Cup A Joe

A God Shaped Hole and Living Water

  First things first. Very often, I will write want, when it should be won't or accept when it should be except, there when it should be their, etc. My wife points this out to me because I think she worries that I might appear ignernt. I think it's probably a little late for that and personally, I think it's more about laziness but if it bothers any of you, let me know and I will try harder. If it doesn't bother anyone then I will not try any harder. I get home in the evening and write these things, I then read over them once before posting to the website. Then I read it one more time and send it to you. Normally I would let my secretary proof read it and then let her send it to the editorial staff. Unfortunately, due to budgetary concerns, I don't have a secretary and I don't have an editorial staff. So, on to Chapter 4:

Verses 1-3: Would first like to give 2 quick definitions of a Pharisee(Capital P) and pharisee(small p):

• Pharisee-a member of a Jewish sect that flourished during the 1^st century b.c. and 1^st century a.d. (time of Christ)and that differed from the Sadducees chiefly in its strict observance of religious ceremonies and practices, adherence to oral laws and traditions, and belief in an afterlife and a coming Messiah.

• pharisee- a sanctimonious, self-righteous, or hypocritical person.

  Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul, the main writer of the New Testament, was a Pharisee before he met Jesus. Joey of Orangeburg, who became Joey of Anderson, the main writer of Cup A Joe, is often a pharisee (lower case); a sanctimonious, self-righteous, or hypocritical person.

  Got that, you bunch of sinners?

   The Pharisees below were both lower case and upper case Pharisees. John the Baptist gets popular teaching things they don't condone and they go after Him. Then Jesus gets even more followers, teaching against the traditions and non-Biblical laws of these Pharisees. Jesus knows that if they don't already, they will eventually want to kill him. Jesus knows exactly what His purpose on this earth was and His time for leaving this earth was not here yet. So, knowing they would be coming after Him, He and His crew walked directly north along the Jordan River, from Judea to Galilee. That's 70 miles folks and it explains why Jesus(the son of man) was tired in our next few verses. But Jesus (the son of God) ain't tired at all as he works in this woman's life.

¹ The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, ² although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³ When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 

   Verses 4-11: The sixth hour=12 noon. Samaritans were the victims of state sponsored racism and this state had no so-called separation of church(religion) and state. The rulers of their religion were the rulers of the state. Rome just kept the peace. So for Jesus, even walking through Samaria was a no-no but Jesus was a rule breaker, a true revolutionary. And then He even had the gall to speak to her and ask for some water. This woman knew the rules, why didn't he? Since we know from later verses that this woman was a serial adulterer, if not worse, one could imagine her being slightly flirtatious as she questioned Him. Can you imagine flirting with someone one minute and finding out he is God the next? That would be quite an OOPS!

   In verse 10, Jesus answers her question but not the question on Her lips but the question everyone has felt in their spirit. The "gift of God" is His son and God's son is now speaking to her about a different kind of thirst and a different kind of water. This doesn't have to be hard to understand. Augustine was the first to speak of a God shaped whole in the heart of every man that only He can fill(No, it wasn't Oprah). Your body gets thirsty and quenches that thirst with water. Your spirit has a natural thirst to fellowship with it's creator and only the Creator, the lover of your soul, can quench that thirst. Recognizing where that thirst comes from is the key. And you've heard it all before how it doesn't come from a pill, or a joint or a bottle or an earthly relationship or money or Clemson finally winning a conference championship(WHAT!? How'd that get in there?).

IT ONLY...COMES...FROM HIM. 

⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. ⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 

Verses 12-26: A few notes on Jacob and His sons. Jacob was the father of Joseph, whom he gave a coat of many colors that you may have heard quite a fuss about. Jacob's name was later changed to Israel and his 12 sons and their following generations, became the 12 tribes of Israel. For example, one of his sons, Judah became the first head of the tribe of Judah. A fellow named Jesus was a descendant of this tribe and you may have heard of Him referred to as "The Lion, of the Tribe of Judah". Now I know that somehow Joseph's two sons were somehow leaders of 2 of the twelve tribes which pushed Joseph and another brother out but I don't remember the specifics off the top of my head. The whole Joseph story is killer so if you would like to read it, you can find it here:

Killer story:

  This is  getting too long folks, so I will split it up and try to finish it up tomorrow. Most of you are asking your questions via e-mail. I don't care how you ask but please continue to ask:

  Here's one that was asked that I can share: "What does it mean in Matthew 13:57 when Jesus says, 'Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor."

  My first thought, when asked, was that I thought I remembered Him relating His own experience in his hometown of Nazareth with how folks treated the Old Testament prophets based on Matthew 5:11-12 . However, after studying it a bit, Jesus wasn't quoting the Old Testament but just stating His observation that he was not able to do as many miracles due to the lack of faith in His home town and that these people were, in fact, offended by His teaching. Even His brothers and sisters didn't believe He was the Christ until much later. His knowledge of how Jews treated the OT prophets may have played a part in His making this statement.

Thank you, Brandon, for the question!

¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” ¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” ¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” ¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.   Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” ¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” ²¹ Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” ²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” ²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.” 

