Hope in Christ

Over these last few months, even as I’ve been enjoying my new role as a stay-at-home-mom to our son, I’ve been heavily burdened by the darkness and injustice of the world we are raising him in. It seems like I’m being confronted daily by new evidence of prejudice and animosity in the world. It’s hard not to fall into a trap of pessimistic thinking and lose hope for the future.

You may be in that place too: struggling to find hope for an uncertain future for yourself, your family, your community, or the wider world. Hopelessness is a real temptation, but, as Christians, we have an unshakable hope that is built on the cornerstone of Christ. When we’re on the verge of despair, we need to plunge into God’s Word to soak in the reality of who Jesus is. We must receive the hope that the Gospel offers to a world broken by sin. 

The passage we’re looking at today, John 8:12-30, is a conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees, which reveals essential, hope-giving truths about who Jesus is. 

After Jesus’ bold declaration in John 6 that he is the Bread of Life, the Jewish people became divided over his teachings (John 7). Some people believed him and began to follow him, but many of the other Jews thought that he was a heretic who was leading people away from the truth. The Pharisees fell into the latter group. They were so enraged by his public ministry that they wanted him dead and were plotting to have him killed. On many occasions, they publicly debated with Jesus over his teachings, attempting to discredit him.

In John 8:12-30, Jesus reveals foundational truths about himself that should inspire faith and hope in the Christian: Jesus sets us free from darkness, his authority is from God the Father, and to know him is to know God.

Jesus Sets Us Free From Darkness

12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 

Jesus certainly wasn’t pulling any punches here, was he? He boldly proclaimed something John previewed for the reader back in chapter 1: Christ is the source of life and of light in the world which will never be overcome (John 1:4-5). The powers of darkness can never truly kill those who have been filled with the new life he offers through his death on the cross, and the light of the truth of the Gospel can never be snuffed out. Followers of Christ are reborn and filled with the Holy Spirit, enabled to trust and serve God and becoming more like Christ as they prepare for eternal life after death. 

Jesus' Authority is from the Father

When the Pharisees responded, they totally bypassed the substance of what Jesus said and instead question his authority to make such a statement about himself at all:

13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” 14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 17 In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. 18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.”

The Pharisees were trying to trip Jesus up in something he said before: that his testimony about himself could not be true unless it was corroborated by another witness. This happened during another conversation they'd had about Jesus’ authority back in John 5. There, Jesus said, “30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. 31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.” The religious leaders were trying to discredit Jesus by throwing his words back in his face, but (once again) their hearts were blind to the truth and they missed the most important part of what he was saying. In John 5:30-47 and again here in 8:12-30, Jesus’ openly acknowledged that his authority doesn’t come from himself, it comes from God (5:36-37, 8:16,18,28-29). Christ knew that he had been sent by God to live on Earth and that he would return to him after his death and resurrection (v. 14) to reign with him forever in eternity. While the Pharisees judged people according to their own standards and self-imposed rules, Jesus’ judgments (and his authority to make them) are just and perfect because they originate from God (v. 15-18, 26, 28-29). 

To Know Jesus is to Know the Father

19 They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 

Without equivocation, Jesus tells them that if they really knew him, they would know God too. John already primed us for this idea in 1:18: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” The Father and Son are in perfect unity with one another. To know one is to know the other. When we have eyes to see the truth of who he is, the Son will help us to see the Father as well. Through faith in Christ's sacrifice on our behalf, we have a relationship with him and are able to truly know God and be perfectly known by him. 

The Pharisees were woefully blind to all of these truths about Jesus, and he warned them of the consequences of their unbelief:

21 So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” 22 So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” 

Because they did not believe that he was the Messiah, the Son of God, the Pharisees were destined to die in their sins without access to eternal life with Jesus. As the religious elite of their day, they were pretty shocked and confused by his teaching:

25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” 27 They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

Everything Jesus said and did was in obedience to and for the glory of God the Father. Though the Pharisees were blind to this, Jesus knew that they would understand the truth when he was lifted up: at his death and resurrection and through his glorification at the Second Coming. The Pharisees hearts were too hard to receive Jesus' teaching at that time, but many other people who heard him responded and believed (v. 30). 

It’s easy to become discouraged and even filled with despair when we put our hope in relationships, material security, or world affairs. As believers, we have hope because we know that Christ has brought light into the darkness of our wayward hearts, rescuing us from our slavery to sin. He was sent by God with complete divine authority to heal the world's brokenness for his own glory. Christ's death took the punishment our sins deserved so that we could be redeemed and restored to fellowship with God, knowing and being perfectly known by him. 

Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word. We too often take for granted how blessed we are to be able to read and study the eternal truths found in the scriptures. Thank you for sending Jesus to deliver us from the darkness of sin, redeeming us so that we could be a part of your family. Thank you for the everlasting hope we have because of your goodness. Amen.

Resource: 

“I am the Light of the World” by John Piper on Desiring God.

