents. Goes from the beginning of the journey right to the end of the journey when he was back. The next incident is going to be chapter five when there's another feast of the Jews, and the Lord Jesus goes down to Jerusalem. We then have six stories, and so as to help ourselves get familiar with them and then see what their point and function is, we ought to spend a time looking at all six together, you know, and then we can come back to a bit of detail, can't we? Because what we've got to ask is, one, are there any themes common to all six, or are they six independent stories with very little to do with each other? Are there some common themes? And if there are some common themes, how are they related, if at all, to each other? You'll see. I go back to your, your bungalow. Now you've got it finished, of course. Carpets are down, everything is decorated, so superb, and the curtains are up, you'll see, and the furniture is in place, and here I come to look around it, and you open the door, and I come in, rush in, and barge into a bedroom. I say, what's this? Oh, I say, I see that's a bed. Hmm. Oh yes, it must be a bed. A bed there, see? Uh-huh. I say, what's this, this box thing here? It's not a box. Oh, I see now, I say it's a cupboard. Well, no, it's not quite a cupboard, really. We call that a wardrobe, my good man. Is it in a bedroom? Came to call it a wardrobe. You see, that's a cupboard not for putting the salt and the sugar in, that that's that's for putting the dress in so that when you get out of bed, the wardrobes will be there to, to, you know, help you to dress. Oh, I see. Ah, well, I see that, you'll see. Um, um, um, what's this, uh, this, uh, funny looking table thing here? It's funny shape, you'll see. What do you say? It is a table, yes, that can't, which has got a mirror on it. It's a dressing table, my boy, you'll see, so that when you get up and you're curling your teeth and your hair, you, you can sit in front of the thing and look into it. Oh, I see, is that what you do? Ah, yes, these things in here are all to do with bedrooms. I, I begin to get the point. They're not, you're just telling me, are you, they're not just a haphazard collection of furniture, you know, to make the place look pretty. They're functionally related? Oh, I didn't get the point. And you lead me into the, uh, the dining room, you'll see. Oh, there's a big table. Yes, that's where you eat, I suppose. And this, um, oh, look at this box thing here. What, this is a box, I see. Uh, well, it's just not a box. Did you open the door? Oh, I see it's an oven. Well, no, it's not an oven. It may look like an oven. It's a one of these hot plate things, you know, so when the guests are a long time eating their soup, the Brussels sprouts are being kept warm inside the hot plates. They've already been cooked. This is not the oven where we cook them, this is the hot plate, you'll see, and we have that contrivance there, you'll see, so it's functionally related to the table, you'll see. Yeah, that's simple enough, isn't it? Uh, and so is the kitchen. In other words, they're not only individual rooms, but the things in the rooms are groups. Functionally, they're related to each other. And though a dressing table is a table, and the dining table is a table, and the kitchen table is a table, don't be misled by that, that similarity. There's a difference of function in them. That's why one is in the bedroom, one is in the dining room, and one is in the kitchen. Yeah? Simple. And here's one of John's rooms. This is the first room in his house, apart from the introduction. And we ask, why these six stories? And are they there simply because they happened, or have they some connection with each other? Because if they have some functional connection with each other, it's important that we grasp the function, isn't it? Yes. Uh, you'll see, if I don't realize the table is a dressing table in the bedroom, I shall start eating my sausages on top of it, you'll see. I need to know what the function is to use it properly. What are the functions here then? So let's have a beginning of a go for the rest of our first part of our session. Any themes, major themes, recurring? Well, we ask ourselves what the first thing is about, and the first thing is about temple. Our blessed Lord went up to Jerusalem, and he went into the temple and talked to the Jews about their s- worship and service of in the temple, and corrected it, and then did something else. Temple? Anything else in this, uh, uh, in this six about temple? Why, of course, you say the word isn't mentioned. That is true, but you'll remember what the nub of the conversation was between our Lord and the Samaritan, won't you? When she perceived that he was a prophet, she said, our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say at Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Our Lord replied, believe me, my dear good woman, that the hour is coming when neither in this place nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father. God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Here was our Lord correcting and adding to the Samaritan woman's ideas on worship. How must it be done? And that's what he was talking about here, wasn't it? Two stories about worship. You say, why would John have two stories about worship? Well, historically, there is an answer at once, isn't it? This was the Orthodox. This was the temple in Jerusalem. This was the unorthodox. The enormous age-long dispute, anger, and rancor between the Jews at Jerusalem and the Samaritans, uh, uh, uh, in Samaria, Samaritans in Samaria, was over the question of worship. The Samaritan woman said, you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place. Well, our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and for many and many a long den- decade, they had been at each other's throats. The Jews at one stage had gone along with their army and demolished the Samaritan temple. That's why the woman had to say, our fathers worshipped, past tense, in this mountain. She could have seen from where she stood, perhaps, the place where their temple had once stood on Mount Gerizim, and the Jews had come and destroyed it. That didn't help the relationship between the two, not much anyway. A- a- as you'll see. And the Samaritans, on another occasion, had taken a bag of old dead men's bones. They'd gone up to Jerusalem and scattered the bones in the temple court. You couldn't think a more hideous thing to do to the Jerusalem temple and a thing more calculated to defile it. And Judaism and Samaria were at cross purposes, bitter, rancorous hate between the two major. I better be careful what word I choose. Some people might, uh, see all sorts of implications, mightn't they? Mm-hmm. The sad thing was they, both of them at least, agreed on the first five books of the Bible and professed to worship the same God. Historically, therefore, it was exceedingly important. But of course, even I say it, being an improved Englishman that's lived in this province for many years. The resemblance between that and many another situation is very clear, isn't it? That our Lord went to to the Orthodox place is wonderful. Of course, what would you expect? That he went and visited the Samaritan woman. That is a majestic action of grace. But it will become important, um, what he said on both occasions, won't it? So let us notice now what that preacher that we had here at the beginning of this lecture got all muddled up and forgot to say, and, you know, oh dear, dear me, he wasn't very good, was he? You'll see. Let's go back to the story of the cleansing of the temple at Jerusalem. And now see what John and the Holy Spirit that inspired him is, is drawing our attention to from that episode. John's Gospel two verse thirteen to twenty two. And the preacher we had here concentrated on one thing and got that wrong. He said that our Lord said, take these filthy beasts out of here, and he didn't say any such thing. But now let's notice what he didn't point out, that there are two parts to this story, aren't there? Look how that is arranged. First of all, he drove out those that sold doves and animals and the money changers, and then verse seventeen comments, his disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house shall eat me up. So that was number one thing they saw. They saw him take the whip and drive these things out of the temple, and they learned a lesson about his zeal, and they remembered a scripture that prophesied of Messiah, the zeal of God's house should eat him up. Then the Jews came and said, what sign showest thou? And Jesus said, destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up. The Jews therefore said, forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days? But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, oh, here we come again. The, his disciples remembered that he spoke this. You'll see that? And they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus said. And thus John points out to us that there were two lessons to be learned. The disciples eventually remembered the first, and then they eventually remembered the second, and there were two lessons, and two quite different lessons. You'll see. That preacher that was here earlier asked the fee back from him, or cut it in half, because he only gave you half the story. There are two parts to the lessons. Uh, what's the difference between them? Well, in part one, uh part one of the story, Jesus was reforming. Reforming the old system. Cleansing the old. He called it his father's house, that old temple that had been his father's house and the ones that preceded it for centuries. And his zeal for that old temple was marvelous to behold. It struck the disciples. They remembered it. His zeal even for that old temple. And to see that old temple desecrated moved his righteous indignation and anger, and he made the whip and drove them out. Reforming, criticizing the old. Ah, but the second half is different, isn't it? It is to announcing a new temple. Because when they came and asked a sign, what sign showst thou? He said, destroy this temple and I will raise it in three days. They thought he talked of Herod's temple, but of course he wasn't. He was talking of the temple of his body. What a marvelous thing that is. You'll see this concept of the Lord Jesus. This was the Old Testament. It served its day and generation, but it was at best only a temporary thing, leading the way and pointing to the way to that marvelous, spectacular day when there should come into our world a new kind of temple, a new meeting place between God and man, God's ideal temple. Don't be too anxious to come to the practical application. We're dealing with the very foundation of our faith. We can come to practice later. The advent into our world, then, of that new kind of temple, and what a kind of temple it was. Oh, if I were to preach, I would half preach your sermon just here. About the Lord Jesus, who was in the beginning with God, for the Word was God, and the same was in the beginning with God, how all things were made by him. And then the marvelous mystery, the wonderful, glorious historical thing that the world was made fresh, and he tabernacled among us. And says John, who beheld it, we beheld his glory. Oh, what a sight that was. You could have gone into the ancient temple, you know, in Jerusalem, or the tabernacle that preceded it, and if you could go inside, you would have seen the marvelous colors. You would have seen the glitter of the golden lampstand, its, its, uh, soft, rosy light, the awe of the cherubim woven on the curtains, and the Shekhinah glory of God, cloud and fire. But what was it when those twelve privileged men were able to draw near, so to speak, and lifting the veil, or having it lifted for them, see that the body of Jesus Christ was the temple of the living God. John never got over it, he never will, nor will you, I hope. In his epistle as an elderly man, he writes, we're writing this so that you should have fellowship with us, and surely our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son. We saw it, he says, we actually saw it, my brethren, and we handled the word of life. All the ore of it. When poor old Uzzah in the ancient testament put his hand out and touched the cart upon which the Ark of God's, uh, was being carried, God struck him dead in an instant, insisting on his holiness. But all this marvelous story, that prostitutes and touch his feet and weep their repentant way to forgiveness and faith. And the little babies could sit on his knee and twist his beard. And God drove on the inside. All we need to grasp the great realities of history, my brothers and sisters. We've so got used to them on times that the words trip off our tongue and they don't move our hearts. We haven't just a Jesus who issues a few ethical commands, be nice to your parents and if you can, to your aunts. We, we, we worship a Jesus who is the Word made flesh, God incarnate, for the transcendent Lord of space and time has actually come down to our world in the person of his son. And we've got the real thing. And having got the real thing, the old receive. There were two things then, weren't there? One, the reforming of the old. Two, the announcement of the new kind of temple. What will our Lord say when he got to Samaria, to Samaria and talked with this woman. Will he say, now look here, my woman, disgusted with all this religious controversy, you'll see, and it doesn't really matter whether, you know, you worship God, you like to worship God in, in, in Mount Gerizim? Well, what did that really matter, you know? These Jews were stupid saying that, uh, Jerusalem was the only place that you, uh, uh, could, uh, worship. My dear good woman, that doesn't matter where salvation comes from so long as you're saved, does it? I mean, all roads lead to the top of a mountain. You got a way of being saved? Well, we got a slightly different one, but that doesn't really matter, I mean, so long as everybody's saved. Doesn't really matter. Oh, dear, dear me not. What a temptation that is, isn't it, some days, to react against bitter religious strife by saying God's word doesn't really matter, after all, that's not true. Oh, our blessed Lord, when he went to the woman, the Samaritan woman, overstepped the unscriptural boundaries that Judaism had put between them, that he certainly did, and showed the heart of God the Father, even his request, give me to drink, his willingness to use a Samaritan pot to drink out of, was showing his grace, wasn't it? He was going to tell the woman of the Father who seeks worshippers. To satisfy the Father, he began by asking the woman for a gift of little ordinary water to satisfy his physical thirst. The Jews at Jerusalem, the rabbis taught that the women of Samaria were living in a permanent state of defilement. You mustn't use any vessel that they'd use. Fearful insult, wasn't it? They would spit at each other. Our Lord overstepped those foolish boundaries, came and sat on her well, told her that God longed for her, asked from her a drink of water. And oh, how graciously he dealt with her. But you'll see, he was very forthright, wasn't he? When she said, our fathers worshiped in this mountain, he said, verse twenty two, you worship that which you know not. We worship, that is we Jews, that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. Fancy saying that to a Samaritan woman. You say that'll put her off. Then we have to revise our notions of grace, don't we? That is true. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, that is historically true. Not all roads lead to heaven. Not all religions have the same message of salvation. How would you know the genuine gospel, the genuine salvation? Here is our Lord telling you salvation is of the Jews. Historically speaking, you see, the gospel, the Christian gospel, is not a philosophy that somebody invented out of their heads. Anybody can invent a philosophy, he's got brains enough. But you see, Christianity is not in that sense a philosophy. Christianity is the story of God's intervention in human history. It is bound to history. The great story of redemption, if we take our starting point, for instance, with Abraham and the seed of Abraham and all the great works of redemption through that privileged nation, the coming of their prophets, the finger pointing one day to the coming Messiah. This is how we know that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus is the Savior of men. He is the full ripening of that great historical movement that God began when he called Abraham out of Chaldees and said, in thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the world be blessed. And you see, we neglect that at our peril. Here was this woman in Samaria. She said, you know, our fathers worshipped in this mountain. You say that to Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. My dear good woman, he said, you don't really know, do you, whom you worship? Why didn't they? Because they had rejected two-thirds of the Old Testament, they wouldn't have it. And having rejected two-thirds of the Old Testament, and going against God, declared instructions as to where the temple should be placed. The result was they didn't know God. That is a very important, isn't it? I'm tempted to preach all sorts of sermons on that, but you see, the first thing he did is to correct the old. And still to this very present day, if you want to know what the gospel is, the gospel is of Jesus Christ, of the seed of David according to the flesh. The gospel is that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scripture and was buried and rose again the third day, just a little outside the walls of Jerusalem. All the apostles were Jews, and salvation is of the Jews, and we cannot afford to copy the Samaritans and neglect either our New Testament or even our Old Testament. This anchors us into history, saves us from being led away by all kinds of newfangled and unhelpful and historical philosophies and reinterpretations of the Christian faith. And it will not be a question of place where you worship. It will be a question of the truth of God. Jesus is the full expression of God. To worship God, therefore, is to worship him through Jesus Christ, our Lord, for this is God. And if anybody should say, but I don't like Jesus and I don't agree with him, but I'm worshiping God, no, you're not. You're worshiping something of your own imagination. Jesus is God incarnate, and worship to be valid must be according to the truth of God revealed in Jesus. Secondly, it must be in spirit, not a mere matter of external forms and ceremonies and formulae, but a matter of receiving from the risen Lord the Holy Spirit that makes it possible for us to understand God and to respond in genuine worship. Forgive all that sermonizing, and now we're to take a break. But what I've simply done at the moment is to list a table of contents, ask you to consider some basic themes that might, uh, uh, link the matter together. I trust I've said enough to show how that, uh, story one and story 4 are dealing with a similar theme from two points, necessary points of view, the orthodox and the unorthodox. How that our Lord on both occasions does the same thing, he corrects the old, and then he announces the new, and the importance of doing both and not just one. And in our later part of the evening, we shall have to look at some of the other similarities and their implications. But now just let's take a break, and as we do so, let's bow in prayer that God might help us to grasp what he has said. Now, Lord, we thank thee for thy word. We thank thee for the precision with which thou hast written it. We ask thy help to grasp its implications. We worship thee through Jesus Christ, thy son. Help us evermore to perceive the glory of this new temple and its significance, that in seeing it we might be transformed into that same glory and become efficient testimonies to others. Bless us now in this interval, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.