 

The Path

  You may have noticed that I don't discuss every verse. I have, however, discussed how I look at every verse through a filter that includes 3 parts: Jesus is who He says He is, I am am who Jesus says I am and the original place that I learn what Jesus says about he and me(what?) is in the Bible. So when I say "these verses are self explanatory" what I mean is, they are self explanatory through this filter. They require no further explanation. 

   What I have been doing is pointing out some things that have been beneficial to me over the years and have helped me to understand this Book better. For example, noting that Nicodemus was in the process of being born again. The passage doesn't say that but the Gospel of John as a whole seems to point to this conclusion. Or talking about Jesus' carpenter hands and Him being strong enough to throw those dudes out of the Temple. That is an attempt to show Jesus in a somewhat different light and I think that can be helpful and make Him more real. It has been helpful in the past for me. And here in these verses that follow, I am going to do some of that again. I'll begin by saying most of these verses are self explanatory but will point out a few things that one might not see at first glance. Okiedokie?

  In verse 22, it says Jesus led the disciples out into the countryside, where he could spend some time with them. Then verse 23 moves on to something else entirely. BUT WAIT!! There is something very important in verse 22. With this verse and others throughout the Gospels, the Bible makes it plain that Jesus thought it very important to disciple his...uh..disciples. Jesus already knew that He was the baddest man on the planet and by bad I don't mean evil-bad, I mean 1970's George Thorogood, Bad to the Bone, B-A-D, BAD. He told the Jews, the Roman Empire and the the devil himself to do all you can to stop me but that He would not lose. Even if you kill me. To me, that makes Him the baddest man in the history of Planet Earth. However, He had a problem in that when He left, there needed to be 12 other tough, faithful, disciplined witnesses to carry on His work and it this point in time, the 12 he chose were a bunch of people that Jesus described as dull, faithless, dishonest and skeered. But He spent time training them up to be the mightiest men of God to ever walk the earth. And we need that sometimes too. I was lucky to have a great mentor from the Giddy up and I am still reaping the benefits of His tough teaching to this day. Being discipled(tutored, led, taught) is the Biblical model for a newborn-again.

  The other thing I wanted to point out concerns these remaining verses and John the Baptist. John lived in the desert, wore a camel hair garment with a leather belt and for nourishment, he ate locusts.

He ate what?

  He ate locusts... and wild honey. He had a very short, highly controversial ministry and then, at the age of 30 or 31, he was thrown into jail and eventually beheaded by King Herod. Now you have probably all heard sermons or read books telling you that God has a wonderful plan for your life and that is true because anyone who is knowingly doing the will of God knows that it is a wonderful thing. BUT don't let your understanding of the word "wonderful" throw you off. If I heard a sermon about God's wonderful plan and was ignorant of some of the lives lived in the Bible and over History, I might excitedly go to the pastor after the service and ask what's is God's plan for me. If he then gave me a jar of honey and bugs to eat, gave me a caveman costume, told me to go to the desert and preach for a few months and that I would then be beheaded, I might have some reservations. I can give you God's wonderful plan for our lives; obey Him in every way that you know how. If you do that, you want have to look for God's plan, or the right path, because you will already be smack dab in the middle of the path that God has carved out for you.

  John 14:21- Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

 

 ²² After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. ²³ Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized. ²⁴ (This was before John was put in prison.) ²⁵ An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. ²⁶ They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.” ²⁷ To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. ²⁸You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ ²⁹ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. ³⁰ He must become greater; I must become less. ³¹ “The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. ³² He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. ³³ The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. ³⁴ For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. ³⁶ Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”

Read Chapter 4.

 

Snakes

 Will try to do 2 posts tonight. Need to go ahead and get through Chapter 3 if possible. Let's begin, shall we:

   Have pretty much covered who Nicodemus was and observed that His heart was getting to a pretty good place for learning some truth from Truth . I described him as in the process of being born again and part of that is based on John 19:38-39:

³⁸ Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. ³⁹ He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.

  It is also obvious from his late night conversation w/ Jesus he is truly wanting to know Jesus and His teaching. 

Verses 5-6

 There are several verses I would like to comment on in this teaching of Jesus about being born again. In verse 5 Jesus says one must be born of the water and of the spirit and there doesn't seem to be any agreement in Theology-land on what the water here means so obviously I don't know either. But I'll give you two of the most common explanations (briefly):

• Water is the sac of embryonic fluid that "breaks" when a child is born(I think my water broke honey). This would mean that a person undergoes physical birth and a spiritual birth (born again).
• John the Baptist said he was baptizing with water but one coming after me(Jesus) was one who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. John's baptizing was a baptism of repentance. This teaching says water (repentance) is followed by the Spirit (you are then born again)

  I like number one because verse 6 seek seems to further explain verse 5. What do you think?

Verse 8 is another interesting verse but not so hard to understand. You don't see the wind, what you see is what the wind blows: leaves, trees, waves, clouds, etc. By seeing these things move, it is obvious that the wind is there and it is the same with the Spirit. When the Spirit has entered someone, it will be quite obvious because it changes a person and it is seen by others. You don't see the spirit but you see what the spirit has done. A quick word on this:

James 2:14-17- What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

   If I lived in a tent on the beach and suddenly someone comes to tell me that the weather channel is reporting that there is a category 5 hurricane bearing down on me, you will be able to tell by my actions whether or not I believe the report. If I get the heck out of Dodge, then you know I believe the report. My actions are lining up with what I believe. If I say thanks but I'm not moving, you can figure I don't believe the report. Again, my actions show what I believe. 