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Respond

How do you remind yourself of these truths about Christ's identity when you are tempted to give up hope? Which of these is most encouraging to you right now, and why?

Craving the Bread of Life

As a new stay-at-home mom with a newborn to care for, I find myself constantly battling against chronic tunnel vision. It’s easy to get so focused on caring for and bonding with my son that I forget about important things like doing the laundry (never mind folding it), responding to important emails, or even eating meals. 

This tunnel vision impacts my spiritual life as well. During the long days and nights of caring for our son, I might sporadically toss up a few quick prayers for strength, energy, or patience when we’re having a rough day, but I neglect to devote time and energy to seeking God in prayer and asking Him to change my heart in areas where I’m struggling with sin. I’m so focused on trying to make it through the day and balance my priorities as a homemaker that I mostly seek God with immediate needs and rarely with a desire for sanctification or worship of the Father.

You don’t have to be a stay-at-home mom (or any kind of mom at all) to feel the same way. Job stress, a hectic schedule, health problems, or even the monotony of the daily grind can cause us to lose sight of the transformative work that Christ has done, and is continuing to do, in our lives through the Holy Spirit. We have been given abundant, eternal life because of the Cross, and yet we plod along, day to day. We seek God for what he can do to make our lives easier now and forget the value of what he has already done.

“I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35, 48)

Today, we’re continuing our study of the the “I Am” statements of Jesus in John, meditating on Jesus’ as our “Bread of Life,” as he describes himself in chapter 6 of this gospel. Like us, the crowds of people Jesus was teaching were so focused on what Jesus could do to improve their daily lives that they couldn’t comprehend the eternal, priceless value of the Gospel.

This teaching took place just after Jesus had miraculously fed the five thousand (6:1-14). The Jewish crowds who had witnessed this miracle were stirred up into a frenzy. They planned to declare Jesus their king, which likely would’ve led to all-out war with the Romans authorities who occupied the land at the time. Jesus and his disciples had evaded the mob and then split up. The disciples started across the Sea of Galilee in a boat first and Jesus followed them, walking on water in the middle of a storm to meet them near the middle. After recovering from their initial shock and fear, the disciples gladly took Jesus into the boat, then found that they had suddenly reached land on the other shore. 

The crowd continued to pursue them, however; they caught up with Jesus the next day and began to question him: 

22 On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 

Jesus didn’t even acknowledge their question, but scolded them for materialistic motivations they had for following him:

26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 

Instead of recognizing the spiritual significance of the miracle of the bread and fish, the people who had been there were looking for more free food! They were so focused on their stomachs, they couldn’t see how Jesus’ miracle revealed his divine identity. 

Jesus continued admonishing them, saying:

27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 

He encouraged them not to focus their earthly efforts on obtaining literal food (which will eventually rot and can only sustain a person for a short time), but to seek eternal “food” from the Son of Man, Jesus. This is not to say that they were to stop working entirely or stop using their earnings to buy bread. Instead, Jesus is encouraging them to their focus from acquiring material security and put their hope in God's eternal provision in Christ.

Once again, the crowd misunderstood what Jesus had said:

28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

The people mistook Jesus’ reference to “work” to mean that they needed to please God with works in order to earn this eternal sustenance. Jesus corrected them, stating that the “work of God” is to believe in the One he sent: Christ. God offers us the treasure of everlasting life which he freely gives to those who simply believe in the Son and receive the forgiveness of sins that he offers. We will still have to work to put food on the table and a roof over our heads, but our hope and security will be in God's provision, not the labor of our hands.

Finally, the crowd caught on to the fact that Jesus was telling them to believe in him as the one sent from God. Apparently, however, they had been underwhelmed by the feeding of the five thousand, because they immediate demanded more miracles as further "proof" before they would believe in him:

30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 

The Jews pointed out that miraculous food was nothing new to their people, whose ancestors had eaten manna from Heaven during their wanderings in the wilderness. They challenged Jesus to produce a greater miracle, since feeding a crowd of people for one meal on a single day seemed small compared to an entire nation being fed for 40 years.

Jesus responded:

32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus reminded them that the manna their ancestors ate in the wilderness was from God, not from Moses, and that the manna in the wilderness was a sign to point them to the true bread that God would give them from heaven. That true bread came in the form of a person: “he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (Spoiler alert: it's Jesus.)

Of course, the Jews were still thinking with their stomachs, so they thought he was talking about the kind of food that sustains the physical body. Instead, Jesus was offering himself as the eternal nourishment they needed for their bodies and souls:

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 

Jesus taught them that belief in God’s Son leads to eternal life (v. 40), and that the bread he would give to the world was his very flesh: his body, broken on the cross for the sins of the world (v. 50-51). To believe in Jesus and receive his sacrifice on our behalf is to partake of Jesus' flesh and blood and be filled with life and with the Spirit:

55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 

Because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives (Christ abiding in us), believers have the opportunity to learn more of God and continue to be sanctified: remade into the image of Christ, God's perfect son. We abide in Christ, filled with the peace and security of our salvation and God's provision for our every need. 

When we get stuck living day to day, putting our hope in the fragile security of material plenty, we pass over the abundance God freely offers us. We choose trinkets over treasures. We fail to partake of the hope and security we have been freely given through Christ's death for our sins. We don't crave the Bread of Life.

So how do we break free? Fasting? Service? Meditation on God's Word? How do we change our focus and transform our desires so that we pursue the Bread of Life above all else?

The short answer is: we don't. We simply can't pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and change our hearts by sheer force of will. All the spiritual disciplines in the world will not transform our desires or grow us in godliness if we don't begin by asking the Father to do that work in us. God, through the Holy Spirit, is the one who does this good work in us (Philippians 1:6). The Holy Spirit transforms our sinful desires into godly ones, producing spiritual fruit in our lives (Galatians 5:16-24). Then, and only then, will we be set free from our worldly tunnel vision and begin to desire and seek Jesus, the Bread of Life.

Father, we are too easily distracted by the fleeting security this world offers us. Our hearts desire possessions and status more than they desire you, and we fail to abide in your provision. Holy Spirit, change our desires. Transform our hearts to truly believe in and treasure your Son and the truth of the Gospel. Teach us to abide in you and to trust in Christ as our source of life. Amen.

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Respond

Do you struggle to desire the Bread of Life? In what areas are you putting your hope in your resources instead of in God?

God Remembers Us

It was the day before Thanksgiving, November 23rd. I’d just finished a workout and was about to head for the shower when my phone rang. All at once, my plans for the day (and Thanksgiving, and the weekend, and the next several weeks…) went out the window. Our adoption agency was calling to tell me that our baby boy (you know, the one due in mid-December) was coming today. 

My husband and I were suddenly plunged into the chaos of trying to catch a flight to the other side of the country on the busiest travel day of the year. We were excited to finally meet our little boy and his amazing birth mom, but there was so much to arrange and plan in such a short period of time. Birth mom and baby were both having some worrisome symptoms, so our little boy was delivered via emergency c-section before we could even leave the house for the airport. We saw the first picture of him right before we got on our flight; he was covered in tubes and wires because he’d come too early, We were happy, but worried, and more than a little overwhelmed.

The first picture we saw of our boy.

We met our son and his birth mama on Thanksgiving morning. The days and weeks that followed were full. We loved on our son’s birth mama and spent hours and hours sitting by his bed in the NICU as he gained the strength he needed to be discharged. Stuck in a strange city all the way across the country, God’s provision was evident. Frustrations were plentiful, but God mercifully provided for our physical, financial, emotional, and spiritual needs as we waited for our little boy to grow strong enough to leave the hospital, and then for permission from the government to travel home with him. After exactly three weeks, we finally made it home to Oregon with our son.

Looking back over the past few months and years, I am amazed at how God orchestrated our journey to parenthood to be one big story about how He never forgot us.

All along the way, as Jason and I dealt with infertility and then with the ups and downs of the adoption process, I struggled to hope in God. It was hard to believe that He was hearing my prayers to be a mom when the nursery was still empty. Sometimes, it seemed like He’d just forgotten. 

But, through more than four years of foiled plans and uncertainty, I’ve learned to look for evidence of God's grace in the small things, and trust that unanswered prayers don't mean that God has forgotten about me. God does not forget His people in their distress. So many stories from His Word testify to this:

• He remembered** Noah in the flood and caused the flood waters to subside (Genesis 8:1).

• He remembered Abraham, and saved his cousin, Lot, during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:29).

• He remembered Rachel (Genesis 30:22) and Hannah (1 Samuel 1:19) and allowed both women to conceive in spite of their barrenness.

• He remembered his people, Israel, and saved them from their enslavement in Egypt (Exodus 2:23-25).

That passage from Exodus 2 is a particularly poignant description of how God loves his people in their suffering, as he responds to the cries of His people during their enslavement in Egypt:

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
Exodus 2:23-25

Isn’t that beautiful? God heard them. He remembered his promises to them. He saw them. He knew their suffering.

God heard our prayers for a child and saw our grief through infertility and the long adoption process.  He was working behind the scenes for our good and His glory. He knew our pain. He always remembered us. 

That’s how we settled on our son’s name: Zachariah, “God has remembered.” To remind ourselves, and to testify to everyone, that God never forgets His people in their distress.

We are overjoyed by the abundant blessing of being Zachariah’s parents. He is a sweet reminder of God’s constant faithfulness.

**Being omnipotent and all, God can hardly forget anything. So, don't be confused when the Bible talks about God remembering something or someone. God doesn't remember like when I finally figure out where I put my missing cell phone; He remembers, never having forgotten in the first place!

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Respond

Have you ever felt forgotten by God? Where do you find reminders that God always remembers you?