John 1:35-51

A shrill wail of the air raid siren pierced the clear, blue, morning sky in Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. Observation planes had been seen overhead for many weeks as the Allied forces had been planning their method of attack against the unrelenting Japanese military. But this morning was different. Several lower flying planes moved across the sky without incident, but Japanese observers could spot two or three planes soaring at high altitudes above. All seemed to be calm.
Flash! In a burst of blinding light, like the flash of the brightest camera, a disabling radiance overwhelmed the sunlight and cascaded across the fertile, mountainside city. In the next ten seconds, as the blast wave followed after the engulfing light, nearly 80,000 citizens of the doomed metropolis were tragically killed. America and her allies had solved “the Japanese problem.” Within two days and after another 100,000 casualties, Japan surrendered to the will of the Allied powers.
This is the snapshot of domination. This is what triumph looks like. This is how you win. Or at least this is how most victories in history have been won. The way of success for most empires has been the same. Offer only two possibilities to your opponent: surrender or destruction. This is the way of most.
Understanding domination, we find something almost laughable when we get to John 1:35-51. Jesus has come to establish His kingdom. His arrival was not even noticed by the majority of the planets inhabitants during his entire time on the planet. He never made a brash entrance into the palace of the reigning monarchs. He never called to himself a massive military. He never referred to his followers as “the Lord’s Army.” None of these things. His first converts were not military generals, or princes, or religious leaders, or even wealthy businessmen.
Jesus chose fishermen. He chose seven of them from Galilee. He wasn’t looking for favorable legislation from political friends. He wasn’t looking for massive donations from wealthy patrons. He wasn’t even looking to amass a Super-Christian think tank to develop dominating advancement strategies. He gathered a group of friends, all who probably even attended the same synagogue with each other. They were just an under-ordinary crew that had grown up together and fished together.
This was His plan for attack. They wouldn’t carry swords of iron or steel. They will be equipped with His truth. Their foes would not be defeated into submission by death, but brought into submission with the hope of eternal life.
And to many, the strategy of Jesus seems ridiculous. That is, until you realize that He wasn’t relying on the innate ability of these fishermen. His reliance was set on one greater. His trust was not in what Paul would call “many wise, or many mighty, or many noble,” but in the power of God working through the faith-filled, weak ones.
Seeing this calling of the disciples, we should be encouraged. They may have been a hodge-podge crew of social misfits, but God would use them to turn the world upside down. It doesn’t matter what background or abilities you have. Jesus extends to all the hope of being an integral part of advancing His gospel. The power isn’t found in a seamless, corporate strategy or in a massive militaristic strategy of domination. The power is found in the Sovereign God who will use all those who come to Christ.

Food For Thought: Why do you think Simon Peter was so willing to join in following Jesus with Andrew? Nathanael with Philip? Who has God providentially placed in your life that perhaps you could call into serving Jesus like Andrew and Philip did?

John 1:6-8,15-37

The courtroom is set. You are the judge, seated in a high-backed, oaken, leather chair. Your long black robe is accented by the fluffy white ruffles on your chest. It is your job to listen to the evidence and determine the verdict. As you lean forward on your elevated, mahogany desk, in the courtroom in front of you stands a hovelled-over, old, Jewish man. His name is John. When he was much younger, he followed Jesus around and spent about three years living with Him. Now, he has come to the courtroom of your mind to argue to you the truth that he already knows.
John begins his case with his opening remarks. "Jesus truly is God. We can trust Him and rely on Him alone for our salvation." When we arrive at verse 15, the apostle John calls his first witness to the stand for direct examination: John the baptizer.
John the baptizer gets his title from two details, 1) his birth name was John and 2) he liked to baptize people. Baptism wasn’t a common Jewish practice, so when he had started doing this, it caused a little bit of a stir for the religious crowd of the day. Furthermore, anyone who knew the prophecy of Ezekiel 36-37 knew that before the Messiah would come, there would be "a sprinkling of water," a cleansing. Now, John was cleansing with water, baptizing, those who came and repented of their sins. This really confused the Jewish leaders as you can see their questioning in verses 19-21 and 25. But this was not just a peculiar practice that he was committing, this was a vital part of the testimony he was giving. In essence he was saying, “the Messiah is coming soon.”
As John the Apostle continues his direct examination of his first witness, we see not just the reality bound up in his title, but we also see his spoken testimony. When we get to verse 23, John the baptizer quotes Isaiah the prophet to make his point abundantly clear, “I am nothing important. I am just a voice. I am come to announce the coming of the one who is important. I am here to make ready the way for the Lord.” Again in verse 27, he expresses, “He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me.”
This first witness on the stand has made it abundantly clear through his actions and his words that One would come soon that would be incredibly important. He would be highly praiseworthy. But the testimony doesn’t stop there. The witness continues on.
Verse 29, “John sees Jesus coming and says, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” John the baptizer goes on in his testimony to offer more specific details. Now his witness is explicit. "Jesus takes away sin."
Now, lean back in that big judge chair. Having heard the opening remarks from John the apostle, and the testimony of the first witness, John the baptizer, what do you think? Is Jesus important? Is Jesus a big deal? Is Jesus God?
As we continue through the Gospel according to John, we will see more witnesses and even will hear from Jesus himself. I'll leave it to you to decide. You can be the judge.

Food for thought: What are some things that John the Baptist says about Jesus being God or being from God?

John 1:1-14

“In the beginning was the Word.” This is no arbitrary statement. Understanding the Genesis phrase “In the beginning” to mean “before everything was, at the time that Creation was about to roll out,” we must pause to understand what the Apostle John is getting at when he begins this Gospel account of the life and work of Jesus. Here John makes the three-fold claim that the one called “the Word” was 1) in the beginning, 2) with God, 3) was God.
What you must see is that when we examine this series of claims a very distinct theology emerges. First, to fully define “the Word,” we must go further along in the text to verse 14, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” This statement indicates to us the same thing that we learn from Paul in Philippians 2:7, that Jesus humbled himself and “took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” Similarly Hebrews 2:14 teaches that Jesus took on “flesh and blood.” Seeing plainly that this one John is referring to as “the Word” is Jesus, we can go on further to understand what John is saying about Jesus.
1) Jesus was “in the beginning.” Before Creation had begun, Jesus was already in existence. This means foremost that Jesus is not a creation of God. He did not come as an afterthought from God. He was pre-existent to Creation and contained in himself the power to create as indicated in verse 3, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Not only was he pre-existent to the creation of everything, He was an integral part of the creative act.
2) Jesus was “with God.” Jesus did not exist in eternity past by himself. Neither did God. Together, they existed in communion before the world existed. In John 17:24, Jesus praying to God says, “thou loved me before the foundation of the world.” Here we have a glimpse in Christ’s prayer of the relationship of love that God and Jesus have for one another. A love that is more ancient than the cosmos. Before they made everything, they were altogether satisfied in communion with each other. God with Christ, and Christ “with God.”
3) Jesus is “God.” There is no article “a” that precedes the word “God,” for Jesus is not “a God.” He is definitively and fully God. Any who would seek to remove this divine title from Him only do so with misleading words, because He is truly the Sovereign of the universe. It is Jesus to whom “every knee should bow and every tongue should confess.” (Philippians 2:10) It is Jesus in whom “dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9) It is Jesus that affirms the truth of John 1:1 when He says “Verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was I am.” (John 8:58)
Jesus is the pre-existent, all-powerfully creative God of the universe.
Afterthought: The religious group who call themselves “Jehovah’s Witnesses” use a mistranslation of the Scriptures known as the New World Translation. In John 1:1, this version mistranslates the words “the word was God” as “the word was a god.” This allows for the heretical teaching that Jesus is not God, but is simply a “divine one” among many lesser gods. Consistent with this heresy they furthermore deny the existence of the Trinity.
Food For Thought: In your own words, what three things does John 1:1 tell us about Jesus?

2 Thessalonians 2:13-14

We all love to be loved. It is almost as if we were created with a capacity, a desire to be loved. It seems that we are hard-wired to want love from others. Many people seek love wherever they can find it, often settling for cheap substitutes. Others find frustration and isolation when the ones they seek love from withhold it. When we come to our text today, Paul tells the believers that if they are truly believers in the saving work of Jesus, they are “loved of the Lord.” They are loved by the one Who created the desire to be loved inside of them, a desire that can only truly be fulfilled when they receive His love. In 1 John 4, John tells us that we can only love Him, “because He first loved us.” All love in our relationship with God starts with Him.
And this is not a generic love. This is a very specific love. It was unsolicited. It was uninstigated. It was uninfluenced. He of His own sovereign plan chose to love us before we were ever born. He chose to love us before He even created the entire universe. Paul says in Ephesians 1 that it was this same love that led Him to choose us “before the foundation of the world.” Again in today’s text we see this played out when Paul writes that “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification.” This is a crowning characteristic of God’s love. Even before we were lovable, seeing that He could work in us and purify us, He chose to extend His loving grace to us. Which brings me to the third point of today’s text.
God loves us. Because God loved us, He chose us. Finally, God loved us, and chose us so that we might grow in sanctification. Sanctification is the natural process whereby the Spirit’s power and assistance we systematically kill sin in our lives. In 1 Peter 1, Peter put it this way, “As He which has called you is holy, so be ye holy.” We don’t accept the uninfluenced love and acceptance of God and then remain indifferent to our sin. Rather we see that He loved us, and we return that love by mortifying (killing) the very things that displease Him. We see this as a theme in Scripture. Starting with the family of Noah, then of Abraham and the subsequent nation of Israel, God continually worked in Scripture to call people to himself. In Deuteronomy 7, God clarifies this special choosing of Israel. He chose them so that they would be a holy people unto Himself. That they would leave off their pursuit of sin, and pursue knowing Him and living pure lives before Him.
Similarly, we see in 1 Peter 1, that God has chosen His people “according to foreknowledge…unto obedience.” It is His desire that all who believe in the saving work of Jesus become holy, obedient, and purified Christians. Knowing that it is His love and His choosing of us that accomplishes our salvation, should leave us not just pursuant of holiness, but also with a great confidence that if He accomplished it, we can’t lose it. It would take a large measure of arrogance to say that we keep ourselves saved. Our fallen nature would certainly prevent that. Instead we realize that He which “hath begun a good work” in us will see it to completion one day in heaven.

Food For Thought: What three things did Paul teach the Thessalonians about their relationship with the God who saved them? How should these things bring assurance not frustration?

2 Thessalonians 2:8-12

Many people balk at the possibility of God judging anyone. These people prefer to view God as loving and forgiving, but not as a God of condemnation and judgment. However, there is a massive problem with this understanding that God does not, and will not send people to a place of punishment. The problem with this view of God is that, in a sense, God not judging or condemning is possibly one of the most unloving things that He could do. 

These people greatly desire God to forgive everyone, but do they truly desire those who are the abusers and persecutors to receive no recompense for the evil they have done? Do they truly desire those who received no justice before death to go on forever without having punishment for their wickedness executed on them? Those who murder others and “get away with it,” do these people truly want God to dismiss that? In light of those who have harmed others physically, emotionally, and mentally, is a just God supposed to sit by without condemnation and leave off vengeance? That would not be loving. That would be unloving to every other person.
God does punish the wicked. He does execute His wrath on the unrighteous. He will execute vengeance on evil doers. All those who sin are due the payment for their sins, and that punishment will come on all those who fail to put their faith in the saving work of Jesus. The disbelieving will receive to themselves the just wrath and punishment of a loving, wise, and holy God. While the unbelieving will receive judgment, those of us who believe will receive the grace of God that He chose to extend to us from the foundation of the world. This reality should leave believers everywhere grateful that a loving God would extend forgiving grace to them in spite of the punishment that is due them.
When we read 2 Thessalonians today, we find a clear articulation of those who will receive God’s punishment. It is not good enough to say that those who are bad will receive God’s punishment. Many people don’t want to hear that they are sinners. They don’t like the prospect of someone else telling them that they are wrong. When it comes to their sin, they furthermore don’t like being told that their sin is distasteful to God and that God will punish them for it. Because of this truth, many think that Christians are telling them that they are going to hell because of the specific sin that they are bound up in. They use phrases like “do you think I am going to hell because I…?” These poor people see this one sin as the thing that is guaranteeing their place in God’s condemnation. While we know that sin is the cause for God’s wrath on mankind, the final judgment of a man comes not to his vice or transgression, but rather to his response to the gospel of Jesus Christ. If he accepts it in faith, he can be forgiven. Paul says very clearly to the Thessalonians however, that if he rejects it and “believes not the truth” he will receive God’s eternal condemnation.

Food For Thought: Read John 3:16-18. What does Jesus say is the reason that men will be condemned?

