John – Gospel of Recovery
Chapters 1 – 4
– Ministry by G. A. Rainbow

John's unique presentation of the Lord Jesus has always held a peculiar charm for saints throughout the centuries, and no less so in our day.

Since the beginning of the revival of the testimony to Christ and the assembly – c. 1827 – there has been a wealth of valuable ministry on John's gospel.

• This is still available in published notes of readings and addresses as well as in expository writings.

These notes – the substance of a series of readings – make no claim to supersede the distinctive ministry of the past,

• but it is believed that they have a definite bearing on the present situation.

Proceeding on the understanding that John's gospel was intended for our time,

• it became evident that a pattern was imprinted on the whole gospel account which delineated not only the public ecclesiastical failure but, just as clearly, the divinely ordered way and means of recovery.

G. A. R.

There is strong internal support for the late date of writing in the Lord's own words to Peter about himself and John – 21: 18-24.

• Further confirmation comes in the gospel's opening, "In the beginning" – eternity – in contrast with the epistle's, "That which was from the beginning" of Jesus' ministry.

• These phrases suggest an audience personally unfamiliar with matters from the outset, and therefore appeal to the authoritative source of truth even though many years have elapsed. John 1: 1; 1: John 1: 1. Compare Matthew 19: 1-4

When John wrote, the public ruin of the church was already a fact.

• This term has been unjustly criticized by some who are unaccustomed, as JND said, to "think in Scripture".

• A comparison of the habitual failure of man throughout the Old Testament, when placed in varying situations of responsibility, with the existent or predicted state of the church publicly, especially in the later apostolic writings, should remove any misapprehension.

Let us then consider the major evidences of the public breakdown.

• Clericalism

• in the leading of worship, the exercise of ministry or administration, by certain persons as distinct from other members of the body of Christ.

It is not based on divine choice and spiritual qualifications but on a secular-style education and human approval.

Clericalism sets aside

• the sovereignty of the Spirit in the assembly,
• the rights of the Lord over His servants,
• the priesthood of believers,
• and the functioning both of the gifts and of the body.

• Sectarianism

Sectarianism is the formation of partisan groups on a wider or narrower basis than the body of Christ.

Such groups often identify themselves by various unscriptural names, denying the sufficiency of His Name or arrogate to themselves names which belong to the whole assembly.

• They gather around the teachings of men, various practices as to baptism and church government, or on the basis of nationality.

Sectarianism

• dishonours the Name of Christ,
• denies the unity of the one body,
• separates brethren unscripturally,
• fosters ecclesiastical snobbery,
• incites contempt for other believers,
• and causes the world to mock.

• Ritualism

Ritualism is the investing of baptism, the Lord's Supper or the worship of God, with magical or idolatrous qualities or the turning of them into hollow ordinances devoid of any spiritual meaning.

• Rationalism

Rationalism is the intrusion of the mind of man into the things of God.

• It ignores both the Person and power of the Spirit of God by asserting the ability of fallible and finite man to judge the Scriptures – and even God Himself.

• Earthliness and Worldliness

Earthliness and Worldliness – the twin roots of the baneful weeds of clericalism, sectarianism, ritualism and rationalism – entered the public church very early through the acceptance and adoption of Judaistic and pagan practices.

The heavenly hope and character of the assembly were given up, allowing it to be organized as an earthly institution, with its emphasis on buildings and outward observances, and even permitting the celebration of heathen festivals under Christian names.

The patronage of the state and the world is sought and accepted as is political power and influence through lobbying and voting.

• Legal incorporation, acceptance of subsidies and tax exemptions, and acting as agents of the state in performing marriages, are other undeniable evidences of an unholy alliance with the world.

Boards, chairmen, committees, parliamentary procedure instead of dependence on the Spirit, appointments made on the basis of natural or business qualifications, denominational structures and seminaries –

• these all result from adopting the standards and practices of the world rather than abiding by divine principles as set out in the Scriptures.

Some 60 years later, when he wrote his gospel, the Christian profession had been engulfed by spiritual declension and moral darkness.

• In view of this John, guided by the Holy Spirit, recounts certain selected signs along with many of Jesus' encounters with official opposition, as well as His private communications with His own.

• He does this to confirm and strengthen those who were confused and confounded by the ruin which surrounded them.

John's choice of words, and the strong moral contrast he draws with them, contribute to his purpose.

• Such words as 'believe, Father, glory, glorify, life, light, love, true, truth, witness, works, world', are used more often in John than in the other three gospels combined; 'know' is used almost as many times.

Although it is able to make wise unto salvation, John's gospel is not a mere source for gospel texts.

• As "every Scripture", it is also "divinely inspired and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, fully fitted to every good work", 2 Timothy 4: 15-16.

The message of John is just as important to us in our day as it was to those for whom he immediately wrote.

• It is not only pressing to know the certainty of those things in which we have been instructed;

• it is also imperative that we know the absolute dependability of Him in whom we have believed, and that we cling to the One who has the words of eternal life. Luke 1: 4; John 6: 66-69; 20: 30-31.

John's special and unique perspective on the Lord Jesus as the Word, as the Son, and as to the eternal life of which Jesus spoke, will come out as the gospel unfolds.

However it will be of value to set out in its context the well-known and oft-quoted statement which is traditionally attributed to J. N. Darby. It is quoted here from an anonymous answer in the Bible Treasury:

• "He came, eternal life into this world, but was alone in the out-of-the-world heavenly condition of relationship and being in which eternal life consists: which was before the world, not only in God, but in counsel for us, given us in Christ, manifested in Him alone in the world, and now consequent on His being lifted up and gone out of it into the heavenly place of which He brought word, that into which we are introduced in Him". Bible Treasury: Jan. 1, 1867, Vol. 6: 206-7.

The feeble powers of the finite mind are taxed by this simple yet grand introduction.

• We are directed backwards in time – beyond the beginning of the Lord's ministry here, 1 John 1: 1 – beyond creation, Genesis 1: 1 – beyond time itself into that unbounded ocean which we can only call eternity.

The One of whom they had heard and who had been presented to them as the object of faith and the way of salvation, "the Word", was no creature of time.

• "In the beginning was the Word".

• There, beyond the farthest reaches of human imagination, "in the beginning was the Word".

• Before sin, before failure, before man, before anything material had been brought into being, there was the Word;
  • the One through whom all revelation, all knowledge of God, had come was there, "and the Word was with God".

He was there in the beginning, a distinct person.

• But so that there should be no doubt who the Word is, it is unequivocally asserted, "and Word was God".

• Then summing all up, "He", the One spoken of who is the Word Himself, "was in the beginning with God".

How simple yet majestic! How awe-inspiring yet assuring!

• See who our faith, as that of those early disciples, is in.

• Our faith is in the One who is with God the source of all, and is Himself God.

• Can God, the supreme One, fail? Can what this great One began ever fail? The questions are self-answering: "If God be for us, who against us?", Romans 8: 31.

• No matter how great the public failure has been, and is, it cannot touch the One who is the object of our faith, and it cannot overcome those who are the work of His hands.

This same One, the Word, is also the Creator. "All things received being through Him".

• The One whom we know as the Word, the Revealer, has made all things; He has made us.

• He was the active agent in creation for – "all things have been created by Him and for Him", Col. 1: 16.

• "For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast", Psalm 33: 9.

• And He upholds "all things by the word of His power", Hebrews 1: 1-3.

There is no exception for "without Him not one thing received being which has received being". He is the Creator of all.

• He is not in any sense a creature that He or His work should fail.

• And the work of His hands shall not fail. "On this rock I will build My assembly and Hades' gates shall not prevail against it", Matthew 16: 18.

That which has been entrusted to the responsibility of man has always failed, and ever will.

• The public church, man's building, will surely come under God's judgment. Revelation 18: 20.

• But that which Christ builds abides, and will be seen finally "coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God", Revelation 21: 10-11. What comfort and assurance!

Over against all the deadness of religious officialism that prevailed when John wrote, as it still does,

• the object of this gospel is "that believing ye might have life in His name", 20: 31.

"In Him" the Word "was life, and the life was the light of men". It is there, in Him, available to all men.

• And as He is the Word, the Revealer, so the reception of life is inextricably bound up with His word and His words. 5: 24; 6: 63, 68; 8: 51.

Now the moral element is introduced. "And the light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not".

• Just as the darkness which existed subsequent to creation – Genesis 1: 1-5 – was doubtless the result of rebellion and refusal of the light of God,
  • so the moral darkness which existed when our Lord came was the refusal of light from God.

• Who has had such great privileges and light as Israel? "But unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil lies upon their heart", 2 Corinthians 3: 15; Romans 9: 3-5.

• After the flood, men generally had also turned their backs on the light of God – Romans 1: 19-32.

• In result, "the god of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine forth for them", 2 Cor. 4: 4.

The refusal of the great light of the present dispensation has also caused darkness to prevail in the public profession.

• This had already begun before the end of the apostolic era. Ephesians 5: 1-21; 1 John 1: 5-7; 2: 7-11.

• This is a true saying, "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great the darkness!", Matthew 6: 23.

The light does not dispel the darkness – the state of lawlessness and opposition to God which will not receive His revelation – but it "appears in darkness".

• We are called to continue this witness as "harmless and simple, irreproachable children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation; among whom ye appear as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life", Philippians 2: 15-16.

• As John "was not the light", we are not in ourselves; but we are to be light-bearers directing sinful men and the fallen public church alike to the only road to recovery.

What a condemnation of the moral state that there should be need of a witness to light!

• The darkness was so pervasive that attention must be called to the light.

• For this great service, "There was a man sent from God, his name John".

• All testimony to Christ must bear this character; those who witness to Him must be "sent from God".

• The Son constantly refers to Himself as being sent. And to those He empowers and commissions to carry on the testimony He says, "As the Father sent me forth, I also send you", 20: 21.

The purpose of the "witness concerning the light" is "that all might believe through Him".

• In our day we also are to be channels through whom others come to faith in Christ.

• None of those who witness are ever to become objects of faith themselves.

• It important to grasp this in view of the way in which from the earliest years – as Paul warned in Acts 20: 28-30 – men have become centres of attraction in the professing church, drawing away disciples after themselves.

John becomes a model. "He was not the light, but that he might witness concerning the light".

• All must give way before "the true light".

• It is that light alone which "coming into the world, lightens" – i.e., 'sheds its light upon' – "every man". What then will be the response to "the true light"?

The Word is viewed here in two relations; first as Creator, then as One in a special relationship with some who could be called "His own".

Though "the world had its being through Him … the world knew Him not", did not know its Creator.

• Here "the world" is the people of the world, for we learn from His miracles that the physical creation owned His authority.

• But the world of people, originally created in the image and likeness of God, was so darkened by lawlessness that their Creator Himself was not recognized. Compare Romans 1: 18-32.

"He came to His own" – i.e., to those chosen to be His "own possession out of all the peoples", Exodus 19: 3-6 – "and His own received Him not".

• Later, they proudly boast, "Has any one of the rulers believed on Him, or of the Pharisees?", 7: 48-49.

• Again, "We know that God spoke to Moses; but as to this man, we know not whence He is", 9: 29-30.

• Finally "they cried out saying, Crucify, crucify Him", 18: 6.

These two verses sum up all the opposition and hatred, the refusal of light by darkness, which follows throughout this gospel.

• The institutional church has been characterized by the same spirit, rejecting the truth and rejecting – and persecuting – those who, through the centuries, have sought to walk in, and testify to, the light.

In contrast, there are those who receive the Word.

• The rejection is collective, whether by the world or Israel.

• The reception is individual and, as the narrative proceeds, representative individuals who received the Word will be brought before us.

• They, as we in our day who also receive Him, are given "the right to be children of God" on the principle of faith – divinely produced, sovereignly and solely, through being born of God.

• All other means are completely excluded.

Those who rejected the Word falsely claimed God as their father in virtue of being Abraham's descendants. 8: 31-41.

• But being born "of blood" – mere natural descent – does not qualify,

• nor does "flesh's will" – Sarah's stratagem with Hagar –

• nor "man's will" – Abraham's plea for Ishmael.

Instead, those who receive the Word and the right to be children of God "after the pattern of Isaac, are children of promise" and "born according to Spirit", Galatians 4: 28-29.

Now we are given the benefit of the never-to-be-forgotten experience of John – the unnamed writer – and of others who received the Word. It is concise but complete.

"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us".

• For centuries theologians have attempted to dissect this superlative statement.

• Let us, instead, wonder at this unparalleled historical event.

• That One who was in the beginning, not only with God but Himself God, came into the human condition – apart from sin – to live for a while among us! What unspeakable blessing for men!

Let us follow John and avoid indulging in unholy speculations as to the Person of Christ.

• He had treasured this holy experience for many decades. When at last he speaks of it he does so worshipfully.

• What a rebuke to the institutional church which seeks by cold-minded creeds to confine the revealed glory from true worshippers!

"We have contemplated His glory, a glory as of an only - begotten with a father".

• During His short sojourn among men, those born of God had their eyes opened to see His distinctive and characteristic glory – 1: 13; 2: 11; 10: 30-38 –

• and had thus come to "believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God", 20: 31.

He was "full of grace and truth", the active agents of love and light, come within the range of human comprehension in balanced expression yet tempered, grace being put first, to suit our state.

The special testimony of John the baptist to Christ – 1: 15, 30 – had profoundly affected him.

• The sense of the greatness of the person of Christ, gained so many years before, had been retained undiminished, even as it had been the starting point of his attraction to Christ.

He joyfully returns to his early experience and relates the overwhelming "grace upon grace",

• the one blessing after another, received from the fullness of Him who was full of grace and truth.

• The whole manner of God's dealings with men had been completely changed as a result of the incarnation.

• God's standard had been fully set out in a Man. This meant the setting aside of the law as a means of relationship with God.

• The rejecters cling stubbornly to what Jesus, in addressing them later, calls "your law", 8: 17, etc.

• In the same manner the fallen church has reintroduced the principle of law, thus rejecting the grace of God and thereby sealing its own doom.

"No one has seen God at any time" remains true for all who persist on the principle of law.

• "The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" to those who have received the light.

• Although they may claim God as their father – 8: 41 – the Father is not really known by those who, rejecting grace, cling to the law.

• It is of those who had received Him that Jesus later says, "I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world … I have made known to them Thy name, and will make it known", 17: 6, 26.