  Verse 14-15 speaks of the Bronze snake that God told Moses to put on a pole. You can read this short story about this snake here but what happened is the people of Israel sinned by questioning God and Moses when they were all out in the desert after leaving Egypt and Pharaoh. As punishment, God sent poisonous snakes into the camp, to kill them. The people immediately repented (I guess so!) and asked Moses to intercede with God on there behalf. God told Moses to make this snake and place it high enough on a pole that if anyone would just look at the bronze snake, they would be healed and they would not die. In the same way, Jesus will be lifted on a pole for all to see(understand) and if we will look to Him in faith, we will be eternally healed. Groovy.

  The rest of verses 16-21 are easy to understand and we have already discussed Jesus as the light:

 

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council.  He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” ³ In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” ⁴ “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” ⁵ Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” ⁹ “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.   ¹⁰ “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹ I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹² I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.   ¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

  So in these three posts we have discussed that being Born Again involves repentance even though this particular passage doesn't necessarily link the 2. In later Bible books and chapters, however, we will see that the two are absolutely linked. In fact, the Bible will teach that one doesn't happen without the other. And I believe that repentance is changing my mind about both Jesus and me but not just changing my mind but acting on these new beliefs.The Greek word here for repentance is Metanoia and it literally means "a change of mind.". Meta means "change" and Noia means "mind".

  One last question then:

Have you been Born Again?

 

 

Who are you?

First, look at what Jesus thought of the group of Jewish religious leaders that Nicodemus was a part of:

Matthew 23: 27-29;33-  “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.  “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.  “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 

  So Jesus is obviously angry at these people and he is very stern here with Nicodemus but don't you know that He was pleased that one of these "vipers" was coming to Him late at night, calling Him Rabbi (teacher) despite Jesus having no "official" religious education. Having a real thirst for knowing more about His teaching and about the man himself. Nicodemus is not questioning Jesus the way his colleagues had been:

• Why are you healing on the Sabbath?
• By what authority are you throwing these people out of the Temple?

Their question to Jesus was an accusatory, "Who do you think you are?" but Nicodemus' question was just an honest, "Who are you?"

   Verses 1-8 -Verse 3 is a bombshell because it is a teaching, from a Jew(Jesus), that a teacher of the law, a ruler of the Jews(including Jesus), a Pharisee, a man who had memorized all of the first 5 books of the Old Testament(Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) didn't get. Nicodemus was a part of the most religious group of people on earth, a "chosen" people by Yahweh himself; The most disciplined and religiously moral people that have ever lived and Jesus is about to tell him that they all are headed for Hell, in fact, they are sprinting there at full speed. We all need a heart like Nicodemus. He knows how respected he(himself) is among the Jewish people but His heart, different from all the other teachers, has been softened enough to allow this Jesus to honestly question EVERYTHING that he so confidently believes in. Jesus tells him you will not go to heaven unless you are born again and this brilliant, religious man hasn't even a clue what he is talking about.

   This born again stuff, is one of those things that causes me to go back to the facts(for me) that I talked about in the last posts. 2 of those are that Jesus is who he says He is and that I am who He says I am and here he is saying "Joey, you must be born again." Is it hard to completely understand? You betcha. He later goes on to explain that he is giving me a new heart(excuse me?). And a new mind and that there is now an old me that is dead (come again?). But he also says that I will know when it has happened and others will as well, and really, this knowing of myself and being known by those that really knew me is all that I really understand about being born again. I know the feelings I went through and know the thoughts and actions that were somehow changed on a single day and I know how still, the process that was begun on that day, is still there, changing me and changing my thoughts. I know that even now, in some areas of my life, I am stumbling in the dark(like Nicodemus) towards the bright light of Jesus, wanting to know in a greater and greater way, "Who are you, Jesus?"

   The word that leads to being born again, the word(the action actually) that comes forth from the heart of a person that God is drawing is the word "repent". That is with 2 syllables, not 3. It is a word that seems to have turned into a dirty word, a divisive word, a word that ignorant people use but unfortunately (fortunately?) it was a word used by some pretty great people. It was the first recorded words of John the Baptist and Jesus and it was the first words of Peter after his first public sermon in the Book of Acts, so, considering my feelings about who I am and who Jesus is, repent is a word that I wouldn't dare to brush aside.

  I have repented of many things in my life. I mean I changed my mind about them and decided not to do them again. For example, I vowed long ago, to never shoot anyone with my Red Rider bee-bee gun again. In fact, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize (again)to my sister, Kelly, and to Joey Infinger for shooting them and a special thanks to Kelly for not telling my dad. And Dad, it's probably too late for a spanking. I also repented of putting firecrackers inside crab apples and throwing them in the air to watch them explode because they could possibly set the neighbor's yard on fire. Now that the statute of limitations has come and gone concerning this particular crime, I would like to apologize to the Taylor's that lived on Scoville Road.

