LookingtoJesus

“It is a tragedy when a man has no invisible means of support.”

T. J. Bach

Some weeks ago, I was given a book by some dear friends, entitled “We Thought We Heard the Angels Sing,” by James C. Whittaker.  The book tells the true survival story of some World War II pilots whose plane crashed into the Pacific.  The book is now out of print, but the story is well worth retelling.  What are we to do when all hope is apparently lost?  What if we are cut off from the necessities of life, like food and water, and put in a position where our very survival is at risk?  What role can our faith in God play in benefitting the lives of others?

It was October 21, 1942. There were seven on board the big B-24 Liberator bomber. The five-man crew of US Army Air Corps servicemen were tasked with flying the world-famous Eddie Rickenbacker and an aide on a secret mission for the War Department. Eddie was America’s No. 1 ace of World War I, having knocked down more German war planes that any other American. The mission was to fly from Hickam Field, Oahu to a south Pacific Island some 1700 miles to the southwest.

The flight left in the early morning, and things proceeded per usual until they arrived in the area in which the island should have been located. Somehow, the navigation had gone awry, and they couldn’t find their island. Most likely, the octant, an optical instrument used to ascertain latitude and longitude, had been damaged in a preceding runway mishap. Planes in that era had a backup means for determining their location but unfortunately the device was broken somehow and did not work either.

After exhausting their fuel supply, the crew had no choice but to attempt to safely land that big plane in the open seas. As far as the crew knew, no four-motored land plane had ever set down at sea without causalities. It was decided that it would be best to attempt to land in the trough—the valley between two waves. Amazingly, the pilot successfully landed the plane, slowing from 90 miles an hour to a stop in a mere 30 feet, with no loss of life. The crew scrambled to disembark, pulling the ripcord to unleash the two life rafts. The two rafts were hardly big enough to hold the seven men, the larger raft only measuring 2.5 feet by 5.5 feet in its interior dimensions, but they somehow made it work. Those rafts would be their home for the next three weeks.

The crew inventoried their belongings. Besides their clothing, they had two air pumps, two sheath knives, two pistols, two sets of aluminum oars, some fish lines and hooks, four oranges (that was the extent of their food supply), some personal belongings (including paper and writing utensils), and one man’s pocket New Testament (which proved itself to be the most important item on board).

There they were, adrift at sea, accompanied by an occasional bird and surrounded by a small fleet of tiger sharks. Some of their finned friends were 10-12 feet long. The men were exposed to severe heat during the day, and alternatively cold at night. They developed blisters that were aggravated by the exposure to seawater. But the greatest threat to their survival was having no water to drink or food to eat. The four oranges didn’t last long!

One of the crewmen, a man by the name of Johnny, possessed a pocket sized, khaki bound New Testament.  It had a zipper arrangement that made it waterproof.  Though the rest of the men were not spiritually minded, they’d soon come to better understand and appreciate Johnny’s book and Johnny’s God.

Dire circumstances can surely work to change our perspective on the relative importance of a thing.  Those men who would likely never had attended a prayer meeting of any sort were now engaging in that very thing day by day.  They’d recite the Lord’s prayer together.  Johnny and others would read certain passages.  On one occasion, they were reading from Matthew chapter 6, where it says, “Therefore, take ye no thought, saying: ‘What shall we eat? Or ‘What shall we drink?’ or, “Wherewithal shall we be clothed?’ For these are things the heathen seek.  For your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things?”  Can you imagine reading that passage in that setting?

It had been five day’s time.  They had shared four oranges, three minnows, one morsel of raw fish, and a fragment of a sea swallow between them.  They had drunk no water.  They pulled the rafts together for their morning prayer meeting.  They read again from the passage in Matthew chapter six about not being anxious for food and water.  Then Johnny led them in a prayer, saying: “Old Master, we know this isn’t a guarantee we’ll eat in the morning.  But we’re in awful fix, as You know.  We sure are counting on a little something by day after tomorrow, at least.  See what You can do for us.” 

After praying, he fired off a flare into the sky hoping that they might be seen by someone.  But the flare’s propulsion charge was faulty, and the flaming ball rose only 50 feet or so before falling back among the rafts.  It hissed and zigzagged in the water, blazing with a brilliant light.  In the depths, they could see a barracuda pursuing a school of fish.  Suddenly, two fair sized specimens broke water and landed in their raft.  They cut up the fish and shared them together.  It was their seventh day at sea.  God provided in amazing fashion!

The next day was especially hot.  Broiling under the afternoon sun, and surrounded by the cool and inviting salt water, their thoughts turned towards their thirst.  That night Johnny prayed for water instead of food, saying, “Old Master, we called on You for food and You delivered.  We ask You now for water.  We’ve done the best we could.  If You don’t make up Your mind to help us pretty soon, I guess that’s all there’ll be to it.  It looks like the next move is up to You.”

Some hours later, a darkening cloud caught the attention of the crew.  The cloud soon passed overhead and a deluge of rain fell upon those thirsty men.  It splashed in their dry mouths and washed away the caked salt from their skin.  They cupped their hands to gather the water and then into their mouths.  They soon realized they needed to find a means to acquire more water.  They used their dry shirts to soak up water, which they then squeezed out into their mouths.  And they managed to store up a quart of water in a life vest.

In the days that followed, the men endured through hunger and thirst and exposure and exhaustion.  One man died.  Various mishaps threatened.  On the 13^th day, they again found themselves desperately in need of water.  A rainstorm had approached, but then a wind blew it in a different direction.

The author of the book, a man named James (Jim) C. Whittaker, had not been a religious man. But Johnny’s prayers and God’s answers had worked to lead Jim to faith. Most everyone had given up hope. They wouldn’t survive too much longer. Having witnessed for himself the power of God in answering prayer before, Jim prayed: “God. You know what that water means to us. The wind has blown it away. It is in Your power, God, to send back that rain. It’s nothing to You, but it means life to us. God, the wind is Yours. You own it. Order it to blow back that rain to us who will die without it.”

Miraculously, the crew watched as the storm moved with what the author deemed “majestic deliberation.”  It was as if a great and omnipotent hand were guiding it to the crew.  They caught a great store of water.

The following days were the worst.  Their bodies weakened from lack of food, were but a mass of ulcers.  There was no breeze to move them in any hopeful direction. 

It was on the 21^st day when the author was awakened by his shipmate grabbing his shoulder and crying out his name.  He thought he was seeing something but thought maybe it was just a mirage.  Amazingly, in the distance, perhaps 12 miles away, a line of palm trees stretched across the horizon.  At 6:30 am of November 11th, Jim began to row to shore.  By noon, they reached a point less than 250 yards from shore!  Then something happened.  A current worked to propel them back out to sea.  Try as he might, as weakened as he was, Jim could make no headway.  Only a miracle could set our feet on shore, he concluded. Then he recalled all the previous miracles.  He cried out to God for strength.  Half an hour later, he was still rowing and making progress.  Somehow, strength surged back into his shoulders and arms.  The raft rolled steadily through the foam towards the shore.  Though buffeted by a rainstorm and with sharks all around, Jim brought the raft to land.  The lift of a swell worked to land the raft on the shore.  It was their first solid ground in three weeks.

A delegation of islanders soon came to their aid.  The US military was contacted and soon came to their rescue.  Johnny’s New Testament, and his faith in God, had worked to keep those men alive.  The author wrote of it in his conclusion: “I don’t think there was a man of us who didn’t thank God for that little khaki covered book.  It led us to pray, and prayer led us to safety.  I since heard that Johnny intends to become a minister after the war.  No matter how many souls he saves from the pulpit, no matter how many lives he changes for the better, he can always remember his first pulpit; an elongated rubber doughnut, painted a brilliant yellow and tossing in the trackless Pacific.”

What an incredible story of God’s protection and provision in the midst of a most hopeless situation!  Hopefully it’ll work to encourage us to trust in God all the more amidst our own struggles. 

They were much encouraged by Jesus’ admonition to not be anxious.  And if they were to not be anxious in such dire straits, how much more should we refrain from worry.  As is frequently the case in times of trouble, their situation worked to move them all to pray.  And they found as they did that our merciful God was prepared to intervene on their behalf.

We live in times of great uncertainty.  The storm clouds of pending trouble are gathering on the horizon.  Those men set a good example for us to follow of how we should all respond.  It certainly is a good time for all of us to pray for God’s wisdom and strength to meet the demands of the troubling times that are headed our way. 

It’s also instructive to note how God used one man and the Word to better the lives of everyone around him.  The most important man in that group was the man having faith in God.  The truth bound up in that little New Testament worked to dramatically change the course of events for those men.  It reminds us of what happened when the Apostle Paul sailed on board a doomed ship with his fellow passengers.  In these evil days, it’s good to be that one who is trusting God amidst the storms of life—that others might look where you are looking—that they might find salvation in Jesus, and in Him, grace and mercy to help in their time of need!

April 21

Bible Reading: John 12

John 12:10, “So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well.”

Jesus miraculously raised Lazarus from the dead.  Lazarus had been dead and lying in a cave for four days.  By His mere word, Jesus called him forth.  It was an amazing miracle that testified clearly to the true identity and glory of Jesus (John 11:40).  There were many witnesses: “Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him” (John 11:45).  There were two differing responses to that remarkable event.  There were those who believed and those who refused to accept the truth. 

The chief priests and Pharisees heard about what happened.  They “gathered the council and said, ‘What are we to do?  For this man performs many signs.  If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation’” (John 11:47).  They had no heart or concern for the truth but were concerned instead about their “place” and the earthly benefits associated with it.  The verdict of their council?  “From that day on they made plans to put him to death” (John 11:53).

The miraculous raising of Lazarus from the dead was a problem for them.  A great multitude sought after Lazarus (John 12:9).  “The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness” (John 12:17).  The word regarding Jesus was spreading. 

