To Believe in Jesus – Part 37

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:43-46

43དེ་ཡང་ཉིན་གཉིས་ཀྱི་རྗེས་སུ། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་གནས་དེ་དང་བྲལ་ནས་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་དུ་ཕེབས་པ་རེད། 44ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་སྔ་མོ་ནས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ལ་རང་ཡུལ་ནས་བརྩི་བཀུར་མི་བྱེད་ཅེས་བདེན་དཔང་མཛད་པས༌སོ།། 45དེ་ནས་ཁོང་ཉིད་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་དུ་བྱོན་པའི༌ཚེ། སྔོན་ཆད་ཡུལ་དེའི་མི་རྣམས་ཡེ་རུ་སཱ་ལེམ་གྱི་པེ་སག་གི་དུས་ཆེན་ལ་སོང༌ཞིང༌། ཁོང་གིས་གནས་དེ་རུ་མཛད་པའི་ངོ་མཚར་བའི་དོན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱང་མཐོང་མྱོང་བས་ཁོང་ལ་བསུ་བ་བྱས་སོ།།

46དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་སླར་ཡང་ཆུ་རྒུན་ཆང་དུ་བསྒྱུར་མྱོང་བའི་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་གྱི་ཀ་ནཱ་རུ་ཕེབས་པ༌དང༌། གནས་དེར་བློན་ཆེན་ཞིག་ཡོད་པའི་བུ་ནི་ཀཱ་ཕར་ན་ཧུམ་དུ་ཡོད་ཅིང་ན་ཚ་བྱུང་བ་རེད།

John 4:43-46

43 After the two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. 46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill

 

Jesus was from Nazareth and what the author of John recorded “a prophet has no honor in his own hometown” most likely refer to Nazareth and not the whole region of Galilee.

Looking at this map here, Jesus traveled north after leaving Sychar of Samaria.

The Galileans who welcomed Jesus, this was most likely happening in Cana where Jesus turned water into wine when He was invited to a wedding feast. And Jesus went further north to Capernaum.

When Jesus moved from places to places preaching the kingdom of God we do read of divisions and differences of opinions. But we must take note that those we receive Jesus gets more of His teachings.

Those who receive Jesus’ words and teachings accepted the value and importance of the words of Christ. These people whose hearts and minds were open to Jesus most likely were intentionally waiting for the Messiah to save them from sin and judgement and eternal condemnation. These people who believe in Jesus believed in hope of eternal life in the presence of God.

 

To believe in Jesus is to have hope of eternal life in the presence of God.

 

So while Jesus continues to travel and minister we continue to read of divisions and differences of opinions and responses. That addresses the issue of human decision and human will to believe and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior.

We know that not only we must believe in Jesus to have hope of eternal life but we must continue to believe till we meet Jesus in person. This calls for perseverance of our faith.

Consider what Jesus said in Matthew in the context of the Parable of the Sower –

 

མད་ཐཱ། 13:10-17

10དེ་ནས་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཡོང་སྟེ་ཁོང་ལ་ན༌རེ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་མི་རྣམས་ལ་དཔེའི་སྒོ་ནས་གསུངས་པ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་ཞུས་པ༌ན། 11སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ནམ་མཁའི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་ཀྱི་གསང་བ་རྣམས་ནི་ཁྱོད་ཅག་ལ་ཤེས་སུ་འཇུག་པ་ལས་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་མངོན་པ་མ༌ཡིན། 12རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་སུ་ཞིག་ལ་ཡོད་པ་དེ་ལ་ད་དུང་ཡང་གནང་ངེས་ཤིང་དེ་ལ་ལྷག་མའང་ཡོད་པར༌འགྱུར། འོན་ཀྱང་སུ་ཞིག་ལ་མེད་པ་དེ་ལས་ཉུང་ཙམ་ཡོད་པ་དེའང་ཕྱིར་ལེན་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་ཕྱིར༌ཡིན། 13དེའི༌ཕྱིར། བདག་གིས་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་དཔེའི་སྒོ་ནས་བཤད་པའི་རྒྱུ་མཚན༌ནི། དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མིག་གིས་བལྟས་ཀྱང་མི་མཐོང་བ༌དང༌། རྣ་བས་མཉན་ཡང་མི་ཐོས་ཤིང་མི་རྟོགས་པའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།། 14དེ་ལ་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱའི་ལུང་བསྟན་ལས་ཇི་སྐད༌དུ།

རྣ་བས་ཐོས་ཀྱང་ཅི་ཡང་མི་ཤེས༌ཤིང༌།།

མིག་གིས་མཐོང་ཡང་ཅི་ཡང་མི་རྟོགས༌པ།།

15དེ་རྣམས་སེམས་ནི་གྱོང་པོར་གྱུར་པ༌དང༌།།

རྣ་བས་མི་མཉན་མིག་ཟུང་བཙུམས་པས༌སོ།།

དེ་ལྟར་མིན་ན་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བ༌དང༌།།

རྣ་བས་ཐོས་ཤིང་བློ་ཡིས་རྟོགས་པ༌དང༌།།

ཕྱིར་དུ་འཁོར་ནས་ངས་ཀྱང་དེ་རྣམས༌ནི།།

གསོ་ཞིང་དྲག་པར་བྱེད་པ་ཡིན་ལགས༌སོ།།

ཞེས་ལུང་བསྟན་གནང་བ་ལྟར་ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྟེང་དུ་འགྲུབ་བཞིན༌འདུག 16འོན༌ཀྱང༌། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བའི༌ཕྱིར། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་མིག་ནི་བདེ་བ༌ཡིན། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་རྣ་བས་ཐོས་པའི༌ཕྱིར། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་རྣ་བ་བདེ༌བའོ།། 17བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་བདེན་པར་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། སྔར་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་དང་མི་གཞུང་དྲང་མང་པོས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མཐོང་བ་དེ་དག་ལ་བལྟ་འདོད་ནའང་མཐོང་མ༌མྱོང༌། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཐོས་པ་དེ་དག་ལ་ཉན་འདོད་ཀྱང་མ་ཐོས༌སོ།།

Matthew 13:10-17

10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

“‘“You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.”

15 For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

 

Jesus quoted from the prophet Isaiah which address the rejection of God’s word

 

15དེ་རྣམས་སེམས་ནི་གྱོང་པོར་གྱུར་པ༌དང༌།།

རྣ་བས་མི་མཉན་མིག་ཟུང་བཙུམས་པས༌སོ།།

དེ་ལྟར་མིན་ན་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་བ༌དང༌།།

རྣ་བས་ཐོས་ཤིང་བློ་ཡིས་རྟོགས་པ༌དང༌།།

ཕྱིར་དུ་འཁོར་ནས་ངས་ཀྱང་དེ་རྣམས༌ནི།།

གསོ་ཞིང་དྲག་པར་བྱེད་པ་ཡིན་ལགས༌སོ།།

ཞེས་ལུང་བསྟན་གནང་བ་ལྟར་ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྟེང་དུ་འགྲུབ་བཞིན༌འདུག

15 For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

 

What does it mean “people’s heart has grown dull“?

And “their ears they can barely hear“?

And furthermore “their eyes they have closed“?

Whatever the reasons, these positions points to human will human decision. The words of God have been proclaimed since times of old but people can choose to receive or reject.

The positive reactions of the Samaritans at Sychar of Samaria were due to their hearts and minds being open to receive what Jesus had to say to them and they were waiting for the Messiah to save them.

Likewise among the Galileans those who receive Jesus heard more but those who rejected their hearts remains closed.

 

Our human will and decision to believe and receive Jesus opens the way for restoration of relationship with God.

 

The sacrifices Jesus made to preach the kingdom of God calling for repentance continues to be met with resistances, persecutions, and disruptions, but our Lord and Savior kept going. We must be encouraged to do likewise.

Let’s consider what was it that encourages Jesus

 

ལོ་ཀུ 15:7

7བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་སྨྲ་བར་བྱ༌སྟེ། དཔེ་དེ་བཞིན་དུ་འགྱོད་བཤགས་བྱེད་མི་དགོས་པའི་མི་གཞུང་དྲང་དགུ་བཅུ་གོ་དགུ༌ལས། མི་སྡིག་ཅན་གཅིག་གིས་འགྱོད་བཤགས་བྱས༌ན། ནམ་མཁའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ་དེ་ལས་ལྷག་པར་དགའ་སྤྲོ་ཆེན་པོ་སྐྱེ་བར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།

Luke 15:7

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

 

Our receptivity and obedience to Jesus’ words do brings joy to our Father in heaven and I believe this is what kept Jesus going even when faced with persecution.

When we believe Jesus and repent of our sins we bring joy to heavenly host, and when we share the gospel and others believe we bring more joy to those in heaven waiting for the ultimate redemption we read of in the book of Revelation.

We are encouraged to persevere in faith and to preach Jesus, amen.

 

To be continue …

 

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 36

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:41 – ཁོང་གིས་ཆོས་གསུངས་པས་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་ཡང་སྔར་ལས་ཇེ་མང་དུ་གྱུར་ཏོ།།

John 4:41 – And many more believed because of his word.

 

So the Samaritans invited Jesus to stay and preach to them because they wanted to hear directly from the person whom they expected to be the Messiah after what the woman at the well told them.

The author of the Gospel of John intentionally recorded Jesus stayed two days with them. This piece of information may not be significance for us today but to compare and contrast the circumstances Jesus went through during His years of public ministry this revealed something important about preaching the kingdom of God and calling for repentance and how people would react and response.

Remember the opening few verse of John 4, we read of why Jesus had to move and change location to continue His ministry

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:1-4

1དེ་ཡང་གཙོ་བོས་རྗེས་འབྲང་པ་བསྡུས་པ་དང་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཛད་པ་ནི་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཁན་ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་ལས་ཀྱང་མང་པོ་ཡིན་པ་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཐོས་སོ།། 2དོན་དམ་དུ་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དངོས་སུ་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཛད་པ་མ་ཡིན་པར་ཁོང་གི་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁྲུས་གསོལ་བྱས་པ༌ཡིན། 3དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཁོང་ཉིད་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཡུལ་དང་ཁ་བྲལ་ནས་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་དུ་ཕྱིར་ཕེབས༌སོ།།

4ཁོང་ཉིད་སཱ་མར་ཡ་ཡུལ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ཕེབས་དགོས༌ཤིང༌།

 

John 4:1-4

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria.

 

Throughout the records of the Four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, how often we read of Jesus having to move and change locations to continue His ministry of preaching due to opposition, persecution, possible dangers and disruptions? And the most telling situation when they needed to move was when they were not welcomed due to disbelieve. All these happened too often that Jesus’ disciples were expecting it wherever they went.

Apparently when the Gospels record of positive responses there seem to be with element of surprises. Remember when Jesus was amazed by the faith of a Roman Centurion.

So now here in John 4, Jesus was invited to stay and preach more to the Samaritans! Does that surprise the disciples? Why did these Samaritans react so differently?

 

Because they believed in what Jesus said and wanted to hear more!

 

Here in the Gospel of John the author deliberated highlighted many more believed

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:41 – ཁོང་གིས་ཆོས་གསུངས་པས་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་ཡང་སྔར་ལས་ཇེ་མང་དུ་གྱུར་ཏོ།།

John 4:41 – And many more believed because of his word.

 

The author of the Gospel of John did not disclose details of what Jesus spoke of to these Samaritans whereas we do read of the conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well.

We wish we could hear what they heard from Jesus in those two days Jesus stayed with them.

What did Jesus said to them?

We could assume Jesus spoke from the same message about living water which He spoke to the woman.  And we could expect more.

In previous post I mentioned the Samaritans were prepared to meet Jesus with references to events surrounding the birth of Christ and words had been spreading.

Let’s consider a very powerful testimony John the Baptist made of Jesus

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 1:29

དེའི་ཕྱི༌ཉིན། ཁྲུས་གསོལ་མཁན་ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་གྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་རང་གི་གམ་དུ་ཕེབས་པ་མཐོང་སྟེ་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ལྟོས༌དང༌། དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ལུ་གུ་

John 1:29

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

 

The multitudes of people who came to John the Baptist recognized him to be a great prophet of God and many even thought this could be the Messiah.

And when John the Baptist declared that he is not the Messiah but was sent to prepare the way for the Messiah, those who heard him and believed his testimony stayed closed to him because they knew if they wanted to meet the real Messiah then John the Baptist is the man pointing the way to the real Messiah.

In those days these people who believe, both Jews and Gentiles, and waiting for the Messiah were also holding on to the hope and expectation that the Messiah would save them from the judgement and condemnation of sin, and eventually save them from the wrath of God.

Their faith in the Messiah was with the expectation of deliverance from the wrath of God and redemption from the condemnation of sin. Therefore the message of finding eternal life through the Messiah was very appealing and the Gospel of John testifies that this Jesus is the Messiah!

The same group of people who believed in the Messiah also did know of what kind of sin they had to bear of which only God can forgive and provide atonement.

They carried with them the guilt of knowing they had to deal with breaking of God’s moral laws, God spoken commandments, which only the Messiah could help resolve.

Forgiveness and redemption is a foundational issue of believing in Jesus the Messiah chosen of God. Therefore when John the Baptist said

 

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

 

They knew this Jesus is the one they were waiting for. And so for the Samaritans who invited Jesus to stay two days, we can expected Jesus spoke to them many words about sin and redemption, about finding grace and forgiveness in God, and how God would redeem man from sin and death through the atonement work of Christ.

Let’s consider what else can be expected of the outcome of these Samaritans who believed in Jesus –

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 1:9-13

9གཟི་འོད་དེ་ཉིད་འོད་ཟེར་དངོས་མ༌སྟེ།།

འཇིག་རྟེན་ཡོངས་སུ་འཕྲོས་ནས་མི་ཀུན༌གསལ།།

10དེ་ཡང་ཁོང་ཉིད་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདིར་བཞུགས༌ཤིང༌།།

ཁོང་ཉིད་བརྒྱུད་ནས་འཇིག་རྟེན་བསྐྲུན་ན༌ཡང༌།།

འཇིག་རྟེན་མི་ཡིས་ཁོང་ཉིད་ཤེས་མ༌གྱུར།།

11ཁོང་ནི་རང་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ཕེབས་ན༌ཡང༌།།

རང་ཡུལ་མི་ཡིས་ཁོང་ལ་བསུ་བ༌མེད།།

12ཁོང་ཉིད་བསུ་ཞིང་ཁོང་གི་མཚན་ལ་ནི།།

དད་པའི་མི་རྣམས་དཀོན་མཆོག་བུ་ཕྲུག་ལ༎

འགྱུར་བར་མཛད་པའི་དབང་ཡང་ཁོང་གིས༌གནང༌།།

13དད་ལྡན་སྐྱེ་བོ་སོ་སོ་དེ་རྣམས༌ནི།།

མི་ཡི་ཁྲག་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་མ་ཡིན༌ལ།།

མི་ཡི་འདོད་ཆགས་དབང་གིས་མ་སྐྱེས༌ཤིང༌།།

མི་ཡི་འདོད་མོས་བཞིན་དུ་སྐྱེས་པའང༌མིན།།

དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཉིད་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་ལགས།།

 

John 1:9-13

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

 

Believing in Jesus brings hope of restored relationship with God

These Samaritans who were despised and rejected by the Synagogue leaderships found grace and forgiveness in Christ and were received as sons and daughters of God.

 

To be continue …

 

David Z