Hey Jesus, What’ve Ya Done For Me Lately? – John 4:43-54

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Some folks say it is difficult to grow up and go back to your home town… Been there; done that! I love this second verse in our reading today (4:44), which John adds as a parenthetical thought – (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)

My first full-time ministry after seminary was in my home town (though not in my home church). I built a house about one-half mile from where I grew up and just a stone’s throw from my childhood elementary school. It was immediately across the street from the home where I attended cub scouts, and we even played on the property I would ultimately buy almost 20 years later.

In reflecting on those 11 years in New Jersey, I often make the wry statement that I had more success in my home town of Harmony Township, NJ than Jesus had in his home town of Nazareth, Galilee!  But, he was a prophet; and I’m not a prophet or the son of a prophet, and I’ve spent my life serving in non-profit agencies (that is uproariously funny – admit it!).

In today’s passage, we see Jesus returning to Galilee where he is welcomed by the locals. Many of the people had made the journey to Jerusalem for the Passover and had seem him roll heads and tables while cleansing the temple, and they also witnessed some other miracles (2:23).

He was indeed a local boy who was making a splash in the big-time world of Jerusalem and Judea. This sounds good, right? So why the downer tone in the statement of Jesus, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe”?

What did the people believe? Well, they believed he was a miracle worker and healer, perhaps a prophet or specially-empowered great teacher. But did many see him as the Messiah, the fulfillment of Scripture? And very few were tuned in at all to the idea of spiritual life and a savior from sin.

One who really did believe, along with his household, was the man whose son was healed from a desperate, certain death situation. This is written at the conclusion of today’s passage as the second sign performed by Jesus – signs that were in accord with prophesies of the Promised One.

As will become more evident in later chapters, the Jews loved Jesus so long as he was providing for their immediate needs. They loved the bread and miracles, and some dreamed of the political overturn possibilities from such a worker. Yet the larger message of healing from sin and the gift of eternal life seemed shallow as compared to the immediate needs of daily life.

The Jews loved Jesus when he worked for them. And the fact is that many Christians only love Jesus when he is working pragmatically for them as well. There is the expectation that being aligned to Christ through relationship with him should result in ideal life circumstances and freedom from pain and sadness. And yes, there is a new resource in the midst of the inevitable sorrows of life in a sinful world; but Christ’s larger message and greater gift is the forgiveness of sin and the eternal life offered and secured through faith.

Insufficient views of Jesus abound in our generation. The lost of this world do not truly understand him to be the son of God and savior of the world. They fall short by seeing him merely as a great spiritual teacher and moral resource, but they do not understand anything of the issues of the debt of sin being paid by the redemptive work of the Lamb of God. And then Christians too are insufficient in understanding the work of Christ in their lives – that it is not about candy and popcorn and freedom from the pain and sorrows experienced by others. We are not promised a deliverance from all things, but rather that we have one who walks with us through all things and redeems our mortal flesh at the end for a life eternal with him.

Let’s not fall prey to a Galilean sort of “So … Jesus … what’ve ya done for me lately? Eh?” kind of rabbit’s foot faith.

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son (John 4:43-54)

43 After the two days he left for Galilee. 44 (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.

46 Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

50 “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.

54 This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

More Energizing than a Philly Cheese Steak – John 4:27-42

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There’s not much in life better than a genuine Philly cheese steak sandwich – if you can find a real one anywhere beyond Philly and the suburbs.  Oh yes, lots of places advertise them; but I don’t even try anymore. The pure Philly-style steak of my childhood and college years in and near the City of Brotherly Love has been corrupted with all sorts of accoutrements not native to the real deal. Get rid of those green peppers and mushrooms and lettuce, etc. That is simply junking up the genuine article!

So when I find the real delight, it is quite exciting. But there are things in life that are more energizing and exciting than favorite foods we eat … maybe even more energizing than any food, even when we are particularly hungry and in need of nourishment. It could be a reunion with a long-lost friend or relative, or perhaps the unexpected arrival of incredibly good news … whatever, but something so great that it makes you even forget you are hungry, and now you feel revived and ready to go!

That is something of an illustration of what we see in our passage and reading today. Jesus is tired upon the journey from Judea to Galilee, he is sitting by a well while the disciples have gone into the town of Sychar to buy food, and he has been engaged recently in an incredible custom-breaking conversation with a Samaritan woman.

27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

The disciples are surprised by the whole scene upon their return from the town, while the woman with incredible excitement that she has apparently spoken to the Messiah forgets her water jar and rushes into town. There she relates her unique story to the people. Imagine that scene! Here is a woman of ill-repute status encouraging everyone to come see the fulfillment of religious faith and centuries-old expectation. Would you have believed her? Would you have followed her out of town to the well? Would you expect such news to come from such a person?

