Tag: Gospel

The Prologue… John Sets the Stage (John 1:1-18)

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Often, I have suggested the Gospel of John as the beginning point in any study of the Bible.  It is a common misconception that the Bible is a book with chapters that details a story in chronological order.  It is closer to the truth to describe the Bible as a collection of writing about the revelation of God.  But what is God trying to reveal?  His primary revelation is His plan of redemption.  The necessity, the requirement, the accomplishment, and ultimately the completion of His plan to redeem mankind and creation is the central thread that ties the entire Bible together.  This is why I suggest starting with the Gospel of John.

“John is setting the stage for his intended purpose.”

The writer of the Gospel of John identifies his purpose in Chapter 20, “…but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (Joh 20:31, ESV).”  This is the linchpin of God’s plan of redemption and everything that John writes is intended to support that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you will have life.  But even John, not unlike the Bible as a whole, has to build to that idea.

In the prologue John is going to introduce some foundational concepts; ‘the Word’, ‘the life’, and ‘the light.’  He is setting the stage for his intended purpose.

The Word

The idea of ‘the Word’ is probably one of the most misunderstood because it is perhaps the most abused.  As a result, there are a lot of ideas about ‘the Word’ that can mislead.  There are those who hold that John borrowed the term from Greek philosophy.  “In Stoic thought, logos was reason, the impersonal rational principle governing the universe. Stoics thought this principle pervaded the entire universe; indeed, they recognized no other god (logos was for them roughly equivalent to theos, “God”) (Köstenberger 2013, 40).”  Some hold that the idea is the personification of wisdom as found in the Wisdom literature.  “Wisdom, like John’s logos, claims preexistence and participation in God’s creative activity. Wisdom, like the logos, is depicted as a vehicle of God’s self-revelation, in creation as well as the Law (Köstenberger 2013, 41).”  I do not hold to either of these positions.

“It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.”

Proverbs 25:1

When we look at the other foundational concepts that John is introducing, we find that his understanding of each of these concept is built on a Hebraic understanding.  Additionally, John’s purpose is to identify Jesus as ‘the Christ,’ a decidedly Hebraic title and concept.  Why should we understand ‘the Word’ from a Greek understanding?  Now, you can not argue that the wisdom literature is not Hebraic.  The problem I have with associating ‘the Word’ with the personification of wisdom is that the Wisdom Literature is clear, wisdom is not enough for salvation.  There is no thought, there is no idea, there is no secret understanding that can save you.  Your salvation comes from Christ’s atoning work on the cross.  No ‘the Word’ must be more than wisdom personified.  “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe (1Co 1:21).”

The Word is God’s plan for your redemption and the redemption of all creation.  It is what was alluded to but kept hidden in the Old Testament and that which is revealed in the New Testament.  Proverbs reads, “it is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out (Pro 25:1).”  When we go to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, we find that the Greek word logos is translated into English things in this proverb.  Put another way, “it is the glory of God to conceal ‘the Word’, but the glory of kings is to search ‘the Word’ out.”

John is saying that this thing that we need, that all creation needs, is ‘the Word’.  And by describing ‘the Word’ as present in the beginning, with God, as being God, he is assigning Hebraic attributes to ‘the Word’ that could only belong to God.  It is John’s first allusion that ‘the Christ’ was God.  Proverbs might have well been saying, “it is the glory of God to conceal ‘the Christ’, but the glory of kings is to search ‘the Christ’ out” and because John’s purpose is to identify Jesus as ‘the Christ’ the Proverb becomes, “it is the glory of God to conceal Jesus, but the glory of kings is to search Jesus out.”

