“From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” –Ezekiel 36:25-27
Nicodemus may have been a ruler of the Jews, highly revered by all of the people in Israel, but when he stood before Jesus, that was all stripped away. In front of Jesus, Nicodemus was just another person in need of the work of God. Jesus did not over think His audience and treat him in unusual ways because of the office Nicodemus held, rather, Jesus saw him as a wandering soul in search of the Truth.
When presented with the truth that all men need the new birth, Nicodemus responded with “So do I enter my mother’s womb again and get reborn?” Jesus responded with a correction that was multi-layered. Instead of a simple “No,” Jesus explained how that the ridiculous proposition of Nicodemus wasn’t just comical, but had the wrong actors in it.
In Nicodemus’s estimation, the new birth was something that he must do. Jesus was swift to point out that it was not Nicodemus who re-birthed Himself. The illustration that Jesus gives of being born again is the perfect example of what being saved truly is. In our first birth, our natural birth, we don’t decide when or where we are going to be born. Similarly, in the new birth, it is not something that you put on the calendar and plan for, rather, it is something that is brought about in you by the grace of God.
To demonstrate this truth, Jesus refers to the process as being “born of the Spirit.” He also uses the illustration “the wind bloweth where it listeth(pleases).” His analogy is that when the wind is blowing outside, you can see the effects of it, but there is none that orders the wind around. It blows where it pleases. Similarly, no one orders the Spirit of God around, telling it to move in this place or that. Rather, of God’s free grace, He extends His Spirit’s regenerating power to each individual as He pleases.
This regeneration is what God said in the Old Testament in places like Ezekiel 36. God, of His own will, comes and renews mankind. He does a transforming work in the heart of man, giving man the desire to obey and the power to follow after Him in obedience. Perhaps Nicodemus did not fully understand it yet, but the glorious truth was that God was already working the truth in the mind and heart of Nicodemus, like a mighty rushing wind. His confusion, and consternation, and even his resistance were evidencing that something Greater was already at work in him.
Food For Thought: What two illustrations did Jesus use to explain the work that the Holy Spirit of God accomplishes in us in regeneration?
Monday, September 8, 2014
Friday, September 5, 2014
John 3:1-3
The Pharisees were the most religious people in all of Palestine. They certainly were more pious than the pagans around them from the Roman Empire. With disdain they would look at the vile brutes that trolled the streets acting out all types of thuggery. The Pharisees were certainly better than that mess of wickedness. And the Pharisees were more moral than any of the other Jews. Josephus tells us that at the time of Jesus, there were probably about 6,000 of them, all following a very strict code of conduct to make sure that they didn’t inadvertently disobey the laws of God. Centuries of theological imagination had worked out the Pharisee holiness manual, and now any good Pharisee would follow the extra laws without faltering.
All of the extra dutiful and virtuous laws of the Pharisees were designed to help them obey God’s Law more fully. The only problem was that they viewed the keeping of their own laws as on par with being obedient to God. For example, God gave the Law, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” It was understood that the Jewish people shouldn’t work on the Sabbath, so that it could be a day of rest and reverence. The Pharisees took it a step further and made several hundred “Sabbath Laws” to make sure you didn’t accidentally work on the Sabbath. My favorite of the Sabbath Laws was that on the Sabbath if you had to spit you could only spit on a rock. The reasoning behind this rule was that if you spit in the dirt, it might turn the dirt to mud, and the mud was basically mortar, and mixing mortar would be considered work, so spitting on the dirt was “working” but spitting on a rock wasn’t.
When we come to John 3, we meet Nicodemus, a ruler of the Pharisees. In verse 10 we see him called a “teacher.” He was a pretty important Pharisee. He would have been one of the ones who followed this extra pious lifestyle with its sanctimonious rules. However, after John 1 and 2 something began to happen in Nicodemus’ heart. He realized that his religion wasn’t cutting it. There had to be something more. When He shows up to talk to Jesus it was evident that he had been talking to other people about Jesus. “We know that…” Perhaps it was the water being turned to wine, and the cleansing of the temple, or the teaching of Jesus, that interested Nicodemus. Whatever it was, it drove him to come to Jesus to get more information.