   People do this kind of repenting all the time, about a particular sin or an unhealthy behavior. They repent of drunkenness, drug taking, adultery, anger, abuse but this is not the kind of repentance that Jesus is looking for when leading someone towards being born again. In fact, one can see what Jesus means concerning repentance by the way He describes it: a new spiritual birth produces a baby, a little child. A little child knows nothing, is wanting to learn, to be fed.

Matthew 18:2-4- He called a little child and had him stand among them. ³ And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

  Now Jesus has said:

• If you aren't born again, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

• Unless you become like a little child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

  So repentance of the kind they are talking about must in some way demand that in some spiritual way, we are made spiritual babies and connecting the dots would tell you that Jesus wants you to come to Him with the knowledge that you have no true knowledge of self and no true power if it doesn't come from Him. Therefore, true repentance is coming to God and repenting of everything, even what we might consider good, our way of thinking, our lifestyle, everything. Then Jesus can talk of THE OLD MAN as a complete person because you have given him everything that you are(were). The old, entire you, Jesus wants to kill. I know you probably think I am a C. S. Lewis fanatic. You would be right. He is like a Rock Star to me. Nobody says this stuff quite like he does:

The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked – the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.’

  So repentance that leads to being born again is just:

• Agreeing completely with Jesus that He is who he says He is because I have been wrong about that.
• Agreeing completely with Jesus that I am who He says I am because I have been wrong about that.
• Asking His forgiveness for everything, my sin in general, and giving my entire life(spiritual, physical, intellectual, etc.) to Jesus so he gives a new life to me, His spiritual new born son that he can fill with His thoughts, His desires, His knowledge and can completely adjust my life to those 2 new beliefs above.

  We will discuss these verses 1-21 one more time(tomorrow), especially the verses about the blowing wind below. I am now headed to Clemson, to have my religion tested by a demon named Steve Spurrier.

 

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. ² He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” ³ In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” ⁴ “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” ⁵ Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’

 

 ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” ⁹ “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.   ¹⁰ “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹ I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹² I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.   ¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

 

Intermission

    Would like to share a few more things that help me learn and they concern where my attitude had to get so that I could be receptive to what ever I needed to learn:

  First and foremost is that I eventually decided that Jesus is exactly who he says he is and the only place he says who he is, is in the Bible. There aren't any other eyewitness accounts of Jesus other than the Bible. An ancient historian, Josephus, lived in Jesus time and was a Jew working for Rome and he has a few mentions of this great teacher who some called Messiah but he wasn't an eyewitness. So you may have learned about Jesus from your Mommy, who may have learned from her Daddy, who may have learned from a friend at work, who may have learned from her Pastor. But know that all these truths you may have learned came from the Bible first and repeated, maybe several times, before it got to your ears but the only link we have to Jesus lips is the Bible. If you follow that logically, then you take the Bible very seriously AND you don't leave your own education about this most important subject to what anyone else may say. Others can help but it is my responsibility. And this kind of leads up to or perhaps the above would follow the following piece of logic and this is best said in a quote that I have used often. This quote states a fundamental belief for me when it comes to any intellectual exercise concerning the Bible. It put into beautiful words some jumbled thoughts that were running around in my brain and it is of course from C.S. Lewis and Mere Christianity:

 I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

This quote is what a philosopher might call, an intellectual trap. It means you have some options but very few if you want to remain intellectually honest:

1. Choose door #1(lunatic) and don't waste another moment on this lunatic.
2. Choose door #2 (Lord) and live your life accordingly.
3. Delude yourself into thinking there is a third option.                                   

 Many today have unbeknownst to themselves(delusion) chosen #3.

Another C. S. quote sheds more light on this:

Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important- C. S. Lewis.

So thus far, the filter through which I view Christianity has 2 layers:

1. Jesus is who he says is.
2. The only place he originally says who he says he is, is the Bible. 

Foundation #3 is that I am exactly who Jesus says I am and again, he says all this in the Bible. And even if I were Bono, Albert Einstein or Billy Gates, I would still say that I am who Jesus says I am. That means I am a sheep(a stupid little animal that taste DELICIOUS), a sinner, lost, and worthless without Him.

OUCH!!

So I begin reading the Bible and read that he died for my sins so I could go to heaven. Yay. I like that. Then I like the part where I read that he is going to heaven to make a place for me. Then he says he is with me always and that he will send a helper, the Holy Spirit, to guide and teach me. Great!!

  Then he mentions the flood and Noah. What!! But Jesus, science says...Then he mentions Adam and the devil and hell(very often) and Sodom and Gomorrah...but Jesus, I have friends who are...I can't believe all that...but if I believe Jesus died for my sins and the only way I know about that is through the Bible, then can I not believe the stuff I don't like or at least the things that may cause me embarrassment? The answer seems to be that NO, I can't. I mean I can and many do but can I be intellectually honest and do this? Can I say I believe you saved me Jesus 'cause you said so in this report on your life but not believe the other things he was quoted as saying in this very same report (the Bible). Can I? Help me out, poopy pants.

