BLESSED IS HE WHOSE STRENGTH AND DELIGHT IS IN THE LORD
(John 20: 30) “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
John 20:30 was written to educate by evidences of repetition to provide truth to the law-keeping Pharisees of the Divine Sonship of Jesus. The Pharisees were so pride-filled about keeping their 613 laws, they did not want to believe that this man Jesus could be their long awaited Messiah. They rejected the truth presented to them and so committed
THE BLASPHEMY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT:
Jesus performed many miracles for them and he did this to prove – beyond any reasonable doubt – that He was the Jewish Messiah spoken of by the prophets. They refused to see the truth.
He was demon possessed they said, not just by any old demon but by the prince of demons “Beelzebub” “The Lord of the flies”.
“How could this man be the Messiah if He is demon possessed,” they argued between one another, and so, they rejected Him and committed the unpardonable sin – the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. That was the judgment Jesus pronounced upon the Jewish Nation that day. It was for that time in the history of the Jewish nation and not for us today. (Matthew 12)
John 20:30 does not make provision to engage in extra-biblical activity. John confirms Jesus is the Son of God and proved He was the Messiah by providing a many demonstrations to the unbelieving Jews by way of His miracles.
If you are accused of committing the unpardonable sin – the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit – when with Bible in hand you stand against extra-biblical phenomena, you can see it was a national sin and not an individual one. It is not for us today. It is for the Jewish Nation at that time.
Today all sins can be forgiven (past present and future) to anyone who comes to accept Jesus as Saviour. We are saved by faith in 1 Corinthians 15: 1-4 through God’s grace – plus nothing.
To excuse extra-biblical activity (John 21:25) has been used to justify many excesses of mystical experiences which are not written.
….”Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”
It was interesting to discover that following the arrival of this manuscript in the British Museum it was subjected to ultraviolet ray treatment. This revealed, beyond dispute, that the scribe of the manuscript originally omitted this verse and brought his writing to an end after verse 24. Later he erased the concluding ornamental colophon, added verse 25, and inserted a fresh colophon after it. There is evidence, that the scribe who copied the original manuscript inserted verse 25 and the opinion is, that it is from another authority. It is considered to be unlikely the original omission would have been accidental. see 26
As there is evidence that this verse was added by the person who first copied and bound the four Gospels together in codex or book form and when he had come to the end of his task, it may be, he would think the Gospel of John and the other Gospels contained only fragmentary selections of the doings and sayings of Jesus. It would appear this scribe may have been moved to give playful expression to his observations in the somewhat grandiose statement of this verse.
The scribe who made the decision to add (V 25 to John 21) wanted to demonstrate by forceful description a demonstration of our Saviour’s life and provide further confirmation He was the Son of God. 27. It is an “hyperbole” a word whose Greek roots give us clear understanding, meaning “an overshooting, or excess”. An extravagant overstatement used for emphasis and not meant to be taken literally.
When looked at this from either perspective there was never was any intention by John the Apostle that people would use this Scripture to justify activities which cannot be proven in Scripture.
We must test Scripture first and ask – “Is this spiritual experience biblical or not biblical?”
If God’s people in John’s day had trembled and shaken and fallen over backwards this would have been recorded. It has not been recorded and this has to be our protection.
The happenings of the establishment of the church at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was released to the whole world (both to Jews and Gentiles) fifty days after Jesus was resurrected and ten days following His ascension provided a dramatic background to address an international audience with the prophetic word spoken by the prophet Joel. This would be fulfilled during the Great Tribulation.
The Holy Spirit evidenced His presence by enabling those present to speak in languages unknown to them “Parthians, Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotania, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, Cretans and Arabs – we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Acts 2:10-11).
Peter confirms (Acts 2:33) that Jesus authorised the release of the Holy Spirit which resulted in the expression of true ethnic languages (Acts 2:6) which were understood by a huge international assembly.
