EXPLORE IT! - John 1:1-18
The Gospel of John begins with a Hymn to the Logos, or Word which identifies Jesus as the Logos and the Logos as divine.
It is an introduction to the Gospel as a whole, stating that the Logos is "God" and acts as the mouthpiece (Word) of God "made flesh", i.e. sent to the world in order to be able to intercede for humans and forgive their sins.
This portion of John's gospel is of central significance to the development of the Christian doctrine of Incarnation.
Comparisons can easily be drawn from this part to Genesis 1 where the same phrase In the beginning first occurs along with the emphasis on the difference between the darkness (such as the earth was formless and void, Genesis 1:2) vs light (the ability to see things not understood/hidden by the darkness, John 1:5).
The summation of this comparison occurs in the statement, the law was given through Moses... grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17).
Here John successfully bridges the gap for the reader – including Jewish readers well-versed in the Torah – from the Law to the One who would fulfill the Law (such as the requirement of animal sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins), Jesus.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
-- John 1:1-5, 14
HOPE! - ...and more hope!
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…”
There are many distorted images that people have about the Christian hope. Platonism has distorted it by saying that the soul, and not the body, is eternal and is therefore all that really matters, leading Christians to partake in an escapist belief. People have lost the hope of the resurrection and the redemption of creation in the present sense as well as the future sense. Both are real, but not recognized.
God’s redemption will make everything new, and is already at work this present life. People mostly seem to think that the goal is to get to heaven some day after death. All eschatological thought then functions under the notion that God is going to destroy the world and take us to heaven so that we can get out of this mess. Christ’s return is not seen as the complete restoration of the created order in which we now play a part, but is rather the point at which Christ takes us “home to heaven” so he can damn the rest of his creation.
In short, people are generally confused, not understanding at all the implications of Christ’s incarnation, much less his resurrection and what that means for us.
The early Christians did not believe that the world was getting better over time, nor did they believe that the world was getting worse over time. “They believed that God was going to do for the whole cosmos what he had done for Jesus at Easter.” The early Christians recognized the goodness of creation, the nature of evil, and the plan of redemption.
There are six themes in the New Testament writings that are laid out in relationship to this.
The first is “seedtime and harvest,” which is based on the resurrection of Jesus being the “first fruits” of the resurrection of all people. Because of Christ’s resurrection, we also may be resurrected.
The second is “the victorious battle,” in which the entire cosmos must submit to Christ, even death itself, so that Christ may make everything new.
The third is “citizens of heaven, colonizing the earth,” which meant that we would not depart into heaven, but that Christ will come from heaven to earth to transform everything and we will serve under him.
The fourth is “God will be all in all,” which means that “God intends to fill all creation with his own presence and love.”
The fifth is “new birth,” which speaks to how the whole creation is waiting to be freed from bondage and that when the children of God are revealed or resurrected the whole earth and the created order itself will be resurrected or renewed as well.
The sixth is “the marriage of heaven and earth,” which describes the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. This is the opposite of what a lot of Christians think, where they are brought up to heaven to meet God there. Heaven and earth are not opposed to one another, and they are not two different ideas conveying the same message. They are like male and female, who are made to be joined together.
EXPLORE IT! - John 1:19-34
The second part of the first chapter of John’s Gospel shows the preparation that John the Baptist was in the process of doing for the coming of the Messiah, the Messiah's arrival, and the Messiah's first disciples.
First, John the Baptist consistently denies being the Light himself and instead to be making the way for the Light to come.
When asked, he also denies being Elijah and The Prophet, but instead refers to himself with the words of Isaiah as “the voice calling in the desert…”
It is ironic that John the Baptist doesn’t view himself as Elijah since he did in fact come to be viewed as Elijah. When the disciples later ask Jesus why the Scripture says that Elijah must come before the Messiah, Jesus himself even refers to John the Baptist as the Elijah who was to come. And he adds that the people and rulers treated John the Baptist just as poorly as their ancestors treated Elijah and all the other prophets.
John’s Gospel also says that the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
When John the Baptist testifies that Jesus is the Messiah, he refers to him as “The Lamb.” He didn’t just make that kind of language up though. Throughout Scripture, we see God speaking through his prophets and others about “The Lamb” who would atone for the sins of all of us.
John explains that Jesus is the one he was talking about when he said that someone greater than himself was coming after him.
Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”
John’s Gospel shows a more reflective scene on the baptism of Jesus than do the other Gospels. All the Gospels record this event, but in John’s Gospel, it is not the narrator who tells the story, but rather it is the Baptist who testifies to his memories of what he has seen in the past.
Matthew’s Gospel includes the line where the Baptist says to Jesus, “You’re the one who should be baptizing me!” And Jesus tells him that this is what God wants at this time, and Jesus sets an example right at the beginning of his ministry of what his purpose is. His baptism points towards his own death and resurrection that will come later.
HOPE! - The Testimony of the Baptist
According to Matthew’s Gospel, an interesting event took place sometime after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
Jesus goes to the Temple, and the Pharisees ask him a question: Where did you get your authority?
Jesus answers with another question: Where did John the Baptist get his authority?
Within Jesus’ question is the answer. When Jesus is baptized by John, John declares him to be “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world;” also, the Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove, and the voice from Heaven said, “This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Jesus got his authority from the testimony of both John the Baptist as well as God Himself, but the Pharisees didn’t want to admit to that, so they decided to play stupid.
Jesus ends the conversation by saying that since they claim to have learned nothing from John, they won’t learn from him either.
Jesus then tells the Pharisees a parable about themselves.
“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
“‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”
EXPLORE IT! - John 1:35-51
“The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God!’”
-- John 1:35-36
When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus and spent the day with him.
Andrew was one of these disciples, and the text says that the first thing he did was to go find his brother Simon and introduce him to Jesus, saying, “We have found the Messiah!”
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
Cephas (Aramaic) and Peter (Greek) both mean rock.
Later, Jesus is leaving for Galilee with his new disciples and comes across a guy named Phillip.
Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida.
Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Nathanael is skeptical that anything good can come out of Nazareth.
When Jesus sees Nathanael, he says, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
Nathanael is like, “What do you know about me?”
Jesus tells Nathanael that he saw him while he was still sitting under the fig tree.
Nathanael is very impressed by this and declares that Jesus is the Son of God.
Jesus is in turn impressed by Nathaniel’s faith, and tells him that he’s going to see much greater things than that – he will see “heaven open, and the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Jesus is referencing the Genesis story of Jacob’s dream of the ladder between heaven and earth with the angels descending and ascending on it.
Jacob, however, did not realize that he was in God’s presence until after he saw this sign; whereas, Nathaniel recognized God in his midst well before he would see the sign of the Son of Man bridging the gap between heaven and earth.
Also, Jesus says that Nathanael is an Israelite without deceit, and Jacob was definitely a deceitful Israelite.
And so ends the beginning chapter of the Gospel of John, up next… the rest of the story.
HOPE! - Follow Me!
When Jesus called his disciples to follow him, he led them by example. He showed what a life filled with the Holy Spirit looked like. He spent time with his disciples. He demonstrated to his disciples a life lived in submission and obedience to the Father. His disciples followed in his example.
I have been taught that Jesus was a rabbi and that rabbis chose disciples or talmudim because they believed that the ones they chose had the ability and the potential to be like them. So the rabbis would set an example for their young disciples to follow and the followers would try to be just like their leader. This idea is seen in the gospels on a number of occasions. One example is when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, and Jesus prayed for them to show them a proper example. This is how “The Lord’s Prayer” came to be – by demonstration.
Another example is when the disciples did not fast. The Pharisees asked Jesus why his disciples did not fast like John’s disciples fasted, and Jesus told them that they could not fast while the bridegroom was with them. It would seem that it was customary for rabbis to have their disciples fast on occasion. However, Jesus led his disciples in this a bit differently. His disciples followed his example.
Another example of this idea is seen when Jesus is walking on the water across the lake and Peter calls out to him asking to walk to him on the water. Peter saw his rabbi walking on the water and he wanted to be just like his rabbi, so he asked Jesus to call out to him to come and follow him out of the boat and onto the water. This is yet another example of Jesus leading by demonstration. There are many other examples throughout the Gospels as well.
EXPLORE IT! - John 2:1-12
The second chapter of John begins with the miracle of Jesus turning the water into wine at a marriage at Cana.
He is attending a wedding with his disciples and the hosts run out of wine.
His mother is also there and asks him to help. He seems annoyed that she would ask him for a miracle and says that it is not his time yet.
Nevertheless, she still tells the servants to do whatever he asks, so he tells them to fill up the empty wine containers with water…which miraculously turns into wine.
Afterwards, the headwaiter of the wedding tastes it and remarks to the groom that they have saved the best wine for last.
John tells his audience that the water was there for the Jewish rite of purification.
According to John, this was his first miracle; and according to the hypothesis of the Signs Gospel, this miracle of turning water into wine was the first of seven signs to appear in an ancient gospel known as The Signs Gospel which would later be incorporated into the Gospel of John.
John’s Gospel was most likely written for the Johannine community living in Asia Minor. One of the main headquarters of the church at the time this Gospel was written was in the city of Pergamum. And this Gospel has been custom made for those living in Asia Minor at this time. Jesus’ story is laid out in such a way as to show Jesus’ superiority over the various local pagan gods.
The people John was writing to in Asia Minor believed in the god Dionysus, who every year was believed to turn water to wine on his birthday.
This miraculous sign was well-known among the people at the time, and they would have recognized when they heard John’s Gospel that he was stating that Jesus was not inferior to Dionysus because he could turn water into wine, too – and he was better at it! The headwaiter even exclaims that it’s the best wine he’s ever tasted!
HOPE! - Living the Incarnation
Jesus does not only teach and give lessons to those under his ministry, but he becomes close friends with those he teaches as well. He chooses to become associated with them. They do life together. They go places together, share meals with each other, and talk about life. In John’s Gospel, Jesus and his disciples even go to a wedding together. Jesus is a Messiah who thinks that this wedding and these people are worth his time and energy.
In Jesus’ ministry he selected the twelve disciples to be his close companions and followers. Jesus became associated with this group of people and they became associated with him. Jesus did life with these twelve young men. He took them with him to different places, such as the area around the Sea of Galilee, to Jerusalem, and even as far north as Caesarea Philippi at one point. Jesus took his disciples with him to participate in his ministry.
Jesus also ate meals with his disciples as well as others. Jesus associated himself with people who were considered the least and the unclean and even gave himself a sort of a bad reputation for doing so. He spent time with tax collectors and prostitutes and he came to be associated with them.
The incarnation itself is an example of Jesus’ choice to associate himself with humankind. The Scriptures record that “he took up our diseases and carried our sorrows.” He identified with mankind and became associated with mankind.
In Jesus’ friendship with his disciples, he is seen confiding in them. In the Garden of Gethsemane he asks them to stay up and pray with him during his night of sorrow, and he is deeply hurt when they cannot stay awake with him and pray.
In John, Jesus calls his disciples “friends.” Jesus is also seen associating with the disciples by visiting them in their own homes. The Gospels record Jesus staying at Peter’s house and healing his mother-in-law while there.
Jesus wasn’t afraid to live out the full potential of his incarnation. And we should be afraid to live incarnationally either, just like Jesus, because we have the Spirit of Jesus within us.
EXPLORE IT! - John 2:13-25
Jesus goes to Jerusalem for the Passover, the first of three Passovers mentioned in John. The second being around the time that he feeds the 5,000 people with the loaves and fishes, and the third being the final Passover during which he is crucified.
The text says that during the Passover, Jesus entered the Temple courts and saw people selling livestock and exchanging money.
So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!
John says his disciples remembered Psalm 69:9, "zeal for your house will consume me," perhaps a bit of wordplay interposing the ideas of "demanding all my attention” and “leading to my destruction." Whether the disciples remembered this during the incident or afterward is not clear. They were, after all, a bit slow at times.
Jesus is also asked to perform a "miraculous sign" to prove he has authority to expel the money changers. The religious leaders want to distract him from his message by getting him to perform magic tricks for them.
But he replies, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
The people believe he is talking about the official Temple building, but John states that Jesus meant his body, and that this is also what his disciples came to believe after his resurrection.
John then says that during the Passover Feast Jesus did perform miraculous signs, but does not list them, and that they caused people to believe in him, but yet he would "not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men."
Perhaps John included this statement to show that Jesus possesses a knowledge of people's hearts and minds, an attribute of God.
Now, John mentions the incident with the money changers as occurring at the start of Jesus' ministry, while the synoptic gospels have it occurring shortly before his crucifixion.
Some scholars insist that this instead shows that Jesus fought with the money changers twice, once at the beginning and once at the end of his ministry.
The incident in the synoptics occurs in Mark 11:12-19, Matthew 21:12-17, and Luke 19:45-48.
Perhaps John has relocated the story to the beginning to show that Jesus' arrest was for the raising of Lazarus in John 11, not the incident in the Temple.
HOPE! - Jesus gets Hangry?
In the Synoptic Gospels, the story of Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple is surrounded by stories of Jesus cursing the fig tree. John doesn’t include this story in his Gospel, but the Synoptics help to provide some added context to this bizarre act of Christ.
Did Jesus just lose his temper? Or is there something bigger going on here?
Matthew’s Gospel tells us that Jesus spends the night in the nearby village of Bethany, and early the next morning he heads back to the big city.
He gets hungry along the way, and stops by a fig tree along the path, but it was covered in nothing but leaves.
He then curses it, saying, “May you never bear fruit again!” and immediately the tree withers.
The disciples are amazed, and say, “How did you do that?”
Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
But wait a minute… why did Jesus curse the fig tree again? The other Gospel writers let us know that it wasn’t even the season for figs. So what was Jesus point? Was he just having a bad day?
Many scholars see the fig tree as representative of Jerusalem, and Jesus is using the fig tree as a visual aid for a parable.
Just as the fig tree did not produce the kind of fruit that Jesus demanded, continuous and not seasonal, so too the people of Jerusalem had not produced the kind of “fruit” that God demanded.
Just as the fig tree did not recognize its creator and submit to his will when he approached, the same was true with Jerusalem, the city of God… and both would be destroyed.
And this is why he’s so angry when he goes into the Jerusalem Temple. Not because he didn’t have breakfast. But because the people who were supposed to be leaders of faith, showing people the way to God, were blocking the way – they were cheating people out of God’s goodness.
So when God in the flesh shows up – Jesus – of course he’s mad that they’re cheating his own people in his own house! He comes in to purge and purify the place. But of course, the religious leaders have no desire for true cleansing.
Their hearts are the exact opposite of their father and founder King David, who humbled himself before God, and they have become more like Pharaoh, who hardened his heart against God.
When David cries out to God in repentance after his sin with Bathsheba, he says, "Cleanse me with hyssop."
This is not an insignificant request. Hyssop was used as a healing ointment for wounds. It cleansed the wound so that healing could begin, but this wasn't a comfortable process by any means. It hurt! It burned! David isn't saying "take my sin away from me," he is saying "burn this sin right out of me!" It'd be like saying, "God, pour battery acid on me until all the evil in me has been burned up!"
Also, healing doesn't always come quickly. David never fully recovered from the consequences of his sin, however, his "wound" would never have been healed at all had it not first been "cleansed."
EXPLORE IT! - John 3:1-15
The first part of chapter 3 begins with Nicodemus, who is said to be a member of the ruling council, and he secretly comes at night to talk with Jesus, whom he calls Rabbi.
During this conversation, Jesus makes an odd reference to a passage from the Book of Numbers, where he compares himself to… a snake!?!
Well, that’s a little bit odd…
Now the Book of Numbers says that Moses led the Israelites through the desert to avoid going through Edom, and they spoke against God and against Moses. They wanted to go back to Egypt, and they whined that there wasn’t enough food or water. And so God sent poisonous snakes to attack the Israelites. And the Israelites confessed their sins and Moses prayed for them. And God told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole. And anyone who had been bitten and looked at the bronze snake survived.
And so, as we jump forward to John’s Gospel in the New Testament, Jesus uses the story of the bronze snake to explain his own death.
Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be “born again” to see the kingdom of God.
Now Nicodemus has known this his whole life, but he wants Jesus to take the answer in a different direction, so he’s like, “Born again? What’s that supposed to mean, anyway? How can I crawl back up into my mother’s birth canal?”
And Jesus is like, “Don’t play stupid with me, Nicodemus. The case has always been that you must be ‘born again.’ That’s what I’m all about. The reason God sent me into the world was so that my death would bring new life to all the world. I’m going to be lifted up on a symbol of death, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert – in order that you may experience new life, rebirth, resurrection.”
Now that’s still all kind of weird, what with Jesus comparing himself to a lifeless snake hung up on a pole. Usually we think of Jesus as the hero who kills the snake. But when you think about it, what does the snake represent?
Well, in the story about the Israelites whining in God’s face, the snakes represent the consequences of sin. They represent death. And when Moses hangs the snake on the pole (or the cross), he is symbolically putting death to death. Which is what Jesus does on the cross, Jesus takes all of the consequences of sin and places them upon himself and he is crucified. And in doing this, the promise of Moses through the symbol of the bronze snake is fulfilled.
Death itself has died.
And all who look to and embrace the death of death will live.
Because of what Jesus did.
HOPE! - Where is God Taking Us?
The first part of John chapter 3 begins with Nicodemus, who is said to be a member of the ruling council, and he secretly comes at night to talk with Jesus, whom he calls Rabbi.
Jesus' "miraculous signs" have convinced him that Jesus is "...from God."
Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be “born again” to see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus has known this his whole life, but he wants Jesus to take the answer in a different direction, so he’s like, “Born again? What’s that supposed to mean, anyway? How can I crawl back up into my mother’s birth canal?”
And Jesus is like, “Don’t play stupid with me, Nicodemus. The case has always been that you must be ‘born again.’ That’s what I’m all about. The reason God sent me into the world was so that my death would bring new life to all the world. I’m going to be lifted up on a symbol of death, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert – in order that you may experience new life, rebirth, resurrection.”
Jesus adds, “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
This is similar to what the prophets Isaiah says about the God who waters the seed within us to grow in His time. No work of the Spirit of God is wasted… even if we don’t understand what He’s doing.
That’s what the incarnation is about. The God who fills the whole universe comes and dwells in a desert tent… in a manger… in us.
Even Solomon, supposedly the wisest man who ever live, said, “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!”
Third Day puts it this way:
Like the rain that falls
To the earth below,
Watering this seed to grow,
So it is with Your
Precious Word, O Lord,
It won’t return until I know
You’re everywhere.
Like the wind that blows,
No one really knows
From where it comes and where it goes,
So it is with Your
Holy Spirit, Lord,
Falling down on us to show
You’re everywhere.
EXPLORE IT! - John 3:16-21
In John 3, Jesus says that God has sent his only son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save it.
He has come to rescue us from living in darkness and to bring us into the light. Jesus didn’t come so that he could hold your sins against you. No! He came to give you hope and freedom!
He says that the Light has come into the world, but that people have loved darkness more than light because the darkness obscures their evil deeds.
John’s Gospel opens with the words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
John 3 continues on this theme of Jesus being the light of the world. Jesus has just told Nicodemus, one of the religious leaders who was meeting with him secretly for fear of the other leaders, that the reason God sent him into the world was so that his death would bring new life to all the world. He has just told him that he is going to be lifted up on a symbol of death, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert – in order that he may experience new life, rebirth, resurrection. Later on, in chapter 8, Jesus says to the other religious leaders, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
This goes back to what he tells Nicodemus in chapter 3, that “those who live by the truth will step into the light.”
Later, after Jesus openly meets with some Greeks, he says, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
John says that he said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. This also hearkens back to the language he uses in chapter 3 during the secret conversation with Nicodemus – the language of being lifted up in death, just like Moses lifted up the snake, the symbol of death, in the desert.
But the crowd didn’t believe what Jesus was telling them, and he said to them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.”
And later he adds: “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness!”
John also says that there were actually many religious leaders who believed in Jesus, but they didn’t admit it because the Pharisees had threatened to throw the followers of Jesus out of the synagogue.
That’s exactly what Nicodemus was afraid of – he was afraid of losing his position because of his faith. But Jesus says that we must step into the light, for we are no longer living in darkness. We have spent too much time in the past, living in secret and shameful ways. We must now live in open freedom and truth – in the light of Jesus.
HOPE! - The Message
In John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that God has sent his only son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save it. He says, "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life."
Paul reiterated this theme in the book of Romans, saying that "God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him."
And again in Ephesians, where Paul says that “It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus.”
When Paul wrote this to the Ephesians, this message was not an unfamiliar one to them, for John himself became the Apostle to the Ephesians, and served as their pastor. They knew what Jesus had said, because John wrote about it in his Gospel, the Gospel he wrote specifically for them and their neighbors in Asia Minor. They even got to hear the message before he finished writing the Gospel.
And it’s not just in John chapter 3 either that John himself writes of this idea. He continues to proclaim this message of Jesus throughout his book. In chapter 6, Jesus says that “This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time.”
And when Jesus speaks to Martha after her brother Lazarus has died in chapter 11, Jesus says to her that her brother “will rise again.”
Martha replies, “I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time.”
But Jesus tells her, “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?”
And she says, “Yes, Master. All along I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world.”
Jesus then tells Lazarus to come out of his grave… and he does, alive again!
Also, when John was an old man, he wrote several letters to the churches, and even in his old age, John was still proclaiming this central message of Jesus. In one of his letters he says that “This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.”
In John 3, Jesus says to Nicodemus that the Light has come into the world, but that people have loved darkness more than light because the darkness obscures their evil deeds. But those who live by the truth will step into the light.
John reiterates this theme again in chapter 17, when he records the Prayer of Jesus:
They know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt,
That everything you gave me is firsthand from you,
For the message you gave me, I gave them;
And they took it, and were convinced
That I came from you.
They believed that you sent me.
Here, Jesus prays that he will be glorified as the Son so that the Father may also be glorified.
He says that the Father gave the Son the authority to give people eternal life.
But what is eternal life?
Jesus says it is to know the only true God and to know Jesus Christ whom he sent.
And John says that Jesus prays, “Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began!”
And finally, Paul again writes to the Ephesians on the theme of stepping into the light, building upon John’s Gospel that he had written for this church and its neighbors in Asia Minor.
He says, “Don’t waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It’s a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ.”
And he sings a great song of the Early Church:
Wake up from your sleep,
Climb out of your coffins;
Christ will show you the light!
EXPLORE IT! - John 3:22-36
In the second part of chapter 3 John contrasts Jesus' talk of being born again with a scene of Jesus baptizing. Jesus goes into Judea with his disciples and baptizes. John the Baptist is also baptizing people nearby, at Aenon.
Now, what water did John baptize in?
The text says that he baptized all around the Jordan River. But there are three specific places mentions.
The first is called the territory of Bethany beyond the Jordan where John said “Behold the lamb of God!”
The second place is Aenon.
The third is just north of the Dead Sea, where Jesus was baptized.
Like John himself, these three locations have a strong connection to Elijah the prophet.
The first location is where god fed Elijah with ravens while he was hiding.
The second location is where Elijah called his successor Elisha.
The third location is where Elijah ascended into heaven in a chariot of fire and Elisha took over for him. And john the Baptist is of course the one Jesus referred to as the Elijah who is to come before the Messiah.
If you look at the Scriptures, you can see just how connected the stories of Elijah and Elisha are to the stories of John and Jesus. They foreshadowed the coming of the Messiah.
Here are a few examples:
HOPE! - Jesus the Groom
In the second part of chapter 3 John contrasts Jesus' talk of being born again with a scene of Jesus baptizing. Jesus goes into Judea with his disciples and baptizes. John the Baptist is also baptizing people nearby, at Aenon.
And John's disciples tell John that Jesus is also baptizing people, more than John it seems.
John replies that "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, 'I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.' The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less."
He finishes by saying "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
This passage is meant to show John's acceptance of Jesus' superiority as well as a further emphasis on belief in him as the path to eternal life.
In the world at the time that Jesus began his ministry, Jewish girls would get married typically between the ages of fourteen and fifteen. Husbands were typically in their mid-twenties. The family of the husband would pay the “bride price” or dowry. And the husband would go home to prepare a place for her — which often took months or years to prepare.
And the bride had no way of knowing when the groom would come for her. She just had to be ready. When everything was finished, the groom and his friends would go get the bride. They would gather in the courtyard, and the man would take the woman into their home and consummate the wedding. And the best man would actually stand outside the door and shout when he could hear the evidence that the marriage had been officially consummated. (I know, right?) This would in turn trigger a long celebration with family and friends.
But this is also what John the Baptist was talking about when he came up with the parable of Jesus as the groom and himself as the best man. When John says that his “joy is made complete” at the “coming” of Jesus, this is what people would say about the best man when he finally got to stop listening in on the marriage consummation. “His joy is made complete!” Jesus shows up to start the wedding (he marries us, his church), and John’s job is over now that Jesus has come.
