May 22nd

Seeing is Believing, Or is it? (John 20 and 1)
Before anyone has gone through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the biggest of all decisions must be made. If one manages to sidestep through the first three, at John, it must be a made decision! The reader is directly challenged and must choose-to receive and be saved, or to reject and perish forever-separated from God.
We can learn in the first 3 Gospels WHAT Jesus was and now in John we learn WHO He was and is. The Gospel of John is an interpretation of Jesus. The first 3 Gospels show us Jesus outwardly; John interprets Him inwardly . The 1st three emphasize the human aspects; John unveils the DIVINE. John shows us His private conversations, His verbal conflicts with the Jews, His closer teachings in seclusion to His disciples, wholly devoted to His Judaean ministry, is doctrinal, begins with a direct Divine revelation of that which was altogether eternal.
Key verse might be v. 12. 1. “His own received Him not.” 2. “But as many as received Him.” 3. To them He gave power to become.” It is the central message running through the whole book of John.
In the beginning of the John, there are four designations of our Lord which at once capture attention: 1. The WORD, 2. The LIFE, 3.The LIGHT, 4. The SON. Two of these declare His relationship to God the Father; the other two indicate function towards us human creatures. The WORD and the LIFE are meant to TELL us something and the do. Our Lord is the WORD…the expression God, no only towards man, but before all creation, fundamentally, eternally, indivisibly. He was not merely from the beginning; He already was, “in the beginning.” He was not only “with God”; He “was God”. Logos…translated as Word is fuller than our English representative. As a word may be distinguished from the thought which it expresses (for the two are not identical), so can the 2nd Person of the Godhead be distinguished from the First. Yet as there simply cannot be a word apart from the thought behind it, so also God and the Word cannot be conceived of as ever having existed without each other. They are distinguishable but inseparable. Our Lord and Savior, is both eternal and personal. As the WORD He is the Expresser, the Revealer, the Illuminator, the LIGHT. As the SON, He is the personal Executive, Quickener, Imparter, the LIFE. Jesus is full of grace and truth…full of grace to redeem man and full of truth of reveal GOD. He is the God-Man Revealer-Redeemer.
In this first chapter of John, there are eight supremes which belong to Him absolutely and exclusively: the WORD v.1, the LIFE v.4, the LIGHT v. 7, the SON v. 18, the Lamb v.29, the MESSIAH v. 41, the KING v. 49, the SON OF MAN v. 51.
John is saying THIS IS WHO HE REALLY WAS; SEE HIS GODHEAD!
Oh, this wonderful Savior! How we ought to prize Him, love Him, extol Him, witness of Him and long for that day of days when we shall see Him! For all our need He is the ‘fullness’ of supply. The fullness is embodied in Him that it may be imparted to us. Let us keep on receiving for He came that we might have life more abundantly. And let us keep on yielding to Him that we might ‘feed His sheep…yes, there are three essentials—a deep love for Him, a sense of His commission to us and a devoted following of Him with our eyes ever on that lovely prospect of which He Himself speaks, in the very last sentence of John: “til I come! (We are the nourishment that other sheep can feed upon…are we getting our nourishment directly from the LORD?)
Some other small highlights that I want to mention: “the stone was not rolled away, it was actually lifted out of the groove.” No human could have done that.
“Do not cling to me, for I must go!” So much weightier than many might say that He does not want Mary to touch Him…He did not want her to cling to Him! Do you want to cling to Jesus as a human or are you letting go and seeing Him as GOD? He is your life? He wants you to live the Christian life and only through your yieldedness to Him living through you can you do so! Don’t have a casual familiarity with the Lord so that you are disrespectful and not showing reverence.
When Mary and the disciples saw and were not believing, they had physical sight. When they were believing they SAW with their spiritual eyes. It seems that John was the first to believe … he accepted the truth that Jesus was alive. John believed before he saw. For John, believing was seeing. Mary did not see WHO she was looking at, but she recognized immediately His voice. What about you? “My sheep shall know my voice!”
What kind of faith did Peter and John have at that stage at the tomb in their spiritual experience? They had faith based on evidence. They could see the graveclothes; they knew that the body of Jesus was not there. However, as good as evidence is to convince the mind, it can never change the life. We cannot SEE the evidence they saw that day, but we have the Word. It is faith in the Word that the Lord really wanted to cultivate in His disciples. It is made clear that the Word of God, not personal experiences, should be the basis for our faith. (I Peter 1:12-21).
Mary was given the privilege of the first to give testimony, “I have seen the Lord!” [first evangelist…go tell!] Mary could not transfer her experience over to the others, but she could share the Word; and it is the Word that generates faith. It is good to have faith that is based on solid evidence, but the evidence should lead us to the Word and the Word should lead us to the Savior. It is one thing to accept a doctrine and defend it; it is something else to have a personal relationship to the living Lord. Mary obeyed the command and fulfilled the task the Lord gave her – to tell! As Mary did, we too can go to others and tell them what convinced us to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Peter and John believed that Jesus was alive, but it was not until they met the risen Christ in person along with the other disciples. (Jesus did appear to Peter sometime during the afternoon.) Evidence that does not lead to experience is nothing but dead dogma. John’s step of faith foreshadowed the belief of future believers who would not have the benefit of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances, but would BELIEVE just as firmly and sincerely as John did. 20:29The key is faith in the Word of God. Historical faith says, Christ lives! Saving faith says, Christ lives in me! Do you have living faith?