Gooding, David: 2 - Knowledge of the Living Lord

And so once more, a very good morning to you. The purpose of our conference, as you are now well aware, is that in these talks and studies, we should extend and then deepen our acquaintance with the gospel by John. And we desire to do that in the first place, that we might deepen and extend our knowledge and personal acquaintance with the living Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, who is the topic and ultimately the author of this gospel written by John. And we desire to know our blessed Lord the more deeply, in the first place, so that we can worship and serve him in more, uh, in deeper spirit and more according to truth. And then we desire to know him that we may not only worship and serve him, but that our witness for him in the world may be the truer and the more effective. These then are workman-like sessions, so let us take our Bibles in our hands and start out on our actual study of the contents of the gospel by John. And first of all, I call our attention to what is the major theme, the major substructure of this particular gospel. Would you care to begin with me to read in chapter two and verse thirteen? We shall find that this gospel is the record of four journeys that our Lord Jesus made to Jerusalem, and not only to Jerusalem, but back again to Galilee. Whereas the other gospels concentrate mostly on our Lord's ministry in the northern part of the country, in Galilee, John spends perhaps most of his time recording, uh, four visits that our Lord made to Jerusalem. He does not neglect what our Lord did in Galilee, for on each occasion after the journey to Jerusalem, he points out that our Lord went back north again. Let us trace that actually in our texts. Chapter two and 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 money sitting. And of course, as every schoolboy knows, the temple was in Jerusalem city. But just in case you've forgotten it by the time you arrive at verse twenty three, John points out, now when he was in Jerusalem, you did get that bit, didn't you, to start with, he was in Jerusalem, but John, by your leave, is telling you again, you'll see. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed on his name, beholding his signs. But Jesus did not trust himself to them, for he knew all men. But chapter three verse one tells us there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. You should know that in this gospel, the term Jew is used in a number of different senses, and it will save us conf- confusion in our thinking thereafter if we can ex- observe those differences. Sometimes the word Jew is the term used of all the nation. Sometimes it is used of the people who inhabited Judea, hence the name Jew, Judeos in Greek, uh, strictly speaking refers to the people of Judea, and therefore the term Jew will distinguish them from the people of Israel who lived in Galilee and elsewhere around the world. And then on occasions the term Jew is used not simply of the people of Jerusalem. Sometimes the people of Jerusalem are distinguished from the Jews, and in those instances it appears that the term Jew is used of the leaders of the nation that were based largely in Jerusalem. Anyway, there was this man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, and he was a ruler o- of the Jews, and he came to our Lord and had extended conversation with him. How far that conversation lasts, no one is quite sure. There follows its com- uh, comments made by John, who wrote the gospel. But now notice verse twenty two, this time of chapter three. After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea. That is, leaving the capital city Jerusalem, he went to the surrounding countryside of Judea. There was a very famous popular preacher holding forth in those parts. His name was John the Baptist, you'll say, and now we have a record of this famous popular preacher and things that he said and did. Then notice chapter four. when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, verse three, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee, and he had to go through Samaria. Do you see the journey? He came down to Jerusalem. He's been in Jerusalem city. He's done things in the temple. He's talked to a ruler of the Jews. And now, leaving the capital city, he's gone out to the Judean countryside, and we hear about this popular preacher. Now the journey is going to begin to go backwards up to Galilee, and first it must go through Samaria, both for geographical and then for, for, uh, other reasons as well. So he went through Samaria and talked to this woman at Sychar's well, and then stayed a couple of days in Samaria itself. Verse forty of chapter four: So when the Samaritans came to him, they besought him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days, you'll see. Verse forty three: and after the two days he went forth from thence into Galilee. So verse forty six follow- oh, sorry, verse forty five tells us, when he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went unto the feast. You won't forget that, will you? We've been on a journey to Jerusalem on the occasion of the feast, you see. Bible is written for simple folks and, uh, uh, uh, uh, folks with a moderate amount of memory so that they can concentrate on what's happening. He's been to the feast, do you get that? And so have a lot of Galileans. They saw what he did there, and they're now about to welcome him back to Galilee, you'll see. So verse, uh, uh, uh, forty six. he came therefore again into Cana of Galilee, and a certain r- uh, royal official, uh, came pleading that our Lord would save his son. He saved him. And, uh, verse fifty four brings the whole story then to an end. This again is the second sign that Jesus did. You won't forget it, will you? Having come out of Judea into Galilee, you would have to be exceedingly dim to miss the point, wouldn't you? That our Lord has been on a journey to Jerusalem on the occasion of a religious festival, and he's now come back to Galilee, having been down to Jerusalem and back. There is the cycle completed, the first journey and the return. And what will John tell us about next? Oh, look at chapter five and verse one. And after these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went down to Jerusalem. John, John, John, are you going to tell us all those other interesting things that the synoptic tell us? And he replied, why now should I? They told you, didn't you listen to them? Why would you hear it all again? I'm telling you of other things. So, yes, now it's the second journey. That fills chapter five. And then chapter six tells us, after these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and the great multitude followed him. He performed the miracle of feeding the crowd. He crossed the sea miraculously. He taught in the synagogues, and John himself, uh, tells us he did that on different occasions. Look at chapter six and verse fifty nine. These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum, do see. So a quite extensive record now of various things he did in Galilee. It's not all in Jerusalem. But chapter five, he was on a journey to Jerusalem. Chapter six, he has come back to Galilee. And when chapter six has ended, look how chapter seven begins. 