Category: John 1

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John John 1

To be where Jesus is

John

I almost feel like I’ve been rushing through the gospel passages at times, so I want to slow it down a bit and take a closer look at this passage.

When John the Baptist’s disciples heard John tell them that Jesus was the one they should be following, they immediately left John to follow Jesus.

One wonders how hard it was for them to do that. No doubt they had built up some kind of bond with John during the time that they were with them.

But there was a limit to what John could do for them. Why? Because greatest of the prophets though he may have been, he was still merely a man, with all a man’s limitations.

If they wanted to take the next step in their relationship with God, they needed to become disciples of God himself. And that’s what Jesus was, God in flesh.

I wonder what it must have been like trying to approach Jesus. How do you just approach the person that John says is the Messiah that God promised to send all the way back in the Garden of Eden?

I would guess they were intimidated and unsure. Perhaps they were going back and forth between themselves saying,

“You talk to him.”

“No, you talk to him.”

Eventually Jesus noticed them, and he stopped and turned.

When he did, they probably came to a dead standstill. Would he reject them? They were, after all, nobodies. No special education. No special background. Why would Jesus accept them?

Perhaps it was in the midst of their awkward silence that Jesus asked,

What do you want? (John 1:38a)

And they replied,

“Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” (38b)

It seems a strange question in our culture. We would probably say, “How do you do. I’m Andrew.”

But in their culture, it was essentially the question of a person asking to become a disciple. The idea was that they wanted to be where Jesus was, learning from him. Not just his teachings, but how he actually lived.

Not much has changed in 2000 years. If we are to be followers of Jesus, we need to have the same attitude as these disciples: the desire to be near our master.

How about you? Do you have that same desire? To sit at his feet in the morning, reading his Word, and talking and listening to him in prayer? And do you have the desire to walk with him throughout the day?

Too often, people spend time with Jesus in the morning, but after that essentially say, “Well, it was great talking to you. Gotta go.” And they leave Jesus behind in their thoughts and mind.

But we need to be taking Jesus wherever we go. To learn to listen to his voice throughout the day and follow his leading.

That’s what it means to be a true disciple.

I’d love to say that I’ve mastered this. I haven’t. I’m still learning what it means to walk with him every moment of every day.

Will you join me in that journey this year?

I love the (semi-)old worship song that says,

I just want to be where you are.
Dwelling daily in your presence.

I don’t want to worship from afar.
Draw me near to where you are.

I just want to be where you are.
In your dwelling place forever.

Take me to the place where you are.
I just want to be with you.

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John John 1

Pointing the way

John

A lot of times, Christians get scared about sharing Jesus with their family and friends.

Part of the reason is that they think they have to have certain qualifications to do so. Or that they need special Bible knowledge to answer all possible questions.

Certainly it helps to have these things. And as we grow in our faith, we should grow in the knowledge of our Savior.

But as we see from this passage, our main responsibility is not to convince people, but to point the way to Jesus.

We see this with John the Baptist first. When the priests and Levites came out to question him, they immediately asked for his qualifications. Are you the Christ? Are you Elijah? Are you the Prophet?

When John said no, they then asked him, “What then gives you the right to baptize?”

I wonder how John felt? Did he at all feel uncertain or intimidated by these people trying to stare him down?

One would think not, considering how he had lashed out at people like these before. But still, it can be tough when you’re facing a bunch of people with “qualifications,” all of them hostile to you.

I don’t know if it happened this way, but I wonder if it was at that moment that John saw Jesus returning from the desert. I wonder if it was because he saw him, that John said to them,

“I baptize with water…but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” (John 1:26-27)

In other words, “If you’re asking my qualifications, I’m a nobody compared to the one who’s coming after me. In fact, he is right here, right now. And I’m not even worthy to be his slave.”

People may question our “qualifications.” But let us remember that we are not preaching ourselves, but Jesus.

We are not preaching how great we are, but how great Jesus is. And so when people question our qualifications, we should point not to ourselves, but to Jesus.

The next day, John once again pointed the way to Jesus, and then again the following day. As a result, two of John’s disciples immediately left him and started to follow Jesus.

One thing we should remember is that we are not trying to make people disciples of ourselves, but of Christ. It is him we should teach people to rely on, not ourselves.

That’s what John did, and I imagine he was ecstatic to see his disciples go after Jesus.

These disciples quickly followed up on John’s example. First, they brought Peter (Andrew’s brother — Andrew was one of the two who left John to follow Jesus).

Then after Jesus called their friend Phillip, Phillip got into the act by bringing Nathanael to Jesus.

But Nathanael was very skeptical when they told him of Jesus, saying,

Nazareth! Can anything good come from there? (46)

As you can see, Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown, did not exactly have a sterling reputation for producing prophets, or anything else spiritual for that matter.

But Phillip didn’t argue with Nathanael. All he said was, “Come and see.”

And when he brought Nathanael to Jesus, it was Jesus who did the convincing.

I am not saying that we shouldn’t make the effort to answer people’s questions. We should.

But ultimately, answering their questions will not save them. Only Jesus can.

You will never argue a person into heaven. And so after dealing with their questions, we should tell them as Phillip did. “Come to Jesus. You will see.”

How about you? Are you pointing the way to Jesus to the people around you?

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John John 1 Luke Luke 3 Mark Mark1 Matthew Matthew 3

Loved by the Father, Filled with the Spirit

Jesus baptized by John the Baptist
www.LumoProject.com

During the time that John was baptizing multitudes of people, Jesus also came up to him to be baptized.

I wonder just how well John knew Jesus and exactly who he was when he did. How much did his parents tell him about his cousin? How much did God tell him?

John had been living in the desert probably from the time he was old enough to survive on his own. Did he even recognize Jesus?

He must have, at least to some degree, for when Jesus came to be baptized, John saw in his eyes someone unlike any other he had ever met. Someone who had no need of repentance. And so he told Jesus,

I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? (Matthew 3:14)

But Jesus told him,

Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness. (Matthew 3:15)

Why did Jesus get baptized? For two reasons. One was to make clear to John with no room for doubt just who he was preparing the people for. Later, when John saw Jesus, he gave this testimony:

Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’

I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel…

I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.

I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’

I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God. (John 1:29-34)

From his words, it seems clear that up until that point, that though he recognized something different in Jesus, nevertheless, he didn’t know he was the One God had promised, the one that he was preparing Israel for.

The second reason Jesus got baptized was to identify himself with us as fallen people in need of repentance.

Although Jesus himself never sinned, he would take our sins upon himself at the cross, and die for us. By his birth, he identified with us as being human. By his baptism, he identified with our sinfulness.

But the thing that strikes me is what happened when he got baptized, something that John the Baptist alludes to.

Namely, that when he got baptized, the Spirit came upon Jesus in power. Not only that, the Father affirmed his love for him.

If we are to be effective Christians, we need these things in our lives. If Jesus, the only unique Son of God, needed these things, how much more do we?

To know that the Father loves us. If we do not know this, we will always fear to draw near to Him. We will always be afraid of his words of rebuke, and so we’ll hesitate to draw into a close relationship with him.

But also, if we are not secure in the love of the Father, it makes all our other relationships much more difficult.

It becomes difficult to love others when they don’t return that love, or at least as much as we would expect or hope.

It becomes difficult to forgive when people hurt us.

The reason so many people find it hard to love as God does is simply because they don’t know God’s love for them.

But because Jesus was so completely filled with his Father’s love, he could love others despite their failings.

At the same time the Father affirmed his love for Jesus, however, the Spirit empowered him. Jesus didn’t start his ministry until that happened.

In the same way, if we want to be effective servants for God, we need to be filled with his Spirit. According to John, that was what Jesus also came to do. To baptize us with his Spirit.

How about you? Do you know God’s love in your life? Are you filled with his Spirit?