31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

So as the crowds are coming out from Sychar to see what the woman has excitedly been talking about, the disciples are merely concerned with Jesus’ physical well-being. He is clearly refreshed; though they are quite sure he has had nothing to eat from any other source. Jesus tells them that he has “food” about which they do not understand – the nourishment and joy of accomplishing the Father’s will and being about his mission on earth.

34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Jesus recites for them what were likely some proverbial agricultural sayings at the time – sort of like how we might say of the weather, “Red at night, sailors’ delight; red in the morning, sailors’ warning” – ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? Jesus tells them to look up and see what a harvest is now available – possibly even gesturing and drawing their attention to the crowds of people moving toward them from the town.

Planting a garden is great; growing seeds and seeing them emerge is fun; but the best part of it all is actually getting to the harvest and picking those red-ripe tomatoes or large green peppers!  I’d like gardening a whole lot more if I didn’t have to do any of the planting, weeding, or watering. And the disciples were in that category – the prophets and Christ himself had done the hard work. The season of the great harvest had now come with the advent and work of Jesus, the Christ.

And that harvest was even at that moment going to be witnessed by the disciples, as …

39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.

42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

For two days, Jesus and the disciples stay with these outcast people, and the harvest is great among them as many believe – both based upon the testimony of the woman AND the teaching of the one whom they termed the Savior of the world.

So what lights you up? What excites you and gives you purpose and meaning in life? Hey, it is great to find success in what you do … I loved coaching and winning state championships. But honestly, that’s the “food” of this world. Maybe for you it is your family and vacationing that means just about everything to you. But if all you’re doing is enjoying this in the context of the stuff of this world, it has no eternal nutritional value.

None of us on the ministry staff at TSF apologize to any of you one little bit for encouraging you to invest your life in matters of eternal relationship. We can direct your energies in no better direction than reaching out to others, especially those who are yet to come to know Christ, and serving also with others in this great task of the spiritual harvest. Here is where your soul will be satisfied; here is where your hunger for meaning in life will be satiated. Because, at its best, everything else doesn’t rise above a Philly cheese steak!

Cooties in Samaria – John 4:1-26

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I presume that the childhood game of the passing of cooties from one person to another was not a phenomenon known only to New Jersey where I grew up. Beyond the simple presumption between boys and girls that the opposite gender embodied cootiedom, a more perverse version went something like this: There were always a few kids who for whatever reason were deemed social outcasts and therefore infected with the ultimate disgrace of possessing “cooties” – a sort of mythical disease of dreadful humiliation that could be easily caught, but just as easily transmitted by touching someone else and saying, “Now you have Isabella’s cooties!”

I know you are going to be shocked to hear me say that the word does not have a Greek or Hebrew origin. Sorry. I actually did look up its etymology (language roots), and it is rather complicated. But what is not unclear is the experience we have all encountered of people who possess a social stigma that makes them outcasts. And in today’s reading about the Samaritan woman at the well, we meet the ultimate case of a person with multiple layers of first century Palestinian “cooties.”

Around these parts of Maryland, it is sometimes true that we pick on the state of West Virginia and its inhabitants. Most of this is in the category of good-natured humor. But imagine if it were so nasty that some people from Hagerstown and Maryland despised West Virginians so much that they would not ever talk with them nor even go through the eastern panhandle. Imagine someone like this who needed to drive home to Hagerstown from Winchester, Virginia. Of course, that is a simple straight shot north on 81 through Martinsburg. But imagine the hatred being such that they went east from Winchester to Leesburg, then north on Route 15 across the Potomac to Frederick, and finally west on 70 to get home – all to avoid even touching the soil of West Virginia!

Wow, that’s strong feeling – and that is exactly how it was for many Jews. The three regions (south to north) of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee were comparatively like the areas of Winchester, Martinsburg, and Hagerstown. Jews travelling between Jerusalem and Galilee would most often take a circuitous travel route around the east of the Jordan River to be sure to completely avoid Samaria and its dirty inhabitants.

Though Samaritans and Jews had a common ancestry from the time of Solomon and before, Samaritans were a mixed breed descended from interbreeding with Gentile peoples who had taken the ten northern tribes into captivity in the 700 BC era. The Jews retained the pure blood from those who had returned from Babylonian captivity under Ezra and Nehemiah. This is a macro version of the ultimate family feud! And then add to this a theological dissonance, as the Samaritans had an unusual mix of beliefs.

