As I promised this is the first of a month of posts that are my reflections from the day's reading; my hope is to post most of these in the mornings, but I'm on vacation right now and so I'm not on my normal schedule; so bear with me for a day or two.
Today's reading is from John 1. If you have yet to read that stop now, pull out your Bible and turn to John 1 or click this link for an online Bible and read the chapter. There is a lot that happens in this chapter, so just as you normally would or should take your time, pull out a journal, and write down your questions & thoughts as you go along. It may be that my thoughts might help you with yours, but if not feel free to comment to my blog with your questions and comments.
The author, John the Apostle of Jesus, begins his account of the life of Jesus in verses 1-18 by telling us exactly who Jesus is and where he comes from and why this is important. John tells us that Jesus was with God, his Father, from the beginning; in fact, not only was Jesus with God from the beginning, but it was through Jesus that the entire world came into being. It was through Jesus that life exists. It is through Jesus that life still exists today. It is through Jesus that you and I have breathe in our lungs. You see the importance of these 18 verses in John is to make it known that it was simply God the father speaking life into existence; it was God the Father and God the Son (Jesus) and God the Spirit (the Holy Spirit) who all created the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the universe, literally all things. John is telling us that without Jesus nothing can exist. Without Jesus nothing has life.
Then John goes on to tell us a little about John the Baptist (not the same John) and his role in the coming of Jesus to his public ministry, this takes place in verses 19-34. The main point during this section, in as simple terms as I can put it, is that John's role was to prepare the way; to bring the attention of the people not to himself, rather to the fact that the Messiah, the Savior was coming and it was time for people to be aware and ready to accept him (Jesus) as the coming King of the World. John says that Jesus is the one the prophets wrote about long ago and he will do everything spoken about him in the law and prophets (law & prophets = Old Testament). Jesus was the one who came to prepare the way for Jesus to come; John came to "roll out the red carpet" for Jesus.
Verses 35-51 is a quick account of Jesus calling his first 5 apostles to follow him in his ministry. One key verse that gives a large amount of insight into the way Jesus wants to have relationships is in verse 43. It says, "Finding Philip...". Jesus found Philip and asked him to "follow me". We don't "find Jesus", he finds us, get ourselves saved and we don't get saved by our pastor or friend or T.V. evangelist. We are saved by the Grace and Love of God offered to us and made possible through the sacrificial death and following resurrection of God's Son Jesus. Once we come to an understanding of this sacrificial gift and accept it making Jesus our lord and master we are called to bring others to a place where they can meet Jesus and experience the same understanding and salvation. We see this in verses 45-49, Jesus first found Philip, then Philip went and found Nathanael and brought him to Jesus and when Philip got Nathanael in the presence of Jesus Nathanael's life was changed forever.
Those are quick overviews of the three big sections of this chapter. Please comment to this with any comments or questions you may have and I'll do my best to help. I'm really excited about this study we are going to be doing together this month, the Entire book of John, a couple chapters in Luke, and the book of James. So get ready, buckle up and stay committed to this cause when we are seeking God in his word he will come reveal himself to us. So get ready to meet God this month if you take this seriously.
GO ALL IN!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment