The Apostles of Christ ...

One could say the “Apostles of Christ” begin in the aftermath of Jesus Christ.  The writers of the Old Testament all had a direct connection with Jesus Christ through the means of prophecy and vision.  But they all lacked the history of His life.  They knew Him but only through the means that a prophet can know God, through inspiration.  And finding other people/prophets with similar experiences was going to be rare.  The Apostles of Christ had this same means of inspiration, but it was buffeted by the deeds, and witnesses, and stories of Jesus that were common in the first century after the ascension of Jesus Christ.  Imagine being a writer, and on your journey of mission, encountering another person who had a direct exposure to Jesus.  You would not be alone in talking about Him, you would be in a crowd of witnesses.  Everyone from young children who may have sat on His lap, to those whose bodies were fully restored because they did nothing but touch the hem of His garments as He walked by.  The Apostles would apt’ly be called prophets, but they lived in an age, where exposure to Jesus was not just a rare thing, it was a more common thing.

In our first volume of “A Second Look”, we studied the authors who had direct personal experience with Jesus Christ.  Those authors included Jude and James (likely His brothers as well as disciples).  They also included John (the beloved), Peter (the little rock), and Matthew (the former tax collector).  Between these men the story of the gospel was told very well.  However, while the story of our salvation is a great start, the story of our evangelism would seem to follow next.  It is the chronicles of that evangelistic message of the early Christian church, where the letters of the Apostles seem to add great context to our doctrines and understanding of God.  We will begin our study of this next phase of the work, with the author Luke (the physician).  Luke wrote another version of the gospel, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and with ample second-hand testimony by others who witnessed it.  Luke then went on to write the next chapter “The Acts of the Apostles” meant to show how the work would spread across the region.  During his travels with fellow apostle Paul (formerly Saul the Pharisee); it is believed Luke likely wrote the book or letter to the Hebrews. 

Understand that there is absolute unity among the disciples and apostles in pointing the new believer to Jesus Christ.  But beyond that, philosophy, perspective, education, and personal histories are all different.  Different parts of the body of the church, that present different attributes, each important, and each part of the Mosaic that makes up the body of Christ (His church).  There were no entirely separate denominations in these early days.  But there was a rift coming, between what the church would become in Rome, and what the church remained in the rest of the world.  Luke and Paul traveled together through much of these early evangelistic missions.  But that does not make them identical twins in what either wrote.  How could it?  Paul was a former Pharisee.  Luke was a current physician.  Both educated, but Luke was a gentile.  Both were converts, but both came from a completely different upbringing.  Just like all the others.  Jesus did not pick 12 men, then later 70 more disciples, as well as the women He invited to carry the gospel, because they were all cookie cutter images of each other.  He picked them for their diversity.  And He intended for them to cover each other’s weaknesses, and nuture each other’s strengths.  One body made of different parts.

In the end, most all of the passionate followers of Jesus, did not die deaths from old age, in comfort.  They died martyr’s deaths before their time, because of the fury of Satan against Jesus and His church.  Jewish persecution mounted the first attacks.  Which was followed by Roman persecution in the later years.  The early Christian faith was not born in a time with no opposition, but perhaps in a time when opposition was at its greatest.  Yet the ones who seem to have known Him best died these deaths and did not keep silent.  For a knowledge of Jesus does not inspire silence in us, but demonstrations of love in us, even to those who would name themselves our mortal enemies.  If today, we call ourselves Christian, yet pray for the death of our enemies, perhaps it reveals just how little we truly know Jesus Christ.  Perhaps instead we should take a second look at what has been written and see if we can find insight, that Jesus will lead us to find.  For now, let us put away our preconceptions, and read as if it were the first time, what has been preserved through miracle for us to freely read.

 

Two Weddings ...

John the Baptist would proclaim Him; disciples began to follow Him; and now to make time for family.  In the beginning of the gospel of John, chapter two, verse one, it says … “And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee.”  Interesting that at the creation event of mankind, one of the first institutions God created was that of marriage and the Sabbath.  Here at the opening of the ministry of Christ, one of the first things he attends is a marriage.  There is no way to know for sure if He knew the bride or groom, but He was invited to the feast, both He and His disciples, so it seems possible.  This was after all the area where His family appeared to be living.  For verse one continues … “and the mother of Jesus was there:”.  Family is an institution the “Son” of God understands well; for we are created in the image of God.  All throughout scripture, Jesus is referred to as God’s “Son”.    This familial relationship is something we understand.  It is something illustrated in the story of Abraham being willing to sacrifice He and Sarah’s only son Isaac, a foretaste of the sacrifice God the Father must make of His only Son to redeem mankind.

Notice too, at the creation of mankind Christ was present, for as John has already said it was He who “created all things”.  Therefore it was Christ who made both Adam and then Eve.  He was there at the first wedding.  He created the family unit throughout all of creation both male and female.  It was the union of male and female that resulted in the perfection of intimacy of His designs.  Neither Adam, nor Eve, were complete on their own.  In fact, some of the first marital advice ever offered in scripture was by our God to our first parents in that they should “stay together”.  As a family unit only would they be able to resist the much older devil who desired their destruction.  It was that Eve found herself alone, where all of the troubles began.  Had Adam been at her side, the temptation might well have been resisted by the power of their combined love.  But the separation and isolation made her more vulnerable, and they fell.  Here in the earliest days of His ministry, Christ again attends a wedding.  This act offers more than a miracle of water turning to wine, it offers another affirmation, that marriage and more importantly the intimacy that results from marriage by the surrender of two individuals into one family unit, is still something valued by God.  A marriage is still something God is interested in.  And like in the perfection of the Garden of Eden, it is only through the surrender of marriage that we find our ability to pour out our love on someone else and share an intimacy that God alone ordained.  An intimacy He was supposed to be the center of.