2 Thessalonians 2:5-8

When we come to 2 Thessalonians 2:5-8, we find Paul speaking in terms that may seem a bit cryptic, until we can peel them apart. For example, while Paul was writing to the Thessalonians, he plays a sort of “inside” comment with them, “when I was with you, I told you these things.” While he is not explicit about all the things that he had told the Thessalonians, we are grateful that he mentioned a few of them in the text here. For example from verses 3-4, there will be a massive “falling away first,” where people defect from the truth. Then “the man of sin” (the Antichrist) will “be revealed,” and will “exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped.” There will be a very obvious revelation of the Antichrist in those last days. As we saw last time, 1 Thessalonians 4 would seem to indicate that the believers will already be taken from here in the Rapture of the saints. So when reading verse 5, we can understand that Paul had already taught this extensively with the Thessalonians, and was now just giving a paraphrase of eschatology. (end times events)
But if verse 5 was a bit cloudy, verses 6-7 become even more murky. Part of the problem is that our modern understanding of words changes what we read in the text to mean something completely different than it originally meant. We can see that something is “withholding” the Antichrist from being revealed before his time. But when we get to verse 7, he is then “letting” him. Here is where our modern vocabulary and understanding in the English language have changed over time. The word here “letteth, let” is a word that means “to hinder, or hold back.” In our modern English, it means the exact opposite, “to allow, or permit.” So understanding first, that Paul is speaking about something holding back in verse 6, and then something “letting” (holding back) in verse 7, we can clearly see that God is working something important here. What is being held back in both verses?
Satan desires nothing greater than to unravel God’s perfect timing and the redemption of His people. It is the desire of Satan that the Antichrist appear and establish his throne before God’s timetable is up. God, however, is stronger than Satan, and while Satan would love to upend the plan of God, God will always upend the plan of Satan even to the extent that Satan’s evil plans only further accomplish the purposes of God. For now, God has sent His Spirit to hold back the overwhelming tide of moral insanity and the subsequent appearing of the Antichrist. But one day, God will “take out” as verse 7 says, the one that is “holding back” the day of the Antichrist. The Antichrist will be free to reveal himself on that day in all his power and all of his self-worship. He will be the most powerful man in the world, and the nations will rise to praise him.
But don’t miss this point. Even when the Antichrist is revealed, it can only happen when God allows it. This great rebel spirit of Antichrist cannot have power, or timing, or any praise of men until God says he can. When we see that even the plans of Satan are held fast by the omnipotence and almighty power of God, we must agree with Martin Luther in our referring to Satan like he is a lap-dog of God: “Even the devil is God’s devil.” The Thessalonians were certainly encouraged to realize that God would always maintain power and control. Similarly, we should be encouraged in the face of such cryptic, archaic, and yet timeless truth. Our God is powerful and we can trust Him.

Food for Thought: Read Mark 13:32-33. What does Jesus tell his followers to do until the end times come ?

2 Thessalonians 2:1-4

Have you ever heard anyone claim that some political figure was the Antichrist? It seems that every couple of years, overly zealous prophecy groups formulate new ideas as to the end of the world, and typically end up pointing a finger at one person or another as the “Antichrist.” I really feel that many “predictions” are actually based on a dislike for the specific person, and the desire to label them as the “Antichrist.” Perhaps you have heard other’s predictions, and I am certain that as we get new popes, and presidents, and Russia gets new presidents, and we continue to have enemies in the Middle East, at some point or another the list will grow with the predictions of who the Antichrist will be.
So, when will the Antichrist come? Before we answer that, we need to know why people are trying to predict his coming. In the timeline of the end time events, the Antichrist will come on the scene to act like Christ before Christ actually returns to the earth. The Antichrist will offer unity and peace and will attempt to be the substitute of Christ. If people were to accurately predict when the Antichrist was coming, they would by proxy be able to know when Jesus was returning. This would seem like a fool-proof plan except that Jesus already explained in Mark 13:32 that no one knows that timeline except for God. Any attempts to solve it, or calculate it, seem to me to be exercises in futility.
The timeline nevertheless will unfold in that order though, coming of Antichrist then return of Christ. This was important as Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica. It seems that someone had written a letter posing as Paul and had told them that Christ had already returned and they had missed it. This was really confusing these new believers, and they didn’t know why Christ would abandon them like that. When Paul heard of this deception, he wrote this letter to let them know the truth.
In verses 1-4, he teaches them this chronology of events that will unfold with the Antichrist coming first. He explained that if the Antichrist had come, they would certainly have known it. In describing the Antichrist, Paul says that he is full of sin and deception, he opposed God and will exalt himself above God, and that he will even establish a throne so that he can show the world that he is like God. Paul’s point was that these things had not yet happened. The Antichrist had not come.
I can only assume that the same type of distracters as Paul endured and as I have seen over the years will continue to come. They will proclaim that the next major world leader is the new Antichrist, and will exhaust themselves in trying to prove it to you. But do not be distracted from the truth. The return of Christ will be preceded by the revelation of the Antichrist, but the revelation of the Antichrist will be preceded by the rapture of the saints. (1 Thess. 4:13-14) We as believers will not even endure the deception and wickedness of the Antichrist. Therefore, it has never been our job to predict who the Antichrist is. Rather, it is our job to engage the world with the truth that Christ already came to accomplish forgiveness for their sins and that they must place their faith in Him before he returns again in judgment of those who do not believe.

Food For Thought: According to Paul in verse 2, why did he write about these details to the believers in Thessalonica?