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Part 2 of the Series:
“search the scriptures” John 5:39
The Lord Jesus was travelling from Judea on His way to Galilee. Wearied with His journey He sat resting on the well outside the city of Sychar. At midday, a woman from the city came to draw water.
As she approached, she could see the figure of a man sitting on the well. She would later invite the men of the nearby city to meet Him saying, ‘Come, see a man’, v. 29.
As she drew nearer, she recognized by His clothing that He was a Jew. She was surprised when He spoke to her, asking for a drink of water. She said, ‘How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans’, v. 9. The Lord spoke to her about living water and told her if she would drink of that water she would never thirst again. Immediately, she said, ‘Sir, give me this water’, v. 15. He replied, ‘Go, call thy husband, and come hither’. The woman said, ‘I have no husband’. Jesus said to her, ‘Thou hast well said, I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband’, v. 17, 18. The woman said, ‘Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet’, v. 19. The woman changed the subject and asked which place should be the centre for worship. Is it mount Gerizim, recognized by the Samaritans, or Jerusalem, the centre of worship for the Jews? She said when Messiah comes, who is called Christ, He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, ‘I that speak unto thee am he’, v. 26.
When the woman told the men of the city of the stranger she had met, she said, ‘Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?’ v. 29. Many of the Samaritans of that city came to meet Him and believed on Him because of her testimony, v. 39. Many more believed on Him because of His own word; they said, ‘we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world’, v. 42. What a progression there was in the woman’s understanding of who the stranger was that she met at the well that day. She recognized Him first as ‘a man’, then as ‘a Jew’, then as ‘a prophet’, then as ‘the Messiah’. She listened to the men of the city of Sychar who said He is ‘the Christ, the Saviour of the world’. She had a sixfold revelation of who He was condensed into three words, ‘I … am he’, v. 26.
(a) responding to their question ‘Where is thy Father?’ v. 19.
Jesus answered, ‘Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also’. The only way to the Father is by the Son. He said, ‘No man cometh unto the Father, but by me’, John 14. 6.
‘I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins’, 8. 24 [emphasis added]. Every person has inherited a sinful nature at birth, ‘As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned’, Rom. 5. 12. David wrote, ‘in sin did my mother conceive me’, Ps. 51. 5. ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves’, 1 John 1. 8. No sin can ever enter heaven, Rev. 21. 27; Ps. 5. 4.
These Jews were in the temple at Jerusalem, in the treasury, bringing tithes as God’s law required. They took pride in the fact that they could trace their ancestry back to Abraham, ‘We have Abraham as our father’, Matt. 3. 9 NKJV.
It was to these religious Jews that the Lord spoke the solemn words of warning, ‘Ye shall die in your sins’, repeated three times in these verses, John 21, 24. The tragic result of a person dying in their sins is that ‘whither I go, ye cannot come’, v. 21. Heaven’s door is closed against them. The Lord stated the reason clearly, ‘if ye believe not that I am he‘, v. 24.
There are only two spiritual conditions in which it is possible to die, (1) To ‘die in your sins’, vv. 21, 24. How solemn the thought, to die with sins not forgiven. To be separated from God and to bear His wrath forever. How wonderful is the glorious alternative, (2) To die in the Lord. At some point on the journey of life we have forged a link by faith with the Saviour. ‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord’, Rev. 14. 13.
The vital matter the Lord is teaching is that all depends for this life and for the life to come on our relationship to Christ, believing who He is, what He has done, and where He now is. This can be called the ‘tripod’ of the gospel, three cardinal truths, each indispensable.
What think ye of Christ? is the test
To try both your state and your scheme;
You cannot be right in the rest,
Unless you think rightly of Him;
As Jesus appears in your view,
As He is beloved or not,
So God is disposed to you,
And mercy or wrath is your lot.
[John Newton, 1725-1807]
(b) responding to their question ‘Who art thou?’ John 8. 25
‘Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he‘, v. 28 [emphasis added]. Here, the subject is identification. The identity of the Lord Jesus was established beyond doubt at the cross. The man who stood closest to the cross, the centurion, stated, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God’, Mark 15. 39. Matthew chapter 27 verse 54 speaks of those that were with him who feared greatly. They also said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God’. There are two other passages in John’s Gospel which speak of the Lord Jesus being lifted up in crucifixion. ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up’, John 3. 14. Here the subject is of salvation. ‘That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life’, v. 15. ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me’, 12. 32. Here the subject is attraction. It is the ability of the One who was lifted up on the cross to attract multitudes of men and women to Himself because of Calvary. The Lord was clearly indicating what would be the manner of His death. ‘This he said, signifying what death he should die’, v. 33.
The treachery of Judas Iscariot was foretold in the Old Testament, Ps. 41. 9. In the upper room when only the disciples were present, the Lord said, ‘I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me … one of you shall betray me’, John 13. 18, 21. The Lord did not quote the words, ‘in whom I trusted’, as He knew full well the agreement Judas had made with the chief priests, Matt. 26. 15. Peter announced after the resurrection, ‘Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas’, Acts 1. 16.
The Lord foretold what Judas would do in fulfilling Psalm 41 verse 9, but also the fulfilment of the Lord’s own words to His disciples in the upper room. He spoke with the same authority and veracity as the Old Testament and on that basis the disciples must believe that He is the Son of God, that I am He.
The greatest proof of His identity was His resurrection. He said, ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up’, John 2. 19. The angel at the tomb said, ‘He is risen, as he said’, Matt. 28. 6.
‘He went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples’, John 18. 1. It was there He prayed, ‘Not my will, but thine, be done’, Luke 22. 42. It was there that He said, ‘My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death’, Matt. 26. 38. It was there that ‘his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground’, Luke 22. 44.
Through the evening darkness appeared the glimmer of lights carried aloft by the approaching throng. Judas knew the place, often he had accompanied the Lord and the other disciples but now, for a few paltry pieces of silver, he became ‘the traitor’, Luke 6. 16, his name stamped forever on the page of infamy. He ‘was guide to them that took Jesus’, Acts 1. 16. He was the leader of the group. Then, there was the captain, then the officers of the Jews, followed by a band of men, John 18. 3, 12. Matthew says a great multitude. They carried lanterns and torches and weapons, consisting of swords and staves. What a show of force to arrest the Lamb of God, Matt. 26. 47.
Then there were those who sent them, the chief priests and elders of the people; they kept their distance but bore the ultimate responsibility for this dastardly deed.
Judas said, ‘Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast’, Matt. 26. 48. He kissed the Lord Jesus, the door of heaven, but sadly it was a kiss of farewell; he would never enter in.
The Lord was the first to speak, He said, ‘Whom seek ye?’ They said, ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, John 18. 4, 5. He said, ‘I am he‘. Those words would be repeated twice in the brief conversation which followed. As soon as he said, I am He they went backward and fell to the ground, falling forward, prostrate before the great ‘I am‘, v. 6. There is a day coming when ‘at the name of Jesus every knee should bow … and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’, Phil. 2. 10, 11.
When they stood up again the Lord repeated the question, ‘Whom seek ye?’ John 18. 7. Again, they said, ‘Jesus of Nazareth’. Jesus answered, ‘I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way’, v. 8. His words convey the wonder of what He had come to do, to give Himself that others might go free.
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