A marriage, no matter what the traditions that surround it, is a joyful occasion.  At this time in earth’s history, it was a common event to have wine at a wedding.  The word “wine” however, carries more than one meaning.  Christ referred to his own blood as being represented by wine.  And due to our own carnal natures, it is sometimes common to assume the wine referred to here was alcoholic wine.  However despite the fact that this story never actually says Christ drank the wine He created (that would be assumed but not specified), nor even that His disciples drank this wine (again assumed but not specified).  It is clear that others drank it.  So does that make Christ a divine wedding bartender?  Logic would dictate that if the governor of the feast, was also participating in the feast, his taste buds would have already been dulled by alcoholic wine served early at the wedding.  He might not have had the sense, or remaining sharp taste buds to determine if the new wine was actually so much superior to the old.  It is also logical that if Christ wanted only what is best for mankind, for us to hear and understand His truth clearly, He would likely not have offered a drink designed to dull our ears and our perceptions.  Much more likely, logic alone would dictate this wine would have been of the grape juice variety.

Author Samuele Bacchiocchi, conducted an extensive study on the original biblical manuscripts that were translated into our modern bibles of today.  In his book entitled “Wine in the Bible” he provides a detailed account of how the original language used words for wine that clearly delineated it was referring to the non-alcoholic grape juice variety beverage, as opposed to the clearly alcoholic version of wine.  These terms were mistranslated intentionally over the years to promote the idea that alcoholic versions of wine might have been produced or consumed by Christ, when in fact this did not occur.  So the idea that whether Christ and His disciples were consuming alcohol at a wedding, or simply serving it, does not make logical sense, nor does it actually concur with the original language used to translate our scriptures.

But not having alcohol is hardly the point where it comes to making a marriage a joyous occasion.  Genesis tells no stories of wine consumption being the thing that gives a marriage a reason to celebrate, or the cause for joy.  It is the love and union of two hearts that brings the joy to a wedding.  Having an outstanding grape juice there to drink, along with celebratory foods that comprise a feast, only adds to the joy of two families now blended in marriage.  And in this marriage in particular, having the blessing of the God of the universe, who despite His mother rushing Him a bit, still took time to resolve a very human dilemma, was the real win at this feast.  Notice the difference between serving self as opposed to  serving others.  Christ does not take the initiative to make wine because He is thirsty.  He only does this, to build the faith of His disciples, and to bless those in attendance at the feast.  Jesus was not a walking wine maker for those who were constantly thirsty.  Much later you will recall the story of the woman drawing water at the well, a Samaritan woman who Christ asks for a drink.  There would be no need of this, if He simply went around creating grape juice whenever He was thirsty.  Instead He remained thirsty.  In this instance, the needs of others, resulted in Him meeting those needs (again never even mentioning if He also participated in enjoying what He had created).

Marriage is an intimate thing.  In verse 12 of chapter 2 John continues … “After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days.”  Marriage brings the blessing of children.  Love expressed generally does not stay dormant, or have no effect, it produces a result.  Joseph married Mary, despite her virgin conception, and kept her virginity intact until after the birth of Christ.  He did this to honor the direction given Him, as well as to see the scripture fulfilled.  But after the birth of Christ, the institution of marriage does not call for continued celibacy.  Joseph and Mary loved each other, their love knew the normal union, and in that expression, brothers and a sister of Christ were brought into this world.  Notice how scripture distinguishes between his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples.  If his brethren and his disciples were the same thing, there would only be need to state it once.  Instead John draws the distinction.  Christ had siblings.  They shared a mother, and for Christ an adopted father here on earth, and it appears his siblings knew who He was, and some followed Him as disciples (such as Jude and James mentioned earlier). 

Verse thirteen reveals the reason for their travels as Passover was near, and Jesus went up to the Temple at Jerusalem.  This would be the second symbolic wedding He went to attend, the one between God and man, the one more sacred to us all, in that each of us is not only bound to our marital partner, we are also bound to our God in the intimacy of our divine relationship.  It is God who knows each of us more than we know ourselves.  It is God who, like with Nathaniel, hears the deepest longings of our hearts, and who desires to be with us so much He would lay down His own life to achieve that end.  It is God who so loved us first, while we were yet His enemy, that He would do everything to redeem and free us from the slavery of sin and self and pain.  This is the God, the Bridegroom, who goes to the place of His worship, who goes expecting to receive us, and expecting to reciprocate our desire to see Him.  But alas this kind of intimacy is not what He finds.  This kind of pure worship cannot even take place in His house, as by then every tradition has been corrupted.

The Temple at the arrival of Christ is filled with commerce.  Religious profiteering has replaced real worship.  The place where one should go, during the most important time of the year to do so, is now so full of livestock, and salesmen, selling religious supplies and making money, that real worship is literally impossible.  How poignant, that the nation given so much instruction, with so rich a religious system steeped in symbolism to point forward to the Messiah, is now wholly unprepared to receive the object of their longing.  No one there sees Him enter as Messiah.  How could they, the sound of livestock, and profiteering salesmen fill the place.  So Christ fashions “a scourge of small cords”.  Notice this is not a 12 foot bull whip, nor does it carry the shards of glass in the tips of the whip that would soon be used to tear the flesh from His own body.  It is just enough to move the livestock.  And He began driving the livestock out of the Temple.  When divinity flashed through the eyes of humanity, those who were selling religious tokens immediately saw themselves in the eyes of Christ.  Like at no other time in their lives, were their evil deeds and intentions brought forward to them.  Evil cannot stand in the presence of God, it craves darkness, not light.  Light reveals evil for what it is.  And in the presence of light, evil must flee.  And so they did, running for reasons they could not fully explain.  Leaving behind the very money they worked so hard to swindle from innocent religious victims.  They ran before they themselves realized it. 