The light of the world came into the world—and there are but two responses to Him—come to the light (love the light) or hate the light.  John 3:19-21, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.  But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

So, the religious leaders met together and came up with a plan.  Kill Lazarus.  Put him back in a tomb.  Put a stop to his living testimony regarding Christ.  Stop the word from spreading.  Stop people from believing.  It mattered not what the truth was.  They hated the light.  He revealed things about them they didn’t want disclosed and was a threat to their livelihood.  Instead of accepting the clear testimony borne by the miracle, they plotted to put Lazarus back in the grave!

As with Lazarus, Jesus died and was entombed.  A stone, a seal, and a Roman guard were set in place to keep the light extinguished.  Their evil deed accomplished; the religious leaders rested.  But the light escaped.  The religious leaders assembled, took counsel, and bribed the soldiers to lie about what happened (Matthew 28:11-15)

Risen from the dead “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs” (Acts 1:3; 1 Corinthians 15:5-7).  Peter and John and the others were witnesses to the light.  Filled with the Spirit, they were boldly “proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” (Acts 4:2).  So, the religious leaders “gathered together” in another council (Acts 4:5).  They put Peter and John on trial and conspired again to extinguish the light of the truth (Acts 4:9).  They charged Peter and John “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus” Acts 4:18).  But the light, the witness to the truth of Jesus’ resurrection, could not be stopped.  People kept on believing.  The religious leaders kept on threatening and even murdering, the Apostles kept right on preaching (Acts 4:31, 7:57-60, 12:1-2).  And so, it has been ever since.

Light haters are always working to suppress the truth.  But the Sun still shines, as does the truth concerning the Son of God.  Lazarus lived.  Jesus now lives.  Nothing can change the truth.  You can try to shut up or lock up the witnesses, “but the Word of God is not bound” (2 Timothy 2:9)!  And not all will forever hate the Light.  Some hear the truth of the gospel—the power of God unto salvation—and believe (Romans 1:16).  They come into the light and rejoice in His glory!

You can silence the witnesses, but no one and nothing can work to silence the truth!

Last eve I paused beside the blacksmith’s door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then looking in, I saw upon the floor,
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.

“‘How many anvils have you had,’ said I,
‘To wear and batter all these hammers so?’
‘Just one,’ said he, and then with twinkling eye,
‘The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.’

“And so, I thought, the Anvil of God’s Word
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The Anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone.”

April 20

Bible Reading: John 11

John 11:43, “He cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, COME OUT!’”

John 11:44, “The man who had died CAME OUT.”

Lazarus died.  They wrapped him in grave clothes and laid him in a cave.  A stone, lying against the entrance, prevented the stench of his rotting corpse from reaching the nostrils of the living (John 11:39).  Many had come to console his sisters (John 11:19).  They all gathered together and wept.  Jesus arrived—too late, they thought, to be of any help.  “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died,” Mary said (John 11:32).  Jesus saw Mary weeping and the others weeping with her.  “He was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled” (John 11:33).  “Jesus wept” (John 11:34).

Jesus came to the tomb.  His surprising command, “Take away the stone,” was met with reluctant concern: “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days” (John 11:39).  Lazarus was dead and gone, buried, and rotting away when Jesus called him forth.

The stone was removed.  Jesus offered a prayer to thanks to God.  Then “He cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out’ and Lazarus “came out” (John 11:41-44).  At His command, life was imparted.  At His command, Lazarus came forth. 

The lost sinner is dead in his trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).  Physically, he may walk and he may breathe, but spiritually speaking, he is as dead and lifeless as Lazarus lying in that grave.  He is as utterly helpless to do anything to rectify his lost condition as Lazarus was to revive himself (Romans 5:6). There is no one on earth who can do anything to bring life to a dead soul.

“In Him was life” (John 1:4).  He has “life in Himself” (John 5:26).  He is “the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).  He came to die for sins and “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).  It was “impossible” for Him to be held in death’s power (Acts 2:24).  He is the “living One, (who was) dead… and (is) alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:18).  Those who trust in Him as Savior and Lord instantaneously pass “from death to life” (John 5:24).

How wonderful the day, believer, when life was imparted to your sin-dead soul by the Lord Jesus Christ!  Your first birth anticipated future death; re-birth brought eternal life.  Identified with Christ in His death, you were raised with Him to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).  You were “made alive together” with Him (Ephesians 2:5).  Jesus is now your life (Colossians 3:4).  You were dead!  Now you are alive in Him (Galatians 2:20)!  How did it happen?  Solely by the grace and power of the God who can even enliven dead bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14; Ephesians 2:1-10)!

“Death and the grave are never satisfied” (Proverbs 27:20, CEV), but they will gain no satisfaction in the death of one of God’s redeemed children.  He who called Lazarus from his tomb and rose triumphantly from His, will call us forth from ours.  “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).  Lazarus came forth from his tomb in earthly garb, but in Jesus’ return, the believer will experience a more glorious exodus in which He “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21).

Loved ones in Christ have departed us.  But the Day of Christ’s return draws near.  He will “descend from heaven with a cry of command… and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).  He cried out to Lazarus and Lazarus came forth.  He will come from heaven with a shout and the dead in Christ will rise up to meet Him.  Jesus, the Life-Giver, has the power to do that.  He emptied Lazarus’ tomb and will empty countless others in His return.  He says, “come forth” and they do.

The One who raised Lazarus from the dead is well able to impart life to those who place their trust in Him.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness Divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

April 19

Bible Reading: John 10

Years ago, while driving down a county road, a strange sight caught my attention.  A sheep in the adjacent field had caught its head in a wire fence.  I pulled over to the side of the road.  The sheep, stuck and confused, was crying out, “Baa, Baa,” but there were no other sheep around and no shepherd nearby to hear.  I supposed that it might have eventually freed itself, but decided to go to the nearby home and tell the owner. 

We humans are like sheep.  The Bible frequently uses this apt description.  The English dictionary does too.  Amongst the various definitions given is “a person who is too easily influenced or led.”  In other words — “vulnerable in their stupidity.”  Why would a sheep stick its head in the fence?  Didn’t it know any better?  Being stuck there, how would it then be delivered from its predicament? 

Isaiah 53:6 speaks to our need: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way.”  We’ve all gone astray.  We’ve all, in sin, made stupid choices.  We’ve wandered down dubious pathways and gotten our heads stuck in places where they didn’t belong.  The Apostle Peter likewise spoke of this human tendency to waywardness: “For you were continually straying like sheep” (1 Peter 2:25).

Jesus declared Himself to be the “Good Shepherd” (John 10:11, 14).  In contrast to others who were “not concerned about the sheep” He does care (John 10:13).  “And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).  We are, in sin, “distressed and downcast,” the good news is that there is One is sympathetic to our need.  The good shepherd came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).  “The tax-gatherers and sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him” (Luke 15:1).  They were wayward sheep in need of a shepherd who would care for them.  “Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’  And He told them a parable saying, ‘What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ (Luke 15:2-6).  He has sought us out and heaven itself rejoices once we are found (Luke 15:7).

He is the good shepherd.  He is good by nature and good in all that He does (Psalm 119:68).  His loving concern for us is without question because He has sacrificed everything for us.  King David was a shepherd and a good one.  “When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock (he) went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth” (1 Samuel 17:35).  Jesus, the good shepherd, demonstrated His loving concern in “laying down His life” that he might conquer our greatest enemies—sin and death.  Four times in eight verses, this expression, “laying down His life,” appears (John 10:11-18).  His essential goodness, as a loving and well-qualified shepherd, has been demonstrated in that He willingly gave His life for us.  No one took it from Him. He laid it down on His own initiative (John 10:17-18).  He cared that much for His wandering sheep.

In the laying down of His life, He bore our sins.  Isaiah 53:6, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”  “He gave His life, what more could He give?”  The Good Shepherd “bore our sins in His body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.  For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian for your souls” (1 Peter 2:24-25).

How good it is to have a Good Shepherd loving us and caring for us and watching over us!  From time to time, we might find ourselves, like that stupid sheep, in some pretty strange predicaments.  It’s good to know that we have in Jesus a Guardian for our souls, a Good Shepherd who cares (1 Peter 5:7). 

“Savior, like a shepherd lead us, much we need Thy tender care!”

Savior, like a shepherd lead us;
Much we need Your tender care.
In Your pleasant pastures feed us,
For our use Your fold prepare.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
You have bought us; we are Yours.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
You have bought us; we are Yours.

April 18

Bible Reading: John 9

John 9:40-41, “Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, ‘Are we also blind?’  Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”

It was an unprecedented miracle that clearly testified to the truth regarding Jesus.  When Jesus healed the man born blind, “the works of God (were) displayed in him” (John 9:3).  The blind man, his sight having been restored, testified to the unprecedented nature of the miracle: “Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind” (John 9:32).  John the Baptist had previously sent messengers to Jesus, asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another” (Matthew 11:3)?  First mentioned in His response to John was the fact that “the blind receive their sight” (Matthew 11:5).  Isaiah had prophesied of the ministry of the coming Messiah, “The eyes of the blind shall be opened” (Isaiah 35:5).  Jesus fulfilled prophesy in opening the eyes of the man born blind.  It was an “attesting sign” revealing Jesus to be “the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31).

In Jesus, “the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:9).  There are but two responses to the Light—reject Him or receive Him (John 1:11-12), love the light, or hate it (John 3:19-21; 7:7).  Both responses were clearly evident in the aftermath of the blind man’s healing.  He was healed of both physical and spiritual blindness, but the religious leaders were and remained blind to their blindness.

The man born blind had been a beggar (John 9:8).  The neighbors recognized him and saw him seeing and didn’t know what to think.  Some said that it was him, others suggested that it was merely someone who looked like him.  He kept saying, “I am the man” (John 9:10).  So, they asked him how his eyes were opened.  He attributed the work to Jesus.  So they brought the man to the Pharisees (John 9:13).

