Category Archives: Gospel of John

Real Joy

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A toddler picks her first dandelion seed ball and marvels at the symmetry.  She blows on it and delights to watch each tiny parachute in flight.  Can you see her face, lit with joy?  Now, imagine the kinds of things that will occur in her life that will work to erase that look of joy, replacing it with caution, suspicion, sorrow, weariness, insecurity – the list will be long.  Who among us does not yearn for our bygone innocence and unadulterated joy?  Someone who also yearned for you and I to recapture real joy was Jesus.  Just before He went to the Cross, He said these words to His disciples:

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.  (John 15:11)

The Creator of all things (John 1:2) wanted His followers to be filled to overflowing with His joy!  It is a sad irony that so many people who believe they are following Jesus are known for being joyless.  But how can we attain this joy?  What were “these things” He spoke in order to give us His joy?  Let’s look back to see:

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.  (John 15:9-10)

Jesus loves you – His words, not mine.  How much does He love you?  He loves you like the Father, all-perfect, all-loving God loves His only Son.  Jesus loves you with the kind of love that prompted God to give His only Son to rescue you.  His love is unconditional, perfect, thorough, unchanging and powerful.  The kind of love that prompted Jesus to willingly lay down His life for you.  Jesus loves you, right now, in the condition you are in right now.  No matter what you have done.  He loves you.  We cannot earn that love and we cannot do anything to shut it off.  

But we may not be able to experience it.  That’s why Jesus tells His followers to “abide” – literally, to make their home in – His love.  Let His love surround you, let it be the environment within which you live.  And how does one do that?  How do we “make our home” within His love?   He tells us.  We do it by keeping, or following His commandments.  Jesus says, if we keep His commandments, we will live in His love, His joy will be in us, and our joy will be full.

Again, a sad irony.  People get the idea that to follow Jesus’ commands would rob us of joy.  We would have to dress in black, live within the confines of harsh and strict “thou shalt nots.”  We would not be able to laugh, but would have to sing mournful Gregorian chants and stare at candles.  No way!  Jesus came that we might have a more abundant kind of life, the kind of life we were designed to have, that would fill us with light and that by living according to our “Manufacturer’s” instructions, we would be filled with His kind of joy!  Following His commands would naturally lead us away from the kinds of things that change the face of a young child into the face of a wounded, disillusioned adult.  And return us to joy.
PS – Don’t misunderstand: I am aware that some have sensed a call from Jesus to dress in black and sing chants, etc.  In voluntarily obeying that call some have found exquisite joy.  I am not denying or diminishing their experience.  But those who reluctantly surrender to such a life, thinking that they are earning Jesus’ approval, have misunderstood His grace, the idea of abundant life and have missed out on His joy.

Believing is Seeing

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Online dating is risky.  We imagine the person with whom we have connected, but rarely get it right.  When we actually meet, it can be quite a shock.  Believing in God is similar.  The God of our imagination may be very different from the character and personality of the real God.  This can be disillusioning, to say the least.  I know a man who genuinely believed that God would never allow anything bad to happen to him.  When tough times clobbered him, it was a real crisis for his faith.  He told me he no longer believed in God.  I suggested he consider if perhaps the God he no longer believed in was not  the real God.  This is a common problem.  You frequently hear people say, “My God wouldn’t let that happen…”  Understandable, since no one has ever seen God.  Our relationship with Him is a bit like online dating.

Except for this:  God sent His Son.  A “son,” in first century Jewish thinking, was someone who embodied the character and personality of another person.  Jesus called a couple of his disciples “Sons of Thunder,” because their personalities resembled rolling thunder.  He spoke of how His followers might become “Sons of light,” might take on character traits of His “light.”   To say Jesus was the “Son” of God was to say He was the embodiment of God’s character and personality.