So began the birthday of the Church Age which will conclude with the Rapture of the Church saints. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The Rapture will come at some time prior to “the day of the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 5). Jesus will arrive in the atmospheric heavens and all born again believers will rise and in a moment of recognition we will be with Him in the clouds.
Do not confuse the Christians’ great hope with 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-11. This Scripture refers to “The day of the Lord” which description refers to the Great Tribulation.
Since the time God created a people to bring back to Himself He provided means of communication by inspiration to men and women who sought to love Him and know Him more. The cultural diversity of faithful men and women of God provided the colour and form under the control of a Mighty and awesome God to faithfully record the powerfully precious Words contained within the pages of the Bible we know today. They must be taken as authoritative direction for our very lives.
(Psalm 1: 2-3)… “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. he is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”
Note too that the first word is “blessed”. This can be seen as a Beatitude as in the Sermon on the Mount.
We are blessed if we keep His testimonies and seek him with our whole heart. If we put our trust in Him and He chastens us we know we are blessed because God disciplines those He loves.
What is the disposition of our heart? Jesus said, “The pure in heart……shall see God.”
Jesus promised that when we accept him as the Saviour of our souls, He will invade our personality in such a way that the central agency governing our emotions and intellect become pure and clean. For some it is an instantaneous transformation an immediate turning away from smoking, alcohol and other bondages however for most it can seem to be a daily struggle submitting to God’s work of sanctification. The work of salvation to glorification is a life-time of overcoming the flesh to bring about the cessation of evil thoughts and deeds.
I do not wish to suffer in a continuing spiritual schizophrenia where there is a battle raging within my character. My sin nature elevating itself above the spiritual man now indwelling me. I must submit to God and trust Him to cleanse me and make me more like Jesus. I used to try (strive) so to make myself live up to expectations of other people. It was a considerable time before I realised what a “man-pleaser” I really was. I always tried to do as much as I could to please everyone. What wonderful freedom I have found when I just try to please Jesus and place His plans for me before man’s opinions and make Him my grace and sufficiency.
In Matthew 5: 11 Jesus tells us that it is for His sake alone we have been blessed. How blessed are we who have made clean by His blood. The precious promise in His ongoing work of sanctification is that no matter how difficult we find God’s saving work to be, we will be with Him in His heaven. We are assured of our eternal abode and Jesus has already prepared a place for us.
The blessings appropriated when we were blessed with the gift of eternal life are written in the Beatitudes ( Matthew 5: 3-11) and when God says eternal life it means eternal. It isn’t something God gives on Monday, takes away Tuesday to give back Wednesday and to lose again on Thursday then receive it again on Friday – man that’s crazy! So said one earnest Christian to me to explain our eternal security. I want to assure the reader that nothing – absolutely nothing, will ever separate us from Him. We are eternally secure. Our security is not based on how sinless we are, or how much money we give, or evidences of good works. Our security is based solely on what Christ did for us on that terrible cross. It is based on His perfect righteousness being exchanged for all our unrighteousness from the moment we believed and said “Jesus I believe that you died on that terrible cross for me”. I believe that you died and were buried and rose again in accordance with 1 Corinthians 15: 1-4. That is the gospel, and it is by no other that we are saved. Praise His Holy and wonderful name – Jesus our precious Lord and Master, Saviour and Friend.
Those whom God has accepted in the Beloved, those He has called, He will sanctify by His Spirit and through His grace which began in our hearts the moment we believed and were saved. It is only God’s continuing work in us which ensures we can never completely, or at the end, fall away from this state of grace. God will persevere with us by the work of His Holy Spirit to will and to do until the day we see Jesus in glory.
The very best gift we will ever receive is the blood of Jesus spilled for our sin. The wonderful sacrificial gift of God’s Son, Christ Jesus, who died and more that, was raised to eternal life, and intercedes for us before God. (Romans 8:34) This alone has provided us with life for all eternity. We are secure now and forever – eternally. Nothing, absolutely nothing, not even our own sin can ever snatch us out of our Father’s hand. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present time or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”