Do I believe, here and now?

 S: John 11:21-27, 38-44

²¹ “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

²⁴ Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; ²⁶ and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

²⁷ “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

…

³⁸ Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹ “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.”

⁴⁰ Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

⁴¹ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

⁴³ When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

O: Martha makes one of the strongest confessions of faith in the Gospels — that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, but she didn’t realise the immediacy of that truth – that in a short time, he would raise her beloved brother from the dead! So, when Jesus asked that the tomb be opened, she said “But, Lord, by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.”

A: Like Martha, I often intellectually affirm the power of God but tend to think of it in a less-than-immediate way. I sometimes live as though that power is only theoretical or reserved for eternity. It’s easier to believe in God’s eventual victory than to trust Him to move today. I often expect decay when Jesus promises life. My wife sometimes says I’m almost a practical atheist — I may not say God can’t work, but I live as if He won’t. A lot of times, I feel like the man from Mark 9, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

I affirm the truths of Scripture and believe in God’s power, but I haven’t personally seen a clear, undeniable miracle — nothing that couldn’t also be explained by coincidence or natural processes. I've had prayers answered, yes, but not in a way that forces belief. That makes it hard to live with the kind of immediate, expectant faith Jesus talks about. Like Martha, I say “I believe,” but when the stone needs to be rolled away, hesitation creeps in. Perhaps that’s part of why Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” I don’t want to just affirm God’s power in theory. I want to live as though the resurrection life is real — even here, even now.

P: Lord, you are the resurrection and the life — not only at the end of time! I believe; help my unbelief! Father, help me not just to know Your promises but to trust them in the present. Give me the faith to roll away the stone, even when I fear the stench of disappointment or decay. Show me your glory — not just in eternity, but in today’s struggles. Give me eyes to see Your hand, even in the ordinary. Grow my trust so that I don't just wait for resurrection in the future, but expect Your life-giving power in my present. In your powerful name I pray, amen.

 

Before Abraham was, I AM

S: John 8:54-58

⁵⁴ Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. ⁵⁵ Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”

⁵⁷ “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”

⁵⁸ “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” ⁵⁹ At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

O: Many claim Jesus never explicitly said He was God. But in this passage, Jesus’ words are unmistakable for His Jewish listeners.

When Jesus speaks of “My Father, whom you claim as your God”, He identifies a unique relationship with God, setting Himself apart from the audience.

The climactic phrase, “before Abraham was born, I am!”, echoes the divine name revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14–15, where God says, “I AM WHO I AM.” This name conveyed God’s eternal, self-existent nature.

Jesus isn’t just saying “I was” or “I existed before Abraham,” but using the present tense “I AM,” claiming divine identity.

This caused outrage among His listeners—they understood the claim as blasphemy, worthy of stoning.

“I am” was the name God gave for Himself to Moses back in Exodus 3:14-15:

¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” ¹⁵ God said moreover to Moses, “You shall tell the children of Israel this, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations.

“I AM” – Elyeh – was the first person version – God referring to Himself. “Yahweh” is the 3^rd person version – “He is” – i.e. other people referring to God.

A: Jesus is God. The New Testament makes it very clear. He is God the Son who came to die to save us, and in His resurrection, we have eternal life. Therefore, whoever has the Son has life and whoever does not have the Son does not have life. Those who believe in the name of the Son of God have eternal life. (c/f 1 John 5:12-13).

Therefore, believe in His Name – Hashem as the Hebrews called it – Believing in His name is symbolic of believing in Him, trusting in Him, Christ the Redeemer. In the Bible, a person’s name often represents their identity, character, authority, and mission — much more than just a label. So believing in His Name is not just talking about saying a name like a magic incantation. It means putting your trust in the person, mission, and saving power of Jesus.

The story of the 7 sons of Sceva in Acts 19:13–16 show that Jesus’ name is not a magic incantation.

P: Father, thank You for revealing Yourself through Jesus, Your Son, who is truly God. Help me to trust in Him with all my heart and live faithfully in the power of His name. May my life glorify You as I follow Jesus. In His name, Amen.

 

Where did the story of the woman caught in adultery come from?

This morning, I read John 7:53–8:11. It’s a familiar story – the scribes and Pharisees confront Jesus with a woman caught in the very act of adultery, pointing out that the Law of Moses commands that such a woman be stoned. It seems like a trap – challenging Jesus on his teachings about mercy, repentance, and forgiveness, in order to force him either to go against the Mosaic Law or to lose credibility with the common people who followed him for his compassion.

Instead of answering, Jesus bends down and writes something on the ground with his finger. People have speculated over the ages about what he might have written: the sins of the accusers? “Where is the man she was caught in adultery with?” (since the Law of Moses says both parties should be punished – see Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22)? Or perhaps the names of the accusers who themselves had committed adultery? We will likely not know this side of heaven.

Finally comes his beautiful response: “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.” It so powerfully balances justice and mercy.

It’s such an evocative story—no wonder we love it. But there is one problem: the earliest manuscripts of the Gospel of John do not contain this story. And its style and vocabulary are noticeably different from John’s, more similar in tone and wording to Luke’s Gospel. In fact, in some later manuscripts, the story is found inserted into Luke 21:38 instead of John 7/8.

So, the evidence is strong that this was not part of John’s original Gospel but was inserted later. Yet many scholars still believe it is probably a genuine anecdote from Jesus’ life. It is consistent with Jesus’ character and teaching style—turning legal traps into moral challenges and surprising reversals.

By the late 300s, when Jerome translated the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate), this story was already widespread and present in many Greek and Latin manuscripts. Some early Church Fathers—like Didymus the Blind (c. 390)—refer to a similar story, although not as part of John’s Gospel, suggesting it may have circulated as a stand-alone tradition from the time of the apostles.

There was, in fact, a large body of early Christian writings that didn’t survive to modern times. Some of these writings likely included sayings and stories about Jesus that were considered authentic but were not included in the canonical Gospels.

One well-known example of a lost written source is Q—the hypothetical document believed to have been a common source for the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (since they share many identical sayings not found in Mark). In the ancient world, copying from another’s work wasn’t considered plagiarism or dishonest—it was expected. So, Matthew and Luke likely copied from this earlier source, which seems to have consisted mostly of Jesus’ sayings without much narrative.

In the TV series The Chosen, Q is portrayed as a collection of notes written by Matthew, imagined as neurodivergent (perhaps functionally autistic) with a meticulous attention to detail. This is, of course, a dramatized hypothesis—but it’s a moving one. The real Q may well have been compiled by someone like that: a devoted follower of Jesus, committed to preserving his teachings accurately.

In the same way, the story of the woman caught in adultery may have been part of that early, now-lost body of tradition. By the 4^thcentury, scribes may have inserted it into John’s Gospel at this juncture because it fit the flow of the narrative and preserved a beloved and compelling story that bore all the marks of Jesus’ voice.

They Thought They Knew

S: John 7:25-28, 41-52

²⁵ At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? ²⁶ Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? ²⁷ But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”

²⁸ Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, ²⁹ but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”

…

⁴¹ Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴² Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” ⁴³ Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. ⁴⁴ Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁴⁶ “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.

⁴⁷ “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹ “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

⁵² They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

O: Many people didn’t accept Jesus because he broke their preconceived notions. Some of their preconceived notions were non-Biblical — e.g., the idea that “when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.” But some of them were Biblical, e.g., “Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” – and therefore they figured Jesus could not be the Messiah because he was from Galilee, being unaware that he was in fact born in Bethlehem. As for the Pharisee’s claim “a prophet does not come out of Galilee,” there is no Scripture that prohibits it; in fact, the prophet Jonah was from Gath-hepher, a town in Galilee.

This is a warning to us about our own preconceived notions about God.

For example, I used to think “No, you must use the King James Version, because all the other translations are corrupted – they leave out the blood of Jesus in a lot of passages and have other corruptions.” Later, I realised that, actually, the King James Version is different because it was translated from the Textus Receptus – i.e. “received text” – which was copied over the centuries by monks, and not because the modern translations were maliciously corrupted. It is a pretty good copy, but there are various minor differences (and some larger passages, e.g., the end of Mark) compared to earlier manuscripts that have since been discovered.

Another example is how I used to believe that Catholics cannot possibly be Christians because they have all these unbiblical doctrines that “clearly contradict scripture”. When I was doing my Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, I ended up in the Graduate InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, which at that time was 30% Catholic, and I was confronted with so many Catholics who were on fire for Jesus. I also discovered that many of my old prejudices against them were unfounded.

A third example is how I used to think that you had to believe that the universe was created in literally 6 days and it’s really only 6,000 or 10,000 years old “because the Bible said so” and that modern scientific understanding was clearly unbiblical and incompatible. I have since come to realise that the incompatibility wasn’t between the Bible and a scientific understanding of the universe, but with particular interpretations of both the Bible and scientific understanding.

A: I need to continue to keep an open mind, even as I test new ideas against Scripture – realising that sometimes my preconceived notions about what is scriptural might need to be adjusted.

But at the same time, I need to be led by the Holy Spirit so that I don’t go off into heresy even as I might have to adjust my theology.

P: Father, please continue to lead and guide me into all truth. In Jesus’ name, amen.