The force of the scourge was not the reason why those doing evil flee from the brilliance of the light.  It is not the fear of punishment or pain that causes the evil ones to run or to change.  In a straight up fight, they outnumber Christ, and could easily defeat Him.  Unscrupulous men, tend to know how to fight, how to struggle for what they want, and they do not surrender easily.  But this encounter was different.  When faced with pure love, evil is revealed, and it cannot remain in place.  They run.  It may even be possible they do not see the whip, it is the purity in the eyes of Christ, that makes them tremble all the way into their bones.  This is not a man who moves their cattle, this is the Owner of the Temple they have corrupted.  For those who wish no intimacy with God, for those who want what they want and have no desire to ever see themselves rid of sin and pain and evil, there is but one choice when confronted with purity … run. 

Then Christ proceeds to show the world what He thinks about the value of money, particularly where it comes to money as it inhibits true worship, he overturns the tables and casts the money on the floor of the Temple.  He does not count the coins.  He does not gather the funds for the poor.  He does not return it to those who have been swindled.  The condition of the money is put in the priority of its value according to Christ – on the ground where it is literally meaningless. 

The words “I desire obedience more than sacrifices” have never gone out of style with Christ.  The blood of rams was not the goal of the sacrificial system of worship, the reformation of the heart was the goal.  Buying a dove, or a ram, or another animal to offer was supposed to rend the heart of the sinner, and instill in them a desire to never have to repeat this process again.  It was supposed to send the broken hearted sinner into the loving arms of Christ who alone could change in them what they wanted, and how they lived.  But instead, it became a game of spending money to have sins wiped off the board, for this year, knowing full well, we will need to do it again next year, because we have every intention of repeating how we live every single day between now and then.  No intimacy with God.  No broken hearts over the innocent blood that would be shed.  No desire to be any different; only to fulfill the law, and be made pure through the acts of symbolism.

And today, what has changed?  We go through the traditions of our worship services.  We sing repetitive worship songs with mind-numbing tunes, and simplistic lyrics that repeat ad-nauseum until all meaning has been lost.  We give offerings and consider our debts to God paid in full.  We listen to sermons and consider ourselves filled.  We buy bumper stickers, and necklaces with religious icons, large print bibles to carry to church, and hope these symbols alone will do our witness of the gospel for us.  We ask forgiveness of our sins, but not for reform from them.  Our hearts are steeped in pretense, not in desire to actually change.  If our system of worship had not changed from the ancient days of Israel, we would be no different than those who went to the Temple on the day in which Christ cleansed it.  Our love does not define our reputation, rather our judgment of evil does.  We are obsessed with the condemnation of others, and wholly complacent with the redemption of our own souls.  Like those who felt no broken heart at the killing of the innocent sheep, we feel no broken heart every time we repeat our sins, having lost all perspective at the cost of our actions in the very blood of the Lord we claim to love.  As in the days of old the words …”I desire obedience rather than sacrifices” still applies with poignant fervor to us.  Obedience that could only come from the surrender of the will to Christ; this is what He desires way more than our money, or our meager attempts at worship and praise.  To drop the pretense, and experience the intimacy with God, this is the desire of our Lord.  This is what He came to experience in that Temple, and what He cleaned it out to make room for.  I wonder if confronted with the purity of love in the eyes of Christ, if we too would have run away before we even realized why we fled.

The priests however, were going to lose quite a bit of money on this deal.  So having gathered their senses they return to challenge Christ as to His authority to do these things.  After all He had said in verse 16 … “Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise”.  He referred to the Temple as being “my” Father’s house, again denoting the relationship of Son to Father.  The priests were still reeling from the flash of divinity in the eyes of Christ, they knew who He was, but they did not want to accept what He was saying.  What is more, there were people still here, people who did actually come to worship.  If they allowed this young upstart to reveal His truth unchallenged they might lose all sway over the religious rubes, and see profits come crashing down.  How alike in some of our churches today, where maintaining the hierarchy and organization of the church becomes more important than the dissemination of the truth, or the ministry of love and redemption to the world.  So the priests, despite recent events, ask for another sign from Christ.  He responds in verse 19 … “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Here again, Christ is attempting to turn the conversation from the errors the Jews clung to, to the real reason of His mission.  Jesus had come to redeem mankind, and He would be the Lamb of God who must be slain.  Where could a more relevant message be delivered than at the very spot where lambs were killed every year?  Instead of condemning the priests for the complete lack of understanding of the meaning of His mission, He guides them to think about something in a way they have never considered, while providing His disciples with His words in their memories when times would be dark after His crucifixion.  He would arise in three days.  Most of the priests did not comprehend the spiritual truth He was saying.  Like us, we view scripture through the lens of our own ideas and greed, and therefore interpret it according to what makes us happy.  So the priests failing to recognize the symbolism He was drawing attention to, interpreted His remarks as literal and being about the physical building He was standing in.  Thus they thought they had Him, but given that recent flash of divinity, they were not entirely sure, even if He was talking about the building, it might still be true.

Verses 23 to 25 of John chapter two, conclude with a worst case scenario for the priests of His day.  Following this exchange Christ does “miracles” and “many believed”.  Christ then restores the intimacy that weddings are supposed to bring.  He restores the intimate relationship with God and mankind, by meeting the individual needs of those who came to worship.  Notice that the slaying of lambs, and traditional Temple services do not appear in these words.  It was Passover after all.  If the traditions and symbols were more important than the God who stood behind them, we might well have found Christ conforming to the daily traditions and customs of the Temple worship establishment.  Instead He is there meeting the needs of individual people who came to worship, both physical and spiritual needs.  Many believed by the work He performed.  Christ made no attempt at becoming high priest of Israel.  He did not try to take over the religious power structure and lead it.  He made no attempt at being international president of the church to which He belonged.  Instead He tried in every waking moment to return the religion back to its fundamentals of surrender to God, and the intimacy that results when two are blended as one, both God and man.  When we allow Christ inside of us, when we surrender our will to His, we become something different than what we are today.  We become a new person, a creation re-created by God, reborn, as someone else was about to learn …

 

Gospel of John (Prologue) ...