The Pharisees interrogated the man born blind, but not to find out the truth.  It was a Sabbath day when “Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes” (John 9:14), so the Pharisees had already therefore concluded that Jesus could not be the Messiah.  In fact, His previous healing on the Sabbath had given rise to their hatred of Him (John 5:16, 18).  It should be noted that the Pharisees were involved in a great hypocritical cover-up.  They had invented hundreds of petty religious laws that governed nearly every aspect of their lives.  Many of these laws had to do with what could and could not be done on the Sabbath.  They thought that in the keeping of these rules, they were made righteous, but they were not righteous.  They were “whitewashed tombs… full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27).  They were “blind guides” (Matthew 23:16) lost in sin and oblivious to their need.  They hated Jesus because He stripped away the whitewash to reveal the truth of that which lay within their hearts (John 7:7).

The religious leaders did not believe that the blind man had been healed, so they called and interrogated his parents.  To suppress the truth, the Jews had already worked to threaten, with expulsion from the synagogue, anyone confessing Jesus to be the Christ (John 9:22).  So, the parents refused to say how their son’s eyes were opened (John 9:20-21).  So, for a second time, the Pharisees interrogated the healed man.  He did not waver and spoke the truth regarding what he had experienced (John 9:24-24).  “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing,” he said (John 9:33).  The infuriated Pharisees cast him out, but Jesus found him and opened his spiritual eyes to the truth about Himself (John 9:35-41).

The blind man was twice healed of blindness (once physically and again spiritually). The religious leaders were doubly blind to the truth.  They were blind to their need and blind to the truth regarding who Jesus was.  And so are we all until the Spirit of God works to open blind eyes as He convicts of sin and witnesses to the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4; John 16:8-11, 14).  “I once was lost, but now am found; was blind but now I see” is the wonderful testimony of those who have had their eyes opened to the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6)!

It is a glorious occasion indeed when blind eyes are opened to the glory of Jesus!

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

April 17

Bible Reading: John 8

John 8:24, “Unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

Medicine has advanced to the extent that there is seemingly some kind of remedy for nearly every kind of physical affliction.  But for man’s sin problem, there is only one cure.  Set before us, in clear and succinct fashion, is a prognosis and its sole remedy.  The warning is to all since “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23).  Sin demands and deserves punishment (Romans 6:23).  God is holy and just.  A day of judgment looms in which “the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 4:6).  They will “suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

To die in one sins is to die and then stand before God with no remedy in hand.  No defense or excuse will work to deflect His wrath.  No amount of self-righteousness will stay His fury.  To die in one’s sins is to depart this life, troubled as it may be, to an existence of eternal woe.  One can only imagine the pain and suffering of such a place, where there is eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42).  There is a great chasm fixed between heaven and hell—there will be no future escape from pain or sorrow for the one who dies in his sins.

The broad path that leads to destruction is well-traveled (Matthew 7:13), and though it seems right to men, it ends in death (Proverbs 14:6).  We are all broad-path travelers by nature, delivered from that doomed path only by way of God’s intervention.

The “unless” at the beginning of our text speaks to God’s remedy.  There is a way, one way, by which certain doom can be averted.  The remedy lies in a person and is bound up in our response to Him.  The Gospel of John was written to proclaim the truth that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:30).  Seven recorded miracles testify to His deity.  Likewise, He Himself made seven “I Am” statements that affirmed His identity.  Two of these statements are in this context of our text.  In the first, Jesus declared, “I AM the light of the world” (John 8:12).  In the second He said, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”  In response to His statement the Jews “picked up stones to throw at him,” having clearly understood He was declaring Himself to be the Son of God (John 8:59; 10:31-33).  It is in this One—the divine Son of God who died for sins—that a sure remedy for sin can be found (John 1:29).  That He has done all that is needful to save us is without question.  The resurrection was proof-positive that God had accepted His once-for-all payment for sins (Romans 1:4, 4:25; 1 Peter 3:18).

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  Some years ago, a man drowned in saving his son.  His two-year-old son had fallen overboard.  The father dove into the fast-moving water and handed his son to his father-in-law, but then he slipped underwater and did not resurface.  He gave his life for his son whom he loved.  God, in love, gave His son for rebellious sinners like us—so that we might not die in our sins (John 3:16).  “Amazing love, how can it be that Thou My God shouldst die for me?”

The remedy for sin is appropriated by faith: “Unless you believe that I am He.” John’s gospel purposes to declare the truth about Jesus that “by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).  Salvation is appropriated by faith and only by faith.  90+ times the word “believe” appears in John’s gospel.  The message, from beginning to end of the gospel account, is that salvation is by faith in Him (John 1:12-13, 3:16, 3:36, 8:24, etc.).  This message—salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone—is reiterated in numerous other Scripture texts (Acts 16:31; Romans 1:16, 10:9; Ephesians 2:8-9, etc.).

What is faith but trust?  To believe in Him is to trust in Him.  He proclaimed the truth about Himself.  Some picked up stones to throw at Him… to their doom (John 8:59).  Others believed in Him and were saved (John 8:30).  Years ago, the supposedly “unsinkable” Titanic hit an iceberg and began to sink.  People donned lifejackets, and some were fortunate enough to find a seat in a lifeboat.  Those lifeboats proved lifesavers for those who got on board.  They were saved, others perished in the cold North Atlantic.  Jesus is a lifeboat to those “sinking deep in sin.”  To trust in anything else is to remain in one’s sins.  As that old song says, “You can’t get to heaven in a leaky old boat, ‘cause a leaky old boat it just won’t float.”  To refuse to “obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus’ is to face certain and inescapable doom (2 Thessalonians 1:8).  To believe in Him is to receive God’s remedy and the abundant and eternal life He alone can impart.

“Life is short… death is sure… sin is the cause… Christ the cure.”

Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law’s demands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.

April 14

Bible Reading: John 7 

John 7:37-39, “On the last day of the great feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’  Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” 

Sacrifices took place on each day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  On the great day, the last day, a procession of worshippers made their way to the temple.  When they reached the Pool of Siloam, a priest filled his golden pitcher with water.  We should note that the name “Siloam” is “Shiloh” in the Hebrew (meaning “one sent”) and was a name that spoke prophetically of the coming Messiah.  The procession then made its way to the temple and just as the priest passed through the water-gate (so named for this ceremony) he was welcomed by a three-fold blast of the Priests’ trumpets.  The priest was then joined by another, who carried the wine for the drink offering.  Both ascended the rise of the altar together and then together simultaneously poured out the water and the wine into funnels, which then led down to the base of the altar.  Immediately after ‘the pouring of water,’ the “Hallel” Psalms (113-118) were chanted by all the people.  The Feast–in every aspect—anticipated the coming Messiah (Zechariah 14:16, 8).  Year after year, for centuries, it had been observed in the hope of its ultimate future fulfillment.  

Everything in the feast pointed to the promised Messiah—the sacrifices made, water taken from the pool of Siloam, the entrance through the water-gate, the Psalms sung, etc.—but, for the most part, the multitude of thirsty souls present did not recognize that the fulfillment of promise stood in their midst.  Many in today’s world struggle to find clean, drinkable water, but even more live day-after day thirsty of soul for God.  I’ve read of those adrift at sea without water.  Ironically, they yearn to have their thirst assuaged, though encompassed by water on every side.  The problem with seawater is, of course, that it can never work to satisfy a person’s thirst.  Being filled with salt, the drinking of it results instead in a greater thirst and compounds the need.  Sin is like that.  It deceptively promises to meet our needs, but only serves to aggravate our condition.  Man’s thirst for life (restored relationship with God) can only be assuaged in Jesus Christ. 

On the last day of that great feast as the priest poured out the water—an act which anticipated the pouring out of living water through the coming Messiah — “Jesus (the Messiah) stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink’ (John 7:37).  His reference to “living water” was to the ministry of the Spirit who was to come (John 7:39).  The Spirit came at Pentecost.  He has ever since provided an inexhaustible torrent of “life” that works to enliven from within those who are born again. 

During a particularly difficult time in his missionary work in China, Hudson Taylor was blessed by the truth of this passage.  He wrote to a friend, “What, can Jesus meet my need? Yes, and more than meet it. No matter how intricate my path, how difficult my service; no matter how sad my bereavement, how far away my loved ones; no matter how helpless I am, how deep are my soul-yearnings—Jesus can meet all, all, and more than meet. He not only promises me rest—ah, how welcome that would be, were it all, and what an all that one word embraces! He not only promises me drink to alleviate my thirst. No, better than that! ‘He who trusts Me in this matter (who believeth on Me, takes Me at My word) out of him shall flow…. Can it be? Can the dry and thirsty one not only be refreshed—the parched soul moistened, the arid places cooled—but the land be so saturated that springs well up and streams flow down from it? Even so! And not mere mountain-torrents, full while the rain lasts, then dry again… but ‘from within him shall flow rivers’—rivers like the mighty Yangtze, ever deep, ever full. In times of drought brooks may fail, often do, canals may be pumped dry, often are, but the Yangtze never. Always a mighty stream, always flowing deep and irresistible!” (J. Hudson Taylor, “J. Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret”). 

As you thirst in this life for true life, look unto Jesus.  He alone can fully satisfy the heart-level needs of our God-thirsty souls.

O Jesus, joy of loving hearts,
thou fount of life, thou light of men,
from fullest bliss that earth imparts
we turn unfilled to thee again,
we turn unfilled to thee again.

We taste thee, O thou living bread,
and long to feast upon thee still;
we drink of thee, the fountainhead,
and thirst our souls from thee to fill,
and thirst our souls from thee to fill.

April 13

Bible Reading: John 6 

John 6:51, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh.” 

Jesus spoke to the multitude.  It was late, and they were hungry.  Miraculously, He multiplied the loaves and the fishes and fed them all (five thousand men, besides the women and children: John 6:10).  The people saw the miracle and assumed Him to be the prophet spoken of by Moses.  They intended to take Him by force, to make Him king (John 6:14-15).  He withdrew from them.  They followed Him.  When they found Him, they asked Him how He got there.  He responded with what is commonly referred to as “the Bread of Life” discourse. 

The context of Jesus’ message is that great miracle.  The people were seeking after Jesus, but for all the wrong reasons, as Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled” (John 6:26).  They were seeking after Jesus because He filled their bellies.  The rest of the discourse is Jesus’ corrective response. 

