Which Jews Believed on Jesus?

Tom:

We are continuing with the Gospel of John.We’ve been going through it verse by verse over many, many months now, maybe even a year.I’ll have to check that Dave, but it’s a good journey.In saying that our encouragement is to every listener.Particularly listeners who maybe seeking.They’ve never really come to Christ, but they are interested in Christianity.The place to start is by reading the Gospel of John.That’s our encouragement.I mean you could start anywhere in the Bible, but I think they’d be better off, better suited to read the Gospel of John to learn about who Christ is, what he wants for you, what he’s done for you as we say on the program.Because again, this program is called Search the Scriptures Daily and this is the place to begin, so we would encourage you to that end.Dave we are currently in John:8:31Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
See All..., “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”Now Dave before we start on this, I’ve been told—I haven’t seen it myself, but on the law building at HarvardUniversity, the cornerstone of the law building says, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” But sadly, it doesn’t have verse 31.

Dave:

Yes, that’s part of it—“if you continue in my Word.”“Thy Word is truth,” Jesus said.This is where the truth comes from.Tom are we prepared to spend several weeks right here?

Tom:

I think it would be a good place to camp out.

Dave:

We could do it.But when you go on you find that—now remember that everything that happens, everything that is said and done in the remainder of this chapter involves those of whom verse 30 said, “As he spake these words, many believed on him.”Now we get over to verse 59, “Then took they up stones to cast at him.”These are the same people who believed on him.So we would conclude there was something odd in their belief.I think we can only conclude—we had it in John 2 when he was in Jerusalem on the feast day, “Seeing the miracles that Jesus did, many believed in his name,” it says, but Jesus did not commit himself to them.There was something defective in their belief.What could it be?I think the only conclusion we could come to—or back in John 6 remember?They were going to take him by force to make him their king.They believed he could do miracles.And Nicodemus came to him and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from God.Nobody could do the miracles you do.Wow!You must be from God.”And Jesus said, “Nicodemus that’s just wonderful, you are a Christian now.”No, he said, “Nicodemus, you’ve got to be born again.Not enough to believe that I’m a miracle worker, not enough to believe that I’m the Messiah, or a teacher come from God.You have to know what that means.”And it seems that these people believed he was the Messiah, but they’ve got a false idea of the Messiah.They’re probably—well I’m sure would be expecting that the Messiah would come riding into Jerusalem on a white horse with a flashing sword, leading an army and overthrow the Roman rule.Instead, if they knew their scriptures way back there in Zechariah, the prophet Zechariah:9:9Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
See All... said, “Behold your king comes, he’s meek and lowly, bringing salvation, riding upon the colt of an ass.”Wow, that wasn’t the Messiah they were looking for and Jesus wants to bring liberty to them from themselves.He wants to deliver them from themselves and from sin and the penalty of sin.And that’s not what they want.They are thinking of something else.So as soon as he says, “The truth shall set you free,” they say we’re Abraham’s seed.We were never in bondage to anybody.”Now how could you say that?They are under the heel of Rome right at that moment.They’ve been in bondage to Nebuchadnezzar and all kinds of—the Assyrians and so forth.They don’t understand what he’s talking about.But Tom, back up to this verse 31.“If you continue in my Word…”We’re back to truth.

Tom:

Content.

Dave:

Right, you see I can’t just believe Jesus was a great leader.This is what Funk was trying to turn him into.

Tom:

From the Jesus Seminar that we referred to earlier.

Dave:

In this particular case it says, “The cross becomes “a symbol of absolute integrity of the refusal to compromise.”Isn’t that wonderful?Now if you just refuse to compromise—compromise what?My principles—I’m going to stand on my principles.Wait a minute, all kinds of people have all kinds of ideas.I would say that the suicide bombers operating over there in Israel today, they show a definite integrity, commitment to what they believe.They’re not going to compromise.Does that mean they are right?I don’t think so.The Israelis who are trying to root out those nests, they are standing true on their principles, trying to root out those nests of terrorists.There’s a big disagreement there and so Jesus’ cross is a symbol of absolute integrity and the refusal to compromise.Isn’t that wonderful.So I guess anybody who won’t compromise, anybody who’s stubborn—.Stubborn about what?We’re back to what we’ve been talking about this whole program Tom.What is the truth?And Funk, he re-writes it.He’s searching for the authentic words of Jesus.He doesn’t like what the eyewitnesses have recorded in the Bible.He’s going to come up with his own words.He’s going to use—what did he call this?Voice print.I don’t know where he’s going to get this voice print, but he’s going to decide well this would be authentically said of Jesus, but that—no, they wrote that in and so forth.Well Jesus said, “Look, first of all, it is all based upon my Word.You want to be my disciples?You continue in my Word.If you continue in my Word then are you my disciples indeed.”I’m a disciple of Jesus, but I don’t like what he said and I’m going to do my own thing.He says something about that in Matthew 7.Jesus says, “Many will say to me in that day Lord, Lord—they are calling me Lord.Didn’t we prophesy in your name?In your name we cast out devils.In your name we did miracles.We did wonderful works.Jesus says, “I will say to them, I never knew you.”I was being interviewed in WashingtonD.C., (I think we mentioned that) about Islam and they asked me, “Well Mr. Hunt, what is your view of extremist Islam?”I said, “First of all I object to the word extremist.They are not extremists.They are fundamentalists.There is nothing wrong with being a fundamentalist.The problem is with the fundaments which you believe and the fundamentals of Islam are that you kill people.You give them the choice of conversion or death.”A Muslim was waiting in the wings for me and he comes on and he says, “Oh I’m a Muslim and I believe in peace.I felt sorry for him and I just overwhelmed him with the quotes.Muhammad said the last day will not come until the Muslims confront the Jews and the Muslims destroy them and even the rocks and the trees will cry out, “Muslim there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.”I just gave him quote after quote after quote.Now I said, “Look, you can’t invent your own Islam.If you are going to be a Muslim, then you’ve got to take what Muhammad said.You’ve got to take what the Qur’an says, what the Hadith says.”And I said to this Muslim, I said, I say the same thing to Christians.It’s dishonest for a person to call himself a Christian and not follow the teachings, the words, and the example of Jesus Christ.You can’t make up your own Christianity.You want to make up your own religion?Go ahead, don’t call it Christianity, don’t call it Islam.Both of those have already been established by the founders, by years of teaching, of practice.So Jesus is saying something very simple.“You want to be my disciples?You’re going to have to follow my Word.”Now it must have shocked the Jews.“Well, wait a minute, wait a minute.Who’s this guy telling us to follow his words and be his disciples?We’re Moses’ disciples.Is he putting himself on a par with Moses?Is he even saying he is greater than Moses?And follow his words?Well we follow the Word of God.”Yes, Jesus had something to say about that too.He said to the rabbis in Matthew 15, “You have made void the Word of God by your tradition.You have replaced the Bible with your tradition,” and I would have to say very solemnly and lovingly, Catholicism has done the same thing. They have put tradition on the same level as scripture and their tradition contradicts the Bible and they have voided the Word of God by their traditions.So Tom, you have to come back to this, but “If you continue in my word then are you my disciples.”Don’t call yourself a Christian unless you follow the Word of God, unless you are willing to submit to the words of Jesus Christ and allow him to be your Lord and live his life through you.

Tom:

Dave as I said, we need to camp out on this verse maybe for awhile.This addresses the issue of ecumenism that we talked about.This cuts right through it.It makes it a joke.One of the things that I hear constantly, “Why are you so divisive?Why can’t everybody who loves Jesus, why can’t we just all get together, and so on?And I’m saying wonderful, we love Jesus.You love Jesus, I love Jesus, but Jesus who?Is this the Jesus that said, “If you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed, if you continue in my word you are my disciples indeed,”?That’s the Jesus I want.

Dave:

And what did this Jesus say?What are his words? I’ve got to face that.

Tom:

And how does it compare with what you believe?We have the Jesus of Islam, we have the Jesus of Latter Day Saints, we have the Jesus of Catholicism; we have the Jesus of evangelical Christianity.Well, which one lines up with his Word?