How Did Jesus Pass Through Their Midst?

Tom:

In this segment of our program we’ve been going through the Gospel of John.We are presently in John 8 and this is a book if you are not familiar with the Bible, the Gospel of John is where we recommend—if you want to start reading the Bible, this is the place to begin.And Dave, let’s go right to where we left off last week.John:8:58Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
See All..., “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

Dave:

We have to go back actually to verse 56.He said, “Your father Abraham—

Tom:

That is Jesus said.

Dave:

Right.Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.”That puzzles them and, “Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”And they of course knew what he meant.This was the name with which God revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3.

Tom:

The self-existent One.I AM that I AM.

Dave:

Moses said, Look you are telling me to go to Egypt and deliver the people.They are going to say well who sent you?Where’s your authority?So Moses says, “Well what’s your name?” And God says, “My name is Yahweh. I AM that I AM,” as you said Tom.The self-existent One.God has a name, he has a number of names in the Bible, but Yahweh especially and there in Exodus 3 he says this is my name and my memorial thorough out all generations. G-O-D- is not God’s name. G-O-D is a generic term for God in English.So when Jesus says, “Before Abraham was I AM.I AM the self-existent One.No beginning, no end.The existence of all others depends upon me.They know what he’s talking about.He’s claiming to be God, he’s claiming to be—

Tom:

How is that?Because many people do not believe that Jesus is God.They say show me a chapter and verse, show me that Jesus claimed to be God.And it seems here that who Jesus was speaking to—it went right over their head.They missed it completely didn’t they?

Dave:

No, they know he’s claiming to be God and they’re going to stone him.Well here’s another—two chapters later, they take up stones—this is John:10:31Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
See All... which we’ll get to eventually, God willing.“Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”Okay and very clear—

Tom:

And here it is in John:8:59Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
See All..., “Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.”So it was very obvious to them, what he was talking about.

Dave:

Of course.

Tom:

So how do these people miss it today? They just don’t want to recognize it?They don’t want to admit to it?

Dave:

Well Tom there are people who claimed to be Christians who do not go by the Bible.They pick and choose out of the Bible what they want.Or like the Jesus Seminar, oh Jesus didn’t say that, he didn’t do that.We’ll vote with our colored beads and decide—we’ll decide now, 1900 years after the fact what Jesus did and didn’t do.But this is God’s Word, inspired of the Holy Spirit, written by eyewitnesses.Now this verse 59 is an interesting one.“Then took they up stones to cast at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” Now what do you mean?He ran so fast they couldn’t catch him or what?No, he ran into some little corner where he could hide?

Tom:

He hid behind a pillar or something?

Dave:

Yes, no, no, it says “…going through the midst of them, and so passed by.”So Jesus made himself invisible.That’s all I can say.He walked right through the midst of them.They want to stone him, but they don’t see him and he walks right out of that temple.Walks right through this crowd.Well this is another miracle that Jesus did.One of many because his time was not yet come.It wasn’t time for him to be—well furthermore, he couldn’t be killed by stoning, it had to be by crucifixion because that had been foretold in the Old Testament hundreds of years before crucifixion was even practiced on this earth it was foretold. The psalmist said “They pierced my hands and my feet…” and he describes crucifixion very thoroughly there.So Jesus could not be stoned, he had to be crucified and it was not his time.We read it over and over, “his hour had not yet come.”

Tom:

Dave, I have a little side note.Just a little thing.We receive letters from time to time from people and when they write to us, they’re writing about God, but they spell it G, then an underline, and then a D.What’s with that?

Dave:

Well, it could be Jewish.The Jews—

Tom:

In some cases, that’s right.

Dave:

Right.

Tom:

But Messianic Jews sometimes?

Dave:

See, the Bible said don’t take the name of the Lord your God in vain.Well they took that to the extreme like people often do and they took that to mean you don’t SAY the name of God and you don’t print the name of God.That could be one of the reasons.

Tom:

So you’re hinting at it by giving the consonants but not the vowel.Well, or in Hebrew there are no vowels, just consonants and you fill in the vowels, so maybe they feel they’re being more biblical.They’re being really Hebraic, but that’s ludicrous because God is not Hebrew.Tom, I’ve never asked any of these people why, but I presume these are the reasons why.

Tom:

Okay.Well, we are going on to John:9:1And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
See All..., “And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”Now this is very appropriate with regard to what we’ve been discussing on prayer, because some of these faith teachers would say well there’s sin in their lives.That’s why they’re not being healed.

Dave:

It was kind of ludicrous.Who did sin?This man?Well, hardly.The sin that he committed after his birth could hardly have caused him to be born blind.I don’t think they know that he was born blind.Jesus knows.He sees a man born blind from his birth.Well that’s from Jesus’ perspective.He knows immediately who this man is and all about him.So they are attributing it to sin.Jesus gives an amazing answer.(John:9:3Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
See All...) “Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents:…” now he’s not saying they lived without sin, but that is not the cause of the blindness.It’s not the sin of either the man or his parents.But he is blind in order “that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”So here was a man that could have cried out to God and complained about his blindness and it was all in God’s will, so that he was going to be healed of that blindness by Jesus.

Tom:

Now wait a minute here.Are you saying that he was predestined to be blind so that God could heal him?

Dave:

That’s what Jesus says here, yes.If this blindness came upon him to the glory of God that the works of God should be manifest in him.So now—

Tom:

But Dave, couldn’t God in his permissive will recognizing that—where does sin come about?What does sin do to people?It creates disease and all that and God allowed him to be that way so that he could glorify himself through him.

Dave:

Yes, I appreciate your clarification.I’m not saying that God made him blind so that he could then be healed.The scripture says, “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but time and chance happeneth to them all.” There are things that have been set in motion in this life through Adam and Eve’s sin and are running their course.Now God intervenes at times in specific ways, but God is not always intervening.If he always intervened he wouldn’t let a plane crash, he wouldn’t let a baby fall over a cliff.There are certain natural laws that have natural consequences.So there’s probably some genetic factor that caused this man to be born blind.God is able to have this man on this earth just at the right time at the right place for Jesus to heal him.And that’s what it means when he says “…that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”

Tom:

Dave you notice as we go through these verse just—we’ve sort of been kidding one another about how long it’s taking us to go through the Gospel of John, but on the other hand, when you look at each verse, things come alive to you that maybe you didn’t see before, just showing how Jesus—these are miracles here that are happening in lines that maybe we just kind of blow past without really taking time to recognize.

Dave:

Amen.

Tom:

So it’s okay to do that.