April 29
TREKKING WITH ABRAHAM
(John 8:47 – 49)
“Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” I rest on Jesus‘ meaning about basic issues of life with that remark. What do I mean? Today I am talking about doctrinal questions in particular. Is Christ’s second advent “Pre-trib?” “Mid-trib?” or “Post trib?” and other such type of things, although I am sure are questions that have their answer in the scripture, is not what I wish to pursue. I am however, absolutely positive that there are definitive answers to the priority questions and subjects concerning definitive statements of what we believe.
I remember that to prove the concept of resurrection to the unbelieving Sadducee’s, Jesus simply quoted, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. As far as Christ was concerned, it was “Issue sorted”. In order to settle the issue that the Messiah is both descended from David humanly speaking and yet was God Almighty at the same time, Jesus quoted Psalm 110 where it says, “The Lord says to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand.” He followed the quotation by asking the question that if the Messiah is David’s Son, “Why does David call Him Lord?” Oh to see as Jesus sees! A single biblical verse solves some vast planes of theological conceptual issues.
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| Jesus on the road to Emmaus. |
After the resurrection on that incredible walk to Emmaus, Jesus lifted two disciples out of deep depression by giving them a Bible Study. It states that, “Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He explained and expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.” And the only clue we have as to where Christ went with His explanations was the previous verse in Luke 24 where He says, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter His glory?” In simple language, Jesus told these two walking companions off for being so slow to believe, and their slowness was because of not understanding scripture. “Moses and all the prophets,” does not simply mean major and minor prophets and the five books of Moses. It means the entire Old Testament. I have read Obadiah a thousand times with a desire to be taught of Christ. It gives me a problem. I do not see Christ in Obadiah! Am I not hearing God? If I am not hearing God, am I not His?
Here is my answer to such a thought. There are issues in life that Christ wants us to search hunger and dig for. Proverbs says, “With all your getting, get wisdom.” The fact that you think you are not wise does not mean you are not hearing God. In fact the realisation that you are not wise is, in itself, one of the first steps to wisdom. The very first step to wisdom is to gain a healthy fear of the Lord. All wisdom is learnt. It is, as Isaiah calls it, “Line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept”. That is how wisdom comes. We hear God for the “line upon line.” But we also hear God when people speak to us and we hear God in those words.
The Lord is a shepherd. That does not mean the shepherd tells the sheep everything that is on His mind. But it does mean that the sheep is guided and mentored into whatever direction the shepherd desires them to follow. What Jesus was speaking about with these Jewish hard hearts in John 8 was immediate guidance. That immediate guidance was to do with their belief systems, and their motives for maintaining the status quo in understanding and belief. The Status Quo was the wrong path. It was a path that was leading them to eternal death.
Having said things as direct and as clear as it was possible to make it, the crowd makes a response which if it shows one thing, it is that they were so red hot in their anger and hatred that they had missed the total meaning of anything Jesus had just said. “The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”” (John 8:48).
They have resorted to accusation, and have totally abandoned the process of self examination, the examination of enquiry as to what they were hearing from the mouth of Jesus and the search for its verification in the scriptures that they treasured. In calling Jesus a Samaritan, they were not attempting a racist comment per se, although one has to say that it is somewhat embedded in the venom they spat at the Saviour. To the Jews, Samaritans were heretics, idolaters, unsound in the bible teaching and… Yes …they were anything but Jewish. Included in their verbal assault is the fact that by the authority of their biblical experts and teachers, Jesus was discussing things of which they had no perception, understanding or knowledge, and from that platform their assumptions were that if anybody thought they knew things that the priests, rabbis and scribes did not know, they were “obviously” babbling demonic witch craft statements, and spiritual nonsense that really meant nothing. So the demon that was hiding in their consciousness, knowing the hatred that these Jews said they had for demons, reflected back to the spotless Son of God, that He must have a demon, not them. Oh dear! The way of the transgressor is hard. This is the blind thinking that they see. This is the demonic cloud that causes blindness and misunderstanding to assert itself as clear sight and pure perception. In words that they would be later rueing that they ever spoke, they declared to Almighty God in human form that He had a demon. Imagine abiding in hell with one’s own words like that echoing in one’s ears.
In verse 49 Christ answers, “I am not possessed by a demon,but I honour my Father and you dishonour me.” I feel certain that Jesus spoke these words quietly but assertively, humbly but with the tone of absolute assurance. Perhaps even with the emphasis on the word, “I”. But with a glance to heaven, and then back with a straight look into their eyes, He says, “but I honour my Father.” With motive, manner of life, tone of voice, and the motivation of love, we see the Father when we see Christ. Christ is in the Father, and the Father is in Christ. One God, two persons. But with fervour, deep feeling, and a passion to save these lost human beings, He broken heartedly says to them, “And you dishonour me.” Oh the pain for Him who gave His all to save all. It seems that the deeper we go intoJohn 8 the clearer He acquitted Himself, the worse was their darkness manifested. The more words He fed them with that could have guaranteed a mansion in the glory, the more they rejected Him. The hate and intent to murder filled the atmosphere. They were restrained to a degree. Murder was not allowed at this moment of time, for His day had not come.
But He was about to make a statement that would seemingly cross a line with them. It was a statement concerning Abraham.
WHAT’S THE POINT? How important is the skilled exercise to hear God’s voice.
Trekking with Abraham 