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  • God’s Love Through John: In the Beginning

    God’s Love Through John: In the Beginning

    The Gospel of John

    John 1:1 ESV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

    1:1  ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος

    The Apostle John begins his Gospel prologue with inspired, nearly unparalleled words pointing back to Genesis 1. Every Jew who knew God knew the beginning of the the Pentateuch.

    In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.


    Genesis 1:1  בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ׃

    Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve’et ha’aretz.

    John connects creation with logos, literally the word for word in the Greek. Jesus is the Person of the spoken Word of Elohim! אֱלֹהִים

    2 He was in the beginning with God.

    In essence John proclaimed:

    Jesus IS in the beginning, Jesus is with Elohim, Jesus IS Elohim!

    Basic Belief: Do you believe in God?

    John begins by categorically stating that Jesus IS the One True God.

    This is Good News to those who believe. Yet even if you do not believe in the One God, John proclaims this Gospel as challenge to our misconceptions of the Creator.

    Every Greek knew the importance of logos. A secondary use of the word logos, familiar to unbelieving Greeks who claimed many gods, is its use as respect to the MIND alone. 

    Think about this, John tells those who do not know God.

    Reason through it and try calculating the logic of this relationship between a Power you cannot measure and a Person whom we have regarded. And again, John points to creation:

    3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

    John 1:3 CSB

    The First Letter of John

    In his first letter to the church John begins in a similar fashion when addressing those who already follow Christ Jesus in the first century.

    What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life …

    1 John 1:1 CSB

    The Disciple Jesus loved gives followers of The Way a testimony of his own witness of ‘God in the flesh’ in the Person of the Messiah of God.

    Orazio Fidani, Saint John the Apostle, c. 1640-56

    John, now a fully mature Elder, tells his churches, gatherings of believers in Christ:

    We know that Jesus IS who He says He IS. We are witnesses to the facts and preach our testimony to you you. 

    Jesus IS God and we have personally seen, heard, observed and touched the Living God!

    Good news for believers.

    4 ‘We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete,’ John writes to believers.

    Jesus, the Christ, a personal Lord who loves and ministers to sinners.

    The Beginning and the End

    John’s Gospel and three letters reveal Jesus as the Christ, Almighty God as One with the eternal Person of the Son of Man.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John speaks to the beginning of Creation, in addition to providing troubling imagery of the apocalypse of the heavens and earth.

     “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

    Revelation 1:8 CSB

    John’s Vision of the Risen Lord

    9 I, John, your brother and partner in the affliction, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

    The Apostle John, whom we picture as a young man mentored by Jesus, reveals much more about the Lord.

    Almighty God, Creator of the heavens and earth, in whose image man is made, IS; in the Person of Jesus, a Savior to eternal life to those He loves.

    Jesus will also judge rebellious sinners and cleanse creation of all unrighteousness. The LORD will make all things right.

    John, through Christ, reveals the ending:

    Revelation 21:3b Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

    John’s Good News

    Jesus loves you. This is John’s message. God is immeasurably more than an understood Power. Jesus shows God as a loving Father who also gives freedom to mankind to choose eternal life or deserved punishment for sin. 

    Do you believe in One God? Can you relate to Almighty God as a loving Father of a chosen family? In Christ Jesus we have seen the Lord!

    John gives us both brief glimpses and detailed accounts of the Logos, the Very Word of God.

    No mere mortal can fully fathom the ever-existent Creator of all things and of all men, even in the personal witness of John. Yet John reveals even more of the completeness of the One True God through consideration of the Spirit of God, the subject of our next look at understanding the Lord through the eyes of the Disciple Jesus loved.

    To be continued...

     

  • God’s Love Through John: Jesus Loves You

    NEW: Introduction to September 2018 series on talkofJesus.com Christian Social Witness by Roger Harned. 

    God’s Love Through John: Jesus Loves You is one of several series & more than 650 searchable posts published since 2013 . Please add your comments & share via social media.  Blessings. Roger

    John, Messenger of God’s Love

    This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. – John 21:24
    True? You could ask to know about the Lord God or about the Messiah Christ Jesus, but some will always ask of the Gospel, “Who says?” It’s a fair question, since many deceivers have gone out into the world making false claims about God. For our best answer we need to think of John in two entirely different contexts. First as the youngest Apostle of Jesus Christ and lastly, much later as an Elder. The one testifying to the Truth is the last surviving Disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Who is John and why does he give us Good News about Christ Jesus?

    Our visualization of Jesus and John shows an unparalleled love of a father or teacher for His nearest follower. Therefore, we cannot think of John without thinking of love in the Person of Christ Jesus. John, son of Zebedee and his older brother James, son of Zebedee, both follow Jesus, as do Simon Peter and others. ‘Zebedee and Sons’ could have been the sign for their family fishing business. Simon also made his living as fishermen, perhaps even as a foreman for Zebedee and sons.
    And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. Mark 1:17

    His Closest Friends

    Who knows Jesus best among the Disciples? And which Disciple remains nearest to the rabbi who claims to be the Truth? His inner circle, comprised of Peter, James and John. True to the nature of the Lord, Jesus chooses humble followers. This Disciple is humble like Moses and a young man like the anointed David. This younger son of Zebedee the fisherman fits the role of an eager servant who loves his Lord and Master.
    Young John learns the heart of Jesus and shares his love with us.
    So the Lord calls these managers of a Galilean fishing cooperative to become ‘fishers of men.’ He includes Peter, James and John the younger brother in His inner circle of the Twelve. The gospels also reveal that Salome, mother of John and James, followed Jesus. They all love Christ Jesus with an interpersonal familial love.

    The Great Commission of Love

    One of his disciples, the one Jesus loved, was reclining close beside Jesus. – John 13:23
    Jesus then asks of His friends:
    “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. – John 15:9
    After Jesus’ crucifixion and death all of them return home to their fishing business.
    The disciple, the one Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord! ”
    John 21:7 
    When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer clothing around him (for he had taken it off) and plunged into the sea. – John 21:7 John would have still been a young man and Simon Peter alive, of course, before the days of his own martyrdom.

    Evidence of Truth

    The truth and testimony of John’s Good News would have been recorded over several years during his own ministry well into old age.
    Most scholars say it was written in the early 90’s. This means that the time span between the original writing of John and its earliest copy (fragment) is approximately 35-45 years. Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry
    The writer of the gospel of John was obviously an eyewitness of the events of Christ’s life since he speaks from a perspective of having been there during many of the events of Jesus’ ministry and displays a good knowledge of Israeli geography and customs. The John Rylands papyrus fragment 52 of John’s gospel dated in the year 125-135 contains portions of John 18, verses 31-33,37-38. This fragment was found in Egypt. It is the last of the gospels and appears to have been written in the 80’s to 90’s.

    John, Letters from the Elder

    XVI. John The “beloved disciple,” was brother to James the Great. The churches of Smyrna, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, and Thyatira, were founded by him. From Ephesus he was ordered to be sent to Rome, where it is affirmed he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil. He escaped by miracle, without injury. Domitian afterwards banished him to the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. Nerva, the successor of Domitian, recalled him. He was the only apostle who escaped a violent death. Fox’s Book of Martyrs
    John’s three letters to the churches he fathers [mentioned above] are thought to have been written around in about AD 65, some than thirty years after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Research [cited above] indicates that John’s Gospel, recorded on scrolls over a period of years, was likely completed later than John’s letters. Prior to completion of his Gospel, letters would have been delivered to each church (in modern day Turkey). They in turn would be read to the congregation then delivered to the next church on the evangelical circuit. When you want a brief, partial explanation of the Gospel the Disciple John, look to any of his letters.  His letters convey the same great hope through the love of Christ Jesus, sometimes in the very words John later with record in his Gospel.

    Christ will have the last Word

    Île de Patmos, 1854 de Ivan Aivazovsky
    Île de Patmos, 1854 de Ivan Aivazovsky 
    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John may have been written as late as the year 100, when John may have been 70-80 years old.
    Jan Massijs – The Apocalypse of Saint John the Evangelist (1563)
    I ask you, what demonstration of God’s love could be more encouraging to those who suffer for our faith than witnessing His judgment of evil? John encourages believers in the churches, the same believers he had encouraged by letter. Yet he also warns against many sins. Consequently those who suffer read of a terrible apocalypse to come! For they will be saved by the Lamb of God.
    4:4 After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door. The first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”
    An Elder in heaven converses with John, encouraging believers who have been wronged. Revelation 7:14 Then he told me: These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
    He will guide them to springs of living waters, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 7:17b HCSV
    God IS love. Jesus loves. John is the Disciple of love who best conveys God’s own love for you, for me and for those yet to be born again in spirit.

    God’s Love Through John: Jesus Loves You To be continued…

  • A River of Redemption Flowing from Eden – Redeemer

    For I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and at the last he will stand upon the earth. – Job 19:25 ESV

    Redeemed from what?

    Scripture records that Job is a righteous man. Can you say that? Most assuredly, I cannot.

    A great and powerful leader loves God and does everything right, yet the Lord permits Satan to test him. He has everything a man could ever want, but then the Lord takes it away. Job loses everything except his life. 

    And how does he respond? 

    Job cries out to the Lord to be saved from miseries which have come to him in the flesh of this life (and his miseries are many). Yet hear Job’s assurance of judgement by a just God.

    19:25 וַאֲנִי יָדַעְתִּי גֹּאֲלִי חָי וְאַחֲרֹון עַל־עָפָר יָקֽוּם׃

    19:26 וְאַחַר עֹורִֽי נִקְּפוּ־זֹאת וּמִבְּשָׂרִי אֶֽחֱזֶה אֱלֹֽוהַּ׃

    And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: – Job 19:26 KJV

    Though he dies he will see God his Redeemer, face to face. In a word: resurrection. Judgment, face to face judgment by God!

    Our return to dust

    The Lord’s original curse against man does not dissuade Job from hope of seeing his Redeemer on the day of his judgment. Job repents before God acknowledging that he knows that he is dust. 

    Do you? Have you acknowledged before God that you are only dust?

    By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
    till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
    for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.” – Genesis 3:19 

    Redeemers

    What is a Redeemer? (It’s certainly another important concept this world has relegated to triteness, as in ‘redeeming coupons.’)

    Redeem – to buy or pay off, buy back, recover, exchange or convert (as in the blood of an animal for sin or money for a sacrificial animal), to discharge or fulfill a promise or a debt, to make amends for (some wrong), obtain release by a payment, restoration; theology: to deliver from sin and its consequences by means of a sacrifice offered for the sinner.

    Job was a righteous man, yet he knew he would face his redeemer after his death. Have you had enough to have cried out to your Redeemer?

    Earlier in this series I referred to Joseph as a redeemer not only Israel, but also of Egypt by saving them from famine. Joseph was purchased and no ransom was paid for his release. With God’s help Joseph paid for his own redemption.

    Many look to Moses as a redeemer of the Hebrews, saving them from slavery. Moses had been born into slavery under imminent threat of death, but the Lord rescued the Hebrew boy into the household of Pharaoh. He escaped when discovered buy returned when called by the Lord. Moses freed the Hebrews from slavery under Pharaoh. The Lord used Moses to save His covenant people, but Moses did not pay a ransom for their return.

    The Lord saves David and other later kings of Israel and Judah. In fact, it is always the LORD who intervenes in these and other rescues of mankind. Even Noah had been rescued by God.

    From Noah, Abraham, Jacob and Joseph before the Law, to Moses, David and kings after the Law you will read of sacrifices made to the Lord. All of these faithful men recognized their own need for a Redeemer for their sins.

    If you have never considered your own need for a Redeemer, you may want to weigh the significance of its antonym as it could apply to your soul at the Judgment without a Redeemer: 

    Antonyms

    1. abandon.

    Strong currents of these last days

    Have you plead to the Lord for mercy? ‘Oh Lord, do not abandon me.’

    Though requirements of the Law placed severe penalties upon those disobedient to the Lord, Moses assured the faithful:

    “Be strong and courageous; don’t be terrified or afraid of them. For the LORD your God is the one who will go with you; he will not leave you or abandon you.” – Deuteronomy 31:6 

    In Psalm 16, David offers an assurance similar to to that of Job:

    10 For you will not abandon me to Sheol;
    you will not allow your faithful one to see decay.

    God warned Adam and Eve that on the day they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they would surely die. Adam died. So did Eve and their sons, daughters and descendants, except the family of Noah.

    So did Eve and their sons, daughters and descendants, except the family of Noah. And all mankind from Adam until now has sinned, every one of us.

    Surely we will also die; then as Job said, we will be resurrected to the Judgment.

    LORD, the hope of Israel,
    all who abandon you
    will be put to shame.
    All who turn away from me
    will be written in the dirt,
    for they have abandoned
    the LORD, the fountain of living water. – Jeremiah 17:13

    A Redeemer and Judge

    Our Redeemer was before Eden and was in Eden. He IS a river of righteousness, pure waters springing forth which refresh the soul and give life to dust.

    John 1:2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through him… 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.

    John 4:13 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.”

    John 5:24 “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.

    25 “Truly I tell you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live… a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of condemnation.

    Christ Jesus! He IS our Redemption, for He has sacrificed His own blood as payment for our sins. Jesus the Son of Man sacrificed His life as payment for mine. He IS the river of life, springing forth from before Eden and cleansing our sins.

    Beloved brother of dust and sister of sin, will you plea to our Redeemer for His great mercy?

    Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river…

    Revelation 22: