John 5:24-47

John 5:24-30 I tell you the truth: whoever hears my words, and believes in him who sent me, has eternal life. He will not be judged, but has already passed from death to life.

I tell you the truth: the time is coming the time has already come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live.

Even as the Father is himself the source of life, in the same way he has made his Son to be the source of life.

And he has given the Son the right to judge, because he is the Son of Man.

Do not be surprised at this; the time is coming when all the dead in the graves will hear his voice,

And they will come out of their graves: those who have done good will rise and live, and those who have done evil will rise and be condemned.

I can do nothing on my own; I judge only as God tells me, so my judgment is right, because I am not trying to do what I want, but only what he who sent me wants.

Comments: Christ starts the discourse by giving the conditions of eternal life. They are (1) Knowledge of the Son; (2) belief upon him; trust in him. These are necessary before he can be accepted. Jesus now presents a view of the afterlife, when he declares The dead shall hear the voice. Those spiritually dead, as well as those in their graves. They shall hear, and the Son will bestow upon them eternal life. For the Son hath, by the will of the Father, life in himself and can bestow it. He is also judge, because he is the Son of man, a judge who shares the nature of those judged.

John 5:31-35 If I testify on my own behalf, what I say is not to be accepted as real proof.

But there is someone else who testifies on my behalf, and I know that what he says about me is true.

John 5:31-35 If I testify on my own behalf, what I say is not to be accepted as real proof.

You sent your messengers to John, and he spoke on behalf of the truth.

It is not that I must have a man’s witness; I say this only in order that you may be saved.

John was a lamp, burning and shining, and you were willing for a while to enjoy his light.

Comments: We should not wonder that he should execute judgment. Those in their graves shall hear his voice and come forth to judgment; the good, to the resurrection of life; the evil , to the resurrection of damnation; the one to life eternal, the other class to condemnation. Christ can do nothing apart from the Father. There was another who would bear witness of Christ, that was John the Baptist.

John 5:36-38 But I have a witness on my behalf even greater than the witness that John gave: the works that I do, the works my Father gave me to do, these speak on my behalf and show that the Father has sent me.

And the Father, who sent me, also testifies on my behalf. You have never heard his voice, or seen his face,

And you do not keep his message in your hearts, because you do not believe in the one whom he sent.

Comments: Jesus greater witness was his works given by the Father, the Father’s voice at baptism, and the Scriptures, which are the Father’s word. They did not have God’s word abiding in them are they would believe upon him of whom that word did speak.

John 5: 39-41 You study the Scriptures because you think that in them you will find eternal life. And they themselves speak about me!

Yet you are not willing to come to me in order to have life.

I am not looking for praise from men.

Comments: Ye search the Scriptures for eternal life. Yet they were full of testimony of Christ. Yet they turned away from him who is life of whom their Scriptures spoke. Jesus declares that men did not give him honor which is perhaps a reply to some expression of disapproval on their part.

John 5: 42-47 But I know you have no love for God in your hearts.

I have come with my Father’s authority, but you have not received me; when someone comes with his own authority, you will receive him.

You like to have praise from the only God; how, then, can you believe?

Do not think, however, that I will accuse you to my Father. Moses is the one who will accuse you, Moses, in whom you have hoped.

If you had really believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me.

But since you do not believe what he wrote, how can you believe what I say?

Comments: I know you don’t have any love for God in your hearts. If some False Christ came you would believe him. You cannot believe, because of the moral condition of your hearts.

Moses will accuse you for not accepting his testimony. If they rejected the testimony of Moses, whom they professed to reverence, how could they believe him of whom Moses spoke?

The Sabbath; plucking corn

Matthew 12:1-8

Matt. 12:1-8 Not long afterward Jesus was walking through the wheat fields on a Sabbath day. His disciples were hungry, so they began to pick heads of wheat and eat the grain.

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Jesus, “Look, it is against our law for you disciples to do this on the Sabbath!”

Jesus answered, “ Have you never read what David did that time when he and his men were hungry?

He went into the house of God, and he and his men ate the bread offered to God, even though it was against the Law for them to eat it. Or have you not read in the Law of Moses that every Sabbath the priests in the temple actually break the Sabbath law, yet they are not guilty? There is something here, I tell you, greater than the temple. The scripture says, ‘ I do not want animal sacrifices, but kindness. If you really knew what this means, you would not condemn people who are not guilty; because the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Comments: The time of the year Jesus was walking through the fields of wheat, barley, or rye was about the time when grain begins to ripen in Judea, somewhere around the 1^st of May. He was walking through these fields of grain for which the word “corn” was used to represent grain in general. When maize was discovered by the Europeans in America they called it “Indian corn,” because it was a food grain like wheat, rye and barley. We now apply to it exclusively the designation of “corn.” The paths, the only roads, led and still lead through the grain fields in Palestine. They began to pluck the heads of the grain this was permitted by Moses (Deut. 23:25) When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbour, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand; but thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbour’s standing corn. But the Pharisees saw them pluck the heads of grain, there were some of them there watching for a ground of accusation. The Pharisees told Jesus that is was not lawful for them to do this on the Sabbath. The taking of the heads of wheat was okay but they couldn’t gather, rub out the grains of wheat in the hand, and eat them on the Sabbath. To understand the position they were taking, it has to be noticed that after the Law had said that the Jews were “ to do no manner of work” on the Sabbath, the “Tradition of the Elders” had laid down thirty nine principal prohibitions, which were ascribed to the authority of the Great Synagogue, and which were called abhoth,”fathers.” or chief rules. From these were deduced a vast multitude of toldoth,”descendants,” or derivative rules. Now, “ reaping” and “threshing” on the Sabbath day were forbidden by the abhoth; and by the toldoth it was asserted that plucking the heads of grain was a kind of reaping, and rubbing them a kind of threshing. The vitality of these artificial notions among the Jews is extraordinary. It is recorded that when, in 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain, and were forbidden to enter the city of Fez lest they should cause a famine, they lived on grass; yet even in this state “religiously avoided the violation of their Sabbath by plucking the grass with their hands.” To avoid this they took the much more laborious method of groveling on their knees, and cropping it with their teeth. Here is one more example of the foolishness of their Sabbath requirements. “If on the Sabbath a Jew put out a lamp from fear of the Gentiles, or robbers, or on account of an evil spirit, he was guiltless; if to save oil, he was guilty.”

The Lord answers them by citing the case of David, who under necessity, took, ate, and gave to his followers the shew bread which it was lawful for priests only to eat. Necessity rose higher than ceremonial. David entered the tabernacle at Nob, because the temple had not been built yet. The shew bread was 12 loaves placed upon a table in the holy place as a symbol of the communion of the twelve tribes with God, and a type of the Bread of Life to given to the whole world. They were kept a week, replaced and the old loaves eaten by the priests. If David could take these under necessity, so could Christ’s disciples pluck grain under necessity. He goes on to say that even the priests broke the Sabbath because the Sabbath was the busiest day of the week for the priests in the temple service. In this they rightly broke the ordinary Sabbath law, because the temple service set aside the law.

The thought is; If priests in the service of the temple can break the letter of the law and be blameless, how much more can the disciples of Christ who is Lord of the temple do so in his service and by his authority?

They should have known, for they professed to be interpreters of the law. The argument is that mercy toward these hungering

disciples was more acceptable to God than sacrifices at the altar; though sacrifice was the crown of all Jewish rites. The quotation is from Hosea 6:6. It shows that all our forms, rites and ceremonies are worthless before God unless we have kind and merciful hearts.

The Sabbath was made for humanity, the Lord of humanity is Lord of the Sabbath. Take note “Is Lord of the Sabbath.” Jesus does not , then, abolish it, but has the right to make any change in it, in the interest of mankind, that seems to him wise. Neither Moses, nor any other mortal, ever claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath. This is a declaration of Divinity.