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LESSON 4
MAKING CLEAR THE WORDS
TALKING POINTS:
John 17: 8, “For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.”
The struggle for all teachers is to get the attention of the students. That may be accomplished through several different techniques, depending upon student’s level of interest. Some need less motivation than others. The teacher engaged in teaching these students will follow whatever educational pattern necessary to make the lesson plain. That pattern will be similar to this:
1.Say It – to the students
2.Illustrate It – to the students
3.Demonstrate It – to the students
4.Rehearse It – by the students
5.Practice It – by the students
6.Live It – by the students
7.Say It – to others
8.So that the process continues to repeat itself.
Students in Jesus’ day, and in many centuries before and after, didn’t have a way to make notes and neither did teachers have handouts, dry erase boards or even PowerPoint to make their presentation. Teachers relied on repetition and hands on training to educate the student. Such students became apprentices until they mastered the skill. In like manner, the apostles served Jesus as apprentices during His three year ministry.
Even though Jesus had given God’s word to His disciples during His ministry, they still needed a method to help them remember. That aid came in the form of the “Helper” who was sent to remind them of the things they had seen and heard. The integrity of the Word of God was too important to leave to the faulty memory of mere mortals. The apostles needed help. The help they received resulted in the fully inspired delivery and recording of the word of God. The work of inspiring the apostles to deliver the word of God without error ended in the first century. When the word was fully and completely revealed the work of inspiration stopped.
The integrity of the presentation of the word in the first century and its subsequent preservation is of such quality that the assistance the Helper offers today is limited to what can be garnered from reading the written word. Any help offered to the apostles in remembering the word Jesus taught was limited to them so that it could be recorded for all posterity and the final product is to be found in the written word. He does not offer the same assistance today that He did to the apostles of the first century. Instead, He has presented a book that lacks nothing in what it offers the believer. The contents of this book can make the believer grow in faith and understanding making their faith and understanding to be equal to that of the apostles and prophets of the first century. This written word is equal in power to the previously spoken word and lacks nothing. The aid that is offered now by the Helper to believers comes only in the form of the written word, previously recorded by the apostles with the assistance of that Helper. The Helper reveals nothing directly or personally to believers today and offers no assistance apart from the Word. The work of miraculous revelation is complete, having been completed in the first century a.d. We have the distinct advantage today of having the full recorded word in one book for review and understanding, which is quite different from that possessed in the first century when Christians had only one letter and a collection of memories. The written word is now fully capable of building faith and hope and saving souls and preparing them for eternity. If our understanding today is incomplete, it is because we have only read part of the message, have closed our minds or we listen to someone else.
1)“I have given.” Inspiration is technically described by the three words, “I have given.” What was given was not the word of God in thoughts, concepts or ideas, but in words. God had not only selected the subject, but also the words to correctly convey the intent, message and power of the Word. The words were so carefully selected that they literally become the embodiment of God. In this case, to “see” by Word is to see God. If we were to change the words used, we would alter the presentation of the nature and power of God which was delivered to man and nullify its power.
What Jesus gave was the interpretation of the Law of Moses, a fulfillment of the Old Law prophecies and a preview of the Gospel. In doing so He endorsed the writings of Moses and the prophets and demonstrated the process of inspiration.
The process or delivery of inspiration is described in John 16: 5-15. It came from the Father and was given to the Son and was then given to the Spirit who gave it to apostles. The word passed through the hands of all three members of the Godhead, thus having the ultimate stamp of approval of all three. This is why we cannot cherry-pick what we want from scripture. If God personally passed the Word down to man, then man does not have the freedom of deciding what to believe or not believe. The Bible is either all from God, or none of it is. A common practice today is to cherry pick from the Bible what we think is original what has been added by man. When using this method, what is typically selected as original is what agrees with, or at least does not dispute, our personal philosophies. If it disagrees with our thinking then it must be a late addition. The extent of our obedience shows our true belief on this. We must believe that if God had the power and took the time to fully reveal His will for man that He also would not leave it to the ravaging tendencies of man to slice, dice and destroy and cherry pick scripture according to the latest social or personal value system. He would have providentially used man and the influential powers of Heaven to preserve the full integrity that Word. God has the power and fully exercises them to make the best of a bad situation and preserve His word for all posterity.
Cf. 1 Corinthians 2: 2-13; 2 Timothy 3: 16, 17; 1 Peter 3: 15; Galatians 3: 16; Jude 3
(NOTE: Galatians 3: 16 is used here to make the point of the degree to which God would go to make a point based upon a word.)