As we begin today’s reading in John 4, we see that the early ministry of Jesus was occasioned with much success. People were identifying with it to the extent that even more were being baptized by the disciples than by John the Baptist. This came to the hearing of the Pharisees in Jerusalem, and not wanting the ministry to heat up to a confrontation at this early stage, Jesus decides to withdraw north to Galilee.

It says in verse 4 that he had to go through Samaria. One might read this as saying he was taking the Palestinian version of the quick Interstate 81 route north to Galilee. Rather, it is more appropriate to see this necessity as a lesson in reaching out beyond the immediate ethnic/religious context to demonstrate that he was indeed to be the savior of the world.

As the disciples at midday go into the town of Sychar to buy food, Jesus sits by the famous well of Jacob where he encounters a Samaritan woman of whom he requests a drink.  The very asking of a question breaks several cultural barriers – the issue of the Jewish/Samaritan divide, her gender as a woman, and her sketchy character as a woman of ill repute. Her conversation acknowledges the reality of these divisions. Jesus draws her mind away from the chore of drawing and drinking physical water to that of the spiritual water that quenches the thirst of the soul unto eternal life.

Though both traditions anticipated a messianic figure to come, there were differing ideas about where worship was to be located. Jesus says that though the Jews were correct in possessing the line through which salvation would come, the issue of place would be rendered inconsequential – that true worship would be in the Spirit. And Jesus plainly identifies himself to this woman as the Christ.

A lot of people feel that they possess spiritual “cooties” – a sense of separation from God and truth because of sin that could never be forgiven. Others fail to see the gravity of their lost condition due to the curse of sin, believing that they are honestly not that bad and certainly not in a position of needing a spiritual/religious answer. The appropriate balance and fact of the matter is that we all possess “cooties” as born sinners with an inheritance of separation from God. But a greater truth is that Jesus was not put off by this … that he reached out to people like the woman at the well and to all others, right on down to each of us today – taking all our sin upon himself and paying the price of redemption through his blood.

Jesus is the true well – the true source of water for life… for us to drink, for us to share.

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

4:1  Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10 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.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

The Gospel Goes Up to Eleven (John 3:26-36)

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The film This is Spinal Tap follows the exploits of heavy metal group Spinal Tap.  The film is shot “mockumentary” style.  That is, it’s a comedy masquerading as a documentary, much like the television series “The Office.”  In my favorite scene, the interviewer speaks with Nigel (the band’s guitarist) about their amplifiers:

Nigel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and…

Interviewer: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?

Nigel : Exactly.

Interviewer: Does that mean it’s louder? Is it any louder?

Nigel: Well, it’s one louder, isn’t it? It’s not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You’re on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you’re on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?

Interviewer: I don’t know.

Nigel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?

Interviewer: Put it up to eleven.

Nigel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.

Interviewer: Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?

Nigel: ……These go to eleven.

There was a time when John the Baptist faced a popularity contest.  Jesus’ other biographers tell us that John was originally a pastor’s kid, but later in life emerged from the wilderness smelling like Grizzly Adams and talking like Billy Graham.  His major achievements weren’t about himself.  They were about his cousin, Jesus.  But as Jesus’ popularity grew, John the Baptist’s popularity began to fade:

 John 3:26-36  26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness–look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.”  27 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.  28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’  29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.  30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Too often life becomes nothing more than a big popularity contest.  We fool ourselves into thinking ambition is the fuel for our achievement.  We live and die by our promotions and our accolades.  But John the Baptist wanted none of this.  His whole life was spent pointing toward someone else, someone far, far greater than he.  And it was of this person that John said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”  At Tri-State Fellowship, our own High School ministry uses this verse as the basis for their name: “Amp,” short for “Amplify.”  Our students learn that John the Baptist offers a very different message than that of the world.  In a world that thrives on self-promotion, John the Baptist offers a message of self-denial.  In a world of self-satisfaction, John the Baptist offers a message of self-sacrifice.

The things our world offers—pleasure, wealth, satisfaction—these are all the things that beg—nay, scream—for our attention and our devotion.  But amidst all the clamor and noise, the gospel is even louder.  The gospel goes up to eleven.

John the Baptist continues to address his lingering supporters:

31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.  32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.  33 Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.  34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.  35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.  36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John drives home that Jesus is far more significant than he could ever be.  And John—that is, John the author of this gospel—wants to include these statements for a strategic purpose.  John had been assembling his gospel in the city of Ephesus, a city where Jesus’ later followers knew only some of the basics they’d heard from John the Baptist (Acts 18:25).  John the author wanted to fulfill John the Baptist’s mission: to point people to something greater than the fragments of knowledge they possessed.

In our own world, we face many challenges.  Many things will compete for our attention.  The desire for achievement, the seduction of “celebrity.”  Other things will wound us deeply.  But the common thread in all of these things was simply this: they focus on ourselves.  On our best days, we like to think that our lives are vibrant, successful, full of life.  But John was onto something important: nothing is more damaging than self-absorption.

The world around me, the thoughts within me—these things are all ramped up to the level of a “ten.”  But the gospel goes up to eleven.

Are you listening?

Born Again (John 3:1-21)

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What do you think of when you hear the words “born again?”  For me, I can’t help but think of Ned Flanders, the uptight religious neighbor of Homer Simpson.  An all-around nice guy, but someone whose religious views and narrow moral code are a constant annoyance.

Ned FlandersBut who needs to be born again?  We might think of those who come from a shady background who need to “see the light.”  It’s certainly not for the educated, or the sophisticated.  And it’s certainly not a need for people like Ned Flanders.  If you’ve grown up in church, there’s a possibility that you think you’ve got the Jesus thing figured out.  You grew up in Youth Group.  You go to church every week.  You listen to Hillsong in the car.  You even attend a small group.  What else is there? 

Let’s meet Nicodemus.

John 3:1-21  Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

Remember how earlier Jesus had basically started a small riot in the Temple?  It was a public way of saying: “The Messiah is now here.”  The religious leaders wouldn’t have missed this—and certainly not one so prominent as Nicodemus, “a ruler of the Jews.”  So it’s understandable that Nicodemus would come under cover of darkness—why risk his reputation by being seen talking to this rabble-rouser?

3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”  5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus had spent the better part of his life serving the Temple.  Yet he fails to grasp what Jesus is saying.  Jesus isn’t offering another religious program to attend.  He’s proclaiming radical spiritual renewal: being “born again.”

Do you see the irony?  The Temple was the one place where you’d expect to experience the presence of God.  Yet for Nicodemus, the Temple was what he used to hide from God.  And we live in the same danger.  It’s very easy to get caught up in church activity and the “busyness” of our faith—and miss the radically transforming power of Jesus.  In fact, in many ways it’s easier to hide from God in church than in a brothel(!).  In the latter, it’s easy to know that you’re far from God.  But in Church, you can hide from God while looking like a pillar in your community—a man of great respect.  But inside you are dying.  You have all the religious language, but none of the spiritual intimacy.

9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”  10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?  11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.  12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.  14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Nicodemus is still baffled.  So Jesus does what He does best: He tells Him a story.  In the film V for Vendetta, an police inspector is trying to unravel a massive governmental conspiracy.  As his search nears its end, he meets with an unnamed informant.  “I believe you have some information for me,” he says.  “No, inspector,” the informant replies.  “You have all the information already.  All the facts are inside your head.  What you want—what you really need—is a story.”  Nicodemus didn’t need another sermon.  He was one of the smartest men in Israel.  No; what he needed was a story.  He needed some way of organizing the separate pieces into a cohesive whole.

Jesus tells him the story of the snakes in the desert.  Israel, during their years of wandering, was afflicted by a plague of poisonous snakes.  To deepen their trust in Him, God tells their leader Moses to craft a bronze snake and attach it to his staff.  If you were bitten, you had only to look at this raised staff and be cured.  Do you understand what Jesus is saying?  He’s saying there’s something wrong with each of us—something poisonous inside our hearts—that no amount of religious duty can cure.  John goes on to editorialize this very point:

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.  20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.  21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Our hearts are darkened. Poisonous.  The great tragedy is that men like Nicodemus had become numb to this fact because their lives were so clearly defined through religious observance.  But Jesus says: That’s not good enough.  You need to be born again.  Into the darkness of man’s heart, God speaks a wisdom unsearchable, a love unthinkable, a grace incalculable, and a mercy unending.  When Jesus is exalted in His death and resurrection, the poison is drawn from the wounds of our soul, and into those same wounds Jesus pours the water of His Spirit.

Are you like Nicodemus?  Have you been active in church activities your whole life, but have no true experience of the gospel?  Don’t let moments like this one pass you by.  Today could be your day to experience God up close.

The True Temple (John 2:13-25)

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What’s the value of a “temple?”  No doubt even the word “temple” conjures up images from an Indiana Jones film.  Ancient ruins.  Stone colonnades.  But for nearly every major religion, the temple serves as the focal point to their faith.  And what’s all the more interesting is that the temple has a similar function in every religion.  What is a temple?  The temple is where heaven and earth are thought to intersect.  Think of it as a cosmic crossroads, where the gods come down to interact with man.  The Jewish Temple was no different.  The Temple was built as a means for Israel to experience the presence of God.

Now I know what you must be thinking.  What is the value of a “temple” in today’s world?  Surely the concept itself is leftover from a primitive, superstitious past.  Without science to explain the world, our ancestors tried to explain their world in religious terms.  We’re past that.  Our faith doesn’t rest in the temple, but the laboratory.  We don’t need a religious system.  We need a social welfare program.

There’s just one flaw in that thinking: it never happened.  As technology increased, as science progressed, it didn’t eliminate religious belief.  Instead, religion continues to flourish worldwide.  In 1994, an article in Newsweek magazine highlighted the strange relationship between faith and science:

“A funny thing has happened on the way to science’s [replacement] of faith in the last years of the millennium.  Among researchers as well as laypeople, discoveries in physics, biology, and astronomy are inspiring a sense of cosmic piety, of serene holism and even a moral code.” (Sharon Begley, “Science of the Sacred,” Newsweek, 28 Nov. 1994, 56)

This tells us that we don’t turn to the supernatural as a way of filling in the gaps in our understanding.  Spirituality is deeper than that.  We long for connection to God not merely for cognitive enrichment, but to infuse the whole of life with meaning, purpose, and significance.  It’s no wonder that so many in today’s world find themselves searching for a spiritual experience.  Even without temples made of brick and stone, people long for a way to experience God’s presence here on earth.

We see this timeless principle at work in Jesus’ day.  If you were a devoted Jew, the Temple was the centerpiece of your entire religious life.  But this wasn’t just the Jewish temple anymore.  In the ancient world, there was no “separation of church and state.”  This was Herod’s temple.  It was King Herod who—in 19 B.C.—ordered that the temple be rebuilt.  Peace was only maintained by Herod’s agreement to remodel over time rather than tear down and start from scratch.  Jewish men were trained in architecture so that outsiders would not defile the bricks with their hands.  The end result was something of a love-hate relationship with the temple: the Jews still loved and revered its purpose, but resentment lay beneath the surface like a low-grade fever.  Maybe you know the feeling; you long for the spiritual connection that church promises, yet resent the empty hypocrisy that church delivers.  It was into this very world that Jesus now strode.

John 2:13-25   The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there.  15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.  16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”  17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

The time was Passover—the first of three that John records.  We’re at the beginning of Jesus’ three year ministry.  The city would have been crowded with worshippers, some of whom traveled from great distances to worship at the Temple.  Rather than drag a sacrificial animal along on the journey, these Jews often purchased their sacrifice from the salesmen in the courtyard of the Temple.  It was there that Jesus causes a riot.

Usually we assume that Jesus is simply angry.  But why?  God commanded sacrifice.  Were they charging unfair prices?  Were these sacrifices unacceptable?  The answer is actually found in the pages of Zechariah, one of the last books of the Old Testament.  Zechariah says that when the Messiah comes, “there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord” (Zechariah 14:21).  Are you beginning to see the significance?  When the Messiah comes, the traders are gone.  So if Jesus chases the traders away, it is a powerful and singular message: the Messiah is here.  It’s doubtful that the religious leaders would have missed this not-so-subtle point.

18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”  19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”

For leaders whose allegiances were divided between Jewish custom and Roman authority, Jesus’ actions were an act of treason.  When they ask for a “sign,” what they’re really saying is: “You better be able to back this up.”

Jesus delivers a cryptic promise about the temple.  Destroyed? Rebuilt?  Three days?  The leaders are incredulous—it had taken 46 years to build just that small section of the temple; who could be so arrogant as to suggest such supremacy?

Even Jesus’ closest followers must have been speechless.  It wouldn’t be until much later that they would realize the full weight of this experience:

21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.  22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Jesus was the true Temple.  Jesus was the place—nay, person—where Heaven and earth intersected.  You want to experience God’s presence?  Look to the Temple.  But no—it’s no longer a temple of mortar and stone.  It’s a Temple made of flesh and blood and sinew.  It’s the body of Christ.  This is why Paul would tell a divided Church that Jesus is the true cornerstone of a true temple, and in Christ, we “also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22).

This changes everything.  Jesus didn’t come to abolish religion; He came to transform it.  He didn’t come to remove religion; He came to redeem it.  What’s the value of a “temple?”  It’s the same as it has always been.  We are connected—to God, to each other—and because of this deep and vital connection we gather to celebrate and to express our gratitude through worship.  “Church” can be a frustrating place.  But Jesus shows us that being part of a church has less to do with being part of an institution, and more to do with being part of a body.  Therefore, we do more than merely tolerate one another; we need one another, as an arm needs a hand.

The final verses reveal that Jesus’ presence hardly went unnoticed:

23Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.  24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people  25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

These verses also serve as an important transition.  Jesus is about to meet some unusual characters.  Some of them aren’t the type you’d expect to find in a “temple.”  Others possess more knowledge than understanding.  And all of them, each in their own way, look like us.

First Miracle, First Believers – John 2:1-12

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Let’s imagine I was at a soccer game with your family, and sure enough, your son broke his leg in the first half and was taken to the bench to wait for an ambulance. And let’s imagine also that I accompanied you to the sidelines and reached down, touched his leg, and healed him … and then he scored the winning goal in the second half! You’d be impressed, right? Anyone seeing what happened would be amazed and wondered where that power came from.

The purpose of miracles was not to simply be nice in a given situation – like providing wine or healing someone, or even raising someone back to life for their blessing and benefit. It was rather to be given as a sign – an evidence of divine authority and power that validated Christ and his message.

In fact, there is a clear purpose statement in the book of John as to why John wrote this Gospel. He says in 20:30-31, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

The Gospel of John is often spoken of as having two major sections – a “book of signs” through the first 12 chapters, and then the “book of glory” through the remaining content. The first portion contains a total of seven signs that all lead toward a culminating “sign” in chapters 18-20 – the glorification of Jesus on the cross and through the resurrection.

Here are the seven signs of the first 12 chapters …

Water to wine (2:1-12)

Healing of the official’s son (4:43-54)

Healing a paralyzed man (5:1-15)

Feeding 5000 (6:1-15)

Walking on water (6:16-24)

Healing a man born blind (9:1-12)

Raising Lazarus from the dead (11:1-44)

So our reading today talks about the first of these signs – the water turned into wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Wedding festivals were big events that went on for even seven days. It was quite a celebration and gathering of people. And though the text does not indicate the identity of those being married, Mary, Jesus, and the disciples attend.

For some reason, there is a shortage of wine – a terrible social embarrassment and shame upon the master of the banquet. Mary asks Jesus to intervene. We cannot be certain as to why she did this or exactly what Mary knew or understood. It may not be anything more than she believed her son to be a very resourceful person who could advise for a plan of action.

In any event, Jesus orders that six large jars be filled with water. These were not containers of water for drinking, but rather for ceremonial, traditional washings. It is these that end up being turned into six containers of the finest wine. The master of the banquet did not see what had happened or where this fine wine came from, as he goes to the bridegroom wondering why the best wine was kept until the last – a backwards way of operating!

Let me make two simple points today:

1.  Jesus could have performed this miracle in front of a much larger crowd than that which actually witnessed it – which appears to only be but a few servants and the disciples. As Christ says in this passage, it was not his time for that … this would come with the seventh of the signs in the raising of Lazarus. No, this miracle was really directed toward the disciples – that group who would travel with him over the next three years. Here in this context they had only been with him for a couple of days … but they saw this, and John records, “and his disciples believed in him.”

2.  It is interesting that the first of the miracles is at a wedding feast, as the grand culmination of all things eventuates in the book of Revelation as the marriage feast of the Lamb. So, as the title of the first sermon in our series communicates, Jesus is “the true bridegroom.”  Here is the scene in Revelation … in heaven, around the throne, “Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.”

There is no reason for us to not believe – not with all that we know of the story! And this wedding reception is really something to look forward to attending!

Jesus Changes Water Into Wine  (John 2:1-12)

2:1  On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.   

7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.

Followership: The Seed of Leadership – John 1:35-51

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A giant river doesn’t “just happen.”  If you have ever traveled westward through Tennessee and crossed the Mississippi at Memphis, it is really an impressive sight. The next time you do that, leave some extra time to visit the Mud Island River Park. There is a river walk there that extends for many blocks that is a replication of the path of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. Water flows through ever widening channels in the sidewalks that model the twists and turns of what Abraham Lincoln called “the Father of Waters.”  It ultimately empties into a huge swimming pool – which is the “Gulf.”  The display includes a variety of cascading fountains of water channeling into the main stream – each depicting the various tributary sources of the Old Man River.

People who are “giants of the faith” don’t just happen either. People who accomplish great things for God were not born winners and leaders. There are a lot of tributaries. Long before they were used by God in His service, they were mere followers and fledgling disciples barely inside the gate of the Kingdom of Light. They looked at Jesus and saw him as the way, the truth, and the life. They began to follow him, learning from his teaching and life. And over time, small opportunities became larger service venues; and they fulfilled the truth that he who is faithful with little shall be made faithful with much. Before they excelled at leadership, they learned followership.

In today’s reading we see the calling of the first disciples – a pair who were formerly the followers of John the Baptist. When it says in verse 37 that they followed Jesus, this has the double inference of physically walking on with him, as well as being committed to Christ in a teacher/student capacity. Only one is specifically named, and that is Andrew; but it is quite certain that the unnamed other initial disciple is our author John – whose brother James would also be one of the twelve.

Andrew immediately goes to find his own brother Simon and shares with him the good news that the Messiah Christ has been found, and he brings him to Jesus. On every occasion when we see Andrew in the biblical record, he is bringing someone to Jesus (and this little fact is so engrained in my mind that I have to think every time we talk about the “Matthews” for the My Hope Project … and I have a couple of times used the name Andrew when I’ve meant to say Matthew).

Jesus looks at Simon, and with divine knowledge of what will transpire in this aggressive and impetuous fisherman’s life, he says “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter.) Jesus anticipates how Peter will be a “rock” of faith in the confession of Christ’s messianic character, and later, a major foundation stone of the church.

The next day, Christ calls to Philip to come and follow him. And like Andrew, Philip shares this great news of Jesus of Nazareth with Nathanael – who blurts out the common view of Christ’s inauspicious home town, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”  Philip just says to come and see …

As Nathanael was walking toward Jesus, the Lord says of him that he was a man with a pure heart, causing Nathanael to ask how Christ knew him at all. Apparently when Philip found him, he was resting under a fig tree – a sort of saying that is something like our phrase “taking a break.”  The several remarks of Jesus would seem to indicate that he knew Nathanael was pondering the issue of the Messiah, and even thinking of the story of Jacob’s dream as revealed in Genesis 28:12.  Nathanael’s response to this divine insight was immediate belief – to which Jesus essentially says, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Peter, John, Nathanael, Andrew … all would be witnesses of incredible events over the next three years. Their lives would be forever changed and their faith immortalized.

Jesus is a master at taking ordinary people who are willing to follow him and walk with him and turning them into leaders and champions of faith. But you have to walk before you run, and you have to keep doing both for a long time in the same direction. Often the rewards seem far away and the current obstacles too insurmountable. But the Lord says to us to stay faithful, keep walking, and keep learning from Jesus – God up close!

John 1:35-51  The First Disciples

35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter.)

43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”

44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 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.”

46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”

50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

 

What Are You Looking At? – John 1:19-34

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Did you ever have a situation where someone was dressed in some sort of outlandish fashion and then when you starred at the person, they were offended? Last summer, I was waiting to make a left turn onto Garland Groh Boulevard coming out of the Centre at Hagerstown parking lot. That is really not a good idea, since you have to wait and wait for so much traffic to clear! To my right, a car pulled up alongside me to make a right turn. It was now in my direct line of vision to my right, and as I looked that way, I could not help but see the woman driver who had rainbow-colored hair. We both had our windows down, and she yelled at me in an angry voice, “What are you looking at?”  I was too stunned to answer!

Today’s passage features an eccentric character called John the Baptist. He is described in greater detail in Matthew 3:4-6 where it says, “John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.”

This fellow was not a freak show for the sake of being eccentric. He was not hustling a crowd to sell them on any product of his own. It was clearly his preaching and message that drew the throngs of spiritually-starved people to him. Yes, living essentially in the wilderness made him an odd-looking fellow for sure. But his message had a ring of truth and relevance to it, and crowds began to gather and the word began to spread about him.

And the news of this John the Baptizer had come to the ears of the Jewish religious leadership in Jerusalem. They were accustomed to various false claimants of Messianic identity – for in that time, there was a heightened level of expectation of a prophetically-promised messiah figure who would, in that context, beat up the Romans and the enemies of Israel. Could this John be that guy? He had the look of (what we would term) an Old Testament prophet. Those historic figures were rather eccentric as well. So who was this latest fellow? Certainly the masses of the people liked him; and therefore the religious leadership faction from their Jerusalem headquarters sent out a delegation to investigate and interview John.

Now understand, these entrenched religious types were not excited about messianic figures who disrupted the status quo and threatened their leadership and lifestyles. They were the epitome of “peace at all costs” and “don’t change anything” types. But they were also not completely sure and unified about what the prophetic Scriptures actually taught relative to a coming Messiah. And so they begin to go through a list of the variant popular views in their query of John …

1. Are you the Messiah?  Answer: “I am not the Messiah.”

2. Are you Elijah? (Some people expected Elijah to come based upon a passage in Malachi.)  Answer: “I am not.”

3. Are you the Prophet? (Some people wrongly interpreted Deut. 18:15 as predicting a prophet to come before the Messiah.)  Answer: “No”

4. So who are you? Dude, we can’t go back to Jerusalem without an answer!  Answer: “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

So John does claim to be a fulfillment of a prophecy in Isaiah 40 … simply of one who would be a voice to point to the Messiah. He was not it … not the Messiah … not the light in the darkness. He was simply a bird dog pointing to Jesus, the Christ.

5. So what’s with all this baptism stuff you’ve got going on?  Answer: John explains that his water baptism (wherein people confessed sins and identified themselves with his message of repentance and expectation) was a mere physical event … whereas the greater one who would come after him would baptize in a greater way with the Spirit.

The actual revelation of the identity of this greater person happened the very next day. As Jesus appeared before John, the Spirit revealed to John that Jesus was the one to come – the Messiah, the Lamb of God (anticipating the sacrifice of Christ), the Eternal One, the baptizer with the Spirit, the Son of God. John and Jesus were relatives through their mothers, though it is clear from this passage that before that moment, John had no idea that Christ was the Messiah … and perhaps they did not even know each other.

So what are you looking at?  We should be looking at Jesus, which is our purpose in this series – to look at Jesus and to see him as “God Up Close.”  Too often we get caught up in looking at certain preachers who currently seem to be all the craze, or ministries that have the great crowds assembling, or studying what communicative techniques best reach our culture … when we should rather be looking at Jesus.

John 1:19-34  John the Baptist and His Testimony

John the Baptist Denies Being the Messiah

19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

He answered, “No.”

22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

26 “I baptize withwater,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

John Testifies About Jesus

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 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.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

The End of a Long, Long Wait – John 1:1-18

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Have you ever had to wait for a very long time for something hopeful to happen? Whatever that hope may be, if the wait was extended even over many years, surely there were times you thought it would never come to fruition. False alarms of aroused hope crushed you too many times to actually anticipate that the dream would ever find reality.

I have a niece in Texas, who along with her husband has endured the pain of childlessness. Though possessing a deep longing for children in their home, the hopes even of adoption looked as grim as the medical realities already absorbed. There were false hopes of potential opportunities, but the statistics seemed insurmountable and as unending as the hoops through which to jump and the curves to navigate … it all combined together to laugh in the face of any dreams of a family.

But in the darkness of this extended sadness, a call came from an expectant woman in Minnesota who had seen their profile and who hoped that possibly my niece and her husband could be the parents to adopt her little boy. A light broke through the darkness. Hope had arrived, yet many details needed to be accomplished. And in the course of time, they were able to travel to Minnesota and take home a new little boy to begin their family.

Since Adam and Eve and the consequent fall of man into the death sentence of sin, the world languished in darkness. Prophets spoke of a messianic hope to come. But years turned into decades; and decades became centuries, even millennia … but nothing … just darkness.

Oh, to be sure, there were false messiahs who claimed to be something or somebody. Still nothing … until this eccentric fellow named John the Baptist showed up wearing animal skins and munching on locusts. He was not the light to penetrate the darkness, but he was the forerunner who told the world that the light of life was soon coming.

Our passage today is one that is so full of theological significance; it is no exaggeration whatsoever to say that volumes have been written on these verses. Let me just grab n’ go with a few big ideas, along with a single biggest idea in terms of our series of sermons / readings / devotionals.

Note that the opening paragraph identifies Christ as divine, as creator, as eternally existent with God. He is the embodiment of life and of the light that could penetrate and eradicate the darkness of sin.

One would think that the world of humanity who had been so long-enslaved by sin would welcome this light and life – especially the nation of whom God had chosen to be his own peculiar people. They had been the conduits of truth and the promises leading to an expectation of divine intervention. But, no, most of them did not receive Christ nor welcome him. Yet those who did – Jew and Gentile – found themselves to be born again … not because of race, nor even of human effort and desire, but because of God’s infusion of LIFE.

The eternal Word had become actual flesh, and the writer John and his other contemporaries were witnesses of this truth and of the glory of God that had been revealed through the person of Jesus Christ.

John says that it is true that no person has ever seen God the Father, but the Father God is revealed in Jesus Christ. Seeing Jesus was seeing the physical representation of God’s nature. The Greek word that is translated by the final four words of our reading today – has made him known – is the term from which we get “exegesis.”  This is the process we speak of when we say that a pastor/teacher is digging into the text to understand and then explain the full meaning of it. So … Jesus “explains” God and the details of his nature and character.

And it is this verse 18 that is the springboard for our series title “God Up Close.”  To see God in detail, one only needs to see Jesus in the same way … and that is what we desire to do through this series. We want to look at all the varied venues and vignettes in which John brings us an intimate view of our Savior. To know him is to know God. To know him and believe and trust in him is to have life. To follow his example is to walk in love and in the light. And that is what we all desire.

John 1:1-18    The Word became Flesh

1:1  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. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, 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.

14 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.

15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.