Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

“Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of this water which I will give to him will never be thirsty for eternity, but the water which I will give to him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life…Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.” (John 4:13-14; 26)

In chapter ten, Jesus tried to explain spiritual blindness and who should be the source of what fuels our deeds, thoughts, and words. He explained it to the Pharisees with a parable of how a shepherd is. That a thief climbs over the wall to steal sheep, but the shepherd enters by the gate. The sheep will never follow a stranger, but that the sheep follow the voice of the shepherd. They know him and trust him. They don’t know the voice of a stranger. But the Pharisees still didn’t understand.

Jesus tried again with the parable of the Good Shepherd. He told them “The thief comes only so that he can steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:10-11). He told them the wolf only seeks to scatter and kill. The hired hands run when they see the sheep because they don’t own the sheep and don’t truly care. But the Good Shepherd cares. The sheep know His voice and will listen to Him. Jesus spoke of the love of the Father toward Himself and His love toward the Father. He spoke about having sheep other than this flock (the Gentiles) and that one day there would be one flock (the Church, His Body) and one Shepherd (Yahweh). He told them that no one could take His life. He laid it down willingly out of obedience (Revelation 13:8). They didn’t understand any of this either and His comments divided them greatly.

In the winter, the Feast of Dedication was going on (Hanukkah – John 10:22-23). Jesus was in the Temple and was accosted by some Jews (probably Pharisees or Sadducees) who complained about being kept in suspense. If Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, they wanted to hear it flat out right then and there. Jesus told them He had already spoken to them, but they hadn’t believed Him. The works Jesus did in His Father’s name bore witness about Him. But they didn’t believe the signs or the words. His sheep knew Him, however, and He knew His sheep. They had been given to Jesus who would keep them safe and also to the Father who would keep them safe. Jesus said that He and His Father were One. The Jews who were accosting Him immediately tried to stone Him. Jesus asked why. They told Him that He was blaspheming for claiming to be God. Jesus used their own scripture (the Septuagint) to show that if He is doing the works of the Father, then they should believe the works. If they did that, they would know that the Father was in Jesus and Jesus in the Father. They tried to seize Him, but He walked away (John 10:18).

After this Jesus went beyond the Jordan to where John the Baptizer had first started baptizing people and remained there. Many people came to Jesus and told Him that although John hadn’t performed signs himself, everything he had said about Jesus was true. And many of them believed in Jesus.

As Chapter eleven begins, Jesus is still in Bethany. While there, He got news that His good friend Lazarus (brother to Mary and Martha) was sick. This sickness was NOT sent by God, but God was going to USE it for His glory. Holy Spirit told Jesus the sickness was not going to lead to death, so Jesus did not immediately go (John 5:19). Two days later, Jesus tells His disciples that He wants to go to Judea again. Remember that other than the Feasts, He had been mostly avoiding Judea because of the religious Jews who wanted to put Him to death (John 7:1). The disciples were shocked. Jesus told them that Lazarus had ‘fallen asleep’ and He was going to wake him up. They told Him if Lazarus was sleeping, why risk it? Jesus said, no. I mean Lazarus is dead and God is going to get some glory. Jesus left. Thomas told the others they should go to. If Jesus was going to be seized and killed, then they should go die with Him. So they all went, moved by Thomas’ courage.

When they got to Bethany, they learned Lazarus had been dead for four days. Martha heard they had arrived and came first. Mary came second. I was reading a book by Charles R. Swindoll, and he pointed to something I hadn’t seen before. Martha’s coming to Jesus was all about needing reassurance that Jesus was in control. She needed intellectual support. Mary’s coming to Jesus was all about needing reassurance that Jesus cared. She needed emotional support. Jesus gave both wholeheartedly. They went to the tomb and Jesus commanded the stone covering the entrance be rolled away. There was some resistance to this. It had been four days. The body would be smelling by now. Resurrections were not common. There had been a couple in the Old Covenant (1 Kings 17:17-24; 2 Kings 4:32-37). Jesus resurrected a few people (Luke 7:11-17; Mark 5:35-43). But nowhere in scripture had ANYONE been brought back to life after four days, after the body had begun to smell. But raising the CLEARLY dead was a proof of God/Messiah: “And you will know that I am Yahweh when I open your graves when I bring you up from your graves, my people!” (Ezekiel 37:13). Jesus was insistent and they rolled away the stone. The first thing Jesus does is to give thanks to His Father for this demonstration of the Father’s power. Jesus is grateful audibly so that those around Him would know that Jesus was calling on the Father and the Father was the source of the power. Jesus commanded Lazarus to come out of the grave. Lazarus trusted Jesus, cooperated, and came out. Jesus told them to take the grave clothes off of Lazarus and let him go.

Bethany was only two miles (1.6 kilometres) from Jerusalem, so there were quite a few Jews who had come from the city to give their condolences and sit shiv’ah with the sisters. They witnessed this miracle – and proof of Messiah – and marvelled. Some of them left and told the Pharisees what happened. The chief priests and Pharisees assembled the Sanhedrin in order to deal with this threat. They saw that if Jesus was permitted to continue doing these signs and miracles, the people were going to rally behind Him. If the people did that, the Romans might take it as a threat to their control of Israel and attack. If they did people would die and the Temple would likely be sacked (which is exactly what happened forty years later in 70 A.D.). Caiaphas told them they were all being foolish. They didn’t need to worry about the death of everyone if one man (Jesus) were to die in their stead. It was better for one to die for all than for all to die because of one – an inadvertently prophetic statement. They agreed and started planning Jesus’ death.

Jesus, told by Holy Spirit what was up, no longer walked openly. Instead, He went into the wilderness to the city of Ephraim with His disciples and remained there. The feast of Passover was coming upon them and most Jews started going up to Jerusalem and the Temple in preparation. They looked for Jesus everywhere, wondering if He was going to make an appearance. The chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that if anyone spotted Jesus they were to report it so that He could be seized.

Summary

Key Players: God, Jesus, Disciples, Religious Jews, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, Jews

Key Verse(s): John 10:22-39; 11:21-26