“Given” equals a handing off of something. In this case it is the handing off of the Word of God, passing it to the disciples, making them responsible for the ownership and delivery of the Word. They became stewards of God and were given the job to not just teach, but to commit; not just to hear, but to accept and treasure; not just to share, but protect. God’s word became their word and the world’s acceptance of God would stand or fall on the integrity of the men who delivered it to the world in His behalf. This is why Jesus said, “That the world may believe on Me through their word” and “That the world may know that you have sent me.” (John 17: 21, 23)
Grammatically, when “word” is plural, i.e. “words,” it refers to every single word spoken (in this case the words of God). When “word” is singular, i.e. “word”, it refers the collective word spoken (in this case the word of God). In this verse Jesus says that He has give to them the “words” which you have given me, meaning that He delivered not just the volume of the book, but the words, one by one. This is another way of saying that dedication to the single word defines the level of commitment and spirituality the Christian is to have toward the Bible.
Usage in John:
Words: 3: 34; 5: 47; 6: 63; 8: 20, 30, 47; 9: 40; 10: 21; 12: 47, 48; 14: 10, 24; 15: 7
If the revealed word is itself the embodiment of God, then we would expect the glory, attributes and personality of God to come through. Just as it is possible to learn that God exists by understanding nature, it is more possible to learn the identity of that creator God by reading the word He revealed. To receive the Word is to receive God and to know the word is to know God. The more we know of the word, the more we learn of God. The more ignorant we are of the word, the more ignorant we are about God.
The expression “you sent me” occurs five times in this prayer (verses 8, 18, 21, 23, 25). Believing this fact is central to discipleship. It is not the same as the common expression, “Receive God into your hearts,” which is used of mere consenting of faith. To believe that God sent Jesus is to accept everything Jesus said in such a way that we cannot be happy in our life unless we are working for or talking about Jesus. Obedience is central to the happy Christian. A Christian who does not obey is not a Christian.\
It is imperative that we understand the importance and impact of Divine inspiration. The extent of inspiration is found in the details of the noun, verb, subject, number agreement within sentence structure and word choice. Remembering that God’s word will judge us perhaps will help us be more careful in how we treat the Word. We cannot afford to dismiss the Word lightly or treat it with impunity.
Usage in John:
Receive = Believe: Jn. 1: 7, 12, 50; 2: 11, 21; 3: 12, 15, 16, 18, 36; 4: 21, 39, 41, 42, 50; 5: 24, 44, 46, 47; 6: 29, 35, 40, 47; 6: 69; 7: 38
2)“I came forth from YOU.” Jesus is not saying that the Father created Him or that His origin is at the point of birth. He is speaking of His departure point, the “country” from which He came. He has clearly taught within this chapter that He came forth from Heaven and from God. He was not just a son of man, but THE Son of Man who is also known as the Son of God. He is the Holy One of God, the savior of man. (1 Tim. 2:5)
Usage in John
Send: Jn. 3: 17; 13: 20; 14: 26; 15: 26; 16: 7; 20: 21
3)“Believed that You sent me.” The disciples accepted the mission and made it their own. The same must be true with us. We do not become involved until we become invested. His identity is NOT confined to a human womb. He is not just flesh and blood. He is greater than the sum of all human parts. His foolishness is wiser than man’s wisdom. How we feel about Jesus is governed by how we feel about God. Our acceptance and belief in Jesus is measured by our acceptance and belief in the words of the Father. Knowledge begets belief and belief begets knowledge. We cannot believe what we do not know. We cannot practice what we have not learned. The more solidly His truth lives in our heart, the more endurance we have in times in persecution or ill health. The weaker our belief, the more likely we are to run when troubled or in doubt. Our belief needs to be determined by God’s truth, not by the rocks that are turned over by archaeologists or the endorsements given by “intellectuals.” When belief is shallow is when we hide behind the blame of hypocrites. When belief is strong is when we are like the tree that is planted by the water. We can safely sleep in the keel of the boat when storms rage.
Usage in John:
Believed: Jn. 2: 11, 22, 23; 3: 18; 4: 39, 41; 4: 50, 53; 5: 46; 7: 30, 31, 48; 8: 30, 31; 10: 42; 12: 37, 42 (leaders believed but were not saved because they were afraid to confess); 16: 27; 20: 8, 29
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