Most importantly what you need to see is that Nicodemus had to get to a point that he admitted that just having religion wasn’t cutting it. He didn’t need to add the teaching of Jesus to his works. He needed set down his reliance on his works as fully satisfactory before God and come to Jesus to learn the Truth. As soon as Nicodemus spoke, Jesus came back with the Truth He knew Nicodemus needed. “You must be born again.” In effect, Jesus was saying that Nicodemus needed to have a massive transformation, not just on the outside, but most importantly, on the inside. It would take a work beyond Nicodemus’ control. It would take a work of God to transform his heart, but Jesus would be there to help.
Food For Thought: Why did the Pharisees create so many extra standards and rules? Was it bad that they did? Do you think it could be helpful for you to set extra standards and rules for yourself? Why or why not?
All of the extra dutiful and virtuous laws of the Pharisees were designed to help them obey God’s Law more fully. The only problem was that they viewed the keeping of their own laws as on par with being obedient to God. For example, God gave the Law, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” It was understood that the Jewish people shouldn’t work on the Sabbath, so that it could be a day of rest and reverence. The Pharisees took it a step further and made several hundred “Sabbath Laws” to make sure you didn’t accidentally work on the Sabbath. My favorite of the Sabbath Laws was that on the Sabbath if you had to spit you could only spit on a rock. The reasoning behind this rule was that if you spit in the dirt, it might turn the dirt to mud, and the mud was basically mortar, and mixing mortar would be considered work, so spitting on the dirt was “working” but spitting on a rock wasn’t.
When we come to John 3, we meet Nicodemus, a ruler of the Pharisees. In verse 10 we see him called a “teacher.” He was a pretty important Pharisee. He would have been one of the ones who followed this extra pious lifestyle with its sanctimonious rules. However, after John 1 and 2 something began to happen in Nicodemus’ heart. He realized that his religion wasn’t cutting it. There had to be something more. When He shows up to talk to Jesus it was evident that he had been talking to other people about Jesus. “We know that…” Perhaps it was the water being turned to wine, and the cleansing of the temple, or the teaching of Jesus, that interested Nicodemus. Whatever it was, it drove him to come to Jesus to get more information.
Most importantly what you need to see is that Nicodemus had to get to a point that he admitted that just having religion wasn’t cutting it. He didn’t need to add the teaching of Jesus to his works. He needed set down his reliance on his works as fully satisfactory before God and come to Jesus to learn the Truth. As soon as Nicodemus spoke, Jesus came back with the Truth He knew Nicodemus needed. “You must be born again.” In effect, Jesus was saying that Nicodemus needed to have a massive transformation, not just on the outside, but most importantly, on the inside. It would take a work beyond Nicodemus’ control. It would take a work of God to transform his heart, but Jesus would be there to help.
Food For Thought: Why did the Pharisees create so many extra standards and rules? Was it bad that they did? Do you think it could be helpful for you to set extra standards and rules for yourself? Why or why not?
Thursday, September 4, 2014
John 2:18-25
Have you ever seen a viral video? You know the video of “What does the Fox say?” Or, perhaps you have seen the (fake) video where Chuck Norris is doing the splits on the wings of two jets while supporting the weight of a dozen Special Forces soldiers in the shape of a Christmas Tree. We live in the age of “viral” videos. While perhaps videos are a more recent phenomenon, the concept of rapidly spreading ideas or occurrences has been around for a long time.
As a matter of fact, the majority of things that happen in history could be considered “viral.” When you look at events like the defeat of the Spanish Armada, or the sinking of the Titanic, or even the killing of Osama Bin Laden, while the video footage of these events is lacking, they are still spoken of by millions and carried along “virally” to more and more every day.
Christianity could be viewed with this “viral” perspective. It started with Christ himself and the twelve disciples who followed Him. Within a few weeks of the start of His earthly ministry, word had spread to thousands. Within 20 years of His ministry, the news had spread to millions across three continents…and that was before the internet. “What does the fox say?” doesn’t even compare.
As we see Christ teach and respond to his accusers throughout his ministry, there are several statements that he makes that seem to be so shocking to the listeners that they seemingly go "viral." “Love your enemies,” “Sell all and follow me,” and even in the text today we find one that apparently surged across the country because three years later, people were still talking about it.
What was this statement? Jesus had just finished chasing the capitalistic, hyper-religious frauds from the Temple grounds when He was confronted by the Jewish mob. When they asked Him for a sign that would vindicate His claims and His right to cleanse the Temple like this, He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” They missed what he was saying, because He was omniscient and they weren’t. "Omniscient" simply means that He knows everything, even the future. This means the He knew that they would kill Him and that after three days He would raise again. They didn’t even know that they would eventually kill Him, much less that He would resurrect after He had died.
This misunderstood statement of Jesus apparently went “viral.” Three years later, when they are seeking to accuse Him of anything so they can execute Him, Mark 14:58 tells us that they said, “We heard Him say, I will destroy this temple.” Obviously, the grapevine wasn’t impervious to a little bit of change, when the word spread, it had gone from “You kill me,” to “I’m going to destroy the temple.” Quite a change.
What was Jesus truly teaching here? What we need to see today is this. Jesus could foresee the future. He was Omniscient. He knew things that only God could know. John has already made that point in John 1 that Jesus is God, now he has written that Jesus has power to change water to wine, and has a Holy indignation, and even here that He has an ability to be able to predict the future. Even before the angry mob decided to kill Jesus, He knew it. Jesus is God. There is no doubting it. The evidence is there.
Food For Thought: What was the point of the “viral” statement that Jesus said? What did the crowd misunderstand Him to be saying?
As a matter of fact, the majority of things that happen in history could be considered “viral.” When you look at events like the defeat of the Spanish Armada, or the sinking of the Titanic, or even the killing of Osama Bin Laden, while the video footage of these events is lacking, they are still spoken of by millions and carried along “virally” to more and more every day.
Christianity could be viewed with this “viral” perspective. It started with Christ himself and the twelve disciples who followed Him. Within a few weeks of the start of His earthly ministry, word had spread to thousands. Within 20 years of His ministry, the news had spread to millions across three continents…and that was before the internet. “What does the fox say?” doesn’t even compare.
As we see Christ teach and respond to his accusers throughout his ministry, there are several statements that he makes that seem to be so shocking to the listeners that they seemingly go "viral." “Love your enemies,” “Sell all and follow me,” and even in the text today we find one that apparently surged across the country because three years later, people were still talking about it.
What was this statement? Jesus had just finished chasing the capitalistic, hyper-religious frauds from the Temple grounds when He was confronted by the Jewish mob. When they asked Him for a sign that would vindicate His claims and His right to cleanse the Temple like this, He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” They missed what he was saying, because He was omniscient and they weren’t. "Omniscient" simply means that He knows everything, even the future. This means the He knew that they would kill Him and that after three days He would raise again. They didn’t even know that they would eventually kill Him, much less that He would resurrect after He had died.
This misunderstood statement of Jesus apparently went “viral.” Three years later, when they are seeking to accuse Him of anything so they can execute Him, Mark 14:58 tells us that they said, “We heard Him say, I will destroy this temple.” Obviously, the grapevine wasn’t impervious to a little bit of change, when the word spread, it had gone from “You kill me,” to “I’m going to destroy the temple.” Quite a change.
What was Jesus truly teaching here? What we need to see today is this. Jesus could foresee the future. He was Omniscient. He knew things that only God could know. John has already made that point in John 1 that Jesus is God, now he has written that Jesus has power to change water to wine, and has a Holy indignation, and even here that He has an ability to be able to predict the future. Even before the angry mob decided to kill Jesus, He knew it. Jesus is God. There is no doubting it. The evidence is there.
Food For Thought: What was the point of the “viral” statement that Jesus said? What did the crowd misunderstand Him to be saying?
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
John 2:12-17
“Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come…and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousness.” - Malachi 3:1-3
John the baptizer had already come as the messenger to “prepare the way before him,” and then Jesus showed up on the scene. Prophecy was unfolding seamlessly in Israel. With Passover on the horizon, Jesus headed to Jerusalem and found His way into the temple.
For centuries, the temple grounds were a sacred place, where followers of God could come and worship God apart from the pagan world around them. Even with the Roman domination, they could retreat into the temple and find solace from the hubbub of secularism. But this was not the case anymore. The current leadership in the temple desired to increase revenue. People were travelling into Jerusalem from all over the country. Not everyone would have a sacrifice, but with the new system in place, that would not be a problem. You could just travel to the temple, and simply purchase a sacrifice on your way into the temple grounds.
The entire system was broken. No longer would the sacrifice be anything more than a cold, calculated business deal. There was no spirit of sacrifice. Now it was simply a financial obligation when they travelled into Jerusalem. They would spend some money on food, on lodging, and on a Passover sacrifice. The worship of God was relegated to a line in their budget. Their whole budget no longer was his, only a portion.
