OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO SAVE THE WORLD

The book of John chapter 1 verse 15 captures the reaction of John the Baptist when his ministry intersected the life of the Lord Jesus on the side of the river Jordan. 

15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ”

John had been pre-alerted to some specifications of what the encounter with the awaited Messiah would be like and one day, while John was going about his ministry of preaching repentance and baptising people, Jesus arrived at that location and John saw the signs that he was in the presence of the One for whom he was sent to herald.

John the Baptist broadcast the news that Jesus was indeed the One of whom he had been saying would be coming after him who would be preeminent because He prexisted John even though John had been born before Him.

John positively identified Jesus on the shore of the Jordan River as the awaited One.

Amen.

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 OUR FATHER WHOSE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON CAME TO LIVE AMONG US

In chapter 1 verse 14 of his gospel, the Apostle John tells us that the divine eternal Word of God who was at the beginning of creation and through whom everything that exists was made, became a physical man and lived in their midst.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John marvels at how he and and his fellow disciples and other people around them actually set eyes on the One who was the only begotten Son of the Father and they saw His glory and they experienced Him to be full of grace and truth.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON INTO THE WORLD TO SAVE THE WORLD

John chapter 1 verses 10 - 13 is the executive summary of the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ.

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John tells us in this elemental passage that the creator of the world came to the world but He was not unrecognizable to the world for who He was. 

There was a set of people kept aside from all the people of the world to be His people who should have recieved Him into the world but they did not recieve Him.

When the officialdom of His people rejected Him, the gates were opened so that anyone who recieved Him by believing in Him were given the right to become children of God.

And those who did recieve Him were born as children of God. This birth was not biological nor intentioned by the flesh nor by the mind of man but born of God.

The apostle John wrote on this spiritual re-birth in more detail in John chapter 3 verses 3 - 8 which says;

3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

A teacher of Israel named Nicodemus came to Jesus seeking insight into His teachings and it is here that Jesus articulated the concept of being born again of the Spirit of God and becoming the children of God.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER SENT A WITNESS TO THE LIGHT

The book of John chapter 1 verses 6 - 9 tells us of the ministry of John the Baptist who was sent to identify the One who was the light.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

John was stationed in such a way that when the One who was the light arrived at that location, John would recognize Him as the One and would declare that He was the awaited light of the world.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHOSE SON IS OUR CREATOR AND OUR SAVIOUR

To begin our study of the book of the Gospel of John, letˋs start with the first five verses in chapter 1 within which the maginifcent declaration of the eternal and divine status of the Lord Jesus Christ and His covert mission to the earth to rescue men out of the clutches of the kingdom of darkness.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

The first verse defines an entity named the ˋWordˋ who was at the beginning of the creation of eveything and who was with the supreme deity and who was the supreme deity.

The second verse gives this deity a singular masculine pronoun and tells us that He was alongside the supreme deity at the creation of everything.

The third verse tells us that everything that was created was made through Him (by His agency)  and nothing in existence came to be without Him.

The fourth verse tells us that this divine being was life itself and it was this life that was a beacon for mankind who sat in darkness. 

The fifth verse then tells us that into the realm which men inhabit, the deity shines as a beacon to summon men out of darkness and into His marvelous light (1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9 ) and light was smuggled into the world in such a way that the kingdom of darkness could not understand or inteprete what was going on in order to prevent the light from plundering the darkness.

The gospel of John, in telling us the story of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus, reveals to us how the One who was life itself dwelt among us on the earth and launched an outpost of the kingdom of light in the midst of darkness.

Amen.

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 OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO SAVE THE WORLD

The end of the book of Matthew brings us to the great commission where the Lord Jesus met with His disciples in Galilee. Matthew chapter 28 verses 16 - 20 says this;

16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

The Lord, appeared to His followers at the appointed location and they worshiped Him. The text mentions that some of His followers doubted. This could be because Jesus did not look like what they expected and so they were not confident that they were actually interacting with the ressurected Lord.

The Lord declared to them that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to Him and so every executive and adminstrative strand of power were in His hands.

This occured when Jesus ascended after the ressurection to the right hand of God the Father and He was made preeminent over all creation when He was installed as king over Zion as Psalm  2 verse 6 says;

“Yet as for Me, I have anointed and firmly installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”

The Lord then His people to go to all nations of the earth and make disciples of them and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and to teach them to follow His commands.

To this charge, Jesus added that He would be with His disciples every step of the way and would be alongside them bringing His power and authority to bear in the fulfilment of the work of the great harvest.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD

The perplexed but elated women ran to report these things and they met Jesus who said to them ˋRejoice!ˋ.

And they held Jesus by the feet and worshiped Him and the women were instructed to go and tell the disciples to go to Galilee where He would be seen by them.

Meanwhile, the guard detail that had been posted to watch the tomb travelled back into Jerusalem and reported to the chief priests what had happened at the grave site.

The circumstances, having changed to make the exaltation of the Lord Jesus among the people more likely, forced the chief priests to change tack from trying to prevent the disciples from stealing Jesusˋ body to spreading information that the disciples had indeed stolen Jesusˋ body.

Matthew chapter 28 verse 9 - 15 records the reaction of the chief priests to the ressurection of the Lord Jesus this way;

9 And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

11 Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. 12 When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ 14 And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.

Even a startling event like the ressurection could not bring the religious leaders ( who were guardians of the religious traditions of the children of Israel ) to reconsider their stance on who Jesus was. Instead, they worked to cover up the news of what happened at the burial site where Jesusˋ body was placed and many people were blocked from faith in Jesus by the cover-up story that the religious leaders propagated and that cover-up is still active to this day.

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