John 1:22

John 1:22 "Who are you? What do you say about yourself?" These questions are still asked today of those who live to point to the messiah. John was asked these by the religious leaders of the nation. Who are you? Why have you come? What do you have to say about yourself? How would I answer these questions? I am a child of God. I am a servant of God. I do not stand on my own strength or accomplishments but I stand by faith on what Jesus has already done for me. I am not my own, I have been bought with a price. I have died with Christ and the life I live I no longer live for myself but for God. I will produce fruit as I abide with Jesus. Apart from Jesus I am and can do nothing. So who are you? How would you answer that question?

John 1:17-18

John 1:17-18 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten of God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. The law came through Moses. It's purpose according to Paul was to be a tutor in sin. To teach us what sin is and how most of what we do does not please God. In fact we live most of our lives in rebellion to His laws because we do not like being told what to do. Our will goes against the will of God. But God knew this and instead of leaving things alone, He went one giant step forward. He offered us grace and truth through Jesus Christ. The law was truth but it didn't offer grace. Christ came to complete it. You need both grace and truth. Without knowing the truth there would be no need in our eyes to need grace. If the truth wasn't presented then calling out for grace would never happen. But the law only bring condemnation when there isn't the offer of grace. Since Jesus is the Word of God, He embodied the law of God or the truth, and also He embodied the grace of God. We look at the Law and say I cannot, but we look at Christ and He says I can for you and through you. Christ has explained God. At least as much of God as we need to know. That God loves us. That God desires relationship with us. That God desires to forgive us.

John 1:16

John 1:16 For of His fullness we have all received and grace upon grace. The fullness of grace and truth were offered and given to us through Jesus Christ. Christ was full of these things and gave them in equal measure. To those who needed to hear the truth He gave it to them with grace mixed in. And for those who needed grace He did not leave out the truth. The phrase grace upon grace leads me to think that God not only have given us grace through Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins but more grace to become children of God and spend eternity in relationship with the almighty God. Grace could have just forgiven our sins and not sentenced us to an eternity in hell for what we have done wrong. But grace upon grace goes extravagantly beyond that.

John 1:15

John 1:15 John testified about Him and cried out saying " This is He of whom I said, He who comes after me has a higher rank than I for He existed before me." John, the forerunner, the herald, was sent first to prepare the way for the Lord to come. He came and yet when asked about whether he was the messiah or not his response was that another comes after him whose rank was higher than his. His rank was higher for even though John was born first, the messiah existed before John. John recognized his place in the scheme of things. He was not the messiah. He was just a messenger. But the messiah was coming.

John 1:14 part 3

I had some more thoughts about the grace and truth that was seen in Jesus. Jesus could have come full of grace. Showing people that God loves them and that everything will be ok in their lives. Just talking about the love of God. And this is a needed message today. That God loves people. He is for them. He sent His son to die for them. Yet it would be an incomplete message without truth. The truth is that God is holy and we are not. Yet God wants to make us holy. And the only way He has given for us to do this is to repent in faith and follow Jesus Christ. God is not only love but He is also just. God is holy, He is righteous and Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 that we need to be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect. And this is the truth, we can't do it. So in God's grace He makes a way for us to become perfect.

John 1:14 part 2

John 1:14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John was a firsthand witness to the glory of Jesus in the flesh. He lived with the incarnate God for 3 years and was able to behold the glory of who He really was. John was able to see the life the Jesus lived up close. And John chooses to call that life full of glory. John equates the glory that was in Jesus as only able to come from the Son of God. Jesus was full of grace and truth. Grace - unmerited favor of God that even though we deserve death, He came to give us life. And not just a little bit of life but abundant life. But John doesn't stop with just saying that Jesus was full of grace. He says that Jesus was full of truth. Because grace is balanced by the truth that you need to believe/obey and repent to experience this grace that brings life. Without believing so that it brings about changes in our behavior and thinking and repenting for what we have done wrong we don't have faith in what Jesus has done for us. We are still deceiving ourselves.

John 1:14

John 1:14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This one sentence is packed full of so many things. The Word, who was in the beginning, the Word who was with God and the Word who was God. The Word through whom all things were made and nothing was made apart from Him. The Word with whom there was life, real, true, eternal life and light. The Word who was the light of the world. This Word became flesh. This person who was there in the beginning with God became flesh. This person who was with God became flesh. This person who was God became flesh. This person who through Him created all things including all flesh became flesh. This person who brought life and light to the world became flesh. The incarnation. God becoming man. Just amazing that the one through whom all things came into being would step into His own creation and subject Himself to the same things we are subjected to. A president or a king can go out into the world to see how things are going with the common person but they have not given up their title or power to do so. They are still surrounded by their protection and with a snap of their fingers things happen. With Christ, He left that behind. He gave that up and made the decision to not use His powers on His own behalf but only as God gave Him direction. Not only did God become man but He dwelt among us. He came to live with and among people as one of us. Not off in some deserted place. Not somewhere "safe" or "secure." But with people. People who both loved Him and people who wanted to kill Him even before He was born. He didn't come for a visit. He came for a lifetime to stay and walk among us.

John 1:9-13

John 1:9-13 vs 10 He was in the world and the world was made through Him and the world did not know Him. Jesus came and was here on the world that He created. Because through Him all things were made. Nothing that has been made was made apart from Him. And yet we didn't know Him. It is still the same today. Many of us don't recognize our creator when we encounter Him. We have been made by Him and yet we ignore Him or worse, discount Him. vs 11 He came to His own and those who were His own did not receive Him. God had called out the nation of Israel to be His chosen people. The ones set apart for Himself. And so He came to them in the flesh and they are the ones who rejected Him first. They shut their doors in His face. They went after Him and brought about His death. And the sad part is we would have acted in the same way. vs 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God. It was by God's will that were are born and brought into His family. When we receive Jesus we are given the right to become children of God. Which means that without receiving Jesus we do not have the right to become children of God. We may have been born into this world in the flesh because of the will of people but we are born into God's family because it is God's will for us.

John 1:6

John 1:6 There came a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through him. He was not the light but he to testify about the light. John was a man with a mission. It wasn't something that he thought up or that someone said "hey, you could be good at that prophet line of work." No, he was sent by God. God sent him to witness to the light that was coming. Ultimately he was killed for his witness. Yet Jesus said no one born of a woman was greater than he. John was sent so that others might believe the light when it came. It was as if the light knowing that the darkness could not comprehend it, sent out warning that the light was coming. Preparing the way for those who could accept the light to be able to see it not as a threat but as deliverance from darkness. John never claimed to be something he was not. He claimed to be the one crying in the wilderness to prepare the way for the Lord. And that is what he did. And when the Lord came not even in the way John expected he did not try to change how Jesus worked. In fact he decreased because his role and job were completed. The call of God did not go to his head. He did not see himself other than how God saw him.

Thoughts on John 1:1-5

I have been reading through John's Gospel and thought I would share some of the things that have come to mind as I have contemplated God's word. John 1:1-5 The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. To comprehend means to understand the nature or meaning of something. The darkness cannot understand the nature or meaning of light. To darkness, light seems to be something that attacks it or drives it away into the corners. No longer is darkness in control. A little bit of lit can drive the darkness away like nothing else. The darkness sees light as the enemy because it cannot understand it. Darkness wants to remove from sight everything. It wants everything to remain hidden. Light brings everything into view. The world is darkness and they do not understand the light that shines forth from those who are in the light. They degrade it. They put it down. They attack it or explain it away. Yet there is something there that they know if different. It is as if they cannot understand the light without experiencing the light. It is like flipping channels on the tv and coming across a channel that is geared for someone from another culture. I could watch and watch and watch and yet not understand what they are saying or why they are doing what they are doing on the show. I would not be able to comprehend them. Yet if I were to move to where their culture is from I could then experience the culture and begin to understand some of the language and learn about why they do things the way they do them. The darkness within me does not like the light. The lights drags things out to be seen that the darkness wants hidden from view. If no one sees this sin then it doesn't exist. Yet the light needs to go into my dark areas and illuminate the sin and filth in my life so that it can be cleaned out. ]

2 Corinthians 1:12

2 Corinthians 1:12 Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace.

This is something that I feel we need to all work towards. Namely, that we can say that we have acted in such a way towards all people in holiness and godly sincerity. That no one can say we have acted using the wisdom of this world but that we have lived our lives for God by his grace. So how do we compare to this verse? Is all our conduct done in holiness and sincerity? If not, we need to repent and ask for God’s grace in our lives so that we can be changed by the Holy Spirit into someone who can make this statement.

Hope in God

In 2 Corinthians 1:8-11, Paul shares about some of his struggles. He talks about how they were overwhelmed so that they despaired of life. They had come to the end of themselves and yet had to continue on. What strikes me is in verse 9 where he says, “we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;” This is very significant. God brought them to a place where they could not trust in themselves and more. They had the sentence of death within them. Yet it didn’t end there. They put their trust in God. Not in themselves, not in their skills or abilities but in God. Maybe it took this incident or trial that Paul talks about to really bring about full surrender in his life to God. But Paul put his hope in God and God delivered them from the peril of death and Paul continues in this hope by saying God will deliver us. Not only has God delivered Paul already but God will continue to deliver him.

This led me to think about circumstances in my life that feel like they take me beyond what I can bear. I need to put my hope in God, not in people, in my strengths or anything else. My hope, your hope needs to be in the God who raises from the dead. The one who gives us hope when it seems that all hope is lost. The God who has promised to deliver us.

Comfort of God

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

It is because of God’s grace and peace that the Apostle Paul can write this. God comforts us in all our troubles. He gives us his grace to continue on and his peace to know that he is in total control. Our faith in God stands on his word which says in Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Even our troubles and afflictions are worked to our good and even to the good of others. Paul states that God comforts us so that we can then comfort others who are going through the same things. Just as Christ suffered and that flows into our lives so does the comfort of Christ flow into our lives. This should lead us to bring praise to God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peace of God

2 Corinthians 1:2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul greats the Corinthian church with the grace of God and also the peace of God. We tend to think of peace as the absence of conflict in our lives. But that isn’t all he is talking about here. In fact later in this chapter he talks about suffering and affliction which comes from being a follower of Jesus Christ. So he must be talking about something else besides what we consider peaceful lives. I think first of all he reminds us that we are at peace with God through the grace of God. We are no longer enemies of God. We are no longer in conflict with God. We receive God’s comfort. As I said last time we have committed high treason against God by our sin. Yet through God’s grace we are forgiven and are at peace with him. His peace surpasses our understanding and helps us to understand the next portion of this chapter which we will get into next time.