WHAT?...NO WINE??

Could you keep up with Jesus and His disciples?      

The ‘Lamb of God’ is on a mission. He has work to do but they manage to find time for a wedding at Nathanael’s hometown of Cana, then a few days at Capernaum before heading to Jerusalem. Sacrifice looms.

O’oh…they’ve run out of wine at a wedding??  What a kill-joy!                                                                        

Jesus’ mother distances herself from the disgrace but He now distances Himself from natural relationships:   

“Woman, what have I to do with thee?”                   

Mary’s last recorded words direct the honour to Him: “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.”

When will His hour come?... after raising Lazarus from the dead, the 7^th miracle in just 10 chapters (John 2 thru 11) Here’s the first miracle - privately in front of family and friends…

contaminated water into the best quality wine! (oinos)…and  lots of it!…after all, who is a guest here?...the Son of God!                                  

"By the way,  Master of Ceremonies…would 150 gallons of wine be enough, sir?"

What has happened here?                                      

Jesus has just been publicly endorsed by heaven in front of crowds of Jews but they failed to honour Him as their Messiah – yes, Israel is just like a vineyard failure. 

He moves quickly to despised Galilee and meets joyless ritual by manifesting His glory with miraculous abundant blessing.                                                                                       

Who believed on Him?...a few disciples.


I'd be thinking... "Well it was a rush to get to the wedding in Cana but that wine was so good!...and plenty of it! Now some R and R by the lake? This is the life!" 

NEXT: Jesus comes to His Father's temple
http://guvsdesk.blogspot.com.au/2016/10/what-riot.html

"LOOK! The LAMB of GOD!"

Yesterday, John the Baptist claimed to be the voice for God who was coming... in fact, maybe God had even been standing there among them!                                      

With Israel expecting their Messiah to show up any day, the air must have been electric with excitement.  Have their priests got oil ready to anoint Him with?                                                                                                  

Today, the only one to recognise Him is John the Baptist ...as heaven anoints Jesus - publicly - with the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove! (John 1:29- )                  

Surely John the Baptist will now acclaim Jesus as the Messiah?                          

No - he announces:                                                      

“Behold the Lamb of God!...which taketh away the sin of the world”   
(Not just for the chosen ones!)                                                                                      

The public response??  Zilch!  Everyone knows what happens to sacrificial lambs…an unthinkable end for Israel’s Messiah...You’ve got to be kidding!...Die for the sin of the world??

Next day…                                                            
John tries that again: “Behold the Lamb of God!”                                            

Now there’s a response - from the faithful witness of John, as some of his disciples switch rabbis to follow this ‘Lamb of God’ privately, to then realize He is the Messiah (Christ).                                                                                                                                     

We’ve already been told that Jesus is…

• The Word
• God
• The Light of the world

Now John fades off the scene as next day they realize Jesus is also…

• the Son of God and...
• the King of Israel 

7 titles!…. Oh and there’s a bonus for the future:

• the ‘Son of Man’ – the Universal King of Heaven and Earth! Then the angels will have no need for the ladder in Jacob’s dream, all those years ago.

NEXT: Will Jesus now head for Jerusalem to be crowned King? 

http://guvsdesk.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/whatno-wine.html

"WHO ARE YOU?"

The scene in John ch1 opens with one of the most momentous events in history…

A young man ‘sent from God’ stands in the Jordan River baptising crowds of people...

...and now priests have turned up to demand:   “Who are you?”

John the Baptist answers with: “I’m not the Messiah...“

Why did he answer that way?    
The Jews were expecting their Messiah!                   

Then… John makes a very bold claim: “I am the voice that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

The voice for God who’s coming??                                           
Will John finish up looking an absolute fool with all this preaching and baptising?...or will he prove to be right?

In fact, John even claims there is ‘one among you’ standing there, that he’s not even worthy to do the slave’s job of undoing His sandals!                                                

The Creator God at the beginning has come to live among them as another young man and stands there in the crowd, watching and listening!                                       

His name?...  Jesus (Jah the Saviour)                                                                          

What is He like?                                                                          
He is The Word… He is God; the source of life and true light; full of grace and truth…so much grace it’s overwhelming!                                                                                

No longer is it about birthright or human effort – just believe on this Man and you will become sons of God - born of God!  

Hang on...                                                                                     
What’s this about ‘glory of an only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father’?

Let’s wait and see what happens tomorrow! 


NEXT:    http://guvsdesk.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/look-lamb-of-god.html

 

LIAR?...LUNATIC?...LEGEND?

Was Jesus...a liar?...a lunatic?...a legend?...or the LORD?

