Gospel - John 7-9
August 26, 2009 by: JoyousConcerto
Have you ever had moments of loneliness when you felt unloved, displaced and dismissed? When you tried your best to reach out to someone but they shunned you? When you were passionate about a cause but no one seemed to be standing with you or worse still start ridiculing you? When you do good but people question your motives?
Jesus went through all of these and more. But how did He deal with these negative feelings and experiences? Here are some pointers from John chapters 7 to 9.
Bible Passage: John 7-9
Focus On The Goal
As I read John 7:3-5, I wondered how Jesus must have felt when his brothers said those words to Him. For me, to have my family members and close friends believe in me and what I do matters a great deal. Their acceptance and support for the things I do give me my confidence and keep me going. However, instead of wasting precious time in self-remorse, feelings of hurt or mulling over their disbelief in what He was doing, Jesus thought further, remained good-natured and plodded on.
His clear focus on His goal and mission allowed Him to act wisely amidst various distractions and oppositions.
React After Careful Thinking
We are quick to defend ourselves when confronted. We get angry in double time when unjustly accused. Feelings of jealousy are quick to spread in our hearts and are almost immediately followed by rage and rash acts. The author of this Gospel - John himself was called ‘son of thunder’ by Jesus Himself because of his quick-temper. It is common to react rashly when people spite us or treat us unfairly. We wish to put right the situation immediately. However, it is in these moments which we must all the more calm ourselves down and keep cool (count from 1 to 20, take deep breaths, take a walk - different people have different methods of achieving this). We do this because it is impossible to think rationally and act wisely in the heat of the moment.
Jesus, when posed with a difficult question, did not answer immediately. He continued writing on the ground when the scribes and Pharisees challenged Him (John 8:6-8). They had caught a woman committing adultery. When they asked Jesus if she should be stoned as written in Moses’ law, Jesus took His time and in turn threw the ball right back in their court, hinting strongly that they are not without sins themselves and hence are not in the position to judge the woman.
Hence, we take some time to collect our thoughts, refocus, before we react. Perhaps we will then be able to understand why others have treated us that way. We will be wise to do that.
Abide In God, Not In Sin
There is Godly jealousy and there is jealousy. There is righteous judgement and selfish worldly judgement. We must examine the root of our feelings of loneliness, hurt or anger. How and when did these feelings arise? Are we wallowing in self-pity, sorrowing over the things of the world? Or are we sad that so few have come to belief in God? Are we angry over someone or something because we want to preserve our ego or are we angry that God’s words are profaned?
At times, sin is the cause of our feelings of worldly sadness, hurt, pain and anger. If we still live in sin, we are slaves to Satan. John 8:43, 44 tells us clearly that the devil is the father of lies. We may be entangled by these negative feelings as we live our sinful lives and still wonder why we are in such a state.
I particularly like John 8:35 and I shall leave you with this verse:
“A slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever”.
Let us strive to be sons of light, that we may live in the house of God forever.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
There is no absolute justice in this world. Good people are treated unfairly and goodness may not be reciprocated with goodness. On the other, we see evil prevails. All these sound sceptical and negative and we are sad and wonder how we can deal with them.
Whatever it is, we must know one thing which is for sure - when the world does not make sense, Jesus makes sense! We need not search all over the place for love and peace and justice, they are abound in God and God dispense them generously to those who seek Him out. We only need a humble believing heart and bended knees to experience these “secrets” to a happy life in a senseless world. If we can keep focusing on the positive aspects of the reasons for our being here, then we can be at peace with the situations knowing that God will “see to it” eventually.
August 26th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
In these 3 chapters, we see that the Jews were trying to seize Jesus, but yet no one seized him, just because His time had not yet come.
7:6 The right time for me has not yet come
8:20 because his time had not yet come.
This lead me to believe that the whole salvation of God is in deed planned before the creation of the world. It’s like a ‘drama’ with narration telling us not yet to come, not yet to come…
The sovereignty of God is clearly seen in the plan of salvation and also in many other incidents or parables.
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matt 20). Those who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. Why they grumble against the landowner? Because they don’t see the sovereignty of the landowner.
“Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?” — this is the sovereignty of the landowner.
Why sometime we envy of others who are more talented than us? Why sometime we grumble God don’t bless me with this or like than person? And many WHYs around us..
If we understand the sovereignty of God, we will have no WHYs towards God.
When God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?” Jonah wasn’t understand the sovereignty of God, that’s why he said “I do, I am angry enough to die.”
If we like Jonah, we will surely die..
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:55 am
The Samaritan woman in John 4 was much more blessed than the woman caught in adultery in John 8.
Both women were living immoral life, the Samaritan woman had 5 husbands and was living with a man who was not her husband, the latter woman was caught red-handed.
Yet their outcomes were vastly different:
The first knew the Messiah, responded and received salvation. The second heard that, “Neither, do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” might have just walked away in relief.
The redemption of Lord Jesus cannot save anyone who do not belive and not baptized.
This is set by God. Lord Jesus said,”… but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him.” (John 8:26)
Jesus is the Son of God. The Father had not left Him alone on earth. (John 8:29)
Similarly God does not leave us alone here. He gives us the Holy Spirit whom those believing in Him will receive (John 7:39). Please do not feel that we are alone. We are blessed with His abidance. Really we are blessed.