OUR FATHER WHO SENT A HEROLD TO PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD

The followers of John the Baptist were concerned about reports that another person was  baptizing people and gaining a large following among the people.

They asked John the Baptist about this situation and John clarified for them that the one of whom He testified was the Christ would increase while John the Baptist decreased.

The book of John chapter 3 verses 22 - 36 records this interaction between John the Baptist and his followers.

22 After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. 24 For John had not yet been thrown into prison.

25 Then there arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified—behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!”

27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease. 

John the Baptist testified that he was not the Christ but that he was sent ahead of the Christ and now that John had seen the One for whom he was sent to herald, he was thrilled to have had a role in connection with one so great as Jesus.

Speaking further on Jesus, John explained that Jesus was from heaven and was speaking to the people about heavenly things that He was a witness of but the people were not receiving his testimony. To recieve the testimony of the One sent from heaven would be receiving the words of God directly because the Christ only spoke the words of God. To receive the words of God would assure the believer of everlasting life as John the Baptist taught his followers.

31 He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. 33 He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. 34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. 35 The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. 36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

In this passage, John the Baptist said that God does not give the Spirit by measure. This means that to believe in the Christ and to then be given the Spirit, one is given the same Spirit that was given to Jesus in totality.

We are given the Spirit and we can grow in the Spirit as much or as little as we desire.

Therefore, we can expend our life in the pursuit of the Spirit in order to increase to the extent that the Spirit provides.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS SON TO BRING MANY SONS TO GLORY

As Jesus was gaining noteriety around Jerusalem, the religious classes were debating His teachings and were trying to assess what He was up to.  Within the religious class called the pharisees was a faction that had concluded that the miraculous signs that Jesus was doing made it likely that He was from God and so they sent a representative to meet with Him incognito to interview Him in order to gain some understanding of His position.

The book of John chapter 3 verse 1 - 21  recorded the meeting between the emissary named Nicodemus and Jesus;

1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, 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, “Most assuredly, 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 the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus  said to Jesus that he and some collegues in the Sanhedrin ( the Jewish religious council ) believed that He was sent by God because of the miraculous signs they were seeing Him doing.

To this statement by Nicodemus, Jesus replied that knowing that He was from God and learning His teachings was not enough for a person to gain access to the kingdom of God but rather, a person would have to be ˋborn againˋ. 

Nicodemus was baffled by the reference to being spiritually reborn because he had interpreted Jesusˋ words to mean a physical rebirth that required a re-entry into the womb. 

Jesus steered Nicodemus towards a more spiritual understanding of what He was saying by establishing that there were two types of births one of which was the physical birth and other being a spiritual birth and it was the only spiritual birth that needed to be repeated and that this rebirth that is the work of the Spirit of God was the means by which such men would be able to live within the confines of the physical world while at the same time being able to move about in the spiritual world.

This explanation that Jesus gave completely confounded Nicodemus who could not even conceive of such things.

9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Jesus marvelled that a religious leader in Israel, with all his learning in the books of the law and the prophets, could not understand the basic things being explained.

He assured Nicodemus that the things He was teaching and testifying about were not guesses but rather things that He knew directly and had personally seen because He was from heaven and could therefore ascend to heaven. This was a reference to the book of Genesis Chapter 28 (that Nicodemus would have been very familiar with) which reads;

12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.

This dream of Jacob revealed the exchange program between heaven and earth that permitted the movement of beings between the physical realm and the spiritual one. It was the reality of the interpolation of these two realms that Jesus was explaining to Nicodemus but being rigidly trained in the things of the physical world, Nicodemus had a difficult time grappling with the possibilities of a new spiritual life.

Jesus went on to explain to Nicodemus that believing in the only begotten Son of God was the only way to acquire the righteousness that was needed to separate from the kingdom of darkness and ascend into the kingdom of God.

18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

The words of Jesus in this passage gives us a view into the mechanics of salvation where our faith in Jesus releases us from condemnation and we are given a new spirit and we are counted as righteous because of the new spirit within us.  Living from the spirit yields righteous deeds and we can come to the light.

Such is the unfathomably priceless gift that Jesus gave us. We are translated from the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light by the work He finished on the cross.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHOSE SON DID NOT BREAK A BRUISED REED

At the onset of Jesusˋ public ministry in Jerusalem during the Passover, many people were drawn to Him and believed in His name when they saw the miraculous works He was doing.

The book of John chapter 2 verses 23 - 25 records the people of Jerusalemˋs initial positive reception of His ministry and the passage also records Jesusˋ reserved reciprocation to that response. 

23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. 24 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, 25 and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

Even though the people of Jerusalem, upon seeing the supernatural works Jesus was doing in their midst saw Him in a favourable light, Jesus was reticent about basing His ministry on the wave of popularity that was rising in the city.

He was fully aware of the fickle hearts of men who could, on one hand, be attracted to the novelty of a sincere and authoritative religious leader and then turn against that leader at the drop of a hat if the trends and fashion dictated so.

Jesus, the one for whom, and by whom and through whom all existance was created, was there at the beginning during the creation of mankind and therefore knew, without needing to hear from anyone, what was in man.

He was cool toward the reception He got in Jerusalem knowing that it was only the protracted exposure to His mission would reveal the true hearts of men.

Jesus did not run roughshod over the weak embers of faith that were igniting in some people of Jerusalem but He was gentle and gave room for their faith to quietly take hold and indeed some people were truly persuaded of the validity of His mission.

The book of Isaiah chapter 42 verses 1 - 4 says this is the One who was sent;

1 “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights!

I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

2 He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.

3 A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench;

He will bring forth justice for truth.

4 He will not fail nor be discouraged, Till He has established justice in the earth;

And the coastlands shall wait for His law.”

Amen.

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