John 2 tells us that when Jesus walked into the temple and saw this system, a holy indignation rose up in Him. This was not a sinful rage that was uncontrollable; this was a zealous love for God that enacted itself in a cleansing, purifying, purging way. As the prophecy of Malachi had foretold, Jesus had arrived at the temple and He had come to clean house. The Latin writer Jerome put it this way, “There must have been a certain fiery and starry light shining from His eyes and the majesty of the Godhead must have been gleaming in His face.” This was not the passive, weak Jesus sometimes portrayed in the local Christian bookstore. This was a serious temple cleanser, coming to restore purity to that which had become impure.
Perhaps, our hearts could use a temple-cleansing. If you understand Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:19, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. Just as wicked as the materialistic Passover racket, we too fall into idolatry of heart. We begin to see ourselves relating to God in terms of business deals, instead of lovingly surrendering to Him everything. Perhaps, the Holy Spirit can do His cleansing work in us today.
Food For Thought: What was wrong with the system of selling animals in the temple? Why was the anger of Jesus not sinful?
John the baptizer had already come as the messenger to “prepare the way before him,” and then Jesus showed up on the scene. Prophecy was unfolding seamlessly in Israel. With Passover on the horizon, Jesus headed to Jerusalem and found His way into the temple.
For centuries, the temple grounds were a sacred place, where followers of God could come and worship God apart from the pagan world around them. Even with the Roman domination, they could retreat into the temple and find solace from the hubbub of secularism. But this was not the case anymore. The current leadership in the temple desired to increase revenue. People were travelling into Jerusalem from all over the country. Not everyone would have a sacrifice, but with the new system in place, that would not be a problem. You could just travel to the temple, and simply purchase a sacrifice on your way into the temple grounds.
The entire system was broken. No longer would the sacrifice be anything more than a cold, calculated business deal. There was no spirit of sacrifice. Now it was simply a financial obligation when they travelled into Jerusalem. They would spend some money on food, on lodging, and on a Passover sacrifice. The worship of God was relegated to a line in their budget. Their whole budget no longer was his, only a portion.
John 2 tells us that when Jesus walked into the temple and saw this system, a holy indignation rose up in Him. This was not a sinful rage that was uncontrollable; this was a zealous love for God that enacted itself in a cleansing, purifying, purging way. As the prophecy of Malachi had foretold, Jesus had arrived at the temple and He had come to clean house. The Latin writer Jerome put it this way, “There must have been a certain fiery and starry light shining from His eyes and the majesty of the Godhead must have been gleaming in His face.” This was not the passive, weak Jesus sometimes portrayed in the local Christian bookstore. This was a serious temple cleanser, coming to restore purity to that which had become impure.
Perhaps, our hearts could use a temple-cleansing. If you understand Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:19, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. Just as wicked as the materialistic Passover racket, we too fall into idolatry of heart. We begin to see ourselves relating to God in terms of business deals, instead of lovingly surrendering to Him everything. Perhaps, the Holy Spirit can do His cleansing work in us today.
Food For Thought: What was wrong with the system of selling animals in the temple? Why was the anger of Jesus not sinful?
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
John 2:1-12
Having heard the testimony of the apostle John, John the baptizer, and of the other disciples that Jesus was indeed “the Son of God,” we now turn to His own works to gather more clues to his full identity.
Starting in John 2, we find Jesus and His disciples invited to attend a marriage celebration in a town called Cana of Galilee, just a few miles from His home town of Nazareth. Cana and Nazareth both were modest little towns and the hosts of the wedding and many of the guests probably would have known Jesus for much of his life. We find also in John 21:2 that Nathaniel, the disciple of Jesus that we just met at the end of John 1 was also from Cana, so these were more than likely people whom Nathaniel would also have been well acquainted.
Marriage was a sacred thing in Jewish culture. The preparations would take nearly an entire year before the celebration day. John’s work in telling this story however is not to highlight the marriage as much as to tell what Jesus accomplished at the wedding.
In Ancient cultures, Jewish included, it was understood that the water that flowed in streams and rivers was contaminated and could make a person sick. A common practice was to dilute the water with fermented wine because the alcohol in the wine would kill the bacteria and other harmful things in the water. At a wedding, this was a problem, because if the host ran out of wine, there would be nothing to drink, and the guests couldn’t drink water because it was contaminated. Starting our story today, this is the dilemma that faced the wedding party here at Cana. They had no wine.