The Life

It is hard to understand life without death.  We are surrounded by death and each of us has an appointment with death.  I know, we like to isolate ourselves and pretend it is not there, but you cannot escape it.  However, it is in our connection to the death of Jesus that He becomes life for us.  A.W. Tozer says it best, “…in Jesus Christ Himself, we became part of Him and He became part of us and took us up into Himself so that in one sense, when He died, as Paul said, we all died. Instead of the law putting one man to death for all, He put all men to death and raised from the dead all who believe in Jesus Christ, so that every man dies for his sins. The sinner dies alone and the Christian dies in Christ. But every man dies for his sins. He either dies by joining his heart to Jesus Christ, and is tucked up under the wings of Jesus and dies in the body of Christ, or else he dies alone in his sins (Tozer 2009, 181).”  By introducing the idea of ‘the Life’ John is beginning to connect ‘the Christ’ to the Hebraic understanding of a resurrection.  “By the time of the New Testament, belief in immortality and some form of resurrection seems to have been accepted by most Jewish groups (except the Sadducees) and the average Jews (Scott 1995, 281).”  They were looking forward to a resurrection and John is alluding to that expectation.

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die (Joh 11:25-26).”  I’ll let A.W. Tozer conclude this section, “if we had died alone and in ourselves there would have been no resurrection into eternal life. But because we died in Him and with Him, there is a resurrection unto eternal life and the new birth and glory to come (Tozer 2009, 182).”

The Light

Going back to proverbs and those things that God has hidden that it is our glory to search out.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have a search light as we search those things out?  Sometimes I imagine the Old Testament as a cave and often it feels as if I am feeling around in the dark as I read from the Old Testament.  But God has provided a light!  How are we to understand the Old Testament and God’s plan of redemption?  Through the lens and the light of Jesus.  Adam Clarke, quoting Mr. Wakefield explains, “Even in the midst of that darkness of ignorance and idolatry which overspread the world, this light of Divine wisdom was not totally eclipsed (Clarke 1810-1826, 512).”  If you desire to see how you have been redeemed, you need to look to Jesus; you need to understand by the light of Jesus’ teachings.  “Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (Joh 8:12).’”

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”

John 11:25-26

I have no doubt that John is preaching primarily to a Jewish reader.  He assumes some things about his reader that only a Jew would understand apart from an explanation.  But do not worry, those understandings have not been lost to time and culture and you can understand them to.  The Gospel of John has been handed down to us so that we can understand what it is that God has done for us.  When we understand we become able to explain and give our own reasons for the hope that we have in Christ (1Pe 3:15).  We then become lights for Him (Eph 5:8).

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.  Watch for an upcoming blog in which I introduce John the Baptist, the Christ, Elijah, and the Prophet.

Image by Sang Valte from Pixabay 

Clarke, Adam. Adam Clarke’s Commentary On The Bible. Public Domain, 1810-1826.

Köstenberger, Andreas J. Encountering John: The Gospel in Historical, Leterary, and Theological Perspective. Edited by Walter A. Elwell. Grand rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013.

Scott, J. Julius. Jewish Backgrounds Of The New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1995.

Tozer, A. W. And He Dwelt among Us: Teachings from the Gospel of John. Edited by James L. Snyder. Ventura, CA: Regal, 2009.

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Foolishness!

On By AaronIn Uncategorized3 Comments

“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person (Mar 7:21-23).”

As a police officer and soldier, you see the worst in people.  I am not saying that good doesn’t exist I’m just saying that I have seen the worst.  When Jesus tells us that their exists in the heart of man sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, and pride it is almost self-evident.  That every legal system has prohibitions against these things seems to witness to the fact of this universal understanding of the evil inherent in these things.  That every religious system wrestle with these things seems to witness to the same fact.  That those of us who strive to be good people rate our goodness in terms of how well we are avoiding these things also seems to witness to the same fact.  If that is true, what sets the Law apart, what sets Christianity apart, and what sets the Christian apart?  I submit that it is in foolishness.

“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.  A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”

Deuteronomy 32:4

Just before the Israelites move out of the wilderness and into the promised land Moses writes a song.  The song was given to him by God to confront the Israelites when they would eventually find themselves in disobedience.  In that song Moses describes the God of Israel.  “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.  A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he (Deu 32:4).”  Later, in that same song, Moses will contrast that Rock with the rocks of the other nations.

Deuteronomy 32:31–33 (ESV)
31    For their rock is not as our Rock;
our enemies are by themselves.
32    For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah;
       their grapes are grapes of poison;
their clusters are bitter;
33    their wine is the poison of serpents
and the cruel venom of asps.

First, to trust in another rock is to be alone.  The Rock of Israel is the LORD.  The rock of the nations is at best an idea devoid of power at worst is an idea; a lie sold by demons.  It comes from Sodom and Gomorrah.  It is poisonous and destroys.  Foolishness is to trust in anything other than the God of Israel!

Deuteronomy 32:37–39 (ESV)
37    Then he will say, ‘Where are their gods,
the rock in which they took refuge,
38    who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offering?
       Let them rise up and help you;
let them be your protection!
39    “ ‘See now that I, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
       I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

There are no other rocks!

There are no other rocks!  Foolishness is to trust in anything other than the God of Israel!  So let me ask you in what Rock do you take refuge?

Jesus will make this same point in the Gospel of Luke.  He starts by asking who will leave ninety-nine sheep to search for the one that is lost (Luk 15:3-7)?  He builds by asking who does not sweep their entire house to find a lost coin (Luk 15:8-10)?  This is the build up to the parable of the lost (prodigal) son in which Jesus ultimately describes a father who rejoices at the repentance of his lost son (Luk 15:11-32).  While the unrighteousness of the prodigal son is apparent and his need for repentance is clear if you are not careful you can miss that Jesus is also describing the unrighteousness of the brother and his need for repentance.  In doing so Jesus is describing the unrighteousness of the Pharisees which provoked the telling of the parable (Luk 15:1-2).

There is a hint of sarcasm here.

Where Jesus points to their foolishness is at the conclusion of the parable of the shrewd manager (Luk 16:1-9) and encourages the Pharisees to, “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings (Luk 16:8-9).” There is a hint of sarcasm here. The Pharisees were trusting in their own righteousness and were using that pretend righteousness to enrich themselves within the sacrificial system. That righteousness would fail and when it did who could they trust for eternal life? No one! The sarcasm is found in the foolishness of trusting in anything other than the God of Israel!

There is only one way to eternal life.  This way has accounted for the evil that is in your heart because He became that evil (2Co 5:21).  Jesus is the way (Joh 14:6)!  He is the Rock upon which the Christian church has been built (Mat 16:18).  Are you depending on your own righteousness?  This is foolishness.  Are you depending on another truth?  This is foolishness.  Are you depending on any other gospel?  This is foolishness.  Are you perpetuating the idea that any of these things can lead to eternal life?  This is foolishness.

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is (Eph 5:15-17).”  Anything other than that which is true is foolishness.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

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The War we Wage

On By AaronIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil (Eph 6:10-11).”

This is a popular passage among soldiers and law enforcement professionals.  The passages that follow speak to us in terms that we can easily understand.  Armor, breastplates, sandals, helmets, and swords.  Even today our modern equipment is the equivalent.  However, right between standing against the schemes of the devil and putting on the whole armor of God is the clause, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood… (Eph 6:12).”

What would an engagement, not of flesh and blood, look like?

If the battle we fight is not against flesh and blood what is the battle against?  What would an engagement, not of flesh and blood, look like?  Peter answers that question in his second epistle.  “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty (2Pe 1:16).”  Here Peter places not another cleverly devised myth against the schemes of the devil but instead the truth of the power of Jesus.  Peter places the light of truth, the light of God’s revelation against the lies of the false prophets and teachers.  His second epistle was written for that very purpose.  False prophets had brought in “…destructive heresies, even denying the Master [Jesus]… (1Pe 2:1).”  This is still true today.  In fact, the destructive heresies have only multiplied.  Peter then reminds his readers of what is going to happen to those who persist in darkness referencing Noah’s flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as types of the judgment to come.  The battle then, is in the discernment of true revelation from God v. the lies and deceit of the enemy.

I love Peter’s description of these false teachers.  They are bold and willful (2Pe 2:10), irrational animals, creatures of instinct, ignorant (2Pe 2:12), daytime revelers, i.e. those who sin in broad daylight and boast about their sin, reveling in their deception of others (2Pe 2:13), who have eyes for adultery and are insatiable for sin (2Pe 2:14).  Their teachings are “…waterless springs and mists driven by storms (2Pe 2:17)” who, “entice… those who are barely escaping from those who live in error (2Pe 2:18).”  These false prophets and teachers hide their own enslavement to corruption with promises of freedom.  They offer only lies!

Our battle is in the realm of truth v. lie; what is real v. what is not; what saves v. what destroys.

We all know people who fit this description and as frustrating, challenging, and painful as our relationships with them are we love them.  This is why our battle is not against flesh and blood.  We do not wish the destruction of that which we love.  Our battle is against the schemes of the devil; the father of lies and his servants.  Our battle is in the realm of truth v. lie; what is real v. what is not; what saves v. what destroys.  Our battle is in the realm of ideas and ideals, and the truth behind them.

Paul, back in Ephesians, tells us that we are wrestling with, “authorities, cosmic powers, and the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places (Eph 6:12).”  And although I believe the existence of these entities to be true and real, we cannot fight them power for power; our battle is against the lies they devise.  We can only fight them truth for lie.  When we know this our focus for preparedness moves off the physical equipment Paul uses merely to describe our preparedness and onto the spiritual realities that prepare us for this battle.  Are you prepared for this battle?

I do not care if you have a good belt.  Do you know the truth?  You do not need a breastplate.  You need to know and understand the reality and source of your righteousness.  Shoes are cheap these days.  Do you believe and can you describe the Gospel of peace?  A Gospel so powerful that it makes you ready to go home to be with the Lord!  Ready to die!  How ready are you?  Is your faith (see more on that here) sufficient to shield you from the lies of the enemy?  Do you know and can you explain the source of your salvation?  If not, then what do you really believe?  Can you call yourself a Christian?

How well are you defended against a lie and how well can you wield the truth?

All of these are measures defensive in nature except for God’s Word, the sword.  How proficient are you with this sword?  Do you spend time in practice with it?  Do you know what makes it sharp, how it cuts, a riposte v. a parry?  Can you tell me why Paul wrote to the church at Corinth and how his message is relevant to today?  Could you explain to a cult leader why his Jesus does not match the Jesus of the Bible?  Can you tell me why the Jesus of the Bible is the only Jesus sufficient for your need?  Can you tie the Old Testament to the New and the New Testament to the Old?  Can you articulate the Gospel?  How well are you defended against a lie and how well can you wield the truth?

Now the Word of God is not your sword.  It is the sword of the Spirit.  We must defend ourselves against the lie and we must know the truth however, it is the Spirit that convicts, and that conviction is what leads to repentance.  It is the Spirit that leads our loved ones to salvation.  When properly armed and equipped we are the instrument of that Spirit.  What I do not want to be and what I do not want you to be is a rusty undefended instrument.  I do not want to be one of, “those… who are barely escaping those who live in error (2Pe 2:18).”  I want to take the truth to them; go on the offense!  Be used of the Spirit on a major offensive!

Angry chunks of shrapnel wiz through the air and bullets, not darts, snap close to home.

Make no mistake, the enemy has been sharpening his lies and improving his defenses.  Today, when you walk out your front door you are greeted with a constant bombardment of lies and deceit.  Angry chunks of shrapnel wiz through the air and bullets, not darts, snap close to home.  I do not want a breastplate, a helmet, and sandals.  I want a tank and access to artillery and air cover!  And today, we have access to just that.  Right now, as I write this, I am accessing online digital resources that Peter and Paul could have only dreamt of.  Just the other day I checked the claims of a man named Richard Rohr only to discover he is deceived and actively deceiving.  Would you know the difference between what I preach and what he preaches?  There are so many tools and resources at your fingertips we have no excuse.  Bottom line today’s spiritual battlefield has progressed not unlike the conventional battlefield.  Paul’s symbolic imagery would not be relevant today, but his message is.  How prepared are you?  Wrap yourself in the Armor of God so that you can stand against the devil’s schemes!  Let us arm ourselves with the truth so that we can take it to the enemy!!!  Don’t wait.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

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The Anticipation of a Wedding

On By AaronIn Uncategorized1 Comment

     On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.  When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”  And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”  His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.  Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.  And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.  When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “ Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now (Joh 2:1-10).”

This passage is so much fun!  There is so much symbolism here.  Jesus’ miraculous ministry begins in the context of the Jewish wedding.

“This context screams messianic prophesy associating the Messiah’s first coming with the purchase of His bride and His second coming with the celebration of the consummation of that which He has purchased.” 

In the days of Jesus, a wedding was a protracted affair.  First, the groom would travel from his father’s house to the house of the bride’s father.  He would pay the purchase price, in order to establish the marriage promise or covenant, and then he would return to his father’s house.  During the next year he would stay at his father’s house making the living arrangements for his bride.  His bride, although she knew he would return, did not know exactly when he would return.  When the groom returned the marriage would be consummated amid a celebratory seven day wedding feast.  This context screams messianic prophesy associating the Messiah’s first coming with the purchase of His bride and His second coming with the celebration of the consummation of that which He has purchased.  Jesus chose this context to point his audience to their own messianic expectations.  They were anticipating a messianic wedding.

“The feast that Jesus is pointing to will be a celebration larger than any other because the cause of the celebration is the eternal end of death and tears, the eternal end of sin.”

In Isaiah (25:6-9) we read,

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

What Jesus’ contemporary readers didn’t know was that feast mentioned here was to be a wedding feast.  They knew that they lived in anticipation of this feast, but they didn’t know it was a wedding feast.  Note the rich food and wine.  Jesus will, over the course of His ministry, associate himself as both the food and wine of this feast.

And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations

That veil, that covering, is the shame that is the result of our own sins; our own failings.

He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.

The feast that Jesus is pointing to will be a celebration larger than any other because the cause of the celebration is the eternal end of death and tears, the eternal end of sin.  This will come at a price, the purchase price of a bride.

It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Jesus chose the context of a wedding feast to be the context of His very first miracle.  But this wedding, the wedding that Jesus and His disciples had been invited, was about to fall apart.  The wine had run out!  I cannot imagine that even a small version of a Jewish wedding in these times would have been inexpensive.  The very presence of the stone washing jars, associated with the purification rituals of devout Jews, testifies that this was a wedding hosted by a family of devout observing Jews.  They would have had a social interest in maintaining their status before the community and they could not afford the wine at their own wedding.  Oh, the scandal!  And all that scandal would have been captured in Jesus’ mother’s statement, “they have no wine.”

Jesus’ response immediately commands his mother’s attention.  “Woman, what does that have to do with me?”  Now, I do not believe that Jesus was using the condescension that this phrase would have generated in our own generation.  But he has changed the formality of his address for an intentional purpose.

As a leader of soldiers, I have subordinates that I would often address simply by their last name.  In doing so I am denoting a level of familiarity within the context of military protocol.  Conversely, when I address them by their rank such as private, sergeant, or lieutenant I am changing the level of familiarity and thus the tone of the conversation.  This is especially true if I use their rank in the absence of their last name.  Jesus was not referring to his mother as mother nor did he use her proper name.  He addressed her as woman to bring her and those in His audience to a higher level of attention in order to highlight his next statement, “My hour has not yet come.”

“Now that Jesus has their attention, He is declaring that the hour of their Messiah is close.”

John, the author of the Gospel, has already declared Jesus to be “the Word,” “the Light,” and “the Life.”  He narrated how John the Baptist was confronted by the priests and Levites who wanted to know if he was the messiah and recorded that John the Baptist not only denied being the messiah but identified Jesus as “the Lamb of God.”  The earliest disciples recognized that reference as a reference to their expected Messiah and as a result decided to follow Jesus.  Andrew even went and found his brother Simon, later renamed Peter by Jesus, and told him, “we have found the messiah (Joh 1:41).”  Now that Jesus has their attention, He is declaring that the hour of their Messiah is close.

I picture Mary, Jesus’ mother, struck dumb in that moment.  Locked, eye to eye with her son.  She meant to communicate her sympathy for the family that was about to lose standing socially and Jesus responded with, “Woman, the hour of the Messiah has not yet come.”  In that moment she may have recalled the night the angel appeared to her saying, “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son… He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High (Luk 1:31-32).”  Perhaps her mind jumped from there to her visit with her cousin Elizabeth who when pregnant and carrying John the Baptist declared as the baby John leapt in her womb, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb (Luk 1:42)!”  She must have considered the shepherds, the star, and the wise men.  How Simeon had declared her son to be the Christ saying, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed (Luk 2:34-35).”  And, when Jesus was twelve, how they had lost Him only to find Him in the temple.  How everyone was amazed by His understanding.  “Do whatever He tells you,” she responds.

What is the hour of the messiah?  In the days of Jesus, the opinions of both the learned and the unlearned were diverse (Scott, 322-323).  “The Messiah was expected to be at the center of the great eschatological drama of the final age… He was to be the inaugurator of that age, the one to bring it into existence (Scott, 322-323).”  The diversity of opinion on the subject comes from the implications each of the titles used of the Messiah in the Old Testament had on contemporary thought in Jesus’ days.  The Suffering Servant, Son of Man, The Prophet like Moses, The Lamb of God; each of these carried with it a messianic task (Scott 322-323).  But rest easy Jesus is about to provide some clarity.

He commands the servants to fill some ceremonial jars with water and then to take that water to the master of the feast.  I mentioned earlier that I could not imagine even a small wedding to be an inexpensive affair.  One of the ways they would reduce the expense was to serve the best wine first so that discerning pallets would discern the high quality of wine.  As those discerning pallets became less discerning or as the evening wore on and the more prominent guests had gone the master of the feast would bring out the lower quality wine.  Usually the best wine precedes the poorer wine but in the case of this wedding the poorer wine preceded the higher quality wine.

“What this miracle is announcing is that the Messiah is going to inaugurate a new covenant that will be better than the old.”

In the context of the wedding covenant celebration Jesus was bringing attention to the wine of that covenant.  What this miracle is announcing is that the Messiah is going to inaugurate a new covenant that will be better than the old.  Jesus was pointing to the prophet Jeremiah’s words.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more (Jer 31:31-34).”

Jesus was pointing to the day in which a better covenant was coming.  His hour would inaugurate that covenant.  And although it was not yet His hour, He took advantage of the context of this Jewish wedding to tell them, with authority, that the hour was almost on them and to provide a little clarity about what that meant.

Today, if you are reading this know that the hour described by Jesus has already come.  It is the hour for which all creation was created and has eternal significance for you and your loved ones.  If you don’t know what Jesus has done, I would encourage you to find a local church and sign up for a Bible study or Sunday school.  Learn about Him.  In earlier blogs I wrote about the morality and sovereignty of time.  They present the reality that time is not eternal and that you are accountable for what you do with it.  Don’t wait.

If you are not yet ready to find or commit to a local church and you have more questions.  Feel free to contact me.  Good questions are the source material for good blogs 😉

If you are already counted among His own and want to grow a deeper more resilient faith then continue to learn and get to know Him.  I would specifically encourage a study through Hebrews.  There you will find Paul’s explanation of the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old Covenant.  But there is also so much more to discuss in regards to this passage in John; that the servants knew where the wine came from when the master did not and the significance of the stone jars and the rites of purification.  Why the third day?  Discovering what they mean starts with a question.  He, through the Spirit, will reveal Himself to you.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

Photo by Fabio Sangregorio on Unsplash

Scott, J. Julius, Jr. Jewish Backgrounds of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2000. Find this resource in the Faith, Hope, Love (Life) Store

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