Prominent in the discourse are the words “life,” “live,” and “living.”  I count eighteen occurrences of these terms.  I’m reminded of that which was stated in the beginning of the gospel account — “In Him was life” (John 1:4)—this chapter is another example of the continued emphasis on this theme.  Some main points regarding the Bread of Life: 1) The Bread of Life was sent from heaven by the Living Father (John 6:32, 41, 51, 57); 2) The Bread of Life is true and living bread (John 6:32, 51); 3) The Bread of Life can impart life, those without it have “no life” (John 6:33, 35, 50, 51, 53, 54, 57, 58); 4) The Bread of Life must be “partaken of” to be of value (John 6:50, 53, 54, 56, 58). 

The people did not respond well to Jesus’ message.  His statement, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves” (John 6:53), was too difficult for them (John 6:60-61).  Many of His disciples withdrew and turned away (John 6:66).  “Jesus said therefore to the twelve, ‘You do not want to go away, do you?” (John 6:67).  “Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).  Multitudes were seeking after Jesus, but for all the wrong reasons.  They liked that he filled their bellies, but they had no interest in the Bread from Heaven which would grant them true life. 

Numerous varieties of bread are available at the local supermarket, but no bread on earth can impart spiritual life to the spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1).  And while much concern and effort in life is directed towards obtaining physical bread (food), every man’s greater and deeper need is for the true bread that can impart true life.  True life is bound up in the person of Jesus Christ.  True life = eternal life (John 17:3) = abundant life (John 10:10).  The Father and the Son have true life in themselves (John 5:26).  It is God’s prerogative to impart this “true life” on His terms.  He draws sinners to the Son (John 6:44, 65).  They believe in Him (John 6:29, 40, 47, 69) and receive eternal life as a result (John 6:40, 51, 54, 58).  He is the bread of life.  Have you partaken of Him?  To eat His flesh and drink His blood (John 6:53) is to receive Him by faith (John 1:12).  His promise?  “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).  True life, eternal and abundant, is to be had in Christ alone. 

In Jesus alone, we find the “food which endures to eternal life” (John 6:27).  He alone can satisfy man’s deepest need and desires.

Break now the bread of life, dear Lord, to me,
as once you broke the loaves beside the sea.
Beyond the sacred page I seek you, Lord;
my spirit waits for you, O living Word.

April 12 

Bible Reading: John 5 

“Do you wish to get well?”  What kind of question is that to ask of an invalid?   But that’s exactly what Jesus asked the man lying beside the pool (John 5:6). 

The man had been an invalid for 38 years.  He was paralyzed and all alone and completely helpless.  He was gathered there with a multitude of other desperate souls—blind, lame, and paralyzed.  Some manuscripts, but not the earliest and most reliable, insert the following after verse 3, “waiting for the moving of the water for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred the water: whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had” (John 5:4).  It commonly supposed that this Scripture portion was added by some copyist who wanted to explain why the people gathered there.   

We are not given further information regarding this matter, but it seems likely that some kind of superstition developed regarding the healing powers of that pool.  There were community pools in Jerusalem in that day.  Some were spring fed, which could account for the movement of the waters.  There were a lot of sick people in need of healing.  Desperation can give rise to all kinds of superstitions! 

So, in the Bethseda pool “lottery” the first one into the water won.  The prize was to the swift or the strongest or those invalids having friends who would help them get there first.  But this man had no one to help him get into the water.  When the water was stirred up, and while he was going, another stepped down before him (John 5:7).  The man had been an invalid for 38 years.  For nearly four decades, he had suffered.  Jesus saw the man and “that he had already been there a long time” (John 5:6).  And Jesus said to him, “Do you want to be healed” (John 5:6)? 

Not every sickness or malady directly results from sin, but all human maladies are rooted in original sin.  Adam and Eve sinned against God and unleashed a contagion of ills that have infected us all.  No descendant of Adam is untouched in life by the grievous consequences of the curse.  And in response, man is prone to look to all kinds of supposed solutions for deliverance.   

“Do you wish to get well?”  There is a sense in which God asks that question of us all.  In response to our sin problem, we look to a variety of solutions and rationalize or excuse our sin-sourced infirmities with an array of explanations.  A multitude of the spiritually paralyzed gather at the “pool” of superstitious and humanistic solutions to man’s besetting ills.  But if we truly do wish to get well—with respect to being cured from sin—there is but one alternative. 

Jesus did for the invalid what no one else would have been able to do.  He healed him—compassionately, instantly, and perfectly.  He didn’t need an angel’s help.  He required no “stirred up” waters.  He told the man to “get up, take up, and walk,” and that’s what the man immediately did (John 5:8-9).  Jesus is able to do the same for those paralyzed by sin (Ephesians 2:1).  He is willing and able to forgive, cleanse, and re-birth them that so that they might walk “in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).  It matters not if they’ve been a spiritual invalid for many years or few.  The presence of no external means of support is no hindrance to His ability to heal.  He alone can heal us “from all our soul’s diseases.”   

Joni Eareckson Tada suffered a paralyzing injury at a teenager.  She desperately wanted to be healed.  When friends would visit her hospital room, she would ask for them to read from John chapter 5 about the man lying by the pool.  Her sister later took her to a healing conference in Washington, DC, but no genuine healings took place there.  Discouraged and distraught, she harbored a bitter spirit.  But then she cried out to Jesus for help.  She experienced in Him a deeper healing, a healing from sin (Psalm 139:23-24).  For decades since she has testified to Jesus’ ability to grant such a healing to those who look to Him.  She has said, “Don’t be thinking that for me in heaven, the big thing will be to get my new body… I want a glorified heart (i.e., perfectly healed from sin).  On a visit to Jerusalem some years ago, she visited the pool at Bethseda.  She leaned there on the guardrail of the old ruins.  While there alone speaking to Jesus, she said, “Oh Jesus, thank you for a no request for physical healing, because the no answer to a request for physical healing has worked to purge my heart from sin.”   

None else but Jesus can heal all our souls’ diseases.

There’s not a Friend like the lowly Jesus:
No, not one! no, not one!
None else could heal all our souls’ diseases:
No, not one! no, not one!

Jesus knows all about our struggles;
He will guide ’til the day is done:
There’s not a Friend like the lowly Jesus:
No, not one! no, not one!

April 11

Bible Reading: John 4 

John 4:13-14, “Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again’.”

We kind of take it for granted.  It’s easy for most of us to get the water we need, from a faucet or from a bottle.  Not so in other parts of the world.  I’ve seen children laboring to carry large jugs of water from a creek to their home in the villages in Uganda.  Water is a necessity, and they often must work hard to get it.  Jesus spoke to the woman at the well of another kind of water, which is even more valuable.  Most live unaware of its existence.  But Jesus has worked to make it available to all. 

They couldn’t have differed more as to their station in life.  Nicodemus was a self-righteous Pharisee. The woman at the well was an immoral woman (John 4:18).  He was a religious leader; she was a despised Samaritan (John 4:9).  He came to Jesus. Jesus went to her and said, “Give me a drink” (John 4:7).  That innocuous matter then engaged them both in a discussion of serious spiritual matters.  But it should not escape our attention that Jesus, “who came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10), was not averse to conversing with a woman like the woman at the well.   The woman, being a woman and a Samaritan, was surprised that He did (John 4:9).  The disciples were likewise surprised (“They marveled that he was talking with a woman;” John 4:27).  Nicodemus and his Pharisee friends certainly would not have been seen with her (Luke 15:1-2).  But Jesus was not bound by cultural expectations or phony social distinctions.  He “came into the world to save sinners” and found in that woman one well qualified that way (1 Timothy 1:15).  His ministry and message were (and are) equally applicable to the religious and irreligious alike. 

Jesus was aware of her situation.  He said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here,” to which she replied, “I have no husband.”  Jesus then said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.  What you have said is true” (John 4:16-18).  Jesus knew all about these matters.  Later, she would testify, “He told me all that I ever did” (John 4:39).  He knew about her sins, failures, and present estate.  But none of these things worked to prevent Him from reaching out to her.  The religiously proud would have readily disapproved of and discarded her as hopeless, but Jesus valued her and spoke to her of precious spiritual truths.  God is aware of our sinful estate, but in Jesus, we find One who has sought us out nonetheless (Luke 19:10). 

The conversation between Jesus and the woman and the well was all about water.  He asked for water.  She wondered why a person such as Him would ask for that from a person such as her (John 4:9).  Jesus spoke to her of the gift of God and the living water He alone could provide (John 4:10).  He offered to her living water and said, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).   

None of us can live long without water.  Regular consumption of H2O is essential to a person’s physical health.  There is no kind of water which can forever quench a person’s thirst.  It is therefore necessary to drink again.  What is true in the physical realm holds true in the spiritual.  We are born with a thirst for God that cannot be fully satisfied in any man devised way (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  The pursuit of meaning and purpose in life apart from God is compared to drinking from a “broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).  Sin promises satisfaction, but the “fleeting pleasures of sin” leave us thirsty still (Hebrews 11:25).  The woman at the well had experienced such matters.  She had a thirst for God, but did not know how it could be satisfied. 

Jesus offered living water to her, living water that would forever satisfy her deepest longings and become in her “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). On a later date, He would stand before a multitude and declare, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). Who doesn’t thirst? Life can leave us parched of soul, but Jesus invites us to come and satiate our soul thirst in Him. The invitation is to “whoever” — religious and irreligious, men and women, Jew, Samaritan, Gentile, rich men and poor—no matter their present estate, they can have their soul needs fully met in Him. He is a “fountain of living water” to those who trust in Him (Jeremiah 2:13; Revelation 22:1). She went to the well to get water. She found Jesus there and in Him found eternal life (John 4:39-42).

“Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” –Augustine, Confessions, Book 1

Like the woman at the well, I was seeking
For things that could not satisfy.
And then I heard my Savior speaking—
“Draw from My well that never shall run dry.”

Chorus:
Fill my cup, Lord; I lift it up Lord;
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul.
Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more.
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole.