Reading Jeremiah 31v7-14; John 1
Convert You / Con You
I watched a trailer for a Netflix
series called Messiah. There are suggestions it is about the second
coming, but I haven’t watched any of the episodes yet so I can’t
be sure. What I can say is that it is a typical Netflix series, well
produced and no doubt has plenty of twists and turns. There is also
the portrayal of events that may be seen as miracles. There will be
controversy – people arguing for both sides of the debate. Is he
the messiah or not? Is he dangerous? Is he leading a cult? Just
exactly who is this guy? I’m sure that Netflix can make that go on
for any number of series. The trailer ends with Convert You / Con
You.
The Gospels
It set me wondering what the
controversies and questions were when John wrote his Gospel.
Matthew, and Luke were writing to simply explain what happened, so
they used their sources to tell the story as they remembered it or
had heard it. They start with stories of Jesus’ origin – his
birth, his genealogy, his childhood, and then move on to the story of
John the Baptist. Mark’s gospel doesn’t worry about Jesus’
origins but starts with John the Baptist.
In each of them we find out who Jesus
is bit by bit as His divinity and mission are revealed to those
around him during his life. Only Luke gives us early clues as he
tells Mary’s story.
John’s Gospel
By the time John was writing towards
the end of the 1st century, Christianity had already
spread widely around the Roman Empire. It is most likely addressed
to 2nd and 3rd generation Christians. Already
there were theological questions being asked. Already there are all
sorts of heresies cropping up, although it is difficult to know
exactly what they were. So John starts his Gospel, not with Jesus’
birth or His genealogy, but right at the beginning, of time (or even
before time began).
“In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2
He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things
were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
The Word
Echoing Genesis, even pre-dating
Genesis, John tells us the The Word was with God, and the Word was
God. The theology of the Trinity has been started, but more
importantly John has established who Jesus is right at the beginning
of the gospel. There is little room for debate. Even Netflix would
struggle to make an argument about who Jesus is based on this.
The creator
John also tells us that Jesus is the
agent of creation, everything that has been created was created
through Him.
The Universe
When you look up at the night sky and
see the Milky Way (if you can get away from our light pollution)
remember that Jesus made all of that. The people originally reading
John’s gospel would share our sense of awe at what we see, but they
wouldn’t have the understanding we do now. We know that what we
see is mainly just our galaxy and that here are more than 100 billion
other galaxies out there.
Life
Don’t think about it too hard
because it’s not the most awesome thing you can see. John goes on,
telling us more about Jesus, the Word.
4 In him was
life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light
shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
Jesus has all life in Him. That life
was the light of people. 100 billion galaxies with maybe 300 billion
stars in each but that is just darkness. The real light is the life
in Jesus, everything else is just darkness. Those in the darkness do
not understand what true light is, they are just stargazers.
Mission
Now, you’ll be relieved to know,
I’m going to move a little faster through the chapter. The true
light that give light to everyone has come inside His own creation.
That idea on its own is quite mind bending, but we must allow that
God can indeed do anything. The hows are not discussed, how could
they be, but the purpose is. That is in verse 12 if you’re
following through with me. To those who received Him, He gave the
right to become children of God. Children born of God, not by the
natural processes of the world. We’ll hear more about that in
Chapter 3 where Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and tells him that we
must be born again.
“Truly, truly, I tell you,
no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and
the Spirit. 6Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of
the Spirit. 7Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be
born again.’ 8The wind blows where it wishes. You hear
its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is
going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
So, now we know Jesus’ mission. He
has come to literally re-connect us to God, and we have a small
insight into how that will happen, but the full story is not told
here.
End of the Intro
The next verse (v14) brings this
introduction to an end. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling
among us. The literally means ‘pitched His tent among us’. If
you’ve ever been to a camp site or a music festival (like Greenbelt
or Glastonbury) you will get a sense of how close that is.
John, as the writer says “We have
seen His glory” that means that John knows the end, the death and
resurrection of Jesus and is claiming to be a witness to it, but he
will tell that part of the story in due course.
Grace and Truth
Jesus, the One and Only, John says is
full of grace and truth. This is an important idea for John, because
it is repeated in verse 17. It is because of God’s grace to us,
that we are able to benefit from Jesus’ death and resurrection and
be united with God. Only because of God’s grace can we see the
light that is in Christ and be turned from out and out sinners to
faithful Christians.
Conclusion to Introduction
So John has set out for his readers
his basic theology, and has no doubt addressed many of the questions
that were around at the time. He has made it very clear for people
who He says Jesus is – the Word of God, the creator of all things,
who was with God in the beginning and is therefore not part of
creation.
Now the story of Jesus’ life can be
told. With everything that happens we can reference back to who
Jesus is.
Lamb of God
Let’s skip forward now, jumping
over the story of John the baptist, that John needs to tell to ensure
his account fits with the others going around at the time, to verse
29. Here we will get some more ways of identifying Jesus.
In this short section John records
John the baptist identifying Jesus as the Lamb of God, who takes away
the sin of the world. His Jewish readers and probably many of his
gentile readers would be reminded of Isaiah 53:7
He was oppressed and
afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to
the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he
did not open his mouth.
They may also realise that he is
referring to Jesus like the daily sacrifices in the temple, which
took place each morning and each evening – a lamb whose sacrifice
atoned for the sins of the people was offered to God on the alter.
Except, of course, Jesus’ sacrifice
can only occur once, not twice a day, but because of who Jesus is
this is sufficient.
Son of God
John says that he identified Jesus
because he he saw the “Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and
remain on him” (verse 33). This is recorded in Matthew 3:16 as
John baptises Jesus:
“As soon as Jesus was
baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was
opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and
lighting on him.”
and in verse 34 we have the title
“Son of God” or “God’s Chosen one” depending which edition
of the NIV you read.
Calling the Disciples
The remainder of the chapter is about
the calling of the first disciples. The first two are John the
baptist’s disciples who leave John to follow Jesus. They recognise
Jesus as a teacher (they call him Rabbi). Andrew tells Simon that he
has found the Messiah.
When Philip is called he identifies
Jesus as the “one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the
prophets wrote.”
Nathaniel
Nathaniel recognises who Jesus is
very quickly and identifies him as Rabbi, ‘Son of God’, and King
of Israel after what appears to be a very minor miracle.
Conclusion
We have seen Jesus identified as many
different things by John, who knew him well to Nathaniel who had only
just met him. If we think back to the Netflix series and ask some of
the questions, what answers will we get?
Is He the messiah? Yes, according to
John he clearly is.
Is he dangerous? Well that depends
on who you are, if you are the authorities exercising power over the
people, then yes. Not only did he rise from the dead, but he
completely changes the Roman Empire in just a few hundred years.
Is he leading a cult? No, he is
leading a movement.
So what’s your answer to the
question Just exactly who is this guy?
And what difference will that answer
make to the world around you in the coming year?
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