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John John 1 Luke Luke 3 Mark Mark1 Matthew Matthew 3

Telling it like it is

The gospels

We leap approximately 18 years in time from when Jesus was 12 years old to when he turned 30. And just before he began his ministry, his cousin John started his own.

The apostle John makes very clear who John the Baptist was and was not, saying,

There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.

He came as a witness to testify concerning that light (i.e. Jesus), so that through him all men might believe.

He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. (John 1:6-8)

Or as John the Baptist himself put it when questioned by the priests, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees,

I am not the Christ…I am the voice of one calling in the desert, “Make straight the way for the Lord.” (John 1:20, 23)

His whole purpose in life was to pave the way for Jesus. To prepare people’s hearts to receive him.

It strikes me that as followers of Jesus, God has passed on that mission to us. To prepare people’s hearts for Jesus. We cannot make them follow him. All we can do is plant the seed.

Our message, really, isn’t much different from John’s. The main difference, of course, was that he was preaching that they needed to prepare their hearts because God’s salvation was coming. (Luke 3:6)

We preach that God’s salvation has already come in Jesus Christ.

But the other thing that strikes me is that John really didn’t mince words. When he saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming down towards him, he said,

You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.

And do not think you can say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.”

I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:7-12)

Why did John come down so hard on these people? Because for the most part, they were hypocrites that looked good on the outside, keeping the letter of the law, while on the inside, they were utterly corrupt.

They thought they were in with God because they were Jews. Not only that, unlike the “ignorant,” they knew God’s law.

But on the inside, they were filled with pride and were utterly devoid of the mercy of God in their lives.

And though he was less harsh with the rest of the people, even the most hated of people in Israel, the tax collectors and astonishingly enough the Roman soldiers (although some would argue that the soldiers were Jewish soldiers), nevertheless, he called them to repentance as well.

He warned them that they could not just keep living the way that they were. Because as he told all of them, a day of judgment is coming.

We need to do the same. We need to tell people like it is.

We of course need to tell people that Jesus loves them. That he died to take the punishment for their sins, and that they can be forgiven and made whole.

But if they refuse to listen in their pride, stubbornness, or utter sinfulness, we also need to warn them that a day of judgment is coming.

Because if we don’t, God will hold us accountable. (Ezekiel 3:16-21; Acts 20:26-27)

How about you? Are you telling it like it is?

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John John 1

Light in a darkened world

John

I once read about a young teenage girl in the United States.

She had perfect grades in high school. She had a perfect score for the SAT. She had a perfect score for the University of California acceptance exam. She was a brilliant young woman.

But in an interview, a reporter asked her, “What is the meaning of life?”

Her answer?

“I have no idea. I would like to know myself.”

That’s the kind of world that we’re living in. A world where people are separated from God, and because they are, they are walking around in darkness.

They’re stumbling around looking for meaning in life. Even worse, they are blinded by their sin and where that sin is leading them.

And it was into this world that Jesus stepped into 2000 years ago as a little baby. It says in verse 4 of this passage,

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. (John 1:4)

When Jesus came into this world, he became light in a darkened world. How did he become light?

He showed us who God is.

As we saw in my last post, he explained who God is to us. God is invisible, but when Jesus appeared, God became visible. All that God is, we see in Jesus.

We no longer have to guess what God is like. We can look at Jesus and know.

He showed us the meaning of life.

What is the meaning of life? Ultimately, it is to have a relationship with God.

It says in verse 3 that he created all things, including us. But when Jesus came, the very people that he created didn’t recognize him. More than that, they rejected him. (John 1:10-11)

But it says in verse 12-13,

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (John 1:12-13)

In other words, when we receive Jesus as our Savior and as our Lord, we become adopted into his family.

Nobody is physically born into God’s family. Just because your parents are Christians does not make you one. You need to be born of God.

In other words, you need to respond to God’s work in your heart and say “Yes” to Jesus.

“Yes Jesus. I want you to be my King. I want you to be my Lord.”

When you do that, you become part of God’s family. And in doing so, you find the main purpose for which you were created. A relationship with your heavenly Father.

He showed us the way to life.

Just as he gave life and breath to all that live, he gives eternal life to all who believe in him.

It says in verse 5,

The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood (or overcome) it.

When Jesus came into the world, the sinful people around him could not understand him, even the religious ones. And because of that they tried to kill him.

But even in killing him, they could not overcome him. Rather, through his death, he took the punishment for our sin.

More than that, he conquered death and the grave by rising again three days later, and now he gives life to all who come to him.

And so John writes,

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:16-17)

Moses gave us the law that showed us what God required of us. But the law couldn’t save us. All it could do was show us our shortcomings. That we’re all sinners deserving death.

But through Jesus, we find grace and truth. We see the truth of our sinfulness. But we also see the truth of God’s love for us shown on the cross.

And when we receive him, we receive “grace upon grace.” A grace that never runs out and covers all our sin. A grace that gives us life.

May the light of Christ shine in your hearts this Christmas.

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John John 1

When God became flesh

Jesus John 1:1
www.LumoProject.com

For those wondering how I’m going to tackle the Gospels, I’m going to do it as I did the Old Testament, that is, chronologically. I’m going to use a harmony of the Gospels to do this, and weave between the Gospel narratives to tell the story of Jesus.

Because of this, we will start with John 1, which takes us back to the very beginning of time.

I’m really excited about finally hitting the Gospels by the way, particularly since as I write this, we’re well into the Christmas season. The timing couldn’t be more perfect.

At any rate, John starts off his Gospel by writing,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. (John 1:1)

When it says “the Word,” it’s talking about Jesus. In other words, in the beginning when time began, Jesus was already there.

Why does it call Jesus “The Word?”

Well to the Jewish mind, “the Word” meant the wisdom of God.

To the Greek mind, it had the idea of reason or mind of God. When they asked themselves, “Why do we see so much order in this world we live in? How could it have been created in such a way?” they would answer, “The mind and reason of God.”

So when John talks of Jesus as the Word, that’s what he’s saying. He’s the mind and reason of God. He’s the wisdom of God himself.

Let’s think of it another way. How can we get to know a person? Through their words.

If a person never speaks or writes, we can get to know them to some degree. But the extent to which we can know them is very limited.

But when they speak, we learn the way they think. We can learn from their wisdom. And most of all, we can find out who they truly are.

That’s what Jesus is to us. He’s God’s “Word” to us. Because through Jesus, we see who God really is. Why is this so?

There are two reasons. First, he was with God in the beginning. More literally, it says, he was “face to face” with God the Father in the beginning. In other words, they had a very close and personal relationship.

But not only that, Jesus himself was God. And in verse 14, it says that he became flesh and dwelt among us. In other words, God became flesh in Jesus Christ.

Here we hit the concept of the Trinity full on. What is the Trinity? It is the idea that though there is one God, we see three persons in the one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Father. Yet somehow, these three are the one God.

How can this be? I don’t know. We live in a dimension where three persons are three separate beings. Three people can stand right next to each other with no space between them, but they are still separate beings.

But God is not bound by a three dimensional universe. He exists in a completely different dimension. And in the dimension in which he exists, three persons can be one being.

We can’t fully understand it simply because we don’t dwell in God’s dimension. We dwell in ours.

But as much as God can be understood, it’s because of Jesus. Because when Jesus was born in that manger 2000 years ago, for the first time, we could actually see God with our own eyes.

John writes,

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (14)

When he walked this earth and spoke, he revealed who God is, because he was God in human flesh. All that God is, we see in Jesus.

That’s why John writes,

“No one has ever seen God [the Father], but God the One and Only [Jesus] who is at the Father’s side, has made him known. (18)

Literally, it says that Jesus has explained God to us. He’s God’s interpreter to us.

This is getting long, so let’s wrap this up for now by saying this: When we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate the fact that God became flesh.

Why is that important? Because by becoming flesh, he revealed himself to us.

Do you want to know the invisible God? Look no further than the manger. Because in Jesus, we see who God is in all his wisdom, power, and glory.