John 6:63 - “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

Jesus had fed the 5,000 by multiplying “five barley loaves, and two small fishes” (9). Now, teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum, He had used that miracle as an illustration of the spiritual feast that He could give them (29-51). Thinking only of physical food, many didn’t understand Him (52). He plainly told them that, unless they came to understanding, and accepted His blessing, they could not live with God (53-58). Many of those who had been following him across the country were offended at His narrow limits of acceptability, and turned away to follow Him no more (60-66). Haven’t we seen people marry, and shortly later realized that they don’t love that person enough to become one in policy and goal? They were in love with love, or with the idea of marriage, but not with that particular person. People endorse a politician or other leader because a cursory consideration is appealing, but after deeper revelations they realize that this is not what they want at all, and they turn to another. Many follow their idea of Jesus who don’t accept the strictness of His word. His message of love and peace - His blessings and promises - are appealing, but His expectations and requirements are more than they are willing to give in return for those blessings. “But there are some of you that believe not” (64). “Will ye also go away” (67)?

John 7:41 - “Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee?”

They had heard Jesus speak of “living water” (37-39), and many in the assembly had concluded that He was the prophet of whom Moses had written (Deut. 18:15, 18). Some went further, concluding that He is the Messiah. Months later Jesus asked the apostles what they concluded of His identity as they heard His teaching and saw His miracles. He commended Peter for paying attention to all the evidence and drawing the only right conclusion (Matt. 16:13-19). On this earlier occasion in Jerusalem, however, “there was a division among the people because of him” (43). Why? Some knew that Christ was to be of the seed of David and come from Bethlehem, and they thought that Jesus didn’t qualify (42). They hadn’t done their homework. They missed the Christ because they didn’t investigate. There has always been division among people over Jesus. Some of it is due to man’s will either to love Him or to hate Him, but much has always been, and is today, due to ignorance. You’ll never know all the truth, until you get all the facts. Read the whole Bible (Luke 10:26). Handle it rightly (II Tim. 2:15). Draw right conclusions (I Thess. 5:21), and then apply them to every detail of your life (John 13:17).

John 7:48 - “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?”

The Pharisees and chief priests had “sent officers to take him” (32). Those officers had heard Jesus preach of “living water” (37-39), and, amazed at His speaking (46), returned empty-handed (45). Their explanation for returning without Him elicited from the Pharisees the rebuke recorded in verse 48. The elitists attitude is alive and well in our own generation, as it has been probably in every generation of men. The attitude says, “If I don’t accept it, nobody else should, and I don’t respect anyone who is so unsophisticated as to accept it.” It’s the attitude that says that no attitude is worth considering if it isn’t mine. An evolutionist wrote that everyone qualified to hold an opinion rejects creation as unscientific and impossible. A politician has said that everyone with a lick of sense knows that his policy is right. But be careful, brothers and sisters. Some among us have held the same attitude toward people seeking God but not coming to the same conclusions as we on all points. The Bible is the only truth by which any soul will attain heaven. Christians are commissioned to preach that to every soul, and to recognize fellowship only with those who obey it, but is your standard of judgment your opinion, or the word of God? Are you sure? Never stop the practice of regular daily Bible reading, nor of self-evaluation by the scriptures.

John 8:31-32 “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Many Christians - and even many who wouldn’t be Christians if you paid them - quote verse 32 and seek in it great comfort. Have you noticed, though, that the promise that “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” is only the last 2/3 of a promise? Have you further noticed that the whole promise is contingent upon our meeting a certain condition? Jesus also promised, “ye are my disciples indeed,” but only “if ye continue in my word.” Would not the reverse of the promises would be true if the reverse condition is met? If we do not keep on studying the Bible we will not be truly His disciples, we will not know what the truth is, and the truth will not make us free. Regular, diligent Bible reading and study is that important. Have you read your Bible today? Are you sure that you know what the truth is? Are you a disciple (learner, pupil) of Jesus? How much time and attention will you give to the words of your Creator, Savior and Judge today?

John 8:47 - “He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.”

Jesus draws a logical conclusion from an accepted fact. It is a given that a person who is “of God” (committed to, learning from, serving God) will heed the words of God, even as a devoted fan of a celebrity can tell you every statistic of his favorite team or player, his favorite singer’s every lyric, and as many details of their private lives as he can get. The person who is committed to God will be aware of, and determined to heed, every word of God. Thus, when a person is known not to “hear” (perceive, consider, attend to) God’s words, it is clear that said person is not “of God” - not committed, or converted, to God. Many will take offense at the conclusion, but how? Does Jesus not, in this verse, describe a person who says, “I want to be near you and be blessed by you, God, but I want to have my comforts also, and I don’t really want to study your word very deeply”? The word “Christian” is cheapened in the mind of the world by those who denominate (rename) the churches and preach and practice unbiblical things. But is that worthy name not also perverted by those who sit where the right words are preached, and who “hear them not”? “Be converted” (Acts 3:19).

John 8:58 - “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”

Children have asked me in Bible classes - even adults who had lived all their lives without the Bible have asked - “Where did God come from?” Jesus was speaking of Himself in John 8:58, but He is of the nature of God and was with God “in the beginning” (John 1:1). Notice that God’s existence is not spoken of in past tense. God lives without reference to time. He is eternal (Deut. 33:27). The Holy Spirit is eternal (Heb. 9:14), as the Son is eternal (John 1:1). Thayer defines the word, “without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be.” That means not only that He will always exist in our future, but also that He has always existed in our past. It is nearly impossible for the mind of man to comprehend how anything could exist and yet never have a had a beginning, yet, this is true of God. God did not “come from” anywhere. He did not “begin to be.” Though He speaks to us often in terms of time so that we can understand (Rev. 1:8), yet He Himself is timeless, without beginning and without ending. He is God.

John 9:21-22 - “But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself. These words spake his parents, because they feared 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 parents of the man born blind - now healed by Jesus - were afraid to speak the truth about Jesus because they feared what the judges would do to them otherwise. Many continue in the same sin today. “He that sat upon the throne” (Revelation 21:5) said that “the fearful ... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (verse 8). “God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (II Timothy 1:7). Trust the power. Exhibit the love. Use the sound mind. And read again Matthew 10:32 and 33. Before whom will you confess Jesus today?

John 12:43 - “For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”

The God-breathed statement explains why some did not confess Christ, even though they believed that Jesus is Christ. They were more interested in receiving men’s approval that God’s. Jesus had said earlier, “whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father” (Matt. 10:33). We don’t have to say, “I deny Jesus,” in order to be rejected from Heaven; failure to confess Him in our daily lives will have the same effect. Sometimes preachers fail to confess Christ in various subjects that are not popular with the church. We convince ourselves that it’s not time; they are not ready to hear it. Perhaps often the truth is that we don’t want to incur the wrath of man whom we can see, and are not so immediately concerned with God whom we cannot see. And how many of the rest of us, who are not preachers depending for a time upon the financial support of the church, fail to confess Christ every day? Do we confess Christ when we go to the closet in the morning to choose the day’s clothing? Do we confess Christ in our “water cooler talk” at work? How about in our manner of driving, and our thoughts and expressions toward other drivers? Do we really love the praise of God more than the praise of men?

John 18:23 - “Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me?”

Annas had asked Jesus what He had been teaching around the country. Jesus had answered that he should know, for it had never been secret; it had all been public, right out there “whither the Jews always resort,” and for that answer one of the officers slapped the Lord. There were clear and specific laws by which the high priest’s office was to be conducted, and defendants tried. Those laws, inspired of God and written in the books of Moses, didn’t include slapping the accused. See how men, elevated to positions of authority, and after many generations of abuse, almost universally forget (or ignore) the rules that provide their authority. In many church business meetings today decisions are made according to traditional practice, local customs, or prevailing sentiment, and often without any reference whatever to scripture. The same standard is sometimes used even in elders’ meetings by men who are supposed to be qualified to know better, and have the judgment to do better. Time and distance don’t change truth. God gave the Book for all. Jesus knew the rules of the priesthood, and of trials - and He required the priest to observe them. He knows the rules by which His church is to function today, and He will judge us all according to them.

John 20:8 - “Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.”

Luke says that the first reports of the resurrection seemed to the apostles as idle tales, and they didn’t believe them (Luke 24:11). But Peter and John ran to see for themselves, and when John saw the tomb empty but for the burial garments he believed the empirical evidence. “Seeing is believing,” as the old proverb says, and John wasn’t alone. Jesus appeared to 10 of the apostles that night “and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart” (Mark 16:14), but Thomas wasn’t among them, and he still refused to believe until he had seen and touched for himself (John 20:25). A week later he had that opportunity, and Jesus used the occasion to teach an amazing lesson to the apostles, and to the whole world (26-29): “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” We don’t have the opportunity to see and touch; we have the written record of those who did see and touch the risen Lord (30-31; I John 1:1-4). This record is written “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ.” On the basis of that faith - produced by an honest hearing of the written word (Rom. 10:17) - we can be accepted into Heaven as well as the apostles who saw and touched. What an overwhelmingly merciful God is He who has offered such an indescribable blessing by such a simple plan! Read the evidence, and let your faith grow in Him.