  So over the years, I've SLOWLY learned to agree with Jesus, even about the hard parts that most intellectuals say couldn't possibly be true. That had to include me decreasing and him increasing. That is a case of Him tearing everything out of me, everything I've trusted, everything I've known, everything I've loved, everything I've believed so he can replace that, all of that, with Himself but we ain't near done just yet . Some of the things he didn't need to replace but just improve but some he nails to the cross to be forever dead in me.

  So there you go. This is where my head tries to be at in my studies. In a nutshell, I guess I just mean that to learn the Bible, it would be helpful to approach without an agenda other than...uh..learning the Bible. The Bible says that God thinks radically different from me so try to approach it from the idea that you know nothing. Try to be empty of everything you think you know so God can fill you with real truth. Hope this is helpful.

Voice in my head: Uh, Joe.

Me: Uhhhh, yeah.

Voice: Couldn't you have just written that last paragraph and saved us all the..uh..hyperventilating?

Me: Well I suppose but I had a vacation day and I had some time and I guess I just like the sound of my own...typing?

Voice: I think you are insane.

Me: Me? What about you? You are a voice in an insane person's head. At least I can walk around and stuff.

Voice: Well Ok. But I have someone walk me around. That's you, doof wad.

Me: Shut up.

Voice: NO, YOU SHUT UP!!

 

Nicodemus

 

John 3:1-13

Nicodemus can't sleep at night. He has probably been to hear John the Baptist preach, he probably saw what Jesus did in the Temple and heard some of His teachings. He definitely heard the jealous gossiping among his colleagues but Jesus wan't effecting him the way he seemed to be the others. He has taken note of the complete lack of respect He was showing toward the great Sanhedrin and the teachers of the law and it has jolted him. That just don't happen, man. He was a great and powerful man living a comfortable and respected life but now, probably for another in several nights, he can't sleep because of this Jesus. Finally he get's frustrated enough to say to himself, "ALRIGHT!! I'll just go and see Him!!". Good for him. Jesus was at work in Nicodemus. Jesus is getting ready to talk to this man about being born again, a process that was already at work in Nicodemus. He was a member of a group that Jesus would later call a bunch of blind snakes and hypocrites. Yet here this man is, late at night, looking for Jesus.

 1st Corinthians 1:25-27-²⁶ Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

  Yet here is a man who is worldy wise, influential, of noble birth and strong, as a member of the ruling council yet stumbling in the dark towards Jesus. I dig that with a very large shovel.

   Conversion looks different in many cases. Mine was pretty radical. I went to church every Sunday when I was young. My mom and dad sang Jesus loves me with me, they read the Bible stories with me and made sure I said my prayers but when I was older, I went my own way. There was never a time that I didn't believe Jesus was who he said he was. If you could have asked me if I believed in Jesus at the height of my partying days, I would have said, "Yep. Could you get me another beer while you're up?" But eventually, there came a day when I knew that I wasn't His and needed to be Born Again and I have no doubt that it was Jesus that convinced me of this. Maybe he worked some through others but it was He just the same. I hadn't fallen away and I wasn't recommitting myself. I was converted for the first time and began immediately to show fruit that pointed to a radical change in my life. But it is not always like this:

• Jesus knocked Paul off of his horse, blinded him with a bright light, and spoke audibly to him.
• After a long search, John Wesley had his heart strangely warmed at a service where someone was reading from Martin Luther's commentary on the Book Of Romans.
• Saint Augustine of Hippo's conversion took 19 years of inner struggle.
• C.S. Lewis went through a period of logically proving to himself the existence of God with the help of his very close friend J. R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings. At the end of this process, he described himself as the unhappiest convert in the history of Christendom. But later, he described his conversion and the Christian life that followed as being Surprised by Joy. 
• Chuck Colson, ex-marine, ex-dirty tricks guy for President Nixon, who was indicted and went to jail for his role in the Watergate affair: One night, before going to jail, the CEO of Raytheon, Tom Phillips, read to him a small passage from C.S.Lewis' Mere Christianity in his home and by the time Chuck reached his car he was crying like a school girl for the first time in many years and was converted. Drove over lost, drove home Born Again. Wowzer!!

  By the way, I highly, highly recommend Surprised by Joy, Mere Christianity and another book by C. S. Lewis called The Four Loves, which speaks of the four Greek words for love and their description which we discussed earlier. Also, Born Again by Chuck Colson was a great read. I've linked them all so buy them and get your read on, yo. 

  My posts lately have been a little longer than I intended so I will cut this one short. We need to spend a day or two more on this Born Again chapter anyway. It may be the most famous chapter of all in the Bible(and maybe the most misunderstood) and definitely contains the most famous verse, John 3:16. I will be writing over the holidays so go ahead and read the whole chapter. Pretty cool to be discussing this over Thanksgiving, A-men? And women?

