The Book of John

by R. B. Thieme, Jr.

Doctrines in 1967 John series	1967 John Index
Notes for 1967 John series	Corrected translation of John

1967 John
424	1	10/26/1967	John 1:1–5	"The Word." Doctrine of creation
424	2	11/09/1967	John 1:6–14	"The Light." Jesus Christ, deity of creation
424	3	11/16/1967	John 1:15–28	John the Baptist
424	4	11/30/1967	John 1:29–51	Panoramic view of God's plan. Water baptism
424	5	12/07/1967	John 2:1–11	Turning water into wine; ancient marriage ceremony
424	6	12/14/1967	John 2:12–3:15	Phenomena of miracles; Nicodemus
424	7	12/21/1967	John 3:16–19	God's perfect gift, the Lord Jesus Christ
424	8	12/28/1967	John 3:19–30	Doctrine of human good; principle of evil
424	9	01/04/1968	John 3:31–4:4	Doctrine of jealousy. Jacob's well; revival in Samaria
424	10	01/11/1968	John 4:7–26	The woman at the well; worship
424	11	01/18/1968	John 4:26–42	The woman at the well; witnessing
424	12	01/25/1968	John 4:43–5:16	Healing the impotent man. Doctrine more powerful than miracles. Purpose of miracles
424	13	02/01/1968	John 5:17–20	Taboos of the Sabbath
424	14	02/08/1968	John 5:21–28	Jesus Christ did not act independently of the Father's plan
424	15	02/15/1968	John 5:28	Doctrines of human good, the 2 resurrections
424	16	02/22/1968	John 5:32–36	Three witnesses to the person of Jesus Christ
424	17	02/29/1968	John 5:17–36	Review. Doctrine of sustaining ministry of Holy Spirit in humanity of Christ
424	18	03/07/1968	John 5:23–47	Six witnesses to the person of Jesus Christ
424	19	03/14/1968	John 6:1–15	Feeding the 5,000. Purpose of miracles; prepared people
424	20	03/28/1968	John 6:16–21	Stilling the storm; faith–rest; walking on water
424	21	04/11/1968	John 6:22–40	Bread of Life 1; works of political organizations
424	22	04/18/1968	John 6:41–50	Bread of Life 2; positive volition at God consciousness and gospel–hearing; doctrine of manna
424	23	04/25/1968	John 6:51–71	Discourse on faith. Conditional clauses in the Greek
424	24	05/02/1968	John 7:1–13	Jesus' brothers; freedom; Levitical feasts
424	25	05/09/1968	John 7:14–18	Human volition; doctrine of heathenism
424	26	05/16/1968	John 7:19–36	Judging; purpose of the First Advent
424	27	05/30/1968	John 7:27–39	Uniqueness of Church Age; positive volition at God consciousness and gospel–hearing
424	28	06/06/1968	John 7:40–53	Response and reaction to Christ's message
424	29	06/13/1968	John 8:1–11	Greek manuscripts; woman taken in adultery
424	30	06/20/1968	John 8:12–21	Christ, the Light of the world. Doctrine of death
424	31	06/27/1968	John 8:21–32	Jesus Christ, the Liberator of the world
424	32	07/11/1968	John 8:31–36	Discipleship; freedom
424	33	07/18/1968	John 8:37–45	Universal fatherhood of the devil
424	34	07/25/1968	John 8:45–59	Religion rejects Bible doctrine & breeds self righteousness
424	35	08/15/1968	John 9:1–7	Doctrines of heathenism and culpability
424	36	08/22/1968	John 9:8–34	The blind man and the Pharisees
424	37	08/29/1968	John 9:35–41	The blind man believes in Christ
424	38	09/05/1968	John 10:1–6	Parable of the sheepfold
424	39	09/12/1968	John 10:7–10	The Gospel
424	40	09/19/1968	John 10:11–13	The Good Shepherd; spiritual death of Christ
424	41	09/26/1968	John 10:14–15	The Good Shepherd; characteristics of sheep
424	42	10/03/1968	John 10:16–18	Spiritual death vs. physical death
424	43	10/10/1968	John 10:19–26	Reaction and response to Jesus' message
424	44	10/17/1968	John 10:27,28	Doctrine of security (eternal and temporal)
424	45	10/31/1968	John 10:29	Security of the believer; Jesus' statement of deity
424	46	11/07/1968	John 10:34–42	Doctrine of separation
424	47	11/14/1968	John 11:1;

Luke 10:38	Mary, Martha, Lazarus
424	48	11/21/1968	John 11:5–8	AGAPAO and PHILEO
424	49	12/19/1968	John 11:9–16	Death and resuscitation of Lazarus; no spiritual benefit in miracles
424	50	12/26/1968	John 11:17–27	Mary and Martha in the crisis; the 2 resurrections
424	51	01/02/1969	John 11:28–41a	Jesus and Mary; 7th sign; doctrine of weeping
424	52	01/09/1969	John 11:41–44	Resuscitation of Lazarus
424	53	01/16/1969	John 11:45–48	Doctrine of nationalism
424	54	01/23/1969	John 11:49–57	Caiaphas
424	55	01/30/1969	John 12:1–3	Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus
424	56	02/06/1969	John 12:4–8	Judas Iscariot; criticism; doctrine of separation
424	57	02/20/1969	John 12:12–19	Palm Sunday; the cross must come before the crown
424	58	02/27/1969	John 12:20–25	The seeking Greeks
424	59	03/06/1969	John 12:26–36	Doctrine of the hypostatic union
424	60	03/13/1969	John 12:37–50	Scar tissue; hardening of the heart
424	61	03/20/1969	John 13:1–11	Washing the disciples' feet
424	62	04/03/1969	John 13:12–18	Doctrine of happiness
424	63	04/10/1969	John 13:16–26	Doctrinal outline on Judas Iscariot
424	64	04/17/1969	John 13:26–35	Review outline on Judas Iscariot; Upper Room Discourse
424	65	05/01/1969	John 13:36–14:4	Peter; free will of Jesus Christ
424	66	05/22/1969	John 14:5–7	Thomas' question; Jesus' answer
424	67	05/29/1969	John 14:8–15	Inhale, exhale of Bible doctrine; Philip's question, Jesus' answer
424	68	06/05/1969	John 14:16–21	Two advents of Holy Spirit; doctrine of the Holy Spirit in Old Testament
424	69	06/12/1969	John 14:22–27	Seeing and loving God through Bible doctrine
424	70	06/19/1969	John 14:28–15:1	Doctrine of ascension; vine & branches; orientation to Church Age
424	71	06/26/1969	John 15:1–6	Vine & branches; sin unto death; doctrine of human good
424	72	07/03/1969	John 15:7–11	Prayer; love; doctrine of happiness
424	73	07/10/1969	John 15:12–17	Slave or friend of Christ; doctrines of happiness, election
424	74	07/17/1969	Ephesians 4:22–27	Introduction to seven reasons why the world hates the believer
424	75	07/31/1969	John 15:18–27	Seven reasons why the world hates you
424	76	08/07/1969	John 16:1–4	Opposition of religion; preparation through Bible doctrine
424	77	08/14/1969	John 16:5–7	The Comforter
424	78	08/21/1969	John 16:8–11	Ministry of Holy Spirit to unbeliever
424	79	09/11/1969	John 16:12	Ministry of God the Holy Spirit in writing the New Testament canon; doctrine of Bible teaching
424	80	09/18/1969	John 16:16	"A little while"; doctrine of happiness
424	81	10/02/1969	John 16:24	MacArthur's speech; prayer for the nation
424	82	10/16/1969	John 16:25	Prayer in Jesus' name; AGAPAO vs PHILEO; ascension
424	83	10/23/1969	John 17:1–5	Prayer; sovereignty of God and free will of man co exist
424	84	12/04/1969	John 17:6–8	Positive volition at God–consciousness; tongues movement; baptism of God the Holy Spirit
424	85	12/11/1969	John 17:9–13	Doctrines of positional sanctification, happiness
424	86	12/18/1969	John 17:14–17	Doctrine of happiness. Seven ways a believer is not of the world
424	87	01/08/1970	John 17:17–19	Doctrine of divine decrees
424	88	01/15/1970	John 17:20–26	Oneness in Christ
424	89	01/29/1970	John 18:1–9	Feeling sorry for sins; doctrine of Judas Iscariot
424	90	02/03/1970	John 18:10–11	T & P organization; Peter and the sword; doctrine of the cup
424	91	02/19/1970	Ephesians 3:14–21	GAP; doctrine of the glory
424	92	02/26/1970	Isa. 33:1–6	GAP related to national entity
424	93	03/05/1970	Judges 4; 5	Deborah, Barak, Jael, & Sisera: women with an Edification Complex of the Soul
424	94	03/19/1970	John 18:12–15	Total aloneness & isolation; personal history of John
424	95	03/26/1970	John 18:16–23	Law: Roman, Jewish, general; Peter
424	96	04/09/1970	John 18:24–29	Peter's denial; battlefield of life
424	97	04/16/1970	John 18:29–33	Gentile trial of Jesus Christ; Pilate; Roman Law
424	98	04/23/1970	John 18:34–36	Moral courage; Pilate's dilemma; patriotism
424	99	04/30/1970	John 18:37–39	Doctrines of heathenism; Pontius Pilate
424	100	05/14/1970	John 18:39–40; 19:1–3	Distortion of law; thorns; Barabbas
424	101	05/21/1970	John 19:4–6	Mobs; seven testimonies to the impeccability of Christ
424	102	05/28/1970	John 19:7–12	Mob violence; Pilate's weakness
424	103	06/04/1970	John 19:12	Pontius Pilate
424	104	06/18/1970	John 19:13–15	Jewish and Roman time; doctrine of the day of crucifixion
424	105	06/25/1970	John 19:16–22	The crucifixion, 1; mental attitude
424	106	07/02/1970	John 19:23–30	The crucifixion, 2; Mary Magdalene; blood of Christ
424	107	07/09/1970	John 19	Doctrine of economic depression
424	108	07/16/1970	John 19:31–37	Blood clots and serum; doctrine of the blood
424	109	07/23/1970	John 19:38–42	Burial of Jesus Christ; the case of the two timid disciples
424	110	08/06/1970	John 20:1–10	Mary Magdalene, John, Peter at the grave
424	111	08/13/1970	John 20:11–13	Mary Magdalene; doctrine of weeping
424	112	08/20/1970	John 20:14–17a	Doctrine of the short–circuit of the soul
424	113	08/27/1970	John 20:17b–20	Doctrines of ascension, resurrection body
424	114	09/03/1970	John 20:20b–23	Doctrines of happiness, indwelling of God the Holy Spirit
424	115	09/10/1970	Song of Sol. 8:6	Doctrines of category #2 love, jealousy
424	116	09/17/1970	John 20:24–31	Cynic Thomas rebuked
424	117	09/24/1970	John 21:1–10	Doctrine of privacy; ICHTHUS
424	118	10/08/1970	John 21:10–14; 2Corinthians 12:9–10	Doctrine of grace
424	119	10/15/1970	John 21:15–19	Doctrine of love, causes of death
424	120	10/22/1970	John 21:19b–25	Doctrines of privacy, inspiration

END OF SERIES

Chapter 1

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all cover a similar period of history, the first advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, Matthew emphasises the Lord Jesus from the standpoint of His kingship, he presents the Gospel of the King. Mark presents the Gospel of the servant. Luke presents the Gospel of the Son of Man, emphasising the humanity of Christ. John presents the Gospel of the Son of God, emphasising the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew talks about the coming of the promised saviour; Mark talks about the life of the powerful saviour; Luke talks about the grace of the perfect saviour; John talks about the possession of a personal saviour. John 20:31 gives the clue for the book.

In the first fourteen verses of the Gospel of John we have information regarding the deity of Christ. Then, in verse fourteen we will suddenly shift and go to the humanity of Christ with emphasis, therefore, on the reason for Christ becoming true humanity. When we get into the last three quarters of this chapter we will study a diary of four days in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we do not begin with the humanity of Christ; we begin with the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore in verses 1 & 2 the pre-existent one. This is actually coverage of the doctrine of the hypostatic union because Christ is undiminished deity; He has all of the divine names and all of the divine titles applied to Him. He is called God, the Mighty God, the great God, God over all, Jehovah, Lord, King of kings, and Lord of lords. He possesses all of the divine attributes. At the same time, after the virgin birth He becomes true humanity. So He is the unique person of the universe, He is God and He is Man in one person forever.

The human author of this book is John the son of Zebedee. It was written in Ephesus in about 90 AD. John did something that no one else has ever been able to do in history. He was able to break through the barriers of time and to move into eternity. He begins in a very simple way in the Greek and yet it is one of the most profound statements ever found anywhere in the Word of God. He begins with the simple phrase e)n a)rxh, which is translated in the KJV "In the beginning." There is no definite article, and this actually means "in a beginning which was not a beginning," and therefore in eternity. This is one of the biblical ways of describing something that goes beyond time. Here is the sentence that tells us that long before any creature existed, long before the universe existed, Jesus Christ our saviour actually existed as a member of the Godhead.

The next word is h)n, the imperfect tense of the absolute status quo verb e)imi. It means "in a beginning which was not a beginning." In other words, "in eternity past" He always existed and there never was a time when He didn't exist. So the imperfect tense of the absolute status quo verb indicates eternity and an eternally-existent one. Here is one who always existed and there never was a time when he didn't exist.

There is another verb which we will find in this passage – ginomai. E)imi means absolute status quo; ginomai means to become something that you were not before. The best illustration of the difference between these two words is found in John 8:58 – "Before Abraham was [ginomai]" – before Abraham came into existence, "I am," i.e. "I keep on existing eternally," the imperfect tense of e)imi which is eternal existence in the past.

"was with God" – again, the same verb and the same form of the verb h)n.

Verse 2 – "The same was [kept on being] in the beginning with God." In verse 4, "In him was [kept on existing] life" – same verb. In verse 9, "… was [kept on existing] the true Light" – same verb. Verse 10 – "He was [kept on existing] in the world." And so time after time we have this same form throughout the book of John, and wherever you find it you see the imperfect tense of the verb for absolute status quo. The imperfect tense is linear aktionsart in past time. Linear aktionsart in past time plus the verb e)imi means to exist eternally. In other words, this verb "was" is saying in effect that Jesus Christ is God. The word "was" indicates eternal life, and anyone who pre-existed eternal life is God.

Then He is given a title – "the Word," o( Logoj. This is the first title used for the Lord Jesus Christ as the eternally existent One. Logoj was a technical word in Greek philosophy, a term often used for infinity. It was used to indicate the Supreme Mover, the one who was behind everyone, the one who brings order into the human race. The word is used throughout the New Testament for the Lord Jesus Christ. Again in verse 14 He is called the Word. In Colossians 1:18 we have a phrase, "the Word of the cross." The Greek says, "the Logoj of the cross." The cross was the lowest principle in the Roman empire. The most disgraceful type of death that anyone could die was crucifixion. So the cross was the lowest and Logoj was the highest, and Jesus Christ is called the Logoj of the cross. In other words, the One who went to the cross was not only true humanity but He was also eternal God.

O( Logoj connotes four things:

The first principle behind the use of his Greek word is revelation. Jesus Christ is the outward, the visible expression of the world of the invisible. Jesus Christ is the revelation of God the Father. The substance, the essence of the Godhead is invisible but Jesus Christ it its manifestation. Cf. Hebrews 1:1-3. Jesus Christ is the only member of the Godhead who is ever revealed and as we understand Christ we understand the other members of the Godhead. The Father is specifically said to be invisible in John 6:46, as well as John 1:18; 1Timothy 6:16; 1John 4:18. So the first connotation of the word logoj is revelation. Jesus Christ is the revealed member of the Godhead but in order to see Him – we cannot see Him as God – He must become a man, and therefore He became a man. The Logoj is the visible member of the Godhead because He took upon Himself the form of man.

The second connotation of the word Logoj is intelligence. It goes back to the concept of expressing thought. In order to think you must have a vocabulary; you cannot think without a vocabulary, and therefore since logoj means "word" it means the organization of words into thought. It means to take a vocabulary and to develop from that vocabulary concepts and categories, and so on. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who is omniscient and as the omniscient one logoj connotes this particular concept.

The third concept of logoj is order, and this conveys putting design and purpose into things. Jesus Christ is the designer of the dispensations, therefore the designer of history. He is the designer of certain aspects of the plan in which you find yourself. The very plan which He has provided is a plan of order and design.

The fourth concept is communication. The word "word" as it is translated means something which is actually communicated or disseminated. So words transmit information, transmit ideas and concepts; they are used as the expression and impartation of various types of knowledge, and Christ is the expressor of all Bible doctrine. That is why in 1Corinthians 2:16 the Bible is called "the mind of Christ."

Now we have the word logoj connecting the humanity of Christ of the first advent with the eternal second person of the Trinity. They are one and the same, and in this person we have undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. Jesus Christ is God and therefore different from the human race. He is different from any member of the human race in that He is God; He is different from God in that He is humanity, and therefore He is unique. He is different from other members of the Godhead; He is different from other members of the human race. And because of His resurrection, ascension and session He is infinitely superior to any member of the angelic creation.

"and the Word [Logoj] was with God" – the word "with" is the preposition proj plus the accusative case and it should be translated "face to face with." The Logoj was face to face with God. In other words, He is just as much God as any other member of the Trinity, co-equal and co-existent.

"and the Word was God " is not quite correct in the English. It should read "and God kept on being the Word" or "God was the Word." Again, this is the imperfect tense, linear aktionsart in past time of the absolute status quo verb. In other words, Jesus Christ always will be God; there never will be a time when He isn't God. This means that since He has all the characteristics of deity He cannot go to the cross and die for the sins of the world. He cannot die spiritually, which is the wages of sin, and He cannot die physically as God. God is sovereign and therefore is not subject to death, the death of the cross. God is eternal life and eternal life cannot die. God is omnipresence and omnipresence cannot reduce itself to one point – the cross. God is immutability and immutability cannot change its characteristics. Therefore as God He cannot die on the cross, so He must become a member of the human race. Therefore He was virgin born, minus an old sin nature, but having a human spirit and a human soul, indwelt in His humanity by the Holy Spirit, except for three hours on the cross. So the Logoj, then, refers to the fact that He is both God and He is man.

So we have in this verse three factors. John is taking us beyond time – e)n a)rxh takes us from time into eternity. And in eternity, what does John see there? The Logoj is the manifestation back in time of God. The Logoj is the second person of the Trinity and was always face to face with God because He is God, and God was always the Logoj. So the last two phrases emphasise that we are dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the subject of the Gospel of John. The story of His humanity will be seen but He will always be related to the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 2 – to further emphasise this we go to His essence. "The same" is literally "the same one." "The same one kept on existing in the beginning [in eternity] face to face with God." The word "with" is proj plus the accusative again and it should be translated "face to face with God." This emphasises His deity. Jesus Christ is God.

Verse 3 – He is the creator. "All things were made by him." Now for the first time we have that contrasting verb, ginomai, which means to become. "All things" refers to all categories in general – the universe, mankind, the angels. All categories of creation were originally created by Him. "All things were made" – this is a constative aorist of ginomai which looks at creative activity as one event. They didn't occur all at the same time. We have for example, the creation of the universe. Then we have the creation of the angels as they occupied the universe. Then, to resolve the angelic conflict, we have the creation of man; and one part of the universe, the earth, was restored so that man could occupy it. The aorist tense here gathers into one point of time every act of creation; therefore it is called a constative aorist. The verse should be translated, "For by him [through the instrumentality] all things came into existence."

This brings us to the doctrine of creation: the Father planned it – 1Corinthians 8:6; the Son created every original creation – Colossians 1:16; John 1:3; Hebrews 1:10. But whenever something is restored it is the Spirit who restores it, as per Genesis 1:2.

"and without him was not anything made that was made [in the past with the result that it is still here]" – "made" is an aorist tense; "was made" is a perfect tense, and it brings out a contrast. In other words, "anything made" – aorist tense, in a point of time when it was originally created; "that was made" is the perfect tense, indicating retrogression, progression in the development of things in life. So the perfect tense at the end of the verse brings out the fact that there had been some changes over what the Lord originally made.

Verse 4 – we are related to this One. There is a relationship between Jesus Christ and man – certain types of people. Jesus Christ has eternal life and God the Father found a way to give man the eternal life in Jesus Christ. It has to be done by way of the cross because of propitiation. Jesus Christ is eternal life – 1John 5:11.When we believe in Christ we enter into union with Him and His life becomes our life.

"In him was life; and the life was the light of men." The world is enshrouded in darkness; this is the devil's world, he is the ruler of this world. Where does the light shine? The light shines where the light has always been. God is light – 1John 1:4. So in eternity past there is all this light. John opens the hole, as it were, in heaven so that the light comes out to us – e)n a)rxh h)n o( logoj. So the Gospel of John is the gospel of light, light in the devil's world.

Verse 5 – "And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

Verses 6-8, a witness concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Actually, in the first chapter of John's Gospel we have four pages out of the diary of John the Baptist, but before we get to the diary we have to meet the person concerning whom the diary is written. So we read something here immediately in verse 6. "There was a man." There is nothing about his personality, his human qualifications, about the "secret to his success," he is simply called "a man." "There came into existence a man." Immediately we know the principle: God uses people. All believers today are in full time Christian service. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ today you personally are in full time Christian service. God uses people to disseminate the gospel and this was the job of John the Baptist. He is not the light but he is a light bearer, just as every believer is a light bearer – Matthew 5:14,16; Ephesians 5:8. Jesus Christ Himself is the light.

"sent from God" – para means immediate source. In God's plan God can take imperfect man, unstable man, man who has an old sin nature and who is oriented to cosmos diabolicus, oriented to the thinking of this world, to human viewpoint, and use him in His plan; "whose name was John" – this is about all the information we have, there is very little about him in this Gospel. There is in Luke and in Matthew but here there is a principle: it is not the man; it is the message. It isn't his personality; it is the content of his message.

Verse 7 – "The same came for a witness." This was his reason for living: he was a witness concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the reason, in part, for the believer remaining in phase two. The believer is His personal representative.

"to bear witness concerning the light" – John the Baptist had the responsibility of communicating information with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. So his title was "witness," his purpose it to bear witness, and the result is stated at the end of the verse, "that all men through him [Christ] might believe." The word to believe is in the aorist tense and it indicates immediately what God does for us at the point of salvation. This is an aorist tense where you have a point of time divorced from time and perpetuated forever. This point of time is taken out of time and perpetuated. The believer is given at the point of faith in Christ 36 things which he will have forever.

Verse 8 -- John was simply out there preaching, he was the man with a message.

Verse 9 – "There was the true Light." The word "was" means there kept on existing the true Light, and the true Light is the Lord Jesus Christ; "which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." This is a very important phrase. If the true Light lights every man that comes into the world it means that every person who has ever lived can be saved potentially. There are several was in which people are lighted. A person who is born an idiot is automatically saved because he never reaches the age of accountability. A person who does before accountability is automatically saved. So this is included in the concept of "lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Those who reach the age of accountability face the issue of free will. Positive signals are expressed by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; negative signals are expressed by the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ as saviour.

Verse 10 – "He was in the world" is a reference to the incarnation of Christ; "and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." Why? The answer to that is found in Satan's attempt to confuse human volition. There are five ways in which Satan is operating today to confuse the world. The first is by religion – Matthew 23. Religion reduces Christianity to a system of ethics, a system of morality, which it is not. Christianity is relationship whereby we are in union with Christ and the life of Christ becomes our life. It is a relationship whereby the Holy Spirit, when He controls our life, produces something on the inside which is far superior to any system of overt morality. John 3:1-18 exposes the confusion of the religious mind. 2Corinthians 11:13,14 shows how Satan uses religion to confuse people. The second way Satan confuses is through rationalism – 2Corinthians 4:3,4; Luke 8:12. The third is by deceit – 2Corinthians 11:3; 2:11; Revelation 12:9; 20:3. A fourth way is through supernatural phenomena – 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12. He is in the healing business, the tongues business, and in the miracle business. The fifth way is by snares – 2Timothy 2:26; 1Timothy 3:7; Ephesians 4:27; 2Corinthians 2:11. Satan has a tremendous number of systems which he uses to confuse the volition of mankind.

Verse 11 – Jesus Christ came specifically to Israel. "He came unto his own." "His own" refers to Israel. He is the son of David and He comes to fulfil the Davidic covenant. The reason He came to Israel is two-fold. First of all, it was the dispensation of Israel and the Jewish nation had custodianship of the Word of God and was responsible for its dissemination. He came to them as the Messiah, the anointed one, as the son of David who would reign forever.

"and his own received him not" – generally He was rejected. The reason was religion. At this point the Jews were the most religious organization in the world. There were many exceptions, of course, but the religious crowd rejected Him. Religion as a system excludes the principle of grace under which He came in the plan of God. However, there were those in Israel who did receive Him and would very shortly become a part of His eternal kingdom.

Verse 12 – "But" is a conjunction of contrast, a contrast between the religious Jews of verse 11 and the grace Jews of verse 12; "as many as received him" – the word for "receive" means to receive in a non-meritorious manner. It means to receive a gift, a gift which you do not deserve, a gift for which you cannot work. It means to receive something from someone even though you are obnoxious. This means they cannot earn it or deserve it, it is the character of the giver that is in focus. The giver is God; the receiver is man. Receiving here means to receive the Son – by faith in Jesus Christ, by believing.

"to them he gave the power [authority] to become the sons of God" – in other words, they are born into the family of God; they are children of God. The family of God is the eternal family. God is eternal; His family is eternal. When you are born into His family you are born into an eternal family.

"to them that believe on his name" – faith is the absence of human merit; it is the only non-meritorious system of perception. Some did this in John's day; there were literally thousands and thousands who did.

Verse 13 – "Which were born." Here is that being born into the family of God, and it isn't temporary, it is eternal. This is an aorist tense, born in a point of time and divorced from time and perpetuated forever. One you have been born into the family of God you are always in the family of God. Passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb; you receive by grace this new birth.

"not of blood" means heredity. You are not born, in this case, with a set of genes. This is a birth which is minus the hereditary characteristics. You have instead a heritage from God, one which is incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for those who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

"nor of the will of the flesh" – human good. There is no place in the new birth for human good. You were not born again by your own good works – Titus 3:5; Ephesians 2:8,9.

"nor of the will of man" – this has to do with human plans. Salvation is not a human plan; it is not the result of human thinking. The planning occurred in eternity past. The family of God is often called the kingdom of God. It is a race on earth and today those born into the family of God are called "church," those born into the body of Christ. It is a spiritual kingdom composed of all people who personally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no place in this kingdom for either human heredity or human good or human planning. All human viewpoint is excluded.

Verse 14 – the incarnation. "And the Word [Jesus Christ] was made flesh." Literally, "the Word became flesh." Up to this time we have had the verb e)imi in the imperfect tense, indicating the eternity of Christ. Now we have a word, ginomai, and it means to become something you were not before. Jesus Christ became flesh. This is an aorist tense and it refers to the point of time of the virgin birth.

"and dwelt amongst us" – the purpose of dwelling amongst us, the first advent, is to provide eternal salvation; "and we beheld his glory" – the glory we beheld is the glory of God. Wherever you find the word "glory" it generally refers to the essence of God. Jesus Christ has glory. Glory generally refers to some aspect of deity. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world and the Light, as it were, shines on the glory and reveals the glory. So what we know of the glory of God we know by seeing Jesus Christ. We have a better view of the glory of Jesus Christ than those who lived in the first century. They saw Him physically on earth but they did not understand the doctrine, the mind of Christ, that we have in the epistles. What makes the difference? Today we have a better view of the glory of God than they had because we have in it writing, in the Bible. We have doctrine and doctrine is the revelation of the glory of God – 1Corinthians 2:16, "we have the mind of Christ." Bible doctrine! It's ours.

"the glory as of the only begotten of the Father" – "only begotten" is not quite correctly translated. It means "only born," and it refers to the virgin birth, but it refers to the eternal God existing before the virgin birth. It goes back to "the Word became flesh," the first part of the verse. He has a perfect glory, but this glory will not take Him to the cross because eternal life cannot die. He had to become a member of the human race in order to die for our sins. As God He cannot die; as the God-Man He could go to the cross, and on the cross it was His humanity that bore our sins. Here was someone unique, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-Man; and the humanity actually solved our problem.

There are three characteristics of the eternal Son of God. He is called the only born. This has to do with His humanity coming into the world. Then He is said to be "full of grace and truth." "Full of grace" has to do with His person. When Jesus Christ came into the world He came in full of grace. In eternity past God the Father came up with a plan – operation grace. The Father said, "I will do the work, I will do the providing." So He had to provide, first of all, salvation. And salvation must be provided through a person, so the second person in eternity past said, "I will go to the cross." The third person said, "I will reveal the cross; I will be the search light pointing to the cross, showing men that the only way of salvation is through the cross." All of that was in eternity past, before the cross, so when the second person came into the world He was full of grace – grace is the plan of God, He was full of the plan of God. Grace is more than a modus operandi; grace is what He was thinking. "Full of grace" means to be full of Bible doctrine. So what sustained Him? What kept Him on the cross? Doctrine carried Him through, the same thing we have to carry us today: Bible doctrine.

The problem of the heralds should be brought in at this point. Since there are two advents of Jesus Christ there are two heralds. The herald for the first advent is John the Baptist. The herald for the Second Advent is Elijah, and along with Elijah, Moses as one of the two witnesses. This passage deals with John the Baptist.

There are two sections in the Gospel of John dealing with him, one here in chapter one and the other in chapter three. The four days of the diary are recorded, beginning in verse 19. Verses 19-28 is the first day of the diary; verses 29-34 is the second day; verses 35-42 is the third day; verses 43-51, the fourth day.

The provocation, verses 15-18. Verse 15 – "John bare witness concerning him [the Lord Jesus Christ]…" John is the herald of the Lord Jesus Christ "… and cried, saying." "Cried" here doesn't mean to cry here, it means to make a public speech. John spoke concerning the Lord Jesus Christ in a public speaking situation.

"This was he of whom I spake' He that cometh after me is preferred before me; for he was before me." The word to "prefer" and the word translated here "was" are the two words we have seen in contrast throughout this passage. "Preferred" is the perfect tense of the word ginomai which means to become; the word "was" is the imperfect tense of the verb e)imi which means absolute status quo. "He was preferred before me in the past with the result that he always will be preferred before me" – the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist was a man who was totally oriented to the plan of God and the grace of God. He understood thoroughly that he never could or would earn or deserve anything. He was a man with absolutely no human status symbols. He did not have any of the things of this life that were considered important – money, human success, no education, no wife or family, etc. This man lived a very intense life and a very concentrated life which centred around the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He believed that when God put him in a certain spot, from that spot he could glorify God and God would provide everything necessary. By birth he was from the tribe of Levi and from the family of Aaron, and could have claimed his spiritual rights through a legitimate priesthood. He refused to do so.

The perfect tense of ginomai, "he was preferred before me"; "for he was before me," the imperfect tense of the verb e)imi, which means "he kept on existing before me, he always existed, there never was a time when he did not exist." In other words, John the Baptist recognised the deity of Christ as well as His humanity, and in his message he recognised the uniqueness of the person of Christ. He emphasised that Jesus Christ was the God-Man.

His message is given in verse 16. "And of his fullness" – the word "fullness" simply means doctrine, the sum total of the attributes of Christ, the sum total of His thinking – Bible doctrine, 1Corinthians 2:16.]

"have we all received" – "we all' means those who were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, those in the plan of God. And then we have a phrase which is most interesting – "grace for grace." It is literally, "grace taking the place of grace." The first "grace" is phase two grace, and the second time it occurs it is phase one grace. What he is saying is this. Jesus Christ received our sins on the cross, He was judged for our sins and He took our place. That is grace; God did all of the work. And so when we approach the cross, the plan of God, we simply believe in Jesus Christ, and faith is the absence of human merit. It is "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" – Acts 16:31. Now in phase two there is more grace. So the first "grace" in the passage refers to the more grace of phase two. Just as God provided everything for salvation so God provides everything for time. From the point of salvation to the time that we depart from this life, either by resurrection or death, everything is provided for us. The Lord Jesus Christ is the key to this because the Lord Jesus Christ is the plan of God.

Verse 17 – "for the law was given by Moses …" recognising the greatness of Moses is a past dispensation and recognising the importance of Moses. The law refers to the early part of the Old Testament "… but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Grace is the plan of God in eternity past; truth is the doctrine which expresses it in time. God's plan is declared to us in time through Bible doctrine. Doctrine is simply the delineation of His plan categorically so that is can be understood, absorbed and applied. When you know doctrine then you can actually utilise the grace of God. Grace means this plan has always existed; truth is simply its delineation through Bible doctrine. So the Lord Jesus Christ has come to announce His own plan. However, during His earthly ministry He will only outline the plan, the actual details of the plan will be given in the epistles. But even as all these details are collected, as Paul says in 1Corinthians 2:16, the Bible is the mind of Christ.

There is a contrast here. The contrast is between Moses and Christ; the contrast is between the Old Testament scriptures – the Mosaic law specifically, and the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ to the announcement of the Church Age and the modus operandi of the Church. This anticipates John chapters 14-17 where Jesus Christ actually announces the Church Age. He gives an outline form of it announcing the principle of grace. So this is what is means by "full of truth," He will announce the plan of the Church Age.

Verse 18 – Jesus Christ is going to be the centre of John's message. He announces the fact that Christ is the revealer of God. "No man hath seen God at any time." God is a spirit and this means He is invisible to man's eye; He cannot be known by empirical knowledge, a meritorious system of perception which is based upon ability to observe. The basic principle for seeing God and understanding God begins at the cross – "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Faith is a non-meritorious perceptive system. So when it says here that no man has seen God at any time it means through rationalism and empiricism. This is amplified in 1Corinthians 2:5-16.

"the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." "In the bosom" is an idiom which simply means the same thing we have in John 1:1, the Logoj was face to face with God." In other words, He co-existed with God the Father eternally. So this is the principle that Jesus Christ is the revealer of God. This is the one that John announces.

John's message provoked the religious crowd which became very angry. Under religion man does the doing – human good, and God is supposed to bless man on the basis of what man does; man gets the credit. The religious crowd is interested in a system of works. They were up to their ears in good deeds. So in verses 19 –28 we have the first day of the diary.

Verse 19 – "And this is the record." The word for "record" here is literally the "witness," but it means "this is the diary." We have four days now in the diary of John the Baptist, and in these four days we see Jesus Christ increasing and John the Baptist decreasing. Actually, John 3:30 is fulfilled in the rest of this chapter. So we now have the religious crowd who have been sent from Jerusalem to investigate John the Baptist as a result of his message outline of the previous verses. This delegation is made up of priests and Levites who are declared to be Pharisees in verse 24. They were sent by the Sanhedrin to discredit John the Baptist and to bring back a report on how they did it. When they came to talk to him they tried to trip him up in a very interesting way which is now recorded.

"Who art thou"? They haven't asked him yet; they do that in the next phrase.

Verse 20 – "And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ." This is a sort of a title as to what is going to happen. Verses 20-21 are simply a title, a sort of synopsis of what happens in the next paragraph. In the next paragraph the Levites and the priests who are Pharisees came from Jerusalem, and they came to investigate him and to ask him whom he was.

Verse 21 – we actually begin the study of this particular situation. "And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you that prophet? And he said, No." So actually, they quizzed him on three things. First of all they asked him outright if he was Christ, which is actually for the Hebrew Messiah, and he denied it. Then they asked him if he was Elijah who is, of course, the herald of the Second Advent. Then they said "that prophet." The word "prophet" here is a very mysterious word and it is very easily explained by Deuteronomy 18:15,18. Moses kept talking about a prophet who would come. He was actually talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now they have asked John if he is the Messiah. When they asked him if he was the prophet they hoped that he would answer yes, and then they will say all right the prophet is Messiah, you claim you are not Messiah but you claim that you are the prophet; this means you are crazy. Therefore they would have discredited him because he would have been obviously inconsistent with his own remarks. However, he didn't fall for that.

There was on other thing they had in mind. If he would say yes, I am Christ, or yes, I am the prophet, the Sanhedrin had another alternative. They could immediately try him and then they could execute him. They thought they had him either way they did it. They had set up a plan. They didn't expect him to claim to be Elijah. In verse 19 there is a very simple phrase which says, "Who art thou?" This is much stronger in the Greek. When they came up to him they actually said, "You, who are you?" In other words, they were looking down their nose. And they expected him to fall apart. But now there is one other thing they had in mind. Get this man to get his eyes on himself, get him thinking about himself. If we are going to trip him up, break through here and get rid of him, let's get him to think about himself a little bit. So their questioning followed a very complimentary principle which would appeal to his pride. But he doesn't fall for this kind of thing. A grace man is always oriented. Inside he is a relaxed person. John is a relaxed individual and has no illusions about himself.

Verse 22 – they try again. They can't go back and report a failure; they have to do something. They are probably astounded that they could not handle him. They thought they were going to go out and show this country bumpkin a thing or two but it didn't work out that way.

"Then said they unto him, You boy, who are you?" They used that same tone with him again. "… that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?" This delegation has to go back with an answer and they admit it in their second interrogation. He could have said, "I am John the son of Zacharias the priest." This is true; he was, and he should be the high priest. He should be in Jerusalem – Luke 1:7-13 tell us of his lineage. He is really the true high priest of Israel. He is John, the son of Zacharias. Or he could say, "I am a man sent from God" – John 1:6. This is true but he doesn't say this. He could have said some of the things the Bible says about him, but he doesn't say these things about himself. Why? He was aware of these things within the framework of the grace of God. But does he think of himself as being great? No, he knows that he is a man sent from God because of who and what God is, not because of who and what he is.

When a person is successful in the framework of the grace of God he is successful because of who and what God is, not because of who and what he is. And when a person has doctrine and is not successful, and is a grace person, God has a place for that person.

Verse 23 – he begins to give them an answer. His answer deals with a message, with crowds under the most unbelievable situation, with a modus operandi, and it deals with authority.

"I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." When he uses the word "voice" immediately he makes an issue of the message rather than the personality. He refuses to make an issue of his own personality. They may do so; they will do so, which later on will cause him to call them a generation of vipers. But when he says that he is a voice he is warning them of something. "I am a personality because I am a human being," says John the Baptist, He had a very forceful personality, "but it isn't my personality, it isn't my eloquence, it is the content of the message." The very first thing he says to this delegation is, "Look at my message, there is where the issue lies." A voice gives a message. A voice connotes two things: a) a brain with a vocabulary. The better the vocabulary the better you can think; b) a brain with the ability to communicate. A voice is heard but not seen and the message is so important that the person and the personality are not seen. And finally, the word endures after the voice is silent. John anchored his whole life in doctrine which would exist long after he died.

The second factor says, "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." The word for "wilderness" is actually desert. A desert is a place where there are no people. Why on earth would a man with a message go out into the desert? He proved that when a person has a brain which is filled with doctrine, and he has a commission from God to communicate what he has – teaching, then God can put him right in the middle of a desert and the He will take care of the rest. He is glad to be in the desert for this reason: God will provide. He is prepared; he has doctrine; he has the gift. God will change the minus to a plus, and that is exactly what happened. He didn't go to Jerusalem where the crowds were. He went where the Lord wanted him to go. All he had to do was to be prepared with doctrine, and he was. Once he was prepared with doctrine the rest was up to the Lord. Consequently he went out into the desert and the people came to him. And why did God set it up this way? To test positive volition. There were a lot of people who were positive at God-consciousness and ready for this message. There also were a lot of people who were curious. So they had to get up and move out to the desert to hear this man speak.

The third concept is modus operandi. He is the voice of one crying in the desert. In the desert we also have the concept of separation. There is a clear separation. In Jerusalem is the religious headquarters. Out in the Jordan country, out in the desert, there is no religion. This is the perfect set-up for the communication of doctrine – no religion. The worst people in the world to deal with are religious people, legalistic people. They have to unlearn so much. When people go out into the desert they are entirely away from a religious atmosphere and therefore John is free to teach. He is relaxed in his teaching and he uses the grace approach. So when religion comes out he castigates it. He calls them vipers. The religious crowd goes back to their hang-out and John goes right on with the message. Separation! The message must be given in a place of separation. John the Baptist separated himself from religion. He would not have had a ministry in Jerusalem because by now Jerusalem is too religious, so he separates himself from religion completely and totally. Therefore God can fully bless his ministry.

Then he gives them a fourth answer which has to do with authority. He quotes now from Isaiah 40:3. His authority for his ministry is not the fact that he has graduated from one of their two theological seminaries. He is not a seminary graduate, he is simply basing his whole ministry on the absolute perfect authority -- the Word of God, "as saith the prophet Esaias." His authority is the Word of God.

Now John is doing something that disturbs the religious crowd. He is actually baptising people. So in verse 24 they come back on him once more and they have a third interrogation on this first day.

Verse 25 – "Why do you baptise then?" They were saying, "You have no authority from us, no religious connection, you have not graduated from a seminary, you have never gone to school, have had no education, no training." The only thing that John was doing was performing acts of baptism. Were they baptising? No. But remember that out by the brazen altar was also a brazen laver in which was water. Whenever the priest performed any kind of function before he went into the tabernacle he washed his hands and his feet at the brazen laver. Then he went into the tabernacle and later on into the temple. This was a ritual which taught rebound, that you cannot learn spiritual things unless you are in fellowship; but the ritual itself, the washing of the hands and the feet belonged to the priesthood. They had never performed baptism, but here was John converting the brazen laver into a ritual – a ritual authorised by God because Jesus Christ Himself was baptised a little later on. Now the water is taken out of the laver because the water is in the Jordan, and he is baptising people in the Jordan to show this is announcing that Jesus Christ is going to bring a new kingdom, a kingdom made up of priests. Jesus Christ is the high priest and there will be a kingdom of priests. This is another reason why John does not claim his priesthood. He is the forerunner, the herald of the new high priest after the order of Melchizedek, and everyone who believes in Christ is going to be in His regenerate kingdom and they will be a kingdom of priests, and so on. So there was a reason why John performed acts of baptism. Baptism as he performed it had never been accomplished before. Nowhere in the whole history of Israel had someone been taken to the Jordan River and immersed in it.

We know exactly where he was doing this, by the way. He was doing this at the spot where Joshua crossed the Jordan when the water was parted. While the water was parted and the ark stood on the riverbed Joshua had men pick up twelve rocks and take them out of the riverbed and stack them in a monument. Then he took twelve rocks on the shore and put them back in the riverbed. This speaks of current and retroactive positional truth. We are identified with Christ in His death so we have the rocks put into the river so that when the water went back it covered them. This is the place of death. The rocks, which were taken out, were put in Gilgal, the place of life, and that means current positional truth. Gilgal is the place of eternity, the circle [top circle], and is a picture of the fact that we as believers at the point of salvation enter into union with Christ. In the very spot that Joshua did that John performed his acts of baptism. He was doing the same thing that Joshua did. Joshua was taking rocks out and putting rocks in. John was substituting people for rocks, putting people in the water here and bringing them out again. So there is a relationship between the ministry of Joshua with the rocks and the ministry of John the Baptist with the people. So where does he get his authority? He gets his authority from the Word. Note verse 28 – "These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan." Bethabara means "the place/house of the ford." This is the place where the Jews crossed the Jordan.

Verse 26 – "John answered them, saying, I baptise with water." Why should he baptise with water? Because he is teaching them the same lesson that Joshua taught at the same spot. The baptism of John was saying in effect, down with human good and up with divine good; down with legalism, up with grace. He goes on to explain that this is just a ritual, a ritual by which doctrine is taught.

"but there standeth one among you [back at Jerusalem really], whom ye know not" – "ye know not" here means "you will not believe Him" – negative volition, not just ignorance.

"whose shoe laces I am not worthy to untie" – He is so great that I am not worthy to even touch the laces on His sandals. Here is occupation with Christ.

Verse 28 – this is stated here by the Holy Spirit for a reason in day one of the diary: so that you can understand what John the Baptist understood. John the Baptist took believers and baptised them. He was stating the principle of the grace of God and the plan of God. In the plan of God there is no place for human good, there is only place for divine good. God provides the divine operating assets whereby divine good can be produced.

Verse 29, the second day of the diary. "The next day" means the next day consecutively. Between the words "coming unto him" and "saith" there is a gap. He sees Jesus coming to him [to John]. Jesus came for the purpose of being baptised but the Gospel of John does not mention the baptism. The reason for that is very simple. The Gospel of John is the Gospel of the Son of God; it emphasises the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only the synoptic gospels actually mention the baptism of Jesus. The water represents the will of God the Father which existed from eternity past, and immediately when Jesus went into the water He was saying, "I will do the will of the Father." The water represents the will of the Father; He was willing to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world. This is the significance of the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptised and there was a conversation between them. All of that was omitted because it was not the objective of the fourth Gospel to delineate those things pertaining to His humanity. John emphasises the deity of Christ.

John's Gospel is the only one that mentions anything about the dispensation of the Church. Jesus Christ had a two-fold ministry. In addition to announcing salvation He clarifies certain doctrinal issues with regard to the dispensation of Israel, all of which is emphasised in the synoptics. But when you come to the Gospel of John there is an emphasis on Jesus Christ as a prophet, and as a prophet He is the first person to declare the dispensation of the Church – chapters 14-17.

The gap is where the Lord Jesus was actually baptised, and after He came out of the water we read in Matthew 3:17 that the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove and a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." From that John knew that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the God-Man, the unique person of the universe. Therefore, as Jesus Christ was walking out of the water and away there were many disciples gathered there. And John turned to the crowd there, and pointing to Jesus Christ he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world." This is the genitive of source here and it should be translated "the Lamb from God." John was saying that the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament portrayed the cross where the sins of the world were poured out upon Christ. Every animal sacrifice in the Old Testament simply pointed to the cross. This would not occur for three more years but John recognised that this was the one about whom he had been speaking. So consequently the Lamb of God ties the cross into the Levitical sacrifices and indicates that Jesus Christ is the one who would spiritually die for our sins. Here is the fulfilment of the Levitical offerings. The Levitical offerings merely communicated the gospel. They communicated the gospel to people who could see even though they couldn't read. They could understand the animal dying, and so on.

The word to "take away" is a present active participle of the verb a)irw which means to lift up, the bear, to carry. It does not mean to take away our sins, it means to lift up our sins and bear them. It means to pick up a burden. So Jesus Christ, as it were, picked up our sins and carried the burden of them. The "sin of the world" is, of course, unlimited atonement – 1Corinthians 5:14,15,19; 1Timothy 2:6; 4:10; Titus 2:11; Hebrews 2:9; 2Peter er 2:1; 1John 2:2.

Verses 30-34, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, John the Baptist has focused attention on the one who is the only saviour. John the Baptist is the herald of the first advent and in the second day of his diary this is exactly what he is doing.

Verse 30 – "This is he" is "This keeps on being the one of whom I have communicated." John's whole ministry dealt with the person of Christ. Now he sees the subject of his message face to face and he now calls attention to the crowd that this is the one.

"After me cometh a man" – this is what he has been telling the people. It is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. " ... who is preferred before me." The word "preferred" is ginomai which has to do with the humanity of Christ. The next verb is e)imi which has to do with the deity of Christ. "He came to pass [ginomai] before me," – this is precedent. In other words, the humanity of Christ has precedence over any person who has ever lived. It also says at the end of the verse, "for he was before me," and this is the verb e)imi in the imperfect tense, and it indicates His eternal existence. Once again we have the uniqueness of the person of Christ, He is the God-Man – "for he kept on existing before me."

Verse 31 – "And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel" – he didn't know which person it would be ['but now I know'], "therefore I am come baptising with water." This explains why John was the first person who ever baptised and why baptism was not used in the Old Testament. The herald of the King was to keep on baptising believers until one came to him for baptism who did not need baptism, and whose baptism would be unique. So baptism was not only to portray the principle of the plan of God in grace – down with human good and up with divine good – but baptism of John was to find the person whom he had been announcing; to identify the person. He would keep on baptising until the Messiah came, and when He came he was to announce it. And that is what he has done. So day two of the diary is the day when the Messiah came to him personally for baptism.

Verse 32 – "John gave witness." This is the aorist tense of a verb which means to witness. "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him." What did John see when Jesus came out of the water? No one else saw it but John, and when he saw it he knew that this was the identification mark and that this was the God-Man, the Messiah.

Verse 33 – John is saying his baptism is a ritual baptism which involves water. This water was used to identify the Christ, the Messiah; but the Christ is going to have a real baptism. This real baptism is an actual identification. It will not occur until after the cross, resurrection and ascension. Ten days after His ascension the Holy Spirit will descend (Acts 2:3) on the believers gathered in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit will descend on them just as the Holy Spirit descended on Christ at the Jordan River on the second day of John's diary. And on that day He will take every one of those believers in the upper room and He will enter them into union with Christ, and that is the beginning of the Church Age. So here, then, is the real baptism. Jesus Himself, just before He ascended, said in Acts 1:5, "John truly baptised with water; but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days hence." And Peter said after the Gentile Pentecost in Acts 11:15,16 that what happened in Acts 1:5 was fulfilled here.

"And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptise with water, the same [God the Father] said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining in him, the same one [Christ] is he who baptises by means of the Holy Spirit[1]."

Verse 34 – "And I saw, and bare record that this keeps on being the Son of God." Always was; always will be. That is the end of day two.

Verse 35 begins day three and goes through verse 42.

Verse 35 – "And again the next day after John stood" – the next day he is standing and preaching again -- "and two of his disciples." The two of his disciples are Andrew and John. They are not mentioned at this point, they are mentioned later on in the context. Andrew is Peter's brother and John is the writer of this Gospel who also has a brother named James. They are going to illustrate the principle of personal evangelism.

Verse 36 – "Behold the Lamb from God." This is a repetition of his message without apologies.

Verse 37 – "and the two disciples heard him speak." Jesus came back this next day to pick up two of John's disciples, Andrew and John, the writer of this Gospel. As He left John said "Behold the Lamb from God," and two people left the crowd and started to follow Jesus. And John the Baptist is a great man. He is delighted for these two. John understood that Jesus was the Lamb from God and he knew that if any of his flock left and went with Jesus they were in better hands.

Verse 38 – "What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi" – which means, "You have the authority," one who teaches the Word of God authoritatively, and yet they haven't heard Him speak yet. But John's recommendation was all that was necessary. "(which is, being interpreted, Master).

"where dwellest thou?" Where can we find you? Idiomatically they said, "We want to be with you."

Verse 39 – "Come and see." He didn't give them and address. "They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour." Who would know it was the tenth hour? John, who was writing this. And he never forgot that day. John always used Roman time; this was 10am. The synoptic Gospels use Jewish time.

Verse 40 – contact evangelism. "We have found the Messiah [Hebrew], which is, being interpreted [in the Greek], the Christ."

Verse 41 -- He brought Peter to Jesus. "Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A Stone." He is just going to be a little pebble. He is a fisherman; he knows that when you throw a pebble out in the water it drops out of sight. He said to Peter that he was just a little pebble that was going to drop out of sight. He meant that although it was going to take a long time He was going to straighten Peter and then build him up again. That is one of the greatest stories and manifestations of grace in the New Testament. Peter learned everything the hard way.

Verse 43 – begins the fourth and final day of the diary. Philip is going to teach is contact evangelism. He doesn't know Nathanael but eventually he is going to contact Nathanael and bring him to the Lord.

Verse 45 – Andrew went to his brother whom he knew; Philip went to Nathanael in another city, a person whom he had not met before.

Verse 46 – Nathanael immediately has some doubts about this. Apparently he has studied the scriptures and he knows that the Messiah must come from Bethlehem, that He must be related to David. Philip says "Jesus of Nazareth" and this brings the question from Nathanael.

Verse 47 – "Behold an Israelite in whom there is no deceit." In other words, here is an honest person.

Verse 48 – "How did you know me?" Jesus answered, "Before that Philip invited you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."

Verse 49 – "Rabbi [you are the authority], thou art the Son of God: thou art the King of Israel."

Verse 50-51 – Jesus mentions seeing this for one reason. When this man believed the angelic conflict went into gear, as it always does when a person believes.

[1] The word "Ghost": When the King James Version was translated they picked scholars, not Christians. They were 50 professors of Greek and Hebrew from three schools: Oxford, Cambridge and Westminster. Two died, so 48 actually did it. There are a lot of words that are translated two different ways in the Bible; pneuma is one of them. The word means "spirit" because in the Greek language there is no such thing as a ghost. They don't even have a word for "ghost." The closest is an Attic Greek word which existed several centuries before and it means "shades," but not even a ghost. But the Oxford men translated pneuma "spirit." The Cambridge men translated it "ghost." Ghost and Spirit are always the same word without exception throughout the entire New Testament.

Chapter 2

This is the story of Jesus speaking to social opposition, and Jesus Christ has an answer for religious opposition. There are two areas of life where Jesus Christ received opposition during His earthly ministry – social and religious. Basically they are the same thing because the religious crowd criticised Him because of His friends and the people with whom He dined. He dined with the prostitutes and the tax collectors, the ostracised part of the Jewish society. They didn't like it and they said so. We have in this one chapter put together two things that do not occur chronologically. The first miracle that Jesus performed is turning water into wine, and that is a chronological event. It actually occurred at the first part of His ministry. But we have also in this chapter something which is not chronological. The next event in His ministry was not casting out the moneychangers. It is put together to show that it is always the religious crowd who criticises the social life of the relaxed crowd. The chronological event comes first and then the logical. The logical always follows the chronological in the scriptures to indicate a relationship. Jesus answers society; Jesus answers religion.

Verse 1 – "And the third day" is three days following John 1:43 which was the fourth day of the diary. It was probably on the Wednesday afternoon of the fourth day of the week in which this occurs. Traditionally in that day weddings of virgins occurred on Wednesdays. Apparently this was a very large wedding feast at which there were hundreds of people involved as wedding guests.

"the mother of Jesus" – the mother of the humanity of Christ. Mary is not the mother of God. At the moment Jesus only has six disciples, those who came out of the four-day diary. They included Andrew, Peter, James John, Philip and Nathanael. Jesus was late to the wedding because He had just arrived in town. The words "the mother of Jesus was there" is in the imperfect tense, which means she had been there since the beginning of the wedding feast.

Verse 2 – "Jesus was called." The Greek says, "invited." This is an aorist tense, which means word had been left to come as soon as He arrived.

Verse 3 -- Now the crisis. The feast had been in progress for some time; Jesus had arrived just as the wine ran out. There was no accident about the time of His arrival. The word "they" means Jesus and His six disciples. This doesn't necessarily imply that Jesus Himself drank; it doesn't say yes or no.

"the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine." At this point Mary is saying withdraw. She is telling Jesus and these disciples to leave because there is no more wine and the ceremony cannot be followed, it is a time for everyone to leave otherwise the bride and groom are going to be in a very embarrassing situation. The wedding feast is still going on and they are out of wine.

Verse 4 – "Woman," gunh. This is a very strong rebuke. He doesn't say "mother," He says "woman." Everything Jesus said during His lifetime He said either from His deity, His humanity, or His hypostatic union. This came from His deity. While Mary is the mother of the humanity of Jesus, Jesus Christ is the God of Mary. As Mary's God He said to her "Woman" – rebuke.

"what do I have to do with thee?" is not what He said at all. He said, "What is this to you and me?" The fact that they are out of wine doesn't mean anything to you and to me. This indicated, if anything, that neither Jesus nor Mary drank. This seems to be the only conclusion that we can draw from that phrase. Remember that from the human viewpoint Mary is just another woman and she is definitely at this point a woman out of line. In effect, "What is the loss of wine to us?" Mary hinted that they should depart because there was no wine, but Jesus rebuked her. But He really had another reason. The rebuke, as is so often from God when He rebukes us, is to drive us to the faith-rest technique. This is exactly what Jesus did to her; He drove her to faith-rest. All rebuke from God is to stimulate the faith-rest technique -- as well as rebound, of course

The techniques will not cause the believer to grow up spiritually; only knowledge of doctrine will do that. The techniques are designed to carry the believer while he is learning doctrine so he can grow up.

And when Mary heard this rebuke, who knew doctrine, who was sensitive to the fact that her human son was also her God, her saviour, was therefore stimulated immediately and switched from the human viewpoint to the faith-rest principle.

"mine hour is not yet come." "Mine hour" refers to the cross. No wine means let's depart. Jesus rebuked her, "What does wine mean to you and to me? It doesn't mean a thing. Our happiness doesn't depend on wine." Then He said, "It isn't time for me to depart, it isn't time for the cross." It is time to put a light on the cross for all of the miracles of Jesus were designed to focus attention on the cross, to focus attention on who and what Jesus Christ is. She said let's go and He said it isn't time for Him to go. In the plan of God Jesus had to do certain things, it was no accident that He was there and they were out of wine. He has come not simply to provide wine and therefore to save the day, which He does, but He has come to leave His calling card to the human race. His calling card is a miracle.

Verse 5 -- "His mother saith to the servants." She didn't have to say another thing because she knew Bible doctrine. The rebuke brought her back into focus immediately. She immediately moved on and turned to the servants there. Now she is operating on the faith-rest technique. She had no idea how He was going to present His calling card but she knew that something was about to happen and she had all the faith-rest in the world. At this point she brings her Bible doctrine into play, the doctrine starts flowing again and therefore the mentality of her soul came up with an answer – orientation to the plan of God. And the volition of her soul made a decision. Words were formed in her mind and uttered by her lips. "Whatever he says, do it."

From the human standpoint it was hopeless, there was no way to get wine there. Therefore there was nothing more she could do except "run away." And when Jesus said to her, "Woman," it was like saying turn around and face the issue, I am here. And Jesus Christ says that to you and to me many times. When you start to hit that panic button He says, "Fear thou not, I am with thee."

Verse 6 – "six water pots of stone." These water pots were used for washing feet and hands; this was the custom of the Jews.

"two or three firkins apiece" is old English. It should be between two and three firkins, which simply means 20 gallons. So there is a total of 120 gallons. The pots are empty at this moment.

Verse 7 – "Fill them up with water. And they filled them up to the brim."

Verse 8 – "Draw out now and take to the governor of the feast." In other words, whenever you opened another wineskin, as it were, a new bottle of wine it was customary in the ancient world for the governor of the feast to taste it first to see if it was all right. Then he gave the instructions to serve it.

Verse 9 – "the water that was made," perfect passive participle of ginomai: "which had become."

"called the bridegroom" – in order to compliment him.

Verse 11 – "This beginning" means that this was His first miracle; "manifested his glory" – He left His calling card that He is God.

"and his disciples believed on him" – the iterative aorist means that they had previously believed, before they came. They didn't believe because they saw the miracles, they had already believed. That is the whole reason for the miracle.

How many water pots? Six. How many disciples? Six. One disciple; one water pot. When Jesus found them they were empty. So into them went water. Water represents symbolically in scripture three things: a) salvation, as per Isaiah 55:1; b) the Word, Ephesians 5:26; c) the Holy Spirit, John 7:37,39. This would be true of all six. They were all water pots, empty when Christ found them just as we were when Christ found us. Those water pots weren't doing a thing, they were non-functional. When Jesus finds us, we are totally useless, out of the plan of God, helpless, hopeless and we have nothing to recommend us. "Stone" here means everything that is negative, like hardheaded – cold, useless, worthless. First they were saved. Next they are going to take in the Word, they are going to have the power of the Spirit. And what happens? Then you have wine. And wine represents happiness, inner stimulation, inner happiness, inner peace, inner power. And that will be true of all six.

Verse 12-17 – Jesus expresses His attitude toward religion. The purpose of Christ's mission aroused all the antagonism of religion. Now we begin with the activities of religion in relationship to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having presented Himself as the only saviour, as the God-Man, in turning the water into wine He now presents Himself as the one who is totally opposed to religion.

Verse 12 – they were at Capernaum for a very short period of rest, and then on to Jerusalem in verse 13.

Verse 13 – "And the Jews' Passover was at hand." Notice the designation, "the Jews' Passover." In Exodus 12:11 it was called the Lord's Passover but the Passover has now been infiltrated by religion. The Jews have converted that which spoke of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, His work on the cross, into a religious ceremony. This is the way religion works. It infiltrates the truth; it distorts the truth; it uses ritual in order to obscure the truth.

Verse 14 – the corruption of the temple. The word "sitting" means that they were actually doing business in the temple. Remember the temple was the place where Christology was taught. This is the Old Testament Christology presented. The articles in the temple were similar to the articles in the tabernacle and each article was a reminder of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have the principle that the temple represents the whole realm of Christology, but now it has been distorted by religion. It has now become a place for a religious con game; we have the moneychangers working there in the name of religion. So the temple which had once been the way of presenting the Lord Jesus Christ has now become a place of rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The issue has now to be clarified in the temple before Jesus Christ can begin His earthly ministry. This was the place for clarification. In other words, the world must be removed from the temple before the temple can reach the world with the gospel. Fir the temple had those objects in it which were designed to present the gospel in Old Testament fashion before the cross actually occurred historically.

When it says they are moneychangers they are not changing money, they are actually selling animal sacrifices at exorbitant prices, making up to 90-95% profit. They also had to split their profits with the religious organization who gave them the opportunity of doing business in the temple. They bought their franchise from the scribes and Pharisees, the religious crowd. So they received their concession from the Sanhedrin and the Sanhedrin then took a percentage of the profits. While this might have been legitimate business in other circumstances and in other places it was neither legitimate nor the right thing to do in the temple. It helped to obscure the principle of Christology and the doctrine of Christology. So we find that the spiritual has been replaced by the religious; and the religious, of course, comes around to gimmicks for making money. Times have not changed. Religion is just as much in the business of seeking to gain money, thinking about money, using pressure and gimmicks to get money, as in times of old. Religion today is just as vicious as it ever was.

There is a parallel passage in Matthew 21:12ff in which we have the cleansing of the temple described from Matthew's viewpoint. While the Matthew account gives it chronologically John puts it in a logical place. From the very start of His ministry Jesus Christ was opposed by religion. The religious crowd is represented by the Sanhedrin.

Verse 15 – "he drove them all out of the temple." There is one exception, the person who sells doves. He invited him to leave; everyone else was driven out violently. Verse 16 – here is the only exception.

Verse 17 – His disciples remembered the scripture, a quotation from Psalm 16:9. "The zeal of thine house" is literally, "The zeal that belongs to [or for] my house." This is an objective genitive. In other words, the Lord was zealous for His own house. He was zealous for the cleansing of the temple which is the house of God.

Verses 18-22, He is now challenged by religion. He left His calling card in the northern part of the country by turning the water into wine. He leaves His calling card in Jerusalem in an entirely different way. One was a miracle that brought happiness; the other was a violent act which brought discouragement to the religious crowd.

Verse 18 – the religious crowd accepting the challenge. The words "the Jews" always refers to the religious crowd. "What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?" In other words, "What is your authority?"

Verse 19 – here is my sign. If you want to know what my authority is, listen to this. "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." He was referring to His body. Apparently He pointed to His body. The word "this" would indicate that. They assumed immediately that He was speaking of the temple which He had just cleansed.

Verse 20 – this immediately aroused their antagonism. "Forty and six years" does not refer to the time of Zerubabbel, it refers to Herod's redoing the temple.

Verse 21 – "But this he spake of the temple of his body." This is in the imperfect tense, He kept on saying. In other words, He said more than is reported here. He was actually talking about the sign of the resurrection, not the sign of rasing up the temple or rebuilding the temple after it was totally destroyed.

Verse 22 – it was after the resurrection that the disciples really became serious about doctrine. Jesus Christ taught His disciples for three years but without any success. They learned very little, if anything. But just as soon as Christ was resurrected they snapped. Immediately they began to put things together and in place, because the Old Testament has a great deal to say about resurrection Psalm 16; Daniel 12, Isaiah 26, etc.

"then they believed the scriptures" – that was the first time that they used any faith-rest technique. It was the resurrection that cranked up their faith-rest technique. There had to be some catastrophe – His death. He came out of the catastrophe through resurrection and the whole thing just snapped them right in place and they began to use the F/R technique and to apply Bible doctrine to experience. So the resurrection was the sign which would pay off later on. But at this time the six disciples that Jesus has with Him are obviously not getting much out of this.

"and they believed the scripture, and the words which Jesus had said" – they didn't believe anything that He taught until after the resurrection.

Verse 23 – "many believed in his name." Aorist tense, in a point of time. They saw His calling card, they responded to it and they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. His name means His person.

"when they saw the miracles that he was doing" – imperfect linear aktionsart. He kept on performing miracles. There were many people there who were alert and who realised that this was the Messiah, the God-Man, the only saviour, and they believed in Him.

Verse 24 – "But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, because he knew all." The word "believe" here means to entrust. It is in the perfect tense and it means He refused to put Himself in their hands. They said, "Since you are the King put yourself in our hands and we will see that you are made ruler." People came with a temptation. The devil came with a similar temptation. But He did not put Himself in their hands because they did not have the ability to make Him King.

Verse 25 – He knew all about the sin nature and He was not about to be taken in by this type of activity.

Miracles

1. God is sovereign and the universe does His bidding. E.g. water into wine.

2. Our so-called scientific laws do not exist.

3. They are not laws because science has no way of enforcing them or even guaranteeing that they will continue to operate in the same manner.

4. As a matter of fact, the universe with matter, energy and laws will not always exist in its present form. Revelation 20:11; 2Peter er 3:10-12.

5. The universe follows a pattern, not because science says so but because God is faithful in keeping it that way. In other words, scientific laws simply reflect the faithfulness of God. Every scientific text is a treatise on the immutability and resultant faithfulness of God.

6. Who keeps the universe operating on a fixed pattern? The answer is found in Colossians 1:17 – the Lord Jesus Christ.

7. How does He do it? By His Word – Hebrews 1:3. The God of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ who keeps everything operating according to a fixed pattern, can at any time overrule His own laws for a specific purpose. Throughout the book of John He overrules for a specific purpose. It is the calling card, the specific presentation of Himself. It is the means by which many will be alerted to the gospel and will respond by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

8. Why does the Lord do it? Why does the Lord keep everything operating? The answer is found in Hebrews 2:10 – to bring many sons into glory.

9. The laws of the universe merely define God's faithfulness in time. The only thing that we have that is unchangeable is the Word of God, the promises of God, and the doctrines.

10. If you ever doubt that the Lord might not be faithful in fulfilling a promise that you have claimed by faith just remember that you are on this earth and cannot fall off, and that His faithfulness in no way is changed by your doubts. The very laws of the universe which seem to be the basis of our present stability are going to change at the right and proper time. But there is a change that occurs right now in contrast to these laws, i.e. our own doubts. We change every hour on the hour without Bible doctrine, we are unstable. Therefore, the so-called scientific laws, along with Bible doctrine, are designed to make us aware of the faithfulness of God and the grace of God. And by becoming so oriented we are stabilised and unchanging – the doubts do not move into the mentality of the soul and therefore a soul kink is avoided.

Chapter 3

In chapter three we have a personal attack of religion. This man seems to have been sincere in his seeking but immediately his sincerity is doubted for one reason. He starts to give Jesus a lot of lip.

Verse 1 – "Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews." He was a Pharisee, a do-gooder.

Verse 2 – "The same" is literally, "The same one."

"came to Jesus by night" – not because he was ashamed but because his day was filled with religious activity. During the day he was too busy doing good, being religious. He was full of religiosity.

"Rabbi" – this means "Doctor." He gave Jesus recognition, but he is being condescending; "we know" – he is emphasising his own self-importance, he is referring to "we Pharisees" and to himself in particular.

"thou art a teacher come from God" – he had to say "from God" because there wasn't any way he could get around it. Why? Not because he recognised Christ as the God-Man -- he doesn't.

"no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." The word "except" is a 3rd class condition – If God be with him, maybe He is and maybe He is not. The 3rd class condition expresses his own doubt. So Nicodemus was a doubter. Nicodemus either on his own or sent by the Sanhedrin had come to spy out the land, had come to get further information. So far the Sanhedrin was helpless because of the tremendous volume of miracles that were being performed. Therefore it was a rather difficult situation.

Verse 3 – Jesus interrupted. Jesus broke right in with "Verily, verily," which means here comes doctrine. Jesus gives a doctrinal answer.

"Except a man be born again." The words "born again" mean to be born from above. The Greek adverb is a)nwqen and it really means "from above." This is the one thing that Nicodemus didn't get, didn't understand. From above is obviously a spiritual birth and the word a)nwqen connotes a spiritual birth.

"he cannot see the kingdom of God" – he understood 'kingdom of God,' it was a theological designation for the eternal kingdom, for being the possessor of eternal life. It was a part of Judaistic theology. This was clear to Nicodemus, but that is all he understood.

Verse 4 – Nicodemus now shows what a smart Alec he is. "How can a man be born when he is old?" He isn't even listening to that "from above."

"can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born" – this is sarcastically said. Jesus didn't even say anything about being born again, He said "born from above." This man is religious and he cannot think in terms of spiritual truth.

Verse 5 – Jesus ignores his sarcasm, the fact that he is a smart Alec, and He gives him an answer to show the distinction between physical and spiritual birth. Nicodemus is an unbeliever. How are you going to tell an unbeliever that you are talking about a spiritual birth? The only way to do it is to make a distinction, and so Jesus takes this man's vocabulary – this man is religious and has ritual, and in his ritual he has water. Water is used in the laver and water was used in the tabernacle and later on in the temple as a ritual purification. So water has a spiritual connotation to a Pharisee. So Jesus has to think of a term that connotes something spiritual – water.

"Except a man be born of water" – water is used to alert this man to the fact that this is a spiritual birth, not a physical birth. Water has a spiritual connotation to the Pharisees.

"and of the Spirit" – the Holy Spirit; "he cannot enter the kingdom of God" – so we have to be born of water and of the Spirit. The water has three spiritual connotations: a) for salvation – Isaiah 55:1; b) the water of the Word – Ephesians 5:26; the water of the Holy Spirit – John 7:39.

Since the word "Spirit" is mentioned it is the water of the Word that is involved here. We know it is the water of the Word because in 1Peter er 1:23 we are said to be born again or regenerated by the Word. So by comparing Ephesians 5:26 with 1Peter er 1:23 we know that the word "water" here refers to the Word, and specifically in the Word, the content of the gospel. Jesus has an immediate purpose for using the word "water" – to make him realise that this is a spiritual birth.

Verse 6 – an illustration to show that He is talking about a spiritual birth. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." That takes care of being born from the mother's womb; "and that which is born from the Spirit is spiritual." Two births illustrated. Titus 3:5 also indicates the Holy Spirit also has a part in regeneration.

Verse 7 – "Marvel not," an aorist imperative which means don't be shocked, "when I tell you, You must be born from above."

So here is Jesus dealing with religion. What does religion need? Religion needs a spiritual birth.

Verse 8 – Jesus illustrates once more by showing that a spiritual thing is not something you can see" "so is everyone that is born from the Spirit." Titus 3:5, the Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration.

Verse 9 – "How can these things be?" Literally, "How are these things able to come to pass?" The word for "be" is actually ginomai which means to come to pass. In other words, he has just said "I don't know anything about the plan of God.

Verse 10 -- Jesus is going to give him some mechanics. He starts out with a little bit of sarcasm. In effect, "Did you graduate from a theological seminary and you didn't learn this?" "Master of Israel" is his degree which he received when he graduated from one of the seminaries.

Verse 11 – the point of doctrine, "Verily, verily."

"We speak" – you didn't have a seminary professor who could speak with authority. When He says "we" He is identifying Himself with the disciples when the disciples learn after the resurrection. In the meantime He speaks for everyone. The word for "speak" means to communicate, present linear aktionsart of the verb lalew.

"what we know" – you have to know something to communicate something. To communicate doctrine you have to know doctrine.

"and testify [witness] what we have seen" – this means to see in the Word. Perfect tense: keep on testifying, keep on speaking.

"and you receive not our witness" – He accuses religion of negative volition, and for that reason His explanation of the gospel will be short and to the point.

What does this do to Nicodemus? He pricks up his ears, his eyes bulge, and he begins to listen.

Verse 12 – "If I tell you things on the earth, and you do not believe them, how shall you believe if I tell you things in heaven?" Notice the difference in that translation from one in the KJV. The first "if" is a first class condition – if, and it is true. The second "if" is a third class condition – maybe yes, maybe no. If He tells them in heaven is maybe He will and maybe He won't.

The point of that verse is: "You are hearing now how to get to heaven but you may not make it."

Verse 13 – at the time Jesus spoke no man had ascended up to heaven; "but he that came down from heaven [virgin birth], even the Son of man who keep so n being in Heaven." What he is saying to Nicodemus is that while He is standing there talking to him He was in heaven right now. What is He saying? "I am the God-Man. I am a human being talking to you but I am also deity and omnipresent."

Verse 14 – He doesn't go into a detailed explanation of the gospel, He doesn't have to because He is talking to a theological graduate who knows all about Moses and the serpent and the implications of it. The people who looked up at that serpent of brass lived; the people who didn't died. They died of snake bite. The venom of the snake represents sin. The solution to sin was the cross and those who looked up [illustration of believing] were saved/delivered.

Verse 15 – "That whosoever" – any member of the human race – "believeth," the present active participle of the verb pisteuw to indicate that faith in Christ is always the way of salvation.

"should not perish" – aorist subjunctive. It means in a point of time when the judgement takes place. The subjunctive means that this is a potential thing depending upon faith.

"but" – present tense, linear aktionsart, "keep on having eternal life." Eternal life is not something you get at the point of faith; it is something you keep on having.

Verse 16 – Jesus is still talking to Nicodemus. "For God" – o( qeoj refers to the first person of the Trinity who is the author of the divine plan, operation grace. A perfect plan comes from the perfect character of God. Everything that we will ever need in time is comprised in this one phrase in the Greek, "the God." He knew in eternity past every sin we would ever commit. He made provision for all of these sins by sending His Son who was judged for these sins on the cross. He knew every failure we would ever have in phase two and therefore He provided the technique of rebound. He knew every suffering, every frustration, every heartache, every difficulty which we would ever encounter and therefore He made in His perfect plan provision for every situation in this life, so that there will never be a trial, a testing, a suffering or adversity which is too great for the plan of God.

"so loved" – aorist active indicative of a)gapaw. The aorist tense refers to eternity past when "the God" loved you. He had a mental attitude love which preceded the action, which is the cross. The active voice: the Father produces the action of the verb – mental attitude love. The indicative mood is the reality of God's love. But God's love for the unbelieving human race is centred and focused on the cross. It is true that God is love, and because God is love the cross exists. When a member of the human race bypasses the cross or rejects Christ as saviour he is the object of divine wrath, not love.

"the world" – kosmoj. God loves those who are incapable of loving Him. We are born without the equipment to love God.

"that" introduces a result clause. When God has a mental attitude the mental attitude always produces a result; "he gave" – mental attitude love gives. This is the aorist active indicative of the verb didomi, the basic verb of grace. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, which means it is a point of time that covers 33 years, from the virgin birth to the ascension. Active voice: God did the giving because God did the loving. The indicative mood is the reality of this giving.

"his only begotten Son" – it doesn't say that at all. A literal translation is: "the Son, the only born." The word for "only born" is monogenhj. Christ is the only member of the human race born without a sin nature. Adam was created minus a sin nature; he is called the first Adam. The last Adam was born minus a sin nature.

"that" introduces a purpose clause. God had a purpose in giving us His only born Son. God had to give us Jesus Christ by way of the virgin birth, by way of the cross.

"whosoever" means any member of the human race; anyone – doctrine of unlimited atonement; "believeth" – present active participle of the verb pisteuw. Pisteuw means a non-meritorious system of perception. This is a dramatic present tense. The most dramatic moment in your life is the moment you are born again. The active voice: you have to believe for yourself. No one else can do it for you. This is also a participle of precedence. The participle means that since the beginning of time every person who has ever been saved in the history of the human race was saved in exactly the same way – by faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is always the object of faith in salvation.

"in him" – "him" is the pronoun referring to Jesus Christ, the gift. He is the object of faith in salvation – Acts 16:31.

"shall not perish" – the word "perish" is a)pollumi [a)po = preposition of ultimate source; ollumi = to die or to destroy] which means to destroy from the ultimate source of yourself. This tells us that every person who goes to hell goes to hell from the ultimate source of himself, not from the source of God. God never sent anyone to hell; man goes to hell because he rejects Christ. In other words, all members of the human race have a chance. This is an aorist middle subjunctive. In this case "shall not perish," to destroy yourself from the ultimate source of yourself, here means the final judgement. It means standing at the last judgement because you have rejected Christ. There is a negative mh here which says you won't do this. The aorist tense refers to a point of time, the last judgement – the great white throne judgement of Revelation 20. The middle voice indicates benefit. You are benefited by not destroying yourself from the ultimate source of yourself. This is a subjunctive mood and the subjunctive mood generally indicates a potential. In this case the subjunctive mood is the mood which is used with a purpose clause, and it indicates that it is God's purpose never to judge with the lake of fire any person who accepts Christ as saviour – Romans 8:1. That is the negative side. You will never destroy yourself from the ultimate source of yourself; it is impossible. You are in the plan of God now.

"but have everlasting life" – the word for 'have' here is e)xw. It is in the present tense which means you keep on having everlasting life. The active voice: you have everlasting life for yourself. Subjunctive mood: it is God's purpose for you to have everlasting life; this is a part of the purpose clause. This means you are in the plan of God forever.

Verse 17. Again this verse begins with the phrase "the God" – God the Father, first person of the Trinity; "sent not" – the verb is a)postellw which means to send. God the Father sent the Son from the ultimate source of Himself. It was a sovereign decision in eternity past; "to condemn" – aorist active indicative. He didn't send Him in a point of time to condemn you, He sent Him in a point of time to save you. Active voice: the Father sent the Son not to condemn but to save. The indicative mood: the reality of the Son coming not to condemn but to save. This is literally, "The God sent not the Son," and "the Son" simply refers back to the uniqueness of Christ, the God-Man. The word "condemn" means to judge – krinw. Jesus Christ was not sent to judge, He was really sent to save. Present active subjunctive: to keep on judging.

"but"— conjunction of contrast, "that the world [kosmoj – reference to people born with old sin natures, spiritually dead] through him [through the instrumentality of Him] might be saved" – aorist passive subjunctive. Aorist tense: point of time when you believe. Passive voice: we receive salvation; we do not earn it or deserve it. The subjunctive mood goes with the purpose clause, and it is God's purpose that we might be saved.

Verse 18 – "He that believeth" is a present active participle again to indicate that salvation is always the same; "on him [on Christ] is not judged" – present passive indicative: "does not receive judgement [at the last judgement]."

"but" – conjunction of contrast, "he that believeth not has been judged already." Notice: "is not judged; has been judged." The words "has been judged already" is perfect passive indicative. This is the perfect tense, so we have a point of time which starts something. He went on negative signals at this point and that negative signal, if it continues until his death, means he will be earmarked for the last judgment. The passive voice: he receives this judgment. The indicative mood is the reality of that judgment.

"because he has not believed in the name" – the word "name" stands for the person – "of the only begotten [monogenhj = only born] Son of God."

Verse 19 – "And this is the condemnation [judgment]. The word for "judgment" is krisij. Nouns have suffixes; ij means the act of judging.

"that light is come into the world" – the reason that He is called light is because He is manifest as the saviour and everyone can see the light. Perfect tense: has come in the past with the result the light is always there – salvation, gospel message.

"men loved darkness rather than light" – "men" is the Greek word a)nqrwpoj which is generic man, man and woman, man born under the kosmoj system; "loved" here is a)gapaw used for the unbeliever. This is a mental attitude love; "darkness" is not the ordinary word for darkness, it is skotoj and it means moral darkness. But it means more than moral darkness, it means the old sin nature. This really refers to the lust pattern and the human good. It is their "deeds" that they love, and these deeds come from the old sin nature's area of strength.

"because their deeds" – the deeds that come from the old sin nature "are evil" – reference to something that comes from the old sin nature, ponhroj. Human good comes from the old sin nature.

So mankind rejects the work of Christ because it prefers its own work, it what this says.

"And this is the condemnation." The word "condemnation" has an active suffix; this is the act of judging.

"that light is come into the world" – literally, "the light," referring to the Lord Jesus Christ – John 8:12. Generally speaking light refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, but it also refers to Bible doctrine. In 1John 1 it says that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. In John 3:19 it is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. The light "is come" is a perfect tense, it has come in the past with the result that it is always here.

"and men" – this is the generic term for men [mankind], "loved darkness rather than light." The word for darkness refers to moral darkness. The word skotoj is used for the manifestation and activities of the old sin nature.

Verse 20 – "For every one that doeth evil." It doesn't say "do," [poiew] it says "practice" [prassw]. To practice evil means to be out of fellowship and under the control of the old sin nature. The word prassw means to operate or practice and it refers to the modus operandi of the old sin nature.

"hateth the light" – means they hate Christ. This is the unbeliever religious man in Jesus' day. Application: He hates doctrine, he hates the grace principle.

"lest" – i.e. "that." It introduces a negative purpose clause; "his should not be reproved." In other words, his human good is not acceptable. His deeds refers to his human good. He doesn't come to the light because he doesn't want his human good to be reproved. This is why in witnessing for Christ the most difficult people to reach are self-righteous people and religious people, people who are practicing human good. This is why believers whose idea of the Christian way of life is simply a system of morality. They never get with doctrine, never understand grace, and never grow up. They are childish as long as they live for this reason: the dynamics of phase two – knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of the Holy Spirit equals the production of divine good. Ignorance of doctrine plus carnality equals the production of human good. The legalistic believer is steeped in human good.

Verse 21 – "But he that doeth truth." Truth is something you do. "But" is a conjunction of contrast. How does one do truth? The word here is no longer prassw, it is now poiew which means to produce. To produce goes right back to the principle that knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of the Holy Spirit equals the production of divine good. So doing the truth is being filled with the Spirit (rebound when necessary), learning doctrine – the more doctrine you know the more you grow, the more you grow the more concentrated becomes your divine good. "Truth" is a word for doctrine. Doing the truth is doing doctrine or the production from doctrine. This is a present active participle to indicate that this is the Christian way of life.

"cometh to the light" – the preposition here makes it very clear how he comes: proj plus the accusative means face to face with the light, which means doctrine is built upon doctrine.

"that" is a result clause; "his deeds may be made manifest [exposed as to their true character – divine good], that they are wrought." The word "wrought" is e)gazomai, meaning to produce. Perfect tense: this good is performed in a point of time but it stands forever and is the basis of reward for the believer in the future.

"in God" – they are produced "in the sphere of God." Divine good is produced in the sphere of God, all divine good in the believer's life is produced by the power of God, namely the power of the Word and the power of the Spirit. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb. This is the voice of grace; all divine good is produced on the basis of the grace principle. The indicative mood indicates the reality of the production of divine good on the part of the grace believer.

Verse 22 – "After these things." This is the end of the talk with Nicodemus who at this point has been put down.

"Jesus came and his disciples into the land of Judea; and there he tarried with them" – the word for "tarried" is diatribw which means to wear away by friction, to spend time. During the discourse with Nicodemus the disciples were resenting what Jesus did to that "nice" Pharisee. The disciples admired the Pharisees; they respected them they had been taught to do so. And Jesus had clobbered this one. They didn't like it really, so there is friction. And Jesus is going to wear away the friction by teaching them doctrine. He takes them aside and He teaches them Bible doctrine. So the word means to take away the friction. It is the imperfect active indicative, which means He kept on teaching them.

"and baptised" – the imperfect active indicative indicates that He kept on performing acts of baptism.

Verse 23 – John the Baptist answering religion. The background for the rest of this chapter is simple. The ministry of John the Baptist is diminishing and the ministry of the Lord Jesus is increasing. The disciples of John the Baptist are guilty of jealousy. Apparently they have let their jealousy be known to the religious crowd -- the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin. Therefore the Sanhedrin sends some representatives to John to try to start a rift between John and Jesus. In their attempt to do so it is brought out very clearly that John the Baptist is one of the greatest believers of all time because he refused to succumb to the very subtle temptation and the very obvious attacks of the religious crowd to start a rift between himself and the Lord Jesus Christ. He refused to succumb to the mental attitude sin. He was not jealous or envious or bitter toward the Lord Jesus Christ; he rejoiced in Him.

John answers religion by his life, the stability of his soul. He answers religion by his words, words of divine viewpoint. And while he is answering religion he is also straightening out his disciples.

"in Aenon near Salim" tells us that now John and Jesus were now many miles apart. John is obviously having a continuing ministry though quite obviously a diminishing ministry.

Verse 24 – the reason he was still doing this is because he was not yet cast into prison.

Verse 25 – the religious attack. "Then there arose a question." The Greek word for question zhthsij which means a ridiculous dispute. A theological debate. It means a dispute about something that is more or less inconsequential. It means a meticulous dispute. The words "there arose" is ginomai which means "there came to pass."

"some of John's disciples and the Jews" – the word "some" is not found in the original. It simply means that the Jewish members of the Sanhedrin, the religious leaders got into a very meticulous argument with the disciples of John and the subject was purifying. The Jews had developed over a period of some 400 years a series of rituals in which there was water. They had been practicing these things though they were not authorised by the Old Testament scriptures. This sprinkling ritual could only be accomplished by the clergy who had a theological degree. The one who had the degree was called Rabbi. These theologs did not want to lose some of the benefits of the clergy, and since they were not teaching doctrine they were enslaving the people through systems of ritual called purifying. They would charge for the service of being "cleansed." It had become quite a money-making gimmick.

Now we find Jesus baptising and John baptising, and later on the disciples of Jesus baptising, and this is cutting in on their clergical income! Naturally there was a challenge from religion and there was quite an argument going here about purifying.

Verse 26 – "they" refers to the religious leaders, the so-called clergy.

"and said unto him, Rabbi" – this is sarcasm. Rabbit means a theological degree and John does not have one, but they do this in order to develop a very subtle approach to their attack here.

"he that was with thee beyond the Jordan" – they won't even mention Jesus' name because to mention His name is to acknowledge Him as Messiah.

"to whom thou barest witness" – marturew in the perfect tense: permanent results. It means to communicate in a way whereby the information is understood.

"the same is now baptising, and all" – this means he has a growing and successful ministry. The present tense here means that the crowds are growing. He is having a very successful ministry body-wise. John, on the other hand, is having a dwindling ministry. The objective here is obvious. It is to get John jealous, to bring in mental attitude sins, to cause a rift between John the Baptist and Jesus.

Verse 27 – "John answered" – a)pokrinomai [a)po = preposition of ultimate source; krinomai = to give a discerning answer] means to give an answer based on knowledge. Krinw means to judge; krinomai means to be discerning in an answer. So it means to give a discerning answer from the ultimate source of one's self. We must look at John to see how he could give a discerning answer from the ultimate source of himself. Two things are important with regard to John. He had Bible doctrine in his human spirit. He had divine viewpoint minus mental attitude sins. John answers from the ultimate source of himself. He answers not only the religious Jews but he also answers his own frustrated disciples. He is going to cool off their jealousy and he is going to put down religion.

"A man" – the word for man is a)nqrwpoj, homo sapien, a generic term, and this means that this applies to anyone, including the religious crowd. Therefore, when a generic term is used in the sentence a principle is about to be stated which is a general principle regarding mankind.

"can receive nothing" – the general principle. There are two verbs, "can" and "receive" – can is dunamai which means to have the power, ability. A man has the ability to receive nothing. This is a present tense, which means this is always true. A man does not have the ability to receive anything except from God – "unless it is given to him from heaven." The principle of being given from heaven is the principle of promotion. For every believer in phase two John's words have a very direct application. If God doesn't promote you then you are to be relaxed and free from mental attitude sins, and have inner happiness, inner peace, inner power, and inner blessing. God isn't going to promote all believers and if God doesn't promote you, you are not promoted.

"except it be given" – perfect passive subjunctive. The perfect tense means that divine promotion is permanent and has great spiritual repercussions. The passive voice: divine promotion is based on the principle of grace. The subjunctive mood says that divine promotion is potential, depending upon God. There are two verses of scripture that deal with the principle of promotion: Joshua 3:7; 1Peter er 5:5,6. John says to the religious crowd that they are complaining about the type of success that Jesus is having but no one has this type of success unless it comes from heaven. The source of divine promotion is the sovereignty of God. If the ministry of Jesus in increasing and the ministry of John the Baptist is decreasing this is God's business, not John's, not the religious crowd's, and not that of John's disciples. John's job is to remain faithful and to be stabilised in doctrine, oriented to grace. Promotion is in the hands of the Lord. It is always based on grace; it is a sovereign decision; the believer must avoid seeking to promote himself and the mental attitude sins of jealousy toward those whom God has promoted. The believer's job is to be faithful.

Verse 28 – "Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said." He has communicated it many times; "I am not the Christ, but I am sent before him" – this is a perfect periphrastic when means I have been sent before Him in the past with the result that I have been faithful in my job, and I am still doing my job. And I am only to do my job, I am a member of the team.

Verse 29 – "He that hath [keeps on having] the bride." The Greek word numfh is the word for "bride." The word for bridegroom is numfioj. Who has the bride? The groom. John is saying he is not the groom; he is a friend of the groom. The friend of the groom is just going to stand around and rejoice. It is the groom who owns the bride. At this point John shows us that he has learned a lot of doctrine. The bride is the Church. Jesus Christ is going to have an increasing ministry. The bride is still being developed today, every person who receives Christ as saviour is the bride. And Jesus Christ is the groom. So here is John anticipating the Church Age. John is only a friend of the groom which mans he is only a minister in the Jewish Age.

"but the friend of the groom [John the Baptist] which standeth" – perfect tense, which means he stands there faithfully doing his job; "and heareth" – John is listening to the groom; he learns from Jesus. Doctrine is the mind of Christ.

"he rejoices greatly" – with great joy, present linear aktionsart for inner happiness based on doctrine. He is a relaxed person.

"because of the groom's voice" – the groom's voice is the groom's teaching; "this my joy therefore has been fulfilled in the past with the result that it is completed; I am coming to the end of my ministry.

Verse 30 – the Greek says, "He must keep on growing, but I must keep on declining [in importance]." This anticipates the Church Age. The word for "decrease" is e)lattow which means to decline in importance – present tense, linear aktionsart. Passive voice: grace, something he receives from God. This is God's plan; he is oriented to God's plan. Therefore declining in importance is a part of the plan and he is with it. John is a product of the Jewish Age; the Jewish Age is on its way out. John's is a dwindling ministry in keeping with the anticipated change of dispensation. The ministry of Jesus Christ is coming and will grow and grow.

In verses 31-35 we have the message of John the Baptist. John's entire message has to be gleaned from the study of Matthew and John, Acts 19, and other passages where John is mentioned.

Verse 31 – "He that cometh from above" is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. The present active participle of the verb to come means that He has always been from above and even while He is on the earth He is still from above. It introduces the principle of the hypostatic union. Jesus Christ is the God-Man, undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. In His deity He is always in heaven; His humanity was on the earth at that time. John recognises the principle of the hypostatic union or the uniqueness of the person of Jesus Christ.

"is above all" – literally, "keeps on being above all," and by that John the Baptist is saying "He is greater than I am." He is greater than anyone. He is the unique person of the universe in the sense that He is greater than any humanity. He is minus the old sin nature, free from any person sins, in no way has failed God in His humanity. His deity, of course, makes Him infinitely superior to any member of the human race. He is the creator of mankind.

"he that is on the earth is earthly" – John is speaking of himself; "and speakest from the earth" – John is indicating the fact that he speaks in terms of being on the earth only. Jesus Christ and John the Baptist were both speaking at this time. Remember that the whole background of this passage is the jealousy, which arose, and the attempt to start a rivalry between the ministry of Jesus, which was increasing, and the ministry of John the Baptist, which was diminishing. Actually, Jesus speaks as the unique person because He speaks [e)k = from the source of] from above. He is on the earth but He speaks from above. John is on the earth and he speaks from the earth only. Jesus Christ is the God-Man; He is in heaven while He is on the earth. Therefore, He is unique in His message and in His ministry.

Verse 32 – "And what he hath seen" is a perfect active indicative from a verb which means to observe: o (raw, which means to observe something by being present. Jesus observed the plan of God by being present. So this refers to the fact that Jesus Christ in eternity past saw the plan of God because He was there when it was formulated. The plan of God was designed in eternity past – every aspect of it, every principle connected with it, every need that you would ever have in time. Remember that your life, operation phase two, has been provided for totally in the plan of God in eternity past. Perfect tense: He saw it in the past with the result that He provides it for you today.

"And heard" – an aorist tense which indicates eternity past. He heard the Father's design, the Father's plan.

"That he testified" – communicates, present active of the verb maturew. It means to communicate Bible doctrine. So Jesus Christ has a greater ministry than John the Baptist. John was born in time, he is a mere mortal; Jesus Christ is from above and therefore above all. Jesus Christ came from heaven but He is still in heaven at the same time. Jesus Christ saw the plan of the Father in eternity past while it was being designed, He heard it, and He communicates from being on the scene. Everything we have in the Word of God, which is Bible doctrine, is the mind of Christ. All of these things were actually in the mind of Christ in eternity past and now they are put in writing for our benefit.

"No man [no one of you]" – he is obviously looking at the religious crowd. In other words, "none of you religious people." The religious types would not accept Jesus Christ as saviour. The most difficult people in the world to whom to witness are religious types. They are the stuffiest, the most self-righteous, and so full of human good and their own self-importance that to communicate the grace of God to them is virtually impossible. Were it not for the ministry of the Holy Spirit nothing would ever get through to a religious person.

"and no one [of you]" – John is pointing to the religious crowd; "receiveth his communication." The religious crowd always turn it down.

Verse 33 – "He that hath received his communication hath set to him seal that God is true" – literally, "the God," God the Father is true. To set the seal here means to sign on the dotted line. It is an idiom. In the ancient world they had signet rings by which to imprint a signature in wax. So he is saying here that people who accept Jesus Christ have signed, as it were, that God is true. "The God" refers to God the Father, the author of the divine plan. By "true" it means that God has a plan from here on out, and that God will take care of everything as far as time and eternity is concerned; He has made full provision for it.

Verse 34 – "he whom God hath sent [Jesus Christ]." The word to send here means to send in order to take charge. The Father sent the Son in order to take charge of the situation.

"speaketh [keeps on speaking] the words of God" – Bible doctrine.

"for the God giveth not the Spirit by measure" – Jesus Christ was also given the Holy Spirit in order that His communication might have the power and the stamp of the Spirit. "By measure" is an idiom that means that there was no limit to the Spirit's control of the humanity of Christ. This is due to the fact that He did not have a sin nature and He did not commit any act of personal sin, therefore He could never grieve or quench the Spirit.

Verse 35 – "The Father loveth [keeps on loving] the Son, and hath given" – perfect tense, has given in the past with the result that He keeps on making this a true part of the plan; "all things into his hand." When Jesus Christ returns again all things will be in His hand. This will be fulfilled. This is the ultimate plan of God the Father that Jesus Christ will rule in eternity.

Verse 36 – a dividing line between the failure of the religious man, Nicodemus, and the success of the woman of Samaria. At the same time this is a very clear delineation of the message of John the Baptist.

"He that believeth" is a present active participle of the verb pisteuw, a mental attitude, a mental system of perception. It is the only non-meritorious system of perception. It is in the present tense for the most dramatic moment of life, the moment of belief in Jesus Christ as saviour. The active voice: the believer must use his faith to accept Christ, and there is no merit in that faith. There is no merit in believing, the merit is in the object. The object of faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 4:12.

"hath" is a present active indicative and it means to keep on having – "always has everlasting life."

"and" is "but" in the original, it is a conjunction of contrast; "he that believeth not the Son" – here is the person who rejects Jesus Christ as saviour. Here is the reason people go to hell, the reason why people never get in the plan of God; "shall not see life" – never has eternal life.

"but the wrath of God keeps on abiding on him" – present linear aktionsart.

Chapter 4

When the Pharisees and the scribes went from Judah to Galilee they always went out through Perea, up into Decapolis and from there to the Sea of Galilee, and then they crossed the Sae of Galilee into Galilee. That was the long way around. But Jesus goes right up, straight through Samaria. On His way He comes to the Valley of Shechem which is between two mountains. It is three miles long and is very narrow. On the south side is Mount Gerizim, and this is the mount of blessing. On the north side is Mount Ebal, the mount of cursing. In Deuteronomy chapter 27 the entire chapter deals with instructions to the children of Israel. Moses instructed the people to get on Mount Ebal with one group, and they were the shout the cursing. On Mount Gerizim the other group was to shout the blessing. There would be an altar on Mount Ebal, the place of cursing. The altar represents the cross – Galatians 3:13, Christ went to the place of cursing so that we might have blessing. This is the purpose for Moses giving these instructions.

In this valley there was a town, half a mile up the mountain, called Sychar. Sychar means the town of the drunks. In other words, it was the town where people went to live it up. Half a mile down at the bottom of the hill is Jacob's well which was the water supply. The respectable people came down at 6pm and the ostracised crowd came down at 12 noon. Jesus and His disciples have just come into the valley after a terrible journey and have come to Jacob's well to get water. However, the well is 100 feet deep and there is no way they can reach the water. While they are standing around there Jesus sends the twelve up the Sychar to get food. While they are going up, this woman is going to come down carrying a big pitcher in which she is going to load up with water.

The Samaritans were half Jewish and half the oriental peoples who had been brought in by the Assyrians. The Assyrians had a transportation policy. They took some Jews out of the land and replaced them with people from oriental countries. As a result the Samaritans were half Jew and half Gentile and hated by the Jews. The Samaritans considered themselves as good as the Jews, and that made the Jews mad. They claimed that they had the place where the Jews originally worshipped. This well in the valley of Shechem is where Jacob and Jesus had their wrestling match! Here is the attitude of the people of Samaria. They say that this is where Jabob's well is; this is where Jacob was saved; this is where Jacob became Israel. So their contention was that they were half Jews and they had the place where Israel was founded. They rubbed it into the Jews and the Jews couldn't stand them, and there had been antagonism for four or five hundred years now.

Verse 1 – the Pharisees had tried to cause antagonism between John and Jesus and between their disciples. The disciples of John were already jealous and the Pharisees tried to exploit this by divide and conquer. They did not succeed and so we still have the jealousy of the Pharisees.

Verse 2 – this explains the fact that Jesus gave His disciples other things to do, including baptising the converts.

Verse 3 – He left for Galilee. He hasn't arrived there and won't for the entire fourth chapter. The reason He left was because of the terrible jealousy of the religious crowd – described in Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10. They were always jealous of Him.

The doctrine of jealousy

1. Jealousy removes all happiness from the believer. Jealousy is a mental attitude sin and mental attitude sins produce self-induced misery. Like the law of gravity this is a law of discipline.

2. Jealousy is the most cruel of all sins. This is because it takes an ordinarily sweet person and turns him/her into a monster. It changes their behaviour pattern – vindictive behaviour, maligning and judging, etc. Jealous people are always making other people miserable.

3. Some people cannot stand the success of others and they can't stand for anyone to get credit, and consequently jealousy destroys the relaxed mental attitude.

4. The Pharisees were jealous of Jesus Christ, always – Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10.

5. Jesus now departs because of this attitude. He cannot minister in the area of jealousy.

Verse 4 – "And he must needs" means it was necessary for Him to pass through Samaria. He took the short route because He was free from personal prejudice and because He had a relaxed mental attitude.

Verse 5 – "Then he cometh to a city of Samaria." He was now in the middle of the Valley of Shechem.

"near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph." This is the story of Joseph's bones, the spot where Joseph was buried, where the bones were finally put to rest. And this is the place from which Joseph in resurrection will stand with his great grandfather Abraham, with his grandfather Isaac, and with his father Jacob.

Verse 6 – "Now Jacob's well was there." Where the wrestling match took place.

"Jesus therefore, being wearied." Jesus Christ in His humanity could suffer thirst, hunger and weariness. He had a true human body and a true human soul. This is a perfect active participle: "having become wearied." This was not accidental; there was a purpose in it.

"sat" – imperfect tense, He kept on sitting; "thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour" – in Jewish time that is 12 noon.

In this place we have the place of cursing. This swell is at the foot of the mount where the curses were uttered. This illustrates the principle of the fact that Jesus Christ is going to take the place of cursing, and a woman who is under a curse, and He is going to provide for them blessing. Only the grace of God can convert cursing into blessing. Everything here is according to design. Often the most painful events and experiences are turned to blessing under the Lord's grace, and this is going to be a grace shot all the way.

Verses 7-30, the great revival at Samaria.

Verse 7 – "There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water." The word "cometh" means that she approached the well. He is sitting there and He has watched her walk the half mile down the climb. This woman is coming at 12 noon because she is ostracised. The other women do not like her. So once again we encounter the same thing we saw in Judea – mental attitude sins.

"Give me to drink" – this is breaking the silence, and this is grace. She would never have spoken to Him and He would never have spoken to her were it not for the fact of His grace attitude. The well is so deep that there is no way that He can get the water for Himself. She has the necessary equipment to provide water for Him. Jesus is going to reverse His helpless condition on her. She can provide Him physical water but He is going to give here the living water, for she is the helpless one. She needs the water of eternal life.

Verse 8 is a parenthesis to explain how Jesus was able to deal with the woman alone. It is imperative that He does so. Jesus Christ is probably the only person on the face of the entire earth who could have dealt with this woman, who was a grace woman from the unbeliever's standpoint. She didn't know any doctrine but she was a relaxed member of the human race. She has no illusions about herself.

Verse 9 – "Then saith the woman." Women are curious. She is shocked because Jesus broke the silence but she is also curious.

"How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, who is a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." Jesus is going to stick to the true issue and He is not going to be sidetracked by arguing with her about the racial antagonisms between the Jews and the Samaritans. Her whole problem was ignorance of the way of salvation. In the previous chapter the problem of Nicodemus was not one of ignorance but confusion. So Jesus said to him, "You must be born again." But the woman is strictly ignorant and so He is going to give her gospel information so that she can be saved.

Verse 10 – the problem is brought out by a second-class condition. "Jesus answered and said unto her." The word "answered" is an aorist passive participle which Jesus received an answer in eternity past. Jesus knew what He was going to say to this woman billions of years before He said it.

"if" – second class condition, if and it is not true – you knew [and she doesn't]. This is a past perfect, "if you had known."

"the gift of God" – 2nd class condition, but you do not know the gift of God. What is the gift of God? The gift of God is Jesus Christ – John 3:16; Romans 6:23; 2Corinthians 9:15.

"and if you knew who it is who said to you, Give me to drink [but you don't know who it is who says it]; then you would have asked from him, and he [the gift of God] would have given you living water." The word "living" caught her eye – present active participle, it means always-living water and water that never stops living. Isaiah 55:1; Revelation 22:19 -- the water of life, a reference to eternal salvation. In the last chapter Jesus talked about the water of the Word; in this chapter He talks about the water of salvation. In the last chapter He talked to a theologian, a very religious person, and therefore He had to talk about the water of the Word; but this is not a religious person at all, this is a charming and wonderful woman, so he talks to her not about the water of the Word but about the water of salvation.

Again, the woman's problem is ignorance. The Lord did not deal with her as He did with the Pharisee. He dealt with the Pharisee one way; He dealt with her another way. Every believer has the responsibility of witnessing. There are many different ways of witnessing, and here is Jesus Christ showing us how to witness. In the last chapter He dealt with the religious man one way; in this chapter he deals with this woman in another way. He doesn't use the same system on both; He uses two different approaches. In other words, you're job is to know Bible doctrine and have enough flexibility and enough relaxed mental attitude to present the gospel in many different ways to many different people. There is no such thing as one system for everyone. Here Jesus keeps steering away from controversy, He doesn't get into a fight with the woman. This is one of the most important principles of witnessing: avoid argumentation. The woman wonders, "Why are you, a Jew, talking to me, a Samaritan?" She wants to argue about it. So how is Jesus going to get the point across to her, and how is He going to make it clear that He has something greater to give her. He has living water – eternal life. He has merely asked for water in order to illustrate the whole principle. The first thing He has to do it to show her that she is helpless, and in a rather hopeless situation. What Jesus has just said has intrigued here and she immediately asks a second question.

Verse 11 – "The woman saith unto him, Sir." The actual Greek word here is "Lord' – kurioj, "thou hast nothing to draw with." She makes a very simple observation, she takes Him literally, "You talk about giving me water but you do not have any equipment to get water out of the well. You have nothing with which to draw and the well is deep."

"from whence then hast thou that living water?"

Verse 12 – now she gets sarcastic. Nicodemus got sarcastic with Jesus and Jesus put him down. The woman gets sarcastic with Jesus and He treats her very gently, very kindly. "Art thou greater than our father Jacob?" That was a red flag; that would make a Jew mad every time!

"and drank thereof [from this well] himself, and his children" – the patriarchs from the twelve tribes -- "and his cattle?" The point is: Now we are here, the Samaritans! It belongs to us.

When she said, "Are you greater than our father Jacob?" this is a question in the Greek that demands a negative answer. In other words, she is saying no you are not greater.

Verse 13 – "Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again." We have a contrast. In verse 13 we have the real water; in verse 14 we have the water of eternal life. "Whosoever drinketh" – present active participle, which means that people have to come back to the well day by day by day to survive. Te word "drinketh" in verse is a present active participle: present tense, linear aktionsart, they keep on coming back. Active voice: they have to draw the water out of the well. Participle: this sets up a precedent by which they survive. But in verse 14 is the same word "to drink" but it is aorist active subjunctive. Aorist tense: the water that I am going to give you, you just drink once and you have eternal life. The aorist tense is a point of time divorced from time and perpetuated forever. Every person must make this decision for himself. The subjunctive mood: this is potential. It depends on your free will. The subjunctive mood recognises that salvation in only potential. While Christ died for everyone, all the sins of the world were judged on the cross, yet salvation is potential. Every person must exercise his own volition. This is an extension of the angelic conflict and this is man's free will facing the cross.

In verse 13 water sustains life. This is the real water and you have to keep coming back. There needs to be a bucket to draw this water. Application: What is your bucket? On what does your happiness depend? The Christian way of life, phase two, was designed so that your happiness must depend upon Bible doctrine. If you are going to have happiness then your bucket has to be Bible doctrine, and you have to lower that bucket into the well every day. Then, it is with Bible doctrine that you can enjoy the details of life.

Verse 14 – the spiritual water, the water of eternal life, salvation. The contrast. "But whosoever drinketh" – aorist active subjunctive; you just drink once. The physical well of verse 13 is on the outside of the woman, but the spiritual well of verse 14 is on the inside, it has to do with the soul. Only the soul is saved. The body is not saved, nor is the spirit. The spirit doesn't exist until after salvation.

"I shall give him" – future tense. It is future for this woman at this point – "shall never thirst," aorist tense indicating that the plan of God is perfect and it is permanent; "in him" – salvation is on the inside.

"a well of water springing up" – present middle participle, delineating eternal security. Present tense: you will always have it. Middle voice: you are benefited by always having it. Participle: every person, regardless of his modus operandi and modus vivendi in phase two, has eternal security -- into everlasting life," it can't be lost.

Verse 15 – the woman expresses her positive volition beautifully. "Sir [Lord], give me this water." She is intrigued to the point where she recognises He is handling her.

"[with the result] that I thirst not" – "that" introduced a result clause; "neither come hither to draw" – present linear aktionsart. In other words, So I don't have to keep coming back. Now we have another contrast. We have a "come hither" in verse 15 and a "come hither" in verse 16. In verse 15 it is a present middle subjunctive. She doesn't want to keep coming back to the well. The "come hither" of verse 16 is an aorist active imperative.

Verse 16 – Jesus gives her a command. This is an order. Does she have to have her husband down here before she can stop coming to this well? That is what she is thinking.

Verse 17 – "I have no husband."

Verse 18 – "For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that, you told the truth."

Verse 19 – "Sir, I perceive." That is old English. She says, "Lord, I am beginning to see that you are a prophet."

Verse 20 – she is now going to give Him her best religious dissertation. She has a religious line that will knock Him dead [she thinks]. "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain" – she point up the mountain; "and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." She wants to get back to this bit, Where is the right place to worship? Jacob, the founder of Israel, worshipped up there on that mountain; you say in Jerusalem. She wants to get into a religious discussion.

Verse 21 – Jesus comes up with a new piece of doctrine, but in order to do it He has to get her attention. He uses one word: "Woman," gunh, the same word He used to Mary at the wedding in Cana. Up to this point she has believed everything He said. Now He says:

"believe me" – keep on believing me. For 400 years there had been a controversy about where they should worship. He has her attention now. This is an order.

"the hour cometh" – it is very near, the beginning of the Church Age; "when ye shall neither worship in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father." That controversy is over. The Church Age is going to settle it. Where do you worship in the Church Age? He isn't going to argue with her. He gives her a point of doctrine.

Verse 22 – "You worship you know not what." You can worship on that mountain until you are blue in the face and you don't even know want you are worshipping.

"we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews" – this literally says in the Greek, "We know our worship." He is talking about the Old Testament scriptures, not the things that have been developed through Judaism; "for the salvation is from the source of the Jews." When He says "the salvation" He is talking about a person; He is talking about Himself. She had recognised Him as a Jew.

Verse 23 – "But the hour cometh, and now is [about to become], when true worshippers shall worship the Father" – the worship the Father you have to be born again. When He is talking about true worship He is talking about people who have believed in Christ, and therefore the first person is now the Father.

"in Spirit" – in the filling of the Holy Spirit; "and in truth" – in doctrine. So true worship on the part of believers involves the filling of the Holy Spirit and doctrine. Knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of the Holy Spirit equals true worship.

"for the Father seeketh such to keep on worshipping him" – this is true today. God the Father is seeking those who worship Him under conditions of the filling of the Spirit and Bible doctrine.

Verse 24 – "God is Spirit." He is describing Himself – essence box.

"and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" – the filling of the Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit controlling a believer can give true worship toward God. Only a believer with doctrine. Worship must be in the filling of the Spirit and in doctrine, the geographical location is not a factor at all.

Verse 25 – "The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh." She didn't have anything else to say but she could always hang on to one doctrine – the coming of Messiah. The Samaritans were teaching that the Messiah might come at any moment. Messiah was actually there, there were a lot of people on that mountain with positive volition and this was going to be their opportunity, along with the woman.

"cometh" is a dramatic present because she recognises that the coming of Messiah is going to be a very dramatic thing. She understands something of the Old Testament scripture. The phrase, "which is called Christ" has been added by the translator in order that it might be understood that Xristoj is the equivalent to Messiah. The both mean "the anointed one."

Verse 26 – the KJV translation here is wrong. In the Greek are four words. The first two words, simply, are "I am he," then, "the one speaking to you."

Verse 27 – "Upon this [at that moment] came his disciples." They came back just as Jesus had made the issue completely clear. They behaved themselves.

"and marvelled" – they didn't marvel at all. The Greek says they were shocked – imperfect linear aktionsart, they kept on being shocked. They were shocked that Jesus would talk to this kind of a woman. But they didn't show it. They did not violate the privacy of the Lord Jesus Christ, or the privacy of this woman as Jesus engaged her in this conversation with regard to her soul.

"yet no man said, What seekest thou?" In other words, they did not intrude. They minded their own business.

Verse 28 – the conversation is finished. "The woman then left" – aorist tense, indicating a sudden departure. She is so excited and has actually accepted Christ as her saviour; she has believed on Him. She is so excited about this that she is going to run all the way up the hill! She has some good news and she is going to communicate that good news and she is obviously not going to carry that water pot back up the hill with it.

"into the city" – toward the city, actually; "and said [kept on saying] to the men" – when she arrived there. She kept on saying to the men of the city …

Verse 29 -- "Come" is deute, a particle, a strong word in the Greek, then, "see," is an aorist active imperative. She commands them to come. They want to know, Come and see what? The challenge is so subtle that in the English there is no way to really communicate it. She is going to describe Jesus but she is not going to tell them that she has made a decision; she is going to put herself in a neutral spot. This woman is just subtle enough to arouse the curiosity of the men.

"see a man who told me all the things that ever I did" – she doesn't take sides, she stays in a neutral corner and says, "in not this the Messiah?" When she said "in not" she used the particle that says, "It seems to me like, but I am not sure so you men should come and check." It leaves some doubt so that they must check.

Verse 30 – "Then they all went out," aorist tense. This is an 'effective' aorist which means it is like they all went through the door at the same time. They all just charged for the gate.

"and they came" – imperfect middle indicative which means they didn't all get there at the same time: "they kept on coming to him."

Verse 31 – "In the meantime" the disciples were really upset. Jesus won't eat; Prayed him" – they begged Him, imperfect linear aktionsart, they kept on begging Him; "saying, Master, eat."

Verse 32 – "But he said unto them, I have food to eat that you know not of." What is He saying to them? He is saying exactly the same thing He said to Satan, only different words. He quoted from Deuteronomy and said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." In other words, He is going to live on a principle of doctrine. Now the disciples have their heads down, they are concentrating on food because they are hungry. But Jesus isn't eating, He is looking up; they are looking down. He is looking at the people who are coming down. In all those people who were coming down He could see that there was positive volition: positive volition at the point of God-consciousness. They were people who in a very short period of time were going to receive Him as saviour and be born again. And He saw something else. He saw what He was going to have to do for that salvation. He saw the multitude of sins that he was going to have the bear at a future time on the cross. Whenever Jesus thought about the cross He stopped eating, or wouldn't eat, or didn't eat. Even the contemplation of what the cross was going to mean stopped Him cold. He sees those people and He sees the horror that is connected with bearing the sins of the world and being judged for every sin that has ever been committed in human history. The disciples' minds are linked to their taste buds and our Lord is thinking that His soul is linked to the cross.

"ye know not of" – they are ignorant. This is the word o)ida plus the negative. It is a perfect tense used as a present tense for doctrine in the soul, but the negative means that doctrine is not in their souls. They are not thinking about the cross; He is. He is contemplating the will of the Father – operation phase one.

Verse 33 – did anyone bring Him some food? They are in a state of confusion about this.

Verse 34 – Jesus tries to clarify it for them and in doing so He brings out the principle of doctrine versus the details of life. Right now with Jesus Christ it is a point of doctrine. The disciples are eating; they are ignorant of pertinent doctrine. Jesus Christ is not eating because at this point doctrine takes precedence.

"My meat [food] is" -- present linear aktionsart, keeps on being – "to do the will of him [God the Father] that sent me." The will of the Father is going to be communication in a few minutes, but the will of the Father at the end of the line is going to be to bear the sins of the world. So then he has to add something – "and to finish His work." The work that the Father designed. He calls it the Father's work because on the cross the sins of the world will be poured out upon Christ. The Father will pour out those sins; the Father will judge those sins.

Verse 35 – "Say ye not" – don't say it any more, you have been saying it – "there are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest, behold I say unto you" – dramatic present is a dative of advantage, He says this to their advantage – "Lift up your eyes." They had been looking down at their hamburger, then at the Lord, and now He says to lift up their eyes. And what are they going to see? They are going to see the harvest, the top of the road to the bottom of the road filled with thousands of people – "white already to harvest." It is people that the Lord mentions as the harvest – souls.

Verse 36 – "And he that reapeth receiveth wages." Who are the reapers? For the next few hours the reapers are going to be at least eleven disciples. The disciples went up into the Samaritan city but they didn't witness to anyone, they just bought food and came back. Now the people have come to Jesus and it is going to take eleven plus the Lord Jesus Christ, plus the woman who was saved to do all this witnessing. They are the reapers. They didn't do any sowing but they are going to be pulled in for the harvest. There will be reward for this.

"and gathereth fruit unto life eternal" – people are going to be led to the Lord by those disciples that day.

"that" introduces a purpose clause; "both he that soweth [lit. the one sowing. The woman did the sowing] and the one reaping may rejoice together." They were strangers at twelve noon but when the sun goes down they were old, old friends. They rejoiced together. They had been working together in the Lord's service.

Verse 37 – "One soweth, and another reapeth." This is a principle which is found throughout the scripture in many ways but here it applies to the harvest of souls.

Verse 38 – He says to the disciples: "I sent you to reap whereon ye bestowed no labour." They didn't witness to any person in town, but they are going to reap a great harvest. Why? Grace! We are all in the service of the Lord, we play different positions on the team, and all are in this together.

"other men laboured' [reference to the woman] and ye are entered into their labours." So He wants them to understand before this great evangelistic meeting starts and all this personal witnessing that the reason that they are going to have the privilege of leading people to Christ that day is because of that woman they passed on the hill. This is a team effort and before the sun goes down they will be rejoicing together.

Verse 39 – "And many of the Samaritans of the city believed on him," aorist tense, a point of time when they heard the gospel, "for [because] of the saying of the woman, who testified, He told me all that I ever did." Many have believed because of that.

Verse 40 -- "So when the Samaritans were come [face to face with Him; proj plus the accusative] unto him they besought [kept on begging Him] that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days."

Verse 41 – "And many more believed because of his own words." For two days He ministered there.

Verse 42 – "And said unto the woman." Notice: now that she is converted they no longer ostracise the woman. They are in constant daily contact with her and they kept on saying to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of your words: for we have heard him ourselves, and know indeed that he is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." As soon as they are converted there is the removal of a vicious, evil thing – social ostracism. They have a basis now for rapport – Bible doctrine, not compatibility of old sin natures.

Verse 43 – here are two marvellous days where Jesus received a perfect reception, a genuine reception because His reception there was a point of doctrine. But He is next going to encounter a reception which is superficial and hypocritical. So now we have three receptions in three different areas. The first was in John chapter 3. In Judah Jesus Christ was rejected -- no reception, rejected by religion. In Samaria He had a genuine reception based on doctrine. In Galilee He will get a superficial reception because it is based on His miracles, His fame, rather than on His doctrine. It was the Samaritans only who gave Him a reception which was a point of doctrine.

We are now about to have a third day sequence. Everything seems to happen on the third day. Verse 43 is brought in to remind us of the fact that in Samaria, the place from which He departed, Jesus had a genuine reception. A maximum number of people received Jesus Christ as their saviour. We go from a genuine reception in verse 43 to a genuine rejection in verse 44. Verse 44 doesn't have anything to do with the previous verse and it doesn't have anything to do with the next verse. It is not really out of context, it is just simply to tell us which trip it was in which Jesus went to Galilee, and also to show us a contrast of reception. Wherever people respond to the gospel they immediately have top orient to the grace of God, and this loosens up people and relaxes them when they orient to God's grace. But the next place Jesus visits there is a genuine rejection.

See Luke 4:16-24 and Matthew 8:5-13, both prior to the events of John 4. They were impressed with miracles but not with His person.

Verse 46-50, Jesus meets the nobleman – background for the miracle about to be performed.

Verse 46 – Jesus had already performed a miracle here, "And there was a certain nobleman, whose son kept on being sick at Capernaum." His son is dying. There are two miracles performed at the end of this chapter, both occurred on a third day sequence. Cf. John 2:1 with 4:48. Both miracles were in response and in obedience to a faith-rest principle – John 2:7 & 4:30. Both miracles were accomplished by the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. He uttered a word and a miracle was performed. After both miracles people believed – John 2:11; 4:53.

Verse 47 – the nobleman's request is given.

" … he went unto [face to face with – proj plus the accusative] him, and kept on begging him [perfect linear aktionsart] that he would come down [to Capernaum, four hours away], and heal his son: for he [his son] was at the point of death." When he thinks that Jesus must come to Capernaum in order to heal his son he thinks just the opposite of the centurion of Capernaum in Matthew 8. The centurion is a believer; the nobleman is an unbeliever. Jesus cannot deal with the problem of the dying son until He takes care of the spiritually dead father. There is always a person who is the key to evangelisation and the key person here is the nobleman. So Jesus is going to set aside, in effect, any healing of the son. That is a secondary factor at this point. The primary factor is that the nobleman is unsaved and is going to spend eternity in the lake of fire, suffering forever, unless he believes in Christ. But the nobleman went on positive signals at the point of God-consciousness and therefore God is going to provide him information through His Son, Jesus Christ, and this point and there will be a response – a faith response which is given only by the word "Lord." Jesus could have done the same thing here as with the centurion, but if Jesus had spoken the word and healed the son immediately the nobleman would have left without salvation.

The nobleman has not discovered at this point how important it is to be saved and to be in phase two. In other words, Jesus dealt with the centurion on a phase two basis. He wants to deal with this man on the same basis, so therefore there will be a lot of conversation at first before getting down to the actual healing. The issue is not miracles, the issue it is salvation – always the issue. This man must accept Christ first.

Verse 48 – "Except [3rd class condition: "if", maybe yes, maybe no] you see signs and wonders, you will not believe." Jesus is saying by the 3rd class condition that maybe He would perform a miracle and maybe He would not, but He is not going to use a miracle as pressure. Jesus avoided gimmicks. True persuasion is simply giving the facts of the gospel and allowing the Holy Spirit to do His ministry. False persuasion would have been for Jesus to say, "I'll heal your son if you believe." That would falsify the true operation of grace in salvation and the man's +V would not be involved. People can walk down aisles with negative volition; people can join churches with negative volition; people can be baptised with negative volition; people can clean up their lives with –V. This is not the way of salvation; that is salvation by works. Titus 3:5,6. No one is ever saved by works and Jesus is not going to put false pressure on this man. What comes first, this man's salvation or the healing? Salvation comes first, and then He heals the son.

Verse 49 – apparently there was some conversation between verses 48 & 49 and as a result the nobleman accepted Christ as his saviour.

"Sir" – in the Greek this is "Lord," kurioj. In other words, by the time that we get to verse 49, whatever elapsed in between, he is now a saved man, recognising Jesus as Lord, the word for deity. 1Corinthians 12:3.

"come down ere my child die" – aorist active imperative, "come now."

Verse 50 – "Jesus saith unto him." Apparently Jesus had to say this more than once, the present linear aktionsart means that He probably repeated it a few times. "Go thy way" – Cf. Matthew 8:13, poreuomai means "Go about your normal business." Forget about your son now, he is well. This is a challenge to faith-rest.

"thy son liveth" – dramatic present tense. At exactly one o'clock Jesus said these words. And that was enough. "And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken to him."

"and he went his way" – faith-rest. He is relaxed; his son is well; he can go about his business in Cana of Galilee. This time poreuomai is in the imperfect middle, he kept on doing whatever he had to do. The middle voice: he was benefited by doing his business.

Verse 51 – "going down" is literally "approaching."

"they told him" – kept on telling him, Thy son lives."

Verse 52 – "Then he enquired of them the hour when he began to heal. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him," i.e. 1 o'clock Jewish time.

Verse 53 – "and himself believed, and his whole house." In other words, he led everyone in his household to the Lord. The whole house means not only the wife and the children but the household, his servants, the staff.

Chapter 5

Verse 1 – the feast of the Jews was probably the Passover.

Verse 2 – Jesus is going through a gate. When Nehemiah built the walls they built five gates, and the first gate they built was the sheep gate because the sheep gate spoke of salvation. This was the gate that the sheep came but Jesus Christ is the good shepherd ands this is always associated with salvation. So He makes a very dramatic entrance into Jerusalem.

"Bethesda" means "House of Mercy." This pool located at the sheep gate was a very beautiful marble pool. A porch is simply a columnade and there were five different columnades around this pool, each of which would accommodate a large number of people.

Verse 3 – "In these" – the five porches around the pool – "lay a great multitude of impotent folk." The word "impotent" means people who are ill. They are described: "of blind, of halt, withered." After the word "withered" put a period. The phrase "waiting for the moving of the water" is not found in the original. This is a superstition, which existed at the time, and someone actually wrote the superstition into the Bible. This is a superstition that people believed in; it is not true. Neither this phrase nor verse four is found in the original text.

"blind" – powerless to see with the eyes, the picture of the unbeliever who is spiritually blind and therefore cannot see the gospel. 2Corinthians 4:3,4; Matthew 19:14; 23:24,25; Revelation 3:17,18. Blindness is often an illustration of the unbeliever.

"halt" – powerless to walk, lame, crippled. The unbeliever cannot walk with God until he receives Christ as saviour.

"withered" – paralysis or atrophy of muscles. The unbeliever cannot work.

So here we have the three failures of the unbeliever as far as God's plan is concerned.

Verse 5 – for 38 years there was a man there who had positive volition at the point of God-consciousness. In eternity past Jesus knew that He was going to meet that man there that day. The timing was just right. For 38 years this man had been a victim of superstition which was doing nothing for him except causing him to rot in one of these porches.

Verse 6 – "and knew" is an aorist active participle of ginwskw, which means to know from experience. The aorist tense means that in eternity past Jesus knew this.

"saw him lie" – the word for "lying there" means to be lying there according to a norm or standard. It is not the ordinary word for "lying down," it is katakeimai, a compound verb [kata = norm or standard; keimai = the normal verb for lying down]. His norm or standard for 38 years has done him no good. Why? For 38 years he has bought a superstition which did not help him.

"Will you become well?" In other words, Do you have the volition? This is a present active indicative of the verb qelw which means a desire from his emotions. Present tense: Do you keep on having? Active voice: Do you have it as a reality? "Become" is aorist middle infinitive of ginomai. The infinitive is God's purpose. It is the plan of God, not some superstition.

Verse 7 – "The impotent man answered." He "had an answer," this is an aorist passive.

"Sir" – this is "Lord," kurioj; "I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool" – this is the superstition which existed.

"to put me into the pool" – the verb is ballw which means to throw.

Verse 8 – "Rise," present active imperative: Get yourself on your feet! "… pick up your bed, and keep on walking." This is the Sabbath day; Jesus is telling him to do this on the Sabbath day. Jesus is not going to cater to the taboos of the Pharisees.

Verse 9 – "and on the same day was [kept on being] the Sabbath," imperfect linear aktionsart.

Verse 10 – "cured," perfect tense. Cured in the past with the result that he would never have that disease again. Passive voice: grace; he didn't earn it or deserve it.

"It is the sabbath day, it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed" – legalism always remonstrates and criticises grace.

Verse 11 – "He that healed me." The Pharisees don't go into that! He had been crippled for 38 years but they are not interested in that. They just want to know about the last part, the man who healed saying, "Take up thy bed, and keep walking." The fact that a man has been healed and a superstition has been exposed doesn't mean a thing to the religious crowd. They don't care about that. The religious Jews have rejected the scripture, they have rejected doctrine, and they ignore the miracle. Why? This kind of miracle says one thing to Israel: Israel your saviour is here, your Messiah is here. But they have rejected Him, and therefore the miracle is meaningless. And if someone has violated the Sabbath they are on his back in a minute – legalism, religionism persecutes grace.

Verse 12 -- "What is that man" is "Who is this man." This really is bothering them now and it will for a long time. Jesus knew that there was going to be trouble about this and so He disappeared into the crowd. That man carrying the bed all the way down to the temple: what does that say? It says the Messiah is here. Jesus goes into the crowd. Why? Because He is sending His messenger in ahead. This time His herald is not John the Baptist, His herald is a man carrying a bed on the Sabbath.

Verse 13 – "And he that was healed" – the word here means he was completely healed – "wist not [didn't know] who it was: for Jesus had slipped away, into the crowd in that place." That is why when the man turned around to point to who it was there wasn't anyone there. But Jesus will be at the temple to meet the man again. This is the feast day, the Passover. What does the Passover depict? Jesus Christ dying for the sins of the world. Jesus Christ is the King. How does He announce His coming into Jerusalem? He was announced before by John the Baptist but now he has a new herald, a man carrying a bed on the Sabbath day. This is the man that was absolutely helpless down at the pool of Bethesda. Now look at him! Something has happened. Messiah is coming and here is the herald.

Verse 14 – "Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple" – He sought him out -- "and he said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole" – you are healed now. Now this man has been up to something. "… sin no more" – he had been in this condition for 38 years because he had sinned – "lest a worse thing come upon thee." Just because you are saved doesn't mean you are going to get out from under discipline.

Verse 15 – "The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him well." He sinned immediately because as soon as he knew it was Jesus he apparently ran and told them. There are some people who you can do a thousand things for and they will never appreciate it. As long as you are giving them attention they will tolerate you and if you don't give them attention then you have a monster on your hands. The man departed, and it means he departed with a mission. His mission was to run and tell the religious crowd.

Verse 16 – "And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus" – they kept right on! The next phrase, "and sought to slay him," is not found here, it will be found later on.

"because he had done these things on the Sabbath day" – they are persecuting Him for one reason. Religion is the greatest persecutor of people in history. It is the devil's ace trump, that is why.

Verse 17 – we have now come to one of the discourses of our Lord which is practically unknown. This is the discourse on the uniqueness of the person of Jesus Christ. This discourse results from a religious opposition. Jesus Christ performed an act of healing on the Sabbath day and the Jews who were the religious crowd couldn't stand it. As a result they began their opposition which was based upon their failure to analyse and to understand the Old Testament scriptures which speak of the doctrine of the hypostatic union. In essence Jesus Christ is God, but as God He cannot go to the cross and die for the sins of the world so He is also man. He is the God-Man. He is different from God in that He is man; He is different from man in that He is God. He is unique.

Everything we have seen so far from the beginning of this Gospel has been the presentation of Jesus Christ to the Jewish nation. He presents Himself to them as saviour, as the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant. They have rejected these things and the rejection is led primarily by the religious crowd.

"But Jesus answered them" – "them" refers to the religious crowd. Religion is always opposed to grace. It resents grace. It always has some system of works; some system of morality, some system of do-goodism, and this system is always in opposition to the plan of God. There can never be any harmony between religion and Christianity. This phrase, "Jesus answered them," is based upon the previous verse – "because he [the Lord Jesus Christ] had done these things on the Sabbath day." This is imperfect linear aktionsart which means that He performed more than one miracle on the Sabbath day. We just have thew one recorded miracle to show the basis for the opposition of religion. "These things" is a reference to the performance of the miracles which demonstrated the uniqueness of the person of Christ, and this was designed to focus attention on the Lord so that people in His own generation could see Him as the saviour and believe in Him.

Now the Sabbath day was the problem. The religious crowd are very fond of their Sabbath. They had taken the Sabbath out of its biblical context and had made something out of it that was never intended.

First of all, what are the two concepts of the Sabbath? In the restoration of the earth we have six days of operation. During those six days God the Father was the designer. God the Son did all of the original creation which was a new set of animals and the man, and from the man the woman. The Holy Spirit did certain things during that time, so that at the end of six days the work of God had completely restored the earth so that it could be the place of man's habitation. On the sixth day man was created. Although the earth had been there for millions of years it was now restored to make it habitable for man. We read that on the seventh day, Saturday, God rested. He didn't rest because He was tired and so the resting simply meant that there was nothing left to provide. Everything was provided in six days and the reason that God rested is because the provision was complete; nothing could be added to it and nothing could be taken from it. So the whole concept of the Sabbath is grace – God doing the work. That is the true biblical meaning of the Sabbath.

But what did the religious crowd do with it? Quoting from the Talmud and the Mishnah in which we have a series of taboos:

1. It was unlawful to carry food from one house to another on the Sabbath day.

2. An ass could be let out of wherever he was kept on the Sabbath day but the trappings – the saddle, etc. – had to be put on the day before, and you could not use the animal unless he had been harnessed or saddled the day before.

3. An egg could not be boiled on the Sabbath. And when it could not be boiled on the Sabbath they had to specify a few things because apparently some of the people were cheating on them. So an egg could not be boiled by putting it near a hot kettle. Nor could you boil an egg by wrapping it in a hot cloth, nor by putting it in the sand out in the hot sun.

4. If the lights were on when the Sabbath came you couldn't turn them off. If they were off, you couldn't turn them on.

5. It was unlawful to move furniture on the Sabbath. There was on exception. People often lived in lofts and they wanted to go upstairs to bed and had to use ladders. So you could move a ladder on the Sabbath but you could only move it four steps. If the ladder was more than five steps from the opening above, they'd had it!

6. It was unlawful to wear any jewellery or any ornaments on the Sabbath because it might be considered carrying a burden, and you could not carry a burden on the Sabbath.

7. It was unlawful to fix a leaking water barrel on the Sabbath, and it was also unlawful to stop a wound on the Sabbath. You just had to bleed to death!

8. False teeth or gold plugs could not be worn on the Sabbath.

9. You were allowed to eat radishes on the Sabbath, and apparently a lot of the Jews liked to dip their radishes in salt, but you could not dip the radish in salt for too long a time because it was a taboo to pickle a radish on the Sabbath and if you left it in the salt too long it might become pickled. So they used to have a great theological controversy as to how long you could leave a radish in the salt before it was pickled.

10. If a lady got mud on her dress you had to wait until it dried, and then she was allowed to wrinkle up the dress in her hands once and crush it. After she had crushed it she was allowed to shake it out once.

The religious crowd are complaining because the Lord healed a man on the Sabbath and said, "Pick up your bed and walk." They were mad, and when they found out it was Jesus they wanted to try and kill Him, get rid of Him. And who is this person they are seeking to kill? Who is this person they are accusing of violating the Sabbath? He is the Lord of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath was designed to show His grace. It is the God-Man; it is the unique person of the universe; it is undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever.

This is why we have at the beginning of this verse, "But he answered them." The verb to answer is the aorist middle indicative of a)pokrinomai [a)po = ultimate source; krinw would ordinarily mean to judge, but the omai suffix means not to judge but to discern] means to discern. To have discernment you have to have doctrine. Knowledge of doctrine results in discernment. So this means to discern from the ultimate source of your own inner resources. So Jesus Christ is discerning in His humanity from the fact that He has doctrine in his human spirit. He is discerning, and His answer is based upon doctrine. This particular word for answering means to give a divine viewpoint answer. Here is an answer that comes from doctrine.

"My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." On the surface this is nothing. What does it mean? What does it say? What Jesus said right here was what caused the Pharisees to get so mad that they wanted to kill Him right then and there. This is what aroused their complete and total antagonism. They dedicated themselves to His destruction. They despised Him, they hated Him with an intense hatred as only religion can hate. No one can hate like a religious person, religion is the greatest hater of all.

There is a verb here – "worketh." Jesus is speaking from His humanity and He says, "My Father." The verb He uses is e)rgazomai which has a lot of meanings, but here it means to exert one's power (usually it means to produce) or one's ability. The Father exerts His power. And this is a perfect active indicative indicating linear aktionsart – the Father keeps on exerting His power. In other words ago, in eternity past the omniscience of the Father came up with a plan. The plan is designed in eternity past. But the omnipotence of the Father puts the plan into operation. In other words, He is saying in effect, "My Father is working today." That was the Sabbath day. At that time (28-29 AD) there were believers scattered all over the world. Some of those believers were having problems – facing great dangers, in disaster situations. And it was the Sabbath day, and the Father was providing and caring and helping and protecting, and holding back forces of angels directed against some of these believers in parts of the earth. The Father was working all day, in other words.

"hitherto" – means here, "even til now." This is after the healing of the impotent man. "My Father is working right now." They knew what "My Father" meant, they knew that meant God.