• To the rest He says, "Ye know neither Me nor My Father", 8: 19.

Thus, even in this blessed contemplation which John shares with us, there are clear indications of the two lines which will be expanded in this gospel – rejection and reception.

Here we have the first passive rejection of Jesus and also the initial drawing of individuals to Himself.

This account of His private ministry and the personal attachment of disciples to Himself is of immense value in

• strengthening and confirming all who are confounded at the public ruin of the church.

• It clearly demonstrates that His public ministry, and those later associated with Him in it, have a solid foundation in the sovereign work of God and will go through despite the public failure.

The framework for the whole section – 1: 19 – 2: 12 – is a period of seven days.

• According to Jewish custom the marriage in Cana would be on the 4th day of the week, our Wednesday.
  • Working back from that, this incident would have taken place on the 5th day of the preceding week – our Thursday.

See Alfred Edersheim's "Jesus the Messiah", 1: 344-45.

When the Jews of Jerusalem heard of John the baptist they sent priests and Levites to find out who he was.

• How strange! "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and at his mouth they seek the law; for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts", Malachi 2: 7.

• But the priests who should know and be messengers do not know this messenger.

John's testimony is simple yet magnificent. He denies himself but exalts the One he announces.

He anticipates their unspoken question, 'Are you the Messiah?'. But true to his commission, he makes nothing of himself.

• Nor does he claim to be Elijah or "the prophet" like Moses, as they continue to probe him with questions.
  • See 1: 6-8; Malachi 4: 5-6; Deut. 18: 15.

How beautifully he answers them. "I am not the Christ … I am not … No". He makes nothing of himself and his negative replies become shorter and shorter.

• He sets out the same principle later in his fine declara-tion, "He must increase, but I must decrease", 3: 30.

• What an exposure of those who from Simon on, through the centuries, have sought to be great! Acts 8: 9-10.

His questioners do not want to return to Jerusalem without an answer and so continue to press him to say something about himself.

• He answers but in the words of another, Isaiah the prophet. He is only "the voice of one crying in the wilderness" of their unbelief, announcing the advent of Jehovah Himself.

• This assertion should have startled them and prompted, as it would in any honest heart, a completely different line of inquiry. Instead, they only disparage his service, and attempt to discredit it by insinuation.

• Their final question is not sincere. It is only a thinly veiled attempt to invalidate his ministry by unfavourable comparison.

John makes no effort to vindicate himself. He remains true to his commission while exposing their ignorance.

• "I baptize with water" and, by inference 'you don't even know or understand who I am!'.

• If they did not know who John was, how could they know the One he announced, One so great that John considered himself unworthy to unloose the thong of His sandal?

We hear no more of the questioners for the moment; later, in Jerusalem, they will resume their defamatory attacks against Jesus Himself. 5: 7-10.

• Their passive rejection however is manifested here by the fact that they do not even ask John about the worthy One of whom he spoke.

Mark records that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness immediately after He was baptized by John. Mark 1: 9-13.

• It would appear then, from this and the following section, that Jesus was just returning from the wilderness to the place where John was baptizing at the very time John was being questioned.

"On the morrow" after the questioning, John "sees Jesus coming to him" as He returned from the wilderness "and says, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world".

• The questioners had returned to Jerusalem without the answers they wanted; more serious – they missed the Lamb of God.

But some hear John's fervent declaration, pent within his soul as he waited those long forty days. Some of his disciples at least would catch the ardent announcement,

• "He it is of whom I said" – 'this is the One I meant and have been talking about, the One' – "who takes a place before me, because He was before me".

• What joy must have filled John as he identified the One for whom he was waiting. Compare Luke 1: 41.

• He had come baptizing with water that this very One might be manifested to Israel, but he had not known whom it would be.

How carefully he would watch, as he baptized the crowds who came to him, to see who would be distinguished by the Spirit descending and abiding on Him.

• God had both sent him and told him what to look for. Day after day he watched – and finally it happened.

• At the very moment that Jesus came up out of the water and was praying, the Spirit came down and remained on Him. Compare Matt. 3: 17; Mark 1: 10; Luke 3: 21-22.

• Jesus had then gone immediately into the wilderness but John knew that Jesus was the One.

• Now He returns and John joyfully identifies Him as the One who will baptize with the Holy Spirit, the Son of God Himself.

See Mark 1: 12. The record of the temptations is omitted in this gospel as not bearing on its unique object, the declaration of Jesus as the Word. Tracing the events chronlogically however, by comparison with the synoptic gospels, helps in understanding the setting of this section. "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; but the glory of kings is to search out a thing", Proverbs 25: 2.

"Again, on the morrow" another day; now the Sabbath, John was with two of his disciples when he saw Jesus passing by.

• Jesus had not yet left for Galilee, doubtless to avoid being on an extended journey on the Sabbath.

On the previous day John had impressed on his hearers the work that Jesus would accomplish as the Lamb of God, the taking away of the sin – the offence to God, not the detailed sins – of the world.

• But here, alone with two of his disciples, he draws attention to the personal dignity and worth of Jesus, "Behold the Lamb of God".

Later when some of his disciples were concerned that everyone was beginning to follow Jesus rather than John, he states the governing principle – on which he was already acting –

• "He must increase, but I must decrease", 4: 22-30.

• He is satisfied to be a signpost pointing others, including his own disciples, to the One who was greater than he.

Paul warned the elders of Ephesus, "From among your own selves shall rise up men speaking perverted things to draw away the disciples after them", Acts 20: 29.

• From the time of Corinth – 1 Cor. 3: 14 – right on down to our own day, the public church has been characterized by the setting up and following of partisan leaders.

• After their initial freshness, the reformation and subsequent movements of recovery among God's people have fallen prey to divisions distinguished by the names of men or devoted to the doctrines of their avowed leaders.

• John is a standing witness against all who detract from Christ in this manner.

• He is also a model of self-sacrificing and Christ-honouring service for all who have any spiritual influence among God's people.

The two disciples leave John and, to his great joy, follow Jesus. Compare 4: 29-30. They are not satisfied to follow at a distance.

• When Jesus questions them as to what they want, they immediately acknowledge Him as their teacher and manifest their desire for further contact by asking Him where He is staying.

• Jesus indicates His acceptance of them as His disciples by the blessed invitation, "Come and see". Have you put yourself in the way of receiving that sacred summons?

• They go with Him and spend the day from mid-morning.

The 10th hour would be 10:00 a.m. John uses Roman time.

What an experience they must have had! A whole Sabbath day spent in quietness with Jesus was their blessed portion.

• There is no record of His sayings, or their questions, but the conclusion is clear, "We have found the Messias" – 'the One all Israel has been awaiting is here, and we have spent the day with Him!'.

Andrew is named as being "one of the two who heard this from John and followed Him".

• The name of the other disciple is not given but it is doubtless John, the gospel writer, who shows detailed personal knowledge of all that had transpired on that momentous occasion.

Andrew "first finds his own brother Simon".

• Andrew finds Simon first, but John also finds his brother James and shares the good news with him as well. See notes on 2: 11.

• Andrew leads his brother to Jesus, as John also leads James his brother.

• Jesus gives Simon a new name, Cephas, i.e., Peter, "a stone", indicating the change He brings about in those who follow Him. Compare "stone water-vessels", 2: 6.

"The form of the narrative and its very words convey that the two had gone, each to search for his brother", Edersheim 1: 347.

These first few begin with the recognition of Jesus as the Messias, the Christ, the One John the baptist had already borne witness to as the Son of God.

• This confirms the object of the gospel and exemplifies the way of recovery in days of departure.

"Many other signs therefore also Jesus did before His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in His name", John 20: 30-31.

Let us, in these final days of assembly history, turn to Christ Himself as the centre of attraction and find the way out of the public confusion through personal attachment to the Son of God. Compare 10: 35-41.

"On the morrow" – the Sabbath being past – "He would go forth into Galilee, and Jesus finds Philip, and says to him, Follow me".

• Here on the first day of the week there is a new beginning.

• Those who had come to Him on the Sabbath were the results of the labour of John the baptist, the gathering up of the fruits of the old dispensation, now being closed.
  • Now He begins to call persons to Himself.

• It is not stated whether He had known Philip before or had been told about Him by Andrew and Peter who were from the same city.

• However, it is clear that Jesus had some prior knowledge of him because He found him by searching, just as Andrew had earlier found Peter.

• Philip apparently responded immediately to the unqualified command, "Follow me".

• As Andrew and John, he became absolutely convinced that Jesus was the One of whom Moses and the prophets had testified.

Nathanael is quite sceptical of Philip's message because of the mention of Nazareth, a neighbouring and perhaps rival of his own home town of Cana. Chapter 21: 2.

• His contempt of Nazareth, and anything or anyone from there, equals the disdain of the Jews for Galilee. Chapter 7: 52.
  • But, unlike the Jews, he is "truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile".

• Nathanael is either sufficiently curious or respectful of Philip's judgment to go with him and see.

• Philip's use of the Lord's own invitation, "Come and see", is noteworthy.

Nathanael's contempt and scepticism vanish when Jesus identifies him as "one truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile".

• The lack of guile would allude to his ingenuousness in questioning Nazareth.

• "One truly an Israelite" would recognize his anticipation and committal to the Messianic kingdom upon which he was doubtless meditating while under the fig tree, the well-known symbol of Israel. 1 Kings 4: 25, etc.

Nathanael perceives that he is in the presence of a superior, One who knows his inmost thoughts and longings; the One who is to be the fulfilment of his very desires.

• At once he owns Jesus as his teacher – "Rabbi" – as the first two had done earlier.

• His knowledge of the Scriptures and the promises in Psalm 2 is evidenced by his acknowledgment of Jesus as "the Son of God" and "the King of Israel".

• His intelligence is shown by reversing the order of the Messianic titles of Psalm 2,
  • thus recognizing that a new order under the Son of God must precede the establishment of the earthly kingdom.

Jesus recognizes Nathanael's understanding and accepts his homage, but introduces the further thought – new to an Israelite –

• of His coming wider glories as "Son of Man", a Man in relation to all humanity.

• It is as Son of Man that He will first suffer and die that men may have eternal life – John 3: 14, etc. – before He brings Israel into their promised blessing. Genesis 28: 10-22.

These first few – Andrew, John, Peter, James, Philip, Nathanael – who had been attracted and attached to Jesus

• all recognized the predicted and actual failure of Israel, and were longing for the promised restoration.

• Similarly there are those now, as in John's day, who feel deeply the predicted and actual public failure of the assembly and long for a recovery.

• For us, as for them, recovery must begin with personal attraction and attachment to Christ, the One who unfailingly accomplishes all for God and for man.

The ultimate solution, for them and for us, will only come when Christ returns personally to secure the assembly fully for Himself and later to rule the earth in righteousness.

• Meanwhile, the way through the quagmire of the public ruin must be on the principle of attachment to Christ as the foundation, centre and source of all for the assembly. John 6: 68; Matthew 16: 18; 18: 20.

Jesus and His disciples arrive in Galilee, the place of reproach as despised by the Jews – John 7: 41, 52, etc. – on the fourth day of the week – see notes 1: 19-28.

• But it was the third day after their departure from Judea.

• From John's day to our own, commitment to recovery in a day of ruin through personal attachment to Christ will lead out of the sphere of institutional religion – Judea –

• into the area of public reproach – Galilee – as Christ is followed.

The exercises of the intervening days are passed over to emphasize what is to be arrived at on the third day,

• which is always identified with recovery, manifestation or resurrection. Compare Hosea 6: 1-3; John 2: 19, etc.

Cana was Nathanael's home town. John 21: 2.

• Perhaps it was through him that Jesus and His disciples had received an invitation to the marriage.

• However, as Jesus' mother was there, it is also possible that the marriage couple were friends or relatives of Jesus' family.

• In any event, this incident conveys an important lesson for all who are concerned to have an active and vital part in the revival and recovery of the essential character of the assembly.

The wedding scene typifies the celebration of the bridal relationship to Christ which had characterized the pristine period of the assembly.

• Compare Eph. 5: 22-23; 2 Cor. 11: 1-3.

• The marriage was an occasion which ought to have been signalized by full and abiding joy.

• But the wine, well-known symbol of joy – Psalm 104: 15; Judges 8: 13 – had run out.
  • This represents precisely the state of the assembly when John wrote.

In the prophetic outline of the history of the assembly in Revelation, chapters 1 – 3,

• Ephesus represents the state of the assembly at the end of the apostolic period.

• There was still zeal for the truth but the assembly had forsaken its first love, the freshness of exclusive devotion to Christ – and love of the brethren.

• The relationship was still owned outwardly but the wine, the joy resulting from whole-hearted commitment to Christ, had run out.

• To this day there has been no general return to first love, nor indeed will there be.

• The call today, as then, is to "hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies" and thus to overcome amidst the general decline and departure.

Jesus' mother here represents those who see the failure but have no personal power to deal with it.

• Such persons may assume the right to direct the Lord's actions because of what they perceive as a special claim on Him.

• But all who sincerely desire the Lord's intervention must learn not only to recognize His power but also to submit to His authority and direction.

The six stone water-vessels used for purification stand neglected, empty and unused.

• Filled to the brim at the command of Jesus, they become the means of restoring the joy suitable to the occasion.

As suggested earlier – see 1: 35-42 and 1: 43-51 – there were six disciples with Jesus at this point, Andrew and Peter, John – the unnamed disciple – and James, Philip and Nathanael.

• These six had recognized and accepted Jesus as the Messias, the One who was to bring recovery for God out of the national ruin.

The six stone water-vessels represent these six disciples.

• They, as we, must learn that outward separation is not sufficient for revival and recovery of the joy of first love.

• Leaving Judea is the outward separation from the institutional religion which rejects Christ –see the beginning of this section.

• For us this means withdrawing from the sects, great and small, old and new.

• Such a move will constitute us stone water-vessels for purification in an objective sense.

But we must be filled with water – we must make way for the inward purification of our affections and motives by the cleansing power of the death of Christ.

• Only then will we become, through the exercise of His transforming power, the means of reviving the spirit of devotion and first love to Himself.

• Only then will the joy of brotherly love and true fellowship be experienced afresh.

Just as the feast-master discerned the best wine, so officialdom will be able to recognize and marvel at the change from mediocrity to spiritual quality in response to our blessed Bridegroom –

• but will be unable to explain it.

"This beginning of signs did Jesus in Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed on Him".

• In like manner, as we experience the practical power of purification restoring us to the joy of assembly relationships with Christ,
  • we will recognize that it is His own doing and that He is glorified in it.

• We will start to become believing believers and will discard the deadness of ritualistic religion in favour of the present reality of eternal life.

"After this He descended to Capernaum" where He was to make His home, "He and His mother and His brethren and His disciples; and there they abode not many days".

• What days they would be as the fragrant memory of this first manifestation of His glory lingered!

A recovery trilogy follows, which discloses the effects of lifeless religion on man, woman and child, the complete spectrum of assembly personnel.

• This is reminiscent of a similar trilogy in Mark.

See Mark 5: 1-43, in Mark – The Divine Standard of Service.

The previous section ends with the first of His miraculous signs. This section ends with the second sign, also performed in Cana.

When it was almost time for the Jewish passover, Jesus leaves Capernaum in Galilee and goes up to Jerusalem,

• the place in which Jehovah had chosen to cause His Name to dwell – Deuteronomy 12: 11; 1 Kings 8: 29 –

• but which had become the citadel of traditionalism.

• The passover can no longer be called a feast of Jehovah for the true Lamb of God is now present.

The allowance of the "old leaven" in the assembly of God in Corinth led finally to the apostolic indictment,

• "When ye come therefore together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's supper", 1 Corinthians 5: 8; 11: 20.

• The public church today is similarly defiled; the so-called holy communion is open to those who lead unholy lives,

• and the moral conditions necessary to a collective experience of the Lords' presence are altogether absent.

The temple scene vividly portrays the corruption which has been blatantly and shamelessly introduced into the public church.

• Every false institution employs a modicum of truth, just enough to deceive the unsuspecting and unwary, even as at the first. Compare Gen. 3: 1-7; 1 Tim. 2: 14.

There was indeed a provision of grace for those who lived at a great distance from Jerusalem.

• They were permitted to exchange their tithe for money and then to buy the necessary offerings in Jerusalem. Deuteronomy 14: 22-26.

• But just as Eli's sons had no regard for Jehovah and His rights – 1 Samuel 2: 12-17 –
  • so these latter day priests had also corrupted the temple of God – 1 Cor. 3: 10-17 – and had turned the Father's house into a common bazaar.

• These unscrupulous entrepreneurs had provided one-stop shopping for the convenience of the worshippers, and for their own profit from rents and royalties.

• They are the thriving successors of those Jehovah had denounced for seeking personal gain from every service. Malachi 1: 10.

In His zeal for His Father's house Jesus clears the temple courts of all that offends.

• His disciples remembered the Messianic prophecy, which would confirm and strengthen their faith. See Psalm 69: 9; compare Galatians 4: 18.

This fait accompli takes the Jews completely by surprise.

• They question Him unbelievingly but cautiously, by asking for a sign to prove His authority.

• What audacity! He had demonstrated both power and authority.

• But "He came to His own, and His own received Him not", 1: 11. They did not recognize, the glory having long ago departed, that He Himself was the shrine;
  • that the Lord had come to His temple but was rejecting it – and those who had corrupted it. Malachi 3: 1.

For us, the only way through the breakdown and ruin is to accept the Lord's own judgment on that which, though professing His name, has really rejected Him

• and to cleave to Him as overcomers. Compare Revelation, chapters 1–3.

• Just as the disciples recalled what He had said and believed the Scripture and His word after He was raised from among the dead,

• so we must put our trust in the living One who alone can deliver us from religious corruption.

There were many who saw the signs wrought and believed on His name, but their belief was only superficial – and not true faith.

• It is necessary to "believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God", 20: 31. Mere credulity is not sufficient.

• Jesus does not trust Himself to such persons for "he knew all men". He can see through them and does not need or want the testimony of the capricious crowd.
  • Compare chapter 6: 14-15; 66; Acts 14: 13, 18-19; Galatiams 1: 6.

Those to whom He will trust Himself will come to light in the following sections

• as Jesus slowly but surely disentangles them from the false religious systems which misrepresent God and the truth.

• We, in our day, must also be disentangled, withdrawing from ecclesiastical iniquity, going forth to Him outside the camp of humanly accredited religion.
  • 2 Timothy 2: 12-19; Hebrews 13: 13.

In contrast to the ephemeral adulation of the crowd, the nocturnal visit of Nicodemus is the beginning of what will finally become a complete commitment to Christ and an absolute rejectionof ritualistic religion.

• See also chapters 8: 48-52; 20: 38-42.

The signs which Jesus had wrought were of more than passing curiosity to Nicodemus. They had a moral effect on him.

• He is able to discern – an evidence that he was born anew – from the signs that Jesus is indeed a "teacher from God".

• It is the recognition of this momentous fact that enables him to overcome Pharisaical prejudice and come – albeit by night, no doubt "through fear of the Jews" – to inquire as a learner. Compare chapters 8: 52; 29: 19.

As Jesus said elsewhere, "But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then indeed the kingdom of God is come upon you", Matthew 12: 28.

• The works that Jesus did were proof that "God was with Him", Acts 10: 30.

• They were also "the works of power of the age to come", Hebrews 6: 5 – the kingdom presently to be publicly established.

Nicodemus sees the kingdom of God, and though he is ignorant of the teaching, Jesus intimates that he is truly born anew.

• Although he does not dispute the need of being born anew, Nicodemus cannot understand how it can be.

• He is thinking, as a Jew would, of the coming Messianic kingdom but evidently does not expect to be still alive.

Jesus, the "teacher from God", instructs Nicodemus, the "teacher of Israel", as to the spiritual nature of the kingdom in the present time.

• A man must be "born of water and of Spirit" – the past removed and a divine work begun – in order to "enter into the kingdom of God".

• The flesh – fallen sinful human nature – can never give any right or title to the kingdom of God. Compare 1 Cor. 15: 50.

• In accord with God Himself, the Spirit produces that which alone can enter and live in relation to, and under the rule of, God.

• As illustrated by the wind, God's operations in men by the Spirit are both sovereign and inscrutable.

In the present day the representatives of religious ritualism and externalism also come under the indictment of Jesus,

• "But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye shut up the kingdom of the heavens, before men; for ye do not enter, nor do ye suffer those that are entering to go in", Matthew 23: 14.

But though trammelled by traditionalism, souls in whom God has worked in life-giving power by His Spirit can break through all that which would restrain and suffocate their response to God.

• In the end, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea boldly break through religious restrictions. Chapter 19: 38-40.

• They identify themselves with Jesus in His death, which is "the judgment of this world", 12: 31-33.

Nicodemus is amazed at Jesus' teaching. Jesus chides the official teacher for not knowing this elementary doctrine.

• Jesus had already asserted, "It is needful that ye" plural, i.e., the Jews as a nation "should be born anew".

• The proof of their need was that they had not accepted the testimony of Jesus. The same need exists to this day for all religionists, Jews and Gentiles alike.

Jesus had spoken to them of "earthly things" and they had not believed.

• Both the kingdom and being born anew – the means of entrance into the kingdom – are earthly.

• There is no doubt that Nicodemus had been the subject of the Spirit's initial work in being born anew.

• This is evidenced by his inquiring and teachable spirit. But he displays utter ignorance of the teaching of Scripture.

Jesus would speak of "heavenly things" to His own later, but such matters cannot be shared with a people in whom there is no work of the Spirit.

• He then asserts His title as "Son of man" again. In this character, as come down from heaven, He is the sole link for all men with heavenly things.

Heavenly truth, the unique and intimate relationship of Christ and the assembly by the Spirit, cannot be apprehended by the earthly-worldly public church any more than the darkness could apprehend the light.

• Even being born anew is widely misunderstood. It is either ritualized into baptism, sensationalized into a cheap fleshly thrill or misappropriated as the banner of a power-seeking political movement.

As a little child Jesus was identified with the beginning of Israel's wilderness journey, "Out of Egypt have I called My son", Matthew 2: 15; Hosea 11: 1.

• But here He identifies Himself with the history of the people at the end of the wilderness journey, just before the entrance into the land.

• "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up, that every one who believes on Him may not perish, but have life eternal". See Numbers 21: 4-9.

• Just as the rebellious Israelites at that time died and so lost their place in the land of promise,
  • so the fallen church has lost the present enjoyment of heavenly privileges.

• As then, so now there is only one antidote to the virus of lawlessness and iniquity which has permeated the whole sphere of profession.

• If as Israel of old we confess, "We have sinned", we will find spiritual life through the Son of man lifted up.

• The serpent of brass lifted up on the pole represented the judgment of Israel's rebellion as sin.

• The lifting up of the Son of man who had no sin, no lawlessness, no defection was the judgment of sin and of our sins.
  • See 1 Peter 2: 22; 1 John 3: 5; Hebrews 4: 15; 2 Corinthians 5: 21.

• Not only will believing on Him lead into life initially but,
  • for those who acknowledge their part in the failure of the church, it will open the way into the present enjoyment of the heavenly inheritance.

The Lord's own words to Nicodemus appear to end at verse 15. The Spirit's commentary, through John, follows in verses 16-21.

• It is a summation of the gospel account to this point, unveiling what had only been hinted at previously.

• God's great love lies behind the Word becoming flesh and the presentation of the Lamb of God.

• The lifting up of the Son of man on the cross, still to come in the gospel history, is here looked back to as the manifestation of God's love in the giving of His only-begotten Son
  • and of His desire to save the world through Him, rather than to have to condemn it on account of its lawlessness. Compare Romans 8: 14.

Jesus lifted up on the cross is God's only-begotten Son given for the world, and He is the test to every man.

• He is the light come into the world and exposes the motives of all. There can be no neutrality.

• Those who do evil hate the light and remain cloaked in the darkness they love.

• There will be many lovers of darkness, in opposition to Jesus, noted as the gospel account unfolds.

• But there will also be brought forward those who are the subjects of God's sovereign operations, who live by the truth and come to the light.
  • Indeed some have already come forward, including the hesitant and timid Nicodemus.

The theme of rejection versus reception – chapter 1: 10-13 – has been clearly restated.

• Let us take this to heart and be ready and willing to take our stand for the light in these days when darkness pervades the profession – Christendom, so-called.

Spurned by the Jewish religious establishment, Jesus withdraws with His disciples into the Judean countryside.

• Evidently He gave liberty and approval to His disciples to baptize.

• At this point, "John was not yet cast into prison", 3: 24. He was still baptizing although his commission, "that He" i.e., Jesus "might be manifested to Israel", was now nearing its conclusion.

• It appears that Jesus allows His disciples to baptize in recognition and support of the unjealous ministry of His forerunner.

• Some time later, however, "having heard that John was delivered up, He departed into Galilee" passing through Samaria. Compare Matthew 4: 12; Mark 1: 14; See chapter 4: 1-2, 43.

People were still constantly coming to John to be baptized.

• One Jew evidently made some comparison between John's ministry and that of Jesus, through His disciples.

• An argument developed with some of John's disciples who apparently were eager to maintain precedence for John and his ministry.
  • The report that Jesus "baptizes, and all come to Him" was too much for John's disciples.

• Years later, Paul had to rebuke a similar partisan spirit at Corinth. 1 Corinthians 3: 1-3.

It is to our lasting shame that those who had been delivered from traditional ritualistic religion into the liberty of the one body should have so declined from the fervour of first love for Christ that

• party interests and the glorification of human leaders have become their distinguishing marks.

• That which began so brightly, as a divine testimony to the one body and the holiness of God's house,

• has fallen into public disgrace through the allowance of the features of man in the flesh, and has brought great dishonour to Christ and to the truth.

John's unjealous and unselfish response to his disciples' complaint remains as a standing rebuke to the spirit of self-importance among God's people,

• and to any and all who would "rise up" and "draw away the disciples after them", Acts 20: 30.

• He recognizes the measure of "heaven" both as to his own gift and ministry and as to the unique place of Christ, and reminds his disciples that they had heard him disclaim a distinctive place when questioned by the Jews.

He gives the place of honour to Jesus. "He that has the bride is the bridegroom".

• In effect he says 'Jesus is the One who rightly deserves your honour, your respect and, especially, your undivided affection'.

• John gladly takes the place of the bridegroom's special friend whose only interest is to see that the bridegroom is honoured,
  • and who finds his full joy and satisfaction in recognizing and makingway for Him.

• As Simeon in the temple – Luke 2: 25-32 – he has seen the One whom God had promised and is ready to go out of sight.
  • "He must increase, but I must decrease".

• Surely this is John's finest hour! Would that everyone who has any influence among God's people might emulate him.

• Such leadership in giving place to Christ would have a salutary effect,
  • stimulating a devotion to the Lord Jesus which would result in a revival of testimony to the blessed truth of Christ and the assembly.

Again there follows the Spirit's commentary. Verses 31-36; compare verses 16-21.

• "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies", Revelation 1: 7, etc.

• Honoured though he is, John is still "of the earth"; his ministry related to the earthly hopes of an earthly people.
  • But Jesus "comes from above" and "is above all".

• The religionist does not accept Jesus' testimony to that which is heavenly; but the one who does accept it recognizes that He was sent by God and speaks the words of God.

• The full evidence of the Spirit is displayed in the ministry of Jesus.
  • And today the Spirit brings the testimony of Christ from heaven. Chapters 14: 26; 16: 13-15.

The boasting of human leaders and supporters, the bane of the assembly, must fade into nothingness before the greatness of the One of whom it can be said,

• "The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in His hand. He that believes on the Son has life eternal, and he that is not subject to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him".

Here again is the theme of rejection – 1: 10-11 – or reception – 1: 12-13 – and the Son is the test to all men.

• Just as Pharaoh placed every thing in the hands of Joseph, rejected by his brethren – Genesis 41: 37-46 – so the Father has placed all in the hands of the Son.

• Submission to the Son whom the Father loves is the way to life, not only for eternity but for the present enjoyment of eternal life –
  • despite the divided conditions both in the public church generally and among those who know the truth but have denied it in practice.

If John had seemed a threat to the Pharisees, they would have considered Jesus an even greater menace to their position.

• Earlier He had cleansed the temple. Now He was making and baptizing more disciples than John.

• His time had not yet come – compare 7: 1-9 – and so, for the moment, Jesus postpones the inevitable conflict and leaves Judea for Galilee.

• He takes the direct route through despised Samaria ensuring that He will not be followed by the punctilious Pharisees.

The traditional ritualistic religion, which in our day is represented by Thyatira – Rev. 3: 18-29 – is left behind.

From the outset the history of Samaria has been linked with a spurious religion.

• On his return from Padan-Aram, Jacob settled at Shechem and "he bought the portion of the field where he had spread his tent … and there he set up an altar", Genesis 33: 18-20.

• Strangely, at the end of his days he claims to have taken the extra tract of land that he gave to Joseph "out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow", Genesis 48: 22.

• Buying land and capturing land were both out of keeping with Jehovah's promise to give the land to Abraham and his descendants.

• Naming the altar he built "El-Elohe-Israel" – 'God, the God of Israel' – was only a self-centred profession, as the sequel proves.

• After the scandalous incident involving his daughter Dinah, God commanded him to go up to Bethel – 'the house of God' – and make an altar there.

• This forced Jacob to order the putting away of the strange gods that were still in his household, and which Rachel had doubtless stolen from Laban. Genesis 31: 30-35.

Later, on the division of the kingdom, Jeroboam publicly introduced idolatry by setting up two golden calves – in imitation of Aaron – at Bethel and Dan, after establishing his authority at Shechem.

• Jeroboam foresaw that allowing the people to go up to Jerusalem would lead to their defection to the house of David.

• Therefore he introduced a counterfeit and a rival religion to deter the people from going up three times yearly, as prescribed, to sacrifice in the house of Jehovah.

• The people, once embarked on idolatry, went further embracing the Canaanite cult of Baal. See Exodus 32: 19-24; 1 Kings 12: 25-33; 2 Kings 17.

After Jehovah removed the ten tribes out of His sight through the instrumentality of the king of Assyria, that king resettled Samaria with peoples from Babylon and elsewhere. 2 Kings 17: 24.

• These peoples set up their own gods and continued their idolatrous religions alongside a professed recognition of Jehovah, fostered by the Assyrian king.

Such is the origin and history of Samaria; its inhabitants were despised by the Jews as a mongrel race, with an equally mongrel religion.

Jesus, rejected by the Jews from the outset, does not hesitate to pass through Samaria nor to ask for a drink from the Samaritan woman as He sat by the well, wearied from a long day's journey.

• Recognizing Him as a Jew from His outward appearance, the woman immediately raises the question of religious differences.

• The same thing happens frequently in our day as contact is made with those who profess to be followers of Christ. The questions are raised,
  • 'Where do you go?' –

  • 'Where do you worship?' –

  • 'What church do you belong to?'

• Often other matters such as baptism, gifts, etc. will also be brought up.

Jesus avoids such divisive points and raises the need and present availability of "living water".

• At first the woman cannot see beyond her immediate circumstances and falls back on the Samaritans' specious claim to Jacob as their father.

Later the Jews, with a stronger basis upon natural grounds but without the moral qualifications, hypocritically claim Abraham as their father, and even God Himself! See chapter 8: 39-41

• In the same manner, many today range themselves behind the great Christian teachers or leaders of the past.

• Men whom God has mightily used would disclaim distinctions for themselves – as Jacob did at the end of his life. Genesis 47: 9; 48: 15-16.

Jesus comes back to His gracious offer, "the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life".

• Not only did this wonderful offer precisely fit the need of this poor woman of Samaria,

• but it is exactly what is needed by all who are represented by Sardis – 'Protestantism' – as outlined in the prophetic history of the assembly.

Protestantism, the misbegotten offspring of the Reformation, clearly has a reputation of being alive, but is spiritually dead.

• Recovery and revival are possible however for individual overcomers, if not for Protestantism itself.

• The exhortation still stands for those in Sardis, "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies". Compare Revelation 3: 1-6.

• What is the Spirit saying? Is not the promise of living water from Christ, the refreshing and fructifying presence of the Spirit, still being freely offered to exercised souls
  • to emancipate them from the deadness and unreality of a hollow profession?

But first, before the awakened thirst can be quenched, moral issues must be faced.

• "Go, call thy husband, and come here". The woman prevaricates, "I have not a husband".

• Then Jesus exposes her to herself, as she later confesses to the men of the city, "Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done".

How many "husbands" which usurp the rightful place of Christ are there in Protestantism?

• How many leaders, parties, sects or – for those who try to maintain a degree of religious respectability – 'denominations' are there?

• Many cling to these inferior substitutes for life; others capriciously change their commitments to suit their tastes, as this deluded woman had done.

Jesus has pricked her long-deadened conscience; she confesses, "I see that Thou art a prophet".

• O that such power might now be known, so that inquirers might fall down and do "homage to God, reporting that God is indeed amongst you", 1 Corinthians 14: 22-25.

There is only one "husband", one Man, worthy to be the centre of attraction and chief interest for believers. 2 Cor. 11: 2-3.

• Attachment to Him is the only way of recovery in these days of ruin and fragmentation.

• The woman's open acknowledgment, "I see that Thou art a prophet", is the dawning of understanding that there is only one Man.

• In effect she turns away from all other "husbands" and turns to Jesus as her sole source of knowledge.

She then presents to Jesus that which puzzles her, and still perplexes many – 'Where is the true place to worship?'.

• She cannot reconcile the conflicting claims of Samaria, with its long history and apparent right to recognition, with the claims of Jerusalem.
  • Genesis 12: 6; 33: 20; Deuteronomy 11: 29-30; Joshua 8: 33; Psalm 122, etc.

Jesus indicates to her that the time has come for the final and complete repudiation of both the counterfeit and rival Samaritan religion and the effete traditionalism of Jerusalem.

• The Samaritans were in ignorance of the true God.
  • "They know not the manner of the god of the land … and these nations feared Jehovah and served their graven images … as did their fathers, so do they", 2 Kings 17: 26, 41.

• The Jews knew the one true God, but only outwardly. Romans 2: 17-29.

But whether Samaritans or Jews, or for that matter Gentiles, "true worshippers" those who genuinely seek God "shall worship the Father" i.e., God as now declared by the Son "in spirit and truth".

• "In spirit" is in contrast to the traditional formalism of Judaism;

• "in truth" is in contrast to the falseness of the Samaritan religion. The Father is seeking true worshippers.

The woman responds with the one element of truth she possesses – and how precious it is!

• She is not marked by worshipping "ye know not what". She can say in truth, "I know that Messias is coming, who is called Christ; when He comes He will tell us all things".

• Perhaps she knew nothing else, but like the man of John 9 she could say, "One thing I know", 9: 25. That was sufficient.

• She is ready for recovery and Jesus declares to her, "I who speak to thee am He". What a moment for that dear soul!

• And what a moment for us when we give up every other man, any claim to light, and see Christ alone as the chosen One of God.

• Such persons can be led out of the deadness of Protestantism into the light of Christ, out of the ruin and confusion to the One who has never failed – and never will.

• This is the true way of revival and recovery, living water indeed.

Many in past years have followed this same path. "We who have been Protestants …", as WK once said.

At the very moment, when divine light is entering the woman's soul, His disciples return from their shopping trip.

• They realize that something momentous had happened, but do not understand.

The woman leaves her water pot, empty and lifeless profession, and with her vision filled with God's Man hurries back to the city with the good news.

• She no longer attempts to conceal her state but uses the exposure of it by Jesus as convincing proof of who He is. "Is not He the Christ?"
  • There is no doubt in her mind or heart.

• She has been delivered from counterfeit religion and is now able to have an active part in the work of revival and recovery, of attracting others to the One who is God's centre. What a model for us!

Alone with Jesus, the disciples ask Him to eat of the food they have bought.

• They acknowledge Him as teacher – Rabbi – but are completely occupied with what the great success of their twelve-man shopping expedition,

• ignorant of and insensitive to the great possibilities immediately before them – just as we often are.

We may think that our surroundings and circumstances are infertile and unpromising, as Samaria would have been considered by the disciples.

• But Jesus views matters according to God.

• Regardless of the apparent lack of great outward results His governing principle was,
  • "My food is that I should do the will of Him that sent me, and that I should finish His work".

• In this light, His charge against Sardis – Protestantism – is all the more poignant:
  • "I have not found thy works complete before My God", Revelation 3: 2.

At Jerusalem the only positive reaction to His labours came through the nocturnal visit of Nicodemus.

• But here, in despised Samaria, there is a definite response and yield for God in this woman.

• She is the first-fruits, and now the full yield of the harvest is in view.

Barren and unproductive as the fields of Protestantism seem, there are some souls who feel the dearth and dryness and long for something better.

• Through just one of such being drawn to Christ as God's Man, many others may be influenced for good; just as through the one grain of wheat dying much fruit is produced. Chapter 12: 24.

• Let us lift up our eyes now. This is not a call to the popular worldwide missionary efforts.

• It is meant to alert the disciples and us to the great possibilities at hand – at our doorstep; just as Jesus could doubtless see the approaching Samaritans.

Let us labour for such results; first through the witness of those affected personally by Christ, as the woman was,

• and then extended as others make personal contact with Him and hear and believe His word.

The men of Samaria now hear Him for themselves and believe.

• The woman, as John the baptist before her, is content to be eclipsed as Christ becomes all to those to whom she has witnessed.

These Samaritans would no longer be occupied with a fancied relationship to Jacob's son Joseph.

• They have now come to "know that this" Jesus "is indeed the Saviour of the world", the true Joseph, "Zaph-nath-paaneah", Genesis 41: 45.

• In Egyptian that name means "Saviour of the world", but in Hebrew it means "Revealer of secrets".

• Surely Jesus had revealed both the secrets of that woman's heart, and also the secret of Himself as the giver of living water and therefore as the "Saviour of the world".

What days those two days He abode with the Samaritans must have been! Two whole days with Jesus!

• Not only did those days yield great results at the time, but the ground work was laid for later blessing.
  • Jesus had Samaria in mind for special blessing just before His ascension – Acts 1: 8.

• Later, after Stephen's martyrdom, "Philip going down to a city of Samaria" – was it Sychar? –
  • "preached the Christ to them; and the crowds with one accord gave heed to the things spoken by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs which he wrought … And there was great joy in that city", Acts 8: 5-6, 8.

• The harvest's full increase is secured in fulfilment of Jesus' commitment, "that I should finish His work", 4: 34.

Those who believed as a result of Philip's preaching did not receive the Spirit until the apostles, Peter and John, came from Jerusalem, prayed for them and laid their hands upon them. Acts 8: 14-17. This ensured that in Christianity there would be no breach between Samaria and Jerusalem. The rivalry and imitation was over. The Samaritans could not be accused of a counterfeit religion for they received the Spirit in full fellowship with the apostles, and with the assembly at Jerusalem.

May we in our day join in the reaping. Jesus has sown, as others before Him and since.

• By God's grace we have been given the privilege of reaping and receiving wages and gathering fruit unto life eternal,

• that we might all rejoice together as the harvest's full increase becomes God's for evermore.

After the two days spent with the Samaritans Jesus departs for Galilee, His own country, where as a prophet He has no honour.

• His general reception in Galilee is noted, but only as a response to the signs He had wrought in Jerusalem rather than the welcome a prophet should receive. Compare chapter 2: 23-25; 1 Samuel 9: 11.13

He comes again to Cana, the scene of His first sign.

• In addition to the fact that the first and second signs both conclude a distinct cycle of events, they also share other characteristics.

• The first time, He arrived in Cana on the third day after His departure from Judea – 2: 1-12 –
  • here He arrives in Cana again on a third day, following the two days with the Samaritans.

• Here, as then, there is also a further recovery and a manifestation of His power.

This is the final incident in the recovery trilogy which delineates the effects of dead religion on man, woman and child –

• representing the spectrum of assembly personnel – and also the divine means of deliverance.

• The recovery of the man, the responsible element, first commenced in Nicodemus is completed in the men of Samaria coming to Jesus as a result of the recovered woman's witness.

• Finally the man, here represented by the courtier, is able to act in responsibility for the sickly state of affairs produced by traditionalism and counterfeit religion, as portrayed in the son's condition.

• He comes to Jesus on behalf of his son, as his counterpart Jairus does also on behalf of his daughter. Mark 5: 22-23.

It is not sufficient that we should individually be freed from the religious systems; there is to be a full positive recovery for God.

• "The courtier" – man now as spiritually ennobled – demonstrates what our concerns should be for a continuance of a living testimony and for a substantial response to God in the dignity of sonship.

• At first he tends to confuse the distinct relationships of children and sons, as many still do today.

• We are indeed children of God. This involves our origin and moral likeness, but also spiritual minority.
  • 1 John 3: 1, 7-10 etc.; Eph. 5: 1; Gal. 4: 1-7.

• Jesus however uses the term son, "Go, thy son lives".

• Sonship is our unique and blessed relationship to the Father through the Son.
  • Chapter 17: 22-26; 20: 17; Ephesians 1: 3-6; Hebrews 2: 10-12.

• It involves spiritual dignity and maturity as representative of God here and as in association with Christ in the praises He leads to God.

• Unless we arrive at some substantial formation now in this blessed relationship of privilege and nearness, our escape from the religious systems will be a hollow victory indeed.

Jesus tests the courtier as to whether he is affected by the credulity of the crowds,

• but the courtier displays a passionate and urgent concern for the continuance of life, and receives the assurance, "Go, thy son lives".

• This word of Jesus is enough for him. He believes Jesus, and his servants' report of the healing confirms the immediate effect of Jesus' word.
  • The result is blessing for his whole house.

• What a fitting conclusion to this trilogy: man, woman, child – now become son – all emancipated and restored; the servants too sharing the blessing.

• May we emulate this courtier, and may our concern be for the revival of a vital and dignified response to God, whatever the deadness around may be.

The first sign represents the restoration of the joy of assembly bridal relationship through the practical power of purification.

• The second sign portrays full recovery to the dignity of sonship as delivered from the deadness of manmade religion.

• Recovery to the present reality and enjoyment of both these holy privileges, in the service – worship – of God, is still open to the obedience of faith in these last days.

This section of the gospel of recovery just completed is not only divinely inspired, as all the Scriptures,

• but it is just as clearly the authoritative and loving summons to all believers to return now to Christ, as God's centre,
  • forsaking the pretension and imitation of all religious institutions.

As noted in the "Introduction" this completes a full cycle of teaching.

• Notes for the balance of John – Gospel of Recovery are regretfully not available.

G .A. R.