 ¹ Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. ² He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” ³ In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” ⁴ “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” ⁵ Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” ⁹ “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.  ¹⁰ “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹ I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹² I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 

 

That's Chuck Smith doing the Baptizing. Some of you have seen this picture on here before. I think this is what Joy looks like:

Flip This House

 Before we get started, I wanted to point out a few helpful links I have over there on the right. First I have Biblegateway.com which you have heard me mention before. It has just about every version of the Bible in their entirety and very easy to follow directions for finding any passage you desire. It also has many other study helps including commentaries and bible dictionaries. Then I have a sight called Blue Letter Bible that also has the Bible in many versions, maps, devotionals and a very good selection of contemporary and historical commentaries including the famous Matthew Henry commentary and also, Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel fame, who is probably my favorite Bible teacher. We then have a link to my church which has, among other things, the weekly sermons from another very good bible teacher, my pastor and good friend, Kendell Hicks. After that we have the teaching ministry page of Chuck Smith. Chuck preaches through the Bible every 2 or so years and he has the latest teaching here that you can either listen to or read. He teaches 2 chapters at a time. Then we have John Piper, who is considered to be the greatest theologian, slash pastor of our day by many folks. You can find a video or audio teaching on almost any biblical subject you can think of. He is intense and PASSIONATE! I am actually listening to him preach on John Chapter 2 as I write this. Last but not least is the famous devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers. Some of you longtime Cup A Joe readers know that I sometimes call Oswald, Ozzie because like Ozzie Osborne bit the head off of a dove and spat it back out at some record executives, sometimes Ozzie Chambers bites my spiritual head off and spits it back at me. Do you understand what I mean? Maybe an example from today's devotional will help:

When we discern that other people are not growing spiritually and allow that discernment to turn to criticism, we block our fellowship with God. God never gives us discernment so that we may criticize, but that we may intercede(pray).

  See what I mean? DARN YOU OZZIE!!

  Alrighty then. Let's begin shall we?

Verse 12- Right off the bat there is something here that may interest you. An official doctrine of the Catholic church is something known as The Perpetual Virginity of Mary which states that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was not only a virgin before Jesus birth but remained a virgin her entire life. But yet we see here (and in other places) that Jesus had brothers. In other places we see he also has a sister and even the names of the brothers are given. In fact most scholars believe that the books of James and Jude were written by biological brothers of Jesus Christ. If you have ever studied this you will find that it takes quite a bit of Theological twists and turns to explain this away. Any comment on this? Not judging just pointing out an interesting tid bit and also saying that you have a bible of your own and you can trust it. 

 ¹² After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days. 

Verses 13-25-There is a man at our church. A very tall man, about 6'5" or more. He is a carpenter/Home Builder and works with his hands and his hands show it. I have watched him in action and it is obvious that he he has been doing this for a long time because he knows what he is doing. I shake his hand and speak with him every time we see each other at church and I am always made aware of how strong his hands are. His hands are leathery and strong because of his many years of handling wood and the tools that are a part of his work. But he has power saws, and nail guns and other nifty little gadgets and tools that he uses to do his thing. Yet still the tough hands. Some times I think of how strong, rough and rippling the hands and forearms and shoulders of Jesus must have been and realizing that he had no such tools when he was spending probably 15-17 years as a carpenter. 

   We sometimes think of Jesus as this lamb holding, peace and love spouting, mama's boy with perfect, Breck girl hair. Sorta like this guy:

I am not trying to be irreverent because this is not Jesus but an artist's rendering of what he thought Jesus may have looked like(and it is beautiful). Now, not including the Breck girl or mama's boy part (yes, he loved His mama), Jesus was partly like the above description but if you leave your understanding here, you will miss a great deal. For example below, when Jesus is clearing out the temple by grabbing and chunking these money changers out into the streets with his work scarred hands and strong arms, you can be sure that they knew that they'd been grabbed and they knew that they'd been chunked. Can you dig that? Jesus is not some shrinking violet who just wants us to all get along. Look at these verses from Matthew 10:34-36. This is Jesus speaking:

³⁴ “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother,  a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—    ³⁶ a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.

   If you've not thought of Jesus in this way or you've not seen these verses before you might be somewhat stunned but wait, there's more. Now, in this second half of John Chapter 2, Jesus says that His body is a temple(that he will raise in 3 days) in the verses below and then Paul teaches that believers'(me and you) bodies are Temples . Now, no matter who your are there are things in your temple that Jesus wants OUT and he loves the way he loves us and that love is sometimes very, very tough and very, very hard. But if you really desire to have your temple cleansed, who do you want to clean it, Breck girl Jesus or this Jesus:

¹³ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said,“Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”  ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” ¹⁸ Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” ²⁰ The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²²After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. ²³ Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. ²⁴ But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. ²⁵ He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.

  You may be a believer and are going through some very tough times and you pray and you cry out and you read and you beg but nothing seems to be changing. I know some of your stories and I am certainly familiar with my own. You must trust Him to get through it. He may be just doing an over haul in your temple, a sort of flipping your spiritual house. He may be tearing down some walls and getting rid of some stuff that he doesn't want there. Hang in there and concentrate on Him and you and nobody else. Draw closer. There is opportunity here for such sweet fellowship with Him and such awesome awareness of His presence that you may have to ask Him to hold back a little so that you are not completely overwhelmed. Joy in the midst of tragedy or crisis. That's how He is with His children if you can find your way to truly trusting Him. He knows what He is doing.

