John Ch 10 v22 – Ch 12 v2:
Jesus replies to their question in a very particular manner. At face value the question seems valid, in that the Jews knew messiah had been promised. But given all that had preceded this question, and the purpose for why they asked the question, Jesus answered them thus.
Jesus starts by affirming that they had not asked a question he had not already answered. That is a sobering consideration in respect of coming to God with any question, and immediately places an onus on coming with humility and reverence.
Jesus, seamlessly reveals to them that he has not come in his own name. That the promised Messiah was an answer from God for man, and thus man had a way back to God through the Messiah.
They ask to be told plainly and Jesus does tell them plainly.
The works that I do. They were works greater than a self fulfilling messiah could ever do, and they knew it. The miraculous works proved that this messenger of God was indeed of God.
Being able to hear Jesus, and know that he is the messiah equates to a knowledge that God is a Father. Therefore, the foundation of all Jesus does is relational.
Jesus had to ask them questions as a child, as they did not have the answers, despite having listened to them. He is the answer:
‘I must be in my Fathers house’, and then subject to his earthly parents.
Jesus’s life was the same in Heaven as it was on Earth, he honored his Heavenly Father first and this was manifested upon the earth, subject to his earthly. The Lord’s Prayer was the life he had lived.
Sonship is the answer. It is the answer to the fall of man. Man had been ordained to keep covenant, to live according to the word of God.
He is the answer: Jesus did not come to establish his own house, nor his own teaching school, he came to lead men and women into the answer: into Fathers will.
Jesus does not lead men and women into a place that he himself is not occupied therein. This means that he will not lead into prosperity if that makes another man poor. But greater still it means that obedience to his voice and call equate to a harmony with heaven, liberty of Spirit. Freedom.
The law cannot condemn a man who is entering into that life Jesus occupies.
The promised land is to see our answer: ‘I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’.
Paul came to understand that this was a law of life, to hear his voice, and be known of God, and to follow him. It was relational and conciliatory, and guided his steps into fulfilling the very ministry he had opposed.
The gentile Church being birthed at Antioch.
Stephen had obeyed the word of God when he preached that sermon full of the Holy Spirit. He was subject to the people and the Church eldership, engaged in a ministry of union and communion within the function of the body to the body: No longer Jew or Gentile, Male or Female/widow!
How could his death not produce life, and life that lived and breathed reconciliation.
‘You are not among my sheep’, told plainly.
They did not want a messiah who came in another name, as such a messiah was a servant and a faithful servant is not concealing the throne room of his heart: ‘Father, into thy hands I commit my Spirit’.
You cant come to Jesus, without becoming a servant, and a servant who wants to be in Fathers house. Jesus imparts his nature.
‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep’.
‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me’.
The call of Jesus Christ is relational. Following Jesus Christ is never a legal servitude as Christ laid down his life for the sheep. Following Jesus Christ is an entrance into the knowledge of him who has loved us and cleansed us from sin. That I might know him and the power of his resurrection.
The call to follow Jesus Christ is universal and salient. But only sheep hear his voice. It is not that he is not speaking to all, but rather that only those who want to know that they are known follow him. He sees my uprising and my laying down to rest.
‘No one is able to snatch them out of his hand’.
‘He escaped from their hands’
But he was later placed into their hands and nailed to a cursed tree.
And he cried his last words upon earth ‘Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit’.
When we come to him we are coming to a lamb of sacrifice that procured eternal life and sealed the covenant with Father: ‘For this my Son was dead & is alive again’.
Feast of dedication.
Jesus took them back to the place where a light bore witness to the LIGHT. To the place where the Father spake from heaven, affirming the life of his Son upon the earth.
When Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill, he knew that it was the opportunity to reveal to all the truth concerning his mission and assignment. One whom he loved had died, now he could reveal the truth of those words, that ‘I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand’, not even death.
He could demonstrate that the Messiah had come to redeem that which had fallen, death being the consequence of breaking the covenant. That Messiah was the Word to reconcile men and women to God.
The Jews served a religious system that blinded men and women from understanding the relational harmony in heaven. Redemption must come through his relationship with his Father, and if the Father gave him as a sinner offering, then the issue of salvation by faith is sealed at Calvary. The resurrection is a law of the Spirit of life, a law that cannot be taken captive. But for the resurrection to impact are lives it must be relational, as the laws that brought sin and death have been confined to a tomb.
Lazarus heard the Shepherds voice, all knew that Jesus knew Lazarus and that Lazarus was a follower. And scripture next notes him as reclining with Jesus. As Messiah he has come so that we might be seated with him.
Some of the Jews went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. The implication is that they did not believe, and the reason they did not believe was due to a preference for religion over and above relationship.
But even in this, that which is being revealed incorporates even them, and that is why Paul is a chosen vessel and one commissioned to go out to every nation, and unto the Jews and kings. That they were not sheep, was an issue of their hearts, choosing rather to live unto a dead shepherds stick that could not graft them into an abiding vine of life
The whole narrative of Lazarus’s resurrection, is to foreshadow the work Jesus would do at Calvary. That the disciples would bear witness afterwards being indued by the Holy Spirit, signs and wonders following reveals that he had not come for himself, and that they indeed had access to a Father in heaven who always hears his sheep/children. Stephens dieing prayer was heard.
When Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead he is demonstrating his love that has come to bring an end to every misconception man has ever had about God.
His life is the only light of dedication. His dedicated life, was a light burden, because he served his loving Heavenly Father.
Come unto me all ye that are heaven laden and I will give you rest. Lazarus rested in the finish work of ‘Christ’ his saviour. What did Lazarus do to deserve this, he simply heard the voice of the good shepherd and obeyed it, and was loosed from every other burden. And the fear of death had been dealt a fateful blow, so his life being under threat did not hold the fear as he now knew he would rise again.
eternalrays 