As the author of Hebrews stated it,

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature…”  –  (Hebrews 1:3a)

Jesus affirmed this.  He said, 

“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”    –  (John 14:10b)

Therefore, our belief in God will align with Who God really is, what He is really like, as we believe in Jesus.  To put it another way, if we say we believe in God, but do not accept Jesus, then the God of our belief does not really match the character and personality of the True God.  That is what Jesus meant by these words:

“Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.”  –  (John 12:44b-45)

If you believe in the real God, not merely an imaginary god, you believe in the One Who so loved the world so deeply that He sent Jesus, His Son.  And, in your belief in Him, have attained eternal life. (Paraphrase of John 3:16)

Ready for the Test

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Maybe you wouldn’t have participated, but Jesus said things that got Him killed.  They did not go down easy.  And maybe you still struggle with some of what He said.  Jesus’ teachings shake us up.  They challenge our normal way of thinking.  Before we can accept them, we have to know: Are they true?  Are they good?  Lot’s of people give out advice.  How can you decide between them?   With Jesus, there is an easy way because He said His words came directly from God.

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.  (John 14:10)

If what He said didn’t really come from God, then there’s no point in paying attention to them.  If He lied about that, He wasn’t speaking the truth.  But how can you know?  Here’s the test: You can ask God directly to show you whether or not Jesus spoke His truth.  Simply ask Him.  If you really want to know, God is fully capable of showing you what you need to know.  The kicker is whether you really want to know!

So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.  If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.  (John 7:16-17)

The way to test the authenticity of Jesus’ teachings is to ask God to show you.  But first, carefully assess your own motivations.  Do you sincerely desire to do what God wants?  Is it possible that you would prefer to argue, and prove your own ideas to be superior?  Or, perhaps you are afraid?  The only one who can answer these questions is you.  Which makes it tricky because we like to deceive ourselves.  As strange as it seems, it is possible for us to try to fool ourselves!  Astonishing, really…   But with the questions about wanting to do God’s will, it is important for us to be brutally frank.

When we stand in the place of really wanting to conform to God’s design and intention, we are completely humble and surrendered.  We let go, put down our own pride and ideas, standing defenseless before Him.  And it is there, Jesus said, in that condition, we will know if what He spoke was from God.

You ready?

Father Knows Best

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Does this make sense to you?

Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand.   So his (Jesus’) brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.”  For not even his brothers believed in him.  –  (John 7:2-5)
You might think  Jesus’ brothers encouraged Him to go to the big Feast  because they believed in Him, not because they did not.  If they didn’t believe in Him, why bother?  But what John means by “believe” – what Jesus means as well – is fully recognizing Who He really is, and then acting in ways consistent with that understanding.  The point here is that if the brothers really understood that Jesus was God Almighty, they would not have presumed to tell Him what to do.  

And yet, we make that same mistake, even as “believers,” when we presume to tell God how we think He should handle the various prayer requests we bring to Him.  To be sure, we have been encouraged to bring the requests and to honestly express our desires to God.  But there is an attitude sometimes missing that reflects humility before God’s perfect understanding and power to do the best thing possible.  His best sometimes does not conform to what we wish for. 

People who say, “If God was really good and  powerful, He would put an end to wickedness and suffering in the world,” are also on the same shaky footing.  They presume to know, better than God, how to deal with the evil in the world.   As though God should chase back and forth, stopping a beheading here, a racial insult there, and unjust hunger on the other side of the planet.  It’s hard to imagine any of these people coming up with a more elegant solution to evil than the one God ordained on the Cross, even though, in His wisdom, the full realization of His plan was “time release.”  

If you remember “The Godfather,” played by Marlon Brando, you will recall that nobody but nobody told the Godfather what to do.  They would’nt have dared because they were well aware of his position and power.  The same humility and respect is due God the Father.

Thirsty?

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The thirstiest place I ever visited was Israel. Talk about hot and dry….  Chug a whole bottle of water and feel dehydrated a few minutes later.  Especially out in rural areas, like where Jesus said some pretty intriguing things about thirst to a woman who had come to a well to fill her water jugs. He had asked her for a drink and she balked, because Jews didn’t ordinarily have anything to do with her kind, much less drink from the same cup.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

When she missed the point,

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”. (excerpts from John 4:8-14)

Obviously, Jesus was talking about a deeper kind of thirst, spiritual thirst. What makes you spiritually thirsty? For me, it was when life seemed pointless and aimless. Even working for myself in a job that seemed somewhat glamorous, I was frustrated by doing the same things over and over, day after day, without accomplishing much of anything except a paycheck. Other times felt thirsty to me when I came face to face with my own moral failings. Death of friends and family made me thirsty.

Notice that Jesus referred to His “water” as a “gift of God.”  You cannot earn it or pay for it; it is a gift, one that God Himself gives.  It is important to note that Jesus was saying this to a woman who was a social outcast among a people considered too defiled for Jews to associate with.  And yet she is (and also by implication, you are) offered the gift.  The gift is “living water,” which means it continuously flows, clear and pure.  It comes from an inexhaustible supply.  This “water” quenches spiritual thirst forever, and gives “eternal life!”   

If you have ever experienced spiritual thirst, if that kind of water sounds good to you, notice carefully how Jesus told the woman she could receive it.  He said, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”   It’s a matter of knowing you are thirsty, understanding that God has what you need, knowing Who Jesus is, asking Him and accepting it as a gift.  No expert in theology, nevertheless this woman knew real thirst and knew how wonderful an offer she had been given.  She accepted it right then and there.  

How about you;  are you thirsty?

Above My Paygrade

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A friend who writes sophisticated software was losing sleep over a tough problem.  I made the mistake of asking him to explain, in simple terms, what the issue was.  For the next 20 minutes he did his best, but I was dumbfounded.  I couldn’t understand anything he said!  And he was really trying to dumb it down for me.

Jesus had the same problem trying to explain spiritual reality to a guy who couldn’t fathom what He was saying.  Of course, the man was merely a religious expert, one of the temple leaders at the time.  Jesus told him:

I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?  (John 3:12 (NIV84))

Translation?  “Hey, this thing I’m telling you is basic stuff.  If you can’t understand this, there’s no way for me to explain about heaven.”  Makes me pretty curious about the “Heavenly things” since what Jesus said was the basic level stuff was about being “born again.”  Literally, “born from above.”  He was talking about having the Spirit of God coming alive in your soul, so that you could come to life – being born, so to speak – in a whole new way.  Into eternal life.  Here’s some of the rest:

Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’. (John 3:3–7 (NIV84))

I cannot fully grasp this beginner level truth. Analogies help but it remains a swirling mystery. Even after having experienced the effects of this spiritual new birth I still struggle to fully comprehend it. Imagine how amazing the “heavenly things” must be… Religion has a way of reducing such mystery down to where even the experts can master it. But Jesus knows we ain’t seen nothing yet!

Family Matters

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Professional door to door salesmen have a certain air about them when the front door opens.  Kind of a mixture of formality with friendliness, practiced patter in smooth tones, dosed with expectation and anxiety.  If they want success at this house, they need to perform.  On the other hand, the kids in that household come to the front door, yank it open and go blasting through, shoelaces untied, jacket half off, enroute to the kitchen for a snack.  Big difference.  When you are a part of the family, you don’t need to perform to be accepted or even loved.  You just belong, simply because of who you are.

This is especially true for those in God’s family.  Who are they?  Consider these verses:

12 Yet to all who received him, [Jesus] to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.  –  (John 1:12–13  –  NIV84)

26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.  (Galatians 3:26–29  –  NIV84)

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1a  –  NIV84)

By trusting Jesus, we are welcomed into God’s family, not by adoption, as nice as that would be, but through birth, the birth of God’s Spirit in our souls.  That’s better.  As His children there is no pecking order; race, former religion, social status – none of that matters.  We are treated alike, and have full rights as heirs.  God arranges for this through a generous act of lavish love.  Welcome home!

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Once upon a time there was a warehouse filled with cell phones that thought they were calculators.  Their manufacturer had designed them to be phones, but their SIM cards had been damaged.  They were dead but did not realize it.  They had battery power and several working apps so they thought they were “alive.”  One day the manufacturer sent someone to bring them to life.  He came with copies of his own perfect SIM card, offering to replace their damaged cards with his own. Most of the phones thought he was crazy and rejected the offer. But those who allowed him to make the exchange were astonished to discover all the new ways they could operate once they could receive a cell signal.  It was as though they came to life for the first time.

Once upon a time there was a planet filled with dead people who thought they were alive. Because their bodies worked and they could think, they assumed they were experiencing all that life had to offer.  One day, their Creator sent Someone to fix them and bring them to full and abundant life.  Here is what they wrote about Him:

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  (John 1:4-5)

Jesus offered to connect them for the first time with the “Life” and “Light” of God’s Holy Spirit, bringing them to full and abundant life in a whole new way.  He would exchange what was damaged in them with His perfection, personally accepting the cost of their damage and allowing them to operate as their Manufacturer intended.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.  (John 1:9–13)

 

Your Maker

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Have you seen the T-shirt that says, “There is a God” on the front?  On the back it reads, “You’re not Him!”  Good reminder.  But the Apostle John would give Jesus a T-shirt that read, “There is a God and I Am Him.”  Imagine how awkward it was for John to tell people he knew a guy who actually was Almighty God.  If you were accosted in the airport by someone telling you that, you’d immediately take your leave. Running.

But John was dead serious.  Jesus, he said, is God!”  The God.  Think of the implications.  One, in John’s words, is this:

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  (John 1:3 (NASB95))

Where I live, 14,000 foot mountains dominate the western horizon.  They pulsate with dawn’s first luminescence, sparkle with ice and snow throughout the day and, at dusk, are silhouetted by astonishingly beautiful sunsets.  If John was right, Jesus designed all that beauty.  Look down at your hand: Consider the intricate workings of each of your fingers.  Jesus did that.  Think about your what makes you unique, your likes and dislikes, the sound of your voice and your special skills.  Ponder the fact that you can hear and see.  “Nothing came into being apart from Him.”  That means He made you.  Jesus.

I know adoptees who yearn to one day meet their natural parents.  What if you could actually meet the One Who designed you and created you; would that interest you?

You can, you know…

The Right Word

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The reason things seem so divisive these days, and it seems to be so difficult to accomplish common understanding, has to do with words.  if a Democrat talks about “helping the middle class” it usually means something very different from what a Republican means by those same words.  It is very difficult to draw people together from very different ways of seeing the world when the words used are “heard” in such different ways.

That’s what makes the first line of the Gospel of John so masterful.  John wrote:

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1 (NIV84))

John was setting out to tell two very different kinds of people, with distinctly different views of the world, about Jesus.  So he called Him “the Word.”

  • When the Jewish people read that word (the Greek word, logos), they immediately associated it with God.  Jews believed it was sacrilegious to pronounce or write the Name of God.  In those days, sometimes they substituted the word, Logos, or Word.  The first line of their scripture read, “In the beginning, G-d….”   So when they read John’s opening phrase they naturally thought, “God.”
  • The people in the Greek culture who read John’s letter, however, interpreted logos in a very different way.  Following the ideas of some of their famous philosophers, they used logos, or word, to refer to the divine active principle that governed all of reality.  Kind of like how the “operating system” in a computer controls how all the programs work, people in the Greek culture thought of the logos as the overarching “operating system” for the universe.  In short, the mind of God.

So, with one word, logos, John drew those two, very different, groups together in understanding the identity of Jesus.  Next, he used a strong word to say Jesus was “with” God, not just nearby, but in close, intimate association and correspondence with God.  Lest anyone miss the point, John followed up with, “He was God.”  Jesus existed as God “in the beginning,” before time and space were created.

Today, when someone says, “Jesus,” he might be expressing disgust or frustration.  Someone else might be talking about a “good man” or a “prophet.”  But John?  He was talking about a Man he knew as a friend, Who had revealed Himself to be Almighty God.