   I have some experiences that shed light on this but so do some of you. Share want you? Some of you have begun to share via e-mail and that is very cool. I want you all to know that there are some hurting people that are a part of this group and all of you can be ministers.

 

 

 

A Southern Baptist Nightmare

  Chapter 2 is pretty short but I am still going to split it into two parts because there is a lot of meat on the bone. 

Chapter 2: 1-11 (at the bottom of this page)

  I have heard many very good sermons on why we should not drink alcohol and I completely respect it when someone's decision not to drink is based on the many things the Bible has to say about it. You can't go wrong if you decide to never touch the stuff. However, like it or not, Jesus makes wine from water here and it isn't grape juice. I have heard it said that this was only juice but I've never heard of people at a party getting upset when the juice ran out. I have myself gotten upset when the keg ran dry. In fact I may have actually cried about it a time or two back in the old days. And to perhaps add insult to injury, this wine was made after people had already been drinking for quite a while. Now I have heard that the wine was not as high in alcohol content as what you would drink today and that is probably true but never the less, you have to include this story to what the rest of the Bible says about drinking.

LET'S PARTY!! Joe said that Jesus said that it would be ok!!

Hold on there, party animal. The absolute and complete teaching of the Bible is to "be not drunk" and there is absolutely no debate on that. For me personally, I am not a drinker but if you offered me a beer or a glass of wine in your home, I would certainly have one. In fact, please do!!

   I don't mean to offend any Baptist but I just couldn't resist the title. Pray for me.

   Having said all that, something hit me recently about this first small miracle that blew me away and I have been dying to share it with you. You might not see it the way I do but let's give it a shot:

  First of all, by a show of hands, who believes that Jesus actually did this miracle just like the Bible says. Go ahead, raise your hands if you believe he did so I can get a count. Geez, it looks like about all of you believe it.

   Be honest. Did you raise your hand? Why!? I can't see you. Please be brave and send me an e-mail if you did. I promise I won't tell anyone.

  Ok. Now I would like you to raise your hand if you believe God created the earth in the exact way the Bible says. Hmmmm. A lot fewer hands. How come, man? There is a good lesson here in Omnipotence if you will see it. Now I am not a farmer so be patient with me. If the dude who tasted the wine had been asked how long it took to make that wine he would have thought; "well, plant the seeds, allow to grow for 6 months or so, harvest the grapes, put in wine press and walk on them(why does that remind me of Lucy?), gather juice in wooden drums, let sit for several months for fermentation process to take place." He would then announce, "This wine took about 18 months to make." He would be wrong. It was about 2 minutes old. And even if you sent Big Al Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Niels Bohr back in time with all the test equipment they would need, they too would find that the wine took 18 months to "make". But I repeat, they would be very smart but very wrong. 

  Now the Bible says that the earth and everything else was created in 6 days. But since all the big brainiacs of our age think that is a silly thing to believe, seeing how incredibly large and involved our universe is and because they have been able to look back in time some 13.7 billion years and measure it's size and age in so many incredible ways, they have said that no, the universe is not some new creation but has taken at least 13.7 billion years to grow and evolve into what we see and experience now(yes, that is a run on sentence).  But here is where Omnipotence comes in. We have all heard God described as Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent but does that register. Omnipotent means having unlimited power and what that means is that it is no harder for him to create a universe in 6 days as it is to create a vat or two of wine in  2 minutes. It is we that can't fathom that. Because of our limitations we can't understand that God could sneeze a universe into existence if he so desired. 

  I am not dogmatic on some parts of the creation story but this is something to think about. God asks you for faith. You probably believe the wine miracle but are having some trouble with the six day creation miracle because of what man's science has "proven" but understand that man's science would also "disprove" the wine miracle as well. Oh and science has proven beyond a doubt that a man can't be raised from the dead on the third day. So go to the doctor, and study in school, and enjoy the wonderful things that science has produced but be careful that man's very limited understanding doesn't steal something very valuable from you, capice?

 

¹ On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ² and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”   ⁴ “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.” ⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” ⁶ Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. ⁷ Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. ⁸ Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”   They did so, ⁹ and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside ¹⁰ and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” ¹¹ This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

 

 

The Lamb

  Howdy folks. Several of you now have brought to my attention that what I have been copying and pasting from BibleGateway.com was the NEW Version of the NIV. I thought I had been posting the Old version which was completed and published in 1984. Since I have not read the new version I will now start posting from the Older Version. Not sure it makes a difference but it may. My Bad. Oh and if you are interested, when I am studying the Bible, I use the ESV (English Standard Version) Study Bible that John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, Etc. were so high on about 2 years ago. For reading and taking to church, I use my 1984 NIV.  So here we go:

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

   Jesus is also called our Passover Lamb in 1st Corinthians 5:6-8. Also, the Priests of Israel during Old Testament times had to slaughter and sacrifice many animals throughout the year to atone for the sins of the people. Explaining that would take too long but send me an e-mail and I will try. I will explain why Jesus is considered the Lamb of God. You've heard of Israel's time of slavery in Egypt when God chose Moses to go and set His people free, yes? There were 10 plagues that were a part of God freeing His people, the last of which was the Death Angel, sweeping through Egypt and killing the first born of every house in Egypt. The Jews were told to kill a Lamb and wipe the Blood of the Lamb over the door and on each side of the door and when the Death Angel saw that blood he would PASSOVER and no one in that house would be harmed. And now Jesus is called the Passover Lamb of God. So that when God now looks at me or you he doesn't see my sin but the Blood of Jesus. Jesus death was the final and now only sacrifice that God will except(accept?) for the sins of man.

