Sending or Coming

You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth.

You are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have (receive) life. (John 5:33, 40)

I am starting to see three main activities: Sending, coming and receiving.

The end results seem to be summed up in the following verse that ties in with these two verses.

I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (John 14:6)

In reviewing all of the chapters up to this point, here are all the texts that I see that relate to the idea of sending. A few of them are by implication but seem to fit in with the intention of the author.

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. (John 1:6)

Now here are a few that involve someone else's sending activities.

This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"

Then they said to him, "Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?"

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. (John 1:19, 22, 24)

You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. (5:33)

Now notice how much sending is going on from God's point of reference.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. (John 3:16-17)

You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent ahead of Him.' (3:28)

For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. (3:34)

Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." (4:10)

I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor. (4:38)

But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish – the very works that I do – testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me. And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. (5:36-38)

When God sent, what was His purpose for sending?

It appears from the book of John in particular that God sent witnesses and the gift of His Son. His motives in sending people was to make offers for us to accept or receive through belief. These offers involve things that we desperately need, things like life itself. I need to investigate more in this passage just what these offers really are and how I can receive them for myself.

On the other hand, it appears than when the Pharisees (and by association, religious people today) sent out people, it was usually for the purpose of insinuating their superiority or authority and for judging the witnesses using their own standards. They sent with an attitude of suspicion and doubt but also sometimes with curiosity. But what is significant, at least according to Jesus, is that they refused to come themselves and receive without resistance what was being offered by God; they refused to believe those He had sent. Instead of coming to receive they remained aloof and at a distance to judge. As a result they deepened the deception and darkness around their souls and their hearts became more and more hardened each time they refused invitations to come.

Apparently one of the reasons they refused to come was because of the issue of competing authority. They wanted authority so badly for themselves that they refused to acknowledge or submit to any other authority that appeared to threaten their established authority that they had worked so hard to achieve. Their kind of authority gave them ability to control the lives of people under their jurisdiction which gave them a sense of value and worth. But they refused to believe that this was a false source of value, that controlling the lives of others around them was not God's way, for they believed that God did the same thing in His government. As is almost always the case, they were acting out of a distorted picture of God that had formed deep in their heart and when a more accurate demonstration of God came along they felt threatened by it instead of attracted to it.

Just as we do today, they failed to grasp the true meaning of many of the terms used in religion. They had adopted or developed counterfeit definitions of most every religious word and as a result were operating a religion based on fear, greed, selfishness and a desire to assert forceful control over others using whatever means necessary to achieve that end. Of course, they relied heavily on Scriptures to defend their positions just as many do today to achieve the same purposes. But just because one can string together texts that appear to justify religious opinions does not mean that they are in tune with the way God operates His Kingdom.

I suspect that today Jesus would be just as out of touch with people in churches as He was when He came the first time. People who today claim to be His followers and claim to be advancing His Kingdom would be just as much at odds with the principles and attitudes that He demonstrated as much as were the Jews when Jesus walked this earth before. Ironically these people claim to believe in Jesus and generously use His stories to promote their plans and schemes – all in the name of ushering in the Kingdom of God on earth. Yet the spirit which motivates them and the methods they employ to advance and grow their ministries or churches are more in tune with the Pharisees and religious leaders in Christ's day than they are with the example of Jesus, who seemed more at ease with prostitutes and addicts than with those in charge of church programing.