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 is at hand, and Jesus did what? Well, he didn't go immediately, but halfway through the feast, uh, you'll see, uh, verse ten: when his brethren were gone up to the feast, then went he also up, not publicly, but as it were in secret, you'll see. So once more, chapter seven is about a journey that our made, our Lord made to Jerusalem. You begin to see the pattern developing, don't you? He was in Jerusalem then for the feast of Tabernacle, so called, through chapter seven, eight, nine, and ten tells us that he also attended the feast that followed, chapter ten verse twenty two, and it was the feast of dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon's porch. So two festivals on this occasion, whether he went away between the first and the second, we're not told, but two festivals in Jerusalem occupying chapter seven, eight, nine, and ten. And when that's finished, look at verse forty of chapter ten. He went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John was at the first baptizing, and there he stayed. The place where John was at first baptizing was not south in Judea, it was up in the northeast, a certain place called Batenia, up in that, uh, the Tetrarchy of Philip. So once more the pattern has repeated, down to Jerusalem for the feasts, up back north where John was at the first baptizing. Chapter eleven is the prelude to our Lord's last journey to Jerusalem. The third journey he took, he went up in secret. Chapter seven tells us that explicitly, and we shall have to inquire later today why he envel- enveloped his the, his journey in such secrecy on the third occasion. On the fourth and final occasion, with deliberate intention, he caused the utmost publicity he possibly could for this final visit to Jerusalem. And the tactic was that in the purposes of God, that the Son of God might be glorified by that, uh, Lazarus was allowed to die. Now, Lazarus lived a little distance outside of Jerusalem. Lazarus was allowed to die. Our Lord came, raised him from the dead, and then withdrew. But you see, the Passover was near at hand, and here were the pilgrims coming in their, uh, crowds to Jerusalem. And as the northern ones came down, and many of them came through Bethany and those parts, they heard of the miracle, and it caused a tremendous stir in Jerusalem, as the crowds milled around, as crowds will, and said to each other, do you think he'll come? We hear he's raised the dead. Oh wow, do you believe it? Uh, will he come to the feast? And we're all agog, waiting for him to come. He had intended it so. On this final ver- uh, journey to Jerusalem, he didn't go in secret by any chance this time. He went in a blaze of publicity and chose an ass and sat thereon as his disciples and the crowds threw their garments in the way and hailed him as the king that cometh in the name of the Lord, deliberately fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah, O Jerusalem, thy king comes to thee, meek and lowly, riding on an ass and upon a foal, uh, uh, on a colt of an ass, you'll see. The fourth and final visit to Jerusalem. It extends now right to the rest of the book. It is the most famous because in the course of that visit, our Lord was crucified dead and buried, and then he rose from a dead the third day. Ah, yes, but true to the pattern. It doesn't end in Jerusalem, not even this one. For the last chapter of the book, as you see, chapter twenty one, um our Lord is back in Galilee. Let's have the first slide, shall we, to sum up what we have found so far. There it is, I just put it up so that if you want to, you can renew the references. The Gospel of John, its basic underlying structure is four journeys that our Lord made to Jerusalem on the occasion of the Jewish festivals and back again. And for those that are looking for the references, we'll need to push it up a little bit now to get the fourth journey on. So now have we got the main idea? Our Lord's visit to Jerusalem, we ask what for? The answer is on the occasions of the great religious festivals that were held in Jerusalem city. What were those festivals? They were appointed by God in the Old Testament. They came at different times of the year. Eh, some of them, the major ones, said that attendance was compulsory on the part of all males who lived in Palestine. But as well as people coming from the various cities throughout Palestine, Jews who ha- lived in the dispersion in different parts of the Roman Empire sought to come. It was a great occasion if they could manage it, at least once in a lifetime to come to Jerusalem on the occasion of a festival. Marvelous occasions they were, uh, part holiday, of course, do you see? It was fun, wasn't it, to leave your farm and a few old broken down donkeys and to put on your Sabbath best and come with the pilgrims on the way to the festival in Jerusalem. Now it was fun putting up at night in the caravanserai, and with your guitars or harps by preference, uh, you'll see you, um, sang the psalms of the pilgrims going up to Jerusalem. Tremendous stuff that was, and the kids enjoyed it immensely. And then came that marvelous moment from the, for the northerners when they came over the hills, uh, uh, overlooked, uh, the Jerusalem city and saw the city, some of them for the first time, oh, Jerusalem. And then actually the foreigners from abroad who had heard all about Jerusalem and the wonders of the temple, but had never seen it and now had taken early retirement or something, or got a grant from the grandmother to come, uh, they came too, do you see? They were in Jerusalem and sang the psalms, did they not? Oh Jerusalem, our feet shall stand in thy streets, oh Jerusalem. And for the northerners to see their long lost, uh, uh, relatives from, well, not from America, but you know what I mean, a- a- and to be introduced in how many grandchildren have you got now, and this and that and the other, and how are you getting on? Tremendous days of holiday, but not just holiday, of course. Then came the heart of the whole thing. These great celebrations based on the temple, as all the pilgrims joined together to offer their sacrifice, to offer their worship and service to God, who deigned, so they believe, to put his presence in the temple. And so John is painting you a scene. Can you see it? There's the pilgrim father going down, you see? Ha ha! And John nudges you in the ribs and says, now see that man there? Yes. Who's he? You say, I don't know, you tell me. Well, he's Jesus of Nazareth. But listen to my prologue. I'll tell you who he is before these journeys begin. This is none other than God incarnate. He's going up with the pilgrims, look. Who, if any, know who he is? And he's going up to the temple with them, standing in the court. You say, whatever for? Well, he's listening to their worship. And all unbeknown the God whose presence they feel is in that temple is standing by their side. Listening to their worship. And as they sing and they pray, reading their hearts. And eventually, of course, he necessarily makes his criticism of this and that, and seeks to put right their worship where it has gone wrong, where it has been distorted. More than that, he not only seeks to put right what has gone wrong, but he comes to them and says, do you understand the symbols that you're using in this temple worship? I have come to offer you the reality of what these, uh, uh, uh, uh, which these things are symbols of. The reality behind the symbol, and to lead you from the mere outward symbol of religion, the great reality to which those symbols point. That's a marvelous message, isn't it? Correcting the old, but now offering the new. Many believed on him. Many, alas, rejected him. They loved the symbols. All the gorgeous color of the high priest in his robes and what have you, and the incense and the architecture and the beautiful music. They loved it. When they were offered the reality behind the symbols. Alas, many said no. And eventually, they took God incarn, led him out of the city and handed him over the Ro- to the Romans, and the Romans crucified him. And then they went back to the temple. To worship God. At this kind of juncture in the gospel, there are many, particularly nowadays, who feel that the fourth gospel is very seriously anti-Semitic. Here are Christians trying to replace Judaism with Christianity. That is not a correct way of seeing the matter. Our Lord was offering not to repla- to abolish Judaism, but to fulfill it. And the Old Testament prophets had constantly said this. Judaism in our Lord's day was based on the Old Covenant, for instance, but their own prophet Jeremiah had told them the days would come when God would make them a new covenant. That wasn't Christian propaganda trying to replace Judaism. That was Judaism's revered prophet Jeremiah in the name of God telling them that the old covenant would one day be superseded by the new covenant. The old covenant, worship of God concluded the offering of many sacrifices of animals and such like things. But the Old Testament itself had said in Psalm chapter forty that there would come a day when God would no longer wish for animal sacrifices. Messiah himself would come and offer a perfect sacrifice that now would complete all those sacrifices were pointing to. That wasn't Christian propaganda trying to abolish Judaism. That was their own psalmists telling you that when Messiah came to do God's will, then the old system of sacrifices would pass away. It is not anti-Semitism. Nor is it anti-se- is it anti-Semitism when you hear our Lord correct the abuses that had taken place and the distortions of the worship of God that had occurred in Judaism. Their own prophets had said the same thing. If you first, before you read the fourth gospel, should, uh, care to read Jeremiah and take in the way he lambastes his fellow Jews for their corruption of the worship of God in the temple. If by any chance you should listen to Exe- Ezekiel exposing the corruptions that went on and the sheer paganism and syncretism in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, and the way he denounced them, you'll rather feel that our Lord's denunciations are somewhat mild in comparison. Not anti-Semitism. Now, we Christians should remember something else. In this, the fourth gospel, John shows us our Lord, God incarnate, going up to the festivals, joining with the people as they worship God, and critiquing their worship and service. Now the book of the Revelation that many people, I among them, believe was also written by John, shows us a very similar scene. You will remember its first three chapters, uh, describe a vision that was given to the Apostle John. In the vision, in the vision he saw the risen Lord surrounded by a circle of his churches, seven of them. And as the vision proceeded, the living Lord in all his majestic glory, risen now from the dead, walks among these his churches, seen in figure as lampstands, and comes to each one and listens to their worship and watches their service and then critiques it. And each time he praises what he can praise. And then uninhibitedly, of course, he criticizes what he must criticize, and calls on these churches, where necessary, to repent and come back from the distortions and corruptions that have crept into their Christian worship, and holds out rewards to encourage them to reform. The same Lord who therefore went to his own nation's worship in the temple at Jerusalem, and rightly being God incarnate, critiqued it. That same Lord is seen visiting Christian churches and critiquing their worship too, calling on them to repent and reform. We in Christendom, likewise, all down the centuries, how have we distorted true Christianity? How easy for us to be content with the outward forms of Christian festivals. Look what's about to happen at the so-called festival of Christmas. Wow. What will the babe of Bethlehem say to it all? And this morning, as we sit studying, that same risen Lord stands among us. He was watching our hearts as we sang. He's assessing our service. We must bear our hearts to his critique. He will praise what he can praise. He will, of course, criticize what he must criticize. But in it all, let the big emphasis be this. In these festivals, our Lord was coming to his people, and the new thing he was offering them was not the abolition of their old worship, but its fulfillment. He was offering them the big reality that lay behind the symbols. Let me take what quickly as I can, therefore, one example of these festivals, an easy one to see the relation between the ceremonies that were going on i- in Jerusalem in the temple and the message that Christ preached to them. That is the third journey I made with this afternoon. We must come at it from another viewpoint. But let us notice in chapter seven, eight, nine, and ten, our Lord's third journey to Jerusalem was on the occasion of the Festival of Tabernacles. So let's remember what that festival was about. Tab- Feast of Tabernacles, boons came towards the end of the year after the grape harvest, and, uh, round about that time, then after that there would come the harvest of nuts and things. In Palestine, of course, the corn harvest came early in the year, comparatively with our standards, uh, you'll say April, May time. The grape harvest came in our autumn, and at the time of the grape harvest, round about then, was held this great festival, when the people took branches of trees of one kind and another, and leaving their houses, they made temporary booths and shelters to live in, on the roof of their flat-roofed homes, or in the garden if they had one, or out in the fields, you see. And they lived in these booths for a whole week. The kids thought it was marvelous, you. They still do, not quite as elaborately as that, but even in northern times, you'll see an odd branch of a tree outside a Jewish house at the festival of Sukkot, the festival