Verses 30-34-Some of this is repetitive and self explanatory but verses 32-34 are interesting because here for the first time in this Gospel you see the Trinity-God the Father(speaking to John B.), God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Do you see that? 

 ³⁰ This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ³¹ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” ³² Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. ³³ I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴ I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.” 

Verses 35-51- Most of this is self explanatory but there are several things I would like to point out to you. Jesus is beginning to choose His disciples and what is interesting is they are all working men. None were teachers of the law(Rabbis) , Pharisees or Sadducees. And if you know anything about the Jewish education system of that day, the best students at each level of education were promoted to see if they had any talent for teaching and memorization of the Old Testament. If you didn't make it you were taken out of that system and put into another system where you would learn a craft or go into the family business like say, fishermen. This is important because as Jesus began to challenge the teachers of Israel he was showing them that all their learning was useless because they didn't recognize their own Saviour but yet He(a carpenter) and His 12 man crew of working men were doing miracles that proved God was with them. An important lesson here for us as we study this stuff. Who cares how much you learn about Jesus if this learning is not having the desired affect(effect?). And then of course later, Paul is chosen to go to the Gentiles (non-Jews) and he was an extremely well educated Pharisee.

Also, we are here introduced to Simon who Jesus calls Cephas, or Peter. Cephas is the Aramaic and Peter is the Greek word for rock. Don't know why exactly. Tradition says that Peter was a very large man and the Gospels also show that he was quite stubborn. 

And one last thing. Jesus knew Nathanael, and what kind of person he was, before he even met him personally. It is wise to understand that he knows me that way too.

³⁵ The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”   They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”   ³⁹ “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”   So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. ⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus.   Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter). ⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him,“Follow me.” ⁴⁴ Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” ⁴⁶ “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.   “Come and see,” said Philip. ⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.” ⁴⁸ “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.   Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” ⁴⁹ Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” ⁵⁰ Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.” ⁵¹ He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

   I am going to try and post another one tonight. Go ahead and read Chapter 2 if you haven't already.

Johnny B.

 

   So now we are introduced to John the Baptist. You can read the account of his birth here if you like: John the Baptist . It is quite interesting. John and Jesus were cousins, second cousins I believe is how it works out because their mothers were 1st cousins. In verse 15 we have another one of those statements about Jesus always being with God because John was actually born six to nine months before Jesus.

 ¹⁵ (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 

Verses 16-18- This is simply John B. announcing that God is visiting our planet in the form of His son. The Jews of that day looked to Moses, his writings and the Law (10 commandments, etc.) for knowing how to live for God but now John is saying that the 10 commandments do nothing but show us that we can't live without breaking the commandments. I'll give you a second to count how many of the commandments you have broken or you could just say most of them so we can move along. All the commandments did was prove to them that we all sin. John B. is introducing a way out of this mess, this awful sin nature that we all have. I way that we can be clean of our guilt of breaking God's laws.

¹⁶ Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. 

Verses 19-28- Now we see for the first time the jealousy and spiritual blindness that would eventually lead to the death of Jesus on the cross. The Jewish leaders were a cross between lawyers, judges, pastors, and local government. They were by far the most powerful citizens in Israel and enjoyed a very good living and were greatly respected by the people. But then this wild man(John B.) living in the desert starts preaching  around the Jordan River and people begin to flock to him. His message was very different than what the Jewish leaders had spent their lives teaching. They were fearful and jealous and weren't there to learn from him but to try and shut him up. John B. quotes Isaiah, a prophet that wrote about 600 years before Jesus. Isaiah was talking about John the Baptist and you can read it here if you like:

Isaiah

 Maybe the most important lesson in these verses (below) is the attitude of John the Baptist. It is a good lesson for all Christians but especially for those that are pastors, teachers or worship leaders. And that lesson was very well expressed by Rick Warren on the first page of his famous book, The Purpose Driven Life when he said:

IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU!!

  I'm not yelling. Really I'm not but it doesn't matter how gifted you are if your gift is not being used to further Jesus' teaching and pointing to His glory in some way. Here John B. is becoming quite famous and gathering many followers and baptizing many new converts but he refuses to take any credit by giving all glory and credit to Jesus.

 

So go and do likewise. Alrighty?

 

¹⁹ Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. ²⁰ He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.” ²¹ They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”   He said, “I am not.”   “Are you the Prophet?”   He answered, “No.” ²² Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” ²³ John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” ²⁴ Now the Pharisees who had been sent ²⁵ questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” ²⁶ “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. ²⁷ He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” ²⁸ This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

 

Tomorrow I will finish up the 1st Chapter and then we begin to look at Chapter 2 and 3 which will melt your brain (in a good way, man!!).

 

Here is a picture of the Jordan river. This is the river where John and Jesus (His disciples) were baptizing folks. Not sure if this is actually the spot though: