Did Jesus Have the Power to Take Up His Life?

Tom:

We are continuing with the Gospel of John.Now Dave, I think we ought to make a pitch for the Gospel of John.Read it!We would encourage all of our listeners out there, if you have not read the Bible, if you want to get started and you say well yeah, I am going to get around to it.It’s our encouragement to begin your reading with the Gospel of John.It talks about everything that you need to know to become a child of God.To become a follower of Jesus Christ and it reveals what we can have, which is a free gift, eternal life, because of what he has done, who he is, knowing who he is and what he has done and accepting that brings us into an eternal relationship with the Creator of the universe.Absolutely fantastic!

Dave:

Well let’s just quote once again from John 20—if we ever get there.We might.

Tom:

Well we’re there right now Dave.

Dave:

Right.Leaping ahead, but John says, “Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name.”So this is the purpose and this is the promise and we get into some very interesting things here in these few verses that lie ahead of us today.

Tom:

We’re in John 10, and Dave, you reminded me of a verse we dealt with earlier, John:10:10The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
See All..., He says, “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”In Christ is all that you will ever need now and for all eternity.So let’s pick up where we left off last week.John:10:17Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
See All..., “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.”Now that’s just not a throw away line.He is God.He could lay down his life and he, Christ himself, takes it up again.

Dave:

Well verse 18, elaborates a bit: “No man taketh it (i.e. my life) from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”So on the one hand, Peter indicts the Jews on the day of Pentecost.He says, “Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain….”But Jesus said you can’t kill me.If I didn’t want you to you couldn’t.I lay down my life.This is exactly what he did.So when we get to John 19 we find that he didn’t just expire on the cross, but he cried in triumph with a loud voice it says, “It is finished.”Tetelasti!The debt has been paid in full and then he said, “Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.”On the other hand, men are indicted for killing him, but they could not do this were it not for his love and his willingness to give himself for us.Now Tom, right here I have a little pet peeve, so let me just mention it.

Tom:

Okay.

Dave:

We have so many hymns that talk about Christ shed his blood.No, Christ did not shed his blood.Someone else shed his blood.Shedding of blood means you are causing a person to bleed.

Tom:

So it’s like suicide.

Dave:

Right, when you shed blood.No, Christ didn’t shed his blood.By man was his blood shed.And for example the Old Testament says, “He who sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.”That’s just a little thing that bothers me.We have so many hymns that talk about “and Christ shed his precious blood for us…”, no he didn’t shed his blood.Someone shed his blood.Those who drove the nails into his hands, the spear into his side and so forth.I hope maybe they can revise some of those hymns, or at least when we sing them out there, because it really does bother me.

Tom:

Okay.Dave, there’s another thing about this verse that bothers a number of people.As a matter of fact, just last evening I had a conversation with somebody and this person was Jewish and a believer.She said Christians accuse Jews of killing Christ and that sort of worked its way into the Catholic Church has persecuted Jews for many reasons, but that being one of them.Now who gets the blame here?

Dave:

Well the whole human race gets the blame of course.Christ hung on the cross because of our sins and on the cross he paid the penalty for the sins of the world that is every person.But the Jews cannot escape the fact that he came to his own and his own received him not.That they rejected him and Peter is a Jew!And on the day of Pentecost, I just quoted it.He said, “You have taken him by wicked hands and have crucified and slain the Lord of Glory!”Now Pilate was also responsible.He was in charge.He’s the Roman official.

Tom:

Right, so there we have the Gentiles.

Dave:

That’s right, exactly.

Tom:

Roman Gentile.

Dave:

So it was Jew and Gentile.

Tom:

Yes, you have the Roman soldiers that put him on the cross, that ran the spear into his side, drove the nails into his hands.

Dave:

Drove the nails—so let’s not try to escape, Jew or Gentile.But, well read what Stephen had to say to the Jewish leaders in Acts:7:52Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
See All..., “Which of the prophets (well Jesus said the same) have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers….”Read what Isaiah, read what Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the prophets say to Israel back then.What did the Jews do to the prophets whom God sent to warn them?They killed them.They rejected them and they continued in their rejection of God and of his Word and of his will for their lives.So there’s no point in Jews trying to exonerate themselves or escape the responsibility.But that responsibility is shared by every human being.

Tom:

Yes, but you see the way the church, the Catholic Church wants to deal with this or others who certainly don’t want to appear to be anti-Semitic is to revise the scriptures and pull out these phrases, these terms that seem accusatory and so on.This is God’s Word.We’re going to have to live with God’s truth and deal with it on the basis that it is true and now we must repent.

Dave:

The amazing thing was they killed Jews, they called them Christ-killers, but Jesus was a Jew.Well, they were killing Jews.We don’t kill anyone.The church is not in the business of killing anyone.Christians are not in the business of killing others.Unfortunately, John Calvin did that.Unfortunately, Martin Luther did that.Persecuted and killed those who disagreed with them.And these men had been Catholics.Much Catholicism hung on in the Reformation and the Catholic Church has slaughtered Jews down through history.We document it in some of our books and video tapes and so forth.

Tom:

Dave, let me add one other thing to it that maybe people haven’t thought about.Although the Catholic Church and history past has pointed out that the Jews were Christ-killers, okay?And dealt with them in ways that are just horrific, yet today on the altar in a Catholic Church at Mass, Christ is immolated.He is killed on the altar, so—

Dave:

Yes, so the Catholic priests—

Tom:

Not just one altar, millions of times throughout the day, throughout the world, so—

Dave:

So the Catholic priests are now killing him and claiming that they have the power to turn the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ and they are putting him to death.Well, they would say—

Tom:

I’m not saying this, this is what the Church teaches.Christ is immolated.It’s their term.It means to kill as in a sacrifice.

Dave:

Right, he is being sacrificed.It is called the Sacrifice of the Mass. So there’s a bit of inconsistency there.Not only inconsistency, it is not biblical because the scripture makes it very clear, Hebrews 9 and 10, Christ was once crucified.He died once.He was sacrificed once for our sins.And the scripture makes it very, very clear that by one sacrifice he paid the penalty for the sins of the world.But the Catholic Church says no, this is an ongoing sacrifice.It’s the Sacrifice of the Mass that our priests alone have the power to turn this wafer and this wine into the body and blood of Christ so that he is still being offered.But Jesus said “it is finished” and they have rejected that statement of Christ.

Tom:

Dave, we’ve got about a minute left, so I don’t think we can get onto another verse.But how would you summarize what Jesus is saying here in the minute that is left?He says in verse 17 again, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.” He said, “I give my life for the sheep.”This was the only hope.The penalty of sin had to be paid.The wages of sin is death.We couldn’t pay it.We would be separated from God forever.God himself became a man through the virgin birth and he paid the penalty for our sin so that he could forgive us.Otherwise, God could not forgive us unless the penalty had been paid.So this is the best news that anyone could hear.And yet so many people reject this.They’re too proud to accept the gift of eternal life from God.They want to earn it themselves.They will spend eternity trying to do that in separation from God under his judgment.That’s a tragedy.We don’t want that to happen.God doesn’t want it to happen.