in the context of A.D. 90, with application to A.D. 2020,
rather than chronologically, culturally or by chapter & verse..
..while during recent months:
some sought to stream the stage of worship
some sent seeker-friendly scripture into our homes
some church communities disintegrated while others diminished & distanced (like our 2020 remote office meetings complete with slides).
To review the Gospel of John, simply click on any link in the outline below& it will open in a new window.
Roger – author of A.D. 2020 series on the Gospel of John
I hope you were blessed by the secure links to reliable sites for further study of Scripture, as well as insight into the 1st century church of John’s Gospel (written ~A.D.- 90).
Scripture encourages us to a more mature faith.
John’s Prologue – Good News!
IN THE BEGINNING was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
ALL THINGS came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of
MANKIND.
And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it.
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God [Son] who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
John’s Prologue [1:1-18], from which the Apostle next proceeds to the testimony of John the Baptist and the Messiah’s calling of the Twelve, states many important theological themes & along with his Epilogue [21:1-25 {linked below}] provides additional depth of purpose of John’s Gospel.
John 3: “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” …
Teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ
‘My Father’s House – John 2
“You must be born again.
I am the Messiah – John 4
Before Abraham was, I AM
John 11
“..and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.
also love one another-John 13
Jesus prays – John 17
Jesus answered him – John 19:11
Jesus said:
Gospel of John
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! – John 1:29b
As Jesus passed by, He saw a man who had been blind from birth. – John 9:1
Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?” – John 8:53
“But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. – John 10:26-28
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise from the dead.” .. “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” – John 11:23,25
Hear all the unrelenting bad news of yesterday or today.
For followers of Jesus, His death diminished life’s hope in eternal life; that is until the Gospel of the Lord’s resurrection reached the eyes and ears and touch of His dearly beloved friends.
John and the Disciples witnessed the Lord Jesus in His Risen Flesh many times after His resurrection.
“Peace be with you.”
And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
John 20:20
Their sorrow had turned into joy and so must ours; for in Christ Jesus his disciples of every generation have eternal life through His sacrifice for our sins. This is our Gospel, His Good News to those who would believe.
NEWS of A.D. 2021
SEE what follows JOHN 2020 in JOHN 2021.
“Peace to you,” yet also a command of the risen Christ Jesus.
& without Him:
EXPECT MORE BAD NEWS
John’s Epilogue
John 20:30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book.
But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John 20:21 CSB
I pray that the Lord has blessed you through the Gospel of John in A.D. 2020
Roger – Roger@talkofJesus.com
May our Lord Jesus Christ
draw you into His grace,
giving you new hope of Eternal Life
in the YEAR OF OUR LORD 2021,
in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
AMEN.
John 19:17 They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, carrying His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which in Hebrew is called, Golgotha.
Hours before: Sanctification of the Sacrifice
Jesus spoke these things; and raising His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, so that the Son may glorify You, just as You gave Him authority over all mankind, so that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 17:1-3 NASB – The Son’s High Priestly prayer
The Pangs of Death
‘I feel your pain,’ some must have mocked toward Jesus at His suffering the 39 lashes of scourging. No one ever truly feels the pain of another’s suffering.
But for His dear friends the Apostles the Son of God had assured:
“A little while, and you no longer are going to see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.”
John 16:16 NASB
Jesus had not dwelled on His prophesied suffering. Yet by the scriptures perhaps the Disciples denyingly sensed what He must suffer this day.
Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
The Apostles did not want to believe all of it, but to them the LORD revealed the Son embraced by the Father’s right arm.
For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
They also grew up near Him and even though some knew Jesus’ family, they were not attracted to Him until by Him they were called. In these three years Jesus became their Lord, Teacher and beloved friend.
He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Jesus was despised by the ruling council and leading Jews. The Disciples continually witnessed the Jews hatred for Him.
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
Temple officials had previously despised and did not esteem Him. These Jewish scholars had never believed His message or the Prophets.
21 Then He said again to them, “I am going away, and you will look for Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.”
25 Then they were saying to Him, “Who are You?”
These politically powerful religious officials most likely asked this mockingly, as they did while striking their blindfolded Messiah during the mockery of a trial before Caiaphas High Priest of the Jews and later in the presence of Pilate.
‘Who are YOU totalk of God or teach us the Law?‘
So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am, and I do nothing on My own, but I say these things as the Father instructed Me.
John 8:28
And the Apostle John adds this witness then in his Gospel:
30 As He said these things, many came to believe in Him.
Many believers will follow Jesus Christ in a victorious procession to the place of worship, but only a remnant remains following a captive King to the Cross of Calvary.
20 Truly, truly I say to you that you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy!
As the Disciples had scattered as sheep from the wolves, surely they did not recall this at the time of Jesus’ arrest, trials, scourging and crucifixion.
Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come;
but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.
22 Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one is going to take your joy away from you.
And why this suffering? – SIN!
The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!
..Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you..
And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” – Genesis 3
The Prophesy of Christ’s Suffering
But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
‘By oppression and judgment He was taken away,‘ prophesied Isaiah in the generation of Uzziah king of Judah. It was more than seven centuries Before Christ.
Isaiah, by the mouth of the LORD, indicts those who falsely convict Jesus.
They have just sent innocence to the Cross as the Substitute Lamb of Sacrifice for their own transgressions (sins).
‘And as for His generation,
who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people,
29 .. “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
And now sinners take the sinless Sacrifice to the altar of the shedding of Blood.
They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, carrying His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which in Hebrew is called, Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between.
Ephraim was the second child of Zaphnath-Paaneah and Asenath. His father’s high position second only to Pharaoh gave Ephraim every advantage as he was brought up with all the riches of the palace.
You may recognize him as brother of Manasseh and both brothers known as sons of Joseph, son of Israel (Jacob).
He was much like the church we know in the US now. These sons and their families grew up with practically everything a man could desire. But one change in leadership would relegate them to lesser roles before they lost faith in the wilderness.
Even though they had followed the Lord when Moses returned to save Israel from slavery, during forty years in the wilderness each year of yearning for former days turned their hearts from the Lord.
Think about their roles as followers of God in the way Asaph contemplates years later. Think also closer to home, considering your own push-back from faithfulness from the Lord who would save you.
God’s Kindness to Rebellious Israel
A Contemplation of Asaph.
9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle. 10 They did not keep the covenant of God; They refused to walk in His law, 11 And forgot His works And His wonders that He had shown them.
How like US
Forget for a moment your own heritage.
Perhaps your forefathers came to a land of promise or a home of the free. They may have bought passage to new hope in a land of milk and honey, a hopeful homeland of riches.
Or perhaps they fled in huddled masses from persecution, slavery and imminent death. Oh, the hope of our poor and tired aliens embarking on a pilgrimage of promise.
Who will you trust if not the Lord?
Of Ephraim’s blessing
Note centrality of Ephraim & Manasseh, Joseph’s sons to the promised land and a divided people of the LORD
12 Marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers, In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
Do you, even in your days of difficulty, remember what the Lord has done for you and your fathers in days past, how the Lord has saved you?
13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; And He made the waters stand up like a heap. 14 In the daytime also He led them with the cloud, And all the night with a light of fire. 15 He split the rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink in abundance like the depths. 16 He also brought streams out of the rock, And caused waters to run down like rivers.
Here is Asaph’s embrace of the Lord’s blessing many years prior to his own life in the Kingdom of David.
How like the blessings thousands of years later of the ‘new world,’ a new land to conquer and colonize. Ephraim was one blessed by the Lord, but the promise of the Lord was long forgotten.
Sin and Rebellion
Egypt or England will call it rebellion, or course. But your journey of hope from oppression must remain in the hand of the Lord.
We know in your heart that our forefathers were not without sin. The cause of our exodus from a former existence was not so righteous as our national celebrations would have us believe.
Though Asaph laments of his founding fathers, we could well apply their rebellion to our own hearts.
But they sinned even more against Him By rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness.
Psalm 78:17 NKJV
18 And they tested God in their heart By asking for the food of their fancy. 19 Yes, they spoke against God: They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? 20 Behold, He struck the rock, So that the waters gushed out, And the streams overflowed. Can He give bread also? Can He provide meat for His people?”
The PERSON of GOD
If God IS a Person, then how does He feel about your sin?
How does God the Father react to the sin of His child?
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com on Psalm 78
21 Therefore the Lord heard this and was furious;
So a fire was kindled against Jacob, And anger also came up against Israel, 22 Because they did not believe in God, And did not trust in His salvation.
I’ll own it – I’m a rebel like Ephraim. Lord forgive me.
And remember this, along with His many blessings to our forefathers, your own faithful or rebellious children, and what the Lord does for you.
23 Yet He had commanded the clouds above, And opened the doors of heaven, 24 Had rained down manna on them to eat, And given them of the bread of heaven. 25 Men ate angels’ food; He sent them food to the full.
Do you remember the miracles of the Lord’s blessings?
Here we are so blessed more than most, yet craving the past and coveting the riches of others. Are we not like Joseph’s sons – Ephraim, the most blessed, whose rebellion failed to trust in the Lord?
The Father’s wrath
29 So they ate and were well filled, For He gave them their own desire. 30 They were not deprived of their craving;
But while their food was still in their mouths, 31 The wrath of God came against them, And slew the stoutest of them, And struck down the choice men of Israel.
How like the children of Ephraim we are!
We plea to the Lord our God, ‘Father, give us this one thing we must have.’ Then, we think, because our Father has blessed us we will tell him of our next desire for blessing.
32 In spite of this they still sinned, And did not believe in His wondrous works.
33 Therefore their days He consumed in futility, And their years in fear.
34 When He slew them, then they sought Him; And they returned and sought earnestly for God.
Have you taught your children?
SPOILED CHILDREN
A meditation of J.C. Ryle 4 min. 23 sec.
John Charles Ryle was born of well-to-do parents at Macclesfield England, 10 May 1816, appointed first Bishop of Liverpool. "His successor in Liverpool described him as ‘the man of granite with the heart of a child.’ - source
Have you told your children of blessing that God our Father, the Lord, must be their Lord or they will suffer His wrath?
Do you fear death and judgment (or even judgment, then death)?
In fear have you promised God one thing, then in your comfort forgotten your Father?
Psalm 78: (cont.)
35 Then they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer.
36 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth, And they lied to Him with their tongue; 37 For their heart was not steadfast with Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant.
A Father’s love
Exodus 34:6 Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness, 7 maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.
Yet He will by no means excuse the guilty; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
Do you, forgetful unfaithful claimant of the Lord, remember your repentance?
Have you returned to the way of your sin, though your fathers repented and told you the faithfulness of the Lord?
But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
52 But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the wilderness. 53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid; but the sea engulfed their enemies. 54 And so he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken. 55 He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance; he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.
Testing the Lord
56 But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep his statutes. 57 Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow. 58 They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
Does any sin of ours deserve the wrath of God our Father more than our worship of idol after lifeless idol, while we fail to remember our Father and Shepherd?
Consequence of the Sin of Ephraim
When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men..
Psalm 78:59-60 KJV
The Very Presence of God left the Tabernacle of worship for Israel, because of their rebellion.
Psalm 78: (CSB)
67 He also rejected the tent of Joseph, And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, 68 But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved. 69 And He built His sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which He has founded forever.
God then chose Judah
70 He also chose David His servant And took him from the sheepfolds…
… He brought him To shepherd Jacob His people, And Israel His inheritance. 72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them with his skillful hands.
Are we children of Ephraim?
Children of Moses or of David?
WHO HAS THE LORD CHOSEN?
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: yes Israel was chosen and blessed.
Joseph, who came to be known in Egypt as Zaphnath-Paaneah, was blessed over his eleven brothers who finally bowed down to him.
Then the LORD through a final blessing by Joseph’s father Israel blessed his sons, Manasseh the eldest, but giving the greater blessing to Ephraim.
Yet through disobedience of the sons of Ephraim Israel’s blessing fell upon Judah.
God’s Guidance of His People in Spite of Their Unfaithfulness – Psalm 78
And after this all of Israel and its ten tribes were given over to their enemies Judah remained.
But in time by their own wickedness, refusal to hear the Lord’s Prophets and turning against the Lord their God, the LORD also gave Judah over to its enemies.
A Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem, and Prayer for Help – Psalm 79
Another Psalm of Asaph – a short reading of 13 verses
Then the Lord brought back a remnant to Judah. They again discovered the Law of Moses in the Temple the Lord had abandoned.
Yet again after a short time they again turned against the Lord their God. And for a time no word of the Lord was heard in all Israel. Again as Israel, Judah failed to listen to the Lord’s Prophets.
“Your own eyes will see this, and you yourselves will say, ‘The LORD is great, even beyond the borders of Israel.’
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of me? says the LORD of Armies to you priests, who despise my name.”
He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.
Do you, sons and daughters of blessing, sons and daughters of great blessings through the Lord our God, believe in the Son of the Father, the Messiah Jesus, the Son of Man and only Son of God in whom you have eternal life rather than God’s wrath, as we well deserve?
![“He who loves his [fn]life loses it, and he who hates his [fn]life in this world will keep it to life eternal.](https://talkofjesus.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/triumphal-entry.jpg)
