Study inJohn’s Gospel

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A PigeonholeFor Jesus

Chap 8v48-59

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IntroductionSome people have an obsessive organisational drive. It can be seen in their kitchens, their workshops and their filing cabinets. A place for everything and everything in its place. Of course without some organisation, life would be pretty chaotic. Try visiting a supermarket, with the intention of buying a few carrots only to discover that the vegetable section has been invaded by children’s toys. You are left disoriented. Shopping becomesless straightforward.

We like to find things in their proper place and to put things into categories that we are familiar with.

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IntroductionThe great problem facing the religious leaders of Jesus’ day was that they had great difficulty in categorising him. Throughout his discourse Jesus had made remarkable claims; to be sinless v46, to have power over death v51, to pre-exist Abraham v56 and finally to be God v58. No other man had made such claims and because the religious leaders had no pigeonhole for Jesus, they found that they either, had to treat his claims seriously or, try to squeeze him into what was for them a known category.

They chose the latter and wanted to pigeonhole Jesus as either a Samaritan or demon-possessed, either an enemy of the Jews, or someone who was a hand puppet of Satan.

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Motive For MissionJesus responds by laying bare his motive for mission! Jesus recognised that it is not so much our actions that count but the motives behind our actions. I can publicly give a large sum of money to charity but if my motive is to secure the applause and praise of men then my gift is instantly devalued in God’s eyes. I can devote hours of service to some charity or needy cause but if I do so in order to get a knighthood from the queen then my service is instantly devalued.

Jesus tells us that the motive behind the claims he has made and the mission in which he is engaged is to bring ‘glory to the Father’. That must be our pattern!

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Motive For MissionJesus did not go out of his way to blow his own trumpet but to glorify the Father, who had planned the salvation of men. In Jn. 17v4 knowing that his arrest is just hours away and that his death on the cross was an immanent certainty, Jesus prayed these all important words in Gethsemane,

“Father…I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do”.

Jesus’ great passion was his Father’s glory. Dare we ask God to make that the consuming passion of our lives?

God’s glory!Presentation 29

Goal of his MissionThat said, Jesus makes it clear that it is the Father, the Judge, who would ensure that he would be glorified. Now the Son’s glory lies, in part, in what would be his victory over death. A victory he would secure not only on his own behalf but on behalf of those for whom he died. As a result he could confidently claim, “I tell you the truth if anyone keeps my word he will never see death”. v51.

Now the expression, “I tell you the truth” is a weak translation of the Greek words, “Amen, Amen”. The Hebrew background of this expression means that which is an ‘absolutely unshakableand unassailable truth!’

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This is not an automatic, but a conditional, offer. It begins with the little word ‘If’, ‘If anyone keeps my word’. What does it mean to keep Christ’s word? First, it means to hear what Jesus is saying and to hear with some real understanding.

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It is not to be a case of ‘in one ear and out the other’ but of allowing the significance of what has been said to register in our minds!

But even that is not enough. Indeed, to remain at this stage and go no further can prove to be increasingly dangerous.

Goal Of His Mission

A. J. Gossip a Glasgow minister of the 20thC, described this danger as follows:

“The longer we have been inoculated with Christianity, the less likely we are to take it seriously now! You put some of the virus of some dreadful illness into a man's arm, and there is a little itchiness, some scratchiness, a slight discomfort - disagreeable, no doubt, but not the fever of the real disease, the turning and the tossing, and the ebbing strength. And we have all been inoculated with Christianity, more or less. We are on Christ's side, we wish him well, we hope that He will win, and we are even prepared to do something for Him, provided, of course, that He is reasonable, and does not make too much of an upset among our cosy comforts and our customary ways. But there is not the passion of zeal, and the burning enthusiasm, and the eagerness of self-sacrifice, of the real faith that changes character and wins the world”.

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Goal Of His Mission

Secondly, to hear Christ’s word means to commit wholeheartedly to what one has heard and understood. This can be illustrated. Think of a couple who agree to go out together. The young man tells the young woman that he loves her, she likes to hear that. He brings flowers and chocolates and treats her to endless romantic meals. Extravagant birthday presents are showered upon her. He has used every possible device to communicate his love.

But for the relationship to go anywhere she has to respond and agree to commit herself to him, to bind herself to him in a way that responds to his love.

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Goal Of His Mission

To keep Christ’s words means more than understanding and commitment. It involves a willingness to obey him. To do what Jesus wants and not what suits us. The word translated ‘keep’ in v51 has a military background. It was used to describe the vigilance of the sentry who stood guard over a prisoner.

And so we are to keep Jesus’ word as carefully as a soldier would keep watch over a prisoner under his care. It is to those who are prepared to hear his word in these terms, that Jesus makes a remarkable promise,

“he will never see death”.

But what does that mean? It is clearlynot a reference to physical death.

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Goal Of His Mission

An earlier passage [5v24] fills out the meaning, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life”. Jesus is speaking about the spiritual death that his people will be spared or the second death mentioned in Rev. 20v6, which is the result of God’s judgement.

It is clear from elsewhere in the N.T. that Jesus’ mission was to reconcile sinful man to a holy God. Cf. 2 Cor. 5v20

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Goal Of His Mission

Before the fall God had said to Adam, ‘on the day that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will surely die.’ Gen. 2v17. Adam and Eve’s disobedience resulted, in the first instance, in their spiritual death the essence of which is separation from God.

This is the significance of Adam and Eve being ushered out of the Garden of Eden. They were separated from fellowship with God and from the second tree, in theGarden, the tree of life. God’s judgment excluded them from the prospect of eternal life in company with him. Making their salvation a necessity!

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Goal Of His Mission

This fills out our understanding of Jesus’ mission? By his death, by identifying himself with his people’s sins and paying sin’s price, by experiencing their hell and their separation from God, he opened up for them a way back into God’s presence and the ability to enjoy him for all eternity. This is the significance of the term “crossing over from death to life”. It is a move from condemnation to acceptance! This is the bridge-promise offered to those, who keep his word in the sense previously outlined. And what a promise it is!

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Goal Of His Mission

The religious leaders who heard Jesus’ teaching were enraged. “Jesus was implying that he was greater than the father of their faith, Abraham. Abraham and the prophets didn’t defeat death, who did Jesus think he was?”

Jesus really put the cat among the pigeon’s telling them that Abraham rejoiced to see his day. Notice thatJesus is talking of the historic past and not of any present joy that Abraham might be experiencing.

Do you see the implication? An incident took place in the past that brought to Abraham a measure of spiritual enlightenment which enabled him, 2000 years previously, to see what Jesus would accomplish for his people freeing them from the bonds of death.

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Response To His Mission

What incident? One that took place on Mt. Moriah, [the mountain on which Jerusalem was eventually built], where Abraham was tested by God. Cf. Gen.22v1-19 Abraham was prepared to offer up his son Isaac as a sacrifice. God stopped Abraham before he could plunge his knife into his son. Abraham then saw a ram caught in a thicket. This animal was sacrificed in the place of Isaac – a sacrificial substitute!

What conclusion did Abraham draw? He named the spot “The Lord will provide”. He grasped that God would provide a substitute, a sacrifice to die in his people’s stead and that a greater Father than he would give up his Son out of love for a sinful people. Well could Jesus say, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day”.

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Response To His Mission

True to form, the religious leaders misunderstood Jesus’ meaning and believed that Jesus was claiming to have been a contemporary of Abraham’s. Their response was: “Come on Jesus you don’t even look 50 years of age”. Then Jesus really took their breath away saying, “before Abraham was I am”. This is one of the clearest claims to divinity that we find on Jesus’ lips. You see he is not simply claiming to pre-exist Abraham. These words imply much more! Jesus has taken to himself one of the great titles by which God was known;

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Response To His Mission

“I am”

When Moses was told by God to return to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of captivity, he was worried about the reception he might receive. In reply, God said to Moses, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' Ex. 3.14. Jesus was claiming to be the great ‘I AM’. The Jews clearly understood this to be Jesus meaning and for this reason took up stones to stone him for the crime of blasphemy. Jesus brought this whole debate on his identity and mission to a close by slipping through their fingers. The one who had promised eternal life to those who obeyed his word had made it abundantly clear, who he believed himself to be! His identity was clearly published!

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Response To His Mission

ConclusionIn Jesus, we have one who has made himself known as God manifest in the flesh - a perfect Saviour and sacrifice for sin. Clearly he does not fit into the pigeonhole of any human expectation! Abraham got excited about who he was and what he would accomplish on the cross. Do we share that excitement? Or, do we identify with those, who have been inoculated against any enthusiastic commitment to Jesus?

Have we heard and understood the gospel message over a long period of but have given no real heart commitment or obedience to Jesus?

Jesus gave his life that we might pass from death to life. Respond to Jesus if you have not already done so.Do not withhold your heart commitment and obedience from him any longer!

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