Chapter # 3 Paragraph # 2 Study # 4
January 7, 2024
Broadlands, Louisiana
(Download Audio)
Thesis: Genuine disciples of the Truth have to have a legitimate confidence in "Heaven's" absolute dominion or they will succumb to the detrimental foolishness of pride and the grief-producing activities that such pride sponsors.
Introduction: Many people wonder at the fact that serious "grief" is often the experience of people who call themselves "Christians". Author-John wrote this Gospel to address God's promise to us of a
genuine, though not comprehensive, experience of
Eternal Life, which, by its own definition, is a powerful producer of a "Joy" that diminishes "Grief". In Author-John's first "letter", he wrote that he was sharing the contents of that letter so that his readers, being believers "into" Jesus, might enter into the experience of "joy", as opposed to "grief" (
1 John 1:3-4). In this Gospel Author-John recorded Jesus' statement regarding His coming death and resurrection in
14:28 with these words, " You heard that I said to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you.' If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father ..." and followed up in
16:22 with these words, "Therefore you too now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you." Because "joy" is the outcome of "
believing" (
Romans 15:13), "grief", of necessity is the outcome of "
not believing".
And, according to Jesus, the underlying issue is whether we "love" Him.
Now, In our last study we looked into the claim that no one can become a true disciple of Jesus unless being a disciple of Jesus is a higher priority than all other "people/things" that reside in our priorities. We got this premise from the fact that there were some seriously flawed "disciples" of Witness-John who were manifestly aggravated by the fact that Jesus was attracting more people than their "Rabbi". We concluded that the real reason for their aggravation was the diminishing status of their Rabbi and, therefore, the diminishing of their own status. When "status in the eyes of men" is more important to a person than "status in the eyes of God", the idea of "deliberate discipleship" goes off the rails. The disciples of Witness-John were not true "disciples" or they would not still be attending him and being aggravated with Jesus.
This morning we are going to consider some further words of Witness-John that give us an understanding of what we must "believe" if we wish for "grief" to not overwhelm us.
- I. Author-John's Records Of A Single Truth In Two Places.
- A. The first record is the text before us this morning: Witness-John's declaration of the fact that human "accomplishments" are subject to "Heaven's Gifts".
- 1. This declaration is fundamental Truth, whether people give serious thought to it, or not.
- 2. There are four places in the New Testament where this truth is declared as elemental Truth.
- a. In the text before us this morning, Witness-John says that "Heaven" determines what a man is able to do.
- b. In 6:65 Jesus declared that "...no one is able to come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father" and Author-John followed that up with 6:66 where we read, "As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore."
- c. In 19:10-11 Author-John told us that Pilate claimed to have "authority"/"ability" to release, or crucify, Jesus and Jesus set Witness-John's "Truth" before him: "You would have no authority over Me unless it had been given you from above."
- c. And in Acts 4:12 we are told "...there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been "given"...by which we must be saved".
- 3. In at least four places in the Gospel of John that men are recorded as rejecting this elemental Truth, those rejectors made bad decisions that led to bad actions that led to serious disaster afterwards.
- a. The "disciples" of Witness-John.
- b. The "disciples" of Jesus who withdrew from Him and walked no more with Him (6:66).
- c. The "high priest" in 11:47-48 who said that Rome would come and take away the nation.
- d. The governor of Judea, "Pilate", who said that he had the power to release or condemn (19:10-11).
- 4. Additionally, the most precious promise of Romans 8:28 cannot be fulfilled apart from detailed, divine, oversight, including the granting or restraining of "abilities to do".
- B. That the second record is focused upon Pilate signals the reality that it does not matter whether the persons who are pictured as taking actions that contradict this truth are "disciples" or "overt pagans".
- II. At Stake In Author-John's Record Of This Elemental Truth Is Witness-John's Declaration That His Disciples Should Have Known Better Than To Complain About Jesus.
- A. He said, "You yourselves are my witnesses of my "Truth".
- B. His "Truth" was that he was not the Christ, but was the forerunner of the Christ.
- C. His "Truth" meant two things: the Christ is the One to Whom "disciples" are to be loyal, and that "true disciples" would have left him and followed Jesus.
- 1. Any one who professed "loyalty" to John was professing loyalty to his message.
- 2. But these "disciples" were refusing to be loyal to his message.
- 3. Rejection of elemental "Truth" always ultimately yields deep grief.