The gospel, or good news that John bears testimony to, does not begin with the birth of Christ.  John reaches farther back than that.  It does not even begin with our creation, though that is also mentioned in his prologue.  John reaches back into the infinite abyss of time and space and once he surpasses the limits of our imaginations in pre-recorded time, starting in verse one of chapter one, he plainly states … “1.) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  2.) The same was in the beginning with God.”  John attests that the divinity of Christ starts long before His birth, and long before our Genesis.  Into the farthest reaches of time and space there was always God.  And Jesus was both with God, and He was God.  To his Greek audience John uses the word Logos to convey his meaning.  A Greek summarization of creative power and truth, to the Hebrews they would have understood it to be wisdom.  Throughout his writings John would describe God as Love.  John realizes that to discuss the good news of the gospel of our salvation, one must understand the divine definition of love begins outside of our history, and exceeds our understanding, as the divinity within Christ, was something that always was, and always will be.

In verse three, John attributes every act of creation that has ever existed, to Jesus Christ.  John says … “All things were made by Him.”  There was no act of creation to which Jesus Christ was not a central part, indeed nothing was made without Him.  This key piece of scripture reveals that at our creation, Jesus Christ was one who called us into existence.  We are not only the creations of an all-powerful God, we are the creations of the part of the God head that came to our world in person, and to which John is about to give testimony.  To those Christians who would seek to replace the act of our creation with a process of evolution, John stands in contrast and points clearly to exactly who created us.  When on the seventh day He rested from His work and all that He had made, and blessed the day, it was to Jesus Christ, that John points. 

To those Christians who do not understand the character of God is defined in love and that His law is only the beginning of the meaning of love, here stands John, stating that our Creator and author of the law is Jesus Christ.  The law he handed to Moses on Mt. Sinai was Christ’s law of love.  Christ came to show us more than the beginning of the definition of love; He came to show us its fullness.  The law of love written by the finger of Christ, was not crucified on Calvary, rather it was fully affirmed and realized in the sacrifice of Christ.  The life that would make our redemption and restoration possible would be lived and performed by He who brought us into existence.  And it is He who has the creative power, to remake us, into what He intended for us to be, if we but let Him.  Only Christ is able to restore us into harmony with His law, and with the love that stands behind it, and behind our very Genesis.  The same loving hands that took dust and formed man, and breathed into him the breath of life, are the same loving hands that can take the disaster we have made of our lives, and transform it into the perfection of service and love that heaven itself is modeled upon.  The secret to our salvation is based on the creative power of Christ.  It is this characteristic of our Savior that will give us the most hope that our fate is not what we deserve, but what His love longs to bring to us.  Our Creator is able to re-create us.

John begins in verse 4 … “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.”  Man is not inherently immortal, only God is.  The breath of life was breathed into us and we “became” a living soul.  The source of life was not inside the lump of clay that our Master fashioned into the form of Adam.  The source of life was inside our Creator.  It was extended to Adam, and to us.  But beyond even this, John is stating that our God is life itself.  Everything outside of our God, is the opposite of our God.  All things that are good are a part of who Jesus is.  He is life.  He is love.  He is joy.  And of a truth, those things that are not of Christ, are His opposite – evil brings pain, evil brings hate, evil brings death.  To look outside of Christ, one finds only those things one would wish to avoid.  To find life is to find Christ;  for there is no life outside of our Creator God.

The sad example of Lucifer stands as an eternal reminder of what happens when we search for an existence outside of Christ.  Lucifer questioned the idea of love as service only to others.  He wondered at his own beauty and perfection, and attempted to see if pleasing himself instead of others might offer him a better existence than the one he had.  He did not heed the counsel of God, that this pursuit could only end badly.  He had no historical context of the knowledge of evil for he had only known good and life; he had never seen bad and death.  But instead of trusting God in a matter to which he had no knowledge, he decided to trust himself, and pursue his own ideas.  All the degeneration of evil that has transpired since has come from that break in trust.  All the keen knowledge of bitterness, and evil to which we are all personally familiar started with a simple break in trust with God. 

Lucifer chose to trust himself, and in so doing has brought the definition of death itself to the universe.  We are faced with the same choice today.  Do we trust ourselves to find our redemption, or do we voluntarily submit our wisdom and our choices, and our desires, and the core of who we are, to the Savior who has promised to redeem and remake us?  It does not make sense to give up control to Christ, as it did not make sense to Lucifer that such a seemingly small alteration in how he would live, would bring about such horror as to think that killing God would be a good idea.  But our sense, and Lucifer’s trust in his own wisdom over Gods, is the same issue we face in our redemption today.  Do we trust in our own wisdom, or submit to His?  John states plainly, life is only found in Jesus Christ.

John then waxes a bit philosophical and in verse 5 states … “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”  How sad that one of the chief symptoms associated with the disease of evil is our inability to perceive truth.  Even as a light is held up in darkness, we choose to turn away from it to seek out the darkness we crave.  It takes an act of intervention on the part of our God, to clear away the chains of our bondage to evil, to even begin to think clearly enough to make the freewill choice to decide whether to follow our God of love or not.  Without this act on our God’s part, our minds would never be clear enough to see the truth of what He offers in contrast to the bondage we are already enslaved to.  It would be all too easy to look at this verse, and apply it merely to those who do not believe in Christ, to those who are unfamiliar with our God of love.  But sadly, it was not to the unbelievers that Christ appeared. 

Our Messiah was not born to Roman parents of noble birth, in the greatest city of his day.  He was not found in the personage of the Caesar’s who would have respected power, but would have had little context of the meaning of the coming of a Messiah.  It was not to the Chinese scholars, or Germanic barbarian tribes to which Christ was born.  No, instead He was born to those people to whom He had personally given His laws and sent to them His prophets.  The texts to identify the Messiah were clear, as were the signs offered in the miracles He performed, and the truth to which He gave voice.  But his own religious system where every piece of furniture in the temple, and every ordinance ever given with respect to its worship practices pointed to the now present Messiah; was unable to perceive His arrival.  The priests who should have heralded the coming of the Messiah failed to do so.  Instead it would take a wild man living in the desert to cry out ‘repent’. 

The priests who should have been the first to sit at the feet of He who had so brilliantly captured their attention at ripe young age of 12, and taught them truth they had never perceived for 3 full days in the temple at Jerusalem; instead rejected the entirety of His teachings.  These priests should have been his most loyal disciples, and most ardent preachers of His words.  Instead they plotted to entrap Him with un-answerable questions, and when their plans failed, they eventually took action to kill Him.  Christ did not submit Himself to their religious authority.  Instead of obtaining power over others, Christ personally served those in need.  Instead of hanging out only with those of equal or higher social class, He went to those who were poor, and humble, and willing to receive Him.  Instead of ending the political tyranny of Rome, He completely divorced Himself from politics and taught submission – first to God, then to each other.  Christ did not hate the Romans; instead He sought to save them, and praised those He found faith in.  Christ did not discriminate against Samaritans; instead He broke down prejudicial barriers and welcomed them to the Kingdom of His Salvation.  He was everything His priests were not.  He was love, without condition, and without restraint, just pure self-less love, incarnate.  This was what He intended His religion to be, and those who claimed to serve the One True God should be like.  Instead His religious system had been corrupted by the exaltation of self, into a hierarchy only interested in preserving its own power over the people.  Selfish gain, and inflated ego’s, had replaced service to those in need, and love to all.  And so, His own religious system, sought to kill the Light that had entered their darkened world.

In the cruelest irony the devil could present, those who should have known Him best, were the very ones who sought to end His existence in this world.  The Romans hardly had any concern for a pacifist who taught only selfless love.  He was literally no threat to their “power”.  The priests however, could not stand the brilliant light that illuminated the hypocrisy of self-service against the magnificence of pure self-less love.  Today, Christians purport to follow Christ, but I wonder if our “system” of religion would do any better in recognizing the God we claim to know if He were to appear among us?  Our expectations of fine clothing would likely not be met.  He would not be found in our church board meetings, instead preferring to be in the street with the other “homeless”.  For Christ Himself, was a homeless person.  He owned nothing.  He only had one set of clothing, and it was no Armani suit.  He had no jewels to ordain His person.  Indeed the creator of gold, sees no more value in it than concrete.  He did not eat often without the mercy of someone else providing for Him. 

Those who were engaged in the most grievous and public sins were known to be His regular companions.  He was found only in the company of the humble, almost never in the company of the rich or the proud.  He did not travel alone; to receive Him was to receive 12 other companions of a less than savory sort, and the entourage and crowds that sought Him out everywhere.  In our day, we would call Him a hippy, perhaps a cult leader.  In our day, we might call Him a bum.  In our day, we might call His teachings of unconditional love, even to those who are clearly committing horrific sins, too radical, perhaps too heretical.  In our day, His rejection of our political processes, and complete indifference as to who runs our nation, might offend those of strict ideologies who believe it is their responsibility to enforce their moral code on the lives of others.  His refusal to answer trick questions like when does life begin, and is cloning wrong, and should we be exploring stem cell research; might anger those who cannot understand the wisdom of teaching that love can remake us from the inside out, removing naturally what should be removed, and replacing hate for love.  His ability to heal any disease would rouse the anger of medical and insurance financial establishments and make Him a real threat to profit.  I wonder if the Light were to appear in the darkness that is our world today, would we fare any better than our spiritual ancestors, or would we like the Pharisees of old, reject Him entirely?  The measure of that answer can be found in the measure of how we love today.

In verses 6 to 8, John makes it clear who he is, and that he is only there to bear witness to the Light, John is not the light himself.  How often are those who teach the truth of Christ often elevated by those they teach.  Perhaps it is a combination of gratitude for the knowledge imparted, or respect of the wisdom revealed, or just admiration of the effects of transformation, that inspires one man to put another on a pedestal, but it happens.  John here makes it clear exactly “who” the Light is, and that John is not it.  John begins by disclaiming all elevation, and lifting up only the name of Jesus Christ as the true Light of the world.  “Pride”, even in matters of religion, is still the catalyst for downfall and evil.  To bear testimony to the Light, is the only ambition John will attempt to achieve in this book of his gospel.

In verses 9 to 11, John restates his opening premise that those who should have known Him best, did not recognize Him at all.  This was a heart-rendering truth.  The Jewish readers would know that John is calling them to see truth where they previously thrown it away.  It would be the same thing as having a homeless man enter your church mid-service and declare that the teachings of your pastor, and your closely held beliefs were all in error.  It would be worse, to know beyond all shadow of a doubt, that the homeless person who did this was Christ Himself.  Christians might take great offense at the notion they have been “doing it wrong”.  Christians might find it hard, to accept this truth, and in humility seek out the very homeless person who called them out on their errors.  Christians might find it hard to let go of their dreams of freedom and ease, and embrace servitude and poverty.  The Jewish readers in the time of John, had an equally hard time doing these things.  Yet this is precisely what John is stating should happen.

He continues in verse 12 and 13 with a summation of salvation itself.  He provides the motive and method for acceptance of Christ, and the salvation from self and evil it brings.  Verse 12.) “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name:  13.) Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”  To those who receive Jesus Christ, it is to them who submit, it is to them who allow themselves to be completely remade, who can stop relying on their own power, and find instead the power of Christ within them.  It is Christ who “gives” the power to become the Sons of God.  We do not earn this power, we do not steal it, buy it, or work for it.  It comes in ONLY ONE way, as a gift.  It comes only to those who believe on His name. 