What about 'Son of God'?

or even the great 'I AM'?

Let’s open John’s Gospel (towards the end, 21:31) to find:

"These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

What signs is John talking about? 

Miracles!...in fact 7 of course.  Watch as each miracle is more public than the last one, with a bonus miracle after the resurrection, just for his disciples.

How do we know John recorded these?                                                                         

He hides his identity until the very end: “The disciple whom Jesus loved” – the only disciple he doesn’t identify by name!                                                                                         

Which one is John the fisherman?

This guy who saw it all up close, wants us to ignore who is writing and just believe in the Son of God, so that we can have real life. His abiding memory is feeling loved by Jesus, who was announced by another John - the Baptist.

Did you know?...John the writer will use the word ‘pisteuo’ (believe) 98 times!...and will remind us 43 times that salvation is by ‘believing in Jesus’!

Half of John’s account will be devoted to the last week of Jesus’ life on Earth. We know so much about what was done and said during this week, in fact more than any other week in ancient history, so that detailed re-enactments can be filmed today!

As John opens the curtain for us, notice how many times he uses that special number - ‘7’.

He might be an old fisherman but he can still count!


NEXT: http://guvsdesk.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/who-are-you.html

WHAT WAS JOHN'S MESSAGE?

What did we learn from John’s first letter?

• John’s message is focussed on ‘the last time’ with the antichrist looming on the horizon
• Antichrist will deny ‘the Father and the Son’, and deny ‘Jesus Christ come in flesh’
• The stakes are high – life and death!
• The crux of John’s message is perfect love, which casts out fear!
• The ‘ekklesia’ (church/assembly) is NOT mentioned in John’s 1^st letter once!

We also know…

• John was a Jew known as Ionnes (Heb: Joannes) and his brother was Iokobos or James (Heb: Yaakob)
• Jesus hinted that John might be around for quite a while – he gets the last word by recording The Revelation while on the isle of Patmos
• John’s ministry was directed towards Jews
• John was refuting Gnostics who labelled ALL matter as evil, so denying the deity and atonement of Jesus Christ
• ‘Antichrist’ is a Jewish term for the false messiah. John’s Gospel identifies Jesus as ‘the Messias’ – the ‘Mashiyach’  in Daniel’s prophecy about his people and his city.

Meanwhile…



"Crucify Him!"

• To this day most Jews reject Jesus Christ as their messiah:

“He ought to die because he made himself Son of God”

• The Muslims claim in their Qur’an:   “the Christians call Christ the Son of God…Allah’s curse on them”

• There is still 7 years unfulfilled from Daniel’s 70 ‘week’ Jewish prophecy 

 So!...  the focus is Jewish, the antichrist looms, 7 years of fearful tribulation are ahead, ideology that rejects ‘Jesus Christ come in flesh’ is sweeping the world… and John makes no mention whatsoever of the Church!
Wow! Nearly 2000 years later, John's message seems more relevant than ever.

Food for thought??

Oh and by the way… there is loud mockery of an imminent rapture of the Church.




NEXT: It's time we opened John's Gospel to see why we should believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

OLD JOHN CAN STILL COUNT



"1,2,3,4..."

We come to the end of John’s first letter and you can just about hear his very ‘spiritual’ critics scoffing: “Agh, what would this old fisherman know? He just raves on and repeats himself!”                                                

Well at least he would have been able to count 10 fish!

Here are the single-digit prime numbers…

Why are they favourites with God, the Master Mathematician?                                      

They are not easily divided – strong – which is why we have pairs, 3-strand rope, triumvirates, 7 judges in high courts…

So what has John given us in his letter?

·        7 contrasts including belief vs unbelief  (in chapter 5)

·        7 tests for us, including: sound doctrine and…”keep yourselves from idols” (ch 5)

·        7 attributes of God: light, love, truth, righteous, holy, sinless, life

·        5 conflicts: the world vs our fellowship, the Unction vs the antichrist, Son of God vs the devil, Cain vs Abel, God vs the wicked one

·        5 proofs of eternal life: believe on Son of God, love God, love children of God, obey commandments, stop sinning

·        3 enticements of the world: “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life”

·        3 reasons to hope: Jesus comes! We shall be like Him! We shall see Him!

·        And now he finishes with the Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost…..plus for good measure:

·        3 witnesses on Earth:

The Spirit, the water (of Jesus’ baptism), and the blood (of Jesus’ crucifixion) - all very public!

...by water

...and by blood!

·        

As for 2…                                                             

…his purpose is in v13 and the key in v11.

You have eternal life in the Son of God -  so keep believing! 

Do you think old John has proved his point?

NEXT: http://guvsdesk.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/what-was-johns-message.html

JESUS CHRIST FIRST LOVED US!

John has warned us in the previous chapter (1 Jn 3) that ‘the stakes are high – life and death’ and this is what Jesus said…

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”

We know that Jesus was a real person in history but what does the name ‘Jesus Christ come in flesh’ really mean?                                              

A very public event!

‘Jehovah saves - the anointed One incarnate’.  WOW!!

Only God’s Spirit in us can help us decide whether people are fakes or really confess that ‘Jesus Christ is come in flesh’.                                                 

How did John remember his Master?...the One who loved him: “the disciple whom Jesus loved”.

So at last we’ve come to the crux of John’s letter:

Okay…‘We love Him, because He first loved us’ ….but do I love my brother?                    

Do I now have boldness for the future?... or fear?

Why, who is coming?                                                                                

Antichrist, who rejects ‘Jesus Christ come in flesh’ – the one thing most Jews and Muslims agree on by labelling Him as ‘just a prophet’ while they look for their messiah.


NEXT: http://guvsdesk.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/old-john-can-still-count.html

HI STAKES - LIFE & DEATH!

Our last blog raised the question ‘Is antichrist a Jew?’ and now John moves on to warn the family in ch3 of his first epistle...

But what would this old fisherman know? At first glance he seems to rave on and repeat himself, in a mess like the bottom of his boat!                                             

Well, he has battled the elements in desperate struggles to stay alive in storms on the Sea of Galilee, while trying to make a living.  He also watched his Master dying from crucifixion, then his brother was executed too. He knows far more about life and death struggles than his ‘very spiritual’ critics with their heresies that destroy all hope of redemption! 

(Why does John bring in hope here?  If we sneak a look at The Revelation that John saw later, we find: “as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed”…and then: “the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus…which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark…”)                                  

Grim times are ahead!... so here is the hope:                       

What love of the Father that…’we should be called the sons of God’!                

Not only that… Christ is coming and when He is revealed…’we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is’!

Meanwhile there is a life and death struggle going on between the Son of God and the devil (our accuser) just like Cain slew his brother Abel – yet another contrast like evil vs righteousness, sin vs purity, in John’s profound letter.

Now it’s time we get out there and walk the walk -  not just talk the talk.   

Stop sinning and start showing you love your brother – even lay down your life for him!                                                                                   

“We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.” 

Yup, the stakes are high and it’s time to get ‘fair dinkum’.                               

Which camp do I really belong to?...God’s or the devil’s?

NEXT:

http://guvsdesk.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/jesus-christ-first-loved-us_23.html

ANTICHRIST A JEW??

The ‘FAMILY HOMILY’ in John’s first epistle was our last blog but we skipped the special message to the paidion in ch2 vv18 thru 27.  Are they teenagers or new converts?   They’re immature and in danger of being deceived in the ‘last time’.

Heard of ‘the antichrist’, soon to emerge on the world stage? Only John names this guy as such, just like false brethren seducing with heresies.

Who is this ‘antichrist’?                                                 

Many confidently claim he is the future leader of the revived Roman Empire (EU). Others say he is the Catholic pope (who has facilitated the EU) but this ignores the antichrist…                                                  

• denies Jesus is the Christ and…
• denies the Father & the Son

So let’s take a closer look at John…

His real name was Ionnes, the Greek version of the Jewish name Joannes, and his brother was Iakobos (James) from the very Jewish name Yaakob (Jacob – Mr. Israel!). Yup, these guys were Jews.

John also tells us that Andrew identified Jesus as ‘the Messias’ and that Jesus identified Himself to the Samaritan woman as ‘the Messias’. So where did John learn of that title?  The angel Gabriel told Daniel about ‘thy city and thy people’ and ‘Messiah the Prince’ (Mashiyach: the anointed One). After Pentecost, John and Peter resorted to the temple for prayer and apart from visiting Samaria, his ministry was to the Jews. Just like the Messiah, John is a full-on Jew and there is no mention of the Church in this letter.    

This is all very Jewish!  

Do Gentiles tip anointing oil over presidents and prime ministers? 

(If you research this ‘antichrist’ or false messiah carefully, you will find that he will be a Jew by birth, a real snake-in-the-grass, a wolf-in-sheeps-clothing who will take over the future 3^rd temple. What will he be like?... aggressive and probably a homosexual promoting a profane multi-faith dialogue.  He’s even very likely to be a Muslim from Iraq!)

What is the only antidote? Being multi-faith?      
The anointing from the Holy One…teaching the truth. 


Next:  http://guvsdesk.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/hi-stakes-life-death.html