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I'm under duty bound to a- to offer you to ask me questions. But easy questions, as befits the hour. Um, there seems to be a big emphasis on, on the Lord Jesus being sent. Oh yes. And he says that you would believe that he has sent me, and that's throughout the both chapters. Could you elaborate a bit on that? Well, it is, of course, one of the, almost one of the titles of Christ throughout the Gospel of John. He is sent by the Father. And when, uh, he, uh, gave the man sight in chapter nine, he sent him, he put clay on his eyes and sent him to the pool of Siloam and said, wash there, and the man came seeing.
But John, the, uh, gospel writer, troubles to in- uh, translate the n- the name of the pool. The pool in Greek is Siloam, in Hebrew Shiloach, and means sent, S-E-N-T. Christ is the sent one of God. Now, of course, that's a, a, a, a, a term going back to Old Testament. Moses, uh, comes before God, and God sends him. Remember the conversation between Moses and God about God sending him to Israel, sending him to the, um, uh, people of, uh, to Pharaoh, and so forth, and so on, and so on.
And the people had to come to believe that he was sent by God. It was, um, crucial for the Israelites in Egypt, if ever they were going to get out of Egypt, they would first have to believe that Moses was sent by God. Otherwise, the situation was so hopeless that they would never have dared to rise up against Pharaoh and his army. You'll see, and they took a lot of persuading, even so. And Moses said, well, suppose they ask me, who is this God that has sent me to, uh, to them, what am I to say?
And God told him what to say. Say, I am have sent me, and here are some signs you can do as evidence that you have been sent by God. And so, uh, this is just one of those many ideas from Exodus that are now fulfilled in the Gospel of John. If we are to, to believe and get free of the thraldom, slavery to the god of this world, and in that sense free of this world, we have to believe that Jesus Christ is not just an advisor, a religious advisor. He is one sent of the Father. And the signs that he did are the witness that he has been sent of the Father, you see, but now in a sense far bigger than ever Moses was.
Mm-hmm. When earlier on in chapter five we were discussing the Godhead and, uh, how the Christ says he can do nothing of himself, only what he has been told to do by the Father, and then we have that he says he does what he hears, and he makes his judgment based on what he has heard. Mm. Um, does that relate only kind of within the Godhead, or could you say that if Christ sees the Father do something or set a precept or a set a principle, then he acts from then on following whatever the Father has set out?
You mean, is this merely related to what happens in the Godhead, uh, before our Lord became incarnate? Or does it also apply to his, his work of ministry and preaching when he became incarnate? And now as well. And now, right here now, yes. Yes. Well, the, the Godhead is the same, uh, as always was, isn't it? It's the three persons. It is altered in this sense that what we call the second person of the Trinity became human. And the astonishing thing is he remains human, even though a member of the Trinity. That's an astonishing thing.
We shouldn't forget, however, that when Christ became human, the way John phrases it, his gospel phrases it, is the Word that was with God and was God. The Word that was God became flesh without ceasing to be God. Now that is an extraordinary thing for the Word. Our Lord didn't cease to be the Word, and the Word was and is God. But in Christ, God was doing, how shall I put it? Uh, the old Greeks had the notion that God was absolute perfection, and because he was absolute perfection, he couldn't change.
And you see, the early church, well, not the early church, but the church fathers took up that idea and talked about God being un- unable to change and therefore completely impassive. He can't feel anything, he doesn't, uh, feel sorrow or anything like that, you see. It was absolute nonsense, of course. It, you see, God's character doesn't change, but God is forever doing new things. This universe didn't exist at one stage, and God, who loves to do new things, he's so big, he can always do new things. Do you see? He made a universe and became creator. Extraordinary. And then, if you please, there came the time when God did an extraordinary thing.
He made humankind upon the world, but made them in such way as God himself, without ceasing to be God, could become human and learn by experience what it means to be human. Yes. We mustn't say that God died for us at Calvary. The Bible doesn't say that. It remains true that if the one who died for us at Calvary wasn't God, we're not saved anyway. God learning what it was to die. Extraordinary business.
It goes beyond our understanding. It affects our view of the atonement, of course, what was happening in the atonement. It's a matter within the Godhead. You see. So now Jesus is the Son of God. The Father is always shown to us as the one who initiates everything. The Son is the expression of the Father, expressed image of his person, do you see, of his very nature. You mustn't put it the other way around. The Father isn't the expression of the Son. Do you see, in that sense, the Son never has and never will do anything of himself.
It's the Father that takes the initiative within the Godhead. But the son does equally as the father does. That's the other side of it. But what he sees the father doing, or what the father tells him. Yes. Mm-hmm. To this magnificent, gentlemen, and Conder's old hymn, would that we sang it more. Thou art the everlasting word, the Father's only Son, God manifestly seen and heard, and heaven's beloved one.
And we should remember that our Lord himself said, no one knows the Son but the Father. And in Conder's hymn, you'll notice that is quoted, you see, uh, uh, o- of the Lord Jesus. The Father only, glorious claim, the Son can comprehend. That relationship goes beyond us, of course. We are to think all that Bible gives us to think. There comes a point when it goes quite beyond us.
No one knows the f- to the Son but the Father. No one knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son is willing to reveal him. Mm-hmm. But as to his being the sent one, this is exceedingly important, and for us living in our generation of virtual materialism, I mean that in the philosophical sense. When our Lord summed up his ministry to the apostles, John chapter sixteen, uh, he said to them, now have you got hold of this? This call, I came out from the Father, and again I leave the world and go to the Father.
Have you got hold of that? That's absolutely basic. I came out from the Father and am come into the world, so there is another world, is there really, from which he came into our world. Again, I leave the world and I go to the Father. That is absolutely fundamental to our Christian gospel. It is not that Jesus is another Moses, though he is a bigger than Moses, you'll see. Moses was a pointer forwards to him, but just come to teach us. The only way you will ultimately cure worldliness, people who live as though this world is everything, is to get them to see and believe that there is another world, and Christ came down out of that other world, came into our world and has left this world and gone to the Father.
To believe that is a- a- a- enormously important. It was the issue at stake, of course, illustrated by the situation in Moses' day. Moses standing in the desert by a- a bush, was told to go back into the civilization that was Egypt and deliver the Israelites. A whole question would arise if Moses been sent by God, yeah, and come into Egypt and is able to lead, lead Israel out of Egypt into their promised land. Yeah. So our Lord in the Gospel of John.
Mm. So he gives us life. That's chapter five. Mm-hmm. Chapter six. He maintains us along the journey. Not merely as the manna come down from heaven, break down the bread of life, O Lord, to me, but by his word that is spirit, creating within us the life of the spirit, preparing us to follow him, ascending where he was before.
You've been trained, gentlemen, to walk on the sea, you know. Mm-hmm. Well, now you are a delightful lot for not asking any more questions, and, uh, have we permission of the chairman? Good. And so, Father, we bow in grateful worship before thee, for thy revelation of thy very heart in the sending of thy dear son.
And we gladly bow before him as Thomas did and say, my Lord and my God. We acknowledge, Father, that this is thy work within our hearts. That we are not responsible ultimately for maintaining our faith, but thou who didst bring us to Christ and give us the Savior, we bless thee, thou hast given us one who guarantees that he will see us through the journey and on into that glorious world whither he has gone.
Use thy word today, Father, give us increasing understanding of it, we pray. Help us, while we have the energy so to do, to work hard in thy word, in the knowledge and belief that the words our Lord speaks to us, they are spirit and they are life, and are preparing us for the goal of the journey, that is the day when we shall have spiritual bodies and be likened to the Lord in the glorious eternity to which he leads us. So bless thy word to us, we pray.
Grant that it may mature in our hearts and minds. So show us its significance, we ask, that we may with a greater confidence tell it and preach it to our fellow men and women. By thy grace, make it effective, we pray, even through us in our day and generation. We ask it as we give thee our thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