The re-genesis that follows within us, does not happen because of our genetic predisposition.  We do not inherit it from our parents, or their value systems we might have been taught.  We do not become new creations, or are born again, because of the strength of our own will power and character.  Nor can the will of other men be imposed upon us, in order that we are saved from ourselves.  There is only ONE way, we can be remade, and that is by God as a gift to us.  Our portion is only to accept in humility His gift of recreation.  Despite the fact we will never deserve it; we want it anyway.  Despite the fact we may never understand why He loves us so much; we will accept the gift that love offers.  In the knowledge that there is nothing we can do to remake ourselves, and the humility this must bring; we accept His generous offer to make us into something entirely different than the people we are today.  This is how salvation works.  And love is the only reason why He offers, and why we would accept.

In verse 14 John once again articulates that Christ is not just an idea, or a belief system, he was a physical person, a physical manifestation of God on earth, in flesh and in blood.  Christ was the only begotten of the Father.  Our God had only one son.  Only Christ could claim with legitimacy that His father was the one true God.  Christ had no divine siblings.  Men like Moses, or Elijah, or Mohammed, or Buddha, or Gandhi might have lived spectacular lives, and made a great impact on the world; but there would only ever be one “Son” of God.  And it is only through Jesus Christ, that we might also be considered a part of the family of God.

John concludes his prologue in verses 15 to 18 repeating now over and over again, that Christ was the fullness of grace and truth.  Notice that truth was never used as a weapon by Christ, nor was it ever discarded.  It was always grace that would enable us to see the wisdom of His truth.  It is grace that allows us to be remade so that we begin to desire His truth.  And it is His grace that then enables our lives to adopt His truth as a part of who we are, how we think, and consequently how we live.  Truth is never discarded in this process; instead it is fully realized through the mechanism of grace.  Truth is not used as a weapon to reveal our guilt; instead it is presented as an aspiration we can attain through the power of His grace.  Christ makes no excuse for evil.  Instead He offers freedom from it, in heart, mind, body, and soul.  It is more than forgiveness that grace offers to us, it is reformation of who we are, and harmony with the truth of who He is.  John states that Moses brought the law, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.  Moses and law of love he relayed had not the power to reform the desires of our hearts, only to show us how far from harmony with this law of love we are.  But the grace Christ brings, offers to remake us from the inside out and restore our harmony with His truth, His law, and His love.  Again John is restating, our salvation does not come from our perceived ability to keep “the law”.  Instead our salvation comes from His grace, that makes His laws engrained on the core of who we are, how we think, what we want, and therefore how we live.  For the second time, in his opening prologue, John describes the process of salvation, and again bears testimony to the salvation Jesus Christ alone offers.

John's Third Letter to the Church ...

The third letter of John to the church is brief and personal.  In it we find the names of three likely Greek or Roman characters whose names are:  Gaius, Diotrephes, and Demetrius.  It is clear that for better or worse the leaders of the early Christian church appeared to now fully be outside of the formerly Jewish audience.  The Christian faith did what the Jewish faith had not; it chose to break down the barriers between itself and the world around it, go in to that world, and bring the gospel of salvation.  John did not compromise his values with those he sought to free from evil, but he also did not restrict his instructions just to people of his bloodline, or social class, or heritage.  The good news of Christ was to be brought to the entire world; the mission was to be universal.  And when engaged in that mission, new leaders emerged to help carry forward the work.  They were not discarded because they were ‘new’ in the faith, or the ‘wrong’ nationality.  When the Holy Spirit was evident in the life of a person willing to serve and to lead, that person was accepted by John and the other leaders chosen to serve.

Sometimes today, Christianity has a tendency to withdraw behind its walls, and aim its message to only those of like mind.  We fear that to try to extend our message into the world around us will somehow corrupt us with ‘the things of the world’.  In this way we isolate ourselves from the very people who need to hear the freeing message of Christ.  At other times, when those brave souls emerge who do go out into the world around us and find a willing ear, we tend to treat the newly converted as ‘babies’ in the faith.  We do not tend to offer them leadership positions in the church because we consider them too ‘new’.  This makes sense, except for one thing.  It ignores the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to determine who is fit to lead, or called to serve, and who is not.  It is not our length of time spent in the faith that qualifies us to lead and serve, it is our absolute dependence on Christ and our full acknowledgement we would never be ready.  Our humility and dependence are far greater attributes for leadership, than our confidence in our own spiritual achievements.  In this short book, John has no problems embracing Gaius, and Demetrius.  Their time spent in Rabbinical schools or lack of it, is meaningless to John.  Their nationality means nothing.  Only that they serve in truth and in love.

By the same token, John is unafraid to call out Diotrephes for his lack of charity, hospitality, and generally negative disposition.  It appears that Diotrephes (as John writes in verse 9), cares more about being the preeminent leader, than being the chief servant.  It is the next great attack of Satan, that if he cannot divert us from our beliefs, then perhaps he can inflate us with our own sense of accomplishments and leadership of the flock.  If Satan can tempt us to have ‘pride’ in our spiritual efforts, to begin to see the victories over sin in our lives as ‘our’ victories, he will slowly offset the role of Christ, with the elevation of self.  Once self retakes the center of our focus and Christ is displaced, the negativity of evil follows.  Malicious words, discontent, a refusal to be hospitable follow the insatiable need to be number one in the faith.  Diotrephes looks too much in the mirror for his own salvation, and forgets that to lead in Christianity is to be like Christ, and therefore to serve everyone else except yourself, and find no fame for it, because we seek no fame for it.  The service is the reward.

The comparison John offers between Diotrephes and Gaius is clear in verse 4 where John says … “I have no greater joy, than to hear that my children walk in truth.”  Here again John says so much to us in such a short sentence.  John first expresses that from his point of view, we are all family.  He embraces those he writes to as if they were his very own children.  He feels protective of them, and further finds the joy that only a parent can know when their children are known to have done something good.  It is not ‘pride’ John expresses, but instead it is ‘joy’.  This distinction is important.  When a Christian embraces pride they take on the idea that ‘they’ have done something of note.  This is a far different sentiment than sharing the ‘joy’ that heaven knows over the redemption of just one sinner. 

In this instance John offers that he has no greater “joy” than when he “hears”.  It is not simply that he suspects his Christian family is doing well in charity and truth.  He is actually hearing of it from other folks.  In point of fact, his readers have done charity not only to the brethren, but to strangers, those who were on journeys, and they performed this charity asking nothing of those who did not share their beliefs.  Their charitable ministries came from the work they performed, and the sustenance they had earned themselves.  They were not out raising money for the poor so much as offering those in need anything they had at their disposal.  They did this to the point that it became widely known.  Their service could be relayed to John who was a distance from them.  This brought great “joy” to John.

John continues in verse 11 to exhort his readers to “follow good” not evil.  This would seem like a very oversimplified piece of advice, but the subtlety in the remainder of the text reveals the profound nature of salvation itself.  The verse reads … “Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.”  John states that he that doeth good is of God.  When Christ inhabits us, when we allow Him to change us from the inside out – we become born of God, easy to recognize, and easy to spot as living how Christ lived.  It is who we follow, not how we lead.  It is not just what we think that defines our Christianity, but what His thinking within us leads us to do.  But further John continues that he that doeth evil “hath not seen God.”  Notice in these words he is far from condemnatory.  He does not call them servants of Satan, evil seed, bad folks, condemned to hell.  John says nothing like this.  Instead he makes a definitive observation – they have not “seen” God.

Obviously he is not talking about “seeing” God with our own two eyes, as no Christian has ever seen the Father face-to-face and survived.  What John is saying, as he has said many times, is that God … is love.  When you see what love is, it transforms you.  You cannot help it.  You must look away from it, in order for it not to affect you.  When we look on self, and rely on self, to determine our spirituality, we fail.  But when we look on love … by beholding we become changed.  It is love that lures us to God.  It is love that motivated God to save us, and love that motivates us to wish to be saved.  John is far more subtle than we find on a cursory read of this verse.  He is not simply calling out those people who do not yet share the Christian ideology and beliefs; instead he is calling out all of us, both inside and outside the church.  When love is not our primary motivation, evil is the result.  When we are not looking at love, we find ourselves looking in the mirror, and the failure and pain of evil are not far behind.  John’s intent is not to condemn those who have taken their eyes off of Christ, but instead to remind them to return to Him.

In this letter John praises Demetrius and Gaius for the report he hears about them.  It is not what they preached that brought them to the attention of John, it is how they lived.  Their leadership in the Christian church was one of active participant in charity and truth.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if in our day, Christians were known by what they did, more than by what they preached.  There is many a famous Christian, because they preach on the television to a wide audience.  But how few Christians are known in their own neighborhoods, let alone their own cities, or states, because of the vast amount of charity and love they show to everyone, including strangers, and those on journeys.  I am ashamed to admit that perhaps only two of my neighbors may know my name.  They do not know me for my charity.  I pray this is something the Lord helps change within me.  For if the change does not begin with me, with each of us, how will it ever be known to the world?

John's Second Letter to the Church ...

John begins his second letter using a new way to identify the church of Christ, as being a ‘Lady’.  This may well have been an active reference to the book of Revelations where he writes many things about a “woman” who was persecuted by the dragon.  John, in the book of Revelations, compares the church to a good woman, and he compares the world to a woman like Jezebel, a harlot, who seduces many.  In this letter he begins by greeting the lady and her children, a reference to the little children he wrote about in the first letter, and admires them in truth.  His greeting then extends to include Grace, Mercy, Peace, Truth, and Love.  This was quite a wonderful blessing, something needed as much then, as it is now in our own churches.

In verses 4 to 6 He continues his appeal to the ‘lady’, and continues the over-riding theme of his first lengthier letter, that the foremost concern we must have as Christians is to love one another.  So as not to be misinterpreted as to what love is, he gives it a simple definition … “And this is love, that we walk after His commandments”.  Those who say that the commandments of Christ authored on the top of Mount Sinai were nailed to the cross of Calvary, apparently did not get the memo from John.  John continually measures our love for each other by our harmony with the laws of God.  When Christ Himself summarized the law He summed it up by saying the first and therefore most important law was to love God with everything we have; the second to love each other. 

To discard love on the cross makes no sense at all.  Why would the God of love, in the crowning act of love and service, be trying to make null the very love He was expressing for His creations?  If the goal of Calvary was to free us from the law, then it would be to free us from love itself – to embrace what?  Hate, vengeance, self-interest, these are the things of Satan and the reason why the law of love is constantly broken.  Evil is defined as the opposite of love.  And again here in a very short letter to the church of his day, John again measures our love by our harmony with the laws of God, the laws of love itself.

John further states that this is not something new, it is not a new commandment, it has been with them “from the beginning”.   ‘Beginning’ is another interesting word.  One could apply it to the day of Pentecost when the birth of the Holy Spirit poured out on the early church gave it the start the world had never seen.  Or one could go back further and apply the commandment to the point in the ministry of Christ when He had summarized the commandments to the questioning listeners trying to trap Him in which law is most important.  Or one could go back further to the birth of Christ, and His entry into the world.  But the beginning could be referencing all the way back to the mountain top at Sinai when the law of love was first documented for the benefit of mankind. 

I believe John was referring back even farther, to the creation of mankind itself, which in essence was ‘our’ beginning.  At that time the institutions of marriage, the seventh day Sabbath, and a daily personal fellowship with God walking in the evenings in the Garden of Eden were established.  Before sin entered the picture, love was already present.  It was present in the marriage of Adam and Eve.  It was present in weekly rest of the Sabbath God had given them.  And it was present in the daily talks with God Himself.  It would take another 2800 years after the fall of man, before a hardcopy of the basic law of God would be needed for man to even remember what love is.  But here John calls us to remember, that the commandments of God, are the basis for our measurement of love to each other.

In verses 7 to 11 John addresses a new growing threat to the infant church of Christ.  The idea of a literal Jesus Christ, who came and died in the flesh, began to be replaced as being merely an idea, or a Spirit.  This dangerous doctrine would seek to undo the sacrifice Christ made to redeem us, and therefore to diminish the cost of our redemption; to cheapen grace.  To acknowledge that Christ was a literal person, cast blame upon the Jews and Romans who ended up killing Him.  It pointed out in stunning clarity that the very organized religion of God, was the vehicle to kill the Messiah they had so long waited for.  And further, when looking in the mirror, we realize our own accountability for the death of Christ, as He had to die for the choices we made, and continue to make.  The Roman guard who nailed the hands of Christ, shares his hammer with me, each time I decide my own pleasure supersedes the laws of love John writes about.  That is not a pleasant thought.  So in his day, John encounters those false ‘teachers’ who would rather ascribe the life of Christ as being too good to be true, and therefore more of a Spirit, Ghost, or idea, than a man born in the flesh.  John states that Christ was real, and only by accepting this truth, can we ever hope to reach the Father who is also real.

John goes further, and draws a line about supporting this kind of nonsense.  He asks the believers not to receive these false teachers into their homes, or offer them blessings in their work.  John does not want those who hold to the truth, to have their own faith or ideas shaken by the various counterfeits of Satan.  Any teaching that would demean Christ, or attempt to elevate a human to the position only Christ could hold was based in error.  We are redeemed only by the singular work of Christ performed within us, the perfecting of His love inside of us.  This is a work only Christ is qualified to do.  No spiritual leader is able to reach inside of you and change what you want, who you are, and therefore what you do.  A spiritual teacher may influence how you think, but they cannot change who you are. 

This is a work of perfection only Christ can do.  It is yet another service our God does for us.  So many leaders, even inside of Christianity attempt to become agents of salvation, rather than pointing us to the only true means of salvation.  They falsely tell us to look to ourselves and make better choices to remove our sins, and that we can be responsible for our own perfection.  In so doing, they deny the work of service only Christ can perform within us, and encourage us to make ‘self’ our God instead of Christ, all under the name of Christianity.  And so is born the doctrine of antichrist.  It is possible even within the name of Christianity to lose focus on Christ as our only method of redemption from evil, replacing Him with a ‘partnership’ with ourselves, or worse a wholesale replacement based on our own ‘good works’. 

In so doing we no longer feel the need to humble ourselves, and submit to the transforming love of Christ.  Love is never our real motivation.  Control, and status with others, in short pride of being a ‘righteous’ person tempts us away from the humility it would require to go to Christ and admit we ‘cannot’ and need Him to save us from us.  This dangerous doctrine forms the basis of every false religion in the world – that man can save man from the creature he is, by what he does.  Self-denial is not the key to Christianity.  Self-control is not the key to perfection.  Self is the very enemy of anything in harmony with God.  It is the death of self in us, that must be achieved, before others can take a higher priority in our motivation than ourselves.  This lack of self, or freedom from self, can only be achieved by the divine work of Christ within us.  It is not something we are able to do for ourselves.  We do not keep the commandments of God to achieve our perfection; we keep them because the perfection Christ creates inside of us, can think of no other way to live.

John concludes his letter by telling his readers he has much more to say, but he intends to visit them personally to say it.  Then he salutes his readers with a greeting from the children of “thy elect sister”.  Again John uses the idea of a chaste woman to represent the church of Christ.  This distinction is important as much of Revelation cannot be understood without it.  It is also interesting that John uses the imagery of a woman to define the church rather than a righteous man.  In his day, a woman was much more dependent on her husband for her survival.  Our church then must be dependent on Christ for our survival.  A woman was protected by her husband, as our church is protected from the assaults of the devil by our Lord Jesus Christ.  John does not present the church of Christ as a strong figure able to sustain itself based on the strength it inherently has.  Instead, he presents the church as being chaste, but still in a state of dependence.  The characteristics of how a woman loves and how she gives her whole heart to just one, is more important to John to describe the church, than the image of a mighty man of war who could defeat his enemies by his strength of arms and will.  John would rather call it like it is, he would rather keep it ‘real’, by talking to little children, and comparing the church to a good woman. 

I wonder what images we conjure in our minds today to describe our churches?  I would bet a playground full of trusting, happy, loving, playful toddlers is not the first image that comes to mind.  Our American idealism has crept into our churches and brought with it the spirit of self-reliance, and independence – rather than the pure dependence a child must have on its parent to survive, and the freedom this dependence offers.  Our Lord teaches community, not isolationism.  Our Lord teaches us to reach out in love, particularly to those who do not deserve it.  Our national pride teaches us to give only as it makes budgetary sense, and hold accountable those who make bad decisions to suffer the fate of their decisions.  Were this true in how our God thinks about us, redemption would be impossible, and perfection something we could never know.  The true strength of the Christian church can only be found when our weakness is admitted, and then taken to Christ.  Our actions can only be in harmony with the law of love, when we allow the Author of that law, to change who we are from the inside out.  This is not an act of strength on our part; it is an act of divinity on the part of Christ.  Our dependence must be complete, as only that reality will see perfection completed within us.