of, uh, uh, booths, you see. Tabernacle. And what was it for? Well, as they lived in booths for this week, they were to remember how once they had been slaves in Egypt, you see, and God had delivered them and brought them into their great inheritance. And to get them from Egypt to their great inheritance, God had required them to journey and to live in tents. And it was a long time they lived in tents, partly through their own folly. Forty years they lived in tent, uh, going through the wilderness, sometimes going round in circles, but never mind. At last they entered in unto Joshua, you'll see, and got into their land and reaped all the wonderful harvests and benefits of the land, their great inheritance. So at the autumn time in the year, God ordained that they should thus leave their homes and live in tents once more, to remember how God had led them and all the path their nation had had to come through and the experiences to reach their inheritance, and then, as now, to enjoy it. Oh, what a time it was, as father, now middle-aged and a little bit portly, uh, uh, with all the relatives, and he was wealthy, so he had a very big booth, you see, and he sat with his feet up on the, o- o- on the footstool amongst his grapes. They were lovely grapes this year, uh, uh, uh, and uh, he was well off, and he thought he expanded his chest and other parts of his anatomy that, oh, what a marvelous thing, you'll see. Our forefathers, they've trudged through a desert and never thought they'd got there, but we've made it. We're here, you'll see, we're here, and not only here, but look at the wealth, look at the enjoyment of our great inheritance. I mean, grapes and watermelons and figs and goodness knows what else. We've arrived, you'll see. Marvelous feeling it was. To add to all that, the rabbis in the course of the century had added one or two symbols. To remind themselves of what had happened in the desert, they went down as part of the ceremony and the ritual of the temple, they went down to the pool, uh, the the the side room, and they filled a golden vessel full of water and came and poured it at the base of the altar. It was in memory of the fact that in the wilderness, uh, when they ran out of water, God had them rock smitten, and the water gushed out to feed them. They remembered that. Uh, then, uh, they had special lights burning in the women's quarters of the temple. They looked very impressive in the dark velvet skies in Jerusalem, night sky at that time of year, and these lights in the women's quarters up in the temple there, shining over the city. They were a memorial of the fact that when they were coming through the wilderness, God led them, a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. All the marvel of it. God sustained them with the water. God led them by his light, and now they were here enjoying their inheritance. But you know, there's trouble with a festival like that. The first twenty five times you keep it, it's marvelous, you know, it's like Christmas. When you kept it thirty five times, it gets a bit samey. And when you're getting positively middle-aged, somewhere about seventy, you'll say. You could find yourself saying, yeah, I've arrived, I, yeah, I've arrived. Grapes are good, marvelous stuff, mm. But... is this all? And how many more feasts of booth am I going to attend? And what lies beyond it? And grapes, okay, yes, there's nothing wrong with figs. Is this all that God has for us? What about those longings of the human heart that grapes even can't satisfy? And the prophets, in their prophesying and thinking about these things, they had said to the nation, yes, but this feast, you know, is not only a memory of what God did in the past. It's a pledge from God of what he's prepared to do in the future. The way he watered the people with the water out of the rock, and we celebrate it with our pouring of water at the altar's base. Ah, but the prophet said, there's coming a day when God will not only give us water from a rock, there's coming a day when God will pour out his spirit on all flesh. Men shall know that deeper satisfaction. That is personal relationship with God. Not by simply knowing about God, but by receiving the very spirit of God. So did the prophets prophesy that this one day would happen. And as for grapes, hmm. The great prophet Isaiah, uh, in his chapter twenty five, as we call it, prophesied that the day would come when the Lord God would make them a feast of fat things, of wines on the lees, well refined. He would give them a feast of wine, promoting such joy that he would wipe away all tears from their eyes, and death itself would be swallowed up in victory. You'll say there's something that could can put a damper on enjoying mere grapes, particularly when you're getting older. That's a prospect in a year or two you'll be dead. Anything beyond grapes and death? Yes, said Isaiah as he thought about this great feast. Ah, God will make them a feast of fat things, of wines on the leaves, well repair- well refined. He swallowed up death in victory. The Lord God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. The great prophet Zechariah prophesied that when the Messiah came, then the whole nation being redeemed will keep the feast of the tabernacles to the Lord. Really arrive at the great climax that God had prepared for us in his redemption. Feast of tabernacles, and here is the Lord Jesus going up to the feast of tabernacles. John nudges you in the ribs, he says, you haven't forgot what I said in the prologue, Abel. He's no ordinary worshipper, this. He's the God that they're supposedly worshipping. There came that dramatic moment when they had poured the water at the base of the altar for the last time. Marvelous ceremony to see the great high priest, you know, all these colorful robes, woo-hoo, and that golden picture, and the solemnity of the occasion, and the joy, and there were all the crowds they got their luulabs, as they call them, you know, their branches of palm trees and things, who waving them marvelously, ecstatically, all great stuff, you'll see, and crying, Hosanna, Lord, save now we beseech thee. Ooh, great climax, great day of the feast, enormous excitement, much waving of luulabs. But, um, when that subsided, suddenly a voice was heard, a loud, piercing voice coming over the heads of the crowd gathered in their immense throngs in and around the temple. The voice said, if any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. Thou, he that believeth on me, out of his inward part shall flow rivers of living water. As he spoke of the Spirit, that they who believe on him were about to receive. The Spirit was not yet given, for Jesus was not yet glorified. But when he died, rose, and ascended to heaven, then God would indeed, in fact, Jesus himself would do it, receiving from the Father the promise of the Spirit. He would pour out the Spirit, as the prophets of Israel had said he would. This was the reality. All that water pouring was but symbol. There were many in Israel who came to believe him, and ultimately after Pentecost to prove by experience the marvelous reality to which the symbols point. But there were others who didn't feel that way. And the high priest, Caiaphas and company, were absolutely livid. The sheer cheek of him, when we put in a whole week of ritual and pageantry and performance, uh, to suggest that anybody would still be unsatisfied and still thirsty. And in their counsel, they decided they must silence him. He talked to them as the light of the world and opened up, shone his light over the very grave itself. He that believes on me and follows me shall not see death, he said. Doesn't mean he shouldn't die. He should not see death. Death for a believer would be just the portal into the very presence of God himself. What a light it was. There were some who believed and followed and discovered the wonder of him who, being the light of the world, himself who died and rose from the dead, can shine his light over the grave into the eternal realm and guarantee safe passage for all who trust him. And the reaction? Some believed, I say, and others, oh dear, some said, you'll say, what are you talking about? You say before Abraham was, I am. You know our father Abraham is dead? Mm. And the prophets are dead? I'm afraid there was a great deal of dead. Happy with it, content with it, and presently took up stones to stone him and to put him to death as well. Have you got the idea? That's why I entitled this talk, God Incarnate Goes to Church. For at this point, we cease to think about Jews of old time. We think of ourselves, don't we? And Christianity. And what from time to time has happened to Christianity. How it has become outward festivals, rehearsal of symbols. And the danger is that people rest with the externals, never get round to finding the reality that lies behind the symbol. And if I were a preacher, I would be tempted to preach on that, but I'm not a preacher, as you see, and, uh, I must rein myself in. If that is, uh, one example of our Lord going to the festivals and what he did and said, I want to come back now to the first journey and start by laying out for you the major contents of the first journey. Let's look at another slide. The journey that begins, therefore, the first journey that begins in chapter thirteen, according to my reckoning, extends through the rest of chapter two, through chapter three, and fills the whole of chapter four, and comes to its end with the final verse of chapter four being verse fifty four itself. A rough table of contents would give you as follows. First of all, in chapter two, the cleansing of the temple. Then the conversation with Nicodemus, that was carrying after it comments by John the Evangelist. Then, as our Lord goes to Judea, the countryside, we're told by John about the ministry of John the Baptist and his disciples and certain conversations that John the Baptist had with his disciples about Jesus Christ. Then the journey back home to Galilee begins, and chapter four is concerned in the first place with the conversation that our Lord had with the Samaritan woman at a well. When she went off to report what she had found to the menfolk of her town, our Lord's disciples came, and there follows a long conversation between our Lord and his disciples, and then remarks passed by Samaritan men as to think from the woman. The thing is brought to its end when our Lord arrives back in Galilee, and a royal official comes to him, pleading with him to save his son. These are the major part con- uh, uh, sections, the major parts, elements in the first journey. Our task now is to ask why these are selected. And are they just oddments that John arbitrarily selects from this journey and return? Or do they have some connected theme? I want forthwith to say that they represent, uh, uh, between them, a discussion of a theme. And a very balanced discussion of a theme. For the very first story tells us that our Lord went to Jerusalem and into the temple, immediately concerned with the worship of his people, and there he cleansed the temple. You have his stringent critique of the worship of the Jews in the Orthodox temple in Jerusalem. That's story one, followed by story two and three. And then comes, uh, the second half of, of, of the journey. He's now on his way home, and the evangelist concentrates on what happened in Samaria. And you see what it's about, don't you? It's not merely about bringing personal satisfaction to that tired and unsatisfied woman. Conversation turns with her on the worship of God. Our fathers, she said, worshipped in this mountain. You Jews say that at Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. And there followed a ding dong conversation between our Lord and the woman about the true principles of worship. You'll see that the, the section is already beginning to be unified, isn't it? It is, as I say, a very balanced treatment by John. He's being very fair. First of all, it's the critique of the Orthodox worship at Jerusalem. Then, in all fairness, our Lord goes to Samaria and talks about the highly unorthodox religion in Samaria. I tell you a little secret, you guaranteed to tell nobody else. The Jews and the Samaritans didn't like each other. Oh, they would have freely strangled one another. And what was it all about? About religion and about worship. As a Samaritan woman put it to our Lord, now you Jews, she said, perceiving him she thought to be a prophet, so she scraped the cupboard bare of topics to talk about. It's difficult when a prophet comes and you say, what on earth do you talk about? Can you talk about football to a prophet? I mean, now here's this man's a prophet, so goodness, what do you say? Oh, she thought about a little religion she knew about. Our fathers, she said, worshipped in this mountain and used the past tense very exactly. They had their own temple once upon a time up there in Mount Gerizim. And then the Maccabean Jews came along, and they destroyed it in their bitterness of religious feuding. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. You Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where you ought to worship. So deep was the religious feuding that Jews would not use the same vessels as a Samaritan woman. Women were in a permanent state of defilement. Anybody who came anywhere near them would be defiled. Anybody used the cups and saucers they used would be defiled likewise. Our Lord goes to Samaria, and he talks to this woman about their worship. Huh? Let's, uh, so then the thing is divided into two. Very balanced, very fair. Our Lord is going to overleap the barriers, the hostility between the two groups, and offer his salvation to both, and a way forward into unity. Let's see the next slide. The story one, as now we go to con- concentrate on the thought flow, the story one is about the cleansing of the temple. What was wrong with the temple? Now here it is exceedingly important that we pay close attention to the text, for if you didn't, you could make up a marvelous sermon that might sound nice, but would not be to the point. You could say he went up to the temple, and there were all these animals in the court there, oof, defiling the place with their manure. It was fearful, it was horrible, the stench was tremendous, and our Lord said, take these filthy things out here, do. See, making such a disgraceful mess, and he cleansed the temple. And then you could leave the text, couldn't you, and you'd start to preach a good sermon. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost, and you know we allow a lot of things that defile our bodies, and we've got to cleanse them from all filthiness and impurity. You could argue like that, it'd be a very good sermon. Trouble is, it wouldn't be what John is preaching. He cleansed the temple in what sense? Well, you'll say, make not my father's house a house of merchandise, he said, of selling, making business. You'll see, when they came to the temple, they had to offer sacrifices. The sacrifices were only symbols, but necessarily, of course, they cost. It would have been a far better thing if they'd have bought the, uh, sacrifices down in town or some grocer or farmer or something. What had happened was that now they were, on the excuse it was more convenient for the worshippers in the very temple out- out of court, and they were selling these things, and they were changing the money so that the contributions to the temple should be in the sacred coinage. And of course, the gentleman who did it made money out of it, didn't they? So now, if you please, as you actually came into the temple, and you came to get your forgiveness from God, so to speak, and you had to offer a sacrifice, then it became patently obvious to many that you had to pay for the thing. And not only do you to pay for the symbol, uh, uh, of a calf or dove or something, you jolly well knew that the man was making money out of it. It's very difficult to take God seriously when you're being advised by a man who you see is charging you a hefty sum for this particular ritual. The unfortunate, uh, uh, uh, impression it made was God's forgiveness, God's mercy, his salvation had to be paid for. You've made it a den of thieves, commercialism. Why was he so angry? We'll just skip the stories a bit. Uh, lift it up. He's going to talk to Nicodemus. Right central to the message, whether he said the words or John added them as he wrote the gospel. The heart of the gospel is what? Is that you don't have to pay. You can't buy God's forgiveness. You don't have to contribute to church funds. The criticism goes to Christianity as well it does to Jude. This is not anti-Semitism. How frequently has religion turned itself into a business? You have to pay for God's forgiveness through his priest. No, says Christ, the truth about God is God so loved the world that he gave. It is free. And look what he said to the woman in her unorthodox Samaritan temple and system of worship. My dear good woman, said he, if only you knew the gift of God. You would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water. You see how the two stories are connected with the cleansing of the temple. What he was objecting to in the temple was the selling of God's mercies and forgiveness. The truth is that God gives them absolutely free. You'll notice, of course, as you pass by, that, uh, the gift on each occasion is slightly different. The stories are not merely repetitiously repeating themselves. With Nicodemus, the giver is God, and the gift is the Son of God. Talking to the woman, the gift is the water, that is the Holy Spirit, and the giver is the Son of God. That's both sides of the Christian gospel, isn't it? John is being very exact and very fair and always balanced and putting the whole case across and not part of it merely. This is God's salvation, the gift of the Son and the gift of the Spirit, and both are absolutely free. Yes. But let's, uh, uh, come back now and, uh, look at another thing. You'll see. I talked about the cleansing of the temple. Hm. It wasn't simply that he cleansed the temple, he did something else. And you'll notice how John the writer emphasizes that there were two things he did in the temple, not one. You will see he does that by, uh, recording the first thing, Christ reforms the old temple, throws out the oxen and doves and what have you. And then there's a comment by the evangelists. His disciples remembered that it was written. Then our Lord makes another statement. There's another bit to the story. That ends, his disciples remembered that he spoke this. This is a good artist. This is a very careful historian. He's nudging you in the ribs and telling you there are two parts, don't get just one. There are two parts. Look how the thing is arranged formally. Notice the form of it, as the literary critics would say. Two things. And in the first, our Lord reforms the old, thought it well worth reforming. Called it my father's house, and though it was soon to be destroyed, he thought it was still worth reforming. But in the second bit, he announces a completely new temple. Indeed, not only new, but a new kind of temple. When they came saying, what sign do you show that you do these things? Our Lord said, destroy this temple, I'll raise it again in three days. He spoke not of Herod's temple, the temple of his own body. This was a new kind of a temple. So it is both the reform of the old and now the announcement of the new. And one day the new thing would replace the old. But God isn't interested so much in bricks and mortar and stone, far more interested in the great reality to which those, of which those things were but prototypes. Christ himself first, his very body, the temple of the Holy Go- uh, uh, uh, of God, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily. And then as we are joined to him, we become temples of God and shall form eternally the great dwelling place of God through the Spirit. That's the great reality. The buildings of old were but a prototype of them. Notice then a conversation with a Samaritan. What was he doing in the sa- the conversation? Let's up the film a bit, if we could. He talks to the woman and criticizes their old form of worship. Then he announces the new form of worship. I say he is being fair, isn't he? And John is being consistent. What was wrong with their old system of worship? My dear woman, he said, you worship you know not what. For the Samaritans had rejected a great part of the Old Testament. And because they had rejected a great part of the Old Testament, they rejected Jerusalem as the place that God had chosen for his temple to be built there. And brought up in that kind of attitude to large chunks of the Old Testament, they were trying to worship God, but their worship wasn't true to scripture. It was therefore in ignorance. And seeing God had revealed and gone on to reveal more and more of himself as the Old Testament had proceeded, the Samaritans were living in ignorance, not only of what Old Testament said about God, but necessarily and in consequence, ignorant of God. You worship, but you don't know what. Now it's a different, uh, complaint, isn't it? It's not merely that they're making money out of religion, but their worship is not true to Holy Scripture. And since Holy Scripture is God's self-revelation, to suppose you can neglect Holy Scripture and yet worship God acceptably, is not true, is it? So he criticized the old worship. But notice now how he announces a new. You say, she said that Jerusalem is the place our fathers worshipped in this place. My dear good woman, said Christ, the time is coming when it's no longer going to be a question of place, neither in this temple nor in Jerusalem, neither in this place nor in Jerusalem will you worship God. For the hour is coming and now is, and there's coming a great change. It will no longer be a question of place. You must worship in this particular temple. For God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and according to truth. That is the new form of worship. Not externals, but spirit. Not our own devising, but God's revelation of himself in his word. That speaks to us as well, surely. Uh, we're not, uh, above listening into this conversation with a Samaritan woman, are we? John is writing it for us, not for them merely. We need to look at our own worship, don't we? But if it's going to be acceptable to God, worship has to be in spirit, since God is spirit. But worship is not just having nice feelings inside me. It's worshiping according to truth. Imagine if you found me one day in a great art gallery, you'll see, and I'm saying to myself, oh, this is a marvelous picture, delightful picture, oh, this is the most beautiful Rubens I've ever seen. I think he's marvelous. And you say, what's wrong with him? To come out, and I'm going on at great length about this picture, what a marvelous Rubens it is. And you say, Rubens, you're standing in the Tate Gallery, my boy, to one of these modern artists. And then I got my eyes shut, you see. I must be having all sorts of funny things going on inside me and wonderful feelings and nothing too related to what I'm supposed to be looking at. To be acceptable. Worship has got to be according to truth. Yeah? How good. One or two things more before we take our coffee. We come back to the conversation with Mr. Nick, with uh, Rabbi Nicodemus. Are you getting the thought flow? First the cleansing of the temple, the critiquing of the old form of worship, the announcement of the new form of worship. Now comes the rabbi, and our Lord talks to him about the conditions for entering the kingdom of God. And now, uh, ra- uh, uh, um, Nicodemus appears not to understand them, and our Lord gently rebukes him. Art thou a master in Israel and knowest not these things, a teacher in Israel, and you don't know these things, the necessity of the new birth? I'm telling you, says Christ, that except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Why didn't Nicodemus know about it? The famous prophet Ezekiel, friend of yours, I hope. He wrote a long book. I hope you've read it. You'll see. If you haven't, when you meet him in heaven, and he asks you, what did you think of my book? You'll need to be ready with an excuse why you didn't read it. You can't tell him to his face you found it a bore. So be ready with your excuse, or otherwise better read the thing. And it begins by a critique of the temple at Jerusalem, doesn't it? The great prophecy of Ezekiel, and how corrupt Jewish worship had been to the point where the glory of God had to forsake the temple completely. The end of the book gives the Ezekiel's vision of a restored temple, and Ezekiel in his vision sees the glory of God returning to the temple. And what is the secret of that restoration? The chapters tell us, thirty seven and eight, that one day God is to bring about a great renewal and reformation of the nation. It shall be caused in the one thing by the cleansing of water. I will pour clean water upon you, and you shall be clean, says God through the prophet Ezekiel. The cleansing by water. And in the next chapter, the nation is figured as a valley full of dead bones, and there comes the Spirit of God, and they rise up with new life, born of water and the Spirit. Not literal water, of course, God isn't going to get a hose pipe and hose pipe the whole nation with water, holy or otherwise. This is a metaphor, isn't it? A matter of spiritual cleansing through the word and operation of the Spirit of God. Then not only a reformation, but a new life, and the dead bones made to live by the Spirit of God, born of water and the Spirit, the nation shall be restored to God. They shall have this glorious new temple. Why didn't Nicodemus know it? Should have known it. But how wonderfully it fits on with the theme, doesn't it? The new kind of temple that Christ is now talking about is not merely his body, which was a temple of God, filled with the glory and grace of God. But the gospel shows how we too can be introduced into the kingdom of God, born of water and the Spirit, and thus become temples of God ourselves. And joined to Christ and all other believers shall form the eternal tabernacle and temple of God. How? Through new birth. This is not just a criticism of Judaism. Oh, let us in Christendom hear it. You may have the most elaborate buildings and ceremonies and temples, but if the people in the pew have not been born again, then it is not true Christian worship. It's gone back to the outward forms of religion. Yes. But now, while we're there, just for a moment, we're going to step aside before we go back to Samaria. Do you mind if we do that? On the route back, we're going to call in a word with John the Baptist, or at least if he he doesn't dare to come out and talk to us, we shall hear him talking to his disciples, do you see? It's a great popular preacher, thousands come, and when people, preachers get popular, some find it very difficult to get near them, you know. They become important and get interviewed, uh, do you see? But anyway, uh, there came one of John's uh disciples to him, and the man was upset, terribly upset. Master, they said, you remember that young man that you introduced the other day, you're not one of your meetings. You graciously deigned to give him a five-minute spot in the introduction, you see, and told the people that he was a very good, uh, preacher and had a future before him. Uh, John said, yes, you mean Jesus? Yes, yes, yes. What's wrong? Well, he said, he's setting up a different, a separate campaign from you, and what's worse, he's attracting the crowds more than you get, and he's baptizing far more than you. I mean, this won't do. I mean, you gave him a leg up, and now he's taking over. And John's disciple was seriously put out at what this Jesus was doing. And John's reply was to rebuke his pro- his disciple and pointed out this. He must, that is Jesus, must increase, I decrease. You see, said he, Jesus is from above, anosen in Greek. He comes from above. He is above all. You can't put us two in the same category, Jesus and John the Baptist. We're not in the same category. I am of the earth, says he. He is from above, and he who comes from above is above all. I'm just like a chap who arranges a marriage, you know, a friend of a bridegroom, and he introduces the bride to the, uh, to the bridegroom or the bridegroom to the potential bride, you see. And then, of course, what happens? Having introduced the bridegroom to the bride and the bride to the bridegroom, potentially. What does the chap do? Does he say to the bride, now look here, my dear, um, I've introduced you to your prospective husband. From now on, my dear, you mustn't go direct. You have to come through me. I'm the official intermediary between you and the bridegroom, you see, and anything you want to say to the bridegroom, you come to me first. Nonsense. Well, well, I don't know. I don't know about these things, but I think it's nonsense. Eh, do see. Do see. No, no, having introduced the girl to the man and the man to the girl, the chap gets out of the way and lets them two carry on, yes? Doesn't seek to, uh, get the bride dependent on him and him magnified more than the bridegroom. Comes from above, Anothen. And my attitude to him and my ministry towards him must be consistent with that glorious fact. But if we come down a little bit, notice that Greek word, note down to Nicodemus, you'll see, uh, when our Lord, uh, is talking to Nicodemus, he said, you must be born Anothen, which means from above. And in talking to Nicodemus, he adds, you'll say no one has ascended into heaven but the Son of Man. He's come down from heaven. If you want to believe and know anything about heaven, you'll believe it simply because Christ told you. Another, in his sense, has come down from heaven. He has the monopoly on the truth. Want to know about heaven? You must come to Christ. And since he's the one that comes down from heaven, he's telling you the conditions of the eternal and heavenly and spiritual temple. You must be born from above. And if that be the gospel message that Christ preaches to Nicodemus, note that all servants, however eminent the servant, let him be John the Baptist himself, must, the servant must show to Christ an attitude that is consistent with what you preach about Christ in the gospel. Got that? Let's look at the other two, the conversation with the Samaritan. And he preached to the woman the very secret of true worship of God. It is the receipt of the Holy Spirit dwelling in your heart and rising up a well of living water till you know the Father. And knowing the Father, you want spontaneously to worship him in spirit and according to truth. Lovely image, the satisfying water, the deep well of water to satisfy the heart of a woman hitherto unsatisfied. That's how we preach the gospel, isn't it? And in your mission next term, you'll be pointing out this to your as yet unconverted friends. Ah, but when the woman went off leaving her water pot to tell the men the wonderful experience she'd had of this Jesus the Messiah, his disciples came to Jesus, and there follows a discussion between Jesus and his disciples. You mustn't blame John if he's sort of developing a pattern. It all happened, you know. And what was their conversation about when the disciples talked to Jesus, you'll see? What was that about? They said, Master, eat. You haven't had had very much of a breakfast when you set out this morning. You've had no lunch, and it's getting on. Eat, Master. And he said, but I've got food to eat that you don't know of. What food? He said, my food is to do the will of him that sent me and to complete his work. To talk to that one woman, if it required a journey of I don't know how many miles, to sit thirsty on the well side and speak to her about the Father and the Father's quest for worshippers, and to satisfy that woman's heart so that she could become a true worshipper of God. For Christ, that was like very food to his heart. He wasn't saying, I get paid to do this, I as how I earn my daily bread and butter. He was saying that the doing the job fed him. My fellow Christians, we're going to make an impact with the world, and we're going out to the world and say, oh, Jesus satisfies the heart, you know, trust Jesus, he satisfies you. And then behind the scenes, when somebody asks us to do some chore connected with the mission, say, no, I don't have to do this. That's a bore of a thing. What? If we preach a Christ that can satisfy, and we want our, our witness to be valid, we must learn the secret of Christ, of serving God in his quest for worshippers, and going out of our way to help others find the gift of God, the living water. We must do it not merely as a duty, though if that's all we can bring to it, it is our duty, and we must do it. But we must seek to know what it means to find working and serving and leading others to Christ an exceedingly satisfying thing in itself. Mm. Jesus Christ, the God incarnate goes to church. And if I got anything across this, I would labor. This is not just a critique of ancient Judaism. It is equally a critique of Christ's church and us now. There's one more story left. We'll just squint at it, shall we? Uh, if we could have it just up a bit. The final story that completes this section is how our Lord healed a royal official's son. You say, what on earth has that got to do with anything? Or perhaps nothing at all. And if it proves to have nothing to do with what has gone before, well, there's no grounds for complaint, have we? But it might be worth noticing just a little bit about the formal structure of the story. Do you know what? This story about the official is in two bits. As you see, the ma- our Lord heals the man, and that bit of the s- heals the man's body, and that bit ends, the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way. That's the first bit of the story ended with a comment about the man's belief. And then there's a second part of the story, and if you please, that ends with, so the father knew that it was at the hour in which Jesus said to him, your son lives, and he himself believed, and his whole house, so he believed twice over. One is allowed to believe more than once, you see. Uh, he believed twice. Do you see how the story is told formally in two parts? You say, so what about that then? Well, just put it down so we can see the first story. That was in two parts likewise, wasn't it? And shown to be in two parts by the same device. The first bit ends, his disciples remembered that it was written. And then the second part ends, when he was raised, raised from the dead, the disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the scripture and the word of God and the word that Jesus had said. Why are that? That's only a sort of a rather remote question to ask, isn't it? I mean, why on earth has John put the stories like that, both in the same form? Two short stories, but formally they are the same. Is he hinting at something? Is he wanting us to compare them? Have the stories anything in common? Because if they turned out to have something in common, that might be an indication as to how we are to interpret this last story, mightn't it? It's not time to do that now, it's time for coffee. So we end our seminar here.