Immediately, Mary directed the servants to follow the leading of her all-wise son, Jesus, to resolve this issue. Jesus instructed the servants to fill the six water pots that were for “the purifying of the Jews.” These pots served a very specific purpose. They were to be used in the ceremonial cleansing of the guests, and of the dishes, and of everything that owner of the house would have. Filling them up with water would not have been unusual, but filling them up for drink would have been incredibly strange. The Jews would not have drunk any water by itself, and furthermore, you certainly wouldn’t have drunk water out of these pots.
Jesus then told the servants to scoop from the pot and take it to the head servant of the wedding. As the head servant tasted, he was so astounded that he remarked to the bridegroom about it. Many arguments have fallen about the alcohol content of the wine. The point of this story is not about alcohol or no alcohol. The point of the story is this: when the pots were filled, impure water was put in them; when the drink was scooped out, the purest wine that ever flowed came forth. Jesus had done the miraculous. A theology of drunkenness built off of this miracle of Jesus is nonsense. The point John was trying to get across was that Jesus is God. He has power to change water to wine.
He can do that which no one else can. He has supernatural power. It is sad that men would seek to dogmatically preach anything less from this text. Jesus came as God and did things that only God could do. The servants and the disciples saw this. They could truly know that He was God, even as John and the other disciples had testified. Now, we can look at the testimony and instead of being distracted by the details, we can rejoice that as He promised, God had come in the flesh.
Food for thought: Was the wine alcoholic or not? What is the real point of Jesus turning the water into wine?
Starting in John 2, we find Jesus and His disciples invited to attend a marriage celebration in a town called Cana of Galilee, just a few miles from His home town of Nazareth. Cana and Nazareth both were modest little towns and the hosts of the wedding and many of the guests probably would have known Jesus for much of his life. We find also in John 21:2 that Nathaniel, the disciple of Jesus that we just met at the end of John 1 was also from Cana, so these were more than likely people whom Nathaniel would also have been well acquainted.
Marriage was a sacred thing in Jewish culture. The preparations would take nearly an entire year before the celebration day. John’s work in telling this story however is not to highlight the marriage as much as to tell what Jesus accomplished at the wedding.
In Ancient cultures, Jewish included, it was understood that the water that flowed in streams and rivers was contaminated and could make a person sick. A common practice was to dilute the water with fermented wine because the alcohol in the wine would kill the bacteria and other harmful things in the water. At a wedding, this was a problem, because if the host ran out of wine, there would be nothing to drink, and the guests couldn’t drink water because it was contaminated. Starting our story today, this is the dilemma that faced the wedding party here at Cana. They had no wine.
Immediately, Mary directed the servants to follow the leading of her all-wise son, Jesus, to resolve this issue. Jesus instructed the servants to fill the six water pots that were for “the purifying of the Jews.” These pots served a very specific purpose. They were to be used in the ceremonial cleansing of the guests, and of the dishes, and of everything that owner of the house would have. Filling them up with water would not have been unusual, but filling them up for drink would have been incredibly strange. The Jews would not have drunk any water by itself, and furthermore, you certainly wouldn’t have drunk water out of these pots.
Jesus then told the servants to scoop from the pot and take it to the head servant of the wedding. As the head servant tasted, he was so astounded that he remarked to the bridegroom about it. Many arguments have fallen about the alcohol content of the wine. The point of this story is not about alcohol or no alcohol. The point of the story is this: when the pots were filled, impure water was put in them; when the drink was scooped out, the purest wine that ever flowed came forth. Jesus had done the miraculous. A theology of drunkenness built off of this miracle of Jesus is nonsense. The point John was trying to get across was that Jesus is God. He has power to change water to wine.
He can do that which no one else can. He has supernatural power. It is sad that men would seek to dogmatically preach anything less from this text. Jesus came as God and did things that only God could do. The servants and the disciples saw this. They could truly know that He was God, even as John and the other disciples had testified. Now, we can look at the testimony and instead of being distracted by the details, we can rejoice that as He promised, God had come in the flesh.
Food for thought: Was the wine alcoholic or not? What is the real point of Jesus turning the water into wine?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)