"I work [keep on working] too" – when Jesus used the same verb, e)rgazomai, of His works that He has used of the Father's works He was saying "I and the Father are co-equal and co-eternal." If He had used a different word that may have satisfied the Jews. If He had used poiew which means to work, that would have been fine, but He didn't. He has just spelled it out as clear as anything in the world that he and the Father had the exact same essence, and this is what aroused all of their antagonism. And He uses the same morphology – present active indicative. When He uses the same word He is saying, "We are equal." He is saying, "I am God, the Father is God; the whole purpose of the Sabbath is for you to cool your heels, to remind yourselves of the fact that you can't work for salvation, you can't work for spirituality; it is to teach you grace. But I am the Lord of the Sabbath and I can do anything I want to with the Sabbath." He deliberately told that man to carry his bed because it was contrary to the legalistic taboos. Jerusalem on the Sabbath day must have been the dullest place in all of history. The shackles of legalism which had been put on the people by the Pharisees are almost beyond comprehension. And when a man picks up a bed and carries it from the sheep gate, which represents salvation, to the temple which is supposed to represent the ministry and the work of the saviour, probably people cheered silently all over the place. Here was a man who had broken with the taboos of Judaism. Here is a man who defies the taboos of Judaism!

Many people in Jerusalem had gone on positive signals, therefore God is responsible to provide information for them at the point of gospel hearing. The gospel hearing is going to come up in the rest of the chapter, but how is Jesus going to gather a crowd and present Himself? Somewhere in the city of Jerusalem the people are now becoming alerted. There is someone here who has broken the shackles of religion. There is someone here who has destroyed the shackles of religion. And how do they know it? Because a man walked through the whole city from the gates to the temple carrying a bed. And the people knew. So every person who has positive volition is alerted, and there will very shortly be a discourse. And that very same Sabbath day a man is healed, a taboo is violated, and thousands of people in Jerusalem find Jesus Christ as their saviour. Sometimes before the gospel can be presented religion must be exposed. The gospel and religion are antithetical. One is of Satan and one is of God. The shackles have to be removed.

"I keep on working" – what was Jesus doing? Sustaining the universe – Colossians 1:17. He works every second. The reason we are here now is because Jesus Christ is working. If the Lord stopped working on the Sabbath the Pharisees would never see another Sabbath!

The religious crowd always criticised Jesus and it is recorded in all four Gospels. The Sabbath issue was always a big issue with the Jews and all four Gospel writers record the religious criticisms of Jesus. Matthew 12:2,3; Mark 2:24-27; Luke 13:15; John 5:17.

Verse 18 – the religious antagonism. "Therefore the Jews." These are the religious Jews, not all the Jews. In Jerusalem there were many Jews who had +V at the point of God-consciousness. They will respond to the message of the Lord, they will believe in Him. But when it says "Jews" here it is referring to the religious leaders.

"sought" – imperfect active indicative, which means to keep on searching for a way to kill Him; "the more" indicates this, it is a phrase in the Greek which means intensity which rules out either a sense of humour or a relaxed mental attitude. They were so intense in their religiosity that they excluded any sense of humour, they didn't have a relaxed mental attitude, and consequently they were on the completely wrong tack. Imagine wanting to kill the Lord of glory!

"not only had he broken the Sabbath" – the first motive of the Jews – "but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God."

"to kill" – a)pokteinw [a)po = preposition of ultimate source; kteinw = sometimes just to destroy or to remove and sometimes to kill] means here to kill. There are many words for killing in the Greek but in their minds (ultimate source refers to their thinking, their mental attitude), in their mental attitude they had already killed Him. It was now just a matter of finding the mechanics for doing so. In principle they had killed Him in their minds – mental attitude sin of murder, made up of hatred plus jealousy.

"broken" – luw. It means to loosen something. So the first thing they didn't like about Jesus was that He had relaxed the Sabbath. To loosen means to relax. Jesus relaxed on the Sabbath. To the Jews it was breaking it. The imperfect active indicative means He always was relaxed on the Sabbath.

The second reason why they didn't like Him: "but kept on asserting [imperfect linear aktionsart] that the God was his own Father, [always] making himself [present active participle] equal with God."

Jesus was doing on the Sabbath what the Sabbath was designed to be. The Sabbath was designed to be a grace day. Why didn't they work on the Sabbath? Because you cannot work for salvation, or for spirituality. So the Sabbath was a grace day, a break in the routine. It was designed to commemorate grace; it was a memorial to the grace of God. The Sabbath is a reflection of the character of God. God is gracious and he Sabbath was designed for inner happiness, a relaxed mental attitude.

Verse 19 – the execution of the will of God in the life of Jesus.

"Then answered" – a)pokrinomai, to discern from the ultimate source. Jesus doesn't answer, He discerns, and His discernment is expressed from the ultimate source of Himself – doctrine in the human spirit. This is an aorist middle indicative. Aorist tense: In this point of time He gives them the benefit of His doctrine. Middle voice: He does it Himself from the ultimate source of Himself. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that they are hearing from the God-Man, the unique person of the universe.

"said" is imperfect linear aktionsart, which means that Jesus repeated this, He kept on saying it.

Verily, verily" – from now on throughout the Gospel of John we are going to see this phrase. It means "Truly, truly" literally, but truly, truly is an idiom. It really means "point of doctrine."

"I say unto you" – present active indicative, "I keep on saying unto you," dative of advantage; "The Son" – refers to the doctrine of the hypostatic union. Jesus Christ is God; Jesus Christ is man, in one person forever. So He says a very interesting thing at this point. He says, "The Son can do nothing," but that isn't really what it says. It says, "The Son is not able to do nothing." Not good English, but it is good Greek. "Is not able" is present linear aktionsart which means that this is a fixed situation; "to do" is a present active infinitive which means this is a purpose or a concept or a result' "nothing" is total orientation to the grace of God. What He is saying is, "I can't do anything but totally orient to the grace of God."

"of himself" – from the ultimate source of self [His humanity]. Literally, "is not able to do nothing from the ultimate source of myself." The ultimate source of self is the humanity of Christ again. The humanity of Christ is helpless apart from the Father's provision. This is demonstrated by what happened on the cross. When Christ was bearing our sins on the cross He was helpless. It was doctrine that kept Him there.

"but what he seeth the Father do" – is "if not unless he [the Son] sees the Father doing it." Obviously we have a series of idioms here. But first the translation: "The Son [Jesus Christ] is not able to do nothing from the ultimate source of himself, if [3rd class condition] not unless he sees the Father doing it."

Notice that in the English Bible there is the word "to do" twice, and this is one of the keys that unlocks the whole thing. The word in each case is the same – like e)rgazomai. Before, He used e)rgazomai of the Father, so He repeated it for Himself. Now He uses the word poiew of the Father and then turns around and uses it for Himself. Every time He uses a verb for the Father He uses the same verb for Himself. Here He does it again.

The point is that Jesus Christ does not depend upon the essence of His deity to do these things but He depended in His humanity upon the power of the Holy Spirit. All of the things that Jesus was doing He was doing from His humanity. He set aside the independent use of His own attributes. He operated strictly on His humanity so He could obey the Father. In His deity He is equal with the Father; in His humanity He obeys the Father. All of the way through this passage we are going to see obedience to the Father's will. This passage will develop the Father's provision – Bible doctrine and the Holy Spirit. The combination of Bible doctrine and the Holy Spirit means that He can cut it, and we have the same provision today.

What the Father does is the design for His life, and the something here is the provision – grace. Jesus Christ in His humanity lived under grace. The Father provided what He needed, so the Father did the doing.

"for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise" – we have the word "doeth" twice. Both times it is poiew, repetition of the verb. In the words, "whatsoever he sees" the word means to discern, to observe. Jesus Christ learned the Father's plan. "Seeth" is blepw, meaning to discern. Jesus discerned from the ultimate source of Himself. How did Jesus know the Father's plan? Jesus "grew in wisdom." He had normal physical growth and in His humanity He was a genius but He had to learn doctrine. So the word "seeth" here is discerning what the Father wants Him to do. Jesus learned the plan in time through doctrine, and He "does" [poiew], present active indicative – He keeps right on following the Father's plan. The same doctrine is available to us; the perfection is available to us; the same grace is available.

Verse 20 – the relationship in the incarnation. "For the Father loveth the Son." The word "loveth" is where we get a difference of words – filew. John 3:16 – "For God so loved the world…" – a)gapaw, mental attitude love. That is all God can have for sinners. It is not a rapport type love. But what is His attitude toward Jesus Christ. It is filew – total rapport. God cannot filew the unbeliever because the unbeliever is spiritually dead. Jesus Christ was virgin-born, minus the sin nature, and right from the start the relationship of the humanity of Christ to the Father had total rapport – filew. This is something we can have with God only when we learn doctrine.

"the Son" – when you have rapport with someone you can show them things you can't show to others. With a)gapaw you don't have to show anything, it is just a relaxed mental attitude.

"he sheweth him" – deiknumi means to teach, to teach something of great importance. It means to teach something that is already there; to pull back the curtains and there it is. The doctrine is there but the humanity of Christ had to learn it in time, even though His deity always knew it. And when He learned doctrine a rapport was set up, and so the Father's attitude to the humanity of Christ was filew, a rapport based on doctrine.

"all things" – the total plan of God. This means that Jesus Christ went so far with grace, further than anyone else could ever go, that the Father could show Him all things. The grace of God plus knowledge of Bible doctrine can bring you to the place where He can show you all things.

"that himself doeth" – poiew, that He has designed; "and he will shew him greater works" – reference to something in the future, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"than these" -- the healing of the impotent man was nothing; He is going to show Him something greater in the future.

"that ye may marvel [regard Him with admiration]" – recognition of the plan of the Father and the one who was involved in the plan of the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 21 – equity with the Father is resurrection and judgement. In verses 21 & 22 the fact that the Father and the Son are co-equal and co-eternal is going to be brought out by introducing two new subjects. The first of these is resurrection and the second is judgment. The Father and the Son are equal in these two areas. Why did Jesus pick resurrection and judgment? It is no accident that He picked them because in the theology of the Pharisees resurrection and judgment were dominant, and both of the theological seminaries did a great deal of teaching on these subjects. There were parts of the Sanhedrin who did not believe in resurrection and judgment but the Pharisees all believed in these things. So now Jesus is facing an antagonistic religious crowd made up of the leaders of the land and they are trying to nail Him to the wall. They are not succeeding and He is making it very clear as to who and what He is. He is equal with the Father in matters of resurrection; He is equal with the Father in matters of judgment.

The emphasis in verse 21 is on the work of the Father is resurrection and two verbs are used for the Father. The first of these is e)geirw, the word translated "raise up." It is the simple word for resurrection, to cause to raise someone from the dead. And this is used only of the Father because it is the Father who is going to raise the humanity of the Son. But both the Son and the Father will be involved in the resurrection of, for example, all believers. So we have another word for resurrection which is actually a synonym zowpoiew [zow = life; poiew = to make or to do]. So this means to make life, to produce life, to give life. It is used for the Father and it is used for the Son. Why? Because the Father and the Son are co-equal and co-eternal in their deity.

This raises the question as to who raises the dead. First of all, the Father is involved in resurrection – 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1Peter er 1:3; John 5:21. The Holy Spirit has a part in resurrection – Romans 8:11; 1Peter er 3:18. Jesus Christ is also involved in the resurrection of those other than Himself – John 5:21. So the resurrection, then, is a joint project of the Trinity and it emphasises the co-equality and the coexistence of the members of the Trinity.

Verse 22 – the same thing is true of judgement. "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." This is talking about the last judgement only. The Father is involved in all sorts of judgments. He judges nations because they phase out on Bible doctrine – Hosea 4:6; Isaiah 5:13. He judges with regard divine laws connected to the divine institutions. He judges people for all sorts of things. He protects the human race from self-destruction by certain types of judgments which prune out the human race and keeps it from a mass madness that would destroy it. So the Father is constantly judging. Now it was Jesus Christ who was judged for us on the cross; it was Jesus Christ who was the courtroom; it is Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for us. So at the last judgment people who reject Christ are going to stand on their own human good, either consciously or subconsciously. The work of Christ on the cross is divine good. When a person rejects Christ they are rejecting His work and they are substituting their own. The scripture indicts them by saying "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us." So human good is not judged at the cross, human good is rejected at the cross because human good can never be the basis of appropriating salvation. And since human good cannot be the basis of appropriating salvation, since it is apart from human works, human good is not judged; it is a part of the sin nature which is not judged. So at the last judgement we have a second resurrection. And who is on the throne? Jesus Christ – John 5:22. Why is He the judge here? He was judged at the cross, now He is the judge of all who reject His judgment. Who rejects His judgment? All unbelievers since the beginning of time. Every time a person refuses to believe in Christ – either negative volition at the point of God-consciousness or negative volition at the point of gospel hearing, or both – he always chooses to stand upon his own works, and so when we come to the last judgment the unbeliever is there because he has rejected Christ as saviour, he has refused to accept this salvation. He cannot be judged for his sins because they were judged at the cross, and under the law of double jeopardy he can only be judged once for them. The only thing by which he can be indicted is the other part of his old sin nature operation – human good. Our righteousness are as filthy rags to God – Isaiah 64:6, they are dead works – Hebrews 6:1, and therefore the unbeliever will not be judged for his sins at the last judgement. He is judged for one thing only: human good.

"hath committed" – perfect tense. It means to give and the Father has given all judgment to the Son. The perfect tense means that since the beginning of time, and they are eternally saved. There have been unbelievers, all of whom will stand on their human good (their sins having been judged at the cross), and this is what is meant by the perfect tense – from the beginning of time to the end of time all unbelievers will be judged by Jesus Christ at the end of time.

So this is why we have both judgment and resurrection used to show this total equality.

Verse 23 – co-equality in honour. In this connection we have, once again, a verb used for the Father and the same verb used for the Son – timaw, which means to honour. It is a word which means to give honour, to show honour, to hold in the highest respect or the highest regard.

"That" introduces a purpose clause. Here is the purpose of God; "all [the word "men" is in italics. But it means all the human race] should honour the Son." This is the first use of timaw and it is a present active subjunctive, linear aktionsart; everyone is going to honour the Son one way or another. The subjunctive mood is the potential; that honour depends upon attitude toward the cross.

This verse indicates that relationship with God the Father is based upon attitude toward the Son. To honour the Son means to believe in Him, to receive Him as saviour, to recognise Him for what He is. The word is used here because the religious crowd, the Pharisees, had studied the Old Testament scriptures and understood them well.

Verse 24 – fellowship with God comes through the Son.

"Verily, verily" – point of doctrine; "I say unto you [keep on communicating to you], He that heareth my word." This is one of the most difficult verses to analyse because it appears to say that you have to believe in the Father to be saved. But a principle must be understood. Jesus said, "I and the Father are one." That is, both Jesus and the Father have identical essence. The Father and the Son are in view here. They are one, and all of the way through this passage the Father sends the Son – the humanity of Christ which is sent. How can you honour the Father? The only way is to believe in the Son, and when you believe in the Son you believe in the Father. This is the one salvation verse that is a principle verse rather than a mechanical verse. Here is a verse which deals with the principle, and you cannot get to God the Father and live with Him forever unless you come through the Son. And if you honour the Son by believing in Him, then this is tantamount to believing in the Father, since Jesus says, "I and the Father are one."

The word for "hearing" here means to hear and obey. It means to have a delineation of the gospel and to obey it. Obedience is simply faith in Christ.

"my word [the word of salvation], and believeth on him that sent me" – that is God the Father. Nowhere in the scripture does it ever say you believe in God the Father for salvation. This is for obvious reasons: Christ is the saviour. Acts 4:12. When we have believed in the Son we have believed in the Father, is what this verse is saying because it is dealing with a principle. But most of the salvation verses deal with mechanics and when they deal with mechanics it is always believe on the Son. This verse explains verse 23 and it is the principle of salvation used to illustrate the co-equality of honour between the Father and the Son.

"hath everlasting life" – present active indicative, keeps on having everlasting life.

In verses 25-27 we go back to salvation and judgment. Since they are co-equal in judgment they are also co-equal in the matter of salvation. The Father designed salvation and the Son actually executed it, and the Spirit reveals it. But in spite of these different functions in the plan of salvation this does not change the fact that each member of the Trinity is co-equal and co-eternal.

Verse 25 – "Verily, verily" – point of doctrine; "I say unto you [for your advantage], The hour is coming…" This is not a resurrection verse, it must be connected with the previous verse – hearing and obeying has to do with people who are spiritually dead. They hear the gospel and then they obey the gospel by believing in Jesus Christ. Who does this? People who are dead spiritually. The gospel is what causes dead people to hear. Then his volition goes into operation. If he goes on positive signals he believes in Jesus Christ, and having believed in Jesus Christ then he has eternal life.

"and now is [now here]" – for some of you, this is it. They are about to hear something to which they will respond. How can Jesus tell that there are people who are about to respond? Because in eternity past He knew everyone who would be standing in the temple that day – omniscience. He knew that at the point of God-consciousness many of these people living in Jerusalem many of these people had gone on +V. He also knew that whenever a person at the point of God-consciousness goes on +V God is responsible to provide information for that person by which they can be saved. Jeremiah 29; Acts 17; John 7:17. So he says, "The hour is coming, and for some of you it is here, when you are going to get gospel hearing." And as a result of gospel hearing they are going to believe and be saved.

"when the [spiritually] dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God" – they are hearing the voice of the Son of God; "and they that hear shall live" – they will respond to the gospel.

So this is a dissertation on salvation, the principle being that eternal life comes through the Son.

Verse 26 – co-equality again. This is not difficult when we remember that the Father is eternal life. The deity of Christ is eternal life. There never was a time when the Father and the Son did not have eternal life. 1John 5:11,12.

Verse 27 – the amplification is concluded by going back to judgment. "And he has given him [Jesus Christ] authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man." This means very simply that Jesus Christ was judged on the cross and the Father has given Him the privilege of judging all who reject His judgment.

Verse 28 – "Marvel not at this," stop be amazed at this. They were standing there with their mouths open.

"for the hour is coming" – this is a different hour. This isn't the hour of salvation, this is the hour of resurrection.

"in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice" – in other words, there is another voice of the Son of God. In time on earth we hear His voice, which is the gospel, and we respond by faith. But in eternity it is again hearing His voice and this is for resurrection, specifically the resurrection of the Church. The words "in the grave" means the body is in the grave. The emphasis now goes back to the body.

"shall hear" – it is the soul that hears the voice. The soul hears the voice in heaven. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17.

Verse 29 – "And shall come forth." This means to come forth in a resurrection body.

Verse 28 – "Marvel not" means "Stop being amazed" – present active imperative plus the negative, and the word means to be totally astounded. This is the ordinary Greek word for total amazement. The "hour" here is the Rapture of the Church in which all believers of the Church Age that are in the graves shall hear His voice. The word a)kouw, to hear means to hear and obey, not only to hear something but also to respond to it. The souls will be in the presence of the Lord and they will come down to the earth, and from there will come up in resurrection bodies. The point is that they are hearing the voice of the Son of God with regard to matters that pertain to this life, and as the Son of God speaks everything He says is doctrine, everything He says presents the plan of God. Therefore the tremendous effect in the power of His voice is given in the fact that Jesus Christ only has to speak and the Rapture begins. With a voice that powerful the religious crowd should be listening to what He has to say at the present time. So in the next verse we have the continuation of the temple discourse.

Verse 29 – "And they shall come forth." The Greek word is e)kporeuomai [e)k = from; poreuomai = go from one place to another] and it means to go out of a place that is not worthwhile into a state or a place that is worthwhile. In other words, a body goes out of the grave and into a resurrection concept. This is a general verse, it does not give specifics. Since the religious crowd is totally involved in a legalistic concept here is something to break that up. That is, to listen to the voice of the Son of God as He stands on the steps of the temple and declares to them the issues of eternal life. But they refuse to do so. They are totally disoriented to this concept and this plan and so Jesus is going to show them a very interesting thing. This religious crowd will continue to go on negative signals with regard to the gospel. They will continue to reject it and yet there is one time when they will obey the voice of the Son of God, for there will be a second resurrection. Jesus will say, "Rise up," and the souls of the religious crowd will go into the bodies of these unbelievers and they will stand in their physical bodies before the great white throne – a physical body designed for suffering in the lake of fire. So they will obey His voice once.

"they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life" – the doing of good is poiew, which generally means to do; "and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" -- the doing of evil is prassw, which generally means to practice, to establish a pattern. The verb poiew is used here for the first resurrection and prassw is used for the second resurrection. The ones in the first resurrection are said to do good, and the Greek word for good is a)gaqoj which is good of intrinsic value – divine good. There is one thing that man cannot do on his own, and that is divine good. The verb poiew is in the aorist active participle. The type of good which is mentioned is a)gaqoj which is used for divine good. Who can produce or do divine good? Only a person who is in the plan of God. To produce divine good you have to first of all receive Christ as saviour, you have to be a child of God and born into the family of God. Once you receive Christ as saviour you are in phase two of the plan of God where knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of the Holy Spirit equals the production of divine good. Only a believer can produce divine good. This doesn't mean that every believer does but it means that he is now distinguished from the unbeliever in that way. No unbeliever can produce divine good. All the unbeliever has is an old sin nature and the old sin nature can produce human good but never divine good. So those who produce divine good are believers and they are involved in the first resurrection.

With regard to the second resurrection we have the verb prassw which means to practice, to establish or form a pattern. This, too, is an aorist active participle. In each case the aorist tense indicates facing the cross – in the first case +V, and in the second –V. In other words, they all face the cross. But when the person who becomes a believer faces the cross, for the first time he sees divine good and he believes in Jesus Christ. So at the point of salvation you depend upon the work of another, the perfect work of Jesus Christ, you depend upon what he has accomplished. Divine good is what Christ did no the cross, so once in every believer's life he depends upon divine good. Once he enters into phase two, which is the believer in time, divine good is the order of the day as far as the plan of God is concerned. Therefore knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of the Holy Spirit equals the production of divine good. So that in phase two he can produce divine good as well. But the aorist tense takes up a point of time when he is saved, and when he is saved poiew is used because he does divine good in the sense of believing in Christ.

But the unbeliever who faces the cross goes on negative signals, and when he does he depends upon human good. At the point of the cross he depended upon human good because [prassw] he had been practicing human good all along and he was a person who used his own merit, his own ability to try to gain salvation. So here are these Pharisees, these scribes, and so on. They have always had the concept since they first entered into religion that you have to do good to be saved, you have to do good to go to heaven. So when they face the cross they have behind them a long record, many years of human good. So they look at the cross – divine good – and they say no, I prefer my backlog of human good. They had been practicing [prassw] all along.

"and they that have done evil" – this is prassw. These are the people who went on negative signals toward the cross. Evil simply refers to the old sin nature under which they have operated. Under the OSN they have produced good – human good. At the last judgement human good will be judged. Human good is not sin but it is evil because the OSN is classified as evil and anything that comes from the OSN is evil. From the evil comes sin; from the evil comes human good.

So at this point, verses 30 & 31, we have a dissertation on the humanity of Christ. In order to get to the cross and to produce divine good Jesus Christ is under orders from the Father. He is under the Father's will and He will not go outside of the Father's will. This means that Christ must subordinate His deity to the will of the Father, ands the only way He can do that is to not use His attributes of deity independently – doctrine of Kenosis: Jesus Christ refused to operate independently of the Father's plan in His deity. He did not use the characteristics of His deity independently of the Father's plan. In other words, when He performed miracles He performed them in the power of the Spirit. Whatever He did, He did in the power of the Spirit; He did not depend upon His own divine attributes. He depended upon the indwelling Holy Spirit in His humanity. This is a big issue because Satan tried to get Him to operate independently of the Father's plan – Matthew 4, "Command these stones to be made bread." Jesus didn't do it because He would have been acting independently of the Father's plan.

Verse 30 – the humanity of Christ depends on the Father. "I can" is literally, "I am not able." When Jesus says, "I am not able," obviously He is referring to his humanity because His deity has unlimited ability – omnipotence.

"to do" – present active indicative of poiew. The present tense indicates linear aktionsart – do constantly during the incarnation. The active voice: Jesus Christ will operate under the control of the Father; He is not able to do otherwise. The infinitive indicates this is His purpose. It is His purpose to rely upon the Father's provision rather than use His own divine attributes independently of the Father's plan.

"of myself" – the word "of" is the preposition a)po, the preposition of ultimate source: "I am not able to do anything from the ultimate source of myself." Ultimate source refers to His deity, the essence of God.

How does He operate, then, in the incarnation?

"as I hear" – a)kouw, which means to hear and obey, present linear aktionsart. "What I hear, I obey" is what He is saying. He obeyed perfectly the will of the Father during the incarnation. Present tense: He keeps on doing it. Active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. Indicative mood: the reality of the action which he produces, the reality of the fact that He did the Father's will in every step of the incarnation, including the cross, all of the way to resurrection, ascension; and when He was ascended the Father said to Him, "Sit down."

"I judge" – the word for judge here is a present active indicative and it means judging right then and there. Jesus is standing on the steps of the temple and here are all these religious people listening to Him, and His message is judging them right now. He is talking about the resurrection of damnation, the alternative to the cross. They have rejected the cross and He is explaining the alternative, therefore He must speak in terms of judgment. So he is judging right now, but He is not judging because of what He feels about it, He is judging because the Father has said that those who reject the Son must come under judgment. So He is not speaking from His deity, He is speaking strictly from the Father's plan.

"and my judgment is just [righteous]" – in other words, this is the Father's plan. The Father is perfect; His plan of perfect, therefore anyone who is judged under the Father's plan is being judged perfectly.

"because I seek not my own will" – He is here to do the Father's will, not His; "who hath sent me" – a)postellw, which means to send on a special official delegation. When the religious crowd heard about John the Baptist out in the desert, drawing the crowds, they sent a delegation – a)postellw. They sent a delegation to condemn John. Now the Father sends [a)postellw] a delegation of one, not to condemn but to save. This is the impact of the message of Jesus Christ. The people who reject that salvation are going to be condemned; but He was sent officially into the world to save the world, not to condemn the world.

Verse 31 – His dependence on the plan of the Father. "If" – 3rd class condition: potential – "I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true." This means that if the Father laid out the plan and that is the way He is going to do it. His witness would not be true for one reason: because He would be operating outside of the plan of God.

1. If Jesus acts independently of the Father's plan He is bearing witness to Himself.

2. His witness would then be insubordination.

3. Satan tempted Jesus to act independently of the Father's plan and the Father's provision -- turning stones into bread.

4. This is a temptation which the believer today in principle only, and generally when He starts to become a mature believer – acting independently of the Father's plan.

5. The humanity of Christ was oriented to grace and the Father's plan.

6. Therefore, He was subordinate to the will of the Father and the plan of the Father in His humanity.

The six witnesses to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15; 2Corinthians 13:1 we have the law of a double witness. We have heard: "In the mouth of two or three witnesses a fact will be established." It means that one person might be prejudiced, one person might be hysterical, but when you have three people one of them is bound to be calm and emotionally uninvolved. Therefore, when you have a series of people witnessing about a fact or an alleged fact and you can get two or three to agree, the fact is established as a point of law in a court of law. This is a basic principle of justice.

There are six witnesses who stand in the history of the human race and say to us that Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe. He is God; He is man; He is the only saviour. These six witnesses are all brought into the picture to conclude this tremendous discourse which was given originally to religious people. This discourse which is being concluded at this part of the chapter started with the religious crowd criticising Jesus Christ. Religion hates Jesus Christ.

At this point the Pharisees not only cling to the Sabbath but they cling to the law of double witness. Jesus takes the Sabbath and shows them that the Sabbath was designed for grace, not for legalism. Now He turns and shows them that the law of double witness was designed for grace and to protect people, and not to be distorted. So He presents six witnesses in the court of history.

Verse 32 -- The first witness is God the Holy Spirit, a perfect witness, a perfect person. "There is" – present active indicative of the verb e)imi, a verb of absolute status quo. It is present linear aktionsart, there always will exist, there never was a time when He didn't exist; "another" is another of the same kind. Jesus Christ is God; the Holy Spirit is God.

"that beareth witness" – present active participle, marturew which is the key word for the rest of the passage: he who acts as a witness.

"of me" is correctly "concerning me" – peri. The witness is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is indwelling the humanity of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is co-equal with the deity of Christ. The Holy Spirit is operating in the humanity of Christ in the same manner the Holy Spirit operates in us when we are filled with the Spirit.

"and I know that the witness that he witnesses concerning me is doctrine" – truth.

There are two witnesses of the Holy Spirit. The first witness is the sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit during the incarnation of Christ, and the second is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the production of the canon of scripture – 2Peter er 1:21.

Verses 33-35 – the second witness: John the Baptist.

Verse 33 – "You sent." They sent [a)postellw] an official delegation out into the desert to investigate the credentials of John the Baptist. They wanted a witness but they didn't accept it after they had checked it out. John never walked into Jerusalem and onto the steps of the temple. John never went to them; they came to him. The people came to John and the religious crowd came to him. John the Baptist had the truth, Bible doctrine. They came to him. When you have the truth you don't run around begging people to listen to it. Doctrine can stand on its own feet; it never needs any help from us. If you have something worthwhile you stand there with it and the people will come to you. Jesus Christ stands still and He calls His witnesses. Just as the people came to John the people will come to Him. John the Baptist was the perfect illustration; he stayed in one spot, out in the desert where there were no people.

"he bare witness" – perfect tense of marturew which means to communicate the gospel. The gospel is a facet or segment of Bible doctrine. Perfect tense: he communicated in the past with the result that there are people standing there listening to the voice of Jesus who were saved. Active voice: John the Baptist did the communicating. The indicative mood: the reality of his great ministry.

Basically, the message of John the Baptist was fourfold:

a) The person of Christ – John 1:29, "Behold the Lamb of God."

b) A change of mental attitude accompanies faith – Matthew 3:2, "Repent ye."

c) The mechanics of salvation – Acts 19:4, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

d) Occupation with Christ – John 3:30, "He must increase, I must decrease."

"the truth" – he communicated the truth. This is a ministry which impressed the religious crowd; it impressed them. Even though the religious crowd didn't agree, and they didn't accept the content of his message, they were impressed with the power of it. Here is religion's great dilemma. The message has content, the content of the gospel, but it goes forth in power. Content is doctrine; the power is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of John the Baptist as he preached. They were impressed by power but they went negative on the content. What they tried to do was to convert the power (divine power) into something they could use. They couldn't, but they tried. They were emotionally involved without being mentally involved. They never accepted the gospel but they were so impressed with John the Baptist that they sent him an official delegation.

Verse 34 – "I receive not," lambanw means to receive, but it has other meanings. It means to take to one's self or to sustain, and so Jesus is saying, "I am no sustained by a testimony from the immediate source of a man." He is saying that He did not need the message of John to sustain me. He is saying that the thing that sustained John the Baptist was doctrine; the thing that sustained Him was doctrine – in His humanity. There lies the power. So He is saying to the religious crowd, "You wanted the power, but you rejected the message. I am not sustained by the power of John the Baptist, I am sustained by the doctrine" – just as John was sustained by the doctrine which he communicated.

"from man" – para, from the immediate source of man. This is referring to a public speaking situation, such as John the Baptist.

"but these things I say" – why? The thing that they missed in the message of John the Baptist. They caught the power but they missed the content of the message; they rejected it.

"that ye might be saved" – the purpose in going over the doctrine is so that they might be saved. It is the doctrine, the gospel, that saves. This is an aorist passive subjunctive. Saved in a point of time; salvation is received when we believe; salvation is potential, depending on whether a person believes or not.

Verse 35 – John the Baptist. "He was a burning and shining light." "He" is not he at all, in the Greek it is "that one" – e)keinoj, which is not a simple pronoun. It means that one, that special one. It means someone who is special. He was special because he was the herald of the King. On the inside he was burning; on the outside he was shining. If you burn on the inside you shine on the outside. The word for burning is kaiw. This goes on on the inside, it is unseen; but you do see something on the outside. "Shining" is the verb fainw. The Christian way of life starts on the inside and works to the outside. Doctrine is on the inside; the filling of the Spirit is on the inside. This works to the outside. "He was" is imperfect linear aktionsart of the verb e)imi – past time. In other words, John's ministry is over now. This is what he was in the past. Kaiw means to be consumed with fire and it is a reference here to the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit and the knowledge of doctrine. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit plus knowledge of doctrine = shining. Fainw is a present active participle. Inside we have "passive," we receive these things – knowledge of doctrine, the filling of the Holy Spirit. When we have these things, active voice on the outside, we produce – divine good. Divine good is the production that is seen on the outside. This is what Jesus said about John the Baptist.

"ye were willing" – aorist active indicative of the verb qelw. The aorist tense is the point of time when they heard him, were impressed by his power but rejected the content of his message. Qelw means from the standpoint of their emotion. In the emotion of their souls they admired power but they would not go to the source of the power which was the cross. This describes the religious crowd who respond from the emotion of the soul without becoming involved in the volition and the mentality of the soul.

"for a season" – during the time that John ministered in the desert. The Jews were like a moth around a flame. They were attracted to John for his brightness but they did not absorb the warmth of his message. The warmth is on the inside – the power of the Spirit, the content of the message. They were entertained but not persuaded. They were impressed with the power but they rejected the message, and it is the message, the content, that counts.

"to rejoice" – they didn't rejoice. Rejoicing is the Christian monopoly – the filling of the Spirit, inner happiness, Bible doctrine filling the facets of the soul. The word for "rejoice" is xairw. This is what the Spirit produces, and what knowledge of doctrine produces; but that isn't the word we have here. The word used here is a)galliaw, which means to celebrate, to crave something. It is not the Greek word for inner happiness. So the celebrated, they craved something, they craved John's power, but they did not crave John's Christ. They craved crowds and the dynamics of John but they rejected the message. They were emotionally involved but not mentally and volitionally involved. This is always true of religion and it is a great indictment of religion.

Verse 36 – John's power was in the message that he preached, but Jesus performed a lot of miracles. The religious crowd were never impressed with miracles. We notice in the Gospels that when Jesus performed miracles it made them mad and they wanted to kill Him. But they were impressed with John's crowds and the power of John's delivery. So Jesus says, All right, you were impressed with power, now I am going to call on another witness. And this is a logical witness, the witness of the works of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Literally, "But the witness that I have [keep on having] is greater [than the power of John]." The witness is the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were not designed to alleviate suffering, even though they did this. Their purpose was to focus attention on the gospel for it is the gospel which saves. Miracles won't save. The word for "greater" here is megaj. It means more numerous, more intense, and more distinguished. This doesn't disparage the ministry of John the Baptist. Both of them were sustained by the same Holy Spirit, both of them preached the same message, but Jesus Christ has a more distinguished, more intense, and a more numerous manifestation of power, i.e. the miracles as well as the power of delivery. And He now declares what this greater witness is.

"for the works" – e)rgon, which means "deeds, miracles." These miracles were designed in eternity past, so Jesus brings the Father who designed them into the picture" "hath given me" – perfect tense, they were designed in eternity past for a purpose. They were to focus attention on the gospel to a very religious group of people when Christ was on earth.

"to finish" – the Father gave them in the past with the result that they have a purpose, and that purpose is to finish, i.e. to execute, to accomplish; "the same works that I do, [these] bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me" – a)postellw, to send an official delegation. Jesus Christ is an official delegation from God the first Father to mankind, and His job is saviour. He is in contrast to the religious crowd who sent an official delegation to hear John, the herald of the King, were impressed with the power but did not become mentally involved with the message.

Verse 37 – the witness of the Father. "And the Father himself" – the word "himself" is a reflexive pronoun which takes us back to His essence. The Father is perfect; His plan is perfect. His plan includes the presentation of the Son.

"which hath sent me" – a)pastellw, sent on an official delegation. The Father sent a delegation of one, Jesus Christ, to save the world.

"hath borne witness" – perfect active indicative of marturew which means to communicate information, to get a point across. The Father is communicating to the world through His Son. The Father is revealing His love, His grace, only through the Son, only by the cross.

"of me" – should be "concerning me," peri. Perfect tense: He did this in the past (eternity past) with results that are now apparent to these people.

Now He looks these religious people right in the eye and says they are on negative signals: "Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form."

"nor seen" – perfect active indicative of o(raw [from which we get our word "horizon"]. This does not mean to see with the eye, it means to see with the mind. In other words, they have rejected the message. This is a verb for perception. The reason they haven't seen is because they went on negative volition toward the message.

"his form" – His form is His essence. And behind His essence, therefore, the design. A perfect person designs a perfect plan. Negative volition is not impressed with knowing God's plan, they are more interested in impressing God with who and what they are.

Verse 38 – "And ye have not his word abiding in you." These Pharisees know the Old Testament scriptures but they are religious unbelievers, they do not have a human spirit. Therefore they are unable to relate these things to the plan of God and to the grace of God, they have not taken the first step which is salvation, and consequently, even though they know the scriptures [the Old Testament] they have not been able to correlate these things. They have from the OT, ritual, but they do not have the reality. For example, they observe the Passover but they do not have the reality of the Passover, i.e. 1Corinthians 5:7.

How can you have the word abiding in you? It doesn't mean resident, it means that the Word is operational. It is there; it is operational there. These religious people knew some facts, all about Moses, the Exodus, etc.

"for whom he hath sent: -- aorist active indicative of a)postellw, which means to send an official delegation [stellw = send; a)po = preposition of ultimate source]. The Father sends the Son.

"him ye believe not" – they rejected the message, they were minus faith. Present active indicative: they have continued to "believe not." The present tense plus the negative means they have not only rejected the message once but they have rejected every witness brought before them.

Verse 39 – the Old Testament scripture is called in as a witness (Verses 39-44). "Search the scriptures" – it doesn't say search. While we are commanded to do so this is not what is meant here. The verb is e)reunaw. It means to explore or to investigate something with which you are familiar. The Pharisees knew all sorts of little things that they knew about the scriptures but they had never investigated the scriptures to see the person there. They were using the ritual of the scripture, they were practicing Codex #3 of the Mosaic law, they added to this their own system of good deeds; therefore they needed to investigate, to explore something with which they were familiar. This is the second person plural to indicate that Jesus Christ was talking to all the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees. It is a present active imperative, which means that they would have to persist in their investigation because they had a lot of unlearning to do. A religious person has preconceived notions that are wrong.

The "scriptures" here refer to the Old Testament, and only the Old Testament.

"in them" – the content of the OT; Jesus Christ is revealed in them; "ye think" – the verb dokew means to assume. It is a sloppy form of thinking; "[that] ye have eternal life" -- they assumed that they were saved by observing ritual and by physical birth. So they were guilty of sloppy thinking.

"and they are they which testify of me" – this time the word "testify" is a present active participle. In every line of the OT you are going to find me, if you come with an open mind.

Verse 40 – again, He expresses their negative volition.

"ye will not" is a present active indicative of qelw. They are emotionally involved. This is simply emotion influencing volition to go on negative signals rather than mentality influencing volition to go on positive signals. Mentality pulls in the facts.

"come" – aorist active infinitive. You only come once in one point of time. The very second in which you believe God gives eternal life, and the 40 things God gives you are perpetuated forever. The active voice indicates that every person must make his own decision and he must do it apart from any human coercion. The infinitive expresses purpose; it is God's purpose that people come to Christ in a moment of time.

"unto me" – proj plus the accusative means "face to face with." So in a point of time you come face to face with God.

"that" introduces a purpose clause; "ye might have" – present active subjunctive, that you might keep on having. Subjunctive: whether you have it or not is potential, depending on whether you go on positive signals – believe, or whether you go on negative signals – qelw.

Verse 41 – "I receive not" means I do not seize, present active indicative of lambanw. "I do not grab glory from me" is what He is saying.

"from" is para, which means from the immediate source. Jesus is hitting the religious crowd where it hurts the most. They are glory-grabbers. Legalism is designed to make glory-grabbers out of them. From the immediate source of men He does not seize or grab glory.

Verse 42 – "But I know you," perfect tense of ginwskw, "I have known you since eternity past." Ginwskw means to know from the experience of observation. I know you from eternity past with the result that I understand you right now.

"that you have not the love of God in you" – the only kind of love they could have is a)gaph love. Rapport love is filoj, and they do not have that. This is simply going back to a mental attitude love. They do not have a)gaph love because they are negative toward doctrine, i.e. the gospel, and they are filled up with religiosity, legalism, human good, etc. Because they are negative they do not have a)gaph.

"of God" is an objective genitive and it means "toward God"; "in you" – negative volition again emphasised.

Verse 43 – "I am come." This time He switches from the aorist tense "come," which they had to do in a point of time, to the perfect tense. This was designed in the past with the result that I am now here. Active voice: Jesus Christ came through the virgin birth, first advent. The indicative mood is the reality of His coming.

"in my Father's name" means representing my Father; "and ye receive me not" – present active indicative: You do not seize me, you grab glory – he uses the same word again: lambanw. You do not seize me – that would be faith in Christ.

"if" – 3rd class condition, 'if', maybe yes, maybe no; "another" – another of the same kind, another Jew; "shall come" – aorist active subjunctive, because it could happen many times. Many people would come claiming that they were Messiah, and they will come in their own name. They will impress with their human good, with their religiosity.

"him ye will receive" – lambanw again, future tense, indicating that they would receive such a person and it would happen many times in the future.

Verse 44 – their disorientation to grace. "How can ye believe" is literally, "How are you able to believe." This is a question which is going to be answered by lambanw again. "How are you able" is the present active indicative of dunamai which means to have ability. Ability means that God provides the ability. He provides everything – the information, the fullness of soul, the volition, the mentality, the Holy Spirit making the gospel clear; He provides everything. "How do you have the ability to believe?" – present tense, "How do you keep on being able," and then to the aorist because "to believe," aorist active infinitive, occurs in a moment of time. But they do not have the ability to believe because they are on negative signals at the point of God-consciousness, negative signals at the point of gospel hearing. Therefore, they have all of this stuff in their frontal lobes and they are not even able to believe at this point. Jesus is trying to clean this stuff out so that they will be able to believe.

"which receive" – but the word isn't receive, it is lambanw again, so seize, to grab; "honour" – doca means "glory." They are glory-grabbers, but they are grabbing a false glory, the glory of human achievement, the glory of human ability, the glory of religiosity, the glory of a preconceived human system.

"one of another" – one of another of the same kind. In other words, they all have to get together within the framework of their religious system. When they grab glory one from another they have a mutual admiration society.

"and seek not the honour [glory]" – para, from the immediate source of – "from God only?"

Verse 45 – a final witness against them. Calling to the stand Moses, the greatest of the OT prophets and one for whom they had the highest respect.

"in whom ye trust" – e)lpizw, which means I hope so, maybe so. So the best we can do with it here is to "repose confidence." But they are still not thinking; there is still no pisteuw here.

Verse 46 – "For had ye believed." The word "had" is not there, it is "If you had believed," and it is a 2nd class condition. And now He uses pisteuw for the first time: If you had believed, but you didn't. "For if you had believed Moses [and you would not]."

"you would have believed me" – but you didn't believe Moses and therefore you don't believe me. Moses was one of the greatest witnesses of Christ. Deuteronomy 18, quoted by Peter in Acts 3:22 and by Stephen in Acts 7:27. Moses constantly taught about Christ. Numbers 21:4-9, quoted by Jesus Himself in John 3:14, Moses was actually teaching about the cross. Leviticus chapters 1-6, the Levitical offerings, we have the teaching of the cross; in chapter 23, the holy days which was teaching concerning Christ. Exodus 12, the Passover, and in 1Corinthians 5:7 Christ is our Passover.

Verse 47 – "But if ye believe not," 1st class condition [and it is true], "his writings [and you really don't], how shall ye believe my words?" The final indictment.

There is one more witness: the feeding of the 5000 men.

Chapter 6

The purpose of miracles was not to alleviate suffering; that was a secondary aspect. Miracles always did. The primary purpose of miracles was to focus attention upon the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The miracles announced to Israel that He is and was the eternal Son of God and that He was also Messiah. But they also had another purpose and that was to gain a hearing for the message. The message is what is important. So the purpose of the message goes far beyond the alleviation of suffering, it was to prevent eternal suffering in the lake of fire.

In the first half of this chapter we have two miracles and then we have four messages. The first miracle is found in verses 1-5, it is generally called the feeding of the five thousand. It was obviously a very public miracle. This is the seventh witness to the deity of Jesus Christ, and we have not one witness but a group of witnesses — 5000 men, not counting the women and the children. Then there will be another miracle to follow it immediately and to test the disciples.

Miracles have a secondary purpose. As far as the unbeliever is concerned the miracles of Jesus Christ were designed to call the unbeliever's attention to the issue of the cross — Christ bearing our sins, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." But miracles were also used to test believers, in this case the disciples. There are going to be two miracles in which the disciples are going to be tested. The disciples have been listening to the message of the deity of Christ, the discourse given on the steps of the temple. They observed the lame man being healed on the Sabbath. They saw the lame man walk through the streets carrying his bed. They heard the tremendous discourse by which Jesus put down the religious crowd. So not only did these two miracles focus attention on the Lord Jesus Christ and His work but the two miracles coming up, one on land and one on sea, are designed to test the disciples, to see if they have learned anything. The disciples are going to flunk both tests. These miracles are designed for a purpose. They are designed also to challenge believers to apply Bible doctrine. It is one thing to know doctrine, it is something else to apply it.

The disaster situation: verses 1-15. The background is given in the first four verses.

Verse 1 — "After these things" means after the events of the previous chapter, the healing of the impotent man, after the man carried his bed through the Sabbath, and after the discourse on the steps of the temple. Jesus got out of town! Why? Because He has just put the religious crowd down in their own back yard, on the steps of the temple, and they are out to get Him. It is time to move into another area where people are going to be more responsive to the Word.

"Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias." It has been called the sea of Galilee since the time that the Jews first were there but when Tiberias Caesar came to the throne they tried to get him to cut down on the taxes so they changed the name to the sea of Tiberias.

Verse 2 — "And a great multitude followed him." Why? Because of the tremendous miracles which He performed. At this time Jesus was at the peak of His popularity. He was not popular because of His wonderful message and because of who and what he was, He was popular because people loved to be entertainment and in that day the number one type of entertainment was the performance of a miracle. This is imperfect linear aktionsart which means they kept on following Him. They were going to stay around until He performed a miracle and then they would go home.

"because they kept on seeing miracles" — this is the reason they kept on following. Imperfect linear aktionsart.

"which he did to them" — He kept on doing to them; "that were diseased" — present linear aktionsart. In other words, He would come into an area and find sick people and perform miracles. So the people kept on seeing 'their favourite program.' This crowd is not with Him because they say, "Here is the Son of God, here is the only saviour, we accept Him as such." This is an unstable crowd because it is made up on unbelievers who are seeking entertainment, they have positive volition toward miracles, their number one type of entertainment.

Jesus had to break from this crowd, it is not a saved crowd at this point. This is a crowd made up primarily of unbelievers who simply want entertainment. This was like the religious crowd that went out to see John the Baptist in the desert.

Verse 3 — "And Jesus went up into a mountain." If you want to get away from a crowd, climb a mountain. There are a lot of them that cannot do it; "and sat there with His disciples." We do not know whether this is the twelve or a larger group at this time. Usually when it is talking about just the twelve they are mentioned, included, but apparently at this time there were other disciples.

Verse 4 is a parenthesis, it explains why Jesus is way up north around the sea of Galilee and not way down south at Jerusalem. Why isn't Jesus in Jerusalem. This is the place to be at the Passover, but the Passover speaks of Jesus Christ and the religious crowd in Jerusalem have rejected Christ and therefore Jesus Christ is on a mountain by the sea of Galilee at the Passover time. The religious crowd rule in Jerusalem, and since they do, what are they going to do on the Passover? They are going to go through all this ritual. They will slaughter a lamb. That lamb speaks of Christ on the cross bearing the sins of the world. They are going to sprinkle the blood, they are going to eat part of the lamb which is a picture of faith, and yet this is the religious crowd and they have rejected Christ. So they are going to have ritual without reality, which is meaningless. The whole observation is a farce. The Passover teaches the work of Christ on the cross, it has to do with eternal salvation, and yet it is strictly ritual in Jerusalem. The person of whom the Passover speaks is on earth and about 175 miles to the north, sitting on a mountain with His disciples. It isn't until He is ready to go to the cross that in the Passover He will be in Jerusalem, and Jesus Christ was actually crucified on the Passover. Then He will be in Jerusalem, but in the meantime He is as far away from the religious crowd as you can get. That is a reminder to you and to me that separation means separation from religion.

"And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh [near]." It is almost there. Jesus is in the north and He is going to send a message down. He is going to perform the biggest miracle of all. Down in Jerusalem they have ritual minus reality. They perform the ritual that points to Christ and up on the mountain Jesus performs the miracle which says "I am here, I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." The religious crowd is always on negative volition toward doctrine. As a result they have a vacuum in their minds into which is drawn legalism. Legalism includes ritualism as an extension of it, and so they have ritual without reality. Up in the north country we have the reality and we have a searchlight focusing on Christ, a miracle of all miracles. They were performing a ritual, slaying a lamb which represented Christ. But he is here and they have rejected Him. When ritual becomes religious then the people involved are blinded. That is why we have a reference to the Passover at this point. The Passover that was held that year was a condemnation of the religious crowd in Jerusalem.

In verses 5-7 we have a dialogue with Philip, one of the disciples.

Verse 5 — Jesus told the disciples to lift up their eyes and look to the fields white unto harvest because these people were wearing white clothes and they were coming down the mountain looking up when He was speaking to the woman at the well. Now, Jesus is at the top of the mountain, looking down. Just the opposite. He and his disciples are topside looking down, whereas before they were bottom-side looking up.

"When Jesus lifted up his eyes" doesn't mean that He looked up toward heaven, it means He opened His eyes and focused them on something moving. When these people got to the top of this mountain they were going to be hungry, they are out in the wilderness with no food around. The words "lifted up" is an aorist participle and it doesn't really means to see, it means to discern. The Greek word here is qeaomai, a word which was used for a general who looked out over a panoramic view and immediately got the tactical picture. Jesus realised the situation by looking down the hill and seeing the people climbing it and He knew exactly what was going to happen. "When Jesus discerned with His eyes and saw the great company coming unto Him" — proj plus the accusative, 'face to face with him.' In other words, they didn't all come at the same time. The verb 'to come' is present tense, which means they arrived at different times, they didn't all come at once.

"he saith unto Philip" — Philip apparently was standing right by Him and now Philip is going to get a question. After the discourse on the deity of Christ in the previous chapter the question should be answered very quickly and very simply, it should be no problem at all.

"Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" There was no place around to buy. On the surface it is a silly question but in a reality it is a challenge to Philip. Philip is a believer with a human spirit. Does he have any doctrine or is his human spirit minus doctrine. It is a challenge to say we don't have to go anywhere to buy bread, "Thou art the Son of the living God." The word 'whence' is where.

Verse 6 — why did He ask? "And this he said [kept on saying] to prove him." Jesus kept repeating the question. This is a present active participle of peirazw which means to test something. It is an assayer's term for testing ore, it means to test to see what is inside of Philip. It is a test to see if there is good or evil. Is there doctrine or no doctrine? He is testing to see if Philip can apply doctrine which he heard in the discourse at the temple. Jesus is simply trying to bring out what is in Philip. Is there doctrine in Philip or not?

"to keep on proving him," literally — present active participle; "for he [Jesus] himself knew what he would do." 'He knew" is a perfect tense. He knew in the past, eternity past, with the result that He still knew it now. It is actually a pluperfect tense of o)ida. The pluperfect is a perfect tense used as a present tense for information in the frontal lobe. Here is omniscience. Remember that Philip has heard the dissertation on the deity of Christ and he is thoroughly familiar with that type of information. After hearing all of this does he have the ability to apply it?

"he would" is the imperfect active indicative of mellw and it doesn't mean 'would' at all, it means what he was about to do.

"to do" is a present active infinitive of poiew. It means to do — present tense, dramatic present; Active voice: Jesus would do this all by Himself. The infinitive: it was God's purpose to present His Son through this miracle to this group of people and to the entire land.

Verse 7 — "Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little." This is two hundred denarii (plural). At this time in the Roman empire a denarius was a day's wages. Philip was saying, in effect, that it would take six and two thirds months [two hundred days' wages] to pay for the food to feed this crowd. Philip is not thinking Bible doctrine: 'This is the Lord of glory, He can handle this deal.' He has been estimating the crowd.

"not sufficient" is the present active indicative of a)rkew, and it means not even close to covering it; "that every one of them may take a little" — literally, 'to seize a little.' The word lambanw means to grab. He knew the crowd was hungry. Philip sees the problem strictly from the human viewpoint rather than the divine viewpoint. He is neutralised by the wrong mental attitude. This called for doctrinal application and he is simply giving it a human application.

Verses 8-9, unbelief in contagious.

Verse 8 — "One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him."

Verse 9 — "There is a lad here, which has five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?" Andrew has been observing, he watches the people go by. Philip is practical — 200 days wages wouldn't cover this deal. That is practical unbelief. But Andrew has been counting all day and only one boy has brought his rations; it's hopeless.

Verse 10 — "Make the men sit down." The word to make and sit down is an aorist active imperative, it is an order. Get them seated, in other words. In other words, this unbelief and hopelessness is so contagious that He puts them to work. So now they become organisers, ushers, program men. That's all they can do.

"Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand." The Greek word for 'men' here is a)nhr, which means a man — sex, male; an adult male. Sometimes it even means a noble person but it does mean an adult male. In verse 14 the word a)nqrwpoj is used, which is mankind, homo sapien. It means male and female, boy and girl — human race. So in verse 10 we have 5000 adult males, but in verse 14 we have more than 5000 people there.

Verse 11 — the performance of the miracle. "And Jesus took the loaves" — 'having taken,' aorist participle; "and when he had given thanks," aorist participle — 'having given thanks.' He took what the little boy had; He took what was available. There is a principle here. All the twelve disciples can do is usher people into the proper spots and that is just about all they are good for. But the boy had just a little something, a little for himself. Jesus takes the little that the boy had and multiplies it into one of the greatest meals of all time. He multiplies it into a banquet. Jesus takes the little that you have — the bread which speaks of the principle of Bible doctrine — and He multiplies it into something fantastic, The impact on the human race is Bible doctrine.

So He "took" it and He "distributed" it. These are two aorist indicatives. In other words, He took it and He broke it and distributed it. He kept breaking it and kept breaking it, and there was just always more. This was the miracle. Jesus did not scorn the loaves because they were only five nor the fish because they were small and were two. God is pleased to use the weak and the small — Zechariah 4:7-10. Jesus took the loaves and He used them. He did not work independently of what was there. Here is the point. Five loaves and two fishes is not even going to feed that hungry boy who brought them, but Jesus took the little that the boy brought and he used it. Point of doctrine: Jesus Christ honours prepared people. He honoured that boy. Jesus Christ today does not work independently of prepared people. Who are prepared people? People who have bread. What is bread? Doctrine! Doctrine that you have in you God will use. God uses prepared people.

Notice what the disciples did. They should have known but they did not, so all they can do is get into a program. The boy stands there hopeless, helpless, weak, but he was prepared. He brought this along for himself. God uses prepared people; God does not work independently of prepared believers. God uses us in spite of our weakness, our frailty. He employs the little things and therefore under His grace He takes the little things and makes them strong — 2Corinthians 12:9,10. God is pleased to take human instruments in the execution of His plan.

"as much as they would" — the verb is qelw. It is a desire from the emotion of the soul. It is imperfect active indicative — "as much as they wished to eat." The imperfect tense is linear aktionsart. In other words, they ate a little, they wanted more, they wanted more until they were filled. Everyone was stuffed, they loved this food.

Verse 12 — "When they were filled." Every person on the spot was filled, 5000 adult males plus the women and the children. "Filled" is aorist passive indicative. The aorist tense is the point of time when they were filled, a point of time divorced from time and they will remember it, but they will never again eat a meal like that. The passive voice: they received it. They didn't earn it, they didn't deserve it, they didn't bring a thing along — except the boy, and God used the prepared boy. They received it, that's grace. The indicative mood is the reality of being filled. This doesn't mean to be filled uncomfortably, this means to have had an experience which is fantastic in the field of eating. Here was an experience they would never forget. This means to be filled in a way that they were satisfied — total satisfaction. When everyone was completely filled means to be satisfied.

"Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." The word 'fragments' does not mean crumbs. A fragment is at least half of a loaf, chunks of bread.

Verse 13 — "Therefore they gathered them together, and they filled twelve baskets." Twelve baskets; twelve disciples. Twelve no-account, no-good, hopeless, useless, practical, impractical people. So they have a little momentum. There were only twelve people who carried any food down the mountain. They didn't carry any baskets up but they carried twelve baskets down. This is a reminder that Jesus is God, Jesus is the Lord of the universe. You just depend on Him, it is His battle. You don't have to sweat out the no food problem. You don't have to worry about anything. You are related to the Lord of the universe, so who ever told you to worry. The disciples carried the baskets to remind them of how stupid they were!

Verse 14 — most of the people were unbelievers and they were getting ideas in a hurry. Here was someone who could perform a miracle and He could probably get rid of the Romans and establish Jewish nationalism again. They want the Millennium, the crown. They want to bypass the cross. Jesus has an eternal kingdom but His kingdom starts with the cross. If you are going to be in that eternal kingdom you get the crown but you only get that crown by way of the cross. You have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ before you are in His plan. The crowd missed the point of the miracle too, just as the religious people did in Jerusalem.

"This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world" — Deuteronomy 18:15ff, the prophecy of Jesus Christ coming into the world to rule. So they say this is that prophet. They are not going to accept Him as saviour, they are going to accept Him as ruler. They understand Deuteronomy 18 in part. It is talking about the saviour becoming the ruler — Millennium. But they scratched this, they just want that part which gives them a ruler. This is Jewish nationalism. They want the political but not the spiritual.

Verse 15 — Jesus walks out on them. "When Jesus therefore perceived" is an aorist participle. He read their minds.

"that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone " — He got away from it all completely because inevitably it is the spiritual that makes the difference and not the political. Jesus has an eternal kingdom. He wanted them to be in His eternal life kingdom, not simply in a Jewish nationalistic state that may last for 200 years. What is 200 years compared to eternity? In other words, to get into His eternal kingdom you have to believe in Jesus Christ and the purpose of the miracle to focus attention on the cross but they simply by negative volition went on negative signals toward the gospel. By implication they simply wanted the political kingdom. They stressed the political, He stressed the spiritual. Through the spiritual they would have eternal life, they would live in His eternal kingdom forever and ever. They rejected that and since they rejected them He rejected them. He would not ride in on their political platform.

Chapter 6:16-21

Verse 16 — this is the sea of Galilee. The disciples had decided that they had had enough of the rugged country and they want to get back across the sea. At evening carrying their twelve baskets full of food, a reminder of the faithfulness of the Lord, a reminder of the hypostatic union, a reminder that Jesus Christ is God as well as true humanity, they went down to the sea.

Verse 17 — "And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum." They are going to have another test. They began to go over. This is an incohative imperfect which means they began to make the trip across the sea.

"And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come unto them." Remember that they know, they have heard, and they have seen evidence of the fact and received it by faith that Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe, He is the God-Man. They have failed in the application of this doctrine.

Verse 18 — they now have a great opportunity, a storm on the sea of Galilee. The storm depicts the pressures, the cares, the trials, the desires, the heartaches, and the frustrations of life. These disciples have seen once again, as they have previously, miracle after miracle demonstrating the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's faithfulness continues toward us even when we fail Him. The disciples are going to fail again but there is something here that is amazing. They have just failed in the feeding of the 5000, they are now going to fail on the sea; but when the storm clears they are still going to be alive. This tells us two things. The storms to do not last forever, they only appear to last forever when we are going into them. But the storms always have a purpose. The pressures, the disasters, the trials, the difficulties of life: if they are not direct blessing they are indirect blessing. Where discipline is involved it is indirect blessing, when there is no being out of fellowship involved then it is direct blessing. But this type of storm had one purpose in mind: "Disciples, sit there with your baskets of food and fall apart!" That basket full of food talks about who and what the Lord is. It should say to those disciples, "The battle is the Lord's." It should remind them that the Lord is faithful. He is always faithful, even when we fail.

Now the issue: Will the disciples understand and apply the doctrine of divine essence and utilise the faith-rest technique? Or will they, on the other hand, just simply fall apart? The application to us is that no matter how difficult things get in this life Jesus is aware of the situation, He will deliver. As long as we are alive He has a purpose for our lives and often our greatest growth and blessing will come in these storms, provided that we utilise Bible doctrine which is exactly what they did not do. In other words, we should do what they didn't do. Let's learn from the disciples. Application of Bible doctrine. They had it. They not only had it their minds they had it, as it were, in a basket. Each disciple carries a basket on that ship and the food it contains should remind them of something — the faithfulness of the Lord, the essence of God.

"And the sea arose" — imperfect linear aktionsart, it kept rising. Why did it have to keep on rising? There was one disciple who wasn't frightened, that's why. It had nothing to do with spiritual things, he just wasn't the type that was frightened. He was a fisherman by the name of Peter. To Peter it was a storm and he had been in lots of them, so he wasn't frightened by storms. It had to be a big enough storm to even frighten Peter, so it just kept getting greater and greater.

Verse 19 — "So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs." This is the Greek word stadia which is 'once around the track.' Their track was about 600 feet generally. So thirty stadia would be eighteen thousand feet or about 3.4 miles. So when the storm hit they were 3.4 miles out into the sea. They were far enough away from the shore where they couldn't get back to the shore.

"they see Jesus walking on the water, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid" — they weren't afraid because they saw Jesus, they were afraid all the time but now they are still afraid. The fact that Jesus is walking on the water is no encouragement to them at all. None of the disciples drowned, not even Judas Iscariot. They did worse than drown, they turned into a frightened mass of jelly on the inside, a mental attitude sin called fear. It has a twin brother called worry. Pressure makes you concentrate on yourself, and you so concentrate on yourself that the survival of self and the catering to self and the blessing of self that you completely exclude any occupation with Christ. Jesus is walking on the water and they are still frightened; they are holding a basket and they are still frightened.

Verse 20 — "be not afraid" is present active imperative: 'Stop being afraid.' Being afraid is one of the best ways that Satan has of getting to you and using you. Isaiah 41:10; Deuteronomy 31:6,8; 2Timothy 1:7; Psalm 56:3. Psalm 103:10 expresses God's grace in the midst of our failures.

"It is I" — It keeps on being I, literally.

Verse 21 — "Then they willingly" — incohative imperfect, 'Then they began to be willing.' The Greek word is qelw which means that it came from their emotion. This is imperfect active indicative.

"and immediately the ship became at land whither it went" — this doesn't mean it zipped into land. This is an idiom which means 'like being on land.' Immediately the storm ceased around them and it was so smooth. The wind stopped suddenly, the waves stopped, and the sea smoothed out like glass, and it was like being on land. That is a miracle.

What does it mean to have the Lord aboard? It means to have doctrine active in your soul.

The feeding of the five thousand was a miracle. Not only was it a miracle but it was a test to the disciples to see if they could apply doctrine. Obviously they could not, they failed to apply doctrine to the situation. However, the grace of the Lord overruled and the 5000 men plus women and children were fed. The crowd was made up of not only unbelievers but as we are going to see in the rest of this chapter it was primarily unbelievers with negative volition at the point of God-consciousness. Very few people in that crowd were actually willing to receive Jesus Christ as saviour. We know a great deal about this crowd from the rest of this chapter. Jesus will say at the end of the chapter, "You have refused to believe in me." This crowd was a political group who were most anxious to overthrow the Roman empire. They were a group of Jewish nationalists living in the northern part of Palestine, in Galilee. And while they did not respond to the true implications of the miracle, i.e. they did not focus on the message and receive Christ as saviour, they were most impressed by the miracle performed by Jesus Christ and were anxious to use Him as a means and even as a weapon for overthrowing the Roman empire. In other words, their interest was an interest not in getting saved and having eternal life but simply to get the Roman empire out of the land and to establish Jewish nationalism. They had therefore a political interest only. These people in this 5000+ crowd are going to reject at the point of entrance into the plan of God, and they are going to try to use Jesus Christ to get rid of the Roman empire, but they are not interested in eternal salvation.

The rest of this chapter actually has four messages. The first of these is in verses 22-40 and is addressed to the seeking crowd. When the crowd first lands in Capernaum they are seeking the Lord Jesus Christ. It begins with a simple question on the part of the Jews which is not really a simple question. The second message is found in verses 41-51 and in this we have the murmuring crowd. This is when they begin to object. This message was given in the synagogue at Capernaum and it results in a tremendous amount of dissatisfaction on the part of the crowd. The third message, verses 52-59, is addressed to the disputing crowd. This was also in the synagogue at Capernaum and this message results in practically a riot. In verses 60-71, the fourth message is addressed to the disciples — those who deserted and those who stayed.

Behind all four of these messages is going to be bread. Jesus Christ fed 5000+ from five loaves, so the miracle was the miracle of the bread. Jesus uses this miracle to reminds the crowd of the significance. The crowd actually did some eating, they were able to eat the bread. The bread represents Christ and eating represents faith. Eating is a non-meritorious activity. The ability to eat is given to all members of the human race, good, bad, and indifferent. Therefore eating is the perfect illustration of faith. Faith is thinking but faith is non-meritorious thinking. The feeding of the 5000 thousand was the illustration or the introduction. The four messages were given across the Sea of Galilee at Capernaum at the synagogue. Throughout this message the key is "I am the bread of life."

Verse 22 —"The day following." It took a whole day to get 5000 people from Tiberius over to the western shore and then back to Capernaum.

Verse 24 — the people noticed that Jesus was not there and that He had not taken the long path around, and that He had apparently by some miracle moved over to the other side.

"they also took shipping and came to Capernaum, constantly seeking for Jesus." In other words, when they arrived the next day they were constantly seeking Him, looking everywhere for Him. They finally discovered Him at the synagogue.

In verses 25-27 the message actually begins. Verse 25 — And when they had found him," aorist tense. This is in contrast to seeking which is present linear aktionsart at the end of verse 24. They looked for Him all over the city and then suddenly found Him at the synagogue.

"they said unto him" — they address Him as Rabbi, they do not address Him as Lord. They call Him Rabbi because they are impressed with who He is and therefore they simply give Him an academic degree but they do not give Him His true place which is the God-Man, the unique person of the universe, the only saviour.

"when camest thou here?" — apparently there had been a lot of speculation. The word "camest" is not camest at all, it is the Greek word ginomai which means to become. Usually it means to become something you were not; here it means to be in a place where you shouldn't be. There is a mountainous path that gets to Capernaum and it took a couple of days that way, and they knew that He couldn't possibly have taken the path otherwise He wouldn't be there. They also saw the disciples disembark without Him so they knew that if He was there the same day that they were He could not have come by road, He could not have come by sea as far as their observation is concerned, and so obviously they were puzzled. They put this in the perfect active indicative which means, you are here, you have come here in the past with the result that you are here now, and we have no explanation of it and we would like an explanation. Again, you can see that they are great for details, they are great for speculation, they are impressed by His power, but they are not impressed by His person — who and what He is as far as saviourhood is concerned. Again, this indicates something of the crowd. How did you get here, by some miracle? If by some miracle you can also defeat the Roman legions! This is what they are thinking.

Verse 26 — Jesus had an answer. Every time you see "Jesus answered" it is actually an aorist passive participle from the verb a)pokrinomai which means to discern from the ultimate source, but it is in the passive voice which means that Jesus had received an answer in eternity past — He is omniscient, He knew this was going to come up in time and obviously He was well prepared for it. This would be better translated "Jesus had an answer." So this brings in the omniscience of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now when Jesus is going to make a point of doctrine He uses a very simple Hebrew phrase which had been brought into the Aramaic as an idiom and which is now brought into the Koine Greek from the Hebrew, and it is translated into the English, "Verily, verily." Modern translators call it "Truly, truly," and all that does is translate an idiom and still doesn't mean anything. Wherever you find verily, verily in the Gospel of John it means "point of doctrine." So Jesus had an answer for them and communicated, "Point of doctrine."

In other words, the way that Jesus came across that water is a point of doctrine. The point of doctrine that He is going to make is one about their own thinking. Jesus Christ is God. As God He read their minds before they ever existed.

"Ye seek me not because you saw the miracles" — Jesus knows what is going on here and He isn't going to let anyone use Him. It takes doctrine, it takes discernment not to get used by people — "but because you did eat the loaves and were filled." Notice a fine distinction. They received the food but why were they seeking Him now? Not because of the miracle. What is the point of the miracle? The miracle indicates that Jesus Christ is God, that Jesus Christ is the God-Man, that He is the only saviour, and that He has come in order to present Himself in the courtroom of the Father, the cross, and to bear the sins of the world. This is the purpose of all miracles performed by Jesus. The miracles were to focus attention on Himself as saviour. The purpose of miracles was not to alleviate suffering, not to help people in need, as such. That was secondary. The primary purpose was to present Himself as saviour, to focus attention on the message, and to lead people to eternal life. But these people failed to get the point of the miracle. They did not accept Christ as saviour. There is a reason for this. It is no accident that these 5000 people came together. They are malcontent with the Roman government. Yet, Jesus never spoke against the Roman government because while there are evils in any government, and often evil men, Jesus Christ recognised the point of divine institution #4, and divine institution #4 at this time was SPQR. Jesus did not advocate Jewish nationalism at this time. The Romans were actually doing an excellent job of governing. So who were these 5000 people? These are 5000 people who are malcontents. These people are trying to overthrow Rome and that is one reason they kept following Jesus. Here is someone who can help us, He has unusual powers, etc. All of these 5000 people reached God-consciousness and when they did they went negative. They didn't want any relationship with God and neither did they want anything to do with the type of government that was actually bringing them freedom and was fulfilling the concept of divine institution #4.

"but because you did eat the loaves, and were filled " — they saw five loaves and two fishes and yet every one of them had a great dinner. This carried them for a whole 24 hours and they are impressed with the fact that Jesus provided food for them in a miraculous way. In other words, they had their eyes on the food but they are not impressed by the one who provided it. This is the whole concept of what Jesus is saying. This is the first indication of negative volition toward God.

Verse 27 — Jesus is getting ready to turn them from the food they have eaten to spiritual things. "Labour not for the food which perishes." There is more than meets the eye in this. This is a present middle imperative. The present tense means stop it, the present tense plus the negative means they are already doing it. The word for "labour" here is e)rgazomai, and it means that these 5000 people have actually organised a political party to throw out the Romans and they are spending all their time in politics. Jesus told these people, "Labour not." They are too involved in politics, they are up to their ears in politics. E)rgazomai here means to be involved in something and taking it out of its perspective. This is a present middle imperative plus the negative — stop doing it!

"the food which perishes" — refers to the details of life. These people are more interested in the details of life but they are not interested in Christ. They want to use Him to get what they want.

"but for that food which endures unto everlasting life" — the food which endures to everlasting life is Christ. He is the bread of life as He will say. He is working up to the bread of life concept.

"which the Son of man [Jesus Christ] shall give unto you; for him hath God the Father sealed" — this is an aorist tense for a scene that took place in eternity past. At a point of time in eternity past God the Father sealed the Son who would come into the fullness of time [the Roman empire] and present Himself and go to the cross and die for the sins of the world. This is not the time to overthrow of Rome, this is a time when Roman law has reached its peak and it has provided something wonderful at that time. Before you have the crown you must have the cross.

Verse 28 — at this point they are ready to start talking back, but they don't do it at first. "What shall we do" — the same old story, give us a plan, give us an outline. Every political organisation must have a plan. They are trying to deviate Christ from His plan, providing eternal life, and get Him into their plan. They don't want to go to His plan, they want Him to come to their plan.

"that we might work the works of God" — they want to do something to work the works of God. They have missed the point of grace immediately. In the works of God Jesus Christ provides salvation. The plan of Jesus Christ is grace. Grace is God doing the work, and man simply receives in a non-meritorious manner what God has provided.

Verse 29 — they had asked Jesus how they might do the works [plural] of God. Jesus had an answer, "This is the work [singular] of God." He is talking to unbelievers, they are outside of the plan of God. The plan of God begins at the cross: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." The issue to these people is in the singular, it is the work of God the Son who bore their sins on the cross. Therefore it isn't works, it is work.

"that ye believe on him [Jesus Christ] whom he [the Father] hath sent" — "believe" [pisteuw] is a present active subjunctive. This is thinking, thinking a decision. But it is non-meritorious thinking. And pisteuw is a transitive verb which means it must have a subject and also an object. The object is Jesus Christ the only saviour. This is a dramatic present tense. Active voice: each person must believe for himself. Subjunctive mood: whether you believe or not depends upon your free will. It is potential.

Verse 30 — this is the crowd who actually were fed the bread, so their question is almost unbelievable. "What sign showest thou, then, that we may see, and believe thee?" He had performed miracle after miracle. That crowd was formed on the basis of miracles, they had crossed the Sea of Galilee on the basis of miracles, they had become the recipients of one of the greatest of all miracles and now they are asking for a miracle. That is the human race! "What dost thou work?" E)rgazomai again, so they are saying in effect, "Come over and join our plan." That is not salvation. In other words, if Jesus Christ joins their stupid plan they will believe in Him. The principle is that we have to come to God's plan, God doesn't come to our plan. God's plan begins at the cross and we have to come to the cross.

Verse 31 — they come up with their illustration and they tell Jesus exactly what they expect from Him. "Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written" — these bird are quoting scripture. "He gave them bread from heaven to eat." It is a mistake to capitalise "He." How do we know? Because in the next verse "he" is Moses. In other words, Moses was a great guy in his day and we figure your about as good as Moses. If Moses gave them bread for 40 years come on in to our plan Jesus and give us bread for 40 years."

What did they quote? They quote from Psalm 78:24. God for forty years gave them bread from heaven. But notice that the Galileans said that Moses did this. It was not Moses who did this, it was God. They were referring to Moses. Jesus knew exactly what they meant.

Verse 32 — "Then Jesus said unto them, Point of doctrine, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father keeps on giving you [present linear aktionsart] the true bread from heaven." In other words, He switched from divine provision for this life to divine provision for salvation. They were missing the boat. They need the bread of life. In this verse Christ is called the true bread, in verse 33 He is called the bread from God, in verse 35 He is called the bread of life. Jesus sticks with the Father's plan right here. He is saying what they really need is salvation, eternal life.

Verse 33 — "for the bread of [literally, from the source of] God keeps on being [present linear aktionsart] he who comes down from heaven, and keeps on giving [present linear aktionsart] life to the world." He keeps on giving to anyone who will believe.

Verse 34 — " … evermore give us this bread." This looks like they have had a change. What they want is the physical food, not the spiritual food.

Verse 35 — "… I am [I keep on being, always was, always will be] the bread of life."

"he that cometh to me" is proj plus the accusative and should be "he that comes face to face with me." Salvation; "shall never hunger" — this is being in the plan of God. This is an aorist tense. Once you are in the plan of God, God will provide everything you will ever need, there will never be a problem in your life too great for the plan of God.

"and he that believeth" — dramatic present — "on me shall never thirst" has to do with provision. In other words, once you accept Jesus Christ as saviour and enter into the plan of God, from the point of salvation all the way to eternity, there never will be a time that there is anything that is too great for the plan of God.

Verse 36 — we see the problem of the unbeliever. " … ye also have seen me, and believe not." "Keep on refusing to believe" is a better translation.

Verse 37 — He summarises. "All" refers to anyone who will believe; "that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will never cast out."

Verse 38 — "I came down" is the perfect tense, "I came in the past with results which will abide forever."

"from heaven" — a)po, from the ultimate source of heaven; "not to do my own will but the will of him [God the Father] that sent me," i.e. to go to the cross.

Verse 39 — the focus is on eternity future. In other words, every person who believes in Jesus Christ will be involved in the resurrection unto eternal life.

Verse 40 — "And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone who sees the Son." While He is on earth they observe Him, they observe His miracles, they understand His message; "and believe on him" — first of all they must get the message of the gospel; "may keep on having everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."

There is the Father's plan. He is going to take everyone who has entered the plan of God through faith in Christ all of the way to eternity. At the resurrection they will live with Him forever. There is nothing that is too great for the plan of God. Jesus Christ is saying at this point, "Come over to the Father's plan and leave your silly plan."

Verse 41 — this second message is given to the murmuring crowd at the synagogue at Capernaum. "The Jews then murmured at him" — these are Jews from Galilee in the northern kingdom who want to overthrow the Roman empire in Palestine. These are the recipients of the feeding of the 5000 and consequently they can now see that Jesus is not going to bend into their program. They are not going to be able to use Him and they therefore began to complain against Him. The word "murmur" does not mean to whisper or to talk in a soft voice, it means to complain. It has as its background a mental attitude. Exodus 16 is linked to this passage where the murmurers were believers. In John 6 they were unbelievers. They are murmuring because He said, "I am the bread of life." "The Jews kept on murmuring at him" — linear aktionsart. Cf. Exodus 16:2,12. The Jews were murmuring in the Exodus generation, the Jews were murmuring on the steps of the synagogue of Capernaum.

Verse 42 — they can't understand something that is clearly taught in the Old Testament, the doctrine of the hypostatic union: that Jesus Christ is God and also true humanity. They understood that He said that He was God when He said "I am the bread that came down from heaven." Here is their problem. They have rejected the very doctrine which would help them. The Old Testament clearly taught that Jesus Christ is God. He had to become a man to go to the cross. They couldn't understand because firstly they were unbelievers, and secondly they were unbelievers who wanted to bypass the cross. They wanted the crown now, they wanted the Roman empire out of it, and they didn't care about going to the cross. "Jesus said, I am the way." The only way you can get into the kingdom is by way of the cross. "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph." They recognised His humanity, they will not put it together with His deity.

Verse 43 — "Jesus had an answer … Stop murmuring among yourselves." In other words, Stop and listen.

Verse 44 begins the second message of Jesus Christ, the message to the murmuring crowd. "No man" — o)udeij, means mankind in general. It means 'no one,' human race.

"can" is a present active indicative from the Greek verb dunamai which means to be able. "No one is able" is the literal translation.

"come" is an aorist active infinitive. This is the word e)rxomai used sometimes for salvation as well as a simple coming or going, entering. This is the word used in Matthew 11:28. "Come" here has to do with salvation. It is an aorist tense: in a point of time.

"to me" is proj plus the accusative which means face to face with. This means a personal relationship. This is an idiomatic phrase which means salvation, personal relationship.

"except" — should be translated 'unless.' Man does not have the ability to approach God on the basis of his own works, his own human good, his own activity, his morality. "No man is able to come to me unless ..." When Jesus used the third class condition plus the negative mh He is saying that already they are locked in negative even though they have heard a clear delineation of the gospel. They are expressing negative volition at the point of gospel hearing.

"the Father, who hath sent me draw him" — the word 'draw' is e)lkuw. This word was used in the Greek for drawing a sword out of a scabbard, for a fisherman drawing a net through the water. It was also used for a public speaker drawing or attracting a crowd by his message or by some other means. Here it means to be attracted to, to be drawn to something. The word as used here refers to positive volition at the point of God-consciousness. There are two points at which every person faces the issue of relationship with God. First of all, God-consciousness. This occurs by the act of the mentality of the soul. The issue he faces is positive or negative volition. If he goes on positive volition at that point he simply is saying he wants to know God, he wants relationship with God. On the other hand, if he goes on negative he expresses at that point his indifference toward God. The crowd standing before Jesus Christ went on negative signals. This is brought out by two Greek words, e)an mh which should be translated "unless." [e)an is the word "if" in the third class condition; mh is the negative] Why is He putting the word 'unless' in here? It is clear in the Greek but not clear in the English. Because e)lkuw actually describes positive volition. Whom does the Father draw? The Father draws those who go on positive signals at the point of God-consciousness. And how does He draw them, attract them? He attracts them with the gospel. At the point of God-consciousness when a person goes on positive volition God is therefore responsible to provide gospel information for that person — John 7:17; Acts 17:27; Jeremiah 29:13. God will provide positive signals with the gospel. In other words, everyone has a chance. The word e)lkuw simply indicates that when a person at the point of God-consciousness goes on positive volition then the Father will then provide in some manner gospel information whereby that person can express his positive volition by faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself is the one the Father is using at this point to 'draw.' The word e)lkuw is an aorist active subjunctive. The aorist tense refers to the point of time of gospel hearing. The active voice indicates that the individuals who went on positive volition at the point of God-consciousness will hear the gospel at the point of gospel hearing. When they hear it, it is the gospel which will draw them. In other words, they will hear the gospel or some portion of the gospel and they will respond to that gospel through positive volition again.

"and I will raise him up at the last day" — the word for raising up here is the future active indicative of a)nisthmi [ana = up; isthmi = to stand]. To stand up becomes technical for resurrection. The future active indicative indicates that the resurrection is future and that no resurrections have occurred. At the time Jesus was speaking on the steps in Capernaum no one in history had been resurrected. That means that people who were brought back to life were resuscitated, and they died eventually. In resurrection you never die again, you are not subject to death. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the firstfruits and until He is resurrected no one is resurrected. The last day here refers to the last day in a dispensation.

There was a last day in the Age of the Gentiles. It was the day when the first UN building [Babel] was destroyed. There was no resurrection. Why? The principle of resurrection is when the dispensation is over you get a resurrection body, and that is true except that in a dispensation that ends before Christ is resurrected they cannot. So what happened was that all of the Old Testament believers cooled their heels in Paradise, waiting for a propitious moment, i.e. after Jesus Christ is resurrected. The Age of Israel has three parts — the period of the patriarchs [Abraham to Moses] , the period of the law [Moses to Christ]. That interrupted the Jewish Age, it isn't over yet. We have the insertion of the Church Age and then the conclusion and third part of the Jewish Age which is the Tribulation. The resurrection of the Church occurs in the future and is followed immediately by the Tribulation. At the end of the Tribulation all Old Testament believers will be resurrected. At the end of the Millennium there will be another resurrection, that of the Millennial saints. But Christ is the firstfruits. The end of the Church Age — 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; the end of the Jewish Age — Isaiah 26:19,20; the Tribulational martyrs are included — Matthew 24:31.

The emphasis in the phrase at the end of this verse is eternity. This is because these Galileans are only interested in phase two, life on this earth. They want Down wit Rome! They want to skip the cross and get on to the Roman empire. They wanted a kingdom now. They had in their minds something contrary to the plan of God and Jesus is not going along with it. Because He knows Bible doctrine perfectly He is going to stick with the plan of God, the will of the Father.

Verse 45 — we have a quotation. "It is written" — perfect passive participle. It is written in the past with the result that is stands written forever, and we now have a quotation from Isaiah 54:13.

"in the prophets" — the prophets is one of three sections in the Old Testament canon. The first is the Torah, the second is the Nabiim or the prophets. In the prophets we have Isaiah. The third is the Kathubim or the writings. Isaiah 54 is a Millennial passage. This passage is talking about how all children are going to learn Bible doctrine, but when Jesus quotes this passage He takes the word 'children' out to show that this is not being fulfilled but it is a principle He is using to illustrate e)lkuw.

"they all" — is substituted for the word 'children' in the Hebrew. It refers to the human race and immediately He is using this passage as an illustration. The literal fulfillment of the passage in Isaiah is the Millennium but 'they all' illustrates the principle of the entire human race. Every member of the human race gets a chance, from Adam right down to the end of the Millennium, at the point of God-consciousness and at the point of gospel hearing.

"shall be" — future active indicative. The future is from the point of God-consciousness. "Shall be" is the future of e)imi, an absolute status quo. The future tense here indicates that even though this crowd went on negative at the point of God-consciousness God still gave them another crack at it at the point of gospel hearing.

"taught" — didaktoj in the plural here. The noun is in the plural because it means that each person will be taught. These people are didaktoj at the point of gospel hearing and they are still on negative signals.

"of God" is qeou, genitive of source. God is the source of providing the information. The genitive of source is important. It goes right back to e)lkuw, the Father will draw them.

"Every man, therefore, that hath heard, and hath learned" — these are two descriptive verbs, both aorist active participles, and both of them express gospel hearing. "Hath heard" is the actual hearing of the gospel as Jesus presented it — a)kouw which means simply to hear the content of the message, which they did. There is another word also here — manqanw which means to comprehend what is heard. Jesus made sure they understood the issue. These two aorist participles actually describe the e)lkuw concept. These two aorist participles preceded the main verb, e)lkuw, so they got the full treatment and had the maximum attraction. God has an attractiveness to the unbeliever and that attractiveness is only the gospel. If the unbeliever rejects the grace of God at the point of the gospel he rejects God and God's salvation.

"of the Father" is a prepositional phrase, and the word 'of' is the preposition para which means immediate source. From the immediate source of the Father, which means they are not only getting the gospel, they are getting it from the one who is going to die on the cross for them. They all rejected Him but when Christ goes to the cross He will bear every sin of every member of that crowd.

"cometh unto me" — e)rxomai plus proj plus the accusative which has to do with relationship. Literally, it is "coming face to face with me" and it means having a relationship with me.

Verse 46 — why do they have to come to Christ? "Not that any man hath seen the Father." This means no one has actually seen God. 'Seen" means to observe from eternity past, in the perfect tense.

"save" means 'except' ; "which is from God" — from the immediate source of God. This is the word para and it explains the para in the previous verse. They were getting it from the immediate source of God because Jesus Christ is the immediate source of God.

"hath seen the Father" — Jesus Christ has seen the Father in the past with the result that He always sees the Father. The only time when He didn't see the Father was the last three hours of the crucifixion when He was bearing our sins in His own body on the tree.

Verse 47 — Jesus is going to make a point of doctrine. "I say unto you [for your advantage], He that believeth on me." The present tense is dramatic present. The most dramatic decision in history made by any individual is faith in Jesus Christ. Active voice: you have to make the decision; "keeps on having everlasting life." He never will lose it.

Verse 48 — "I keep on being the bread of life." This is the absolute status quo verb, present linear aktionsart.

Verse 49 — "Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are [physically] dead."

Verse 50 — "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven (Jesus is speaking of Himself), that a man may eat thereof, and not die [spiritually]."

The doctrine of manna

1. Manna came down every day, but it didn't. Exodus 16:4,5,22-27. God rained this manna every morning, Sunday through Friday, before the sun came up. The seventh day of the week is Saturday, the Sabbath, when there was no manna. But God gave them double manna on Friday. If the Jews believed the word and gathered the double portion on Friday they wouldn't go hungry on Saturday. In other words, it pays to believe the Word, the divine instructions. Some doctrine is used daily, like rebound and promises. There are some doctrines we use only when we are under special pressure.

2. Those who gathered a lot did not have any more than those who gathered a little. Exodus 16:16-18. People only gathered what they could eat. Each person had a different capacity for eating. So the person with the lesser capacity learned that he wasn't to try to eat the amount his neighbour with a greater capacity did. He learned from this that he was to live his own life as unto the Lord. At the end of the day both will be full. We as believers have different capacities. Capacity is developed through learning doctrine, through orientation to the plan of God, orientation to the grace of God. Capacity is something that is developed through growth. No two believers have reached the same stage of growth. Capacity is based upon knowledge of doctrine.

3. Manna spoiled, but it didn't spoil. Exodus 16:19,20. The Jews had to learn to obey the Word. That which they didn't eat was spoiled. That tells us that the Bible is loaded up with doctrine for you — doctrine which means blessing, doctrine which means orientation to grace, doctrine which is your life. But that doctrine is no good unless you take it out and put it in your human spirit by exposing yourself to Bible teaching. The doctrine in the Bible doesn't help you, it is the doctrine in your soul that does. You can never learn enough doctrine. Manna which was taken in and assimilated was not spoiled.

4. Manna spoiled if kept over night, but it was preserved for hundreds of years. How? Exodus 16:19,20. They took manna and put it in a golden pot and placed it in the ark. It stayed there generation after generation and was never spoiled. It was in the ark. Exodus 16:33; Hebrews 9:4. What does it mean to us? The tabernacle in which the ark of the covenant was located speaks of doctrine. It is doctrine in the human spirit which is the doctrine we can use; doctrine in the Word we cannot use. it we let the doctrine sit in the Word then we have a miserable life. But we wipe that out by transferring doctrine from the Word to our human spirit. The Word of God is preserved. While during those 40 years in the desert the manna spoiled, in the ark of the covenant it did not spoil. So now the ark of the covenant = the Word of God, and the Word of God will have that doctrine there forever, and even though the Exodus generation failed, failure in any generation does not hinder us from getting doctrine. It is still there and available for anyone who is on positive signals.

5. Manna melted, but it didn't melt. Exodus 16:21. Only manna gathered withstood the rays of the sun. Just at dawn they would come out of their tents and the manna was all over the ground. They would take it into their tents. Manna on the inside was preserved but as soon as the sun came up all of the manna which had not been gathered was melted. Again, only Bible doctrine which we have learned can we apply. We cannot apply what we do not know. The sun rising speaks of the pressures of life, the tragedies of life, the difficulties of life, the frustrations of life, and if we are minus doctrine we are going to sit in panic palace and act like any unbeliever. The believer must know Bible doctrine. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

6. Manna tasted good to some and bad to others. Exodus 16:31 cf. Numbers 21:5. What is the difference? Mental attitude. There are two attitudes toward doctrine on the part of the believer.

7. While manna was free to those who received it (grace), it was expensive to those who rejected it. For those who accepted Christ, eternal life. For those who rejected Him, eternal condemnation. Salvation is free, but for those who reject it it is very expensive, it is eternity in the lake of fire — John 3:36.

8. Regardless of how the Jewish believers sinned and failed in the Exodus generation God gave them manna every day as promised. Exodus 16:35.

Verse 50 — "This is" is present linear aktionsart, absolute status quo verb, "This keeps on being." Christ is now referring to Himself. "This is" is a transition from the literal manna given in the desert to the Lord Jesus Christ. In the desert the manna sustained physical life but Christ is now speaking in the synagogue at Capernaum the manna or Christ the bread of life provides eternal life. Just as manna sustained physical life during the 40 years in the desert so Christ provides eternal life. In the case of manna they would eat it. Eating is a picture of faith. In the case of Christ they had to have faith in Him or believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God — John 6:47.

"which cometh down from heaven" — the incarnation. The incarnation is the most dramatic point in history and begins a series of dramatic points leading to the cross, burial, resurrection, ascension, and session.

"that" introduces a purpose clause; "a man may eat thereof and not die" — notice at the end of verse 49, "are dead." The manna sustained physical life to a certain point and then these people are dead — physical death. Now, "not die" is the contrast. They are dead; Jesus Christ is offering Himself, He provides eternal life. But we have a difference of death here. The words "eat this bread" is an analogy to faith, the aorist tense is the point of time when a person believes in Christ. That point of time is divorced from time and perpetuated forever — aorist tense. The word for eating is the common word for eating food — e)sqiw. Jesus is going to also use another word, trwgw, which means to eat vegetables and fruit; e)sqiw means to eat everything, and especially meat. Jesus is going to switch eventually from e)sqiw to trwgw because in between those who are unbelievers listening to His message about the bread of life are going to start to murmur, they are going to reject, they are eventually going to state their rejection and peel off; and Jesus, before they peel off, is going to explain that e)sqiw is not literally eating His flesh. This is a great passage for two reasons: a) It shows that the Bible itself when it is not being taken literally has its own set of rules for a passage which must be taken spiritually. When Jesus says "eat of me" He is not saying for them to start chewing on Him. This is not operation cannibalism. But those who rejected Christ were offended. Why are they offended? Because they fail to see that this is spiritual, not material, not physical. b) The Roman Catholics have a false doctrine called transubstantiation in which they say that the bread becomes the literal body of Christ in the communion, and the cup becomes the literal blood of Christ. The body is the thing they emphasise. There is an offshoot of this used by the Lutherans called consubstantiation. Neither is true, and here is a passage which indicates what Jesus meant when He said "This is [represents] my body which is given for you; take and eat thereof." There is no cannibalism in the Lord's table. The eating of the bread is always an analogy to faith. Why is eating such an excellent analogy to faith? Because anyone can eat; anyone who is normal has the ability to eat. The whole point is that good people eat, bad people eat, moral people eat, amoral people eat, immoral people eat, any kind of a stinker you want to name can eat, nice people eat. Eating is physical illustrating the spiritual. Whenever you find the word "eating" or "drinking" in the spiritual realm it refers to faith. When a person rejects Christ as saviour he cannot understand these things, he is offended by these things, and many of these disciples now use the message of our Lord as an excuse to break off. This is because while Jesus made it clear to them they refused to accept that there is a spiritual area in which a message can be brought and it is not literal. Jesus was actually saying "Believe on me."

"this is the bread" — Christ is now referring to Himself as the bread of life, as He did in verse 35.

"which cometh down" — God's plan. The Father's plan calls for the incarnation. Jesus Christ has to be humanity in order to go to the cross and bear our sins. As deity He cannot do so. This has to do with the hypostatic union.

"a man" — this means any member of the human race; "may eat" — eating here is in the aorist tense, the point of time when we believe in Christ. The active voice: the subject produces the action of the verb; you must believe for yourself. The subjunctive mood — free will, you may believe or may not. If you believe you will be saved, if you do not believe you will not be saved. The subjunctive mood is important here because it indicates the potentiality of salvation. While Christ did all of the work you still have to respond and appropriate in a non-meritorious way, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Or reject: "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life."

Verse 51 — "I am" is the present active indicative of e)imi, the status quo verb — "I keep on being."

"the living" — present active participle of the verb zaw which means "always living." "I am that always living bread." This anticipates resurrection, ascension, and session. It also indicates the fact that when you believe in Christ you enter into union with Christ, Christ is zaw [living], and when you enter into union with Christ you are zaw [living]. 1John 5:11,12; "which came down from heaven" — the incarnation.

"if any man eat of this bread" —'if' introduces a third class condition, e)an. Salvation demands the expression of man's free will in a non-meritorious manner compatible with grace.

"he shall live" — future tense indicating eternal life in the future as well as now.

"and the bread that I will give is my flesh" — this is where those who are negative begin to get upset because He has been using the Word e)sqiw and now He uses the word "flesh." The giving is comparable to grace. Whenever you find God giving He is giving on the basis of who and what He is, He gives on a non-meritorious basis.

"which I will give" is not found in the original; "which is for the life of the world" — the bread is for the life of the world. Christ's flesh, the humanity of Christ, is the basis of salvation, it was necessary for Him to become true humanity.

"for the life of the world" — this is the use of the preposition u(per in its substitutionary sense. The ordinary word for substitution is a)nti which means "against" and also "instead of." But u(per means a substitution for a purpose. So generally, u(per is used wherever you find salvation. Christ died on behalf of our sins. U(per denotes purpose and design. In other words, the death of Christ wasn't accidental, it was all a part of the design and plan of God.

`The third message, verses 52-59. This is to the disputing crowd. Now they are becoming openly antagonistic and the reason is because they have finally found some daylight in the word e)sqiw used in connection with the flesh of Christ. This will be the message which will cause the final break with those on negative volition.

Verse 52 — "The Jews" is the Galilean crowd, the nationalists who want to throw off the yoke of the Romans; "strove among themselves" — 'strove' is taken from a Greek word, maxomai [maxh = combat] which means to quarrel and to fight. 'Strive' means they kept on quarreling. There is now a split among the disciples; "among themselves" is proj plus accusative. In other words, the unbelievers in the crowd started arguing face to face with each other. Between the second message and the third everyone turns around and they start to argue.

"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" They are thinking operation cannibal. They use the same word that Jesus used, e)sqiw which means to eat meat. So Jesus in His third message is going to start using trwgw which means to eat vegetables. When He does they know that He is not talking about literally eating His flesh, He is talking about faith. He switches His verb to show that this is a spiritual concept, not a literal, physical concept.

Verse 53 — "A point of doctrine which I keep on saying to you." Jesus is going to repeat many things that He has previously said. He is going over the whole thing again, still using bread, still talking about eating bread. The bread is His flesh. But He is going to change the verb now to show that this is spiritual.

"except" is a third class condition with the negative; "ye eat the flesh of the Son of man," and again He uses the aorist tense of e)sqiw. The flesh is a reference to the perfect humanity of Christ bearing our sins; "and drink his blood" — not literal blood. The blood of Christ always refers to one thing: the spiritual death of Christ on the cross. This is the whole picture of propitiation. The person of Christ [flesh] dying on the cross satisfies the righteousness of the Father; the blood of Christ [Christ bearing our sins] satisfies the justice of the Father. The righteousness and justice of the Father are His holiness, the holiness of the Father is satisfied by the cross. Love and eternal life can now come to man by way of the cross. The person of Christ plus the work satisfies God the Father. Since blood is a liquid and bread is solid eat and drink are both used to represent faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 54 — "eateth" is a present tense now, and He now switches from e)sqiw to trwgw; "drinketh" is a present active participle, it illustrates faith; "my flesh" — the humanity of Christ is impeccable, satisfying the righteousness of the Father; "blood" — the work of Christ on the cross satisfying the justice of the Father. Flesh and blood together answer to the whole doctrine of propitiation.

"hath" is present active indicative, meaning "always will have"; "eternal life."

Verse 55 — "For my flesh is meat indeed" is not what it says. It says, "My flesh is true food." In other words, He is telling them again this is a spiritual analogy. "True food" is to give you eternal life; "my blood is true drink," literally. By true food and true drink He is referring to eternal salvation. This was analogy.

Verse 56 — He states again eating flesh and drinking blood as analogies to faith in Jesus Christ. Now He adds something in anticipation of the Church Age — "dwelleth in me." Present active indicate of the verb menw which means to abide. When people in the Church Age accept Christ they dwell in Christ.

"and I in them" — every believer is in union with Christ; Christ indwells the believer.

Verse 57 — "As the living Father." The Father, too, has eternal life. The word 'living' is present active participle of zaw; "hath sent me" — this means to send on a mission.

"and I live by the Father" — dia plus accusative [dia plus the genitive always means through, or through the instrumentality of] means "because of." This should be translated "I keep on living because of the Father." This is because in eternity past God the Father made provision for Jesus Christ in phase two, every step of the way.

"so he that eateth me" — again He uses the word trwgw to show that this is not literal eating, it is an analogy to faith.

"he shall live because of me" — For thirty-three years from the virgin birth to the cross God the Father took care of Jesus Christ. Now we have dia plus the accusative again, and this time it has to do with phase two of the believer, the believer in time, from the time of salvation to death or the Rapture. He provides everything that we need.

Verse 58 — Jesus repeats. "This is the bread that came down from heaven." Repetition is the only way to communicate. Christ is the bread of life. Incarnation of Christ.

"not as your fathers did eat manna in the desert and are dead" — they are dead because after that forty years the generation had died out under the sin unto death. They ate manna that sustained them while they were alive but manna could not sustain in death because literal bread cannot sustain in eternity. You must have the bread of life, and the bread of life for eternity is Jesus Christ.

"he that eateth of this bread" — the impersonal approach. He goes over and over the same thing with variations so that they get the point; "shall live forever."

Verse 59 — all of these messages are given in the same place at the same time.

Verses 60-71, the message to the disciples.

Verse 60 — the word 'disciple' here means simply those who are hanging around, it doesn't mean those who believe in Him. There are some who believer. These are those who have been following Jesus during His Galilean tour.

"when they had heard" — aorist active participle, "having heard." The word a)kouw is used twice in this verse. It means three different things: a) to hear; b) to hear and understand; c) to hear and accept. First of all, they heard the message. They have heard the first three messages and are about to hear the fourth.

"This is a hard saying; who can hear it?" 'This is' is present active indicative of e)imi, "this keeps on being." The word 'hard' is sklhroj. This is something onomatopoetic and it means something that grates on the mind, something that antagonises the mind. It doesn't mean not understood. It is something that is offensive to the individual. We are now hearing from them the fact that they are on negative signals at the point of gospel hearing; "saying" is logoj — "word." They are referring to His messages.

"who is can hear it?" should be "who is able to hear and obey." The present active indicative of dunamai — "who has the ability," "to hear" — this time a)kouw means to hear and obey. These are people whose minds have been irritated by the grace of God. They are not believers. They have heard before and have rejected, and this rejection brings to a close the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ in Galilee.

Verse 61 — Jesus was not taken by surprise. "When Jesus knew in himself." The word to know here means He always knew — second perfect active of the verb o)ida which means inherent knowledge. The second perfect active means that in eternity past He knew it. In other words, it refers to His omniscience.

"that his disciples murmured" — the word for murmur here means a verbal expression of negative volition; "at it" is literally, "concerning this" — peri, concerning the message.

Verse 62 — Literally "If [3rd class condition] you should see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" (Then would you understand?) What is the approach now? What does this mean? If Jesus Christ is the bread of life and He ascends up where is the flesh, the bread of life? In heaven. Where are these people who are supposed to eat? On earth. Once more He is going over it: what does eat mean? Jesus will be in heaven, His humanity is going to ascend. You standing on the earth cannot stretch up and take a bite out of Jesus Christ! So eating represents faith, non-meritorious perception/appropriation. They said 'This grates on our minds.' Jesus said, in effect, this isn't cannibalism, this is spiritual. Eating the flesh is a spiritual principle. The Son of man is a title for the Lord Jesus Christ in the hypostatic union.

"where he was before?" — this is imperfect tense which means where He kept on being forever in the past. He was God when He was there before, He goes back as the God man.

Verse 63 — Here is the last call to these people. "I am not talking about cannibalism. It is not a literal eating of the flesh, it is not a literal drinking of the blood.," says Jesus.

"It keeps on being the spiritual" — in other words, eating the flesh and drinking the blood keeps on being a spiritual issue; "that qickeneth; the flesh provideth nothing" — literal physical food cannot provide it. This is not literal flesh, this is a spiritual issue.

"The words that I have spoken unto you" — perfect tense here [I spoke them in the past with results that will go on forever]; "they are spiritual" — He makes it perfectly clear; "they are doctrine [truth]."

Verse 64 — "But" sets up the contrast, this is the end of the line. He has made the issue clear for the last time; "there are" — present active indicative, there keep on being; "some of you [from among you] that believe not " — literally, keep on not believing. Every time He makes the issue clear they say no.

"For Jesus knew from the beginning [in eternity past] who they were that believed not, and who should betray him." Why does He make a distinction? Those who keep n saying no in the crowd are going to withdraw, they will depart from Him. But there is one who will not depart who will betray Him and that one is Judas Iscariot. He will hang around. What Jesus said was so strong that it drove out those who rejected Him, with one exception. And Jesus is not taken in by Judas even though he hangs around.

Verse 65 — "And he said" is imperfect linear aktionsart and it should be translated "And he had said" in verse 44.

"Therefore I say unto you that no man can come to unto me, except it were given unto him." Notice a contrast here. In verse 44 when Jesus said this the first time we have the verb e)lkuw — "unless someone draw him." But here we have didomi, "unless it is given him." The change is to show the principle that Jesus provides everything necessary and only negative volition actually stands in the way. Translation: "And he had said, Because of this I said unto you [in the past] that no one can come unto me, except it were given unto him." This means that the Father had a plan, He provided salvation for positive volition. Those who are on negative volition will not accept the gift, and therefore while everything is provided it is their own free will that causes them to reject. The words "except it were given" is in the perfect tense. Salvation was provided in eternity past with the result that it is available to all now. It is in the passive voice: salvation is received under grace. Subjunctive mood: salvation is conditional depending on whether you go on positive or negative signals.

"of my Father" is really "from my Father" in the Greek.

Verse 66 — "From that time" is not what the Greek says — e)k toutou, should be translated "from this [message]."

"went back" — but they didn't go back at all, they took off! This is a)perxomai [a)p = ultimate source; erxomai = to go]. To go from the ultimate source of one's self is to go away. The word means to depart.

"and walked with him no more [no longer, literally]" — they stopped walking with Him, in other words. "With" is the preposition of association. They stopped their association with Him entirely.

Verse 67 — Now they have left, they have all walked out. There are twelve men standing there. The crowd was at least 5000+. They have rejected Him and walked out.

"Will ye also go away?"

Verse 68 — "Then Simon Peter answered" is an aorist passive participle and should be "Simon Peter had an answer."

"Lord" — he recognises that Jesus Christ is God [kurioj = deity]; "to whom" — the word 'to' is the preposition proj plus the accusative and it should be "face to face with whom." Face to face means personal relationship. Where else can we get salvation, is what he is saying.

"shall we go" — this is, again, a)perxomai which means to depart; "you keep on having the words of eternal life." In other words, those people are going out to nothing. Peter is saying, 'I am staying for the saviour, I am staying for something.'

Verse 69 — "And we believe" is literally, "We have believed." This is a perfect tense, perfect active indicative. Active voice: Peter is speaking for himself and all of them. We have believed in the past with the result that we keep on being saved.

"and are sure" — again the perfect tense and is translated "and are confident." This is the verb ginwskw which means to know. In the perfect tense it means we have known in the past with the result that we have confidence now.

Verse 70 — Jesus says, Peter you are right but there is one exception: "one of you keeps on being a devil." Devil possessed.

Verse 71 — "He kept on speaking of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon; for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve." When all this is clarified Jesus and the disciples depart from Capernaum. His ministry is finished in the northern part of the kingdom for a while.

Chapter 7

There is an elapse of six months between chapters six and seven. We are filled in with regard to this elapse from two of the synoptic Gospels, Matthew and Mark. In John 6 we had a chapter which took place around the Passover – verse 4. John 7:2 tells us we now go to the time of the feast of the Tabernacles. This is an elapse of six months during which the Lord Jesus Christ left the synagogue at Capernaum and went up the Caesarea Philippi, a very desolate area. Now He is going to come back again to Galilee, and on His return we are going to have a rather interesting encounter with His four, at this time unsaved, half brothers.

In verses 1-13 we have the background.

Verses 14-32, the revelation of the Son of God.

Verses 33-39, the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

Verses 40-52, the audience reaction.

Basically, the messages which Jesus gave in chapter six were given at the synagogue at Capernaum. The ones we have in this passage were given in the temple during the feast of Tabernacles.

Verse 1 – the antagonism of the Jews. "After these things" gives us a phrase which indicates an elapse of time, six months in which Jesus avoided both Galilee and Judea. He went up into the north, Caesarea Philippi which was the tetrarchy of Philip, one of the sons of Herod the Great. In Judea the Lord Jesus Christ was rejected. In Samaria He has success. Now He has been out of Galilee for six months and is now returning.

"Jesus [always the title of His humanity] walked" – imperfect linear aktionsart, which means He moved about in Galilee; "for he would not walk in Jewry." "Jewry" is an obsolete word. It is a word for the Jews, plus a suffix; an anachronistic suffix which means absolutely nothing. The word in the Greek is Judea. The words "would not" is an expression of His human volition – qelw, imperfect linear aktionsart. It means to will or desire with a purpose or design behind it. It was His purpose based on is observation of the situation but it was not time for Him to return as yet to Judea. He did not desire to walk in Judea. He was rejected in Judea in John 5; He was rejected in Galilee in John 5.

"the Jews" refers to religious leaders; "sought" -- kept on seeking, imperfect linear aktionsart. They were constantly looking for Him.

"to kill" -- the word for "kill" a)pokteinw [a)po = ultimate source; kteinw = destroy]. They wanted to destroy from the ultimate source of self. That is religion's attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? John 4:1, mental attitude sins. Religion always is involved with mental attitude sins. The religious leaders were jealous of the Lord Jesus Christ. The pattern of the Jewish mental attitude is expressed in Acts 13:45. The religious Jews were antagonistic and full of hatred because first of all they were jealous. Jealousy spawns a lot of different mental attitude sins. It is a basic one which leads to others.

Man's true spiritual condition is always revealed by his mental attitude toward Jesus Christ. The unbeliever's mental attitude is rejection or unbelief. The carnal believer has the attitude of indifference or apathy. The spiritual believer has the attitude of love – RMA, and the mature believer has not only love but rapport and occupation with Christ. So the mentality is always indicative of one's spiritual condition. In other words, it isn't how you act on the outside, it is what you think on the inside. The spirituality index is always based on what you are thinking.

Verse 2 – the time of this passage. "The Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand." It was about to begin when Jesus had this conversation with His brothers. The Levitical feasts are taught in Leviticus chapter 23, they are a part of Codex #2 of the Mosaic law. Basically, under the doctrine of the Levitical feasts we have three concepts. First of all we have the feast which depicts the first advent of Christ. Secondly we have the gap, and then we have the feasts which are identified with the Second Advent. There are four feasts which are identified with the first coming of Christ: a) The Passover, which deals with the work of Christ on the cross. The reason it comes first is because the cross must always come before the crown. There is no eternal kingdom apart from the work of Christ on the cross. The second feast was the feast of unleavened bread which began immediately at the end of the Passover. It was one of the two feasts that lasted a week. It is a picture of the believer's fellowship with God in time. The third feast occurred in the middle of the week of unleavened bread – the feast of the firstfruits, which depicts the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It always occurred on Sunday; Jesus Christ rose again from the dead on Sunday, on the day of the firstfruits. The fourth is the feast of Pentecost, and Pentecost (which simply means 50 days) is fifty days after the firstfruits, and this always occurred on Sunday. The purpose of the feast of Pentecost was a warning to the Jews that the fifth cycle of discipline will come very shortly. These four feasts are always connected with the first advent of Jesus Christ. Between them we have the gap.

Under the concept of the Gap, there was no feast between roughly the end of May (or, rarely, the first week of June) and the first of October – approximately six months. This represents the time of the fifth cycle of discipline, the time when the Jews are dispersed and no longer are recognised as a nation. During this time the Church replaces Israel. This is why the Church began on the day of Pentecost. Cursing is turned to blessing for the Jews during the period of the gap by means of salvation. When a Jew accepts Christ as saviour during the Church Age he is entered into union with Christ, becomes a member of the body of Christ, and cursing is turned to blessing.

The last three feasts are connected with the Second Advent. The first of these was the feast of the trumpets. The trumpet was used for assembly and the feast of the trumpets means the end of the fifth cycle of discipline. When Jesus Christ returns to the earth the fifth cycle of discipline will be completed. The next is the feast of atonement. It indicates that only born-again Jews go into the Millennium and into the eternal kingdom. The seventh and last feast is the feast of the tabernacles which depicts the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

Now we are dealing with the feast of the tabernacles. The last chapter, chapter six, had as its background the feast of the Passover. It was observed in Capernaum. So we have at least a six-month elapse of time between the two chapters.

In verses 3-9 we have an interesting conversation between the Lord Jesus Christ and His four half brothers. Matthew 13:55 gives us the names of these brothers.

Verse 3 – "His brethren therefore said unto him." They have some sarcastic advice to give Him as they have not personally received Him as saviour.

"Depart hence" – apparently the brothers were on their way down south to the feast of tabernacles which was about to occur. The actual word here is not "depart." The Greek word is metabainw [bainw = to go; meta = from place to place]. So they are suggesting that He go from place Galilee with them down to place Judah and to Jerusalem for the feast of the tabernacles. This is an aorist active imperative. "Hence" is an adverb which means "from this place."

"and go" – the word for "go" is to go down to Jerusalem. No question as to which direction; "that" introduces a purpose clause, and this is a very sarcastic purpose clause.

"thy disciples" is a reference to believers in Judea. These believers in Judea have already been cited in John 2:23; 4:1. The half brothers heard six months ago about the defection of the disciples in Galilee – John 6:66, and they therefore assume that Jesus has no more disciples in Galilee except the twelve, and they suggest that He go down to Jerusalem and lose those. This is very sarcastic.

"may see thy works" – in other words, Look, there were 5000 plus who saw your works in Galilee, and where are they now? They scattered; they left you. "May see" is future tense. They doubt if any miracles can be performed so they put it in the future.

"thou doest" – keep on doing, present linear aktionsart. Sarcasm.

Verse 4 – the expression of doubt. "For no man doeth anything in secret." This is, again, sarcasm. They are judging Jesus by their own pitiful standards.

"doeth" – keeps on doing; "anything in secret." What they are saying is this. "If we could perform miracles as you claim you have we would let the whole world know about it." They are judging Jesus by their own standards, by their won character. They are superimposing upon the Lord Jesus their own weaknesses and their own

failures.

"any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly." This is what they would do, seek to be known openly. "To be known" is a present active infinitive, it is linear aktionsart, sand it expresses exactly what they would do. It is an idiom which means they would be in the public eye. So they ascribe to the Lord Jesus their own vanity of mind. If the situation had been reversed they would have been down in Jerusalem right then and there. They would have spent the last six months in Jerusalem performing miracles, making a public display of power. This is their own approbation and power lust being expressed.

Principles

1. Beware of judging people by your own actions and thoughts. Only God has the right to judge and only the Word of God has the right to condemn.

2. Unless God promotes you there is no promotion. God did not promote those four half-brothers. Joshua 3:7; 1Peter er 5:5,6.

"If" – 1st class condition of sarcasm; "thou do these things [this is sarcasm, 'and we must assume that you do,' is the way it is translated] shew thyself [manifest thyself] to the world" – aorist imperative. Obviously we can see what they want. If He becomes famous they would like to get a finger in the pot! They don't care about His message. They have rejected His message; they will keep on rejecting His message; they will not accept the fact that He is the God-Man, even though they grew up with Him and never saw a sin or a failure of any kind.

Verse 5 – the explanation of their sarcasm. "For neither did his brethren believe in him." The Greek says, "For not even were his brothers believing in him." "Believe" is imperfect active indicative and the imperfect tense means habitual rejection. Out of these brothers we only have a record of two who were eventually saved – James, who received Christ as saviour after the resurrection, Acts 1:14; 1Corinthians 15:7; James 1:1. He became a leader of the Jerusalem church, Acts 12:17, etc.; Jude was also saved and wrote the book of Jude.

Verses 6-9, Jesus answers His brothers.

Verse 6 – "My time is not yet come." He is going to repeat this phrase once again. The first time He says this He is referring to the Second Advent. They want Jesus to be glorified, which puts Him into the Second Advent. Glory characterises the Second Advent. The first advent will be characterised by humiliation. The brothers want Him to go down and show Himself for what He really is. At the Second Advent Jesus comes to Jerusalem, and they had given Him the command, "God to Jerusalem and show your glory." That is exactly what He will do at the Second Advent. "My time" is a reference to the Second Advent this time. The word karo is an epoch, so He uses "time" here as an epoch or a period, time as a change of period – Second Advent. He would receive the crown at the Second Advent. So Jesus is saying that the cross must come before the crown. The time for my coronation is not here, this is the time for my humiliation. If Jesus had come first for His glory there could be no kingdom of the regenerate. The citizens of God's eternal kingdom must have eternal life. The only way they can have eternal life is for Jesus Christ to go to the cross. Literally this says, "My time is not yet present" – present active indicative of pareimi [e)imi = to be; par = beside] which comes to mean to be present. The time for the Second Advent is not now. He cannot fulfil the tabernacles until first of all He fulfils the Passover.

"your time is always ready" – they are going to down to observe the feast of tabernacles but it won't mean anything to them because they are not believers. Ritual without reality is meaningless. The word "ready" does not mean ready here. The Greek word e)toimoj means prepared – "your time is always prepared." The only way to be prepared for the eternal kingdom of God is to believe in Christ as saviour. Your time is now; this is the opportunity to be prepared for that glory when it comes. When the feast of tabernacles is fulfilled there is only one way to be prepared. These men are looking at their own half brother who is the only preparation for salvation and eternity.

Verse 7 – "The world" – kosmoj, which originally meant ideas. Since kosmoj is used for the world it is Satan's world (Satan is the ruler of the world), so ideas that come from Satan represents the whole human viewpoint, the whole anti-biblical view of life. The kosmoj, a system of ideas, hates Jesus Christ. This is because Satan is the ruler of the kosmoj, according to Luke 4:5-7; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Ephesians 2:2; 2Corinthians 4:4, etc. The word "hate" is present linear aktionsart, keeps on hating, always will hate.

"cannot hate you" – this indicates, once again, their unbelieving state. While they are closely associated with Jesus Christ by birth, nevertheless the kosmoj cannot – present active indicative of dunamai, which means to be able, plus the negative: "keeps on being not able" – "to hate you [brothers, plural]." The kosmoj is not capable of hating you because you are a part of the kosmoj, is the idea here. Therefore, when these four brothers advise Jesus Christ to go down openly and expose Himself, give them a great burst of miracles and reveal His glory they are giving Him exactly the same advise that Satan gave Him when he said, "If you will worship me I will give you the kingdoms of the world." In other words, it is possible for loved ones and friends to give you advice which is exactly what Satan would say. They have taken the words right out of Satan's mouth. So Jesus makes it clear and tells them they think like the kosmoj, they are a part of the kosmoj, they are unbelievers. As unbelievers you can only give the wrong advice.

Notice that Jesus does not meet sarcasm with sarcasm. While they have been sarcastic He simply sticks with the facts, ignoring their sarcasm.

"but me – conjunction of contrast; "it keeps on hating" – present active indicative, linear aktionsart. Religion, legalism always hates grace; Satan always hates Jesus Christ.

Jesus challenges human viewpoint every time He speaks, and he uses the words, "because I testify concerning it." The word for testify simply means to expose human thinking in all of its fallacies. Brilliant men do not like to have their views chopped down by divine viewpoint. The Pharisees were all brilliant, they some tremendous systems; they were all Satanic. Jesus has constantly bucked the tiger as far as religion is concerned. Grace keeps on testifying. And what has He hit? Human good! What does He testify to? To their works, not sins.

"the works thereof are evil" – Jesus made the issue between divine and human good. The word for "evil" is ponhroj, and while it means evil it also means useless, worthless, something that is spoiled [rotten, i.e. not eternal]. In other words, the human viewpoint of life is worthless and never solves anything. It cannot solve man's problems. If it cannot solve his basic problems it cannot solve his collective problems. Human good will not solve man's problems.

Verse 8 – "Go ye up to this feast." In other words, take your own advice.

"I go not up yet" – He is going, but He is not going under their advice or under their system. He is not going to present Himself as King in the sense of showing His glory, He is going up there to present Himself as saviour because the cross must come before the crown.

"for my time is not yet fulfilled" – this is a different phrase from verse 6. This time "my time" refers to the cross. "Fulfilled" is in the perfect tense, fulfilled in the past with results that go one forever – the cross. If He goes up with His brothers He will be ambushed and killed. He is going to go up after the feast starts. They will relax their vigilance. Once He gets into the city He is safe, they will not assassinate Him in the city because it can be directly attributed to them and they would be discredited. "My time has not yet been fulfilled" means that His death is not to be fulfilled yet, other things have to be accomplished. So He refuses the bad advice of His brothers to go openly to the feast. Such a suggestion would have led to attempts upon His life. He has to fulfil the plan of the Father. The plan of the Father means that He must give some more messages in Jerusalem. During the feast of the tabernacles He will give two messages which are designed to reveal God.

Verse 9 – they went on to Jerusalem but He remained behind and would come late to the feast of the tabernacles.

Verse 10 – "But when his brethren were gone up." They have already departed to go to the feast.

"not openly, but as it were in secret" – this is to avoid the ambush, the assassins, the religious crowd who had posted people on all the roads.

Verses 11-13 – in the meantime in Jerusalem. During the first four days of the feast Jesus is not there.

Verse 11 – "The Jews" refers to the Jewish leaders; "sought him" – kept on seeking Him, imperfect linear aktionsart. They were seeking Him to take His life.

"Where is he?" They pretended to be searching for Him to ask questions. They were searching for Him to kill Him. So one of the things that was happening in the first part of the feast was a very intensive search to seek out and to slay the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 12 – the crowd is very much divided in their opinion. "And there was much murmuring" – imperfect linear aktionsart, there kept on being much murmuring, a lot of talk, a lot of conversation. Two opinions:

"for some said" – these are believers; "he is good" – the word 'man' does not occur in the original. "He is" – present linear aktionsart of e)imi, He always will be. The word "good" is a)gaqoj, good of intrinsic value. In other words, this is their way of saying that they accept Him as the ultimate good, divine good. So we have some who are believers and they stand up for the Lord. They don't call Him a man, they say He is absolute good.

Then we have the reaction group: "others [unbelievers] said, No." They contradicted this.

"but he deceiveth [keeps on deceiving] the people" – so we have a divided opinion among the people, the religious people are seeking to kill Him.

Verse 13 – a principle: Religion destroys human freedom. Remember that Christianity is not a religion. When religion becomes the state, you've had it.

"no man spoke openly of him" – many in the crowd were for Jesus Christ but they would not speak openly about Him because of fear. The words "for fear" is dia plus the accusative and it means "because of." Because of fear of the religious leaders.

In verses 14-32 we have the first of two messages given in the temple during the feast

of the tabernacles. The first message deals with the revelation of Jesus

Christ as God. The second one deals with the revelation of the Holy Spirit as God. In verses 14-16, as in all messages, Jesus communicated doctrine. Everyone

who listened to Him, whether they were believers or unbelievers, regardless of their status in

life, recognised that when Jesus Christ spoke it was doctrine. It was

divine viewpoint categorically presented.

"Now about the middle of the feast [of the tabernacles]" – it had been going for three

or four days, so this is either Wednesday or Thursday when Jesus Christ arrives at the temple. He is able to arrive without being ambushed or assassinated due to the fact that once

the feast begins all of the assassin bands are pulled off the main highways, which indicated

that they were very religious.

"went up" means to make a journey from Galilee down to Jerusalem. He went up

directly to the temple when he arrived – aorist tense, in a point of time; "and taught" –

imperfect linear aktionsart, He kept on teaching. The word for teaching here is teaching in a

public assembly, standing before a lot of people and communicating doctrine. The very word

itself, didaskw, indicates this principle. The duplication of a word in the present tense

always has a special concept in the Greek. Usually, a duplication of a word like this indicates

the perfect tense. But there are certain words, such as the verb to give and the verb to keep,

which both have a duplication of a letter in the front of the word in two words. They usually

indicate some kind of s dynamic, powerful thing. They indicate that there is thought, and then

behind the thought there is an action. In the verb to give, didomi, which we have so many

times throughout the New Testament, there is the thought behind the action. The thought is

love – "God so loved the world that he gave …" Here, behind the word "teach" is thought. In

this case the thought is doctrine categorically residing in the human spirit of Jesus Christ and

now communicated to the crowd. So generally speaking the word didaskw is recognised as

not meaning to teach but to teach a public assembly, to communicate information on a

categorical basis to a large number of people. The imperfect tense of didaskw in this verse

means that He continued teaching for quite a while.

Verse 15 – the amazement of the well-educated religious leaders, the Pharisees, the

scribes, and the chief priests.

"marvelled" – qaumazw doesn't means to marvel so much as to be absolutely,

totally amazed. These people wanted to kill Jesus but right now they couldn't. Why? The

power of the Word of God. The issue is the Word of God; He sticks with doctrine. Imperfect

tense: they kept on being amazed all the time He taught.

"How knoweth" – the word "to know" is the word of absolute knowledge, which

means a total and thorough grasp. It is used for doctrine which resides in the soul. It is the

word for inherent knowledge – o)ida. Perfect tense used as a present tense for inherent

knowledge, knowledge in the soul.

"this man letters" – letters is an idiom for a formal education. How does this man

speak as though He had a better education than any of us?

"having never learned" – He had not been in the formal theological system of

education. Yet He astounds the greatest educated minds of the day.

Verse 16 – the word "answered" means He had an answer, a)pokrinomai [a)po = preposition of ultimate source; krinomai = to discern]. The word meant

originally to discern from the ultimate source of one's self. Eventually it came to mean to

come back with an answer from this discernment. It is in the passive voice here, which means Jesus had an answer. He had an answer from doctrine in His frontal lobe; He had an answer because He knew the Word in the humanity of His human spirit.

"My doctrine" – the categorical teaching of the divine viewpoint; "is not mine" – I am

not going to take credit for these things. In other words, when it says that Jesus grew in

wisdom this means that the humanity of Christ learned doctrine.

"is not mine" – doctrine belongs to the Father. Jesus is speaking from His humanity.

Doctrine is also the mind of Christ – 1Corinthians 2:16. Doctrine is also the voice of the

Spirit – Hebrews 3:6,7.

"but his that sent me" – aorist active participle. The first advent is a part of the plan of

God the Father. Doctrine is the divine plan stated in human language.

Verse 17 – the problem of heathenism. What about the people who have never heard?

Jesus is standing in the temple which speaks of Him. This is during the feast of tabernacles

which represents the Millennium. In the Millennium there are going to be all kinds of people.

If God has a perfect plan it must be fair to every person who has ever lived. It is important to

understand here that Jesus said that the doctrine comes from the Father. Jesus is speaking from

His humanity and He is saying that the design is perfect and the designer is perfect; the planner

is perfect the plan is perfect.

Here is the second great challenge to the plan. The first great challenge is legalism, or

man trying to get his oar in. Man trying to do something to get into the plan of God. The

second greatest challenge to the plan of God is, Is God fair? This is what man says in his

stupidity. But you have to go back to a principle: God is perfect; His plan is perfect. Now, if

His plan is perfect then everyone gets a fair shake.

"If" introduces a 3rd class condition, which recognises the existence of human volition.

In any section of the world where people exist, every single person who has ever lived since

the beginning of man's history of failure has had a fair shake. Every single one has had equal

chance of salvation.

"any man" – "man" is used generically and refers to male and female both. The Greek

word is tij and it means "anyone."

"will" – present active subjunctive of the verb qelw, a word which has various

meanings. Basically, it is used in desire or the use of volition from the emotions.

Here qelw means to will or desire on the basis of awareness of a design or a plan. In other

words, a plan is presented and it is then accepted or rejected. The present tense means that at

the point of God-consciousness this person went on positive signals, and linear aktionsart

means that when you go positive at the point of God-consciousness you are periodically going

to have thoughts about God until it is all clarified by gospel hearing. The active voice indicates

that you make your own decision. Everyone has to make their own decision, no one can make

it for someone else. The subjunctive mood is potential – you have free will.

"[to] do" – present active infinitive, poiew. Present tense: a desire to get with this

plan. Active voice: you desire it – free will. Infinitive: it is your purpose to get with this plan.

You need some information.

"his will" – qelhma. This is a noun which indicates two things: a) purpose; b) design.

This takes us into the whole plan of God for the salvation of the human race.

"he shall know" has to do with gospel hearing. To do His will is God-consciousness,

positive signals. This is a future middle indicative of the verb ginwskw which means to

know from experience, to know from the experience of hearing in this case. If goes on positive

signals at the point of God-consciousness, if he wills to know, "he shall know." That means he

will be provided gospel information and he will express his positive signals then by faith in

Jesus Christ.

"the doctrine" is literally "concerning the doctrine." He will get pertinent information.

It is future tense because it is future from positive volition at God-consciousness, which comes

first. The middle voice: the subject is benefited by the action of the verb. We are benefited by

going on positive signals at the point of God-consciousness because we will receive gospel

information, and as a result of receiving gospel information, positive signals expressed in a

non-meritorious manner resulting in eternal salvation. This is maximum benefit. The indicative

mood is the reality of gospel hearing after positive volition at the point of God-consciousness.

The doctrine has to do with two categories: soteriology and Christology.

"of God" is literally, "from God," from the source of God the Father. This takes us

back to the fact that the Father is the designer, the planner.

"or whether I speak from the ultimate source of myself" – when He says "from God"

he uses the word e)k, ordinary source, but when He said "from myself"

Jesus says "this is not from the ultimate source of myself" – a)po, preposition of ultimate

source. In other words, pride is excluded. There are no mental attitude sins in

giving a straight message. Bible doctrine must be taught from a relaxed mental attitude, the

relaxed mental attitude comes from knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of

the Spirit. The Pharisees resent all of this, so Jesus has to clarify His own motivation. Jesus

says He is only communicating doctrine as He has learned it.

Verse 18 – the principle of motivation. "He that speaketh of himself" – a)po again, ultimate source. That is, communicating one's own ideas rather than the plan of God. Jesus in His humanity is simply communicating what He has learned from God – "He grew in wisdom." The word for speaking here is lalew and it means to communicate with words so that they make sense.

"seeketh" – the word which means to keep on seeking one's own approbation; "keeps on seeking his own glory." This glory is developed in two ways: a) In the old sin nature which

He doesn't have, from the lust pattern. Primarily approbation lust followed by power lust. This is the greatest enemy of the believer, and of mankind.

"but" introduces a conjunction of contrast. Here is a contrast between human and divine good, here is the contrast between legalism and grace, here is the difference between man's plan and God's plan.

"he that seeketh [keeps on seeking]" – present active participle, linear aktionsart. The verb is zetew. There is another word for seeking – e)uriskw. Both of these words mean to seek. E)uriskw means to seek something you have lost, so it is never used in this passage. Wherever you find the word to seek in this passage, whether it is a negative or a positive statement, it always means exactly the same thing: to seek for and find something, to seek for something that you never had but through knowledge of doctrine you acquire it. Doctrine teaches doctrine.

"his glory" – the plan of the Father. It is revealed in the Word; it is doctrine; it is the category; it is the detail in the category; it is the plan of God and the grace of God. Remember that glory generally refers to the perfect character of God. Since God is perfect His plan is perfect. Here glory refers to the perfect plan or operation grace.

"of him that sent him" – in other words, the Father sent Jesus Christ. He is seeking the glory of God the Father.

"the same" – any individual who is oriented to the grace of God and the plan of God; "is true" – a)lhqhj means that He complies perfectly with the plan. The plan is declared in terms of doctrine, so "is true" means that he complies perfectly with doctrine and the standard of doctrine.

"and no unrighteousness is in him" – Jesus is speaking of Himself, He is simply following the plan of God. He is following doctrine; He is executing doctrine.

Verse 19 – the judgement of the Lord Jesus Christ. As soon as Jesus introduces Moses He introduces their favourite subject, first of all as a person and secondly as the writer of the first five books of the Bible, and also the one who received from God the Mosaic law. Moses is unique because he had the office of the prophet and the gift of prophecy.

"While Moses gave you the law, none of you keep the law." This is quite a blow to the religious leaders who pride themselves on the fact that they are keeping the law in a very unusual way. Actually, Christ turns the tables on the Jews because Jesus has been accused by the religious hierarchy of not keeping the law. He healed a man on the Sabbath – John chapter 5. This started the whole problem. So it is the Jewish religious leaders who have broken the Sabbath and not the Lord Jesus Christ. However, they are going to try to show that He did and that He should be punished by death; in fact, they are using it as an excuse. But it is not working out that way very well because Jesus is now going to turn the tables on them. The Jews have obviously violated the Decalogue which says, "Thou shalt not kill." They are trying to kill the Lord Jesus Christ. The religious leaders have imposed on Jesus their own sins and their own motivations; they accuse Him of breaking the law while they actually violate the law themselves. Jesus points this out when He says, "Why are you going about trying to kill me?" This is in violation of one of the commandments.

Verse 20 – the reaction of the crowd is immediate. "Thou hast a demon: who goeth about to kill thee?" This is something that the hierarchy had circulated. They anticipated the fact that they would be accused of murder so they pulled in certain people in the crowd and said, "When He accuses us of murder then you simply take this piece of theology and use it on Him – He is demon possessed." This was the public attitude of the Pharisees as declared in Matthew chapter twelve. It is called blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Actually, it is not blasphemy against the Spirit as we would understand it today but it is rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have rejected Jesus Christ as saviour, they must find some way in which they can explain the miracles, the eloquence, and everything connected with His person. So they use the fact of demon possession, which is a true Bible doctrine, and they distort it and relate it to the Lord Jesus Christ. They knew that demons had power and understood in part the angelic conflict. They knew that demons were capable of all sorts of miraculous activity and having understood all of these things they were now ascribing them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was empowered by the Holy Spirit and they ascribe the ministry of the Spirit in His life to demons. This is indicative of their rejection.

In verses 21-24 Jesus goes back to the Sabbath miracle which He performed and He defends it being performed on the Sabbath. Up to this point the Sanhedrin is using the miracle of healing on the Sabbath as the basis for getting the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 21 – "I have done one work, and you all are amazed." When He refers to the one work He is referring to what happened in John 5:16. This violated a pet taboo of the Pharisees. To carry a bed on the Sabbath was punishable by death and yet Jesus challenged them to touch this man whom He had healed. Of course, they did not because it had some fantastic and difficult implications.

"you all are amazed" – keep on being amazed. It was still the primary topic of conversation in Jerusalem even though it had occurred 18 months ago. Now Jesus is reading their minds. And having heard their conversation and knowing the trend in the Sanhedrin which was meeting at that very moment to find some way to kill Him, Jesus now cites a parallel situation. They claim that Jesus has broken the Sabbath. The Sabbath is taught in the Mosaic law, so Jesus takes something which they revere, also connected with the law. The religious leaders have a favourite activity called circumcision, a ritual which is connected with the law. They will practice circumcision on the Sabbath or any other day because the law demands that they do so. The whole principle of circumcision as a ritual is to show the relationship of the Jews to the Mosaic law. In showing this relationship a child had to be circumcised on the eight day after it was born. The problem is that if a child is born on Saturday, the Sabbath, it means that the eighth day will be the next Sabbath. That means that if they are going to obey the law they must circumcise the child on the eighth day and no other day. Jesus is going to ask, "What is the difference between an operation which is a religious ritual on the Sabbath and healing a man?" What is the difference between that an healing a man who has never had the use of his limbs, and have him walk up to the temple to fulfil the Mosaic law as far as his responsibilities after he has been healed? So Jesus is going to cite a parallel to stop them and now they are going to have to find a new way to get rid of Him, because He cut them off at the pass with this particular type of logic. He went right back to the same Mosaic law and showed how the Jews were violating the law constantly under their interpretation. He took their interpretation and used it with regard to circumcision and this immediately put them on the spot; they are violating their own law. They didn't like this but they couldn't get around the logic of it. This is found in verses 22-24.

Verse 22 – Circumcision is demanded by the Mosaic law in Leviticus chapter twelve. However, it is much earlier than that, it goes all the way back to Genesis 17:12 and 21:4. In the time of our Lord it had become simply a ritual.

Verse 23 – Jesus makes the analogy. "If" – 1st class condition, if and it is true – "a man on the Sabbath days receive circumcision." He would receive it on the Sabbath day because he was born on Saturday; he had to be circumcised on the eighth day (Genesis 17) which was the Sabbath.

"are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day?" Jesus is saying that it is not only required by the law but from the standpoint of medicine the eighth day is the only day for it. That is why it is on the eight day. They do it to protect the child. Jesus did something on the Sabbath. He healed a man on the Sabbath. What wrong with Jesus healing a man on Saturday because there is no difference between what He did on Saturday and what they did on Saturday. They seek to kill Jesus for what He did on Saturday and yet Jesus is saying this is no different from their own modus operandi.

"angry" – xolaw doesn't really mean angry. It comes from xolh which means to be bitter. It is the Greek word for gall. So this word refers to a mental attitude bitterness. They are bitter toward the Lord. Bitterness immediately destroys the perspective of anyone in society who is solid or stable and who is a pillar of society. When a person becomes bitter in their mental attitude there is a complete change in the behaviour pattern of the individual based on the fact that they lose orientation to the grace of God. Bitterness is designed to hurt someone else but it always has a boomerang, it always comes back and hurts the person involved.

Notice what happened to these religious leaders. First of all, they resented the miracle that the Lord performed on the Sabbath in John 5. This resentment led to rejection of the human freedom and the privacy of the Lord: by means of jealousy which is a subtle type of intrusion because it is not obvious, and then by bitterness. Jealousy always becomes bitterness. Bitterness is really a mental attitude which results from jealousy.

Verse 24 – He warns them; He tells them what they are doing. "Judge not." This is a present active imperative and it means, "stop judging."

"according to appearance" – here is an amplification. The word "according to" is the preposition of norm of standard, kata. "Judge not according to appearance." The word for "appearance" is o)yij and it means external appearance. It means to judge by what you see on the outside without knowing any of the inner facts.

"but judge righteous judgments" – this is addressed to the religious leaders and they are guilty of legalism and misjudging. This actually means, "judge equitable judgments." Equitable judgment demands knowledge of doctrine, which is the absolute criterion, and secondly, knowing all the facts in an individual case. So Jesus is saying stay out of the privacy of individuals, even though you are a ruler in the land you do not have the right to violate the privacy of a person. And secondly, when you sit as a court in the Sanhedrin you must know all the facts before you can come to any conclusion. Jesus knew all the facts when He healed the impotent man.

Legalism always criticises and seeks to destroy grace. The work of Jesus Christ was an act of grace, and act of divine good. Legalism despises divine good and it despises grace. Hence, the inevitable and continuous battle between legalism and grace. Judging or retaliation is the sin f legalism and therefore receives very heavy discipline.

Verses 25-27 – a second reaction of the people.

Verse 25 -- "Then said some of them from Jerusalem" – citizens who live in Jerusalem in contrast to people who had come from all over the world for the feast of the tabernacles; "Is not this he whom they seek to kill?" They are utterly astounded; they all know that for eighteen months the Sanhedrin was out to get the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 26 – "But, lo, he speaks with confidence and courage, and they say nothing unto him." The reason they say nothing is because the logic of the Lord Jesus has shut them up.

"Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ?" This is a little bit of sarcasm and a little bit of humour. In other words, "Maybe they're being quiet because they really know He is the Messiah, but they are not telling us." The people still have a sense of humour even though they are ruled by religious people.

Verse 27 – "Howbeit we know this man whence he is." Here are people who are now expressing the negative volition.

"but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is." This is the smart-alec reactor. This is a person who has a little knowledge and has not related it dispensationally or any other way. They "know" a little bit; they assume it is everything. This is always the problem when you get someone who has a little knowledge plus a lot of pride.

"when Christ cometh" refers to His second advent' "whence he is [he comes]." He is going to come suddenly. This is an idiom for coming suddenly and without warning. But they are talking about the second advent and this is the first advent. They are mixed up. Jesus isn't doing what He should be doing on the second advent because He is doing what He should be doing on the first advent, so obviously they are going to be confused.

Verse 28 – no one is ever going to understand God until He comes the first time. Everything in the Old Testament is a shadow pointing to the reality and it is the cross where people learn about God.

"Then cried Jesus" – literally, He shouted. He raised His voice so everyone could hear Him; "as he taught [kept on teaching], saying [kept on saying], Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am." They know Him because He has presented His credit card. He has performed a miracle which constitutes His credit card as Messiah. He made it very clear to them that He is from the Father.

"and I am not come of [from] myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not" – the word "true" here is doctrine. Doctrine is the basis of revealing God the Father. They have rejected salvation and they have therefore rejected the saviour. The saviour is the revealer of the Father; therefore they do not know the Father. The rejection of Christ is the rejection of the Father and the rejection of His perfect plan.

Verse 29 – "Bit I know him" – He is not only the revealer of the Father but He knows Him inherently; "for I keep on being from him." This is from the immediate source of Him. The word for "from" here is para, the preposition of immediate source. This means that Jesus has come immediately from the Father, and para indicates the first advent in contrast to the second advent.

Verses 30-31, the reaction from the people.

Verse 30 – "Then they kept on seeking to seize him [violently] – imperfect linear aktionsart; "but no man laid hands [offered violence] on him – e)piballw. Ballw usually means to throw, but when put together with e)pi it means to throw over, to throw a blow, to punch, and it finally comes to mean violence. He was protected on this occasion.

"because his hour was not yet come" – the hour refers to the cross. He still has six months to go from the end of the feast of tabernacles and the next Passover. He will be crucified on the next Passover.

Verse 31 – "And many of the people believed on him." This is where we have a turn in the tide; we now have people accepting Him as saviour. The word for "believe" is an aorist active indicative of pisteuw. This means non-meritorious thinking. It is also a transitive verb in the aorist tense and it refers to the point of time of the cross. Note that Jesus didn't give an invitation, He simply gave them information.

"and said [kept on saying]" – after they believed they just kept saying this over and over.

"When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this one hath done?" In other words, they are no defending Him.

Verse 32 – this upset the Pharisees. "The Pharisees having heard" – aorist active participle, "that the people kept on murmuring things concerning him."

"and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to seize him" – the word for "officers" is u(phrethj and refers to the temple police. Between verse 32 and versed 45 they are going to listen to what Jesus said.

Verse 33 – the second message, given on the last day. Jesus Christ is now revealing the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age. Here is a prophecy with regard to the Church Age.

"Yet a little while" is an accusative of the extent of time. This covers the six-month period from the end of the feast of tabernacles to the next Passover; "I keep on being with you." When Jesus says "I am with you" He is saying that even though there are police out there trying to arrest me now I am going to be with you. And there isn't any way they can do anything about it. God has a plan and it is going to go on regardless of their antagonism, mental attitude sins, regardless of violence and all the things that man seeks to do. Regardless of the devil himself the plan of God will go right on.

"and I go" – the plan of God calls for His departure, u(pagw – depart suddenly. It refers to the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

"to him that sent me" – aorist active participle, indicating that the Father sent the Son and that the Father has a plan for the Son, and the human race through the Son.

Verse 34 – When this occurs: "Ye shall seek me [future tense] and shall not find me." But He leaves something behind that is really important – Bible doctrine. It is the Word of God that is so important to you today. Everything you know about Jesus Christ, your love for Jesus Christ, your capacity to love Jesus Christ, your rapport with Christ and your occupation with Christ depend upon your knowledge of Bible doctrine.

"and where I am, ye cannot come" – this is directed to the religious crowd. They are going to seek entrance on the basis of their human good, but human good is rejected by God, Isaiah 64:6.

Verse 35 – the reaction of the Jews to this comes before Jesus gets into the message which comes from the ascension. The ascension leads to the coming of the Spirit. "Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither shall he go that we shall not find him?" Now they are very sarcastic. They said there is one place they wouldn't even go to look for Him.

"will he go to the dispersed [Hellenistic Jews] among the Gentiles and keep on teaching the Gentiles?" This indicates the rejection and the blasphemy of religious people. Jesus is not going to fulfil this. But there is someone who is going to. This is a prophetic description of the ministry of the apostle Paul.

Verse 36 – this is simply a repetition and they are quoting Him. They understand His words but they have attached a false implication to the ascension.

Verse 37 – 39, this is the key to everything that is done on the last day of the feast. The feast of the tabernacles depicts the Millennium. There are two dispensations in which the Holy Spirit is given. The Holy Spirit is given to all believers in the Church Age. Since Jesus Christ is absent from the earth at the right hand of the Father the purpose of the indwelling Holy Spirit is to produce the character of Christ. So the filling of the Holy Spirit produces the character of Christ – love, joy, peace, etc. In the Millennium the Holy Spirit is also given. Joel 2:28,29 tells us that the filling of the Spirit in the Millennium is characterised by ecstatics. Ecstatics is not spirituality in the Church Age.

Verse 37 – a salvation invitation is issued because you cannot have the crown apart from the cross and because God's plan always begins at the cross.

"In the last day, the great day of the feast" – this is the eighth day of the feast of the tabernacles, a special Sabbath day. It was an activity which was different from the rest of the days put together.

"Jesus stood" – with the result that He kept on taking a stand; "and shouted, saying." Stood: perfect tense; shouted: aorist tense; saying: present tense. He is taking a stand for the whole plan of God. He shouted, aorist tense to indicate that He was heard throughout His message, and He kept on teaching, present linear aktionsart.

There is a great deal of relationship between verse 17 and verse 37. Verse 17: "If any man will do his will." Verse 37: "In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst." If any man will do his will; if any man thirst. Both of these passages begin with the word "if," and in both cases "if" is a 3rd class condition, recognising human volition. The word "any man" is literally, "any one," – tij, referring to the entire human race. If any person at the point of God-consciousness any person goes on positive signals, i.e. he desires relationship with God, God will provide pertinent information for that individual. This information will be provided in spite of geographical barriers, linguistic isolation, or any other situation that might exist. This is taught in John 7:17; Acts 17:27; Jeremiah 29:13; John 6:44.

Verse 17 – "If" introduces a 3rd class condition which recognises human volition at the point of God-consciousness. This means that the only people who are held accountable for salvation are people who have human volition in operation; "and many wills" – the word for "will" is a present active subjunctive of the verb qelw which means to desire, to will. Generally it means a desire which comes from the emotions but it may be a desire which faces a plan or a purpose or a design. When a person faces a plan, purpose or design and desires it this is the meaning of the word qelw. Present tense: the dramatic present which occurs when a person goes on positive volition at the point of God-consciousness, or even negative volition at the point of God-consciousness. The active voice: every individual must do this for himself. Subjunctive mood: positive volition at this point is potential.

"do" – present active infinitive, poiew. It is the purpose of God to save mankind and this purpose is only frustrated by man's volition. 2Peter er 3:9.

"his will" – qelhma connotes a will or purpose or design. This refers to the plan of God, phase one. The Father wills that every person believes in Jesus Christ, that every person receives Jesus Christ as his saviour.

"he shall know" – gospel hearing. This is future middle indicative of ginwskw which means to learn from experience – the experience of hearing it and therefore understanding it; the experience of seeing it and therefore understanding it. It has the concept of hearing the gospel. Notice the word that is not used for gospel hearing here – o)ida, which means inherent knowledge and gospel hearing is not inherent knowledge. O)ida could be used for God-consciousness but ginwskw is used for gospel hearing.

Since John 7:17 is looking at the problem from the point of God-consciousness the word ginwskw is a future middle indicative. The future tense means future from the point of God-consciousness. Future from the point of God-consciousness there will be gospel hearing. The middle voice means that the subject is benefited by the action of the verb. We are benefited by going on positive volition at the point God-consciousness. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that every person since time began has after God-consciousness positive signals had the opportunity to hear the gospel.

"of the doctrine" – peri: literally, "concerning the gospel. By doctrine here we are referring to that which saves, that which is necessary for salvation, often called the gospel. The gospel does not describe the content of this doctrine, it describes the impact of this doctrine. It is simply a descriptive concept, not for the content but the impact. Gospel means "good news."

"if it be from God" – e)k, simple source. Simple message. The message isn't complex until are you are saved.

"whether I speak" – present active indicative of lalew which means to communicate; "of myself" – a)po, preposition of ultimate source. When Jesus Christ presented the gospel He was not speaking from the ultimate source of Himself, He was communicating the plan of the Father.

Verse 37 – the same thing stated in slightly different language. "In the last day" – last day of the feast of the tabernacles. The custom was to take a golden pitcher out of the temple, usually carried by the high priest. They all dressed up and they had the orchestra and band and singers, and would come marching down through Jerusalem singing beautiful songs. Then they would stop at the pool of Siloam and have a big ceremony. During the course of the ceremony they would fill the golden pitcher with water from the pool of Siloam. They would they would go through the streets of Jerusalem, bands playing, all of the way to the temple steps where they would all break out in the passage from Isaiah 12:3, singing, "Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." They did this every day during the feast of the tabernacles, except on the eighth day. They didn't do it on the eighth day so Jesus did it for them in a very special way. "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." The rabbis used to say about this ceremony that you had never seen rejoicing until you had seen the golden pitcher march. They said it was the most beautiful and most exciting thing.

"that great day" – it was regarded as a very special Sabbath, and is so taught in Leviticus 23:36.

"Jesus stood up" – perfect tense. This is followed here by an aorist tense and then a present tense. For the perfect tense: "Jesus stood." In other words, He stood up at that moment in front of the whole crowd in the temple with results that would go on forever. There were thousands of people in that crowd who had gone on positive volition at the point of God-consciousness; now they were ready for gospel hearing. Now God was going to fulfil to them the gospel-hearing principle. They were about to hear the gospel. Not only would they hear the gospel but the gospel was about to be related to the next dispensation. Active voice: Jesus Himself stood up and no one else stood up. Now we have the aorist tense: "and cried." But the Greek word is krazw and it doesn't means to cry, it means to shout. He shouted so that everyone could hear Him. The aorist tense means that He shouted through the entire message. He shouted because the temple has a lot of rooms, and in one of those rooms the Sanhedrin is meeting – the scribes, the Pharisees, the chief priests. And they heard every word that he said. They were meeting to find some way to kill Him. During this message they sent the u(perhthj, the temple police, down to arrest Him. And they were arrested by His message but they did not arrest Him. Jesus shouted because He was communicating the gospel. The whole point of communicating the gospel is to be heard. We finally go to the present tense – "saying." He had something to say – legw, communicate something with content. Present linear aktionsart: He kept on communicating.

"If" – 3rd class condition, maybe yes, maybe no; recognition of human volition, divine institution #1.

"any man" – tij, same thing He said in verse 17, lit. "if any one [human race]." Since Christ died for everyone, everyone can be saved; "thirst" – present active subjunctive, diyaw. Jesus uses this because it is the one day they don't go through the ceremony. For seven days they have been going down to the pool of Siloam, they have been putting water in a golden pitcher, carrying the water back to the temple, singing and chanting. On this eighth day the ceremony is discontinued but it is still no their minds and so Jesus now uses the ceremony. "If any man thirst" – positive volition at the point of God-consciousness; "let him come" – positive volition at the point of gospel hearing.

"If any man thirst" – present active subjunctive; "let him come" – present active imperative. This is a syntactical answer to the question: If people go on positive signals at the point of God-consciousness will they go on positive signals at the point of gospel-hearing? And this says yes. The subjunctive mood recognises their volition, and recognising their volition as positive the imperative is a command which says, in effect, yes.

"unto me" – 'unto' is the preposition proj plus the accusative, which means "face to face with me." Face to face is intimacy; face to face is salvation.

"and drink" – the mechanics. Present active imperative of the verb pinw, which means to drink. Why is drinking used here for the mechanics? The ability to drink is non-meritorious.

Verse 38 – "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said." This is a prophetical recognition of the New Testament canon before the New Testament canon was formed, completed. When John wrote this the NT canon was already partially in existence. So here we have the principle of the NT canon anticipated. Jesus is not quoting an Old Testament scripture.

"out of his [believer's] belly" – 'belly' is koilia. It actually means a cavity. The same word is used for the womb in the Greek. It is often used for the inner self and that is what is meant here: "out of his inner self."

"shall flow" – in keeping with the concept of water. Future active indicative – future tense: when the Church Age begins; active voice: the Holy Spirit will produce the character of the absent Christ; indicative mood: the reality of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age.

"rivers of living" – present active participle, "always living, always existing water."

Verse 39 – "(But this spake he concerning the Spirit …" Living water refers to the Holy Spirit. The word "spake" here is not the usual word for speaking – fhmi, which means to affirm, to identify something with something else in the context, therefore we might say to confirm, confirming the fact that we are talking about the Holy Spirit. The word "of" is mistranslated. It is the preposition peri which means "concerning."

"that they which believe" – aorist tense. These are people who are going to believe at different points in the Church Age.

"on him" – aorist active participle: on Jesus Christ; "should receive" – the word "should" means "about to receive." In other words, the Church Age had not begun yet. The verb is mellw. This is a dramatic moment, this was not true in Old Testament times.

This brings up the seven unique factors of the Church Age:

1. Positional truth or union with Jesus Christ.

2. The universal indwelling of Christ.

3. The universal indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

4. The universal priesthood of the believer.

5. A completed canon of scripture.

6. We have a supernatural way of life which supersedes the Mosaic law.

7. Every believer is in full time Christian service – ambassadors for Christ.

The means of executing the Christian way of life is the filling of the Holy Spirit. If you are going to have a supernatural way of life God has to give a means of fulfilling it. The only means of fulfilling it is the Holy Spirit.

"about to receive" – present active infinitive, which anticipates the Church Age.

"because the Holy Spirit was not yet; because Christ was not glorified)" -- 'was not yet glorified' is an aorist passive indicative. Aorist tense: the point of Christ being seated at the right hand of the Father – Psalm 110:1; passive voice: the humanity of Christ received glorification. The deity of Christ does not receive glorification; the deity of Christ does not need glorification. The indicative mood is the reality of the glorification of Jesus Christ.

In verses 40-41 we have response to the message; reaction in the last part of verses 41 and in verse 42.

Verse 40 – "Many of the people therefore, when they heard this. "This" is the Word; when they heard the Word. What Jesus had to say is the Word.

"said [responded], this is the Prophet" – the words "having heard" is an aorist active participle to indicate that they heard before they made any kind of a response or reaction, and they said, "This keeps on being the Prophet," and the prophet is the person mentioned in Deuteronomy 18:15. Moses is prophesying of a prophet who would come in the future. There are two people who are categorised as the prophet. In the Old Testament "the prophet" is Moses; in the New Testament "the Prophet" is Jesus Christ. Moses was a unique prophet because he had both the gift and the office of prophet. All the rest of the prophets in the Old Testament either had the gift or the office, but not both. The ones who wrote the second section of the canon of the Old Testament, call the prophets, had the office of prophet. The third section of the Old Testament writers had the gift of prophecy. People often wonder why Daniel isn't with the prophets, but he is the third section called the writings. Daniel did not have the office of prophet, he only had the gift of prophecy. Same with David who didn't have the office of prophet, he had the gift of prophecy, as did Solomon and others who wrote in the third section of the canon. So Moses said there would be a time in the future when there would be another "the Prophet." And this is the way some people recognised Christ. They recognised that here was the Prophet of whom Moses spoke. This must be classified as positive volition toward Him through identification of an Old Testament passage, and this is the way some responded to the Lord – their knowledge of the Old Testament. This indicates the principle that the Word of God is a direct testimony to the Son of God.

Verse 41 – in the first half of the verse there were others who came to it in an independent way, apart from the scripture and directly from the message of the Lord Jesus Christ. "Others said, This is" -- this keeps on being, present linear aktionsart of e)imi, the verb of absolute status quo; this keeps on being, there never will be a time when He isn't.

These two categories of people found Jesus Christ as saviour, these are the responders. These are the people who at the point of God-consciousness went on positive signals. When they came to the point of gospel hearing they went on positive volition again, and positive volition expresses itself by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

In verses 41b and 42 we have the reaction: "But some said" – this refers to those who are going to react, and this is imperfect linear aktionsart, they kept on saying. They said it in the past and they still said it. In other words, "some" refers to those who at the point of God-consciousness went on negative volition. They had gospel-hearing a number of times, but we have the imperfect tense here. They kept on saying, every time they heard the message; they kept on rejecting, rejecting, rejecting.

"Shall some come out of Galilee?" This is the Galilee gimmick. Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, the home of David and David's line since the days of Jesse. So for a thousand years Bethlehem has been hometown for David's lineage. Jesus didn't stay there very long because of danger to His life and as a baby He lived in Egypt. At age 12 we know that He was living in Galilee. Just because Jesus Christ lived in Egypt, it didn't make Him an Egyptian, and just because from 12 on until adulthood it didn't make Him a Galilean. He was born in Bethlehem. Furthermore, both of His parents were descended from David. The legal but not real father was descended from David through Solomon – the Matthew genealogy. His real mother of His humanity was descended from David through Nathan. This Galilean gimmick was used by those who rejected Him to discredit Him. It is a part of the name-calling device. And they backed it up with scripture. When the devil can't make a direct attack because people know the scripture, what does he do? He takes the scripture and twists it, distorts it.

Verse 42 – "Hath not the scripture saith." Listen to the vain, proud peacocks! Here is the sinless, perfect Son of God and they are trying to say the scripture doesn't back Him. They were using the scripture against Him – "that the Christ cometh from the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David kept on being?" Imperfect linear aktionsart again. It is true that He was born in Bethlehem but He lived His childhood in a few other places, so they called Him a Galilean. This is a satanic thing – doctrine of demons, 1Timothy 4:1. Whenever the scripture is taken and distorted to emphasise something that is false or evil there is always the demonism activity behind it. It becomes the devil's communion table – 1Corinthians 10, and doctrine of demons – 1Timothy 4:1. They have distorted the scriptures.

Verse 43 summarises the fact that there was division among the people. Our Lord was too controversial.

"So there was" – ginomai means to become. Aorist tense: refers to the point of time at the end of the feast of the tabernacles. Since the time that Jesus arrived at the feast in the middle of the week they had been hearing Jesus speak.

"a division" – sxisma means a faction, no unity. You can have unity and disagreement. The Greeks also had a word where within the framework of the people they could have differences of opinion, but they still had law an order with their differences of opinions. Their disagreement did not lead to violence, they argued their case in the assembly of the Athenians and they still had law and order. The agreed to disagree and when they disagreed didn't try to cut reach other's throats. The word sxisma came along because when people disagreed and started fighting each other, that's sxisma. The Jews went to war over Jesus. In other words, they divided up and started at each other. The word sxisma is used to show that Jesus was the most controversial person they had ever had in their midst. This controversial person is the perfect, impeccable God-Man.

In it's true sense "controversial" really means this person is subject to a great deal of discussion and that people do not agree. So don't immediately put down someone because they are supposed to be controversial. A person must be accepted or rejected on the basis of the content of his message. That is the only way to do it.

Why should a perfect person come into the world and become so controversial? Angelic conflict. Demonism. This is the devil's world and Jesus can only approach people in the devil's world by reaching their volition with information. All He can do is give them information. Divine institution #1: every member of the human race has a free will and should have freedom of choice. So when Jesus comes into the world He comes with a message to the soul of the individual so that the individual can make a decision. But He does not coerce their volition. The archenemy of our Lord is Satan himself, and he seeks to destroy that freedom.

Verse 44 – the divine protection of our Lord. "And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him." Introducing a third factor, the temple police. They had been set up by the Sanhedrin. Religion doesn't take any chances. The word "would" means they desired to seize Him by force, but not one of them touched Him. When they heard the message they stood there unable to do a thing. The message hit home with them. Every man in that group had positive volition at the point of God-consciousness and now they are responding to His message. Here is divine protection. They came to do Him violence and they stayed to hear this wonderful message.

Verse 45 – "Then came the officers [u(perhthj] to the chief priests and the Pharisees; and they [the chief priests and the Pharisees] said unto them [the temple police], Why have you not brought him?"

Verse 46 – "Then answered them the Pharisees, Never a man spake like this man." When it says "they answered" it is an aorist passive indicative of a)pokrinomai [krinomai = to judge; a)po = from the ultimate source of self], it means to discern so that you have an answer. They heard His message. Passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb. They received an answer in themselves. A)po says their volition was going on positive signals. Krinomai – they were discerning, they listened, they heard what He said and there was a response in the volition of the soul. Aorist tense: point of time when they heard. Passive voice: they received an answer. Indicative mood: the reality of their persuasion; they were persuaded to receive Christ as saviour.

"Never" is not really never. It is o)udepote [o)ude = a negative, neither or nor; pote = enclitic particle which means 'at any time']. It should be translated, "Not ever, not at any time" has anyone ever spoken as this one did. To whom are they giving this report? The chief priests and the scribes teach in the temple. Most of the Sanhedrin teach in the temple. And who listens to them? People who have to; they can't leave: the temple police. Where did they get the nerve to face their bosses and say, "Boy, you should have heard this message"? It was a slap in the face to the Sanhedrin. The word they used for "spake" [lalew] means that they got it categorically. They were so arrested by the message of Jesus that they can face their bosses and say, "You public speakers should have heard this one." Here are some men who are not impressed by the fact that He healed the man on the Sabbath but they are impressed with the message.

Verse 47 – the Sanhedrin denounces the temple police. "Then answered them" – 'them' refers to the temple police. It should be "Then they, the Pharisees, answered them the Pharisees."

"Are ye also deceived" – perfect tense, which means 'you keep on being deceived.'

Verse 48 – "Have any of the rulers or of Pharisees believed on him? A beautiful piece of debater's technique. In other words, "We are the leaders, you don't see us walking in there and believing."

Verse 49 – "But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed." In other words, just because a few people in there believe Him that is no reason to believe either. What was it that impressed the police? The message. And what is the attack of the Pharisees? Personality. "We," the personalities who rule you. "We haven't believed"! And again, personality: "The people have gone nuts"! They go to personality, but it should be, "Stick with the message; forget the personality."

Verse 50 – the Pharisees are apparently not all in agreement. Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night, who has apparently received Christ as his saviour, has something to say about this.

"saith unto them" – to the Pharisees, "being one of them," a Pharisee. In all of this hysteria of the Sanhedrin one person is still reasonable and sane.

Verse 51 – In effect he says, "You never judge until you get the facts," and' "With the facts you wouldn't judge."

"Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him?" The Jewish law was perfect. It is the people who are administering the law, the Sanhedrin, who are doing a bad job and using the law in a divisive way. The Jewish law says that a man is not guilty until he has had a trial, and then as a result of the trial he may guilty or he may not be guilty. Nicodemus is saying the Pharisees that they have condemned Jesus Christ without a trial.

Verse 52 – "Art thou also from Galilee?" There is no one in the Sanhedrin from Galilee, that's for sure. They are all from the southern kingdom and they have just given him the biggest insult in the world. In other words, they get right back to personality. Remember, a false government can never stick to principle. A false government always becomes involved in personalities.

For a moment they are frustrated. A principle has been stated in the Sanhedrin and that shuts them up.

Verse 53 – "And every one went to his own house." That means the temple police were off the hook because Nicodemus spoke up. He defended the whole principle and nothing was done, until they decided they couldn't get Him through the law. So then they are going to get a woman caught in the act of adultery and use her to trip Him up.

Chapter 8

7:53 – "And every man went to his own house." The verb "went" here is the aorist active indicative of poreuomai which means to go from one place to another, and usually means to go from one place to another successfully or frustrated. In this case we have the breaking up of the Sanhedrin after their failure to indict the Lord Jesus Christ. The Sandedrin has subverted justice. They have tried to use the law to get rid of a person. Common law in a national entity is not designed to get rid of someone who is persona non grata as far as their politics, their policy, their attitude or their opinions. The Jews had a fantastic system of law. There was nothing wrong with the law but there was something wrong with those who administered the law. So we have the problem of perverting justice. Often when there is some maladministration in law they blame it on the laws rather than on the persons who are administering the law. The Jews have a corrupt administration, and the reason for their corrupt administration primarily is the union of religion and state. In the Jewish political structure at the time that our Lord lived on the earth there were two completely different political organizations in Judea. Judea was a third-class province and the Roman governor was called a procurator and appointed directly by the emperor. In this particular case we have in Jesus' day the Roman government, which always maintained the separation of religion and state. The Jewish government which operated for example, in Jerusalem – the Sanhedrin headed by the chief priests, the Sadducees and the Pharisees – combined religion and state, and whenever you combine religion and state it means that whatever system of common law that exists in a national entity is going to be distorted.

Jesus Christ is facing a system of jurisprudence that is excellent but it is now mixed up with the fact of religion. Whenever any government has religion in its leadership there is trouble. Religion is the worst thing that ever hit this world and more crimes are committed in the name of religion than anything else.

The problem with the first eleven verses of chapter eight

1. This passage is undoubtedly a true story, but it is not found in the Bible – it is not a part of the canon of scripture. It was not a part of the original canon, the autograph.

2. The oldest and best MSS do not have verses 1-11 – just as they do not have the last half of Mark 16. Specifically, these MSS are Codex Aleph, Codex A, Codex B, Codex C, Codex L, and Codex W, plus 5000 pieces of papyri. (The King James version was taken from the fifth edition of Erasmus, which was the second edition of Elsevere, a tenth century manuscript collection of seven manuscripts, all of which had been corrupted by that time). Over the past 100 years there have been found over 10,000 MSS that are older than Textus Receptus.

3. This story, which is undoubtedly a true story, is not a part of the canon of scripture.

4. There is one copy of the original text which has this story. That is Codex Besi, a relatively old manuscript going back to the 6th century (about 550 AD).

5. The MSS which do not have this story: Codex Aleph – 340 AD; Codex A, known as Alexandrinus – 450 AD; Codex B, known as Vaticanus Manuscript – 325 AD; Codex C, Ephraemi Rescriptus; Codex D, The Oxyrhynchos papyri, etc.

It becomes obvious, then, that along with the last half of Mark 16 we have here a rather long passage which was inserted. While undoubtedly it is a true story it

is still not a part of the Word of God.

6. Conclusion: A true story but not a part of the canon of scripture. It demonstrates how the Pharisees tried to trip up Jesus Christ by again distorting the law. But whoever inserted this inserted false doctrine, i.e., "God and sin no more."

The Pharisees' trap is obvious. If Jesus refuses to condemn the adulteress woman under the Mosaic law then the Pharisees will say that Jesus is in opposition

to the law, He is lawless and should be removed Himself. But if He condemns her and says that it is all wrong, then they will show that He is not consistent with His own message of grace. So they are going to get Him one way or another.

Verse 1 – "Jesus went unto the mount of Olives." This may or may not be true. Later on Jesus had to go up to the mount of Olives every night in order to be safe. He wasn't safe in town, so He left town.

Verse 2 – "And early in the morning [the next day] he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him." This is undoubtedly true and it happened on many occasions, and so there is a consistency here. The Greek brings out that the crowds sat around on the steps of the temple, and when He went up into the temple they got up and went in with Him. It says they came face to face with Him – proj plus the accusative.

"and he sat down and taught them" – here is something apparently inconsistent. Generally, Jesus did not sit down and in the temple there wouldn't be any place to sit down. So this is a point of inaccuracy, the same type that there is in the pseudepigrapha and other portions which are not a part of the scripture but sometimes included with the canon and are not correct.

Verse 3 – "And the scribes and the Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery." When is says she was taken it means that she was taken in the very sex act. She was grabbed, and so apparently they already knew what they were going to do. They just waited until they had a case where there would be no doubt. They had their witnesses all there, everything was all lined up, and everything was according to the law. Ordinarily they would let this thing go, they wouldn't bother with it. But now they have to use it to trap Jesus. So they waited until the act of intercourse was in the process and then walked in and broke it up. It can be seen that the Pharisees are also cruel. Now they drag this woman right from the bed of adultery and haul her in right in front of all these people, and in verses 4-6 the members of the Sanhedrin spring the trap.

Verse 4 – "They say unto him, Master." That would be accurate, they didn't call Him Lord. No man can called Jesus Lord, except by the Spirit – 1Corinthians 12:3. Later on the woman will call Him Lord. (There are enough details here to know that this is a true story. There are also enough details to know that even apart from MSS evidence something is wrong)

"this woman was taken in adultery" – lit. "seized." The verb is katalambanw [lambanw = seize; kata = according to a norm or standard]. That looks good because it means. "Aha! violation of our law. Let's enforce the law, get the criminal." But that isn't what is happening. It means here, "Let's get Jesus, we need a law violator to get Him." So their norms and standards are distorted norms and standards, and katalambanw means they are not fulfilling the law and enforcing the law, they are using the law.

Literally from the Greek this verse says, "This woman, having been apprehended in adultery, in the very process of sexual intercourse."

Verse 5 – "Now Moses in the law." They are specifically referring to Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22.

"commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what do you say?" This is the trap. The woman is the bait; the Sanhedrin is using the scripture to gain their own ends, using the Word of God in order to try to trap Jesus. They are going to Get Him whichever way He goes – for opposing the law or for inconsistency.

Verse 6 – "This they said, tempting him." The word for tempting means to bring out evil. There are two words for "tempting." One means to check for good or evil, but they use peirazw here, which has the connotation of really trying to bring out the worst.

"that" introduces a purpose clause; "they might have [something] whereby they can accuse him." Jesus is under tremendous pressure. He is aware, of course, of what is going on. So He stoops down and He writes. The ordinary word for "write" is grafw, but with Jesus this doesn't describe this as just grafw. The word that is used is katagrafw which means to write according to a norm or standard. When they found the woman they seized her, and the word for seizing her – katalambanw. Kata is the preposition of norm and standard. They seized her but their norm or standard was distorted. Their norm or standard was not the law. They weren't getting her because she was committing adultery; they need her for bait in a trap. They needed someone where it was established she had committed adultery and they were just using her, and they were using the law. So this is distortion. But Jesus: katagrafw means that He is going to write the true issue from the Word of God, and He stoops down and He writes. He is not writing in the dust, He is in the temple. He wrote on stone, the marble floors of the temple. This is very interesting because Jesus Christ had written in stone before; He gave the law to Moses. All this time He was writing with His finger, and it was katagrafw. He apparently wrote the ten commandments.

Verse 7 – "So when they continued [kept on pressing him], [constantly] asking him" – "continued" is present linear aktionsart. It means they persevered; they pressed Him for an answer.

"he lifted himself up" – either He raised His eyes or He stood up; "and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." This is grace. In principle it is absolutely correct. You can administer the law. On the surface this is grace, grace, grace. We are dealing with the laws of the nation, and in administering the laws of a nation we do not say, "He who is without sin, let him be the police officer; arrest him." "He who is without sin, let him be the judge sitting upon the bench." "Let him who is without sin, let him sit upon the jury." We don't say that. We all have old sin natures, and here the whole issue is the law, The Word of God here is the law. The law itself is all right, and when people administer the law they must do it within the realm of justice and fairness. But it is all lost here with the Pharisees. The point is correct that this woman should not be condemned any more than anyone else in the human race; the point is that we are sinners and we all possess the sin nature.

Verse 8 – "And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground." This is speculation but it could be suspected that the second time He wrote the word grace.

Verse 9 – "And they, having heard it, being convicted [reproved or rebuked] by the conscience [the norm or standard of the soul], kept on going out." In other words, they didn't all go out at once. As this thing would hit them they would turn around and leave -- "one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last."

"and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst."

Verse 10 – "When Jesus lifted up himself [stood up] and saw no one but the woman, he said unto her, Woman [gunh], where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?" This time when He uses the word condemned He uses katakrinw, which means to judge according to a norm or standard. Ordinarily He would have used the word krinw, which means to judge. Judging according to a norm or standard here is very beautiful and very nice because by that norm or standard who can ever condemn anyone else? – "He that is without sin," etc. In principle here we have a glimmer of "Judge not that ye be not judged." What right to you have to judge someone else when you yourself are a sinner? As an individual you do not have the right. Remember that judging always means to ascribe to someone else a sin, real or imagined. And what right do you have to judge someone else?

Verse 11 – "Neither do I condemn [katakrinw] thee." We have to watch something here. Jesus Christ is the God-Man. As God, can He say "Neither do I katakrinw thee?" No, because as God He must condemn sin. As the God-Man He is providing for the sinner but He cannot say to her, "Neither do I condemn thee" and use katakrinw. He could have used krinw, but katakrinw says that there is a norm or standard that is demanded. Jesus would have to have said, "I will be katakrinw for you." This is what happened on the cross.

"go and sin no more" – present active imperative. This means, Go out of here and stop sinning. This is impossible! This indicates sinless perfection and therefore is inconsistent with 1John 1:8,10.

Verse 12 begins one of four great dissertations by Jesus Christ regarding Himself. This is really where John chapter 8 begins. From here until the end of the chapter we have four facets of the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Christ is the light of the light of the world, verses 8-20.

2. Christ is the liberator of the world, verses 21-36. We must have a liberator because Satan is the ruler of this world. There must be some way to break his power in his kingdom so that we can come under the reign and the will and the desires of the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Christ is the founder of the Jewish nation, verses 37-51.

4. Christ is the victor over death, 52-59.

"Then spake Jesus again" – the word again is an adverb in the Greek, palin. While it means again it is an adverb of continuation. This is important because

the adverb of continuation at this very point indicates that when it says at the end of the last chapter, "And every man went to his own house," the story actually begins at "again." It is a way of knowing that verses 1-11 were never in the original, or if they were they were a parenthesis. "Spake" is an aorist active indicative of the verb lalew which means to communicate doctrine. So we now see we are back on the track. This is what is called the original text protecting itself. The Bible has protection within the framework of its own text in the original language.

Jesus Christ is the light of the world, verses 12-20.

Jesus Christ is the liberator of the world, verses 21-36.

Jesus Christ is the founder of the Jewish nation, verses 37-51.

Jesus Christ is the victor over death, verses 52-59.

Verse 12 – "Then spake Jesus." The word to speak is an aorist active indicative of the verb lalew which means to bring a message. The aorist recognises that at this point of time Jesus Christ actually brought this as a formal message, a message in which doctrine is communicated. According to verse 20 this message was given in the temple treasury which adjoins the court of the women, the largest auditorium in the temple. Along the side of the treasury they had chests, and you could walk by and put money into these various chests. Each chest carried a designation: some went to the priesthood, some to the animal sacrifices, for various causes. Then, in the very middle of the treasury was the largest candelabra in the temple, and the rabbis claimed that when it was lit in the evening you could actually see the light all over the city of Jerusalem. They had a special ceremony for lighting this candelabra every evening. It included the singing of Isaiah 42:6, "I will give thee for a covenant to the people and for a light to the Gentiles." After the completion of the ceremony of lighting the candles there was a great period of rejoicing and singing and dancing right there in the temple.

Jesus uses this for His next message. In the feast of the tabernacles messages of our Lord He used the little ceremony of using the golden pitcher, taking it to the pool of Siloam, filling it with water, having a parade through the streets, and finally coming into the temple where the water was emptied and there was singing from Isaiah 55, and so on. Jesus used that to give His message on the bread of life and the water of life, and now He is using the lighting of the candelabra to give a message on the light of the world. He is now speaking two days after the feast of the tabernacles to a crowd in the temple in the largest auditorium which was a combination of the treasury and the court of the women.

"unto them" – dative plural of advantage, it was to their advantage to hear this message; "saying" – the verb legw which emphasises the content of the message, and He will be communicating doctrine. This is a present active participle indicating that the message in content is a repetition of some things from before, and basically it is always the same – the doctrine of the hypostatic union, sometimes emphasising His deity, sometimes His humanity and the purpose of the incarnation, but always emphasising the uniqueness of the person of Christ.

"I am" – present active indicative of the verb for absolute status quo, e)imi. Present tense, linear aktionsart – He always was; He always will be. Active voice: speaking of His own person. The indicative mood: the reality of the fact that Christ is the light of the world.

"the light" – there are a number of words for light; this is a very important one: fwj, the word from which we get phosphorous, phosphate, and so on. It means a blaze of light, a radiance of light, a source of light. The third is the proper use here and this is going to be an emphasis on the deity of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God, and as God He keeps on being the light of the world. This is the absolute status quo of Jesus Christ. He is the source of light, which is light in its source concept and therefore an absolute concept.

"of the world" – kosmoj, the Satanic organization. The word simply means organization, something that is well organised. It is generally used for the world because of the various laws by which the world operates, and so on. It is often used in the scripture for Satan since he is the ruler of the cosmos. He has superimposed upon the laws of nature some laws of his own – anti-biblical, anti-doctrine, anti-Christian, anti-God laws. But Jesus Christ is the light of the kosmoj. The kosmoj is said to be in darkness. For example, in Luke 1:78,79; Psalm 107:10 the unbeliever is said to be sitting in darkness. The unbeliever is sitting in Satan's world and he lives in darkness. Christ Himself was hanging in darkness when He was bearing our sins – Matthew 27:45,46. In 1Peter er 2:9 believers are called out of darkness, and as a part of operation phase two we are told to walk in the light and not to walk in darkness. Walking in darkness is a picture of the believer operating under the power of the old sin nature.

"he that followeth me" – present active participle of a)kolouqew. The word means to follow, but more than that. It means to come after, to go along with a plan. It means more than just simply get in line. It means to become involved in a plan. Jesus Christ is not only the entrance into the plan of God – the only saviour – but He is also the revealer of the plan. He is also the light of the world because He sets the pattern for the plan, and the pattern for God's plan is grace. Grace excludes human good, human works. The participle here indicates a precedence. The present tense is a dramatic present and it means to actually get into the plan of God. So following Christ means to get into His plan, and to get into His plan you believe in Him. So in a sense this becomes a synonym for faith. But He is not dealing here with the mechanics of salvation, He is dealing with the principle and therefore a principle-type verb is used rather than a mechanical-type verb. 1John 3:23 – both principle and mechanics ["will of God" – principle; "believe in Christ" – mechanics].

"shall not walk in darkness but shall have" – future tense of e)xw which means to have or to possess. This would be possessed in the future, anticipating the Church Age; "the light of life" – the life is eternal life, the light of life is the ministry of the Holy Spirit throwing light on phase two in the future.

Verse 13 – the reaction of the Pharisees. "Though bearest record concerning thyself" – the preposition is peri and it means "concerning," not "of." They are saying, 'You witness concerning yourself' – present active indicative, 'you keep on witnessing,' linear aktionsart.

"your record is not true" – the Pharisees are in the crowd and they challenge. What basis do they have for this challenge? They are going to go back to the Bible and distort the scriptures. This time they are going to use the law of the two witnesses, a concept which is found in Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15. For an indictment you must have two reliable witnesses. The Pharisees have taken this same concept and are saying now [debater's technique], 'You talk about yourself is not true because you alone say it.' They say that is violates the two-witness principle.

So now we have Jesus Christ answering them in verses 14-18. Basically, Jesus says He personally is a bona fide witness because "I am God, and I have another bona fide witness and He is God." When God the second person and God the first person witness that is an air-tight case.

Verse 14 – Jesus says that He Himself is the first witness. "Jesus answered" – aorist passive indicative of a)pokrinomai [a)po = preposition of ultimate source; krinomai = passive of the verb to judge]. We put "judge" in the active voice here for a reason. A deponent verb often has the concept of a passive voice – the subject receives the action of the verb. A deponent verb is a verb which is passive in morphology but active in meaning. What does this mean? It means that Jesus received information, He had Bible doctrine, and therefore He gives it out. Therefore this is always translated like an active voice. It doesn't say, "Jesus received an answer." This is a deponent verb because in the process you receive something by which you answer. So we translate this, "Jesus had an answer for them" – for their advantage, dative of advantage.

"Though" – 3rd class condition [maybe yes, maybe no]; "If I bear record of [concerning] myself, my witness is true." He presents the other side of the case. His witness "keeps on being true." Why?

"for I know" – a perfect tense used as a present tense for doctrine in the soul. The word is o)ida for inherent knowledge, something which is definitely known. Here it is used for the omniscience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the next phrase: "whence I came." This has to do with origin. He is describing the fact that He knows from His own origin.

"and whither I go" – the words I go really give us our clue: u(pagw [u(per = to be under the authority of; a)gw = to go, to bring] means to go under the authority of, and it eventually came to mean to operate under a plan. U(pagw means to bring under, to go under, to go in a certain direction. It means to be under a specific authority. Jesus says, 'My witness is true because I am operating under the specific authority of God.' This means that He understands in detail the purpose for the incarnation.

"but ye cannot tell" – He uses o)ida again, plus the negative. They are totally unfamiliar with the plan of God. He is speaking to the religious crowd. Why are they totally unfamiliar with the plan of God? Because they are yuxikoj – 1Corinthians 2:14, the natural [yuxikoj] man, the soulish man. The unbeliever has a soul but he does not have a human spirit. So He says, "but you do not know."

Verse 15 – the failure of the Pharisees. "Ye [keep on] judging" – the verb krinw which can mean one of two things: a) to condemn; b) to evaluate. It is necessary to determine from the context which is which.

"after" – preposition kata [norm or standard; "the flesh" – human. They judge by human norms and standards. They know nothing about the plan of God, and because they know nothing they try to take nothing and superimpose it upon the plan of God. This is what the legalist always does; this is what the religionist does.

"I judge [condemn] no man" – literally, "no one." This means two things. First of all, He is sinless in the field of the sins of the tongue; He has no mental attitude sins. He is condemning the Pharisees here because knows they have nothing by way of understanding grace but they are filled up with mental attitude sins, especially jealousy and hatred. The reason that they condemn Him is because they have mental attitude sins. Jesus is saying in effect that He does not have their pattern, and He understands their pattern.

Verse 16 – two bona fide witnesses now described. "And yet of I judge" – 'But if I do'; "my judgement keeps on being true." His judgment is absolute. He doesn't use the ordinary word for true, He uses a)lhqinoj which means genuine, accurate, trustworthy. Accuracy is the concept here. If Jesus Christ does judge He says His judgment is a)lhqinoj – He is saying, 'I am God': omniscience, 'I know all the facts.' They understood from the use of the word that this is exactly what He was saying to them.

"I am not alone" – then He introduces the second witness, God the Father; "but I and the Father that sent me."

Verse 17 – the citation of the law of two witnesses; Jesus understands their approach. "It is also written" – they didn't have the nerve to quote the passage but He does; "in your law, that the testimony of two men is true [genuine: a)lhqinoj].

Verse 18 – "I am one that keeps on bearing witness concerning [peri] myself, and the Father that sent me keeps on bearing witness concerning me." So He spells out again so that they can understand it that there are two reliable witnesses, God the Father and God the Son.

Verse 19 – the key to knowing the Father. "Where is thy Father?" Notice that they said "where" rather than "who." They understood His implication, His remarks, that He was saying that God was His Father.

"Jesus answered " – He understands that they have rejected the two witnesses. They have rejected Him as saviour; they have rejected the Father as the author of the plan that sent Him.

"Ye neither know me" – the first witness; "not my Father" – the second witness. Therefore they will not accept the testimony of God the first person and God the second person. These religious people are so proud and so stuffed with their own self-importance they will not accept the testimony of eternal God.

"if" – this time a 2nd class condition, if and it is not true; had known me [but you do not], ye should have known my Father also." Both times here the word for 'known' is o)ida. They do not know the Father. If they are ever going to know the Father they must believe in Jesus Christ.

Verse 20 – "no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come." No one laid a hand on Him; He was perfectly safe. There was no way in the world that anyone could touch Him. Principle: God is perfect; His plan is perfect. At this point God's plan calls for the protection of Jesus Christ. He is protected.

Verses 21-24 – deliverance from the second death.

Verse 21 – "ye shall die in your sins." The word "sins" is in the singular – "sin." In verse 24, "ye shall die in your sins" is in the plural.

"I go my way" – present active indicative of u(pagw which means to operate under the framework of a plan. Jesus Christ is still operating under the plan of God even though He faces tremendous Satanic opposition. He stays with the plan of God. He is moving toward the cross.

"and ye shall seek me" – the word to seek is the future active indicative of the verb zetew. The word that is not used is e)uriskw. Zetew means to find something you have; e)uriskw means to find something you don't have. What does Jesus use for the Jews? – zetew, 'you have me, I am your Messiah, I am here right now.' The word e)uriskw is not used because the Jews possessed the Messiah at the time of the first advent. He is addressing this to the Pharisees, the scribes, the religious crowd. He says He is going to pursue His course right to the cross, resurrection, ascension, seated at the right hand of the Father in glorification, operation footstool. And after the crucifixion and resurrection these religious people would seek what they now have but cannot get. The Pharisees are on maximum negative volition, and therefore in the future when they zetew they will keep seeking but they will never find, they are locked in negative volition. In other words, it is possible to say no so long that they habitually stay negative. This is the strong delusion concept in the Tribulation; it is the hardness of Pharaoh's heart; and that is what happened to the Pharisees. That is why we have zetew here. They were not seeking something they had never found, they were seeking something they had. Satan is the father of religion and religion cannot touch the human race apart from negative volition. They go on negative signals and they express it to the maximum.

"and [but] shall die in your sins" – 'ye shall die' is a future middle indicative. Notice: "Ye shall seek" is zetew, future active indicative; "Ye shall die" is future middle indicative. When the middle voice follows an active voice in a sequence of action it means they are responsible for that situation. God is not responsible. The reflexive middle voice, active voice: they have pursued a course of action, therefore it is their responsibility, they did it themselves.

"die" – a)poqnhskw [a)po = ultimate source; qnhskw = to die] means to die from the ultimate source. The future tense refers to the great white throne judgment of Revelation 20:12-15. The middle voice: they themselves made the decision that put them where they are, it is their own decision.

"in the sphere of your sin [singular]" – you die in the principle of your sin. Sin is in the singular, referring to the old sin nature. This is a reference, then, to the second death. Jesus is prophesying right now that these Pharisees who have constantly said no are going to seek in the future. They are going to seek what they have, but they have lost it, it is too late.

The "second death" is described in this verse by the verb a)poqnhskw, the strongest word for death, a compound verb which includes the concept of ultimate source, and it really has the concept of an ultimate death in this passage. "Sin" [singular] in this verse refers to the sin nature. (In verse 24 it is in the plural and it refers to personal sins) This refers:

a) To the OSN.

b) To die (second death) in the sphere of your sin or sin nature is a reference to an unbeliever. Only an unbeliever can die in the sphere of his OSN.

Remember that this is not physical death; this is the second death, the last judgment.

c) To die in sin or the sphere of the OSN is to die in unbelief, or rejection of Jesus Christ as saviour – John 16:8,9; 3:18.

d) While Christ was judged for all personal sins on the cross He was not judged for

the sin of unbelief.

e) Therefore the second death is for unbelievers only – John 3:18, 36.

"whither" – this is always an adverb of place, o)pou. In modern this should be translated, "in which place." It always connotes a place, a specific place, a definite place. It is an indefinite reference to a definite place! – "the place I go." O)pou refers to heaven – the right hand of the Father.

"ye cannot come" – 'you are not able,' present active indicative, linear aktionsart, they never will be able. Why? They are locked in negative volition? They are outside of the framework of the plan of God.

Verse 22 – this is the way religion takes a statement. Jesus says He is going to be glorified in His humanity. He says He is going to heaven, but they say He is going to Gehenna (the phrase, "Will he kill himself?"). Jewish theology taught that anyone who took his own life went to Gehenna. This was a question of sarcasm. They are not making inquiry, they are suggesting it to Him. This is a rhetorical question of suggestion. They are suggesting that if He wants to play Messiah, leave the temple and leave the earth. There is no place for Him to play Messiah on their Jewish religious earth and they are suggesting that He commit suicide. We know this is a rhetorical question because it begins with the word mhti which means several things: a rhetorical question of sarcasm, and it also expects a negative answer – 'No, He will not kill Himself but we are suggesting it.' They are assigning Him and His Messiahship to hell.

There are two blasphemies of location which the Jews used against Jesus. The first was found in John 7:35 where the religious leaders suggest that Jesus leave Palestine and go to play Messiah among the Hellenistic Jews. Judaism despised Hellenism and there were two kinds of Jews in the day of our Lord – the Judaisers, led by the Pharisees, and the Hellenes who were Jews who had accepted Greek culture. The second is here in verse 22 where the religious leaders imply that Jesus should commit suicide so He would go to Gehenna, He would get a better following in Gehenna! In other words, this is a combination of blasphemy and sarcasm and it is always the way religion regards our Lord. They understood what He was saying, and they said no, what you really ought to do is commit suicide because we can't go to the lake of fire (Gehenna).

Verse 23 – Jesus points out that by rejecting Him the religious crowd are headed for Gehenna. They are the ones who are going to the lake of fire.

"Ye are from beneath" – the word beneath is technical here, it means Gehenna or the lake of fire. It is actually the word below – "You are from below; I am from above." This is the future. 'In the future,' Jesus says, 'I will be in heaven; you will be below [Gehenna].'

As for the present, "you are of this world [the kosmoj]." The cosmos means organization and here it means the religious organization of the world. So, 'You are a part of the religious system of the world' – organised religion. Organised religion always goes to hell. (This does not mean that believers in organised religion are going to hell).

"I am not of this world" – not a part of this religious system. He is saying, "I am not religious"! Christianity is not a religion. Christianity begins at the cross; it is grace, God doing the work and man receiving what God has provided. In religion man seeks God by his own works.

Verse 24 – "I said," aorist tense, 'I said just a moment ago.'

"ye shall die in your sins" – now He changes 'sin' to the plural. "Sins" refers to the cosmos system. Again, this is the second death. They are going to face the last judgment because they are a part of the cosmos system. Their personal sins have been judged on the cross and they will not be judged for their sins. But the word "sins" here means another emanation from the sin nature, and that is going to be their human good. The sins have been judged at the cross. They have rejected the cross, the work of Christ; they will be judged on the basis of their human good.

"Ye shall die in the sphere of your sins"

1. Sins is in the plural in contrast to verse 21.

2. Since sins of the old sin nature were judged at the cross it is impossible for them to be indicted on the basis of these sins at the last judgment.

3. The indictment at the last judgment is human good – Revelation 20:12-14.

4. The change to the plural is explained in the last half of this verse, beginning with a 3rd class condition.

5. When a person rejects Christ as saviour he refuses the work of Christ on the cross.

6. Therefore he is in the sphere of his sins which have already been judged. His sins have been judged but he has refused the work of Christ, therefore he is in

the sphere of his sins [plural].

7. He is not judged for his sins but he is in the sphere of them. He is judged for his human good – Revelation 20:12-13.

8. Dying in the sphere of sins refers to the second death. It emphasises a person who has rejected the work of Christ on the cross.

"if" – introducing a 3rd class condition: "if you believe not." Here is the explanation for dying in the sphere of sins. Jesus said, "ye shall die." The word "in" is

the preposition e)n – "in the sphere of your sins [pl]." These sins were judged on the cross. Dying in the sphere of sins means unbelief.

"if ye believe not" – aorist active subjunctive. The aorist tense here is ingressive. Ingressive emphasises the point before the point of time. (The constative aorist emphasises the point of time. The culminative aorist emphasises the results of the point of time.) This ingressive aorist recognises the fact that the religious crowd had already rejected Christ as saviour and had gone on maximum negative volition. Active voice: the decision belongs to the volition of the individual. They had done this of their own free will and God will not tamper with volition. People go to hell on the basis of their own decision, they do not go to hell on the basis of divine decision. This means that the last judgment is a courtroom scene, a legitimate courtroom scene, and also that the divine administration of God's judgment is accurate and fair. This is in the subjunctive mood, which means the decision was potential and indicates the actual free will principle.

"that I am" – this encompasses the whole concept of the hypostatic union. "I am" means that Jesus Christ is God, and He has the essence of God. He is also man and He has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So He is the God-Man, the unique One, the one for whom

they have looked, the One Moses called "that prophet." This is present active indicative to indicate the hypostatic union is perpetuated forever, and Jesus Christ will always be the God-Man. If you do not accept the uniqueness of Christ you do not accept His work on the cross. Therefore they are rejecting His person and His work. And Jesus puts it in principle. Even though they have already gone on negative volition He says, "if ye believe not," indicating through the subjunctive mood and the third class condition that they could still change their minds. As long as they are not dead they can still reverse their decision and believe and be saved. They will not because they are expressing negative volition to the maximum.

"ye shall die [a)poqnhskw] in the sphere of your sins" – He repeats the phrase in the plural once again to indicate this is the explanation.

Verse 25 – "Who art thou?" In other words, they are expressing again their rejection. In reality they understand everything Jesus is saying, even though this is not clear in the English. They are saying, "You, who I am?" In other words, they are saying, 'Who, you are God?' This is actually what the question says and is the best way to communicate it. They know exactly what He has said and they are using a question of sarcasm.

"Even the same" – 'the same' doesn't exist here. The last phrase, "from the beginning" is actually first in the Greek and it should be translated "essentially." He uses it to dig into their rhetorical question. "Essentially I am that that which also I keep telling you" – literal translation. He has been telling them this now for nearly three years. He is almost at the end of His ministry when He said this. They won't accept it. Again, they have expressed negative volition.

Verses 26-29 – Jesus reveals the Father's plan.

Verse 26 – "many things" are the details of the Father's plan. This includes the Church Age and we will get these "many things" in John chapters 14-17, plus the 5th cycle of discipline to Israel, plus the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants to Israel at the second advent.

"and to judge" – present active infinitive. He is going to indict religion before He goes to the cross. Krinw – He is going to function as a judge with regard to religion. His indictment is given in Matthew chapter 23.

"concerning you" – the religious leaders.

"he that sent me is true" – He goes back to the two witnesses. When there are two members of the Godhead as witnesses, this is an absolute. The first witness is the Father – He 'keeps on being true.'

"and I speak to the world those things I have heard from the immediate source of him" – para, immediate source. Para means to be by the side of and the Son and the Father were side by side in eternity when the plan for man was designed. He was there; He heard it all. The Father is the designer; Jesus Christ was there with Him.

Verse 27 – "They understood not that he spake unto them concerning the Father." They didn't understand that He was talking about the doctrine of divine decrees.

Verse 28 – He mentions the two witnesses. "When ye have lifted up the Son of man" – this is the crucifixion. He predicts the crucifixion and He uses an aoristic future tense. In John 3:14 'lifting up' was used for the crucifixion. It will be used again in John 12:32.

"then shall ye know that I am" – no word for 'he' here; "and that I do nothing of myself" – a)po, from the ultimate source of myself. In other words, Jesus Christ is following the Father's plan. He will execute the plan as the Father designed it.

"but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things" – the word to teach here means to instruct, to communicate doctrine to someone, and the aorist tense is the point of time when Christ studied the scripture in time. It refers to every time He studied the Bible as a youth and as a young man before 30. He not only knew it in eternity – His deity--, but His humanity learned it in time. Jesus "grew in wisdom." Wisdom is knowledge of doctrine. So we have here the second witness. God the Father taught, and He taught Christ's humanity through the scripture.

Verse 29 – "And he that sent me keeps on being with me." Again, we have the two witnesses.

"the Father hath not left me" – has not deserted me – "for I keep on doing those things which are pleasing to him [literally, "the pleasing things to him"]: present active indicative, linear aktionsart. The 'pleasing things' is a noun, not a verb. The pleasing things is the plan of God designed in eternity past. Jesus Christ never deviated from the plan of the Father even once.

Verse 30 – the positive response of the crowd. "As he spake these words" – there are a lot of people who are not religious, not under bondage to religion.

"many believed on him" – aorist active indicative of pisteuw, the verb to believe. This word is a word for thinking. Believing is intellectual! Aorist tense: point of time. Active voice: their faith was initiated by them. The indicative mood is the reality of their faith in Christ and the reality of their salvation.

Verse 31-32, a short message to new believers.

Verse 31 – "which [had] believed on him." This time the word believe is in the perfect tense: something they had done in the past with results that go on forever. In other words, the perfect tense of pisteuw following the aorist is eternal security.

"If ye continue" – here is the big issue today, as well as then. The word if divides all believers into two groups. "If" is a 3rd class condition – maybe yes or maybe no. There are believers who are saved but reject doctrine and there are those who go on positive volition toward doctrine. The word "ye continue" is the verb menw which means to abide, to persist. It means to stick with doctrine no matter what. Aorist tense: the point of time which is phase two. Active voice: you must decide that doctrine is the important thing. Knowledge of doctrine is the greatest virtue in the Christian life. The subjunctive mood indicates that some will not do it.

"in my word" – Bible doctrine; "you keep on being my disciples. What is a disciple? Every believer is not a disciple. This describes a disciple in terms of a believer who lives in the Word. Those who are minus doctrine are not disciples; those who are plus doctrine are disciples. A disciple is a believer who gets with the Word and sticks with it, learns it, uses it, applies it – all the time, never stops.

"ye are" – present active indicative, 'you keep on being.'

Verse 32 – the most misunderstood verse!

"ye" – those who believe in Jesus Christ in verse 30. This applies to believers only. This is a plural pronoun and should be translated "you all."

"shall know" – ginwskw, as distinct from o)ida which means inherent knowledge. This means to comprehend by studying. The verb connotes discipline. It takes self-discipline to learn doctrine. Decision and discipline is the key to concentration. Every believer is equipped to learn doctrine by means of the indwelling of the Spirit and by means of a completed canon of scripture available, and by means of the gift of pastor and teacher.

"the truth" – a)lhqeia. This word does not refer to academic information, philosophy, history, mathematics, liberal arts courses; it refers to Bible doctrine. It is a compound noun made up of the alpha privative plus lhqw. Lhqw in itself means to conceal. The alpha privative in front of it means not to conceal but opened up categorically. So a)lhqeia means divine truth expressed in terms of categories so it can be assimilated. In other words, there are categories of doctrine in the Word that match up the empty shelves in your human spirit. The Bible has doctrine and that doctrine is divided categorically so you can fill up the human spirit. This is the biblical process of learning.

"shall make you free" – it is Bible doctrine that frees you to serve. What is the dynamic equation for phase two? Knowledge of doctrine + the filling of the Holy Spirit = the production of divine good. The word for free is e)leuqerew which means freedom to serve the Lord. It means liberated from slavery so you can serve as a non-slave. This is a future tense; it is prophecy regarding the Church Age. Knowledge of doctrine in the Church Age frees you to serve the Lord. Active voice: the believer is free to serve God by learning doctrine.

Verses 33-36 is a short message to unbelievers. This was anticipated by the imperfect tense of the verb legw when it says, "Jesus said [began to speak]." He was interrupted before He concluded His message.

Verse 33 – "They answered him." Not at all, they didn't answer Him. The Greek says they had an answer for Him. "They" introduces the unbelieving religious crowd. They could no longer contain themselves. They lose their cool, their poise; they are antagonised. They are reacting instead of responding. Believers are responding; the unbelievers are reacting. Actually, the word answer was not the original meaning of this word – a)pokrinomai [a)po = ultimate source; krinomai = to judge]. So they have a judgment from the ultimate source of themselves. They are speaking from themselves; they have an answer from their own mentality. What Jesus has said grates on their mentality. This grates on legalism. Legalism is aroused, it hates this type of a message and therefore they had an answer for Him – aorist passive indicative. Aorist tense: the time at which they broke in. Passive voice: they received this information from the mentality of the soul. The indicative mood is the reality of their interruption, their antagonism, and their attempt to put Jesus down.

Now the religious crowd is going to intrude with something which is entirely different from what Jesus has said. Jesus said to believers, those who had passed the point of phase one, "Ye shall know." Knowledge of doctrine is a part of the dynamics of phase two. He said, 'Ye shall know doctrine, and doctrine shall liberate you to serve me' – fulfil the principle of full time Christian service. Everything that Jesus has said is based on regeneration – being born again. But when people have not been born again they resent something as easy and gracious as learning doctrine and producing. Doctrine means that everything is provided for you; it is just a matter of learning it and using it.

"We be" – present active indicative of the verb e)imi, absolute status quo. Literally, "We are absolutely [emphatically]."

"Abraham's seed" – emphasis on physical birth. In the self-consciousness of these people was a tremendous pride. In their mentality was the human viewpoint of salvation by works. Volition: all the decisions made here are incompatible with grace; they are decisions to follow a works system. Emotion: they did not have an appreciation of God; their emotion had a backlash of pride – appreciation of self, pride of achievement. They had pride of race. The Jews emphasised the physical seed of Abraham and they are relying upon physical birth rather than regeneration for relationship with God.

The thing that irritated them was the words "free [to serve God]." The Jews thought that they were the only ones free to serve God and that they received this through physical birth, through the rite of circumcision, followed by the system of works which they had developed.

"and were never in bondage to any one" – this is the thing that antagonised them; "how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?" The word for bondage is a word for slavery, douleiw. When they said they had never been in bondage they put it in the perfect active indicative. The perfect tense sowed the quintessence of their pride. The perfect tense is something that happened in the past with results that go on forever, and they said in effect that since Abraham we have never been in bondage. That is, 'We keep on being the seed of Abraham and have never historically been in bondage to anyone.' The word never is an adverb – pwpote means 'never yet.'

Politically, they were in slavery to Egypt. At the moment at which they speak they are under the fourth cycle of discipline to Rome. Jesus could have made a political issue of their statement and knocked them down very quickly, but He did not. There is something more important than the political issue, and that is the spiritual issue. And that is where He is going to place the emphasis.

Secondly, there is a religious issue. They are in bondage to the Mosaic law plus the hundreds of commandments that have been added to the Mosaic law. Had Jesus made an issue of this He would have obscured the true spiritual issue.

They were also under a dictatorship to the Sanhedrin – a governmental issue.

But there is a true issue here. Every one of them there was in bondage to his old sin nature. This is manifest through the committing of personal sins.

So we have a principle here which is very important. Jesus made an issue out of Himself as the only saviour, as the key to the plan of God and the basis for regeneration. Jesus was standing there without a sin nature. Jesus was never in bondage to the sin nature through physical birth. We become slaves to the sin nature at the point of physical birth, but not Jesus Christ. Also, we live our lives in bondage to the old sin nature – apart from the plan of God.

Verse 34 – here is the true slavery issue. "Jesus had an answer" – a)pokrinomai, aorist passive indicative.

"Verily, verily" – point of doctrine; "whosoever" includes the entire human race. Notice that Jesus does not make it personal. In answering them He deals with a principle which is true for all members of the human race. Later on He will get very personal with them but at this point He deals in terms of principle.

"committeth sin" – poiew which means to do, to produce, and even to commit, as here. It is a present active participle. Present tense: keeps on committing sin. Active voice: sin comes from the individual. Participle: it is a precedent. As long as you live in this flesh/body containing an old sin nature you are going to commit sin. The word sin here is in the singular – a(martia which in the singular generally refers to the OSN. Here it refers to the principle of the OSN, the principle of sin – the OSN as the source of personal sins. It is literally, "committeth the sin." Personal sin is the manifestation of the indwelling OSN – Romans 7:7.

"is [keeps on being] the servant [douloj --slave] of sin." So, "Whosoever commits sin keeps on being the slave of the sin." The sin is the OSN, so they are in slavery to their OSN.

Verse 35 – "And the slave [douloj] does not abide [menw] in the house forever." What keeps the slave out of the house is eternal life. The slave can't live in the house because of the type of slavery he has – OSN, and there is no place in the house for the OSN.

"but the Son abideth forever" – when we believe in Christ we enter into union with Christ. Positionally we get into the house at the point of salvation. So Jesus is saying to the religious people that if they ever want to get into this house called heaven, if they ever want to enter the kingdom of God, if they want eternal life, there is only one way they will ever get it: through the Son. The house is the eternal state of the believer.

Verse 36 – "If" is a 3rd class condition. It all depends on volition, you can change your mind; "the Son shall make you free" – e)leuqerow. He is the only one who can. The aorist tense refers to the point of the cross, the point of redemption. Active voice: only Jesus Christ can redeem. Subjunctive mood: redemption is potential based on faith in Christ – John 3:36.

"ye shall be free" is not what the Greek says. The Greek says, "being free, you shall be [free]." The verb e)imi is used twice here. Being free is a participle – o)ntwj. The next phrase, "you shall be" is a future active indicative of e)imi – e)seqe, which is the future tense of e)imi. The present active participle refers to the state of freedom and it refers to phase two. As long as you are in phase two you are always free to serve the Lord; "being free" – a)ntwj e)leuqeroi [pl]. Free is a plural because it indicates every believer; "ye shall be." The word free is not repeated. This is the future tense of e)imi.

Verse 37 – all through this passage we have some heckling and it comes from the religious crowd. And so our Lord says, "I know" – perfect tense used as a present tense to indicate doctrine in the soul, and to indicate in this case omniscience.

"that you are Abraham's seed" – when He is saying 'Abraham's seed' He is using a technical word because in the plural Abraham's seed could mean something else. Abraham's seeds fall basically into two areas: a) several of the Arabic groups are descended from Abraham through two sources – Hagar and Keturah; b) the Jews through Isaac and Jacob. Jesus uses "seed" in the singular here. In other words, these religious Jews had the genes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in them. But being physically born with the genes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob does not provide salvation. And this He will point out because, after all, Jesus Christ was the founder of the Jewish race.

"but ye seek to kill me" – anyone in the line of Abraham who would seek to kill the Lord Jesus Christ has to be hooked up with religion. There are two kinds of people among the Jews who are Abraham's seed. There are those who believe in Jesus Christ and are born again, and those who reject Jesus Christ and are unbelievers. And, again, the unbelievers had a category called the religious Jew. It is the religious Jews, represented by the Pharisees, who are heckling the Lord Jesus Christ during this discourse in the temple.

The word for "kill" here doesn't mean character assassination or some form of mental attitude sinning but it is the word which means to kill physically, violently – a)pokteinw [kteinw = to kill; a)po = preposition of ultimate source]. He uses the compound verb here to indicate that the desire to kill Him is there. They haven't succeeded; they will not succeed, but from the ultimate source of themselves they are motivated to do so. Their motivator is religion and religion is the devil's ace trump, and the reason they are so motivated is because of John 8:44 – "Ye are of your father the devil." The father of all religion is the devil.

There is no such thing as the universal Fatherhood of God. There is such a thing as the universal fatherhood of the devil and most 'brotherhood' religious organizations are in that category.

"because my word hath no place in you" – 'my word' is Bible doctrine, the canon of scripture which contains doctrine; "hath no place" – xwrew means to make room for, but when there is a negative with it the meaning is to no make room for. So here is a religious soul in which there is no room for doctrine. These people hate Jesus Christ and seek to kill Him because there is no room in the soul for Bible doctrine.

Verses 38-44, the dissertation on the two fathers.

Verse 38 – "I speak that which I have seen." Jesus uses the present active indicative of lalew for 'speak.' It means to communicate in a public-speaking situation. It is used with time and means to give a speech in time. But He says, 'I am giving you a speech in time of what I have seen.' The verb for 'seen' is o(raw, from which we get horizon, and it means to use the eyes or to use the mental faculties. It is in the perfect tense here and it means in the past, before time existed. So Jesus saw the plan of God the Father in eternity past and He is now communicating [lalew] in time, in the temple, but He learned in eternity past. "I keep on speaking what I have seen in the past [with the result that I still have this information]." How do we know this is eternity past and not merely past time? The perfect tense just says 'the past.' The answer is the preposition which follows, para, the preposition of immediate source. It is often translated "by the side of." It is translated here "with." It means here "by the side of my Father; from the immediate source of my Father." Para with o(raw means eternity past.

"and ye do that which ye have seen" – the word and is really a preposition of contrast, 'but in contrast to me.' So, "but ye do." Notice the difference. This is a contrast between Jesus and the religious crowd. Jesus says, "I speak" – present linear aktionsart of lalew, but the religious crowd – "ye do," poiew. They emphasise doing; He emphasises communicating. Lalew emphasises doctrine; poiew emphasises a system of deeds. The religious crowd always have emphasis on doing something – human good. The emphasis of the Word of God is on learning doctrine. Religion says do; Christianity says listen, learn, apply. The greatest virtue in the Christian life is knowledge of doctrine. From that we have our full orientation to the plan of God, and then our production becomes meaningful because it is compatible with the grace of God.

But "and ye do that which ye have seen" is incorrectly translated. They do not do what they see, as is translated in the KJV, they do what they hear – a)kouw, "what ye have heard." They cannot do what Jesus did; they cannot be in eternity past. They were not by the side of the Father. What do they do? They work on the basis of Satan's doctrine – 1Timothy 4:1. So it should be translated, "you keep on doing what you have heard." Jesus said, "I keep on speaking [communicating] what I have seen." What the religious crowd had heard refers to the teaching of religious doctrine. All religious organizations have a system of teaching.

"with your father" – again we have para which means "from the source of your father." We know this is Satan because of John 8:44. God the Father is the author of the plan of grace; Satan is the author of his plan, and the two systems have been in opposition since the angelic conflict began.

Verse 39 – the religious crowd come back with an answer. "They answered" – a word which is found extensively in the Gospel of John, a)pokrinomai. In the passive voice here it means to receive an answer. We would translate this, "They had an answer." Jesus distinguishes between God the Father's plan – operation grace – and the devil's plan. The word father is used. So they had an answer and their answer is based upon a contention regarding physical birth. They said, "Abraham is" – present active indicative of e)imi, i.e. Abraham keeps on being; "our father" – when Jesus said they had a father He didn't mean Abraham, He meant the devil. And they suspected that! They are therefore now jumping back to their human ancestry. When a Jew can do nothing else, when he is in a corner, he can go right back to his human ancestry. He takes the attitude, "I am born physically a Jew; I am saved the minute I am born."

When they say "our father" this is the first Jewish fatherhood claim. It is a physical claim, a false spirituality claim.

"Jesus saith unto them, If" – first class condition of supposition, a part of debater's technique if, and I am assuming you are]. The Jews assume that being born physically a descendant of Abraham automatically gives them salvation. "If you were Abraham's children [spiritually] you would do the works of Abraham." The works of Abraham have to do with salvation – Galatians 3:6,7; Romans 4:1-16, 22-25. Justification by faith is the principle. They understood Him immediately. They understood that Jesus was not emphasising physical birth but spiritual birth. Jesus is saying that while they are physically descended from Abraham they have failed to do what Abraham did – he was born again – and therefore they are the physical heritage, not the spiritual heritage of Abraham.

Verse 40 – Jesus goes on to amplify. "But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth." In other words, instead of doing the works of Abraham, what are they doing? Seeking to kill Jesus Christ. The spiritual seed believes; the religious seed tries to kill.

Verse 41 – a second fatherhood claim of the Jews. "You keep on doing the deeds of your father [the devil]" – the deeds of religion, the deeds of human good.

"We be not born of fornication" – this is simply an idiom that says, "We are not bastards."

"we have one Father, God" – we have is present linear aktionsart of e)xw, 'we keep on having.' Galatians 3:26 says, "Ye are the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ."

Verse 42 – Jesus no longer uses subtle debater's technique. Now He uses a second class condition, if and it is not true: "If God were your Father [and He is not]." He also does something else. He takes the verb e)imi that they had used in the present tense and puts it in the imperfect tense – 'In the past you keep on contending this, but it is not true.' By so doing, and with the second class condition, He makes it very clear that God is not their Father.

"ye would love [have loved] me" – imperfect linear aktionsart in past time. And they are trying to kill Him; so they hate Him. Religious unbelievers. Their father is the devil. They hate Him – mental attitude sins. They are trying to kill Him. If they were believers their Father would be the first person of the Trinity and they would love. And instead of trying to kill they would seek to serve.

The word for love here is a)gapaw, mental attitude love, relaxed mental attitude. This is what the religious crowd do not possess.

"for I proceeded forth and came from God" – a)po, from the ultimate source [of God]. To proceed forth means to come out from, and the word came is a word that mean to arrive. "I proceeded forth and arrived from God."

"neither came I of myself" is literally, 'I came not from the ultimate source [a)po] of myself.' He didn't send Himself, in other words. The Father sent Him. The Father sent the humanity of Christ who has to be obedient to the deity of the Father.

"but he sent me" – a)postellw. Up to this time we have used the word pempw which means to send on an errand. But here we have a)postellw which means to send on a mission with authority. This is an aorist active indicative. The point of time is eternity past. When the plan was designed the Father sent the Son.

Verse 43 – "Why do ye not understand" – the word for understand is not the word we have been having – o)ida. It is ginwskw here which means 'Why don't you concentrate?' In effect Jesus is saying, 'I am making sense but you are not concentrating.' Notice: Religion can practice asceticism and self-effacement, but religion always has self-effacement minus self-discipline. Ginwskw implies self-discipline, and the reason they are not getting it is because they are negative.

"because ye cannot hear my word" – they are not able to do so. The word for hear is a)kouw which means to hear and obey "my words."

Verse 44 – the knockout punch. "Ye are" – present linear aktionsart, absolute status quo: 'You keep on being.'

"of" is literally, 'from.'

"your father the devil" – for the first time He now mentions him by name.

"the lusts of your father is what you keep on doing" – it was their modus operandi. Jesus is going to indict religion on three counts, and what He says about religion is always true when religion gains the political ascendancy. a) Murder; b) antagonism toward doctrine; c) deceit. These are the three facets of religion which are covered at the end of this verse.

"He was [kept on being] a murderer" – this goes back to the beginning of time, and the murder was Cain's murder of Abel. Cain was religious; Abel was born again, regenerate. Cain in his religion always brought the best fruits and vegetables. He wanted to impress – approbation lust. Abel brought a blood sacrifice. Cain never killed an animal – "without the shedding of blood there is no remission." He didn't bother; he was not a believer. John 8:44 alludes to the murder, as does 1John 3:12 and Jude 11. But what we are interested in here is the pattern. Who motivated Cain to slay Abel? Satan did. What is there in the pattern? A religious person, a jealous person – mental attitude sin. The next step is murder. The thinking of Cain led to the action of Cain; the thinking of the Pharisees will lead to the action of the Pharisees.

"abode not in the truth" – antagonism toward doctrine. The Greek actually says he "did not stand in the truth" – i(sthmi means to stand. Perfect tense: in the past the truth was there and he stepped out of it. Satan is the original rejector of doctrine, he would not stand in the truth.

"because there is no truth in him" – no doctrine in him.

Satan is the father of all religion, and especially here religious Jews. Obviously they are going to follow his characteristics. Jesus has been giving them doctrine and they rejected it.

Finally we have deceit: "he speaketh a lie." When you reject the truth you take in that which is false, and when you communicate that which is false you are speaking the lie – to yeudoj. Where do we get the lie? Negative volition toward Bible doctrine leads to a vacuum in the soul into which religion is drawn. Religion communicated is to yeudoj – "the lie." And when you communicate false doctrine you become the liar.

"for he is a liar" – yeusthj, a falsehood; "and the father of it" – Satan is the author of every system of deceit, every system of false doctrine, everything that is contrary to the truth of the Word of God. It is easier for the devil to lie than to tell the truth. In fact, the devil cannot tell the truth because the truth [doctrine] is not in him. The children of the devil cannot understand the truth, cannot accept the truth, and therefore they, too, must set up a satanic system – and they do, in religion.

Verse 45 – "And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not." Once you are in the devil's clutches it is almost impossible to believe the truth. This is the function of deceit – to keep people from belief. 2Corinthians 4:4.

The word because means that the religious crowd had been exposed to Bible doctrine for some time now; "I tell" means to present something in categorical, logical, progressive concepts. It is present linear aktionsart, "I keep on telling you the truth [doctrine]." Jesus says, Because I keep on teaching doctrine, you believe me not." Doctrine is the truth. In other words, they have rejected Christ as saviour and therefore they reject doctrine. Doctrine delineates the plan of God. They have rejected the plan of God and therefore they will not accept doctrine. So this is the phenomenon of religion and it is amplified in the next two verses.

Verse 46 – "Which of you convicts me of sin [prove that I am a sinner]?" The words of sin is literally concerning sin. Jesus then uses a first class condition: "If I say the truth [and I do], why do you not believe me?" Jesus already has the answer to that. They do not believe Him because what He says is doctrine. Principle: Religion rejects doctrine. This explains the rise of the social gospel around the turn of the century (1900) and the rise of social action in the National Council of Churches. Negative volition toward doctrine creates a vacuum in the soul. These religious Jews have gone negative toward a certain type of doctrine – the gospel. Into the vacuum in the soul was drawn religion, mental attitude sins, emphasis on the details of life. Religion includes, by the way, legalism. Everything in the vacuum is called in 2Timothy 2:11,12 strong delusion. When a person goes on negative signals from the point of God-consciousness on he has created in the soul a vacuum, and compatible with his own vocabulary, his academic structure, and everything else he knows in life, he is going to fall into some system of religion. The reason the religious crowd did not believe Jesus is because they are under strong delusion. They have been on negative signals since God-consciousness. The vacuum in the negative volition soul will only pick up a lie.

Verse 47 – "He that is [keeps on being] from God heareth God's words [Bible doctrine, the plan of God in eternity past]." The message of Jesus Christ is the message of God the Father, it is designed from eternity past, and this message finds a response in those who are on positive signals. And when a person who at the point of God-consciousness goes on positive signals he may live a long time and he will hear a little truth here and there and will respond to it – truth about government, about people, and maybe way down the line he will hear the gospel, and he will respond to these things.

"therefore" is literally, because of this, "you hear them not," i.e. because they are on negative volition; "because you are not from God." They are not in the plan of God, they are not interested in the plan of God, they have rejected the plan of God.

Verse 48 – "Say we not well." The word well here is an adverb which means accurately, sometimes it means with becoming or with propriety – kaloj means "with propriety." "Did we not say with propriety" – there is self-righteousness.

"thou art a Samaritan" – racial prejudice. The Jews in Jerusalem would not allow a Samaritan to build a house next to them, to move into a house next to them, to come to their temple, etc. A Samaritan could not do business in Jerusalem. The Jews thought the Samaritans were the worst in the world. The Samaritans were the Gentiles that moved in when the Jews were out under the fifth cycle of discipline. And then some of the renegade Jews intermarried with them, and so they were half Jew and half Gentile.

"hast a demon" – keep on having a demon.

Verse 49 – "I have not a demon; but I keep on honouring my Father, and you keep on dishonouring me." He is saying that in the plan of God only the first person in the Trinity has the right to honour. The first person of the Trinity is honouring the Son, the second person of the Trinity, and He is honouring Him by giving the power for the miracle. The Father is honouring Jesus by the performance of the miracle coming up and the one that has just been performed. He is honouring Him also by permitting Him to speak in the temple. So when the religious crowd look at the Son and go negative they are dishonouring the one that the Father has honoured, and therefore they dishonour the Father.

Verse 50 – "there is one who seeks and judges." In other words, the Father will keep on glorifying Jesus Christ [present linear aktionsart of seek] but He will

also judge those who do not honour Jesus Christ.

Verse 51 – Jesus Christ is the hope of Israel. "If [3rd class condition]" a man keep my saying [word]" – observing Bible doctrine – "he shall never see death." The word to see here is qeorew, and with the strong double negative it means both to perceive and to experience.

Verses 52-59, Christ is the victor over death.

Verse 52 – "Now we know." They contradict themselves. They said before, "Thou hast a demon." Now they say, "Now we know"! They have wiped themselves out but they go right on.

"Abraham died, and the prophets; and yet you say, If a man keep my word he shall not taste death forever."

Notice their weapons. The last one was logic, and they cancelled that out by contradicting themselves. So, when you run out of logic what can you do? Get sarcastic!

Verse 53 – sarcastic question number one: "Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead?" One thing not found here in the English is the negative mh which suggests a negative answer – "you are not" or of course you are not." At this point the question is designed to trap Jesus. Either Jesus will deny His deity or affirm it. If He affirms it they will try to execute Him for blasphemy. If He denies it they will discredit Him.

The second question is also sarcastic: "and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?" 'Whom makest thou thyself' is an idiom that means 'Who do you think you are?'

Verse 54 – Jesus answers and wipes out their sarcasm just as He did their logic. "If [3rd class condition, maybe I will and maybe I won't] I honour myself [I could, you know], my honour [glory] is nothing." He is making a great point here. The whole key is in the phrase "glorify self." But He says, 'If I glorify self the glory that I produce is nothing.' That is true of all of us. Self-glorification is outside of the plan of God.

"it is my Father that honoureth me" – God the Father is the author of the plan and the plan of God calls for the Father to glorify the Son.

"of whom you say, that he is your God" – here is where He has tied them up in knots. The Father honours the Son through the entire period of the incarnation. They have rejected Him whom they claim is their God. Jesus is saying, "If the Father was really your God then there is only one thing you can do: glorify me right now." Why don't they? Negative volition! They will never glorify Him because the Father is not their God. Who is their father? The devil!

Verse 55 – "Yet ye have not known him." To know, ginwskw, is in the perfect tense. The word means to know from experience, and because this is in the perfect tense the experience started at the point of God-consciousness, at which point they went negative. They have never known Him.

"but I know him" – here the word know is o)ida which is inherent knowledge. This refers to the fact that He knew the Father in eternity past, He knows the Father now, and this is all packed into one – His omniscience. He has a firm and total understanding of the Father, of His plan operation grace, and all the principles that pertain thereto.

"and if I should say, I do not know him, I would be a liar just like you are" – He called them liars to their faces. Religion cannot stand up under logic from a person who knows doctrine or from the person who doesn't know doctrine.

Verse 56 – "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day." How did Abraham see? The Greek word for see is o(raw – he saw the perspective. Abraham saw Jesus' day – faith-rest. This was after he learned doctrine. It is faith-rest claiming doctrine, not faith-rest claiming promises. A new believer can latch on to a promise with a little bit of faith and claim it, but to take a lot of faith and reach in and take a doctrine and claim it is maturity. When Abraham became a mature believer he reached in and grabbed doctrine. He looked out ahead and saw the first coming of Christ. And when he saw it – faith-rest technique plus doctrine – he rejoiced. When Abraham was alive he saw what this religious crowd did not see.

"and was glad" – he celebrated.

Verse 57 – the Jews are going to try once more. "Thou art not ye fifty years old." This has two meanings. To the Jews if you weren't fifty you were still inexperienced. They had great respect for age. They were saying here, in effect, 'You have no right to be saying these things, you have no arrived at the proper age.'

"and hast thou seen Abraham?" This brings out the sarcasm. They took this as a literal seeing, but it is more than that.

Verse 58 – "Verily, verily" means point of doctrine; "I keep on saying to you." He emphasises this.

"Before Abraham was" – the word for was is ginomai. In other words, before Abraham came into existence as a human being – aorist tense, he was born in a point of time.

"I am" – e)gw e)imi, present tense: "I always existed." He came right down to the issue, the point of doctrine: "I am God."

Verse 59 – the rejection. They can't meet words with words. Jesus has used in His discourse logic, sarcasm, and doctrine. They cannot meet any of them. So when they can't they resort to rocks! They want to shut Him up, destroy Him.

"cast" – ballw, to throw.

"but Jesus hid himself" – the word hid doesn't quite mean to hide, it simply means He just faded out of that area. It is the word kruptw which means to fade. He just turned around and walked past them while they were picking up stones. He didn't hide and He kept right on walking out of the temple. No one threw a rock at Him and no one followed Him to stone Him. It was not His time to die, nor the manner in which God had planned. The plan of God called for crucifixion bearing our sins and the Father was a wall of fire around Him to protect Him so that the plan of God could be accomplished. When God has a plan for your life the devil himself can't kill you.

The words, "going through the midst of them, and so passed by" are not in the original.

Chapter 9

There is a contrast between chapter eight and chapter nine:

1. In chapter eight we have Jesus in the temple; in chapter nine Jesus is outside. Outside He has a greater ministry than inside.

2. In chapter eight He is the light of the world; in chapter nine He communicates light. There is a person who has been in darkness since birth and he is going to see for the first time.

3. In chapter nine Christ is rejected and heckled in the temple; in chapter eight, outside of the temple, He is received and worshipped.

4. In chapter eight Christ stoops down and writes on the temple floor; in chapter nine He stoops down and spits in the dirt and turns it into mud.

5. In chapter eight Christ hides Himself from the religious crowd; in chapter nine He reveals Himself to a blind man.

6. In chapter eight inside of the temple Jesus is called demon possessed; outside of the temple Jesus is called Lord.

Basically, this is a fabulous chapter because it takes Jesus outside of the temple, breaks as it were from the whole religious structure, and there He performs something that focuses attention on Him for every generation as long as the world exists.

Outline of the chapter:

The blind man and the miracle, verses 1-12

The blind man and the Pharisees, verses 13-34

Verse 1 – "And as Jesus passed by." The word Jesus in the KJV is not found in the original. It is "as he passed by." We know who it is because of the previous chapter, last verse. This is a present active participle and means to be in the process of passing by. In other words, Jesus has just walked out on the religious crowd and is coming down the steps of the temple. The word for passing by is paragw [a)gw = to go; par is from para which means to be going by or beside]. "Jesus in the process of going by" is the way it should be translated. In other words, He was about to step past this blind man when He stopped. He recognised that this man was responsive.

"saw a man which was blind from birth" – the word saw is o(raw. Just to give a glance would be blepw but the word o(raw here means that He gets the picture when He goes by. He saw the blind man but the blind man can't see Him, even though he senses Jesus' presence. Jesus has just been heckled by the religious crowd but inside of this blind man He sees something that was non-existent in the religious crowd – positive volition at the point of God-consciousness. Jesus could see his positive volition and that is all that was necessary.

The doctrine of heathenism

1. The essence of God. In essence God is perfect and therefore it is impossible for Him to be unfair to this blind man.

2. Unlimited atonement. When Jesus Christ goes to the cross He will die for the sins of this blind man.

3. Application of the principle of divine volition – sovereignty. It is not God's will that any should perish, including this blind man.

4. There are two points at which we have contact with God. a) God-consciousness; b) the point of gospel hearing. If any person at the point of God

consciousness goes on +V, God is responsible for providing information for that individual so that he can be saved. Jeremiah 29:13; John 6:44; 7:17; Acts 17:27. When we talk about pockets of heathenism in this world, people are heathen not because they have never heard the Word of God but because they have heard and rejected, or because they gone on negative volition at the point of God-consciousness. Romans 1:18-23.

What did Jesus see first, the body of the man or the soul of the man? The soul of the man!

"blind from birth" – he was helpless and hopeless. It also meant he was ugly. Congenital blindness always distorts the features. He is also a beggar, which means his clothes would be in rags. In his soul he has +V but in his body it is a hopeless situation. This blind beggar illustrates a great principle of doctrine: All humanity is as hopeless and helpless as this blind man. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

The condition of the beggar:

1. He is both in physical and spiritual darkness – unsaved. Luke 1:78,79; Psalm 107:10.

2. He needs the light of the world – John 8:12. Jesus gave the light of the world discourse in the temple. Why? Because the Pharisees and the people in there

were in spiritual darkness. But when He comes outside He doesn't stop and say to this man, "I am the light of the world." The plan of God calls for something else and Jesus follows the plan of God.

3. He did not hear the light of the world discourse in the temple. He doesn't have to hear it, he is on +V.

Verse 2 – the question of the disciples. "And his disciples asked him." They did not ask Him, this is not the word for asking. The word here is e)rwtaw which

means to interrogate. Aorist tense: they interrogated Him in a point of time. They are standing around discussing a person who is listening to them, and a person who is blind has very keen hearing. This discussion goes right around him; he is in the midst of them. They discuss him as though he was a piece of beef on the pavement. They have no sensitivity to his sensitivity. They are not aware of the fact that a blind beggar could have a soul and be as sensitive as anyone else.

"saying" – they kept on saying. They didn't say it once; they said it enough times that this person could have fallen apart from self-pity.

"who did sin, this man or his parents" – the disciples are looking at a body, but that body has a soul.

"that" introduces a result clause; "with the result that he was born blind?" There are two theories. Some held to the "this man" theory, some to the "parent" theory. Both of these positions are wrong.

The culpability theory is the religious theory. Number one theory is philosophical; number two is religious. Culpability is a distortion of scripture, a misinterpretation of Exodus 20:5. This view was held by Judaism. It says his parents did something terrible and he is paying for it.

The doctrine of culpability

1. The principle of culpability is given in Exodus 20:4-6; Deuteronomy 5:8-10. The true law of culpability as stated in these two passages merely says that when the parents have weaknesses they often teach their children to be weak in the same way. It has to do with how parents rear their children.

2. The law of culpability only runs for four generations and then there is a change. Exodus 34:6,7; Numbers 14:18.

3. The mechanics of the four-generation curse is given in the Hebrew of Proverbs 30:11-17.

4. The true law of culpability is given in Deuteronomy 24:16 – God will bless your family down to the thousandth generation where Bible doctrine is perpetuated in the home. Basically in Israel Bible doctrine was taught in the home.

5. When there is a family curse (poor rearing) cursing can be turned into blessing always – and doctrine breaks the curse. Jeremiah 31:29-34; Deuteronomy 6:6-12; 7:9; Psalm 100:5.

Verse 3 – Jesus answers them, and He rebukes both the philosophical and the religious view. The word "answered" is an aorist passive indicative which

means 'Jesus had an answer' – Bible doctrine in His soul.

"Neither hath this man sinned" – Jesus refutes the theory that was the culpability concept of the Pharisees. The reason for the man's congenital blindness? The Lord does not imply that the man or his parents have never sinned, but He says that the sins of this man and those of his parents have nothing to do with the blind man's condition. Principle of application: It is wrong to assume that good health the sign of salvation or spirituality. Loss of health or illness does not give the right to judge others.

"but" introduces a purpose clause. God had a purpose in this congenital blindness; "that the works of God should be manifest." The works of God here represent divine good. The word "God" is literally "the God" and refers to God the Father and His plan.

The works of the God

1. This is a reference to God the Father, author of the divine plan, who knew in eternity past that this man would be blind and that he would have +V.

2. God also knew the combination of genes which would produce congenital blindness.

3. This man and his blindness were designed to glorify God and reveal His grace.

4. The works of God represent His grace provision.

5. God is perfect; His plan is perfect – origin of grace.

6. Therefore in the framework of the perfect plan of God, God must work. This man is blind; no one can do anything about it. God must work, and does.

7. The man is hopeless, helpless useless but the grace of God will meet his need. In meeting his need God the Son is manifest for what He is – the light of the world.

"should be made manifest" – aorist passive subjunctive. Aorist tense: point of time

and the timing is perfect; passive voice: the grace of God receives

manifestation; subjunctive mood: the potentiality of the manifestation depends upon the volition of those who observed this miracle. And there are two kinds of volition – the volition of the Pharisees who try to put Him down, and the volition of those who are for Him because they are positive.

Verse 4 – "I must work" is literally, "We must work." There is no pronoun "I" and there is no "I" in the suffix of the verb. "We" refers to God the Father, the first person, and God the Son, the second person. The Holy Spirit will also be involved in that he indwells the humanity of the Son. Working here is the present active infinitive of e)rgazomai, and it means to accomplish something. It is the purpose of God to work through grace, and only through grace, because grace reveals the perfection of His character.

"the works" – the product of grace; "of him" – God the Father who designed the plan; "that sent me" – God the Father sent God the Son; "while it is day" --

'day' refers to the period of the incarnation.

"the night cometh when no man [one] can work" – refers to the human race. The night refers to the three hours when he bore our sins on the cross. Darkness covered Golgotha – Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33. When darkness covered Golgotha no one worked except Christ, and He worked by being the recipient of divine judgment. In other words, Jesus is saying that while He is still on the earth and while people could still see Him in the flesh on the steps of this temple, "we must work." The works that were planned by the Father who knew that this man born blind would come to the point of God-consciousness and go on +V, and that he would sit on the outside of the temple. It was outside of the temple that the works of God would be manifested in a special way, revealing His grace. And everything that Jesus does from this point the religious people would hate. So Jesus is going to do this before the cross, before the night comes.

Verse 5 – "As long as I am in the world," i.e. the day; "I keep on being the light of the world." Now Jesus is going to manifest that He is the light of the world, the manifestation of God.

Verse 6 – He now begins the healing activity. Spitting on the ground and making mud was a ceremony the religious crowd would not approve of.

"When he had thus spoken" is literally, "Having spoken these things." Jesus declares the principle of doctrine before performing the act of healing. What comes first, the miracle or the doctrine? The doctrine came first, then the miracle, then more doctrine. He spat, made clay, and then put the clay on the man's eyes. The man was blind and with the clay he was now twice as blind! Jesus did not make an issue out of congenital blindness; He made an issue out of the man's soul.

Verse 7 – "Go," present active imperative. Keep going. The ordinary word for go is a)gw, but this is u(pagw – he is going under the authority of Jesus Christ. And he is not doing this to get his eyesight. Jesus didn't say, 'You do all this an I will heal you.' He is going there to get the mud out of his eyes. This man has +V at the point of God-consciousness, and Jesus by having him do this brings out something in the man's soul. It is the soul that counts.

"wash" – He gave a very interesting word for wash. There are two words for wash, niptw and leuw. Niptw means just wash part of you, e.g. wash your hands. Leuw mean wash it all, your whole body. Niptw is used here is the aorist tense, which means the man only had to do this once. Middle voice: he would be benefited. Imperative mood: that is an order.

And when he finished washing the mud out of his eyes, it says, "he came [from the pool] seeing." The word "seeing" is a present active participle of blepw which means he kept on looking. All he wanted to do was look with his eyes. He wanted to look at everything. Both his artificial and his congenital blindness were removed. Now he has been healed and the spotlight is on Jesus Christ who healed him. But although a miracle has been performed this man is still unsaved. It will be the end of the chapter before he is saved.

The blind man has been healed but he is still an unbeliever. He has not returned to the Lord Jesus Christ and he will not do so until verse 38. In the meantime the miracle is documented by friends and neighbours.

Verse 8 – the neighbours refer to those who live in his vicinity or with whom he has contact. They had some problem recognising him because they had never seen him with his eyes open before.

"which before had seen him" – they constantly saw him. The present active participle of the verb is qeorew which means to constantly view someone, to see them daily. They didn't necessarily know him personally but they always saw him because he was a creature of habit. He had to be taken to the temple every day, at which point he begged.

"that was blind" is not correct. It should be "was before a beggar." The word blind is not used here but the word beggar—prosaithj, someone who begs and does so through personal contact.

"Is not this he that sat and begged?" The word sat means to sit constantly at the temple and the word for beg means to ask for alms face to face with other people.

Verse 9 – the division of opinion. A person with his eyes open looks very different from a person who always has his eyes closed. So we have a division of opinion among those who saw him daily.

"he said" is imperfect linear aktionsart, he kept on saying this; "I am" is present linear aktionsart, he kept on saying, "I keep on being the same one."

Verse 10 – this leads to interrogation. Why can you see? The word opened is an aorist tense – in a point of time. They recognise that this was a miracle. They also recognised (passive voice) that someone had to do it for him. The indicative mood is the reality of his change of status. Once he was blind; now he sees. They accepted the fact that this was the man that they had always known. So how did it happen?

Verse 11 – he gives his answer for the first time but not for the last. These people are merely curious, they are interested, some of them are even friends, therefore he gives them a straight answer. Later on when he gets before the Pharisees he is going to give some sarcastic answers and will absolutely turn them upside down. Remember the Pharisees were highly educated. Their education exceeded that of anyone in the land and they were generally very smart people – but they were religious, and as religious people they were blinded. Here is a man who has never had one ounce of education and he is going to outthink them, he is going to use logic on them like a club, he is going to use sarcasm, and when he gets through they have no answer for him except to throw him out. They admit that they lost the debate with him and they lost the purpose for which they brought him into the Sanhedrin, into court, so the only thing they could do was to throw him out. They couldn't face him in any way. Yet this man is an unbeliever, but he is an unbeliever on +V.

"He had an answer" – the words "and said" are not found in the original.

"A man that is called [present linear aktionsart] made clay, and he anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash." Jesus could have touched his eyes and healed him. But Jesus chose this way because this man was on positive signals, and positive signals caused him to carry mud in his eyes all of the way down to the pool. It was a long trip and a doubly long one for a blind man. But he was motivated to do so and he did so.

"and washed" – niptw, which means to wash one portion of the anatomy, in this case his eyes.

"and I received sight" – when he took the mud off his eyes immediately his eyes worked for the first time. The word is a)nablepw [a)na = again and again; blepw = to look, to glance]. He looked again and again and again. Everything was new.

Verse 12 – a second question. "Where is he?" That is, Where is Jesus who healed you?

"I know not" – o)ida, inherent knowledge. Jesus could have healed the blind man on the spot but He chose to let him demonstrate +V by taking the long walk to the pool. Now Jesus is gone and the blind man doesn't know where He is. And it is just as well because the blind man is an unbeliever, and from sheer logic and sarcasm he is going to rebuke the theology, the religiosity, the legalism of the Pharisees. So this gives us the opportunity to examine something we would otherwise never know. How do people think who are unbelievers but have +V at the point of God-consciousness?

Verse 13-34, the blind man and the Pharisees.

Verse 13 – "aforetime was blind" means the once-blind man. There is no verb here at all.

Verse 14 – facing the religious issue. "And it was the Sabbath day." It was illegal to spit on the Sabbath but Jesus spat on the ground and made clay. And He did it on the steps of the temple! In chapter 5 Jesus heals the man that was lame. In chapter 9 He heals the blind man. He healed both on the Sabbath day, and again the pet taboo of the Pharisees is violated. Legalism rejects the grace implication: Jesus healed the man because of who and what Jesus Christ was, not because the man earned it or deserved it. He healed this man on the Sabbath and at this point He has alleviated suffering. This has never happened before in the history of Israel. No one with congenital blindness has ever been healed before in all of history and now for the first time it has happened. You'd think the Pharisees would be saying how great it was, but they didn't. They don't care about the man being healed. The Sabbath has been violated and they don't care about the alleviation of suffering or the fact that here is the sign of Messiahship and Messiah is here. All that upsets them is that their pet taboo has been violated.

Verse 15 – "also asked him" – the word for ask is e)rotaw which means to interrogate – by intimidation in this passage. The imperfect tense means they kept on interrogating him.

"how he had received his sight" – this is the big thing with them, they want to get everything straight on this and know exactly what happened. He is going to answer them once just as he did his friends. Then he begins to realise something is phoney here and it will change up a little bit.

"He [Jesus] put clay on mine eyes, and I washed, and do see." He shortened the story down this time. Notice:

1. The Pharisees cannot deny the genuineness of the miracle. It has occurred so they are going to have to discredit it and they try three ways to do it. a) Their approach is discredit the miracle; b) discredit the one who performed the miracle [Jesus]; c) discredit the recipient, the blind man.

2. They cannot break down by interrogation the once-blind man.

3. They cannot bully or intimidate the once-blind man to change his story. They tried.

4. This was not an honest investigation.

5. The once-blind man will not be intimidated; he will stick with the facts to the very end.

6. The validity of the miracle is therefore established before the court.

7. The approach was to try to attack him through the Sabbath.

Verse 16 – "is not of God." The word of is para and it means immediate source. Why did they say it? "he keepeth not the Sabbath." The fact that He

performed a miracle never performed before, the fact this miracle was a sign of Messiaship, the fact that it was so declared in the Old Testament that the Messiah would perform unique miracles, the fact that the suffering was alleviated – Jesus Christ is God, was all something they would not look at. Legalism says it couldn't be from God; He did it on the Sabbath.

Then there was the logical crowd: "How can this man be a sinner and do the thing that He did?" So there is a second view and there is a division.

"there was a division" – sxisma.

Verse 17 – a new tack. The word "again" is an adverb, palin which means they have been doing this over and over again.

"What sayest thou?" – this is different from the initial interrogation. This is to encourage the blind man to renounce Christ. But the once-blind man doesn't fall for this. This is an idiom which means, Now what are you going to say about your story?

1. This is a new form of interrogation designed to encourage the blind man to renounce Christ. They can't break down his story so they are going to

attack the person of Jesus Christ. They intimate that there is something wrong with Jesus.

2. The blind man is still unsaved, so whatever he does he does on natural resources.

3. The blind man is an unbeliever with positive volition at the point of God-consciousness and he is appreciative, thankful, grateful to Jesus Christ for

what He did.

4. Because he is a genuine person with a true appreciation he is not going to do what they want him to do, even though it is going to cost him and he

knows it is going to cost him. We are looking at a person who has stabilised emotions.

"that [because] he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet." That is all he could say because he didn't know anything more about Jesus Christ at this moment.

Verse 18 – "But the Jews did not believe concerning him." They didn't believe that this was a genuine miracle.

"that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called his parents." They have stopped for a moment but thy are going to come back and say Jesus is immoral. They stop because they can't budge this man. The word for call here is fwnew which means to shout it out.

Verse 19 – "saying" means they kept on asking; "Is this your son?" If the Pharisees could get the parents to deny that this is their son they could discredit the miracle.

"ye say he was born blind" – the implication of this question is that if the Pharisees could bully the parents into denying their son was born blind they could discredit the miracle. The parents would have to lie there, and they didn't.

"does he see now?" – the word now is an adverb which implies this is a temporary condition; a)rti means a temporary condition. Does he just see temporarily? In other words, they say this is just a temporary condition. That would discredit the miracle.

Verse 20 – first answer" "We know that this is our son." Second answer: "and that he was born blind."

Verse 21 – the third answer. The won't admit it is a miracle or that it is permanent. They are afraid – "we know not; or who hath opened his eyes."

They shift the blame – "he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself." They back off completely. They are afraid, they are intimidated, and they are not going to say anything though they know exactly what has happened. So here we would have to say that religion destroys the natural affection of a home.

Verse 22 – the description of the parents being intimidated.

"they feared [kept on being frightened] the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue." The word confess here is important. It means to acknowledge Him as Christ – o(mologew. Being thrown out of the synagogue meant excommunication and involved social and economic ostracism. It was a slow, horrible death – execution slowly. Once a person was excommunicated from the synagogue no one could give them food or sell them food, or help them in any way. No one could do business with them and they were starved out to die right where they were. The parents know this policy and it is the reason they are so frightened. The pressure of religionism and legalism in their case is greater than their gratitude to Jesus for healing their son.

Verse 24 – "Give God the praise" is not an expression of attitude or gratitude, it is putting him under oath. It is the equivalent of going into court today and being asked, 'Do you sware to tell the truth," etc. So they are asking this man to now put himself under oath. The implication is obvious: 'Before, you have been lying to us, now we are going to put you under oath so you can't lie.' So they use the law to try to intimidate and to discredit the once-blind man.

Now they finally come to their gimmick, to discredit Christ – "we know that this man is a sinner." The word for sinner means one who is immoral. They are implying that Jesus is immoral, which is blasphemy, in order to discredit Him and to get the once-blind man to renounce Jesus. They are bullying him now; this is intimidation.

Verse 25 – "He answered and said, If he is a sinner [and you contend He is – 1st class condition of supposition]. This is a debater's technique – let's suppose that you are right. And then that position is rebuked. Notice his testimony: "I know not." He is an honest witness. He doesn't know anything about Jesus up to this point. And he refuses to discuss something that he doesn't know personally; he refuses to get involved in speculation. Therefore he is going to stick to the facts as he knows them. The Pharisees are trying to put words in his mouth.

Then he tells them what he does know: "one thing I know, that, whereas I kept on being blind, now I keep on seeing." Here are two cases of present linear aktionsart.

Verse 26 – "Then they said to him again, What did he do to thee? How did he open your eyes?" They are trying to get him tangled up in his own words.

Verse 27 – "He had an answer for them, "I have told you already" – aorist tense" time after time I have told you; I have given you the whole story.

"and ye did not hear" – they did not recognise the implications.

"wherefore" means why? Why do you want to hear it again?

"will ye also be his disciples?" He uses a word here which is not in the English translation – mh. It is a negative particle and when you ask a question and put mh in you expect a negative answer. So he already knew the answer, and that is why we know this is sarcasm.

Verse 28 – "Then they reviled him." They can't meet logical argument with logic so they have to verbally abuse him. The word is loidorew, and it means that they called him everything that a religious person should not call anyone! They shed their religious dignity and in their anger and frustration they now show everyone that they are bullies, that they have no answers, that their theology is absolutely no good, that they are legalists.

Then they accuse him: "thou art his disciple." And here is where they have ruined their whole case because he isn't a disciple, he isn't a believer.

"we are Moses' disciples" – that is supposed to be the put-down of all put-downs but it doesn't put him down, it puts him up. They use present linear aktionsart here: "we keep on being Moses' disciples, we will always be Moses' disciples."

Verse 29 – "We know that God spake unto Moses." Sure, that is the Word of God, the first five books.

"as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is." When you lose your temper you always expose a weak point. "We know not" – since when did a Pharisee admit he didn't know anything? They know everything! But by admitting that they didn't know who Jesus was they just stuck their necks right out. It was an expression of their negative volition. Moses spoke of Christ – John 5:46. When they studied the scriptures they did not see Christ because of their negative volition, and therefore they distorted the Mosaic law into something else.

Verse 30 – the insight of this man. "Why this is an amazing thing, that ye know not from whence he is." This is even greater sarcasm. What do they not know?

1. The sarcasm begins to form.

2. The religious leaders profess to know everything.

3. The once-blind man recognises the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees—and he is an unbeliever.

4. He suffered from physical blindness; they suffered from spiritual blindness.

5. The one who cured his physical blindness can cure their spiritual blindness.

6. They must be on positive volition, and they are not. Their negative volition blinds – 2Corinthians 4:3, 4.

Verse 31 – logical words from an unbeliever on +V. He takes their own theology (which he had heard bit-by-bit on the steps of the temple): "Now we know"—

he includes himself and the Pharisees. This beggar had a tremendous advantage. For years and years he was blind, sitting on the steps of the temple. These people walked by him every day and he heard their discussions.

"God heareth not sinners: but if [2nd class condition – if and it is not true] any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth." In other words, he is saying that they are saying that what they have always stated dogmatically they are now renouncing emphatically. He is saying, "You have always contended that God doesn't hear sinners. You call this man a sinner but obviously God has heard Him." He doesn't know that Jesus Christ is God as yet, but he does use the words 'worshipper of God,' indicating that Jesus Christ cannot be wrong and the Pharisees must be wrong.

Verse 32 – the record of the logic. As an unbeliever this man can see the failure and inconsistency of the system. The Pharisees have a system. "Since the world began it was not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind."

Verse 33 – the final triumph of logic. "If this man were not from the immediate source of God, he could do nothing." "If" is a 2nd class condition of supposition. What he is saying is that if Jesus Christ is not of God, then he cannot see; if I cannot see, then there was no miracle; and if there was no miracle then the Pharisees must be right, and if the Pharisees are right then there is no reality in the world.

Verse 34 – "they cast him out," e)kbalw. They picked him up and threw him right down the steps.

"thou art altogether born in sins" – Why, you are worse than He is!

"and dost thou teach us?" – they had just had a tremendous lesson. Here is their answer. Did they refute with logical answers? No. They had no answer so they threw him out. So religion uses its authority to suppress the truth. That is always the way of religion.

The blind man and the Son of God, verses 35-41.

Verse 35 – "Jesus heard" is literally, 'Jesus having heard.' The word heard is an aorist active indicative and it means that it came to the attention of the Lord Jesus Christ that the blind man had been excommunicated. They had cast him out – e)kballw [e)k = out; ballw = to throw]. They threw him out of the temple. When they couldn't meet his logic, when they couldn't stand his sanctified sarcasm, the literally threw him out. It was obvious that the blind man as an unbeliever had rejected religion. Jesus did not come to this man until he had exercised his volition and had rejected religion. And not only had he rejected religion but religion, of course, had rejected him.

Who are the people who respond to the gospel? Who are the people who orient to the grace of God? Who are the people who are clear-thinking? The people who are not tainted in any way by religion.

"and when he had found him" – the word found [e)uriskw] means to discover. He made a point to look him up, in other words; "and said unto him" – notice now that Jesus doesn't give the man any gospel. But this is not always the way that Jesus did it, sometimes He gave a lot of gospel. There is no such thing as one way to witness to people. Here He gives no gospel at all, He starts right out with the question: "Dost thou believe?" This is a present active indicative of the word pisteuw. The word believe means non-meritorious thinking. He knows this man is ready to believe because the man repudiated religion with non-meritorious thinking. Jesus knows Himself that the man hasn't believed but the man has a chance now to face the issue. Jesus begins to challenge this man with regard to the mechanics – He put the mechanics before the content of the gospel.

Verse 36 – "He answered and said." Aorist passive indicative of a)pokrinomai [krinomai = to judge; a)po = from the ultimate source of self] and it means discernment, but in the passive voice it should be translated, "The man had an answer."

"Who is he, Lord, that" – the word that introduces a purpose clause. His purpose is to believe in Messiah; "I might believe" – aorist active subjunctive. The aorist tense is a point of time divorced from time and perpetuated forever. He knows it will be permanent. Active voice: he realises he has to believe. Subjunctive mood: he is not going to buy it unless it is clear.

Verse 37 – clarification. "Thou hast both seen him (remember, the man was blind)." But what words did the man use when he said he could see? One word he used was blepw which means to look up, and hello there is a brand new world. When he described it after he received his sight at the pool of Siloam he used the word a)nablepw which means he kept looking at everything, he kept using his eyes all the time. But Jesus used a word for the eyes of his soul – o(raw. It is used here for the perceptive ability of the mentality of the soul. "Thou hast seen" – perfect active indicative of o(raw. Perfect tense: you have seen Him in the past at the point of the performance of the miracle. When he was willing to wash he was expressing +V but he was already seeing with his soul. The eyes of the soul is the mentality of the soul. He has seen in the past with the result that he is going to be saved. Active voice: he is going to be saved. Indicative mood: the reality of his salvation.

"it is he that is talking with you" – present active participle. The word talk isn't talk, it is the Greek verb lalew which means to communicate information/doctrine.

Verse 38 – "And he said, Lord" – kurioj, deity – "I believe," present active indicative. The reality of his faith.

"And he worshipped him" – the word for worship is proskunew [proj = face to face with; kunew = to kiss]. He didn't literally kiss Him face to face. He kissed Him with his soul. His self-consciousness is aware of Christ. In his mentality he has just believed in Jesus Christ. His emotion appreciates Jesus Christ. It is possible for a new believer without any Bible doctrine to worship the Lord. It is a soul response, a love response to who and what the Lord is – a soul response to grace.

Verses 39-41, a condemnation with regard to religion.

Verse 39 – "For judgment I am come." The word for is e)ij which means for the purpose of judgment. Jesus Christ had two purposes. He came to call His sheep. He also came to judge, and this refers here to the condemnation of religion.

"into the world, that" – after the purpose clause we have a description of the blind man and then a description of the Pharisees. The blind man: "they which see not might see." Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. He sought the blind man and He saved the blind man. The verb for "see not" here is blepw. We are talking about his physical sight now. Previously we had o(raw which was talking about his spiritual sight. He couldn't see, so Jesus came for this man.

"might see" – present active subjunctive of blepw. Blepw is used here because the man saw an incident, namely the miracle which was the basis of clarification. When he saw then his soul responded.

"and that" is the second purpose clause, "they which see" – the Pharisees this time. They have the use of their eye-sight, they have been studying the Bible for years.

"might be" – now He changes it and uses the word ginomai which means to become something you were not before. These Pharisees did not start out as religious people, they became what they were not before. They could see Physically but they became – aorist tense, negative volition – blind. This is spiritual blindness resulting from the negative volition issue. When the vacuum of the soul opens up to religion it blinds the soul. Principle of doctrine: Religion blinds the soul.

Verse 40 – the Pharisees "heard these words." They knew what He was saying; "and they said unto him, Are we blind also?" When they ask this question there is one word that is not translated, the negative mh which is a question expects a negative answer. They are saying. "Are we blind also; we are not." In other words, they understood the issue. But they rejected the issue.

Verse 41 – "If ye were blind," and this is a 2nd class condition of supposition. Since they used the negative mh to say they were not blind Jesus uses a second class condition to pick up the thread of their remark. It quotes their supposition. He therefore makes an issue out of that negative mh. To get the corrected translation we go back to the end of verse 40: "Are we blind also? We are not. Jesus said unto them, If you are not, and you assume you are not …" Their statement is accepted in order to rebuke their statement.

"ye should have no sin" is literally translated, "you would keep on not having sin [singular]." It means they would not be functioning continually under their sin nature. Religion functions continually under the sin nature – both sin and human good.

"but now you keep on saying, We see; therefore your sin nature remains." The word sin used here in the singular is a(martia, and it is used for the old sin nature. It is:

1. The principle of sin, the old sin nature.

2. Proneness to sin – personal sins.

3. Compensation for sins – human good.

The unpardonable sin – rejection of Christ.

Chapter 10

There are two doors on this chapter. One is the door of ingress and one is the door of egress. At the time that this was written there were a lot of customs concerning sheepfolds and these have to be understood to understand the passage.

Outline: two messages given by Jesus Christ.

1. Verses 1-21, a message given in Jerusalem at the sheepfold by the Sheep Gate.

2. Verse 22-42, a message given at the feast of the dedication.

The occasion for the first message. It was given at the sheep gate and every morning sheep went out of it, and every night sheep came back into it. The sheep

gate is always a sort of back door to a city and it has to be near the pens. Every night before sundown a shepherd would lead a flock in the sheep gate. Each sheepfold to which they were led had walls 12 feet high and one gate/door. Early the next morning the shepherd came down to the sheepfold where there are, say, five different flocks. How is he going to get his sheep separated from all the others? He has a call which he has used for years, and all the sheep in his flock hear that call and get right in behind him. He goes through the gate still making the call and his sheep follow him to some pasture located outside of the walls of the city. The point is that all the shepherds in Palestine led their sheep by being out in front and having a call. The sheep followed that call. On the way out in the morning there are always thieves hanging out in the dark alleys trying to get some of the sheep.

The next day after the blind man expressed faith in Christ Jesus went down to the sheepfold. He has to explain to this once-blind man and other people like him. He has to explain why this man could put down religion and why religion rejected him, and what is wrong with religion in the first place. The only possible way to explain them is to get some sheep into the act, and that is what happened. Jesus is now standing at the sheepfold and a great crowd came with Him. The crowd includes the once-blind man whose conversion will be explained by, "I am the door, I am the shepherd." There will also be religious people their and there will be disciples there. Jesus is going to stand there and explain it all. In verse 1-6 He sets up this parable/allegory on the door of egress, the door of ingress, and the two shepherds. So we call this passage the shepherd discourses.

Verse 1—the false shepherds of Israel. "Verily, verily" means point of doctrine. Jesus is going to make a point of doctrine through a parable.

"I say" – He is about to communicate, and He is going to keep on communicating in principle; "unto you" – dative of advantage. The plural indicates a big crowd standing by the sheepfold.

"He that entereth not by the door" – this refers to the religious leaders who castigated the once-blind man and threw him out. The verb is e)iserxomai [eij = into; erxomai = to enter]. Inside the fold are sheep. The only person who is allowed to enter than pen is a bona fide shepherd. Some people try to get in there and steal sheep who are not shepherds. This refers to the religious leadership at the time that Jesus Christ was on the earth, the Pharisees and the scribes – the Sanhedrin who put on trial the once-blind man. The words "by the door" is dia plus the genitive and it should be "through the door." When the sheep are going out of the sheepfold the Bible says they are "entering in." They are entering into a pasture by going out of the sheepfold. Entering into a pasture is phase two. And notice: the sheep who stayed in the sheepfold starved to death. They had to get out in the pasture. They had to have a shepherd.

Note that the false shepherds are trying to enter the sheepfold, not leave it. The sheepfold is Israel in Jesus' day. The door is the only legitimate entrance into the fold; it is the bona fide coming of Messiah to Israel. Jesus is the shepherd who walks through the door, i.e. He has those whom He can call. There will be people all over Israel who will respond and when He walks out the door they will walk with Him. Messiah is the true shepherd throughout this passage. The first door is the virgin birth. The virgin birth is the basis of the incarnation.

In verse 7 Jesus says, "I am the door." In verse 9, "I am the door." Both times He says "I am the door" and they are different doors. But then in verse 11 He says, "I am the good shepherd." He says, I am the door" twice, and "I am the good shepherd" twice.

Virgin birth of Christ = first advent. That is the door. The incarnation of the God-Man will be the shepherd walking through the door. The door is verse 7 is the virgin birth but the door in verse 9 is the cross. One is the door of ingress; one is the door of egress. In other words, one is the door by which you enter and one is the door by which you leave.

Because Jesus Christ is the bona fide son of David, in His humanity, He has the right to go in the door. He has the right to call the sheep; He has the right to walk out and to lead His sheep into green pastures. Those who are the false shepherds do not have that right. The false shepherds are the scribes, the Pharisees, the religious crowd. The religious crowd are the false shepherds; Jesus Christ is the true shepherd. How did the false shepherds treat the once-blind man? They abused him – the sheep. How does Jesus treat him? He leads him to Himself; He saves him.

"He that entereth not through the door" – the entrance into the sheepfold: Israel in the time of Christ; "but climbeth up some other way" – the false shepherds. The word for "climb up" is a)nabainw [bainw = to climb; a)na = up, and also again and again]. They keep trying to climb again and again and again. And when do the false shepherds stop trying to climb over the wall? When the Romans came to the city (66-70 AD) they all ran like rabbits! The "wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep." The wolf was the official standard of the Romans. "The "hireling" who runs away is the religious hierarchy. The word "but" is a conjunction of contrast, and it is the contrast between Jesus Christ the true shepherd and the religious crowd, the false shepherds.

"but they keep on trying to climb up another way" – present active participle, they do it again and again and again. "Some other way" is an adverb, a)llaxoqen which means "elsewhere." In other words, the religious crowd to do not have a right to go through the gate, and they will not go through the gate. They do not fulfil the requirements of being the son of David, they do not have Bible doctrine, they are not sent from God. This is an adverb which means they come into the picture another way, a false way. It means that they do not come from God, they are not a part of the plan of God, and they do not come on the basis of Bible doctrine. This is true of religion always.

"the same" – the same ones, the religious hierarchy; "is a thief and a robber" – two different words: 'thief' is klepthj. It refers to a thief who robs by strategy. He doesn't use violence, he uses his brains to rob. This describes one facet of the religious hierarchy at the time that Jesus was on the earth. It is the modus operandi of the Pharisees seeking to discredit the miracle of the previous chapter. The word "robber" is lhsthj which means a person who robs by violence. Thieves and robbers are outside the law. Religion is outside of doctrine, outside of the plan of God. Religion is never sent by God. The father of religion is the devil, and religion is his ace trump. Religion is how he organises the world. Cosmos diabolicus is any type of human good but religion is on the top bracket. There is no place in the plan of God for religion. The thief climbs up some other way; this is false doctrine—the doctrine of demons, the doctrine of religion. The "robber" is religion using violence.

Verse 2 – the true shepherd of Israel. "He that entereth in" – e)iserxomai, present active participle. He has the right to enter in at any time, "through the door."

"is" – present linear aktionsart, absolute status quo verb, "he keeps on being the shepherd of the sheep."

In this verse are two things: He enters the door, and he enters the door as the shepherd. Before Jesus went to the cross He had to become a man. This was accomplished by the virgin birth. So Jesus Christ coming in the door = virgin birth; going out = the cross. When He comes in He comes in by Himself; when he leaves He leaves with sheep. The sheep who go with Him are those who believe in Jesus Christ. So the door of verse 7 is the virgin birth; the door of verse 9 is the cross.

And we have two shepherds.

Verse 3 – the true shepherd of Israel has the right to enter the door. He is the only One who does. In this verse the true shepherd goes in to gather His own flock only. That is why He never gathers the religious crowd. People on negative volition do not follow Him out the door when they hear His voice.

"To him" – Jesus Christ, the true shepherd; "the porter" – and old English word for a gate/door guard, qurwroj. The door guard is God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not open to religion – ever. The word "openeth" is present linear aktionsart, and it is also a dramatic present. It was a dramatic moment when Christ came into the world.

"and the sheep hear his voice" – this is the way He gathers them. The word "voice" here is a)kouw which means to hear and obey. This explains the once-blind man – "I believe" is positive volition expressing itself by faith in Jesus Christ. Who hear His voice? His sheep. And the once-blind man is one of His sheep. And who are His sheep? The sheep are in the pen/sheepfold. Until they go through that door they are not saved, but they hear His voice because of +V at the point of God-consciousness. The sheep "listen and obey His voice." The voice is the gospel message.

"he calleth" – present active indicative. Ordinarily the word for "call" is kalew, but the word used here is fonew which means to utter sounds of identification. The shepherd uttered sounds so that the sheep would know His voice and follow Him. But notice He could only call His own sheep – those who are on +V at the point of God-consciousness.

"by name" – but it doesn't say that. The word "by" is mistranslated, it is kata and that means "according to a norm or standard." By what name? By His own name. It actually says, He calls them according to the standard of a name. The standard of the name is the person Himself. The standard of the name is the only saviour. Acts 4:12. It is the name of Jesus, the only one by which anyone can be saved.

"he leadeth them out" – the verb is e)cagw which means to lead them out from, to lead them out of the pen into the pasture: doctrine, phase two. This is a present active indicative which means the process will continue until the angelic conflict is completed at the end of the Millennium. The pasture is Bible doctrine, and this refers to the principle that when the sheep are saved God does not leave them standing around. God provides for every believer. God has a plan for the believer but the believer must feed in His pasture – the Word of God.

Verse 4 – "And when he putteth forth." The verb is e)kbalw [cf. 9:34, "they cast him out"]. The Pharisees picked the once-blind man up and threw him down the steps of the temple. Jesus picks him up and throws him into a pasture so He can feed him. Aorist tense: it refers to the whole concept of phase two. Active voice: Jesus Christ provides Bible doctrine so that the believer can orient to His grace and to His plan. But it is in the subjunctive mood: potential. Whether you get with Bible doctrine or not is a matter of your personal volition. Religion is always vicious; God is always gracious.

"his own" – i)dioj, His own private sheep, personal sheep. They are His forever.

"and the sheep follow him" – the word follow is a)kolouqew which means to follow someone because you want to, because it is your own personal soul desire. In other words, when you respond to the Lord Jesus Christ you feed in His pasture. He goes before them, that is why they follow. This means He provides pasture.

"for they know" – now they know Him better because when they feed in His pasture they get to know Him, and therefore they know His voice – o)ida, they know it and can never forget it. Once you get Bible doctrine you love the Lord and you'll never forget Him. Nothing will ever take His place.

"his voice" – this time the voice is the voice of doctrine.

Verse 5 – the condemnation of the religious leaders. "And a stranger." The word stranger is a)llotrioj, not a stranger but a person you could never love. Once you learn Bible doctrine you can never love religion and you can never love legalism. This is not a stranger but someone who will lead astray, someone you can never love when you know doctrine. It means literally, one whom you know belongs to another – the one who represents religion.

"they will not follow" – a)kolouqew but with a negative. Once you have become spiritually self-sustaining you will always despise religion and therefore will never be sucked into a religious system.

"but will flee" – this word means to separate, to avoid, not so much to run; "from him" – i.e. from the stranger, a)po = ultimate source. This means to flee from the ultimate source of the stranger, which means to flee from his false doctrine. You flee from false doctrine because you have true doctrine; you have fed in the pasture.

"they know not the voice of strangers" – o)ida [inherent knowledge] plus the negative. Once you are self-sustaining you will never fall for religion.

Verse 6 – "This parable." The word is paroimia [para = to put alongside; oimia = road]. It means to put two roads side by side. One road you know, so you put another road alongside it so you understand that road. In other words, He has taken this story of the shepherds at the sheepfold so that they will now know and understand what happened to the once-blind man when he was saved. You take a road you can understand and if you put another road alongside of it you can understand that. This is really an allegory in which a common occurrence symbolises a principle of doctrine.

"unto them" – for their advantage; but they [the religious crowd] understood not" – no o)ida anymore! Now it is ginowskw. They understood what He was saying about the first road, but since they were not saved the second road was unknown. They didn't understand. He was talking about the once-blind man and how he was converted, and the whole process. While they understood the shepherds and the sheep they didn't understand what point He was making.

"which he spake" – lalew means to communicate. They did not understand what He was trying to communicate.

Verses 7-10 is the two-door discourse. Verse 7, the first door; verse 8, the Pharisees and the first door; verse 9, the second door; verse 10, the Pharisees and the second door. In each case we have the truth and then we have those who oppose the truth. The first door is the door of ingress – entering the door, verse 7.

Verse 7 – "Verily, verily" is a point of doctrine. Jesus is going to now present a doctrinal discourse.

"I am" is the present active indicative of e)imi, the absolute status quo verb: "the door" – He is not only the door but He keeps on being the door. The concept is that this goes on forever and ever and ever. The word for door is qura. A door has two sides. This door refers to the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Inside the door are the 33 years that Jesus Christ was on earth as David's greater son. The shepherd is bona fide, He has the lineage of David – Isaiah 11:1; He was virgin born – Isaiah 7:14; and He is now in hypostatic union – Isaiah 9:6.

The healing of the blind man in the previous chapter confirms the right of Jesus Christ to enter that door. It is one of seven credit cards which Jesus Christ will offer, indicating that He has the right to enter. The first of these credit cards was the turning of water into wine. In chapter 11 we get the seventh credit card (sign) which is the resuscitation of Lazarus. The sixth credit card was the healing of the blind beggar in chapter 9, and this is the one that shows that Jesus Christ has the right to be in the sheepfold, He has the right to call the sheep, and at the end of chapter 9 He did call the sheep. One of those sheep was the blind beggar. One of the things that comes out of that chapter is the fact that in the fold of Israel and until the bona fide shepherd comes they will not respond; they reject false shepherds. The false shepherds are the Pharisees.

Verse 8 – the attitude of the Pharisees is pictured. "All that ever came before" – reference to religion, to the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin.

"are thieves and robbers" – the word thief is klepthj which means to rob by strategy. The concept here is the religion has doctrine, false doctrine, called in 1Timothy 4:1 doctrine of demons. They use their false doctrine in order to captivate the minds of those who are on negative volition. The word for robbers is lhsthj which means to rob by violence, and this is the activity of religion throughout the centuries. When they fail to persuade with their false doctrine they turn against you with violence.

The second door is found in verses 9 and 10.

Verse 9 – the door of egress, the cross/salvation. Again, Jesus said, "I am the door," present linear aktionsart of the absolute status quo verb, and it should be translated, "I keep on being the door." This is the door of salvation; this is the door of the cross.

Going back to the sheepfold, when Jesus Christ goes in the door opens to Him. That is the first advent, the incarnation. The shepherd goes around, gave His call, and then He goes out. The door of egress is the cross. Those who are His sheep go out with the shepherd. In other words, they go out the door.

In the door of salvation we have a prepositional phrase, translated in verse 9, "by me." This is dia plus the genitive and it should be translated "through me." There is only one way of salvation and that is through the Lord Jesus Christ – John 14:6; Acts 4:12. This door is always open until physical death. Physical death closes the door and eternity – the great white throne – closes the door. The Second Advent closes the door – baptism of fire. The flood closed the door.

"if" is a 3rd class condition, which means salvation is completed, nothing can be added to salvation, and therefore there is nothing left for man to do but to respond with his volition or react with his volition. And whether he responds or reacts it is a non-meritorious thing. The 3rd class decision indicates that it is now in the hands of man. Every individual must makes his own decision and it comes from his own free will.

"any man" is literally, anyone, tij in the Greek. It means any member of the human race.

"enter in" – e)iserxomai [e)rxomai = to go or enter; e)ij = in or into] means to enter into. Now the shepherd is going out – the cross. The sheep are in Israel here and they now go through the gate out. But when they go out they enter into the plan of God – e)iserxomai is entrance into the plan of God. This verse will not be understood unless the first six verses are understood. Enter is does not mean to enter into the sheepfold, it means to enter into the plan of God. It is an aorist active subjunctive. The aorist tense is the point of time when a person believes, divorced from time and perpetuated forever. You can't lose your salvation. The subjunctive mood: the subjunctive goes with the 3rd class condition – maybe yes, maybe no; it is potential. In this case the potential depends upon volition. Either a person believes or he doesn't believe.

"he shall be saved" – future passive indicative. A future tense after an aorist means that in the point of time when a person believes this is what happens – salvation. The passive voice: you receive salvation.

"and shall go in" – again we have e)iserxomai. This means into the plan of God. It is a future active indicative; "and out" – this phrase means out of Jerusalem to the pasture, and out refers to living on the Word.

"and find pasture" – the word find is a future tense, active voice, and an indicative mood. The word means to discover, and you discover through doctrine. The word pasture refers to Bible doctrine categorically presented so that it is stored in the human spirit.

Verse 10 – the Pharisees and the second door. Here again is the condemnation of the religious leaders in Jesus' day. "The thief" – kelpthj. Here is Satan trying to steal the sheep by strategy – false doctrine.

"cometh not" – the thief is not in the plan of God. Principle: The thief cometh not means religion is not in the plan of God.

"but to steal" – the use of false doctrine. Religion tries to imitate Christianity. It comes in a point of time to try to steal and destroy. Whether they do it or not depends upon your attitude toward doctrine. The Pharisees were stealing sheep through false doctrine.

"and to kill" – quw means to offer a sacrifice. In other words, when religion gets around to killing people they always have a good excuse for doing so. This refers to religion using violence.

"and to destroy" – religion uses the state to destroy. The word here is a)pollumi which means to neutralise. It has the idea of state or social ostracism. It means to destroy human freedom by destroying volition.

Jesus said by way of contrast:

"I am come" – Jesus uses the word e)rxomai, and that is the door of ingress, virgin birth, incarnation. But when He is leading the sheep out, the door of egress, the word is e)iserxomai.

"that they might have" – present linear aktionsart, keep on having. But it is a present active subjunctive. "Have is e)xw which means to possess, and as of the cross to possess it forever and ever. Subjunctive mood: eternal life is potential, whether you are a believer or not a believer – John 3:36.

"life" – eternal life, God's life. God's plan calls for God's life.

"and that they might have [keep on having] it more abundantly" – the abundance of the eternal life that the believer has in phase two depends upon knowledge of doctrine.

Verses 11-13, the first message of the shepherd.

Verse 11 – the first word is a personal pronoun. There is a point of syntax in the Greek that the first word in the sentence is that which receives the emphasis. Therefore this particular pronoun – e)gw – is called a proleptical pronoun. A proleptical pronoun is one that has great emphasis, and here it should be translated, "I, even I am." The verb "am" is e)imi, the absolute status quo verb. It is present active indicative which means, "I keep on being, there never will be a time when I am not." So here is one of the declarations of Jesus Christ concerning Himself.

This has followed the sixth credit card in John. Starting with the changing of the water into wine Jesus Christ has presented six credit cards to Israel. In chapter nine we have credit card number six to prove that He was Messiah. Then, after presenting this credit card #6, the healing of the man with congenital blindness, we have this dissertation. From this we have in chapter eleven the number seven credit card, the resuscitation of Lazarus, bringing him back from the dead. In between we have chapter 10 in which Jesus Christ is going to explain and make very clear just how He relates to Israel. He has already accomplished this with the dissertation on the two doors, and now we have the shepherd dissertations.

"the good" – this is not what we would normally expect. There are two words for good – a)gaqoj, which is good of intrinsic value and used for divine good. This is not the word used here which is kaloj. Kaloj emphasises the beauty and the character of the humanity of Christ. There are three persons in the Trinity, only one of them is the revealed member of the Godhead – John 1:18. So whenever Jesus Christ is discussed in terms of being revealed this emphasises His person. The person of Christ is unique and the emphasis here is on the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. This word kaloj has to be understood in terms of time as it relates to eternity. In eternity past was the divine decrees. It was the objective of the plan of God that man share the divine happiness. Whether man actually gets this happiness or not depends on whether he appropriates the plan of God or not. The plan of God was designed in eternity past. The Father is called the Father simply because He is the author of the plan. In time the believer can have this same piece of happiness that God has always had. God shares His happiness with man – the believer. As a result man can have the inner peace, inner happiness, inner blessing in time. This is called kaloj because it is related to the person of Christ. When Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross the sins of the world were poured out upon Him and judged. He became the only saviour. This is divine good. Every man in his volition faces the issue: to accept divine good, the work of Christ on the cross or, in rejecting that, to depend upon his human good. Appropriation of divine good is "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."

Kaloj is going to be described in the rest of this passage. This word means beautiful, it means to have symmetry, to have perfect character, maximum attractiveness. This word is used in the New Testament to indicate the beauty, the uniqueness, the glory, the majesty, the fantastic things involved in the person of Jesus Christ. This one adjective plus its noun is going to be the subject really of this entire passage. The adjective is good, the noun is shepherd.

Jesus says, "I keep on being the good shepherd." The word kaloj means that He will always be beautiful, He will always be attractive, He will always be perfect. He will always be the easiest one in the whole universe to love. He is constantly giving, and this giving makes certain members of the human race beneficiaries. In order for Jesus Christ to fulfil kaloj to any individual He must be able to give them something and they must be sheep to be the recipients. Therefore we have the word shepherd. Jesus Christ gives to His sheep. He can only give to His own sheep. He can only provide food/pasture for His own sheep. He cannot provide this for religious sheep, for the devil's sheep. Religion is antagonistic and hostile to the plan of God. Religion operates on the basis of legalism and human good; Christianity operates on the basis of grace. So there must be a relationship and shepherd-sheep is used to describe that relationship.

"shepherd" – the word emphasises provision, preservation, and protection. Jesus Christ provides the happiness which the members of the Godhead have enjoyed in eternity past and He provides it by His work on the cross. Preservation: one a person believes in Jesus Christ then Jesus Christ provides 40 things which the believer will have forever. Protection is His provision for time.

The word shepherd is used for the Lord Jesus Christ in three different ways. Christ is the good shepherd in this verse, and there will be an emphasis on salvation. In Hebrews 13:20 Christ is called the great shepherd and this is His provision for phase two. Then in 1Peter er 5:4 Jesus Christ is called the chief shepherd and this is His provision for phase three.

"the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." That is not a correct translation. The word to give is not the word to give at all. The word for give in the Greek here is tiqhmi, and this word does not mean to give. It means to lay aside, to put down, or to lay down. It was used in the ancient world to put down a bet, to put something down on a table. Jesus Christ put something on the table – His own life. The next phrase is "his life" – thn yuxhn a)utou, "the soul of him." So it is literally, "put down [on the table/cross] his soul." When it says He laid down His own soul it is a reference to the work of Christ on the cross.

"for" – u(per, the preposition of substitution. He lays down His soul "on behalf of the sheep." The sheep here refer to the members of the human race. This is the basic concept of entering into the plan of God.

Verse 12 – "But he that is an hireling." The Greek word is misqwtoj and it means someone who joins himself to the flock and comes around once a month for pay. It doesn't mean someone who is hired by the shepherd, that is why the word is used. The religious leaders do not have the approbation of Jesus Christ or of God. These people have set up a religious hierarchy and there is the union of religion and state. The Pharisees are the state and therefore the people have no freedom. The people were completely hamstrung by religion. So misqwtoj here refers to the religious leaders, the Pharisees and the scribes.

"and not the shepherd" – the shepherd has nothing to do with the religious crowd.

"whose own the sheep are not" – the misqwtoj does

not own the sheep.

"seeth the wolf" – this describes the condition of Palestine in Jesus' day. The wolf refers to Rome. Wherever the Romans went they carried two kinds of standards. One was an eagle standard and one was a Roman standard. The standard bearer often had a wolf's head for a helmet and the wolf became symbolic of Rome. The sheepfold is Israel. The word for seeing here is qeorew. It does not mean to see, it means to perceive, to see a political trend. The religious leaders already saw the political trend. They hated Rome because Rome was encroaching upon them – Roman law hurt them. But at the same time they were the state, and therefore they acquiesced to Rome on the one hand and fought Rome behind Rome's back. These are the Pharisees and they perceive, they see a political trend, they see the wolf coming. The present active participle means the wolf is in the process of coming, it has not taken over as yet.

"they leaveth" – present active indicative of a)fihmi means to desert. At this time the Pharisees, the religious crowd, rule Palestine, even though Rome is on the fringe administering. The religious crowd have a policy which is going to be disastrous for Israel and destroy it in 70 AD. When the religious crowd saw the wolf coming they deserted. When Titus arrived in 70 AD the Pharisees were gone. They had found ways to escape and to get out.

"and fleeth" – present active indicative, they kept on fleeing. They see thew wolf in 30 AD at the time that Jesus is speaking. Fleeing from the wolf is 70 AD, forty years later.

"and the wolf catcheth" – this is what happened to Israel as a result of having a religious leadership. The Greek word is a(rpazw which means to seize with violence, to destroy with violence. This was fulfilled in 70 AD when the worst siege in human record occurred.

"and scattereth" – present active indicative of skorpizw. It means the people are taken out of their national definition and made slaves. At the siege of Jerusalem about 97,000 out of 2-million escaped death and they were sold into slavery. From then until the Second Advent the Jews are out under the fifth cycle of discipline and are a scattered people.

Jesus Christ is warning what religion is going to do. He is explaining that God's plan rejects religion.

Verse 13 – why did the religious leaders flee?

"because he is an hireling," i.e. because he is a religious leader and he can no longer utilise the people.

"he careth not for the sheep" – this is an idiom and it means that the religious leaders of Israel were indifferent to the fate they had brought upon the people. Their policies destroyed the nation. There is a key principle here. When religion becomes the state or when religion influences the state so that the policies of religion become administrative policies in the state the state destroys itself. So between 30 AD and 70 AD, a period of some 40 years, this is exactly what happened. The reason there is no concern is because eventually all religious organizations are ecumenical or international in their thinking, and internationalism destroys national definition. When you destroy national definition you destroy freedom and when you destroy freedom everything goes.

Verse 14 – the second shepherd discourse. "I am" – present active of the verb e)imi, 'I keep on being the good shepherd, I always will be the good shepherd, there never will be a time when I am not the good shepherd.' The word good is kaloj, and here we have the principle of the hypostatic union. Jesus Christ was perfect in His humanity and, of course, He was perfect in His deity.

"and know my sheep" – ginwskw is a verb 'to know,' but it means to know from the experience of observation, study, and also to know from the experience of falling in love with someone. You are around the person long enough to get to know them. This means to know by experience, to know by name, and to love while knowing. It is a present active indicative and means 'I keep on knowing my sheep,' and it means that Jesus Christ knew us from eternity past. And yet He loves us with an infinite love, knowing every mistake that we would ever make, knowing every failure. His love depends on who and what He is, not who and what we are.

But this verse does not say "my sheep." It is ta e)ma (lit. the mine). Later on He is going to say "my sheep" but He doesn't say it here. He says, "I know the mine." Sometimes ginwskw is study, sometimes it is love. How do we know which is which? You have to find out what the object is. From "the mine" we know we are not talking about learning something, studying. When you have doctrine as the object of ginwskw it is talking about learning doctrine, but here persons are the object and these persons are described in intimate terms – "the mine." We know the "the mine" are sheep here because it says, "I keep on being the good shepherd." It refers to us as His sheep, those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The word sheep is not here, except by implication – "I keep on being the good shepherd."

Characteristics of the word 'sheep'

1. A sheep cannot guide himself. Our Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, provides guidance for us. We have no clue as to what is the divine viewpoint or

the divine will as we go through phase two, so He has provided us with Bible doctrine.

2. A sheep cannot cleanse himself. Our Shepherd provides for us rebound. He has provided cleansing from sin, the basis for getting back into fellowship.

3. A sheep is helpless when injured. A shepherd has to provide for every problem, for every pressure, for every disaster for the sheep. Our Shepherd provides

for us, again through Bible doctrine, the basis whereby we can meet any disaster in

life.

4. A sheep is defenceless, apart from the shepherd. Our Shepherd has provided a wall

of fire for us – Zechariah 2:5.

5. A sheep cannot find water. Our Shepherd has provided for us water, the water of

life; and He has provided for us food.

6. A sheep is easily frightened. Our Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, provides Bible

doctrine for us in time of disaster.

7. A sheep does not belong to a sheep. By this is meant that a sheep has wool. The

sheep grows wool but is doesn't belong to it. The sheep's wool is analogous to divine

good. Divine good doesn't belong to us; it is the production of Bible doctrine and the

filling of the Spirit. Our divine good, as it were, is sheared off, and that is the last that

we see it until eternity. So our Shepherd provides the basis for our production of

divine good.

"and am known of mine" – 'am known' is a 3rd person plural, present active indicative of ginwskw. "Am" in front of "known" gives is a passive concept, but this is an active voice. The 3rd person plural is always translated by "they." It is active voice, and therefore out goes the "am," and it is "they know me." Again, ginwskw means to know from experience and observation. It is possible for us to love God. Every believer does not love God. They are the recipients of His love but they don't love Him. The only way that we can love God is to know Him, and you have to know Bible doctrine. Everything that is revealed about God is contained in Bible doctrine and there is nothing about God apart from Bible doctrine. In other words, if you don't know Bible doctrine you don't love God. He always loves us but whether we love God or not depends on Bible doctrine. Notice again, He knows them – "the mine, and they know me." They refers to believers who know doctrine. There are believers who are +ginwskw [+ doctrine] and there are believers who are –ginwskw [–doctrine]. Believers who are minus doctrine are incapable of loving God; they do not have the capacity. Plus doctrine means to have the capacity; minus doctrine means to be minus the capacity to return that love.

Verse 15 – "As the Father knoweth me," ginwskw, present active indicative; "even so know I the Father" – present active indicative of ginwskw. So the we have the present active indicative four times: twice in verse 14 where we have the point of doctrine, and twice in verse 15 where we have the illustration. In the illustration we make an advance on the point of doctrine. In verse 14 the love is shared through a relationship. You must have a relationship; it is only shared through the cross. The emphasis is on the cross whereby we enter this relationship. We entered into a relationship in time and it is a relationship that will extend into eternity. In time we can have some of that happiness and in eternity we will have that happiness. But whether we have it now or not the emphasis is on the verb ginwskw – which must have an object. The object is Bible doctrine, the only way we get to know God. "I have always loved the Father and the Father has always loved me." Eternity past: verse 15; time: verse 14. In eternity past the first person loved the second person with a perfect love. The first person is called the Father and the second person is called the Son because the first person is the author of the divine plan and the second person agreed to come into time and to execute the divine plan so that it would be possible for believers to become sons, and so that the Father could share with His enlarged family [believers] this happiness which has always existed. He provides through Bible doctrine His happiness. This is what is being said right up to the middle of verse 15.

If God is going to share with people in time His happiness there must be a way He can share it through love. God cannot share His happiness without love. God wanted to invite us to His party but He had to have a way to set up an invitation. And it has to be a way that is compatible with His perfect love. This is why we have the rest of verse 15. Justice comes into the picture. The penalty of sin is death and God put the whole human race under spiritual death. So righteousness and justice made it impossible to in reality love mankind, though he could in principle. At the cross Jesus Christ was +R, and that satisfied the righteousness of the Father. He was judged for us and that satisfied the justice of the Father. Not only was the Father propitiated in His righteousness and justice but it liberated His love. Love has to be free to express itself. God's love was freed through the cross, and only by way of the cross.

"and I lay down my life for the sheep." This is incorrectly translated. In the first place, He didn't lay down His life. The word for lay down as translated in the KJV is the Greek word tiqhmi which does not mean to lay down. It really means to place something on the line; to put it on the line would be a better translation. It means to place or to put; "my life" – thn yuxhn mou is literally "the soul mine." In other words, this is translated "my soul." This eliminates physical death as the way of salvation! He didn't put His physical body on the line for us; He put His soul on the line for us. It was spiritual death, not physical death, that provided salvation.

"for" – u(per, the preposition of substitution, means "on behalf of" or "as a substitute for [the sheep]." God the Father judged the soul of Jesus Christ. He judged the soul of Jesus Christ because the sins of the world were poured out upon Him and in spiritual death the soul is judged.

Ginwskw

1. Since ginwskw means to know, to know from experience, and since it is used in

these two verses, it becomes obvious that ginwskw connotes a knowledge of a person – and in this case, knowledge of a person with whom there is a relationship. This point recognises that ginwskw is used for love in a relationship.

2. In verse 14 Jesus Christ loves His sheep and it is possible for some of the sheep

who know doctrine to love Him.

3. Verse 15. Ginwskw is used as an illustration, and it is a parallel illustration as

indicated by the fact that verse 15 begins with the word "as." The love

between the Father and the Son is used to illustrate the love of the Shepherd for the sheep.

4. Believers are sharers and a part of the love which has existed from eternity past.

God the Father and God the Son always had a love for each other, and it

is ginwskw love. In time believers share this love. We are the recipients of it and sometimes the responders to it.

5. The use of ginwskw in these two verses emphasises a second point of doctrine. Love and the capacity for love depends upon the human soul. The body is an instrument for the expression of love but the body is not the basis for love.

1. A)gapaw + filew = ginwskw.

2. Ginwskw expresses the total love picture and our response to God's love. We develop capacity from a relaxed mental attitude and that is based on

knowing God.

Verse 16 – the prophecy concerning the Church. "And other sheep I have" – the word other here is not other. There are two different words for other and it is necessary to know which one is uttered. The first one is e(teroj, which means other of a different kind; and the second is a)lloj which means other of the same kind. The word found in this verse is a)lloj. In other words, these people that Jesus is mentioning in His prophecy are sheep, believers who have trusted in Christ as saviour, and it is a reference to Gentile believers in the Church Age. Jesus has been speaking to Jewish believers in the Jewish Age, the dispensation of Israel, in His shepherd discourses. Now He is going to bring Gentiles into the picture and introduce a new dispensation. He anticipates the Church Age which is just around the corner. In less than a year the Church Age will have arrived. "I have" is the present active indicative of the verb e)xw which means to keep on having and always having. It is the first indication of the principle of eternal security. When the shepherd says "Other sheep I have" it is present linear aktionsart – I keep on having them, there never will be a time when I won't have them.

"not of this fold" – this fold refers to

the dispensation of Israel.

"them also" – believers of the Church Age; "I must bring" is literally, "It is necessary for me to lead." The Greek word dei should be translated, "it is necessary." "To lead" – to lead into green pastures. Just as Jesus Christ provided phase two information for believers in the Jewish Age He provides phase two information for believers in the Church Age. The words "to lead" is the aorist active infinitive of the verb a)gw, and it means that all throughout the Church Age, from the time the Church Age begins to the present time, when a person receives Christ as saviour he enters into phase two immediately. And God provides phase two information whereby he can function as a priest, as an ambassador, whereby every believer can become spiritually self-sustaining, and becoming self-sustaining he can represent the Lord in full time Christian service. (Every believer is in full time Christian service and there is no such thing as a layman)

"Other sheep I have [keep on having], not of this fold: them also [believers of the Church Age] it is necessary for me to lead [lead to the green pastures]. In other words, just because there is a change of dispensation it doesn't cancel out green pastures. The Lord provided doctrine for believers in the previous dispensation; He provides doctrine for believers in this dispensation.

"they shall hear my voice" – the word hear sometimes means to listen and sometimes it means to hear and obey. Here the word means to hear and obey. The word is a)kouw, future middle indicative. Future tense: throughout the Church Age when any person goes on +V at the point of gospel hearing he will respond and enter into phase two. (Phase one: salvation; phase two: the Christian way of life; phase three: eternity) The future tense means that at any time in the future when a person hears the gospel and responds he is in the plan of God. Middle voice: emphasis on positive volition at the point of gospel hearing. They themselves shall hear and they shall be benefited by entering the plan of God. The indicative mood means the reality of the principle. Jesus is stating a principle for the future, a principle which is true for the Church Age.

"there shall be one fold" – a reference to positional truth, the fact that at the moment a person believes in Christ God the Holy Spirit takes him and enters him into union with the Shepherd. The one fold refers to union with the Lord Jesus Christ/positional truth.

"one shepherd" – Jesus Christ is the only saviour. He is the head of the Church and that never changes.

Verse 17 – "Therefore" is literally, "Because of this," dia plus the accusative. Because of the prophecy in verse 16, because there is a future dispensation in which there will be one fold and one shepherd, "my Father doth love," present active indicative of a)gapaw. He keeps on loving, He never changes.

"me" – in this case Jesus Christ is speaking from His humanity; "because" – here is why. Jesus Christ as a member of the human race is going to operate within the framework of a plan. God's plan designed in eternity past. We as believers often operate outside of the plan of God and the reason we do is because we are minus doctrine. But Jesus Christ knew doctrine and He operates within the plan of the Father's love could be poured out upon Him constantly. This is leading to the cross. God loves the Son; God gave what He loved the most. When this is combined with John 3:16 we have the whole picture of the Father's love. He loved the Lord Jesus Christ and yet He gave Him to the worst judgement that will ever exist. Worse than the last judgement even is the judgement of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The plan of the Father is given in the phrase, "because I lay down my life." He operates within the framework of the divine plan, therefore He operates constantly under the love of God.

"because I lay down" – tiqhmi means to put something on the line, to place, to put something on a table. The active voice says that Jesus Christ did this willingly within the framework of the divine plan. The indicative mood is the reality of the divine plan calling for the unique death of Jesus Christ.

"my life" is literally, "my soul."

"My Soul"

1. Literally, 'my life' is 'my soul.' The word for 'life" would be zwh, but this is yuxh which is the word for soul.

2. This is a reference to the spiritual death of Christ.

3. In physical death Christ laid down His body – swma; in the spiritual death of Christ He put His soul on the line.

4. It must be remembered that it is the soul of man which is saved at the cross, not the body.

5. When it says 'the wages of sin is death' it is referring to spiritual death, not spiritual death.

6. When Adam sinned he died spiritually immediately. His physical death came later as a result of having an old sin nature. Physical death is the result of

spiritual death but physical death is not the wages of sin.

7. In salvation the soul is saved, not the body – Psalm 19:7; 34:22; Mark 8:36, 37; Hebrews 10:39; 1Peter er 1:9.

"that" introduces a purpose clause; "I might take it" – lambanw doesn't mean to take, it means to receive. It should be translated, "that I might receive it."

Aorist tense: the point of time of the resurrection.

Verse 18 – the volition of Christ in this matter. "No man" is literally, 'no one' – o)ueij. No one, man or angel; "taketh" – a)irw which means to lift up. It was used originally for murder. When a person's head was lifted up and his throat cut that was murder. It means to murder, to take away, to raise up, and also to remove. Here it means to remove. "No one removes it [my soul] from me." The word 'from' is the preposition a)po which is ultimate source – 'from the ultimate source of me.' No one removes the soul from His body, i.e. no one is going to kill Him.

"but" – conjunction of contrast; "I lay it down" – present active indicative of tiqhmi; "from myself" – a)po.

"From myself"

1. "From" is the preposition of ultimate source, a)po.

2. Only the volition of Jesus Christ is involved in going to the cross.

3. Without the volition of Jesus Christ being involved He would not have died for our sins.

4. The divine decision of Christ made the decision in eternity past.

5. The human volition of Christ made the decision periodically during His incarnation. His humanity had to face the decision more than once. At the point of

the virgin birth He said yes: Hebrews 10:5, 7, 10. At the baptism – Matthew 3:16,17. At the sheepfold – John 10:18. At the Garden of Gethsemane – Matthew 26:39,42.

6. Christ was not helpless victim. Without His free will agreeing not a hair of His head could have been touched.

"I have" – e)xw, present linear aktionsart, 'I keep on having.'

"power" – e)cousia means authority. The authority of Jesus Christ is the plan of God. He also had free will, and authority is the free will of Jesus Christ

making a positive decision to go to the

cross and die for the sins of the world.

"I have power to receive it again" – 'I have the volition to receive it again.' Why does He? Because He is operating within the framework of a plan. This plan is described by the word "commandment."

"This commandment" – e)ntolh which means command, but it means an order, a directive, a commission, or an edict. It really connotes orders given within the framework of an organization, of a plan. The plan belongs to God the Father and this plan is called the commandment; it is a whole plan.

"I have received" – aorist active indicative. Aorist tense: in eternity past. Active voice: I personally received it. Indicative mood: the reality of the fact that God has a plan that begins with me – Jesus Christ.

"of" – para, preposition of immediate source; "of my Father."

After Jesus had finished His message there was a reaction and a response in the crowd.

Verse 19 – the crowd is divided because of what Jesus has said. "There was" is literally, 'there came to pass,' aorist active indicative of the verb ginomai which means to come to pass, to come into existence, something that didn't exist and now it does. In other words, the crowd listened to Him without heckling. Then, after the message was over, they stated their opinions. "There came to pass a division" – sxisma, the word from which we get the English word schism. Actually, there was a schism every time Jesus presented His credit card – up to now six times. Every time that Jesus Christ presented Himself as Messiah through a miracle immediately there was a response and reaction from the crowd. It was among the Jews because Jesus had a ministry to the Jews at this time. Specifically the religious leaders are involved here.

"for these sayings" – dia plus the accusative and should be translated 'because of.' "These sayings" is a reference to the dissertation is a reference to the discourses at the sheepfold. The messages of the Lord Jesus Christ always divided people. Every time He spoke He spoke in terms of doctrine, in terms of principle. And when you talk in terms of doctrine and principle you cannot help but divide the human race. Some go positive and some go negative, and when you stand up before, say, a thousand people and talk and there is no division among the people it means you have said nothing! It means you haven't brought any principles into the picture—therefore no issue. When Jesus started to enucleate principle people were divided. No one can speak principles or doctrine without becoming controversial.

In verses 20 & 21 we get the two groups in the crowd. In verse 20, the reaction group; in verse 21, the response group. In every group there was a reaction and a response.

Verse 20 – "And many of them." This is the crowd who rejected; "said" – imperfect linear aktionsart of the verb legw. They kept on expressing their views. This means they are angry. So we not only have negative volition but we have mental attitude sins developing—hatred, vindictiveness, implacability, hostility, etc. And we now have a summary of some of the things they said.

"He hath a devil and is mad" – the word devil is the Greek word for demon. It is a reference to a fallen angel. All madness, pscychotic conditions in the ancient world within the framework of Judaism were ascribed to demon possession. This is an expression of the unpardonable sin of Matthew chapter 12. The people who are rejecting here in John 10 are religious. The worst people in the world are religious people. Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ; it is grace. Here they kept on saying Jesus had a demon, this is the present active indicative of the verb e)xw – 'He keeps on having a demon, everything He does comes from demon possession.' Therefore the conclusion: "and is mad" – mainomai, a true word for a psychotic condition. To say that Jesus has a demon is only given here to explain away His miracles. Also they must explain away His message because people are becoming interested in what He is saying.

Verse 21 – the response group are on positive volition, so we have the word "Others." This means others of the same kind, i.e. people in the same crowd who heard the same message.

"said" – imperfect linear aktionsart, 'kept on saying.'

"These are not the words of him that hath a demon." So they reject the religious explanation of the situation.

"Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?" To them this is impossible, this is something that belongs to God and therefore they reject the religious explanation.

So we now have a reaction group and a response group, and that is where the whole thing is dropped. Technically a new chapter should start here.

In

verses 22-42 we have a message that occurs some two months later.

Verse 22 – "And it was at Jerusalem the Feast of Dedication." The word "it was" is literally again, "it came to pass" – ginomai; "at Jerusalem" – same city but we have the elapse of two months (October through December). The Feast of Dedication is Hanukah. On 25 December, 166 BC the king of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes was determined to make Greeks out of the Jews. So he made a gold statue which he called the statue of Zeus – Zeus was the head of all of the gods of the pantheon – and put it up in the temple. The Jews protested. So he said that on 25 December he would offer some animal sacrifices in the temple, and in due course he herded in 1000 pigs. To the Jew the pig was an unclean animal. Since the 11th century BC the Greeks had been sacrificing pigs – when they were not sacrificing people. This was how they were going to turn the Jews into Greeks! They had the Greek priests in the temple cutting the throats of pigs and spreading the blood all over everything and the people began to protest. Then they rounded up a thousand Jewish children and sacrificed them. By the time the 25th December was over there was the blood of pigs and people mixed all over the temple and it was one horrible mess. This led to the Maccabaean war. The Jews killed so many people that Antiochus gave up and they were able to win their freedom and independence for the moment. In the middle of December in 164 BC they began to clean up the temple and on the night of the 24th everything was cleaned up, so the next day they decided to have a celebration which they called the Feast of Lights. They lit up the city of Jerusalem with lights. They brought in a great golden candelabra and lit it up. The feast went on for seven days and it ended on 1 January. So for seven days they exchanged gifts and had this big celebration. This was called two things: the Feast of Lights and also the Feast of Dedication. Now 134 years later they were still celebrating this feast and it was a big time in Jerusalem. They celebrated their freedom in this way. It had no religious connotation and it was a time of happiness and gaiety, and so on. It was probably one of the more pleasant time nationally for the Jews. Whenever it came around people seemed to forget all of their differences and they all made a real effort to turn Jerusalem into a real party town.

Jesus gave His last message one day after the feast of the tabernacles, a seven-day feast which went from 15 October through to 22 October. So the difference between 23 October when Jesus gave His message and 25 December is roughly two months and two days.

Now we have a new message. The city of Jerusalem has had two months to calm down, but in that time they have not calmed down! This was one year when the fun time didn't quite make it. It didn't come off. The reason it didn't was because the religious leaders would not mind their own business. They would not respect the privacy of someone else. That 'someone else' was Jesus Christ. They would not leave Him alone.

Verse 23 – Jesus is minding His own business. He is taking a walk in the porch of the temple. "And Jesus kept walking in the temple" – imperfect linear aktionsart. "Solomon's porch" is not a porch, it is a covered walkway.

Verse 24 – religion comes along. "Then came the Jews round about him." The verb is kuklow and it means to encircle, to surround or to march around. Legalism is constantly trying to persecute grace.

"and said" – literally, 'and kept on saying,' imperfect linear aktionsart; "How long dost thou make us to doubt?" Literally, 'Until when do you lift up our soul?' This is an idiom which means, How long do you hold us in suspense? That is the question they kept asking Him. Right up to this moment He has presented six major credit cards to Israel. He has performed numerous acts of miracles and healings. He has been giving message after message after message which was lucid in its presentation. The issue has been clarified time after time. And yet they say, 'How long do you hold us in suspense?' He is not holding them in suspense. The question is totally unfair but it expresses maximum legalism, religion.

"If" – 1st class condition of supposition; "thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." The 1st class condition has to be regarded two ways here. From the standpoint of the people speaking – these are religious people, unbelievers – they are saying, "If, and we must assume it from your works, from your message, tell us plainly." He has been telling them plainly. This is an aorist active imperative, and imperative of demand. They demand that he speak plainly. This request/demand was made by religious people. They have observed the miracles, have heard all the messages given in the Gospel of John plus many more. They have heard the issue many times. Now they have started problems that are going to blow the lid off their favourite holiday.

Verses 25-26, an explanation as to why the Pharisees and other religious Jews did this.

Verse 25 – "Jesus answered them, I told you" – Notice: They said to Him in the previous verse, "Tell us plainly," an aorist active imperative of the verb legw. Now Jesus said, "I told you," aorist active indicative. The only change is Jesus changing it from the imperative to the indicative. They didn't have to demand it, He has been telling them.

"and ye believed not" – present active indicative plus the negative. The word for believe here is pisteuw, and it is now in linear aktionsart. 'I have told you at this point, at this point, at this point,' etc. This is a constative aorist – every time He spoke. They not only ejected Him every time He spoke but they rejected Him in between (the present tense). When He said, "and ye believed not" He changed the tense to present to show that not only did they reject Him at this point but all the time in between they rejected Him. Jesus gave His message at the feast of the tabernacles, plus one day afterwards when He finished up at the sheepfold. And for the next two months and two days these people are still on negative volition, they still do not believe. Now they have cornered Him on Solomon's porch and now He is telling them, "I can keep on saying this as plainly as I have in the past and you will still not believe." And He is surrounded by these people on negative volition. At that time these people were vicious. There is nothing more vicious than a self-righteous religious person. When they are motivated to kill they are the greatest murderers in the world. And were it not foe a wall of fire the Gospel of John would end right here. Jesus had a wall of fire around Him, He was totally surrounded by the most hostile people in the world. Every one of them would gladly have killed Him.

Notice Jesus mentions the message first. "I told you" is a message. The Lord gives us what is important. Bible doctrine is important. It is the message that is important. He doesn't mention the miracles first, He mentions the message first. It is the message by which people are saved; miracles merely focus attention on the message.

Then He says, "the works" – a reference to His miracles – "that I do," poiew, present active indicative. All the time He was performing these miracles they were negative, negative.

"they bear witness of [concerning] me" – they prove that Jesus is what He claims to be. Peri never means of, it means concerning.

Verse

26 – He lays it on the line to these hostile religious people.

"But ye believe not" – you keep on believing not, present active indicative plus the negative. Every time they get a chance they express negative volition. That is the way it is with religion.

"because ye are not of my sheep" – they are in the fold, Israel, but at the point of God-consciousness they went on negative volition. They did not want relationship with God, therefore a vacuum was created in the soul into which was drawn religion, legalism, emphasis on the details of life, mental attitude sins, etc. When they eventually hear the gospel they have all this background of religion. The gospel is now presented by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, with all the eloquence of the God-Man, and at the same time the one who has performed all of these miracles and presented these credit cards, and their minds are so filled with the corruption of legalism and religionism that at the point of gospel hearing they say no. They retain their religion. So He says, "ye are not my sheep." His sheep are those on +V.

"as I said unto you" is not found in the original.

'Ye Are not my sheep'

1. Only Jews with +V at the point of God-consciousness respond to the gospel.

2. The blind beggar had +V at the point of God consciousness. He is in contrast to these religious Jews.

3. He expressed his +V when he faced Jesus Christ, through faith in Jesus Christ – even though he had minimum gospel hearing.

4. No matter how many times the Pharisees, the religious Jews, hear the gospel and see the miracles they will continue to reject Christ.

5. Negative volition at the point of God-consciousness or at gospel hearing creates a vacuum in the mentality of the soul into which religion is drawn. Romans

1:18-26. Religion is never an accident, it is where –V exists at the point of God-

consciousness.

6. Religion blinds the unbeliever. 2Corinthians 4:3, 4.

7. Being a sheep does not mean being saved. Being sheep refers in this passage to the human race and all the sheep in the fold do not belong to the flock of

our Lord.

Verse 27 – who are the true sheep of Israel. There is one answer found in Romans 9:6-14. The answer we have is found in this passage—chapter 10—the dissertation on the two doors and the dissertation on the two shepherds.

"My sheep" refers to those Jews who personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ at the time of His ministry to the southern kingdom—the regenerate of Israel.

"hear" – present active indicative of the verb a)kouw and it is for positive volition at the point of gospel hearing. First they hear the gospel and then they respond by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They hear and respond.

"my voice" – today we cannot literally hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, we hear His voice through the Word. But in the day in which our Lord ministered He actually presented the gospel verbally Himself and this is the principle to which He refers at this point.

"and I know them" – the verb for 'knowing' here is ginwskw and it refers to the omniscience of Jesus Christ in eternity past. He knew every Jew who would respond to the message, and so He made provision for them in eternity past to lead them out into the pastures. This is a dramatic present tense. Active voice: He personally knew from His deity who would accept Him and who would not. The indicative mood is the reality of this situation. Jesus knew His sheep in eternity past and this means knowing them He provided for them. When we as the sheep know Him it is because in time we have learned through doctrine, but in eternity past He knew us before we even existed. Omniscience is the thinking of Jesus Christ. We now have some of His thinking reduced to writing, for the Word of God, the Bible, is the mind of Christ—1Corinthians 2:16. We as sheep learn to know Him through doctrine but He knew us in eternity past.

"and they follow me" – this is the analogy of the sheep. Present active indicative of a)kolouqew, used for the second door. It is a synonym for personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The purpose of this verse is to demonstrate that when you believe in Jesus Christ you have a personal relationship with God.

The sheep follow the shepherd. Following the analogy, when the shepherd leads out the sheep there is something they have to do. They follow him. He doesn't lead them to the wolves. He leads them outside the gate and out into pasture. He provides for them. He protects them to the pasture and provides for them in the pasture. So there is the concept here of provision and protection and, along with one other word, this is the plan of God: a) Relationship – "my sheep"; b) Provision; c) Protection. God is perfect; His plan is perfect, and these three words describe His plan. The provision is doctrine but the protection is His person, His essence—the wall of fire which He has provided for us. In the plan of God there is relationship, provision and protection. This is going to exist forever.

Verse 28 – the first thing a believer must have in orientation to the plan of God is security. Without security the relationship isn't real to him. (In verses 28-30 we have the doctrine of eternal and temporal security)

"I give" is a present active indicative of the verb didomi which means to give. Jesus Christ is God; He is also humanity, and the God-Man does the giving. That is grace. Why is Jesus Christ mentioned here instead of the Father who is the author of the plan? But everything goes back to the words, "My sheep." If you are a believer in Jesus Christ the first thing you need is security. Security you have, but realisation of that security which means orientation to the grace of God and the plan of God. Present tense. Linear aktionsart, "I keep on giving."

"unto them" refers to "My sheep" and is dative of advantage. It is to your advantage to be a sheep, to be in the plan of God; "eternal life" – every believer receives eternal life at the moment of salvation. Eternal life means security forever and ever. It is a gift which is never withdrawn.

"they shall never perish" – this is an emphatic double negative with the aorist middle subjunctive. The Greek word is a)pollumi, the word which is used for the last judgment. It means to bring to nothing, to make void, to utterly destroy. A double negative in the English is a positive; a double negative in the Greek is a strong, emphatic negative. Literally, this is "they shall not no never perish." The double negative says there is no sin you can commit and lose your salvation. The mood here is the subjunctive of prohibition. It means that God will not permit the believer to perish on the basis of His character. It means that it is totally impossible for the believer to lose his salvation. In no circumstance will God permit the believer to perish. When you put a double negative and the subjunctive mood in the suffix of the verb it means it all depends on God; that you will not lose your salvation, that you cannot lose your salvation, and that there is nothing you can do to lose your salvation. The middle voice means that the subject is benefited by the action of the verb, and we are benefited by 'no, not ever perishing.' A)pollumi is a verb of the last judgment, a verb associated with the lake of fire, and there is no way that a believer can ever get close to the lake of fire.

"neither shall any one pluck them out of my hand" – the word neither refers to either angelic or human beings. It also means neither can God do it. The word for "pluck" is a)rpazw which means to seize by violence; it doesn't means to pluck. A(rpazw is used here because there is a lot of violence in the world. This is the devil's world and every person who lives in this world has an old sin nature and is therefore potentially violent. All of the violence in the world could not take one believer out of the plan of God. All of the power combinations that have existed since the beginning of history together could not blast one believer out of the plan of God.

Verse 29 – "My Father." Whenever Jesus used the words "Father" or "My Father" He was speaking from His humanity.

"gave" is a perfect active indicative of didomi. The perfect tense means that this was given in eternity past; "me" – everything that is important, that is security, everything that is inner happiness, peace and blessing is tied up in the person of Jesus Christ. It is not tied up in the things of this life. Jesus is saying, "My heavenly Father gave me those who are believers." Believers are in union with Christ. The Father gave us to the Lord Jesus Christ in eternity past, we are now His in reality after salvation (historically), therefore even though the devil is the ruler of this world we are still a gift from God the Father to God the Son. And God the Son does not treat such a gift lightly, and He has made thorough and total provision for each one of us.

"is greater than all" – present active indicative of e)imi, 'keeps on being.' The word greater is meizon, a comparative adverb which means greater in degree. It is a reference to God the Father, the author of the divine plan. It indicates that our security in no way depends upon anything in this life, it depends entirely upon the Father, the Son and the Spirit—members of the Godhead. Out security depends upon God the Father and therefore it says "no man" or literally, "no one is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." No one refers to the creatures of this earth: fallen angels, unbelievers. Because the Father is greater than any power in this world we have one perfect security.

"able" – present active indicative from dunamai which means to have the ability. No one, angel or human, has the ability or the power; "to pluck" – present active indicative of a(rpazw which means to seize by violence, to do violence to. No one has the ability to do violence to the believer, apart from His permission. Whenever He permits it there has to be a very unusual reason for it, and it becomes an individual matter where it occurs. The believer is under His security and His protection all the way.

"my Father's hand" is an anthropomorphism to indicate the protection used in the previous verse. [Anthropomorphism = ascribing to God some human characteristic].

"Out of my Father's hand"

1. This is an anthropomorphism of eternal security.

2. God is perfect; His plan is perfect.

3. Therefore everything in the plan of God depends on His perfection, His resources, His love – His character.

4. God's plan is greater than our failures.

5. God's plan is greater than our sins.

6. God's plan is greater than our disasters.

You as a believer are anchored in union with Christ and nothing can shake it, nothing can destroy it. You are in something that is perfect and permanent.

Verse 30 – now Jesus speaks from His deity. "I and my Father" – spoken from His humanity; but then He says something else: "we are one" – are is present linear aktionsart, absolute status quo, and it means "keep on being"; one has to do with essence. They are no one person, they have identical essence. Every religious Jew understood this and they started picking up rocks to stone Him to death. When He said, "I and my Father are one" they understood that He was saying that He was just as much God as the Father is. And that is true; He is. He and the Father are one. They are two different persons but they have identical essence.

Verses 31-33, the rejection of the true shepherd.

Verse 31 – "the Jews took up stones again to stone him." The first time they did it was in John 8:59 in the temple. These are the religious Jews. Every stone in the hands of a Jew was a negative ballot in the grace of God and the plan of God. Notice that they are on Solomon's porch and there are no stones on Solomon's porch to lift up. We are given to understand that they had to go outside the porch where there was rough ground and they could pick up these stones and bring them back. Apparently, all the time that Jesus was speaking people were filing out to get stones and bringing them back.

Note: verse 23 – "Tells us plainly"; verse 30 – He told them plainly. And they understood His statement.

Verse 32 –"Jesus had an answer [Literally], Many good works have I shewed you." The word for good here is not the usual word, it is kaloj rather than a)gaqoj [inherent or divine good]. He uses kaloj because it is something you can see that is good. The point is that they could see the miracles. This is the symmetry, the beauty of God's plan. Although they could not see the beauty of God's plan in eternity [a)gaqoj] past they now saw the manifestation of it in the miracles [kaloj]. The words "I have shewed" means to exhibit, not to show. The Greek word is deiknumi means to exhibit. The purpose of miracles was always to focus upon Christ so that the individual might see the issue of the cross and might believe in Jesus Christ, resulting in eternal life.

"from the Father" – from is the source. The source of these is the Father. The Father designed the humanity of Christ to be filled with the Spirit so that these miracles could be performed in the power of the Spirit.

"for which" is literally, 'because of what kind'; "of those works do you stone me?" There are seven major miracles, seven credit cards to Messiah. And He says, 'What kind, which one was it that brought out the stoning? Why are you ready to kill me now?' They have seen six of them; the seventh will be in the next chapter – the resuscitation of Lazarus from the dead.

Verse 33 – He gets an answer. "For a good work we do not stone you." That is a lie. The Pharisees deny that their attempt at violence is not connected with the healing of the blind man on the Sabbath, yet that is exactly what it is. This violated their pet taboo of legalism; this aroused their antagonism. There is nothing worse than a legalistic religious person when you cross him.

"but for blasphemy" – the penalty for blasphemy under the law was death by stoning, Leviticus 24:16. The Pharisees, because of their implacability, wanted Him eliminated and they are trying to use this as an excuse. These people were not seeking information, they wanted Him to condemn Himself. When He said, "I and the Father are one" He was saying "I am God," and they call that blasphemy. That is their excuse to stone Him. They were only asking questions so they could kill! They wanted Jesus to condemn Himself and this was a violation of Jewish law (for a person to condemn himself from his own lips).

"and because thou, being a man (and always being a man), make yourself God." The word "makest" is a present active participle from poiew, which means to do or to make. And they are claiming that Jesus by speaking made Himself God.

1. By Jewish law Jesus cannot be convicted by His own testimony.

2. Under Jewish law they must prove that what Jesus said is not true. They cannot kill Him unless they prove that what He has said is not true.

3. They can't do it because the first six credit cards proved that He was God. So they can't prove it by law.

4. The prosecution in the Sanhedrin must prove that Jesus is not God. (This was on Solomon's porch which was no court).

5. They cannot prove Jesus was guilty of blasphemy until they establish the fact that He is not God. And they won't do it because of they bring in the evidence, the more they bring in then the more it is demonstrated that He is God. So they won't take Him to court. By the way, religious Christians will do this too – judge you without the facts, malign you, gossip about you, assume the worst about you, and dislike you without a cause. If you are a grace believer and you bump into legalism at any point, or religionism—whether it is a Christian or a non-Christian—, they are going to judge you; they are going to condemn you without the facts.

6. They cannot establish this fact because Jesus has demonstrated that He is God.

7. The religious crowd deny the Father's evidence.

Hence, the court is out of order by rejecting evidence by the primary Witness who is the Father.

Verse 34 – "Jesus answered them" is literally, 'Jesus had an answer for them."

"Is it not written" – perfect tense of the verb grafw which is used for the permanence of the scripture. The scripture cannot be changed; it is here to stay. It was written in the past with the result that it stands written forever.

"in your law" – Psalm 82:6. We have a quotation. "In your law" refers to the Old Testament scripture."

"I said, Ye are gods?" The word for "god" here is Elohim in the Hebrew. In Psalm 82:6 this is addressed to those who were the judges of Israel. We know this from Psalm 82:2. Now the question is: Why were they called 'gods'? What is behind all this and why does Jesus use this particular quotation? It represented the function of God—judging. The judges who are addressed in Psalm 82:2 actually represented one of the divine functions which is delegated to human beings under divine institution #4. So since they represented one of the functions of God, which is judging, Jesus is much more a representative of God the Father than the judges of the Old Testament. The principle of logic is a very simple one. If men representing God could be called gods, how much more the true Son of God could be called "God." All Jesus is doing is showing them that logically they have no right to try to execute Him without a trial because in Psalm 82:6 men were actually called gods, the reason being that they had one of the functions which belongs to God but was delegated—judging. Psalm 82:6 does not mean 'You are gods,' but 'You represent a function of God [in judging the people of the land].'

This was addressed to men, and if the scripture which cannot fail and cannot lie called certain people God, and Jesus calls Himself God, even if they simply think that he is a man Jesus is simply pointing out that they are out of line to jump Him for blasphemy. Because even more so He represents a function of God as illustrated by the six miracles He has already performed as credit cards for Messiahship. He has actually performed more than six miracles but these are specific as far as that function is concerned.

Verse 35 – "If" is a 1st class condition; "he called them gods." Jesus documents from scripture that human beings have been called gods. This is His defence. Specifically they represent one of God's functions which is judging. Jesus is using logic at this point to refute the charge of blasphemy. There are two ways He could do this: a) Use the scripture directly. In other words, the scriptures pertaining to Himself. In that way the emphasis would be on the hypostatic union, the fact that He is the God-Man. He has already used that approach and they have not accepted it. b) He can use logic, and He can take one scripture where this logical approach is actually utilised. Jesus is greater than the judges; it is that simple. Since He has already demonstrated that he is greater than the judges, and since that the scripture has already called lesser types 'gods.' Logically Jesus cannot be punished by stoning for blasphemy.

1. Jesus documents from scripture that human beings have been called gods – Psalm 82:6.

2. Specifically they represented God in one of His functions – judging, Psalm 82:2.

3. Jesus uses the logical approach to refute the charge of blasphemy.

4. In quoting the Psalm passage Jesus assumes for the sake of argument that He is only a man (though He is not). This is the blasphemous assumption of the religious leaders. All Jesus is doing is showing them that they are outside the law if they try to kill Him.

5. While the assumption is not true, because Jesus is eternal God, it is made for the sake of protecting unbelievers from an act whereby they would destroy their own freedom. Jesus is talking to unbelievers – religious types – therefore they are filled with violence. They want to take law into their own hands; they are violent for no reason. When you go outside of the structure of divine institution #4 – law and order – to gain power you lose the very basis of your power which is human freedom.

6. Even if Jesus were only a man He does not deserve stoning to death, and if they stone Him they have gone outside of the law and destroyed the protector of their freedom. Unbelievers have two protections to their freedom: a) Divine institution #4; b) Bible doctrine on the part of believers in a nation. For these people in Israel at this time their protection is divine institution #4; they have law and order. And they are about to bypass their law and stone Jesus because He simply answered their question.

7. Jesus takes the Pharisees' position and refutes the charges from their assumption.

"unto whom" – the judges is Psalm 82:2; "the word of God" is a reference to the Old Testament scriptures; "came" – aorist tense, in a point of time.

"and the scripture cannot be broken" – in this case it is a reference to the Old Testament scripture. The word broken here is an aorist passive infinitive of luw – in no point of time can the scripture be broken. Passive voice: it receives this protection. The infinitive indicates that this is God's purpose and Jesus is arguing from an irrefutable source, a source which they recognise. Jesus makes an issue out of their own law.

Some people are way out of it and think they shouldn't vote in an election. They think it is sort of non-spiritual to become involved in the devil's world. It is the devil's world but God has put structure into the devil's world to protect the volition of mankind so that the angelic conflict can be extended into mankind, and so that man can be evangelised, and so that the human race can survive. Therefore the believer has certain responsibilities under these divine institutions.

Verse 36 – "Say ye of him [the Lord Jesus] whom the Father hath sanctified" – He has just taken up the subject of their freedom and now He goes back to the object of freedom when it comes to the issue of salvation. The Father is the author of the divine plan, and "has sanctified" is an aorist active indicative. The aorist tense is not a point of time, it is an occurrence in eternity. In eternity past the Father sanctified or set apart the Son. The Greek word for sanctified is a(giazw which means to set apart.

"and sent" – this refers to time. There are two different words used in this verse: sanctified and sent. Sent is a)postellw, to be sent from the ultimate source, and this refers to time. He was set apart [sanctified] in eternity past; He was sent in time from the ultimate source of God the Father, an historical reference to the incarnation.

"Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God" – "Son of God is a technical title for deity. If God can address human beings as 'gods' – Psalm 82:6 – it is absurd to charge Jesus Christ who is both God and man as blaspheming when He uses the title the Son of God. All He did when He said, 'I am the Son of God' is merely repeat His answer to them.

Verses 37-38, the credit card of the Shepherd.

Verse 37 – "If" is a 1st class condition. In other words, "If I do not provide bona fide credit cards from scripture." He is going back to general scripture in which it was prophesied that Jesus would perform certain types of miracles. He has already performed six and in the next chapter we will get the seventh credit card. These are credit cards of Messiahship. So He is saying that if He does not present these credit cards then they shouldn't believe Him. So He is making a principle: the scripture summarizes the credit card system to that any member of Israel would know.

"believe me not" – present active imperative. He commands them: pisteuw plus the negative. Present tense: keep on; active voice: that's your free will. Why does He want them to keep on having free will? Why does He want to keep them from destroying their free will? Because He knows that the Jews still have forty years as a nation, and during that time it is important to have their volition. Therefore the imperative mood, He commands them: "Do not believe in me if I do not have the bona fide credit cards." He has presented them. Confronted with the truth that Jesus Christ is Messiah they Pharisees have rejected His message. They have been trying to rationalise the miracles. The miracles plus the message are irrefutable, Jesus Christ is God, He is the God-Man, the only saviour, the hope of Israel. The Pharisees are not only in danger of losing the opportunity for salvation but also of losing their freedom. He is the hope of Israel as individual Jews believe in Him and have eternal life; He is the hope of Israel and a nation; and because Israel has rejected Jesus Christ as saviour within forty years they will no longer be a nation. He came with those credit cards which were Bible doctrine, and when a nation rejects Bible doctrine it goes down.

Verse 38 – the positive side. "But if I do" – in other words, 'If I do present the credit cards.' This is present linear aktionsart, which means He has presented a number of them. It is also a dramatic present: these credit cards are dramatic.

"though" is a 3rd class condition. He says, 'Even though you do not believe what I am saying you have a choice of two things by which you can come to the truth': a) the message; b) the miracles. He says, 'If you don't believe me, believe what I do.' One way or another if they listen to what Jesus says they are hearing the message from God Himself. But of they do not listen to what Jesus says and believe the miracles they are accepting the testimony of the Old Testament scriptures. So there is a written testimony and the spoken testimony and they both cover the same ground. The miracles also witnessed to who and what Christ was, i.e. to Israel.

"believe the works" – believe the miracles, the credit cards. Why?

"that" introduces a purpose clause; "may know" – aorist active subjunctive. The word ginwskw is used twice here. It means to know from the experience of learning. The first time it is used it is an aorist active subjunctive and correctly translated, "that ye may know." This is phase one knowledge/information.

"and believe" – again, ginwskw. This time it is a present active subjunctive. It isn't believe, it is 'that you may know and keep on knowing.' This is phase two! Here is the issue. 'If you don't believe what I say when I say that I am the Son of God, when I say that I am the only hope, when I say that I am the only saviour, then believe my credit cards. If you believe my works then you are going to know that I am the saviour' – aorist active subjunctive of ginwskw. The words "and believe" in the KJV is literally, "and keep on knowing."

"that ye may know" – phase one knowing; "and keep on knowing" – learning of doctrine.

"that the Father in me and I in him" – no verb here. This is relationship. There is a relationship between the first and the second persons of the Trinity, and the person who believes in Christ enters into that relationship. The first person becomes our Father and the second person becomes with us the joint heir – we are in union with Him; He is the heir of the Father; we are joint heirs with Him.

Verse 39 – the reaction of religion.

"Therefore they kept on seeking again to seize him" – they did not try to stone Him, they want to seize Him now. The word take in the KJV is piazw. It means to arrest Him. They now want to take Him to court. It indicates that they saw the issue and they are not going to stone Him because they destroy their own freedom by doing so. Now they grab Him to take Him into court but now He is gone. Why? Because there is no issue in the court. There would be a malfunction of justice in the court and that would destroy their freedom. As a matter of fact Jesus is tried six times before the crucifixion. Three of them are in a Jewish court and in all three there is malfunction. Then three times in a Roman court, and the Romans were honest in their law procedure. For example, Pilate says, "I find no fault in Him." According to Roman law He was absolutely innocent. But because of political expediency Pilate condemned Him anyway, and in so doing Pilate wound up a suicide personally but Rome went on because under Roman law Pilate was honest, and where Roman law was concerned he was honest and objective and he declared the truth of Roman law. Roman law to this day says Jesus Christ was innocent. Therefore Rome went on for hundreds of years because Roman law pronounced innocence.

"but he escaped out of their hand" – because the issue before the Jewish law, the Sanhedrin, must wait six days. He postponed the issue before the Sanhedrin. Jesus knows that He is going before the Sanhedrin which is the supreme court of the Jews but He must postpone for six days. This is because there is going to be malfunction of justice, and this will destroy the nation in forty years – fifth cycle of discipline. The reason for the fifth cycle was because of malfunction under their own law. Here we have the wall of fire protecting Jesus, not that He fears the court but it isn't the right time. He postpones for six days the meeting with the Sanhedrin.

Verse 40 – Jesus separates Himself from religion. Separation comes in the words, "he went away" – aorist active indicative of a)perxomai. The aorist tense is a decisive action. He knew exactly what He was doing and He separated from religion [a)po = ultimate source; erxomai = to go]. He went from the ultimate source of His own thinking. He made His own decision and He got way out of it.

[Note: Doctrine of separation.]

As a result of the separation, notice what happens.

Verse 41 & 42 – "many believed", aorist tense, point of time. They believe and were saved, and that was it.

The seven credit cards of Messiah

In the first twelve chapters of John the whole emphasis is Jesus presenting the credit cards [works, divine good]. In chapters 13-21 He presents His message and completes His work [the cross].

1. The turning water into wine – John 2:1-11.

2. The healing of the nobleman's son – John 4:46-54.

3. The healing of the impotent man – John chapter 5.

4. The feeding of the five thousand – John 6:1-14.

5. Walking on the sea – John 6:16-21.

6. The healing of congenital blindness – John 9:1-14.

The resuscitation of Lazarus from the dead -- John chapter 11.

Chapter 11

In this passage we have four parts. Verses 1-16, the background for the seventh sign; verses 17-32, two sisters in a crisis; verses 33-46, the seventh sign is performed; verses 47-57, the opposition of religion.

Verse 1 – a family crisis. The verse begins with the particle de, used in John for a change of circumstances. This is a change in circumstances from what we had in the last chapter. In this change of circumstances Jesus Christ has left the area. He is now in Perea. He left in John 10:40 because they tried to stone Him to death around the temple area. Now the tragic news of the death of Lazarus will bring Him back across the Jordan and into the land once more. "Now a certain" – literally, 'a person' – "was sick." Imperfect active periphrastic from a)sqenew which means the illness is permanent. He "kept on being sick."

There are basically five types of illness in the scripture: a light illness from which one recovers, a serious illness which forms a part of undeserved suffering and from which one recovers, a serious illness from which one does not recover, an illness designed to alert a person to some difficulty or reality of life, and an illness which is used as punitive measures, as in 1Corinthians 11.

The illness here is one which is not only going to take the life of one person but will have a very deep effect upon the life of all the people in the entire area. The imperfect periphrastic means that he is not going to get well, and that day by day over a period of time his strength is going to be drained, and that the illness is going to be critical, and that every day those who loved him the most, especially his two sisters, are going to watch him get weaker and weaker. They will do a lot of things. They will pray for him, they will actually send for Jesus Christ, they will call in the doctor, they will do about everything necessary and yet he will go right on getting weaker and weaker. This man was designed for dying, and die will.

It is very interesting that all the way through we always forget about Lazarus. Lazarus means God is my help. Lazarus never complained. So the real hero is the one who isn't mentioned too much as to how great he really is, but it is Lazarus. He knew he was going to die. He knew how to die – no dramatics, no weeping and wailing. He carried on a routine so that no one else would know.

"of Bethany" – a)po Bhqaniaj. He was born in Bethany and reared there. Bethany is one of the better suburbs of Jerusalem. It is 2 miles east of Jerusalem on the slope of the Mount of Olives.

"the town of Mary and her sister Martha." Mary is the younger sister of Lazarus and she loves Bible doctrine. She has an older sister, Martha, who is an entirely different person. Cf. Luke 10:38.

Luke 10:38 – "And it came to pass, as they went from place to place" – present active infinitive of poreuomai which means to go from one place to another; "he [Jesus] entered a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house." The village is Bethany. The word for receive here is the aorist middle indicative of u(podexomai which means to love in the soul and express it physically. It is usually used of a woman, a woman who loves a man and therefore she receives him. It means like welcoming with open arms. It means to welcome and entertain a guest who carries authority. So Martha, the older sister, did the entertaining.

Luke 10:39 – "And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word." However, she did not sit at His feet. This is an aorist passive participle of parakaqezomai which actually means to sit down beside; it has nothing to do with the feet. So Martha is out in the kitchen preparing something; Mary sits down beside Him and listens to Him teach.

"and heard" – literally, 'and kept on listening,' imperfect active indicative of a)kouw, which in the imperfect tense indicates she accepted His authority and she concentrated on what He said, so much so that she didn't move. Imperfect linear aktionsart. She didn't leave.

Luke 10:40 – "But Martha was cumbered about much serving." The word "cumbered" is perispaw which actually means to have your face drawn from pressure, to be distracted, to be overburdened, to be weighed down and to show it. In verse 39 we have the imperfect active indicative of a)kouw; Mary kept on hearing doctrine. But in verse 40 we have the imperfect passive indicative. Mary is sitting down concentrating, constantly listening to Jesus teach. That's active voice: she is doing something. Martha is doing something too, but it is getting her down. She needs help in the kitchen so, passive voice, all of her pressure keeps hitting her: how is she ever going to get everything together for all these people? They are both doing something; one enjoys it. One woman listens to doctrine and she enjoys it. She is doing what she wants to do and she is concentrating. One woman is out hustling in the kitchen and she is doing what she wants to do, and she is upset. And that isn't all; she wants to stick her nose into her sister's business. Both do what they want to do. When people are hustlers (in the kitchen) and things are not going the way they want they are inclined to want to censor those who are not doing what they are doing. No live and let live. And who always gets picked at? The one who wants to listen to doctrine – every time. The people who hustle always get burdened down – passive voice – and the people who want to listen to doctrine are inclined to not want to do anything else. So we find both sisters entirely different.

"and came to him [Jesus]" – this does not mean to come at all, it is e)fisthmi which means to burst on Him. She finally blew up! Notice the tendencies: one is toward legalism, the other toward grace.

"Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid here therefore that she help me." The hustlers always want the ones who aren't doing anything to work, like they are, and they don't like it if they are not working. They can't stand it if people aren't doing what they are doing. Grace people always have an intrusion on their privacy, and the people who are inclined to be hustlers and work, work, work always have an occupational hazard; they are critical of those who are not doing what they are doing. In other words, they feel that what they are doing is so important that everyone else ought to be doing it too.

We do not have one single line here about what was served but we have a lot of lines about what was taught! And who benefited? Not the one in the kitchen. It takes a lot of maturity to hustle around in the kitchen and not resent others who should be helping. So all those who just want to listen to doctrine need to remember that all of your life someone is going to pick at you. You just have to decide to stay with it and concentrate – imperfect tense of a)kouw.

"do you not care" – an impersonal word, melei, and it means, "Lord, what about me? Don't you care that I am not getting any help?"

"she has left" – imperfect active indicative of kataleipw: 'she has deserted me' (just to hear doctrine!). She has gone AWOL, she has forsaken the kitchen!

"to serve" – diakonew. People who are hard workers always feel alone and inclined to feel a little sorry for themselves when they are getting no help.

"bid her" – aorist active imperative of legw, 'tell her." This is an ingressive aorist, tell her now; "that she [must come in and] help me" – aorist middle subjunctive of sunantilambanw [sun = with; anti = against or instead of; lambanw = to seize] means to take hold of someone and help.

Verse 41 – "And Jesus had an answer" – aorist active participle of a deponent verb, a)pokrinomai.

"thou art careful" is not what He said at all. He said, "Martha, Martha, you are worried" – present active indicative of merimnaw which means 'you are worried.'

"and troubled" – qorubazomai means to be disturbed because of pressure you have built up in yourself. She did this all herself. Martha is so occupied with the business of being in the kitchen that she has built up something toward someone else who doesn't have to be in the kitchen. Jesus condemns here for her mental attitude sin.

Live and let live! Do your own thing as unto the Lord, or do your nothing as unto the Lord. But do it as unto the Lord and don't worry about anyone else.

Verse 42 – "But one thing is needful," i.e. Bible doctrine being taught. Present active indicative of e)imi: one thing keeps on being needful. It always will be; there never will be a time when it won't be. The word "needful" is xreia which means absolutely necessary.

"and Mary hath chosen" – aorist middle indicative of e)klegw, selected (has selected the important thing).

"that good part" – thn a)gaqhn merida means "the best dish." The best dish is doctrine.

"which shall not be taken away from her" – taken away is the future passive indicative of a)fairew [a)po = ultimate source; a)irew = to take, to be removed from, cut off]. The grace lady always chooses he best thing. The best dish is that which stays with you permanently. Bible doctrine stays with you permanently. Service is no substitute for knowledge of doctrine.

John 11:2, 3 -- the message from the two sisters.

Verse 2 – "(It was Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment …" This Mary is a fantastic woman! She hasn't done this yet. This is a proleptic incident with a proleptic reference. "It was" is an imperfect active indicative of e)imi to indicate that this will stand historically forever. This is put in by John 40 years after this happened. The incident is described in John 12:1-8; Matthew 26:7; Mark 14:3. While the events of John are chronological he wrote retrospectively many years after this had happened, and he puts in here that it was Mary that anointed the feet of the Lord – one of the greatest applications of doctrine. It was something permanent. She stands forever as one of the greatest of all grace ladies. The reason is because she listened to doctrine constantly, and when she finally did something it was worth all the doing that all the women in the world ever did, and then some. On other words, she was really a great person.

"anointed" – aorist active participle of a)leifw. This was an action about which at the end of the century John could look back on the entire scene, and the participle helps to identify Mary as the youngest sister of Lazarus, plus the fact that she represents the ultimate triumph of Bible doctrine. She anointed the Lord's feet with a very precious ointment. She spent a large sum of money to do it.

"wipe" – e)kmassw means to wipe dry.

" whose brother kept on being sick" – imperfect active indicative of a)sqenew.

Verse 3 – "Lord" is kurioj in the vocative, recognising His deity.

"behold, he whom thou lovest is sick" – the message. The word for love here is filew. Lazarus was also a great man of doctrine with great category #1 love response. This same filew is used for Abraham – James two, friend [filoj] of God. They recognised that Jesus Christ kept on loving Lazarus. This indicates that Lazarus, like his sister Mary, was great in the field of doctrine.

"is sick" – present active indicative of a)sqenew, 'keeps on being sick.'

Verse 4 – when Jesus heard about this it is almost as if He is being callous. The purpose of the crisis is now made clear.

"Jesus having heard, said" – a)kouw is an aorist active participle followed by the aorist active indicative of legw.

"This sickness" – now we have the noun a)sqeneia which describes the sickness. It is an illness where one gets weaker and weaker and finally die; "is not unto death" – proj plus the accusative, it is not face to face with death. Death is not the final issue of this sickness is what this means. It is a Greek idiom. He will die but it won't be the final issue. Death is just a temporary part of his feebleness to bring about the seventh sign and to glorify God. So every crisis in life of the believer is designed to glorify God and to focus attention on the grace of God, on the person of God. Jesus Christ will deliver Lazarus from death. But He will deliver Him in such a manner as to present His own credit card. Both of the sisters want death to be avoided; Jesus is going to wait until death is certain and then He will come. This sickness does not have as its final issue death. Why?

"for the glory of God" – u(per, 'on behalf of the glory of God.' Lazarus was doing something that very few people would be able to do. Obviously Lazarus was selected because he was the man with the doctrine. He is the one who has so much doctrine that he can get weaker and weaker and sicker and sicker and at the same time remain relaxed, enjoying dying grace, depart from this life, and in doing so will have many friends who will come from all over Jerusalem and the area, many of whom are going to be saved because of his resuscitation. It will glorify God in several ways.

"that" introduces a purpose clause, i(na plus the subjunctive; "the Son of God might be glorified" – aorist passive subjunctive of docazw. The culminative aorist tense means at the point of resuscitation. The passive voice means that Jesus Christ, the person of the God-Man, the Messiah, will receive the glory. The subjunctive mood goes with the purpose clause, it is not a potential subjunctive.

"might be glorified thereby" – dia plus the genitive, "through it [the death of Lazarus]."

Verses 5 & 6, the perfect timing of the Son of God.

Verse 5 – "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." This verse expresses the perfect love of Jesus Christ for this family. You would assume that this crisis would cause Jesus Christ to leave immediately from Perea. He delays. Remember this principle: Any delay in the plan of God advances the glory of God. Delay does not hinder the plan of God, it advances the plan of God. God's delays are advances.

"Now" is the particle de, it changes the circumstances again. It indicates that Jesus wanted to depart immediately but He refrained from doing so. Notice that four people are involved in this verse. Three are named specifically, one is not. Jesus is doing the loving here, and this is His humanity.

"loved" is the imperfect active indicative of a)gapaw. We have already seen that Jesus loves Lazarus – filew. But a)gapaw is only a restricted love, a mental attitude love. The point is that Jesus did not delay His departure because of vindictiveness or implacability, or any mental attitude sin. This word is to make sure it is understood that the motivation of Jesus Christ was not to cause anyone to suffer. His delay was going to cause both girls to suffer, but that is not His purpose. There is no mental attitude sin involved.

Notice whom he loved: "Martha" – He had a relaxed mental attitude toward her. It also mentions Lazarus who is dead, He had a relaxed mental attitude toward him. But the interesting thing here is "her sister." Mary is not mentioned by name. Why? We know who it is because the passage makes it very clear. Because the one who is not named is the most important one. One of them died a great death because of doctrine. One of them still isn't straightened out, she is still hustling in the kitchen. One is not mentioned by name and only the rest of this passage will give an explanation. But to anticipate, did you ever have someone who really cared for you who didn't remember your name on purpose? This would explain what is happening here. The very absence of Mary's name is of the greatest significance because right now Mary with all of her doctrine is having mental attitude sins toward Jesus Christ! She has a hang-up. She sent the message in time so that the Lord could be there. Lazarus is dead, Martha is hustling around, but who has nothing to do and is out of fellowship and is in the greatest danger of all? The greatest women in the world are those whose life is doctrine, and that is all they want to do. But they have an occupational hazard too. In crisis, they have been taking in doctrine and doing nothing but they immediately revert to mental attitude sins. So who is up in her room, torn to pieces and mad at Jesus? Mary!

Each is great in their own way and each has an area of strength, but each area requires Bible doctrine. Every person who has a natural strength, a natural inclination, also has an occupational hazard. Now we meet Mary, the one who loves Bible doctrine and is so strong for doctrine, the one who, as it were, sits at the feet of Jesus while her sister hustles around the house. She has a problem too. When a crisis occurs and everything doesn't fall in place as she expects it to her mental attitude sins come into her grief.

Verse 6 – "When he had heard," aorist active indicative of a)kouw, "that he kept on being sick, he abode," menw, aorist (constative) active indicative, which means to wait, abide, stay. He kept staying – two days. He didn't move from Perea for two days. This allows time for death and burial, makes the situation totally hopeless, and brings to light the principle that there is no such thing as a hopeless situation for a child of God. It is a matter of whose timing is important. Mary has a lot of doctrine but timing is her problem. The Lord's timing is perfect; our timing is not.

"where he was" is 'where he kept on being.'

Verse 7 – "Then after that." After two days of waiting for Lazarus to die. Jesus actually stalled across the Jordan until Lazarus died; "saith he" – present active indicative of legw means conversation here.

"Let us go" – present active subjunction of a)gw. The present tense is dramatic, it is time to go, he is dead. Active voice: we are going; subjunctive mood: arriving is potential; "to Judea again" – remember that the disciples like it on the other side of the Jordan. They have just escaped the wrath of religion in Jerusalem (10:39, 40). Jesus is actually testing His disciples when He says, "Let us go," just the way He did in the storm. In the boat in the storm – Matthew 8:23-27 – the disciples learned something about the Lord which was impossible to learn any other way. The storm at sea illustrates the pressures, the sufferings and the disasters in life. In the boat the waves were high, the disciples were absolutely helpless. The humanity of Christ was sleeping during this terrible storm. However, the disciples learned that the deity of Christ never sleeps and that they were safe in the boat in the storm. Now the question arises: Did the disciples learn anything from that storm? The storm is passed, they are safe on dry land, they have gone through other things since, so what did they learn from that experience? Will the disciples panic at the thought of returning to danger, or will they relax under the concept of the wall of fire around them? Any time that a person goes into a danger, a problem, and he knows it is a danger; this is a great test of the faith-rest technique, a test of the reality of Bible doctrine in life. Can you go into a danger, a pressure, an adversity day in and day out and never and never shirk? Bible doctrine is designed to take the pressure as you take everything else. In other words, to stride through life; to give you that peace, that blessing in the midst of pressures as well as in the midst of prosperity. The disciples had passed the test in the boat; now, would they pass the test of 'over the river'? They have a river to cross and this is their problem. They flunked the test!

Verse 8 – "His disciples say unto him, Master." They always say Master when they didn't like it. When they liked it, it was Lord; when they didn't like it, it was Master [Rabbi], which means Doctor, Professor, or Teacher.

"the Jews of late" – the word late is an adverb, nun, and it means "now"; "keep seeking" – imperfect active indicative of zetew, and the imperfect tense means they keep on looking for them, they keep on seeking to kill them; "to stone thee" – aorist active infinitive of liqazw. The aorist tense indicates that any time they see them they are ready to kill them. This is their attitude. In other words, what bothers the disciples is that there are many Jews in Jerusalem that carry stones in their pockets.

"and thou goest hither again?" – keep moving in their direction. This is making them nervous because they are under fire too. While Jesus is the main target the disciples are also included. Jesus is leading them right back – a)gw means to lead. He is going ahead of them with a perfect mental attitude but the disciples are reluctant. Their mental attitude is different and they are looking for some kind of an 'out.'

Principle: You never solve the pressures of your life as long as you are looking for an 'out.' Meeting the pressures of your life as a believer depend upon the utilisation of Bible doctrine. The very 'out' that you take it simply pressure added to pressure. No one can go on his own as a believer and ever get out of the pressure. Every time you look for an out you are going on your own. You are not designed as a believer to go on your own; you are a believer priest and are designed to follow your high priest – Jesus Christ. That means you go through the battle, not run away from it.

They strike up a conversation for one reason. They want a dialogue; they want to discuss this matter: 'Lord. Let's talk this over.' Notice: Who is the leader? Jesus Christ. Who has the authority? Jesus, and He says, We are going. That's it!

John 9:4 – "I must work the works of him that sent me." "Must" is a present active indicative of dew. It expresses obligation, necessity; "work" is a present active infinitive of e)rgazomai and means to produce and perform. He is saying in effect, 'It is absolutely necessary for me to accomplish the work of him [God the Father] that sent me' – aorist active participle; pempw is the verb. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. Jesus Christ was sent before He was obligated to work or to execute the work of the decrees before Him. In other words, pempw comes first in the action. Jesus Christ was actually sent to this world with a mission. Therefore is life has meaning and purpose and definition. He is a man with a mission. He is the God-Man with an obligation. This all came from the divine decrees. Jesus Christ recognises this and therefore His mission calls for Him to cross the Jordan river, to go back into the land, to go to Bethany and there to resuscitate Lazarus—regardless of the danger. Jesus Christ is concentrating on His mission; His disciples are concentrating on the danger. No one ever succeeds in life when they concentrate on the danger, they must concentrate on the mission.

Every believer has, since the day they believed in Jesus Christ, a mission in life. Doctrine causes the believer to concentrate on the mission, whatever it is. We are all in full time Christian service though it doesn't mean we all do the same thing. It means that our life now has a purpose. It doesn't matter where we go or what we do, our life has a purpose. Our job is to concentrate on the purpose. How do you do it? Bible doctrine every day! Consistent intake of Bible doctrine develops a concentration on the mission. Once you concentrate on your mission in life then you do not concentrate on your pressures. Concentration on the pressure, the danger, is failure to utilise doctrine, failure to GAP it. No believer has security apart from Jesus Christ.

How do you concentrate on doctrine? Well, first you have to learn it. You can't concentrate on what you don't know – that's flying blind! Which way you concentrate determines how much you get out of phase two.

"while it is day" – one day actually, any day. Also the day refers to His incarnation; "the night cometh when no man can work" – the night is His physical death when it is all over. He can't work after that. The day here, then, refers to the believer's whole phase two. The only chance you have to concentrate on doctrine as over against the danger is now. You won't have this chance in eternity because there will be no problems in eternity.

John 11:9 – "Jesus had an answer," aorist passive indicative of a)pokrinomai. He had a doctrinal answer. In other words, when Jesus answers it is doctrine, and doctrine is what they need to concentrate on. He picks up the thread of John 9:4. He starts out by stating something that is literal and simple.

"Are there not twelve hours in a day?" – simply daylight time when people work. The average working day in the ancient world was 12 hours. They worked during daylight. When a person is suffering from pressure or concentrating on their pressures to snap them back you have to start with something simple. This is what Jesus does: "Are there not twelve hours in a day?" This is both humorous and very lightly sarcastic. Jesus is relaxed because He is concentrating on doctrine; they are concentrating on danger. (Psychology trains a person to concentrate on his problem, to seek human answers to his problems.)

"if any man walk in the day" – tij, 'anyone,' male or female; "walk" is the present active subjunctive of peripatew, doing whatever you do in twelve hours. It is what you do on your mission in life. The present tense means as long as you are alive God has a purpose for you. Active voice: God has a purpose for you. The subjunctive mood: you may or may not fulfil that purpose, depending upon the intake of doctrine; "in the day" – phase two.

"he stumbleth not" – the day here is phase two; the walking is striding one step and then another. The step/stride is GAP. GAP causes a new concentration in life. Walking has progress – forward, you are going in a direction. Day is phase two. Progress [constant GAP] means no more concentration on the problems, so "he stumbleth not." Stumbling is think about, concentrating on the problems, getting upset, falling apart. So you walk, walk, walk, and then stumble. That means you change your concentration; you went back to concentrating on your problems. If you concentrate on doctrine "you stumble not" – present active indicative of proskoptw [proj = face to face with; koptw = cut]. In other words, you are concentrating on doctrine and you turn right around and concentrate on your problems and your "walk" is cut. You feel sorry for yourself, you get upset, you say it is hopeless, you've had it.

"because he seeth the light of the world" – present active indicative of blepw which means not the panoramic view but to see right now, at this point, and this point. As soon as you stumble you need to get right back on doctrine. The light of the world is Jesus Christ, and how do you see the light of the world? You see the light of this world through Bible doctrine. We know nothing about Jesus Christ apart from the Word of God. Seeing the light of the world is occupation with the person of Jesus Christ.

Verse 10 – "But if a man walk in the night" – 'if' is a 3rd class condition; tij is 'anyone'; 'walk' is peripatew; 'in the night' means concentration on the problem. If you walk around in the night it means you are concentrating on your problem, there is no light. All you can do is to stumble. He stumbles because there is no light in him, no doctrine in him.

If you concentrate on your problems it is inevitable that you will stumble. It is present linear aktionsart, you keep on stumbling. But if you concentrate on doctrine you are going to walk, you are going to have a wonderful life.

Verse 11— "These things said he," the aorist active indicative of legw, "and after that he saith unto them" – after He had made His discourse of verses 9 & 10. What Jesus now announces was accomplished not while Jesus was in Judea but while He is still in Perea, across the Jordan. No one communicated to Jesus in Perea the death of Lazarus. The last message He heard was, 'Lazarus is sick; come quickly.' No one came and brought another message that said Lazarus is dead, but Lazarus is dead. How did Jesus know that Lazarus in a suburb of Jerusalem was dead? He is God, that's why! The humanity of Christ would have no way of knowing but the deity of Christ knew it. When He says that Lazarus is dead He is talking from His deity, not His humanity.

"he saith unto them" – present active indicative of legw. The present tense means that He had to keep saying it; they didn't understand.

"Our friend Lazarus sleepeth" – the omniscience of His deity knew the moment that Lazarus died. They didn't doubt Him, they recognised that Jesus was God. They have seen six signs to prove that He is God. Here is the point: What Jesus says is what Jesus thinks. At that time not one jot or tittle of the New Testament had been written and the New Testament was what Jesus said! Remember that the Bible is the mind, the thinking of Jesus Christ, and what Jesus said to the disciples is like reading a Bible. You have to come to the place where you say what Jesus said is more real than anything in the world. You read what Jesus says in every line of the Bible!

"Our friend" – filoj, the strongest word for love. It is rapport love. We understand by this that one of the closest friends that Jesus had during His earthly ministry was Lazarus. What a compliment to Lazarus! Jesus enjoyed him. Question: Would Jesus have enjoyed you?

"sleepeth" – perfect passive indicative of koimaw, a verb which is used not for sleeping but for death. It describes death under two conditions. Koimaw refers to the body. The body sleeps; the soul never sleeps. (Soul sleep is a heresy) The reason the verb koimaw is used for death is because of two things: a) This body will be resuscitated; b) every body is going to be in a resurrection body. So physical death for the believer only is described by koimaw, never the unbeliever. It means the body sleeps, not the soul; and in resuscitation (Lazarus) the soul comes back into the old body and he lives again on the earth in his body of corruption. In the resurrection the soul goes back into a new body which will live forever and last forever. The body sleeps in anticipation of resurrection. Acts 7:60; 13:36; Matthew 27:52; 1Corinthians 7:39; 11:30; 15:51; 2Peter er 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:10.

"I go" – present active indicative of poreuomai. It means to go from one place to another. In this case it means to cross the border and go back to where the dead body is located.

"that I may awaken him" – aorist active subjunctive of e)cupnizw. The subjunctive shows that this is a purpose clause, that's all. There is no potential here, it is going to happen. Jesus has a purpose in crossing the border; He is going to wake up Lazarus. This verb does not refer to resurrection, it refers to resuscitation. Bringing back Lazarus from the dead will be the seventh sign of Messiahship. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist; he will begin to live again. The active voice: Jesus will wake him up.

Verse 12 – "Then said his disciples, Lord," kurioj means deity. One thing they do not question is the fact that He is God.

"if he sleep" – 'if' is a 1st class condition; they accept it as true. Jesus said it; they accept it. 1st class condition: the reality of the words of Christ. 1st class condition to us: the reality of doctrine. Doctrine is more real than anything else; "he sleep" – perfect passive indicative of koimaw again. The perfect tense means he is dead now with the result that he keeps on being dead and they are going to put him in a tomb. Passive voice: he received death. He didn't ask for it, he received it. The indicative mood is the reality if his death.

"he shall do well" – future passive indicative of swzw means he shall be delivered from his ailment. 'He's sleeping, we don't have to go back Lord.' Swzw means to be saved; it also means to be delivered. It should be translated: 'Lord, if he has received sleep now he shall be delivered.' The disciples misunderstood the words of Jesus. They assume that Lazarus sleeping was the beginning of his recovery from illness but Jesus is referring to his death. Cf. 1Corinthians 15:20, 21; 1 Thessalonians 4:13; 5:10.

Verse 13 – an explanation from John many years after these events. "Howbeit Jesus spake of his death." The word of is peri which is the preposition concerning.

"but they thought" – dokew means they assumed. They weren't really thinking, they assumed. If you are thinking and using your mind, that is noew; if you are thinking without using your mind, that is dokew. It is possible to conclude things without thinking.

"that he was speaking concerning the taking of rest of sleep" – sleep in the literal sense. Jesus was talking about sleep in the figurative sense of resuscitation.

Verse 14 – "Then said Jesus unto them plainly" – plainly is parrhsia, and adverb of perspicacity; "Lazarus is dead" – a)poqnhskw, the strongest statement for death, aorist active indicative. There is no second messenger to say this. Jesus is telling them. Now that Lazarus is dead the situation is hopeless for Martha and Mary, and they assume that the presence of Jesus could accomplish nothing.

Verse 15 – "glad" is the present active indicative of xairw, which means, "I keep on having inner happiness.' It is usually translated rejoice but the translator wouldn't do it in the KJV. 'Lazarus is dead and I am happy for him.' Why? Because death for the believer is absent from the body and face to face with the Lord.

"for your sakes" – dia plus the accusative means 'because of you all.'

The motive in delaying

1. Jesus deliberately procrastinated and delayed His departure to go to Lazarus.

2. If Jesus had departed when he received the message He would have been at the bedside of Lazarus and very easily performed a miracle that would have healed a sick man. But which is more impressive, healing a sick man or bringing a dead man back to life? Obviously, bringing a dead man back to life is the final credit card for Messiahship.

3. The absence of Jesus until the death and burial of Lazarus sets the scene, then, for the seventh sign—the resuscitation of Lazarus. Lazarus had to die; Jesus had to delay. There are thousands of people in Jerusalem who are positive but who have not responded to the gospel. Hundreds of those people will be there when Jesus gets there and they will see Lazarus brought back from the dead and, as a result, they believe.

4. The seventh sign is the greatest of all.

5. Lazarus brought back from the dead will not only be the seventh credit card but it will also prepare the disciples for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"that I was not there" – imperfect middle indicative of e)imi, "I kept on not being there." Middle voice: they were benefited by Jesus not being there to heal

him.

Principle: The power of God is not strained by the most hopeless and difficult situations in life.

You have to have doctrine to let the Lord handle your life.

"to the intent" – i(na introduces a purpose clause, "that." There are a lot of people that are going to be saved by believing but "ye may believe"—faith-rest. The aorist tense of pisteuw is the verb. The aorist tense is the operation of doctrine in the life at the point it becomes necessary, the crisis. Active voice: doctrine on the launching pad. Doctrine on the launching pad is the way you relax. Subjunctive mood: faith-rest is always potential.

"let us go unto him" – proj plus the accusative, "face to face with him." Face to face means that Jesus who is alive is going to bring the dead to Him and make him alive. But Thomas took the opposite tack.

Verse 16 – "Then" is therefore, o)un; "Thomas" is the Aramaic word for twin – "Didymus" is the Greek word for twin.

"unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go" – present active subjunctive of a)gw. Jesus says, 'Let us go face to face with him'; Thomas says, 'Let us go and die'! – a)poqnhskw. So Thomas paraphrases the last statement of our Lord by changing it up a little bit. Eventually doctrine will overcome the scepticism of Thomas.

Verses 17-32, the sisters in the crisis.

Verse 17 – the status of Lazarus. "Then when Jesus came" – the aorist active participle of e)rxomai, 'having come,' means that Jesus had to wait two days after the death of Lazarus so that He would be there four days after his death. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb follows: "found" – aorist active indicative of e(uriskw.

"Four days" leaves no question about the fact of the physical death of Lazarus. He has been in the tomb for four days and this verifies the fact that he is dead.

Verses 18, 19, the mourners are brought into focus.

Verse 18 – "Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia which is approximately 2 miles.

Verse 19 – "Many of the Jews came," pluperfect active indicative of e)rxomai. The pluperfect is a past perfect tense and it indicates that they had come with the result that they had come again with the result that they are hanging around for about four days now. This means that for four days everything had stopped for these people. They had come and had kept with Martha and Mary during this time.

"to Martha and Mary" is the preposition proj plus the accusative, 'face to face with.' In other words, they have come from Jerusalem since the time of the death of Lazarus and have remained these four days. There is an accumulation of the crowd of mourners because this family was well known in Jerusalem and very popular. So "many of the Jews" indicates that Mary and Martha are receiving a great deal of company.

"to comfort" – i(na plus paramuqeomai, aorist middle subjunctive [para == preposition of immediate source; muqeomai = to speak] which means to speak from the immediate source of one's own soul, and it eventually came to mean console by words, to comfort by what you say. I(na plus the subjunctive indicates the purpose clause here. Their purpose was to comfort by words. The aorist tense is a constative aorist. For four days they had been carrying on speeches of comfort.

The only words of comfort for the death of a loved one are actually those words which form the doctrines of death and dying grace as found in the scripture. These people would be unfamiliar with the true impact of doctrine since the natural [yuxikoj] man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are discerned by the Spirit. Here we have a case of many unbelievers trying to provide comfort. The Jews, as was their custom, had a series of epigrams which were to be uttered in a time of disaster. These were humanistic ways of expressing their comfort – lit. "that they might comfort them concerning [peri] their brother." The great tragedy is not the death of Lazarus, it is unbelievers sincerely trying to help believers to be comforted when the believers should have been comforting and blessing the unbelievers with the gospel.

But these Jews were positive at the point of God-consciousness and therefore they desire truth. They have not really been sucked in by the full religious system of the Jews. Legalism is really not their 'cup of tea.' Therefore they have displayed their gallantry. They have come up that hill to spend four days in Bethany; they will see the seventh sign, and they will respond to the message and then go back down into Jerusalem born again. And all of those gallant unbelievers who came to comfort went away with eternal life.

Verse 20 – "Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming …" The large number of mourners means an unusual crowd around the house. Martha is busy working and, as you would expect, Mary is busy doing nothing, so both are them are busy seeking in their own way some measure of comfort.

"as she heard" is 'having heard,' aorist active indicative of a)kouw; "that Jesus was coming," present middle indicative. The word went is not found in the original.

"met him" – aorist active indicative of u(pantaw which means to go to meet. She went out to meet Him. But notice: "but Mary kept on sitting in the house," imperfect middle indicative of kaqizomai – "she kept on sitting by herself," middle voice. So one had been working and stops to meet Jesus; the other was sitting in a room, probably in a state of over-think as would be the nature in the situation.

Verse 21 – "Then said Martha unto Jesus" – face to face with Jesus. She finally meets Him – proj plus the accusative again. Literally, "Then said Martha face to face with Jesus." Here she calls Him kurioj, a correct title for a believer. She recognises Jesus as Lord, but she is stupid about doctrine. She calls Him Lord and she is not advanced in her life as a believer at all. Later on she will call Him Master—didaskoloj, which means teacher. She finally stops long enough to learn something. Here she calls Him Lord, but when He straightens her out she is going to call Him teacher of doctrine—which indicates she has been too busy to listen up until now. Some people will never listen to doctrine until they are in disaster.

"if" is a 2nd class condition and is meant to be a rebuke. This is a rebuke to God! She calls Him kurioj and that means deity. She recognises Him as God and yet when she says "God" she is rebuking Him because He wasn't there. But if He is God He had to be there! Notice: All you have to do to be stupid and inconsistent is simply to refuse to take in doctrine. What Martha is saying in effect is that it is all the Lord's fault for not getting here!

"if thou hadst been" – imperfect active indicative of e)imi. It indicates "You should have kept on being [or staying] here." Martha has had enough exposure to Jesus to know that He really doesn't have to be on the scene if healing is in order. Jesus healed the nobleman's son without being there. Since she has recognised Him as God, and since she has already recognised Him as the God-Man, she ought to know that the death of Lazarus has nothing to do with whether Jesus is there or not. He could have healed Lazarus from the other side of the border. Obviously there is an innuendo here that is not good for Martha. She implies that Lazarus died because Jesus was not there to help.

Often in time of tragedy it is amazing how nice people cause you to slip into human viewpoint unless you are garrisoned by those principles of doctrine that keep you out of that trap. Martha is not garrisoned with this kind of doctrinal information in her soul. Therefore she has no inner resources. In a sense Martha represents a program believer instead of a doctrine believer. Principle: If you are minus doctrine it is too easy to be impressed with the wrong things. Martha had no doctrine to apply, she is bogged down with the details of life.

"my brother had not died" – aorist active indicative of a)poqnhskw plus the negative. She could have used other words but she uses a word which indicates her bitterness about the death of Lazarus. The safety valve for bitterness is someone to blame. Instead of seeing her own lack of doctrine for the crisis she blames Jesus for the death. This indicates mental attitude sins – bitterness. So the great tragedy is the disorientation to grace and the substitution of human good.

Verse 22 – "But I know." Twice Martha is going to say "I know." She says it again in verse 24. Of course, this always impresses people – that she knows something. The people who know the least are always the ones who tell you what they know. It is easy to remember because there is so little of it!

"that even now, whatsoever you will ask God" – she has already called Him God [kurioj = deity] – "God will give it to you." She turns from the innuendos of blasphemy to bullying. First she insults Him, then she turns around and tries to bully Him. "I know" is o)ida, which means this one thing she knows well! This is confidence here --the perfect used as a present tense for great confidence. This confidence is based upon her self-righteousness rather than grace orientation and doctrine. Human good believers must beware of self-righteous confidence.

Martha wants Jesus to pray for Lazarus: "whatsoever thou wilt ask" – aorist middle subjunctive of a)itew means to ask in prayer. It also means to demand.

"of God" – she uses ton qeon in the accusative, "the God." 'Demand from the God.'

"and the God [o( qeoj] will give" – future active indicative of didomi. In other words, she wants to use prayer in a place where prayer is not designed for use. Prayer is for the living, not for the dead. God the Father in eternity past provided everything man would need in eternity and it is not subject to prayer in any way. There is no reason to be praying for anyone who has passed out of this life.

Verse 23 – "Jesus said unto her." He knows that she is driving at two things. She wants Lazarus back and that seems to be out of the question. Now she wants Lazarus to be resurrected. She wants Jesus to pray that Lazarus will be resurrected. So Jesus is going to have to tell her something – a point of doctrine she did not know before.

"They brother shall rise again" – future middle indicative of a)nisthmi. The future indicates that in the future Lazarus will have a resurrection body, the future here being the Second Advent. Lazarus is an Old Testament saint. Middle voice: Lazarus will be benefited for all eternity by having a resurrection body. The indicative mood is the reality of the future resurrection of Lazarus – apart from prayer. She thinks that Lazarus can come back in a resurrection body. No one can have a resurrection body until Jesus has one – "Christ the firstfruits." Furthermore, Lazarus is a long way off because he won't receive a resurrection body until the Second Advent.

Verse 24 – "I know." She uses o)ida again. I know that! She had forgotten it. She wanted prayer for him. Under pressure she could not apply the principle that she had heard before. Jesus had to apply it for her and as soon as He did: 'I know that.'

"I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day" – a)nisthmi, which means a resurrection body. She uses the very word that Jesus used. But she adds something, "the resurrection at the last day" – a)nastasij is now used. This word never refers to resuscitation, it refers only to resurrection. The last day refers to the Second Advent when Old Testament saints are going to get a resurrection body. She knows that at that time Lazarus will receive a resurrection body.

Verse 25 – "I am," present active indicative of e(imi, absolute status quo: 'I am and keep on being forever.'

"the resurrection" – a)nastasij. She failed to relate a)nastasij to Jesus Christ. She brought up the word; He now relates it to Himself. Jesus used the word a)nisthmi; she used a)nastasij, and Jesus shows her the true meaning of it. "I keep on being the a)nastasij and the life, it is related to me."

"and the life" – eternal life here.

"he that believeth" – present active participle of pisteuw. Here is an exhale of doctrine and this is where she has failed. This is the exhale of salvation faith. It is in the present tense because it is in one of the most dramatic moments of all time. Pisteuw is an exhale. It is the gospel that goes in; the Holy Spirit makes it real.

"if" – 3rd class condition – "he were to die [maybe he will and maybe he won't. The 3rd class condition recognises that there are some who will be alive at the Rapture and there are many who won't There are some who are going to receive a resurrection body but not through physical death], and he has – aorist active subjunctive of a)poqhnhskw, "if he die." This is a culminative aorist which brings to the point of actual physical death and beyond it.

"yet he shall live" – zaw, eternal life in resurrection body. Future tense anticipates the resurrection body and living in it forever.

Verse 26 – "And whosoever liveth and believeth in me." This is Martha right now. She is alive and she believes in Him. And this is to remind her of a principle.

"shall never die" – shall never die in eternity is what this means: o)u mh a)poqanh e)ij ton a)iwna, which means with reference to eternity shall never die. The double negative in the Greek is a stronger negative – o)u mh, "shall not never die with reference to eternity."

"Believest thou this?" He is taking this back to the simplest principle. If Martha had understood this thing before she would never have never have made the request in verse 22.

Verse 27 – "Yes, Lord: I believe." This is something in the past, the perfect active indicative of pisteuw: I have believed in the past with the result that I keep on being saved. So she does make a clear statement.

"that you keep on being the Christ, the Son of God, the one coming into the world." And yet, while she has believed this thing she has failed to apply any of it up to this moment.

Verses 28-32, we now see Jesus Christ with Mary.

Verse 28 – "And when she had so said" is literally, And when she had said this. The word so is touto – "this.' Reference to learning and applying doctrine to the situation through the faith-rest technique; "she went" – aorist active indicative of a)perxomai, which means she departed. Culminative aorist. Martha now remembers that Mary is in her room.

"and called" – aorist active indicative of fonew; "secretly" – because of the antagonism toward Jesus on the part of the unbelieving Jews who are present. So this was accomplished in privacy. And now Martha says something she has never said before, she says, o( didaskoloj has come – "the teacher of doctrine." Martha has just learned some Bible doctrine.

"is come" is a bad translation – it is pareimi, which means "is present."

"and calls for you" – this moves her into action. Up until this time Mary has been sitting in her room. Martha always worked in the kitchen, so when Lazarus died she kept right on working in the kitchen. There are hundreds of people to feed who have come to mourn. In a sense Martha did what she always did, she went and cooked bigger and better meals. But what does Mary do? Mary listens to doctrine, but when Lazarus dies she doesn't listen to doctrine. She sits alone in her room.

When a person who customarily listens to doctrine—and who is positive—hits some kind of a disaster and in that disaster cannot cope, that person sits alone and the function is called 'operation over-think.' We have already seen that Mary has chosen the better part, but there are occupational hazards for those who are positive toward doctrine and one of them is operation over-think. She has been sitting alone. She has not been out; she is in her room alone in operation over-think. How do we know?

Verse 29 – "As soon as she heard," aorist active indicative of a)kouw; "she arose" – aorist passive indicative of e)geirw. Mary loved her brother Lazarus dearly. There is only one person she loved more than her brother Lazarus and that is Jesus Christ. The passive voice here does not mean to get up, the active voice does. The passive voice means to be aroused. It also means to be awakened. It means to be excited. A person who loves doctrine the way that Mary loves doctrine is inclined under great pressure to get alone. Often in this case instead of using doctrine such a person goes into operation over-think. As a result they become bitter and resentful, and sometimes into self-pity; but always an infiltration of mental attitude sins which always accompany operation over-think.

As soon as she heard that Jesus Christ was present she was aroused. She loved Jesus Christ. Once she was aroused she came – "and came unto him." The word came is the imperfect middle indicative of e)rxomai – imperfect tense, linear aktionsart, past time. She kept on coming. For the first time since the death of Lazarus she moved out of that room; for the first time operation over-think was broken. For the first time she goes toward someone she loves because someone she loves is present. Proj plus the accusative, she kept on coming until she was 'face to face' with Him.

Verse 30 – "Now Jesus was not yet come into the town [Bethany] – e)rxomai in the pluperfect, Jesus had definitely not yet come. Jesus did not go to Bethany and the house of Lazarus because Lazarus was not there. When Jesus said in verse 15, 'Let us go to him,' He had no intention of going to the house in Bethany; He intended to go to the tomb outside of Bethany. Jesus is going to the cemetery to resuscitate Lazarus and to present the seventh sign.

"but was" – imperfect active indicative of e)imi – "in that place where Martha had gone to meet him" – aorist active indicative of u(pantaw, she had gone there to meet Him, and Jesus was still there. Why is He still at the place where Martha left Him? Because Jesus had known from eternity past that after Martha came out and chewed Him out she would run back and tell Mary. He has to stay in the same spot until Mary comes face to face with Him. He was waiting for her. He has already taught Martha something; He also has to teach Mary something.

Verse 31 – when Mary ran out of the house there were many Jews who saw her go. "The Jews then which were [kept on being: present active participle of e)imi] with her in the house." Notice that they did not leave the house when Martha left, they only left the house when Mary left. It was Mary they came to comfort; it was Mary who would not leave her room. It was Martha who fed them. Some of them had been there for four days and still hadn't seen Mary.

"and comforted her" – present active participle of paramuqeomai which means to comfort with words. They kept on staying there for one purpose: they all wanted to make their little 'comforting' speech. All of them were unbelievers. Unbelievers attempt sincerely to say something that will give comfort. Here is the fallacy of this principle: No one can stand up and look someone in the eye who has been bereaved and give them comfort. It can't be done. If the mourner is a believer, like Mary, she must draw upon her own resources of doctrine. The only one who can bring words of comfort is someone like Jesus Christ. When Mary ran out of the house all of these people followed here because they hadn't made their speech yet and they are not going to leave until they do. For four days Mary wouldn't talk to anyone and when she runs out of the house they all follow her when the only one who is going to comfort her is Jesus. Words can only comfort those who have equivalent words in their own souls.

Jesus talked to Martha; it didn't turn out too well. Jesus talks to Mary. Martha is minus doctrine; Mary is plus doctrine. Neither one of them at this point has really shown much. Mary does have doctrine in her soul, she does have inner resources, and when she hits Jesus with that same phraseology – "If you had been here my brother would not have died" – Jesus can paramuqeomai because He has words in His soul and she has the same words in her soul. The words of Jesus will strike a cord because out of her frame of reference doctrine will come out into the launching pad where for four days there has been no doctrine ready on the launching pad because of operation over-think. There has been a short-circuit in Mary's soul. Paramuqeomai comes from the fact that there is already doctrine in the soul of those who hear.

Verse 32 – "Then when Mary was come," aorist active indicative of e)rxomai. The aorist indicates she has arrived at her destination; "where Jesus was" – imperfect active indicative of e)imi, 'kept on being.' He stayed there.

"and saw him" – aorist active participle of o(raw, 'having seen Him.' O(raw means she had a panoramic view, it wasn't a glance. Then, "she fell down" – piptw, aorist indicative; "at his feet." Three times in the scripture Mary is at the feet of Jesus; each time a lesson is taught. Luke 10:39, she learns doctrine at His feet. John 11:32, she comes as a failure at His feet. She is in operation over-think and full of mental attitude sins; no doctrine on the launching pad. John 12:3, Mary succeeds at His feet, she applies doctrine.

"[kept] saying" – present active participle of legw; "Lord, Lord, Lord" – kurie, kuie, kurei. She didn't say it once, she kept saying it.

"if" is a 2nd class condition, 'if but you were not.'

"thou hadst been here [but you were not]" – bitterness as a result of just four days of operation over-think. Mary has not lost her ECS, it doesn't disintegrate in four days. What has happened is that operation over-think has short-circuited the function of her right lobe. While here edification complex is there, and while doctrine is in her frame of reference, it is not being used. Operation over-think always substitutes mental attitude sins for the reality of the situation.

"my brother would not have died" – a)poqnhskw, the strongest word for death, expressing great bitterness.

Summary A

1. This is precisely the same remark made by Martha in verse 21.

2. However, there is a difference. Martha said it in ignorance of doctrine; Mary says it in cognisance of doctrine.

3. When Martha made this remark Jesus taught her doctrine – this was her need.

4. When Mary made this remark Jesus is silent because Mary knows the doctrine. She is not applying what she knows.

5. The mourners did not follow Martha out of the house but they did follow Mary.

6. This suggests the impact of doctrine in the life of Mary in the past.

Summary B

1. Three times in this context human viewpoint is expressed: by Martha in verse 21 – a believer ignorant of doctrine; by Mary in verse 32 – a believer who fails to apply doctrine; by the crowd in verse 37 – unbelievers with human viewpoint. These are helpless people in their souls.

2. Principle: Jesus who delivers from death can also deliver through death.

3. All three groups express human viewpoint because to them death makes the situation hopeless.

4. The crowd can be excused on the basis of unbelief – 1 Corinthians

2:14.

5. The sisters were believers, therefore Jesus will demonstrate that what man cannot do God can do.

6. Therefore a principle will come out of this: Man's extremity is God's opportunity – Luke 1:37. There is no problem too difficult for God.

7. Any man can show Jesus where the tomb is but only Jesus Christ can bring the dead man back. But even greater than what we see in this passage is what God can do for us.

Verse 33 begins the seventh sign. "When Jesus therefore saw her weeping." This time Jesus does the o(raw – aorist active indicative; "weeping" – present

active participle of klaiw which means to weep and sob without restraint. It is continuous; it is the weeping of grief and hopelessness; she is completely and totally overcome by grief; she has been weakened by four days of operation over-think, and no one can survive over-think and come out on top.

Jesus gave Martha Bible doctrine but He is not going to give Bible doctrine to Mary who already knows doctrine. He is going to do something else.

"the Jews also weeping"[1] – present active participle of klaiw. They wept for a variety of reasons. The Jews were unbelievers. Some had a genuine sorrow,

some had pity for the sisters, some because it was the thing to do, some because they were frustrated and could not give their speech!

"he groaned" –aorist middle indicative of e)mbriaomai [e)m = in; briaomai = to snort with anger]. So He didn't groan, He was full of inner indignation. This is a bona fide indignation: How dare she come here and fall at my feet and sob in this way with no doctrine on the launching pad? It is not wrong for her to cry; that is not the point. It is wrong for her to be doing the same kind of weeping that the unbelievers are doing. The unbelievers have an excuse – ignorance; she has no excuse because she has doctrine.

"in the spirit" – why doesn't it say the soul? Because to snort with indignation in the soul might indicate anger. To snort with indignation in the Spirit [The Holy Spirit, not the human spirit] means that there was no sin here, it was a bona fide indignation, righteous indignation. The word e)mbriaomai also means to censor, to express strong displeasure, but He keeps His strong displeasure on the inside.

"and was troubled" – aorist active indicative tarassw which means He was really stirred up. But not out of fellowship. We have terassw plus the accusative of the reflexive pronoun e(autoj, and this means He was agitated within Himself. He shares the sorrows of the sisters. He took upon Himself their sorrows and their griefs – Isaiah 53:4. This phrase actually expresses a deep compassion and at the same time indignation. Jesus can understand their frailties and be compassionate but He is indignant that of all people Mary should be crying like a person with no doctrine when she is loaded with it. He problem is four days of operation over-think.

Verse 34 – He doesn't say a word about doctrine or comfort. "And he said, Where have you laid him?" He interrupts all of the weeping and wailing. There are many Jews here and Mary is leading the pack with her weeping and wailing at His feet. All these people are standing around weeping and wailing and He is indignant. His question shuts it all down for a minute. "Where have you laid" is a perfect active indicative of tiqhmi which means to place or appoint. Jesus is asking a question, not for information but He is diverting their attention from all of the weeping. He has to shut them up.

"They said unto him, Lord, come and see" – keep coming really, present active imperative of e)rxomai: keep coming and when you get there you will see it.

Verse 35 – "Jesus wept," o( I)hsouj dakruw. He didn't kleiw; He is indignant with kleiw. This is an ingressive aorist and it should be translated, "Jesus began to weep." But dakruw is in contrast to kleiw. Kleiw means to screech and weep and wail. Dakruw is soft, quiet weeping where every tear is rooted in the soul. It is the weeping of a bona fide capacity for love.

Verse 36 – "Then the Jews said [kept on saying]" – imperfect active indicative of legw; "Behold how he loved him" – imperfect active indicative of filew. This is the first time unbelieving Jews had been impressed with a genuine soul capacity.

Verse 37 – "Some of them" are undoubtedly some of the unbelievers who remained that way, people who were negative at the point of God-consciousness.

"said" – aorist active indicative of legw. In other words, the tears of our Lord had both response and reaction. Legw here in the aorist indicates the reaction. There has been response—"See how He loved him"—and now there is reaction which elicits criticism and suspicion from antagonistic mourners.

Could not" is the imperfect middle indicative of dunamai, which comes from the inherent strength noun and should be translated, "Does he keep on not being able?" The imperfect tense is linear aktionsart in past time. The middle voice is reflexive. The indicative mood is reality. "Does He not keep on being able. No matter what you do there are always some who are antagonistic and critical of your actions. Mental attitude sins always express themselves in criticism, maligning and judging. Their criticism is basically this: If Jesus really loved Lazarus why didn't He come and heal him while he was still alive?

"which opened the eyes of the blind" – a reference to the well-known miracle. The words "this man" is toutoj, this one. They are using it as an expression of derision; "opened" – aorist active participle of a)noigw is having opened. They recognise the reality of the fact that a person who had congenital blindness was able to see.

"have caused" is an aorist active infinitive of poiew which means to do, rather than to cause; "that even this man should not have died? – aorist active subjunctive of a)poqnhskw. The criticism makes something of it that isn't true. He didn't die violently or horribly [a)poqnhskw], he died in bed [qnhskw].

These are religious people who are criticising. Religious people will use any excuse to discredit Jesus Christ. Religion is the greatest enemy of Christianity which is not a religion. Religion despises grace.

Verse 38 – as a result of all of this complaining we have a response on the part of Jesus. "Jesus therefore again groaning" – present middle participle from e)mbriazomai. The word means inner indignation, strong inner displeasure. Jesus is not groaning, this is inner anger, bona fide anger. This occasion of this indignation is the criticism of the religious Jews in the previous verse. It is because of the total injustice and the folly of such criticism. The failure to orient to the plan of God causes Jesus' inner indignation. He doesn't groan, He simply expresses inner indignation. This is righteous indignation, not anger in the sense of the sin.

"cometh to the grave" –present active indicative of e)rxomai, a dramatic present.

"It was a cave" – this was a tomb carved out of the side of the Mount of Olives where many caves were located, and it was sealed up with a great stone. Literally, "a stone lay against it, upon it," imperfect middle indicative of e)pikeimai. We have a prepositional phrase, then e)pi a)utw.

Verses 39 to the first part of verse 41 we have what man can do.

"Jesus said, Take ye away the stone" – He gave an order, aorist active imperative of a)irw, which means lift it up and roll it away. The principle is that man can roll away the stone. Jesus never does what man can do; Jesus does what man cannot do. In other words, Jesus solves the problem. In this case He resuscitates the dead. He wants everyone to see and smell Lazarus and there will be no question about the validity of the seventh sign.

"Martha, the sister of him that was dead" – perfect active participle of telautaw which means to complete something and therefore to die. The perfect tense means to have completed one's life and to be dead.

"he stinketh" – present active indicative of o)zw, he keeps on stinking, he has an offensive odour. Martha assumes that Jesus simply wants to open the tomb so that He could look at the body of Lazarus. That is a typical human viewpoint. It never occurred to Martha that Jesus was going to do something. That is why He gave the order! It is too late is what she is trying to say, his body is beyond viewing. Martha's human viewpoint and ignorance of the divine plan, however, will not hinder the resuscitation.

"for he has been [dead is not found] four days" – present active indicative of e)imi, "he is four days [in the grave]." Human viewpoint can only come up with the facts that are obvious.

Verse 40 – "Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that if [3rd class condition] thou wouldst believe" – aorist active subjunctive of pisteuw, a non-meritorious system of thinking. Faith is actual thinking, human thinking. The subject produces the action and the subject always has the merit. Jesus is talking about applying known doctrine to experience. Martha's problem is that no doctrine taken into the human spirit is still no doctrine, and what is put on the launching pad is no doctrine!

"thou shouldst see" – future middle indicative of o(raw, "the glory of God." O(raw means the panoramic view. All Martha is going to get is blepw, a glance at the glory of God because she doesn't have enough doctrine in her right lobe to do anything more. The more doctrine you have the more you see the glory of God in certain events in history. O(raw, the panoramic view, is what she should have seen but her appreciation is limited by lack of Bible doctrine in her soul. In other words, Martha spent too much time in the kitchen and not enough time GAPing it.

Verse 41 – they obeyed Jesus Christ. "Then they took away the stone" – they lifted up and hauled it away, a)irw again. The words, from the place where the dead was laid is not, found in the original.

Now we see what the Lord can do, verses 41-44.

"And Jesus lifted up his eyes" – aorist active indicative of a)irw. They lifted up the stone and hauled it off, that takes muscle. But Jesus lifted up His eyes – same aorist active indicative. They used their muscles; Jesus used spiritual power.

"and said" – aorist active indicative of legw. Jesus Christ has the words of Bible doctrine, the words of divine viewpoint in His human soul.

"Father," the correct address is prayer, and Jesus is speaking from His humanity; "I thank thee" – present active indicative of e)uxaristew [e)u = well; xarij = grace] which means good grace. "Father you have graced me, I thankyou." Basic thanksgiving, the recognition of grace.

"that thou hast heard" – aorist active indicative of a)kouw. This is basic confidence based on doctrine. In eternity past God the Father knew what Jesus would say in His humanity, and the humanity of Jesus is now saying it. Recognition of the doctrine of divine decrees.

Verse 42 – "And I knew that you hear me always." This brings in GAPing it. This is the past perfect of o)ida. O)ida is a perfect form used as a present tense, but the pluperfect of o)ida is used as a perfect. "I have known" – Jesus Christ has maximum doctrine, He has an ECS. Notice what is important in the crisis: not the muscles rolling away the stone but the knowledge of Bible doctrine going into action – "that you keep on hearing me always."

Summary

1. Jesus Christ as the high priest had a perfect prayer life.

2. Under the doctrine of impeccability related to the hypostatic union Jesus could not sin, He was always in fellowship.

3. Knowledge of doctrine provided confidence in prayer.

4. Therefore the humanity of Christ was the most effective prayer warrior of all time.

5. Here is another world record for Jesus Christ.

"but because of the people" – dia plus the accusative of o)xloj, a large crowd; "which has been standing by" – perfect active participle of peristhmi [peri

= around; isthmi = stand]. They are standing around and this indicates helplessness. The helpless crowd can do nothing for Lazarus. Man cannot solve man's problems at any time in history. Only God can solve man's problems and He has put into effect laws to do so – establishment, nature, grace in His plan.

"that" – purpose clause – "they may believe." This is i(na plus the subjunctive, and this will be fulfilled in verse 45. Aorist active subjunctive of pisteuw, the

aorist is ingressive – "that they might begin to believe [at the point of their salvation]." Active voice: each person must believe for himself. The principle behind this: Privacy is the basis for freedom. Freedom includes privacy so that the individual can decide for himself. The issue here is John 3:36.

"that thou hast sent me" – aorist active indicative of a)postellw which means to be sent into action to command. Jesus Christ was sent into action to

command. That is the incarnation.

Verse 43 – "When he had thus spoken" is literally, "When he had spoken this" – aorist active participle of legw; "he cried" – he didn't cry. Kraugazw means to give an order with a loud voice. There were three words shouted. The first is a vocative so that everyone didn't come forth – "Lazarus." The second word is really a particle, sometimes used as an adverb, deuro, which means "here." Then the second adverb, e)cw, which means "outside." So literally He said, "Lazarus, here outside."

Verse 44 – "And he that was dead came forth." The critical Jews called it a)poqnhskw but we now have what it really was, the perfect active participle of qnhskw. Lazarus died in bed!

"came forth" – aorist active indicative of e)cerxomai, he came outside. Notice the perfect passive participle of dew which means to be tied up or bound. He had been wrapped up as a corpse.

"with graveclothes" – keiria; "bound about" is a pluperfect passive indicative of peridew, "having been completely bound up."

"napkin" – soudarion, which is a sweat cloth used for wiping perspiration from the face. The only thing that was not wrapped with bandages was the facial area which had a face towel across it.

"Loose him" – aorist active imperative: luw means unwind him; "and let him" – aorist active imperative of a)fihmi which means 'permit him to go [and have his own private life].' The problem here is that here is a person brought back to life and he is going to be bugged to death! So permit him to depart in privacy – u(pagw.

Lazarus is an illustration of salvation with emphasis on positional truth. We share the life of Christ, eternal life. Lazarus was bound and when he was loosed this depicts the principle of maturity through Bible doctrine – GAPing it and being released through the privacy of living one's life as unto the Lord. This is the concept of Galatians 5:1. Later on in 12:1,2 we see Lazarus feasting, a picture of the believer benefiting from doctrine after he reaches the ECS stage. In 12:9, 11 we see Lazarus witnessing, a picture of the believer producing on the basis of Bible doctrine.

Verses 45 and 46, we have the crowd again: response and reaction.

Verse 45 – the response. Then many of the Jews which came to Mary" – they came to comfort Mary, not Martha. Proj plus the accusative, they came face to face with Mary. It was the life of Mary which drew the crowd, not the life of Martha. Martha was great in the kitchen but Mary was a grace lady. The dynamics of the grace lady are fantastic. Martha was too busy to learn doctrine and it was the grace lady who drew the crowd of mourners to the place of the seventh sign.

"and had seen" – aorist middle participle of qeaomai. These are unbelievers so far so they can't o(raw, and they can't even blepw. All they can do is qeomai which means to get the point. It means perception, to discern with the eyes, to relate what is observed to something in the soul. So we translate this, "having themselves perceived."

"what things Jesus did" – aorist active indicative of poiew; "believed" – aorist active indicative of pisteuw. Faith is the absence of human merit – Acts 18:27.

Verse 46 – "But some of them." The word of is e)k, out from among them. This is the reaction crowd, negative at the point of God-consciousness; they will be negative at the point of the seventh sign. Even a miracle does not change negative into positive volition.

"departed" – aorist active indicative from a)perxomai, they "went from that place."

"their ways" is not found in the original, it says, "they departed to the Pharisees" – proj plus the accusative, they had been face to face with the greatest of all miracles, now they are face to face with something that is more important to them – the Pharisees. They are deluded by religion.

"and related to them what Jesus had accomplished" – poiew – without ever relating it to themselves or to salvation in any possible way.

Verse 47 – the Pharisees are now facing a dilemma. "Then" should be "Therefore." The word "then" notices a sequence of events but o)un means as a result of the seventh great sign of Messiahship, the resuscitation of Lazarus. Really, it was as a result of that report. "Therefore they gathered" – aorist active indicative of sunagw. This is where we get the word synagogue. The word here simply means a convocation. They convened as an official ruling body of the land. The convening includes the chief priests and the Pharisees. The distinction is very important. The chief priests were all Sadducees. They were rationalists; they were politicians; they were not interested in doctrine of any kind, they were interested in power. The Pharisees were religionists, legalists, theologians, and full of false doctrine. The Pharisees were the scribes or theologians. These two groups together formed a ruling body called the Sanhedrin. Both groups for different reasons are in opposition to Jesus Christ. The Sadducees as politicians see the danger of having Christ as a potential ruler to overthrow them. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were zealous for self-righteousness and religion, and therefore they were antagonistic toward Jesus Christ who is the epitome of all that is grace. Since religion is the devil's ace trump, and since both groups were satanic in much of their viewpoint, they are both in opposition to Jesus Christ. This is really an emergency meeting, and emergency session of the Sanhedrin, in order to deal with the new crisis, the seventh miracle, the resuscitation of Lazarus from the dead.

"a council" – that is the word Sanhedrin, sunedrion [sun = together; edra = sitting] which means a sitting together. Transliterated, this word is Sanhedrin.

"and said" – imperfect active indicative of legw, they kept on discussing it. The imperfect tense is linear aktionsart, past time. There was a great deal of discussion.

"What do we?" – present active indicative of poiew. A better translation is "What are we doing?" The concept is: Jesus Christ is active; we are idle! What are we going to do to stop His influence? The Sanhedrin was not impressed with the miracles of Christ but disturbed by their influence on the people, and they recognised this as a challenge to their rulership. This is going to be a maximum expression of their own negative volition. Instead of receiving Christ as their saviour and Messiah they seek to destroy Him.

"this man" – a)nqrwpoj, which at this point becomes an insult. They do not call Him a)nhr, noble man, they simply say "this man." This is a rejection both of the deity of Christ as well as the well-established fact that He is the heir to the throne of Judah.

"doeth" – keeps on doing – "many miracles." Present active indicative of poiew. What are we doing? He is doing miracles. These miracles refer specifically in John to the seven miracles which are the credit cards of Messiahship. They demonstrate that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the son of David.

Verse 48 – another phase of their deliberations. Their dilemma is introduced by the word "If," a 3rd class condition. "If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him." The point is: 'We have to do something. If we don't He is going to convert everyone.' Of course, they are excluded. They are non-convertible—negative volition.

The aorist active subjunctive of a)fihmi really means to abandon Him, to give Him perfect freedom, abandon Him to His own function, let Him alone completely. The word connotes live and let live. What is wrong with everyone being converted? That means they are through! Finished! The aorist tense is ingressive and indicates, "If we begin such a policy." Up to now they haven't done such a thing but this is a possibility. Really this is translated, 'If we begin to let Him alone.' Apparently some in the Sanhedrin thought it was time to live and let live. The active voice: they themselves have considered the possibility. The subjunctive mood simply goes with the 3rd class condition.

Notice the implication of what they say. They realise why the seven miracles. What was the purpose of seven credit cards? That they might believe in Him! The Sanhedrin understood the issue even though fundamentalists in our day do not. (No walking aisles, raising hands, being baptised, etc.) When the Sanhedrin says "believe" they have rejected e)pignwsij gospel themselves. They themselves understand the issue clearly and they have obviously rejected it. So if we let Him alone and continue His function all will believe.

"all will believe" is a future active indicative of pisteuw. Not only did the Sanhedrin understand the issue of salvation but it also assumes that a few more miracles like the last one and everyone will be believing. They themselves are impervious to miracles because they have already rejected e)pignwsij gospel and scar tissue of unbelievers cannot be impressed with miracles. (A believer with scar tissue is impressed with miracles) An unbeliever with scar tissue can only be impressed with himself. These are unbelievers; they have rejected Jesus Christ. No matter what He does they will never, never be impressed.

What they assume is not true, as illustrated by their own negative volition expressed in unbelief. The real problem here is not "all will believe." If all believe they have everything to lose as far as they are concerned – their own power. They realise that if Jesus Christ performs another miracle they are going to lose their power. They have power lust, and like all people with power lust they are very jealous of anyone who gains the attention of the people. The Sanhedrin is in danger of losing control of the people at this point and part of their dilemma is the fact that Jesus Christ has challenged their power to the extent that they are afraid they are about to lose it. The other part of the dilemma has to do with the Romans.

"and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation." At this time the Jews were enjoying a certain measure of autonomy under Roman protection. Northern Palestine at this time was under the rule of Herod the tetrarch; southern Palestine was under the control of the Sanhedrin. As far as they are concerned if the people flock to Jesus Christ and believe in Him then the Romans may decide that the Sanhedrin cannot handle the situation and will personally come in and take a greater part, and remove the autonomy of the Sanhedrin. The Romans were already there but "the Romans shall come" means to come and take over.

"take away" – future active indicative of a)irw, which means to lift up and throw away 'our power.' Topoj means more than place, it means status quo here.

"and nation" – the Jews will no longer enjoy any autonomy. They will become in effect a Roman-governed province. They were not at this moment, but it came later on because they rejected Christ. The word for nation here is e)qnoj. It is used in two ways: a) for gentiles in contrast to Jews; b) a nation in contrast to total disorganisation.

Verse 49 – someone is eventually going to prevail, and the person who is going to prevail here is Caiaphas, a member of the Sanhedrin. He is the high priest of the Jews during the reign of Tiberias. He held the office during the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate. So he is a VIP and he is going to give some advice. Why and under what circumstances did John know about Caiaphas and what he said? John was an aristocrat in the southern kingdom. He was on friendly terms and relationship with these people. He knew Caiaphas personally. John travelled in high-class circles.

"that same year" – 29 or 30 AD.

"You know nothing at all" – u(meij o)uk o)idate o)uden is an insult. U(meij – You and only you (the Sanhedrin); o)uk – not; o)idate – know; o)uden – nothing. "You do not know nothing" is the literal translation. This is an idiom for "How stupid can you get?" They are missing the point as far as Caiaphas is concerned.

Verse 50 – "consider" is logizomai which means to think logically. Present active imperative: "Keep thinking logically."

"it is expedient" – sumferw, present active indicative: 'it is for our benefit, it is advantageous for us [the Sanhedrin].'

"that someone should die for the people" – a)poqnhskw is the verb he used. It means to die violently, to die in a spectacular manner so that everyone knows about it and they talk about it for a long time.

The true issue is that Jesus must be eliminated. Either Jesus must be eliminated or the Romans will eliminate the Sanhedrin and therefore possibly the national autonomy. Caiaphas is not prophesying but he is appealing to their logic.

"for the people" – u(per, not in the sense that Paul uses the word in an efficacious substitutionary atonement for salvation but as an innuendo and also as sarcasm, i.e. If you want to keep ruling the people then He has to die for the people. This is actually what is known as a rulership gimmick: using the good of the people to stay in power.

Psalm 76:10 states a principle: "God uses the wrath of man to praise Him." While Caiaphas is only interested in keeping Caiaphas in power, Caiaphas inadvertently is referring to the cross without one clue as to its implication.

"that the nation perish not" – someone has to die for the people so that the nation doesn't perish! 'This man who has been presenting Himself as the Messiah to the people must die for the people.' In this we have great sarcasm. We also know that Caiaphas himself as a chief priest is aware of what the scriptures teach about the Messiah, and he is aware that when Messiah comes Messiah is going to die for the people because of Isaiah 53. Caiaphas knew all about these things and as an unbeliever he is being sarcastic. Example: Well, He claims He is Messiah, He has been proving it all this time. Now if He is Messiah then let Him die for the people, because if He dies for the people He is going to preserve the nation. Which translated means, We are going to stay in power.

It is necessary to understand Caiaphas from the standpoint of Caiaphas. He is a man who enjoys his life. He has power, authority, prestige, everything he wants. If he has everything he wants the only problem he has is to maintain all of the things that he has and not lose. Jesus is a challenge to losing these things. Caiaphas runs the Sanhedrin; the Sanhedrin run the people. Caiaphas is the power and he wants to keep it that way. How is he going to do it? Eliminate this one who calls Himself the Messiah, let Him die for the people. And by that Caiaphas indicates that while he understands the truth he has rejected it. He has rejected Jesus Christ.

"that the whole nation perish not" – aorist active subjunctive of a)pollumi, 5th cycle of discipline, total destruction. He knows that if the Romans ever start interfering it is just a matter of time.

The historical situation will be far different than what Caiaphas estimated. The cross will eventuate in the 4th and 5th cycles of discipline to Israel. God will use Rome as the whip. So Caiaphas is trying to eliminate Jesus not realising the repercussions.

Verse 51 – at this point John himself, under the ministry of the Holy Spirit, makes an observation. So in verses 51 and 52 we have the parenthetical observation of John. This is to show that he knew Caiaphas and what Caiaphas was really saying.

"And this spake he not of [for or from] himself" – this means that Caiaphas did not entirely understand the implications of his remarks. John in retrospection sees a prophetic significance of the remarks of Caiaphas which were not intended to be prophetic. While Caiaphas was motivated by political expediency his comment went deeper than he realised. From the human viewpoint the policy of Caiaphas is brutal murder but from the divine viewpoint the death of Christ is going to be efficacious sacrifice. Caiaphas himself actually predicted a policy that was going to be beneficial beyond anything he could dream, but he wasn't thinking of that.

"but being high priest that year he prophesied [predicted]" – aorist active indicative of profhteuw. This word can be used for the gift or the office of a prophet but it can also be used for someone who predicts something without being aware of its full implications. So we translate this, 'he predicted.' He predicted something about being aware of it being a prophesy.

"he predicted that Jesus should die for the nation" – the words 'that Jesus should' is imperfect active indicative of mellw which means to be about to be: "that Jesus was about to die," present active infinitive of a)poqnhskw. This is retrospection on the part of John but it is to show that John realises who and what Caiaphas was and what he meant. But the implication and the way he said it turned out to be a prophecy and a very accurate one because the very words that he used – a)poqnhskw and u(per – are the very words which indicate the true death of Christ for the people. As an unbeliever Caiaphas didn't have a clue as to what was implied, he merely wants to get rid of Christ.

Verse 52 records John's comments, the truth of the matter. "Not for that nation only" – a reference to the doctrine of unlimited atonement. This is the comment of John as a true prophet, not of Caiaphas as a predictor.

"that he should gather together in one" – aorist active subjunctive for a purpose clause of sunagw. The true sunagw is the one that Christ will gather. Aorist tense is constative. Active voice: Christ will do it. The subjunctive mood: this is a purpose clause. This is the purpose of the death of Christ – to "sunagw in one." That is what the cross will do in 30 AD.

Notice how John describes the recipients of sunagw – "the children of God." Believers, Church Age believers.

"that were scattered abroad" – perfect passive participle of diaskorpiazw which refers to the Gentiles scattered over the entire earth, lost and without hope. Ephesians 2:11-17.

Verse 53 – the decision of the Sanhedrin. The Caiaphas policy becomes their policy: eliminate Him.

"Then from" – a)po, the preposition of ultimate source. It is used to indicate that at this time, after the speech of Caiaphas, that became the policy of the Sanhedrin.

"they took counsel" – aorist middle indicative of bouleuw, 'they purposed [or, determined].'

"for" – literally, "that he must be put to death." This is i(na plus the subjunctive and should be translated that, not for. Then follows the aorist active subjunctive of a)pokteinw which means to destroy, to annihilate, to eliminate totally, to erase—not only to kill the person but to erase anything connected with him. This is the firm policy of the Sanhedrin. The mechanics will depend upon opportunity, which is why there is a purpose clause.

"From that day they determined that he must be eliminated."

Verse 54 – "Jesus therefore walked no more openly," imperfect active indicative of peripatew, plus an adverb, o)uketi, plus parrhsia. These three words are important. Peripatew is His modus operandi, His function, His life, His activity. O)uketi means "no longer." Parrhsia means "with freedom." So the policy of Jesus Christ is to stay alive until the right moment. He must die on the Passover, that is the Father's schedule.

"but went [departed, a)perxomai] unto a desert place … into a city called Ephraim" – this is a city north and west of Jerusalem.

"there he continued with his disciples" – menw means to abide or to remain; "disciples" – maqhthj means those who are learning doctrine under strict authority.

Verse 55 – the Passover at Jerusalem.

"the Passover was" – imperfect active indicative of e)imi. This is a conative imperfect and it doesn't mean linear aktionsart, it simply means it was approaching.

"And as the Passover approaches many went up to Jerusalem from the regions round about." The word xwra doesn't mean countries, it means regions. They went up early for a special purpose—in order to get purified. The aorist active subjunctive here means "that they might be purified." Even a month before the Passover the place was full of pilgrims trying to get purified. The word ag)nizw here means to go through ceremonies which might purify them.

Verse 56 – "Then sought they for Jesus." The conative imperfect zetew is an imperfect active indicative—they began to look for Him; "and spake"— they began to speak. They began to search and to talk among themselves. The resuscitation of Lazarus spread all over the area.

"as they stood in the temple" – perfect active participle of i(sthmai, they had to stand with the result that they kept on standing. They are going through all the purification ceremonies. As they dabble in shadows and as they have no doctrine with which to match what is going on they have time for conversation. They begin to speculate.

"What think ye" – present active indicative of dokew. This means that whatever they think it is subjective. They go back and forth on this thing since everyone knows the Caiaphas policy.

"that he will not come" – aorist active indicative of e)rxomai plus the negative mh. They assume that Jesus will not come. They are in the temple. All of these sacrifices speak of Christ but that doesn't mean anything top them. All of the purification rights involve sacrifices and hundreds of animals are being sacrificed daily, day in and day out, and they are all speaking of Jesus Christ. And these people are standing around in the ceremonial thing and they have no doctrine on the inside, they are all speculating about Jesus. They are interested in whether Jesus will come to Jerusalem or not and they are missing the whole point. Their eternal salvation is at stake. The word mh assumes a negative answer; they assume Jesus will not come. They assume that Jesus is afraid to come and the attribute to Jesus their own attitude—they would be afraid to come. It never occurs to religious types that Jesus is far above them and infinitely superior.

Verse 57 – back to the Sanhedrin.

"had given a commandment" – pluperfect of didomi, the verb for giving. The pluperfect is the past perfect and it means to set up a law. They are using legislation. They legislated His death. This is not only firm policy, it is law!

Legislation was designed under the laws of establishment for one thing only—to protect the freedom, the rights, the property and the living of law-abiding people. It was never designed to correct evils.

Plus the noun in the accusative plural, e)ntolh, to indicate they had to pass a series of laws. One law wasn't enough. They had to pass another law, e.g. Anyone who harbours this person will be considered as a traitor. Then, If anyone knows where He is they must come and tell us, that is the law!

"if anyone knew" – aorist active subjunctive of ginwskw which means to know by observation; "where he is," not where he were. This is the present tense of e)imi.

"that" – purpose clause; "he would shew it" – mhnuw means to disclose a secret. How do tyrants stay in power? By getting people to disclose a secret.

"that they might take him" – piazw means to seize violently.

[1] See doctrine of weeping.

Chapter 12

In the first eleven verses of this chapter we have the secret to the dying of Lazarus, the secret to the dying of Jesus Christ. How do we know that Lazarus is going to be great the second time he dies, even greater than the first time? Because in this passage we have a party that is so great, and the participants are so fantastic that actually we know that the second time that Lazarus died it must have been really great. Why? Because he had capacity for living. If you have capacity for living through doctrine you have capacity for dying. What is our capacity for life really? Do we have a marvellous time in life whether in adversity or tragedy, or in a time of prosperity. Do we utilise doctrine? Are we occupied with the person of Christ? If we have capacity for living we have capacity for dying.

Verse 1 – "Then Jesus six days before the Passover." There is no contradiction between this verse and what Matthew 26:2 says, and what Mark 14:1-3 says. In the Synoptic accounts the events are not arranged chronologically, whereas in John's account the events follow an historical sequence. In the Synoptic accounts the conspiracy of the Jewish leaders is followed by retrospective exposition to indicate how and by what means Judas became the betrayer of Jesus. Judas was miffed because of a public rebuke. He was not a believer, and this is why we have a little difference in the order in the Synoptics than John.

The Passover is on Tuesday night after sundown to Wednesday night after sundown. Remember that Jesus Christ did not die on Friday. He went on the cross

on Wednesday morning at 9 am, and He was taken off the cross at 3 pm that afternoon. But the Passover starts at sundown Tuesday night, as soon as it gets dark. So Christ died on Wednesday. He was three days and three nights in the grave—Thursday, Friday, Saturday—and He rose early Sunday morning. So if we count back six days we have we have the time of verse 1 on the previous Friday before the Passover. In other words, we are now getting close to the death of Christ and we are now in the midst of a great celebration, a party in which there is going to be a recognition of our Lord's death. The party was really to celebrate the resuscitation of Lazarus but the whole tenor of the party changes to celebrate the Lord's death.

"Jesus came to Bethany" – the aorist active indicative of e)rxomai indicates an historical fact. The aorist tense is the point of time when He arrives. The active voice: Jesus came. Indicative mood: the reality of the fact that He came.

"were Lazarus was" – where Lazarus kept on being, imperfect active indicative of e)imi. Lazarus wasn't was, Lazarus kept on being there. In other words, Lazarus is now very much alive.

"which had been dead" is not found in the original.

"whom he [Jesus] raised from the dead" – aorist active indicative of e)geirw, which can be used for resurrection. The ordinary word for resurrection is a)nisthmi but e)geirw can mean either resurrection or resuscitation. In this case it is resuscitation. The resurrection of Lazarus will not occur until the Second Advent; Lazarus is an Old Testament saint.

Verse 2 – the dinner party. "There [in Bethany] they made him a supper" – 3rd person plural, aorist active indicative of poiew. The subject is 3rd person plural: they did Him a supper. The plural suffix indicates the party was a joint venture. "They" refers to Lazarus, Mary, Martha, and Simon the leper who also lives in the same suburb. The supper is actually held in the house of Simon the leper because he has a larger home. This is indicated by Matthew 26:6 and Mark 14:3. This is a large and happy party. The word "him" is dative of dignity, a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the guest of honour at this party. They didn't make Him a supper, however. The Greek word is deipnon and it means a dinner party, a banquet, or just simply a party where they dine.

"and Martha served" – diakonew is used here in the imperfect, which means during the entire party she kept it up. All during the party she was providing food. She waited upon them, she attended to them, she provided for them. The verb indicates that Martha was in charge of cooking and preparing the food and she took charge of serving it. She is true to character. This is what she did before; this is what she is doing now. She is doing what she knows how to do—functioning in the area of cooking and serving. We are going to find, just as before, that Martha and Mary—the two sisters—both follow the pattern which is established in the prior chapters. Lazarus is mentioned as one of the guests.

"but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him" – to sit at the table here more or less gives us how the party functions. It is the present active participle of a)nakeimai. This means to recline at a table Roman style. This is interesting. These are Jewish people but they are following the Roman custom which is always to recline on a couch.

One word would describe the beginning of this party—rapport. This is a party where true love and pseudo love are co-existing but it isn't apparent at the beginning of the party. Remember that this party was really built around death. The understanding of death gives capacity for life. Capacity for life is preparation for death, and the one who lives well then dies well. Jesus Christ knows He will die the most horrible death in all of human history in six days—three hours of bearing our sins. No one ever went through what Jesus did in the field of suffering. It is maximum; it is unique, and yet here, six days before, He is relaxed.

Verse 3 – the dramatic application of doctrine. "Then" is an inferential use of the conjunction o)un, and it introduces a dramatic event in its chronological order. In other words, this dramatic event occurred during the course of the party: "May" – she did not serve like Martha, but she is a sense had a better portion in that she had learned doctrine from the Lord Jesus Christ to the extent that she has in her capacity for living "the instinct of love." This is maximum capacity for love in the soul—to instinctively do the thing that indicates that you do love someone. Mary, because of the content of doctrine in her soul has the instinct of love. This instinct of love is so strong that along with Jesus Christ she is apparently the only one who has understood what He has been teaching. Mary also knows that Jesus is going to die, and she knows that it is coming in six days. Like everyone else at the party she is relaxed. But she has a special surprise, a wonderful, magnificent surprise indicating her great capacity, her great instinct for love.

"took" – aorist active participle of lambanw. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb is to anoint. Prior to the dinner party Mary took her savings— all of it apparently—and purchased a very expensive gift for Jesus Christ. She purchased one of the most valuable things in the ancient world in the time of the Roman empire—"oil of spikenard," a burial perfume. This is the most expensive of all of the things that can be used in burial. It was very expensive because it was very scarce. It was the result of the trade between the Roman empire and India and China. This spikenard was so expensive and a person could only use it once, and that was at death when the body would be anointed with it.

Notice the difference between Mary and Martha. Martha cooked food for the living Lord; Mary provided oil for the dying Lord. Neither of them did anything that was wrong; both of them did something that was good. However, Mary did the best thing. She expresses something that is recorded in the Word of God forever and ever. Nothing about Martha's cooking is recorded in the word of God. There was nothing wrong with what she was doing because part of the party was the good food, but it isn't something that you remember. Why? Because eating is connected with living. What Mary did was better because Martha has just passed the crisis of seeing her beloved brother Lazarus die and come back to life. She is glad to have that behind her and is so happy that she is doing her best cooking. But God the Holy Spirit does not see fit to record all of the dishes—because it has to do with living. But what Mary does has to do with dying, and capacity for dying comes from capacity for living. Martha is zealous; Mary is doctrinal. Martha is sincere; Mary is oriented to grace. The party food was wonderful but the application of doctrine was absolutely fantastic. Recorded in the Word of God forever is the act of Mary because it was an application of Bible doctrine; it is a manifestation of here edification complex of the soul. Therefore, she could enjoy the party as the rest of them did but she could appreciate it more than they because this is a dying party, not a living party. Lazarus is now alive and they are celebrating, but little did they realise that this was Jesus Christ's 'going away' party.

"a pound of ointment of spikenard" – 'pound' is in the accusative singular from litra [from which we get litre]. We have troy weight here where 12oz = 1 pound. So a pound [12oz] of muron, and aromatic juice which is distilled from trees. It is a pungent, and aromatic ointment used for embalming. It is called spikenard in the English; the Greek word is nardoj. It is a plant native to India. The juice was very, very fragrant and it was taken from the plant and sealed in an alabaster box and imported from India. At this time in the Roman empire there was great trade between India and the Empire.

"costly" – polutimoj [timoj = expensive or honourable; polu = very]. The probable cost of this ointment is given in verse 5 as 300 denarii. A denarius is a day's wages at the time of writing—Matthew 20:2. So that means 300 days' wages, almost a year's wages. So it was very costly.

"and anointed" – a)leifw; "his feet" – three times we find Mary at the feet of Jesus: Luke 10:39, she learns at His feet; John 11:32, she failed at His feet; John 12:3, she succeeds at His feet. Mary understands better than anyone else that Jesus Christ is going to die in six days, on the one day that is the shadow of the cross—the Passover. She applies the doctrine from her soul.

John only describes part of the anointing. Mark tells us she broke the jar. She understood that Christ must be judged for us and therefore the work of Christ on the cross. Matthew tells us she anointed the head of Jesus. Why? Because Matthew is the Gospel of the King, and the King wears a crown. In Matthew Jesus is recognised as the son of David, therefore the anointing of the head. The King must die for His kingdom to exist forever. John tells us she anointed His feet. This is the teaching ministry of our Lord oriented to the plan of God and the grace of God which is the central part of John. So Matthew emphasises the King, therefore the head is anointed – Matthew 26:3; Mark emphasises the servant, therefore Mary breaks the alabaster box which contains the oil to indicate the servant is broken on the cross – Mark 14:3; John emphasises the teaching of the Lord, therefore mentions Mary anointing the feet. "How beautiful are the feet that communicate doctrine"—Isaiah 52:7.

"and wiped his feet with her hair" – e)kmassw, which means to wipe dry. The hair is the glory of the woman. It is a sign of her response. A woman has long hair as a responder. She has responded to our Lord's teaching. She learned at His feet, she wipes His feet dry with her hair which is her glory. She is a responder to the teaching of the doctrine. The expresses her capacity for love—maximum capacity through Bible doctrine. Martha expressed her love through cooking; Mary expressed her love in this manner.

"and the house" – the house of Simon the leper – "was filled" – aorist passive indicative of plhrow, filled with something of the highest quality.

"with the odour" – a very sweet odour, a very rare odour because it is a very expensive fragrance. As the house is filled with the fragrance it is a picture of the fact that God the Father is satisfied with the death of Christ on the cross. So it anticipates propitiation. Undoubtedly part of the house at least had been filled with the odour of cooking and now it was filled with the odour of the fragrance of our Lord's death. This is also the fragrance of memories. Out of this Martha will have a beautiful fragrance of memory. So the odour of physical food has vanished; it is replaced by the odour of the oil of nard, a fragrance of grace.

Principle: Food helped to make the party a success but without doctrine there would be no party. Beware that the normal details of life, such as cooking, do not hinder the intake of Bible doctrine. Martha's cooking made a pleasant dinner party but Mary's ointment reminded of the capacity for life through doctrine leading to the capacity for death through doctrine. Only Bible doctrine can actually give capacity for life so that one can have capacity for dying. As a person lives, so he dies. If he lives with great capacity for life and occupation with Christ he dies with great capacity for life and occupation with Christ. No matter how he dies the capacity is there.

Verse 4 – the party pooper. Remember that he is a phoney, a reversionist; He does not love Jesus Christ. Judas Iscariot loves first of all himself, and secondly, that which he feels can help him the most: money.

"Then said Judas Iscariot … which should betray him" – should be about to betray him, present active participle of mellw.

Verse 5 – "Why was not this ointment sold" – aorist passive indicative of pipraskw which means to put into a business deal. And he didn't say "Why," he said, "Because why" – dia plus the accusative of the interrogative pronoun. Because why was this not put into a business venture, and sold.

"and [then] given" – aorist passive indicative – "to the ptoxoj [poor]." We have a bleeding heart at the party! Notice what attacks the spiritual life: Getting involved—liberalism, socialism, panaceas. Judas is under the social gospel: "Help the poor."

Mary was a believer; Judas was an unbeliever.

Mary was a mature believer with an ECS; Judas Iscariot was an unbeliever with reversionism and emotional revolt.

Mary was conservative; Judas was a liberal.

Mary gave to Christ her love first; Judas betrayed Christ because of his lust for money.

Mary emphasised the Lord through doctrine; Judas emphasises the poor through his hypocrisy.

Mary carried a box; Judas carried the bag.

Mary broke the box as a point of doctrine; Judas emptied the bag as a part of his lust.

The effect of this criticism is not recorded in John, but in Matthew 26:8 and Mark 14:4 we see that the disciples became critical of Mary, following the lead of

Judas. Beware of the herd-bound instinct! The disciples did not have any facts; they were influenced by the emotional revolt of Judas. As Judas spoke their own jealousy could vent itself. Actually, Judas didn't care for the poor at all. Judas was out for Judas! The disciples were the victims of the herd instinct. Basically, they didn't have enough doctrine to resist this thing. Be careful who does your thinking for you!

Verse 6 – "This he said, not that he cared for the poor" – not because it was a care to him concerning the poor, is what it says literally.

"but he was a thief" – klepthj, a smart thief, a con artist, someone who stole with his brains rather than by violence.

"and kept on holding the bag" – he didn't have it, he held it, present active participle of e)xw. The bag means he was the treasurer. The word for 'bag' is a compound noun, glwssokomon [glwsso = tongues; komew = to keep]. It was a box for keeping tongues originally. A tongue was a reed or a mouthpiece for a musical instrument, and from there they decided you could keep other things in them and a bag became a purse. The one who carried the bag was the treasurer.

"and bare what was put therein" – bastazw means he stole what was put therein.

Verse 7 – "Then said Jesus, Let her alone," aorist active imperative of a)fihmi. The word generally means to forsake, to desert, but in this case it means 'stop bullying.' Aorist tense: now. Active voice: you let her alone. Imperative mood: this is an order. Jesus defends Mary from the bullying of legalism and at the same time the judgement of the long proboscis. Mary has done this as unto the Lord. She has done a right thing. When you do something right you have a right to your privacy. A part of serving the Lord is privacy and in any time in history when believers start to make public and brag and beat the drums for what they are doing for God, that is apostasy. The order of the day in living your life as unto the Lord is privacy. What Mary has done also shows that a person who has a capacity for loves tends to be extravagant in any expression of that love. Mary's privacy was challenged and the Lord Jesus Christ picked it up. He defends her from the bullying of legalism and from judging. Judas was critical, he was bullying because he wanted to steal the money. The disciples were critical because they were stupid and followed the wrong person. In their ignorance they had the wrong emphasis. That the disciples were critical is documented from Matthew 26:8 and Mark 14:4. In their ignorance they emphasised the social gospel—social action. But Mary in her knowledge of doctrine emphasised the Bible gospel and the person of Christ.

Principle: Doctrine gives the correct emphasis on life.

The poor, by the way, need eternal life more than they need money. Under the plan of God in phase two God provides for the poor, which is better than man's provision for the poor. But moire than that, this is a command to stop judging. Judging is a sin, a sin of bullying, a sin which is always prefaced by mental attitude sin.

Then Jesus explains why they should let her alone: "against the day of my burying hath she kept this." There is no word against here, there is the Greek word i(na which introduces a purpose clause, and it should be translated for the purpose of. Believers with doctrine have a purpose in life. This should be "for the purpose of the day of my burying." She commemorates His death in this way. The word burying is a noun is e)ntafikaismoj and it means preparation for burial rather than burial.

"kept" is the aorist active subjunctive of terew which means to guard, but it means to guard something that belongs to self. So she has guarded something that belongs to her.

Verse 8 – Judas the pseudo judge is now judged by the true judge. Judas has the wrong emphasis and Jesus Christ is about to square him away.

"The poor" – ptoxoj, which sometimes means a professional beggar and sometimes it means someone who is totally out of funds. It never means someone who is down on his luck for the moment; it refers to a person who is not only without funds and without food, shelter and clothing, but without any apparent hope of having any very soon.

"always you have with you" – you have is the present active indicative of e)xw; always is the adverb pantote which means at all times. Historically there never will be a nation on the face of the earth in any generation where that nation will not produce its poor as well as its wealthy. There never will be a time in history when the poor will cease to exist.[1]

Principle

1. The exegesis of the first part of verse 8 indicates that the poor will exist on earth until the second advent of Christ. Only the second advent of Christ and the Millennial reign will eliminate poverty.

2. Only God can solve the problem of the poor and the other inequalities of the human race.

3. Man cannot solve the basic problem of people being born unequal.

4. Not only is man born in inequality but he lives in inequality.

5. Only positional sanctification is salvation can equalise mankind. The only equality in the devil's world exists among believers in the Church Age—all in union with Christ.

6. The purpose of divine institution #4, human government, is to give people equal opportunities within the framework of their own abilities. But human government cannot make people equal, and it often fails to give even equal opportunity.

7. Equality cannot be legislated; only human freedom. Whenever legislation tries to give equality it destroys the freedom of the people.

8. Therefore the poor will always exist. In some cases they will be exploited, in other case they will be helped.

9. Only God can solve the problems of poverty through operation grace. Matthew 26:11; mark 14:7.

"but" – conjunction of contrast; "me [Jesus Christ on earth] you do not have with you at all times [pantote plus the present active indicative of e)xw]." In

other words, Jesus is saying Mary has the right emphasis. 'You want to give to the poor? Fine! You have the poor tomorrow, the next day, and the next, but Mary recognises that you don't always have me.'

The only solution to poverty or to any other problem in life resides in Bible doctrine, not in socialism.

Verse 9 – the crowd gathers at Bethany. "Much people" is an idiom for a large crowd which is attracted to Bethany on this Jewish weekend—Friday and Saturday.

"knew" – the knew from the experience of seeing and hearing, aorist active indicative of ginwskw.

"they came not for Jesus sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also." People are curious about something unusual. Some came to see Jesus Christ—a few will be occupied with Christ. But we have the word only. They came because they were curious about Lazarus. People lose out by not being occupied with Christ.

"for Jesus' sake" is dia plus the accusative and should be translated "because of Jesus only."

"but they might see" – aorist active subjunctive of o(raw, get a panoramic view. This a purpose clause, i(na plus the subjunctive, which means they didn't just want to get a glimpse [blepw], they wanted to get a good look. This was human curiosity about someone who has come back from the dead. The crowd gathered because of human interest. The crowd indicated, once again, wrong emphasis. It is a sideshow to them.

Verse 10 – notice how quickly the veneer of "brotherly love" is removed from the religious crowd! "But the chief priests consulted" – the word consulted is bouleuw which means to hold a special council to deliberate, to determine something.

"that" – purpose clause; "they might put Lazarus to death," a)pokteinw, which means to kill in any way; violently is usually the concept. So they are going to remove both the subject and the object of the miracle, and by doing this they assume that they can erase the seventh credit card.

Verse 11 – as a result of this there were those who did respond to the true meaning of the seventh credit card of Messiahship.

"Because that by reason of him" is literally, "because of him," dia plus the accusative.

"many of the Jews" – John 11:45 crowd – "began to separate," imperfect active indicative from u(pagw. The imperfect tense is inchoative, they began to withdraw from religion. Religion is no good. They didn't go away, they began to separate, this is the inchoative imperfect. The active voice indicates that as the believed in Christ they began to withdraw from religion. The indicative mood is the reality of separation from religion based on religion and a little doctrine. Bible doctrine delivers the believer from religion.

"and believed on Jesus" – the imperfect tense this time indicates a succession of people believing in Jesus Christ. The active voice: the importance of human privacy in making the decision. The indicative mood is the reality of conversion based upon the credit card, and on is not on, it is the preposition e)ij which is directional, Jesus Christ was the object of their faith. He is the only working object for salvation.[2]

Psalm 118 portrays both the fist and the second advent of Christ in one passage. It was connected with the feasts and the feasts of Israel were designed to portray a time schedule for the two advents. For example, there were four first advent feasts—the Passover representing the cross where Christ took our place and died for our sins; Unleavened bread which is a picture of our fellowship with God in time; the feast of the Firstfruits which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ and portrays our future resurrection; the feast of Pentecost which reminds Israel of their removal under the fifth cycle of disciple, the time of their dispersion. Then there was a big gap from this group of feasts. There were no feasts between June and October, a six-month interval, representing the time of the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel, the time of Israel's dispersion and cursing. And, of course, cursing is turned to blessing by means of regeneration whereby the individual Jew during this age becomes a member of the body of Christ. Then there were three feasts connected with the Second Advent, beginning in October—first there was the feast of the Trumpets which pictured the Second Advent terminating the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel and the regathering of Israel. The feast of the Atonement was the regeneration of Israel as they were restored to the land, the fulfilment of the covenants. Finally, there was the feast of the Tabernacles which was the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Psalm 118 was sung during some of these feasts because it portrayed both the first and the second advents. First, it was sung at the Passover and it was also sung at the feast of the Tabernacles. The Passover represents the first advent and the cross, the feast of the Tabernacles represents the Second Advent and the Millennium. And because it was sung at both of these feasts it reminds us that there is both first and Second Advent truth found in this psalm.

In verses 14-18 we have a recognition of Israel's future, the fact that even though Israel is now in dispersion and has been since 70 AD they still have a future under God's plan. This future is related to the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 14 – "The Lord is my strength and song [of praise], and is become my salvation." There are three kinds of salvation involved here—the eternal salvation of the cross, the phase two deliverance through grace, and phase three, the believer in eternity.

Verse 15 – "The voice of rejoicing" is the inner happiness that belongs to the believer during the Millennium; "and salvation"—only the Jew who is a believer is Christ has a future and therefore the word salvation is added. Rejoicing here refers to the greatest type of happiness—"is in the tabernacles of the righteous." The Tabernacles is a reference to the feast of Tabernacles which portrays the second advent of Christ. Obviously at the beginning if verse 15 we have some Second Advent truth. Then all of a sudden we have at the end of the verse, "the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly," and the right hand is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a picture of Him providing salvation, and doing valiantly is actually Jesus Christ going to the cross and taking our place. It means to do nobly and the sins of the world are suddenly poured out upon Christ and judged at the cross. So the principle is, in the future Christ is going to return and there will be a thousand years of perfect environment on the earth. But before that there must be the cross, the cross must come before the crown. You can't have the crown until first of all you have the cross. That is why religion is all mixed up and is the worst thing that ever happened to the human race. Nothing can be as bad as religion at any time because religion is going to bring in the Millennium, better environment, a better world; it is always going to improve everything, and going to do it apart from the cross, and therefore apart from the grace of God.

Verse 16 – "The right hand of the Lord is exalted." That is Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father; "the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly" means the cross came before the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. All the way through, any Jew of the past could sing this song and know the difference between the first advent of Christ and the second. He could tell what belonged to the second advent of Christ and what belonged to the first advent of Christ. For example, "the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly" at the end of verse 15 is first advent; at the end of verse 16, again, it is the first advent of Christ.

Verse 17 -- this has a threefold meaning. This is David writing at a time when he was under the sin unto death and recognising that through grace he was going to live and that he was going to survive. He had rebounded and knew that even though he had done some thing worthy of the sin unto death he was going to recover. So he says, "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord." That is the human writer.

This also is a picture of the history of Israel. Israel, though dead because of the fifth cycle of discipline, will live again—the restoration at the Second Advent.

This also refers to the Lord Jesus Christ who on the cross indicates His resurrection, and "declaring the works of the Lord" is operation grace.

Verse 18 – "The Lord hath chastened me sore." David, the human writer, had been disciplined by the Lord. Israel was disciplined by the Lord under the fifth cycle of discipline, Christ was disciplined by the Father in the sense that He bore our sins in His own body on the tree; "but he that not given me over unto death" – David continued in phase two; Israel is restored in the Millennium; and Christ is raised from the dead.

In verses 19-21 this section of the Psalm was sung at the dedication of the first and second temples. David apparently wrote this section anticipating the time after his day when the temple would be built. It was also sung at the time of the building of the second temple in the days of Zechariah. It was also sung at other ceremonies involving any parade that ended up at the temple. So this psalm anticipates the entrance also into the temple of the future, the Millennial temple of Isaiah 51:11.

Verse 19 – "Open to me the gates of righteousness"—gates by which believers will enter the temple in the Millennium; "I will go in"—this a believer in the Millennium; "and I will praise the Lord" is a reference to the second advent of Jesus Christ when the temple will be opened and people will use it as a place of worship.

Verse 20 – "This gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter is a reference to the second advent and the Millennium.

Verse 21 – Literally, "I will give thanks to thee [rather than praise]; for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation [deliverance]."

Right up to this point we have the song of entrance into the temple, indicating the Second Advent. Beginning at verse 22, however, we go back to the first advent: verses 22 and 23.

Verse 22 – "The stone" is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ; "which the builders refused." The builders are the Jews at the time of the first advent. "Refused" means to reject and it is referring to a general rejection of Jesus Christ by the rulers of Israel in the day of our Lord: "has become the headstone of the corner" – this is where two walls have joined together. The headstone is the stone that fits into the place that joins the two walls. One wall is Israel and the other is the Church. Christ is the head of the Church and He is also the future ruler of Israel as the son of David.

This passage was so important in the whole context of doctrine that it is actually quoted three times in the New Testament—Acts 4:11,12 where it is related to eternal salvation; 1Peter er 2:4,7 and one in Mark 12:10.

Verse 23 – "This is the Lord's doing"—reference to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus Christ from the dead; "it is marvellous in our eyes" is the attitude toward resurrection by those of the future who will have a resurrection body.

Verse 24-26 – the Second Advent in portrayed. "This is the day which the Lord hath made." The day of the Lord is the day that Jesus Christ returns to the world and establishes the perfect environment that could never be established before. This is the day when an angel by the name of Satan stops ruling the world and is superseded by the Lord Jesus Christ.

"we will be glad and rejoice in it"– the future happiness of the Millennium.

Verse 25 – The next two words in the KJV have been translated. However, we should have a transliteration of them. This is actually from the Hebrew hoshanah, and is transliterated Hosannah in the New Testament. It means "save now." So we have in this verse, Hosannah, then a parenthesis, "I beseech thee O Lord [God the Father]! O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity!" This is the prayer at the beginning of the Millennium which is answered and fulfilled. The parenthesis ends right there.

Verse 26 – the answer to the prayer. "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Prosperity is the Lord Jesus Christ, and when He returns to the earth then the earth will have permanent prosperity.

"we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord" is a reference to the Millennial temple.

Any saved Jew could read this or sing it. He could distinguish between the first and the second advents. A Jew who was saved and in reversionism could not.

Neither could an unbelieving Jew, and that is the problem right there because this whole passage was applied to the Lord Jesus Christ in the passage we are studying in John 12.

Mark 11:1-9. When it says "they" in verse 1 it refers to Jesus and the crowd that followed Him from Bethany. Jesus had left Jericho and arrived in Bethany the Friday before this weekend began. Friday evening after sunset until Saturday evening after sunset was the Sabbath, and Jesus spent a quiet Sabbath in Bethany. That evening he had supper at the house of Simon the leper—John 12:1ff. On the Sabbath afternoon many Jews came from Jerusalem to Bethany to see the Lord and to see Lazarus whom He raised from the dead. This crowd from Jerusalem formed the nucleus of the crowd that followed Jesus on the end of the weekend when He was returning from Bethany to Jerusalem—Sunday being the end of the weekend, the first day of the week in the Jewish calendar and the day they all went back to work.

Verse 8 – the reaction of two crowds. "And many spread their garments in the way." Jesus Christ is obviously riding a king's animal and since He is they throw their garments in the way. The animal doesn't even get his feet down on the ground! " ... others cut down branches off the trees." This is all taken from Jeremiah 23:5,6; Isaiah 11:1, Zechariah 3:8; 6:12,13; "and spread them in the way" isn't found in the original.

Verse 9 – "And they that went before" is the crowd coming up from Jerusalem; "and they that followed" was the crowd that had been in Bethany over the weekend and now were following Jesus back to Jerusalem. Both crowds "cried saying, "Hosanna! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord"—quoted from Psalm 118:25,26. They quoted the first two words of verse 25 and then a part of verse 26. In Psalm 118 this was a reference to the Second Advent—and this was the first advent! So they are mixed up. In other words, as far as they are concerned they want the crown without the cross. This sets up a principle: Any time the cross is bypassed man is doing the work—that is legalism. God's plan is a grace plan and grace is where God does the work for us. God the Son bears our sins and the cross the must come before the crown—that is God's plan. In effect this was the devil's plan. If he could set up the Millennium without the cross then, again, Satan would have won. This is one of Satan's greatest attacks, on this Palm Sunday. He was trying the same trick as when he said to Jesus, "If you will fall down and worship me I will give you all the kingdoms of the world." Now, in effect, he is saying, "Forget the cross, pick up the crown, and start ruling." Jesus Christ could not have a permanent kingdom if He skipped the cross because there would be no salvation. A permanent kingdom has to have permanent people! There are no permanent people unless there is regeneration. The feast of Atonement must come before the Tabernacles, and the Passover must come before the Tabernacles. Remember that Psalm 118 was sung at both the feast of Atonement and the feast of Tabernacles. The Passover must come first.

They have confused the issue. What they should have been singing was Psalm 118:22, 23 [First advent: the cross] rather than Psalm 118:25,26 [second advent or the crown]. This is why verses 22 and 23 come before verses 25 and 26. This is a satanic plan. They want to make Jesus King right then and there without going to the cross. Later on that day Jesus taught them something with regard to their mistake—Mark 12:1ff. Note verse 10. Jesus quotes Psalm118, verses 22 and 23, rather than 25 and 26. So He hits them with what they should have been quoting. In other words, they did not distinguish between the first and the second advents. And Satan took advantage of that in order to do something to them—let's forget about the cross and get the crown.

This brings us back to John 12:12 where the Palm Sunday incident is recorded. But remembering that John is the Gospel of the Son of God it will be handled in a little different way.

"On the next day"—Sunday the Jewish first day of the week and the Jews are not returning to Jerusalem. Jesus is going back, and the disciples, and the synoptic writers—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—follow the crowd from Bethany to Jerusalem. John starts from Jerusalem. The crowds meet at the crossroads and that is where John starts.

"much people" refers to the people still in Jerusalem. This is the crowd who spent the weekend in Jerusalem in contrast to the crowd that spent the weekend at Bethany. John follows the crowd out of Jerusalem and up the hill, while the synoptics follow the crowd from Bethany down the hill. Consequently this verse forgets about Bethany and looks back to Jerusalem. He gives all the details of the feast at Bethany and then hops back to Jerusalem.

"come to the feast" – aorist active participle of e)rxomai and it means having come to the feast. It indicates that they have gathered from all over the country, and a lot have come from foreign countries. This is a reference to the approaching Passover which, together with the feats of Unleavened bread, drew Jewish pilgrims from all over the Roman empire.

"when they heard" is literally having heard, aorist active participle. They have all heard during the weekend about the Lord Jesus Christ and the seventh credit card and are anxious to see Jesus Christ.

"that Jesus was coming" – present middle indicative of e)xomai. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. We have two aorist participles—"much people come to the feast; having heard." The present tense is dramatic; the middle voice is reflexive—He Himself was coming, riding on the animal. The indicative mood is the reality of the coming of Jesus to Jerusalem.

Verse 13 – the reaction of the crowd. Remember, this is the crowd who had come to observe the Passover and they get carried away. What do the Jews want? They want Jewish nationalism, Jewish independence from the Roman empire. In the struggle for Jewish nationalism and in the struggle for independence from the empire they have the privilege under Rome's guidance of going back to Jerusalem as pilgrims, visiting Jerusalem and enjoying the Passover and the Unleavened Bread. But these people, being unbelievers and very stupid as a people, are politically minded and not spiritually minded. They, in effect, had put politics above the spiritual realm. Therefore, their mistake as they leave Jerusalem is the same mistake as the crowd coming back with Jesus. They look to Jesus to deliver their country from its problems rather than the eternal kingdom—the cross before the crown.

"Took branches of palm trees"—John makes it very clear that these were in recognition of Messiahship, but they had the wrong dispensation. Lambanw doesn't mean they took them, it really means to receive. A palm tree in the Greek is a Phoenix, foiniz. Palms trees—the branches—is in recognition of Christ as the Branch, a title of the Lord Jesus Christ found in Jeremiah 23:5,6; Zechariah 3:8; 6:12,13. Palm trees grew in abundance along the Mount of Olives between Bethany and Jerusalem. They were used for the feats of the Tabernacles, according to Leviticus 23:40 and Revelation 7:9. So, as far as they are concerned, cancel the Passover, let's get to the feast of the Tabernacles. But you don't change the plan of God by shouting, by waving branches, by all the actions of a crowd. This simply demonstrates once again what has always been true: a crowd cannot think; a mob cannot think. Anything that is done by a mob, by a crowd—forget it.

"and went forth"—aorist active indicative of e)cerxomai. It means to go outside the gates to meet the King.

"to meet" is translated like an infinitive but it is actually a noun—u(panthsij which means the act of meeting. They went forth to a meeting with Him.

"and cried"—imperfect active indicative of kraugazw which means to scream at the top of one's voice; "Hossana"—Psalm 118:25. Then they moved on to verse 26—"Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord." Notice how they add to the scripture. It is "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," but they add "the King of Israel." They want Him now! They want the Millennium now; they want to bypass the cross. God the Father has a plan; God the Father stuck to His plan, and the only thing that God the Father was doing at this time was the presenting seventh credit card. As a result of this we find a lot of people trying to use Jesus to further their own ends. Jesus Christ did not let people use Him in a power grab in the Roman empire. He refused to be used by the mob. The adoration of Jesus by the mob was political! It was political hot air. It was political expediency rather than spiritual recognition.

Verse 15 – John goes back now and indicates that Jesus was sitting on transportation for a king. The plan of God calls for this animal to be there—Zechariah 9:9. "Fear not" – present middle imperative of fobew. "Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion"—the Jews. Why daughter of Zion? God's right woman.

"thy King cometh" – the present tense is futuristic. The indicative mood is the reality of the incarnation and the cross; "sitting on an asses colt"—

transportation for a king.

Verse 16 – "These things understood not his disciples." The King is going to the cross mounted on transportation for a king. Jesus Christ was born a King; Jesus Christ is going to ride like a King. He is going to Jerusalem but the Sunday from Palm Sunday He will be in a resurrection body. This is His last trip. He is mounted on transportation for a king because He is a King, but the King is going to the cross to purchase eternal life for His kingdom. That is why He is mounted on that animal. It was not to come in and deliver a bunch of idiots in a power grab!

"understood not" – aorist active indicative of ginwskw. This is an ingressive aorist, they began not to understand. They were oriented when Lazarus came forth; now they are disoriented. It happened to them; it could happen to you. Don't get fat-headed because you have learned a thing or two.

"at first" – later on they are going to understand; "but when Jesus was glorified" – the aorist passive indicative of docazw indicates the resurrection, ascension and session. The aorist is constative. Passive voice: Jesus received glorification. The indicative mood is the reality of their future enlightenment. In reversion recovery you always have to remember something.

"then they remembered" – aorist passive indicative mimnhskw, and that is their reversion recovery. They went into reversionism. If is after His glorification that they begin to come out of it. This is an ingressive aorist, they began to remember. Passive voice: some doctrines floated through and they picked them up. The indicative mood is the reality of reversion recovery through memory.

"these things" – the points of doctrine they should have understood when Jesus gave that wonderful vineyard parable.

"were written of him" – this is the point regarding the glorification, the plan of God, the things that were written of Him which included God's definite timetable as given in the feasts, the message of Zechariah, the different things that were involved in Psalm 118. They began finally to remember these things that were written of Him.

"they had done these things unto him" – they were stupid; they were reversionistic; they went along with the crowd. The only one who understood was Mary and that is why John puts down her story first. She wasn't influenced by that mob.

Verse 17 – "There people therefore." These are the ones who witnessed the seventh credit card and are the ones who brought the crowd out of Jerusalem. They are people who believed in John 11:35 and who are in heaven today because of who and what Christ is.

"that was" – present active participle of e)imi should be "they were, or better, "being with him," meta means association.

"when he called" – to call here means to utter a sound or to summon. The verb is fwnew and is in the aorist active indicative and it refers to the culminative aorist where He uttered the sound, and it is used from the standpoint of its results. The result was that Lazarus came back from the dead. Actually, Jesus summoned Lazarus with His voice.

"and raised him from the dead" – the word for raise here is also an aorist active indicative of e)geirw and it means here resuscitation.

"and bare record" – imperfect active indicative of marturew which means to be a witness or to testify. These people who were there are saw Lazarus brought back from the tomb have been circulating through Jerusalem and they talked about it everywhere. So the crowd who met Jesus on the road to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the crowd which is found in verses 12 and following, came out as a result of the witness of these believers. The imperfect tense means that these people kept on witnessing ever since the rasing of Lazarus had occurred.

Verse 18 – "For this cause," dia plus the accusative and should be translated "Because of this," because of the witnessing of the new converts; "the people" is not correct, it is o( o)xloj which is not used in the sense of people, it is used in the sense of a crowd that does not think for itself. It is a crowd that acts upon impulse.

"the crowd also met him" – they heard the testimony. They wanted to see some miracle, a coup de tat, the overthrow of Rome. They were Greeks and the Greeks always despised the Romans. ^This is the aorist active indicative of u(pantaw which means they not only met Him but they met Him with anticipation. They anticipated something being done.

"for they heard that he had done this miracle" – perfect active infinitive of poiew. Poiew in the perfect tense means that the miracle was accomplished in the past but the results of the miracle continue and are permanent. Many people were saved because of this seventh credit card of Messiahship.

Verse 19 – the Pharisees are frustrated at this point. They are about to lose their power; their influence is on the wane because of these seven credit cards.

"The Pharisees therefore said among themselves" – they are constantly holding meetings. "Among themselves" is the preposition proj plus the accusative and it means 'face to face with themselves.' At this point they are simply frustrated. They have no plans, no ideas.

"Perceive ye" – present active imperative of qewrew which means to contemplate mentally; "that ye prevail nothing" – present active indicative of w)felew which means they have benefited not at all. They know that if they kill Jesus without having discredited they are going to have a martyr and around martyrdom sometimes people are overthrown. So they are trying to discredit Him and kill Him, not just kill Him. This has proved to be a great problem for them.

The crowd know where Jesus is but they are not taking any information to the Pharisees. They instead are rushing out of Jerusalem to seek Jesus on His trip back from Bethany.

"behold the world is gone after him" – the world is the kosmoj, and of course the kosmoj doesn't go after Jesus Christ, that is Satan's crowd. "Is gone after" is the aorist active indicative of a)perxomai which means a crowd approving someone. It means the fickleness of a crowd. They are for you now but if you do not maintain or even improve upon your performance, you've had it. A)perxomai means that at this moment the crowd recognised Jesus Christ as the greatest power on earth and they want Him to become the King of the Jews. Therefore they are going out with palm branches and singing from Psalm 118 simply because they are expecting Jesus Christ to take over and to throw the Romans back into the Mediterranean.

There is a time in the life of every person when he is well thought of by a maximum number of people. What is the approbation of a group worth? It is worth absolutely nothing!

The Pharisees are conscious of the approbation of the crowd. They are also conscious of the fact that they have lost the approbation of the crowd, temporarily at least, to Jesus Christ. Having lost it they are now wondering what to do next.

Beginning in verse 20 and going through verse 36 we take up a new aspect of the crowd. We leave the Pharisees looking at each other, wondering what happened, wondering why none of their plots had succeeded, and wondering if they will still be in power tomorrow. And while we leave them we go to the people who are the most interesting phenomenon in this whole picture. Everything that has been emphasised before was Jewish. The parables that Jesus spoke were Jewish parables. The things that the crowd sang or shouted were Jewish scriptures from the Psalms. Everything was Jewish. Jesus answered as a Jewish King, for He is the legitimate King of Israel. And yet He was under the plan of the Father and it was not the time for Him to assume the throne of David. The cross must come before the crown. But in that crowd were Greeks, people who had no frame of reference for Judaism, no frame of reference for the Davidic covenant, no understanding of the basic principles of Messiahship as related to the unconditional covenants. But they were Greeks who were smart enough to realise that something big had occurred, that someone had been brought back from the dead, and that is what intrigued them.

Verse 20 – "And there were certain Greeks," present active indicative of e)imi. This identifies them definitely as Greeks. They didn't become Greeks, that would be Hellenistic in their culture. We would have ginomai here, which we do not. These were Greek by race as well as Hellenistic in their culture. They were therefore Gentiles.

"among them that came up to worship at the feast" – when it says they came up—present active participle of a)nabainw—it means that they came from other countries. Why would they bother to do this? For the same reason that one might go to Arizona to observe snake dance! Not because you are an Indian, not because you believe in the concept behind the snake dance, but because you are curious.

"came up to worship" – the aorist active subjunctive of proskunew indicates they wouldn't necessarily get into it but they wouldn't avoid it either. Proj = face to face; kunew = to kiss. To kiss face to face is the concept of worship. To worship involves two things: love and freedom. You are free to worship God and you love God. Because you love God it gives you additional freedom to worship Him, and because you have this additional freedom you love Him. They build on each other until there is a fantastic thing developed. The cross makes us free to worship God. As we are free to do so and as we follow the correct principles—GAP, for example, is basic worship—we come to love Jesus Christ—category #1 love. And as we come to love Him more and more we want to GAP it more and more, and we have more and more freedom. By the time you take this freedom into the supergrace life you have a phenomenal thing. The principle is: "Ye shall know the truth [GAP] and the truth shall make you free." The Greeks were unsaved but they had the idea that they could go to a different religion and still worship their own gods. They did not know anything about Jesus Christ but what really intrigued them was that during their stay in Jerusalem they heard about a person being brought back from the dead by a true King of Israel. That caused them to prick up their ears and they became very interested. This was unusual! When they saw that Palm Sunday demonstration while standing on the fringe of that crowd and heard Jesus chew out the Jews with that parable of the rejected son, and how Jesus had said to them the cross must come before the crown, they didn't understand it but they were certainly interested.

"at the feast" – the Passover.

Verse 21 – they made contact with the disciples.

"The same" refers to these Greeks who, by the way, fulfil a prophecy found in Deuteronomy 32:21; in Isaiah 11:10 in different words; 42:6; 49:6.

"came to Philip" – aorist active indicative of proserxomai, they came face to face with Philip. Why Philip? We know already from other passage, like John 1:24-47, that Philip was a very effective witness for Jesus Christ. He was effective because in a very relaxed manner he would get into conversation with people. He was a conversationalist and if the conversation turned around to Jesus Christ he was right there. In the course of the conversation he discovered that these Greeks were interested in what was going on in Jerusalem and apparently he was using the Passover as the basis of witnessing. So they knew Philip. Philip was one person who could talk to the Greeks and they would listen. Why? Because he was relaxed. He could talk to these Greeks without pressuring them, without gimmicks.

"which was" is not found in the original.

"and desired him" – imperfect active indicative of e)rwtaw, it does not means to desire, it means to ask. It is in the imperfect tense, they kept on asking him.

"saying, Sir" – they has respect; "we desire" – present active indicative of qelw which means to desire, but the present active indicative means to keep on desiring.

"we would see Jesus" – they wanted an interview, in other words. This is the aorist active infinitive of o(raw. The aorist tense is quite in contrast to the present tense and we have an infinitive instead of the indicative. 'We desire to get a panoramic view of Jesus.' O(raw means "We'd really like to get acquainted with Jesus." This puts Philip on the spot because he has been disobeying discipleship regulations. Cf. Matthew 10:5. The policy that was set up by the Lord was that the disciples were to go to the Jews. He told them not to go to the Gentiles. But Philip has been talking with Gentiles, and they are positive. Not only are they positive but they want an interview. Philip is not sure but that he is really out of line even talking to them. He won't even go to the Lord with this because it is a problem to him now.

Verse 22 – instead he goes to Andrew. "Philip cometh [e)rxomai] and telleth [legw] Andrew" – this is the dramatic present. Andrew is the brother of Peter and a close friend of Philip. The consultation with Andrew is based upon that Matthew 10:5. "Oh, oh! Here are these Jews who want a consultation with Jesus and I have been told to go only to the house of Israel."

"and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus" – they talk this over and decide to go together to Jesus about it. This is in contrast in this passage to the consultation of the Pharisees who are face to face trying to figure out a way to kill Jesus. Now the disciples are face to face trying to figure out a way to go to Jesus about Gentiles to whom they are not supposed to be witnessing and have been.

In the Christian way of life today it takes all kinds of people. All kinds of people are members of the body of Christ. E.g. Peter, very intense; Philip, relaxed; Thomas, the pessimist, etc. All of these disciples have different personalities, they are not all the same; no two are alike. Never try to stereotype personalities. Stay relaxed and realise that God uses all kinds of believers.

So Andrew and Philip did the right thing. They went to Jesus. As a result of this there is an interview.

Verse 23 – "Jesus had an answer," literally.

"saying, the hour is come" – when He says this He has something for these Greeks, something that is entirely different from His approach to the Jews. His approach to the Jews has been the familiar parable with the familiar quotations from Psalm 118. But now Jesus comes up with something very wonderful and He talks to the Greeks within the framework of Greek culture. We are going to see some grains of wheat falling into the ground. The whole system of Greek religion, the whole operation of the Greek phallic cult, the whole system of Greek worship was based upon planting in the spring, the seed falling into the ground, the harvest. And the whole system of Greek worship is based upon planting and sowing. They worshipped at the planting period and they worshipped at the harvest time and they had a whole system of gods that revolve around this. Jesus knows this and therefore He is going to explain the whole thing to the Greeks within the framework of their culture, so that they, too, will come to an understanding. As a result of this we are actually going to see Greeks believing in Jesus Christ.

The Greeks had no frame of reference for the things that we have been studying concerning Palm Sunday. These things were totally meaningless to them; they were for Jews. They were positive at the point of God-consciousness, they wanted to know, but the Palm Sunday incident was outside of their frame of reference. There was no way for a Gentile with a culture antithetical to Judaism could ever begin to understand what it was all about. Therefore Jesus is now taking an entirely new tack. When Jesus takes up the seed of wheat He is not talking about something which is a part of Jewish culture. Jewish culture is based on grace: manna from heaven; Greek culture is based on the wheat season, the planting of it in Spring, the crop at the end of the summer, and therefore the survival of the Greek community for the rest of the year. So when these Greek people come to Jesus we will understand why He switched from everything he had been describing to the wheat season to emphasise, first salvation, and then when He goes to loving your soul or hating your soul He is emphasising the way of life that follows salvation, and the principle of reversionism versus supergrace.

Verse 23 – "And Jesus answered them." "Them" is going to refer to the whole system of the Greeks. It actually says, "Jesus had an answer" because we have a)pokrinwmai.

"saying" – present active participle of legw, meaning to communicate; "the hour [the time of the death of Jesus Christ] is come" – literally, "has come," perfect active indicative of e)rxomai. The perfect tense indicates this hour was designed in eternity past, but the perfect tense is something that happens in the past and has present and permanent results. The hour refers to the cross. But now we have Greeks present so we are going to have a little different approach to this. The hour has to be understood by the Greeks. Jesus has already said in other discourses in John, "Mine hour is not yet come," it isn't time for the cross yet. Now He says the hour has come. It has been designed in the past and is now approaching and is here. The cross was designed from eternity past, says the perfect tense. The active voice indicates that the cross is approaching in six days. The indicative mood is the reality of the cross as the way of eternal salvation. We must face the fact now that there are Greeks present who have no frame of reference for these things from the Old Testament scriptures. They do not understand the Levitical offerings; they do not understand the great hymns that are found amongst the Psalms; they do not understand the stone which the people rejected has become the corner stone. They will understand when Jesus explains that the hour is the time when the wheat seed must fall into the ground. The Greeks all understood that the wheat seed dies. They had many legends and many of the Greek myths are built around the death of the seed. And this is a true principle, for even 1Corinthians 15 says, "Except a seed fall into the ground and dies there is no harvest." That is exactly what Jesus is saying.

"the hour has come that [purpose clause] the Son of man [title for the hypostatic union]" – Jesus Christ as God cannot go to the cross; should be glorified." As God He is glorified; it is the humanity of Christ that is to be glorified. But first of all, when you take a seed of wheat and drop it into the ground and cover it up the seed must die. Then, up come a stalk, then up comes the wheat, and the glory is in the wheat and being provision for food. Jesus Christ must die on the cross and then he must rise from the dead, and He must be seated at the right hand of the Father. And because He is we are feeding on the wheat of doctrine right now. Our staple of life is the Word. "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." And how do we have this New Testament doctrine, this mystery doctrine? We not only have the whole background of Israel but we also have this doctrine of the mystery, all of these things pertaining to the Church Age. How did we get all of this? The seed died and came up and was glorified. That is why. The Greeks will understand this.

"should be glorified" – aorist passive subjunctive of docazw which actually means to be honoured in a very unusual way. The aorist tense refers to the resurrection, ascension and session of Jesus Christ. The passive voice: Christ will receive glorification by being seated at the right hand of the Father. The subjunctive mood is not potential but it goes with i(na to introduce a purpose clause. The subjunctive mood has other uses besides potentiality. Sometimes the subjunctive is actually used in the place of an imperative, sometimes with some particle or some conjunction to indicate what type of a clause we have. Here is it to indicate a purpose clause. It is the purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ as the God-Man to go to the cross and bear the sins of the world.

Verse 24 – here is where Jesus speaks to the Greeks. "Verily, verily" – Truth, truth. In other words, point of doctrine.

"I say [communicate] unto you" – dative of advantage. The word "except" is e)an which introduces a 3rd class condition and we translated it "if" here: "if," maybe it will and maybe it won't. In this way Jesus introduces the equivalent of a parable. This is a dissertation to the Greeks to put them on the same footing with the Jews who have been rebuked through the parable of the rejection of the son.

"the corn fall into the ground" – kokkoj does not means a corn of wheat, it means a seed of wheat. This is planting seed. And it is "having fallen into the ground" – piptw, aorist active participle. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb is "it must die," but it has to fall into the ground before it can. Jesus Christ had to go to the cross before He could bear our sins. "So, "having fallen into the ground, die" – aorist active subjunctive of a)poqnhskw. This is the only way that Jesus Christ can communicate to Greeks resurrection. Resurrection is entirely foreign to the thinking of Greeks, it is entirely apart from Greek culture. They have been intrigued by the fact that someone—Lazarus—has been brought back from the dead. Now they are going to learn something about resurrection and they are going to understand it in the framework of their own culture. Before the wheat comes up so that the Greek city state is preserved for another year the seed must die before the roots emerge in the ground and the stalk comes up. So the word a)poqnhskw is also the technical word for the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, and the spiritual death of Christ is bearing our sins.

"it abideth alone" – present active indicative of menw describes the seed after it is planted. It keeps on being alone. When Jesus Christ was on the cross He was alone. In resurrection and ascension is where there is multiplication but on the cross Christ was not only unique as the God-Man but He was alone when bearing our sins. There can be no body of Christ, no dispensation of the Church, no believers in this Age until the cross occurs and Christ is alone. When He was on the cross God the Father poured out the sins of the world on Jesus Christ. This qualifies Jesus Christ to be the only celebrity in Christianity. Hebrews 2:9-14—by being alone He brings many sons into glory. So Jesus explains to the Greeks the necessity for the uniqueness of His death and His resurrection, and He explains it from a very common procedure, the standard operating procedure of the Greeks for a thousand years.

"but"—conjunction of contrast—"if it die" – aorist active subjunctive of a)poqnhskw, 3rd class condition, setting up alternatives; "it bringeth forth" – present active indicative of ferw – "it bears much fruit." There is the harvest.

Verse 25 – seed wheat becomes the basis of expressing the glorification of Christ. As a result there is wheat growing up and there is a harvest—resurrection and ascension which Christ called His glorification. Now we have arrived at the next stage of Greek culture. This verse emphasises another aspect of it. Jesus now hits them with something which is clear to the Greeks and probably obscure to the Jews.

"He" – these are the Greeks after salvation. This is the principle of phase two. How to explain to the Greeks what to expect in phase two and in phase three and bring them altogether very quickly in summary. It is done by taking one phrase which has a number of technical, philosophical Greek words and putting them into the form of an idiom which the Greeks would pick up immediately and set up an axiom for phase two. After salvation the believers remain on the earth. This point must be brought over to the Greeks. They do not go to heaven immediately and they are going to be in this life. Many of these Greeks are going to respond and be ambassadors for Christ. They are going to be a kingdom of priests as they are on the verge of the Church Age at this moment.

"that loveth" – present active participle of filew, the strongest Greek word for love. This is soul love plus physical love plus every kind of love brought together. It is a total love of the soul. The word a)gaph is a love with a mental attitude only; it is a limited type love. It is limited to what you think, it means freedom from mental attitude sins. The great word for love is filew. Here we have, "He who keeps on loving."

"his life" – his yuxh, his soul. Yuxh is life. It refers to the believer's self-consciousness, his mentality, his volition, his emotions, his norms and standards. The real person is the soul. The real you is your soul. "He that keeps on loving his own soul" is an idiom of Greek culture in which the person involved has a false attitude toward himself, toward his life. It means to have a false scale of values. To love your own soul is an idiom for the Greek philosophy of hedonism. Hedonism means live it up as much as you can—self-gratification in one word. This is actually the Greek idiom for self-gratification. It is comparable to putting your emphasis on the details of life. It actually indicates the condition of the soul. It means, for example, a believer who is negative toward doctrine and builds scar tissue on his soul. He has the frantic search for happiness. This is loving your soul—going in for self-gratification because you have a false scale of values. This is exactly what the Greeks would understand. All Jesus is portraying to the Greeks at this point is that if you as a believer get into reversionism you are going to lose everything that is important in phase two. Reversionism destroys the whole function of the grace plan in the Christian life. It is the great enemy of grace in phase two. So He says, "He that loves his own soul"—negative volition, scar tissue, emotional revolt, reversionism. All of these things put together.

"shall lose it" – present active indicative of a)poluw. It doesn't mean to lose the soul, it means to lose the purpose of the function of life. Jesus is saying to the Greeks that life has purpose but you can lose out by neglecting doctrine, by getting into reversionism. But on the other hand, there is another side to it.

"he that hateth his life" – this does not mean that you have to hate yourself. The word hateth is the present active participle of misew, which means to hate, it is also the verb for the mental attitude sin of hate. But here it means to have an attitude, a regard in which you take certain things as inconsequential. Things that were valuable as far as self-gratification is concerned are not of any consequence. Other things are of greater consequence, say, to put the spiritual things of life above the material. It is really the attitude of the supergrace life. It is the attitude that comes from doctrine.

"in this world" – an expression for phase two.

"shall keep it to life eternal" – incorrect. It says, "he shall guard what belongs to another until he reaches eternal life." The word keep is fulassw and it is a military word which means to guard, to guard something that belongs to someone else. Doctrine belongs to God and the person who has the attitude of orientation to grace de-emphasises those things that lead to self-gratification, de-emphasises hedonism—shall guard what belongs to another until he reaches eternal life. Eternal life is phase three. The believer takes doctrine with him into phase three. The soul leaves the body and goes to be with the Lord, and any Bible doctrine you have in your soul goes along. That is what "unto life eternal means."

It must be realised that Jesus is speaking to a very specialised group of people—Greeks under Greek culture. To understand this it is necessary to orient thinking into their culture. It must be understood that every culture has idioms and that to translate an idiom literally is often to lose the meaning of the idiom. Therefore, the meaning of the idiom is lost by the literal translation. The literal translation here does not in any way communicate the meaning because the meaning is bound up in emphasis, scale of values. The Greeks, when they were bound up in something they loved, they loved their souls. That was an idiom they used—"I love my soul." It doesn't mean they were stuck on themselves, it simply means that they enjoyed doing certain things.

The whole issue of this verse is reversionism versus supergrace. It is no verse for asceticism, for legalism. This is no verse for throwing a faggot on a fire and saying, "God helping me I am going to give up [something]." This verse is dealing with two principles of phase two, and the emphasis in the last half of the axiom is an idiom which indicates the importance of guarding doctrine. You guard doctrine by taking it in. GAPing it is the basis for fulassw. "He that hateth his soul [the idiom for the one who places the emphasis on what God has provided] shall guard what God has provided"—doctrine. And when he departs into eternal life he will still have what he has guarded. He has guarded what has belonged to him. He has an ECS, doctrine in the right lobe, the doctrine of the supergrace life.

Verse 26 – once doctrine is put first, then it is pertinent to teach the Greeks another principle. This is from the standpoint of the Greeks and is not a discipleship passage.

"If anyone serve me" – 3rd class condition. They are still free to make a choice. They are being given very briefly all of the alternatives which belong to them if they choose for Jesus Christ. Serve me is the present active subjunctive of diakonew which means to start at the bottom, rowing on the bottom bank of the ship, the toughest place to row. Therefore it means to serve in the humblest frame of mind and circumstances. The present tense means to keep on pulling as a zero. Active voice: he has to do it himself all alone. The subjunctive mood indicates the 3rd class condition.

"serve me" – dative of dignity indicates the occupation with the person of Christ; "let him follow" – present active imperative of a)kolouqew which means to keep on following me. And how do you follow Jesus Christ? Take in doctrine. There is only one way to follow Christ and that is to take in Bible doctrine day in and day out. All service in the Christian life is based on knowledge of doctrine. Ignorance of doctrine cannot produce for God. Divine good comes from doctrine; human good comes from energy of the flesh. The greatest virtue in the Christian life is knowledge of doctrine. This is "keep in following me"–present linear aktionsart in the imperative mood.

"and where I am" – this anticipates Christ at the right hand of the throne; "there" – and right now it is true positionally; some day it will be true experientially.

"there shall [present tense of e)imi] also my servant" – it is "there you shall be also my servant." We serve Jesus Christ today who is at the right hand of the Father. He is not on the earth, so we cannot walk around behind Him. We can only follow Him through what He has left for us to follow—Bible doctrine.

"if" is a 3rd class condition indicating whether you learn doctrine or not determines whether you are going to serve or not; "any man serve" – diakonew.

"him [that individual believer] – this relates the believer to God the Father and His plan which gives his life meaning; "my Father will honour him" – the first person of the Trinity, eternal God, will—future active indicative of timaw—"hold him in honour." This is the only way that the believer will ever be honourable in his phase two experience. The Father must honour His plan. His plan begins with that seed that goes into the ground [the cross]. The Father has a grace plan after the cross—more grace, supergrace. These Greeks now understand from a series of idioms of 3rd class conditions that God has a plan for them that begins at the cross and continues forever in eternity, and has an interval of time in life when they can be related to the members of the Godhead in such a way that their life has purpose and meaning and definition.

Verse 27— The Lord Jesus Christ has been dealing with the Greeks, and now He switches over to the entire world. "Now is my soul troubled." The soul of the Lord Jesus Christ was perfect, exactly like the first Adam when the first Adam was in the garden. The only exception is that the first Adam did not have a troubled soul at any time. The last Adam now has a troubled soul. Why? He had no sin, therefore He had never worried. The verb to be troubled is the perfect passive indicative of parassw. It means to be agitated, but it is in the passive voice here. It means to receive agitation, to receive trouble without any sin being involved. It means to be under pressure. The perfect tense means that this had begun some time before with the result that it was now building up. It was less than a week from the cross. The passive voice: He has received this because as God He is aware of what the cross means. As true humanity, having mastered the Old Testament scriptures and all other doctrines, He was aware of the significance of the spiritual death which He would have on the cross when He was bearing our sins. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that He was under great pressure to avoid the cross. The perfect tense indicates He was thinking seriously of avoiding the cross in the sense of the great agitation and pressure of soul.

"and what shall I say?" – aorist active subjunctive of legw. That is, how can Jesus communicate pressure, the horror of coming into contact with human sin? How can He express to us as a sinless person? Nothing could be worse than bearing the sins of the world. He will come into contact with every sin that has ever been sinned up until the time that He dies, and every sin that will ever be sinned in the future, including all Millennial sins until the end of the Millennium. He would bear the sins of all who would believe in Him; He would also bear the sins of all who would never believe. There never was a person who came into the world and sinned whose sins would not be judged on the cross. He contemplates this; He anticipates this. No one hated sin more than Jesus Christ and no one was better qualified to hate sin. He was qualified to hate sin because He did not have an old sin nature. He was qualified to hate sin because there was no personal sin in His life ever. He was qualified to hate sin because Adam's sin was never imputed to Him and could not be imputed to Him because of the virgin birth. He also hated sin from observation. He hated sin as one who achieved the ECS at the earliest possible moment and who entered into supergrace at the earliest possible moment. He also hated sin because linked with His humanity is His deity and God can only despise sin. The righteousness of God hates sin. The justice of God not only hates sin but pronounces its doom. There is no part of the character of God that could ever like sin. So no matter which was this is approached from the standpoint of His hypostatic union He despised the very thought of coming into contact with what was not even His own sin—actually bearing the sins of others.

There is no way to really illustrate this principle. As close as we can ever come to understanding what Jesus faced, have we ever been completely and totally innocent and yet took the rap for some sin that someone else committed? It is one of those things that troubles the soul. Jesus Christ took the rap for all the sins of every member of the human race. There is a build-up of pressure, not sinful pressure but sinless pressure. No sin was ever involved in His soul being troubled. Our Lord could never really explain how He felt on those few days before the cross where He would bear the sins of the world. There is no way He could explain it. This is Palm Sunday. He will go to the cross on the next Wednesday, and it is the last three hours of the cross when He started screaming, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And then at the end He said, "Tetelestai" – finished. When He said that He had completed His mission; salvation was completed at that point.

How can Jesus explain this? He is going to try, and He picks a short prayer to express it. He picks a prayer which He does not expect to be answered in the affirmative. Here is a prayer that could not be answered, because of us.

"Father save me from this hour" – that is the prayer. He is going to try to explain to you and to me what it was like for Him to face the cross. When He said "Father" this is the humanity of Christ speaking. This is a prayer of His humanity. Now He didn't say, "Save me." This is the aorist active imperative of swzw which means also to deliver. The aorist tense is what is called a timeless aorist, and in effect He is saying deliver me in eternity past. It is a timeless aorist, an occurrence in eternity past. The active voice: the subject produces the action of the verb. He is asking the Father to do the delivering. The imperative mood: He is demanding it. Here is a prayer which is not a prayer. It is an enigma. It has no intent of being answered but is designed to explain how He feels. That is all. This is a prayer that could not be answered because it was totally incompatible with the plan of God. It was totally out of phase with grace.

At the same time that He prays this prayer He also establishes a principle for phase two. People get on the panic button. The Lord Jesus Christ was not on the panic button but people do get on it and they often ask for something incompatible with the plan of God. Jesus did not offer this prayer to be answered, He offered this prayer to illustrate how He felt. The perfect passive indicative of parassw indicates the permanent state of pressure that Jesus Christ will face until He is actually on the cross. This pressure of soul will be expressed again in Gethsemane when He said, "Father, if it be thy will let this cup pass from me," then adding, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." He will be under great pressure for the next four days. His soul is under maximum pressure.

This prayer is an illustration to remind us of the tremendous pressure that He faced.

"from this hour" – e)k, out from this hour; away from, entirely away from. This hour refers to the cross. The humanity of Christ shrinks from the cross because the cross means bearing the sins of the world, and He is impeccable, perfect.

There are three doctrines that help to explain the principle here: the doctrine of divine essence which presents us the character of God; the doctrine of divine decrees which presents to us the plan of God; the doctrine of reconciliation which expresses to us the grace of God.

No we have a conjunction to indicate that this prayer just uttered is incompatible with the Father's plan—"but," adversative conjunction of contrast.

"for this cause" – dia plus the accusative, "because of this." This refers to the cross; "I came" – aorist active indicative of e)rxomai, used here for the first advent. The whole purpose of the virgin birth, the whole purpose of living on earth for 33 years is to come to the cross.

Now in the next verse He prays a true prayer. That in verse 27 was an illustrative prayer.

Verse 28 – "Father." This is a prayer that will be answered immediately. It is the will of the Father that Jesus Christ be glorified. Now He uses an aorist active imperative to show that He is again making a demand of God the Father—the aorist active imperative of docazw, the verb to glorify, to honour. This is actually an iterative aorist which means begin to glorify. The glorification starts with the cross and resurrection but it will continue to the ascension at the right hand of the Father.

"thy name" – refers to the essence of the Father. This can only be fulfilled by Jesus Christ going to the cross. God the Father cannot be inconsistent; He cannot compromise any part of His character. Because God so loved the world He cannot save the world just arbitrarily because that compromises His righteousness and His justice. It compromises His immutability and also His veracity. So the hour must come when Christ will be on the cross with +R satisfying the righteousness of the Father and protecting that righteousness from compromise by bearing our sins. By spiritual death He will satisfy the justice of the Father and keep the justice of the Father from being compromised. Because of propitiation love and eternal life can come from the Father's will to the human race but only by way of the cross. This is the only way that the Father can glorify His essence, His name, His person. Any other way compromises some other part of His character. The only way that people can be saved is by believing in Jesus Christ, and when they do they are saved without compromising the character of God.

The name of the Father is the person of the Father, the essence of the Father. He is the source of grace. Grace has to be glorified before salvation can be a reality.

"Then [after the prayer] came there a voice from heaven" – e)rxomai. This time the voice from heaven is the Father's answer which is twofold. We have a repetition of docazw. The first time we had the aorist active indicative, and it is translated like a past tense. This is that timeless aorist. Aorist means an occurrence and this was an occurrence in eternity past. When the Father designed every part of the plan by which grace provision is given to the believer in phase one, phase two and phase three, He glorified His name right then and there. The Father is perfect, therefore His plan is perfect. And since the plan excludes all human good, all human ability, all human personality, the Father will be glorified by the grace plan. Grace glorifies God because grace provides under grace. Nothing depends upon who and what we are; it all depends on who and what God is. The active voice: God the Father produces the action. The indicative mood is the reality of this in the Father's plan in eternity past and/or the doctrine of divine decrees.

The future tense indicates the plan of the Father is moving on—"and I will glorify," future active indicative of docazw. The future tense anticipates the cross, followed by the resurrection, ascension and session of the humanity of Christ. The deity of Christ is omnipresent; the humanity of Christ must move into the third heaven in a resurrection body. The active voice: the Father will judge the Son on the cross, then resurrect Him and make it possible for the ascension and session. When the Son comes into the presence of the Father the Father will say to the humanity of Christ, "Sit down." He doesn't say it to the deity of Christ because the deity of Christ does not sit down. Posture does not belong to deity; posture belongs to humanity.

Verse 29 – the people once more. "The people" are the seeking Greeks and the Jews; they are all standing around. Perhaps we can tell which group it is. Each group will tell us what they think it is they heard. The Greeks thought it thunder.

"they that stood by" – perfect active participle of i(sthmi. It means they stood by all this time and heard this voice, with the result that they took in certain things. Active voice: they were all listening. The participle means that this was their intention. They heard the Father's answer. The Father's answer was specific: "I have glorified; I will glorify."

"heard" – aorist active participle, having heard; "said" – kept on saying. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The imperfect tense: they kept on saying. They chattered about it.

The Greeks said, broth – "thunder" in the accusative; ginomai, perfect active infinitive. What they really said was, "Thunder has come to pass," or "It thundered."

"others" – the Jews in the crowd. Apparently, somewhere along the line some traditions were passed down to the Jews. In the Old Testament the angels actually taught the Jews, and their voices were powerful voices like thunder. Therefore the Jews have learned to associate thunder with the voices of angels. So they said the only natural thing, "angels spake" – perfect active indicative of lalew. That is, communicated something. Jesus got it but they didn't.

Both groups were wrong. This was God the Father and He was speaking to the Son in answer to the prayer, "I have and I will glorify."

Verse 30 – an explanation. Jesus had to tell both groups they were wrong. "Jesus had an answer" – a)pokrinomai; "and said [communicated it]."

"This voice [of the Father] came not" – perfect tense of ginomai; then, dia plus the accusative twice: "not because of me, but because of you." In other words, John would later record this as indicative of the principle that no matter who is praying if prayer is uttered apart from grace it will never be answered. If it is out of phase with the plan of the Father it cannot be answered. The Father only answers prayer that is compatible with His plan. Therefore the more you know about the plan of God the greater becomes your effectiveness in prayer. The secret to prayer is knowledge of doctrine. You don't learn to pray by practicing; you learn to pray by getting doctrine. You learn to pray by getting the rules and the principles involved, and finding out what is in the plan of the Father and what is not.

Verses 31-33 – the announcement of the cross.

Verse 31 – "Now is," present active indicative of e)imi. We go from ginomai to e)imi, absolute status quo.

"the judgment of this world" – krisij, the act of judgment; kosmoj [world] belongs to Satan, he is the ruler of it, and here is where the back of Satan is broken, here is the great victory in the angelic conflict.

"now shall the prince of this world" – i.e. Satan, John 14:30; 16:11. The cross will terminate one phase of the angelic conflict and a new phase will begin, leading to operation footstool.

"be cast out" – future passive indicative of e)kballw [ballw = to throw or to cast; e)k = outside]. He will be thrust outside, dethroned. But not yet. The removal of Satan from the throne of this world and the replacement of Jesus Christ as the son of David occurs at the Second Advent. The cross is where all of this begins but "the prince of this world be cast out" is future. Now, by the cross in four days time, the back of Satan would be broken, but Satan will remain as ruler on this earth—although he spends time in heaven until the middle of the Tribulation when he is cast out of heaven and can be only on the earth. Then he will be removed from the earth at the end of the Tribulation by the second advent of Christ. He will be incarcerated for 1000 years. Then he will be cast off the earth, completely outside. This is future tense, it has not occurred as yet. The cross only makes it possible. Christ will receive the crown at the Second Advent but the cross must come first. We also have a passive voice here. Satan will receive being cast out. The indicative mood is the reality of it. In addition to e)kballw we also have an adverb to go with it—e)cw, which means outside. Operation footstool.

Principle

1. The cross must come before the crown. This was challenged when Jesus first began His public ministry. He was tempted to take over the kingdoms of this world. He rejected it. Satan offered the kingdoms of the world without the cross.

2. Jesus Christ is judged on the cross before Satan is judged at the Second Advent. Christ must be judged for our sins before the judgement of Satan can occur. So the judgment of sin must precede the judgment of Satan because Satan is the author of sin in the human race. So the sequence and the chronology of God's plan is important. There are no mistakes; Jesus Christ followed the correct chronology.

3. There are no mistakes or accidents in the plan of God.

4. God is perfect, His plan is perfect.

5. Jesus, therefore, will not succeed Satan but will overthrow him. The only way Satan can be overthrown is to have sin judged first.

Verse 32 – "And I." Jesus is referring to Himself. We have a proleptic pronoun here in the emphatic position, and it means I and only I.

"if" – 3rd class condition, indicating it hasn't happened yet, it is potential; "I be lifted up" – aorist passive subjunctive of u(yow. The subjunctive mood goes with

the 3rd class condition, e)an plus the subjunctive is how we know what a 3rd class condition is. The aorist tense refers to the point of time when Jesus Christ will be lifted up on the cross. The passive voice indicates the subject receives the action of the verb; Jesus Christ received the cross. Christ of His own free will died physically when His work was finished, but He was placed on the cross, not of His free will. He was put there because of the will of the Jews in legalism, the will of the Romans in expediency, and the will of Satan of course to cut Him off. He was put up there also by the will of the Father because once on the cross He bears the sins of the world. But His own will became compatible, not just to the will of the Jews, nor the Romans, but the will of the Father. Jesus Christ was not concerned with the will of the Sanhedrin or the Romans. He was only concerned with the will of the Father. Therefore He has to submit. The passive voice indicates He received crucifixion.

"will draw" – future active indicative of e)lkuw which means to draw in the sense of magnetism. Here we have the magnetism of grace. It also means to draw in the sense of fishing, to pull in a net full of fish. It also refers here to the concept of the spiritual death of Jesus Christ. The spiritual death of Jesus Christ removes the barrier between man and God.

"all unto me" – why did He say this?

Verse 33 – the answer. "This He said" is an imperfect active indicative. He had to keep on saying this, imperfect tense of legw, explaining it a few times. He was teaching them.

"signifying" means to communicate, present active participle of shmainw, the word from which we get "signs." It actually means to communicate, or to indicate or emphasise in a special way: "This he kept on saying, constantly emphasising."

"he should" – imperfect active indicative of mellw which means to be about to be. This is an inchoative imperfect, which means He was about.

"die" – present active infinitive of a)poqnhskw, generally used for the spiritual death of Christ on the cross.

Verse 34 – "The people answered him." The people in this verse are not seeking Greeks, their discourse ended in the previous paragraph. Instead we have Jews who were in the audience, and not Jews who were positive, as many of them were; these are negative. Therefore the aorist passive indicative of a)pokrinomai means that all of this time they have been looking for a chance to discredit Jesus Christ. They are in the audience but they are not there to learn. A)pokrinoma means to have an answer. To look for an answer; to look for an answer and find it. Really here it means they looked for an opportunity to somehow put Jesus down. There are always people in crowds who want to put down the one who is teaching. Jesus Christ has been teaching the truth, teaching Bible doctrine. He is the greatest teacher of all time—the God-Man, the unique person of the universe. Consequently, these people when they finally had an answer had a purpose which was to discredit the Lord Jesus Christ. They always begin by citing scripture. This is typical of religious people who try to use the scripture against the Lord Jesus Christ.

"We have heard" – there is more than meets the eye to this aorist active indicative of a)kouw. They are indicating that other people have taught them too, and that they had accepted the authority of these other people. The teaching was the Old Testament scripture—"out of the law." This is why, for example, Jesus is going to quote Isaiah three times in this section. Isaiah is a part of the Old Testament too.

"that the Christ" – o( Xristoj – "abideth forever" – present active indicative of menw indicating the eternity of Messiah, or Christ. They had heard this from Isaiah 9:6, also from Psalm 110:2-4; Daniel 7:14; and this emphasises the deity of Messiah. Their problem is that they are really seeking to put down Jesus Christ. Jesus has announced in the previous paragraphs to the seeking Greeks that the seed must fall into the ground and die and it is the death of Messiah that they are going to use against Him. He has announced the cross, the fact that He is going to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world. Immediately they think they have Him now, they have been waiting for this opportunity with their ears closed to the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Deity is not subject to death and this apparently the Jews understood. So they knew enough theology with their negative volition to be antagonistic and to look for an opportunity to put down the Lord Jesus Christ. Really, the questions they are about to ask are not seeking information. They are really trying to put down the one who is teaching. The more that Jesus Christ taught with authority the more the Jews who were negative tried to put Him down.

There are four doctrines which resolve the questions coming up: the doctrine of divine essence, the doctrine of the eternal decrees, the doctrine of the hypostatic union, and the doctrine of soteriology. In other words, Christ has to become true humanity to fulfil Messiahship. This is clearly taught in the Old Testament but they have ignored these things.

The first of two questions designed to put down the Lord: "and how sayest thou" – present active indicative of legw plus the interrogative pwj which is really used to be insulting. They have finally heard something that they can finally use against Him. "How sayest thou" is not the ordinary interrogative pronoun tij, but instead it is the interrogative adverb, and it indicates the opposition. It is an idiom of opposition. The Jews in the audience understood that Christ was speaking of His death and their question implies that Christ was now speaking contrary to scripture.

"The Son of man must be lifted up?" Son of man is a title for the humanity of Christ. The word "must" is the impersonal form of the verb dew, and the form is dei. The purpose of that form is to bring in an obligation of necessity. "Why do you communicate the information that the Son of man must be lifted up?" To us, the words lifted up may not imply death, but they understood it that way because u(yow means not only a commonly-known death at the time but it was the system of Roman death, and that in itself lead to other problems with them. They understood it was the cross involved here. The aorist tense means, You have said this now—recently. The passive voice indicates that the Son of man must be lifted up on a cross, the infinitive denotes purpose, and they are actually parroting back to Him exactly what He taught. However to them it is subjective information, they aren't even objective in their outlook, and they are simply accepting this information long enough to throw it back in His face. That is what they are doing.

The second question: "who is" – now they use the interrogative pronoun tij. This interrogative pronoun is a polite question, but when you start out with an interrogative adverb and follow it up with an interrogative pronoun it is an insult. They are being sarcastically polite; "this Son of man?" They understand Son of God but Son of man is the basis for their attack. In answer to their question, the doctrine of the hypostatic union.[3]

The Son of man is the humanity of Christ. Lifted up into heaven He goes as the God-Man; He goes in hypostatic union. He has a resurrection body after death, but before He goes to the cross He has only a human body. So the Son of man emphasises His human body in the hypostatic union. When He goes to the cross He goes as the God-Man but it is the humanity that dies.

Verse 35 – "Yes a little while" is an accusative of the extent of time of a word for time, xronoj, referring to time in the sense of one moment followed by another moment, one minute followed by another, etc. This is where we get the word chronology. The extent of this time can be broken down as follows: first of all, there are six days before the cross—John 12:1. Then there are three days in the grave—Matthew 12:40. Then forty days on the earth in a resurrection body—Acts 1:3. So the accusative of the extent of time is 6 days plus 3 days plus forty days. In other words, Jesus, when He has uttered these words in verse 35 had forty-nine more days on the earth.

"is"—present active indicative of e)imi, "keeps on being."

"the light" – the light is Christ as a manifest person of the Godhead, John 1:17; 6:46; 1Timothy 6:16; 1John 4:12. Jesus does not argue theology but gets to the issue of salvation; "is with you." Light is used also in the sense of who and what He is—essence box. God is light. Jesus is referring to His deity as well as His humanity.

No He is saying they don't have the light with them much longer, the God-Man is not going to be around. But that doesn't mean deity will not be around. In omnipresence Jesus Christ will always be around. When Jesus Christ ascends His humanity goes to heaven and He is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will return at the Second Advent. So He is only going to be there for a short time and this is a great opportunity for these Jews. Therefore He says …

"Walk" – present active imperative, and should be translated, Keep walking or Keep advancing toward the goal.

"while ye have the light" – the have is present active indicative of e)xw and it means to have and to hold the light. This is the opportunity to receive Christ as saviour. Advance toward the goal. While the credit cards of Messiahship are being presented this is a perfect opportunity to receive Christ as saviour. Walk or advance toward the goal when you have and hold the light.

"lest" introduces a negative purpose clause: "that darkness does not take you by surprise" – aorist active indicative of katalambanw.

"for he that walketh in darkness" – this refers to the Jews on negative volition. They keep on walking in darkness.

"knoweth not" – perfect used as a present for o)ida; "wither he goeth" – the present active indicative of u(pagw means you don't know when you are going to depart. That means you don't know when you are going to die, and when you die that is your last chance to be saved. It also means nationally you don't know when the nation is going to be broken up under the fifth cycle of discipline. It has a dual connotation here but it emphasises primarily to these unbelieving Jews that they don't know when they are going to die, so that had better take advantage of it now.

Verse 36 – "While ye have the light, believe in the light." Jesus is right there is Palestine as the God-Man. Therefore the second present active imperative: "believe" – dramatic present of the verb pisteuw, non-meritorious thinking. The object always has the merit; the object is always efficacious. The active voice: you have to do the believing. Imperative mood: a personal command from the only saviour to believe in Him.

"in the light" – reference to the incarnate Christ, right there with them; "that ye may be" – aorist active subjunctive of ginomai, "you may become."

"the children of light" should be "sons of light."

"These things" – there have been several in this passage: one to the Jews, one to the Greeks, and one to the negative volition crowd.

"spake Jesus" – aorist active indicative of lalew which means to communicate.

"and departed" – aorist active participle of a)perxomai which does not mean to depart, it means to disappear; " and did hide" – He didn't hide, He "was hidden" – aorist passive indicative of kruptw. The purpose: to make sure that He got to the cross.

"from them" means from the ultimate source of them. This is a religious crowd. Obviously they would try to eliminate Jesus Christ before He got to the cross.

We now have the case of the rejecting nation. Here is a documentation of a national entity which is reaching the point of rejection and the resultant reversionism, As a result of this reversionism and a maximum practice of reverse process reversionism this nation is line for, and will receive in 70 AD, the 5th cycle of discipline. The forty-year period is a grace period to give everyone an opportunity to avoid the judgment.

Verse 37 – "he had done" is a perfect active participle of poiew. The perfect tense indicates that the miracles were accomplished in the past but have permanent results in the evangelisation of the Jews during the incarnation of Jesus Christ. One time during the incarnation the entire nation of Israel was evangelised. Here is that evangelisation declared through the miracles—"so many miracles." The miracles which are prevalent and in focus in the Gospel of John are seven. Each one of these became the basis of a great evangelistic push and in effect there were seven waves of evangelism accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ in these miracles.

"before them" – the adverb e)mprosqen used as a preposition. It means in the presence of. It a part of the principle by which the Lord evangelised. A spectacular miracle was followed by focussing attention on the message—the message of Jesus Christ as the Messiah-Saviour. If Jesus Christ was simply trying to alleviate suffering, as per the liberal view and the apostate view of Christianity, as per social action and operation bleeding heart, then He is remiss; because if His objective was simply to alleviate suffering then He should have performed millions of miracles; he should have healed everyone in the southern and the northern kingdom and, in the bridge between the two, Perea.

"yet they believed not on him" – they refers generally to the religious Jews who will be described in their reverse process reversionism of having hardened hearts; "believe not" is an imperfect active indicative of pisteuw plus the negative. The imperfect tense means that they continued in this attitude all of the way from negative volition, scar tissue on the soul, emotional revolt of the soul, blackout of the soul, reversionism, and the practice of reverse process reversionism. In other words, the imperfect tense means they carried their unbelief from the point of instant rejection to continuous reversionism. Their continuous reversionism resulted in national disintegration, the fifth cycle of discipline.

Verses 38-41, the explanation of rejection. He is an amplification and short discourse on reaction to the message of Jesus Christ.

Verse 38 – reaction involves human volition. This was documented by Isaiah. "That" introduces a result clause. The word for "saying" here is simply o( logoj, literally, "the word [doctrine]." The doctrine is quoted now from Isaiah 53:1.

"might be fulfilled" – aorist passive subjunctive of plhrow. The culminative aorist: the scripture has now been fulfilled. The passive voice: the scripture received fulfilment. The subjunctive mood goes as a part of the clause and is not potential. It is literal fulfilment. The subjunctive mood is used here to indicate that this is a result clause.

Now the Lord Jesus Christ is going to depart from the public and have a private ministry to His disciples. Up to this time Jesus Christ has spent three years evangelising the Jews in Palestine. From this point on He is going to spend His time in teaching the disciples with regard to the next dispensation. So having the rejection clearly stated we now have a quotation from Isaiah" "Lord who hath believed our report [doctrine]?" The word a)koh means doctrine which was presented under the right conditions—academic discipline, training. In other words, He gained a hearing, made a presentation, and it was rejected.

"and to whom is the arm of the Lord"—a title for the Lord Jesus Christ, as per Isaiah 53:5,6—"revealed" – a)pokaluptw means to be clearly disclosed, plainly signified. The Jews of our Lord's day had received maximum exposure to the gospel, maximum revelation, a concentrated saturation of evangelism.

Principle: Maximum revelation followed by maximum rejection is followed by maximum national judgment, i.e. the 5th cycle of discipline.

"Who hath believed our report?" indicates volitional involvement. These people, are without excuse, they have heard the report or they have heard the doctrine. The aorist tense of a)pokaluptw is a constative aorist, they have heard it over a period consistently for three years, seven instances of which are described in the Gospel of John. The passive voice: they have received this information. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that they have had clearly presented to them the gospel in the best possible form. So they are totally and completely without excuse.

Verses 39-41, divine essence is involved.

Verse 39 – "Therefore they could not believe." Therefore is dia plus the accusative of touto which means because of this—because of maximum negative volition at the point of gospel hearing. This creates a vacuum in the soul based upon scar tissue. That opens up a vacuum in the soul, and through the vacuum comes satanic and false propaganda in the form of religion which attacks the right lobe—the frame of reference, the vocabulary-categories, the norms and standards and the launching pad. At the same time, this starts the Jews on a frantic search for happiness in the area of religion, legalism, and asceticism. Combining the three they were able to build a lot of self-righteousness in a hurry, as per the concept of the Pharisees.

Remember, we are not dealing in this passage with the thousands of Jews who responded and were born again. Right now we are studying only those Jews who rejected the Lord Jesus Christ: "Therefore because of this" – because they had rejected Christ.

"they could not" – imperfect middle indicative of dunamai. The imperfect means they kept on not being able. The middle voice is reflexive. They themselves had said no so many times that they are exactly like the Pharaoh of the Exodus whom they despise. The Pharaoh of the Exodus said no, no, no, no, and finally he couldn't say yes.

"they were not able to believe" – present active infinitive of pisteuw. When a person says no often enough and long enough so that he builds up a maximum amount of scar tissue on the soul, so that the mataiothj [Eph. 4:17] opens up and makes a great attack, the information he receives in that attack does two things. It causes him to function to build scar tissue, it causes him to emotionally revolt, but this information that comes through mataiothj also makes him say no every time he is confronted with the gospel. He will always say no, that a person with the blackout of the soul will never say yes.

"Esaias said" – aorist active indicative of legw, quoting Isaiah 6:9,10.

Verse 40 – "He hath blinded their eyes," the perfect active indicative of tuflow which means the blackout of the soul. The blackout of the soul occurs under two principles: scar tissue on the left bank of the soul (too many no's); scar tissue on the right bank. No there is the blackout of the soul and the only light that comes through is pseudo light—the matiaothj opens up and doctrine of demons will come through that pipe. Tuflow means to be blind in the sense of perception, not literally blind. They have heard the gospel time after time, they have seen miracles which confirm the message as well as focus attention on the message, and they have said no, no, no, no. They have total scar tissue leading to total blindness—soul blindness, perceptive blindness. The perfect tense means blinded in the past with the result that they will never see the issue of the gospel again. The active voice: they have done this through a series of negatives toward the gospel. The indicative mood is the reality of strong delusion.

"hardened their heart" – we change from the perfect tense to the aorist tense and the word is porow. This is a constative aorist and it explains the fact that over a period of time they said no. They have a blackout of the soul so that they no longer perceive and no longer care about ever accepting the gospel. Notice that it is said that the heart is hardened. The heart is the right lobe. The blackout of the soul always results in the heart or the right lobe getting false information.

"that they should not see with their eyes" – the word for see here is o(raw which is used for soul perception. They have rejected Jesus Christ as the light and now scar tissue excludes the light and volition no longer operates. Once you have scar tissue on the left and right banks of the soul you are no longer free, you are the slave of the devil; matiothj will give you your instructions but your volition will no longer operate. In other words, as scar tissue accumulates you are no longer free. The build-up of scar tissue cuts down the freedom of the soul.

"nor understand with their heart" – the word for heart is aorist active subjunctive of noew which means to think. This is the thinking of the soul—"nor do they think with their right lobe." They are incapable of thinking divine viewpoint. For if they were …. E)pignwsisj gospel when they hear it, they would ….

"be converted"—aorist active subjunctive of strefw which means to turn and go in another direction. Converted can be used for the unbeliever who goes in the direction of the cross—+V, and is saved. But it can also be used for the believer with regard to doctrine. It all depends on which side of the cross we are discussing. If we are discussing a person who is not saved the blackout of the soul is strong delusion. It keeps him from being saved. If we are talking about a believer in reversionism the rejection of Bible doctrine blacks out his soul to the point of the sin unto death. To be converted means to change. Here it is used for unbelieving Jews, so it means to change the attitude toward Christ, believing in Him, and therefore receiving salvation. It can also be used for a believer in reversionism who is converted or changes in the sense of changing his attitude toward Bible doctrine. The aorist tense is an iterative aorist, begins to change. The passive voice means to receive information on which to change. The subjunctive here is the true subjunctive in the sense that such a change is potential.

"and I should heal them" – future active indicative of i)aomai, used for the healing of the soul. There is no physical healing here at all. We are talking about thinking, the right lobe, the hardness of heart, and hardness of heart can only be healed by a positive attitude toward Bible doctrine—first a positive attitude toward the gospel which results in believing in Christ: instant healing; secondly, the same concept is also used when a believer recovers from reversionism through the daily intake of Bible doctrine and the removal of scar tissue. The future tense indicates that it is future from the time of the decision. The active voice indicates the individual must make a decision. In the case of the unbelieving Jew in this context he believes in Jesus Christ. In the case of the believer in reversionism, he makes a series of decisions of a positive attitude toward doctrine. The indicative mood is the reality of the healing of the soul at the point of salvation.

Verse 41 – an interpretation. "These things" is a warning regarding the 5th cycle of discipline which would occur in Israel's day. It wads pending in Isaiah's day but did not come off due to the fact that the Jews in Isaiah's days turned to the Lord. But now we have a new national disaster paralleled to that of Isaiah's day.

"when he saw" – when is o(ti and means "because." "Saw" is the perception of the soul; it is an aorist active indicative of o(raw—panoramic view or perception of the soul.

"his glory" – the glory of the essence of the Godhead; "and communicated," not "of him" but the preposition peri which means "concerning him [the Lord Jesus Christ]."

"These things Isaiah said, because he saw his glory [of Jesus Christ], and communicated concerning him"—constative aorist, kept on communicating [at various points].

Verses 42-43, the neutralisation of key believers. Many believers never recovered after salvation because immediately after salvation they face a new issue. The issue before salvation is. "What think ye of Christ?" But after salvation the issue is, "What do you think of the thinking of Christ?"—doctrine. Your attitude toward doctrine determines were you are going from there. Many of these people never got off the ground.

Verse 42 – "Nevertheless" is the conjunction o(mwj, and it should be translated, "But for all that." With it is mentoi, a Classical Greek word for "however." So this should be translated, "But for all that, however."

"[even] among the chief rulers" – this included prominent members of the Sanhedrin, e.g. Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and other prominent men who became believers. But very quickly they were overcome by the lust pattern of their old sin nature. It takes a lot of doctrine immediately to straighten this out. The Jerusalem church never recovered from this, it was destroyed in 70 AD with everything else.

"many" – polloi; "believed" – aorist active indicative of pisteuw, non-meritorious thinking, the object of believing [Jesus Christ] has the merit.

"but because of the Pharisees" – the most legalistic of all the parties in the Sanhedrin, and legalism always persecutes grace. The Pharisees were vigorous in their persecution of grace.

"they did not confess him" – imperfect active indicative of o(mologew which means to cite or to acknowledge. Here, with the negative o)ux, "they kept on not acknowledging him." In other words, they went into a state comparable to reversionism where they did not acknowledge Him. These VIPs were pressured so that they did not witness, acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ.

"lest" introduces a negative purpose clause, i(na plus the subjunctive, plus the negative—"that they should not become ostracised from the synagogue."

"should not become" is an aorist active subjunctive of ginomai. The words "ostracised from the synagogue" is a noun, not a verb, the nominative plural of a)posunagwgoj [a)po = out from; sunagwgoj = synagogue]. Putting the two compounds together means to be excommunicated or ostracised from the synagogue.

Verse 43 – the reason. "For" introduces an illative gar which gives the reason.

"they loved" – aorist active indicative of a)gapaw, mental attitude. They are minus mental attitude love from doctrine, therefore they are in emotional revolt. In emotional revolt they have approbation lust, power lust, they want to be well thought of.

"the praise of men" – literally, "the glory from men." The words of men is an ablative of source. They loved glory from the source of man more than they loved glory from the source of God. The reason: Lack of doctrine means lack of capacity for love. So these people are hamstrung by reversionism.

Verse 44-46, the plan of God discourse.

Verse 44 – "Jesus cried and said." The word means to shout, not to cry – krazw. He was heard very well.

"He that believeth" – present active participle of pisteuw, dramatic present here. The participle indicates that not only at that time but at any time in human history God's plan is the same. There is only one way to be saved.

"on me" – the word on is e)ij, a directional pronoun. It is like an arrow which points toward Christ. This is the principle of eternal salvation at this point.

"believeth not on me [only], but on him that sent me" – in other words, when a person believes in Jesus Christ he at the same time believes in God the Father. The word pempw means the Father sent the Son; it indicates that the plan was the Father's plan. Since Christ is a part of the Father's plan and we are commanded specifically to believe in Him we have an amplification here. The moment you believe in Christ you also believe in the Father. It means you have accepted the plan of the Father.

Verse 45 – "And he that seeth me," the word qewrew means to view with interest and attention. All those who have believed in Christ observed Him with great interest. Present active participle: they kept on viewing Him with interest. Viewing Him with interest results in seeing "him who sent me." "No man hath seen God at any time," therefore how are they going to see the Father? By listening to the words of Jesus Christ. Christ is the revealer of God the Father; He is the revealer of the Godhead—John 1:18; 6:46; 1Timothy 6:16; 1John 4:12; Hebrews 1:3. So here is the indictment of the Jewish race at this point. The Lord Jesus Christ is not only the only saviour but He is the revealer of the Father. In rejecting Christ they have rejected God the Father.

Verse 46 – "I am come" is the perfect active indicative of e)rxomai. Jesus Christ has come into the world. The perfect tense means that the first advent will have permanent results. One of the results will be eternal salvation of everyone who believes in Christ. Another permanent result is going to be the discipline of the Jewish nation from 70 AD to the end of the Church Age and into the Tribulation. Literally this is, "I have come a light." The word for light is fwj, which indicates that even though man is in darkness the light is available: qeorew means you can see it; o(raw means you can see it—both verbs are used in this context to indicate not one Jew in all of Israel ever has an excuse.

"that" – i(na plus the subjunctive; "whosoever believeth" – present active participle indicating this is the way people are always saved.

"shall not abide" – aorist active subjunctive of menw which means to abide or remain. The aorist tense is a constative aorist. In unbelief they are constantly in darkness. Active voice: by their own negative volition they are in darkness. The subjunctive mood indicates the purpose clause.

"should not" – aorist active subjunctive plus the negative with menw. Reversionism means the 5th cycle of discipline. They are in darkness now and the darkness will be amplified by the 5th cycle of discipline.

Verses 47-48, the alternative to the plan of God.

Verse 47 – "If any man hear my words and believe not." This is a 3rd class condition emphasising human volition. This is the aorist active subjunctive of a)kouw which means to concentrate and then to accept the authority of the one who is teaching.

"and believe not" should be and does not guard it [not believe]" – fulassw. A nation that does not guard the gospel will eventually lose out as a nation. So this means rejection by the part of the nation in general.

"I judge him not" – present active indicative of krinw, "I do not judge him," literally. He is not the judge at this point. This is a warning that the 5th cycle of discipline will be administered by God the Father and not by God the Son.

"I came not to judge" is literally, "I came not that I might judge" – i(na plus krinw.

"but to save the world" – so He now states His purpose, and He is sticking with His purpose. He will not deviate even by pretending that He Himself is going to judge. His job is to save – i(na plus the subjunctive mood of swzw in the aorist active subjunctive. The purpose of the first advent is to provide salvation for mankind and Christ in fulfilling that purpose must be judged rather than do any judging Himself.

Verse 48 –a record of the future judgment of those who reject Jesus Christ as saviour. "He that rejecteth me" – present active participle of a)qetew [a = negative; qetew = from tiqhmi which means to appoint, to place, to assign, allocate] – "not appointed." Those who do not appoint Christ—those who refuse to assign Him His proper place—Messiah. He is talking to Israel, therefore instead of using a negative with pisteuw He uses a)qetew to indicate that the Jews reject Jesus Christ by failing to assign to Him His proper place of Messiahship.

"and recevieth not" -- present active participle of lambanw, which means here with the negative to reject a gift. So they reject the Father's gift by failing to assign to Him His proper place of Messiahship, the son of David.

"hath one [God the father] that judgeth him" – God the Father will actually be responsible for the administration of the 5th cycle of discipline.

"the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day" – Jesus Christ will very definitely face these people who have rejected Him at the last judgment and at that time they will have a clear understanding as to why they are there; they have rejected the only saviour.

Verse 49-50, the executor of the divine plan.

Verse 49—"For I have not spoken of myself" is literally, I have not spoken out from myself, e)k plus the ablative.

"but the Father which sent me" – this is the Father's plan. The aorist tense indicates the period of the incarnation.

"he gave me" – perfect tense, he has given me with permanent results; "what I should say [legw], and what I should communicate [lalew]." Both words are different but they have the same idea of communication.

Verse 50 – "I know" is the perfect o)ida used as a present tense for certain knowledge in the soul of Jesus Christ. Knowledge in the humanity of His soul as a part of the supergrace life.

"his commandments" – 1John 3:23. We are commanded to believe in Jesus Christ; "is" – present active indicative of e)imi, keeps on being, absolute status quo.

"life everlasting" – 1John 5:11,12.

"whatsoever I speak therefore" – present active indicative of lalew which means to communicate. Lalew emphasises the manner of presentation; legw emphasises the content of presentation, and both are used together in this passage.

"as the Father has said" is a total departure from any Koine Greek. This is a pure Classical word here, the Attic perfect active indicative from rew which means to flow. It is used in the perfect tense for legw which has no perfect tense as such. So we go to the Attic Greek word for a permanent declaration—"as the Father had said." This takes us back to eternity past when God the Father designed the plan.

"so I speak" – present active indicative of lalew, so I keep on communicating.

[1] See Doctrine of the poor.

[2] See Doctrine of separation.

[3] See Doctrine of the hypostatic union.

Chapter 13

Verse 1 – "Now before the feast of the passover." The preposition pro indicates that the prior date is found in John 12:1. John is not always chronological and every now and then it is necessary to throw in something which indicates the chronology of things. This is six days before the Passover. Since then we have been covering various pieces of information during those six days. Now, the word before takes us from six days before the Passover to the night before the Passover—Tuesday evening, 13 April, 30 AD. Jesus Christ was crucified on Wednesday morning at 9 am. The preposition pro indicates this piece of chronology.

The feast of the Passover is the first in the Levitical series. It is described in Exodus 12 and mentioned doctrinally in 1Corinthians 5:7. It portrays the death of Christ on the cross. With the feast of the Passover Jesus Christ is terminating His public ministry. By nine o'clock the next morning Jesus Christ will be on the cross. So what we have in chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 all occurs approximately 16 hours before the crucifixion. Jesus Christ at this point stops all public teaching and focuses His attention on the disciples. The discourse—called the upper room discourse—begins at this point with some historical information. The actual upper room discourse—John chapters 14 and 15. Then we have the Gethsemane discourse—chapters 16 and 17.

Jesus Christ is going to give two messages on this evening. The first message will be given in the upper room; the second message will be given after they departed from the upper room and went out to Gethsemane. One is given in a banquet hall on the second floor and the second is given in a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives. These two discourses are the prophetical preparation for the Church Age. The recipients of these two messages are the eleven born-again disciples, and part of it was heard by Judas Iscariot.

"Jesus [always refers to the humanity of Christ] knew" – prefect active participle of o)ida used as a present tense for His omniscience. Jesus is always the name for the humanity of Christ; o)ida is used for His omniscience. Here we have the hypostatic union, the God-Man. Knowledge also resided in His right lobe—in His frame of reference, vocabulary and categorical area of His humanity. Also He had an ECS, He GAPed to supergrace, so that in His humanity, as well as in His deity, was thoroughly cognisant of the plan of God the Father. Now, in His cognisance He is going to communicate.

"that his hour" – reference to the cross, John 12:23; 17:1; Mark 14:41. The word hour is not used for 60 minutes here. The word is often used in a dramatic time of victory and that is exactly the way that God the Holy Spirit uses it from the pen of John the Apostle. It took six hours but it was the Lord's finest hour, His hour of victory in the angelic conflict.

"was come" – aorist active indicative of e)rxomai. This is a culminative aorist—had come; "that" – purpose clause, i(na plus the subjunctive.

"he should depart" – aorist active subjunctive of metabainw which means to go from one place to an entirely different place. It refers to the physical death of Christ when His body went into the grave—Luke 23:53; His soul went to Paradise in Hades—Psalm 16:10; Luke 23:43; Acts 2:27; Ephesians 4:9; His spirit went to the Father—Luke 23:46. To indicate that these are all out of the world we have e)k plus the ablative of kosmoj—"out from the world." Therefore the emphasis is on His soul and spirit. His body went into a grave and the grave was on the earth. So out of the trichotomous disposition of Christ at His physical death it is the soul and the spirit which are emphasised and definitely not the body.

"unto the Father" – proj means face to face with the Father.

"having loved his own [possessions]" – aorist active participle of a)gapaw. The amazing thing about a)gapaw is the fact that while Jesus Christ also had filew this indicates His mental attitude love, the love of His soul for the disciples—eleven born-again believers—even though in the next 16 hours not only did they not hear His discourse, were very poor in their attention, but as soon as they got out into the action all of them, with the exception of John, really blew it. They were a total and complete flop. Only John managed to come through with anything that looked like honour, and a)gapaw expresses His mental attitude toward those whom He knows are going to fail completely—and that is grace. "His own [possessions, i.e. people/disciples]" is the accusative masculine plural of i)dioj.

"in the world" – His mental attitude toward them was relaxed; "he loved them to the end" – in other words, Jesus Christ went all the way to His death and yet His attitude never changes toward the disciples. That is grace. This indicates that Jesus Christ on the cross was totally relaxed. He loved these disciples as God in eternity past, so He was willing to become true humanity. He loved these disciples in time; He was willing to go to the cross for them and for the entire human race. He loved them on the cross while He was being judged for their sins. His love never changed. And while the other type of love could have been mentioned it is the mental attitude love that is the basis for the other.

Verse 2 – some opposition to the Father's plan. "The supper being ended" is incorrect. This is the Passover supper and it is the present middle participle of ginomai. It means being in progress. The supper was not over, it was in the process. The present tense means they were dining at the time. The middle voice means they themselves were still dining. The best way to bring this out in the English is, "the supper being in progress," or "the supper having started." They were now partaking of the Passover feast. And the chief opponent among all fallen angels and the greatest genius among creatures was there—the devil. The devil needed a temple there, and since the eleven disciples were born-again he couldn't possess them. He was looking for someone to possess at that minute.

"having now put" is not correct. This is a perfect active participle of ballw which means to throw or to cast. It should be, having cast. The perfect tense means there will be permanent results, such as declared in Luke 22:3ff.

"into the heart [right lobe] of Judas Iscariot" – the only unbeliever among the disciples, therefore the logical person to form the base of attack.

"to betray" is incorrect, it is "that he might betray him." It is a purpose clause: that is i(na, plus the aorist active subjunctive of paradidomi. Remember that the subjunctive mood is used here with i(na to indicate a purpose clause. This was the devil's avowed purpose when he entered the room. The devil's objective was to help the Sanhedrin fulfil their policy—John 11:49-57. Satan wanted to keep Christ from going to the cross and being judged for our sins and what better way to frustrate the cross than to turn Jesus over to the Sanhedrin. They will have a quick trial and then stone Him to death. It will be impossible for Jesus Christ to bear the sins of the world if He is bearing the weight of stones and dying physically. The devil's objective is to get Jesus to die physically. What the devil is afraid of (because he knows theology better than most on this point) is that somehow Jesus will get on that cross where He will bear the sins of the world and die spiritually. The purpose of the devil is to get Judas to so betray Jesus that Jesus will never get to the cross. If Jesus dies physically without first dying spiritually, then the whole purpose of the incarnation is destroyed. The whole ministry of Christ depends upon getting on the cross and bearing our sins.

Verse 3 – "Jesus" refers to the humanity of Christ; "knowing" is o)ida; "the Father" is God the first person, author of the divine plan; "had given" – aorist active indicative of didomi; "all things" – culminative aorist in eternity past. The aorist means occurrence, and in this case it is an occurrence in eternity past. It was settled in eternity past as a part of the divine decrees. The active voice: the Father produced the action at the time of the divine decrees. The indicative mood is the reality of the eternal life conference in eternity past.

"all things" is the ultimate triumph of the angelic conflict. It refers to the second advent, operation footstool, the Millennium, the Gog and Magog revolution, the ultimate disposition of fallen angels and unbelievers, and the ultimate eternal destiny of all born-again believers and all elect angels—all things are put in His hands. Judgment is put into His hands and a perfect eternity is put into His hands. And that is as it should be because in the Bible the hands of Jesus Christ are called the hands of creation in Psalm 19:1. In Colossians 1:16 we have the principle. The hands of creation are also the hands of salvation. His hands were nailed to the cross—Psalm 22:16; John 20:19-28. And His hands are also said to be the hands of security—Psalm 37:24; John 10:28.

"and that he was come from God" – aorist active indicative of e)cerxomai which means to proceed forth, and it is used for the first advent. The incarnation was not only necessary for man's salvation but also for solving the angelic conflict. The first Adam set us back in the angelic conflict; the last Adam solves everything, and He solves it in two advents. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist of time. The word from is a)po—ultimate source. The Father designed the plan and Jesus Christ comes from the ultimate source of the Father.

"and went to God" -- present active indicative of u(pagw which means to depart. This brings us to the ascension and session. That was the first triumphal procession in which all of the fallen angels preceded Him as those who were defeated. Then came Jesus Christ, and then the elect angels came as His own troops, He was seated at the right hand of the Father, and the devil and all fallen angels at that point got the picture. He "went face to face with God" – proj plus the accusative.

These first three verses are background for the next five chapters. But in addition to that we get just a quick resume of some of the doctrinal issues as we come to this table. As we come to this table there is a terrible breech of manners. In the ancient world they always came into a room barefooted. They kicked off their sandals at the door. There is a pool of water there and they are supposed to go through the pool and have their feet dried by someone on the other side. But they came in with dirty feet. They skipped the pool of water. And they were now sitting down at the table. Jesus has clean feet; everyone else has dirty feet. So the Lord Jesus Christ was not going to teach anything until He taught the importance of rebound before you can take in Bible doctrine, and at the same time correct the manners of the disciples.

Verse 4 – "He riseth from supper," present middle indicative of e)geirw. This will be used for resurrection: rising from the dead. Here it is used for getting up from the table. He gets up because there is a breech of etiquette. The disciples have entered the upper room with dirt on their feet. They had been so busy arguing about who was the greatest—Luke 22:24—that they forgot their manners. Good manners demand that they wash their feet before entering but since there was no servant present to do so they extended the debate by refusing to wash each other's feet. So this present active indicative is about as dramatic as you could find. Jesus stands up in the midst of the stench of mental attitude sins and dirty feet.

Analogies

1. The disciples had bathed before coming to the last supper. But that was before their mental attitude sins had been fired up. The taking of a bath is analogous to salvation. So already we can begin to anticipate: one bath but many washings.

2. It was customary, therefore, to wash the feet before entering. The custom of foot washing is analogous to rebound. If you come with dirty feet, what do you do before you sit down with the Lord and dine? Before you eat the Lord's food [Bible doctrine] you wash your feet.

3. The disciples in walking through the streets have accumulated filth on their feet. This is analogous to being a believer out of fellowship.

4. The dinner was fellowship with the Lord in which food was involved. Our greatest fellowship with the Lord is when we meet to dine upon Bible doctrine. The believer cannot take in Bible doctrine with dirt on his feet. If you are out of fellowship you cannot take it in.

5. The feet also represent service. It is impossible to serve the Lord with dirty feet.

6. At the beginning of the previous chapter the feet of Jesus had been anointed, while at the beginning of this chapter the feet of the disciples are washed. Oil of nard on the feet of the saviour indicates the sustaining ministry of the Holy Spirit; water on the feet of the disciples indicates the cleansing of the rebound technique.

7. Jesus did not have to have His feet washed—This is analogous to the doctrine of impeccability—but the disciples needed to have their feet washed. They had old sin natures and perpetual carnality.

8. Jesus washed their feet. This is a picture of Christ providing the basis of rebound on the cross. Rebound is taught in 1John 1:9 but the basis of it is 1John 1:7.

9. Again, the bath prior to coming is a picture of salvation—Ephesians 1:7; 1Peter er 1:18,19; Revelation 1:5. Foot washing is analogous to rebound after salvation as a means of GAPing it and producing divine good.

"and laid aside his garments" – dramatic present active indicative of tiqhmi, which means to place them in a neat pile. It doesn't say He took off His clothing.

It means having taken them off He placed them or hung them up. Active voice: Jesus placed His clothing, His outer garments. Indicative mood: the reality of it. The analogy: Christ becomes the servant of all on the cross. They are all dressed up with dirty feet; He is all undressed and clean, looking like a servant.

"and took" – aorist active participle of lambanw, having taken; "a towel" – the word here is a special one: lention which is like a beach towel and is an article belonging to a servant in which he uses one end of the towel to wash the feet and the other end to dry, and he strings it around his neck. That is why He didn't wear His garments, because He would get dirty in the process.

"and girded himself" – diazwnnumi means He tied it around His neck.

Verse 5 – "After that he poured water into a basin." Ballw means to throw. The devil ballw s into the heart of Judas; Jesus Christ ballw s water into a basin. The devil is trying to throw his influence into the souls of people while Christ throws water into a basin—water representing the Word.

"and began" – aorist middle indicative of a)rxw; "to wash" – niptw, which means to wash an extremity, e.g. hands or feet. The word louw means to wash the whole body. This is present active infinitive, He went from one to the other of the disciples' feet. Salvation is not the issue here; rebound is the issue.

Principle: Rebound is necessary for GAP; rebound is necessary for service. Christ became our servant in salvation so that we could be His slave in phase two.

"and to wipe" – present active infinitive of e)kmassw which means to wipe off clean. The infinitive expresses the result: they were clean.

In this passage the Lord Jesus Christ is not teaching humility. He is showing eleven disciples who are all going to have the gift of communication that in order to be a communicator you have to study—study and teach. The studying is humiliation. The reaction to the teaching is humiliation.

Verse 6 – we always have a little help in whatever we are illustrating from the apostle Peter. Whenever the Lord needed to drive home a point Peter was there with his mouth open. He was a very noble, impetuous type of person. When he opened his mouth he always made the right noises from the human viewpoint.

Principle: Before one can eat food, enjoy food, and fulfil the principle in eating—the sustaining of life—the food must be clean and the one who is eating the food must be clean.

"Then he cometh" – present active indicative of e)rxomai; "to Simon Peter" – proj plus the accusative of Petroj, "face to face with Peter."

"Peter saith unto him, Lord [deity]" – kurioj. He recognises Him by His title of deity. He recognises the authority of the one who is taking the place of a servant.

"dost thou wash my feet?" – you can see Peter pulling his feet back as he says it. This is the present active indicative of niptw.

Verse 7 – "Jesus had an answer," literally, "What I do thou knowest not now." What I do is the present active indicative of poiew, but the present tense here is not linear aktionsart, it is a dramatic present. This only happened once and would never be repeated. Even though Jesus is going to tell the disciples to go out and do some foot-washing on their own He doesn't mean literal feet; thou knowest not – the perfect o)ida is used as a present tense plus o)uk—"You do not understand now."

"but" – adversative conjunction setting up a contrast between Peter's present ignorance and his future understanding of the doctrine; "thou shalt know" – future middle indicative of ginwskw—"you will learn." This is the experience of learning doctrine. He will know from the experience of study. Peter will learn doctrine in the future, including the principle of GAP, how it relates to the rebound technique, and the lesson the Lord was teaching by washing the feet. The middle voice: Peter will be benefited by learning this doctrine and understanding it at a future time. The indicative mood is the reality of Peter's future knowledge of how GAP functions and how the washing of feet represents the communication of Bible doctrine. You cannot communicate doctrine until you study, until you learn, until you know. Then you must be clean when you communicate, the recipients must be clean as they listen, and that is the rebound technique. Rebound is for communicators; rebound is for those who listen to the communication of Bible doctrine.

Principle: Ignorance of doctrine both shocks and confuses the believer in his disorientation to the grace of God. Ignorance of doctrine results in disorientation to God's grace. It also results eventually in reversionism.

Notice that Peter's statement would be commended by many because of its sincerity—"You are not going to wash my feet Lord." Sincere people are always stupid and always wrong. Sincerity is not a part of the Christian way of life, it is a façade of human viewpoint. There is no virtue in sincerity. Bible doctrine produces something greater than the hypocrisy of sincerity. Peter is very sincere, he wants to do the right thing. However again, sincerity is no substitute for knowledge of doctrine or for GAPing it. Sincerity is no substitute for doctrine in the right lobe, for the ECS, and for the discernment of the supergrace life. Sincerity never accomplishes the will of God.

Verse 8 – "Thou shalt never wash" is the aorist active subjunctive of niptw plus a double negative, o)u mh. The aorist plus the double negative is as strong as you can get. As a matter of fact only the Lord can wash Peter's feet. If Peter refuses he will sit at the table with dirty feet. This is like trying to serve the Lord while you are out of fellowship, and like trying to GAP it while you are out of fellowship. When out of fellowship the believer can only produce human good at best, and he cannot produce anything on the basis of Bible doctrine.

Jesus answered with a 3rd class condition [maybe yes, maybe no], showing that Peter does have volition—e)an plus the subjunctive. "If I wash thee not" – aorist active subjunctive of niptw, analogous to rebound.

"thou hast no part" – meroj, which means business, partnership, function; "with me" – in association with me: meta, the preposition of association. "If I don't wash your feet you have no business in association with me." The principle He is emphasising is that rebound precedes the correct function of GAP.

So Peter comes out once again with a beautiful impulsive statement.

Verse 9 – "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." What Peter wants to do is take a second bath, and this is like doubting your salvation. This is a case of sincerity plus ignorance. Peter doesn't need to bath. It is his feet that touched the filth of the streets as he was coming to the upper room. It is only his feet that need to be washed and to be cleansed. The issue after salvation for cleansing is rebound.

Verse 10 – Jesus uses foot-washing to distinguish between regeneration and rebound.

"He that is washed" – the perfect passive participle of louw which means to wash the entire body, to take a bath. Perfect tense: once saved, always saved. Passive voice: the believer receives salvation. He receives the bath, as it were, at the point of salvation. The participle sets up a concept. The entire body is washed once—"He having been washed." The principle: Saved once; rebound many times. Louw is used as the illustration of salvation; niptw is used for rebound. Sin and carnality do not mean that a believer must be saved again.

"needeth not" is literally, does not have a need; "save" is e)i mh and means "except."

"to wash" – aorist middle infinitive of niptw, to wash the extremities, the feet. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety every time rebound is necessary. The middle voice benefits the subject. This is a reflexive middle and it indicates that every believer priest must rebound for himself, and therefore is benefited. The infinitive expresses purpose, this rebound in the part of the plan of God.

"the feet" – there is no fellowship when the believer is defiled by sin. You cannot eat with God and have dirty feet; "but is clean" – present active indicative of e)imi, the predicate nominative singular kaqoroj; "every whit" – o(loj, which means all over.

"and you are clean" – present indicative of e)imi, plus kaqaroj. This time it is linear aktionsart: you keep on being clean. That is eternal salvation.

"but not all" – there is one exception and this refers to Judas Iscariot. This message is not for him. In the analogy, the others came with dirty feet but Judas came without a bath. In other words, Judas is unsaved and therefore this particular message and all the messages in the upper room discourse are not pertinent to Judas at all.

Verse 11 – "For he knew," the past perfect of o)ida used as an imperfect tense. The pluperfect [in the English, the past perfect] of o)ida is used as an imperfect to indicate that Jesus always knew that Judas Iscariot would remain an unbeliever.

"who should betray" – present active participle of paradidomi. This is a futuristic present. The betrayal hasn't occurred even yet, but He always knew that it would.

"therefore" – lit. because of this – "he said, Ye are not all clean." Judas Iscariot is an unbeliever. Principle: Bible doctrine/teaching is not for the unbeliever. The only issue for the unbeliever is that portion of doctrine called the gospel, made up of Christology and soteriology.

Verse 12 – an explanation of foot-washing. "After he had washed their feet" – Jesus won out! This is the aorist active indicative of niptw. This in effect provides cleansing for the eleven born-again believers. As clean they can take part in the last Passover; as dirty they could not. Same principle in the communion.

"and had taken his garments" – take is the aorist active indicative of lambanw and means to receive. It is analogous to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. By the way, washing the feet is the provision of Christ by His death on the cross. Remember that Jesus Christ stripped off His clothes to do this job (He was also stripped at the cross), a picture of providing for rebound on the cross. Then He puts His clothes back on again—resurrection. Then He sits down at the table, a picture of ascension and Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. And with Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, God the Father is now able to do something that He has not been able to do in all of human history: once again, to open up the floodgates of heaven; this time not with rain, but with Bible doctrine that has been held in reserve, held in secret for the entire course of the human race. Now all of this doctrine is brought from heaven—the doctrine of the Church Age, the mystery doctrine, the doctrines that we have recorded in the New Testament. These things are now available to us, after He was seated at the right hand of the Father.

"Know ye what I have done to you?" Present active imperative of ginwskw. In the present tense it means to keep learning. Active voice: eleven disciples who all have the gift of communication. Imperative mood: they are commanded to keep learning what He has done: "Keep learning what I have done," perfect tense. What He has done is release to them the greatest doctrine the world has ever known.

Verse 13 – He explains. "You call me Master," didaskaloj—teacher, teacher of a group. This group of eleven has a didaskaloj. Jesus Christ is the right pastor while He is on earth to these eleven apostles.

"and ye say well" – you speak accurately. The adverb kaloj here means accurately. 'I am your teacher; I am your Lord. My life isn't the issue but my message is the issue, my authority is the issue'—Now listen to what I say.

"for I am" – present active indicative of e)imi, 'I keep on being.'

Verse 14 – "If I," 1st class condition [if and it is true]; "then, Lord and teacher [of doctrine]" – kurioj and didaskaloj; "have washed your feet" – aorist active indicative of niptw. Now He gives them the obligation that is going to be theirs as the Church Age begins.

"ye also ought" – present active indicative o)feilw, a verb of obligation. It means to discharge an obligation, to have a total responsibility.

"to wash" – niptw; "one another's feet" – one another of the same kind refers to the believers of the first generation of the Church Age. And how will they wash their feet? They will study and teach. You have to have a bucket full of water before you can wash feet. The water of the Word cleanses. No pastor can communicate from an empty bucket. So He says, You have the responsibility to wash one another's feet. Not literally their feet but the communication of doctrine.

Verse 15 – "I have given," aorist active indicative of didomi. He gave all preachers right here, "an example." This is a gift: grace. He graced us all out right here. The word example is u(podeigma which means a model or a pattern. He set up a mould and we are never to get out of that mould—study and teach, study and teach….that is didaskaloj. The word u(podeigma precludes the idea of a ritual here. The heritage of grace is perpetuated through the communication of Bible doctrine, and grace is passed from one generation to another because God raises up pastor-teachers to communicate Bible doctrine.

"that" introduces a purpose clause; "you should do as I have done" – the present active subjunctive of poiew is addressed to communicators. The first generation of communicators were the apostles who were seated there, minus the apostle Paul who will fill in later. The aorist tense of poiew is a culminative aorist. Poiew—you do it, present linear aktionsart; poiew—present active subjunctive, you disciples do it [keep on doing it]. Active voice: you communicate. Subjunctive mood: that is the purpose, it goes with i(na.

"as I have done" – culminative aorist, I did it once, that is all. Active voice: Jesus did it once. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that He did wash their feet as a training aid to command them to communicate Bible doctrine. Jesus taught doctrine to the disciples; the disciples, in turn, who have the gift of communication will communicate to the first generation. After that it will be pastor-teachers appointed by God.

This next section deals with the five principles derived from foot-washing.

Verse 16 – the first principle. "Verily, verily" means point of doctrine.

"servant" – douloj refers to the disciple from the standpoint of his discipleship. He is a slave. A disciple is a student under strict discipline. The English word discipline is taken from the same word as disciple. The disciple's objective is to be under academic discipline and receive information. So the word servant is used interchangeably with the word disciple. The servant and the disciple are two sides of the same coin.

"is not" – present active indicative of e)imi plus the negative; "greater" – the comparative adjective of meizwn. It is followed by an ablative of comparison, the word kurioj for "Lord." It connotes deity and it also indicates a great contrast between the disciple and Jesus Christ. A disciple is under strict discipline with no privileges and no rights. A slave is exactly the same thing. Why does the Lord use interchangeably the words slave and disciple? If the Lord is actually teaching He calls them disciples, or if He is giving them some principle related to His teaching. But if they are out of school they are still not out from His discipline, therefore they are called slaves.

The Lord Jesus Christ has just washed the disciples' feet. To do so He took upon Himself the form of a servant to perform this humiliating task. Even though Jesus took the place of a slave and washed their feet it did not take the rank of His shoulders. It did not make Him inferior to them, nor did it rob Him of His authority. His is still kurioj and He is still didaskaloj. Kurioj is His authority over the disciples called douloj—slave, and didaskaloj is His authority over the disciples when they are called disciples. Do even though He has done a very humiliating thing He has not traded place with the disciples. Principle: In life there is authority of all kinds. At times we are tempted to put down the people who are in authority. We may succeed in business, in social life, in some establishment relationship, but we never take away the authority of those we put down. A woman who puts down her husband has not changed a thing, he is still the authority over her. Authority is designed for a purpose and under God no matter how you try or what you do you never gain by undermining authority.

"neither is he that is sent greater than he that sent him" – in this case He is recognising the authority of the Father in the first advent, the incarnation. Jesus Christ is Lord over the disciples and, now speaking from His humanity, the Father is over the Son. "He that is sent" is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was sent by God the Father. The aorist active participle: "the one having sent" – pempw; "he that is sent" – a)postoloj.

Principle: Occasionally, spiritual service is accomplished in a very humble capacity but it does not rib the one who has the authority from God of His authority.

Verse 17 – the second principle. "If" – 1st class condition; "ye know" – the perfect o)ida used as a present tense for doctrine in the right lobe; "there things" – principles of doctrine taught by our Lord: special emphasis on freedom from mental attitude sins, the RMA based on knowledge of doctrine, these are some of the things the Lord taught in washing the disciples' feet. Knowledge of doctrine not only produces a relaxed mental attitude but it orients the believer to both grace and the plan of God. Therefore even in humiliation one does not lose the grace perspective, and by the understanding of doctrine one understands that authority is not tampered with. When authority is given by God only God can remove it. That is why God always takes the believer to whom He has given authority and, if He has to, removes the person. He cannot remove the authority from the apostle. Paul was always an apostle. He cannot take back the gift of pastor-teacher. All He does is take the pastor-teacher out of the world. God never removed the kingship from Saul; He removed Saul from the world. God does not remove the authority; He removes the one having the authority. God never reneges on the authority which he has given.

"happy" – the nominative masculine plural of makarioj, happinesses[1] (pl.); "are you" – present active indicative of e)imi, "you are," not "you have."

"if" – 3rd class condition; "you do them" – actually, you do the same, the accusative plural of a)utoj, which means the same. The verb here is poiew, "if you keep on doing the same thing." This means that by taking in doctrine consistently you are accumulating a concentration of happiness. Divine happiness is shared with you to the extent that you take in doctrine. The plural indicates that you can go all the way to having a maximum happiness from God based upon your entrance into the supergrace life.

There is another principle here. Jesus also is using foot-washing to illustrate the communication of Bible doctrine, because He also told the eleven disciples they were going to go out sand wash other people's feet. Washing feet has to do with teaching Bible doctrine. So if you know the things that you teach you have happiness, you are in a state of happinesses – "if you do them." Doing them is communicating them to others.

Verse 18 – the third principle: the omniscience of God does not hinder or violate human volition. Human volition is an extension of the angelic conflict and can never be violated by God.

"I speak not of you all" – present active indicative of legw, used here for communication, plus the preposition peri, "concerning you all."

"I know whom I have chosen" – aorist middle indicative of e)klegw which means to choose or to elect. The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist and means it is axiomatic. I have elected, Jesus says. The middle voice is reflexive: Jesus Christ Himself did it. It also gives more emphasis on the subject – I myself. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that every believer shares the election of Christ by union with Christ.

"that the scripture may be fulfilled" – aorist passive subjunctive of plhrow which here means implementation. The scripture cannot lie. It is impossible for God to lie; it is impossible for God's Word to lie with regard to a principle, a concept or a promise.

"He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me" – a reference to Judas Iscariot. So we learn the principle that while omniscience does not violate human volition the traitor is still there.

"he that eateth" – present active participle of trwgw, not the usual word. The ordinary word for eating is e)sqiw. Trwgw means the traitor is crunching his food. Apparently, this indicates that Judas has bad table manners. The other disciples are said to e)sqiw but Judas chomps his food.

"hath lifted up" – e)pairw which means to reject the authority of. This is a part of an idiom. The raising up of the heel means to overthrow, to seek one's destruction, or to reject authority. There is one there who has rejected the authority of Jesus Christ. This one has pretended to love the Lord but ignorance of doctrine means pseudo love.

Verse 19 – the fourth principle. Doctrine prepares the believer for shocking behaviour, e.g. traitorship. Sin, as such, is not shocking; traitorship is. Principle from the foot-washing: Doctrine prepares the believer for the shocking behaviour pattern of traitorship.

"Now" – the adverb a)rti which means "at the present moment." Right now something has come upon us. Doctrine presented at that moment oriented the disciples to the shocking and vicious modus operandi of Judas.

"I tell you" – I communicate to you, dative of advantage; "before" – doctrine anticipates the shocking traitorship of Judas Iscariot; "it come to pass," aorist middle subjunctive of ginomai, which means to become something that was not before: before it comes to pass that the traitorship of Judas is revealed.

"that" introduces a purpose clause; "you may believe I am" – in other words, how do you avoid shocks in life? The reality of the person of Jesus Christ – e)imi, and pisteuw means where you begin with your occupation with Christ. Occupation with Christ prevents a believer from being shocked.

Verse 20 – the fifth principle: Bible doctrine is perpetuated after the death of Christ. Christ taught verbally; He will send others to teach verbally after His ascension and there will be no generation of believers left without a Bible teacher or teachers.

"Verily, verily"—point of doctrine; "he that receiveth" – present active participle of lambanw. This sets up the authority for Bible teachers. They must be received if you are going to learn doctrine. You can never learn doctrine from anyone whose authority you reject.

"whomsoever I send" – aorist active subjunctive of pempw. Christ is today seated at the right hand of the Father. In the first generation He sent apostles and pastor-teachers. After the canon of scripture is completed to every generation He sends pastor-teachers. The subjunctive mood portrays a purpose. He sends for the purpose of communicating doctrine.

"receiveth me" – if you receive a pastor-teacher it is like receiving Jesus Christ, present active indicative of lambanw. In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ is represented today by the pastor-teacher. When a congregation receives the authority of a pastor-teacher they are receiving the authority of Jesus Christ.

"receiveth him that sent me" – in other words the chain of command goes right up to God the Father.

Verse 21 – "When Jesus had thus said," i.e. all of them aren't accepting Him; "he was troubled" – aorist passive indicative of tarassw. Jesus in His deity is not troubled. It says that He was troubled "in spirit," and this refers to His human spirit. Sometimes, though rarely, the word means life in general, and sometimes the combination of soul and spirit. But the point is that the inner life of His humanity was disturbed as would be the case in any organisation which had a traitor in its midst.

"and testified" – aorist active indicative of marturew, which means to bear witness. In modern English we would probably say, "gave evidence." Jesus now presents evidence or a testimony.

"Verily, verily" means point of doctrine.

"one of you" – Judas Iscariot, the only unbeliever in the room. Since the upper room is for believers only obviously Jesus is not going to go on with His discourse until the traitor/unbeliever has been removed. Being an unbeliever doesn't make Judas a traitor but being an unbeliever makes it easy for Judas to become a traitor because he is the first recorded case of Satan possession.

"shall betray me" – future active indicative paradidomi, indicating that he has not betrayed Him as yet, but this will occur before the night is concluded.

Verses 22-25, the disciples' reaction.

Verse 22 – "looked one on another." The word looked is the imperfect active indicative of blepw, which means that there wasn't any prolonged staring. It means a quick glance; "doubting" – present passive participle of a)porew [a = negative; poroj = way: 'no way'], which means to be without means, to be without means to cope, to be perplexed, to be at a loss or confused. So doubting here is not quite a good translation; confused is a little better. The passive voice of a porew should be translated, "they were at a loss," or "they were confused."

"of whom" should be concerning whom; "he spake" – of whom he kept on speaking. Only part of what Jesus said is recorded—the gist of it.

Verse 23 – "leaning" is the present active participle of a)nakeimai, which cannot really be translated in one word. It has to be taken with the word kolpoj, which is translated bosom in the KJV, but which means chest. The two words mean to recline at a table during a meal. They didn't sit at tables in the ancient world. The Romans had a couch on which they semi-reclined, feet at one end and head at the other. It means to recline at a table during a meal with one's head at the level of someone's chest. There is no leaning on a chest. Kolpoj doesn't even have to refer to the chest, it also refers to the fold of the garment over the chest. So John's head is where the garment folds over the chest.

"whom Jesus loved" – He loved all of His disciples. This is the imperfect active indicative of a)gapaw, and it must be understood what this is. If John was loved more than the others it would have to be a culminative aorist of filew. Remember that a)gapaw is mental attitude love, which in essence is minus mental attitude sins. Since Jesus Christ is not a sinner and does not have mental attitude sins it also means relaxed mental attitude, and Jesus was more relaxed toward John than toward any of the disciples. It is the inchoative imperfect to indicate that Jesus had less problem, as it were, from John than from any of the disciples.

Verse 24 – "beckoned to him," present active indicative of neuw, which means to nod, to signal with a gesture. It is often used of a face signal. Since Peter knew that he himself was not the traitor he wanted to know who the traitor was.

"he should" is not in the original. This should be, Tell me who it is concerning whom he speaks. That is the literal Greek here.

Verse 25 – "Lord, who is it?" So John apparently also is confident.

Verse 26 – in answering John only Jesus now gives this information. How is Jesus going to give Judas his privacy until he acts? "He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it." This is a second grace act on the part of our Lord. "I shall give" – He hasn't come to this part of the meal, but there was a point in the meal when someone was given a special reward, unfortunately translated "sop." The word is ywmion and it refers to a special piece of bread dipped in some meat sauce, and it was always a part of the centre of the table. It was sort of between the main meal and the desert. No one ever touched this plate until the host picked up a piece of bread and dipped it into this delicious sauce, and then offered it to some person. This was a high honour, a special honour. When the person accepted it then the others were free to dip into the sauce themselves.

"And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot" –this is the fulfilment of it. Whether it occurred in the next few seconds or not is not clear but it is clear that Jesus at this time or very shortly thereafter went through the "ywmion ceremony," the ceremony of honouring someone at the table. The principle: This was a grace appeal the like of which had never been seen or recorded before. Jesus knew that Judas was a traitor and was already making arrangements to betray Him, and yet Jesus not only gave this man his privacy but in offering him the ywmioj He offered him the highest honour from the host. And in effect whoever receives the swmion becomes an honoured guest. Judas Iscariot was the honoured guest at the last supper! That it grace. This was the final invitation to salvation, the greatest of all grace appeals, but Judas Iscariot is an unbeliever in reversionism. By accepting the honour of the sop Judas perpetuated the hypocrisy of reversionism to the last degree. He accepted this high honour with negative volition in his soul. Jesus offered him this last chance and when he turned down this one he is the first recorded person to be indwelt personally by Satan.

Verse 26 – the "sop" was a special token of honour and friendship. This was our Lord's last appeal to Judas Iscariot. Here is the final invitation salvation. By accepting the honour of the sop Judas perpetuated the hypocrisy of his soul down to the wire. He accepted this high honour and at the same time was on negative volition. God's love, God's grace never gave up on Judas Iscariot, nor does it give up on anyone else. But God is

a "gentleman" and He cannot go counter to the volition of the individual. Judas was negative to the end and is a typical illustration of scar tissue leading to emotional revolt, leading to reversionism. By taking the sop we have the hypocrisy of reverse process reversionism in category #1 love.

The doctrine of Judas Iscariot

1. His opportunities:

a. He was from the tribe of Judah, the same tribe as our Lord Jesus Christ—in effect, the ruling tribe of Israel. John 6:71.

b. Judas was called by Jesus Christ—Luke 6:16.

c. He was therefore numbered as one of the twelve—Matthew 10:4.

d. He was the treasurer—Luke 12:6.

e. He was also present at the last supper—John 13:26. The implications are that he was present at all of the discourses of our Lord between the time of his call and the time of the last supper.

2. His sowing:

a. He was covetous—John 12:4-6.

b. He was a thief—John 12:6.

c. He was Satan-possessed—Luke 22:3.

d. He bargained to betray the Lord Jesus Christ—Mark 14:10.

e. He was bribed to become a traitor—Matthew 26:14-16.

3. His reaping:

Matthew 27:3, 4—"when he saw that he was condemned," katakrinw, by his own standards he was a louse; "repented"—he himself repented, literally. This is metamelomai rather than metanoew. He felt sorry; he was sincere in his sorrow for what he had done. He made restitution: he brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. He confessed his sin—"I have betrayed innocent blood." Confession is for believers only. Judas Iscariot is an unbeliever and is not forgiven because he confesses his sin. Verse 5 –"and went and hanged himself."

Judas was a reversionistic unbeliever. He got that way by going negative toward e)pignwsij gospel. That put scar tissue on the left bank of his soul. He kept saying, no, no, no. That opened up mataiothj so that there was an attack upon his norms and standards in his right lobe, upon his frame of reference, his memory centre, his vocabulary, categories, and on his launching pad.

Verse 27 – "And after the sop." After the indictment of the previous verse in which Judas accepted the highest honour at the banquet, while being n negative volition and in reversionism. Reversionism had created a total disillusion which had put him from psychopathic into psychotic so that he killed himself. Remember that as a result of his reversionism as an unbeliever he came into direct contact with Satan. Judas could not drink the cup of the Lord and at the same time drink the cup of Satan. He rejected the cup of the Lord—Matthew 20:22, the cup of the Lord is the cross and salvation. Therefore, before the cup is served and before Jesus makes an issue out of the cup (which represents His blood) Judas must be eliminated from the last supper.

"Satan entered into him"—the case of Satan possession here is quite unusual. Literally it is. "Then Satan entered," and the word tote is an adverb of time which means "at which time." After the last offer, when the sop was offered to Judas, he had the greatest opportunity to accept Christ as saviour, right then and there. He took the honour but he did not take Christ as saviour.

"Satan entered into him" – aorist active indicative of e)iserxomai which means to come inside. The last thing necessary for Judas Iscariot to be Satan possessed had occurred. It needed one more negative signal and he was qualified. It came when he took the sop and refused to believe in Christ as saviour.

Summary

1. There are two cases of Satan possession recorded in the Word of God.

2. The first case is here and the second is the dictator of the revived Roman empire in 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12.

3. Satan possession does not occur during the Church Age, only demon possession.

4. This is because of the restraining ministry of God the Holy Spirit during this stage of the intensified angelic conflict—2 Thessalonians 2:6,7.

5. Demon possession, however, does continue throughout the Church Age.

6. Judas Iscariot surrendered not only his soul but his body also to Satan.

7. For this reason two men in history will have maximum reversionism and live. Therefore they are called "sons of perdition"—Judas Iscariot in John 17:12, and the dictator of the revived Roman empire in 2 Thessalonians 2:3.

8. The word "perdition" is a)poleia which means destruction or ruin. It is derived from the verb a)pollumi. There is another word that comes from a)pollumi—Apollyon in Revelation 9:11, used for Satan himself. So the word perdition indicates being alive but totally ruined because you are no longer your own master, you are controlled by Satan.

"Then said Jesus unto him"— after He dipped His hand in the sop.

"That thou doest" – present active indicative of poiew, and it should be translated, "What you are doing [you are already betraying me in your soul]."

"do quickly" – aorist active imperative of poiew, "begin to do it." This is an ingressive aorist. Plus the comparative adverb taxion—"more swiftly." In other

words, Jesus commands Judas who is under the personal control of the devil to act more quickly than originally planned. When Jesus commanded Judas to leave He was commanding the devil to leave, and the principle is quite obvious: the Lord Jesus Christ in His humiliation is infinitely more powerful than all of the power that Satan has or ever will have, and right now Satan is the ruler of this world.

While Satan is gone Jesus gives chapter 14, the upper room discourse, and then chapters 15 and 16, Gethsemane discourse; and Satan himself does not get back to the scene until Judas comes leading the Romans and the Jewish temple guard to Gethsemane. That means from sundown until about midnight the Lord Jesus Christ will be alone with the disciples. Satan will not be there and neither will Judas Iscariot. Satan has to stay with his reversionist until the betrayal and therefore he stays inside Judas Iscariot during the critical time when the Lord Jesus Himself will present the whole outline of the Church Age. He will introduce the mystery doctrine; He will introduce the Church. Remember that the Gospels do not contain Church doctrine, except John chapters 14-17.

Verses 28, 29, Jesus has a respect for a traitor's privacy.

Verse 28 – "No man at the table" indicates complete privacy to Judas Iscariot. The word to know is an aorist active indicative of ginwskw which means to understand the action, to perceive what is going on. Apart from Peter and John the disciples did not know from the observation of the sop incident exactly what was going on, and they didn't have any clue that Judas was a traitor. Jesus respected both the volition and the privacy of Judas even though he was a traitor, and He did not publicly rebuke him nor condemn him.

"for what intent" is literally for what reason; "he spake unto him" – aorist active indicative of legw, a reference to the command, and therefore is a culminative aorist: "he had spoken."

"unto him" – proj plus the accusative is "face to face with him."

Verse 29 – "For some of them thought." The word for thinking here is the imperfect active indicative of dokew which means subjective thinking. The disciples themselves in trying to stick their nose into it became subjective. The imperfect active indicative means continuous subjective thinking.

"Buy" – this is what they thought Jesus had said. In other words, they are trying to intrude and to speculate.

"against the feast" – e)ij plus the accusative means "with reference to the feast."

Verse 30 – the departure of Judas Iscariot.

"having received the sop" – aorist active participle of lambanw, This is a culminative aorist, he had received it. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb: "went out" – aorist active indicative of e)cerxomai, he went outside. First of all he received the highest honour and then he departed to betray Jesus Christ.

"immediately" – adverb e)quj; "and it kept on being [imperfect of e)imi] night."

Summary

1. The afternoon events of the upper room have terminated.

2. Judas, the Satan-possessed unbeliever, has been eliminated and has departed into the night. (The night is portrayed by John 1:4,5).

3. Therefore with the only unbeliever removed mystery doctrine can be unfolded to the disciples.

4. The plan of God the Father with regard to the Church age is now outlined.

5. At this point the upper room discourse actually begins.

6. Emphasis will be placed on the Father's plan of glorifying Jesus Christ, plus the intensification of the angelic conflict.

7. Satan is also removed from hearing both the upper room and the Gethsemane discourse.

8. Therefore the Church Age will come as a shock to Satan (he cannot be in two places at one time, he has now made his command post in Judas Iscariot). Satan is doing something from which he will never recover; he is going away from doctrine. Doctrine will be taught in the upper room and then in Gethsemane.

Verses 31-35, the intensification of the angelic conflict.

Verse 31 – the advance of the Father's plan. "Therefore" – because Satan and Judas have now departed.

"when he was departed, Jesus said, Now" – the adverb nun, which indicates the approaching crisis: now, at this time. It indicates the approaching crisis to

which Jesus will go and fulfil the Father's plan by going to the cross.

"the Son of man" – emphasis on the humanity of Christ; "is glorified" – aorist passive indicative of docazw, which means to honour, to glorify, to magnify, to beautify, to clothe with splendour. This is a constative aorist, a period of time gathered into one entirety, starting with betrayal, the cross, resurrection, ascension, session—from nun to the ascension. Passive voice: Jesus Christ receives the glorification. The indicative mood is the reality of the glorification of Christ. Same concept is found in Hebrews 2:9-15. With the glorification of Christ the angelic conflict shifts gears and enters into an intensified stage. There are two periods to the intensified stage of the angelic conflict: the mystery stage [Church Age]; the overt stage [Tribulation]. The Church Age is the most intensive part of the conflict because it is hidden.

"and God is glorified in him" – should be "the God is glorified by him" – e)n plus the instrumental. This is a culminative aorist, it indicates that the God receives glorification by Christ being seated at the right hand of the Father; it sees that moment of time when the Father said to the Son, 'Sit down at my right hand.' Passive voice: the Father receives honour in that His plan is completed in glorifying Christ. The indicative mood is the reality of the glorification of Christ.

Verse 32 – "If the God be glorified by him, the God shall also glorify him in himself."

"If the God [the Father] be glorified" – gnomic aorist passive indicative of docazw. The gnomic aorist means this is an absolute.

"God shall also glorify" – future active indicative of docazw, a very rare type of future, a gnomic future. A gnomic aorist followed by a gnomic future is a very rare construction and it indicates that both the Father and the Son are mutually glorified at the point at which Jesus Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father as the God-Man.

"in himself" – in the sphere of him, literally. This means that God the Father glorifies Christ and Himself in the sphere of that moment at the right hand of the Father.

"and shall straightway glorify him" – the adverb e)uquj, immediately, and the immediate glorification is another gnomic future, the future active indicative of docazw. This refers to the fact that the resurrection will be immediate. Gnomic future: it is an absolute.

Verse 33 – the new stage of the angelic conflict.

"Little children" – the vocative of teknion. This means they have a lot of discipline and training ahead of them, to be under training and discipline.

"yet a little while" – the accusative of the extent of time. Our Lord will only be on the earth another 43 days; "I am [keep on being] with you."

"Ye shall seek" – future active indicative from zetew. This is a predictive future. Jesus will be absent from the earth through ascension.

"as I said unto the Jews" – John 7:33; 8:21.

"Whither I go" – the adverb o(pou means to what place: 'to what place I depart.' Since the fall of Adam to the ascension of Christ, Jesus Christ and His seed were the target for the angelic conflict. Now it is going to switch. Neither Jesus Christ nor His seed are any longer the target in the angelic conflict, the new demon target will be those left behind, the teknion. So they must have great training and discipline to withstand the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.

"you cannot" – present active indicative of dunamai, you are not able; "come" – aorist active infinitive of e)rxomai. This is an ingressive aorist, you are not able to begin to come is what it really means. In other words, you will come eventually but not when I go.

"so now" -- the adverb a)rti means at this juncture. Because of the intensification of the angelic conflict a new set of instructions must be given.

"I say [communicate]" – present active indicative of legw. He will now begin the doctrine of the mystery as it relates to the Church Age. Hidden from the Old Testament, people and angels, and from Satan himself, and now to be revealed.

Verse 34 – "A new." The adjective kainoj means new in contrast to old.

Verse 34 – "A new commandment." The adjective kainoj means new in contrast to old. This adjective means also new in species and that is exactly what this commandment is. It is new in contrast to anything ever given before. Kainoj immediately tells us that this is not the same commandment as found, for example, in the Mosaic law—sometimes called the eleventh commandment: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." It has nothing to do with that because this is new [kainoj], new in contrast to any old commandment in this area. There is another word, neoj, which also means new, but it means new in time, it has a temporal connotation. But to be new in species or new in contrast to old is the adjective we have here. So we have a new commandment for a new species. The double connotation of the adjective—new in contrast to the old, and new in species—gives us a perfect picture of what we can anticipate in the rest of this sentence. The new species is the born-again believer. At the moment of salvation every person becomes a new creature in Christ. He is a new species. Being a new creature, being in union with Jesus Christ, demands a new set of instructions/commandments. These are going to be summarised under two key words. One is love and the other is discipleship. The new commandment is based on the fact that Christ is glorified, He is absent from the earth, He is seated at the right hand of the Father, awaiting operation footstool, and therefore we have entered into the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.

The new commandment is obviously based upon some new provisions that did not exist before this dispensation. For example, the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby every believer at the point of salvation is entered into union with Jesus Christ. This means that he has the life of Christ—eternal life, the righteousness of Christ—perfect righteousness, the sonship of Christ, the heirship of Christ, the priesthood of Christ, the election of Christ, the destiny of Christ, and eventually he will reign with Jesus Christ. The indwelling of Christ is also another factor. For the first time in all of history every believer is indwelt by God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. For the first time in history every believer is a priest, is an ambassador and therefore the personal representative of Jesus Christ. Ambassadorship could not exist until after the incarnation, until Christ was absent from the earth, and therefore every believer is now in fulltime Christian service. The new commandment in this verse is designed to meet the exigencies of the intensified angelic conflict.

"I give unto you" – present active indicative of didomi. God in His grace is providing for us this wonderful thing. "Unto you" is the intensive dative which relates the subject to the individual and it becomes a dative of advantage as well.

"that" – i(na plus the subjunctive introduces a purpose clause. The purpose clause is the present active subjunctive of a)gapaw which is strictly a mental attitude love. This is a restricted love, a mental love; filew is really the greatest love in the Greek language, it has to do with soul love related to all other aspects of love. A)gapaw basically means to be free from mental attitude sins toward anyone. The present tense is linear aktionsart, it means to keep on loving. Active voice: the subject produces the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood indicates the purpose clause, with i(na. So we have the purpose for this command stated very clearly.

The general doctrine of love

1. At the point of salvation every believer passes the point of propitiation which places him under maximum divine love – 1John 2:2.

2. Therefore God can love every believer with maximum love in spite of the believer's spiritual status in phase two.

3. There are three general categories of love. These categories are based upon the direction of love. a) Toward God; b) Toward a member of the opposite sex—right man, right woman; c) Friendship.

4. Relationship-type love also exists under several Greek words: storgh and e)roj. Both of these have Attic Greek origins. Storgh connotes the love of parents for their children. E)roj is strictly a word for sexual love to the exclusion of everything else. Relationship love dies exist, except where doctrine divides a family, for example—Matthew 10:34-37; Luke 12:51-53.

5. The New Testament vocabulary for love. The Koine Greek of the NT presents two words in both their verb form and noun form.

a. a)gapaw, the verb form. The cognate is a)gaph. By definition this is a specialised love related to the mentality of the soul. When used in connection with God it has a broader expanse, it means that God loves us in spite of the fact that He knew ahead of time what we were like. So it is related to the omniscience of God.

b. Filew, the verb, and the cognate filoj. This is a very general type love in that it relates to all facets of the soul. It is also used in physical expression of love. This type of love is more mature and expresses greater capacity for love. Cf. John chapter 21, the indignation of Peter.

6. Documentation: Archbishop Trench, Synonyms of the Greek Language, p. 41.

7. The summary of the distinction. The noun a)gaph is mental attitude love. The noun filoj is stronger and connotes a general soul love with more capacity. The noun a)gaph is found in several areas of the NT, specifically the filling of the Spirit—Romans 5:5; 1John 2:5, as the 3rd floor of the ECS. Filoj is the fourth floor of the ECS and is the great capacity for love.

8. All believers are commanded a)gaph love—it is a mental attitude. It is fulfilled under the principle of Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22; 1Corinthians 13. Filoj is not commanded for all believers because it is a grace capacity for love and no normal, sane person will love everyone under filoj, it is impossible.

9. In mankind a)gaph is limited to the mentality; filoj extends to every facet of the soul.

10. Erroneous conclusion: a)gaph refers only to divine love. While God is the subject of a)gaph many times, we have also the fact that man is the subject—man is commanded to love. In John 3:19 even the unbeliever is capable of a)gapaw. The unbeliever's a)gapaw is darkness rather than light.

11. God must be the subject of any verb before that verb connotes divine love. God is the subject of a)gapaw in John 3:16. God is also the subject of filew in John 16:27.

12. God as the motivating factor in category #1 love found in 1John 3:11; 4:19.

"ye love one another" – a)gapaw. This is strictly a mental attitude only. "One another" is a reciprocal pronoun. It is in the genitive case here—a)llhlwn means one another of the same kind. The genitive case is objective genitive to show we belong in the same family. The accusative is not used (which would indicate we are not in the same family). The genitive case says we belong together because we are all members of the family of God when we believe in Christ.

"as I have loved you" – a)gapaw, gnomic aorist. A gnomic aorist is used to indicate something that is an absolute and becomes axiomatic. The fact that God loves you as a believer is an absolute.

"that" introduces a result clause.

"ye love one another [of the same kind]" – keep on loving, present active subjunctive. The subjunctive is not only potential but introduces a result clause. Every word for love that is used in this verse is for mental attitude love only.

Verse 35 – "By this," the preposition e)n plus the instrumental: "By means of this [RMA]."

"shall all" – pantej, from the nominative plural of paj, "shall all people know," future middle indicative of ginwskw. This is a gnomic future, the RMA is the great impact for Christianity, not what you say. Middle voice: the believer is benefited by a RMA, and it overflows to others. Indicative mood: the reality of the RMA, free from mental attitude sins.

"that you are" – present active indicative of e)imi, keep on being; "my disciples" – maqhthj, a student under discipline and authority.

"if" – 3rd class condition, maybe yes, maybe no, e)an plus the subjunctive; "ye have" – present active subjunctive of e)xw, have and hold, present tense is linear aktionsart. Active voice: the believer's soul's RMA. The subjunctive mood goes with the 3rd class condition.

"love" – a)gaph, mental attitude love; "one for another."

We now come to the four inquisitive disciples. Number one on the list is Peter; #2 is Thomas; #3 is Philip; #4 is Jude. The four disciples really launch us into the upper room discourse, which is not nearly as great as the one in Gethsemane because it is basically a question and answer type of thing. But once we get out into the garden of Gethsemane we have a phenomenal discourse which is strictly monologue. Nothing can be accomplished in dialogue, it is monologue which is designed to teach the Word of God. So the disciples now open fire with questions, and the Lord in answering these questions prepares the way to reveal the mystery doctrines of the New Testament. Each of these disciples asks a question and in the answer to these questions we get the upper room discourse. Peter asks his question in verse 36-14:4; Thomas in John 14:5-7; Philip in John 14:8-21; Jude in John 14:22-31.

Verse 36 – Peter's question. "Lord" – kurioj. Peter recognises the deity of Jesus Christ. Cf. 1Corinthians 12:3. Jesus is Lord because of the baptism of the Spirit, not because of the filling of the Spirit.

"whither" – the interrogative particle pou, which means "where," "in what place?"; "do you go" – when the Lord starts talking about going somewhere Peter with his natural curiosity wants to know where He is going. Peter followed the Lord closely, everywhere He went. The trouble with Peter was that he didn't learn the doctrine. So following the Lord geographically is not the issue; following the Lord in the function of GAP is the issue. Your attitude to Bible doctrine and the amount of exposure you get to it determines just what you would have done had you lived in Jesus' time! It is one thing to keep Jesus in sight; it is something else to take in doctrine into the soul. "Lord, to what place do you go [depart]?" Present active indicative of u(pagw which does not mean to go, it means to depart. In other words, Peter's mind is wrestling with what the Lord said in verse 33.

"Jesus answered him, Whither I go," – again the interrogative particle, pou. The significance of u(pagw in the present tense here is in the dramatic present—the certainty of the historical fact in the near future. It is very close to the futuristic present. The active voice: Jesus is going to do the departing.

"thou canst not" – you are not able, present active indicative of dunamai plus o)uk.

"to follow" – aorist active indicative of a)kolouqew, which means in the ingressive aorist "you could not begin to follow." Active voice: Peter is trying to produce the action and is not able to do so. The infinitive indicates Peter's purpose. He has the objective and purpose of keeping the Lord in sight at all times, never letting Him get out of the range of his vision; yet he will not be able to stop this. In other words, it is impossible for Peter to follow Christ into heaven at the time of the ascension. Jesus Christ went to the cross alone; He was resurrected alone; He ascended alone as the God-Man. Christ has to fulfil the principle of the firstfruits and has to also finish out the principle of victory in the angelic conflict. Therefore, Christ is going to go it alone. Peter will not be resurrected until the Rapture. He would subsequently die and enter into the presence of the Lord in his soul form but eventually as a part of the body of Christ will also be resurrected. Now, the glorification of Christ does not call for Peter to be there. This is what Jesus is saying.

Peter is about to fall flat on his face because he is not prepared for what is about to occur in the plan of God. The only way to prepare for the moving of the plan of God is Bible doctrine in the soul. Peter has good intentions in the emotion of the soul—his heart is in the right place—but there is absolutely no way that Peter is going to handle this until he gets smart and gets Bible doctrine. It is a long way from Peter's failure—coming up in this passage—to 2Peter er chapter one where in his dying moments he says the most important thing in life is Bible doctrine, and that Bible doctrine must be more real to you than people, things, and life itself. When that is true then you have it made. He is a long way from there now, but he will get there.

"now" – nun. This adverb indicates that Peter will join the Lord in heaven at a later time—a much wiser Peter, by the way.

"but thou shalt follow me afterwards" – future active indicative of a)kolouqew, this time a gnomic future. This is an absolute. Peter is going to go to heaven when he dies; "afterwards" is the adverb u(steron. This indicates that Peter will follow the Lord on two different occasions: on the occasion of his death his soul and spirit will leave his body and he will go to be with the Lord; on the occasion of the Rapture his soul and spirit will leave heaven, go to the place from which they departed, and in a resurrection body he will rendezvous with the Lord Jesus Christ in the air—1 Thessalonians 4:16-18. The plan of the Father calls for Jesus to ascend alone. No one is going to get in the glory, Jesus Christ is the only celebrity of the Church Age. Peter is not a celebrity, though he will eventually become a super-grace hero.

Verse 37 – "why cannot I follow thee now?" He really said, dia plus the accusative of tij, "because of why?"

"am I not able to follow thee now" – he doesn't use the same word "now" as the Lord did. He uses the adverb a)rti, rather than nun. He uses the present active indicative of dunamai plus the negative, plus the aorist active infinitive of a)kolouqew, but when he gets to the adverb he switches to a)rti—at the present time, right now. Peter always has the idea of doing something now!

1. Jesus Christ is the only celebrity of the Church Age.

2. Jesus Christ is unique in the universe; He is the God-Man; He is undiminished deity and true humanity on one person forever.

3. Jesus Christ will do something on the cross that no one ever did before—He will die spiritually for salvation. Peter cannot be a part in all of what is involved.

"I will lay down my life for thy sake" – I will lay down is a future active indicative of tiqhmi, which means to put it on the line, die; the word for "life" is

yuxh—soul, a reference to physical death. Peter is now ready to die for the Lord, he says. There is a prepositional phrase—u(per, the preposition and the genitive of su. When you have u(per plus the genitive it is substitutionary—"I will lay down my life on behalf of you," or, "as a substitute," or "I will die instead of you." There is nothing wrong generally with Peter, he is just dumb about the plan of God. Like so many believers today!

1. This is a case of sincerity plus ignorance. Sincerity plus ignorance equals disorientation to the plan of God and malfunction within it.

2. The plan of God the Father from eternity past calls for Jesus Christ to die spiritually on the cross for the sins of the world. His plan is perfect; Peter's is

imperfect and the Father will not allow Peter's plan to intrude upon His. The Father never has permitted human viewpoint, human ingenuity, human sincerity, to intrude upon His plan.

3. The plan of God the Father also calls for Peter to represent the glorified Christ on earth as an apostle, an ambassador, and as one of many priests. So the Father's plan for Peter cannot advance until Jesus Christ is glorified. In effect, Peter is trying to keep the Lord from being glorified.

4. Jesus Christ must ascend before He can give spiritual gifts to the Church—Ephesians 4:8-13.

5. Peter's sincerity and ignorance of doctrine makes him a producer of human good. There is no place in the plan of God for human good.

6. Peter's admirable motivation and good intentions are neutralised by ignorance of Bible doctrine (which has led him into the early stages of reversionism).

7. Ignorance is not bliss! Happiness is bliss, not ignorance. Happiness in phase two is based upon knowledge of doctrine.

8. Peter is fearless; he is not a coward. His ignorance of doctrine, however, makes his courage and noble motivation useless.

9. Ignorance of doctrine neutralises the best of motives and destroys the nobility of the individual; it disorients the believer to the grace of God.

Verse 38 – our Lord's answer. "Verily, verily" – point of doctrine. Phase two does not operate in the energy of the flesh. Human good and sincerity have no

part in the plan of God; God's plan is grace. Grace excludes man's plans, man's nobility, man's sincerity, man's desire to do the right thing; all of the things concerning man are eliminated.

"The cock shall not crow until you have denied me three times." The word crow is the aorist active subjunctive of fwnew; "denied me" – aorist middle subjunctive of a)rneomai which means to renounce, total renunciation or denial. The aorist tense is the culminative aorist, almost the same as a gnomic aorist. This is an absolute: Jesus said he is going to do it. The middle voice: you are going to do it all by yourself. Human good always leads to failure. The denial of Peter is described in Matthew 26:69-75. However, Peter even is going to have some phase two security because the Lord has some other things to say to Peter at this time. And this is for Peter to remember after he denies the Lord s that he will not be so discouraged he will quit. Here is a message to a man before his failure so that after his failure these things will be a source of comfort and blessing. This, then, is the encouragement never to quit. As long as you are alive God has a purpose for your life.

Chapter 14:1 – "Let not your heart be troubled." Remember that in context this passage is not dealing with the future of heaven, it is anticipating future failures. This passage is for those who have failed.

"heart" – kardia, where you do your thinking, where you live. It is the very function of the soul; "not be troubled" is a present passive imperative of tarassw which means to be disturbed in your thinking, to be confused, upset, discouraged. Corrected translation: "Do not become discouraged in your heart." This is the first of three imperatives in this verse.

"ye believe in God" – present active imperative of pisteuw, and it should be translated, "Believe in [the] God." Peter is saved. This is a command to a believer. It means to believe His plan.

"believe me also" – present active imperative again. Whatever Jesus Christ has taught, believe it. This is the inhale of GAP.

Verse 2 – "In my Father's house." Jesus is going to His Father's house. The word house here is o)ikia, used to describe the 3rd heaven.

"many" – pollai; "mansions" – monh, taken from the verb menw which means to abide or remain. It means an abiding place. There is plenty of room, "many places to live."

"If not so" literally, there is no verb here. Jesus put this in a 2nd class condition, the second class condition of sarcasm. He cut down the flippancy of Peter with sarcasm. "If" and it is not true, but the 2nd class condition of sarcasm means you assumed it wasn't true.

"I would have told you" – If there wasn't a spot in heaven for Peter Jesus would have told him. "If not so" is the aorist active indicative of legw, used here for communication, teaching. This is a constative aorist. In effect, He is talking about Peter's eternal security: Peter, when you get through denying me, don't get shook in your right lobe. There is still a place for you in heaven.

"I go" – present active indicative of poreuomai which means to go from one place to another. He goes through the plan of God – the cross, resurrection, ascension and session.

"to prepare" – aorist active infinitive of e(toimazw, which means to make ready; "a place" – topoj, space.

Summary

1. Even though Peter will fail and culminate his reverse process reversionism with three repudiations of Christ Jesus Christ is departing to heaven to personally make ready a room/place for him.

2. This place does not depend on Peter's success or failure, it depends entirely upon the plan of the Father and thew work of the Son.

3. Therefore (operation grace), Peter has eternal security. No matter what he does in time he can't lose his salvation.

4. By His death on the cross Jesus Christ has propitiated the Father, reconciled man, and procures a right for every believer to live in heaven forever.

[1] See Doctrine of happiness.

Chapter 14

Verse 5 – we have seen that while Peter knows doctrine he has failed to apply it. Thomas is ignorant of doctrine and cannot apply it. Peter had a problem of application but Thomas has a fundamental problem of ignorance. Ignorance of doctrine can never orient to the plan of God. So now we move to the question of Thomas.

"Thomas" is a transliteration from the Hebrew. In the Greek it is Qwmaj and it means "twin." He was possibly born in Antioch. He is previously mentioned in John 11:16. After the resurrection of our Lord and the beginning of the Church Age he was one of the missionary disciples. History says he went to Parthia, or Persia, and was eventually killed by a Persian lance. It is Thomas, not Peter, who renews at this point the doubt with regard to the plan of God.

"Lord" – kurioj indicates deity, and it also indicates the fact that here is a saved disciple.

"we know not" – Thomas is really speaking for himself but apparently it makes it a little easier for him to ascribe his ignorance to everyone else. Thomas is not inherently stupid; he is simply ignorant of Bible doctrine. Once a person becomes a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and neglects or rejects or becomes negative toward doctrine he appears to be stupid because he is in reversionism. No matter how smart a person is from the standpoint of human IQ reversionism puts him in the category of being just plain stupid. Disorientation to the plan of God results in disorientation to everything else in life. "We do not understand" – the perfect of o)ida plus the negative. Thomas was ignorant of doctrine. His question is taken from an interrogative particle which generally is used as an adverb. It is translated "whither," but pou means where or to what place.

"thou goest" – are you going, present active indicative of u(pagw which doesn't mean to go so much as it means to leave. "Where are you leaving us?" is really what says. "Where are you going that we cannot go, but where we will eventually go?" Thomas is ignorant of the resurrection, ascension, and session through which the humanity of Christ is going to be glorified. This is why the apostle Paul had to write this doctrine in 2Corinthians chapter three. Paul understood the unveiled glory of the Church Age which Thomas at this point did not.

"and how can we know the way?" – the adverb pwj means by what means. When used is an interrogative sense it is "by what means can we know the way?" The word for way here is o(doj which ordinarily means entrance or approach. However, it also means a systematic course of planning or action. Jesus has just said in a previous verse that Peter knows the way, but Peter failed to apply what he knew. Thomas is ignorant of the doctrine and you cannot apply what you do not know to any situation and come up with anything.

Verse 6 – the answer is given. "Jesus saith" – present active indicative of legw; "unto him" – dative of advantage; "I am" – present active indicative of e)imi, absolute status quo verb, "I keep on being."

Now He says three things: "the way" – the entrance into the plan of God; "the truth" – this is what Thomas should be doing after he enters the plan of God; "the life" – this is the function that comes from the truth or doctrine.

First of all, o(doj is used here for entrance into a systematic course of planning and action. Therefore it refers, of course, to the whole plan of God. It has to have an entrance and everyone enters at the same place. Because everyone enters at exactly the same place this sets up a principle. In the Church Age there is no excuse for anyone not becoming a supergrace hero. Everyone has the same chance and the same opportunity and the Lord Jesus Christ is the only entrance into the plan of God. This is a plan which has already been laid out, a plan for which everything is provided, plan which is categorised by one word: grace. Everything depends on who and what God is. God does it all.

The second thing that Jesus said has to do with what happens after you enter the plan of God. The word "truth" is a)lhqeia. It refers to the embodiment of knowledge and truth, therefore absolute truth, therefore doctrine. Doctrine is the mind of Christ – 1Corinthians 2:16; Psalm 138:2. The most important thing after you enter the plan of God is Bible doctrine.

The third thing: "and the life." The word for life here is zwh. There are two Greek words found in the NT: a) zwh; b) bioj. Zwh, used here, means the function of life; bioj means the pattern of life. The one we have here refers to the supergrace life. The objective of all doctrine is to take the believer to the supergrace life.

So: "I am the entrance; I am the doctrine; I am the function of life." At the entrance Jesus Christ is our saviour. As the doctrine: Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ. As the life: once we enter supergrace our greatest function is occupation with the person of Christ and/or maximum category #1 capacity for love.

"no man" is no one, o)udeij; "cometh" – present active indicative of e)xomai; "to the Father" – proj plus the accusative, face to face with.

"but by me" – except through me, dia plus the genitive.

Translation: "Jesus communicated to him, I keep on being the entrance, the doctrine, the function of life: no one comes/approaches face to face with the Father, except through me."

Verse 7 – "If" is a 2nd class condition: "If you had known me, but you didn't." This is a pluperfect, the past perfect active indicative of ginwskw. The pluperfect indicates that Thomas had opportunities so as to be able to answer his own questions by now. The omniscience of Jesus Christ X-rays the soul of Thomas and finds a reversionist. Here is the principle of the pluperfect: Every minute, every hour, hour, month, year, you log in reversionism there is something you could have understood, some question that you had, that you could have answered through doctrine in your own soul. In other words, if you avoid reversionism there will never be a question or a problem in your soul for which your soul will not give you the answer from Bible doctrine as your grace provision. Many times when you have questions they are questions you could have answered if you had avoided reversionism. The more you live in reversionism the more complex become the questions in your soul. Every minute that you log in reversionism is time not redeemed, it is time wasted. Principle: The amount of wasted time in reversionism produces x-number of questions which cannot be answered, and so you must impose upon the time of someone else seeking answers. Every believer was designed to be spiritually self-sustaining, and every believer was designed by God, through Bible doctrine and the daily function of GAP, to be able to answer his own questions, resolve his own problems, and to know the will of God for his life at any moment. Therefore, when you waste time in reversionism you create in your soul a question box. And some of these things will come back to plague you, to distract you, to disturb you, to turn you into a rather weird person from time to time. It is the believer who has a soul full of questions, a weighted down question box, who is in trouble, unstable all the time.

In effect, Jesus is saying to Thomas, "You have had time to learn these things." The use of the pluperfect indicates that Thomas has had opportunities to understand the very questions he is asking, and to answer them from his own soul. Therefore there comes a time when the asking of questions is obviously a sign of reversionism.

"ye should have known" – pluperfect of o)ida, inherent knowledge. In other words, if you had after salvation taken in the doctrine you had been taught then you would not only know Me (occupation with Christ) but you would have understood the whole function of God the Father: "you would have known my Father also" – author of the divine plan.

"from henceforth" – a)po having as the object of the preposition the adverb a)rti. It means from the ultimate source of this moment. Once you understand you are a reversionist that is the moment when things have to change.

"ye know" – you have the issue before you; present active indicative from ginwskw. The present active indicative is not linear aktionsart. This is a progressive present, you can begin to know and keep on knowing. It can also be construed as an iterative present in which you begin now to reverse the process, and instead of going on in reversionism you start moving toward supergrace.

"and have seen" – perfect active indicative of o(raw, the panoramic view. It means to have a panoramic view of the Father, the Son and the plan through doctrine. The Son reveals both the Father and the Father's plan—John 1:18; 6:47; 1Timothy 6:16; Hebrews 1:3; 1John 4:12. However, Jesus Christ is about to depart, but they are not to be concerned. He is also the truth, He will leave His thinking behind. The canon of scripture will be completed and the New Testament scriptures will become the thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son departs but He leaves doctrine in its permanent form. The departure of Jesus Christ to be at the right hand of the Father does not remove the possibility of occupation with Christ. Once Christ ascends the plan of God is seen through His Word.

This doesn't mean that Thomas suddenly learned all doctrine, far from it, but it does mean that he now sees the principle and has the issue clearly before him.

Verse 8 – Philip is one of the disciples or apostles, as per Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14. He was tested by Jesus in John 6:5-7.

"Lord" – he recognises the deity of Christ; "show us" – Philip has a slightly different problem. He is the kind of a person where if you don't illustrate it in 25 ways he doesn't get it. He is still wrestling with this and the Lord simply has not used any parables. Philip can only think in terms of simple illustrative matter.

"shew us" – demonstrate. This is an imperative mood of deiknumi. "Demonstrate the Father!"

"it sufficeth" – present active indicative of a)rkew which means to be content, satisfied or be very well pleased. In other words, "Demonstrate the Father and I will be very pleased." The objective of communication is not to please, it is to teach, to inculcate, to indoctrinate. In effect, Philip only learns when he is being entertained. Philip's problem is inability to concentrate.

Verse 9 – the Lord rebukes Philip.

"Have I been" is a present active indicative of e)imi, I keep on being; "so long" – accusative of the extent of time; "with" – the preposition meta of association, relationship, i.e. in effect, in association whereby in three years you could have known all these things.

"and yet you have not known me, Philip?" Perfect active indicative of ginwskw. Philip was impressed with the miracles but never concentrated on the doctrine. He was so occupied with the Lord's life that he didn't concentrate on the message. That is lack of concentration. It isn't the life of the Lord that counts, it is His message. "I keep on being so long a time in association with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip?"

"he that hath seen me" – perfect active participle of o(raw. Philip has been around for three years and has had a panoramic view. The perfect tense indicates that 'having seen me you have seen the Father.' In other words, I am the revealer of the Father, is what He is saying.

"and how can you say, Demonstrate" – aorist active imperative of deiknumi again. Philip has had three years!

Verses 10-12, the dynamics of the application of doctrine. This means that doctrine has to be in the right lobe and it gets there through the daily function of GAP. We get into the plan of God by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Once we are in the plan of God we are then expected to orient to the plan of God, to understand the plan of God and to function under the plan of God. We live in the devil's world. He is the ruler of this world, the guiding influence of this world, and it is only through Bible doctrine that we can fulfil the very reason for our existence under grace in phase two. The Lord Jesus Christ rebukes Philip, and Philip's recovery from the rebuke is very rapid. This is an important principle. No matter how you get hit in life by what, when, where, or how it is imperative that you get on your feet as soon as possible and keep moving. The problems, failures, difficulties and the disasters of life are not meant to keep you down. Philip snapped right back into it so that the Lord recognised that Philip recovered and was ready to GAP it. So he now challenges him to GAP it.

Verse 10 – "Believest thou not," present active imperative of pisteuw. It means to believe and is used here for the faith-rest technique in the inhale of doctrine as well as its exhale. This is really the inhale part. In GAP in it faith-rest is a part of the picture. The positive volition which transfers Bible doctrine to the left lobe and the human spirit is faith-rest. It is used here for the believer learning doctrine so that he can move on.

"that I am in the Father, and the Father in me" – here immediately is something Philip needs to know. Failure to learn doctrine, and doctrine that pertains to the very person of God, leads to this kind of trouble. If he had just understood the character of God he would not have asked this question and would not have got himself into the jamb.

The principle has to do with the divine essence. The essence of God is perfect—essence box. Jesus says, "I in the Father," and that means that Jesus Christ has the exact same characteristics. In other words, in essence the Father and the Son are the same. Philip's problem was that he had failed to go back to the fact of the essence of God. The words, "the Father in me" turns it all around and says in effect that Jesus Christ is just as much God as the Father is, and that God the Father is just as much God as Jesus Christ. So both ways you slice it the Father and the Son have identical essence. There is one other who has the same essence and who will be introduced a little later in the paragraph under the title "Comforter," but right now He wants Philip to concentrate on a very simple principle from which Philip should be making application as a relatively new believer. The simple principle is the fact that God never let anyone down, and that God never became petty, never changed His attitude. Therefore you cannot superimpose upon God human characteristics of people who have disappointed you, let you down, hurt you, or done something that is in some way considered maltreatment. In other words, no matter what people do to you, you can't turn around and blame it on God. The problem with Philip was that although he knew the essence box but he had not believed it. He had essence in his left lobe and there it was understood objectively, but you cannot apply essence in the left lobe. The essence has to be in the right lobe on the launching pad. "Believest thou" is where there must be pisteuw. There is Philip's hang-up, Philip's problem. He is loaded up with doctrine in his left lobe but has never transferred it to his right lobe. There is such a thing as understanding something academically and objectively but not being able to use it. Bible doctrine is no good to you until you get it in your right lobe. Philip understood the essence box but he could not apply it. So Jesus challenges him to apply it: "Believest thou not?"

"the words that I speak" -- words is doctrines: the doctrines I communicate, present active indicative of legw. Present tense, linear aktionsart, He has been communicating them all along. Active voice: Jesus Christ was the communicator to Philip. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that Jesus Christ had been teaching Philip.

"unto you" – dative of advantage. It is to the advantage of Philip to get these things.

"I do not communicate from myself" – present active indicative of lalew, which indicates that these had been constantly taught to Philip; "of myself" is the preposition a)po, the preposition of ultimate source. 'I do not communicate from the ultimate source of myself.' Now the humanity of Christ is speaking as a teacher. The Father gave the humanity of Christ this information. So what Jesus taught He had first GAPed Himself. You can't communicate doctrine to others until you have GAPed it yourself. "I am in the Father" – the deity of Christ; "the words that I speak" – the humanity of Christ. He is not teaching from His deity.

"but the Father that dwelleth in me, he keeps on doing the works" – the Father is the one who provided this. He is said to dwell or abide – present active participle of menw; "he doeth" – poiew, which means here to produce: He produces the production. In other words, it is God the Father who taught the humanity God the Son—deity did not need teaching. It is God the Son in His humanity who GAPed it and became a supergrace person in His humanity, and as such He has sufficient information so that all this time He had been teaching these doctrines to Philip. And Philip had only gone as far as the doctrine in the left lobe, he was out of gas in his right lobe.

Verse 11 – the two imperatives: "Believe me." The two imperatives are designed to break up the road block in Philip's soul so that he can transfer doctrine from his left lobe to his right lobe and begin to utilise what he is learning.

"Believe me" – a present active imperative indicating what Philip's problem is. Philip has the doctrine but it has not believed it so that it could be cycled into the spirit and up into the right lobe. You cannot use doctrine which is not found in your right lobe.

"or else believe me for [because of] the very works sake" – dia plus the accusative of e)rgon is "because of the works." This means because doctrine only works in the right lobe.

"He that believeth on me" – present active participle of pisteuw. This is not for salvation, this is what will break down the log jamb. The present active participle is really explaining how Philip is going to start getting with it, to break the log jamb and start believing these doctrines. This is not linear aktionsart because the present tense is an iterative present, and it means to believe when the Word is being taught. It doesn't mean to believe all the time. Bible doctrine is not transferred from the left lobe to the right lobe unless you believe it. That is what moves it out of receptive comprehension. Receptive comprehension is not applicable. This is an iterative present and only refers to those occasions where the doctrine is being taught.

Notice He doesn't say "believeth on me [salvation]" because on is not on, it is e)ij which is directional and means toward. It doesn't have anything to do with salvation, it has to do with everything that Philip has been taught for three years now. So He says, "Believe toward me." This is breaking the log jamb in the soul of Philip.

"the works that I do" – ta e)rga refers to Bible doctrine in the right lobe being applied in production; "I do" is a present active indicative of poiew and, again, it is an iterative present.

"shall he do" – future active indicative of poiew. The future tense anticipates that throughout the Church Age believers will not only take in doctrine in the classroom, the local church, the communication of the didaskaloj, but will actually believe the things they have been taught so that they will become productive. Active voice: the believer with doctrine in the right lobe and on the launching pad is the one who applies. The indicative mood is the reality of the function of doctrine from the launching pad, the reality of the ECS, the reality of entrance into the supergrace life.

"also" is kaikeinoj, is a crasis for kai and e)keinoj and means "and that also."

"greater" – neuter plural comparative from megaj which means greater in quantity but not quality. The quality is the same whether it is Bible doctrine in the right lobe of the humanity of Christ, Bible doctrine in the right lobe of Philip who is now going to break the log jamb, or Bible doctrine in your right lobe. The quality of doctrine is always the same. In other words, there will be many, many believers in the Church Age who will get it, who will transfer it, who will have it in the right lobe, who will function and use it, apply it. Not in quality but in quantity—because there are more people producing in more places.

"because I go" – present active indicative of poreuomai which means to go from one place to another, and it refers to the ascension and session. This is a gnomic present, and absolute.

"unto my Father" – proj plus the accusative case, "face to face with my Father."

At this point we have the intensification of the angelic conflict anticipated. Once Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, glorified, as per John 7:39, the Holy Spirit will produce through Bible doctrine the impact to meet the intensified angelic conflict. There will be the function of GAP, the erection of the ECS, entrance into the supergrace life, but above all there will be doctrine on the launching pad.

Verse 13 and 14, the absence of Jesus Christ from the earth is going to shake up the disciples, except for one thing: His absence is not going to change the prayer factor. So, ascension does not hinder the power of prayer.

Verse 13 – "And whatsoever ye shall ask," aorist active subjunctive of a)itew which means to request or demand or to ask. This is a constative aorist which gathers up into one entirety the prayer life of Philip from this time onward every time he prays. The active voice: Philip will become at the beginning of the Church Age a believer priest as well as an apostle. The subjunctive mood indicates the potentiality of prayer.

"in my name" – Jesus Christ is absent from the earth as the high priest. He is at the right hand of the Father so we ask through the person of Christ.

"that [this]" – touto, reference to the prayer[1] petition; "I will do" – aorist active subjunctive of poiew. The aorist tense means in that same point of time. Active voice: Christ initiates the action. As high priest He will process the prayer on to the Father. The subjunctive mood: whether the prayer is answered or not is potential based upon other facts. Furthermore, this is a subjunctive meeting a subjunctive to indicate that the whole concept of the answer of prayer depends upon other factors beside the one's mentioned. Therefore you must have a subjunctive plus a subjunctive in both verbs.

"the Father may be glorified" – aorist passive subjunctive of docazw. The constative aorist refers to a point of time. Passive voice: the Father receives glory. Subjunctive mood: a part of the purpose clause, i(na plus the subjunctive introduces a purpose clause; e)n plus the instrumental, "by means of the Son."

Verse 14 – "If," 3rd class condition, e)an plus the subjunctive; "ye shall ask" – aorist active subjunctive of a)itew; "in my name, I will do it." "In my name" in the context means there must be doctrine in the right lobe, and the more doctrine in the right lobe the sooner you get to supergrace, sand a supergrace believer is highly effective because he is occupied with the name which is above every name, with the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore Philip is partially straightened out on this point. The ascension of Jesus Christ will not hinder Philip's future prayer life.

Verse 15 – this passage begins with the fact that the ascension leads to a new ministry of God the Holy Spirit (vv. 15-17).

"If" is a 3rd class condition (maybe you do and maybe you do not). All believers do not love the Lord Jesus Christ. Capacity to love Jesus Christ is based on the intake of Bible doctrine. If you are not taking in Bible doctrine on a consistent basis you have no capacity to love the Lord Jesus Christ.

"ye love me" – present active subjunctive of a)gapaw which is a mental attitude love. It has two sides to it. First, a total mental concentration on the object of love and absence of any mental attitude sins directed toward the object of love. The other side of it is mental occupation. This includes fragrance of memories. When you love someone under a)gapaw you concentrate on them. Concentration on the Lord Jesus Christ is based upon the intake of Bible doctrine. This is your capacity for love. The 3rd class condition says, maybe you do and maybe you do not, and with it is the subjunctive mood which is a part of that 3rd class condition. The present tense is used here for consistency. It isn't linear aktionsart, it is simply being consistent in loving the Lord Jesus Christ. The active voice: the believer through the intake of Bible doctrine initiates the action. He has the capacity to love Jesus Christ because of the daily function of GAP.

"keep" – aorist active imperative of terew, which means to guard something that belongs to you. You have a perfect and eternal relationship with Jesus Christ, and the aorist active imperative means guard it. This is a constative aorist which indicates that you guard your love for Jesus Christ by the daily function of GAP. Active voice: every believer must do this for himself. No one else can do it for him. It must come from his soul and from no one else's. You cannot have a relationship with the Lord on the basis of someone else's soul capacity. He must have his own soul capacity which means he must have his own Bible doctrine, not someone else's. Therefore the believer must have his own intake—the daily function of GAP. The imperative mood is a command.

"my commandments" – e)ntolh refers to Bible doctrine presented categorically. "Guard my categorical doctrine." To do this requires a lot of things. It requires the function of GAP, but the emphasis in this passage will be on the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ explains now just how this will be accomplished.

Verse 16 – "And I will pray the Father," future active indicative of e)rwtaw which means to ask. The future tense means the petition will be made when Jesus Christ gets into the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies for this High Priest is heaven, the right hand of the Father. Active voice: Jesus Christ as our High Priest will initiate the request. The indicative mood is the reality of the request after the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. All prayer requests go to the Father.

"and he shall give you" – our High Priest prays from the mentality of His soul. You don't pray from your emotions. This is the future active indicative of didomi. This is a gnomic future: the prayer will be answered. Active voice: the Father will perform the answer Himself. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that when Jesus Christ goes to the right hand of the Father He is going to say, "Father, send them a help." And the Father will send the Holy Spirit, so the first advent of Christ is followed by the first advent of the Holy Spirit.

"another" – a)lloj which means another of the same kind. This indicates that both Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are God; "Comforter" – paraklhtoj which means someone to assist. In this case it is God the Holy Spirit who is going to do the assisting. Sometimes this is transliterated "Paraclete." Unfortunately, sometimes transliterations are misleading. There are two advents of the Holy Spirit, both are given in prophecy and both are fulfilled. In the first advent the prophecy of the Holy Spirit is given here in John 14:16, and also in John 16:14. The fulfilment of this is the day of Pentecost – Acts 2:1ff; 11:15, 16; Ephesians 5:18; Galatians 5:16. The Second Advent: it was predicted prophetically in Joel 2:28,29 and is fulfilled in Zechariah 12:10.

"that" – purpose clause; "he may abide" – the present active subjunctive of e)imi means "that he may be," not abide. The subjunctive is a part of the purpose clause, it is not potential.

"for ever" – this means forever in you.

Translation: "I will request the Father, and he will give you [for your advantage] another assistant [of the same kind, i.e. God], that he may be forever in you."

Verse 17 – "The Spirit of truth" – there is no even there, as in the KJV. Spirit, pneuma, plus a)lhqeia indicates the primary function of God the Holy Spirit in this age. A)lhqeia is doctrine, so this is a functional title. "Holy Spirit" is the title of His person; "Spirit of truth [doctrine]" is a functional title. It is the function of God the Holy Spirit to make Bible doctrine real in your soul. The Holy Spirit is the prime mover in GAP.

"whom the world cannot receive" – only the believer can receive God the Holy Spirit. "Whom" is a relative pronoun referring to the Spirit; kosmoj [world] refers to the unbelievers; "cannot receive" is actually not able to receive, present active indicative of dunamai plus the aorist active infinitive of lambanw – not ever able, present linear aktionsart. The aorist infinitive is an ingressive aorist: he can't even begin to have a relationship with the Spirit because he is an unbeliever. There is no gift of the Holy Spirit before the cross.

"because it seeth him not" – it refers to the Holy Spirit who does not observe or contemplate them [the unbeliever].

"but ye know him" – ginwskw, present active indicative. This indicates that as believers in the Age of Israel they have already had some knowledge of the 3rd person of the Trinity. What they know of Him is now given.

"for [because] he dwells [menw = abide] with you" – para, the preposition means beside you. That is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to certain individuals [believers] in the Age of Israel. God the Holy Spirit did not indwell believers in the Jewish dispensation. He was beside them; He came alongside to help.

"and shall be" – future active indicative of e)imi and is a prophecy regarding the ministry of the Holy Spirit for the Church Age; "in you" – e)n plus the locative means inside you.[2]

Verse 18 – "I will not leave" is a future active indicative of a)fihmi, used in this passage to leave behind. That means every moment that we are in this life.

"comfortless" – o)rfanoj, from which we get the English word orphans. The word orphan means no father, no mother, therefore without comfort. The concept here is, I will not leave you behind comfortless—help, blessing, and everything necessary to sustain you. Jesus Christ is about to depart from the earth through ascension. He is aware of the fact that the disciples are already on the panic button: What are we going to do now? So he is spelling out to them the Church Age. This refers to all of the provision we have right now as believer priests in the Church Age.

"I will come [face to face with] to you" – present active indicative of e)rxomai. "I will not leave you behind comfortless"—the beginning of the Church Age; "I will come face to face with you"—that is the Rapture of the Church or the end of the Church Age. So we have bracketed a principle given by the Lord Jesus Christ in anticipation of His resurrection, ascension and session. We will never be left without provision. The provision He has left us is going to be stated here in the form of two things: God the Holy Spirit and the Word. This is our blessing no matter what the circumstances of life may be. Here the reference is to the ministry of the Holy Spirit during the formation of the body of Christ; it will also refer later on specifically to Bible doctrine.

Verse 19 – "Yet a little while," is the accusative of the extent of time of mikroj, which means in a short time, specifically in 43 days: three days for death, burial and resurrection, and forty days on the earth in a resurrection body followed by the ascension, Acts 1:3.

"the world [i.e. people living on this planet] seeth me no more" – present active indicative of qeorew which means to observe Jesus Christ actually functioning on the earth.

"but ye see me" – this really has them for a moment because they thought that Jesus was going to ditch them and go find another crowd. But actually, He is going to ascend and be seated at the right hand of the Father as a part of God's plan. He was going on with God's plan and the very fact that He is gone bothers Him. They want Him right there. We have here the present active indicative of qeorew again which means to perceive with the mind here. You are going to observe me in your soul. This is achieved by Bible doctrine in the soul. It makes the believer aware of who and what Christ is. Bible doctrine in the soul is the capacity for category #1 love. The object of category #1 love is someone you can see, the only member of the Godhead who is revealed—Jesus Christ. We can have Him all the time in the sense of category #1 love.

"because I live, ye shall live also" – Jesus Christ is alive, present active indicative of zaw, referring to the function of life; future tense, you will too. There is phase three: I have a resurrection body, you will have one too. In the meantime there is an absence. The Church Age is the age of the absence of Christ from the earth, so He leaves something of Himself with us: Bible doctrine. So therefore we can orient to God's plan in the absence of Christ on the earth through knowledge of doctrine.

Verse 20 – "At that day" is literally in that day; "ye shall know" – future middle indicative of ginwskw, it means when you take in doctrine you are going to realise the reality of what I am telling you; ginwskw means the experience of GAP. The future tense means that right now the disciples are a bunch of knuckle-heads. They didn't know nearly as much as we know right now about the plan of God, because we have been exposed to a lot of doctrine. Jesus had two jobs to do. He had to present Himself as the King of Israel and He had to present a kingdom platform. Therefore He had to do a lot of teaching about the Millennium. He also had to do a lot of gospel teaching and had to present Himself as a person, the God-Man, the only saviour. Therefore He did not even try to teach the Church Age until the very end of His ministry. The night before He went to the cross is the first time they heard any of this information. These disciples who were going to be the apostles of the Church at this time didn't know as much as we know. That is why Jesus put this in the future tense—"Ye shall know." Some of them were going to learn a lot of doctrine but they didn't know a thing at this stage. Within 53 day Peter is going to be standing up spouting doctrine. That is the beginning of learning some things. The middle voice: the disciples will be benefited by the action of the verb, by learning doctrine. The indicative mood is the reality of the disciples orienting to the plan of God through Bible doctrine.

"that I in my Father" – Jesus Christ and God the Father have identical essence. Also, because of their essence they have a relationship. This does not mean the Son indwells the Father but it means that they are identical in essence. "I in my Father" is a statement of a perfect relationship.

"and ye in me" – Jesus Christ wants us to have the same relationship. That is Christianity; it is not religion. "Ye in me" is a reference to positional sanctification. It refers to one of the things that God the Holy Spirit does at the point of salvation—the baptism of the Spirit whereby God the Holy Spirit enters every believer into union with Christ. Jesus Christ has a perfect relationship with the Father; He always has had. Now, at the point of regeneration, we enter into union with Christ and we are a part of a permanent grace relationship. When we start out we don't have any grace in us, that comes with doctrine. But we are in a perfect grace relationship from the day we were saved. Our grace relationship with the members of the Godhead will never be improved; positional truth cannot be improved. The problem is that we are imperfect without capacity to appreciate it.

"I in you" is a reference to the indwelling of Jesus Christ. There are two indwellings in the Church Age: the indwelling of Christ for the purpose of fellowship and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit for the purpose of production.

Verse 21 – the relationship calls for love. "He that hath" – "he" is the believer; "that hath" is resent active participle of e)xw, having and holding. It means to have doctrine and to keep it, not lose it through reversionism. "The one that keeps on having and holding."

"my commandments" – the accusative plural of e)ntolh does not mean the Ten Commandments, it means categorical doctrine. E)ntolh means an edict, an official decree, and it means Bible doctrine presented categorically here. You have Bible doctrine through GAP—every day!

"and keepeth them" – and guards what belongs to him. Once you have e)ntolh you have to guard it, and this means to be positive toward doctrine daily. As a result you get an ECS, and you guard what belongs to you.

"he it is" – present active indicative of e)imi; "that loveth me" – present active participle of a)gapaw, strictly a mental attitude love in the soul. This is the way you start, you don't start with filew. Filew belongs to the believer who gets to supergrace; a)gapaw is what you have through the various stages of growth until you reach supergrace.

"shall be loved of my Father" is literally, under the authority of my Father—u(po, which means under the authority of or by my Father.

"and I will love him" – the relationship is perfect. In other words, when you take in Bible doctrine you have the capacity to love the Father, the Father loves you, and Jesus Christ loves you. This is a dramatic future here.

"and will manifest myself to him" – in other words, you learn more doctrine; e)mfanizw does not mean to manifest, it means to communicate, to make one's self or one's attitude known.

Notice: Philip had requested a manifestation of God in verse 8. Jesus now declares to Philip that the manifestation of God resides in a relationship, and that God has provided understanding of the relationship and capacity in the same thing: Bible doctrine. Jesus Christ is the manifest person of the Godhead—John 1:18; 6:46; 1Timothy 6:16; Hebrews 1:3; 1John 4:12. Bible doctrine makes Jesus Christ manifest to the believer in any generation.

Verse 22 – the Judas here is Judas Labbaeus, also called Thadaeus. He is also found in Mark 3:18; Matthew 10:3; Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13.

Judas saith" – present active indicative of legw; "Lord" – kurioj, indicating deity and the fact that he is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"how is it" is incorrect – the perfect active indicative of ginomai means "how has it happened."

"that thou wilt" – i.e. that you are about to, literally; "manifest" – present active infinitive of e)mfanizw. The word means to communicate, to report, to reveal, to make known. "How has it happened that you are about to communicate [make yourself known] yourself unto us, and not to the world?" Not to the world means to be manifest to believers and not to those who are unbelievers. Unbelievers cannot understand the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in teaching the reality of Jesus Christ. And at this point we have a parenthetical principle before Jesus answers: Attitude toward doctrine determines the believer's attitude toward the Lord. That is the principle of verses 23-25, and that also is the principle which answers the question of Judas. How is it possible that we can understand what Jesus Christ is really like and yet the world cannot? In order to bring out just exactly how this is going to be answered love is used as the background.

Verse 23 – "If" is the 3rd class condition, e)an plus the subjunctive; "a man" – the word for man is not man at all, it is tij, the enclitic impersonal pronoun, and it means category homo sapien: "If anyone."

"love" – present active subjunctive of a)gapaw. The present tense is linear aktionsart for category #1 love in phase two. The active voice: the believer filled with the Spirit an taking in Bible doctrine on a daily basis finally comes to the point of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. But this occupation with the person of Christ is first of all a relaxed mental attitude. "If anyone loves" – 3rd class condition, maybe yes and maybe no. It depends on whether they take in doctrine or not.

"he will keep my words" – the future active indicative of terew is a gnomic future which has nothing to do with tenses as we understand them. We think of the future tense as something in the future, in other words a time connotation. But the gnomic future indicates something which is an absolute fact. This is axiomatic. "He will keep" means to guard something that belongs to self; "my words" refers to Bible doctrine. How do you guard the words of God? By taking it in daily constantly. None of us can afford to go more than 24 hours without spiritual food. Remember that terew means to guard what belongs to you, and the only doctrine that belongs to the believer is what he GAPs into the right lobe or the heart, the doctrine he has in his ECS.

"and my Father" – this is spoken from the humanity of Jesus Christ; "will love" – and notice the change in a)gapaw. This time it is present active indicative. The indicative replaces the subjunctive. In other words, God the Father does love us. The future tense, again, is a gnomic future. The active voice indicates that the Father loves every believer in the Church Age with maximum love—we have all passed the point of propitiation. The indicative mood is the reality of the Father's love.

"and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." We will come is a reference to the deity of the Father, plus Christ [His deity], a reference to the fact that both of them are going to indwell.

"unto him" is proj plus the accusative, face to face with him; "make" is poiew, present active indicative. It is used for the Hebrew word asah. It means to make something out of something. We will come face to face with Him and manufacture something out of something. What? "Our abode" – monh, which means a mansion. The mansion here is the edification complex [ECS]. It is in the soul and it comes from keeping His Word on a daily basis—the daily function of GAP.

Verse 24 – "He that loveth me not." This is the present active participle of a)gapaw plus the negative mh. This is still talking about a believer. The present active participle is linear aktionsart, and plus the negative means constantly not doing something. "He that keeps on not loving me." Here is the believer in reversionism. When the believer gets into reversionism the last thing he wants to hear is Bible doctrine. This is the believer who does not love Jesus Christ.

"keepeth not" – present active indicative of terew plus the strongest single negative o)uk; "my sayings" is literally, my words. As in the previous verse it is a reference to Bible doctrine.

"and the word which ye hear is not mine" – logoj, referring to doctrine. Through Bible doctrine Christ will manifest Himself to believers and not to the world. This answers the question of Judas. "The word which ye hear" is the present active indicative of a)kouw. In other words, they are GAPing it right now in the upper room. Jesus enucleates doctrine in the upper room discourse. Christ is the communicator of this doctrine but the source is God the Father.

"but the Father's which sent me" – aorist active participle of pempw, having sent me. In other words, the Father sent the Son to the earth and now that He is on the earth he reveals the Father. The aorist active participle precedes the action of the main verb: He doesn't reveal the Father until He comes and speaks about Him.

Verse 25 – "These things have I spoken": things about the Father, things about the plan. "Have I spoken" is a perfect active indicative of the verb lalew which means to communicate; "to you" – dative of advantage. It is to the advantage of the disciples to be briefed about the Church Age. The Church Age is a radical departure from the dispensation of Israel and they are going to find out some things they never knew before.

"being yet present with you" – the word for present is pareimi but this is not what we have here, we have menw which means to endure, to abide. The present active participle means that Jesus Christ is sticking it out: "with you" is beside you – para.

This answers the question of Judas in verse 22. How will Christ manifest Himself to believers and not be in the world? Through the Word of God, Bible doctrine. All we know about God is contained in writing.

Now it is one thing to have the Word of God is writing but it is something else to learn it.

Verse 26 – the means of learning doctrine. "But the Comforter" – paraklhtoj. This refers to God the Holy Spirit; "the Holy Ghost" – a(gioj pneuma. Pneuma means "spirit." He is called the Comforter, but the word also means the Exhorter, the Trainer. God the Holy Spirit is not just the Comforter.

"whom the Father will send" – here is the first advent of God the Holy Spirit. He has a ministry in three dispensations: the Age of Israel, the Age of the Church, and the Age of the Millennium. This precludes the fact that God the Holy Spirit has a ministry all throughout human history to all unbelievers. He is the agent of making the gospel a reality. But here we have a specialised ministry to believers. Luke 11:13 describes the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the dispensation of Israel; it was a specialised ministry to a few people. Ephesians 5:18 describes the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age. In the Millennium we have yet a different ministry of the Holy Spirit because Jesus Christ returns to the earth. He is present and reigns on the earth under perfect environment.

"will send" is the future active indicative of pempw. Just as the Father sent the Son, so He is going to, send the Holy Spirit—John 14:16. The Holy Spirit is also said to be sent by the Son – John 15:26.

"in my name" – this means that Jesus Christ is absent from the earth but does not leave us comfortless, and He provides the ministry of the Holy Spirit for the intensification of the angelic conflict.

"he shall teach" – future active indicative of didaskw. This is a gnomic future. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit is a teaching ministry, and didaskw means to teach in public assembly, to teach a group. It means that the Holy Spirit teaches through the ministry of the pastor-teacher. The Holy Spirit teaches the mystery doctrine of the Church Age to believers – John 16:12-15; 1Corinthians 2:9-14; 1John 2:27.

"all things" – reference to the various doctrines of the Church Age; "and bring to your remembrance" – future active indicative of u(pomimnhskw [mimnhskw = remember; u(po = under the authority of someone]. U(po indicates how you learn doctrine; it refers to authority. To learn something you have to hear it again and again and again. This lodges in the frame of reference and it becomes a category, a part of the norms and standards, doctrine in the launching pad. As this is communicated again and again God the Holy Spirit brings these things to your remembrance under the authority of the one who teaches.

"whatsoever I have said unto you" – aorist active indicative of legw, used here for teaching. The aorist is a constative aorist. Jesus taught over a period of three years. They don't remember all the things he said, but later on when they are taught these things again and again they will finally take hold in the memory centre.

The principle is that you don't learn something the first time you hear it. You may understand it or have some concept of it, but you have to hear it again and again so that eventually it will take hold in your soul. All of this is the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

Verse 27 – "Peace," e)irhnh means tranquillity, benefit, happiness. It refers to the supergrace life. Supergrace benefit I leave behind, literally. This is the present active indicative of a)fihmi, to leave behind. The Lord Jesus Christ is going to leave us supergrace benefit. How are we going to get it? Doctrine! There is no other way to get it.

"my peace" – supergrace happiness; "I give you" – present active indicative of didomi. Present tense: He keeps on giving it. He gives it through the Word.

"not as the world gives" – the world is a system. Kosmoj means an organised system for recognising merit, ability, success, wealth, benefit. The word has a way of providing things that are attractive and wonderful because they are things that people normally want. It has a system of recognising greatness. Worldly standards have given greatness to many. They are bona fide standards and therefore people want to be great like great people in the past. The organised kosmoj has assigned to them something that you want today, that you desire today. The world says, in that sense, I can give you something. But if you take your success from the kosmoj you take your success from his majesty the devil who runs the kosmoj. What comes from God is worth having and cannot be lost.

"Let not your heart [right lobe] – where all that doctrine is stored; "be troubled" – present passive imperative of tarassw which means to be worried or be in a state of anxiety. "Do not keep on receiving agitation of mind," literally.

"let it not be afraid" – present active imperative of deiliaw which means to be timid or cowardly. Here it means to be cowardly. You are not going to miss anything. God will keep you alive. Then promises of God remove fear, Isaiah 41:10; Deuteronomy 31:6,8. Doctrine removes fear, 2Timothy 1:7. Faith-rest removes fear, Psalm 56:3.

Verse 28 – "Ye have heard," indicates the fact that they have received Bible doctrine along the line that Jesus is discussing but they haven't paid much attention to it. The aorist active indicative of a)kouw means to be exposed, to hear under GAP conditions. The word is used for learning doctrine under the principle of two factors: to listen and accept the authority of; to listen and concentrate. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, which indicates you don't GAP it all the time but it gathers into one entirety all of the times that you do GAP it. At this point the disciples have had three years of constant exposure to Bible teaching and this is what Jesus is pointing out.

"how I said unto you" – aorist active indicative of legw, used here for communication. Jesus taught them verbally by monologue; "unto you" is dative of advantage to be taught the Word of God.

"I go away" – the present active indicative of u(pagw means to depart. It is a reference to the ascension of Christ to glorification at the right hand of the Father. Active voice: the humanity of Christ does the ascending since the deity of Christ is omnipresent and can't ascend. The indicative mood is the reality of resurrection, ascension and session of the Lord Jesus Christ.[3]

"and come again to you" – the word come is also a present active indicative of e)rxomai. This indicates here the Rapture of the Church, Second Advent. It just means to come, it has no unusual significance, the context determines the significance of the verb; "unto you" is proj plus the accusative, face to face with you. The word again has been supplied by the translator because he understood the passage but it is not in the original text. This is a reference to the rapture of the Church. Jesus is going to depart from the earth and the next time anyone on the earth is ever going to be close will be the Rapture when He will be face to face with those of the Church Age.

"If ye loved me, ye would rejoice" – the "If" is a second class condition because up to now they have not entered into the supergrace life. It is followed by an imperfect active indicative of a)gapaw. It is possible to expose one's self to Bible teaching and not make supergrace. The imperfect tense is linear aktionsart in past time. Active voice: the disciples are producing the action—If and you don't love me, 2nd class condition. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that they do not have the capacity to love the Lord at this time. If they did, they would rejoice, aorist passive indicative of xairw which means to have +H. This refers to the supergrace life. Under supergrace these people would be different at this time; that is what He is saying. "Ye would rejoice" is a culminative aorist, they should have arrived by now. Passive voice: they would receive this +H from seeing the plan of God advance. The indicative mood is the reality of it if they were in the supergrace bracket.

"because I said" is not found in the original. It is simply, "because I go to my Father." This time the word I go is a present active indicative of poreuomai which means to go from one place to another. It is used here for the ascension; "unto the Father" is proj plus the accusative, face to face with the Father. The conjunction o(ti means because, not for.

"my Father" – notice that Jesus is using the word Father to designate the first person of the Trinity; "is" – present active indicative of e)imi, keeps on being.

"greater" – the comparative of megaj which means great. This is a declaration of the humanity of Christ. The deity of the Father is greater than any humanity. The humanity of Christ is obedient to the plan of the Father. His plan calls for resurrection, ascension, session and glorification.

In the Church Age the body is being formed. Once it is formed the Lord Jesus Christ has a bride. Therefore the Church will share the glory of Christ forever. That is why He said to the disciples that they ought to be very happy about the fact that He was going to go. He was going to sit down at the right hand of the Father and be glorified. But they don't have the capacity for the plan of God because none of them have reached supergrace.

Verse 29 – orientation to the Church Age. "Now" is the adverb nun, but here the adverb means "at the present time" and is a reference to the upper room discourse.

"I have told" – perfect active indicative of legw. The perfect tense is something that happens in the past with results that go on. But the perfect tense sometimes emphasises the past, sometimes emphasises the results, and sometimes emphasises the whole thing. This is the abiding character of Bible doctrine. I have communicated in the past with the result that you will have this communication. Active voice: Christ did the teaching. Indicative mood: the reality of the unique communication gift of our Lord.

"before" – trin, an unusual adverb which means before or sooner. Jesus prophesied regarding the Church Age 53 days before it occurred.

"it come to pass" – aorist active infinitive. Literally, before it begins to come to pass; this is an iterative or ingressive aorist.

"that" – purpose clause; "when" – o(tan, whenever, on the occasion of its occurrence; "you might believe" – aorist active subjunctive of pisteuw. This is not believing for salvation and it isn't really faith-rest as such, it is an offshoot of faith-rest. Here is faith as a capacity.

Verses 30, 31 – some opposition to the Father's plan.

Verse 30 – "Hereafter" is the adverb o)uketi, no longer or no more. "I will no longer talk with you."

"talk" is a future active indicative of lalew and it means to communicate doctrine—doctrine regarding the Church Age; "with you" – meta is the preposition which means "in association with you." Jesus has been associated with them for three years.

"the prince of this world cometh" – e)rxomai is now used for the devil. It means here that he is back on the scene. He left with Judas Iscariot. Now that Judas has done his deed the devil can afford to leave Judas for a few moments and come back to see what is going on. When the devil arrives the Lord cuts it off. The devil can't stay long and the Lord will have something to say out in the Garden of Gethsemane because Judas is a coward, and as a coward the devil is going to get back inside of him so that he will go through with this deal. So when they leave the devil has to go back to Judas and that is why the Lord cuts it off at this time.

"and hath nothing in me" – not one thing, literally; "in me" refers to the fact that Jesus Christ is sinless.

Verse 31 – "But that," purpose clause; "the world may know that I love the Father" – ginwskw means to know from observation; "I love" – RMA.

"and as the Father gave me commandment" – aorist active indicative of e)ntelomai. It means a command to a person who is smart. This is a decree, a whole series of orders.

"even so I do [execute]" – present active indicative of poiew.

"Arise" – get up. E)geirw also means wake up.

"let us go" – present active subjunctive of a)gw, a hortatory subjunctive, the same as a command. We are finished here is what He is saying. He is the one who decided when the party was over.

John does not record the fact that they sang a hymn—Psalm 118—and then went out: Matthew 26:30. He simply indicates the point at which Satan arrived and the point at which they broke up.

The rest of this discourse, chapters 15 and 16, takes place on the way to Gethsemane. The actual prayer of John 17 occurs in the Garden of Gethsemane, so the rest of this will be called the Gethsemane discourse.

[1] See Doctrine of prayer.

[2] See the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

[3] See the Doctrine of ascension.

Chapter 15

Verse 1 — "I am the true vine." 'I am' is the present active indicative of e)imi. The word 'true' is an adjective, a)lhqinoj which means true, trustworthy, dependable. He is called here a vine. The Greek noun is a)npeloj. The Lord Jesus Christ uses this analogy for a number of reasons. First of all, the vine is the source of wine. Wine is used not only literally as it often is but sometimes it is used as an analogy to happiness. When the Lord Jesus Christ says, 'I am the dependable vine' it means He is dependable for perfect happiness. No believer has ever reached spiritual maturity and remained there very long without experiencing something of the great happiness which God provides for anyone who will reach that point.

"and my Father" — again, perfect linear aktionsart — keeps on being the husbandman." The word 'husbandman' is georgoj, and it means farmer, cultivator of the soil, the one who does the planning and the planting and the cultivating and the harvesting.

Verse 2 — "Every branch" refers to the believer. Jesus Christ is the vine. God the Father is the husbandman. The word 'branch' is klhma, it refers to the believer in the Church Age. The branch connotes a number of things. a) Relationship with the vine. When we believe in Jesus Christ we have relationship with Him, we are in union with Him, just as the branch is in union with the vine. b) The branch indicates productivity. The productivity for the Church Age must come from the believer who is on the earth. The vine is in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. The believers are the conductors of productivity. Every branch is in the vine and this is our basic relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. However, the branches in the vine are of several types. We are all in union with Christ but we fall into different categories spiritually.

"that beareth not fruit" — 'beareth not' is a present active participle plus the negative mh. This is used to represent the reversionistic believer; he is a non-producer. A producer is one who applies the doctrine of scripture to daily experience. The greatest productivity in life comes from thinking, not doing. Production is in the soul. The word for 'fruit' is karpoj. The one not bearing fruit refers to a reversionistic believer. What keeps a Christian from thinking? No born again believer ever thinks with anything but Bible doctrine and the reversionistic believer is negative toward doctrine, therefore he lacks food for thought. The reversionist never uses his soul, he never has food for thought and therefore he is full of human viewpoint, full of divine discipline, full of misery. In other words, he never amounts to anything.

"he taketh away" — the branch which has not produced fruit, He cuts it out. That is a reference to the sin unto death. The reversionistic believer winds up under the sin unto death. By production is meant thinking doctrine, not hustling around. When you stop thinking God eventually pulls you out because you are a spiritual zombie, a dead branch. He doesn't pull you out right away, you have three areas: a) The knocking type discipline, this is warning; b) The intense discipline; c) The dying discipline.

The doctrine of the sin unto death

1. The sin unto death is for believers only. It does not mean loss of salvation, it is maximum punitive discipline for the reversionistic believer — Psalm 118:17,18; 1John 5:16.

2. However, the sin unto death does not mean loss of salvation — 2Timothy 2:12,13.

3. Reversionism is the cause for the sin unto death — Jeremiah 9:16; 44:12; Philippians 3:18,19; Revelation 3:16.

4. There are four causes of the death of any believer. a) Our work on earth is finished — 2Timothy 4:7; b) To glorify God in an unusual way — Philippians 1:20,21; c) Maximum discipline for reversionism or the sin unto death — 1Chronicles 10:13; 1John 5:16; d) Suicide — the reversionist superimposing his own will over divine will.

5. Case histories of the sin unto death. a) Annanias and Saphira — Acts 5:1-10; b) Phallic reversionism — 1Corinthians 5:1-5; c) Ritual reversionism — 1Corinthians 11:30,31; d) Mental attitude reversionism — 1Chronicles 10:13,14; 1Samuel 13:9-14. This is rejection of Bible doctrine; e) Foreign policy reversionism or antiestablishment reversionism — Isaiah 30:1-3; 31:1-3 cf. Isaiah 38; f) Verbal reversionism — 1Timothy 1:19,20.

6. Reversion recovery eliminates the discipline and removes all sins — 2Corinthians 2:5-10; James 5:15,20.

7. The cancellation of the sin unto death. The first category can be recovered from by rebound, but the second ad third categories demand repentance, a change of mental attitude.

The branch which is broken off and taken away is the reversionist, and the taking away is the sin unto death.

"and every branch that beareth fruit" — the mature believer. Again, this is thinking doctrine. Doctrine on the launching pad.

'he purgeth it" — he prunes it. Present active indicative of kaqairw which means to keep it clean by pruning it so that it will produce more fruit. The pruning is the mature believer getting occasional adversity, suffering, trial, etc. in order that he might be blessed even more. The mature believer has capacity for suffering and he has capacity for blessing in suffering. Therefore, pruning only makes the branch stronger and more productive.

"that it might bring forth more fruit" — adversity is designed by God to intensify the blessing and happiness of the mature believer.

Verse 3 — "Now ye are clean" — incorrect. The Greek adverb h)dh which means 'already.' Jesus is talking to saved disciples and that already the pruning is beginning for them. You are kaqaroj, not clean but pruned.

"through the Word" is dia plus the accusative of logoj — literally, "because of doctrine." So they are prepared for pruning because of doctrine.

"I have communicated" — present active indicative of lalew which means to communicate.

Verse 4 — "Abide in me" — aorist active imperative of menw. This is not positional truth. You are never commanded to positional truth, you have it as of the moment of salvation. This is a command to move to maturity. The aorist tense here is an ingressive aorist — "begin to abide in me."

"I in you" — the ECS. Christ indwells the believer but this passage isn't teaching the indwelling of Christ, this passage is teaching the indwelling of the ECS.

"As the branch cannot bear fruit itself, except it abide in the vine" — the branch is the believer and it cannot bear fruit from the source of itself — dunamia o)uk. It is not able to bear. No believer in the Christian life can produce on the basis of his own ability. That is why it has to start in the soul and it has to be thinking divine viewpoint.

"except it abide in the vine" — this refers to the supergrace life. Present active subjunctive. "In the vine" refers to supergrace living.

"no more can ye except ye abide in me" — present active subjunctive of menw, and again, "in me" refers to the supergrace life.

Verse 5 — Jesus repeats what He said in verse 1; "you the branches." No verb here. From this comes the supergrace concept:

"He that abideth in me, and I in him" — the supergrace life and the ECS.

"the same" — the believer in supergrace — "brings forth much fruit.

"without me" is an adverb which means 'apart from me' — xorij; "ye can do nothing." This is the principle of grace. Apart from what God has provided in Bible doctrine you can do nothing. The reversionistic believer can do nothing, he does not produce in any possible way.

Verse 6 — "If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch." The words 'cast forth' is the aorist passive indicative of ballw, and it is literally, "he is cast outside," and this again is a reference to the sin unto death.

"and is withered" — this means to dry up, zerainw; "and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." This is a reference not to eternal judgement but it is the fact that when branches dried up in a vineyard they collected them all and threw them in a fire. In other words, they are removed. This is the analogy side, not what happens to the individual. Believers are not burned, branches are burned. When you burn the branches they are no longer in the vineyard. When a believer is removed by the sin unto death he is no longer on planet earth. It's that simple.

Verse 7 — if you can think straight you can pray right. "If ye abide in me" — again, a third class condition. Maybe you are a supergrace believer and maybe you are not. All effective prayer in the supergrace realm because the believer has capacity. He has everything necessary to be a great prayer warrior. "Abide in me" is the supergrace life.

"my words [Bible doctrine] abide in you" — aorist active subjunctive of menw. The aorist tense is constative which means GAPing it daily.

"ye shall ask" is incorrect. It is the aorist middle imperative of a)itew and it should be translated "ask." It means when you enter into supergrace "begin to ask." This is an ingressive aorist. The middle voice: you are benefited by asking.

"what ye will" should be "if you will" — 'if you desire to ask.'

"it shall be done" should be "it shall come to pass" — ginomai. The future tense is a gnomic future, an absolute. Middle voice: you are benefited. The indicative mood: reality.

Verse 8 — "Herein" is literally, "In this" — e)n plus the locative of o(outoj; "my Father is glorified" — in the function of the supergrace believer whether he is thinking or doing. Prayer is a perfect illustration because in prayer you both think and do. The issue in prayer in thinking. The Father is glorified because it is His plan. Grace is the plan of the Father. He is glorified — the aorist passive indicative of docazw. This is a gnomic aorist, it is an absolute principle. The passive voice: the Father receives the glory from His own plan. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that God the Father is glorified by the thinking of the supergrace believer.

"that" — purpose clause; "ye bear much fruit" — the bearing of much fruit is the function of the supergrace life.

"therefore shall you be" — future middle indicative of ginomai is "therefore you shall become." Gnomic future.

"my disciples" — maqhthj, learners of doctrine.

Verse 9 – "As the Father hath loved me." Kaqoj means an exact analogy, therefore it should be translated "even as" or "according as." This sets up an analogy to the family of God and the plan of God. Jesus Christ calls the first person of the Trinity "the Father." That is because He [the Father] is the author of the divine plan.

"hath loved" – aorist active indicative of a)gapaw, strictly a mental attitude love. This is that timeless aorist that goes into eternity past. There never was a time when Jesus Christ was not loved by the Father, or the Father by Jesus Christ. The active voice indicates that God the Father produces love from His own essence. The indicative mood is the reality of this love.

"so have I loved you" – now we have the disciples brought in, and the disciples do not have +R as their own personal characteristic [they have it as an imputation]. This is aorist active indicative, and it is a constative aorist in time. It refers to all the disciples, the pronoun is in the plural. How is it possible for Jesus Christ who is just as much God as the Father to love any member of the human race, including the disciples? The answer is found in the principle of propitiation. God the Father loves all believers on the basis of propitiation; God the Son loves all believers on the basis of positional truth/sanctification. So both God the Father and God the Son can love any member of the human race who is a believer without compromise of character. This is not amplified here but this is the basis whereby Jesus Christ makes this statement.

"continue ye in my love" – aorist active imperative of menw. It means to abide or remain. This is a little different from continue which means to move on. To abide means to benefit by it. Active voice: any believer can do it. Imperative mood: it is an order. It is also a constative aorist. It is "abide in the sphere of my love" – e)n plus the locative of a)gaph. As a mental attitude love is a pure mental attitude love, which means it is free from all sinfulness; minus mental attitude sins. Abide means to maintain the supergrace status right then and there. Whether you continue in supergrace depends on whether you abide every day in doctrine—"abide in the sphere of my love."

Verse 10 – capacity for love. How do you have capacity for love? "If" is a 3rd class condition indicating the volition of the individual; indicating your attitude toward Bible doctrine.

"you keep my commandments" – with the 3rd class condition is the subjunction mood, therefore "ye keep" is the aorist active subjunctive of terew which means to guard something that belongs to you. Bible doctrine in your soul belongs to you. So the aorist active subjunctive of terew plus commandments refers to Bible doctrine in the soul.

"ye shall abide in [the sphere of] my love" – future tense, future from the time of one day at a time.

"even as I have kept my Father's commandments" – I have kept is terew again, but this time it is the perfect active indicative: I have kept them in the past with the result that I keep them. Jesus Christ continued in supergrace all of the way to the cross.

"and abide in [the sphere of] his love" – this time the present tense of menw is linear aktionsart. He kept on in that direction.

Verse 11 – why does He make an issue out of love? Mental attitude love? Because mental attitude love indicates the condition of the soul. Mental attitude love [a)gaph] is strictly in the soul. Therefore it is a specialised love in contrast to filew [and its non filoj]. Filoj is a general love, it includes what is in the soul and what is on the outside as well.

Why does Jesus give them this dissertation on love?

Verse 11 – "These things [principles of Bible doctrine] I have spoken to you" – perfect active indicative of lalew, which means to communicate; they are communicated now with results that will go on later in your life. This is a teaching situation on the eve of the Church Age.

"that" is a purpose clause; "my joy [+H]." Jesus Christ is God. As God He always had +H, there never was a time when He didn't have it; as man Jesus Christ has +H from His supergrace life. He wants this +H to go to His eleven believing disciples.

"might remain" – present active subjunctive of e)imi, might be, not remain. Present tense is linear aktionsart, keep on being in you. Subjunctive mood: it is potential. It depends on whether you as a believer are in supergrace and can stay there long enough for the blessings to roll, or whether you are in reversionism. So, that my inner happiness might keep on being in you.

"and that your joy [+H] might be full" – aorist passive subjunctive of plhrow. Plhrow means four things: a) To fill up the deficiency; b) To fully possess; c) To fully influence; d) To fill with a certain quality. This anticipates supergrace.[1]

Verse 12 – This passage begins with a dissertation on category #3 love and works back toward category #1. "This is" – present active indicative of e)imi, absolute status quo. Active voice: the principle remains forever.

"commandment" – e)ntolh, which means here decree. This is something God ordained before there were people to do it: "This keeps on being my decree." The same concept is found in 1John 3:23.

"that" introduces a purpose clause, and the concept clause is found in the present active subjunctive of a)gapaw, translated "that you love." This is the positive side: soul love based upon capacity. On the negative side a)gapaw is the absence of mental attitude sins; on the positive side it is the mentality of the soul having the capacity to be relaxed toward other members of the human race, classified in this passage as one another and meaning one another of the same kind. Therefore this command is restricted to believers or members the family of God. We are discussing, then, family love. So this is restricted to those who are born again.

"as" – kaqwj, the adverb of analogy. The standard is now given; "I have loved you," aorist active indicative of a)gapaw. The aorist is a gnomic aorist, an absolute. Jesus Christ loves the believer with an absolute love. This love reflects the capacity of Jesus Christ in His hypostatic union.

In verses 13-17 we have the friendship of Jesus Christ, and in verses 18-27 we have the hostility of the world.

Verse 13 – once Jesus Christ becomes the norm or standard amplification comes through illustration. "Greater love" is a comparative adjective from a)gaph—megaj plus a)gaph the noun. The greater love is obviously what Jesus Christ did for us. He wants us to have this soul love, the RMA, but He also wants us to show how far a RMA can carry you. Jesus Christ went further with this capacity for love in His soul than anyone else has ever gone in history. With a RMA you can go a long way in this life. It is the devil's world but an RMA carries you through many things. Jesus Christ was carried all of the way to the thing that was most repugnant to Him. He expresses this a little later on when He says, "Father, if it be thy will let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine be done." The thing that carried Him all the way to the cross was His RMA. He had the greater love: the combination of a)gaph love with SG capacity.

"hath" is a little weak. The present active indicative of e)xw means to have and to hold. This gives stability. When He acquired this maximum capacity for love through the intake of doctrine, through His own SG life in His humanity, He not only had it but He held it. The present tense is linear aktionsart, which gives further stability. The active voice: Jesus Christ had this through the doctrinal content of His human soul. The indicative mood is the reality of greater love in His soul.

"no man" does not occur here. Literally it is no one, o)udeij refers to the human race, not the male specifically. "Greater love no one has [or holds]."

"than this" – ablative of comparison; "that a man lay down" – the indefinite relative pronoun tij, used to state the principle and relate the principle to an historic experience; "ay down" is the aorist active subjunctive of tiqhmi, a word which has a variety of meanings, all related to the word place. The aorist is a culminative aorist which regards the entirety but views it from its end result. The end result is that the love of Jesus Christ developed in His humanity from the virgin birth all of the way to Gethsemane where He uttered these words. The demonstration of it was that He obeyed the Father's will and went to the cross.

"life" – yuxh, soul. Life in the human race depends upon the possession of the yuxh.

"for" – the preposition u(per is the preposition of substitution and should be translated "on behalf of his friends."

The noun here is filoj. It refers to a bona fide love, category #3, human friendship. It is a total soul love in contrast to a)gaph which is a mental soul love. A)gaph is only the beginning of human love as it occurs in the mentality of the soul, but filoj is the total of human love, the greatness of human love.

Verse 14 – category #1 love now becomes the subject. Jesus is speaking to believers only. "Ye" is old English for "you all." "You are" is the present active indicative of e)imi, which means you are and you keep on being.

"my friends" – filoj is used here now for the category #1 which Jesus Christ has for the believer. It is a total soul love. But if we are to realise this there is a condition into which we must enter to understand the true meaning. A)gaph is used for the maximum love which comes to the believer after salvation from propitiation; filoj is used for the expression of that love in pouring—pouring into the cup. Jesus Christ pours for His friends—filoj believers, but He does not pour for His a)gaph believers. God has a)gaph for all believers on the basis of propitiation. God has filoj only for the supergrace believers.

"if" – 3rd class condition; "ye do" – present active subjunctive of poiew, "if you keep on doing," present tense, linear aktionsart. Active voice: the believer does it. The subjunctive mood goes with the 3rd class condition, you may or may not do it.

"whatsoever I command" – present active indicative of e)ntellomai which means to give orders. If God is giving the orders it means to decree. "If you keep on doing what I decree," is the best way to translate it. God decrees after salvation that we GAP it to supergrace. That is our purpose for remaining on this earth. The only possible way that we are ever going to glorify God is by reaching the supergrace status. This is why we have all kinds of words, like "Grow is grace … study to show thyself approved" – all ways of expressing God's decree. God decrees that all believers take in Bible doctrine and reach the supergrace capacity so that they can become filoj.

Verse 15 – the advance into the supergrace life. "Henceforth" is an adverb, o)uketi. It means no longer, not henceforth. These disciples are going to be apostles; they are going to GAP it.

"No longer do I call you [designate you] slaves [douloj]" – they have been the slaves of the Lord during the period of His ministry on earth.

"for the servant [slave] does not know what his master [Lord] does" – present active indicative of poiew, what he keeps doing.

"but" – adversative conjunction of contrast; "I have called you friends" – legw in the perfect active indicative means designated in the past with the result that you keep on being designated filoi—"friends." The difference between douloj and filoj: douloj is ignorance; filoj is cognisance. That is the whole story of the Christian life. The issue after salvation is cognisance versus ignorance. Ignorance leads to reversionism; cognisance leads to supergrace.

"I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you" – that is why they are friends. Jesus Christ has communicated to them doctrine. "I have designated you in the past with the result that you will continue to be filoj."

"for all things" – the doctrine of the mystery; "I have heard" – the aorist active indicative of a)kouw indicates that Jesus Christ Himself in His humanity went to supergrace, learned maximum doctrine, learned the plan of God the Father for the Church Age, and communicated it. The aorist tense here is rather important. It means that Jesus Christ heard the whole realm of Church Age doctrine. The culminative aorist means that He learned it all. In His deity He always knew it, but here the emphasis is on His humanity in the hypostatic union.

"of my Father" – para is the preposition of immediate source and translated "from my Father."

"and have made known" – ingressive aorist: He began to make known. He didn't teach the whole realm of doctrine to the disciples, they will learn as time goes on. What Jesus began to teach Peter and Paul and John, etc. will record, and in 96 AD the canon of scripture will be completed and that will record everything that Jesus Christ heard. The disciples communicated what the Lord heard and assimilated in His own GAPing in His humanity. So, "all things I have [completely] heard from the source of my Father I have begun to make known to you."

Verse 16 – supergrace production. "You have not chosen me" – aorist middle indicative of e)klegw. This is a gnomic aorist, it deals with an absolute. This is an absolute fact. The gnomic aorist says, You have nothing to do with the plan, it is my plan. Middle voice: the subject is benefited by the action of the verb, but with the negative the believer has not chosen Christ for his own benefit but Christ has chosen him for His glory, His benefit. How do we glorify God? How do we benefit Jesus Christ? Through our own free will on a daily basis going all the way to supergrace, getting that cup so that He can pour. He is glorified by pouring, by blessing the believer in the devil's world. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that God has a plan for your life.

"but" – adversative conjunction of contrast; "I have chosen you" – gnomic aorist, this time on the positive side. It is an absolute fact that God has elected or chosen you. Middle voice: it is to your benefit only in the sense that God Himself has found a way to glorify Himself in the angelic conflict while simultaneously benefiting you.[2]

"and ordained" – aorist active indicative of tiqhmi, used here for appointment. Tiqhmi means that God has laid out for you a plan; it means basically to lay down or lay out. This is a gnomic aorist, an absolute fact. The active voice: God laid it out. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that no matter how insignificant or how inferior you may feel God has a plan and a purpose for your life.

"that" introduces a purpose clause; "you should go" – present active subjunctive of u(pagw. U(pagw means to go away, to depart, to go under the authority of. Going under the authority of: u(po here refers to doctrine in the soul. God is not personally present to supervise you, all of the supervision is carried on through Bible doctrine in the soul. We have everything we need to guide us in this plan through doctrine in the soul. The doctrine in the Bible will not help, it must be transferred to the soul through the function of GAP. When it does, you become a doer of the Word, you "bring forth fruit."

"bring forth fruit" – present active subjunctive of ferw which means to bear, to show, plus karpoj which means fruit. This is not necessarily something on the outside, it is something in the soul. The subjunctive mood of this verb indicates that such a fact is potential and depends upon the intake of doctrine.

"and that your fruit should remain" – menw means to abide, and it means once you accumulate doctrine in the soul you then begin to accumulate dividends from doctrine. But, again, it is in the subjunctive mood indicating the fact that it is potential. The present tense is an iterative present, and means only when you are in supergrace.

Then we have an illustration from supergrace prayer, a second purpose clause: "that whatsoever [if, or anything] ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it." The aorist tense is ingressive: a)itew, beginning to ask. You are in supergrace, you begin to ask and He gives it to you. The aorist active subjunctive is a culminative aorist. This is the effectiveness of supergrace prayer.

"in my name" – John 14:13,14 explains that every believer is a priest. Our high priest is Jesus Christ; we go through our high priest in prayer to the throne.

Verse 17 – the repeated command. "These things" – this explains why He has commanded love, because love has a capacity basis, the capacity basis is Bible doctrine. The more doctrine you have, the greater your capacity for love and the greater your capacity for blessing.

"I command you" – present middle indicative of e)ntellomai means I decree. Middle voice" for your benefit. Indicative mood: reality.

"that you love one another [of the same kind]" – a)gapaw. This, again, is based upon the amount of doctrine in the soul.

Verses 18-25, seven reasons for the world's hostility. We should understand the use of the word world—o( kosmoj. The word gh is the word for the earth's surface. Kosmoj does not refer to the world as a planet, to the surface or topography of the earth, and so on. Kosmoj means an organised system, and when we use the word world in this passage we are thinking of a system of thought designed by Satan himself who is the greatest creature genius of all creature history. It includes everything from religion, to systems of government, political thought, and concepts of life. But the world is first of all an organised system of thought. Secondly, the world is a system of organizations, all of which are outside the framework of the divine institutions—like international organizations, religious organizations, and so on. Thirdly, the world is a category of people—the unbelievers, e.g. John 17. Yet, the word kosmoj describes all of these—a system of thought, an organisational system, and a type of person.

Worldliness is different again. Worldliness: first of all you have to go negative toward doctrine, then you create scar tissue on the left bank of the soul. This opens up the mataiothj and through this comes human viewpoint, and human viewpoint in the soul exhaled out the right bank of the soul is worldliness. Worldliness, then, is a mental attitude in the Christian.

But the word kosmoj here refers to: a) a satanic system of thought; b) organizations satanic; c) the world of unbelievers.

Verse 18 – reason #1: because the kosmoj system hates Jesus Christ. "If the world hates you." "If" is a 1st class condition, if and it does. The word world is kosmoj which in this passage means a system of thought which is antagonistic to Jesus Christ, satanic organizations which are antagonistic to Jesus Christ, and people who are antagonistic to Jesus Christ—all fall into the category of hating.

The structure of the kosmoj: John 14:30, Satan is the prince [ruler] of this world, and because of that and because knew that Satan would be the ruler of this world God designed certain things to protect the human race in Satan's rule. God must protect the human race so that it can go from point creation to the end of the world and still have a human race. In order for the angelic conflict to be resolved there are certain increments of history that have to be fulfilled. There is another restrainer in the world during the intensification of the angelic conflict in the Church Age, and that is the ministry of the Holy Spirit but we will take this up from the standpoint of the divine institutions as the means of perpetuating the human race, and as the counteraction to Satan's rule. There are two counteractions to Satan's rule as far as people are concerned: the divine institutions and the whole concept of Christianity, the operation of the believer priest in the Church Age. We also have the ministry of the Holy Spirit, as mentioned briefly in 2 Thessalonians 2, as a restrainer.

There are four divine institutions:

1. Volition—human freedom and privacy, the right to live and to produce in compatibility with one's own ability without interference from the law or any organised structure. The only exception is where free will takes a person into crime or some form of dishonesty. Volition is a recognition of the right of the individual to make his own decisions which are compatible with his ability, with his taste, with his ideas, with his concepts.

2. Marriage—the frame work for category #2 love, and it becomes the basic stabiliser of the human race. From the start marriage was designed for one man and one woman

3. Family—the basis for protecting the human race because the moment a member of the human race is born he is the most helpless, the most useless of all born creatures of any kind. Man is a very helpless creature at his start and must have all kinds of protection. He must have training, and so on. The family is designed to provide this, to provide discipline and the respect for the rights and property of others, and all of the other concepts that go into making orderly human life. The family is the training ground for all of this.

4. Nationalism—the human race cannot stand too much prosperity. When you get a breaking down of national entities or racial entities and a resultant international organization which someone gets control of it destroys the volition of the individual and the opportunities of the individual. This has been illustrated by Communist Russia and Communist China. Whenever something gets too big so that the nationalism concept is broken down the freedoms of the individual is destroyed and within the framework of those empires there is usually persecution of Christianity and no true evangelism, or very little of it.

Nationalism is designed to protect the rights, the freedom, and the privacy of a large number of individuals within the human race. Therefore

the national entity can have a definition of one or more types: a racial definition, a geographical definition, and a linguistic definition. The national entity must have a common law and a common culture. In the national entity there must be a system of law enforcement which must include the biblical principle of applying capital punishment where necessary. There must also be protection from outside encroachment. Law enforcement is protection from inside encroachment and is designed to protect the property, the person, and the rights of an individual. The overt protection must come from a military establishment. Administration is also necessary. It is the basis for a bona fide taxation. The economy must be a free enterprise system based upon supply and demand. There must also be a bona fide system of charity, as taught in Codex #3 of the Mosaic law. There must also be a separation of religion and state, a separation of social life and state, so that no such organization can influence the policy of the state.

These divine institutions are designed to protect human freedom, and under them human freedom is the most protected thing in the devil's world so that bona fide evangelism can exist in every generation. Satan must attack not only these four divine institutions but he must attack the gospel, the content of the gospel, the message of the gospel, those who deliver the gospel, and so on.

Therefore, Satan as the ruler of this world, and having a system, hates the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan is anti-divine institution even as he is anti-Christ.

"If the world keeps on hating you [and it does]" – that is the protasis. The one who rules the world is Satan—Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11-19; John 8:44; 1John 3:8 describes the person of Satan, the greatest genius of all creatures. The strategy of Satan, mentioned in 2Corinthians 2:11, is found in many areas of scripture. This strategy has to do with the attack upon the divine institutions, as illustrated in the antediluvian civilisation where Satan made an attack upon all of them. He has a strategy with regard to national entities, to distort them from a protective system—divine institution #4, nationalism—into something into something that he can use to further his gain. This is when a national entity starts to get into things that destroy human freedom, such as socialism, government regulation of industry, government controls where human volition is involved (outside of crime, where it is bona fide). Satan has a strategy with regard to nations. His objective is to distort the true purpose of divine institution #4.

"If the world hates you" – Satan is constantly exercising his hate. The world does hate the believer, so this may as well be faced. Satan also has a strategy working through unbelievers—2Corinthians 4:3, 4; Luke 8:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10; Colossians 2:8. The emphasis in this 1st class condition is the fact that the world, which includes Satan and the whole system—"hate(s) you," the present active indicative of the verb misew which is the strongest word for hate in the Greek language. This is one of the few verbs that does not have to be compounded to give it intensity. It expresses the intensity of mental attitude and of thought pattern. So there is a system of thought that despises you. Part of that system of thought is legalism and religionism and do-goodism and bleeding-heartism. It is a system that despises you! Present linear aktionsart, it always will hate you. The world, the kosmoj system, is implacable toward you. "You" is in the plural, it means every believer. The active voice of this verb says that the kosmoj system will always hate you. The indicative mood: it is a reality; face it!

"ye [you all] know" – understand a point of doctrine. The word know here is in the imperative mood, and it should be translated "know ye"; "that it hated me before you" – Christ was the target in the angelic conflict before the Church Age began. It hated Christ from Genesis 3:15 until His resurrection, ascension and session. Now Christ is gone and every believer is still no the earth, and this verse is saying, then, that in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict you are a target, always will be a target, there never will be a time when you are not a target. You are a target for intense hatred and it is not just people hating you. Remember that it is a system that hates you, a type of thought. That system is religionism, legalism, and it despises you. So the first reason that the world hates the believer is because the kosmoj system hates Christ and we are related to Him.

Verse 19 – the second reason is because the believer priest in the plan of God no longer belongs to the world, the kosmoj system. "If ye were of the world" – 2nd class condition [but you are not]. "Ye were" is imperfect active subjunctive. The imperfect tense means to keep on being in the past. The active voice: the individuals spoken to here—the disciples. The subjunctive means that there was a time when you were in the world but you no longer are, and the subjunctive goes with the 2nd class condition. Literally, "If you were from the world," and you are not. You are born again now; you are disciples now.

"the world would keep on having rapport love for you" – the type of love here is filew, rapport love. Why? Because, "the world would love its own." Satan has his own system, the kosmoj, and the kosmoj despises you because you are in the plan as of the day you accepted Christ as saviour. So the kosmoj must therefore hate the believer, hate doctrine, hate anything that causes the believer to stand up to the kosmoj system. The believer may stupidly love the kosmoj because of ignorance of doctrine, and this is where we have social action today and social gospel. There is a difference, however, between loving the souls of men [witnessing therefore] and the system under which men operate. When people are saved they are snatched from the kosmoj system.

"but I have chosen you" – doctrine of election; "out of the world" – in eternity past when election was put into operation (Eph. 1:4,5) God the Father elected every believer in the Church Age. He elected Christ; every believer is in union with Christ.

"therefore the world hates you" – present active indicative of misew, it keeps on hating. The erected structure of the soul is what causes you to stand up to the intense hatred of Satan and the cosmic system.

Verse 20 – the 3rd reason for the hatred of the cosmic system. It is because of a principle: "The servant is not greater than his lord."

"Remember" – mnhmoneuw means to call to mind something that you have learned, something that you already know. The reason you call it to mind is to apply it to the situation. This word suggests again that within your soul there is an erected structure from which you draw. On the basis of doctrine and grace orientation you remember and recall something which you then apply.

"the word that I said unto you" – dative of advantage; "the servant is not greater than his master." Then He makes the application:

"if" is a 1st class condition; "they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you [and they have]." The verb is diwkw, which means to put pressure on, to persecute, and it refers to certain points of time which are all gathered up now into one entirety. Jesus was not persecuted every minute but there were times when the pressure was on. The future tense, "they will also persecute you," means that they are not a target yet. As long as Christ is on the earth He is the target, but He says that in the future they will be. In the Church Age every believer is now the target.

"if they had kept my saying -- 1st class condition. The word to keep here is terew, to guard something that belongs to self. There are two things that Jesus developed: the gospel and the divine institutions. These belong to the human race. If they had kept my proclamations [teachings]. The 1st class condition recognises that they could have, and some did. And for those who did …

"they will keep yours also" – in other words, you have a nucleus with which to work. The disciples may be hated but they are going to have a job. They are going to be apostles; they will be communicators of doctrine.

Verse 21 – the fourth reason for this hatred: because the cosmos is ignorant of the plan of God.

"all these things" is a reference to Satan in the business of exalting self and opposing God. Satan is therefore in opposition to the plan of God. He has designed a plan to counter the plan of God. He has designed systems of culture, politics, education, in order to obscure the ridicule of the plan of God. He is the author of religion and legalism and he is doing everything he can to discredit grace and discredit the plan of God during the Church Age.

"will they do" – they refers to anyone who is involved in Satan's system. Satan's warfare adapts itself to times and conditions. Sometimes he seeks to destroy all believers on the earth, when history is right for it, and at other times he seeks to discredit believers on the earth. Sometimes he entices the believer away with false doctrine and sometimes he just wipes him out with those who have false doctrine.

"because they know not" – o)ida, inherently they know not.

Dr. L. S. Chafer in his Systematic Theology, vol. II, page 110, said, "The idea that man will stand on the basis of personal worthiness has been the chief heresy opposing the central doctrine of grace from the time of Christ's death to the present hour." He went on to say, "It so permeates the Church that few who preach are able to exclude it from their attempts at gospel preaching. It is safe to say that wherever the element of human merit is allowed to into the presentation of the plan of salvation, the message is satanic to that extent. The ministers of Satan proclaim personal righteousness as the ground of the individual's right relationship to God (2 Cor. 11:13-15)."

"because of my name, because they know not him that sent me" – they do not understand the Father nor the principle by which He operates. The Father operates on the basis of grace. There is no other way for God to take sinful, spiritually dead, hopeless, useless humanity, and make him a child of God. Grace found a way, i.e. the cross. They do not understand grace, "they know not."

Verse 22 – the fifth cause of antagonism is because their old sin nature is exposed. The principle here is that the world cannot relax when you talk about its old sin nature.

"If" – 1st class condition; "I had not come and spoken unto them" – the word spoken, lalew, means to communicate doctrine.

"they had not known sin" – this is a conative imperfect and it means they would not have the awareness of the sin nature.

"but now" – due to the fact of His ministry; "they have no cloak for their sin" – i.e. to cover their old sin nature. In other words, Bible doctrine rips off the façade of self-righteousness, it exposes the person for what he really is, a person with a sin nature and spiritually dead. It topples their house of cards.

Verses 23, 24: the 6th reason for the world's antagonism—the world hates God the Father and it hates God the Son.

Verse 23 – "He that hateth me hateth my Father also." So Jesus Christ is the primary target, and they keep on hating Him—present active indicative of misew. Since God the Father sent the Son hatred of the Son is hatred of the Father. Rejection of the Son is rejection of the Father's plan and the Father's grace. So this is a statement of total hatred and total rejection of the plan of God on the part of the kosmoj system.

Verse 24 – "If I had not done among them the works." This is a reference to every miracle performed by Jesus. They were not designed to alleviate suffering but they were designed to reveal Christ as saviour and the Father's plan of grace.

"which none other man did" – no one else could ever do these things; "they had not sin: but now they have both seen and hated both me and the Father."

"they had not sin" is they had not become aware of the sin nature.

"but now have they both seen" – perfect tense of o(raw which means to get a perfect panoramic view. They had a panoramic view of the plan of God.

"and hateth" – now for the first time the word hate [misew] is now in the perfect tense, hate in the past with the result that it goes on forever.

"both me and my Father" – the kosmoj system hates the Father and the Son and it will try to distort the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the intensified period of the angelic conflict.

Verse 25 – the last reason has to do with the Old Testament. The kosmoj hates the believer because the Old Testament prophesied it.

"But this cometh to pass" – not found in the original and not needed. "But that the word might be fulfilled" – the word refers to the Old Testament, like Psalm 69:4; 35:19; "might be fulfilled" means to receive fulfilment, passive voice.

"that it is written in their law, They hated me without a cause" – their was no basis for their hatred at all.

Verse 26 – God's plan will continue on the earth. It comes from two sources: in verse 26, the ministry of the Spirit; in verse 27, the ministry of every believer.

"But when the Comforter is come" – God the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the Church Age; "whom I send unto you from the immediate source of the Father, even the Spirit of truth" – this is an operational title in connection with His communication of doctrine whereby we can have an ECS so that we can stand up against the pressure of cosmos diabolicus.

"even the Spirit of doctrine which proceedeth from the [immediate source of] the Father, he shall testify concerning me." So we have the ministry of the Holy Spirit throughout the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.

Verse 27 – the believer himself. "And ye also shall bear witness" – every believer as a witness for Christ.

"because ye have been with me from the beginning" – a reference, first of all to the disciples. When the Church Age begins they will bear witness. And this witnessing principle has been perpetuated from the disciples right down to us today. Here are two things which counter-attack in the devil's world: the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the witness of the gospel through the individual believer.

[1] See Doctrine of Happiness

[2] See the Doctrine of election.

Chapter 16

This is a continuation of the Gethsemane discourse. It continues the study of the angelic conflict from the standpoint of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in verses 1-15, and the ministry of God the Son in verses 16-33. The Lord Jesus Christ is anticipating the coming of the Church Age, the dispensation in which He is glorified at the right hand of the Father, absent from the earth, the dispensation in which the intensification of the angelic conflict begins.

The intensification of the angelic conflict

1. The resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ causes a shift in gears in

the angelic conflict. The angelic conflict has existed from even prior to man's creation and it shifts gears at various times. Man was created in order to resolve the angelic conflict. Man's fall caused a change—the promise of the saviour. And from the fall of man until the ascension of Jesus Christ the Lord Jesus Himself was the primary target in the angelic conflict. But once Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father and the cross is an historical reality it is no longer possible for Satan to interdict in this field. Consequently we now have believers on the earth as the target of Satan.

2. Until the ascension the line of Christ and the person of Christ were the target in

the angelic conflict.

3. Once Christ is glorified at the right hand of the Father the angelic conflict

becomes intensified in the Church Age.

4. Every believer is now a target, and because of this God has made special

provision for every believer in the Church Age.

Verses 1-15, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This is the doctrine of the mystery of the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age. It is called a

mystery not because it should be obscure today but because nothing concerning the Church Age was revealed in Old Testament times. Now that the Church Age has begun we have the canon of scripture unfolding Bible doctrine with regard to the Church Age. So the doctrine of the mystery deals with doctrine pertaining to the Church Age—not hidden from us but hidden in the past, hidden from people who could not teach or proclaim this information. He reason for the doctrine of the mystery is quite obvious: it was designed to keep Satan from being clued in on the Church Age until the intensification of that stage of the conflict would actually begin.

Verse 1 – the purpose of the briefing. We have throughout the two discourses (Upper room and Gethsemane) the phrase, "These things" – this is the doctrinal content of the previous chapter and the doctrine taught by Jesus Christ the night before He was betrayed and the night before His crucifixion. "These things" is a constant reference to what Jesus Christ has just taught. He has just taught the antagonism of cosmos diabolicus, the seven reasons why the world hates the believer. Regardless of what we may think and how we may be treated by segments of the world, the world has a permanent antagonism toward us because the ruler of the world, Satan, is antagonistic toward us.

"have I spoken" – perfect active indicative of the verb lalew which means to communicate doctrine. The word legw which means to speak also means to organise information in your mind and then speak it. But lalew means to communicate doctrine. "These things I have communicated in the past with the result that they stand."

"unto you" – dative of advantage; "that" – purpose clause; "ye should not be offended." The word offended is skandalizw. It is the basis for our English word scandal or the verb scandalise. However they are entirely different in the English. The word skandalizw means to be shocked, to be offended, to fail because you are disillusioned with some thing or some person. So it has to do with shock and disillusionment, in other words, with the breakdown and failure in the soul.

Jesus Christ taught doctrine to protect the disciples. They were about to go under maximum pressure, the pressure of the crucifixion. The betrayal, seven trials, and the crucifixion is going to shake them up. Jesus has given them these things so that they would not be skandalizw, they would not be shocked and disillusioned and disappointed. Doctrine is designed to avoid frustration or shock or hurt or disillusion in any pressure of life. The only protection that the believer has in this life against these things is Bible doctrine in the soul. So the answer as presented in principle here is the concept of soul breathing—the inhale of Bible doctrine under the filling of the Holy Spirit.

"that you should not be shocked" – aorist tense: point of time, pressure. The aorist takes up from the moment of betrayal to the crucifixion. Passive voice: under pressure they are not to receive shock, disillusionment. Subjunctive mood: such failure is potential and can be prevented by doctrine. When you take in doctrine you exhale doctrine. The edification structure in the soul is built on residual doctrine. The more doctrine you take in the greater the build-up of residual doctrine.

Principle: The believer priest in the Church Age must be designed for the intensification of the angelic conflict. In this design he must be shock-proof.

Verse 2 – why all of this was necessary. The antagonism of religion is developed in 2Timothy 3:8-14. It is countered by the edification concept, the ECS. Religion is the devil's weapon for neutralising doctrine and religion will persecute the grace-oriented believer priest in the Church Age. So to prepare them for this Jesus gives a short dissertation on the opposition of religion in verses 2-4.

"They shall put you out of the synagogues" – they refers to the religious crowd of 2Timothy 3:7. This means they will excommunicate them from the synagogues. This is a reference to the religious persecution by the Judaisers. Jesus is anticipating the hostility of religion toward grace. It is ruthless and senseless and inexcusable—diabolical. Religious opposition is going to continue throughout the Church Age.

"the time [hour, a portion of time] cometh" – present active indicative, a dramatic present. There is a dramatic moment coming and they are going to have to face it. Religion will gain such ascendancy. Religion is like a weed; it grows when it has something to prey on. In any country where you have maximum negative volition toward doctrine religion infiltrates that area. Then those who are religious, being sincere, always think they are doing God a great favour by wiping you out. Religion always seeks to destroy the truth, but religion has restraints until religion means control of a state and religion gains control of a state only when there is negative volition toward doctrine.

"that whosoever killeth you" – a)pokteinw [a)po = ultimate source; kteinw = to kill], means the desire from the ultimate source of self to kill you, e.g. Saul of Tarsus. Whosoever refers to religious types, and unbeliever religious types are always characterised by scar tissue on the left bank of the soul, scar tissue on the right bank of the soul. Aorist active participle of a)pokteinw means to destroy from the ultimate source of their religious mental attitude.

"will think" – aorist active subjunctive of the verb dokew. Dokew is subjective thinking [noew is objective thinking]. All subjective thinking assumes, and so the word dokew comes to mean to presume or to conclude on a false basis, or to presume in the mind. All subjective thinking is wrong thinking. These religious types in killing Christians are assuming subjectively that they are doing a great service for God.

"doeth" – does not mean to do. This is prosqew [qerw = to carry, to bear; proj = face to face] which means they think they are bringing God a sacrifice that He likes; "service" – latreia, means a spiritual service, a religious service. This comes from subjective thinking.

Summary of verse 2

5. Religion is the result of negative volition toward doctrine which in turn puts scar

tissue on the soul.

6. This negative volition and resultant scar tissue blocks the lungs of the soul,

opening up a vacuum—mataiothj. Satan brings thoughts through the mataiothj into the soul of the born again believer.

7. Though this vacuum comes darkness, pseudo-edification, false doctrine—

Ephesians 4:17,18.

8. The soul in darkness is both blind and stupid with regard to the grace of God.

9. Mental attitude sins such as hatred, jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability,

motivate religious types to be active in persecution—even killing.

10. These acts of persecution include murder which is rationalised as a service toward

God.

11. In this way the religious killer has no guilt complex for his sins.

12. The religious man assumes that the end justifies the means. The end is the

removal of Christianity from the earth; the means is rationalised murder.

This is a satanic objective: to remove the body of Christ en toto from his domain. The

fact that there is one Christian alive on the earth today galls Satan and he does everything he can to neutralise Christianity, both as to the body on the earth and as to the effectiveness dynamics of operation phase two. And Satan and his system cannot stand grace.

Verse 3 – religion does not possess category #1 love. "And these things will they do" – reference to the persecutions and hostility of religion toward the believer; "will they do" is a future tense, it hasn't occurred yet but it will come in the Church Age.

"because they have not known the Father, nor me" – they have no knowledge of God, ginwskw, aorist active indicative plus the negative. Ginwskw means to know from the experience of studying God's revelation of Himself. They have no ginwskw, they do not know Him. In other words, if you do not know God you cannot love God. You have to know God to love God. Religion is blinded toward God and totally without category #1 love. The religious type assumes that what pleases God is the elimination of grace—God's plan. Therefore religion superimposes its own darkness upon the plan of God.

Verse 4 – Bible doctrine prepares the believer priest for any such traumatic experience [such as religious persecution]. Jesus briefs His disciples before the shock breaks.

"But these things I have told you" – perfect tense of lalew, I have communicated in the past for your benefit with the result that you have these things as shock protection, shock proof.

"when the time [hour] shall come" – aorist tense, point of time in the future – "you may remember" – mnhmoneuw. This means that Jesus in three years of teaching has actually given them enough information to have an erected ECS. They do not have this! But out of memory and out of further ministry from the Spirit they will in the future take up the slack where they have failed in three years. Knowledge of doctrine is the only preparation, the only provision for adversity and for religious persecution. Real pressure in your life demands the erection of the ECS.

"And these things I said not unto you at the beginning [of His public ministry]" – He waited until the night before the crucifixion to tell them that they were not shock-proof.

"because I was with you" – I was is imperfect linear aktionsart of e)imi, I always was with you.

"I always was with you"

1. Jesus was present on the earth with the disciples, therefore two things could not happen while He was there: a) the intensification of the angelic conflict could not happen; b) the dispensation could not change. As long as Jesus remains on the earth and does not go to the cross there will be no intensification of the angelic conflict or change of dispensation. And the two reasons we have this ECS are for a change of dispensation and, before that, the glorification of Christ.

1. Once Jesus departs from the world through ascension, session, glorification,

the disciples will face a new situation.

2. The glorification of Christ and His absence from the earth will intensify the

angelic conflict during the Church Age. That means that every believer is the target of Satan and the demon army. And that means that you are in full time Christian service.

3. The glorification of Christ and His absence from the earth will result in the

formation of the body of Christ on the earth.

4. Every believer is in the body of Christ, every believer is a priest in the body

of Christ, every believer is an ambassador in the body of Christ.

5. Through knowledge of doctrine he can become spiritually self-sustaining in

the devil's world. But there is only one way to be spiritually self-sustaining—the daily function of GAP. The believer is not spiritually self-sustaining until there is an ECS.

6. Every believer on the earth is an ambassador for Christ. As such he represents

God on the earth; as such he is in full time Christian service.

7. The combination of ambassadorship and priesthood, plus operation footstool,

means a change in dispensation and a change in meaning to the life of the believer.

8. The hostility from unseen forces of angels will be great but the provision in

eternity past is greater. "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world."

9. This provision of doctrine becomes a reality through constant soul breathing,

the erection of an ECS.

This is the dispensation of the absence of Christ, of intensification of the angelic

conflict, of the universal ministry of the Spirit in every believer, the universal ministry of the believer. It is the one dispensation in which the life of every believer has meaning, purpose, definition; the one dispensation in which the believer can have more happiness and blessing in life than any other dispensation.

Verse 5 – we find that the disciples are disoriented to the plan of God where they should be filled with doctrine and have an ECS. Instead, they are filled with misery. "But" begins the recognition of the fact that the disciples are not prepared for the advance of the plan of God. The plan of God moves on whether we go along with it or not. The disciples are disoriented because they are minus Bible doctrine, even though they have been taught for three years.

"now" – anticipating that He is going to the cross, to the grave, resurrection, and then ascending to the Father; "I go my way" – he means that He is moving toward a goal; u(pagw, He is on the track and He is going with the plan of God. The reason that He is going with the plan of God the Father is because in His humanity He has an ECS, and the humanity of Jesus Christ is reflecting the glory of the Father.

"to him that sent me" – proj plus the accusative, face to face with the one sending me. This is the ultimate, the objective. He is going from maximum humiliation to maximum glorification. As a member of the human race He will bear our sins and be our saviour, and as a member of the human race He will be seated at the right hand of the Father in the state of glorification, and when He is glorified in His humanity a new dispensation will begin. To understand the new dispensation and its difference from the Age of Israel they should have been listening so that in this period prior to the crucifixion and immediately afterward they would have gone along for the ride. But they missed it. He points out the fact that they are disoriented because He says …

"and none of you" – this means all of them, including John; "asketh" – and He didn't say ask. This is a present active subjunctive of e)rwtaw which means to make inquiry, to interrogate. In other words, Jesus is telling them that here is their last chance to orient. Interrogation here would indicate a switch to +V toward Bible doctrine.

Principle: Without prior study of Bible doctrine up to a point of crisis you cannot be prepared for the crisis. You cannot pull a verse out of the air in a disaster and orient to the grace of God.

"Whither" means, To what place … do you go in the Father's plan?

Verse 6 – "But because I have said these things," perfect active indicative of lalew which means to communicate doctrine. Perfect tense: I have communicated in the past (for the past three years) with the result that I will keep on communicating, even though you disciples failed. In fact, the entire Church Age will have His communication of Bible doctrine. Active voice: Jesus started teaching while on earth and He continues through the Word which is the mind of Christ. The indicative mood is the reality of doctrine available to the eleven disciples and the reality of doctrine available to us right now.

"these things" – the upper room discourse and the Gethsemane discourse; "unto you" – for your advantage. And what do they have?

"sorrow hath filled your heart" – sorrow is the Greek word luph. This is mental anguish because of no ECS to orient to the plan of God. Therefore there is shock, anguish, distress. At this point the disciples should be reflecting glory and obviously the light is out.

"Sorrow has filled your heart"

1. Jesus has clearly presented His death, burial, resurrection and ascension as a part

of the plan for the first advent.

2. Negative volition toward the teaching of Christ for three years results in mental

pain and anguish.

3. At a critical moment the eleven disciples are all disoriented.

4. Instead of orienting to the cross, the departure, the moving forward of the plan of

God, they have associated the death of Christ with catastrophe.

5. They therefore cannot recognise the principle of Romans 8:28. They did not have

the reflected glory of an ECS.

6. The verb "hath filled" is a perfect active indicative of plhrow which means to

fill up a deficiency or to fill up a vacuum. Here it means to fill up a vacuum in their souls.

7. Into this vacuum we have mental attitude sins. Luph is pain of the nouj, the

mentality of the soul.

8. Mental attitude sins must be displaced by Bible doctrine in the soul. This can only

occur through daily intake of doctrine.

Verse 7 – divine provision for the intensification of the angelic conflict. Here is the first ray of hope. Even though they have failed to learn doctrine in the three

years Jesus has been teaching them they are going to learn doctrine after He has gone.

"I tell you" – legw, the content of His message formed into words in the mind. (The communication of it is lalew). Even though Jesus is under great pressure He is not in any way under shock and can still communicate doctrine.

"the truth" – a)lhqeia, which is doctrine in categorical form. This doctrine must displace the mental attitude sins. This will not help unless there is a structure of doctrine in the soul. A temporary dash for doctrine when you need it is not going to take up the slack, you must over a period of time have taken in the doctrine. In other words, when the crisis comes you have to have more than two hours of Bible class, and more than a couple of verses that you have memorised.

"It is expedient" – that is not what the word means. This is a present active indicative of sumferw which means it is advantageous, it is beneficial, it is profitable. This is present linear aktionsart, it keeps on being beneficial. But the subjunctive mood says the benefit is potential, depending upon whether you have an ECS or not.

"that I go away" – that I move [depart] toward my destination. The destination is the fulfilment of phase one of the plan of God, the incarnation.

There are two 3rd class conditions [maybe yes, maybe no] in the rest of this verse. When there are two in the same sentence it sets up two alternatives to a situation. The first alternative: Suppose Jesus Christ does not go through with the plan of the Father for the incarnation. This is an assumption which is not true but it is put in the 3rc class condition to indicate alternatives. So we have …

"if" – the first alternative, not true; "if" – second alternative which is reality. But they are both 3rd class conditions to show alternatives to a situation. These are alternatives in the spiritual conflict. The first: Suppose that Christ does not go to the cross—He has free will in His humanity. That would mean no resurrection, ascension, and no seating of Christ at the right hand of the Father. Therefore the angelic conflict would not shift gears. But suppose on the other hand that Christ goes to the cross—as He actually did—and is resurrected, ascended, seated at the right hand of the Father. Now the angelic conflict does shift gears and we enter into the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.

"if I go not away" – this means that Jesus Christ does not go to the cross, would not follow the plan of God. He is talking to the disciples. He is going with the plan of God and they through negative volition are all going to peel off, defect.

"the Comforter will not come."

1. The word for "Comforter" is paraklhtoj, which means one who is sent to

assist another. Or better, one who provides beneficial services for another.

2. Paraklhtoj here refers to the Holy Spirit – John 14:16, 26; 15:26.

3. The same noun is used for Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity—1John

2:1, where it is called "Advocate."

4. The Comforter will not come. There is a double negative here and this is a

stronger negative in the Greek. Christ must go up to be a paraklhtoj; the Spirit must come down to be a paraklhtoj. The Spirit is to indwell us on earth; Christ is to represent us in heaven. During the intensification of the angelic conflict every believer is an ambassador representing the absent Christ. An ambassador represents someone who is absent. Christ is in heaven representing us and we are on the earth representing Him. But we do not have the power to represent Him without the ministry of the Holy Spirit, our paraklhtoj.

5. No ascension of Christ means no first advent of the Spirit.

6. No first advent of the Spirit means no benefit for the believer priest in the Church

Age.

"if I depart" – we have a different word for departure now, poreuomai, which means to go from point A to point B. Christ is going to go from Gethsemane to

the cross, and eventually to heaven. So poreuomai expresses the plan of God the Father. It is the plan of the Father that the Son go to the cross. "I depart" is an aorist active subjunctive, and the aorist tense of poreuomai means from pint to point to point, all gathered into one entirety: Gethsemane, the cross, resurrection, ascension, session.

"I will send" – this is a promise. When the Holy Spirit is sent He will find believers and unbelievers on the earth. In verses 8-11 we have the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the unbeliever; in verses 12-15 we have the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the believers.

The Lord Jesus Christ, while on earth, was a prophet concerning the Church Age. He taught many things concerning the plan of God and one thing which He emphasised in the upper room and Gethsemane discourses was the dispensation of the Church. But He had to anticipate it; it was a brand new subject. Everything that Jesus said about the Church Age was prophecy and therefore He could only sketch out a few important details and certain principles connected with it. The greatest exponent of the Church Age is the apostle Paul and his letters clearly reflect the details and the design of the dispensation in which we find ourselves. Next to Paul, Peter and John had a tremendous clarification of certain areas of the Church Age. Jesus Christ Himself could not possibly have given detail. The eleven disciples would not have understood. They heard Jesus Christ teach Bible doctrine every day for three years and yet they didn't understand much of it.

In verses 8-11 we have the ministry of thew Holy Spirit to the unbeliever. In verses 12-15 we have the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the believer. All of this has to do with the Church Age.

Verse 8 – "And when he [the Holy Spirit] is come," aorist active participle of the verb e)rxomai which refers to the first advent of the Holy Spirit. Aorist tense: the point of time after Christ is glorified (ten days later) the Holy Spirit comes to the earth. So everything that is given between verses 8 and 15 has to do with the ministry of the Holy Spirit after He comes.

"he will reprove" – future active indicative of e)legxw, this ministry of the Spirit has not occurred yet but it will. The word means more than simply to reprove, it means to lay bare the facts, to lay them on the line. It means to rebuke and to reprove but here it doesn't go quite that far. The Holy Spirit is not rebuking or reproving, He is exposing the facts. Why? Because unbelievers do not have the ability to understand the facts of the gospel or any spiritual phenomena because the unbeliever is minus the human spirit—1Corinthians 2:14. Since the unbeliever does not have a human spirit the Holy Spirit acts as a human spirit to the unbeliever whenever the gospel is presented. But it has to be presented along the lines specified by the Lord Jesus Christ in this particular passage.

"the world" – kosmoj, referring to the world of unbelievers.

Next we have three things: "of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." Sin here is not personal sin. Personal sin is not the issue in the gospel.

Verse 9 – "Of sin," peri means concerning sin. Sin is in the singular, it is peri plus the genitive of a(martia. A(martia means basically to miss the mark. Sometimes this word in the plural is used for personal sins and when that occurs it means that basically we have failed to measure up to the perfection of God' essence. But here in this verse we do not have personal sins, we have something else which is defined for us. We have here a failure for which Christ did not and could not die on the cross—i.e. rejection of the cross. When a person rejects the cross he stands on his own human good which has not been judged yet but will be in the future at the last judgment. So the very first thing about which the Holy Spirit places emphasis is the true issue of the gospel, and this would be John 3:36 spelled out. When presenting the gospel it must be made clear that the issue in salvation is attitude toward Christ. To believe in Him is eternal life; to reject Him is eternal condemnation.

"because they believe not on me" – there is something for which Christ cannot die: He cannot die for unbelief. So they believe not is a present active indicative plus the negative o)u. The verb is pisteuw. Sin is very clearly defined here as unbelief, rejection of Christ; there is not one reference to any kind of personal sin.

Verse 10 – "Of righteousness," peri plus the genitive of dikaiosunh. The word for righteousness is dikaioj, but that is not used here. The original meaning of dikaiosunh meant righteousness in the sense of fulfilling a divine standard or a divine statute. It came to mean fairness, mercy, charitableness, and it eventually came to be a technical word for grace orientation. The Holy Spirit takes an unbeliever who has no grace orientation. People are taught from the cradle to the grave that you have to work for it, fight for it, etc., all of which are human achievement concepts. They have no application in the plan of God because grace says the opposite: you can't achieve it, you can't earn it or deserve it.

"because I go to my Father" – to go to the Father Jesus Christ had to rise again. He had to ascend. He is seated at the right hand of the Father, is glorified. The Father has accepted Him. The Father was propitiated by the cross and He shows His acceptance of the Son by saying to Him, "Sit down at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." It is the Son who died on the cross; it is the Son who is seated at the right hand of the Father; it is the Son who did the work. It is the Son who did the work and who is the saviour, and grace orientation at the point of witnessing is understanding who and what the Son is. When He says, "I go to my Father," He is expressing the fact that His work is completed. It is literally, face to face with my Father, proj plus the accusative.

"and ye [the disciples] see me no more" – this is interesting because He didn't use blepw [a glance], and He didn't use o(raw [panoramic view]. He uses qeorew, which means you have to use your mind. It means to observe with the physical eyes and to understand what you observe, to have a conclusion about it. This is a present active indicative: you see me but you don't see me.

Verse 11 – "Of [concerning] judgment", krisij, the act of judgment: "Concerning the act of judgment." This approach is not saying that the unbeliever is judged directly. (The unbeliever here shares the judgment of Satan) This relates the unbeliever to the angelic conflict.

"because the prince of this world [Satan] is judged" – perfect passive indicative of the verb krinw. Perfect tense: Satan was judged in the past before man existed on the earth. He was sentenced, but the sentence was not executed and will not be until after the Millennium. Unbelievers in time share Satan's sentence, as do all fallen angels. The unbeliever is not and never will be grace oriented. Passive voice: Satan received this judgment in eternity past, it was confirmed by the cross. The indicative mood is the reality of Satan's defeat at the cross; his judgment is certain. Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14.

Verse 12 – the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the believer in the Church Age anticipated. "I have" is the present active indicative of the verb e)xw which means to have and to hold. He has a lot to teach.

"many things" refers to doctrines pertaining to the Church Age, doctrines pertaining to the intensification of the angelic conflict, the ECS, and many other things.

"to say" – present active infinitive of legw [legw comes from logoj. Logoj means words or a word, and words are formed in the mind and then spoken], and He has a great number of words and concepts. The infinitive indicates His purpose. It was the purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ from the standpoint of His humanity to do much more teaching than He did but He was limited by His audience—the twelve. Active voice: Jesus Christ Himself wanted to do the teaching.

"unto you" is dative of advantage; "but" – conjunction of contrast [between doctrine in the mind of Christ and lack of desire for doctrine in the minds of the disciples]. The interpretation is that the disciples couldn't take it in; the application is that it is impossible to get doctrine through where there is negative volition toward it.

"ye cannot" – present active indicative of dunamai which, with the negative, means not to have the ability: "you are not able." This is linear aktionsart, you keep on not being able. There has been no change. They were negative three years ago; they are negative now. What does negative volition pick up in three years? Nothing much!

"to bear" – present active infinitive of bastazw. Bastazw means to carry a heavy weight. From that it came to mean to sustain something mentally. This word is used because they have been taught daily for three years and they were not able to sustain it mentally. The present tense means over the entire three years they couldn't carry it. Active voice: they themselves were exposed to it but didn't carry it. The infinitive indicates a result. They were exposed with the result that they learned nothing. The presence of listeners does not guarantee their perception. Perception is based on a number of things: the filling of the Holy Spirit, +V toward Bible doctrine, the ability to concentrate (which includes more than just interest) which includes an entire concept of self-discipline in the soul, the ability to build doctrine on doctrine on doctrine—which comes with the construction of the ECS.

"them" refers to the doctrine of the mysteries; "now" is an adverb, a)rti, which means in the present moment—which means all is not lost. In other words, Jesus is describing something that is temporary.

Verse 13 – "Howbeit" is the particle de which can be used many ways. Often it is used as a conjunction as it is here, a logical progression and yet a divider of thought.

"when" – o(tan. This is in contrast to a)rti and it means on the occasion of. There is a time coming when you will not be stupid! He is telling them now that grace has found a way. A)rti = at the present time you are knuckleheads; o(tan = in the future you are going to make it.

"he" – this is a demonstrative pronoun, e)keinoj. It is in the emphatic position. It means he and only he. God is impressed with the work of God, and God the Holy Spirit will make the difference.

"the Spirit" – this is the third person of the Trinity, and He is called "the Spirit of." When you have a conjunction with the noun "the Spirit" it always refers to the functional title of the Holy Spirit. The title of His person is Holy Spirit, but when you have function then you have Spirit of. Here it is "Spirit of truth" and the rest of this passage is going to show how the Holy Spirit is going to make the truth real—perspicacity through the ministry of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit operates as a teacher of truth. This is twofold. First, the Holy Spirit communicates information to the writers of scripture. They put it down in writing, and that is the canon. Secondly, the Holy Spirit takes the student, the pastor-teacher, and the filling of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for him to understand what is written. Then, once again, when the pastor-teacher communicates it to the congregation there must be the filling of the Holy Spirit on the part of the pastor-teacher so that he communicates it in a lucid manner. And there must be the filling of the Holy Spirit on the part of the congregation so that they might be the proper recipients. All of the way through there is something that removes "operation knucklehead"—the filling of the Spirit.

"of truth" – the word for truth is a)lhqeia which has two connotations. It means dogmatic, absolute information presented from the standpoint of analysis, of exegesis, and categories. It is the categorisation of doctrine—truth found in the Word.

"is come" – aorist active subjunctive, first advent of the Holy Spirit. Aorist tense: the point of time when the Church Age begins, day of Pentecost. Active voice: the Holy Spirit who is omnipresent comes in a special sense. He comes to indwell every believer during the Church Age. Subjunctive mood: the first advent of the Spirit is potential at the time that Christ speaks. It is still 50 days away. The reason it is put in the subjunctive mood as potential is because Christ has not yet gone to the cross. Once He has then everything else will follow in its proper order. Whether Christ goes to the cross or not depends upon His humanity's volition. In Gethsemane He must face the issue of His own free will. His free will will say two things: "Father, if it be thy will let this cup pass from me." That is negative. "Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done." That is positive. Eventually, He will go on positive volition and He will go to the cross and bear the sins of the world.

When the first advent of the Spirit occurs one of the first responsibilities of the Holy Spirit is to start cranking up the canon of scripture. At the cross there is no New Testament. There is nothing in writing with regard to the Church Age. The Old Testament is minus Church Age truth. Only Jesus Christ anticipates the Church Age and anything about the Church Age is spoken but there is nothing in writing. When the day of Pentecost comes and the Holy Spirit comes He must start the work whereby among those apostles there will be certain ones who become writers of the New Testament, just as prophets were writers of the Old Testament.

"he will guide" – future active indicative of o(dhgew. This word originally eventually meant guide, but it eventually came to mean to instruct, to get someone who is off the road on the road. The eleven disciples were off the road and the Holy Spirit will bring them back on the road and take them down the middle of the road until the New Testament is completed. So it means to instruct. The future tense anticipates the formation of the canon of the New Testament. Active voice: the Holy Spirit will be the director so that God's plan will be revealed with accuracy. The indicative mood is the reality of the future canon of scripture, the New Testament.

"into all truth" – in contrast to their present situation where they understand nothing. The Spirit of doctrine [a)lhqeia] will guide them into Bible doctrine [a)lhqeia].

"he shall not speak of himself" – the word to speak here is to communicate. Jesus said "I have many things to legw" – the words were in His mind but He couldn't utter them. But when the Holy Spirit starts this process it will be lalew, which means to communicate: "he shall not communicate from the ultimate source of himself." This is a future active indicative. Future tense: there will be no NT canon until the Holy Spirit arrives on the scene. Active voice: the Holy Spirit will communicate the message to human authors. The indicative mood is the reality of the Holy Spirit's communication and the formation of the canon. "Of himself" is literally, from the ultimate source of himself—a)po. In other words, in the formation of the canon of scripture the Holy Spirit communicates the plan of God the Father and the mind of Christ. The first person of the Trinity is the author of the plan. The second person of the Trinity has doctrine in His mind. The third person of the Trinity will come to reveal the plan of the Father and the thinking of the Son. He will not communicate from the ultimate source of Himself, He will communicate from the Father and the Son, both of whom send Him—doctrine of procession.

"but whatsoever he shall hear" – present active indicative of a)kouw. The Holy Spirit hears the Father's plan; the Holy Spirit hears the Son's thinking. So whatsoever he shall hear is actually the total message of the New Testament canon.

"he shall speak [communicate]" – future active indicative of lalew. The future anticipates the formation of the canon of the scripture when the Holy Spirit arrives. The apostles at this point cannot remember what Christ has taught them but in the future it will be recorded in writing through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. They will be able to recall in the future.

"he will shew" – future active indicative of a)naggellw, which means to report back. They couldn't get it at the time and the Holy Spirit is going to report back to them. Future tense: in the formation of the canon He will report back to them. Active voice: the Holy Spirit does the reporting back. The indicative mood is the reality of this. So the canon of scripture is a permanent revelation of all three members of the Trinity. Now the content of this canon must be communicated.

The doctrine of Bible teaching

1. The Bible in its completed form will exist forever.

2. God the Holy Spirit provides the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher to certain male believers at the point of salvation. 1Corinthians 12:11; Ephesians 4:11.12. This spiritual gift is designed to communicate the content of the Bible [not to recite Old Mother Hubbard!] to believer priests during the Church Age. This gift will not exist after the Church Age.

3. This communication is accomplished in assembly—Hebrews 10:25.

4. In the assembly the believer priest has maximum privacy to learn doctrine in fulfilment of such words as khrussw, which means public communication of doctrine to a group.

5. As a result of learning doctrine in the assembly the believer becomes spiritually self-sustaining by the erection of an ECS.

6. The believer must be filled with the Spirit at the point of Bible teaching. The pastor must be filled with the Spirit at the point of Bible teaching.

7. This means that the Holy Spirit is involved in all areas of transmission—from the inspiration of the scriptures, to its interpretation by the pastor-teacher, to the communication of Bible teaching in the assembly, to the reception on the part of the congregation.

8. The highest virtue in the Christian life is knowledge of doctrine, but knowledge of doctrine cannot be attained apart from the filling of the Spirit.

9. The results of learning doctrine include spiritual growth, the ECS, and the production of divine good in the devil's world.

Verse 14 – "He" is

a demonstrative pronoun in the emphatic position, He and only

He; "shall glorify me" – the verb is docazw. It means to glorify, as Translated. Future tense: Jesus anticipates the Church Age, the first advent of the Spirit which begins the Church Age. The Holy Spirit comes on the first day of the Church Age and He leaves on the last day of the Church Age; He leaves with the Church—2 Thessalonians 2. The pronoun "me" refers to Jesus Christ who is absent from the earth during the Church Age.

"he shall receive of mine" – future middle indicative of lambanw which means to receive or to take. The future tense indicates the period when the canon of scripture is being formed. The middle voice: He does it Himself. The indicative mood is the reality of the canon of scriptures and the mechanics of it being backed by the ministry of the Spirit; "of mine" is the preposition e)k which means "out from"; "mine" refers to His thinking which He can't communicate, cf. verse 12. This refers to doctrine as the mind of Christ—1Corinthians 2:16. The Holy Spirit takes doctrine and builds the ECS with it.

"and shall shew it unto you" – report back, future active indicative, again, of a)naggellw. Future tense: Church Age. Active voice: the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Indicative mood: the reality of every part of the Spirit's ministry from inspiration to perspicacity of doctrine.

Verse 15 – "All things," is God the Father's plan in eternity past, the plan that glorified the humanity of Christ, the intensification of the angelic conflict in the change of dispensation.

Verse 16 – the disciples have a hang-up.

"A little while" – mikron is an adjective used as an adverb. It is used to express a very short period of time, usually over a few hours but under 24, though it can be several days. Here it refers to the time between the termination of the Gethsemane discourse and the crucifixion the next day.

"ye shall not see me – present active indicative of qeorew. Note that we don't have blepw which means a glance. Another word, o(raw, means a panoramic view. The word qeorew, used here, means to observe something as a spectator. We have here eleven disciples who are spectators. They are out of it; they are not able to bear the doctrine.

"no longer" is the adverb o)uketi, and it means no more. Corrected translation: "Yet a little while, you shall observe me no more."

This is a reference to the crucifixion which involves the two deaths of Christ on the cross. As a result of the physical death of Christ they will no longer see Him on the earth.

"and again" – again is another adverb, palin, which means again and it introduces the paradox.

"a little while" is the adverb mikron again. This time it is a different elapse of time—the time between the death and resurrection of Christ (three days).

"ye shall see" – future middle indicative of o(raw, a panoramic view. Once Christ is raised from the dead they have a panoramic view. Before He died on the cross it was qeorew. Future tense: the resurrection is future from the moment He is speaking. Middle voice: He Himself will be resurrected. The indicative mood is the reality of the resurrection. This means to have a panoramic view of the resurrection.

"because I go" – because indicates the fact that the resurrection must precede the ascension of Christ; I go is the present active indicative of u(pagw. Christ goes away in the sense of leaving the earth and this is used for the ascension. The present tense is a dramatic present; the ascension of Jesus Christ is a dramatic moment.

"to the Father" – the preposition proj plus the accusative means face to face with the Father. That is the session of Christ—Christ seated at the right hand of the Father.

Verse 17 – the disciples appear to be a little sheepish because they have a feeling they should have learned these things over the past three years. They are talking among themselves And they have so little doctrine between them it is obvious they are not going to come up with answers.

Verse 18 – "we cannot tell what he says." Cannot is dunamai and it means we are not able—imperfect tense, we are not able now and don't think we ever will be able to. They are a little discouraged. We cannot tell is we do not know—tell is o)ida for knowledge.

"what he saith" is a present active indicative of lalew, which means to communicate.

Verses 19-22 – a clarification. To clarify, Jesus quotes the phrase again.

Verse 19 – "Now Jesus knew." This is ginwskw which means to know from the experience of observation; "they were desirous" – they desired, the imperfect tense of qelw, they kept on wishing.

"to ask" – e)rwtaw, which means to interrogate. This is a present active infinitive. Present tense, linear aktionsart, they wanted to keep asking questions so that they could get it. Active voice: they were now interested. The infinitive indicates their purpose.

"Do you enquire" means Do you have an insatiable desire—zetew, present linear aktionsart; "of that I said" – concerning what I said.

Jesus then quotes again what He had said. This is the third time the statement had been quoted and it is obvious that the disciples have failed to absorb doctrine. This particular phrase is a paradox but it is a paradox resolved by doctrine.

Jesus is going to start out with an explanation in a very simple way. He is going to first of all describe their reactions when the first mikron occurs. The first time is between Gethsemane and the cross; the second time is between the cross and the resurrection. In the first period they are going to weep and wail; in the second period they are going to rejoice. The first is going to be tough on them because they are minus doctrine. The second is going to be great because they are carried along by a victory in which they actually had no part whatever, and there is eventually going to be grace orientation and a desire for doctrine, at which time this will come true.

Verse 20 – "Verily, verily" is a point of doctrine; "I say" – He is simply going to tell them; "unto you" – dative of advantage.

"ye shall weep" – future active indicative of kleiw. This is operation cry-baby, disorientation, frustration, and an expression of a terrible mental attitude.

"and lament" – qrhnew, which means to sing a funeral dirge, or it means to be depressed by death. It is an expression of strong despondency or depression. The reason that they are going to be discouraged and depressed is because they are minus doctrine and have scar tissue on the soul. All the disciples at this point have some scar tissue on the soul, some more and some less. So they have to express their frustration through the word qrhnew—a terrible despondency. It is disorientation to a crisis simply because of lack of doctrine.

The interesting this is that we have two pictures at the cross. We have the disciples under the concept of qrhnew and we have Jesus under the concept of xara—joy: "Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross." He stayed under [u(pomenw] our sins. And what did He have when He did so? He had xara, an ECS based upon residual doctrine in His human soul, and that carried Him on the cross. The disciples fell apart; they were minus doctrine, they had qrhnew.

"but" is a conjunction of contrast. What is the world going to do? It happens every time. The world is a part of Satan's system, the kosmoj. The world of unbelievers are going to xairw while the disciples are qrhnew. The world's rejoicing is simply an inner stimulation of the soul as an attitude (very brief) because apparently the world system assumes that the death of Christ is their victory. But through the resurrection they discover that the death of Christ is their defeat. And the spiritual death of Christ is our salvation.

Ye shall be sorrowful" – lupew means to have sorrow, future passive indicative. The passive tells us that they received their sorrow because they lacked doctrine. It also indicates inner distress in their souls, disorientation to God's plan.

"but" – conjunction of contrast between the disorientation and discouragement of the disciples, based on their ignorance of doctrine and scar tissue. It is going to be changed now.

"your sorrow [luph, the noun] shall be turned into joy" – should be shall become, ginomai, which means to become something you were not. This is a future passive indicative again; "joy" – xara, inner happiness.

Verse 21 – "travail" is the word tiktw; "hath sorrow" – keeps on having, present active indicative. The word for sorrow is luph again. This is an illustration used for the disorientation of the disciples because of their ignorance of doctrine.

"as soon as" – the adverb o(tan which means whenever or at the point of.

"she is delivered of the child" – aorist active subjunctive of gennaw, to give birth.

"she remembereth no more the anguish" – the word here changes from luph to qliyij which means pressure; it describes birth.

"for" is because of, dia plus the accusative; "the joy." Translation: " … for whenever she gives birth to the child she no longer remembers the pressure because of the joy." Knowledge of doctrine removes scar tissue. The disciples had scar tissue but they are going to inhale doctrine and they are going to exhale doctrine. That wears down the scar tissue.

Verse 22 – "but I will see you again," referring to His resurrection; "and [when I see you again] your heart" – refers to the lungs of the soul; "shall rejoice" – future passive indicative of xairw, the verb for inner happiness.

"no one [not man] taketh" – a)irw means to lift up and take away; "from you" – a)po, ultimate source, the ultimate source of you. Once you have it as a part of the ECS there is no way that anyone can remove it.

Verse 23 – "In that day" is a reference to the Church Age. After Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father there will be an elapse of ten days at the end of which the Church Age will begin on the day of Pentecost.

"ye shall ask not anything" – in that day they won't want to interrogate Him. He is going to use e)rwtaw to start in on prayer. When He gets into prayer He is going to a)itew, which simply means to ask in prayer. The negative o)uden here means nothing. Literally, this is "you shall not ask me nothing" – bad English but good Greek. They can't interrogate Jesus when He is in heaven.

"Verily, verily [point of doctrine], I say unto you"— for their benefit, this is dative of advantage.

"Whatsoever" – 3rd class condition. This should be translated "If" [maybe you will and maybe you won't].

"ye shall ask" – now He switches from e)rwtaw to a)itew. Since this is a 3rd class condition it is a subjunctive mood. This is an aorist active subjunctive. Aorist tense: point of time when you pray. Active voice: you are a believer priest and every believer priest can do his own praying. Subjunctive mood: it is a 3rd class condition, maybe you will pray and maybe you will not. A)itew is used for intercessory prayer and for praying for your own needs; e)rwtaw can only be used for a petition in prayer—when you have a problem. Technically, e)rwtaw is not a prayer word, it means to interrogate someone. This is what happened to Paul when he was taken into prison and interrogated by the Roman. But a)itew means to make petition of someone who is absent. We now have a contrast in verbs to show the change in dispensation. A change in dispensation means a dramatic change in prayer. Jesus Christ is now at the right hand of the Father and from now on it is a)itew.

"the Father" – all prayer is addressed to the Father; "in my name" – Jesus Christ is the high priest after the order of Melchizedek, so obviously we approach in the name of Christ.

"he" – not Jesus but God the Father. God the Father answers all prayers.

Verse 24 – "Hitherto" is e(wj a)rti, and it means "up to this moment." Up until now the disciples had not approached the Father through the Son but the policy must now change to conform to the glorification of Christ, the change in dispensation, and the intensification of the angelic conflict.

"have ye asked nothing in my name" – they had to ask Him directly.

"ask" – present active imperative of a)itew, keep on asking; "and [in the future] ye shall receive," present tense, linear aktionsart. This is the future tense of lambanw.

"that" – purpose clause; "your joy" – h( xara u(mwn, literally, "the joy of you." This is much more personal. You are a believer priest in the Church. "The joy" is your possession. Joy is inner happiness.

"may be full" – perfect passive subjunctive of plhrow. Inner happiness fills up all the deficiencies of life—Philippians 4:11, 12; Hebrews 13:5,6. The word also means to fully possess. Inner happiness fully possesses the believer during the various functions of his priesthood. It also means to fully influence. Inner happiness fully influences the soul, including the mentality of the soul where a relaxed mental attitude co-exists with joy and inner happiness. Then, it also means to fill up with a certain quality. Inner happiness is the direct result of being filled with the Spirit—Galatians 5:22. And this is directly related to the capacity for love—Romans 5:5. "that the Father hath are mine" – the Father is the author of the divine plan and—present active indicative of e)xw— He had these things and He holds them forever. And Jesus says, "they keep on being mine." They belong to the Son. In other words, what the Father planned the Son knows. So doctrine is both the Word of God the Father—Hebrews 4:12, and also the mind of Christ—1Corinthians 2:16; also the voice of the Spirit—Hebrews 3:7. All members of the Trinity are involved in the canon of scripture.

"therefore" is literally, because of this—because the disciples were unable to understand at this time; "I said, he [the Holy Spirit] shall take out from mine, and shall report it back to you."

Apparently the great vacillation and instability of the disciples does not disturb the Lord and in one very short passage which we will now see we see everything from His sense of humour to his sarcasm. Obviously, He is relaxed about the whole situation. As we go through this passage we see one thing constantly emphasised. Jesus Christ is there at that time as a part of the plan of God the Father, something that was designed in eternity past, something in plan which is older than any person alive the earth at that time; a plan that is so wonderful and marvellous that Jesus Christ now focuses His attention on fulfilling that plan and the fact that Jesus is going to the hour of His triumph—the cross—and the disciples are going to scatter in defeat and sublimation.

Verse 25 – "These things," refers to the doctrinal briefing regarding the doctrine of the mysteries, the doctrine pertaining to the Church Age.

"have I spoken" – perfect active indicative of the verb lalew, which means to communicate: these things have I communicated. Perfect tense: they were communicated at this time with the result that they stand as a part of the canon of scripture. Active voice: the subject produces the action of the verb and Jesus Christ does the communicating. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that the disciples had been receiving doctrine for three years.

He also describes how he has been communicating to them at this time: "in proverbs" – literally, by means of proverbs, because we have the preposition e)n, and while e)n means in, when it is followed by the locative case it means by means of. Jesus has been using proverbs or analogies to communicate. The word for proverbs is paroimia [o)imia is from o)imoj which means word; para = alongside], which means to put a word by word to teach doctrine. For example, Jesus said in this same discourse, "I am the vine; ye are the branches." That describes one facet of the doctrine of the mysteries. The reason He has communicated to them through analogies (called here proverbs) is because this is the easiest way to communicate something that can be understood the first time.

"the time cometh" – the word for time is not time at all. The word for time is xronoj, but it is not used here; w(ra is used, from which we get our English word hour and this word means a limited portion of time. Some times it refers to an eventful season and it refers to that very short time when Jesus will teach after His resurrection, and then the very early Church teaching. Jesus will teach in a very special way the apostle Paul.

"when I shall no more speak in proverbs" – He will no longer use analogies; they will not be necessary; "but I shall shew plainly" – the word for "shew" is a)paggellw which means to carry back word, to present information from an ultimate source. The verb refers to the New Testament canon as it is formed, completed, and stands forever. Plainly means without any misunderstanding. In other words, the Word of God is so designed in a language that there can be only one interpretation.

"of the Father" should be concerning the Father – the preposition peri, and it has the concept of the Father's plan designed from eternity past. Eleven of these disciples will go into the Church Age and they must be oriented to the Father's plan because they are going to be apostles to the Church.

Verse 26 – "At that day" is a reference to the Church Age and specifically to that day in which they lived, the apostolic period.

"ye shall ask" is a future middle indicative of the verb a)itew, a prayer word which means to make a petition to someone who is absent. It will describe prayer in the Church Age. In the Church Age the Father is in heaven, the Son is seated at His right hand, and all prayer is addressed to someone who is, as it were, absent from the earth. During the Old Testament dispensations this was not true. Prayers were offered to the Father in the Old Testament and prayers were also offered to Jesus Christ while He was on earth. There are two Greek words which are used for prayer. One is a)itew which is to offer prayer to someone absent, and the second is e)rwtaw, which means to interrogate but also to ask prayer of someone who is present. Here, ye shall ask is in the future tense and means in the Church Age at a future time. Middle voice: believers will be benefited by prayer. Them indicative mood is the reality of prayer in the Church Age.

"in my name" – reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. The prayer approach for the Church Age changes radically. Never again is there going to be a prayer approach as there was in the Old Testament because for the first time in history every believer is a priest, and every believer-priest has the privilege of prayer.

"and I say not" – we have an apparent contradiction here, and there is a principle involved here:

1. "I say not" – present active indicative of legw plus the negative o)u. Here this means I do not promise. Jesus is not making a promise.

2. Jesus is removing the false impressions among the disciples that he Himself must process every prayer personally. For example, some people think that praying in the name of Jesus means that you shoot it up to Jesus Christ and He takes up the ball from there and goes to the Father with it. It isn't necessary and Jesus is removing the false impression from the disciples who at this time are all mixed up. Their false impression is that Jesus must beseech the Father regarding every prayer that they utter. They go directly to the Father in the name of Jesus.

3. Every believer in the Church Age has direct contact with the throne of grace—Hebrews 4:16.

4. To pray in the name of Jesus must not be construed as Jesus must do the asking to the Father. Rather, this is a direct approach of the believer priest to the throne of grace.

5. It is also true that the Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest will intercede for us—Hebrews 7:25. However, this verse (John 16:26) emphasises our direct approach to the Father as a priest, and this direct approach is through the Son. We can go directly to Him as a priest because we are in union with Christ.

6. "I will pray" – future active indicative of e)rwtaw which means to make a petition face to face. The fact that Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father and makes face to face petitions on our behalf does not in any way hinder a direct shot with our own petitions. During the Church Age the Father is the recipient of prayer from Jesus Christ—Hebrews 7:15; He is the recipient of prayer from the Holy Spirit—Romans 8:29; He is also the recipient of prayers from the believer priest. So Jesus says, "I do not say that I will not pray for you [I will]."

Verse 27 – "For the Father himself loveth you." The word loveth is the present active indicative of filew—present tense, linear aktionsart, He keeps on loving

you all the time. Active voice: it comes from Him. Whatever God does to you He always does it, therefore it is in the indicative mood: the reality of the fact that God loves you when you are carnal, when you are spiritual, with scar tissue, with an ECS; He loves you no matter what. That is filew. This is a total love of His essence.

"because you" – prefect active indicative; "have loved me." They haven't seen the Father—John 1:18. But they have seen Christ—they haven't seen Him yet, but they will because the Bible is the mind of Christ and they are going to take it in. This is hope for the disciples. When they get an ECS then they are going to respond with filew love. They are not mature yet but they will be once they get doctrine.

"and have believed" – perfect tense of pisteuw. This does not refer to salvation. Here it is used for the faith-rest technique—maximum faith-rest coming from an ECS. There are at leats three responses through the left bank of the soul when you get an ECS: a) Category #1 love; b) Maximum faith-rest; c) Prayer.

Verse 28 – "I came forth from the Father." This is the beginning of the Father's plan in the incarnation. Aorist tense: the point of the virgin birth. Active voice: First advent. Indicative mood: the reality of the first advent.

"and am come into the world" – perfect tense, He came into the world for a purpose. The perfect tense indicates the hypostatic union. Active voice: Christ executes the Father's plan in hypostatic union. The indicative mood is the reality of the hypostatic union. And remember that Jesus Christ came to the devil's kingdom in order to defeat the devil.

"and go" – present active indicative of poreuomai, which means to go from one place to another. After His death, burial and resurrection He was going to ascend at the completion of the Father's plan. This is a futuristic present. Sometimes an event is so real and so close it is put in the present tense which means it is a future, a near future which is a dramatic and sure moment.

"to the Father" is proj plus the accusative, face to face with the Father.[1]

Verse 29 – "Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb [no longer in analogy]." He was making it simple for them and they said, Now we understand you.

Verse 30 – an insult to the Lord. "Now are we sure that thou knowest all things." What they actually said, was "Now we are o)ida, o)ida,"—twice together: Now we know that you know. Jesus Christ has been teaching them for three years and they have just decided that He knows what He is talking about.

"and needest not that any man should ask thee" – we won't even ask you any more questions.

"by this we believe that you came from the ultimate source [a)po] of God" – we believe it now! Notice: They weren't going to ask any more questions, so Jesus answers a question for them.

Verse 31 – "Do you now believe?" He now asks them a question. This is faith-rest, which goes hand-in-hand with learning doctrine. Well, isn't that great; now you are going to fall flat on your face!

Verse 32 – "Behold, the hour cometh." This is that short period of time. The word cometh is present tense for dramatic present.

"yea, is now come" – perfect tense: it is here, it is on us.

"that" introduces a result clause; "ye shall be scattered" – skorpizw, which means dispersed, but it means to be defeated and dispersed. Aorist tense: a point of time; the crisis; the crucifixion. Passive voice: they have received dispersal, they have already been defeated. They have said they believed with scar tissue and there isn't enough time in 24 hours to get enough teaching to rid them of the scar tissue. You don't get rid of scar tissue over night; sometimes it takes years of daily Bible study. They are less than two hours from the crisis and in two hours they will be scattered in defeat, running in cowardice.

"every man" – literally, each one of you; "to his own" – idioj, to his own little line of retreat. They all have their line of retreat and they are all going to run in all directions. And when they all run, who is going to stay behind? Mary Magdalene. She is the first person to whom the Lord will reveal Himself. Why? Because she has an ECS. Right now she is so far ahead of those disciples that they aren't even close to being in the same league. She is the one who stands fast.

"and shall leave me alone" – the word leave alone means to desert. Jesus was deserted by all the disciples at the cross, with the exception of John. That is why we have the subjunctive mood of "ye shall be scattered."

"and yet I am not alone" – I am is e)imi, present linear aktionsart, I am never alone. The word for alone is monoj. Why? "Because the Father keeps on being with me."

Verse 33 – "These things I have spoken unto you" – perfect tense; "that" – purpose clause; "in me ye might have peace." What does "in me" mean? This doesn't refer at this moment to union with Christ because that did not exist. But they are going to see something. How does Jesus go to the cross and stay there? He does so on the basis of the fact that he has doctrine in the soul. He has an ECS and He fulfils the Father's plan for His life. He has it; He uses it' He goes to the cross, ands they will get encouragement from this because they will know that Jesus Christ stayed and all sins were judged. They will know after resurrection what fools they had been, and they will take encouragement from the fact that even though Jesus was deserted by them, while they were being defeated He was being victorious.

"In the world you shall have tribulation [pressure]: but be of good cheer"—qarsew, which means to have confidence; keep on having confidence, present active imperative. He is saying in effect, "You said you had confidence in me; you don't have enough confidence now to get out of scar tissue, but keep on having confidence and you will eventually lose scar tissue and get an ECS. Even though you have failed grace is going to take up the slack for you. Why? Because I am going to win the battle for you—"I have overcome the world." That is grace; that is the work of God; that is what Jesus Christ did at the cross, and that is the answer to your life right now.

[1] See the Doctrine of Ascension.

Chapter 17

Verses 1-5 is the first of three parts in the Lord's prayer—Jesus prays for Himself. When Jesus prayed for Himself He had in view not His own person but the plan of God the Father, and specifically phase one.

Verses 6-19, Jesus prays for the apostles because they would be the instruments in beginning the Church Age.

Verses 20-26, Jesus prays for the Church. The Church will complete the work of God's plan for this dispensation.

This prayer came at the end of His message, the Gethsemane discourse. "These words spake Jesus" – the word for spake is lalew which means to communicate doctrine. Lalew refers to John chapters 15 & 16 which constitutes the Gethsemane discourse. Chapters 14 & 15 is the upper room discourse. "Spake" is an aorist active indicative. The aorist tense is the point of time when he gave it. Active voice: Jesus did the communicating. The indicative mood is the reality of the communication of doctrine to the disciples.

"and lifted up his eyes to heaven" – aorist active participle for e)pairw. He doesn't kneel, He lifts up His eyes. He doesn't bow His head, He looks up. E)pairw means to open the eyes. This means His eyes are open and His head is upward, not downward. He is praying to the Father, so He is praying from His humanity.

"and said" – now, instead of lalew we go to legw for prayer. Lalew is for communication of doctrine. Now He is speaking, addressing Himself to God the Father throughout this entire chapter. This entire chapter is a prayer.

He begins His prayer with the word "Father," a vocative addressed to the first person of the Trinity. It must be remembered that Jesus Christ is God and has all of the essence of the Godhead. He is coequal and coeternal with the Father. He is also humanity. As a member of the human race He is a priest, in fact the high priest.

He is speaking from His humanity as He addresses the throne of grace and says "Father." In His deity He is coequal but He is speaking from His humanity at this particular point. This is going to be a precedent because throughout the Church Age all prayer is addressed to the Father in the name of the Son, in the power of the Spirit.

The first thing that Jesus says to the Father is, "the hour is come." The hour refers to the Father's plan, a specific moment. It refers, of course, to the cross—

John 12:23; 13:1; Mark 14:41. This is a perfect active indicative of e)rxomai. The perfect tense means that this hour, the cross, is going to occur in a point of time but the results will go on forever. The results affect the angelic conflict; the cross is the victory of the angelic conflict—Colossians 2:14; Hebrews 2:15. Also, it has an effect on humanity as the basis of salvation in the human race. Active voice: the hour itself is there. The indicative mood is the reality of the cross. God's plan in eternity past is based upon Jesus Christ going to the cross and being judged for the sins of the world. "The hour has come [not, is come]" with the results that will go on forever.

Now Jesus presents His first petition. He puts His petition in the imperative mood because He is sure of His ground. When a person is on praying ground he can demand things from God. The word glorify is an aorist active imperative; He is demanding something from God. There is a place for demanding from God if you are on praying ground, if it is compatible with the plan and will of God. This is a principle of prayer. When you are on praying ground you can actually offer petitions to God in the form of the imperative mood and God the Father must obey them because it is within the framework of His plan, it is within the framework of His will. This is not audaciousness on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is cognisance. Here is a person praying who possesses an ECS. With that ECS He has a fantastic orientation to the plan of God. He understands His ground and He actually orders God the Father to do something.

The verb "glorify" is docazw, and the aorist tense means in the point of time, the cross. Active voice: the hour itself has come and therefore the demand is here, and He demands glorification. The active voice indicates that God the Father, to whom the prayer is addressed, must do the glorifying.

In going to the cross to complete the plan of the Father Jesus is demanding something beyond the cross as well. So the aorist tense must gather up in certain points of time involved in the glorification of Christ. First point of time is the cross, second point of time is the resurrection, third point of time is the ascension, fourth point of time is the session. All of this is pulled into one entirety, and that entirety is the aorist tense. This is what Jesus Christ is demanding. There is no audaciousness here. Jesus Christ knows the plan of the Father and demands the plan of the Father. He knows the will of God the Father and He demands the will of the Father, and you can't be on any more solid praying ground. This tells us something about prayer. The more doctrine you know the more effective your prayer life must become. This is because if you know doctrine you know the will of God. If you know the will of God you know the plan of God. If you know the will and plan of God you have the right and are on solid ground to demand certain things from God.

"thy Son" – the title for Christ in hypostatic union. Christ had to become man to fulfil the Father's plan. The Son must be obedient to the Father and that is why He is called the Son—because of His obedience to the plan. The Father planned the cross; the Son will execute the cross.

"that" introduces a purpose clause; "they Son [the Lord Jesus in obedience to the Father's plan, the cross] may glorify thee." May glorify is an aorist active subjunctive this time. Same verb, docazw, and this time not aorist active imperative but aorist active subjunctive. The aorist tense at this point refers to obedience. How is the Son going to glorify the Father? By being obedient to the cross—Phil. 2, "…obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." So the aorist tense is the point of time when the Son was obedient to the Father's plan, and that obedience was the cross. Active voice: Jesus now produces the action. The subjunctive mood recognises the volition or the free will of the humanity of Christ.

Verse 2 – "As" is an adverb, kaqwj, which means according as. The adverb recognises the advance of Jesus Christ in His life to this particular moment.

"thou hast given him power" – the word power is not there in the Greek. The word used here is e)cousia which is not a word for power at all, it means authority. The word authority here means a commission, a right. By the work of the cross Jesus Christ will have authority over the human race. He will have authority to save those who believe and He will have authority to judge those who reject Him. This same word is mistranslated in John 1:12 [KJV], where He gave them "authority to become the sons of God." How does Jesus Christ have authority over all flesh [the human race]? He has authority over all flesh to win the victory of the angelic conflict. The conflict is won at the cross and this is where Jesus Christ gets His authority for victory.

"that" introduces a purpose clause; "he should give" – 2nd person singular, perfect active indicative of didomi. This should be translated you. But the KJV has translated this he, which is 3rd person singular. This changes up the whole purpose clause. The corrected translation is: "that all that whom you have given to him [Christ], he should give to them eternal life."

"have given" is a perfect tense—have given in the past with the result that they are his; "to him [Christ], he [Christ] should give them [believers] eternal life."

"should give" – aorist active subjunctive. Aorist tense: the point of time in which a person believes in Christ. Active voice: Jesus gives to them eternal life at that time. Subjunctive mood: eternal life is potential until they believe. Even though God the Father knew in eternity past that they would believe, it isn't theirs until the moment they believe. This means that every believer is a gift from God the Father to God the Son.

a) The Father gave to Jesus Christ for His bride all believers of the Church Age.

b) If a believer a believer in the Church Age is going to be in the bride of Christ he has to live with Christ as long as Christ lives—forever. So Jesus gives them the life they need to live with Him forever—John 10:28.

c) Application: Do you as a single believer pray for your future spouse?

d) While on earth the Church is the body of Christ—Ephesians 2:16; 4:4, 5, 12; 5:30-32; Colossians 1:24; 2:19, etc.

e) After the Rapture of the Church believers of the Church Age become the bride of Christ—2Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 19:6-8.

f) While Christ is glorified in heaven the bride is being prepared on earth. The preparation of the bride is called the body.

g) Corrected translation and summary: "According as you have given to him authority over all flesh, that all whom you have given to him [Christ], he [Christ] should give to them [believers] eternal life." The Father gives Jesus the bride. Jesus has the authority to give the bride eternal life.

Verse 3 – the revelation regarding eternal life. "And this is" – present active indicative of e)imi, present linear aktionsart, this keeps on being eternal life.

Eternal life is a part of the essence of all three members of the Trinity.

"that" – purpose clause; "they [believers in time] might know thee" – present active subjunctive of ginwskw, the experience of study. You know the Father by studying the Word, by learning Bible doctrine. He is known only through the Word.

"the only true God" – the only unique [or genuine] God, literally. The Father is called the only genuine God because He is the author of the plan, and we must come to know the designer.

"and Jesus Christ" – also we must come to know His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the revealer of the Father—John 1:18; 6:46; 1Timothy 6:16; 1John 4:12. Notice: Jesus is before Christ, emphasising His humanity. Christ is added to show His commission.

"whom thou hast sent" – aorist active indicative; point of time, incarnation.

Notice: We must know the Father who is the author of the plan. We must know the Son who is the revealer of the Father and the executor of the plan. But nothing is said about the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit in the Church Age is responsible for teaching doctrine to the believer from the point of salvation on. It is His job to glorify the Son—John 16:14. Therefore, in passages like this the Holy Spirit stays in the background.

Verse 4 – the completion of the incarnation. "I have glorified thee on earth" – aorist active indicative of docazw. This means that Jesus Christ will fulfil the Father's plan in the cross [aorist tense]. From there on it is the Father's work to glorify Him. The Father resurrects Him. The Father permits ascension, and the Father commands that He be seated at the right hand of the Father. "On earth" refers to the incarnation and is the fulfilment of Hebrews 10:5-10.

"I have finished the work" – aorist active participle of teleiow which means to complete a project or complete a plan. The plan of the first advent calls for the cross and Jesus Christ will complete it in a point of time—the cross. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb: "that they might know." They will know the only true God after the cross.

"thou gavest" – perfect active indicative. He gave it in eternity past with the result that it is completed in time. Active voice: the Father did the planning. The indicative mood: the reality of the divine decrees.

"to do" – the Greek says, that I might do it. Doing here is the aorist active subjunctive of poiew, which means mission accomplished. The subjunctive mood is the free will factor. He is free to do it or free not to do it, and He does is.

Verse 5 – a second petition for glory: "glorify thou me" is the aorist active imperative of docazw again. Between the two aorist active imperatives He has told us why He has made the demand.

"with thine own self" – the word with is wrong here, it is actually the preposition para which is the preposition of immediate source, also the preposition which means side by side or by side of. It should be translated: "glorify thou me by your side." In other words, He is demanding this time that He be seated at the right hand of the Father; "which I had beside you before the world existed." The glory He had before the world existed was the glory of His deity. He had the same glory as the Father. Now He is demanding from His humanity that He have the same glory that He had when He was God before the incarnation. He is demanding that His humanity have equal glory.

Translation: "And now, Father, glorify me beside yourself with the glory which I always had beside you before the world existed."

Verses 6-19, Jesus praying for His disciples. He anticipates in this prayer that all of them very shortly will have an ECS. They have failed up to this point and they are going to fail to a greater extent in the very near future—at the cross, but after they reach maximum failure they will recover and they will grow in grace.

Verses

6-8, the fulfilment of the teaching ministry of Jesus Christ.

Verse 6 – "I have manifested." The subject is the Lord Jesus Christ. Manifested is an aorist active indicative of fanerow, which meant originally to shed light on something. It means also to make the invisible visible. This is accomplished by means of teaching. Jesus Christ is not only the manifestation of God but He is also the revealer of God during the period of His incarnation. The aorist tense gathers up into one point the entire teaching ministry of Jesus during the incarnation. He wasn't teaching all of the time that He was on this earth during the thirty-three years, but during that time He was learning, learning, learning. Then He had an ECS and from that point it was teach, teach, teach, terminating with this great message in the garden of Gethsemane, followed by this prayer.

"thy name" – the word name refers to the person, and the person is God the Father, the author of the divine plan. He has done this in the most difficult field…

"unto the men" – this means humanity in general, the disciples specifically. The word men does not refer to the male of the species, it is a)nqrwpoj which means mankind, male and female.

"which" is the relative pronoun referring to the recipients of our Lord's ministry; "thou gavest me" – aorist active indicative. The aorist here means an occurrence in eternity past. In the doctrine of divine decrees God the Father gave to God the Son a bride at that time. That bride was made up of believers only in the Church Age. Before there can be a bride there has to be a body, and the body is every person who accepts Christ during the Church Age. Then by resurrection that body will become a bride in phase three. Active voice: the Father produced the action in eternity past. He made full provision for the eleven disciples and for all believers. He had to make this provision because in the Church Age there is an intensification of the angelic conflict. This intensification means that every believer is an ambassador representing Christ on the earth; every believer is a priest representing himself before God. And since Christ is absent He is no longer the target and therefore Satan makes a target out of every believer. Obviously, not every believer receives the same attention and apparently the targets are lined up this way: the primary target is the believer with an ECS; the second targets are the believers who are forming an ECS; then come the believers minus the ECS. So this is about the order in which this intensification is conducted. It is very important for us to realise that Satan is especially interested in hindering the angelic conflict. The indicative mood is the reality of every believer entered into Christ during the Church Age.

"out of the world" – believers are snatched as brands for the burning. The preposition out of is e)k which means they are literally delivered from the kosmoj, and the deliverance is first brought to our attention by positional truth, every believer is in union with Christ. He is on the earth but he is out from the world. The kosmoj here is Satan's rulership of the world. Every believer is entered into union with Christ and that is the break with the kosmoj. So positionally all believers have broken with the kosmoj; experientially, everything depends upon the erection of an ECS.

"thine they were, and thou gavest them to me" – thine they were means that every positive volition at the point of gospel hearing belongs to the Father. This is the imperfect tense which is linear aktionsart in past time. This is a culminative aorist. The disciples have not yet come into the Church Age, it is still 40 days off, but they are going to be given to Christ on the day of Pentecost, the moment from which every believer is entered into union with Christ. It is accomplished by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. "Thou gavest them me" anticipates the baptism of the Spirit.[1]

"and they have kept thy word" – they refers to the disciples, not all members of the body of Christ during this age. They have kept is a perfect active indicative of terew and it means to guard that which belongs to them, and when John uses terew it has to do with the erection of an ECS. It means Bible doctrine in the human spirit feeding into an ECS. To keep the Word is a technical phrase for the construction of the ECS and the perfect tense here has a prophetic implication. It guarantees the fulfilment of an ECS to the eleven disciples. Every one of them will start to take it in after the resurrection of Christ when the Church Age begins. They will have gnwsij through the filling of the Holy Spirit. They will transfer it down to the human spirit where it will become e)pignwsij and they will cycle it back for frame of reference. They will start building on that foundation of residual doctrine the ECS.

Verse 7 – "Now," i.e. at this moment, at the time of the upper room discourse, at the time of the Gethsemane discourse; "they have known" – perfect tense of ginwskw, which means to know from experience, the experience of study. Perfect tense (prophetic): to know in the past that they will eventually have an ECS Active voice: each one will have it. Indicative mood: the reality.

"that all things whatsoever thou hast given me is from the immediate source of you ["of thee" – para, immediate source]." They know that they have been given to me and they know that you have done it.

"Of thee"

a) "Of thee" is para, which should be "from the immediate source of thee." The pronoun refers to God the Father.

b) In John 16:12 the Lord accuses the disciples of not bearing this truth in their souls—they aren't able to carry it. That means that at this time the disciples do not have an ECS; they are weak and unstable. But they are going to be given by God the Father to God the Son through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And as we have seen from the prophetic perfect they are going to have in the Church Age an ECS. They will get it the way that anyone gets it—through GAP.

c) This is a grace prayer. The disciples have learned so little, they are so unstable, they are about to desert at the cross, their knowledge is sporadic and non-applicable, they do not have any doctrine in the human spirit, at this point they are no erecting any ECS: the disciples are hopeless, helpless, useless.

d) In a few hours most of the disciples will deny and desert the Lord Jesus Christ. They will be filled with instability, vacillation, and desertion. This amplifies the helplessness of human ability.

e) It sometimes takes years for believers exposed to doctrine to appreciate what they are getting. It took the disciples ten days—they were quick to snap to it.

f) At the point of the beginning of the new dispensation, the day of Pentecost, they received additional help on GAP—the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The function of GAP is intensified in the intensified angelic conflict by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

g) Jesus, knowing their immediate failure, prays for their future victory.

h) After the resurrection the disciples will go on a crash program regarding doctrine.

Verse 8 – "I have given" is the perfect active indicative of didomi. Perfect tense: summary of His three years of ministry. Active voice: Jesus taught.

Indicative mood: the reality of the communication of doctrine.

"unto them" – dative of advantage, it is to their advantage to have them; "the words" – r(hma, which means mandate through doctrine.

"thou gavest" – the words were given to Jesus Christ, and r(hma was given to Jesus Christ which means GAP in the humanity of Christ—doctrine in the human

spirit which was exhaled in communication. These words were given to Jesus by God the Father, which means GAP. That is how He constructed the ECS and how He exhaled doctrine in teaching.

"and they have received" – GAP in the disciples, aorist active indicative of lambanw. They haven't received it yet because Jesus said they weren't carrying

it—but they will, This is, again, prophetic. They received it through GAP.

And because of this, "and known" – gnwsij in their mind, ginwskw, aorist active indicative. This means they have it in their minds. But here is why the disciples are going to fall apart. Already they have gnwsij, a lot of it; but you can't apply gnwsij. Gnwsij is in the mind and doctrine in the mind cannot be applied. You cannot apply doctrine from intellectual comprehension. God has designed a system whereby doctrine cannot be applied from the mind. That eliminates human IQ. That means grace. The mind is a stage area for doctrine. It is application area for any other type of human phenomena, but God has activated the human spirit for the believer and all doctrine must be transferred to the human spirit before it can be applied or exhaled. It must be e)pignwsij. The disciples had gnwsij but they did not have e)pignwsij, and that is why they are going to run away. That is why they can't apply anything.

"and have known surely that I came out from thee" – they know, they have an intellectual comprehension of it, gnwisj, aorist active indicative; "from thee" is para, again, from the immediate source of thee.

"and they have believed" – this is futuristic and should be translated, they will believe. This is the transfer, the rest of the process and which they have failed to do so far. The words, they have believed, does not refer to their salvation, it has to do with transferring doctrine down into the human spirit. This is the eventual victory of the disciples. They have doctrine now but it hasn't been transferred, though it will be. We have a futuristic aorist here, and it is in a line of aorists—there are two aorists before it: a) they have received it—aorist tense; b) they know it—aorist tense, the doctrine is in the staging area; c) then the futuristic aorist—they will believe would be a better translation here. The interim defeat does not hinder the eventual victory of these disciples.

Verse 9 – the triumph of grace. In this verse Jesus prays for the disciples just before their disastrous failure. Not only does He pray for them but it is present linear aktionsart, He keeps on praying. This means to make a request and it also means to interrogate, so it is an intensive word—e)rwtaw. The verb anticipates the failure of the disciples. Fervent prayer is necessary and fervent prayer comes from the Lord.

"for them" – should be concerning them; "I do not have any intensive prayer concerning the world" – the world is Satan's kingdom.

"but concerning them" – Jesus prays for believers only, here for believers who within 24 hours will be colossal failures. With the possible exception of John every one of these disciples is going to fail in a fantastic way. Unbelievers fail too, that is obvious, but they are not in the plan of God. Jesus Christ as the high priest prays for His own.

"which thou hast given me" – He makes it very plain that He prays for those who are gifts to Him. This is a perfect tense of didomi which means they have been given at the point of salvation with the result that they belong to Christ forever. It is anticipates positional truth. Given at the point of salvation, in union with Christ forever, and they are a special gift from God the Father to God the Son. But they also belong to the giver. You cannot give what does not belong to you. And when you give it is always a manifestation of your character. God the Father possesses every believer at the moment of salvation and He gives His possession to Jesus Christ. Yet they still in a special way belong to God the Father because they are in His plan. These are believers of the Church Age, a reference to the body of Christ, later to become the bride of Christ.

"for they are thine" – they keep on being thine. This is the basis of the prayer. The disciples belong to God, they are about to fail, but their failure does not hinder the plan of God.

Verse 10 – "And all mine" refers to all believers in the Church Age, not just the disciples. This also includes the principle that even though we fail we are still His. This is present linear aktionsart of e)imi. All believers are in union with Christ; all believers belong to God the Father. Whatever belongs to the Father belongs to the Son because God the Father has given it to God the Son.

"I am glorified in them" – perfect passive indicative of docazw, glorified in the past with the result that the glory goes on. There are two kinds of glory. One is the reflected glory of the ECS, but that is for phase two. Secondly, in phase three there is the glory of the rewards of grace. These are the result of having an ECS. This is literally, I have received glory in them—perfect passive indicative. Passive voice: God receives glory through the ECS. So in spite of the immediate failure of the disciples God the Father has a plan for them and His plan will go on in spite of the failure. Principle of doctrine: You may fail in a colossal way but if you are still alive when it is all over God still has a plan for your life, so you get up and move on.

Verses 11, 12 – prayer for the believers' protection.

Verse 11 – "And now" is not found in the original. It just says, "I am no longer in the world." I am is present linear aktionsart, it means no more. This is the anticipation of the Church Age in which Christ is absent from the earth. This anticipates His death the next day, His burial, resurrection, ascension and session.

"but these [the disciples] are in the world" – present linear aktionsart, these keep on being here.

"and I am come to thee" – proj plus the accusative, I have come face to face with you.

"Holy Father" – this means set apart Father. The whole point of the word Holy, which is an adjective, means that in eternity past God the Father had a plan, and that plan is set apart in every believer. First at salvation in union with Christ, experientially with an ECS, and in phase three with the rewards that come from that ECS.

"keep" – terew, which means to guard that which belongs to you; "though thine own name" – literally, by means of your person. The word name refers to the essence of God the Father. That is all that is protecting the believer. We belong to Him and therefore the character of God is on the line, and God has never lost one believer.

The purpose clause which follows in this sentence anticipates the Church Age: "that they may be" – present active subjunctive of e)imi, present tense, linear aktionsart. Active voice: every believer in the Church Age is in union with Christ. Subjunctive mood: this goes with the purpose clause, it is not potential.

"one as we are" – God the Father have the same essence, identical characteristics all the way through. They are two separate and distinct persons but their essence is identical. It is the humanity of the Father which is praying to the Father, and He says, "We are one" – i.e. we have identical essence. This time when He says "as we are," we includes God the Father and God the Son in hypostatic union. At the point of salvation and the baptism of the Spirit we enter into union with Christ and we are now one with Jesus Christ.[2]

Verse 12 – "While I was with them," imperfect tense of e)imi, I kept on being with them. Jesus never deserted the disciples during those three years, "in the world."

"I kept on guarding them in thy name" – in the power of God the Father. This is the Father's plan; "those thou [God the Father] gavest me [Jesus Christ]" – perfect tense, You gave them to me in the past with the result that they belong to me forever.

"I have kept" – fulassw, which means to mount guard against a known enemy, and the word is used here for angels. He protected them against the angels. Aorist tense: this has to do with the angelic conflict.

"and none of them is lost [destroyed]" – aorist middle indicative of a)pollumi which means to destroy.

"but [except] the son of perdition" – the word for perdition is a)pwleia and it means the son of destruction. It is a title for Judas Iscariot. It is a title used for only two people in history, and a title for someone who is personally Satan-possessed. The second person will be the dictator of the revived Roman Empire in the Tribulation—2 Thess. 2:3. Two different people: one just before the Church Age begins and one is at the end, after the Church Age when the Church has been raptured destroyed.

"that" introduces a purpose clause: "the scripture might be fulfilled" – plhrow. The scripture is Psalm 41:9 which is actually quoted in John 13:18. Here it is just mentioned as being fulfilled. Plhrow means to fill up a deficiency, so prophecy is fulfilled in the sense of being historically completed, as specified in the prophecy. The word means to fully possess, and the Bible will stand forever and it possesses within its own writing the fulfilment of every prophecy. It means to fully influence: doctrine in the Bible is the greatest and most complete influence for the spiritual one, the believer. It means to fill with a certain quality and that quality is Bible doctrine in the human spirit from which the ECS is erected. These are some of the concepts behind the scripture being fulfilled.

Verse 13 – "And now come I to thee." Now refers to the fact that Christ's ministry is about to terminate; come I has to do with the ascension; to thee means face to face with you. However, before He does He goes on with His prayer.

"these things I speak [communicate] in the world" – Jesus Christ has already communicated [lalew] doctrine for three years. Present tense: I have kept on doing this; in the world means the place for His incarnate ministry. He spoke these things from His ECS because He had one.

"that" – purpose clause; "they [disciples, believers] might keep on having and holding [e)xw]."

"my joy" – inner happiness. Inner happiness is designed for the believer to have all of the time that he is on this earth. The subjunctive mood: that happiness is potential. Whether you are happy or not as a Christian is strictly potential.

"fulfilled" – plhrow. This is a perfect tense, which means a past action with continuous results. Past action: inhale of Bible doctrine through GAP. Continuous results" the erection of an ECS. The erection of an ECS means continuous happiness. Passive voice: the believer receives inner happiness through GAP. The participle sets up a law, a system. There is a law from God by which we can have as believers, inner happiness.[3] This is the operation of GAP under an intensified form resulting in an ECS.

"in themselves" – locative of sphere, in the sphere of themselves. Notice where they can have this happiness: inside.

Plhrow means to fill up a deficiency. Inner happiness [joy] fills up a deficiency in life—Philippians 4:11,12; Hebrews 13:5,6.

Plhrow means to fully possess. Inner happiness fully possesses the believer during the various functions of his priesthood. It fully possesses in the ECS.

Plhrow means to fully influence. The ECS and its resultant happiness can fully influence you.

Plhrow means to fill with a certain quality. Inner happiness is a certain quality. It comes from the filling of the Spirit – Galatians 5:22, and it comes from the ECS – John 17:13.

Verse 14 – in this verse we have residual doctrine versus cosmos diabolicus. "I have given" – perfect active indicative of didomi, the ordinary verb to give, and it is the verb of grace. Grace expresses itself in this manner, through giving. The perfect tense has to do with the completed canon of scripture plus GAP, the principle of taking it in. Remember that the perfect tense means to give something in the past with the result that you keep on having it. So the prefect tense means thew canon of scripture is completed and available. Notice that the canon of scripture was completed at the time when the angelic conflict actually began. Since the intensification of the angelic conflict began in the Church Age (there is a little overlap) and we have the completion of the canon God has given us something permanent—the Word of God. But the Bible itself is absolutely no good to the believer unless the doctrines that are found in the Bible are actually transferred into the human spirit. "I have given" includes everything involved everything involved in giving the Word of God, because it will be noticed that the object here is "thy word." It has to be remembered that the Word has existed in two forms. The Word, first of all, pre-existed. In eternity past there was no written Word so the Word existed in the mind of God. Specifically, the Word is called the mind of Christ—1Corinthians 2:16. It is called the voice of God [the Father]. In eternity past it existed in the mind of Christ, it existed in the mind of God the Father, because it is called the Word of God or the voice of God. In other words, logoj means the speaking, the word, the thinking, and so on. So it actually existed in eternity past but not in written form. Then there was a long period of time, at least two thousand years, when there was no written Word of God at all—until Moses. During that time God revealed himself in many ways, but His revelation to people at that time was limited.

Not only has God given the Word but He has given it to us on a permanent basis, which means the Bible is permanent and also that the system for perception is permanent. In the believer is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and also the human spirit. Therefore there is the permanent means of taking in the Word. However, there are still things that keep the believer from getting the Word. There must be the positive volition toward doctrine, the fulfilling of the grace principles of the filling of the Spirit, the function of the inhale of faith, and so on, for faith to function. The objective is to get doctrine into the human spirit. So when Jesus says, "I have given them thy word," and He puts it in the perfect tense He is recognising everything involved in making the Word of God available. He doesn't say, "I have spoken them thy word." The word "given" actually has to do with a lot more than simply the fact that Jesus taught for three years. Active voice: Christ produces the action of the verb. In other words, the glorification of Christ is the key for the completion of the canon of scripture. Jesus Christ must be seated at the right hand of the Father for the Church Age to begin, so the active voice here recognises that Christ will proceed and continue and the Church Age will actually begin. The indicative mood is the reality of doctrine in existence and available. This is the thing that people do not realise: doctrine is available to every believer priest and anything that is found in the Bible is written to be understood. That means revelation. There is nothing in the Bible that cannot be understood. There is no such thing as instant understanding: the advanced is built upon the less advanced, and you go right down to the basic concepts which must come first. GAP is designed so that the believer can take it in. There isn't anything that can't be taken in but we all have to start at the beginning.

"them" is dative plural, every believer; "thy word" refers to the completed canon of scripture, the Word of the Father in permanent writing.

This introduces the concept of setting up an ECS. Since they have the Word …

"the world" – o( kosmoj, a concept for the angelic conflict development and Satan being the ruler of this world. So kosmoj is an organised system and it is Satan's organised system to refute doctrine. What Satan really hates and what his system rejects is the Word.

"hath hated them" – them refers to believers with the Word. The world does not hate believers without the Word, it welcomes them because the power of the believer is in his ECS. It is the ECS which reflects the glory of God and to have an ECS requires a lot of the Word, a lot of doctrine in the human spirit. The kosmoj system does not hate believers minus doctrine. In fact, they are very helpful to Satan's kosmoj. In a sense, in the angelic conflict when you do not take in the Word you are giving aid and comfort to the enemy—Satan. When it says the world "hateth," it means to detest. Aorist active indicative of misew. The aorist is used to show a point of time when an ECS is discovered. The hatred continues but there is a point at which the hatred begins and that point is when the ECS is erected.

Because of this fantastic hatred, the persecution that follows it, and the pressure from Satan as a part of the angelic conflict, obviously the believer needs phase two protection from the kosmoj. This is the subject of verses 15-17—phase two protection from the cosmos.

Verse 15 – "I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world" indicates that Jesus is still praying. It would be easy for Jesus to say. "Protect every believer the moment he gets an ECS, take him home. But He doesn't pray that, and He is making that clear. It is necessary for believers to function with an ECS but if they do have one it doesn't mean that the Lord is going to take them home.

"but" – purpose clause; "thou shouldst keep them." The word for keep here means to keep that which belongs to self—terew. Aorist tense, referring to a point of time. In this particular case it refers to the believer from the time he gets an ECS to the time He departs from this life, and that is all gathered up into one entirety.

"from the evil one" – Satan.

Verse 16 – they are not out from the world. Though once part of the world's system they have been snatched as brands from the burning. Regeneration removes mankind from Satan's system but it take the growth in grace and the completion of the ECS to fulfil this principle.

Seven ways in which believers are not of the world

a) The believer has a different position—1Corinthians 15:22. The position of the world: "In Adam all die [The world is under spiritual death] but in Christ shall all be made alive." The believer has eternal life and so is "not of the world" – present linear aktionsart of e)imi. The believer's position is "in Christ." The world's position is "in Adam."

b) There is a different birth—John 3:5-7; Titus 3:5. This is natural generation versus regeneration. The world of humanity is made up of those who are born into the world, of which we are all a part, but while they are born into the world the believer is born again and that rebirth places the believer outside of the framework of cosmos diabolicus (at least by birth it does). So the believer is born into a kingdom in this world but not of this world.

c) There is a difference of service—John 8:44. The unbeliever serves his father the devil; the believer [in principle] serves Christ—John 13:16; 15:20.

d) There is a difference of purpose—1Corinthians 6:19,20; Romans 15:6. The unbeliever in the cosmos system is seeking some form of self-gratification, but the believer is under a system of God-glorification, the erection of the ECS.

e) There is a difference of power—Galatians 5:16. In this difference we have the energy of the flesh versus the power of the Spirit, the satanic doctrine versus the power of the Word.

f) There is a different way of life—Ephesians 4:22; 2:13. The world's way of life is religion and legalism; the Christian way of life is a supernatural grace-oriented system.

g) There is a difference of destiny—John 3:18, 36. The unbeliever [the world] is headed for the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels; the believer is headed for heaven.

Six conclusions

a) The world emphasises reformation and self-improvement while the Word of God emphasises grace, regeneration, spiritual growth.

b) There can be no compromise between the world and Christianity. They have different objectives; they have a different destiny.

c) The world can only compromise the believer by the infiltration of his soul. This is accomplished only when a believer is negative toward doctrine. Believers who are victimised by this infiltration of the soul are believers who have rejected doctrine.

d) The soul can only be infiltrated when the believer is negative toward Bible doctrine. This results in scar tissue of the soul which opens the vacuum of Ephesians 4:17.

e) Through this vacuum comes the doctrine of demons—1Timothy 4:1. Demon possession is impossible because the believer is indwelt by the Spirit, so there is such a thing as thought possession. There is a Satanic thought-possession attack.

f) However, when the believer priest inhales the Word of God daily—operates, under GAP—and transfers doctrine to his human Spirit, this is a sign of positive volition. Not only does it result in an ECS but it also results in protection while the believer is growing up spiritually.

Verse 17 – the mechanics of the protection. "Sanctify" is an aorist active imperative of a(giazw which means to set apart. Aorist tense: the point of time when

the believer is progressing, not retrogressing. The difference between progressing and retrogressing is the believer's attitude toward doctrine on a daily basis. Active voice: the believer makes a decision to take in doctrine daily which puts him on progression. Imperative mood: Jesus Christ is commanding God the Father to protect such believers.

"them" – accusative plural pronoun: believers positive toward doctrine.

"through" – the preposition e)n plus the instrumental case: by means of; "thy truth"—Bible doctrine is the means of being set apart. The Greek word a)lhqeia

means the whole system of doctrine. The believer is protected by the daily function of GAP, and that means he is progressing. If the believer is not protected that means he does not want protection because he is negative toward doctrine. It is negative volition toward doctrine that puts one out from under protection.

"thy word is truth" – Bible doctrine is the truth, keeps on being the truth, always will be the truth. This is the basis for protection. We are set apart by the daily function of GAP, the intensity of our study of the Word, and the process or completion of the erection of an ECS. Once an ECS is erected that isn't the end of the line, it is the beginning of a glorious life.

In verse 17 Jesus Christ is recognising the doctrine of divine decrees,[4] the fact that God the Father had a plan for believers during the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. This means that, first of all, GAP is provided for all believers in this age. Jesus Christ commanded God the Father in prayer to provide what had already existed in the divine decrees. That is why it is in the imperative mood: it was already a part of the plan of God and Jesus Christ is now commanding that the plan of God go into operation for the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. The word sanctify[5] means to set apart, and believers are set apart from the cosmos by means of the ECS. No unbeliever can produce this; no carnal believer can produce this; only the believer who functions under GAP consistently, day by day, can have an ECS in the cosmos. This is one of the most vital things in the world. He is demanding sanctification, and sanctification in phase two is the ECS constructed and the reflected glory of God from the soul. Jesus Christ is demanding this sanctification because He was there when the plan was set up, and He is recognising that God made provision for each believer in eternity past to glorify Him in time.

Verses 18 & 19, the purpose and function of the Church Age.

Verse 18 – the statement of purpose. "As" is the adverb kaqwj, according as or just as. Here again we have the doctrine of divine decrees. In fulfilment of the divine decrees we have the first advent, and everything was right on schedule—Christ had to come in the fullness of time. The fullness of time is the beginning of the Roman empire with all of its fantastic stability and framework of divine institution #4. It was decreed in eternity past that He would come at the right point in history. Secondly, He had to be virgin born. Why? Because only through the virgin birth could His humanity be minus the old sin nature and minus the imputation of Adam's sin.

"thou hast sent me" – aorist active indicative of a)postellw which means to sent forth with a commission; "me" is an accusative singular pronoun referring to Jesus Christ in His first advent. He was sent to fulfil the main section of the divine decrees.

"even so have I also sent them" – Who is sent? First the apostles, but also every believer. Jesus Christ in His humanity is now absent from the earth. He is in a resurrection body at the right hand of the Father—glorified. But we are present on the earth and God has a purpose for our life. The only thing holding it up is the ECS. God's purpose for the believer's life cannot be fulfilled apart from the ECS.

Verse 19 – "And for their sakes I sanctify myself." There are two substitutions of Christ on the earth. The preposition for substitution is u(per. It is used at the cross on behalf of our sins. But it is u(per, on behalf of you all, after you are saved. He did something here, ahead of us, to show that it can be done in humanity. He erected an ECS. From the humanity of Christ He glorified the plan of God the Father with an ECS, and the one who went to the cross had an ECS. Literally He said, "And on behalf of them."

"I sanctify myself" – the present tense means continuous and progressive action. Active voice: Christ did it because He was positive toward the Word. Indicative mood: the reality of the construction of the ECS. John 1:14—"… and we beheld his glory." The glory was the ECS. He sanctified Himself by the erection of an edification complex in His human soul—"myself," Christ learned doctrine daily in preparation for His ministry. Present tense: His sanctification was a process of inhale, inhale, and the building of an ECS. Active voice: Jesus Christ in His humanity was positive toward doctrine. Indicative mood: the reality of the construction of an ECS through GAP.

"that" introduces a purpose clause; "they also might be sanctified" – perfect passive subjunctive of a(giazw. Perfect tense: the permanent results of the ECS. When you build an ECS the results are permanent. Passive voice: the believer receives this ECS or sanctification through the daily function of GAP. (Remember that GAP cannot function without the filling of the Spirit). Subjunctive mood: an ECS is phase two is potential. What are the potentialities?

a) Your volition. Are you positive toward doctrine or negative (Apathy is also a negative)?

b) If you are positive, will you have the self-discipline to concentrate and to exclude other things that are important to you?

c) Is there a place where you can get doctrine consistently (Is there a pastor-teacher)?

d) Will you continue to take in, to GAP, under conditions of adversity?

e) Will you rebound consistently, have the filling of the Spirit consistently, in order to make GAP function?

f) If you do, then over a period of time you will erect an ECS.

The beautiful thing about the ECS is that it is a series of literally thousands of decisions. One decision won't cut it! You have to stay with it.

"For their sakes I have sanctified myself that they also might receive sanctification [an

ECS] …"

"through the truth" – or literally, by means of the truth. This is the preposition e)n plus

the instrumental case: by means of truth—a)lhqeia, Bible doctrine categorically presented.

Verse 20 – the recipients of the third petition. "Neither pray I for these." The word for is peri—concerning. Literally, "Neither do I make request concerning these alone," i.e. the disciples who are with Him in Gethsemane.

"but" – now we have a contrast between the disciples and believers of the Church Age; "concerning them who shall believe on me through their word."

"shall believe" is a present active participle of pisteuw, and it indicates once again that a change in dispensation does not change the way of salvation. Jesus is speaking in the dispensation of Israel and in the dispensation of Israel people were saved by faith in Jesus Christ. He was not revealed historically because of the incarnation; they anticipated the incarnation. The present tense is a futuristic present, it recognises that many decisions for Christ will be made during the Church Age. Active voice: each person must believe for himself. The participle indicates that all people are saved in the same way. It indicates a law of God: that people will always be saved through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in no other way.

"on me" – the preposition e)ij is used here, a directional preposition. The direction of faith must be Jesus Christ. He is the only saviour, the only source of salvation. Faith must have a direction.

"through their word" – in other words, there has been a perpetuation of the Word, gospel type, and there has been a perpetuation of response. People have continued to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; they have continued to receive Him as saviour.

Verse 21 – the petition for positional sanctification. "That" introduces a purpose clause. The purpose clause indicates that God has a plan and that Jesus Christ recognises this plan. As God He was there; from His humanity's ECS He knows the will of God.

"they may all be one" – those who believe in Christ during the Church Age; "may be" is a present active subjunctive of the absolute status quo verb, e)imi, and it means always to be in the present tense: "that they may always be one." The subjunctive mood is used here because of the purpose clause and not because union with Christ is potential. The word one here would emphasise the baptism of the Spirit whereby at the point of salvation God the Holy Spirit takes each one of us and enters us into union with Christ.

Then we have an analogy: "as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee." This means they have identical of essence and yet they are two separate and distinct persons. There is a relationship between the Father and the Son, as there always has been and always will be. This does not say that there is one God, it says that they share the same kind of essence. They have identical characteristics. At this particular point these characteristics are emphasised. In the actual function and formation of the plan whereby the Father sends the Son a relationship is established on the basis of the doctrine of divine decrees, and this relationship is emphasised. It is a permanent relationship, a perfect relationship because it involves perfect people. The perfection of the relationship of God is demonstrated by positional truth.

"that they also may be one in us" – this emphasises again the doctrine of positional truth. The Father is in the Son and we are in union with the Son—we have certain things on a permanent basis which belong to us by being one. We have eternal life—1John 5:11,12. We have righteousness—2Corinthians 5:21. We share the same election—Ephesians 1:4; destiny—Ephesians 1:5. We share His sonship—2Timothy 2:1; His heirship—Romans 8:16,17; His sanctification, priesthood—Hebrews 10:10-14.

The third clause in this verse is based on that: "that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." The world here refers to the kingdom of Satan and this brings us down to the intensification of the angelic conflict. During the intensification of the angelic conflict Christ is not on earth; there will be no performance of miracles—miracles are set aside. No miracles are necessary. In the intensified stage of the angelic conflict the power is in the Word, in the plan of God, in His designs. Jesus, therefore, prays along this line.

"that the world may believe" – present active subjunctive. This is a potential subjunctive. Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. The world goes for religion because religion is of the devil. Jesus said to the religious crowd, the Pharisees: "Ye are of your father, the devil." The ECS is going to play a major part in bringing the world around to where they will actually sit up and take notice.

"that thou" – God the Father, the author of the plan; "hast sent me" – aorist active indicative of a)postellw, which means to be sent on a mission. The aorist tense refers to the incarnation. Active voice: the Father sent the Son. Indicative mood: the reality of the incarnation in the plan of God the Father.

Verse 22 – a petition for the perpetuation of glory into the Church Age. The reason being that the angelic conflict will shift gears very shortly after Jesus prays this. Therefore there is a need for a new type of glory. The glory of the person of Jesus Christ will be gone. He will be seated at the right hand of the Father and therefore not visible to people on the earth. This is the glory of His deity and the glory of His humanity. Here Jesus is praying for our glory.

There are two kinds of glory which are found in this passage. First of all, there is phase two glory—the ECS. There is also phase three glory: the resurrection body which we will receive at the Rapture of the Church, ultimate sanctification.

"And the glory which thou gavest me" – this glory which was given to Jesus Christ is actually in two phases. There is the glory of the incarnation—the ECS. Then there is the glory of the resurrection, the result of which sees Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father. Gavest is a perfect active indicative of didomi. The perfect tense means that this glory was provided in eternity past as a part of the doctrine of divine decrees. The results are found in the incarnation—ECS and resurrection. The first glory He acquired through the ministry of the indwelling of the Spirit and the function of GAP—Luke 2:40, 52— and in the second glory God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are both said to have given Him a resurrection body.

"I have given them" – perfect active indicative of didomi. So the glories which were given by God the Father to God the Son during His incarnation (ECS and resurrection body) are given to us. The phase two glory is given to the believer during his lifetime. Just as the Holy Spirit sustained the humanity of Christ during His earthly ministry, so the same indwelling Holy Spirit sustains the believer during his priesthood on earth—John 14:12. The power of the indwelling Spirit depends on being filled with the Spirit—Ephesians 5:18; Galatians 5:16.

"that they may be one" – present active subjunctive, and the subjunctive has to do with the purpose clause; "even as we are one" – they have identical essence. This is fulfilled through the construction of an ECS.

Verse 23 – the petition for the accomplishment of the goal repeated. "I in them, and thou in me" – reference to the fact that Jesus Christ also indwells us, and that the Father is one with Christ.

"that" – purpose clause; "they may be made perfect" – this is a periphrastic. A periphrastic is made up of two verbs. There is the present active subjunctive of e)imi which is the first verb. This means to keep on being in this status. Then there is also a perfect passive subjunctive of teleiow. Teleiow means to be completed, and the passive voice means this completion is received. The subjunctive mood goes with the purpose clause and therefore it just simply means that this is a part of God's purpose: that we might be completed. Literally, "that they may have received completion [or, have completeness]." This fulfils what Jesus is saying in this passage. How are we completed? First, there must be the function of GAP; gnwsij must become e)pignwsij.

"in one" – e)ij is a preposition which has many meanings. One of them is because – "because of one." The one who will be the cause is the Holy Spirit who makes GAP function, who causes the cycling to the frame of reference and who makes it possible for the construction of the ECS.

"that" – the sixth purpose clause; "the world may know that thou hast sent me." The purpose here is that the ECS fulfils a slightly different purpose in the Church Age. In the Church Age, the intensified angelic conflict, the ECS is the only thing the believer has which Satan cannot counterfeit and cannot duplicate, and therefore it becomes a way in which the world knows that the Father sent the Son, that the Father has a plan. In other words, the manifestation of the Father's game plan for the intensified angelic conflict is the ECS.

"and hast loved me" – aorist active indicative of a)gapaw. How can the world know that the Father loves the believer? The ECS reflects the glory of God in cosmos diabolicus and makes the world aware of the Father's love.

Verse 24 – "Father." Jesus is addressing the Father is prayer which continues. "I will" – present active indicative of qelw and means I desire.

"that" – purpose clause; "they also, whom thou hast given me" – believers in the Church Age – "be with me" – present active subjunctive of e)imi, keep on being with me. He wants all believes with Himself.

"where I am" – where I keep on being. So Christ is in heaven and believers in the Church Age are going to live in heaven forever. Old Testament saints are going to live on the new earth, but we are His body and will be His bride. As the bride the Church lives with the groom, therefore we will live in heaven.

"that they may behold my glory" – the word to behold means to observe with interest and attention, qeorew, present active subjunctive: that they may keep on contemplating my glory.

"which thou hast given me" – reference now to the resurrection body. Why was this glory given?

"for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" – in other words, this was a part of the Father's plan and the Father's love. The Father's love came first, and then the Father's plan.[6]

Verses 25 & 26, the legacy of Jesus Christ:

a) He left a new organization to replace the organization of Israel—the Church.

b) Once Jesus Christ is ascended He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men—spiritual gifts.

c) He left everything that is revealed in the Church Age in writing—the canon of the scripture.

d) He left every believer with a priesthood, an ambassadorship, and GAP.

e) He left the indwelling Holy Spirit so that GAP could function.

f) He provided the assembly of believer priests under the concept of the local church.

g) He provided as an extension of GAP the operation of the frame of reference.

Verse 25 -- O righteous Father." The word for righteous here means absolute righteousness, and it indicates that God is perfect, therefore His plan is perfect.

"the world hath not known thee" – this is the world/kingdom of Satan, the kosmoj; 'hath not known' is an aorist active indicative from ginwskw which means to know from the experience of study, and it means that the unbeliever cannot function under GAP, he is minus the human spirit.

"but I have known" – Jesus Christ knew the plan of the Father in two ways. As God there never was a time when He didn't know it; as humanity He learned it through GAP and the frame of reference His humanity acquired.

"and these have known that thou hast sent me" – they don't know everything yet, in fact very little, but they do know I am part of the plan and that You have sent me.

Verse 26 – "And I have declared unto them thy name." The word for declare is the word gnwrizw which means to make it known. I have made it known; I have revealed it. Jesus Christ has actually revealed the Father's plan. This is an aorist tense which gathers up into one entirety the three years of His ministry, whenever He taught them.

"unto them" – dative of advantage; reference to the eleven disciples.

"and will declare it" – future tense of the same verb, gnwrizw. However, the declaration is going to take on a different form. This is future tense, and now that Christ is absent it refers to the mind of Christ on earth, and/or the canon of scripture. This is the legacy which Jesus Christ left us on this earth—the Word of God in permanent form, the canon of scripture, and the ability to comprehend it and master its content. (There is no part of the Word which cannot be mastered)

"and will declare it" – here is the final purpose clause: "that the love" – a reference to a)gaph love; "wherewith thou hast loved [a)gapaw] me" – aorist active indicative. This love has existed as the Father's love; the aorist tense refers to eternity past. Active voice: the Father loved the Son in eternity past. Indicative mood: the reality of that love.

"may be in them" – the believer can actually have something, present active subjunctive of e)imi. Present tense: always be there; active voice: you will have it; subjunctive mood: this love which existed in eternity past is potential—you may have it. The very floors of the ECS are actually constructed of things that existed in eternity past. And how does the believer get this love? Through Bible doctrine.

"and I in them" is a reference to the ECS.

[1] See the Doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

[2] See Doctrine of positional sanctification.

[3] See Doctrine of happiness.

[4] See the Doctrine of divine decrees.

[5] See the Doctrine of sanctification.

[6] See the Doctrine of divine decrees.

Chapter 18

In chapter 18 we have the failure of humanity. (In chapters 19 & 20 we have the success of God) In this chapter we have the sin of Judas Iscariot which was unpardonable. It was unpardonable for one reason: he had rejected Jesus Christ as saviour. The difference between a pardonable and an unpardonable sin is the difference of attitude toward Jesus Christ. For the believer in Jesus Christ there is no such thing as an unpardonable sin. The fact that he is a believer means that no sin is unpardonable. However, the unbeliever commits one unpardonable sin—unbelief, rejection of Jesus Christ as saviour. On them other hand we have Peter who denied Jesus Christ, and yet his sin was pardonable; and before we get to the end of John's Gospel he will be forgiven.

The name of this chapter: The travesty of justice.

Outline:

Verses 1-9, the opposition of the unbeliever.

Verses 10-18, the opposition of the believer.

Verses 19-40, the opposition of the nation.

Verses 1-9, the betrayal of Judas Iscariot. The scene of the betrayal is verses 1-3.

Verse 1 – "When Jesus had spoken these things." The word Jesus emphasises the humanity of Christ; had spoken is the aorist active participle of legw, which means to speak, to say. The word comes from logoj and logoj always emphasises the content, whereas lalew emphasises the delivery, the communication. This is an aorist active participle and is a reference to the Gethsemane discourse—John chapters 15 & 16 plus the Lord's prayer in Gethsemane, John 17. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb: "he went forth." He went forth after He spoke. This is not clear from the English. "He went forth" is e)cerxomai, it means to go outside the garden, across the bridge.

"with his disciples" – the preposition with is sun, but ordinarily the preposition with is meta. Why sun? Because meta is a preposition of association, and His disciples are disassociated with Him; sun is a preposition of presence and accompaniment, and they are still accompanying Him though they are not associated with Him. The word disciples is maqhthj which means a student under disciple to a rabbi, to a teacher.

"over the brook" – the brook is the Kidron river, Kedrwn in the Greek; Kidron in the Hebrew. Since the Kidron is often dry it is often called the Valley of Jehoshophat. It was used by Kings Asa, Hezekiah, and Josiah for burning the heathen idols. It was also used as a garbage dump. David crossed the Kidron to escape the revolt of Israel. Jesus crossed the brook Kidron to meet the revolt of Israel.

"where was a garden" – where kept on being a garden: Gethsemane—Matthew 26:36; Mark 14:32.

"into which he entered" should be into which he had entered, aorist active indicative of e)iserxomai. He had entered previously.

Verse 2 – "And Judas also," the traitor; "who betrayed him" – present active participle which connotes linear aktionsart. This is paradidomi, the usual word which means either to deliver or to betray, the context dictates which. The same verb is used later on in the passage for the deliverance of Jesus Christ to the high priest and the deliverance from the high priest to the Roman governor. It is a present active participle, which means that long before Judas betrayed in a point of time in his mind he had already betrayed the Lord because of negative volition.

"knew the place" – pluperfect of o)ida. O)ida is a perfect used as a present, so when it is in the pluperfect it is a past perfect and is translated in the English, "had had knowledge." Jesus had complete knowledge of our Lord's habits, knew where He could be found at this particular time; he knew the place—Gethsemane.

Judas Iscariot

1. His opportunities: He was from the tribe of Judah—John 6:71, the same tribe as Jesus, a ruling tribe. He had the advantage of being called by Jesus Christ—Luke 6:16. He is numbered as one of the twelve in Matthew 10:4. He was the treasurer—John 12:6. He was present at the last supper and offered the highest honour which he accepted and then went out and betrayed Jesus—John 13:26.

2. His sowing: He was covetous to the point of being dishonest—John 12:4-6. He was a thief as a result of being covetous—John 12:6. He lusted for the details of life to the exclusion of any honesty or character. He is unique in the sense that he is one of the few people in history who was actually Satan-possessed—Luke 22:3. He bargained to betray Jesus Christ—Mark 14:10. He was bribed to become a traitor—Matthew 26:14-16.

3. His reaping: He "repented"—Matthew 27:3. But this should not be translated repented because repent [metanoew] means to change your mind, but the word used here is metamelomai, which is an emotional word [melomai = emote]. Judas change in his emotions and this should be translated, he felt sorry for what he had done.

"for Jesus oftentimes" – the adverb pollakij which means frequently; "resorted" –

gathered.

Verse 3 – the action of the traitor. "Judas then, having received [having been

provided with] a band" – Judas received a detachment, aorist active participle of

lambanw which means here to be provided with. The word for band is speira. It was used at this period for the Roman cohorts, and a cohort was a part of a Roman regiment. So this means a detachment of Roman soldiers used for an official arrest. The temple guard was armed but it did not have the power of arrest. Therefore Roman soldiers must go along.

"and officers" – u(phrethj, which means temple guard. A contingent composed of Jewish men trained in military, often by the Romans, and then assigned to the temple for protection and keeping order in the temple.

"and cometh thither with lanterns" – the word lanterns is fanoj, and it isn't lanterns at all, it means a torch. A Roman soldier carried a torch.

"and torches" – lampen, which is a lamp.

Verses 4-9, a confrontation.

Verse 4 – "Jesus therefore, knowing all things." The word knowing is o)ida, used for Bible doctrine in the human spirit. From His deity, obviously, His omniscience knew always there things, but in His humanity He had maximum e)pignwsij or maximum o)ida. This is knowing it in His mind.

"Whom do you seek?" – dramatic present of zetew.

Verse 5 – "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus, as inscribed on His warrant for arrest; Nazareth, where He spent His childhood after Egypt. This is the name the scribes and the Pharisees give Him because they don't want Him identified with David or with Bethlehem. This name ignores: a) that Jesus is God; b) that He is descended from David in His humanity; c) ignores the fact that He is the Messiah, the only saviour.

"Jesus saith unto them, I am" – e)gw e)imi. This is the same as Exodus 3:14, except that it is another language, the same as John 8:58. When Jesus says, I am, it knocks them down.

John does not mention the betrayal kiss.

"And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them." Why does John put this in? Because John wants to show something else. The word stood is the pluperfect active indicative of i(sthmi—"Judas had had stood with them." The word with is the preposition meta—now we have association. Judas was associated with them. The word stood is important here. It represents not just a posture but it represents an attitude. Question: how can a mental attitude be derived from i(sthmi? Because the same morphology—the same verb, the same pluperfect tense, the same active voice and indicative mood—is found in verse 16. John does not mention the kiss, but both Peter and Judas had a similar attitude. As Judas stood there he had a mental attitude that was shot down. Peter had a mental attitude that was shot down. But there was a difference. With Judas, he was an unbeliever, minus the human spirit. He has a mind and he understands certain things about Jesus in his mind. But the things that he understands are things not connected directly with spiritual phenomena but connected with historical observations, and so what he understands he understands from empiricism which is a human system of perception, and these cannot be applied. Peter is a believer, and under GAP he has an understanding of Jesus in his mind but he had not made the transfer. He has transferred some doctrine but there is a mental attitude that Judas has which is also held by Peter, and in both cases—Peter received this information from GAP; Judas from empiricism—neither could transfer or apply or utilise properly the information. That is what John is teaching at this point.

Verse 6 – "they went backward," aorist active indicative of a)perxomai. This means in a point of time. The word means to fall backward, to lose one's balance. This is a)perxomai plus e)ij ta o)pisw, which is a prepositional phrase used as an idiom and means to lose one's balance. Therefore they fell, aorist active indicative of piptw. The greater power of an impact means one falls backward. When Jesus said, "I am," they all went backwards. The words of our Lord were a blast! This is the voice of Revelation 19:15, of Isaiah 37:36. No power on earth in that moment could have seized Jesus Christ without His permission. This is the volition of our Lord. He was willing to go to the cross. These words that knocked them to the ground could have destroyed them. Jesus uttered these same words to the woman at the well and she responded by faith—John 4:26. But here the same words are uttered to negative volition and they do not respond. Psalm 27:2 gives the principle. "My sheep hear my voice," and there were no sheep in that crowd.

Verse 7 – they persisted in their mission. If they hadn't, the plan of God would have stopped. The plan of God called for this. God knew what kind of men it would take to bring Jesus into custody. It took a traitor, like Judas. It took men of discipline and tenacity, like the Romans. It took men of courage, like the temple guards.

Verse 8 – "if [1st class condition] therefore ye seek me [and you do]." This is present linear aktionsart. Then He gives a command which is obeyed.

"let these go" – aorist active imperative of a)fihmi, which is a military word meaning "dismiss." Let is a bad translation for an imperative. And notice: the detachment is taking orders from Jesus Christ. In this way Jesus protected those eleven disciples.

Verse 9 – "That the saying might be fulfilled." Saying is logoj, the Word. This is the Word of John 17:12. So it should be, "That the word might be fulfilled" – aorist passive subjunctive of plhrow which means here simply to fulfil a principle. Aorist tense: in this point of time. Passive voice: it receives fulfilment. Subjunctive mood: until it actually occurred it was a potential factor.

"Of them which thou gavest me I have lost none" is a paraphrase from John 17:12.

But that isn't all that is being fulfilled. Leviticus 16:17 is also fulfilled—"And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place…" This is a reference to the day of Atonement and it refers to the high priest. He always went in alone, and when this is fulfilled Jesus Christ is going to the cross alone. He is the high priest.

Verses 10-18, the defection of Simon Peter.

Verse 10 – "Then Simon Peter having" – e)xw, present active participle, meaning to have and to hold; "a sword" – maxaira, a short Roman sword. The last kind of weapon Peter should have used. It was to be used only with great training.

"drew it" – e)lkw, aorist active indicative. He should never have done so. Peter was sincere! He was also courageous. He also knew the plan for the cross. Hs problem was that the plan was in his mind and not in his human spirit; he understood it gnwsij but he did not understand it e)pignwsij. When you have doctrine in your mind as gnwsij and haven't transferred it to your human spirit as e)pignwsij you are going to fail—operation energy of the flesh. No matter how much you want to serve the Lord, or how dedicated you are to the principle of occupation with Christ, if you have gnwsij and not e)pignwsij you are going to be just like Peter—swinging a human sword instead of the sword of the Spirit.

"he smote" – aorist active indicative of paiw.

"the high priest's servant – douloj. He was not a member of the temple guard or a member of the Roman detachment.

John notices that it was the right ear that was cut off. Peter was trying for the skull, of course, and he missed. How did John know it was Malchus? John was personally acquainted with Ciaphas the high priest. He therefore knew the servant of the high priest. The narrative also indicates John's coolness under fire. Peter is rash and courageous; John is cool.

Peter

1. Peter understood the crisis—Matthew 26:31-35.

2. Peter had great loyalty and personal courage, both of which are admirable qualities.

3. But Peter's understanding of the crisis was limited to his mind—gnwsij. GAP malfunctioned between the mind and the human spirit.

4. What Peter lacked was e)pignwsij—doctrine in the human spirit.

5. The application of doctrine from the mind instead of from the human spirit produces operation energy of the flesh.

6. Therefore Peter came to the crisis operating on human resources rather than GAP. The completion of GAP is the cycling into the human spirit and back into the mind as a frame of reference, producing divine viewpoint.

7. This lead to further failure on the part of Peter, including his denial. Peter was using, from his base of operations, human viewpoint.

8. Peter's failure resulted from the application of doctrine to the mind rather than from the human spirit.

Verse 11 – Peter is rebuked because he is out of phase with the plan of God.

"Put up" – ballw, which means to throw: Throw your sword. Throw it away. God's

plan doesn't call for you to go through the military pipe!

"the cup which my Father [the planner] hath given me, shall I not drink it?" "I must

be about my Father's business" is what the Lord is saying.

The doctrine of the Cup

1. The word cup is used literally for a drinking vessel. The content of that cup or vessel forms the basis for every biblical analogy.

2. The content of the cup is used in scripture for divine discipline of a national entity—Isaiah 51:17; Jeremiah 25:15-18 cf. Jeremiah 25:11-13. In those passages the nation drinks the goblet of God's wrath.

3. The content of the cup is grace blessing from God—Psalm 23:5. Here is a believer operating, like David, on GAP.

4. The content of the cup is salvation—Psalm 116:13.

5. The reason we can drink the cup of salvation is because Christ drank from a cup before us. He drank the sins of the world. 1Peter er 2:24; 3:18; 2Corinthians 5:21. The content of the cup of sins of the world were poured out on Christ at the cross—Matthew 20:22; 26:39, 42; Mark 10:38.

6. The cup is a remembrance of the cross in the Church Age—1Corinthians 11:25-27.

7. The content of the cup is also used in the scripture for satanic doctrine which people willingly receive—1Corinthians 10:21. This is the cup of the table of demons.

8. The content of the cup is also anti-Semitism—Zechariah 12:2. This is demonstrated by anti-Semitism in the Tribulation. The people who come to destroy the Jews drink of the cup of anti-Semitism and are destroyed.

9. The content of the cup is the religious system of the beast—Revelation 14:9-11; 18:4.

"my Father" – first person of the Trinity, author of the divine plan. Jesus is speaking from His humanity, so He calls the first person Father. Jesus Christ is the

Son; He obeys the Father.

"hath given" – perfect active indicative of didomi. The perfect tense means that the Father gave it in eternity past with the result that the cross occurred

historically. Active voice: the Father planned it. Indicative mood: the reality of the planning of the cross, the giving of the cup.

"shall I not drink it?" – aorist active subjunctive of pinw. Drinking the cup is Christ

receiving the sins of the world and being judged for them—doctrine of

unlimited atonement. 2Corinthians 5:14, 15, 19; 1Timothy 2:6; 4:10; Titus 2:11; Hebrews 2:9; 2Peter er 2:1; 1John 2:2. The negative mh is an unusual negative. In

a question it expects an affirmative answer, and He said, "Yes, I shall drink it." Why the subjunctive mood then? Because it is a matter of His own volition.

Now it can be seen where Peter is out of line. Peter wants to intercept the cup. It is

God the Father in eternity past who is giving the cup to the Son. The Son is

going to drink the cup to save the world and Peter is waving that sword and trying to cut it off. There is no place for a sword when God's plan calls for something else. But when God's plan calls for a sword then it is time to use it.

Principles

1. Doctrine in the mind, intellectually comprehended, cannot be applied from that point.

2. The mind is the staging area for GAP; gnwsij is in the staging area, not in the application area.

3. Under GAP doctrine must be transferred to the human spirit by faith.

4. The believer who takes doctrine into the mind but does not transfer it to the human spirit not only defrauds himself but, like Peter, gets in the way of the plan of God.

5. The greatest of human attributes can actually hinder the plan of God.

6. There is no place in the plan of God for human ability or human good; grace excludes them.

7. The sword in the hand of Peter represents maximum human ability with minimum spiritual dynamics.

Verse 12 – the arrest. Why is the arrest necessary? Was it necessary to have such a show of force to do it? No, but the show of force, the way in which they seized Him, the violence they used in seizing Him, will intimidate the other disciples. And there will be further isolation of our Lord.

"the band" – i.e. the Roman detachment, speira; "officers of the Jews" are the temple guard.

"took" – sunlambanw, which means to seize with violence; "and bound him" – which means they put chains on Him.

Verse 13 – a political aside. Instead of going directly to the high priest, who was Caiaphas, there is a detour. This verse gives us the detour for the interrogation before Annas, the political boss of the southern kingdom. Annas is the former high priest, the father-in-law of Caiaphas. Before any kind of a major move it had to be cleared with Annas. This was the modus operandi for all Jewish government activity. The trial and execution of Jesus Christ cannot proceed until Annas has given his approval. Verse 13 is placed in here for us to realise that already the judges have made up their mind. There is no trial yet; they have already decided to kill Jesus and to do it illegally. Immediately we see hostility move in as friends and loved ones move out. True aloneness means friends go, and as these people peel off the enemies move in.

Verse 14 – the prejudice of the judge. The chief judge is Caiaphas. Notice the word "expedient." That is the system of Caiaphas; he is a politician, a smooth operator.

"Caiaphas was he" – kept on being that way, the imperfect of e)imi; "which gave counsel" – aorist active participle of sumboulew which means to advise a group, to tell a group what to do. He has previously given the information. This is a reference to John 11:49-51. He said to the Sanhedrin that if they wanted to keep their autonomy they had to get rid of Jesus in a way which would not offend the Romans. The gimmick he uses is disguising power lust behind the good of the people—hypocrisy. He says Jesus must go for the benefit of the people. He was thinking of getting the Romans of their back. He was thinking of getting rid of Jesus before Jesus embarrassed them to where the Romans would get rid of them.

"it was expedient" – i.e. advantageous (to Caiaphas, actually). The expediency policy of Caiaphas was to get rid of Jesus and at the same time avoid Roman intervention into the autonomy of the province of Judea.

"one man" is a reference to Jesus Christ; "for the people" – the preposition u(per which means on behalf of, instead of. This is an hypocritical statement.

Verse 15 – the two disciples who did not run away. Simon Peter is operating under the energy of the flesh but hanging in there.

"followed" – this is imperfect active indicative, which means to follow all the way to the palace; "another disciple" is a reference to John—John 21:24, etc. Now there are only two left, John and Peter. The difference is that John is plus doctrine and Peter is minus doctrine. John is operating from e)pignwsij; Peter is operating from gnwsij. One is using human courage; one is using the strength that comes from Bible doctrine.

"that disciple was known unto the high priest" – the disciple is John, and the word was is an imperfect tense of e)imi, he kept on being known. The word for known is the noun gnwstoj which means to be a friend or an acquaintance.

The personal history of John the apostle

1. He is the son of Zebedee and Salome—Matthew 4:21—who were apparently aristocrats from the northern part of the country, Galilee.

2. Their home is in Bethsaida—Luke 5:10; John 1:44.

3. John has a background of wealth and influence. First of all, John possessed servants—Mark 1:20. Secondly, his mother Salome was very wealthy—Luke 8:3. Thirdly, he is a friend of Caiaphas who has been since 7 A.D. the true ruler of Judea—John 18:15. To be a friend of Caiaphas indicates some kind of background of prominence.

4. It is hard to distinguish exactly when John became a believer—probably under the ministry of John the Baptist. Both John and Andrew were disciples of John the Baptist before they became disciples of our Lord—John 1:35-39.

5. John and his brother James were called by Jesus Boanerges, which means sons of thunder—Mark 3:17. This would indicate apparently that John was quite high-spirited. Cf. Luke 9:49 where John is portrayed in the Greek as a high-handed aristocrat.

6. Not only is John portrayed as a high-haded aristocrat but his mother's ambition keeps popping into the picture. Salome was ambitious for her sons, James and John—Matthew 20:20-22. Apparently her sons had the same idea—Mark 10:35-39. James and John actually approached Jesus themselves to make sure they were numbered among the aristocracy.

7. On three important occasions of Christ's ministry John is mentioned in the company of his brother James and with Simon Peter to the exclusion of all others in the sense that they seemed to be on a little higher relationship. The first is at the raising of the daughter of Jairus—Mark 5:37. The second is at the point of the transfiguration—Mark 9:2. The third is in Gethsemane—Mark 14:33.

8. John was apparently the only one of the twelve who developed an ECS during the public ministry of Jesus Christ—1John 1:4.

"and went in with" – i.e. in the company of Jesus, aorist active indicative of

suneiserxomai [eij – into; erxomai = entering into; sun = in the company of

(Jesus)]. When John walked into the palace of Caiaphas with the enemy of the state, as it were, by his side he is getting ready to blow it! It is not the political thing to do. This is a greater act of courage than the act of courage when Peter pulled out the sword. Jesus is persona non grata to the state, but that doesn't bother John. He identifies himself with the Lord. There is the power of e)pignwsij. This is a magnificent expression of love.

"into the palace" – i.e. into the courtyard of the ruler.

Verse 16 – "But Peter stood," pluperfect active indicative of i(sthmi. The pluperfect is the past perfect of the perfect tense. This means that Peter stood there for a long time—stood with the result that he was still standing. It implies that Peter not only stood there but he stood there with a lot of regrets in his mind.

"without" – he stood at the door outside, he can't even get into the courtyard. This isn't a door, it is a gate.

"Then went out that other disciple" – John went out and helped him; "which was known unto the high priest" – John was one of those aristocrats who knew the high priest.

"and brought in Peter" – he ushered in Peter; e)isagw means to grab him by the arm and bring him in. Peter is in shock and has to be led through. He has already failed, he doesn't know how to make it up, and he is just hanging in there. So John grabs him by the arm and brings him in.

Verse 17 – "Art thou" or "Aren't you one of this man's students." The word disciple is maqhthj which means a student.

"He saith" – he didn't say it once, he kept on saying it, present active participle of legw. The present tense is linear aktionsart; "I am not" – he didn't use the simple negative, he used o)uk, the strong negative.

Verse 18 – the servants are slaves of the high priest, the officers are the temple guard. They "stood" there – pluperfect of i(sthmi again.

"had [already] made a fire of coals" – a)nqrakia, which is genuine coal; "for it was cold" – if you have ever been a failure in anything and it is cold, it depresses you. Imperfect tense: it kept on being cold—yuxoj. The word for soul is yuxh, feminine gender—the soul is a responder, and this is especially true of the woman. The word yuxoj is the same word but it has a masculine suffix. The soul was deliberately used in the feminine gender to show us that our souls respond to the Lord. They were designed to do so under the daily function of GAP. And when our soul does not respond to the Lord it is yuxoj—cold. Peter was out in the night that was yuxoj and all the fires in the world aren't going to warm him.

"and they warmed themselves" – imperfect middle indicative of qermainw which means to warm one's self.

"and Peter stood" – this time it is the perfect active indicative of i(sthmi rather than the pluperfect. Peter has stopped thinking, he has given up.

"with them" – meta is the preposition and it means in association. The pronoun is a)utoj. He is now associated with those he intended to kill. While he is warming himself at the fire he has stopped thinking any doctrine he knows. In other words, for the first time these people are no longer his enemies and as he is warming his body his soul is cold. Whatever doctrine he knew he is now in no position to apply it.

Verse 19 – "the high priest" refers to Caiaphas who is the presiding judge.

The illegality of the trial

1. The trial was held at night, and that was illegal. Jewish law said that it must be a trial by day.

2. The trial was held on a holy day, which was also illegal. This was the Passover.

3. The court was prejudiced and not interested in the facts. The prisoner was assumed to be guilty but the law said that the person was innocent until proven guilty.

4. No defence attorney was present. The penalty could not be pronounced on the same day as the trial. Yet, this was accomplished.

5. No account is given concerning the trial before Annas. All of this pertains to the trial before Caiaphas.

6. The trial before Caiaphas was divided into two parts. John describes the night time trial, but Luke describes the daytime trial—Luke 22:66-71. There is also a brief description of the night time trial in Matthew 26:59-68 and in Mark 14:53-65.

"asked Jesus" – the word for ask is e)rwtaw which is one of the words for interrogation. This is direct interrogation. This means to ask questions whereby the

individual incriminates himself. In other words, they are trying to get Him to incriminate Himself.

"of his disciples" – he interrogated concerning His disciples. This is very important because, as it were, he is trying to get Him to admit that His disciples are guilty so that they can pull a net around all of them. But He never says any such thing.

"and of [concerning] his doctrine" – didaxh, which means His doctrinal teaching. They thought He would panic.

The purpose for this interrogation was to find a basis for indictment. This is a travesty of justice. The purpose of interrogation is to determine the facts, to entrap. They were trying to trap Him; the judge is trying to trap a man who is innocent, rather than to get the facts. This is contrary to Jewish law because Jewish law says an indictment must be based on witnesses, not on the interrogation of the accused—Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15.

Verse 20 – "Jesus answered" is Jesus had an answer. His answer comes from e)pignwsij.

"I spake [communicated]" – lalew in the perfect tense; "openly" – publicly, with boldness, clarity.

"I ever taught" – the word ever is pantote and means at all times; I taught is the aorist active indicative of didaskw, the word for teach and means to teach a group.

"whither the Jews always resort" – like, "Hey, you Jews, where were you?" He has just taken a little piece of sanctified sarcasm and shoved it right down their throats. The adverb whither is o(pou—in which place [in the synagogue]. In which place the Jews assemble.

"and in secret have I not said even one thing," literally. Jesus never taught one on one, He never taught in secret.

Verse 21 – "Why asketh thou me?" Why do you keep on interrogating me? is what He says.

"ask them" – interrogate them. He uses the present tense of e)rwtaw for Himself; interrogate them, once and for all, aorist tense. They would get an answer which would prohibit any use of Jewish law. In other words, Jesus is telling the high priest how to judge a case! This reminder of a correct judicial procedure cause something. Jesus is right. Sometimes when you are right it means you are going to get clobbered, and this is what happened. Jesus is going to be the recipient of violence because of this.

"which heard" – notice He doesn't say, "Ask them on whom I performed miracles." He only performed miracles to emphasise the message. It is the message that counts, not the miracles.

"behold, they know what I have said" -- aorist active indicative, at any point of time when I spoke. Jesus does not suggest that those whom He healed be brought to the stand but those who heard the message.

Verse 22 – "one of the officers," u(phrethj, temple guard; "standing by" – perfect tense of paristhmi which means to be standing beside Him. Perfect tense: they had been standing there all the time.

"struck Jesus with the palm of his hand" – he didn't slap Him at all, he punched Him. That fulfilled Micah 5:1—"They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek." In other words, the judge of Israel is Jesus Christ.

"Answerest thou the high priest so [in this way]?"

Verse 23 – "If." There are two kinds of first class conditions. There is a true 1st class condition, which means if and it is true. There is a 1st class condition of supposition, generally used is debater's technique, which means you suppose it is true. We have two 1st class conditions, the first is the 1st class of supposition—"If I have spoken evil [and you assume that I have]."

"bear witness of the evil" – testify right now of the evil. In other words, 'Look, if I have been out of line you stand right up and testify to the judge against me.'

"but if well [and I have], why do you strike me with a rod?" – the word is derw and He wasn't struck with the palm of the hand, He was struck with a rod. Notice that the judge did not check the violence in the courtroom.

The Jewish law

1. In the night trial and in the morning trial before Caiaphas no sentence will be pronounced by the presiding judge. There was a verdict of guilty found by the Sanhedrin acting as a jury but the sentence was never passed. When Judea lost its independence in 6 A.D. the Sanhedrin had lost the right to administer capital punishment. That right was taken by Rome. This jurisdiction was transferred to the Roman procurator. The Sanhedrin does everything it can but cannot pronounce a sentence.

2. There is a twofold indictment which is coming up. a) Destroying the temple and building another in three days; b) Claiming to be the Son of God.

3. The illegality of this Jewish trial.

a. The judge was prejudiced and had previously plotted the death of

Jesus.

b. The court was without jurisdiction to try a capital offence. That belonged to the procurator of the province of Judea.

c. The incompetence of the judges can be seen from the cross examination of Jesus, because the cross examination reveals an objective of self-incrimination.

d. The judges are going to demonstrate further prejudice by an attempt to obtain testimony from false witnesses.

e. The trial was by night, therefore illegal.

f. They rendered the verdict of guilty without the elapse of a day.

g. They held a morning session on the feast day.

h. They rendered a verdict without legal evidence.

4. The reason why objectivity becomes subjectivity. Religion [and legalism] destroys the objectivity of the law.

5. Law in general:

a. Law to be objective must prove guilt. Therefore any system of law that is bona fide recognises a person as innocent until proven guilty.

b. Guilt must be proved in a trail by true laws of evidence.

c. In the ancient world two such systems existed: Roman and Jewish law.

d. Both followed the same principle as the Anglo-Saxon heritage in law—innocence until proven guilty.

e. Jewish law was distorted by the infiltration of religion.

f. Roman law was distorted by political expediency.

g. In His trials Jesus had contact with the two greatest systems of law in the ancient world, both distorted by man.

h. In principle, both systems of law were objective but in practice they were influenced by Satanic or cosmic thought as a part of the angelic conflict.

i. Any nation whose laws move from objectivity to subjectivity, whether it is criminal law or simply the modus operandi of divine institution #4, it is the sounding of the death-knell.

Verse 24 is a retrospective verse which merely shows us how Jesus Christ came to have a Jewish trial. (John does not deal with the details of the Jewish trials—Matthew 26:59-68; Mark 14:53-65)

Verses 25-27, the denials of Peter.

Verse 25 – "And Simon Peter stood" – stood is a perfect active participle of i(sthmi, the word for standing. He stood with the result that he kept on standing.

"and warmed himself" – present middle participle of qermainw. Present tense: he kept on doing it. Middle voice: he made this decision on his own. The participle emphasises linear aktionsart, he stayed there. He moves up to the fire as a stranger and is eventually recognised by others.

"They said" – the soldiers, some Roman and some temple guards; some of them are temple servants, and all are standing around. This is an aorist active indicative of legw. The aorist tense means at different times within a span of time.

"Art thou not" is a present active indicative of e)imi, plus the negative mh which is a negative which often demands a positive answer. In other words, they knew the answer.

"of his disciples" – of is e)k, out from; disciples is maqhthj. The gender of maqhthj is feminine, which tells us that these people are recipients of something. It means students. "Are you not one from among his students?" This is a trap. They know the answer. They are filled with pride and want to put him down.

"He denied it, and said, I am not." And he uses a different negative—e)imi plus o)uk. This is a very strong denial. Peter was beaten because of a mental attitude sin—lack of security.

Verse 26 – "being his kinsman." It looks as though it is the high priest's kinsman, but it isn't; it is a kinsman to Malchus: "One of the servants of the high priest, being kinsman [to the person] whose ear Peter cut off."

A third challenge: "Did I not see you in the garden with him?" The word with is meta, the preposition of association, "in association with him." If it was just with him it would be sun.

Verse 27 – "Peter then denied again." The word denied is a)rneomai which means to repudiate. Aorist tense: this is very firm. Active voice: Peter did it on his own. Indicative mood: the reality of his repudiation.

"and immediately" – the adverb e)uqewj; "the cock crew" – fwnew, uttered a sound. Peter is in utter defeat; but he is alive! He is going to get right up and move.

Verses 28-40, the Gentile (Roman) trial.

Verse 28 – "Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment" – present active indicative, dramatic present. The Praetorium was the official Roman judgment hall—praitwrion, the palace of the Roman governor of the province.

"and it was early" – the imperfect here is conative imperfect of e)imi and should be translated, it began to dawn. The word early is prwi which means dawn.

"and they themselves" – Caiaphas, the judges, the Sanhedrin, the scribes, the Pharisees.

"went not" – incorrectly translated. The Greek verb is e)iserxomai [e)rxomai = to come; e)ij = into]. They would not go into the judgment hall. They will not come in because it is the Passover, it is a holy day and they cannot enter into a Gentile house of any type or they are "defiled." They are about to be defiled with one of the darkest stains in history but that doesn't seem to bother them very much. They observe, as so many superficial people do, the amenities of religion. They stand outside so as to avoid defilement, and to observe the Passover, but Christ our Passover is in there. The whole meaning of the Passover is inside, undefiled and prepared for the cross.

"lest" – i(na plus mh, introducing a negative purpose clause; "they should not be defiled" – miainw. Here are the Jews, filled with unscrupulous scrupulosity and, at the same time, unrighteous conscientiousness. In other words, they are so religious and so legalistic and self-righteous it is pitiful. They were afraid of getting sewage on their clothes by going into the praetorium but they were getting sewage in their souls instead.

"but that they might eat" – aorist active subjunctive of e)sqiw, the ordinary word for eating; "the Passover" – eating the Passover is a picture of faith in Christ. They have rejected Jesus Christ, the Passover, and yet they are going to go ahead and eat the Passover—pasxa, taken from the Hebrew pasach. Christ the Passover will be slain right before their very eyes, and after this is all over the Pharisee will go and eat the Passover lamb! They do this because they are negative; they have sewage in their souls.

Verse 29 – "Pilate then went out." The verb is e)cerxomai. That means that Pontius Pilate caters to the Jews, and no Roman governor is ever going to win out by doing so. The Jews will not go inside because of the Passover and Pilate made his first mistake when he went out and talked to them. Instead of being a judge representing the greatest human power on earth at that time and sitting in his judgment throne he begins to show the weakness of his character. What he should have done was tell the Jews that if that wanted to accuse Jesus they should come in and do it. This was to be a Roman trial; inside that Praetorium was Rome! A Praetorium represents Rome, and since it represents Rome you come into Rome! So here Pontius Pilate is an errand boy. He comes into Jesus; he goes out to the Jews.

"unto them" – face to face with them, proj plus the accusative. He had to leave the trial and go out into the courtyard.

"What" – nominative plural interrogative pronoun tij; "accusation" – kathgoria, from which we get categories in the English. We now have mobs putting pressure on the law. A good system of law says, Destroy the mobs. Mobs to not represent law and order and no mob in history ever accomplished anything. No mob ever has the right to violate the law in order to gain some principle. Not only do we have a mob here but we have religion behind the mob. The Sanhedrin is behind this and the leaders behind this mob are religious types.

"bring ye against this man?" – here is objectivity. He doesn't assume that Jesus is guilty because there is a big mob out there shouting for the death of our Lord. Pilate shows no prejudice, he has total objectivity at this point.

Verse 30 – "They answered and said unto him." They refers to the religious leaders who speak for the mob.

"If" – second class condition, if and not true; "he were not a malefactor [but He isn't]" – imperfect active indicative from e)imi. Imperfect tense: in time past He always was a criminal. Malefactor means a professional criminal. E)imi plus the negative mh goes with the second class condition to indicate that they said He was a professional criminal but He really was not.

"we would not have delivered him to thee" – which is ridiculous. In the first place, when a mob delivers up someone you can count on it that the person is either innocent or he is not getting a square deal because the mob is incapable of giving anyone a square deal. A mob is run by a mass of emotion. There is no legal procedure or fairness.

We do not have at this point in this passage the actual accusation brought against the Lord Jesus Christ. All we have at this point is that the Jews are obviously upset by Pilate's question. They didn't expect Pilate to come out and use Roman law on them, to ask what the indictment was. They were hoping that the mob would persuade Pilate, especially since they know he is in trouble with Tiberius the Roman emperor. There is really no basis for a Roman trial. John doesn't mention what they actually said, but in Luke 23:2ff we have the three accusations against Jesus: fomenting a revolution, bucking the system of revenue, claiming to be a King.

Verse 31 – "Take ye him and judge him according to your law." The Jews could judge someone but they could not kill him, and they don't want to go through a trial anyway, they just want to kill Jesus Christ. The Romans never permitted a subject people to administer capital punishment.

"judge him" is an aorist active imperative from krinw. He means do it now; do it while you can; that's an order from Rome.

"It is not lawful for us to put him to death." They have not followed the Jewish system of law or come up with bona fide evidence. They have hearsay, prejudice, have had violence in the courtroom, and yet they come up and say it is not lawful for them to put Him to death. They use the word a)pokteinw which means to annihilate Him.

Verse 32 – "That" introduces a result clause; "the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled." The word saying here is logoj and it means the Word, o( logoj. This is what Jesus said in Matthew 20:19 and John 12:32,33. Jesus prophesied that he would die by crucifixion. But remember that when the Jews were an autonomous state their system of execution was always stoning. That was prescribed by the law. And who had to throw the first stone? The accuser. So if the accuser ever had any doubts he would never throw the stones!

"might be fulfilled" – aorist passive subjunctive of plhrow. Aorist tense: in a point of time. Passive voice: Jesus would receive this type of death. Subjunctive mood: when Jesus declared it He was not dead and it was still potential. The potentiality of the subjunctive mood goes right back to the volition of the humanity of Christ. It was a free will decision to go to the cross and bear our sins and take our place.

"what death he should die" – the word what is poioj and means what kind of; the word death is qanatoj, used for both spiritual death and physical death; "he should die" – a)poqnhskw (actually taken from qanantoj) [a)po = ultimate source; qnhskw = to die], which means to doe from the ultimate source of Himself. This also means utter separation. This is also in the dramatic historic present. Active voice: Jesus Christ produced the action of the verb, He dismissed His own spirit when He died. The infinitive is the purpose. It was His purpose to come into the world to die for the sins of the world.

Verse 33 – "judgment hall" is the Greek word for Praetorium; "entered in" the aorist active indicative, Pilate couldn't get back in there fast enough.

"and called Jesus" – fwnew means to summons someone for the purpose of satisfying curiosity, or for the purpose of interrogation. He just had to talk to Jesus. Where is the king around here?

"Art thou the King of the Jews?" This accusation intrigues Pontius Pilate—for several reasons. If he could ever find a true king he is going to get rid of the Sanhedrin because he was persona non grata with them. They were always a thorn in the flesh to Roman administration. There were a lot of things going through the mind of Pilate. The Jewish leaders are trying to get rid of him and are complaining to the emperor. He realises that if he is ever going to get out of the jamb he is in he had better find someone who could rule these people better than the Sanhedrin.

The synoptic Gospels all give the answer to Pilate's question; John does not. The answer is "Thou sayest," which means affirmative: "I am."

Verse 34 – "Jesus had an answer," aorist passive indicative of a)pokrinomai. A)pokrinomai is passive in form and is generally assigned an active meaning. This is generally called a deponent verb. But in a deponent verb when the morphology is passive and the meaning is active it indicates that Jesus Christ answers but He always has had an answer. A)pokrinomai comes from the very depths of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has an answer because He is God and in eternity past He knew the situation. He has an answer because He is a man with an ECS. Obviously He has an answer and will have answers all the way through—on the cross, leading up to the cross, and sometimes He will have answers and not give them.

"Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it to thee of me?"

"Sayest thou" is a present active indicative of legw, the ordinary verb to say, to speak, to tell, to relate.

"Of thyself" is literally, from the source of yourself—a)po, preposition of ultimate source. In other words, Is this your idea or the idea of someone else? Jesus answers a question with a question for this reason. Jesus was not outside when Pilate spoke to the chief priests, and He is speaking from His humanity. The charges of Luke 23:2 were made against Him outside and out of His hearing. Therefore He seeks to establish the origin of the implication of this phrase, "Art thou the King of the Jews?" because behind it is a violation of Roman law called majestus, which means treason. In other words, Do you set yourself up as a king against Rome. This is why Pontius Pilate asked Him the question originally.

Verse 35 – "Am I a Jew?" This means that he had an answer, and this answer came from the depths of his character. He is so nerve-frayed and worn and upset and disturbed by the way things are going and the dilemma in which he finds himself that he counters with another question. Here is a man who is losing his objectivity through exasperation. With the question he puts the negative mh, but it is mhti this time. Mh in itself means no, I am not. In other words, he answers it for himself. But mhti is even stronger, and we have to go to our English idiom which is basically a "Hell no" answer. In other words, How can I know what these Jewish customs are? what do I know about this thing? This is frustration, exasperation.

"Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?" When he says "thine own nation," Pilate expresses the real issue. At the same time he denies any personal prejudice. Not being a Jew Pilate has no personal prejudice in the matter, he is not interested in Jewish law.

"have delivered" – the aorist active indicative of paradidomi means more than just to deliver, it means also to betray. It means deliverance and betrayal: Your own nation has betrayed you. Then he asks the question: "What have you done?" When he asks the question he shows that even though he is exasperated he is still an objective Roman judge fulfilling his duty. This question is a desire for information.

Verse 36 – "Jesus answered." Again, a)pokrinomai, Jesus had an answer, aorist passive indicative. Now we have a verse which is very important to us. It has to do with our relationship to the Lord, also our relationship to our country, it demands that the believer in Jesus Christ should be patriotic. There is no conflict between being a citizen of our country and being a citizen of the kingdom of God.

"My kingdom" – basileia. Jesus is actually referring to royal power or royal rule. He is referring to a kingdom.

1. The etymology of basileia: it means royal rule. It represents either a spiritual or a political kingdom but it refers to an organised system of authority. When it is used in a political sense it refers to divine institution #4; when it is used in a spiritual sense it is used for the kingdom of God which is the Church in the Church Age—those who are born again.

2. As Jesus used the word "My Kingdom" it has a spiritual connotation. This is a kingdom of regenerate persons.

3. Jesus Christ also has another kingdom. This kingdom is described in the Davidic covenant and it is a political kingdom but it will not exist until the Second Advent. From the death of Christ, all the way through the Tribulation, Jesus Christ does not have on earth a political kingdom. During this stage of the angelic conflict Satan is the ruler of this world. God's protection against the kosmoj basileia is divine institution #4, nationalism. Nationalism is the protection from the destruction of Satan. The attack against nationalism from the outside is internationalism, and from the inside it is mob action and revolution.

4. Until the second advent of Christ there will exist for believers [only] a dual kingdom situation. Every believer is the member on earth of a spiritual kingdom and at the same time of a national entity (divine institution #4), a political kingdom. He has a responsibility to his spiritual kingdom—GAP, and he has a responsibility to divine institution #4—patriotism.

5. The kingdom of the Church is in the world but not of the world.

"is not" – present active indicative of e)imi, absolute status quo, plus the negative

o)uk.

"of this world" – e)k, preposition from. That is, the spiritual kingdom is not the

national entity and is not in competition with the national entity.

Next we have one of the most important conditional clauses in the New Testament

from the standpoint of clarifying some things. The word "if" is a second

class condition, used here to set up a hypothetical but not real situation: if and it is not true. But if it were, He is saying in effect, I would not be here now.

"then would my servants fight" – this is what alerted Pontius Pilate. No one is trying to rescue Jesus, no one is fighting. And Peter almost ruined this whole answer by pulling out a sword.

"were" is imperfect active indicative of e)imi which means keeps on being. This sets up a hypothetical situation.

"then" – now we have the apodosis; "would my servants fight"—the word for fight is a)gwnizomai which refers to a battle or an athletic contest. Here it means to fight to the death. This answers two things. A spiritual kingdom of regenerate is not in opposition to human government—divine institution #4. Secondly, fighting for one's country is legitimate and the responsibility of the believer—Luke 22:36.

"that" introduces a purpose clause; "I should not be delivered to the Jews" or literally, I should not be betrayed to the Jews—paradidomi. Aorist tense: in a point of time. Aorist tense: receive betrayal. The negative mh indicates that He was betrayed, and so the mh plus the second class condition indicates that there is His defense.

"but now" – nun de refers to that moment. The particle de is used as a conjunction of contrast; nun is an adverb that means right this minute. The fact that Jesus is standing there is proof of His innocence.

"my kingdom is not" – e)imi plus o)uk; "from hence" is literally, from this place, the adverb e)nteuqen.

1. Jesus is saying there is no conflict between the Roman government and His own spiritual kingdom.

2. Pilate is wrong about one thing. He keeps saying that this is a Jewish issue, but this is not a Jewish question. This is a point of doctrine pertinent to the entire human race, including Pilate himself. Can you be a born again believer and be loyal and patriotic to the national entity in which you are born and of which you are a citizen? The answer is yes.

3. The Lord's kingdom is composed of those who believe in Jesus Christ. They are born again. The very nature of their birth indicates the nature of the kingdom. We have a spiritual birth and therefore it is a spiritual kingdom composed of those who have eternal life.

4. Pilate is on the verge of making his greatest discovery. He, too, while loyal to Rome could enter this spiritual kingdom. But negative volition will blind his mind—2Corinthians 4:3,4.

5. The next verse will portray how close Pilate came to eternal life, and yet how far away negative volition removed him from salvation.

Verse 37 – "Art thou" is the present active indicative of e)imi; " a king then?"

1. Pilate understands the spiritual nature of His kingdom without understanding its implications.

2. Pilate in an unbeliever, therefore incapable of understanding doctrine and especially doctrine dealing with a spiritual kingdom—1Corinthians 2:14.

3. However, if Pilate possessed positive volition at the point of God-consciousness he could then ask questions that would lead to his understanding of the gospel.

4. The results would have been the salvation of Pilate.

5. But Jesus is in the hands of a judge on negative volition at God-consciousness. But at the same time a Roman judge who under Roman law must be fair and objective.

6. And this Pilate will be until he reaches the point of political expediency. The point of political expediency is going to demonstrate his weakness, and his weakness is based upon negative volition at the point of God-consciousness.

"Jesus had an answer," Thou sayest" – idiom for positive, affirmative.

"that I am" – the word that is literally because; or literally, "Yes, because I am and

always will be."

"To this end" – e)ij plus touto. E)ij is used here as a purpose preposition, and this

should be translated, For this purpose.

"I was born" – perfect passive indicative of gennaw. Perfect tense: He was born in

the past with the result that He would be humanity forever. That makes

Him the God-Man, hypostatic union. Passive voice: He received humanity. Indicative mood: the reality of the hypostatic union, and the purpose of the first advent was to go to the cross, to go as a King, and to establish a spiritual kingdom.

Then we have the same phrase again: "for this cause" – e)ij touto, and again it has

the same connotation; "came I into the world" – first advent.

"that" introduces a purpose clause. Jesus Christ comes into the world. He receives

true humanity. The attributes of His deity will not permit Him to go to the

cross as God, therefore He had to become true humanity.

"I should bear witness" – and this doesn't mean witnessing as we use it so poorly today. This word is much, much stronger than our concept, it is the aorist active subjunctive of marturew. It means to bear witness, but Jesus Christ bears witness first of all by His birth whereby He becomes the God-Man. The fact that He is the God-Man causes everyone to sit up and take notice. The virgin birth is an adaptation to this. Then, His demonstration as humanity developing the ECS first. He didn't go out and start performing miracles, He first of all functioned under GAP and erected and ECS—"And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten from the immediate source of the Father." Once He has an ECS then at age 30, after all this preparation, He is ready to go. Now He is the producer of divine good, of miracles, we have the three years of His earthly ministry. Thirty years of preparation; three years of ministry. Marturew refers to His entire ministry of three years. It does not refer to His preparation, it refers to the results. Preparation comes first. Production is based on doctrine, not on human action.

"unto the truth" – the truth is a)lhqeia, which is doctrine. His life bears witness to the power of doctrine.

"Every one that is of the truth" – the one being from the source of the truth. "The one being" – present active participle of e)imi, linear aktionsart, the one always being from the source of the truth. This describes positive volition at the point of God-consciousness. Those who are positive at the point of God-consciousness are said to be out from the source of the truth. That means that when they hear the truth they will respond to the truth and the truth will make them free. Pontius Pilate is not from the source of the truth.

"What is truth?"

1. If Pontius Pilate had been on positive volition at God-consciousness he would have changed his interrogation to one of personal interest, resulting in receiving gospel information.

2. But Pilate continues his interrogation along lines compatible with Roman law.

3. If Pilate had been on positive volition at the point of God-consciousness he would have concluded that Jesus was the Son of God.

4. But Pilate was on negative volition at God-consciousness, therefore he concluded that Jesus was innocent. His conclusion was correct but he missed the boat.

5. In finding Jesus not guilty Pilate was a good administrator, but not saved.

6. Salvation is just as much open to Pilate as anyone else, therefore if he had believed in Christ he would be the possessor of eternal life and still be a good administrator.

7. Pilate is right about the innocence of Jesus but wrong about the person of the Saviour.

8. Pilate is right about the Roman law but wrong about grace because of negative volition at God-consciousness.[1]

Pontius Pilate

1. He was appointed governor of Judea in 26 AD by the emperor Tiberias, a fighting man who admired soldiers.

2. When he became governor he offended the Jews with resultant antagonism. He changed army headquarters from Caesarea to Jerusalem and the Jews

were offended by the Roman standards which went with army headquarters. He hung golden shields with the names of Roman deities from the Praetorium.

He appropriated the redemption money from the temple the build an aqueduct and improved the water system in Jerusalem. They had more water but they

resented losing that money. He slaughtered the Galileans in the temple while they were sacrificing—Luke 13:1. These four things aroused Jewish

antagonism, so by the time he had been governor for one year he was thoroughly despised.

3. Pilate now faces a tremendous internal struggle. a) He is now developing a fear of further offending the Jews and losing his job. b) He has a conviction that Jesus is innocent and should not be executed. This puts him on the horns of a dilemma because Roman law was designed to protect the innocent, not execute them. He also is getting another feeling that Jesus is God and it is going to scare him to death.

4. Pilate attempted to compromise between Roman law and Jewish hatred, which backfired when the Jews chose to release Barabbas. Application: You can never compromise with hatred or any other mental attitude sin.

5. His compromise was one of expediency. Expediency destroys leadership. A person in authority cannot compromise with any mental attitude sin.

6. Pilate's attempted compromise did not save him from political

disaster.

7. Pilate was sent to Rome to answer charges of maladministration by Vitellius.

8. In the meantime Tiberius died and Pilate had to answer to Calligula.

9. Before his trial Pilate committed suicide.

10. He died an unbeliever—John 3:18.

11. In lifetime Pilate regarded the innocence of Jesus as a mere trifle compared to his own political ambition. In death the trifle became the basis for his eternal punishment.

12. Pilate, however, did try to extricate himself from the dilemma of condemning an innocent man. He passed the responsibility on to Herod—Luke 23:7-11. He offered to punish Jesus by flogging and then release Him—Luke 23:16. He offered to release Jesus as an act of Clemency at the feats of the Passover—John 18:39.

13. But the implacability of the Jews neutralised all of these plans to release Jesus 23:23.

14. Yet Pilate repeatedly declared His innocence—Luke 23:24,15,22.

15. What could have saved Pilate from his own weakness of political expediency was personal faith in Jesus Christ. That would have given him a basis for ignoring and rejecting the obvious antagonism, and perpetuating the innocence of Jesus by releasing Him.

"What is truth?" – made up of an interrogative pronoun ti, plus the present active indicative of e)imi, plus a)lhqeia. This is the end for Pilate, right here. If he

had been asking this question in order to gain the truth he would have received gospel information and he would have waited for it. But he was not seeking information. This is a rhetorical question, not a seeking question. We know this because he left immediately without waiting for an answer.

"he went out" – out of the Praetorium, e)iserxomai; "unto the Jews" – proj plus the accusative, face to face with the Jews. He didn't wait for an answer, he is now through with Jesus Christ as saviour. He goes outside to the Jews and gives an honest answer.

"I find no fault" – present active indicative of e(uriskw, I keep on finding no fault. The word fault is a)itia and it means charge—the charges that have been pressed. "I find no charge/complaint/case against him." This is an impartial judge properly administering Roman law. His verdict is reported in 1Timothy 6:13.

We now begin to the see nobility of Pontius Pilate cracking—a man of great ability and yet he is beginning to fall apart. And as we move along toward the cross and the crucifixion we see the Lord Jesus Christ becoming, as it were, greater and stronger, oriented to the will of the Father and the plan of the Father. Pontius Pilate is not in God's plan, therefore he is not oriented to grace. The only thing that can be said about Pontius Pilate is that he is oriented to his own advancement, and this is going to trip him up and destroy his life.

Verse 39 – the third attempt of Pontius Pilate to release Jesus Christ. In the first attempt he passed the responsibility to Herod—Luke 23:7-11. His second attempt: he offered to punish Jesus by flogging and then release Him—Luke 23:16.

The penal institutions of the Roman system

1. The penal institutions [jails] in the ancient world were used to house suspects until trial. Under Roman law punishment followed quickly to the guilty. They had no system of prison terms, you were either innocent, found innocent by law and released, or found guilty and either flogged or killed. In this way they didn't keep their jails cluttered up with people.

2. Under these conditions crime waves were very infrequent in the Roman empire.

3. The harsh laws of the Roman republic were replaced by humane laws in the empire.

4. The rights of the accused now well recognised at this time. There is a maxim of Roman law which goes like this: "Better to let the guilty escape than to punish the innocent." This is the objectivity of Roman law.

5. The Roman empire was the first to recognise that all men are equal under the law.

6. Roman law was improved under the empire until a man who was a famous jurist under the emperor Alexander Severus. He contended that slavery had been created by lower law, not enacted by nature but by man. If a man claimed another man as his slave the benefit of any possible doubt was given to the one claimed as a slave, and in this way Roman law actually broke the bondage of slavery.

7. Therefore historically credit must be given to Roman law as the best and most objective in the ancient world.

8. In principle Jewish law was the best but in practice it was distorted into subjectivity by the infiltration of legalism and religion.

9. Under Roman law Jesus Christ was acquitted. The crucifixion of Jesus was not an act of Roman law but an act of expediency by a Roman official who failed to follow up his findings by releasing Jesus Christ.

"But ye have a custom" – ye have is the present active indicative of e)imi, you keep on having a custom.

1. The word for custom is sunhqeia and it refers to an established custom, a practice, not a custom based on law but on precedence.

2. Pilate, in saying "ye have a custom," is grasping at straws to get off the hook. He is in trouble.

3. His relationship with the Jews is strained to the point of either revolt or complaint to Caesar.

4. Because of this Pilate turns his back on Roman law and operates on expediency.

5. At this point Pilate displays lack of moral courage.

6. By compromising Roman law Pilate has failed as the governor of Judea.

7. By catering to Jewish pressure Pilate has planted the seeds for revolution and he is going to destroy his own career.

8. By negative volition toward Christ as saviour Pilate has guaranteed for himself a place in hell—John 3:36.

"that" introduces a result clause; "I should release" – aorist active subjunctive of

a)poluw which means to release, but in the aorist it means in a point of time, on a feast day. Active voice: the Roman governor could do this. Subjunctive mood: he didn't always do it.

"one" means one prisoner; "at the Passover" – pasxa. This word is also translated "easter" in Acts, incorrectly, in the KJV.

"will ye" is a mistake. The word used is the present active indicative of boulomai

which means volition; it is the strongest verb of volition. It means to desire something based upon mentality. It also means to decree. This verb is used for decisions of the will based on careful deliberation and thought. It should be translated, "Are you willing?"

"that I release unto you the King of the Jews?" Pilate is a cynic.

The cynicism of Pilate—"the King of the Jews"

1. Pilate's cynical use of this title infuriated the Jews—he knew it would. He just couldn't resist the temptation to "twist their tails."

2. Pilate was, in effect, rubbing their nose in their own maladministration of Jewish law. Jewish law never executes its king. Under Jewish law only God can remove a king. In other words, Jewish law prohibits revolution and mob action. Jewish laws demands that you put it in the Lord's and the Lord will take it.

3. First Pilate declares the innocence of Christ and now he declares Him the King of the Jews.

4. This is not only cynicism, Pilate has contempt for Jewish law and its function.

5. Obviously then, Pilate is a brilliant man and he sees through the Jewish deception. Now it backfires. When you are choosing between the King of the Jews and the word criminal it should be no contest but Pilate did not know anything about religion. He did not know that religious people are the most vicious people in the world.

Verse 40 – "Then cried they all again, saying." This means to shout—kraugazw,

which means to vociferate, to have a rotten, mean, vicious mental attitude and to shout. When you shout from mental attitude sins, that is kraugazw. This is an aorist active indicative here. The word saying is legw, and it is a present active participle. Kraugazw describes their mental attitude and its results vocally, but the actual words that they uttered are found in the word legw—present active participle, they kept on doing it. They once and for all had a bad, vicious mental attitude—aorist tense. And they kept on expressing their bad mental attitude. There is a point of doctrine from this grammar and syntax: When you have a bad mental attitude in a point of time you keep on expressing it over a period of time. One mental attitude; many expressions.

"Not this one [not man], but Barabbas."

"But Barabbas"

1. Barabbas is an Aramaic term which means son of the father. He was a famous criminal—a murderer and a revolutionist, Mark 15:7; Luke 23:19.

2. Barabbas was in prison waiting to be tried for murder by Pilate.

3. Since Barabbas was public enemy #1 Pilate chose him as the alternate to Jesus, thinking that Barabbas would be so repugnant that the Jews would want the release of Jesus.

4. But Pilate failed to realise the depravity of mental attitude sins in religious types.

5. Jewish religious leaders were filled with jealousy, pride, hatred, vindictiveness, implacability.

6. They would prefer the release of a vicious criminal rather than Jesus Christ.

7. As a result, now running loose in the streets of Jerusalem is homicidal, political terrorist. What the Jews have done is choose son of the father instead of Son of God.

8. The Jews chose the criminal son of the father rather than the eternal Son of God, the only saviour.

9. Here is the result of negative volition plus religion—to choose a criminal instead of the saviour.

"Now Barabbas was a robber" – badly translated. The word was is the imperfect tense of e)imi, which means he kept on being, this was a permanent status

quo. The word robber is the Greek word lhsthj which does not mean a robber. It means a professional criminal, both an insurrectionist and a bandit

[1] See the Doctrine of Heathenism.

Chapter 19

Outline: Verses 1-16, the conclusion of the Roman trial.

Verses 17-37, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Verses 38-42, the burial of Jesus.

Verse 1 – "Then" is the adverb tote which means "at that time," i.e. after the declaration of the Jews for the release of Barabbas.

"took" – aorist active indicative of lambanw which means to seize; "and scourged him."

The word 'scourge'

1. It is an aorist active indicative of mastigow. It means to flog someone who has been condemned. There is an exact equivalent in the Latin of the time verbaratio, which means to flog someone who has been condemned to death.

2. The aorist tense here is unusual, it is a causative aorist. Pilate caused Him to be scourged. He ordered the flogging, therefore this is a causative aorist, he didn't do it himself. Flogging consisted of whipping with a scourge—mastic. It has leather thongs into which had been worked pieces of metal, sharp splinters, and the pieces of leather are tipped with leaden balls with sharp spikes. They used this whip in two ways, one for interrogation to discourage lying, and also, as in this case, for a preliminary to execution.

3. The active voice: Pilate ordered the flogging.

4. However, since Pilate has pronounced Jesus as innocent [John18:38] this scourging could never be construed as interrogation, it has to be a punitive measure. And this is where Pontius Pilate has failed. He now is taking punitive measures against a person whom he himself has pronounced innocent.

5. Neither was this scourging designed to be a preliminary to the crucifixion since Pilate was determined to let Jesus go—Acts 3:13. Scourging here is designed to get Him off the hook, but he puts himself on the hook.

6. The purpose of this scourging was to gain the release of Jesus Christ, to pacify the Jews with a lesser punishment. To accomplish this purpose he has to violate Roman law, the S.O.P. for a Roman governor, and every principle involved. He distorted Roman law to try to get Jesus off the hook; the Jews distorted Jewish law to get Christ on the hook. If both of these systems of law had followed their true course Christ would have been released.

7. In verse 6 we have an indication that Pilate was not able to assuage the Jews.

Verse 2 – "platted," plekw means to weave or to braid. This is the beginning of the mock coronation; "crown" – stefanoj, which means a crown in wreath

form. But this crown is made up of a)kanqa. This is preceded by the preposition e)k, And this should read: "At that time the soldiers braided a wreath out from the thorns."

"put" – e)pitiqhmi, which means to put on but also to inflict upon. So they inflicted on Him a crown of thorns, which means it hurt.[1] But we have put on here

twice: "put on him a purple robe" – this time put on is a different Greek word, periballw, which means to put on and around.

"purple" – porfureoj. It means purple. It can mean crimson but generally it is used for purple. But we find in Matthew 27:28 the word used is kokkinoj, and that means crimson, red. Is this a contradiction? The answer is No! The purple robe was actually first placed on Jesus at the trial by Herod. Herod called for one of his purple robes and had it put on Jesus—Luke 23:11. They are going to take it off. After the blood dries and sticks to the wounds they are going to tear it off and open the wounds again. Then they are going to hide His wounds with a kokkinoj which is a crimson military robe, a Roman robe. This one will take Him to the cross. The purple robe came from Herod. They took it off Him to scourge Him, and then put it back on Him. When He leaves the Praetorium with His cross the Roman soldier will put it on Him—Matthew 27:28. The crimson robe was used to hide the terrible wounds of the flogging; the purples robe was simply used for mockery.

Verse 3 – the mockery. "And they said [kept on saying], Hail" – that is not what it says at all. There is one whole phrase left out of the English Bible that is found in the Greek: kai h)rxontoj proj a)uton—"and they kept on coming face to face with him," then "and they kept on saying."

"Hail" – xairw, which means literally, "I rejoice," but is used here as a greeting. The word's exact Roman [Latin] equivalent is Ave, which was used as a greeting for Caesar. Here it is spoken in derision. They are mocking Him.

"they smote him" – kai e)didoun a)utw r(apismata, which means they kept on giving Him blows. As a King they didn't give Him homage, they gave Him their fists—they kept on giving him blows, imperfect active indicative of didomi.

"hands" – fists, the hand is doubled up, Roman style.

Verse 4 – "Pilate therefore went outside." The word therefore means again—palin. The word again is very important. "Went forth" is an aorist active indicative of e)cerxomai—e)c means outside; e)rxomai means to go or to come. "Again Pilate went outside." This is one of the most subtle attacks on the authority of the Roman empire. If the Jews at this time had armed themselves and started to fight Roman soldiers the Romans would know how to handle it. But Pilate doesn't know how to handle a subtle attack upon his authority. The great leaders are the leaders who understand subtlety as well as obvious hostility. Pilate was being insulted by the Jews and he didn't know it. They said that on a holy day we cannot enter a Gentile house and the Praetorium is a Gentile house, we cannot enter on the Passover, on the day of preparation which is also the Passover, or even during the feast of unleavened bread. Pilate should have said, "All right. I will examine the prisoner myself. If I find He is innocent I will release Him. If I suspect that He has violated Roman law I will hold Him until you make up your mind. But I will not tolerate this insult to Roman justice. You will enter the judgment hall of Rome or there will be no trial."

But this says palin--again he came out. And that was it, he was through right there, and he didn't even know it. When he goes outside to talk to them they are in charge, not Pontius Pilate.

"behold, I bring him forth [outside] to you," and this time he uses the present active indicative of a)gw, and then he used a)gw e)cw. So he himself knew that he was bringing the prisoner outside. The present tense is dramatic. The active voice: Pilate leads Jesus outside the Praetorium for the Jewish leaders, the Jewish mob who have already assembled to exert pressure. The principle to be noted at this point: When Roman justice takes the prisoner outside in front of the mob the judge has already succumbed to a vicious pressure—mob pressure.

A few things about a mob: No mob that has ever existed no matter what its cause may be, good or bad, has ever once in all of history made a good contribution. Anything that a mob accomplishes, right or wrong, is wrong. Even if they have a right cause they are wrong. If you appease a mob the crime rate will go up dramatically. Cowards become bold when mobs control.

"that ye may know" – aorist active subjunctive of ginwskw. The subjunctive mood: they will never know. This is potential. We know who and what Jesus Christ is; they did not.

"that" – result clause; "I find no fault" – present active indicative of e(uriskw means a court finding, a pronouncement of judgement. It means to examine all of the facts and to come to a conclusion. Therefore he is now describing the results of a proper and objective judicial function. The words "no fault" is wrong. The Greek is o)udemian a)itian. O)udemian is the feminine accusative singular of o)udeij and it means not one or nothing. The second word, a)itian, means crime. Pilate said: "I find not one crime." This is the second pronouncement of His innocence.

Not one crime in Him

1. This is the second declaration of the innocence of Jesus Christ made by the supreme Roman judge in the province of Judea.

2. The first declaration is found in John 18:38.

3. The judge is negative toward the gospel. The judge who pronounced "Not guilty" is just as negative toward the gospel as the Jews who were trying to kill Jesus Christ. But he is a Roman judge and the Roman law is objective and therefore he must stand by the objectivity of Roman law. So for the second time he pronounces the innocence of the prisoner. Even though he has failed because of the subtle attack of the Jews he is fair and objective in his investigation, and he is fair and impartial in the rendering of his decision. His verdict: Not guilty.

4. For this reason [his fairness] his verdict is officially recognised in 1Timothy 6:13.

5. The Roman governor had three basic responsibilities that went with his office: a) Military security and public order. The Romans recognised that you cannot have mobs and survive. Pontius Pilate has violated the principle of public order by permitting this mob to demand the death of an innocent man. b) The Roman governor was responsible for the revenue from the province to headquarters in Rome. Luke 20:22-25; Roman 13:6,7. c) Jurisprudence. He is the highest judge in the Roman province.

6. This applied to all three categories of Roman provinces. Category #1: a Senatorial province. The ruler was a proconsul. Category #2: the Imperial province, ruled by a Legate. The ruler or governor is delegated by the emperor. Category #3: 3rd class provinces. This simply means a client king's province is taken over. The governor is called Procurator. The procurators were different from the proconsuls and from the legates. They were aristocrats, e.g. Caesar. The legate was a knight; her earned his position. He was an excellent civil servant who won promotion by efficiency, not by birth.

7. Under his third responsibility Pontius Pilate fulfilled to the very letter the objectivity of the Roman law by pronouncing Jesus Christ's innocence. His attitude was the accused was innocent until proven by law to be guilty. The Romans did not accept hearsay and the accused could not incriminate himself.

Verse 5 – the appearance of the King. Jesus Christ is the King. "Then came forth Jesus" – the verb is to come outside, literally. It should be translated,

"Therefore the Jesus went outside."

"wearing" – present active participle of forew, not the usual word for wearing. It means He wore them properly, correctly. There was a way in the ancient world for a king to wear a robe, and when He wore that robe He looked like a king. You could put a robe on a thousand people and they wouldn't wear it like a king. Jesus wore a robe like a king. You could put kings robes on a lot of people and they would never pass for a king. Give Jesus Christ a kings' robe and He wears it like a king. He is a King. He is God, and as God He is the sovereign of the universe, the creator of it; and as He stood on the steps of that Praetorium He is holding the universe together. Not only that, on His father Joseph's side He is descended from David—from Bathsheba's oldest son, Solomon. Therefore, He is a King in every way that a person can be a King. He is God, and the King of kings; He is the son of David and Bathsheba through both of their sons, Solomon and Nathan. Jesus is wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and even the crown of thorns cannot disguise that He is a King.

What did Pontius Pilate have in mind? He was trying to disarm the antagonism of the Jews. He was trying to appease the mob, and this was a terrible mistake. You never appease a mob, you destroy a mob, defeat a mob, disperse a mob. You never appease a mob without destroying yourself.

"Behold the man!" – i)dou o( a)naqrwpoj, in the Greek. The eyes of the mob all turned and looked at Jesus Christ. What is He? He is the unique person of the universe, the God-Man. He is wearing a crown of thorns and therefore blood is flowing down His face. His face is destroyed by the blows. They can't see it but His back is raw and bleeding from scourging. He us wearing the purples robe of Herod the usurper—Herod who is not a true king, Luke 23:11. And with great dignity as only a king would possess He faces the crowd. For a moment there was probably silence. But remember this is a religious mob, the worst kind of all. They are filled with mental attitude sins; they are cruel, bitter, vindictive and implacable. As they see Him they are going to scream the unpardonable sin; they are going to scream their rejection.

Verse 6 – "When the chief priests therefore and the officers saw him" – these are the leaders of the mob. The chief priests are the religious leaders; the officers are simply temple guards. When they saw Him there was an instant when they had the panoramic view, because we have o(raw which means to get a panoramic view. They didn't just glance at Him, they stared at Him. If they had glanced at Him thew word would have been blepw.

"they cried out" – for a minute they saw Him and they couldn't stand it. Negative volition can never stand the truth. Negative volition must scream at the truth. They didn't cry out, they screamed –kraugazw means to scream.

"saying" – present active participle, they said it over and over again. We have it recorded twice to show us how the mob is ignited. "Crucify" the first time is from the leadership; crucify the second time is the mob echoing what the leadership said. The mob does not think. How do we know? We have the word crucify twice, both times it is an aorist active imperative of staurow, the ordinary word for crucifixion. This is the aorist tense of urgency. Active voice: first it is uttered by the leadership, and then it is taken up by the mob. Imperative mood: they demanded. The word him does not occur. Principle from the double use of the aorist active imperative of staurow: Religion uses mobs to put pressure on organizations. In that day religion used the mob to put political pressure on Pontius Pilate, and today religion puts pressure on leadership.

Here is where Pilate cracks.

"Take ye him" – aorist active imperative of lambanw: "Seize Him." Who is dictating when he uses the word lambanw? The religious leaders who started the cry, Crucify Him, have control of the mob. The religious leaders also have control of Pilate because Pilate screams back "Seize Him." So Pilate is under the leadership of the religious leaders. In effect, at this point they have a union of religion and state which destroys all true judicial activity. Pilate uses the same form, the aorist active imperative of staurow. He does not have moral courage. It takes moral courage to face a mob. The pressure of the mob is a greater power to Pilate than the power of justice. Expediency leads to the bowing of the pressure of public opinion, to mob rule, rather than recognising the facts of the case and administering true justice. True justice is based on facts.

Even before Pontius Pilate turns Jesus over to the mob he will pronounce once more His innocence: "I find not one crime in Him."

The seven testimonies to the impeccability of Jesus Christ

1. Judas Iscariot—Matthew 27:4. Judas said: "I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood."

2. Pontius Pilate—John 19:4, 6, "I find no crime in Him."

3. Herod the usurper—Luke 23:15, "… for I sent you to him, and. lo, nothing worthy of death is done by Him."

4. Pilate's wife—Matthew 27:19, "have nothing to do with this just man."

5. The dying thief—Luke 23:41, "This man hath done nothing amiss."

6. The centurion of the Golgotha detachment—Luke 23:47, "This one was a righteous man."

7. The Roman soldiers at Golgotha—Matthew 27:54, "Truly, this one was the Son of God."

Verse 7 – "The Jews" is a reference to the religious leaders, not the Jews as a race. All of the opposition that Satan could muster and all of the effective opposition had to come through religion. Religion is the devil's ace trump. It is the way in which Satan seeks to get his way in this world.

"answered him [Pontius Pilate], We have a law" – e)xw means we have and hold to this law, present linear aktionsart: We keep on having and we keep on holding a law. This law is a reference to Leviticus 24:16. Pontius Pilate is a smart man. He also, like many smart people, has a very neat piece of sarcasm he uses. This sarcasm plus the fact that he declares that Jesus was not guilty provoked the religious leaders into declaring their true opposition.

Principle: You can never tell what people think about you as long as everything is going all right. What people think you want to hear is what they tell you. But, just wait until the roof falls in and things go wrong! If you really want to find out what a person thinks of you, just get them mad. Then the true facts always come out.

Now the religious leaders declare their true intentions. They clearly understood that Jesus had declared Himself to be God. This is why the religious leaders are mad. Religion, always hostile to doctrine, always hostile to the truth, is now hostile to Jesus Christ declaring Himself to be God. So they had to find some way to get rid of Him, and these religious leaders take advantage of a Roman administrative policy. The Romans had a policy that when they went into a province they tried not to interfere with the customs of the people, as long as the customs did not in any way cause hostility to Rome.

"and by our law" – according to the norm or standard of our law; "he ought to die" – the word ought is o)feilw, present active indicative, and it means obligation. In other words, our law demands that Jesus Christ dies. They are trying to get rid of Him and they are trying to use law to do it. Religious people are very self-righteous and very hypocritical. They love to do a wrong thing in a right way. This is what religion thrives on. Self-righteous legalism has to have an excuse. In this case it happens to be a law whereby Jesus Christ can be removed from the scene.

"to die" – aorist active infinitive of a)poqnhskw, the strongest word in the Greek language for death. Aorist tense: in a point of time. Active voice: He must die. Infinitive: it is our purpose to kill Him.

"because he made himself the Son of God." Because explains their law. They are going to try to get Him under the law of blasphemy. Son of God is a title for deity—but only in one sense. Whenever the Greek words Son of God are used it refers to deity, but always deity connected with the eternal decrees, when God the Father set up the decrees in eternity past. It relates eternity past to time and the cross.

Actually they are the guilty ones, according to Hebrews 10:26-31. Religious people and legalistic types are always inconsistent. Notice they said, "he made himself God." The verb used is poiew plus the reflexive pronoun. If there is one thing God could never do it is make Himself God. Also, the Jews had no legal right to vote the death penalty. They lost that legal right when Judea became a Roman province. They cannot even vote a death penalty in their own courts unless Pilate gives his consent. At this time he has not given his consent and when they say "He ought to die," they are out of line.

Verses 8-11, the second interrogation.

Verse 8 – "When" is an adverb, o(te, which means at that time. The first interrogation indicated that Jesus Christ was innocent. But now this new fear. Jesus Christ was innocent as a man and Pilate declares His innocence as a man. What Pilate has not fully realised is that this is the God-Man. If He is God that puts an entirely different picture into the situation. In this next interrogation he is going to reject Jesus Christ as God—he is going to say no in his own mind—but he is going to say, yes, Christ is a legitimate King. Jesus Christ had aristocratic class and there was no doubt about it in the mind of Pilate even though He had been badly beaten.

"therefore" – o)un means sequence, also it has a connotation of consequence. Here it has sequence. In other words, he can't get back into that Praetorium fast enough.

"he was more afraid" – the possibility that Christ was God demands further investigation. The second interrogation is motivated by fear. Pontius Pilate is afraid for himself. "Afraid" is the aorist passive indicative of fobew, which means both fear and respect. Here it means fear. Aorist tense: the point of time when he heard that He might be God. Passive voice: this clicked in his mind. Indicative mood: the reality of the possibility to Pilate. There is a comparative adverb which goes with this verb—mallon, it means "the more."

Verse 9 – "And went again." This is e)ijerxomai, aorist tense—he hustled in there. He had to maintain a speed that was dignity of the office, he couldn't let them know He was shaken. Active voice: he went. Indicative mood: he ran scared.

"the judgment hall" – the Praetorium.

"But Jesus did not give him an answer" is the literal translation. And that IS an answer. Jesus answers Pilate with silence.

1. The silence of Jesus was fair.

2. Pilate now has enough information on which to make a personal decision for Jesus Christ as saviour. We know that he has enough information because he has already pronounced Jesus not guilty. Jesus is remaining silent because Pilate who has already recognised His innocence has rejected Him as saviour. He is negative and therefore there is nothing more to be said. There is nothing more that He could say at this moment to change Pontius Pilate or Jesus would have said it.

3. Three times now Pontius Pilate has declared the innocence Jesus—John 18:38; 19:4, 6.

4. The silence of Jesus in the presence of His judge indicates His cognisance of negative volition. Jesus has been silent in the presence of Herod, in the presence of the Sanhedrin, and in the presence of Pontius Pilate. So we could actually say, the silence of Jesus in the presence of His judges—plural. It indicates His cognisance of their negative volition.

5. With all the information in the world the following three judges would not accept Jesus Christ as saviour: Caiaphas—Matthew 26:63; Herod—Luke 23:9; Pontius Pilate—John 19:9.

6. The omniscience of Jesus knew their negative volition in eternity past. The hypostatic union of Christ recognises the negative volition at this point of silence.

7. The same negative volition is also found in other Bible characters: a) Esau; b) The Pharaoh of Exodus; c) Judas Iscariot.

8. In each case of –V at both God-consciousness and gospel hearing we have maximum scar tissue in the soul.

Verse 10 – "Speakest thou not to me?" He uses the verb lalew which means to communicate.

Now Pilate threatens Him, and that is a mistake: "knowest thou not" – do you not have the inherent knowledge [o)ida]."

"I have the power" – e)cousia means authority. Pilate is the ultimate authority in the Roman province.

"to release" is an aorist active infinitive of a)poluw which means to release – so that no harm will come to Him. Pilate is standing on his authority, and that is a

mistake. When he starts to talk about his authority to Jesus he has rejected Jesus as God. He says no, Jesus is not God. This is the way the scripture tells us that he is negative.

Verse 11 – Jesus will answer that. He wouldn't answer the question, "Whence art thou?" because Pilate already has that information. "Jesus had an answer" – a)pokrinomai.

"Thou couldst have no authority against me, except it were given thee from above." The words against me means that he does have the right of capital punishment. The word except means that he does have some authority. God has always given to rulers the authority in the field of capital punishment. This is the strength of the law and is a part of divine institution #4.

"it were given" is a periphrastic; "from above" – the adverb of place, a)nwqen. It actually means from a higher place, a higher sphere. It refers to the fact that God originally gave the power of capital punishment but that that power now resides in whatever highest authority may be. Here "from above" here refers to the authority of the Roman Caesar. Pilate has the sole authority to pronounce death. But under Roman law that law acts as a check upon him. Under Roman law if you say not guilty you no longer have the right to possess the death sentence. Pilate has said not guilty three times. But Jesus will not be released because Pilate abuses his own authority.

"therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin" – he that delivered refers to Caiaphas, the representative of the Jewish nation and Jewish law. The word greater is a comparative, megaj. This comparative indicates a very interesting comparative: there are categories of rejection. The first category is the worst: religious negative volition—those who sin from conviction, like Caiaphas who thinks to do God a favour by destroying Jesus Christ. In other words, religious rejection is the greatest rejection of Christ always. That is what is meant here; religious negative volition is the worst of all. Secondly, we have political negative volition—those who sin against conviction. Pilate was convinced of the innocence of Jesus but because of vacillation and expediency he delivered Him to be crucified. The third area is group negative volition—those who sin without conviction. The Roman soldiers and the Jewish mob are an illustration of the third group. These were tools to be used by those who ruled them or those who influenced them; they were the victims of the abuse of authority.

Verse 12 – Pilate's dilemma.

"from thenceforth" means from Pilate's handling of the case, from his cross-examinations of the accused by the utilisation of the system of evidence which existed at that time.

"sought" – imperfect active indicative of zetew, he kept on seeking. Not just once but from now on.

"release" – aorist active infinitive of a)poluw which means to release from custody of law as an innocent person. Aorist tense: once and for all to release Him. Active voice: this was Pilate's desire, his objective. The infinitive indicates the purpose of Pontius Pilate—to release Jesus Christ. The fact that Pilate did not carry out his convictions indicates weakness in the area of moral courage.

"but" is a conjunction of contrast between the attitude of Pilate and that of the Jews; "the Jews" – this is the mob that was incited by religious Jews.

"cried out" – aorist active indicative of kraugazw. They screamed out at this point and every time there was an attempt to release Jesus.

"If" – 3rd class condition; "thou let this man go" – apoluw again, but this time it is an aorist active subjunctive. If the Romans release Him He is free and the Jews cannot touch Him. Active voice: Pilate is still trying to do it but now the Jews have entered a doubt. Subjunctive mood: His release is still potential.

"thou art not Caesar's friend" – this turns a courageous man in battle [Pilate] to a weak man when it comes to principle.

1. This introduces the first dilemma. The issue of guilt or innocence is lost in this dilemma.

2. On the basis of Roman justice Jesus is not guilty and should be released.

3. But religious propaganda, pressure from the mob, loss of political prestige, plus expediency overcome Pilate's objectivity and sense of justice.

4. Pilate has previously antagonised the Jews to the point of being recalled by Tiberius. One more act of antagonism and he is finished.

5. With diabolical cunning the religious leaders make it clear that to release Jesus would lead to reprisals such as writing letters to Capri that Pilate is the enemy of Caesar. So this is a well-aimed blow which destroys the moral courage of Pontius Pilate.

"whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar." The person who makes Himself a King is the Lord Jesus Christ. But He doesn't make Himself a

King, He is a King. He was born a King.

This is the dilemma of Pontius Pilate. If he releases the King of kings he will be charged with treason. If he condemns an innocent King of kings and avoids accusation to Caesar on the part of the Jews his career is apparently safe. Pilate's ambition will overcome his sense of duty and his convictions in the matter. Pilate does not have the type of courage necessary to release Jesus on the basis of the objectivity of Roman justice. Nor does he possess the mind capable of dealing with the subtleties of Jewish politics and religious pressure.

The evaluation of Pontius Pilate

1. Pontius Pilate had battle courage but not moral courage.

2. He demonstrated his battle courage in the Pontus campaign.

3. But battle courage deals with tangibles—like the enemy, terrain, the tactical situation. Moral courage deals with intangibles—like objectivity in law, principles of Bible doctrine, and sticking with a conviction or a true principle in spite of pressure. Moral courage never succumbs to pressure.

4. Pontius Pilate was convinced on the innocence of Jesus but he did not have the moral courage to resist the pressure of the Jewish religious leaders and the mob which they incited.

5. Neither did Pilate have the strength of character which accompanies moral courage to release Jesus and face the consequence of Jewish complaints to Tiberius Caesar.

Summary of the career of Pontius Pilate

1. He is the illegitimate son of Tyrus the king of Mayence, a German province, who sent him to Rome as a hostage. There he was educated as a king's son.

1. Because of a murder charge in Rome he was sent to command the army of Pontus where he subdued the barbarous tribes of that region and gained

Rome's highest honour, the title of Pontius.

3. Tiberius appointed him procurator of Judea in 26 A.D.

2. Prior to our passage Pontius Pilate antagonised the Jews in four ways. He changed the army headquarters from Caeasrea to Jerusalem. Army

3. headquarters can be easily identified by images of emperors and images of Roman gods on golden poles. This was idolatry to the Jews. Pilate then took all the golden shields with the names of Roman deities and hung them on the walls of the Mark Anthony barracks where headquarters was located. This turned the Jews into a frenzy. He went into the temple and grabbed a year's supply of redemption money and built a new aqueduct to bring fresh water to the city. This really antagonised the Jews. Then when the Galileans were causing trouble one day in the temple he went in and slaughtered them. The Jews didn't like the Galileans but they didn't like the idea of human blood all over the temple.

4. Pilate faced a tremendous internal dilemma and he had to make a decision. If he was going to interrupt Tiberius once more on the Isle of Capri he was going to lose his job. Therefore, under Roman law Pilate understands that Jesus is innocent and is truly a King but he is in a jamb because he has made so many wrong moves with the Jews.

5. He sought to compromise between Roman law and Jewish antagonism about Christ, and this backfired. He worked out a way in which Jewish antagonism could be handled and Roman law followed correctly. He did something he was sure would work. He offered the worst criminal in the land, Barabbas, or Jesus to be liberated at the feast. The Jews chose the criminal instead of the perfect Son of God.

6. The function of political expediency demonstrated Pilate's lack of moral courage. It resulted in travesty of justice and the inevitable destruction of Pilate's career in Judea.

7. He attempted to compromise but it didn't save him from political disaster. Very shortly afterwards he was putting down the Samaritan revolt, and when he did he gained the displeasure of his immediate superior who was the governor of Syria, a senatorial province—a man by the name of Vitellus. Pilate was put under arrest and sent home.

8. Pilate was sent to Rome to answer charges of maladministration. It so happened that he was sent home in 37 A.D. and on 16 March, ten years after living it up on the Isle of Capri, Tiberius died. Tiberius had an adopted son who was a real monster—Caligula who despised Pontius Pilate. On the way back to Rome Pilate learns that Tiberius is dead and that Caligula was emperor.

9. Caligula immediately ordered his trial. Pilate knew he had no chance and committed suicide and died an unbeliever.

10. In lifetime Pilate regarded the innocence of Jesus as relatively unimportant compared to his own political ambition. But his perspective frustrated his political ambition and the person whom he regarded as relatively unimportant was the only person who could have saved him.

11. Pilate did not extricate himself from his dilemma concerning an innocent man.

12. Jewish implacability plus Herod's shrewdness neutralised every plan—Luke 23:23.

13. Yet Pilate repeatedly declared the innocence of Jesus.

14. The true solution to Pilate's dilemma was to believe in Christ—John 1:12; 20:31.

15. Therefore, God the Father used the negative volition of Pontius Pilate, the negative volition of the Jews, the negative volition of Herod Antipas [the Fox] to provide eternal salvation for those who did have positive volition. Such positive volition is always expressed by faith in Christ—Acts 16:31.

16. Therefore, inevitably and always God uses the wrath of man to praise Him—Psalm 76:10.

Verse 13 – the decision of expediency. When a ruler or a leader, whether he is political or military, starts to listen to the mob he is finished.

"heard that saying" is incorrect. The Greek says, "having heard these words" – the words of the mob.

"brought Jesus forth" – Pilate became the errand boy for the mob. Literally it says, "he led Jesus outside" – aorist active indicative of a)gw, which means to bring or to lead, and then the adverb e)cw. The moment he steps out of the Praetorium he is violating a Roman principle and a Roman law. Roman law said that if some one has an indictment against someone else they must go inside the Praetorium. The judge sits inside and in Roman law you always tried inside. It was to keep people out. It was to keep objectivity. Outside there would be people yelling and shouting. There could be no order in the court if it was outside. Pilate turned from objectivity to subjectivity. He began to listen to the mob. Not only did he listen to the mob but he became the errand boy for the mob. He takes Jesus outside to try Him rather than making the Jews come in. And he lost his authority. In effect the chief priests had the authority and this is the first seed for the Jewish revolt against the Roman empire which led to the Jewish wars of 66-70 A.D. Pontius Pilate lost control of the Jews.

Pilate's first mistake was to listen to the mob. A leader must act on his own, independent of those whom he leads. He must be decisive and morally courageous in his decisions. Second he became the servant of the chief priests—their errand boy. His third failure was loss of authority over the people whom he governed. He puts up the judgment seat outside and sat down, and that is a great mistake. He is sitting down to his own doom.

"sat down" – aorist active indicative of kaqizw. He sits and everyone else stands; that is his authority. But even though he is seated he has lost his authority.

It is no accident that at the end of this verse we have the name of the place—"a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha." Gabbatha is an Aramaic word with two meanings. It means a platter really, because the platters were higher than the table. Gabbatha means an elevated platter. The word pavement means paved with stone. Later 3,600 Jews would be scourged and crucified on that very spot by the Romans.

Verse 14 – "it was" is imperfect active indicative of e)imi. The imperfect tense means it kept on being.

"the preparation" – paraskeuh. It refers to the day of preparation of the memorial supper which took place before the Passover. The memorial supper was a remembrance of the redemption of the firstborn of Israel the night before the Exodus. This is a supper to commemorate the deliverance of firstborn of the Jews at that time.

On what day did Jesus Christ die?

1. We have to determine this by the established day of resurrection—Sunday, Matthew 28:1; Luke 24:1; John 20:1.

2. The feast of the firstfruits always occurred on Sunday—Leviticus 23:10-11; 1Corinthians 15:20, 23.

3. The principle of Jewish time—Matthew 12:40. Tuesday night was the night of the preparation for the Passover. Jesus Christ has already had the preparation for the Passover; He turned it into the communion. That is Tuesday night. Jewish time starts at sundown and goes to the next sundown. So Tuesday night and all day Wednesday daytime is all one day to the Jews. This is the day of the crucifixion which will start at 9am Wednesday. Thursday, Friday and Saturday: Thursday begins Wednesday at Sundown and terminates Thursday at sundown—that is one day in the grave. Then Friday Jewish time starts Thursday at sundown and terminates Friday at sundown. (The night comes before the day in Jewish time) Saturday is the third day in the grave, it starts Friday at sundown and goes to Saturday at sundown. "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." So any time after midnight Saturday Jesus Christ rose from the dead. But He has to be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, so Wednesday has to be the day of the crucifixion. And that isn't all; it has to be Wednesday before sundown because sundown is when Thursday starts.

4. The principle of Gentile time—1Corinthians 15:4. In Gentile time there is a slightly different statement: "And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures." Gentile time goes from twelve to twelve, so from 12-midnight Tuesday to Wednesday night midnight is one day. That is the day of the crucifixion. Jesus Christ was taken down off the cross before sundown. It was on the third day that He rose sometime after midnight to make up the third day. Therefore it follows the principle of Gentile time and also of Jewish time.

5. The conclusion is that Christ died on the Wednesday. So when it says "it was the preparation of the Passover," that is the memorial supper on Tuesday night.

"and about the sixth hour" – the sixth hour is Roman time. John uses Roman time

instead of Jewish time because the Gospel of John was written at about 96 A.D. when there was no Jewish nation and there was no Jewish time. Jewish time stopped in August of 70 A.D. That would be Wednesday morning Gentile time; it would also be Wednesday in Jewish time because Jewish time began earlier.

"and he saith unto the Jews" – here is a pronouncement whereby he tried to wriggle

out. He tried to reconcile the objectivity of Roman law and the political expediency principle. He tried to maintain his position and still uphold Roman law as the governor. So he said to the Jews a true statement which came from his cross examination: "Behold your King!" This wasn't done to antagonize them, this is the result of his own cross-examination. He recognizes Jesus Christ as a King. The word behold is the aorist active imperative of o(raw. It means take a good long look at Him. Possibly Pontius Pilate begins to see that it would be highly desirable to have Jesus Christ as a client King than to have the chief priests running the land. The aorist active imperative is an order. This was actually his last attempt to secure the release of Jesus. Pilate is saying that if Jesus Christ is their King then he should be released because Rome has no quarrel with Him. He is suggesting that they accept Him. Rome has accepted Him; now you accept Him!

Verse 15 – as soon as he said that they began to scream at him, aorist active indicative

of kraugazw. Loud noises do not make intelligence! Anyone can screech; not everyone can think. And of those who can think, not all can think objectively.

"Away with him" is an aorist active imperative of a)irw. In other words, they are now

giving the order to Pilate. The mob orders Pilate! Aorist tense: now. Active voice: we order it. Imperative mood: the mob is screaming an order to the judge. "Away with him" means lift Him up and carry Him out, all the way to the cross. A)irw means to lift up. Lift Him up to what? … they explain it.

"crucify him" – aorist active imperative of staurow. They are ordering Him to be

lifted up on a cross. So Pilate then hits them with sarcasm.

"Shall I crucify your King?" – future active indicative of staurow. This is both

contempt and sarcasm for the Jews. Notice the basis for them saying this. For the chief priests it is jealousy, a mental attitude sin which destroys norms and standards. Their jealousy has destroyed them and turned them into unreasoning animals. Pilate is not only hitting them with sarcasm but he recognizes the facts of the case. But he can't handle the facts properly at this point.

"We have no king but Caesar" – this is a final renunciation, an expression of their

negative volition toward Christ. This is hypocrisy because the Jews resent Caesar and in 34 years they will be in full revolt. Remember that religion always uses hypocrisy as a facade. It is the Caesar by the name of Vespasian and his son Titus who will destroy them in 70 A.D.

Verse 16 — "Then" is literally "At that time." After studying the details of the miscarriage of Jewish, Greek, and Roman justice the Lord Jesus Christ was betrayed. The word for 'deliver' here is paradidomi, aorist active indicative. It means to betray, and this is really the sense of it here. Pontius Pilate did not deliver Jesus Christ, he betrayed Him. Reason: He knew that Jesus was innocent. By cross examination he knew that Jesus Christ was the true King of the Jews. He himself did not personally receive Christ as saviour and when it came time for the crucifixion he had to betray Him. And just as Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ so did Pontius Pilate, only the betrayal of Pontius Pilate is greater. The aorist tense: the point of time. Active voice: Pontius Pilate was the traitor. Indicative mood: the reality of the betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ.

"unto them" is a reference to the Jews. It is also a dative case, dative of disadvantage. It was to the disadvantage of these Jews to be the ones involved in the crucifixion. The disadvantage comes from negative volition at the point of God-consciousness, negative volition at the point of gospel hearing.

"to be crucified" — i(na, translated 'that' and not even translated in the passage in the KJV. Plus an aorist active subjunctive of staurow. This all should be translated, "At that time he betrayed him therefore unto them that he might be crucified." The aorist tense is the point of time in which Jesus Christ was crucified. The active voice: Jesus Christ is the one being crucified. The subjunctive mood: it depends upon volition. The volition of our Lord was expressed at the Garden of Gethsemane. This expressed the mental attitude necessary to execute the plan. The humanity of Jesus Christ had the perfect mental attitude to fulfill the plan. So much depends upon mental attitude. Mental attitude is based upon frame of reference. The perceptive lobe of our Lord had been receiving doctrine. He had transferred that doctrine to His human spirit where it became e)pignwsij. He had cycled it up into His norm and standard lobe where He had divine viewpoint. He had an ECS to stabilise that. His attitude toward the Father: "Nevertheless not my will but thine be done." So the Lord Jesus Christ had divine viewpoint and He was willing to go. The subjunctive mood indicates the volition of our Lord as related to His mental attitude.

"And they took Jesus" — they didn't take Him at all, "they received possession of Him." With Roman permission the Jews escort Him outside of the city, they will not crucify Him inside of the city. And that is perfectly in keeping with the Levitical offerings, they were offered outside the camp. The words "and led him away" are not in the original. Paralambanw means to receive possession of. The word goes with paradidomi. Pontius Pilate betrayed Him and they received the betrayal. So in a sense there is a betrayal that puts Jesus on the cross. Pontius Pilate in the betrayer and He betrays Christ to the Jews, they are in it together.

Verse 17 — John does not describe what happened between the Praetorium and Golgotha. John is through with the details once the trial is over. The word for "bearing" is bastadzw which isn't the word for bearing at all. The word for bearing is ferw. Bastadzw means to lift up a heavy burden which puts pressure on you and carry it anyway. In other words, Jesus Christ is so weakened by the things that He has suffered that it is almost impossible for Him to carry this big chunk of wood on which He is going to be crucified. But His mental attitude is one of determination and even though He has been maltreated in every possible way, and even though His back is now raw and the skin has been taken off by a whip, He still puts it up on His shoulder and starts to carry it. His mental attitude is that He is going to the cross. He is not going to explain anything to anyone, and it is a present active participle which means that He kept right on carrying it until He staggered and fell, and that is when the centurion ordered in a substitute. He lifted it up and it immediately became a terrible pressure and burden, which means that He did not have the strength to carry it at this point He was so weakened. The Greek includes a reflexive pronoun here, e(autou, which means "himself." It should be translated, "And he bearing by means of himself the cross." There is His mental attitude. This is present linear aktionsart, He kept on carrying it. John omits all of the details between the Praetorium and Golgotha because he is emphasising a mental attitude. His mental attitude is portrayed by the fact that when He was turned over to the Jews He licked up that cross and by means of what He has left He started to stagger under the load of that cross.

"went forth" — aorist active indicative of e)cerxomai [e)c = outside; e)rxomai = went], He 'went outside.' Outside of what? Outside of the city. He dies outside of the gates of Jerusalem and this fulfills the phrase of Leviticus 16:27 — "without the gate." That same phrase is found in Hebrews 13:12.

"into a place called" — literally, 'being said,' present passive participle of legw. Legw [to say] is not the same as kalew [called]. The present passive participle means to be designated.

"of a skull" — the genitive of kranion, the word from which we get 'cranium.' This describes a massive skull. This is what it was called by the Greeks, but it isn't what it was called by the Jews.

"which is designated in the Hebrew Golgotha" — Golgoqa, which is a transliteration from the Aramaic. The Latin for Golgotha or kranion is calvaria, from which we get the word 'calvary.' The word 'calvary' is used for this hill because the pope told Jerome to come up with a translation, and so Jerome translated this word calvaria and the Roman Catholic church started to call the hill 'Calvary.' That is one reason why it is a very bad thing for any Protestant hymnal to have the word 'Calvary' in it. The Waldenseans and the Huguenots, and other great people in the past who were persecuted by the Roman Catholic church and slaughtered by the thousands by the Roman Catholic church would never use the word 'Calvary.' 'Calvary' is not found here, there is not one scrap of Latin in the Bible.

Verse 18 — the word "Where" is an adverb, o(pou, and it means "In which place." This is a reference to Golgotha; "they crucified him" — aorist active indicative, point of time; "and two others" — the crucifixion of the two gangsters is described in detail by Luke 23:39-43. The synoptic writers go in for various historical detail but John covers the crucifixion from the standpoint of principle. To John the important thing is not standing on that hill, though he was the only disciple who did, the important thing was the fact that the Bible was fulfilled. The Bible in his day was the Old Testament canon.

"with him" — meta. Why did John use this word instead of sun, which is a simple 'with'? He uses meta, preposition of association. The whole point of meta is to make us realise what is important about the cross, the fact that Christ was associated with both sinners and their sins, and the sins of the whole world. Meta, the preposition of association, is to indicate that Christ associated with our sins or the purpose of the cross.

"on either side one, and Jesus in the midst" — the placement was no accident. The attitude of the thieves toward the middle cross was the thing that determined their eternal future.

The crucifixion fulfills certain Old Testament prophesies. a) Psalm 22:1-16. In verse 16, "They pierced my hands and my feet." This is emphasised in both this chapter and the next because it is a prophecy regarding the cross. To John the most important thing is what the Bible teaches about the cross, not what he himself saw. Reality is in what the Bible teaches, not in what he saw. b) Isaiah 53:12 — "He was numbered with the transgressors." And this is fulfilled because we have a gangster dying on each side of Him. c) Isaiah 53:9 — "His grave with the wicked in his deaths." So the transgressors and the wicked refer to the dying thieves.

Verse 19 — Pilate could not only write in Latin but he could write in other languages as well. He is apparently trilingual. "And Pilate wrote a title" — the word is grafw, aorist active indicative, third masculine singular which means Pilate did the writing. The cross had a large head board across the top. It required big writing because this was a sign which people from the walls of Jerusalem could read. John is the only one who informs us that Pontius Pilate wrote the inscription himself. It was customary to write the name of the criminal and the crime for which he was being executed. This is the way that the Romans kept down the crime wave. In the Spartan revolt about 38,000 people were crucified all the way from the gates of Rome for miles.

"a title" — titloj, a superscription, a sentence written on the head board above the head of the one being crucified. John gives us the complete superscription, he was there and watched Pilate write it.

"and put it on the cross" — aorist active indicative of tiqhmi which means to place. He placed it on the cross which means he actually wrote it on a smoothed-out board and then they put it on the cross. The third masculine singular means he actually put this on the cross himself.

"And the writing was" — literally, "Having been written," the perfect passive participle of grafw.

"Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews" — why did Pontius Pilate write this? Notice that he didn't write "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews and Son of God." He left out 'Son of God' because he rejected Christ as saviour. In two interrogations this very brilliant governor was able to determine that Jesus Christ was truly the King of the Jews, and therefore he was going to put down exactly what he knew to be the truth. Pilate wrote the truth and only the truth and he did it without compromising. He has done all of his compromising, he thinks that by putting Christ on the cross his political career is saved and therefore he can be honest and he is going to be honest. 'Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews.' That must have antagonised the Jews because the King of the Jews has to be born in Bethlehem, David's town. And Jesus was born there. He lived in Egypt part of His life, and part of His life He lived in Galilee and Nazareth. So to put Nazareth there made the Jews twice as mad because it had to be Bethlehem. But in the interrogation he had learned that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, lived in Nazareth; therefore he put Nazareth. But that isn't all. When he said 'The King of the Jews' he knew that it was true because of the objectivity of Roman interrogation. He discovered that this was the fact and he was going to put the facts down. This was the exact understanding of Pontius Pilate.

Verse 20 — "This title then read many of the Jews." They didn't read it, they exegete it — a)naginwskw [a)na = again and again; ginwskw = to know]. To know again and again means to read it and understand it. They discerned, they exegete, they read it aloud in public.

"for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city" — in other words, they read it from the city walls. This was such a large plaque that they could stand on the walls of the city.

"and it was written in Hebrew, in Greek, and Latin" — it was written in Latin because the law required it. The one that is quoted in the Greek one, there is no Latin in the Bible. Why was it written in three languages? It was written in Hebrew because this is the native language of the province. It is written in Greek because Pontius Pilate was an educated man and all educated Romans had to study Greek, it was the official language of the eastern half of the Roman empire, it had been the universal language of that area since Alexander the Great, its conqueror. It was written in Latin because Roman law required that in every execution the official language of the Roman empire would describe something about the one being executed, ad if there is a crime something about it. There was no crime described in this case, and that is significant. The word 'Latin' mentioned here, but not used, reminds us of something. John wrote everything, and Pontius Pilate did not mention a crime because there was no crime. How can you mention what isn't? Pontius Pilate had said three times, 'Not guilty.'

Verse 21 — "Then said the chief priests of the Jews..." They are going to complain. Why? Because in the angelic conflict the cross is the focal point of human history. In the history of humanity this is the place where three civilisations. It is the only place in history where all civilisations meet, and they all fail. No civilisation is any better than its spiritual life — regeneration — and at the cross three civilisations met and failed, and their laws all failed at this point being violated and distorted to accomplish the crucifixion. Hebrew law lost its objectivity through the infiltration of religion. Hellenistic justice was represented by Herod, and it was distorted through lack of miracles to cater to the boredom of Herod Antipas. Roman justice was distorted through political expediency.

"Write not" — present active imperative of grafw plus the negative mh. This says, Stop doing what you are doing. The present tense means you are doing something. The active voice: you are doing it. The imperative mood plus the negative: Stop it. The ordered him to stop writing The King of the Jews.

"but that he said, I am the King of the Jews" — in other words, they wanted to distort the truth. Religion always distorts the truth. They wanted Pilate to insert "he said." The father of religion is the devil. Religion takes truth to distort truth.

Verse 22 — "Pilate answered." For once he had an answer. Aorist passive of a)pokrinomai — he had an answer.

"What I have written I have written." Here together is a perfect active indicative of grafw followed by grafw again, perfect active indicative. The repetition of an exact morphology is an idiom. When you put two perfect tenses together this is the quintessence of dogmatism. In other words, he is not going to back off. This is it.

Verse 23 — "Then" is the particle o)un to mark the resumption of a discourse after an interruption. The discourse has been interrupted to explain some principles of doctrine and now we resume with the historical account of the crucifixion and the things connected with it; "the soldiers" here refer to Roman soldiers stationed in Jerusalem. There are five Roman soldiers involved in the crucifixion. Four of them are enlisted men and one is an officer. Before the day is over all five of these men will be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"when they had crucified" — aorist active indicative of staurow. Staurow means three things: a) The individual involved has somehow been abused by the Roman military; b) He has to carry his cross to the point where he is to be executed; c) He is either nailed to the cross or tied to the cross, the result is the same.

"took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part" — they divided into four parts, there are four soldiers. Generally four soldiers would divide up four garments. There was head gear, foot gear, a belt which was wide and had pockets in it, and a robe.

"and also his coat" — the word for 'coat' here is not coat at all. It is not an outer garment, it is a xitwn which is an undergarment worn underneath the robe. In this case the xitwn is a very striking or beautiful one. It is no accident that we have these details, there has to be a reason for them. First of all, the Lord Jesus was well dressed. When someone is wearing five garments in the ancient world and the soldiers are going to gamble over them, ordinarily the Roman soldiers wouldn't pay any attention, they wouldn't bother with the clothes of the gangsters which were not worth having. Jesus Christ was well dressed, He was not a hippie! The second thing is that when Jesus was on the cross he was naked. It was impossible to divide this garment without destroying it and it was an item that all of the soldiers coveted. Therefore they decided to gamble for it.

Verse 24 — "They said therefore face to face with themselves" — proj plus the accusative plus a)lloj which means others of the same kind. They were all soldiers.

"Let us not rend it" — the word for 'rend' is an aorist active subjunctive of sxizw. It means to tear apart. The aorist tense means that at that point of time they were pulling and tugging on it. The active voice: they all wanted it. The subjunctive mood: it was in danger of being ripped up.

"but let us cast lots for it" should be 'concerning it.' The decided to gamble for it.

"that the scripture might be fulfilled which saith" — 'which saith' is not found in the original. The word 'fulfilled' is plhrow which means something is completed or something is fulfilled. The aorist tense is the point of time which is the cross. The passive voice: by gambling for this garment they are fulfilling Psalm 22:18. So Ps. 22:18 receives fulfillment. The subjunctive mood indicates that it has not been fulfilled up to this point, until this moment.

"They parted my raiment" — the word for 'part' is diamerizw, it means to divide into parts, not to tear apart; and 'my raiment' refers to the four articles of clothing. So they were able to divide four articles of clothing.

"for my vesture [xitwn] they did cast lots" — 'cast lots' is ballw which means to throw, and 'lots' which refers to dice is the word klhroj.

The soldiers are interested in the details of life at this moment. There is a third lesson to be learned, then, from what the soldiers are doing. When soldiers are interested in details and the clothing of Jesus Christ it takes something fantastic to get their eyes off of details and get them down to the issue. In a few moment the sins of the world will be poured out on Jesus Christ. He will be bearing the sins of the world, He will be suffering the first death on the cross which is spiritual death. Once He starts dying for the sins of the world and providing salvation for everyone, for them to stop and to start watching, and to eventually accept Christ as saviour after He dies physically, these things are something fantastic.

Verses 25-27, the third cry on the cross. The first and the second are found in Luke 23:34, 43. John emphasises and begins with the third cry because it gave him some responsibility he had never had before.

Verse 25 — Jesus fulfills the Jewish law of responsibility toward parents. He has a great sense of responsibility, therefore He recognises someone else who has.

"there stood by" is a pluperfect of i(sthmi, and this tells us something about these ladies. The pluperfect means all of the power of Rome, all of the power of the Jews, all of the viciousness of the crowd could not drive them away. They are there to stay. These women all have moral courage that comes from the norm or standard lobe. And how did they get that great courage? Bible doctrine.

"by the cross" means immediately beside the cross, just as close as they can get; "his mother," Mary; "Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene," both are widows at this time. Their names are not the same in the original. One was called Miriam and the other was called Maria, but they are translated the same in the KJV.

Mary Magdalene

1. She is one of the women who ministered personally to Jesus — Luke 8:2.

2. Seven demons were cast out of here — Mark 16:9; Luke 8:2.

3. The fact that she was a prostitute — Luke 7:37; 8:2.

4. She was present at the cross — Luke 23:49; John 19:25.

5. She also present at the burial of Jesus — Matthew 27:61; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:55.

6. She apparently was fairly wealthy. We know this from the nature of the spices which she bought for His burial. She anointed His body with very expensive spices — Mark 16:1.

7. She was the first person to the open grave — Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1,2.

8. She went with the news to Peter and John — John 20:1,2.

9. She was the first one to see the resurrected Christ — John 20:11-18.

Verse 26 — "When Jesus therefore saw his mother." This in itself indicates something of the fantastic strength and stamina of Jesus Christ. This is an aorist active participle of o(raw, and of all the words to use this means to get a panoramic view. If blepw had been used you would understand that Jesus Christ was passing out and coming to and He just happened to catch a glance. But we have o(raw and it indicates that Jesus has phenomenal stamina. After all He has been through He is able to focus His eyes and to recognise people. This is His humanity and it indicates phenomenal stamina.

"and the disciple" — John, the writer of this Gospel; "standing by" — this time it is a perfect active participle of paristhmi, 'standing beside her.' Perfect tense: he had been standing there comforting her. The active voice: John had a great sense of responsibility as manifest by this act.

"whom he loved" — this indicates that Jesus Christ never changes His attitude toward believers. He keeps on loving them. John is not special in this sense, He doesn't love John more than the others. If this had been filew then we would have to say that Jesus loved John more than the others. But it isn't, it is the imperfect of a)gapaw which means He has enough love for all of them, it is mental attitude love. He has the same love for all of them but it just so happens that John is the one there.

"he saith unto his mother, Woman" — gunh. He doesn't say "Mother," He calls her "Woman."

"behold thy son!" — and He turns His glance upon John. From then on John is responsible for her.

Verse 27 — He says to the disciple John, "Behold thy mother!" For the first time He uses the word "mother" — mhthr. This is His provision for His mother. John is to care for and provide for Mary from this day on, and he will. Joseph is dead, she is a widow, and John will take care of her.

"And from that hour that disciple to her unto his own" — that is, into his own family, not to his own house. "Home" is in italics and not found in the original.

Verses 28-29, the fifth cry of the cross. The fourth cry is omitted, it is recorded in Matthew 27:46,47.

Verse 28 — "After this," after His spiritual death; "Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished." Notice: He knew it. He understood the plan of God. He has been under the most excruciating and intensive pain that anyone has ever had to bear. Not only was He hearing the sins of the world but He was under the greatest load and pressure of pain anyone has ever had. Yet, He can still think — o)ida, perfect active participle, used as a present for cognisance. It means He had doctrine in His perceptive lobe, He had it in His human spirit, He had it in His frame of reference. It was stabilised by His ECS. He knew when it was accomplished, when it was finished. The word for accomplished is telew which means finished — perfect passive indicative. Perfect tense: salvation is completed for ever. Passive voice: He has received the accomplishment of salvation. The indicative mood is the reality of salvation. Everything has been accomplished. He has been lucid this entire time, He has never for one moment lost consciousness and not for one moment stopped thinking.

"that the scripture" [Psalm 69:21] might be fulfilled," aorist passive subjunctive of plhrow.

"saith" I thirst" — He has refused anything up to now. This is a present active indicative of diyaw. After His bearing our sins His thirst was intensified — Psalm 22:15.

Verse 29 — "Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar." The word is not 'vinegar' at all, it is o)coj, a very sour wine. It is a very cheap wine.

"and they filled" — there is no 'filled' in the original. It actually says "a sponge full of o)coj." There was actually a tub filled with this wine and it had a sponge floating in it. The sponge was for those being crucified.

"and put it upon a hyssop" — a stalk. The stalk was attached to the sponge and put up to the mouth of those on the cross being crucified. The sponge was filled with sour wine having been attached to a hyssop stalk, and they brought it to his mouth. Literally, "A vessel [or tub] was standing there full of pascha: then a sponge being filled with pascha having been attached to a hyssop stalk, they brought it to his mouth."

Verse 30 — "When Jesus had received the pascha [He drank it]." 'When' means at which time, o(te, and adverb. "Received" is an aorist active indicative of lambanw which means to receive or take, but it is the aorist tense which means He didn't take it all the time, He just took it on this occasion.

"he said" — aorist tense, point of time; "It is finished" — perfect passive indicative of telew. Perfect tense: salvation is completed and the results go on forever. Passive voice: salvation has received fulfillment. The indicative mood is the reality of salvation. He said Tetelestai, one word, not three: "Finished." It means to bring to an end, to complete, to accomplish, to fulfill, to perform. Salvation is completed. Notice that Jesus is still alive when He says "Finished." Salvation was completed by spiritual death. Physical death has nothing to do with salvation.

"he bowed his head" — He deliberately bowed His head, aorist active participle of klinw. It actually says, "having bowed His head." It is a deliberate act on His part in order for something to be fulfilled. He has to get His head forward so that when the spear pierces His side out will come blood clots and serum. Jesus did not bleed to death, He dismissed His spirit, He died by His own volition. His work was accomplished and He dismissed His spirit, but before He did He bowed His head forward. Only John records that.

"and gave up the ghost" — the word 'gave' means to deliver up. There is no word for 'ghost' in the Koine Greek, it is His human spirit, pneuma. Bowing His head indicates that He has complete possession of His faculties. His human spirit is now in the presence of the Father. His human spirit is the storage place for Bible doctrine. Jesus Christ stored doctrine in His humanity in His human spirit, just as we do.

Verse 31 — Everything that Jesus did upon the cross had a purpose and a reason. Nothing was accidental. It was absolutely essential that when Jesus died that His body went forward. His body had to be in such a position that when the spear actually pierced His side it would pierce above the solar plexus and it would enter into a ventricle cavity, and that even from a distance physical death would be established because it says, "Out came clots and serum." The clots and serum are to establish the true meaning of the blood of Christ. In understanding the true meaning of the blood of Christ we come to the point of the function of GAP, "that you might believe." This is written to believers, so the purpose is not that you might believe in Christ but that you might have in your human spirit a complete understanding and the meaning of the blood of Christ.

"The Jews therefore" — the Jews are always up to something. They are always very particular about observing the superficialities of life. This, by the way, is a sign of religiosity for one of the characteristics of religiosity is pettiness. Legalists are always petty, they think in terms of pettiness. They observe forms.

The Passover lamb always had to be prepared in a certain way and for 1500 years not a bone was ever broken in the lamb. Why? Because this was to remind each generation and each person who participated that God always keeps His word. There is one thing about the Passover lamb that is very difficult for people to understand. It was slaughtered and the blood was shed because "the life of the flesh is in the blood" in a lamb, but not in a human being. The life of a human being is in the soul. Therefore Jesus Christ had to dismiss His spirit and dismiss His soul for physical death to occur. And when His soul and spirit were dismissed there was no bleeding to death in the picture at all. He did not bleed to death, His blood was still inside. This is established because just before Jesus Christ died "He pushed His head forward and dismissed His spirit." The minute He did that the Jews who were standing by, "because it kept on being the preparation" — paraskeuh, which means a prepared vessel. It refers to the preparation for the day of the feast. It is also the day in which the Jews made preparation to observe the Sabbath. The preparation here is the for the feats of unleavened bread which is going to last for seven days. Remember that this was Wednesday, the day that Christ died, the Passover and the Passover memorial. The Passover memorial is held the night before. Tuesday night from six o'clock on is a part of Wednesday and is the preparation. Tuesday the preparation represents the Passover, Wednesday represents the Exodus. The whole day is the preparation for the feast of unleavened bread which will go on for seven days. It is a double preparation. All of these things add up to a high Sabbath — which is not a Saturday but a super holy day.

"that the body should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath day" — the Sabbath day in not Saturday here. This is not Saturday Sabbath, this is a high Sabbath which was a day that was set apart unto God apart from Saturday. This was the first day of the feast of the unleavened bread and therefore the first day is a preparation and must be regarded as a high Sabbath, as per Leviticus 23:6,7. This means that certain things pertain. Notice: (For that Sabbath day was an high day)." This was not Saturday, it was Wednesday and therefore the Jews were very formal in their observation. They have just perpetrated the greatest crime in history and it is like committing the greatest crime in history and then going to church. This is exactly what they did.

"besought Pilate that their legs might be broken" — the leg-breaking consisted of taking a mallet and striking the legs until the person died of the shock and the pain. The reason that they besought Pilate that this might be accomplished is because they might be taken away, which is literally lifted up and taken down. They didn't want them on the cross while they were having one of their high Sabbaths.

Verse 32 — The Roman soldiers went up to the two thieves on each side of Jesus and took a mallet and pounded their legs until the bones were smashed, a very painful death. Both of them died. Apparently the Jews were waiting for this to occur on the centre cross.

Verse 33 — "But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead." This was simply a testimony. He was physically dead, the perfect active indicative of qnhskw which refers to physical death. He was dead already. He was dead because He died by an act of His own volition. His work was accomplished. He was perfect, and therefore being perfect, just as His birth was absolutely unique His death was absolutely unique. Jesus Christ is the only person who ever died physically by His own volition and there was nothing wrong with it. It was not suicide. His work was accomplished and He dismissed His spirit. He did not die by bleeding to death and no one caught His blood in a bowl and took it up to heaven. Their is no efficacy in the actual literal blood of Christ, the efficacy is in His spiritual death, our substitute bearing our sins. His body in His physical death went into the grave — Luke 23:53; His soul went to Hades — Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27; His spirit went to the Father — Luke 23:46.

"they break not his legs" — the fact that Jesus was already dead was further indication that no man took His life from Him, as He declared in John 10:17,18. For 1500 years not a bone had ever been broken in a Passover lamb and now the Lamb of God dies of crucifixion without a bone being broken.

Verse 34 — "But one of the soldiers with a spear." They have put down their spears for mallets but now we have one who picks up a spear and he "pierced his side." But you have to remember some things now. The head of the Lord is forward and the body is hanging on the cross. When the head comes forward and a person dies without bleeding to death certain things occur. When a person is pierced above the solar plexus, instantly there "came out blood." But the word here is "blood clots." The word for water is "fluid." So instantly blood clots and serum came out.

Why is this so important and how does this connect with Jesus moving His head forward? First of all, Jesus did not bleed to death. The soldiers by piercing His chest cavity with a spear demonstrated this.

1. The stab wound was made above the pelvic rim. With the head forward and the body forward this is important.

2. To get blood clots and serum to egress from a dead body a very large blood vessel has to be pierced.

3. A large stab wound was made on the right chest wall of the body which resulted in laceration of the right ventricle of the heart.

4. With the body leaning forward blood clots and serum would become immediately externalised. If the body is not leaning forward away from the cross this will not happen. Remember that the serum drains only from the upper extremities of the body, but it doesn't drain too well unless the body is forward.

5. What keeps the blood from going into the abdominal cavity? This is the real issue. The spear did not go into His side, it went into His chest and it had to go high, not low. The diaphragm prevents blood from going down into the abdominal cavity, but only if the body is leaning forward. By leaning forward the diaphragm shuts off blood so that it does not go down into the abdominal cavity. If it had then this point would never be established. The Holy Spirit makes two things clear. Just before Jesus died He said "Finished," and then He pushed His head forward. And that puts His body forward. His put His body forward so that the diaphragm would cut off the blood draining from the upper extremities of His body into the abdominal cavity. And that is exactly what happened. If the blood goes into the abdominal cavity you do not have blood clots, so to get blood clots and serum the diaphragm must cut off from draining into the abdominal cavity and then blood clots and serum would appear externally by a chest wall opening made by a spear.

6. Only a dead body which has not bled to death but dies suddenly contains blood clots and serum. All through the ages Satan has made one of his greatest attacks on the cross by blotting out in the minds of believers the importance of spiritual death. Spiritual death is Christ bearing our sins and the blood of Christ represents spiritual death, He didn't bleed to death.

7. What does it mean to be lyzed? There is a noun that goes with it, lysus, which means dissolving. Lyzed means something dissolved. If Jesus had slowly hemorrhaged internally, by the time the stab wound was made the clots in His body cavity would have been lyzed. Therefore no clear serum or blood clots could have been observable. But serum and blood clots were observable from a distance by John.

8. Unless there is a tremendous trauma such as decapitation, or unless a person actually bleeds to death, the only absolute proof that a person is physically dead when viewed from a distance, as John did, would be to see blood clots and serum from a wound. When a spear is thrust in as it was in this case and out come blood clots and serum it establishes physical death. It verifies physical death and makes it clear that it wasn't bleeding to death. Neither internal nor external hemorrhage occurred in the death of Christ, He died by dismissing His spirit. His physical death is the completion of His work and has nothing to do with salvation.

Conclusion: Jesus Christ pushed His body forward. That made it possible for blood clots and serum to accumulate in the right spot at the right time. There was the breaking of the legs of the thieves which took place over a period of at least thirty minutes. When that was completed everything was ready to demonstrate that Christ did not bleed to death, the Roman soldier picked up a spear, plunged it into His right chest cavity, and there was an egress of blood clots and serum which was observable from a distance. That egress made possible by Jesus Christ putting His head forward in death made it possible to establish death, but not by bleeding.

The doctrine of the blood

1. Blood is the seat of animal life — Leviticus 17:10-14. The seat of human life is the soul.

2. Animal blood was used in the Old Testament to represent the spiritual death of Christ on the cross — to represent it, to teach it. Animal blood was a training aid. Leviticus chapters 1-3. Therefore, animal blood is literal but it represents the spiritual death of Christ on the cross — Colossians 1:20; Hebrews 10:19; 13:20; 1Peter er 1:2.

3. The doctrine of redemption was communicated by means of animal sacrifices in the Old Testament — Hebrews 9:22. Remember that Hebrews 9:22 refers to animal sacrifices.

4. Christ did not die on the cross by bleeding to death. His blood was still in His body after physical death — John 19:30-34. Christ died by an act of volition, not by bleeding — John 10:18. After His work was finished, bearing our sins, He dismissed His spirit — Luke 23:46; Matthew 27:50.

5. The blood of Christ is a part of a representative analogy between the physical death of animals in the Old Testament and the spiritual death of Christ on the cross — 1Peter er 2:24; 2Corinthians 5:21.

6. The blood of Christ, then, portrays four doctrines of soteriology. a) Redemption — Ephesians 1:7; 1Peter er 1:18,19; b) Justification — Romans 5:9; c) Sanctification — Hebrews 13:12; d) Expiation — Revelation 1:5.

7. The blood of Christ in expiation is the basis for the rebound technique. Why can you confess your sins and be forgiven? Because expiation has already occurred, sins have already been judged — 1John 1:7 cf. 1John 1:9; Leviticus chapters 4 & 5; Colossians 2:14,15.

Verse 35 — "And he that saw it" is a perfect active participle, but notice it is a nominative singular masculine. Nominative: John is the subject; singular: John was the only one that saw it; masculine: John was a male. None of the women saw it. (A woman can't see through tears) The women were under maximum grief and only John actually saw this. The perfect tense: John saw it and never forgot it. And he just didn't blepw it, the word is o(raw, he stared, he got the whole picture. He saw it and never forgot it. The active voice: John saw it. The participle: it was fixed in his mind as a law from God to be revealed later in writing through the ministry of the Spirit. This is John the disciple. There were two people who were convinced. Verse 34, the soldier; verse 35, he that saw it. Both of them knew that He died physically and both of them knew that He did not bleed to death.

"bare record" — perfect active indicative of marturew which means to give evidence in a court. Perfect tense: it is permanent evidence, it is a part of the Word of God. Active voice: John saw it himself. Therefore o(raw makes him qualified for marturew. He was a qualified witness.

"and his record [witness]" — marturia, a judicial testimony, a testimony in court that is acceptable; "is true" — a)lhqinoj, an unusual word that is a little different from a)lhqhj or a)lhqeia and similar words. This word means 'trustworthy, acceptable as evidence, creditable.' "And the one having seen [John] gave evidence, and his evidence is trustworthy."

"and he knoweth" — literally, "and that one knows that what he says is worthy of credit." In other words, there is no way to shake his testimony.

"that" is a purpose clause; "you might believe" — present active subjunctive of pisteuw, not used for salvation but is a part of GAP. It is important as a part of the believer's understanding. This must be in the human spirit. The present tense is linear aktionsart. The active voice: the believer produces the action through GAP. The subjunctive mood: if you ever understand this or not all depends on the function of GAP in your life. This is an area of a lot of prejudice and was anticipated.

Verse 36 — "For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled." If one part of the scripture is true it is all true. When God promises or God prophesies through a prophet and it is kept it demonstrates the validity of God's character and the validity of His promises. "These things" refers to the omission of the breaking of the legs in the case of the Lord Jesus. Not a bone of Him was broken because the character of God was on the line. God said there wouldn't be a bone broken and there wasn't a bone broken. No broken bones means God keeps His word. Notice that God the Father is very careful with regard to detail, and this means He is careful as to the fact of keeping His word to you. The whole essence box is involved at this point.

"These things were done" is literally, "These things came to pass" — aorist active indicative of ginomai; "that" — purpose clause. What is important? The scripture. When we are talking about the crucifixion what are we talking about? The scripture! Doctrine. The Bible. That is what is important. What is the great issue of the cross? The Bible, Bible doctrine, the scripture. It is always the Word that is important; "that the scripture might be fulfilled." Jesus Christ went into the most minute things to make sure that every part of the scripture was fulfilled. Every time you claim a promise, use a doctrine, function under the principle of the ECS you are fulfilling the scripture. In other words, if you want to make a simple doctrine out of it, it is the fulfilling of scripture that glorifies God. That is how important doctrine is. "That the scripture might be fulfilled" is the aorist passive subjunctive of plhrow, used here in connection with GAP. The aorist tense is the point of time when these things occurred. The passive voice: they received fulfillment. The subjunctive mood: it indicates potentiality, generally speaking, but here it is more than just potentiality. Until this actually occurs every detail was unknown historically. It was prophetically laid out but not historically laid out. And if you are going to show that it was still God's purpose to do these things hundreds of years before they were prophesied but they were not done, then you use a purpose clause and the subjunctive mood goes with the "that." It was not the usual unknown potential, it is a known potential fulfilled — 'that' plus the subjunctive.

"broken" is suntribw which means to crush, to splinter, to break in pieces. This fulfills Exodus 12:46, the bones Passover lamb were not to be broken. It fulfills Numbers 9:12; Psalm 34:20, the prophecies that they would not be broken.

Verse 37 — "And again another scripture saith." This is Zechariah 12:10. The Roman soldier who thrust the spear into His side was one of those who believed in Christ — Matthew 27:54; Mark 15:39. The interesting thing is that every man in the uniform of the military of the Romans and the one disciple in the glorious uniform of doctrine in the spiritual conflict were believers. John came as a believer but the men who accepted Christ on that hill were all soldiers. Those who rejected were all religious!

Verse 38 — two witnesses are needed to establish the reality of physical death under the Mosaic law. The two witnesses are now described.

Joseph of Arimathea

1.He is a member of the Sanhedrin, which means he is a ruler. In Luke 23:54 he is called a counselor — boulhthj, which means a member of the Sanhedrin. As a member of the Sanhedrin he is a ruler of the Jews.

2. He was extremely rich — Matthew 27:57. Isaiah 53:9 us fulfilled, Jesus was identified with rich men in His death.

3. He was a believer — Luke 23:50; Matthew 27:57.

4. Joseph of Arimathea did not vote for the death of Jesus — Luke 23:51.

5. He makes his stand even greater by going to Pilate and requesting the body of Jesus — Matthew 27:58; Luke 23:52; John 19:38.

"And after this Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus" — present active participle of e)imi which means he always was; the word 'disciple,' maqhthj, has been greatly misunderstood in this day of liberalism. It means to be taught categorically. Today 'discipleship' is following Jesus in some emotional way, typical of apostasy and liberalism.

"but secretly" — perfect passive participle of kruptw. It means to be hidden, but in the perfect tense it means having become hidden. The passive voice means that he received hiding. The participle indicates this had been his status quo to this point. Bible doctrine did not, until the death of Christ, build up enough courage on the right lobe for him to take a stand. He took his first stand in the trial of Jesus when the Sanhedrin voted that very day. He voted against the death of our Lord.

"for fear" is dia plus foboj. Here is means fear as a mental attitude sin. It is in the accusative so it should be translated "because of fear." That fear is now gone. It took a major crisis to knock the mental attitude sins out of Joseph of Arimathea. His problem was fear, but he overcame his fear. It is not unusual to be frightened at some time in your life about something. The bad thing is to face a crisis and fall apart, to give way to fear and let fear run your life. Up until this time Joseph of Arimathean was a coward but the crisis brought out something great in him. As soon as the pressure was on he reached in and grabbed a norm and standard and went right straight like a man to Pontius Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus Christ. He stood up in the Sanhedrin when all the pressure in the world was on him and said, "I vote no." He started the crisis with a great fear but that was the end of it. The norm and standard lobe took over.

that he might take away" — aorist active subjunctive a)irw which means to lift up the body off the cross and remove it; "and Pilate gave him leave" means to give permission.

"He came, and lifted up and carried off" — the Romans left the bodies on the cross until they rotted. It was an unusual things for Pontius Pilate to give permission to take a body off a cross, and the reason that he gave permission was because he knew that Jesus was innocent. There was also some pressure from the Jews becauyse the Jews did not leave a corpse around on a holy day to defile it. Jesus will be placed in Joseph's own tomb in fulfillment of Isaiah 53:9.

Verses 39 — the second witness. "There came also Nicodemus."

1. Historically he is identified as Nicodemus ben Gurion, the brother of Josephus.

2. He was a member of the Sanhedrin and one of the three richest men in Jerusalem.

3. Like Joseph of Arimathea he was a secret disciple.

4. Nicodemus defended Jesus in the Sanhedrin. He not only said no but he stood up and made a speech as to why this shouldn't happen. John 7:50-52.

5. For his stand he was expelled from the Pharisee Party and from the Sanhedrin.

6. Through many persecutions he became impoverished.

"which at first came to Jesus by night" — the adverb prwtoj. It means first contact, first in time—John 3:1-21; "to Jesus" is proj plus the accusative of a)utoj, which means came face to face with him [Jesus].

"and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pounds [weight]" – this would be very expensive. In other words, Nicodemus provided the funeral of a king for the Lord Jesus.

Verse 40 – "Then took they." Notice: two timid disciples. Both have had the same experience. In the crisis they have responded. The mental attitude sins are eliminated and they are functioning to the glory of God. And in that transitory period of the angelic conflict the Holy Spirit records their action connected with the burial of Jesus. So now the burial of Jesus takes on new meaning. The burial of Jesus was the means of bringing to the forefront those who were prepared for the crisis by consistency and stability of life, namely John and Mary Magdalene, and those who although they had failed up to this point rose to meet the crisis in an honourable manner, namely Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.

"wound it in linen clothes" – they clothed it for burial.

"the manner of the Jews is to bury."

1. The Jewish custom is internment as soon as possible after death. Genesis 23:1-20; 35:8, 19-20—the biblical citation for this custom among the Jews.

2. The Jews did not cremate, except in rare cases. The exception was Saul and his three sons killed by the Philistines in the battle of Gilboa—1Samuel 31:11-13.

3. The Jews did not use coffins or embalming, except in rare cases—like Joseph in Egypt where the Egyptian customs were used in Genesis 50:2,3.

4. Ordinarily the body was buried in the following manner: The body was washed—Acts 9:37. Or, if it could not be washed it was wrapped in a cloth—Matthew 27:59; John11:44.

5. They often buried in vaults. This was preference. The wealthiest or any VIPs among the Jews was always buried in a vault—2Samuel 3:31; Luke 7:14.

6. If they could be afforded perfumes were applied to the body—John 12:7.

7. The Jews burned incense—Jeremiah 34:5.

8. They lamented with loud demonstration—Mark 5:38. Sometimes they even hired mourners—Jeremiah 9:17.

Verse 41 – "Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden." "Crucified" – aorist passive indicative, He received crucifixion in a point of time; "there kept on being a garden" – imperfect tense of e)imi, the garden was always there. The word garden is khpoj which actually means a park of trees. The

park belonged to Joseph of Arimathea.

"and a new sepulcher" – mnhmeion means a memorial monument. A memorial monument is built up high; a sepulcher is built low. The burial places of the Jews were generally outside of a city or a town because of the Mosaic law. They had either individual or family tombs. They did not use coffins. They used something like a coffin to transfer the corpse from the place of death to the place of burial, and they called it a bier. The idea of burial in the ground was so important of the Jews that they made contributions for the people who could not afford it. They called them "potter's fields." Some were buried in caves. In some cases where it was impossible because of some congestion to follow these principles they would burn the body until the flesh was destroyed and then gather the bones in a small stone coffin.

Notice that Jesus Christ was not placed in a common grave. The unique person of the universe had a unique burial. Two of the wealthiest men in Jerusalem were His pall bearers and witnesses to His death, and He was buried in a brand new monument. Therefore by all the customs of the Mosaic law it was free from any contamination—the unclean principle in connection with corpses.

"wherein was never yet laid [placed] a man" – no body was ever placed there before, tiqhmi in the perfect passive participle.

Verse 42 – "There laid they Jesus." They placed Him there.

"because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulcher was near at hand." They could not carry Him into the city, and even if Jesus had had a burial place on the other side of the city He could not have been buried, He had to be buried before the sun went down. The preparation day was a holy day, therefore the body could not be carried through the gates of the city. And everything was worked out in eternity past! All of the numerous details connected with the burial add up to the perfect character of God. Knowing every decision that would ever be made God in His marvelous plan brought all of the decisions together at a point of time so that Jesus Christ was buried.

[1] See the Doctrine of thorns.

Chapter 20

Verse 1 – "The first day of the week" is a locative of time in the Greek. It is a reference to Sunday. The reason we have church services on Sunday is because Sunday is the day of resurrection, the feast of the firstfruits—Leviticus 23:9-14 cf. 1Corinthians 15:20-24. There is an allusion to Sunday in Psalm 22:24 as well.

"cometh Mary Magdaline" – present active indicative of e)rxomai, the present tense is dramatic. She is one of the greatest trophies of grace of all time. She went from demon-possessed prostitution to a believer with an ECS in a very short period of time.

"early" is an adverb, and it means probably the fourth watch of the night which is between three and six AM, and it indicates she probably had not done any sleeping that night. So we could say that she came to the grave with a definite loss of sleep. That in itself is very pertinent. It can often mean lack of utilisation of Bible doctrine which you possess and can even temporarily neutralise the effectiveness of the ECS.

Mary Magdaline

1. Seven demons were cast out of her—Mark 16:9; Luke 8:2.

2. She was a prostitute—Luke 7:37; 8:2.

3. After her conversion she was one of the women who ministered to Jesus—Luke 8:2.

4. She was present at the cross—Luke 23:49.

5. She was present at the burial of Jesus, along with Joseph of Arimathaea And Nicodemus—Matthew 27:61; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:55.

6. She brought spices to anoint the body of Jesus—Mark 16:1.

7. She was the first one to approach the tomb of Jesus on resurrection day—Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1,2.

8. She brought the news of the resurrection to Peter and John—Luke 24:10; John 20:1,2.

9. She was actually the first person to see the resurrected Christ—John 20:11-18.

She cam early while it was yet dark for the simple reason that she apparently had had no sleep. This means that the whole death weighed very heavily, and

because she fulfils the principle found with the Shulamite woman in Song of Solomon chapter four. The fragrance of memories of the Lord kept her awake. She had gone through a terrible ordeal in His death and she was concentrating and focussing her attention on Him during that time when He was in the grave. Also, she was a very courageous woman because the gangster organization was operating in Jerusalem. She obviously walked a long distance in the darkness to arrive at an empty tomb.

"and seeth the stone" – present active indicative of blepw, which means she gave it a glance; "taken away" – a)irw, which means lifted up and removed. To pick it up and remove it means that someone with strength had to remove it—angels. The perfect tense of a)irw means the stone was removed in the past with results that stand forever—the empty tomb, Christ is resurrected. This is a perfect passive participle of a)irw.

The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb

1. The stone was removed by angels—Matthew 28:2. Passive voice: the stone received lifting and removing.

2. Jesus was already gone from the tomb when the angels removed the stone.

3. The stone was removed from the entrance so that Mary and the others could see the empty tomb.

4. The stone was removed not to let Christ out but to let the world in.

5. In His resurrection body Jesus Christ passed through the stone in the same manner that He passed through the closed door in v. 19.

6. The incarnation began with the miracle of the virgin birth; it terminates from the resurrection from the dead, plus the resurrection body passing through what appears to be solid to us—stone.

Verse 2 – Mary must immediately inform Peter and John with regard to the empty tomb. Notice that everyone in this passage runs.

"she runneth" – present active indicative of trexw. She ran all the way back. Present tense: she kept on running until she arrived. Active voice: she ran from

her own volition; "and cometh" – she close in on them. She didn't know what to do; she didn't know how to cope with this. So the fact that she runs and comes to Peter and John indicates she is not able to personally cope with the empty tomb.

"to Simon Peter" – proj plus the accusative, face to face with Simon Peter; "and face to face with the other of the same kind of disciple." The word for disciple, maqhthj, means to learn Bible doctrine categorically—the experience of GAP. The other disciple is John.

"whom Jesus loved" – imperfect active indicative of filew, total soul love.

"and saith unto them, They have lifted up and carried away" – the same verb that is used for the stone, a)irw. She has made a mistake here. The grave clothes are still there. So obviously, no one could pick up Jesus and haul Him out of there and leave the grave clothes inflated like a body was in them. Why didn't she notice this? Because she is so distraught and so filled with bona fide emotion of sorrow that she is blinded by her emotion to the reality of the facts. Therefore her emotion causes her to assume the worst. Mary said that "they" had lifted Him up and taken Him away, and that isn't true. Mary saw the empty tomb but she did not see the grave clothes inflated. In her sorrow she was emotionally blinded to this.

Notice that she give an indefinite "they." She does not know who were the culprits. Obviously she assumes the worst because she adds, "we know not where they have paid him." The thought of resurrection simply does not occur to Mary Magdalene, although she knows the doctrine.

Verses 3 & 4, the race to the empty tomb.

Verse 3 – "Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple." The words went forth is e)cerxomai, they went back the other way, back to where Mary had come from.

Verse 4 – the mechanics. "So they ran both together" – imperfect tense of trexw, they kept on running.

"the other disciple did outrun"—protrexw, which means to outrun or to run ahead.

1. John won the race with Peter and was the first male believer to see the empty tomb.

2. But John did not enter the tomb.

3. The fact of resurrection occurred to John immediately.

4. The next verse says that John stooped down and stared intently into the tomb, while Peter busted by him.

5. To Mary Magdalene the empty tomb meant that someone had stolen the body. Like a woman in love she didn't investigate carefully.

6. She knew the doctrine but emotion phased it out temporarily.

7. She was so emotionally involved that she failed to recognise the plan of God, which in this case was the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

8. On the other hand John, who also had an ECS, immediately identified the plan of God. In fact, the plan of God halted him in his tracks.

9. John is a case of where his emotion is a source of blessing to him because it is based on doctrine.

10. Therefore the importance of orienting to the plan of God through doctrine rather than through emotion. 2Corinthians 6:11,12; Romans 16:17,18.

11. The dominance of emotion in the soul of Mary Magdalene causes her to fail momentarily in recognising the plan of God.

12. This will be illustrated again in verse 17 when Mary clings to Jesus.

13. The reality of doctrine in the soul of John caused instant objectivity.

14. Subjectivity of the soul is overcome through a continuance of the function of GAP. Even when you have an ECS you do not quit.

15. Even with an ECS it is possible for a believer to lapse into temporary subjectivity. This always causes emotion to go out of control.

16. Emotion must always be preceded by doctrine. Therefore the function of GAP converts deep emotional response into fantastic happiness.

Verse 5 – "stooping" is the aorist active participle, parakuptw. It means to stoop down and concentrate, stare intently. It is used in two other passages of

significance—James 1:25; 1Peter er 1:12 where it refers to concentration on doctrine. Here it refers to John concentrating on the grave clothes of our Lord. In other words, the evidence of resurrection is confirmed from his own personal observation. But John, too, failed. John's failure is that he had to observe. Later on he is going to say in this passage that he believed. He believed in resurrection because he saw the empty grave clothes and he realised the significance of the grave clothes empty and the napkin (face cloth) folded up. John sees all of that and he concludes resurrection. It shows that John can think under pressure, which is a rare thing; but what is wrong with it? Why did he have to wait until he saw the empty grave clothes? What's wrong with doctrine, which Jesus taught during three years? And which was taught by Daniel and Isaiah? John is going to believe in resurrection because he saw the empty tomb. That is basing reality on empiricism. But what is wrong coming to the same conclusion a year before this happened?

"saw the linen clothes" – o)qonion, the word used for grave clothes and also "swaddling clothes." In other words, Jesus was wrapped in grave clothes at His birth, and he was wrapped in grave clothes at His death. In His resurrection He moved right through the swaddling clothes or the grace clothes. It is obvious that if the body had been stolen the grave clothes would also be gone. The grave clothes were inflated and full but empty, and this caused John to stare and concentrate intently. Even in a glance he did all of this because he was thinking. John ran and thought; Mary went one way running and emoting. John came back the other way running and thinking. The grave clothes were inflated and empty. This is in contrast to Lazarus who had to be unwrapped after his resuscitation.

He "saw the linen clothes lying" – keimai, present middle participle, they kept on staying that way. This means that they were still inflated.

Verse 6 – "Then cometh Simon Peter" – e)rxomai; "following" – a)kolouqew. If there's anything Peter hates it is to be following. He's thinking about beating John in getting there, he's not thinking about what he is going to find! No matter what Peter did he couldn't do anything but follow.

"and went into the sepulchre" – e)ij e)rxomai; "and seeth" – this time it is not blepw. Mary = blepw, and all she saw was the empty tomb—emotion. John = blepw, and he saw the grave clothes—thinking. Peter = qeorew, which means to view with interest and attention, to observe and reflect and come to some conclusions. In other words, he really concentrated on that air in the empty grave clothes.

"lie"—the grave clothes were lying as though occupied by a corpse, but the body is not there.

Verse 7 -- "And the napkin that was about the head." This is not a napkin at all, it is a soudarion. This is face cloth, a head piece for a corpse. It is like a sack, it is put over the head and tied under the chin. The sack was not inflated. It was taken off and carefully folded.

"not lying" – keimai with the negative. It was separated from the rest of the grave clothes.

"wrapped together" – not quite correct, it is e)ntulissw, which means to be folded up. Perfect passive participle, folded in the past with results that go on forever. Passive voice: the crown of death received folding.

Why did the body of Jesus come through the grave clothes but not the headpiece or face-cloth?

Answer:

1. Because the resurrected Christ must remove the crown of death and roll it up forever. In this way the grave has been robbed of its victory.

2. The resurrection body of Jesus came through the grave clothes, death could no longer hold Him. The part that covered the soul remained intact so that the volition of His soul could act in removing the crown of death. This is a physical resurrection. The soul of Jesus Christ was not changed in any way, just His body.

3. The first act of the resurrected Christ was to remove by His own power the crown of death.

4. Death had lost its sting, the grave had been robbed of its victory—1Corinthians 15:51-57.

"in a place" – e)ij e(na topon, which means with reference to one place. Jesus Christ put down on the ground a memorial. We don't have to know where that

ground is or see that actual cloth. It is recorded in the Word, so we don't need it.

"by itself" – xwrij, the adverb, means apart. So, "with reference to one place apart." And that is set apart in the Word of God forever. The crown of death is on the ground, the resurrection body of Jesus was now walking about.

Verse 8 – John now goes into the tomb. "Then went in also that other disciple"—e)iserxomai; "which came first to the sepulchre"—aorist active participle of e)rxomai. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, and we have two main verbs. The first main verb is "he saw"—o(raw, the panoramic view, the plan of God from beginning to end. Everything falls in place for John but it falls in place on the basis of empiricism. He had to o(raw and pisteuw; it should have been e)piginwskw and pisteuw. The final main verb is "and believed" – aorist active indicative of pisteuw. This is great except for one little thing. Why do you have to see to believe? You don't!

There are two main verbs here whose action precedes the action of the aorist participle. John came first to the tomb; he saw [o(raw]and believed. He was the first disciple to believe in the resurrection. But his faith has the weakest possible base—empiricism. Seeing is believing but it is the weakest type of believing. Knowing doctrine is the best type of believing, and we have a great advantage over John and Peter. We can have a faith based on Bible doctrine which is infinitely more powerful than faith based upon observation. GAP is the best basis for faith and the only consistent one. Empiricism will never replace doctrine. This is what Peter said when he died—2Peter er 1:12-21, what you see is not a real as what the Word says.

Verse 9 – a simple explanation for understanding the resurrection by empiricism. "For as yet they knew not the scripture." The know about the resurrection but not the scripture. "As yet" is literally, not yet, o)udepw; "knew not" is pluperfect active of o)ida, they had not yet known the scripture. Their faith was not based on doctrine, it was based on observation.

"that it was necessary for him to rise again" – aorist active infinitive of a)nisthmi [i(sthmi = to stand; a)na = up, or again]. When Jesus Christ's body went into the grave clothes, He stood up. When He stood up His body went right through the grave clothes ad the grave clothes stayed on the ground. So He stood up again.

Verse 10 – "Then the disciples [the two of them] went away"—a)perxomai, which means to go away from that place; "unto their own home" is literally, face to face with their own. It doesn't say home. It is proj plus the accusative of i)dioj, which means one's own. It doesn't mean a house or a home, it means people that belong to you.

Verse 11 – But Mary returns to the empty tomb. They all returned to their own! Mary Magdalene does not understand resurrection yet, but she is going home and home to her is that empty tomb, the last place where she saw the Lord. So we suggest that her love is greater than their love. Remember that home is a person whom you love. Mary is responding to what she has at the moment, a place to weep.

Verse 11 – "But," and that is the trouble with Mary. The problem is she knew more doctrine than anyone else and yet she blew it. Everyone blew it, but the manner in which Mary blew it teaches many wonderful spiritual lessons. So this begins with the conjunction of contrast, de, and the contrast is between Peter and John who went home and Mary Magdalene who went home, but she went to an empty tomb. Peter went home to his wife and his mother-in-law; John went home to his mother and the mother of the humanity of Christ. Everyone had somewhere to go. They went where they wanted to go, by the way. Mary went where she wanted to go, she loved the Lord Jesus Christ. Here capacity to love Him under category #1 love was greater than that of anyone else. And she went to the empty tomb. That was her home for the moment. It also indicates the state of her soul. So she is in contrast to Peter and John.

"Mary stood without the tomb" – the word for stand is unusual, it is the pluperfect active indicative of i(sthmi. The pluperfect is the past perfect tense and is rarely used. The principle was Mary loved Jesus Christ so much that it never even occurred to her to go anywhere except to the empty tomb. Her soul is filled with the fragrance of love. When there is the fragrance of love you can only follow the dictates of your soul. The last time she had seen Jesus she had helped to place His body in that tomb. She had gone back and had seen the empty tomb, and when Peter and John go home so does she. But the pluperfect indicates she wouldn't go anywhere else; she wouldn't be anywhere else. It indicates the state of her soul and her phenomenal capacity to love. Generally the pluperfect in i(sthmi is used as an imperfect. Here it has great stability. Active voice: this was her own free will.

The word without is the preposition, proj plus the accusative, which means face to face with the empty tomb. So it should be literally translated, 'But Mary, having stood face to face with the tomb outside of it.' She didn't go in. The adverb for outside is e)cw. She doesn't go in, she is rooted in one spot because she is weeping, the present active participle of klaiw.[1]

"and as she wept" – imperfect active indicative. Present active participle of klaiw: she started weeping, kept on weeping; imperfect active indicative: she didn't stop. She wept for a very long time.

"she stooped down into the sepulchre" – it doesn't say she looked. She bent over and concentrated—parakuptw, aorist active indicative. She concentrated in the direction of the empty tomb.

Mary's weeping

1. The weeping of Mary Magdalene is the weeping of a woman's love responding to what she has. She has an empty tomb and she has her memories.

2. She cannot express her love in any other way at this point. She has been expressing her love to Jesus for several years bit now He isn't there. She is expressing her love to a person who is not there. When you love someone and that someone is no longer there, and you have wonderful fragrant memories, you are going to weep.

3. Mary has privacy for her tears, there is no one there. Whatever memories you possess that are wonderful, fragrant and beautiful, they belong to you; they are in your soul and in no one else's. Therefore you have, as it were, a private album of your own memories.

4. This teaches another principle, the principle of a woman's love. It must have privacy plus free will—the ingredients of a woman's love.

5. If Mary had remained with Peter and John they would still be talking, and they would have removed from her, her volition and her privacy, both of which she wanted at this time. She chose to face the empty tomb. She had privacy to express the fragrance of her memories in tears.

6. Mary does not want conversation. At a time like this a woman in love has to think as a woman in love and the last thing she needs is conversation.

7. In solitude and privacy with your volition intact you discover what you believe, you discover what memories have fragrance. But in the company of friends you often discover what you understand.

Verse 12 – "And seeth two angels in white sitting." The word for see is qeorew, which means she observed them. The word means to see and perceive, to

Observe, to reflect on the observation. She reflects on the fact that she is no longer alone. Angels in scripture always appear to be a male. Their presence in the empty tomb is God's very gracious way, compassionate way, of comforting Mary Magdaline. They are sitting—present active participle of kaqezomai. They are constantly sitting there. The present active participle means that they have been sitting there all the time, but they had not been visible up to this point. Neither Peter nor John had seen these two angels. God permitted only Mary Magdaline to see the angels. He made them very apparent to her. Why? Because in the first place she has a theory that the body has been stolen. The fact that two angels are sitting there means the body of Jesus could not have been stolen and her presumption is erroneous. According to Psalm 91:11 the two angels had been sitting in the tomb since Jesus was placed there three days before. They had permitted no one to steal the body.

"one at the head, and the other at the feet" – proj plus the accusative, one was facing the feet and one was facing the head.

"where the body of Jesus had lain" – imperfect active indicative of keimai.

Verse 13 – "And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?" This question has two purposes: a) to remove any fear that they mean any harm; b) to give her a chance to compose herself because she is no longer under conditions of privacy. They know why she is weeping, they have been there all the time.

She gives the answer which expresses her theory. It is erroneous but it is what she thinks. "She saith unto them, Because they [unknown] have taken away my Lord." The word taken away means the body has been lifted up and carried off—a)irw; "my Lord"—He belongs to me.

"I do not know where they have laid [placed] him"—tiqhmi means to place.

The angels know why Mary is weeping. The question is designed to give Mary a chance to shift gears, to go from memory to the present circumstances, and to draw the proper conclusions.

.Verse 14 – "And when she had thus said." She had been talking to two angels and she wasn't impressed. She had expressed the fact that she is certain that the Lord's body has been stolen.

"she turned herself back" – aorist passive indicative of strefw: "and saw Jesus standing" – present active indicative of qeorew, she "perceived." She perceived the form of a person. If she had actually seen the colour of His hair, the bone structure of His face, it would have been blepw. And if she had found Him a very attractive man is would have been o(raw, a panoramic view. But she simply perceives the form of a person there without identifying or distinguishing the person in any way. This tells us something about her soul at this point. In her soul everything is turned inward. Her grief is so intense that everything has turned completely inward, she has become subjective to excessive emotional activity under grief. Therefore she is not able to identify the Lord Jesus Christ. The present tense here means in that moment of time she saw a human form there. The human form is standing—"Jesus standing," perfect active indicative of i(sthmi. In other words, He stood there and had been standing there for some time. Apparently He had been listening to the conversation between Mary and the two angels. Now when Mary turns around and moves away from the tomb she comes face to face with a human form. Notice that is says, "and knew not that it was Jesus." "Knew not" is a pluperfect of o)ida, and o)ida in the pluperfect is used as an imperfect, she kept on not knowing it. In other words, until the time of identification coming up she kept on being totally oblivious to the fact that the resurrected Christ was standing in front of her and she is the first human being to see Him. Jesus Christ in His resurrection body revealed Himself to the greatest trophy of grace during His ministry, a former prostitute by the name of Mary Magdaline who had more doctrine than anyone else and who, at this point with her whole ECS, is disoriented to the situation because her grief is out of line with her ECS.

Why did Mary not recognise Jesus?

1. Under the stress of emotion, with eyes filled with tears, vision is impaired. But her vision is not impaired because of the tears in her eyes, her vision is impaired because there are two kinds of emotion and she is under the influence of negative emotion. Negative emotion is one of the worst things in life because it blinds you to truth that you know is truth. Mary knew all about the resurrection and yet it hasn't even occurred to her.

2. Her mind is made up with regard to something that is false. Jesus is not dead, He is risen. While it is not true, Mary thinks the body of Jesus has been stolen. Principle: Reality lies in what people think, not in the truth. If you think something is true, even though it is false, it is true to you. In other words, 'Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up.'

3. Since Mary assumes Jesus to be dead she cannot associate any living person with Him. Jesus is standing in front of her but she can't make the association. In her mind Jesus is dead; in reality He is alive. The truth is resurrection; to her He is dead.

4. Reality is found in what people think and/or believe. Remember that believing is a system of thinking. It is a non-meritorious system of thinking and it can be positive where doctrine is involved; it can be negative where falsehood is involved: you can believe a lie. Therefore this person cannot be Jesus, and since He is in a gardener this must be a gardener.

5. Mary's failure to identify Jesus emphasises the importance of getting the facts before drawing conclusions.

Verse 15 – "Woman." Jesus uses this word woman many times. We have the vocative singular from the noun gunh, the Greek word for woman. This is the same vocative which Jesus used in addressing Mary in John 19:26.

"Why weepest thou?" – present active indicative of klaiw.

Mary's weeping

1. Mary Magdaline's tears are from excessive grief, a part of the function of the emotion of the soul. Weeping comes from the emotion of the soul related to the lobes. In this case here excessive grief causes her negative emotion to be excessive. Negative emotion is a blinder; positive emotion is an appreciator. Grief is an expression of love toward someone else, and when Mary Magdaline was there at the burial of Jesus her grief was a bona fide thing. But after Jesus had been dead for several days self-pity set in, and that is a sin. The emotion itself is not a sin. Here there is an excessive negative emotion that short-circuits the line, and that causes the norms and standards to lose grace orientation and divine viewpoint, because it is not divine viewpoint to think the body has been stolen; it is divine viewpoint to think He is risen.

2. It is possible for the emotional pattern of the soul to frustrate the application of doctrine from the human spirit and from the right lobe.

3. Before Mary will recognise Jesus she must stop being enslaved by negative emotion.

4. Application to us: Emotion hinders the function of GAP and causes one to get into false things—like the tongues movement. 2Corinthians 6:11,12; Romans 16:17,18.

5. Both sorrow and negative amotion can take a believer out of bounds where divine viewpoint is lost. Once you are out of bounds you can't learn doctrine.

6. Excessive negative emotion short-circuits frame of reference, and the value of the ECS and its doctrine is lost—temporarily.

7. Reality is in the mind of Mary Magdaline. In her mind Jesus is dead, His corpse is stolen. This isn't true, but this is true to her. There is a true criterion for life and a false criterion. The true criterion is Bible doctrine; the false criterion is what you think, unless you are thinking Bible doctrine.

8. Therefore Mary Magdaline did not recognise Jesus when He spoke to her.

9. Reality should have been in the facts. Jesus is alive; He is standing in front of Mary. But Mary does not recognise Jesus because in her mind He is dead. Now Jesus speaks and she doesn't even pick it up from His tone as yet. Like any woman who has a great capacity for love she is tone oriented, but because her mind is so strong and the fact that Jesus is dead her ear is not picking up the tone of the voice.

So Jesus asks a second question: "whom seekest thou?"—present active indicative of zetew. Jesus is observing Mary, even though Mary is not observing

Jesus; she is looking for the corpse. Here is a question to cause Mary to begin to conclude resurrection.

"She, supposing" – present active participle of dokew, the sloppiest type of thinking. It means to assume something to be true on the basis of how you feel about it. This word means two things. It means to imagine, to presume without the facts. It is a verb for negative thinking, a present active participle which is linear aktionsart. It means she is going to stick with what she is thinking—"She, assuming him to be the gardener."

"gardener" – khpouroj [khpoj = gardener; ouroj = watcher], he is a guardian of the garden.

"Sir" – she addresses him with a vocative respect and authority; "if you have picked him up and carried him away" – aorist active indicative of bastazw, which indicates what she is thinking. The word means to pick Him up violently and haul Him off.

"tell me" – aorist active imperative. She demands to be told where she can find the body. These are bold words which are coming from her own emotions.

"and I will take him up [tenderly] carry Him off" – a)irw, not bastazw.

1. Obviously Mary Magdaline is under the control of her grief and emotion. Therefore she has short-circuited and doctrine is not coming from her e)pignwsij or from her right lobe.

2. Mary is not thinking the truth, she is actually under slavery to negative emotion.

3. Therefore she assumes that because Jesus is dead yesterday that He is dead today.

4. So the solution to her problem is to recover from negative volition. How? Start right in with GAP again, and that is exactly what is going to happen. No matter how great you are as a believer, once you get some negative emotion in your soul the only way to flush it out is to listen to the Word. Even mature believers need the daily function of GAP!

5. There are some short circuit systems. Negative emotions is not sinful as such, but negative emotion does the same thing as mental attitude sins, and some times mental attitude sins trigger mental attitude emotion. Mental attitude sins and negative emotion do the same thing: they short circuit the line between the human spirit and the right lobe. Also, excessive negative emotion always has a hang-over—despondency.

The doctrine of the short-circuit

1. Mental attitude sins.

2. Negative emotion. This always floods the soul and becomes the criterion: whatever you assume, that's it!

3. Making conclusions without the facts—an off-shoot of point #2.

4. A break-down of the faith-rest technique.

Under these short-circuit systems a mature believer can fail, although he has greater protection against failure because of his stability from the ECS. But

remember that David in "operation Bathsheba" already had an ECS.

Verse 16 – "Jesus saith unto her, Mary," Mariam, the Aramaic form for the word Mary. Previously He used the vocative, woman; now He calls her Mary. Mary is under negative volition and under deep grief, but in that one word Mary she recognises the voice of Jesus. Why does she suddenly do it? First of all, that same voice cast seven demons out of her. That voice now releases here from sorrow and grief. Apparently she had been turning away, and when she heard His voice she turns herself toward Him, "and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master." Rabbwni means My teacher. It is Aramaic. The "i" on the end is simply the Aramaic and Hebrew possessive suffix. Notice her instant recovery and the point of orientation of her instant recovery—teaching! Doctrine! Mary snaps back with the important thing, the short-circuit is over.

"Master" – didaskalh. Didaskaloj means public teaching, and this is public teaching. Master doesn't mean master, it is the vocative of the Greek word for teacher.

Verse 17 – When Jesus said that she ran to Him and threw her arms around Him, and she was clinging to Him. "And Jesus saith [kept on saying, present linear aktionsart of legw].

"Touch me not" – present middle imperative of a(ptw plus the negative mh. A(ptw in the middle voice means to cling, to encircle, to grasp, to hang on. The middle voice means she has her arms around Him, she is hugging Him. He is saying to her, "Stop clinging to me, stop hugging me," and so on. The present active imperative plus the negative means stop doing something that is already in progress. She is clinging to Him; the reflex of a woman in love. All of the negative emotion has been cleared out and replaced by positive emotion. She made certain that Jesus was not a ghost and she is clinging to Him. (By the way, this is one of the proofs of the bodily, physical resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.)

Jesus knew in eternity past just what would be in Mary's soul and that uttering one word, Mary, and she saying Rabboni [teacher], would bring all the doctrine back, evaporate all of the negative emotion, and replace it by positive emotion. She now recognises one doctrine and everything is changed: resurrection. Why was this? She already knew the doctrine. It was e)pignwsij and in her right lobe. She has an ECS and therefore with an ECS she does a magnificent thing. She runs to the Lord and throws her arms around Him.

Jesus says, "Stop clinging." This is because the plan of God at this point must move on.

"for I am not yet ascended" – perfect active indicative of a)nabainw. This is the next stage in the plan of God. How is the Lord going to ascend with a woman wrapping her arms around Him and holding on tight? We go from resurrection to ascension, which is the next item on the agenda, though it won't occur for forty days. But all He has to do is to mention that the plan must go on and she will let go. Why? She has doctrine! Her emotion is positive now and is not going to stand in the way of progress.

"unto my Father" – proj plus the accusative, face to face with my Father. Before the victory of the angelic conflict can be completed Jesus must be glorified. The fact that He is in a resurrection body on earth does not mean glorification yet. It is the resurrection body in heaven that is going to change the angelic conflict. If Jesus was still walking around in a resurrection body the angelic conflict would not be won. It is the fact that a human being in a resurrection body went all the way through the angelic hosts into the presence of the Father and is now superior to all angels—Hebrews 1 & 2. The plan of the Father is that He must be seated in the place of glory at the right hand of the Father.

In order for the resurrection to go forward someone must announce the resurrection to the disciples. So Jesus says, "But go"—present active imperative of the verb poreuomai, which means to go from one place to another. It means leave the presence of Jesus and go into the presence of the disciples with the information. Obviously, she can't go and tell them if she is going to cling to Him for the rest of the day.

"but go" – here is the command. If Jesus is going to get Mary from around His neck He must give her something to do, because her capacity is so phenomenal that she is not going to stop clinging unless there is a good reason. Jesus is giving her the next part of the plan. He is including her in the resurrection. Her life has suddenly expression and meaning and purpose apart from the expression of her love for Him, and that is precisely the reason that He told her next, "but go" – present active imperative from poreuomai, the only word that Jesus could use in this situation. Ordinarily the word for go would be e)rxomai, but He doesn't use it because it simply means come or go. Poreuomai means to go from one place to another. This gives us the second explanation for the second command of Jesus, "Stop clinging to me." Mary Magdalene cannot cling to Jesus and at the same time announce the resurrection to the disciples. The Father's plan calls for Mary to be separate from the Lord for a little while, while she goes and announces that Jesus is risen.

"to my brethren" – proj plus the accusative mean face to face with; "and say to them" – dative of advantage. This is the next phase of the Father's plan announced.

"I ascend" – present active indicative of a)nabainw again. This is next. The present tense is dramatic. Any advance in the plan of God is dramatic. The indicative mood is the reality of the next step in the plan of God.

"unto my Father" – proj plus the accusative, face to face with my Father. Jesus is speaking from His humanity; "and your Father" – this means that as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ the Father was their Father as well.

Mary Magdaline would like to keep on clinging to Jesus and enjoy this moment but the plan of God must go on. She has a job to do and now she is going to fulfil it.

The doctrine of ascension

1. The resurrection body is capable of space travel—John 20:17.

2. The acceptability of the humanity of Christ guarantees the acceptability of regenerate mankind—Ephesians 1:6.

3. The ascension and session of Christ produces victory in the angelic conflict—Hebrews 1:3-13.

4. The ascension begins a new sphere in the angelic conflict—Ephesians 1:20-22; 4:7-10.

5. The ascension of Christ, then, begins operation footstool—Psalm 110:1. This is the most intensified stage of human history; the angelic conflict shifts gears.

6. The Second Advent of Christ will conclude operation footstool—Daniel 7:13-14; Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15; Revelation 20:1-3.

7. The ascension explains the uniqueness of the Church Age. Every believer is the target of Satan in the Church Age; every believer is in full time Christian service in the Church Age—2Corinthians 5:20.

Verse 18 – the obedience of Mary Magdaline.

"came and told the disciples" – now we have the word e)rxomai, the obedience verb here, present active indicative. Once the negative emotion is cleared out

the circuit is restored and Mary recalls the doctrine—death, burial and ascension. She was able to relate in detail what was occurring. This means, first of all, she stopped clinging to the Lord Jesus. She departs. There is a sense in which she is still clinging to Him: in her soul she has that great capacity of love. As she goes back into Jerusalem there is a sense that she will never let go of the Lord Jesus. But she is obedient and she is fulfilling the plan of God for her life as Jesus Christ executes the plan of the Father in the incarnation. In other words, she is still exhaling category #1 love for the Lord Jesus. That grief and that negative emotion had immobilised her but doctrine has made her operational again.

"and told" – ordinarily the word for telling is legw but here we have an entirely different word, a)ggellw, from which we get the word angel. It means to proclaim an important message. The present active participle means she had to tell it over and over again.

"that she had seen" – perfect active indicative of o(raw, the panoramic view. She had seen the Lord with results that would go on forever—that is the perfect tense. This is a panoramic view in the sense that she now has the whole plan of God in her mind. Her frame of reference has been re-established.

"and that he had spoken these things unto her" – the word for spoken is legw.

Verses 19-23, the first appearance of Jesus to the disciples.

Verse 19 – "the same day" is Sunday. Jesus rose on the first day of the week, Sunday. The church meets on Sunday because it is the resurrection day. This is in the evening. The appearance to Mary Magdaline was in the morning. The disciples are now all holed up and they have the door locked.

"when the doors were shut"—the word for shut here [being shut] is the present active participle of e)imi, the absolute status quo verb. It is connected with a perfect passive participle to show that the doors closed were not merely closed, they were locked. The verb is kleiw and it means to close and lock. Passive voice: the doors received locking for security.

"where the disciples were assembled" – the word assembly isn't here, it is the imperfect tense of e)imi again, "where they were being." They weren't assembling, they kept on being there. Being means they were neutralised.

"for fear of the Jews" – dia plus the accusative of foboj. It should be translated "because of fear of the Jews." Because they were afraid they were merely existing behind locked doors.

"came Jesus" – we have e)rxomai again, aorist active indicative, and this time it is Jesus Christ coming through the locked door. Jesus did not knock down the

door, He simply walked right through it.

"and stood" – all of a sudden He is standing there, aorist active indicative of i(sthmi. Here are the disciples all afraid and then Jesus is standing there in the midst. Why are they frightened? Mary Magdaline had clued them in, and yet they were all frightened. Jesus Christ is our wall of fire, and we are in His plan. Since we are in union with Him we can use all our security measures, that is just common sense, but ultimately whether we survive or not depends entirely upon who and what Jesus Christ is. That is grace, and that is the way we like it.

"and saith unto them, Peace" – this is a salutation, it also has other concepts. E)irhnh is the noun. It means tranquillity, unity, felicity, blessing; and all of those are to replace the fear, the insecurity that has possessed the disciples up to this point. Jesus knows they are frightened but He does not rebuke them. There is no reproach, and that is grace. The plan of the Father is going to move on in spite of their failure. The plan depends on who and what Christ is, not who and what they are. Because it depends on Him, notice that His first word was "Peace." This word is used three times.

Verse 20 – "he shewed unto them." The word shewed means to exhibit, deiknumi; "his hands" – they can identify them, they have seen them often enough. Now they have scars; "and his side" – this is where the scars and wounds were located. This indicates that this is the same Jesus who died on the cross.[2] The scars that our Lord possesses in His resurrection body are badges of honour. When we see those scars through all eternity it is a reminder to us that those scars are a part of purchasing our salvation. Every time we see the scars in His resurrection body the first word that will come to mind is "grace."

"Then were the disciples glad" – the disciples saw before they were glad. They had inner happiness—aorist passive indicative of xairw, the received inner happiness. The aorist tense: the point of time they had the panoramic view of the resurrected Christ.

There is a principle that comes out of this. The resurrection is the basis for happiness in time, as well as future eternal happiness. The resurrection produces both confidence and inner happiness and when this doctrine is cycled from the human spirit to the norm and standard lobe as a part of our frame of reference, that frame of reference produces inner happiness. That is why it says, "they received happiness." It is a reality to them now.[3]

Notice it says "they saw"—aorist active indicative of o(raw. O(raw occurs first as far as the sentence is concerned. It means to have a panoramic view. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. First of all they saw Him—panoramic view—and then they were glad or had +H. It should be translated, "and having seen him they had great happiness." This teaches us a principle. Happiness has three sources. It has its first source in memory. The memory centre of the frame of reference is the source of happiness. Once they identify the Lord Jesus Christ it stimulates their memories of the past three years. Secondly, the capacity for love in the ECS is a source for happiness. The third is the exhale experience toward God or to some member of the human race with whom you have rapport.

Verse 21 -- "Peace unto you." The word peace in verse 19 refers to the doctrine of reconciliation as it relates to His resurrection appearance. The second time, here, we have a reference to phase two function and grace production. The third time, verse 26, we have the grace principle of rebound.

Here is verse 21 Jesus announces phase two of the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. Here is one of those announcements where Jesus says things are going to get rough on earth.

"to them" is dative of advantage; "again" – this is the second time He has said "Peace." The word peace, again, refers to the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.

"as the [not my] Father" -- the Father is the author of the divine plan, operation grace; "hath sent me" – notice: a)postellw. Shortly Jesus is going to send them, but it is not a)postellw, it is the word pempw. The first [a)postellw] is perfect active indicative. The perfect tense means that the Father designed the incarnation in the past all the way from the virgin birth to the resurrection and ascension with the result that it was accomplished historically. Active voice: the Father designed the plan for the Son. Indicative mood: the reality of the incarnation. The Father sent the Son. "Me" is Jesus Christ in hypostatic union executing the purpose of the incarnation from the virgin birth to the ascension. The verb for sending indicates sending some with great authority. When the Father sent the Son the Son had tha authority to go to the cross and fulfil the Father's plan.

Now He says, "so send I you," and it is pempw, present active indicative. Pempw simply means to send a representative. The disciples were the first representatives of the absent Christ in the Church Age. They were the advanced guard. Later on there would be a)postellw or apostles but at this stage they are merely sent to represent the Lord Jesus Christ during those ten days that He is absent from the earth. In this sense all of the eleven disciples are in full-time service. The present tense is linear aktionsart. Active voice: they acted as representatives. Indicative mood: the reality of it.

Verse 22 – Note: "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." When Christ ascends there will be a ten-day interlude before the Church Age begins, and during that time the disciples are in status quo pempw, they are His representatives. They will also represent Him for the forty days that He is on the earth. During this time when they represent Him between the ascension, when Christ is absent from the earth and is present with the Father, until the Church Age begins [ten days] these disciples could not have survived without the Holy Spirit. So He gave them the Holy Spirit. And during that period there also had to be a witnessing principle: "whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them." That is simply witnessing.

"And when he had said this" – the word this, touto, refers to a believer under fire before the Church Age begins. There is an intense period of ten days in which fallen angels concentrate their fire. Therefore the disciples must be protected. There must be a cadre to begin the Church Age.

"he breathed on them" – e)nfusaw, which means to inhale or to inflate, to inhale and to be stimulated by the inhale. Aorist tense: this point of time. Active voice: He gave them the Holy Spirit under a previous dispensation. Remember that in the Age of Israel there was no such thing as the universal indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

"receive ye" – aorist active imperative of lambanw. For the rest of the time of the ten days they are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, and they are living in the Age of Israel.[4]

Verse 23 – with the reception of the Holy Spirit we have the authority for witnessing. "Whose soever" is not whose soever. The Greek is a)n tivwn. It means "If [the sin] of any" and it is a 3rd class condition. Every believer is a witness to Jesus Christ in the Church Age, but this is prior to the Church Age. In the ten days prior to the Church Age only certain believers on the earth represented the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Lord's representative one would lead a certain person to Christ.

"If the sins [pl] of any ye remit" – aorist active subjunctive of a)fihmi. The word means to dismiss, cancel, pardon, forgive, send away. For the next 50 days the disciples will be the representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as His representatives they have received the Holy Spirit. As they witness and lead people to Christ they will have the authority to say, 'Your sins are forgiven or pardoned.' Aorist tense.

"they are remitted" – perfect passive indicative of a)fihmi. Passive voice: the new believer receives the action of the verb—salvation. The indicative mood is the reality of the forgiveness of sins to those who believe in Jesus Christ; "unto them" – dative of advantage. This is simply the authority to make certain dogmatic statements when witnessing. God's representative must be dogmatic. Their dogmatism came from the ministry of the Spirit plus what they had learned. Our dogmatism comes from GAP.

"whose soever sins" – the word sins is not repeated, a)n tinwn again is literally, "if that of any."

"ye retain" – again, a 3rd class condition. The 3rd class condition in both cases depends on whether a person accepts Christ as saviour or not. Here we have a present active subjunctive of kratew. Present tense: they keep on being retained, they have rejected Christ. Active voice: they went negative, they used their own volition. The subjunctive mood is potential, they are still alive, they can still accept Christ.

"they are retained" – perfect passive subjunctive. The perfect tense means that as long as they remain in status quo rejection of Christ their sins are retained. Passive voice: they receive this status quo by their own volition. Indicative mood: the reality of it.

Summary of this verse:

1. The disciples as the Lord's representatives have the authority to announce who is pardoned [believers] and who is not pardoned [unbelievers]. They have this authority for fifty days.

2. This foreshadows the authority of witnessing as a part of the ambassadorship of Christ for the Church Age.

3. The fulfilment of this prerogative is associated in the Church Age with several of the disciples/apostles: a) with Peter, Acts 10:43; b) Paul, Acts 13:38.

4. In effect, the disciples for fifty days had the authority to proclaim the gospel, including the resurrection—1Corinthians 15:3,4.

5. This authority includes the power to assure all who respond by faith in Christ that their sins are pardoned.

6. This does not mean the disciples had the power to forgive sins.

7. But it does mean the disciples have the power to announce the forgiveness of sins when a person believes in Christ during those 50 days.

8. As illustrated by the verb kratew the disciples also had the authority to declare whose sins are not forgiven—the unbeliever's.

9. Only Christ can forgive sins. At this point only the disciples have the authority to provide assurance of this in witnessing—for 50 days.

10. The principle of providing assurance to new converts is now the prerogative of every believer-priest who witnesses for Jesus Christ.

Verse 24 – "But Thomas."

Thomas

1. He was called an apostle—Matthew 10:3.

2. In John 11:16 Thomas has the courage to die but not the doctrine for which to die. Thomas made the decision to die as a cynic and he wound up eventually dying on the basis of doctrine.

3. Thomas was sceptical and learned everything the hard way, through empiricism. He was sceptical and cynical. He doubted the Lord's resurrection—John 20:24-27.

4. Because of predilection for empiricism Thomas had difficulty with GAP—John 14:5.

5. When Thomas died he died for doctrine. He eventually went to Persia where he was a great missionary and he died with a Persian lance in his chest.

"called Didymus" – this means that somewhere in that part of the world there were two Thomas's. Didymus is simply the Aramaic word for a twin.

"Was not with them when Jesus came" – resurrection appearance. Thomas missed the boat because he was not there at the right time.

"was not" – imperfect active indicative of e)imi. E)imi is used rather than pareimi. Pareimi usually means to be present or absent, but e)imi is used because

he was not absent because he didn't want to be there. The problem was that this was a formal assembly on Sunday when Jesus came and he wasn't there. The negative here is o)uk—e)imi plus o)uk, the strongest negative (except for a double negative) in the Greek. The tense is imperfect—past linear aktionsart. In other words, Thomas was not there with the result that he kept on not being there.

Why isn't Thomas with the other disciples? He wasn't there because he didn't want to be there. In other words, when you don't want to be there you are obviously negative about something. When you boil it all down you are negative about doctrine. Thomas is having a malfunction of GAP, and it must be remembered that GAP functions on faith. Malfunction of GAP is based upon negative volition toward doctrine. Thomas operated during the ministry of our Lord in the energy of the flesh because he was negative toward doctrine. He was exposed to the teaching of our Lord but he was negative toward it. The absence of Thomas can be attributed to his negative volition and the accumulation of human viewpoint.

Principle: If you attend an assembly where doctrine is taught and you do not take it in because of some malfunction of GAP in an assembly situation, when that local assembly has come kind of a catastrophe you will peel off.

Thomas missed blessing by his absence from the assembly.

Verse 25 – the human viewpoint of doubting Thomas. "The other disciples therefore kept on saying unto him" – they rubbed his nose in it! The word other is a)lloj which means others of the same kind. This indicates that Thomas is a born-again believer. The word for disciples is maqhthj which means a learner of doctrine. This was Thomas's problem—he was exposed without learning.

"We have seen" – prefect active indicative of o(raw. They saw it in the perfect tense, they saw it with the result that they were bubbling over. The indicative mood is the reality of their contact with the resurrected Christ. So Thomas has to take a stand, and he takes a stand which reveals all the cynicism of his soul. He has rejected the authority of our Lord's teaching ministry.

"But he said" – e)an plus the subjunctive introduces a 3rd class condition: "If [maybe yes, maybe no]." A cynic without doctrine has to use the 3rd class condition.

"I shall see" – here is where empiricism comes in. The word for seeing is o(raw. He doubts the resurrection, or at least puts up a front of doubt. Cynics are usually people smart. Thomas believes the others have been taken in.

"the print" – tupoj, one of the Greek words for scars; also the word for type. "If I shall see the scars of the nails."

"and put [or, thrust]" – ballw. Thomas knows that because of the wound in the side there is going to be a hole there. A Roman spear puts a big hole in the side and if this is really the Lord He is going to have a hole in His side.

"I will not believe" – aorist active subjunctive. The cynic has arrived! Not only does he use the word o)u but he uses o)u mh, "I will not ever." The word for believe is the aorist active subjunctive of pisteuw—maybe I will believe and maybe I will not. While Thomas had witnessed the resuscitation of Lazarus from the dead he refuses to believe that Jesus was resurrected. This is inconsistent and there are several reasons for his inconsistency, one being the malfunction of GAP throughout the earthly ministry of our Lord. Secondly, he relied upon the wrong perceptive system. When you reject GAP inevitably you go toward your trend of thinking, either toward rationalism or toward empiricism. There is also another factor, a lack of faith-rest.

Between verses 25 & 26 we have the elapse of eight days.

Verse 26 – "And after eight days" means that this is a reference to the following Sunday night. Sunday was the day of assembly worship and Jesus makes the second step through the door in the same manner that He made the first one.

"again" – the adverb palin means that He did the same thing again. This indicates the disciples were again assembled, with one difference—"and Thomas with them." The word meta means that he was associated with them in worship. Thomas was with them even though there was disagreement. There is a principle there. Difference of opinion is healthy as long as it is objective.

"then came Jesus" – dramatic present tense of e)rxomai; "the doors being shut" – perfect passive participle of kleiw. Prior to the assembly worship they had already shut the doors. Notice that here we are still in the dispensation of Israel but already the worship day has changed. Why would the doors be shut? They were worshiping on a different day to the Jews and the Jews would be very antagonistic about this.

"and stood in the midst" – suddenly He is standing there; He becomes visible.

"Peace unto you" – this is the third time He has uttered this phrase and this time it has the connotation of grace and the rebound technique.

Verse 27 – the education of doubting Thomas. "Then saith he to Thomas" – nothing has been said, and this is going to be the greatest demonstration. How do you break down the empiricism of a cynic? You hit him with the essence box. Jesus knew in eternity past that Thomas was going to make all those cynical remarks. If empiricism is going to be overcome it has to be done by going back to eternity past. Empiricism lies in what I see and what I touch, in what I hear from the person. In other words, the sensory system has to be related to it. So this is broken down by hitting him with the essence box. So Jesus takes Thomas back into eternity past and indicates that He knew what Thomas would say and. Since He is God He was also omnipresent. Since He is omnipresent, as deity He was there when Thomas made the remark. Now He is quoting back to Thomas his own remark.

"Reach hither" – present active imperative of qerw, which means to bring forward. Apparently Thomas was so shocked that Jesus said, "Keep on bringing forward your hand."

"and behold my hands; and bring forward they hand" – present active imperative again.

"and thrust into my side" – ballw, the same word that Thomas used, meaning to throw or to thrust. This is an aorist active imperative: do it now.

"and be not" – present middle imperative of ginomai, so it is not be not at all. It means "do not become" or "stop becoming."

"faithless" – the noun a)pistoj. It means three things: without confidence, disbelieving, treacherous. The one that applies here is disbelieving.

"but believing" – pistoj. In other words, switch from empiricism on this to faith.

1. No one told Jesus what Thomas had said.

2. Jesus knew in eternity past that Thomas had said verse 25.

3. So Thomas now sees the truth of divine essence—omniscience, omnipresence.

4. Jesus repeated the exact words of Thomas, which Thomas had uttered in His absence.

5. Thomas in reality received a lecture on the deity of Christ as well as the resurrection of the humanity of Christ. Jesus proved his resurrection not by going through the empiricism of Thomas but by going back to His essence. Thomas has already established the fact that Jesus is God. If Jesus is God and true humanity the resurrection is no problem. But if you forget for the moment the essence of God then you revert to empiricism. One of the strongest deterrents to human viewpoint is going right back to the essence box—who and what God is. Every time you go back there you never miss. The problem with Thomas was not that he didn't know the doctrine at this time but because he didn't apply it.

Verse 28 – the confession of cynical Thomas. "My Lord and my God." Notice that he sticks with the essence of deity.

"answered" – aorist passive of a)pokrinomai. He answers from the ultimate source of himself. But notice, he doesn't do it at all. The aorist tense says he is

speaking but the passive voice of a)pokrinomai means the answer was in him. In other words, he did have resident in his frame of reference in the right lobe some doctrine—the essence box. So now he recalls. So "he had an answer" is a better way of translating it.

"and said" – aorist active indicative; "My Lord" – kurioj [deity]. Now it is humanity that is resurrected, but what sticks in Thomas's mind? The essence box. If he had just thought of that he would never have made such an ass of himself. He is now thinking straight. And what is the basis for thinking straight? Doctrine! He is now occupied with Christ.

"and my God" – qeoj. Kurioj is a recognition of the deity of Christ; qeoj is the recognition of His essence. There is no record that Thomas ever thrust his fingers into the nail prints or the hand into the side. He is now believing.

Verse 29 – the dynamics of GAP in phase two. Here is the rebuke. Notice that the lesson is learned before the rebuke is given. Human viewpoint is rebuke and then try to teach a lesson out of it—teach from rebuke. Jesus teaches and then rebukes. Then the rebuke is meaningful because it is based on information.

"because thou hast seem me" – o(raw. The whole point of the perfect active indicative here is that 'you have finally arrived where the other disciples have arrived.' You have seen me and therefore you have believed. Thomas now believes in the resurrection—perfect active indicative of pisteuw. He has believed on the basis of seeing. But he didn't have to see on the basis of empiricism. Empiricism is not going to be necessary during the Church Age.

"blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" – makarioi, happinesses. Thomas missed the blessing and instead received a rebuke. Where is the happiness in not seeing and yet believing? The daily function of GAP!

This leads to the editorial policy of the apostle John. This is not the end of the book but John decides that this is the time to establish the editorial policy, and he says that the editorial policy of this Gospel is to emphasise faith. Thomas is brought in to show what is wrong with believers. They need faith—faith is the way of salvation, faith is therefore the way you orient to grace the first time.

Verse 30 – the editorial selection of pertinent material. "And many other" – the word other means other of the same kind—a)lloj. After His resurrection Jesus did a lot of things. So other means similar type miracles or supernatural phenomena.

"signs" – shmeion, which really connotes remarkable events, extra-natural phenomena; the word truly is not found in the original.

"did" – aorist active indicative of poiew, which means to do. Aorist tense: in this point, from the point of Thomas to the point of His ascension.

"in the presence of his disciples" – they actually saw them; "which are not written in this book" – present passive participle, written in the past with results that will stand forever. The passive voice indicates that John received this information and certain things he was permitted to exhale in writing. Other things he kept in his soul but was not permitted by the Holy Spirit to write them. Why? Why do we not have the great and beautiful thoughts of category #1 love, the beautiful principles of occupation with Christ which were resident in the soul of John? Category #1 love has a shade of privacy, like category #2. There is an area of category #1 love which is private and here the Holy Spirit respects the privacy of John. "This book" is for eternal consumption, therefore certain things are a matter of privacy.

Verse 31 – the editorial policy stated. "But these are written" – perfect passive indicative. Perfect tense: the permanence of the canon of scripture. Passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb. This connotes true doctrine by inspiration. The indicative mood is the reality of God's Word in writing.

"that" introduces a purpose clause—i(na; "ye might believe" – since this is written to all generations and since this is permanent John must here recognise a point of doctrine: every person has a free will. So he puts it in the present tense to cover every generation of the human race right down to the end of the Millennium. Active voice: everyone must believe for himself. Subjunctive mood: volition/free will will exist until the end of time.

"Jesus" – the humanity of Christ is emphasised now; "is" – present active indicative of e)imi, Jesus keeps on being the Son of God.

"and that believing" – present active participle for those who have accepted Christ; "you might have life through his name." The word for have means to have and to hold—e)xw. You will always have it, there never will be a time when you do not have it.

[1] See the Doctrine of weeping.

[2] See the Doctrine of the resurrection body.

[3] See the Doctrine of happiness.

[4] See the Doctrine of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Age of Israel.

Chapter 21

Verses 1-14, the third resurrection appearance to the disciples. Jesus made seventeen resurrection appearances during the early days of the Church Age and prior to the Church Age which are recorded in the scripture.

Verse 1 – the location of the appearance. "After these things" means after the events of the previous chapter in which are described not only the appearance to Mary Magdalene but also the first two appearances to the disciples. The appearances up to this point were in Jerusalem in the province of Judea, but this apperance is unique in that it occurs in Galilee. During our Lord's ministry He spent a great deal of time in Galilee.

"Jesus" emphasises His humanity; it also emphasises His hypostatic union, with this difference: starting now the name Jesus refers to the resurrected body of the Lord Jesus.

"shewed himself" – aorist active indicative of fanhrow, which means to make a manifestation. Specifically it is to reveal Himself in resurrection body so that He is recognisable. The word himself is a reflexive pronoun here, emphasising the fact that He did it all by Himself as a part of His own plan; "again" indicates He has previously showed Himself.

"at the sea of Tiberias" – this helps us to date the Gospel of John. This is John's name for the sea of Galilee. It is called the sea of Galilee by Matthew, Mark and Luke. The Roman changed the name. When it became a Roman province they named it after the second emperor, Tiberias. There was a city founded on the sea of Galilee in 20 A.D. by Herod Antipas, and he named the city Tiberias and the sea Tiberias. John wrote at the time when the Roman empire was hitting a very strong peak and therefore he uses Roman names, and he also uses Roman time. Many times people think that contradictions exist between the synoptic gospels and the Gospel of John, but sometimes it must be understood that John wrote about 95 A.D. and therefore at a time when the Roman empire had peaked out and Roman names were generally used.

Verse 2 – a roster of the disciples present. There were seven of them. "There were" means there kept on being, they were there during the whole time.

"Simon Peter" – he is obviously the leader, mentioned first after the resurrection. He has the leadership authority but notice that he is the one who failed so miserably. Obviously he is restored at this point, back in fellowship; but even more obvious is the principle of grace. During the time of his great failure, the denying of the Lord Jesus Christ, he did not lose his authority and there is a principle of grace there. God does not quickly remove authority from those to whom He gives it. Simon Peter does not lose his authority because of his failure.

"Thomas" is the next person mentioned, the doubter. It is interesting that Thomas should be mentioned next after his great failure in the previous chapter. Again, this is the grace of God. The point here is that these were doubters but they retained their same authority and position. So Simon Peter the denier of the Lord, and Thomas the doubter of the resurrection, and then Nathanael who was another doubter. It was Nathanael who doubted that any good thing could come out of Nazareth.

"of Cana in Galilee" – this is where the Lord Jesus Christ turned the water into wine, and Galilee is where the last miracle will be performed prior to the ascension. The fact that Nathanael was from Cana of Galilee emphasises that all of the believing disciples were from the north country. The only one from the south, from Judah, was Judas Iscariot and he is out of the picture. Nathanael is the same as Bartholomew.

1. John mentions Nathanael twice, but never Bartholomew—John 1:45-59; 21:2.

2. The synoptic writers all speak of Bartholomew but never Nathanael, as illustrated by Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14. The conclusion is simple. Nathanael is the proper name while Bartholomew is the Aramaic for son of Thomai.

"the sons of Zebedee" – James and John. Zebedee was a fisherman of Galilee but he was a man of great prominence and wealth. John is mentioned as having

hired servants in Mark 1:20. John's mother is said to be wealthy, Luke 8:3. John had several homes—in Bethsaida, Luke 5:10; John 1:44; in Jerusalem, John 19:27. He was acquainted with Caiaphas the high priest, John 18:15.

"and two other of his disciples" – the word for other is a)lloj, other of the same kind; they were all believers. So we have seven believing disciples all involved here. These two other disciples are probably Philip and Andrew because of their association with Galilee, as per John 1:40, 43.

Verse 3 -- When a person gets bored and his name is Simon Peter, he has to do something. The disciples were supposed to meet Jesus there and Simon Peter got fidgety because He didn't show up. In a sense Peter has already judged the Lord. He is not going to hang around and wait for the Lord, he is going to go out and do something.

"I go" – present active indicative of u(pagw. It means to go in a certain direction with a goal in mind. His goal in mind is to get over the fidgets and to do something about his boredom; "a fishing" – present active infinitive, and it should be translated "I go to fish."

"We also go" – but they don't use u(pagw because they have no goal in mind. The word is e)rxomai, they were going to "come along."

Peter goes fishing and "we come too"

1. Peter leads the pack in a wrong move. They had an appointment with the Lord—Matthew 26:32; 28:10.

2. This appointment was to meet the Lord in a mountain and not on the sea of Galilee.

3. Furthermore, the Lord told them to fish for men—Matthew 4:19.

4. The Lord's promise to meet them demands that they stand still—no action.

5. Therefore the all-night fishing illustrates the fallacy of service in the energy of the flesh. They fished all night and didn't get a bite.

6. There is not one part of the plan of God that calls for human good. Human good is excluded from the plan of God.

7. Fishing on the sea of Galilee is an illustration of the energy of the flesh, the operation of human good.

8. No fish caught illustrates God's attitude toward human good.

"they went forth" – they launched out, they embarked; "entered" means to go aboard; "and immediately that night they caught nothing."

Verse 4 – the Lord Jesus Christ appears. "But when the morning was come" means early in the morning. The word now is "already." They are working so

hard that the dawn sneaks up on them; "was come' is the present middle participle of ginomai and it means "was coming on."

"Jesus stood on the shore" – He stood on the land, He never gets on the water. He stood where they were to meet Him, He didn't go out to meet them. The word stood is in the aorist tense, point of time when it was light.

"but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus" – they were so busy working they didn't even know He was there; "they knew not" is a pluperfect of o)ida and it carries the weight of an imperfect tense, they kept on not knowing that it was Jesus.

Four problems as about their failure to know He was there

1. Since the dawn was slowly moving into the picture the poor light made identification difficult.

2. Vocal identification was possible but they are busy and not expecting Jesus. When people get busy with sublimation they never realise when a spiritual blessing is coming their way or when a spiritual principle in involved.

3. Soul identification was the best possibility … if they had believed the promises of Matthew 26:32 & 28:10. This soul identification is out because they have not believed the promises that Jesus made.

4. Hence, the problem is really spiritual. There is the malfunction of faith-rest, the malfunction of GAP, and disorientation to grace. They were blinded by the function of human good. Identification is not easy where GAP fails, and their problem is strictly one of GAP.

Verses 5 & 6, the grace dialogue.

Verse 5 – "Children". This is not the word children at all, He uses the word boys.

"have ye any meat?" – prosfagion, [proj – face to face; fagion = eating] means that He is saying in effect, 'Are you face to face with the prospect of

eating anything.' To translate the idiom correctly it would be, "Boys, you have no fish."

"They answered him, No" – aorist passive indicative of a)pokrinomai, they had received an answer—no fish. They had received an answer all night.

Verse 6 – "Cast the net on the right side." This was a command, ballw in the aorist active imperative. The aorist tense means now. Active voice: they have to do it of their own volition. Imperative mood: an order.

"and ye shall find" – future active indicative of e(uriskw, which means to discover. Only God knows where the fish are located, and that is true with human fish when it comes to witnessing. This is why people have to be led of the Lord geographically when it comes to witnessing.

"They cast therefore" – immediate response. They did exactly what the Lord told them to do: "and now they were not able to draw for the multitude of the fishes." The Greek says, "they kept on being no longer able to drag it in." They no longer had the strength for it.

Principle

1. Everything depends on the power of God. This is the concept of grace.

2. Human power and human ability is no substitute for divine dynamics.

3. It is God's power we must use in God's service.

4. You cannot win with legalism; you cannot lose with grace.

5. Legalism is a lot of work and no production.

6. Grace is no work with all production.

7. No believer can promote himself in God's service. Only God can

promote.

Verse 7 – men of thought; men of action. John thinks; Peter acts.

"Therefore that disciple whom Jesus [kept on loving] loved" – the word disciple [maqhthj] who learns doctrine. John was the ideal disciple. Jesus is regarded

here as a teacher and under a)gapaw He has a relaxed mental attitude. Jesus always had a very relaxed attitude with regard to John—imperfect tense. Why? Because John was a good student or maqhthj. He learned, he concentrated, he understood the value of what he was learning.

"saith unto Peter" – John speaks to Peter, and John is the first one to identify here: "It is the Lord" – kurioj. John identifies the resurrected Christ on the shore. John does the thinking; Peter does the acting.

"Now when Simon Peter heard" – he didn't see, he heard from John. This is an aorist active participle, "having heard" … "that is kept on being the Lord."

"he girt his fisher's coat unto him (for he was naked)" – the reason he was naked is because he was working hard. The night before when they were standing there waiting for the Lord he had his good clothes on. When he went fishing he took his clothes off because he didn't want to sweat-it-up. When he went to meet the Lord he wouldn't think of going to Him naked so he put his clothes back on.

Actually, this is a typical scene between John and Peter. John thinks and Peter acts. John has the discernment of mind; Peter has the impulsive energy if action. John recognises grace immediately and Peter moves in the direction of grace.[1]

Verses 8 & 9, the boat returns to shore.

Verse 8 – they are out fishing on a boat; now they are going ashore on a small boat: "little ship."

"not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits" – about 100 yards; "dragging the net with fishes" – dragging here is a present active participle. The word for fish is i)xquj. There is an acrostic from this. The Christians of the early church used to draw a fish and this was their recognition signal during times of persecution:

I = I)hsouj, Jesus

x = Xristoj, Christ

q = Qeoj, God

u = U(ioj, Son

j = Swthr, Saviour

Two principles from verse 8: The difference in action between Peter and John indicates the difference between two communicating spiritual gifts, evangelism and pastor-teacher. Peter lands the fish and takes off. John stays with the fish.

Verse 9 – "come to land" means to disembark from the boat. The verb is a)pobainw.

"they saw" – blepw, the glanced; "fire of coals there, and fish laid on" – roasted fish. Each item here has an analogy to some part of God's provision for the believer in time. The fire of coals is a picture of the cross and represent the fact that Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree, God's provision for salvation. The roasted fish are a great delicacy; they represent the many delicacies of grace—GAP, the ECS, perfect happiness, etc. The bread represents doctrine presented categorically—"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." The believer becomes aware of God's grace and God's plan. God always provides the needs of every believer in phase two.

Verse 10 – "Bring of the fish which ye have now caught." These are not the same as the ones on the fire. The principle here is that the Lord in grace provided the fish for the empty net. God's timing is perfect. The school of fish arrived on the starboard side at the moment that God gave the command, as it were. Jesus now commands that they bring the contents of the net to Him.

Analogies:

1. In personal evangelism we must make the issue clear.

2. There is a sense in which the life of every believer is like an empty net, life has no meaning or purpose or definition. It is the Lord who fills the net of our lives with the fish of doctrine. So as we bring the fish to Him (exhale of doctrine) our lives begin to have meaning and purpose and happiness. This is category #1 love, our capacity to love God based on Bible doctrine.

"Bring of the fish" is literally "Bring some of the fish." The command is ferw, aorist active imperative.

The Lord provides the fish. He provides doctrine, blessing. It is the Lord who fills the nets of our lives with the fish of doctrine, and as we bring the fish to Him [exhaling of doctrine from e)pignwsij] our lives have meaning and purpose.

Verse 11 – "Simon Peter went up," aorist active indicative of a)nabainw. It means here to go aboard the boat; "and drew" – aorist active indicative of e)lkuw. Peter hauled that net in all by himself. Note verse 6, they were not able to drag it because of the multitude of fish. Now Peter drags the net in by himself. First of all the fished all night, and nothing happened. Then at one grace command they get a great haul. Next they can't even pull the net into the ship, so they get out in the skiff and start rolling it in. Then Peter walks out into the water up to his waist and hauls the net in all by himself with all the fish in it. There is a principle here. What seven men are not able to do in their human strength and ability one man is able to do with divine strength and ability. This is the dynamics of God's grace.[2]

"full" means replete, with large fish; "broken" – sxizw, from which we get schizophrenia. It means the net was not torn apart, not split. Notice that grace produces the miracle. One man pulling the large number of fish in the net remains intact. One man pulls it in. Both of those are miracles. Both the production and the means of production is a matter of grace.

The plan of God as portrayed by this miracle

1. The Church Age represents the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.

2. Since Christ is absent from the earth He is represented by every believer on the earth.

3. Every believer is therefore in full time Christian service, as illustrated by his priesthood and his ambassadorship.

4. Since the Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life it demands a supernatural provision and a supernatural means of execution. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age.

5. The work of the Spirit is illustrated by the fact that Peter could by himself draw the net to the shore, whereas previously seven men could not haul the net aboard. This is the difference between human ability and God's grace.

6. The fish illustrates categories of doctrine which are absorbed under GAP. The net is the Bible but the fish must be drawn to the individual believer. In other words, the ability to comprehend doctrine depends on the filling of the Spirit.

7. The fish also represent the unsaved segment of the human race. The principle there is that soul winning depends on the ministry of the Spirit—Acts 1:8.

8. The ability to serve God in time depends on the capacity to love God. This anticipates verses 15-17.

9. The unbroken net represents the preservation of the canon of scripture throughout all generations of the Church Age.

Verses 12-14, the breakfast party. The disciples don't deserve anything for breakfast, yet they are going to have the greatest breakfast of their life.

Verse 12 – the grace of God at a party. "Come" is not really a verb, it is a particle of exhortation—deuth. In other words, He uses a rough tone. They are tone

oriented to the resurrected Christ and when He opens His mouth and sort of barks at them they cringe for a minute.

"and dine" – that's grace. The Lord didn't leave them hanging long; just for an instant. The word dine is an aorist active imperative of a)ristaw [from which

we get the word aristocrat, someone who could afford breakfast]. It means to have breakfast, to take the first meal of the day. And Jesus has prepared all the food. All that the disciples brought to the breakfast table was their positive volition.

"durst" – imperfect active indicative of tolmaw which means to have courage. Imperfect tense: they kept on not having the courage to ask Him.

"ask" – literally, interrogate. This is the strongest word for interrogation, e)cetazw, which means to grill. They wanted to interrogate Him but they didn't have the courage to do so. The interrogation was very simple: "Who art thou?"

"knowing that it was the Lord" – they already knew it was the Lord, but none of them speak about it. Why? Because the hardest thing in the world to adjust to is grace. We now have, as it were, seven hang-dog disciples slinking to the breakfast table, looking at food they had not prepared, not deserved. They were out of it! It is so hard for us to adjust to the grace of God, that's all.

Verse 13 – the provision. Jesus came to them. "Cometh" – e)rxomai. The present tense is dramatic. Grace is always dramatic. Active voice: Jesus of His own volition went to them with bread.

"and taketh bread, and giveth them" – the bread actually represents what the Lord Jesus Christ provided by way of salvation. In the upper room when He gean the Eucharist, and He took the bread and broke it, the taking of the bread spoke of Christ dying for our sins. But here He gives them the bread without breaking it. Why? Because He has risen. Provision of the resurrected Christ. Broken bread: Christ dying for our sins. When we accept Christ He provides everything. So the bread not being broken is exactly the same as "My grace is sufficient for thee." Present active indicative: He kept on giving to them.

"and the fish also" – and the fish refers to doctrine categorically, after salvation. It also refers to evangelism.

Summary

1. Every verb in this verse is a verb of action, and Jesus produces the action.

2. This is the basic concept of grace—God produces the action, in this case God the Son.

3. Jesus Christ provided everything for the breakfast. That's grace.

4. Every disciple present merely provided his own presence. This was an act of volition without merit.

5. Jesus provided everything; this is the principle of grace.

6. The bread is the grace provision of the cross; the fish is the grace provision of phase two through doctrine.

7. Jesus did not feed them. You have to eat your own bread—faith in Christ. No one else can do it for you. And you have to eat your own fish—daily function of GAP.

Verse 14 – there is no verb here, it is simply, "This already."

"the third time" – not the third appearance but the third appearance to the disciples. He appeared to the ten disciples in Mark 16:14; John 20:19-23. He appeared to the eleven disciples [Thomas is added]—John 20:26-29. He appears this time to seven disciples—John 21.

"to his disciples" – maqhthj, ones who are

about to learn doctrine.

"after that he was risen from the dead" – e)geirw refers to a literal, physical, bodily resurrection. Aorist tense: He rose in a point of time. Passive voice: He received resurrection. This is a participle. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. He rose from the dead before He showed Himself.

"from" is e)k, meaning out from. A clear, physical, bodily resurrection from the dead.

Verses 15-19 indicate how Peter will fill the empty nets of the soul with the fish of Bible doctrine. Just as the Lord provided fish for the empty nets of the disciples, Peter as an apostle, as a pastor, will feed the sheep or provide doctrine for the souls and the spirits of believers. This is divided into three dialogues, the first of which is in verse 15.

Verse 15 – "So when they had dined," aorist active indicative of a)ristaw, which means to have breakfast. The aorist tense means they are not only finished dining but they have had complete satisfaction from the food. That is important. Not only have they had breakfast but they have enjoyed it. Eating bread and fish is analogous to the believer in phase two functioning under GAP.

"Jesus said" – present active indicative of legw. Jesus speaks to Simon who will have a special responsibility in the days to come. Notice that this question is only addressed to Simon Peter.

"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me" – present active indicative of a)gapaw. For the moment this word simply refers to mental attitude love. It is a very broad term and refers to an absence of mental attitude sins. Right from the start Peter is insulted. He resents the use of such a general term. The present tense is linear aktionsart, "Do you keep on loving me?'

"more than these" – pleon toutwn. Pleon is the comparative of poluj. And we have the ablative plural of touton. Touton is the ablative of o(utoj. This is the word "these" and is a reference to the six disciples who are with Simon Peter and have been obeying his commands all night while fishing. The real issue here is, What is the most important? the details of life or the Lord? The Lord is using category #3 love as a detail. Peter doesn't appreciate this, he needs more than a)gapaw to put the Lord first. He wants the Lord to give him the question which is really in his soul. The question is based on the word filew and this is the word the Lord does not choose to use. That's why Peter is insulted and has a righteous indignation, because filew is a total soul love.

"Yea, Lord" – nai, kurie. When the Lord asks the question He uses a)gapaw, but when Peter answers he uses filew. Peter is insulted by the use of a)gapaw and he refuses to let it rest there.[3]

Now we get to the first command which says in effect, "If you love me, fill those empty nets."

"Feed my lambs" – the word for feed is the present active imperative of boskw. It means to feed as a shepherd, with faithfulness and a true sense of responsibility. Actually, it is the first stage of GAP. How is Peter going to fill those empty nets? He is going to teach doctrine. Imperative mood: Peter is ordered to teach. The word lambs is a)rnoin—new believers. They need basic doctrine. This emphasises the importance of teaching new believers under GAP.

Verse 16 – the second dialogue.

"lovest thou me" – again, the present active indicative of a)gapaw. He repeats it even though He knows that Peter is exasperated.

1. Peter's three denials indicate a weak mental type love. He was not relaxed at all, he was up tight.

2. Jesus implies that it was confined to the left lobe only.

3. By repeating the verb of the first question Jesus warns us that the words "I love you" formed in the mind are not sufficient.

4. To say "I love you" and not mean it is love without essence, words without meaning.

5. Peter had previously declared his love in words, but words are no stronger than the character or essence of the person who utters them.

"Yea, Lord; thou knowest" – o)ida. He is saying in effect, 'You always knew this.' O)ida is the perfect used as a present to indicate that Peter has the

doctrine in his human spirit, that his fourth floor of the ECS is under construction, and therefore he has the capacity to love the Lord. And he sticks by his guns, he will not go to a)gapaw, he uses filew, present active indicative, "I keep on loving you."

"He saith to him, Feed my sheep" –poimainw which means to shepherd. It is the pastor-shepherd communicating doctrine. There are two ways a shepherd can feed his sheep. He can lead them into beautiful pastures and feed them, or he can beat their tails into green pastures and feed them; probation. These are hard-headed sheep. This means these are adult sheep, they go astray easily and they must feel the rod of rebuke and exhortation.

Verse 17 – the third dialogue.

"lovest thou me" – now He goes to filew. This is in contrast to what He asked before and Peter is upset because He asked the third time.

"Peter was grieved" – aorist passive indicative of lupew, which means to be upset, the be grieved

, aggravated, distressed, in mental pain. Peter has already said twice, "I filew," and so then the Lord says, "Alright, do you really?"

"thou knowest all things" – o)ida again, but he adds "all things." This is a direct appeal to His omniscience.

"thou knowest that I love thee" – ginwskw, to know from observation. How can the Lord know from observation that Peter loves Him? Because Peter is so put out with Him! The word "that" is o(ti used as a result clause. Now he gets the third command.

"Feed my sheep" – probaton, present active imperative. This time he doesn't have to use a club on them, they are mature believers. Peter passes this same commandment on with regard to the adult sheep in 1Peter er 5:2. Peter's life is going to be to feed, and in all three categories.

Verses 18 & 19, the prophecy of Peter's death.

Verse 18 – "unto thee" is dative of advantage; "thou wast" is the beginning of four verbs, all in the imperfect tense—imperfect active indicative of e)imi. Peter was young up to the resurrection and now he is old. "When you were young" – and He is going to give three things about when Peter was young. The word for young is newteroj and it means more youthful.

"thou girdest thyself" – he put on his own clothes, imperfect active indicative of zwnnuw, which means to put on the basic garments. Peter dressed himself.

"thou wouldst" – imperfect of qelw. 'Anywhere you desired, you went.' The verbs are all in the imperfect tense and they describe the power, the vigour, and the independent attitude of Peter as a young man. In short, in his youth Peter was very dynamic.

"but" – here is the contrast, de; "when" – o(tan, which means on the occasion of.

"thou shalt be old" – aorist active subjunctive of ghraskw which means he hasn't quite arrived yet. It means to grow old and the aorist tense means it creeps up on you.

"thou shalt stretch forth" – the future tense. This means to extend; "thy hands" – he will have to ask someone for help.

"and another" – another of the same kind means another believer; "shall gird thee" – in other words, Peter is so weak that he cannot even dress himself. But, so what! All of this will orient him to the principle of grace and the importance of Bible doctrine. The older he gets the more helpless he will become, and the more he is going to fill nets with the fish of doctrine. All of this weakness will bring out the great emphasis of his dying moments. The emphasis of the importance of the Word is found in 2Peter er 1:12-21. So in his old age he is going to be weak. As he was strong physically in youth he will be weak in his old age. As he didn't depend on anyone in his youth he will be totally dependent in his old age. And that isn't all, he is going to die the death of weakness.

"and carry thee whither thou wouldest not" – this is going to be his death. The word carry is ferw, future tense. This is a reference to Peter being carried to his death. He is going to die by crucifixion but he is too weak to get there.

Summary

1. Peter will remain in the world until his work is finished.

2. Rebound causes restoration to fellowship which makes it possible for Peter to continue in the plan of grace.

3. Rebound makes it possible for Peter to take in doctrine and to exhale doctrine under GAP.

4. Therefore Peter's denial of the Lord does not result in the sin unto death. 1John 5:16.

5. Peter has greater failures to come – Galatians 2. Peter will continue his life even though other failures do occur.

6. Peter personally remembered what the Lord said because he mentions this prophecy in 2Peter er 1:14.

7. Peter knew that he would shortly die when he became totally helpless physically. When that time came he had an ECS and the best perspective of life a believer priest can possess.

Verse 19 – "This" is a reference to the previous verse, the prophecy of Jesus; "spake he signifying" – shmainw, specify or make known.

"by what [manner of] death he should glorify God."

Causes for death

1. The work is finished–2 Tim. 4:7.

2. Glorification of God—John 21:19.

3. Maximum divine discipline—1John 5:16.

4. The superimposition of human over divine volition—suicide.

5. The uniqueness of the person of Christ. As He was unique His physical death was unique. He superimposed human volition at the same time as divine volition. The volition of the Father and the volition of the Son coincided. He dismissed His spirit by an act of volition which coincided with the Father's will.

"and when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me" – present active imperative. Before you can feed my lambs, feed the hard-heads, feed the mature,

you must first of all follow me—a)kolouqew, keep on following me as a student.

Peter following as a student

1. Peter is challenged to keep on functioning under the principle of GAP.

2. By the time Peter reaches death he will have had (for a long time) an ECS.

3. When Peter dies his ECS will go with him to heaven because it is a part of his soul.

During the period between death and resurrection body of Peter he will be naked (of soul) – 2Corinthians 5:3. But his nakedness will be very beautiful. A naked soul is very beautiful when it has an ECS because the ECS is the reflected glory of God.

Summary of the command to follow

1. Peter is challenged to keep on functioning under the principle of GAP.

2. By the time Peter reaches death he will not only have an ECS but will have utilised his ECS in the communication of doctrine.

3. When Peter died he took his ECS along to heaven.

4. During the period between the death of Peter and the resurrection (Rapture) his soul will be naked –2Corinthians 5:3. But the nakedness of the soul is very beautiful with the reflected glory of the ECS.

5. Peter understands that the only way to follow Jesus is through the daily function of GAP. Following Jesus is not a course of action, it is a course of learning.

6. Peter understood the3 importance of spiritual IQ, which is doctrine in the human spirit. This is illustrated by his use of e)pignwsij in 2Peter er 1:2,3. In both of those verses e)pignwsij is translated by the word knowledge.

7. Therefore the present active imperative of a)kolouqew can only be fulfilled by the daily function of GAP. Jeremiah 15:16; Matthew 4:4; 1John 1:4; John 13:17; 17:13, 17.

Verses 20-25, Peter's question regarding John.

Verse 20 – "Then Peter, turning about." The word turning about means to turn around and stare. Two verbs here, the first is the aorist passive participle of e)pistrefw—'having been turned around.' The aorist tense means it is in a point of time. The passive voice is important because under the passive voice the subject receives the action of the verb. In this case he receives turning around. What cause him to turn around? He is competing in his mind. Mental attitude sins destroy privacy! Peter was turned around by his mental attitude.

"seeth" – present active indicative of blepw; "the disciple" – the noun maqhthj, which means someone who learns under academic discipline, who accepts the authority of the teacher. A)kolouqew means to follow as a student; maqhthj is the result—to accept the authority and the academic discipline of the teacher. John calls himself a disciple because he always accepted the authority of Jesus Christ and because he was doing what Peter was told to do.

"whom Jesus loved" – imperfect active indicative of a)gapaw. This simply indicates John. John was the object of His love; so were the other disciples.

"following" – present active participle of a)kolouqew. Jesus doesn't command John to follow Him, He commands Peter to follow Him as a student. Why? Because Peter was out of line and needed to recognise the importance of GAP; John was in line and recognised it.

1. Notice this is a present active participle, which means he was constantly following, this was a way of life.

2. John heard the entire dialogue between Peter and the Lord Jesus.

3. John is already obeying the command given to Peter.

4. This is because John has his eyes on the Lord, but Peter has his eyes on John.

5. Peter is relieved because he is restored to fellowship. Peter's restoration to fellowship is established and as soon as it is he begins to stick his nose into John's business.

6. The Lord Jesus Christ is the bestower of grace, therefore Peter needs to keep his eyes on Christ, not on John—importance of occupation with Christ.

"which" is the relative pronoun who, referring to John in John 13:25; "who also leaned on his breast" – which is not what it says at all, it should be "having

reclined at the table near his chest."

Verse 21 – Peter violates John's privacy.

"Peter seeing" – in the last verse the word was blepw. That was the first glance. But this time he is staring at John—o(raw, from which we get the word horizon, aorist active participle.

"saith, what shall this man do?" – o(utoj de ti. There is no verb there. It means literally, "but this one, what." This is an idiom which means, "What about this one?" He doesn't even mention John by name.

Summary

1. This is an intrusion upon the privacy of John.

2. John's destiny and future is not Peter's business, it is the Lord's.

3. This phrase is elliptical to indicate how Peter has his eyes on John.

4. Peter is guilty of minding someone else's business.

5. This is because of mental attitude sins, because Peter was competing with John.

6. If the Lord had not stopped it in this verse Peter would be judging John.[4]

Verse 22 – Peter is told to mind his own business.

"If" is a 3rd class condition, e)an plus the subjunctive mood of the verb; "I will" – qelw, which means a wish, a desire or design. Design is the meaning here.

God designed our life. (We can get away from His design). This is a present active subjunctive. The present tense is dramatic—God has designed the best for us. Whether we get the best or not depends on our attitude toward doctrine. Active voice: God Himself did the designing. Subjunctive mood is potential. The potentiality here is whether he is going to live until the Rapture or not.

" so that he tarry" – the word tarry is menw, which means to remain, remain on the earth, stay alive. "If I design it [maybe I will and maybe I won't—3rd class condition] so that he will remain until I come [Rapture]."

"what is that to thee?" – ti proj se, what face to face you? Again, notice this is an elliptical phrase, there is no verb. Is an idiom for, "What business is it of yours?" It is none of Peter's business. Every believer is a priest and must live his own life as unto the Lord. This precludes interference from others, with the following exceptions: a) the exercise of divine discipline; b) pastoral exhortations from the Word; c) parents having authority over their children during minority. Since God has a plan for the life of John it is none of Peter's business.

Then Jesus repeats the command. Peter still needs doctrine: "follow thou me" – present active imperative of a)kolouqew, keep following me as a student. The command is repeated to remind Peter that the only way he could fulfil His command is to function under GAP. In other words, where do you learn to mind your own business? By coming to Bible class and listening to the teaching of the Word.

Verse 23 – "Then went this saying abroad among the brethren." It had to be from one of the other five, not Peter or John. One of the others was a rumour monger; "this saying" refers to maybe John will live to the Rapture.

"that the disciple should not die" – present active indicative of a)poqnhskw and it means physical death here; plus the very strong negative o)uk—"should never die."

1. This is the failure to take cognisance of the 3rd class condition and its implication.

2. The 3rd class condition presents a hypothetical supposition to remind Peter to mind his own business.

3. While John would outlive the other disciples he would not survive until the Rapture.

4. But again we see the old principle: people hear what they want to

hear.

5. People superimpose preconceived notions on the Word rather than letting the Word speak to them.

6. Generally speaking, apart from those who are positive toward doctrine, people are just poor listeners.

7. Jesus Christ was clear in His communication but people distorted it into something not intended.

"yet Jesus said not unto him" – John is clarifying the truth. John was still alive at the end of the century and this rumour had been going around that he was

going to live until the Rapture; :that he will not die; but, If I design it so that he remain until I come, what business is it of yours?"

Verse 24 – the identification of the human author of this book. "This is" – e)imi, present linear aktionsart.

"the disciple which testifieth of these things" – John. The word testify is marturew which means to make a deposition. It is going to be used here in connection with the doctrine of inspiration. This is a present active participle: "This is the disciple who made the deposition [correcting the situation]."

"of these things, and write these things" – aorist active participle of grafw, called an epistolary aorist for the writing of the scripture.

"we know" refers to John speaking from doctrine in the human spirit; "his testimony is true" – under the doctrine of inspiration the human author under the ministry of the Holy Spirit is recording with accuracy.[5]

Verse 25 – the selectivity of John's Gospel. What John recorded was only selective. The Holy Spirit did not lead him to record everything he knew about the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ.

"And there are" – present active indicative of e)imi, "And there keep on being."

"many other things which Jesus did" – poiew in the aorist tense, point of time when He was on earth.

"the which, if they should be written" – present passive subjunctive of grafw. Present tense: many, many things that could be written. Passive voice: they would receive writing. Subjunctive mood: but they are not. Hypothetical. The third class condition introduces a hypothetical situation.

"every one" is literally, "one by one."

"I suppose" is literally, "I think [or, expect]."

"the world itself could not contain the books that should be written" – there aren't enough books in the world to cover it.

[1] See the Doctrine of Privacy

[2] See the Doctrine of Grace

[3] See the Doctrine of love.

[4] See the Doctrine of Privacy

[5] See the Doctrine of Inspiration